Good evening, Buju Anin. Welcome. I'm calling this meeting of the Robinsdale Area School Board to order. Today is Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. at 6:02 p.m. We're in the boardroom of the Education Service Center and I would like Director Hillbrand to read our land acknowledgement. >> I'd be happy to. We acknowledge Robinsdale Area Schools is located on the homelands of the Dakota and Ojiway people. We recognize the painful history of genocide and forced assimilation of the indigenous inhabitants of this land. We honor and respect the many indigenous peoples who live on and hold sacred these lands. And we stand with the members of these nations to fight injustice in all of its forms. We uphold the preservation of Dakota and Ojiway languages, land-based education, and tribal sovereignty. >> Language. Thank you. Um, now it's time to call the role. Call the role. Director Bowman. >> Yes. Director Basset here. >> Director Bowman. marks herself here. Uh, director Brennesen >> here. >> Uh, Chair Evans Becker >> here. >> Director Hillbrand >> here. >> Director Long >> here. >> Director Wuto >> here. >> And Dr. Stallow >> here. >> We have a >> Thank you. We're all here. All right. Then next on our agenda is approval of the agenda. Do I have a move to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Wuto. And I saw your hand go up for second. Director Bowman. >> Yep. >> All in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. >> I. I. Oppose say no. We have an agenda and we're moving on to our special report. Uh special report Minnesota Department of Education, Office of American Indian Education. This is our annual compliance report. Uh the American Indian Parent Advisory Group will be telling us about their uh decision on us and make recommendations. Beth Ter, do I call on you? >> Sure. >> Thank you. So, um Kathy Estrada, let me try this again. Um our chair Kathy Estrada is joining us from Mexico and she is going to read the recommendations of our APAC, but we are pleased to um note that this is the third year that this APAC has um presented a vote of concurrence. Kathy, it's all yours. >> Good evening. Berin >> and then you need to unmute yourself. >> Nope. Unmute. We still can't hear you. How about now? >> Got it. >> No. >> Yes. No. You're good. You're good. >> Now you turn. Nope. You went back now. >> I'm good. >> Good. >> Okay. All right. Good evening, um, school board members and ola from Mexico. Uh, thank you for doing this for me. My name is Kathy Estrada. I recently received my initab name and would like to introduce myself as Wabishki Mati which means white trees. This is my first time using my given name. Um the Robbinsdale Indian Education Advisory Committee is pleased to vote in concurrence this year again. Um, we are very grateful for the support of the Indian education team and the school board and Dr. Terry Stalin. Stalin Stalin. >> Yeah. >> The visility of Indian education matters to our community. Seeing the tribal flags in the boardroom and the hearing the land acknowledgement helps our families feel recognized and respected. While we initially had concerns about the relocation of Indian education from Robindale Middle School, we are encouraged by the plans at Fair School for the opportunity to expand cultural teachings from our medicine garden. We are committed to continuing our work in language revitalization, ensuring our students grow academically while staying connected to their culture and identity. We see progress in our Indian education plan and have shared our hopes for a stronger focus at the elementary level. Our students must have strong reading and math skills before entering middle school. Three APAC members were proud to serve on the re-imagine Robbinsdale vision team and others continue to serve on key committees. We look forward to an ongoing partnership to ensure our voices are heard and that we are doing our very best for American Indian students as we work together to close the achievement gap. Mwitch. >> Mwitch. Thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you guys. >> And thanks for coming all the way from Mexico with us. >> Oh yeah. >> Adios. >> Okay. Adios. We we don't vote to accept that. We just we have it right and then we transfer it to the state. >> Got it. Thank you very much. Members of APAC who are here, Jackson, good to see you. Yes. >> Okay, that was Thank you. That's good. All right. Number five, district system of continuous improvement reports. Superintendent Stylo. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Uh we are continuing to make sure that as part of the school board's uh operation operational oversight um responsibility, we continue to give updates on some of the priority work that has been done and is being done through the course of the year. So tonight we have two different groups um that are meeting all led by uh Tony Boyd and Beth Ter and Tony um Patterson. Um we will be and then Joel Verdine as well. Um so we'll go ahead and get started with the group. If you all are going to come up is that right as part of >> Yep. Awesome. So Tony, if you want to go ahead and introduce the team, that would be great. As we look at strategic direction, our strategic theme too. >> Yep. Definitely. Good morning, Chair Evans Becker, Superintendent Stalo, and board members. We are here today to talk about the strategic plan priority work theme 1B student engagement and wellness. So our mission today, the mission of Robin Area Schools is to inspire and educate all learners to develop their unique potential and positively contribute to their student community. Our strategic themes, you can see they're embedded in our priority outcomes, grounded in equity, and part of our system of continuous improvement. Our strategic theme is student engagement and wellness with our focus on improving student and staff connection and strengthening practices around student, staff, and school safety. Our theme priorities are increase the number of staff trained on the catalyst framework and explore the expansion of the program in all K8 sites. Maintain the bar programming strength at two high schools and explore the expansion of the program into the middle schools. Uh continue to implementation and strengthen restorative practices throughout the district. I am Tony Bdon, director of student services, and I have with me the bar team from Cooper and High School, Cooper and Armstrong High School. I have principal, bar coordinator, Tim Lloyd. I have Shaunie Smith, principal at Cooper, and bar coordinator at Cooper High School, Marissa Hoffman. These are also additional members of our theme 1B charter. Beth Ter, director of achievement and integration. >> Uh Tony Patterson, assistant director of achievement and integration. >> I'd like to take this opportunity to share a quote with you from a Lakota leader, Black Elk. His Lakota name is Heihaka Sappa. Even the seasons form a circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. When we hold space for each other, it represents resilience. Where there has been harm, we witness it. This quote centers the work in our students and our responsibility to one another. With the catalyst approach, when we say it's grounded in neuroscience, it is designing classrooms around how the brain actually learns. Students need to feel safe, supported, and connected before they can fully engage. Clear instruction, consistent routines, and positive relationships help students focus, build skills, and reach their full potential. Yet, by creating calm, predictable, and equitable environments, we set every student up to succeed. This year with professional development, we have some data to share with you. 220 of 257 educators attended in quarter 1 and we had 85% participation rate. In quarter 2, 269 educators attended. Yet, what was important here was that 78% reported they can apply what they learned to their current work. In quarter two, we also had 127 education assistants who received training. Our key takeaway here, high participation rate among educators and EAS with strong relevance to daily practice demonstrates engagement and alignment with professional growth. This slide we'd like to draw your attention to a survey that we had administered after professional development and we focused on one key question and the question number seven was what elements of catalyst have you seen show up in your classroom hallway or school. Here are some of the nine themes that came out of that survey. And the summary of that was that staff and students are using core strategies consistently leading to smoother routines and fewer conflicts. Schoolwide adoption is improving climate and professional growth. Our next steps, however, include more hands-on professional development and adapting strategies for both virtual and non-classroom settings. And our next steps with Catalyst, we're going to meet with providers to get more data from each of the schools. We plan to systematize services across schools. And in quarter three, we began adding school visits. Okay, we're going to talk now transition into the bar framework. So, it's important to know that bar is a model and not a program. It builds intentional relationships between staff to staff, staff to student, and student to student to meet academic, social, emotional needs of all students. By the system of supports, you can see there are three tiers. Today, we're focusing on tier one, which is um focusing on all nth graders. So, as you can see, tier one has built-in supports for all nth graders, specifically through teacher teams and iTunes. As the tiers increase, the numbers of students decrease but receive more intentional supports. Both schools have a nth grade team consisting of assistant principles, counselors, social workers, school psyches, and teachers. Teaming starts with eye time in the classroom with social emotional lessons. And as we navigate through the tiers of systems, the community of supports broadens within the schools. Each team starts and always starts and begins with strengths of students connections and their connections to school and staff. What's important to take away from the next two slides is that no credits have decreased, attendance has increased, and office referrals have decreased. This is a student snapshot of three random students at each high school. In the middle school, you can see the GPA and you can see through the bar program how the GPA has improved in 9th grade. The next two slides highlight how IT teams have been taught. So, there have been 14 eye time lessons taught to 412th 9th graders by 18 teachers at Armstrong. And at Cooper, there's been 339 it time lessons taught by 22 students. So, our next steps with bar is that district and bar teams will continue to meet to build support systems and system ties and align both high schools for the 26th and 27th school year and explore opportunities for possible replica replication of this model into the middle schools for the 26 27 school year. And so um I'm here to talk a little bit about uh restorative practices and kind of u the journey that we've been on here in Robbinsdale. Um restorative practices supports our mission. Um and restorative practice keeps students engaged while teaching accountability and responsibility. um build stronger connection, stronger relationships, and create school culture where students feel they belong and can contribute positively. And so that aligns with our mission here at Robinstead. Um we've in the past two years, we've uh worked with the legal rights center to try to develop um what does a restorative district look like and how do we imagine what that looks like in in Ardell. And so when we talk about this, we were really talking about a shared way of being um and not just a strategy. Our vision is a district where restorative practices are shared and consistent. Relationships are built intentionally. Harm is repaired when it happens. Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities and student, family, and staff voice are centered and all supported by aligned systems and expectations. So um specifically in Robinsville, we want to hit on the uh just kind of the three elements of restorative practices. Um one is proactive and so there there are community circles to rebuild to build relationships and for example um in our ANI team I know um you know we our team facilitates uh groups and circles within each school. I know um community circles are being held at the elementary to begin the day and ending the day and so that's a way one way of proactive um circles to responses so restorative conversations or conferences after harm occurs and three re-entry or welcome back meetings. So there are circles to support students returning from suspension. So um couple of data metrics as it relates to attendance and um suspensions. I really want to highlight um a couple of data points here on the on the metric screen. So if you look at um kind of the the second row here, we want to increase the percentage of students consistently attending school 90% of the time. So if you look in 24 uh 2425 school year, we had 71.7% of students attending school 90% of the time and quarter 1, we had 91.62% and in quarter two we had 76.8%. And so with the recent decrease in attendance, um it aligns with the heightened fear of uncertainty in our community. Um also if you look at the um the out of school suspensions so in 2425 school year there were a total of uh 1,16 out of school suspensions. So if you look at the quarter 1 and quarter two data um we are significantly low um as we enter halfway through the the school year. Um, and so when we also talk about out of school suspensions, um, so our our students of color represent 66% of our population here in Robbinsdale, but in quarter 1 were at 93% of, um, the total suspensions and in quarter two um, it was 89%. And so this is a reason why we are here to strengthen um, the work around restorative practices districtwide. Um also office discipline referrals in quarter 1 we were 852 um in quarter 2 759. So we are also um trending down in that and that just goes to the work that the schools are doing around restorative practices. Just another data point on suspensions here. Um we started um with the legal rights center in 23 24 school year with implementation and as you can see each year um suspensions has been going down with quarter 1 and quarter two significantly low than um the school year of 2425 at this point. Um so what we've done in quarter 1 and quarter two our focus was on building strong data procedures. um schools engaged in leadership data cycles where uh we clarified attendance codes and standardized referral levels so discipline data is consistent uh and comparable across schools. Um during this time schools also worked on sustaining core practices that are already in place. As we move into quarter three and quarter four, um the focus to shift in implementation and support, schools will continue those data leadership cycles um while engaging in school-based professional learning with the legal rights center. This includes targeted leadership, professional development, and ongoing support. We're also developing a plan with LRC to extend um the work until next year. uh we we are at the the last year of uh work with the legal rights center and so we are working with them for the remainder of the year to how to continue doing the work um because we have a a significant amount of staff trained already some outcome metrics here um so uh the student survey which is administered here in February I believe next week um the survey is going to be a great uh quantitative data point and will help and the data will help schools look at student reported emotional well-being. If we're truly supporting students in school environments, this should lead to increased attendance rates. And if we're building relationships and using restorative practices to repair harm, we shouldn't need as much exclusionary discipline sus and suspension to decrease. Um so the next steps with restorative practice is uh systematized across all schools for implementation plan for staff to engage in professional development and ongoing moni ongoing monitoring of data to measure impact. Finally, um, together, bar catalyst and restorative practices help schools build strong relationships, set clear expectations, and respond to challenges in ways that keep students learning, growing, and connected to their community. And that was the end. Now, it's time for questions. Well, first of all, I would like to say thank you for the work you've done on this and thank you for that comprehensive report that gave us a lot of really good information. So, thank you for doing that. Does someone have a question? >> Uh, Director Besen, >> I have four questions. Um, as I was going through it or listening to the presentation, thank you again for for this. Do we see so bar is not in the middle schools today? That's my understanding. Do we see any challenges taking that model into the middle schools? >> There will be financial challenges. >> Okay. >> So that's why we said replication. Um how can we restructure? So one of the key successes to bar is a bar coordinator and yeah >> it takes money. Okay cool. Um and that leads me to the second question then. So catalyst training I mean so if I'm back at those slides just so I understand. So most of the middle school students or middle school teachers have already done Catalyst training. So they're not like having to do both. If we did this in the future, they wouldn't be doing more Catalyst and bar at the same time. >> We're we're also doing foundations trainings for staff who haven't had it. >> Okay. >> So that was like level setting. And last year we what we said we were going to do was report back on the professional development. >> Cool. >> So that's what we've done. >> Okay. Um question number three. I'll make this quick. I'm trying to make this as fast as I can. I wrote them quick. Um, so the snapshot stuff is really, I think, really good to see the three random students. Are we generally seeing that same kind of GPN GPA trend holistically? >> This is where I'm going to defer to my bar team members. So, Cooper Armstrong, if you'd like to come on up. I think like you're asking 10 11 12 is >> I'm so I mean we saw the middle school numbers right so like random student selected 79 to 25 one I'm just curious like general trends are we seeing a large number of students right is it you know 80% 90% do we have any sense of >> overall success I guess is the question >> I have a slide that I've been working on over the last four years so this is my fourth year as nth grade principal >> okay >> and I can share it with you were somehow um but we've been keeping track at Armstrong of the NC rate the GPA over time and it has gone GPA have gone up and NC's have gone down over the time um with the implementation for bar not just we look a lot at the middle school to 9th grade because of that transa transition but it has increased as well for Armstrong you guys >> um overtime at Cooper I'm Marissa Huffman I'm the bar coordinator Um it's my third year in the position. Um and there were three other people in the position before me. Over time as well, we've seen a decrease in number of NC's. Um and this year, like you saw on the screen, we've seen a significant increase in our NC's. Um but we had a nth grade student pass away in November and have had a lot of unforeseen circumstances this year. So I would say general trend, yes, has been down, >> right? Um, but I also feel that the NC rate would be a lot higher if we didn't have bar to help our kids out. >> Absolutely. Yeah, it's it's positive. Like I think those are the kind of information I think the public would love to hear, right? Just general larger trends. I think it's always a positive. That's it for my questions. >> Um, Director Basset, I saw your hand. >> Yes. So, my questions kind of have more to do with and it kind of maybe goes a little bit deeper than what you just said and that has to do with the statistical data about proficiency. So and and the evaluation of the progress of the students. Uh I and uh before I go further, let me just say I appreciate hearing all the information you did share. Uh it's good information. Uh but if we're approaching uh one of the presentations were speaking about um the contract we have with an outside vendor that's helping our kid, you know, helping us with restorative practices. And of course, restorative practices are in place because they're helping give young people skills to be able to navigate and work together to come to solution. Um, and so we've been doing this, did I understand you to say three years? Okay. And and so I'm just I'm not at the end of the question, so I'm just make sure I have it right. So if we've been doing this for three years, the evaluation uh mechanism we're using to see and for that uh I it's helpful for me to know how many students are touched by the program have been touched over time. Uh how many circles or events occurred over time? Uh what types of issues were addressed and um you know do we have in-house capacity as we go through trying to save money? Uh, as much as I love the Legal Rights Center, uh, because I've known them for many, many years, and I'm not advocating that we don't use them at all, I am wondering about the level of capacity we have in house to, um, help to deal with that. In three years, I would imagine that we've figured out some things to do some things. So, measurement numbers for me really go to the students themselves and for the various programs. How many students have we touched? what are the indicators that we're making a difference and um yeah and what kind of issues are are they dealing with you know so I know what what level of of of efficacy this is giving us uh and so I I appreciate the big picture but uh I think that as we look at how we're going to really stabilize bring back retain and address what the community has said to us is that we want to, you know, I'm leaving because, well, nobody said that recently that I heard. Um, but there are parents who make decisions to leave because of the academic achievement in our district. That's no secret, you know, and so uh and and for me it's important because of for the students themselves, you know, uh how they're going to make it in the world. So student specific data is important to have and to to director Bison's point about points in time with specific students that doesn't really I mean that's not telling me other directors may not need that. That's okay with me. But for me to understand that we're making progress that's the kind of information that I really love to hear from you experts because you're you know you're the ones who are doing the work. We're not doing it. If we don't hear it from you, we don't really get it. >> So, yep. So, um, earlier in the in the presentation, we on the data metric slide. >> I'm sorry, I can't hear you. >> Okay. Sorry, I'm a little under the weather, Dr. Director Bass. So, I'm I'm trying to >> articulate my voice so you can hear me a little louder. Um so we on the data I can go back to here where we you you're where we're talking about the um e efficacy of restorative practices. We do have some data metrics here where we are capturing um out of school suspensions. We are capturing um attendance. We are capturing um office discipline referrals. As you can see um for the we we as a snapshot from last year and then quarter one and quarter two we are capturing and we and we want to continue to do this to to measure what's working and what's not working. And so um as we said what we're going to continue to do in quarter three and quarter four is to um continue the the leadership cycles with that we have with principles to to measure like what like what are we implementing into schools that is working? what are what's not working and how can we come together to talk about um these data metrics on improving um attendance or improving um uh the decreasing the suspensions in which all leads to increased academic outcomes because if a school if a teach if a student don't feel like they belong at school then they're not going to perform well in so >> no question absolutely so I mean I as I said when I started I think having information about how we're doing with just keeping kids in the seat is important. We we know that there's a correl Yeah, you can't learn if you're not there. Uh but I am really uh interested in knowing because we've made these investments over three years. Trend data is helpful. Trend data is important. If we've been doing it for three years, comparatively for three years, what's the trend data? That's if we can have that later. I love it. >> Yeah. So we have it right here. So that's from 23 24 25. So that and and we can pull and I can connect with Dr. Stalo and she can provide more information but we there's that's a suspension trending. >> I know dear young uh director you know uh I I understand that I think let me just maybe I'm not saying it perfectly percentage of change number of students those kinds of things. Uh and that's for suspensions. >> Mhm. I'm talking proficiency and that's not this presentation necessarily, but this continuous improvement chart has on it a big metric related to student centered personalized learning. That's the point of all of it, you know, and we had a presentation last time we met on some of the training we're doing for our staff. So, I don't have any doubt that we're not trying to get after what we need to to support our educators. I I I feel like we're doing that information about how these students are doing specifically is very important. We're going to have some specific examples in a minute, but I just want to remind the board and the public that uh tonight specifically as we look at our strategic plan, we have four h let's go to the very very beginning. We have four strategic themes and that first theme I think director Basset is really the one that you're talking about is the impact on academic achievement. So we'll continue um as we go through all of these presentations and the teams that are working. We'll continue to bring forward data on that. I just want to be sure we're really focused tonight on this presentation is around that theme of student engagement and wellness. So that's what we saw tonight. Our improvement theory is that if we can build really strong relationships between students and staff through, we just heard some amazing work that's been done through Catalyst the bar program and restorative practices. We can keep kids in school. We can make sure that we're teaching them coping skills in terms of um how they respond to one another as well as adults. So part that's really what the focus was tonight, but we'll definitely be getting some of that information. And I know uh Stacy, you have some academic information too or other information you want to share. >> Okay. Awesome. >> Well, thank you, superintendent, as you step away. Um uh I was really clear that we're hearing information about bar and the other programs and and the first time I ever heard about bar several number of years ago. I liked it. So, that's not a question. Uh and it's doing what it sounds like it's doing what it's supposed to do. I understand that. Uh but I also am kind of saying it's helpful for me if we connect dots together. So when we're talking about these relationships, how do we know they're making a difference? >> What I hear you're as a system principal, I deal with a lot of behavior in addition to bar, right? So if you're willing to hear >> one of the we have data, we can kick track of the restorative, how many restorative practices we've done. I did one today on a boyfriend and girlfriend that broke up and then we had to make sure we can figure out how to be in classes together. Um and we do them at all different levels, right? The really big ones with multiple people, a lot of them come of our student support with our um student dean, our you know, professional um our PLC's. And I think that's what I hear you asking about a little bit is having those specific examples as well. that really does tie in with all of the big engagement because I can have a restorative conversation with a student because I have that relationship with them through bar and catalyst. All of the different strategies and things that we're using, they all come together and I can look at a student or I can call a parent and say >> 10 years ago we would have suspended this kid for this, your kid for this. right now, I'm going to have them sit and own their behavior with this adult, with this student, and make sure that they know what they did wasn't right, and how do we make it to move forward, and every parent's like, "Yeah, let's do it. Okay, let's go. That's great." And so, I think part of looking at the big picture is having how they all weave together to engage the student and see the student >> as a human that makes mistakes and then we move forward. >> Question. Absolutely. So, I mean, you you you understand me. Exactly. And what I'm saying is that for me and the public helping us understand how it's integrated in terms of numbers of how what progress are we making uh because that's a big question and and um and I appreciate your response understanding my question and responding to it appropriately. I appreciate that a lot. >> Um Dr. Hillbrand. >> Yeah. I just wanted to to say thank you. I think this is really great because I'm thinking of, you know, you mentioned numbers being a little out of whack because of students not coming to school right now because of all that's going on in the community. And I think that all of this work will really sets the groundwork for when those kids come back and because there's going to be a lot of hard work >> Sure. >> for when they come back to reintegrate them, to get them used to coming every day, to get them back integrated into school. and remember all the things kids forgot during the time that of COVID, right? And those the kids that come back, we're going to have to get them remind them how to be back in school and everything. And so I think it's tremendous and I just wanted to say thank you, >> Director Long. >> Um yeah, so my question is going to be around special education and the impact in that. Uh for me, when I look at these programs, I see like if you looked at a ven diagram, they cross each other so much. And what was it like a year or so ago, we had an elementary school principal come out and talk to us. Was it Catalyst or Bar North? >> Yeah. Where they like decreased some of their special ed referrals. So I'm wondering if maybe in the future could we get some um data on what impact are we having with our special education students around these catalyst and bar programs? And that also impacts to uh the restorative justice part too for some of our students of color. So we I don't know where. >> So okay, I see it now. Thank you. Um in 2019, so before bar was implemented fully at Armstrong, we had 20 initial evaluations in nth grade. So special ed >> and that I'm sorry that was schoolwide. Most of them are probably going to be in nth grade though, right at that time. And as of right now, obviously we're not all the way through the school year, we are at three. And if you look at the trend data all the way down, it has gone. Last year we were at eight for initial special ed evaluations. Um and that is a lot to the combination of bar with MTSS and the interventions that are in place. We have a systematic approach when a teacher looks and says, "I can't teach them. They're not doing this. They must be sped because that happens." And we're like, "Time out. That's not the case. Let's try this. Have we tried this? Have we tried this? And guess what? Those things worked. But we have a systematic approach because of the models with um bar and catalyst and all the different pieces. >> Good answer. >> Good question. >> Any other hands? >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for the work you're doing and for the report. Thank you. Next up is another theme, theme D, staff investment and impact. Superintendent, thank you. As Joel comes in, I I just want to thank the folks before uh as they're leaving. Um we just heard a lot about systems, about clarity, about accountability and expectations and then monitoring that through data. Um and that's a lot of work for our students and our staff. What Joel's going to share is he's moving us now into the fourth strategic theme around investing in staff um where he's going to build on that theme of clarity and consistency um with adults. So I'll let you go ahead Joel and take it from here. Thank you. >> Uh thank you Superintendent Stalo. Also thank you chair Evans Becker for having me. Given this is my first presentation I thought I'd do a really quick introduction. Um, my name is Joel Berdine and I am the senior director of technology in Robbinsdale and I'm in my eighth month um of working here and I'm really happy that you would have me. So um I appreciate that I'm an educator of 32 years. I'm starting my 32nd year. Um I've been a teacher and an administrator in a variety of different positions involving instruction, library, media and and technology for the most part of my life. Um so again, thank you for having me. Um, we went through um some of the introductory slides, so I'll move through those um fairly quickly. Uh, I do appreciate the conversation that preceded this about the interconnectedness of all of this work. Um, that all of these things don't exist um in isolation and and um on their own. that each one of these areas, whether it's academic achievement, the wellness of our students, the collaboration that we have in partnerships or um the area that I'll talk about today, which is staff investment and impact, um they all will co-mingle with each other at some point in time. And um I feel a little I have a little bit of a dry presentation following up the previous one that you had. I don't mean that it's dry. It's just a topic that for what it is may seem a little bit mundane, but the outcome of the work, if we can save teachers time, if we can have them come back to school and and be welcomed into those classrooms with all the things that they left and we put everything in its proper place for them, um I think that outcome is is worth um all of the work. And that's where we really see the um the savings with with teachers because I can remember from a long long time ago when I was doing that job, one thing I didn't have was time. Um I'm with kids. If I'm lucky I get to go to the restroom in the five minutes in between classes. Um and if someone else can save me that time and I can be welcomed back into my classroom, then I think that's the outcome that we're hoping to achieve with with the work on uh D2. Uh so the charter team members are listed below and again the item uh of the two the staff investment and impact we are D2 increasing the consistency and accountability for common district practices I had mentioned um so this this group um the group that's working on D2 um completed uh two of their bodies of work last year um one was to have a common checkout practice for staff so that all staff left our buildings. We had a common way of saying here are all the things that you have to turn in. Um and then also a practice um around the distribution of keys and return of keys as well. Um so those were two things that were completed as we looked forward to this year. Um the question that we asked as a group was how can we tie our work directly closer to the work that we're doing with reimagine and the SOD plan. And so with both of those things in mind, um we decided that we would um try to improve our the experience that our staff have through improvements in the processes and the logistics of moving um items around because we do have a lot of things to move um and a very short time to do that comparatively to what I'm used to with closing schools. Um six-month window is is um something I'm not as familiar with. 18 months is a little bit more familiar with what I have. Um, and so, um, we thought that, again, just going back to what I originally said, that if we can improve the lives of our teachers and they find themselves getting back to class, um, and everything is is where they hope it would be, then that would be a great outcome for folks. And that's um, just restating that there. So, in order to do this, I'm just going to walk through a little bit of what what the process looks like um, and um, and just to give you an idea of the different um, aspects of it. And then also this is a reusable template for anybody that's doing this work in the in the district. Um I do work pretty closely with a lot of other departments whether it's teaching and learning or with the um operations department and they can use the same template um to be able to go through and decide whether or not they need to do something with furniture um or anything else that isn't necessarily um directly under my involvement or or even um as collateral um my involvement. And so that template involves really four things. Um first of all identifying all the items that we think we will need to either move or leave in place um in within a specific realm of person's responsibility. Assess the status or validity of any inventories. What do we know about those items? Um it is um common in the items that I have worked on so far that our inventories were not where they needed to be. And so we had to fill the gaps and make sure that we could itemize and whether it was building walkthroughs um or other um venues that we had to improve what we already knew um in order to do this well. Um then thirdly, develop a transition plan um for items. And uh that is some something that's either small or large depending on what we're talking about. Um and some things aren't even moving. But what I would say what leads to the fourth piece is that even if it's not moving, we could improve people's lives by making sure they had documentation and training on whatever it is even if it didn't move. Um so the example I would use is um we have different PA systems in our schools, different manufacturers. We have different support um contracts for those and um I documentation is not largely present and um and often instructions aren't either. But we know that some of our staff are moving, our office staff are moving, our principles are moving. So we want to make sure that we have a training plan on the back end of it even though it's not an item that we're moving. So that's one of the items that's incorporated in into this work just to give an example. The other ones are a little bit more um routine examples. Um so in the process of itemizing um I'm working closely with technology and library media media centers and of those there are 16 different categories but just giving you some ideas and user devices. So all of the laptops, desktops, um our student devices, our Chromebooks, our iPads, all have to be itemized and determined which ones are going where. Um those are all um those are all inventoried very well. So it will be a process of just developing the logistics of how are they going to get to move, which ones are going, which ones um which ones move to the other schools. Um everything from copers, cameras um and I mentioned bells, clocks, and paging. um library media centers. Um it's common to have fairly largesized collections in library media centers and oftentimes where they're going to may not have the space for them, may not need um those additional materials, might need those additional materials. Um and you see the remainder of the items on there. There's a variety of things that are being checked out from our media centers. There's collections. There's even Cricut machines and maker space materials. um those all need to be accounted for and moved to their to their new locations. So itemizing is the first um step and I mentioned inventories. I included a picture. So our inventories come in all kinds of different sizes and shapes and um some of them aren't nearly um we don't need a lot of detail. Uh as an example from our middle schools um there are interactive whiteboards that are probably in their 15th or closer to 20th year. Um and those will just be obsolete technology. We don't need to itemize everything about those, but we will need a plan for what to do with them as we bring people together um into the new middle school and make sure that their equipment isn't um is brought up to a modern standard. Um so that is complicated, but it doesn't need us to do um a full inventory on that end. This is an example of an inventory that I um had come across that was in progress when I came here and it's done very well. And so I appreciate the work um of our uh facilities team and uh as well as my own technology team to help produce an inventory of all of our cameras, knowing whether they're working, whether they're not working, um how to find them um on the network, what um age they are, and also what firmware they're running. Um just so that we um commonly will run into um issues with our cameras. And we want our building principles to be able to count on them. There's probably nothing worse than having cameras that weren't operational when something happened. So, it's really important to for us to know the ages of all of those so we can have good replacement plan. So, a good inventory in this case. Um, the third step I mentioned is plan. And I just included an example. Um, our teachers have laptops and during our closeout process, we'll have staff check in their um, laptops, bags, chargers. Um, we'll give them as part of the guidance, we'll give them a list, um, the things that they would need to bring in, who to drop it in with, um, and when to plan on that, and all of their other processes of checking out. Um, this doesn't have all of the details on it, but just hitting the high points. Um, storing the items, we'll store them in the media center. Um, building and text, we'll update and image the equipment during the summer to make sure that they're up to date. And then um prior to the um prior to the schools opening up again in the year, we'll plan for a transfer of those devices out of the out of the former school into the destination school. Um and then staff will have a checkout process in the media upon return. So it's just one each one of the items that we're talking about will have its own individualized plan um in terms of how that equipment needs to um be closed out during the year, what needs to go back, and then what guidance do we need to plan. Um, and so those guidance pieces, going back to the laptops, we would have principal documentation that they um would know how that's going to work in their building, how the staff would need to close out the year. They usually would have them whatever exceptions we need. It's not unusual that a staff member says, "I'm taking a class for something." And they may need the laptop over the summer. So, we'd have a process for them to be able to to do that with whatever exception we came up with. Um, and then the school returned the same documentation. Um just as a a piece of awareness the um I mentioned that everything ends up being um integrated at some point but um we are doing this in in um with meetings with stakeholders so that as we um have these plans we're talking to people and making sure that we're not um coming up with something that um could be problematic or also if the buildings and grounds folks are painting um that's helpful to know if we're taking something off the wall so that they can paint underneath it or we don't take it off and leave something afterwards after they've painted. So, um that is something that um actually assistant superintendent um McDall is helping with with the logistics of a much greater set of logistics. We are meeting um on a weekly basis as senior leaders so that we're we are um collaborating together. Um we're doing tabletops or have completed most of the tabletops with principles already. Um they're going to make decisions about how rooms are used in their schools. um some room is going to be divided up into two classrooms possibly or offices and we need to know that ahead of time so that we can make sure that we have appropriate um wireless access or technology placed in places if especially if they're going to be a classroom and they weren't the classroom before. So um those uh meetings with principles and then walkthroughs which we've also started doing with a variety of the staff at the school um to find out um again where are we not thinking of something where can their thinking help us better complete some thoughts or or even would they be able to to offer something that we completely miss somehow. Um in addition to that ad hoc meeting so I've met with media specialists on a number of occasions um to talk about moving their equipment the warehouse staff we need to coordinate with and I'd mentioned already um facilities and operations just to give you a an idea of sort of trying to build all the intentionality into making the right touch points with that. Um the implement implementation metrics we drew out for this item were just to um decide how far in progress are we on each one of these steps. And so the above um item or the above chart does describe that it is a little bit linear even though some things end up um looping back around. But itemizing usually precedes inventorying um precedes a plan and then precedes the guidance and and support. So the lower numbers on the bottom are are more of a chronology than they are and and the planning part is actually the harder harder step out of all three of those or four of those. Um so that is the progress that we've made so far on this one and with the intention that we would have 100% by the time that we're closed out for the school year. um the outcome for this metric is aligned with the staff perception data and the specific question is I receive the support I need from my school leadership or my supervisor to do my job effectively. And so again, that's um the one place where we're trying to make a uh an impact on their lives, make their job better, I hope. And with that, I think that is the close out of my item. And I would take any questions that you may have for me. >> Thank you. Uh did board questions? I have a question. >> Yes. >> So, uh, in my mind as I think about this, um, and I think about, and thank you for the presentation. I'm glad we're, you know, kind of keeping an inventory and we know what's going on. Uh, but presuming that as we've closed these one, two, three, four buildings, then we will, they will have an impact on staff. And I'm sure at some point we're going to hear from director Hearn about that. And there's a whole process, but we're coming up to it pretty quick. May, April and May were I mean March and April we start talking about you know perhaps she's our P we're working on it but uh so there'll be less staff uh less facilities uh inventory that will be excess so I'm sure in your planning you have a liquidation plan >> and I we do >> yeah and I'm not you know labor but I'm sure that you do and you know I mean I'm willing to listen, but I'm just not expecting you to be, you know, that wasn't on your those are my assumptions and I'm just checking my assumptions. >> So, a good example I could give you is that we have a number of copers and so as you might imagine with less facilities, copers are going to be something that we may not need as many of. Um, we have the age and the the wear and tear on them, the number of copies that have been printed. And what would happen is there's a number of them that are far off their lease. um we would take the ones that um are in the best shape and redistribute those to schools so that they had an equitable number of copy machines and then the remainder um would either be disposed of in conjunction with board policy um and other state laws that we have to follow. So whether they go up for public auction or whatever else happens to them um usually it's public auction um for those types of equipment. But yes, you you are correct. We >> well that's what we own but some things we lease that we will be able to eliminate some leasing. Correct. >> Yeah. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, Director Bowman, sorry. >> I don't have a question, but what I really wanted to thank you for was a very concise picture of the details involved in the upcoming move. I it um provided me with a lot of the um connecting of the dots that really helped to um uh help me to really trust the process as we move forward and getting people moved. I see that there are people in plans in place and that's a really important thing to for me to see as a board member. It was clear and concise and I look forward to some of the summary reports regarding what was learned also. So, thank you for the report. It was just really good to see. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Long. >> Um, sorry, I didn't catch your title in the beginning. What was >> Senior Director of Technology? >> All right. And then I was looking through the PowerPoint and I >> I don't think it was actually written on the Oh, is it on the agenda? Sorry. I should have looked at the first page then. >> Oops. You live and you learn or you forget. Um, >> both. Yeah. Uh so my next question was to uh so when you were checking in with stakeholders about things then uh I noticed that you have a process where the teachers check in their laptops. Uh did you check in with those stakeholders too about checking in their laptops at the end of the school year or is that just when they're done with Robinsdale? >> Um so it's a it's a process that would be repeated from last year. Um we have a checkout and a timeline window. it just would have documentation underneath it and um and people would be informed a little bit more ahead because this would be the second time we've been doing it. I'm not sure if that's that's directly answering your question. We didn't No, we just consulted with um all of the staff that were involved with performing this last year. >> Okay. So, I'm just wondering if there would be any, you know, use for teachers to have their laptops. I know some of them attend professional developments over the summer and you know so I'm just thinking about things like that. >> I'm I'm able to answer that question Joel. >> Okay. Well, as I might mention there was a list of um during the presentation we talked about the idea that we have to be cognizant of exceptions for that. There are reasons why we may not be able to check somebody's in where they may need it for a particular reason. So we'll have to let people know that there's exceptions and how to access that except >> like if they're teaching summer school. >> Mhm. I appreciate that. Yes. Um when we were working on strategic theme D2 last year with the checkout procedure and the keys, the checkout specific to technology was a major component that was discussed um at multiple levels at u learning leaners, senior leaders um and then again implemented with feedback coming from last summer. So in totality I would say every group that has been here uh has been consulted. We certainly receive feedback and we're just following through then on on um all of that information set to continue to move forward and refine our process and it does account for uh uh teachers that are doing um either summer school potentially some curriculum work that that's all part of the process and we went through and designed that uh as far as formalizing it last year. Thank you. >> And then can I just one more follow up? >> Uh just wondering to I don't know maybe it would be better directed at you if we're going to as you know the moves are happening if we will be continuing to get updates about how that's >> Yeah. you know, like um like Joel said, we are meeting um Bob hosts facilitates a weekly transition meeting and I know I I put a little bit just a very large overview um but we can certainly continue doing an update as now it's a lot of planning but they'll certainly be moments that we have a lot more action happening. >> Okay, I don't see any more hands and so thank you very much. Thank you. >> We appreciate hearing from you and good to get to know you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Next thing on our agenda is the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are routine in nature and will be enacted with one motion. There'll be no separate discussion about any of the items unless a board member requests so in which case the item will be removed as a consent sent agenda item and addressed separately. Um, items on the consent agenda tonight include an a bid award for Metal Lake courtyard and fire dampers, monthly professional development report, meeting minutes, bimonthly dispersements, business office contract report, community education monthly contract report, dispersements for January, monthly budget to actual and the licensed and non-licensed personnel reports. Do I have a move to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Director Bowman and Director Basset. All right. Um, I don't see any hands. I don't see anyone requesting something off. So, this is a roll call vote. I'm ready when you are for consent agenda. >> I am ready. Thank you. Director Wuto, >> yes. >> Director Long, >> no. >> Director Hillbrand, >> yes. >> Chair Evans Becker, >> yes. >> Director Bren Brennan, >> yes. >> And Director Bowman votes yes. Director Basset, >> yes. >> G6, yes. one. No. The consent agenda has been approved. Um, unfinished business number seven, we have none for tonight. New business, we have a resolution accepting donations. Uh, this time the donations are $22,623.79. Do I have a move uh to approve the resolution for accepting donations? >> So moved. >> Director Hillbrand >> and Director Brenson. Okay. This is a roll call vote. So, let's uh vote to approve the donations. >> Great. Um, Chair Evans Becker, >> yes. >> Director Hillbrand, >> yes. >> Director Brennesen, >> yes. >> Director Bowman votes yes. >> Uh, Director Long, >> yes. >> Director Wuto, >> yes. >> Director Basset, >> yes. >> Unanimous. Thank you for those donations. That's 22,000 is a lot of money. Okay. Policy committee is number nine. Director Ruto. >> Yes. So, but chair, uh, I would like us to pull out policy 204 and send it back to committee for discussion. I've had some concerns from board members about some of the language in there. Um, so besides that, all the other policies I believe are ready for approval unless board has objections to any of them. >> Okay. Thank you very much. So, um, the So, we're pulling 204. So this is the second read and so tonight is a night for approving. So let's start with policy 409 employee publications instructional materials invent inventions and creations. Is there a move to approve policy 409? >> So moved. >> Director Bowman >> seconded. >> Director Brenson. >> Excuse me. Just question. >> Do we have to do them individually or can't we do them all together? >> Yeah. I was wondering about policy 427. We can do through 423 >> and you have one on 423. >> No, I'm saying we can go through 409 through 423 if there's no objection. >> Okay. So, uh changing the move. Is that acceptable to the mover and secondary? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we're going to approve 204. >> No. >> No. >> No. No. No. 409 to 423. Correct. >> Yes. >> All right. Is that a voice vote? >> No, I don't think so. >> Is it's roll call? >> There's no money involved >> that then it is a voice vote. So the answer is yes. >> A voice vote. Excuse me. >> Okay. All in favor of approving 409 to 423 policy changes. Please say I. >> I. Oppose. Say no. >> Okay. We have approved 409 to 423. Now we have 427 workload limits for certain special education teachers. Is our move to approve 427? >> So moved. >> Been mo moved and seconded by Basset. Moved by Hillen Brad, seconded by Basset. Um, Director Long. >> Yeah. So I still um have that question hanging out. Um, I talked to Director Wau and and the policy committee briefly before we started this meeting about that. They said that they were going to take it back and have a conversation about that. So I guess that's why I was asking for it to be pulled until they could have that conversation and then bring it back to us. >> So concern >> just to clarify your your question was about for special education teachers who work full-time. >> No. >> No. Okay. >> No. So that state statute had two parts of it, you know. And yes, there is one part that it directly says this needs to be a board policy. But then I was also asking the other part where it says specifically about those students who receive more special education services, more than 60% of their day is in special ed. So we're talking about like our federal setting. Um three in our federal setting for students, you know, and so I said, can we add a line in there possibly about that? I see. As opposed to creating a separate policy. >> Yes. Oh, >> director. >> Yeah, I think we could pull that and send it back. I I will imagine that special ed uh may have some input on language appropriateness if it's necessary. >> So, we can pull those two policies out and then just revisit that on our next cycle. >> Super. >> Thanks for clarifying that. >> Okay. So there was a move and a second on that. So are we just withdrawing the move and the second? >> Withdraw. >> Withdraw. Withdraw the second. >> The second. >> No, I think director Basset was the second. >> Well, I was saying yes. So, but I'm not clear. What are we doing? >> Okay. So, it was moved and seconded to approve it. >> Yes. >> But instead, it's been suggested that it get withdrawn. Withdrawn. So, is that okay with the secondary to withdraw? changing the motion for >> we're just getting rid of it to whatever. >> We already voted on that. >> I know we did, but I'm It was inclusive. So, >> no, >> this motion >> that we did pull it. Okay. Sorry. >> This motion is just to was to approve 427 >> and now we're it's okay been okay to pull it. So, we're pulling it. Thank you very much. Okay. Good. Moving on. We are up to administrative reports. Subton and Stello. Thank you very much. And good evening, Chair Evans Becker, school board directors, those of you in the room, and the viewing public um in Robbinsdale area schools. Uh our mission is to inspire and educate all learners to develop their unique potential and to positively contribute to their community. Our collective focus uh our collective work is focused on that mission. And tonight, I'd like to share some of the work in which we have been engaged. Uh, in the strategic priority theme of academic achievement, I'm proud to recognize 18 Robbinsdale students, 11 from Armstrong and seven from Cooper who have completed their emergency medical responder training and earned both EMR and CPR certificate certifications. The semester long course required students to study anatomy, uh, life-saving techniques, and how to manage how to manage patient care at the scene of medical or trauma emergency. uh until ambulances arrive. These students gain real world skills that not only prepare them for future careers in healthcare and emergency services, but also equip them to respond confidently and responsibly in critical situations. Congratulations to our students and to the staff who support these relevant learning handson activities. Also in the strategic theme of academic achievement, I'm excited to highlight the work happening at the Robbinsdale Transition Center through RTC Coffee, our studentrun coffee shop. RT uh Coffee exemplifies a goal of RTC, providing meaningful realworld work experiences that help students build the skills they need to successfully transition from school to life in their community. Since 2019, students in the money for independent learning class have operated the coffee shop as they practice budgeting and learn the value of work and fiscal responsibility. This hands-on experience builds confidence, independence, and practical life skills and reflects our commitment to ensuring that every student leaves Ardale prepared for what comes next. I would invite board members to join me on a Friday morning that works for you uh to the RT coffee shop because it is absolutely an amazing experience. Last item in our strategic priority theme of academic achievement. I'm proud to share that 12 Ardale students were selected for the American Quarrel Directors Association of Minnesota uh honors choirs, a prestigious statewide recognition of musical excellence. Our Plymouth Middle School student will perform with the grades four, five, and six honor choir later this month. And 11 students from Armstrong and Cooper have already performed with the grades 9 through 10 honor choir. Being selected for an ACDA honor choir reflects not only talent but dedication, discipline, and their commitment to artistic growth. Uh we're really proud of our students and again the staff who support them in the strategic theme of collaboration and partnerships. Over the past several weeks, members of the school board and I have been visiting schools across the district as part of our midyear school visits. These visit visits are an important opportunity to hear directly from principles and staff about what's going well, where schools are focusing their improvement efforts and how they're supporting students every day. They also allow us to spend time in classrooms, seeing firsthand the strategies and priorities outlined in each of the schools uh improvement plan. you were able to see strategies like you heard about this evening during the presentation. These conversations and classroom visits help keep our work grounded in student learning and ensure that board governance, district leadership and school level planning stay aligned. So I want to thank the principles, teachers and students for welcoming us and I want to thank board members uh for joining me um on those visits. Also in the strategic theme of collaboration and partnership on February 5th, North Northport principal Bridget Douly, Noble MTSS instructional coach Jessica Schultz and K5 literacy specialist Laura Sukerman presented at the MESPA Institute 2026 conference alongside Kristen Burer, director of literacy at at Serve Minnesota. Their presentation highlighted Ardale's implementation of Bridge to Read, sharing the structure of the process, the datadriven results we're seeing, and the important nondata wins happening in our schools. It's powered to full to see that our leaders are not only doing strong literacy work, but are also being invited to share the work statewide. This reflects the intentional systematic approach we're taking to strengthen reading outcomes for our students. The last item in the strategic theme of collaboration and uh partnerships. In early fe February, several members of our senior leadership team along with three students, one from Cooper, one from Armstrong, and one from High View attended a workshop on the dignity index. Some schoolboard members and legislators also participated in a related presentation from the dignity index following the AMSD legislative uh preview session. The dignity index is a nonpartisan uh framework that helps us reflect on how our langry language either honors dignity or conveys contempt. It provides a practical way to think about how we communicate during moments of disagreement and how we can foster more respectful and productive dialogue across our differences. As we continue nav nav navigating complex issues in our schools and communities, I'm encouraged by opportunities like this that help strengthen how we listen, speak, and work together and the district culture we strive to create. I look forward to uh continuing to explore this framework um and determine how our student, staff, board, and community uh may be able to use it in the future. And finally, as a reminder, Robinsdale Area Schools will host our annual Black History Month celebration from 5:30 to 7:30 on February 20th at Robinsdale Middle School. This event is a meaningful opportunity for our district and community to come together to honor the past, celebrate the present, and inspire the future. It reflects our ongoing commitment of creating spaces where every student, family feel seen, valued, and connected. Events like this strengthen belonging across our schools and highlight the richness of the cultures, histories, and voices that make up our community. We invite and encourage all members of our school community to attend and celebrate together. That is the end of my report. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. And just one thing, some of those students in that EMT class, I'm so proud of them, but some of them might be saving some of our lives. That that's huge. So, >> Whoa. All right. Um, future events, we'll scroll and this brings us to a journ. Oh, >> so on the policy committee meeting, uh, start time here says 5. I believe we've pushed that forward to 5:30 tomorrow just for the public information. >> Oh, thank you. Anything else to come? >> Anything else? In that case, I would I would like a move to adjourn the meeting. >> So moved. >> Director Bowman. >> Seconded. >> Director Brenten. All in favor please say I. I. Oppose say no. We are adjourned and at 7:15 um how much time we need before study session begins? Five minutes. >> Five minutes. See you back at 7:20. Thank you. >> Five minutes. Oh, wait a minute. I'll start with you and then we'll work way around. Okay. >> Okay. >> And here we are. Okay. We're back. It's 7:26 and we are starting the school board study session once again. It's Tuesday, February 17th. We're in the boardroom. I'm Gita Evanser and those of us at the table are going to introduce ourselves. >> Uh, Connect Woodel, school board. >> Aviva Hillenbrand, school board. Renee Bowman, school board. >> Anthony Williams, executive director of community education, athletics and activities. >> Amy O'Harn, executive director of human resources. >> DJ Brennan, school board. >> Caroline Long, school board. >> Helen Basson, school board. >> Terry Stall, superintendent. >> And the superintendent. >> Thank you very much. Okay, we have the introductions, purpose, and agenda. Superintendent St. >> Excellent. The purpose of study sessions is an opportunity for uh administration and board members to exchange information and have discussions um ultimately so that board members have the information and the understanding that they need to make decisions um for efficient and effective schoolboard business meetings. Uh tonight as we look at the school board working document um uh in the areas of of board governance that the board is responsible for tonight we don't have anything under district governance and policy under operational performance oversight and organizational direction. We will be uh spending the bulk of the evening um moving forward with what we forecasted on February 2nd uh to you all and having a more in-depth conversation about next steps um as we reimagine our deal. look at the vision 2030 uh phases one and into phases 2 updates. Uh so we'll be taking a look at a whole lot of information around that that hopefully you were all prepped for as we begin tonight. Um under board governance then after we do that under board governance uh I know there's gonna be some conversation self-evaluation um we have just a little bit of information around the care uh giver and staff survey and then we'll also look at the schedule for um board meetings for next year uh nothing under superintendent relations or communityments. So with that I think we can go ahead and kick off. Uh also have um our partners with uh from Nexus with us this evening. um we'll be doing some uh conversations that certainly will uh impact their continued support of us as well. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and hand off to assistant superintendent Dr. McDow uh to help facilitate this uh really important conversation as we move forward with um planning for the future of Robinville area schools. >> Thank you, Superintendent Stalo, Board Chair Becker School Board. Tonight we have a uh several slides really going over information that you've seen before, trying to put some connectors to that information and provide some uh you'll see in a slide uh triangulating some of the information so that it makes sense um as we move through the end of phase one and really start getting into the work of phase two of where we are with facilities programming and our longer term planning. So, the purpose for tonight really is to revisit that information um and try to help reenter ourselves on what we would consider our current reality, have everybody in the room develop an initial understanding of what potential facility costs might be uh given some options and then examine uh decision- making. What happens if, right? What happens if you do this, if you do this? what order do we think it needs to happen in in order for us to make the best decisions possible? And then uh making sure that we have an understanding of our next short-term timeline. And that really is the timeline leading up to November um and a potential bonding vote which has a whole lot of backwards planning that has to happen uh between now and then if that's the direction the board chooses to go. So the board as a whole for tonight our outcomes really we're looking at the end of this to provide administrative direction with regards to scope. I'll say that again with regards to scope. So uh we've been kind of in this phase where uh we've had to do a lot of the closure items and people have been asking for what's the what's next? What's the vision? the what's next really for us is what scope do you want us to include inside of that vision because at the end of the day the scope actually determines the cost. The cost determines what you might go out for for a bond referendum and dovetailing with that is also going to be the usage of long-term facility maintenance. So number one the board as a whole we're hoping will give us direction with regard to scope. How small how big do we want to be defining the sandbox? The second one is as a whole provide administration with information requests for the decision making of this next phase. And I think that's really important is what information after tonight is going to be most helpful for you as a whole to make a decision about what's next. And then lastly, um we're going to ask the board as a whole to approve the facilities planning and construction management agreement. As we move through this process, we need to maintain and keep our construction management uh team with us. They're the ones that help us all the way from long-term facility maintenance all the way through whatever might be uh for the what's next. They truly know how to bridge between district need, contractor need, construction costs, and all of the things that are resources as part of that project. So, as you're all aware, we have our extended timeline bringing everybody back to this. It's the same slide I showed last time. Can >> I have a point of clarification? >> So, I thought we were going to go back to where things would be brought to the board. We could talk about them at study session. We could all have a discussion as board members and then we would have time at a subsequent other meeting to vote on it. So, I'm just bringing up again that here we're talking about voting on something, >> but not tonight. No, that's what he just said. >> We'd like to get direction on that tonight. >> Direction tonight. >> It's not a necessary. >> So, is it just direction or is it a vote? >> We'd like to have approval tonight or action tonight. >> Okay. So, again, like we're going against what we said would be our norms for conducting our meeting and getting information so that we could make informed decisions. So, I would just put out there that uh the work that we've done with the board, the fact that Nexus is who we're recommending at the end of the presentation uh is not new to the board. The work that they've done with the district is not new. They've been around. They did our you're going to see in a moment that they did our uh facilities condition assessment. They've been with us. Um it is it would not be accurate that the board has not had interaction with Nexus or known about Nexus um as a construction management. It would also um it would also behoove the board to make decisions around a construction manager that the district has had success with. Um, and there wouldn't be any reason for us to put another construction management uh group in front of the board at this point in time given particularly the timelines and what is requested. Um, so I would respectfully disagree that it hasn't come before the board. The agreement is uh a part of the packet. Uh, it was a part of the packet uh that went out last week. Um I did not receive any questions about that uh from any board members. So if it's okay with you uh chair, I'd like to continue with the presentation. >> Thank you. >> So I just would like to point out again point of clarification of what we had discussed as board members. So I'm going to stick to that. I don't really care about the semantics. we really need to start getting into this groove of where we are able to make informed decisions and with the information and have time to think about it. >> Thank you, Shar. >> Director Basset, >> I think I'm hearing two different things. I'm hearing uh Director Long talk about process in terms of how we make decisions. And I don't think I heard her I'm not sure I didn't hear her say a whole lot about Nexus, but I will say this uh and I have raised this a number of times myself. Um it I'm happy to see them. I when I saw them I was like, "Yay, glad to see you." We haven't seen them. Board members haven't uh since they came back was it June or whenever it was back in June. >> That's months ago. My understanding about what we're doing right now is we're preparing to go into phase two. And one of the things that we were told in phase one was this is where we're going to talk programming and a number of other kinds of things. That was my expectation and I've been waiting for that. Uh all during this previous process, every now and then I've pushed back on it because we've made some programming changes. But I'm just I'm just saying uh super assistant superintendent. So, uh this is my reality. So, I don't work with it every day like you do. I'm not here in the building all the time like you all are. I assume you're working on things. Uh do we know that Nexus is a is is the contractor that you've been working with for long-term facilities maintenance? I just asked him a question when I saw him, you know, because we haven't had contact with them. They have been doing things related to our long-term facilities maintenance. Now, we're preparing to talk about the statutory operating debt plan and the process as we go through that. I think director Long very um appropriately mentioned her comments. I don't think she was saying anything negative about Nexus. Uh and I don't and she was just speaking her truth. So for you to say and for you to say you have heard about it. We have talked about Nexus. We talked about them back. We talked we had Nexus come back in June. The scope at that time was li limited to the long-term facilities maintenance planning. We have been advised as a board by the administration that we were going to talk in phase two about programming and a number of other things that probably will include some of the facility stuff. That's what I've been waiting for. So, I don't want to give this impression that we've had all these conversations and we know and we've been knowing. I'm saying what it has said we're going to do. We've already closed the buildings and now we will talk about my understanding is that we're going to talk and see when you have these these just these sentences and there's not a lot of definition or bullet points under them, people's understanding can be different. And you know, I mean, and so I'm just I'm just putting that on the table because I don't I don't want it to have a bad meeting. I don't want it to be adversarial, but I I expect respect. >> Okay. I I think that if we let assistant superintendent >> McDonald saying, you know, I mean, there's no argument in what I'm saying, chair. There's no argument here. I'm just saying this was our understanding. That's my understanding and she spoke to hers. That's the point. >> Done. >> I I would just like to maybe reset a little bit if that's okay and say when we're looking at the timeline, the extended there's two things. The extended timeline that has been in front of the school board and the community has identified uh it's not we're not in the SOD plan right now. We're not we're not doing the SOD plan. We're now trying to reimagine or trying to put out what what is the vision of Robbinsdale? What do we want the design and the vision of Robbinsdale to be for the next how many decades that includes longerterm building configurations and related bonding needs. It just does. And so to the point of the partners that we've been with uh as far as they did the vision committee work, the facility assessments and now uh our contracted with the long-term facility maintenance piece, the district or the administration is also recommending we utilize them for phase two of of how to work through uh the vision and the process of what is Robbinsdale going to be as determined by the school board and in our community along with the program. It's int the programming and how the design also works, but we can't ignore the facility component. That's all. And so we're tonight we're talking about >> we're talking Yes, they're handinand and we're talking about the facility component of which Dr. McD McDall was indicating they're not new and our facilities conversation isn't new. We've just had it in different ways. That's all. >> Oh, thank you. I'll >> say the same thing. Please continue. >> So, as I was saying and what's still up on the screen, the extended timeline that hasn't changed, just different portions of it are highlighted right now because that's what we're moving through. We're coming like, as I stated before, we're coming out of phase one. We're moving into phase two uh which is as um CFO Hoisel said it gets us out of the SOD uh really targeted focus and more into what do we have to have done in order to move into the next phases. So to do that uh what I want to bring us back to is really creating the re revisiting the foundation and of our current reality. In February of 2025, Hazel Reinhardt delivered to as a board a demographic study, an enrollment study. Um, then in June, Nexus uh gave the facilities condition assessment. In September, the reimagine uh Rdale Vision 2030 team gave its recommendations to the board. Morris Leman came in uh Peter Leatherman presented to the board in November of 2025 with the residential survey. And then finally, we had the recent SOD approval in 2026 here last month. So those things were made up of again the study that Hazel Reinhardt gave to the board in demographics and enrollment back in February of 2025. And really um her key findings were that um the enrollment is decreasing, that enrollment will continue to decrease. And in fact, Robbinsdale Area Schools is one of those areas that's in kind of this perfect storm she talked about, right? Meaning, as you see on the slide, we have uh school age, residential population that's decreasing. We have um school school competition going on. Um and then our market, which is causing our market share to decline, uh because kids that we could potentially capture are choosing to go to other places. And so our capture rate, our market share is declining. She also went into enrollment projections and projected out to 2033 uh that enrollment uh looks like it could hover somewhere between 8,886 to 9,457. she went into housing. And the reason that she does this is it's important for people to understand that it takes a significant amount of the right kind of housing to get a significant amount of kids into the school system. So I put this slide in there just to refresh memory on that. And then she went into the district uh projections, right? the again the decline in resident births in Minnesota, Henipin County, suburban Henipin County, they have an an impact on us. She went further to say that Robinsdale area schools share of the suburban Henipin County resident birth is not likely to increase um based on the research that she did. We then had the facilities condition assessment. So, uh, Hazel Reinhardt talked about the fact that with her projections, the enrollment for the district isn't going to increase. In fact, it's going to continue to decrease. Um, we saw this again as the reimagine team went through the data. They came back and made the assumption, we're going to assume in 2030, 9500. We know right now we're actually pacing ahead of that current year in terms of a reduction. And so we're fairly confident that the the new normal for Robinson area schools is going to be somewhere in that 8,800 to 9,500 kid range. And so we feel good about the planning that we've done so far. And um and moving ahead with that as we move on to the facility condition assessment and the LTFM update that happened in June. You'll remember that in the presentation they talked about all the systems that they walk through when they do a facility conditions assessment, right? Everything from that first bullet, which is the physical hazards, playgrounds, resurfacing, what needs to be repaired, all the way through roofs and plumbing, and ending with specific items like theater equipment. So everything top to bottom, inside to out, what is the look, what does it look like for the district. And you'll remember that this is where we get this chart from. This is a living chart. Um, right. This is a chart that at a moment in time, this is what was assumed to be the long-term facility maintenance needs for each of the buildings. This is part of that long-term facility maintenance plan that you as a board approve every year, but it's a 10-year projection plan. And so, depending upon what we deem as a priority in a given year, actual numbers can shift and vary. uh but this is how the assessment comes out in its first look after the conditional assessment is actually completed. >> So we have demographics. >> I have a question. >> So does this chart appreciably change from the charts we were looking at when we were making decisions a while back related to which buildings needed the most um and all of that? That's my question to you. The only way the chart would change is if we as a group would decide >> that we want to put less or more money into a specific building. >> Okay. And then chair, what I would like to do is before we get too far down the road to talk about this, although I'm a little conflicted because we currently have our nexus people here. So talking facility makes a lot of sense, but I did want to go back and talk a little bit about and we could maybe tack it on to the end or later and and because I want to talk about the demographic report a bit more and I don't want to get too far down before saying that. So we can come back to it since we you're into what you're into right now. >> Okay, we come back to it. So, so we have demographics, we have our facilities, we know that we have a variety of facilities that are in a variety of states of need. Um, we went through a lot of that when we were trying to decide which buildings that made the most sense to close. That was a big piece of it. And then you'll remember that back in September the Reimagine Vision 2030 team gave their recommendations. So this team really spent eight months working with all those touch points, working with all the data, trying to figure out what are key insights and what recommendations might we have. They full well knew that they weren't a decision-making body, rather a representation across the district to give insight to you as a board and to us as an administration of what they believe is most important based on the information that they had. And so they gave key insights, everything from exceptional staff to the enrollment declining to operating more buildings to outdated facilities, safety and security and how do we create this uh increased positive reputation that the district deserves and the attention to it. They did give recommendations about facilities. They started with overall facility requirements. So physical requirements such as flexible learning spaces, special education, art, music, outdoor learning, technology rich, security technologies, single stall bathrooms. So again they they started with a larger scope and said here's what we hope for and here are recommendations. They gave recommendations as with regard to the high schools. What what did they recommend? They recommended landed on one high school. Um and they had several key things that went along with that. Um but that's where the group landed with regard to high school. With regard to middle schools, they landed at two to three middle schools. Really depended upon what the whole scope of the facilities were for the entire district. Um and then they went into elementarymentaries and they made the recommendation that they think based on what they knew at the time, six to nine elementaries, again dependent upon what all the different programming was um and that it would become more clear as all the different variables play out. They did make arts and innovation recommendations. So, if you'll remember that they talked about uh not having standalone magnet schools, Spanish immersion continuing students being assigned to their neighborhood school with new boundaries, uh professional development for staff, expanding partnerships, programming and arts and innovation delivered across the district at a high standard. So, that was the recommendation of that team. took demographics, facility facility conditions, this team that that studied all the information and gave their recommendations and then Peter Leatherman came in and said, "Let's do two things. Let's go out and survey the residents. Let's do let's do a survey that is um matched to the district population. Let's survey for a couple different things. How's the district doing? What might a tax tolerance be if you don't know anything about what the facility plan is? And then let's test a couple of these recommendations from the vision 2030 group. So just a couple slides from uh Peter's uh presentation. One, just a reminder that the demographics for the survey, they surveyed 400 some uh people of the district of all seven communities. Uh they parsed it out in several different ways. On this slide, it's uh college graduates to high school graduate or less, renters, homeowners of different um different levels, and then again across all seven of the communities. One interesting thing and I think you'll remember Peter speaking to this this slide here the pre predisposition is when you're talking about the potential for a bond referendum without knowing anything to what degree is your community for on the far left I'm for anything doesn't matter what it is I'm always going to support the schools the middle is I could be persuaded depends upon what it is and the far right I'm not voting for the schools no matter what and so the takeaway from the slide was the majority of those surveyed said they're at least persuadable up to I would support anything you threw at us. That gets us into the initial ask of a property tax increase. I show this one just because you can see where we landed is right in between that $5 to $15 mark. Um we know that we're going to have people say I'm not giving anything. That's that group from the last slide. And then it separates out. And remember these this this question is done without knowing what would the money be used for. Another important factor is are we doing a good job of communicating and involving the community? And according to the residential survey, we are. Um you'll see there on the left that the majority of people say yes or strongly yes that the involvement of the community has been one that they have appreciated. Some key findings of the survey key findings of vision 2030 overall um the majority of people uh think that the staff is a strength. So that's the same thing that vision 2030 found. Um arts are foundational. We're lagging uh test scores. Our enrollment is declining. We have more buildings that we need. Facilities are outdated. Safety and security is a priority. And we need to pay attention to rep uh to to our reputation. So, you can see in there that the community is tracking along the same lines that that vision 2030 group uh was tracking as they were moving through their eight months of work. On the next side we slide we continue into overall the folks of the residential survey. They want that arts and innovation identity. There was a strong support for creating one high school whatever that looks like support for fewer middle schools and support for fewer elementary schools. Again tracking what the vision 2030 team had made as their recommendations. So, we got through all that and then we landed on SOD reductions. We went through that trying process, right, to figure out what is it we're going to do in the short term for 2627. And this is just a list of the things that we landed on uh for 2627. We know that as we move through tonight and in the next few months, the financial adjustments like we just went through aren't going to be right in front of us. But we're going to again for 27 have to make some financial adjustments, right? And we're going to push those through those filters of what's effective, what's efficient, what's equitable, and what is desirable, feasible, and sustainable as we move through time. Um, and for us in our current situation, that sustainability is a big one. We can't just do something to do it. We've got to do something that we know we can maintain over time uh if we don't have additional dollars to put into it. I'm going to turn it over to uh CFO Hisel and Executive Director Williams to talk a little bit about existing agreements and impacts. >> Yeah. So we um as you as many of you know uh good evening board members um as many of you know we have uh uh quite a few agreements in the district with with you know uh the various cities. Uh when we look at uh what was approved for the SOD plan and the implications of closing our Robinale Middle School u we do know that we currently have a a contract u with them for the community gym. Um there is uh that so I have been in I have been in communication with the city of Robinsdale with their parks and recck manager to let them know that um because of the closure of Robelle Middle School that at the end of this summer we will probably be clo we will be not operating that facility anymore which will impact the use of that community gym. Um so there so there's there's that component of it. There is a buyout clause in that contract. Um, I think it's 124 or 144 remaining on that. There was a a 40-year agreement. We have a lot of 40-year agreements here in Robinsdale. Um, so that that's one of the impacts of the uh of the Robindale Middle School um space. You all you've all heard a lot about the auditorium already and the usage of that and how that'll be impacted. Um, another one of our uh sort of an annual lease agreement that we have is that um is with Samberg Middle School when we're talking uh moving now, you know, potentially a thousand students into that into that space. Um, New Hope, the city of New Hope currently uh leases out um one of the smaller gyms for gymnastics programming. So, I've been in communication with them as well as if we're going to have a thousand students in that space um we won't be able to have a gym. We need all of our gym spaces. Uh so that has been communicated with the city of city of New Hope. Um and then for for the summer they will utilize because we're going to use we're going to use that Robinville Middle School building this summer. Um for the summer they will utilize that space for their programming. After that um there's no guarantee of continuation of that within our within our district facilities. Uh we have um a few other uh uh spaces and programs that or um not necessarily programs but like the Robbinsdale High School Alumni Association utilizes space um as Sanri Middle School they use two two two of the rooms that'll be converted into classrooms once again when you have um over a thousand students in that building. So, we have communicated with them um about, you know, um the fact that we will have to relocate that space um recognizing we still want to honor that history um of what they have there. Um so, we we'll be looking at as we go through this process where we can relocate the Robindale Alumni Association rooms. They also have plaques up at Robinale Middle School. So, they have two rooms at Samberg and have their some historical plaques to have at Robinsdale Middle School that we'll be working through. uh stages theater as you all know um obviously has our contract at Plymouth Lane uh or Pilgrim Lane. Um they also have the contract at the at the middle school there at Fair Crystal and then he also utilize that that uh auditorium for summer programming. So those are things we'll continue to work through um as we talk about you know stages theater and then there's a couple uh I won't call them smaller but things that that are aren't present on this list. We have like story theater which is a group of our seniors who go around and do uh who do um different stories and things of that nature, different plays for our various schools. Um they utilize storage space right now at Sison Elementary. Um we anticipate them actually coming to uh Crystal Learning Center. We've already been in communication with them so they can have storage space there. Um and then uh and then we also house at Pilgrim Lane um one office space for uh well not necessarily office more of a desk space and some storage for um for Seven Dreams. So we'll be uh looking for for a new home for them to office out of and more than likely to also be coming with the community education department up to Crystal Learning Center. Um so every one of the groups has been communicated with about the impact of these changes. Uh we are going to be setting follow-up meetings with both the city of New Hope as well as the city of Rodmandale to see, you know, um if there's any next steps, but we have not promised that we will be able to offer space because we're we're looking to maximize our buildings for student usage. So those are things there. And then there are um other groups who are impacted just from a rental standpoint. You know, we do rent out to our facilities quite a bit. So um obviously we're we're losing some rental spaces there, but those groups have been communicated with as well. Uh, one point of clarification that I'd like to call to the bo uh, board's attention is executive director Williams was correct that the RMS gym buyout is $124,000. That would be at the end of this year. I would be coming because of the dollar amount. I'm I'm going to request specific action by the board in a at a future meeting to be able to issue that payment. It will come out of operating capital. It will not be coming out of our general fund, but just to highlight that that will be forthcoming on an agenda. So, if you have questions as we move forward, please let me know. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. >> Okay. >> Well, since you're mentioning Bramisdale Middle School, I guess a question that and I'm kind of looking and I don't see it. Uh I'm wondering why um we don't have a conversation. There's not a conversation that we're having about the facilities that we have closed those facilities and the future of those facilities. Whether we decide to mothball some and keep them for some future use or whatever we decide to do with them, those buildings, several of them, quite a few, uh have the capacity to generate revenue. uh if and it which would go back into facilities which is what we're talking about which could buy down some of the costs for bonding and all the rest of it. I see that as an important discussion right now. Uh and so I'm wondering why it's not on here. >> I think it goes directly to the presentation and and what uh Dr. McDow was trying to reiterate in the beginning what was that we there is we have to take a step the board has to take a step to start providing direction of which then like all of our facilities and are in play but if the board makes a decision um and I'll just say for example if the board made a decision or wants to go a direction with the high school whether it be one or two that changes the trajectory of how everything shifts depending on that decision which very well could include, you know, or not a a a building that uh is closed for 2620. Presumably, it's closed. And we said other than this building, we wouldn't be looking to remove properties from our inventory until the board and the community quite honestly with a referendum of however that looks makes decisions. So, I I agree with you, Helen. Um it's not listed tonight because we're just trying to get out of the starting block with what direction is does the board have an appetite to go with and then back to details details details that follow. So as a followup to this question uh comes to my mind is this the trajectory for when enrollment way shrink down to a certain percentage in 33 um there is a sweet spot there where we know which way it's going there's no need we don't have to make a decision about one high school right now if you make the we can make it later depending I mean it can be made later there's no question because we don't even know these are rejections and assumptions. And of course, we've had some from our demographer in the past which ended up being different than what we anticipated. The outcomes and the reality was different than what we anticipated. So there's no no dispersions, no casting, no dispersions. I'm just saying that those projections can change and do change. Once you're right in that once we make a step, we've taken a step and depending on what step you take, you can box yourself into something. I I feel like 2033 is a ways out and I I'm wondering why we're not talking about I believe in tandem some other things I'd like to see you consider maybe not tonight but I'd like to see considered one is what are the efforts we're doing to retain hold on to the families we have and and and this is I'm just saying this based on past experience when we came to a place where we felt like we needed to do something and shrink. We And and we needed to do two things. Where can we make money, save money, save money, and then where can we make money? That's how we got Cback open and Olsen Middle School. We opened it. It was successful. People came. We're at a different place now. And I realize that. But what I'm saying is that um I guess I feel like that is an important conversation. How do we retain, hold on to and attract other students and attract them at the younger levels? I think that's a very important question and I feel like if we've taken a lot of care to do comprehensive discussions and planning, the board hasn't necessarily been involved in all of those because we weren't involved when the reimagine team was working. They were doing their work, but the administration was working with them. They weren't working by themselves. So, there's been work that's gone into a lot of these things. So, I'm saying from where I'm sitting, I'd like to see what are the plans or what kind of work or effort are we putting into understanding why people are leaving? I think we many people have a lot of ideas about why that is, but what can we do to forstall it and what kind of programming is going to be attractive to have people come to us? I think those are legitimate and important questions and we're not we're not talking about that. And the the last thing I'll say before I leave away from this is I think it's important for us to be doing programming in tandem. If I hear a whole presentation is all pointed toward going to one high school and I don't hear us talking about how we're going to retain and keep families that we have. And I'm not certain that 30 30 20 33 is going to be we're going to know we're going to have certain amount of kids that we only need one high school. And uh so I mean I'm I'm just saying I think there's still a lot of unknowns. I think we're doing some best guessing. It's always good to get you know the survey from Leatherman. They've always done a good job. But when the last survey just before this last one, majority of the people didn't even know that there was a question about closing schools on the table. People who don't have kids in school. People who have kids in school pay attention. the rest of our population, which is across this country, 80% do not have kids in school and we have different tax tolerance levels. So, thank you for that information about the tax tolerance level, you know, and telling us kind of where where the sweet spot might be. All of that's important information. So, I'm not I'm not denigrating any of it. All I'm saying is that it's a both and >> superintendent then director Long. So, I just I would out of respect like us to I'd like to make a couple comments. I'd like Director Long, too. But I'd like us to be able to have the presentation that's been in front of the board, the presentation that the administration has brought forward. We have been talking about the future of this school district for well over a year. We have, excuse me, we have been talking about all of how do we reimagine a better school district for Robbinsdale Area Schools. that includes >> how do we and the the recommendation that has been discussed that we've got to continue to discuss is the focus of arts and innovation. We have been talking and even as we're having this conversation tonight about how we increase our achievement, our school safety, which helps us with our reputation. Like all of this work has been happening. You saw two excellent presentations this evening about that ongoing work. So, it's all these little things that are happening every single second of the day that we're hoping and planning will build trust in the school district, make sure resident families choose us, and perhaps we're offering some great things for folks outside of the school district to look at, too. So this work, this is all we've been talking about is how to reimagine a better way forward. It is about programming and it is about facilities. It is about enrollment declining. Um it is about safety and security and it's about our reputation. So I mean that is what we've been talking about tonight. Now, a huge part of this is going to be as we look at this enrollment, as we look at what our community, not just 46 members of that task force, but 17,000 different touch points. What did they say they wanted? When we asked the question, what is the experience we want for our kids? We heard about relevant real life learning, which is the pathways, themies. We heard about outdoor learning. We heard about dedicated art space. We heard about technology. We heard about um making sure that there's safety like all of these things we are talking about. How do we make this district better so this is a place that people want to be. So that is what we've been doing for the last year and tonight now we've got in front of you a presentation that out of respect for the work and the time and the work in front of us I'd ask that we can finish the presentation and then have discussions and questions and robust and all of that. Um, but after Director Long's uh question or comment, I' I'd just ask the board if we could continue with the presentation and then have the questions that that and comments that may come as a result. >> Director Long, you want to ask a question now? >> Yeah. Well, I just wanted to make a statement about I agree with Director Basset that we should really be looking at too. How do we maintain these families? You know, when we talk about data points, we've had several uh petitions that have come our way. the care family, the petition, the SOD petition, the crystal fair petition, and we ignored those. We didn't talk about those as as a board. Those are data points right there with all the families that signed on to those things too and community members. So I think when we talk about building trust with the community when we continue to ignore and don't have conversations about these things that community are bringing and asking to us especially in those numbers you want to talk about 40 and you know however many people signed on to those other petitions like that needs to be valued too and we're not value valuing that and we're we're disenfranchising a huge portion of our community and so even looking at this slide for today. I feel like it's very one-sided to persuade me into something without the enough information for me to make a decision about it. I'm not hearing both sides here, both this and that. So, I would in the future like to know about what will we be doing to retain those families? What will we be doing to then build trust back with those families that we have lost trust with by ignoring the things that they've brought to us as board members? >> Thank you. We're going to go >> Chair Evans Beckard, I'd just like to to maybe address the that piece of it. I haven't been privy to the petitions. what I I was privy to every every um listening session and public hearing and everything in in a series of emails and what I did hear um was we absolutely recognize that there is a issue and a problem just don't do it to me. >> I mean that was a pretty consistent message. So to the independent survey of Peter Leatherman, which wasn't biased, was calling out the fact that we needed to reduce our footprint. We needed to reduce the number of buildings. Um uh and I'm trying I the recognition of supporting closing elementary schools, supporting closing middle schools, supporting a a one high school concept like that actually was an independent survey. It wasn't in tandem with the 17,000 individual community. You know that you could argue was it parent, you know, we are at Cub, we were at libraries, we were everywhere, but whatever. That was an independent cold call to our community at large in all of the of the seven communities, various um value of homes, so presumably different uh income levels and what they were willing to support. So, I just don't want that to be lost. I can understand um how people can approach things. I just think that is very it's an important point to not lose that there are independent data points in here that we aren't no different than Hazel. Whether you agree with Hazel's demographic survey or not, it's an independent decision point as is the Peter Leatherman survey. So I will I guess I will go back to Dr. McDow to finish the presentation. >> Thank you Dr. McDow. Just on that too, the letterman even said that there were people like what director Basset was saying who didn't even know about what was going on in our district who he interviewed. >> So I guess I would ask people to go back and watch that tape from November. >> Okay. I would like us to stop this discussion now and carry it on later. Okay. And so now I would like Dr. McDow to continue >> chair before he goes forward. I think is very important because I think that we are not in disagreement. This is not a tense meeting. We have very few opportunities to come together collectively and discuss where we're going. If we can't talk about it here and the presentation's close to being done, you're almost done and I want to hear the rest of it, you know. Uh but this is the place and time. I am not going to come up at some midnight hour and talk about concerns that I have. I am just saying I think we can do things in tandem. That's my point. Now, it's for the administration to figure out how deeply they want to go this way or that way or whatever they want to do. I'm not directing any of that. I'm making it clear. This is something that I will need to go forward is to have some understanding about what do we think about that. Those are big questions affecting several communities that we live that that where these buildings are located. That says not this that's no denigration of of what uh Superintendent McDall was talking about. He's here to share with us what they were there so far. So we're giving you direct feedback about what other things there are that that are on our minds. That's not adversarial. That's our responsibility. So I'm I'm happy to listen to the rest of it. you're almost finished. >> I don't disagree that we need to discuss. However, I we shouldn't be discussing until we have all the information. So, I would appreciate it if you could >> continue. Thank you. So what we try to do to stay unbiased about what we bring to the board because our job is to bring to the board what we think makes the most sense based off the information that we have is what I have on the slide. We triangulate information. So we look at 2033 enrollment forecast. That seem reasonable with all the other stuff that we've seen. It does seems reasonable. It's forecasting. Hazel Reinhardt is very seldom off by very much in the amount of time she's done this and it actually matches with what's happening current day for us. There Hazel will be the first to tell people unless there's a significant change of some kind. The trajectory you are on is the trajectory you're on. Whether that's declining, stable, increasing, it just is what it is. Secondly, we know that additional facilities can be consolidated depending upon other decisions that are made. They don't have to be, but they could be strictly based on numbers, but we put programming in there, location in there. It all comes into play, but you could consolidate depending upon the overall plan. We also know that the remaining facilities, whichever they are, that stay on our books, have needs. Some of them have a lot of needs. So, we're going to have to have a conversation around at some point when it makes sense to talk about the deferred maintenance of the buildings that remain on our portfolio in addition to the ones that we have said we're not going to have programming in, but we still have to do something with. There's a cost to that as well. We have the recommendations from the vision 2030 team which again kind of go in tandem with that residential survey whe whether we agree with it or not. The board has to decide what does the board want to do with a high school? What does the board want to do with middle schools? What does the board want to do with elementary schools? What does the board feel about having a district-wide identity, whatever that might be? What does the board feel like they want the scope of consistent programming for all to be like? That residential survey came back and supported those things. So again, we triangulate that data so that we're not giving biased opinion. We're using the data that we have to provide the board the best information that we have. The board as a whole, every one of you has the ability to vote for what you like and what you don't like. So at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I think. It's what board as a whole you are comfortable moving forward with or not. We need to though make sure that we are paying attention to not just the people who are supportive no matter what, but are the people that are persuadable. What does that mean? What do they want? We're gonna have to go out and do more digging into if we're going to do this, if we're going to entertain X, Y, or Z, to what degree do people really get behind that um or not? And we have an undefined tax tolerance. Right? So, right now, not knowing anything, that survey said you might be able to get $250 to $280 million, maybe. We don't know yet. We have we got to dig into that. So we triangulate that information and then what I will say I can tell you where where we believe we've landed is the first decision the first domino has to be a decision about the high schools. Couple reasons. One regardless of what you do it's the most expensive thing building a new we're going to get into this in a couple moments but building a new high school most expensive building to build in the set. remodeling could potentially be most expensive. So a decision around what do we want to do that is really the first thing to fall. What you'll notice in this slide is that everything else after that it just depends. It depends. What do you want to do for programming? How how many middle schools do you want to have? How many elementary schools do you want to have? What programming do we want to have at the elementary schools and at the middle schools? So after the high school decision, whether it's one high school, two high schools, whatever, then everything else can kind of fall in place, but this is how we view how the decision has to be made to get us into kind of the that cascading of decisions. So here's here's an example of our footprint. So right now you'll see in the gray that's our list. That's our set of elementarymentaries. 11 of them, right? We've taken two out of the mix for next year. So we're down to nine. Depending upon decisions that are made, you could probably go one or two more depending upon other decisions. Again, middle school, we have four this year. We're really down to two next year, but we're utilizing the third building. And then we have to decide out to 2030, what do we want that to look like? Will middle schools be in the same buildings? And then the high schools, two high schools, two high schools. What does it look like out to 2030? Again, that is the first decision that has to really get made because it it causes other subsequent decisions to be made. We also don't want to forget on the on the right hand side, we also have these other buildings, right? We have this building. What are we going to do with that? Director Baz, what are we going to do with that bus garage? What are we going to do with that? The New Hope Learning Center, you're going to see in a minute, depending upon what decisions made, there's a couple different things to do with that. Um, the Crystal Learning Center, do we keep the lease? Do we get rid of the lease? What do we do with the programming that's in that? And then we've got the warehouse. what do we do with that? So, those buildings have to stay in the sphere of what we make decisions about as well. So, Molly, if you would please switch to the other slide. So, in your packet, um I have two pieces of paper for you. One, um you should all have I believe maybe it needs to get passed out. Never mind. Needs to get passed out while it's getting passed out. So, this information that we're going through today right now is information that we were able to get the final pieces of this afternoon. That's why it's not in your packet because it's hot hot off the press getting ready for the board meeting, but I think it's an important part of the discussion for you as a board. And so, you have two pieces of information. one is the written version of what you see in the graph. Right? So for people that would rather read and piece it together, that's what this is for. For people that are more visual, that's what this is for. Right? So I'm going to walk through what you have in front of you. And you'll notice that it's also up on the screen. So people in the audience, what's going to happen is as soon as we're done with the meeting, this this slide will get added to the slide deck and then this stuff will be posted. So everybody will have it. So what we've tried to do is say all right if we believe that the high school is the first decision in the context then what would the options be for high schools based on what we've heard. So the on the left you have option A and I'm going to preface this. These are options. This is not our recommendation. This is what we've come up with to this point because what we're trying to do is get to a spot for you as a board where you can create the scope. And remember, the scope equals dollars. So, if we're going out for a referendum, you kind of need to know what buildings are we talking about because the buildings and what we're going to do with them gives us the dollar amount, which then gives you the ability to say, "Yes, we're interested in doing that." And by the way, here is the review and comment that you have to get ready for uh July. So in option A, I'll I'll just go slow through it. So imagine an option A, this is kind of the reimagine 2030s uh vision, right? One new high school. For purposes of argument, it's on the Cooper site. So imagine the Cooper site um the buildings on the Cooper site to include New Hope Learning Center all go away and we start from scratch. That's what this is. One high school for for all kids to go to. Okay. So in option A, if we did that, it would also then house an aquatic center. So we would what you'll learn later, an aquatic center. >> So we would have the high school pool at that high school. not at our middle schools. The New Hope Learning Center building gets removed and we would have to find a place for that at one of the existing elementary schools. Depending upon other things that happen, we at some point would have to decide where does early learning make the most sense to go to. Armstrong High School site then in this option becomes the second middle school. So we have Sanberg stay as a middle school and then we take Plymouth Middle School and we lift it and put it into Armstrong High School. So now you've got one new high school for the district on the Cooper site. You've got the Sandberg site and the Armstrong site are your two middle schools. And because of that Armstrong site, we would also plan to move other things into that building. So, educational services as an example, community education, High View, potentially RTC, we'd have to get through that, but but we could use do a lot of things with that site. We assume that Spanish immersion stays in play regardless of what we do with the other programming because that was what the recommendation was. Spanish immersion gets picked up and goes to the PMS site. So that gives you as a board an option. Do you keep Spanish immersion K5 as it is or do you expand it to K8 because now you have a big enough building that could do that. If you keep it K5, more than likely we could put another program in there, another option for RTC in one of the wings or something like that, but it would give you an option as a board to say, "Yeah, we want to try this expansion to K8." You'd have the building to do that. Then we would have six additional elementary schools. The change here is we would use LTFM dollars and bond dollars to make sure that each elementary school in that set is at least the size for a four section elementary school, >> right? >> By that you mean four classes, >> four sections for each grade level would be the minimum for every site in our set. So, Director Basset, back to your question. Now, if we have bubbles of kids coming through, we've got space in all of our elementary schools geographically, not just one in the north that's got a lot of space and one in the south that hasn't. >> That's regardless of which option >> that that's in that option A. Yep. Well, regardless of each option. Yes. Yep. >> And then, as I mentioned earlier, we would move that early learning site to one of an existing elementary. And then I just put a note there on the bottom. Well, not a note, a bullet on the bottom there so that we don't forget we got to do something with RTC, adult academic programming, community ed, high view, and ESC. In that mix, we've accounted for them. Your footprint then is an 11 site footprint. So we've now minimized our annual operational cost back to we can reduce buildings and what we can best guess without doing any detail of we want to do this building with this in it with this in it is to do option A with a brand new high school. you are looking at most likely having to bond for $532 million in addition to at least 56 million of LTFM to pull it off. Yeah, I director Burton I Yeah, that's a big one, right? This is why we said we got to come up with some options here because that's a big price tag. So option B, option B is exactly the same as option A except for the high school. We still use the Cooper site, but we keep as much of the Cooper site intact as we can and we rebuild and remodel around it. It's the same premise that White Bear Lake did when they combined South Campus and North Campus. They kept a lot of the physical structure of North Campus and they touched almost every wall inside. So, it's a brand new facility. You create one high school, but you utilize the existing footprint and then expand on the Cooper High School site. Same thing for early learning. We would put in the aquatic center. So, early learning would have to go to someplace else. All that stays in play. You maintain the 11 sites. You can see the difference. So, if you think about it now, we're keeping existing sites. So, your LTFM can go up because we're char we're spending more like for like. So your bond need goes down significantly to 388. Option C, we don't do one high school. We keep two high schools and we renovate the two high schools. So you got this Armstrong, you got Cooper. We would then need to keep the two middle schools. You've got Sanberg and you've got Plymouth. Spanish immersion. What we would look at doing and it could change but the way the options written now is we would do remodeling to fair crystal input so that Spanish immersion could fit there. Here's the caveat to move Spanish immersion out of uh the the site that is in now Sunny Hollow. The only other building that is as big as Sunny Hollow short of PMS is going to be Meadow Lake or Northport. That creates a whole list of issues if you were to do that. So we said, you've already got Forest in the middle. You've got Fair Crystal in the middle. What if we could do something with one of those two buildings? You may have to make a decision that um Spanish immersion can't be 750 kids. It maybe can be 600 kids. So a happy medium in there, but move them to the Fair Crystal site. maintain the four section buildings of the other elementary schools in this model because Cooper High School would stay just remodeled. We would anticipate keeping the New Hope Learning Center building. So early learning could stay there in this version and then we would have to find an elementary site for ESC and High View in that one. You can look at the bottom and see the cost difference there. And I will point out an additional cost difference. Remember when we were going through budget adjustments, we anticipate minimal savings of a million dollars for an elementary school we take offline. We anticipate a million5 to just under2 million for a middle school that we take offline. We anticipate 2 million to 3 million for a high school that comes offline. So you'll notice in this one that while the LTFM stays about the same as option B and your bond goes down quite a bit because you're not making a a high school, right? You're just upgrading high schools, not only do you have more sites that operate on an annual basis, but you still maintain two high schools. So in theory, you're $3 plus million of operational cost more than the other two options. It's not that one is better than the other, but it's two different ways to look at it. One is an expense upfront and one is a long-term expense. $3 million over 30 years is a lot more than um a short-term expense to to upgrade. So with that I have a couple more slides on the other slide deck or we could stop here. Chair for questions about this slide. You have to tell me what you would like to do. >> All right. Director Basset has a question. >> So um in option C that six is that forest section elementary school. That's a new build. >> No that's >> sorry I missed that out. That it would be a new building on RMS site. on the Rob. >> Director Hillband. >> I like that. >> I just had a couple of just technical questions. Just >> um do we care that Samberg has no stage but has a pool and Armstrong has a has something? So, I love that question because part of the LTFM and bonding in options A and B would be for sure well actually A, B, and C would be to take the pools at the middle school and turn them into auditoriums >> and put the that's why the aquatic center would go at Cooper. I don't. >> So then and then um my other question was have we considered because of the Spanish immersion issue, have we thought about having two smaller Spanish immersion instead of one giant Spanish immersion? And and I obviously know that adds administrative costs, but just curious. Yeah. But just curious because it is so popular and it's hard to fit into one building if that is something that I don't I haven't thought about the numbers or anything. I just >> We have not considered that simply because it automatically throws us into a double operational cost and potentially a a staffing issue. >> Sure. >> Pushing just asking. >> Yeah, >> we haven't for those reasons. Okay. Then you're a no. You're >> Yeah. I just want Can you say that again about the aquatic? >> Yeah. In all of these, what what we would anticipate is that the a pool would be put in at a high school and the middle school pools would come out and become auditoriums because we do not need the pools for our middle school fiad. We don't use them. And in fact, both of our pools are not at the depth they need to be. I don't believe um I don't believe either one has a diving well. >> No, they don't. And they're >> No, they're not in good shape. Oh, yeah. >> So, that would be the idea, >> Mr. Bowman. >> Just kind of a clarifying question between option B and option C. And that would be the difference really between option B and option C is the ongoing operating costs that option C has that option B would not have. Is that is that a fair like when you talked about uh uh option C costs more in the long run uh $3 million a year over or is that to option A? >> No, no, no. So >> when answer, >> let me clarify my question. >> Absolutely. So the question comes down to to me it comes down to the buckets and what does it cost as we're addressing our financial um obligations sod plan future reductions um the buckets matter. And so when you are looking at either an option A or option B 11 sites presumably that takes a high school which is 2 to 3 million and an elementary school offline. So you're looking at 3 to four million every year in operational costs which would go to the essentially if you plan out map out the work we've done with the SOD plan. You don't achieve that with option C. you maintain 13 sites. So, our footprint is still presumably larger than um well than obviously the 11 sites that could be up. The difference then on the flip side of it is when you look at the cost of the bond and the LTFM and when you look at like option B, you can say but we're spending more for LTFM and bond than we would in option C. And that is true. Number one, your voters have approved it. Um, it's not an annual cost to the district per se. It's a levy, right? Your voters have agreed to do that. And it is spread over I mean depending on the the term of the bond, 20 25 years depreciation, it's even longer than that. and we are um well we're farther caught up in the status of our buildings. So you're talking a a a whole different pool of money that isn't what we are locking ourselves into having to spend every year but it is collected by the taxpayers but you need the taxpayer vote to do it >> and we all to throw that in. >> Okay, I'm going to do a followup with this. Thank you. Just so that I make sure I understand. So, we're you're talking about the LTFM request, right? And then you're talking about that bond, but then you're really talking between uh for item C out of A or B that annual budgetary uh things that are built, your budgets that are built are going to be higher based on the fact that option C was chosen. And does that make it more difficult over time to pull out a statutory operating deficit and keep ourselves at a statutory operating deficit? Uh the answer is that is correct in your assessment of it's the cost annually that is higher. Uh option C is higher. Uh I would say yes. it makes it harder to um to uh get out of statutory operating debt and not go farther into statutory operating debt because that's a um I mean we cut just under $8 million this year and if you're talking you know what is 3 to four million every year mean ongoing you have to weigh that I would presumably as an option um in in I would say, "Well, on the flip side, back to your voter decision, you know, do would you look and say, can we increase our operating referendum?" And you don't have the there's not enough room between where the state caps us and where our authority, our current voter approved authority is to make any sort of uh remarkable difference to cover that exposure. You don't have it. So, you can't achieve you can't achieve it through an operating referendum vote. can't achieve the difference between operating more sites. It can't be done. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Okay. I I'm going to do Brendesen. Was it long? >> Yeah. >> Brendesen, long w. >> No, >> not w. >> Okay. Brendesen and then long. >> So, back to a previous conversation. If I'm doing my math right, in option A and B, there are at least six sites that we would not be using anymore. If my math is correct, >> from where we are today? >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like physical like because you're not using RMS in A or B, correct? So presumably that can be sold. This building sold there's four elementaryaries that I've counted that could be sold. So, just so I understand and the public understands, so we sell those. We're not just going to sit on them, right? >> Correct. >> That would be really silly. So, you get rid of those properties and you gain some sort of monies. Do you typically use that to pay down the long-term debt of bonds? Like what what is the normal just out of curiosity sake? >> I would out of normal curiosity, I would say if we could, we'd use it to buy down our debt. Um, you know, if you're talking a singular building, I might say it would go into your capital and you might be able to use it to do, you know, other projects and buildings that need to be done. It might not be buying down the debt. You might say, "Hey, these needs weren't addressed. They're still on the table. Let's go get those." >> But you could do a mix. You could absolutely want to make sure. >> And that would be standard procedure. >> Got it. Okay. Cool. >> Hey, Director Long. So, I'm just wondering if we are talking to the cities about some of these changes. I want to bring up that when uh we were talking about closing uh Lake View that the city of Robbinsdale when I went to their city council meeting, one of their city council members had said something about um they wouldn't be reszoning things. Um, I've also heard recently from a community member in the beginning of February, well a couple community members about there being that similar issue in Crystal. And I know that we recently got an email about that, too. So, just wanting to make sure that we're covering our bases in talking to the cities about zoning if we're making all these changes, especially if we're going to be turning a high school into a middle school and things like that. And then I have one other question. >> Okay. Um, why don't you go ahead and ask it? >> Okay. So my other question is is then are you expecting us to since we just got this information to vote on one of these options tonight or are we going to follow the procedure and give us time to think about this information that was just given to us and in a subsequent meeting then vote on one of these options. >> Got the timeline. Oh, >> so as I shared in the beginning of this presentation with the purpose of this presentation and the outcomes of the presentation, we wouldn't be asking for a decision about the options. Like I said when I first shared this slide, this was options to consider a starting place. And like I shared with the board, the option of tonight is for you to provide us a scope that you're willing to start considering so we can dig into more detail or different options. So I've tried to lay it out for you as a board as clearly as possible in the beginning slide so you know exactly what it is we're asking for um when we do these presentations. And to that point, the slide that's up now is really does the board as a whole support one right a November ask because that really drives us back into now what scope should we be looking at. So now that you've been given three initial options um and I will include in there because I know I didn't point this out. So, we did put a we asked to have a calculation in there at the elementary schools for sure the middle schools for a set aside for outdoor learning space for flexible spaces um and um a third one that I can't remember off the top of my head, but we did we included that because we knew that that would be an important piece no matter what we did to each of the buildings. So, again, what scope should we be exploring as we dig deeper into this? um do we want to be focused on that district-wide identity and do we want consistent programming for everyone? And then really what additional information does the board need in order to make a decision is going to be the continual question that comes up. Um and the last piece is around that facilities agreement. But before we do that, those those >> Wait, but can we go back to my other question too around city councils and because you know I'd really like some transparency around that for the community. So it's a little bit of a catch when we're asked to provide information to the board and give an opportunity for you to have a board level conversation and at the same time be asked if we've been in front of the cities with the presentation. So >> that's not what I asked. I said, "Are we going to be talking to them about these changes >> once it's decided?" Absolutely. That's the plan. Absolutely. >> Yeah. We wouldn't do that until we were doing that. Now, I was asking, would we be doing that knowing >> once we know >> what Robbinsdale said and what I was told about Crystal? >> Yeah. what what we would once the board has decided, if the board decides on the scope and and that would then be part of obviously the way that we communicate with uh the the community as a whole about it, but certainly a part of that would be going to city councils and and updating them on on where we are and what the ask is. >> Director Basset, I see your >> Yep. Thanks. So, um I have a question, a couple of questions about um option C. So, um why would we keep the early learning new home learning center an option C and not have it in B? That's one question. And then >> not have them what? >> Not have it in B. Uh >> as in in B. Yeah, >> in B. in in both A and B, we don't have the we have we don't have the New Hope Learning Center because we are we would renovate uh Cooper High School. >> The aquatic because we're doing nothing. >> Yeah. And we need that we need that land. >> Okay. Because we need the land. Okay. So, so my second part to my question then and then I I'll make it brief so that uh Director Hillbrand can ask hers. Um so uh and oh so under that renovate them if we if Armstrong and Cooper were renovated as it says proposals in C. Um presumably we would be renovating any of them whether it's in B or C. We're going to be renovating them to the highest and you know to the best of our ability to make sure that it has all the things we think we might need. Now it may not be at the end of the day we would not be building it so that it would have capacity for both schools were one to close down the road because it would be inefficient to build a building that big if you don't have need for it at the moment. So that's not good. So So you'd just be doing the best you could with the facilities, >> update the facilities with updating both facilities and doing the best job you can, >> you know, but um some new stuff. >> Mhm. >> If they're going to have aquatic centers, that's going to be new. >> I mean, you know, that would be new. >> So I'm I'm done with that. >> Okay. So moving on. Um director Hillbrand then Long, then WTO. >> Okay. My question just has to do with the one high school and you know I've had some trepidation about that concept from the start in terms of just the size for for kids and how easy it is for kids to kind of fall under the radar and I know it talked a little bit aboutmies. So, I was thinking about um maybe the next time we get together to talk about this or if you could send some information. I don't know if other people are interested in that, but how that how that would function so that kids just don't so that kids can get what they need out of school and not and get the um the social emotional support as well so that kids don't get lost in the shuffle. I think that would help me a lot to feel better with a really big, you know, 3,000 person. I think that's what I need to see to feel comfortable. >> So, I just I want to make sure I have it because I actually had written a bunch of districts that have larger high schools that I wanted to see what information might be helpful. So, what I heard from you was um around the academy pathway model, but what else? What else would you what else would be helpful? how that works so that kids, you know, whether it's they form cohorts or you what's that model so that kids don't get lost in the shuffle so that they have the adults in their lives, the the social emotional support and that they um that they're seen, you know, um in the space and that they don't fall under the radar because I can see that happening really easily in a big system. Um and I I understand you know from what I've readmies really help with that but um just want a better understanding that would make me feel a lot better um before I voted on one high school >> and and bar too would be >> one large high school. Exactly. And so big. >> Okay. Uh Director Long. >> Okay. So during the presentation you had said for example like you know the Cooper High School site. What about the uh Armstrong site >> for which one? >> For either one of those options or for option A and B. >> Armstrong would become a middle school. >> Huh? >> Armstrong becomes a middle school. >> I get that. But what if we made the decision to say no, we would rather use the >> Armstrong. >> Armstrong. Are there reasons against using Armstrong or not? Cuz I didn't really hear that. I just heard you say, "Well, we'll just say the possibility of using Cooper High School, or is it not an option of using Armstrong?" You could you could use Armstrong if that's the location you wanted it to be, for sure. These are just options. Cooper High School came out of the vision 2030 when they were looking at at Cooper High School. We took that and went off of location first, so it's more centrally located in the district than Armstrong is. Um, it also has uh more needs and more space at Armstrong to house all the other stuff if you were going to redo Cooper. So, you end up getting a a bigger facility at Cooper and leaving a larger facility to put additional uh uh programming and staff in a building that's already existing. Um, the other thing that the Cooper site could or the Armstrong site could allow for us to do is look at space for um some garing for our district-wide vehicles. >> Um whereas we we wouldn't necessarily have that at the Cooper site. >> So, it's just it's stuff like that. So, to answer your question, you could choose the the board could say no, we'd rather have Armstrong. It's just trade-offs. But >> could we get some more information about what that would look like if it was Armstrong versus Uber for A or B. >> What more information would you want? >> Cuz we would flip it >> like some of the information that you were giving right now. Um the overall land, you know, um sports. Uh we we didn't do much to talk about equity in sports like you know fields for our female athletes along with our males that are similar. >> We can do a comparison between the two high school sites. >> Yeah. acreage was is close but we can definitely do that. No, >> maybe could they sit at that table right there with a mic? Sorry. I mean it seems like they have information. They passed some information too. So like it would just be nice if they just gave their information. >> The only thing I passion is >> I didn't hear. >> So can we get something concrete like written down so that I don't have to remember the facts that were stated to me as to why one might be better over the other or I I really appreciate the having some options to I really appreciate that. >> Hey, um Director W. >> Yeah, I just have a kind of a processing question for the board as we go through the rest of the night. Looking at all these three options, either way, there has to be a bond. Correct. >> Correct. >> Correct. So it just depends on how much are we really asking the taxpayers >> to approve. >> Yep. Yep. >> And also November. >> And also when >> that's going to back up. >> Can you say that part again? It has to It was kind of low. I couldn't hear. >> Oh, I said and is the goal November. >> So okay as opposed to >> So it would be voted on for this November. >> Should it be? >> Should it be? >> Should it be? >> Okay. So, I think it's important to I put the slide up there for the short-term timeline. It's in your it's in your packet or it's in your on your screen there as well. So, why are we bringing this tonight back to if the board decides that the board is interested in doing a bond in November? Then the very bottom, the election, that's November. That means that we need to um as you work through this timeline, we need to by the end of June, you will have had to made a decision about the dollar amount, which means to get there, you will have had to made a decision about which facilities you want and what you want to do to the facilities. That's why tonight is we we I know that it feels kind of rushed in that piece of it, but really February right now through March and April is what do we want to do? Because in order for you to get numbers on what it will cost to do whatever, we have to take this very simplified version and turning turn it into an actual costing sheet so that you can say, "All right, we're going out in November and it's going to be for this much amount with the assumption of this much LTFM and here's all the different stuff we're going to do to all of our different buildings." In order to get that, people that work with Nexus and the architects have to actually put numbers to stuff, and that takes time to do when you're talking about 11 buildings. So, this is that short-term timeline. Tonight is the reviewing of data, trying to confirm direction and the construction management. um as we move through February and March, nail down these initial options. So the questions that you've started tonight, really get your arms around, does one high school feel good? Does two high schools feel good? Like what where are you thinking with that? Um and the rest that goes along with it. And then you'll see that in April there we've got concepts costing and public discussion because once we get the concepts done now we can start going public to the question around how do we go out to people again. Well once we know the board's planning to go out in November for a bond for this much money. Here's what we're planning on doing at the high schools. Here's what we're planning on doing at the middle schools. Now the public can start being engaged in here's what the ideas are with what we got going on. That allows us then as we move uh in through May to do the second Peter Leatherman survey because now we will be able to do a survey to the public with the information. Now we can actually say we're going to go out and we're going to do this. Do you support it and do you not support it? And then to what degree do you support it? because it's fair to say you as a board might start with this much and the community might say m that's a little that's more than what we're going to tolerate. So we'll have to come back to the table and say what what don't we want to do then but we have to have all that done by the end of June because July 6 we have to submit review and comment. Can I just say one thing bringing up to the point of whether it's the Armstrong site or the Cooper site that doesn't mean it needs to maintain the identity of either Cooper or Armstrong. As a matter of fact, coming out of the vision committee, it was that regardless of what happens, you know, encourage uh the board and the community to determine what that is that isn't as it exists. >> Thank you. Um you're done. So, uh, director Hillbrand, then director Bowman, then director Basset. >> I think I might have already answered the question for myself, but I was, you know, why do we have to go out this November? But I guess the answer is really because in case it doesn't pass, like is this time still? >> It's also construction, >> right? Because Well, I mean, what I mean, we're going to already start working on stuff this summer. >> Uh, not with regard to bonding stuff. No. >> Right. So that's what I that's why I was wondering why would we well or we bond in November. But I mean >> cuz then conceivably if you if the vote passes if a vote passes in November, you're looking at 18 months for a high school, right? It would be the sum or the fall of 20. Is that too early? Is that to build new or >> No, I Well, I'm gonna let the experts take over this one. >> It just seems a little early. That's the reason I was asking. >> If you were to go invest >> calendar what? >> 31 >> 2031. We got to figure out which bill. >> I think the other and arguably issuing debt might be more of a phased approach too because of our bond rating right now that it might be more advantageous for us to go out with the timeline of when construction is hitting and issuing smaller increments of debt than one big large one at a big large interest rate. >> Two two other things I think to consider about November. Um it would with seven municipalities it's going to cost an awful lot for us to run our own election. >> So to tag on to November election with the cities um is more efficient and and economical. Um and I think the the second thing is remember in addition to this we still have continued reductions that we've got to make along the way. And so the the timeliness of kind of figuring out where we're going to land with our facilities helps us make those other reductions that we're going to need to make over the next four to five years. So I'd say those are two other reasons why. >> That all makes sense. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Bowman. >> Brilliant minds think alike. I was uh uh thinking the same thing and I my ask on this is um is sort of like the more reinforcement as you go along. I don't need it tonight as to the the pro and con of 27, you know, holding the election in tw in this year or 27 or 28. I understand the cost to the district would be huge if we went out in uh 27 instead of now. What other what other pitfalls would we have by pushing this down the road? You know, uh that's what I'm really looking for, the pro and the con of doing it now versus um and we've touched upon them tonight. We certainly have touched on many of them, but it would really be nice to see an accounting of that that we could forward face out to the public because that's going to be a big question. Why now? Why not a year from now? Why not two years from now? And I think the more information we have about the why now, uh, uh, the better off we're going to be in really talking to our public because that's what's sort of missing for me tonight in some of this. Um, but I know you guys will provide it because we've asked for it. So, thank you. That was my >> Basset. >> Glad she said that, you know, u because, uh, you know, I I agree totally. And and in addition to that, I think that some time to get that to attack the bond rating to continue on a good trajectory. Not that anybody's going to do anything with that immediately or, you know, uh I who knows when that might change, but but at the same time, I do think that it'll be clear clearer waters if we know that. Um and so uh one of the things I was thinking is is that a pro, you know, this four section elementary school building on the RMS site a new build because I continue to think about where the growth in terms of population is in our district potentially can be or is and that's in the cities that have the that's what we heard from Hazel that's been consistent the last time we had one and this time we had one another one that's where the growth is so having a brand new build over there which also was looking at the youngest learners um that's where you really get families you get them then you know and if you do a good job they stay with you you know so I um that has appeal as as in addition to getting more information about now versus later and the why I think that's really really important for us to to think about that I don't know was I wrong I thought that that districts could go It would cost more money, but you can go out in April, too. >> You can, >> you know, but it costs more money. I >> We've got We've got a neighbor going out this spring. >> Yeah. And I Well, and I agree with you, but it costs more money. So, it would be either now or two years from now, probably unless we're willing to pay the money. It's like 60,000. I mean, who who knows what it is now. But, I mean, there is a and let us know how much it costs if we go out by ourselves, you know, in April. >> Well, there's not just that. There's inflation and increased cost of construction. So, the longer you wait, the the more those dollars change on the bottom, too. All of the above. I I could not agree. I mean, I I totally get that. But I do think that having some idea about >> that's another reason for why now versus later is that it's going to cost you more and here's what the rejection is about what it's going to cost you. So, >> did you have a point? I was just >> Oh, >> but to Terry's point. >> Yes. >> Regular election. >> That's right. >> That's true. And you know, everybody's not on the same Well, we'll be on the off year, so I figured I was forget. >> Wait. Uh, director Brenson >> question and a comment in option C. The reason you're building on the RMS site, I'm assuming, is because um because you're using Fair Crystal as Spanish immersion. Is that the concept there? Okay. All right. That's that's what I'm guessing. The second piece from a comment perspective, um I'm probably the only board member here who is in these high schools >> every day. Um is my guess. Um, and the the one thing I would say is is having I mean when the vision team came out and put their I mean you can imagine every single kid, every single teacher, everyone has I've probably talked to hundreds of kids and and it's interesting because I don't think I've heard a single kid or a teacher say no that's a terrible idea. Right? I I I'm being dead honest. I've never heard that. I have heard a lot of that's cool and I've heard a lot of h it could be need it could not be need I don't know but the the I mean I'm serious I mean that was the reaction but but the biggest thing that I think if we're going to go you know wherever we land the the big thing that always came out of every conversation is their biggest gripe is with two high schools we have two very unequal high schools right now with very unequal opportunities at each of those high schools and that has always seemed to be the driver for why the kids and the teachers like the idea of a single high school because it removed that unequalness that existed between the two. However you take that might be. >> Um, director Long. Yeah, I guess just with all of the options, I'm just concerned about some of the students that will have to move again after move this coming year. Um I don't know, you know, what can we do for those students? I mean, that's like huge to change your community that's going to have an impact on them. Um I'm Yeah, that's just I'm just really concerned about all the students who will have to move again. lot of lot of changing. >> Well, I think that we've kind of minimized the changes for our elementary kids because like the Sonos kids are moving in a big chunk with their principal and uh the other ones are going from Sonic are going to more of a neighborhood school for them. I mean, I think that >> moving is hard. Moving is hard, but we tried to minimize that. Um, just to put things in perspective, I was figuring things out. If you're thinking about 2030, it sounds far away, but our current if the graduating class of 2030 is our current eighth graders, and then the 11th graders are the seventh graders. So, our current fifth graders would be in the cl the freshman class in 2030. And so, we know who the kids are and we know how many of them there are. And it's like yikes. It's sooner than it sounds. 2030 sounds so far away, but that's why we have to make move it along. >> Can we eventually go back to some of the other? >> Uh, sure. You want me to call on you? >> Well, I don't know. Well, I just was going to say, um, so, um, if if if this chart is going to be refreshed at at all based on this conversation tonight, you're going to tell them anyway. So if this chart is going to be refreshed at all um and that's you know just because based on this conversation uh I do think that um having a little bit more from you about the LTFM and the bonding and the impact that you we've talked about tonight. Whether that's a little citation or a little note or whatever it is, it it helps to keep it fresh in the mind as you're thinking about which one of these might be the better option and what kind of debt might be the best kind of debt. You know, that's the way I think about it in my house, you know. Um, and I think those the long-term impact, the continuing cost of two buildings, two high schools. Um, I do think that, you know, thinking about that and factoring that is an issue. Um, but if we don't hit that spot until 2033, all I'll say >> we don't want to hit one spot. I mean the population because I'm you know I mean I certainly am happy we have the demographic information but um time tells a lot and I think that uh if we select a good plan that really takes into consideration where this district wants to go and get buy in in it. I think that we'll see some folks who decide to stay and who will decide to come back if we get it right, whatever that right is, you know. Um, so that's, you know, just a little bit more definition about that would be helpful because I I I this these meetings are very helpful and important. And so I'm want to just make this one comment. When I talk about things, it's not as though I'm saying we haven't had conversations. We haven't had the same kind of conversations because we haven't been here. We haven't been to this spot before. We're here now. We talked about some things that are coming that are going to be happening and we talked about a few things but not in this context and we haven't had options. So, this helps make it more defined for me. You know, um you know, we're all in it together. It's not, you know, we can't go off and do stuff on our own. I'm done. It's director w then Brenson. >> Yeah. Um I just can we go back to slide 34 please because hearing every board member >> which is 30 >> uh the board governance and direction. >> Yeah. I mean listening to the table so far it sounds to me like at least we are all thinking of which direction we may consider going. We are not making any decisions tonight that will be concrete, but I'm wondering if it will be useful to start giving the administration some of these bulleted points a year or near or come back with more information so that we can move along the meeting and uh get to the next stage because based on everybody's comments so far, it sounds like November is a consideration. I'm not sure, but it's possible. But if the board is in agreement, I think we should fall back to this slide and just move that along and see how we go. >> Okay. Um, Director Brenesen and >> actually exactly what I was going to say. I was going to come right back to the slide and and and just answer these questions from my perspective. Perfect. >> Right. And I I think that's probably something useful for >> each of us to just say, right? So working from the, you know, the bottom up, should there be consistent programming? Yes. Right. Should we have a district-wide entity? Yes. I think the beauty of, you know, this one high school, two middle school, whatever this is, it was said before, this can't be done without a vote. Correct. So at the end of the day, voting no on this is really saying I don't want the voters to have a decision in this process, right? Like in the end I I think the best thing to do is to get it to the voters and say hey voters right you know I am sure right my sample size of students and teachers who are like yeah whatever I'm sure there are people in the community who think it's a terrible idea and we will hear from them and they will get to vote and that is the beauty of democracy. So, I'm for the idea of let's see what the voters say and let's have democracy work. >> And then option A. Sorry. >> Go ahead. No problem. >> You're fine. >> I'm just saying I don't have a I don't have a problem with having a conversation about one one high school if that's we should go to the voters and we should see what they have to say. >> Dr. Um I just I wanted to say too that the district-wide identity and um just to use as an example cuz someone mentioned White Bear Lake earlier and their how they rebuilt their high school, but the way they have one identity. They're all bears and the the school age care they're or the little ones are cubs and every like everything connects and every they're all they have they share the same colors, right? It's so confusing, you know, like my kids middle school they were Panthers and now they're what are they falcons? Yeah, they're Falcons now. And I don't remember even what Oh, they were iguanas in elementary school. And you know, like it's there's no connection to any of it, right? And so it's cool the way they have one brand identity in I don't know if that's the direction we want to go, but I think it's really neat how when you're in White Bear, everybody's a bear. Everybody. And it'd be pretty cool if we could uh establish an identity where everybody was connected to it in the whole not I don't want to be a bear by the way. They they already got that. That's it. >> They got the bears that. Okay, good to know. >> Um is that you? >> Well, yeah. And I just want to you know I agree with what you're saying. I have grandkids in the Centennial School District and they're Cardinals. doesn't matter elementary, middle, and high school, one in each grade, and they're all Cardinals. So, um it it provides a real unifying uh effect to it all. >> Director Long, >> go back to some of our other questions. >> Ask away. >> Okay. So, I want to look at on here, it's slide 43. >> I only go up to 36. Mine says page 43, I think it is. I don't know what it is, but it talks about uh the gyms, >> the existing agreements. >> The existing agreements. >> We haven't gotten there yet, have we? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Oh, we passed that quite a while ago. >> Got it. Yeah. >> Oh, thank you. 30. So, I'm just wondering, can we get more concrete information about the buyout for that gym because there was a dollar amount,000? >> Yeah, I'm just I'm wanting it on paper, please. >> So, I can refer back to it. >> Absolutely. >> Um, and then can you explain just a little bit more? So, then what that buyout means is that then the city of Robbinsdale will not have access to that building. I don't know who I should be directing it to. >> Yeah. So, we we've communicated uh with them that um once we close the building in order in order to maximize and realize the cost savings that we would not be allowing access to to that space. That space would be closed down completely. Otherwise, we would not realize the cost savings. >> Okay. And then what's the timeline around that too and notification to people who might be using that facilities? So they so what has been communicated to them is that they will be able to use it until the end of the summer because that's when we have we're utilizing that space in its entirety for summer programming. They're running their summer programming. After the summer programming is up, um the building will be closed down so that the end of August. >> Okay. And then can I have that be concrete in writing too? >> Once we meet with, as I stated earlier, we are going to be meeting with the both cities, you know, for additional detail cuz they um because they got to be able to move their equipment out of the facility as well once we have that meeting. I'll make sure to to get you everything in writing and the rest of the everything in writing too from that. >> Okay. And so that'll be then to all the stuff that's in uh Samberg Middle School too. Yeah, two separate two separate meetings, but we're having uh but they've all been notified already, but just followup meetings. So, iron out the details. >> Okay. And so then that'll be like the gymnasium pro the gym sorry gymnastics program. Can't read my own writing alumni space. >> Correct. >> Okay. And part of that alumni space was also at Pilgrim Lane. Was I understanding that right? >> So the alumni uh group is the Robinsdale High School Alumni Association. It was the seven dreams was at >> Oh, seven dreams is at Brooklyn. >> Sorry. >> Sorry, handwriting. >> Go ahead. >> So, with the uh the alumni space, they have um they have two really storage spaces at Samberg Middle School that they've had for a number of years that um to hold the Robin High School memorabilia as well as some other district memorabilia there. Um and then they have plaques from Robinsdale High School that are posted up at the at the middle school. So, um, they have been communicated with as well. And then we'll we'll work we'll actually work on finding another location for the alumni space >> within the district along with Seven Dreams. >> I don't have a heart attack. >> It may not be at the same location as Seven Dreams, but we're looking at honoring that. >> Sorry, two separate questions. Along with also finding space for Seven Dreams. >> Yeah. Right now, Seven Dreams currently offices within the community ed office at Pilgrim Lane. So, we anticipate them moving to to the um Crystal Learning Center as well. um they're not there daily. They just use them primarily for storage and then the drop off like instruments and things of that nature. >> Okay. And then my last question about that slide was what else are we trying to work through with stages because there was a comment about we're working through that. >> I've got a meet we've got a meeting on Thursday with them. >> Okay. So that's information to come. >> Yeah. Yeah. just we we need to hear from them about you know they've obviously listened and I've been in communication with them but we need to hear from them you know what what can you do what makes sense what do we need as we look at the the two middle school programming at the two middle schools we'll know more >> okay that's >> and that will likely just just so we're all aware that'll likely be a more expensive contract than we have currently M >> that's more kids >> and it's serving a lot more kids, right? >> It's going back to that slide of of uh equitable opportunities. >> So will they still have access into fair because that's the plan right now. Yeah. And that's one of the things that we have talked about also is where um where will performances what does it look like to share with the high schools. you know, there'll be challenges with scheduling and that, but not challenges that we don't believe can be overcome, but um yeah, we want to for sure be able to utilize that theater. >> Director Basset. >> So, um I I'm wondering um in option B, what what happens to Fair Crystal? >> I don't see it list. Oh, it's an elementary. >> It will become I'm sorry. >> An elementary school. >> An elementary school. >> Elementary. >> It'll be one of the six. It will become one of the six elementaryaries. Okay. Which is it current use? It'll just be one of Yeah. Okay. And in this model for the current ones we're talking these would be neighborhood schools. We're thinking they're all neighborhood schools. >> Back to that Hazel Reinhard. >> Didn't I ask it already? >> I don't know. Did you? >> Oh, I think I did. >> No, we're going to come back again and have a conversation, right? >> We're not done yet. >> Okay, we're not done. >> Yeah, we're not done. >> So, the question about does the board as a whole support in November ask is that what you want to know tonight, March 2nd? you want just like a feel >> good to know kind of what where the board is at >> with the November. >> Um so right now we're just going to be in a >> The more direction you can give us the more we can dig into and get information back to you. >> Okay. So Director Brendesen told you where he is at. >> Democracy is good. >> And I will tell you where I am at. I am uh supporting a November ask let the people decide. I'm also supporting um a unified school district, one high school and so an option with one high school but have to say any more about that. Okay. Does anybody else want to speak about how they are feeling at this time? >> About director pass. Um I uh I'm more considering um B and C because B still is one high school. It's just renovated and not >> whole new bill. >> So it's between >> renovated and added on. >> Well, exactly. You know, I mean that's what I mean. So it's still one. >> Yep. >> Uh so it's but for me it's the whole decision between B and C. And uh I am for I mean we're going to have to ask for money. So, I mean, if we ask for it in November or if we push it back and wait, I'm I'm interested in that list. You're going to come back. You you were asked to tell us more about benefits of going sooner than later >> or something like that. Yeah. So, I'm I'm it look interested >> pros and cons. >> That's right. I'm I'm interested in really seeing what what it is that you your thoughts around that and um you know but out for a referendum looks like we we need to do that even to >> to address our buildings. >> So you're thinking yes to November but not sure one high school or two. >> I I you know I can live with that. >> I can tell you right now I'm not for going out for $532 million. I mean that's just okay. That's, you know, I can just tell you that right now. >> Uh, Director W. >> Yeah, I I think I'm also for November for sure. Uh, one high school sounds really good. Um, and also just creating a district with just one identity. >> What the last part? >> One identity high school. >> Oh, wow. >> No. >> Well, >> you can have your opinion. He can have his opinion. Y so apologize. Sorry. >> We're welcoming all opinions at this time. >> All in fun. All in fun. >> Not having that much. >> Just to clarify to the public, we are not voting on one high school today. >> No, no, we are >> and for director Long. Clarify that for me too. Right. >> We are just in the preliminary stages of >> because I'm having anxiety about this right now. Okay. >> But I'm so just to add one one little more little piece to mine already. >> I'm leaning I I didn't say I was quite done, but I'm leaning towards C. >> Just just for full transparency. I'm leaning towards C because we're still renovating. We were renovating both. And I have, you know, I'm waiting to hear back from what um director Hohheisel and uh assistant superintendent come back and tell us whatever they little notes they're going to make and help us keep all the important stuff in front of us. >> Director Hillbrand's turn. >> Thank you. I could do that, but you did it. Director Hillbrand. >> Um I uh yes, I support an ask in November. Um, I am mostly on board with um with one high school. I I just need to to settle it within myself that it's going to be good for the kids. Um, I think it's good for the the district. I think it's good for equity. Um, and then, uh, district-wide identity, absolutely. Consistent programming and opportunities, absolutely. Is that all we're answering right now? >> Yes. Okay. check. >> Thank you. Uh, Director Bowman, do you want to speak up? >> Uh, sure. Um, uh, I also support a November ask, but of course it's with a great deal of anxiety that I support that. It's not an easy thing at this point to support, but what makes it so much easier for me is I've seen the volumes of information you guys have already produced for us as a board on these issues. So I suspect that the huge lift of bringing something in November is just another walk in the park for this administration. >> It's not going to be a walk in the park. >> You know, I know >> it's not going to be a walk in the park. It's going to be a lot of heavy lifting. >> You guys make it look so Excuse me. You guys make it look so so easy. >> Well, we won't tell you that. But um anyway, no, I you know, I I think we can do it. I think we can pull it off. Uh but I would be lying if I didn't talk about some anxiety and apprehensions about it. >> I also support um a unified school district 100% uh easier to sell to the public all the time. Um and of course the what were the other ones? Creating uh consistent programming. That's >> definitely >> then one high school or a two. >> Yeah, I I I am a one high school person. Uh I I just think that that goes with a unified school district and I think that uh as I look long range because the um uh birth stats are not going to change according to everything we've learned and if we deny that the birth stats uh zero population growth worked from my generation. So, if we're going to deny that we're at zero's population growth, that's a false way of making decisions. So, I would um support that also. So, >> it's my turn first. Director B. >> It's Director Long's turn. >> I get to answer this question, then you can do a followup. Um I am undecided about all of it and I really don't like sameness. I've said this before. So, I like the different identities that Cooper has and Armstrong has and C has and I liked what Crystal Fair had going on over there. Really like to see that come back. So, yeah, I'm undecided. I'm going to have to put my hamster on his wheel and we're going to do some running. So, I'm hope I'm hopeful that after I get more data next time that maybe I could have some information and my hamster is done running that then I can make a decision. Okay. Now, Director Bass, >> Director Vasset, >> thank you. So, um I'm wondering why can't we have uh that for section elementary? And we also see what that would do to option B >> to build a new >> It is an option B >> to build you. You mean to >> build new one? >> Yes. >> Oh, >> on the Robinsdale section. >> The Robin section. >> Yeah. Well, wherever you know, >> is that what you're asking? >> Yeah. But yeah, a new bill. New bill for this one of these four section blah blah, you know. >> Mhm. New bill. I think we need to, you know, >> so an option bump it up. Yeah. B1, option B2. >> I'd like I'd like to see that, too. >> Yeah. Because the the other thing is that um you're also then going to tell us what this might do to the numbers. >> Yeah. So, that would be helpful to me to know. >> Was fun. >> I won't go that far. >> So, so can I I just want to be sure that we are delivering back to you. And Bob, I know you've been writing as much as I have, but here's a couple. I just want to be sure that we are getting back the information that you've requested. So, more information about um the debt, the continued operating of two high schools, some of that financial piece. um having the existing agreement slide updated in terms of once we find out you know putting putting the amount up there the information to the city of New Hope um some of that detail um the option that we just talked about option B1 and B2 um in the next presentation I've got information about what what can we find out and share in terms of how do these districts with one large high school. Um what do they do in terms of making it feel less big? Um and the seal and academics and some of that. Um question about what about Armstrong instead of Cooper and some of those pros and cons of that. And then similarly with the timing of the election, um, pros and cons, >> and including if it was put off the additional cost each year to make it more expensive, >> right? >> Whenever you go out, if it's not that year, >> the following year, it would be more expensive in the following year that not going out with other jurisdictions. >> Um, I think it was two things, both the cost of the election and the cost of inflation and some of those things. >> Sure. That was two things. >> Dr. McDonald, what else did did you have other things that I missed? >> Come back with some different sub options, right? Adding uh potential new build cost to the option B. Um I want to um I think I heard a couple people say it would be helpful to see uh just the numbers on that for sure. the 2030 class, what that looks like, the progression in 2030 and and beyond >> just so that we further that demographic >> enrollment projection. I heard that a couple times. >> Um, let's see. That those are the only other two things in addition. Sorry to ask another question if I may, but what would be the financial benefit of building a new school when we have a new elementary school at the Robinsville Middle School site when we have all these other unused schools? I'm trying to understand except if like I was just trying to think Lake View is small and it's on a small site, >> you can close. >> Okay, you could close two. Okay, >> depending on the size. So I guess when you bring back those numbers would you then bring back >> of the savings that would help to that would help me >> and potential right if you look at that site it could >> it could be >> no it's a great >> there's lots of us >> it's a great site I'm not against it I was just like wait we have all these buildings and then we're talking about building another one >> the location being in Robinsdale >> right and they also have you mentioned our long-term facilities maintenance We still there's still a lot of buildings that have a lot of need, >> right? Yeah. And part of now that we're in this phase, right, it's it truly becomes a balance of which which buildings make the most sense to get off of the footprint because of their long-term facility maintenance need. Even if we can project out longer term what it's going to be, even though in the next 5 to 10 years it might not be a lot, we we we just need to go into detail on that long-term facility maintenance and what makes the most sense. Um along like the size, size, geography, >> uh what's going to be the easiest to add, which sites are the easiest to add on to um based on how they're configured and what you need to add to. uh back to the outdoor learning spaces, which sites have the you start you start adding all of the things we want in place and which sites truly check off >> the most boxes. Um is how we >> that's why we need the scope. Now we can dig into the next >> layer of this um and bring it back to you. >> Dr. Beson, >> the other thing that I think would be helpful and it was kind of mentioned before, you're we're not going to do all this construction at once, right? So just a a general understanding of how the order of operations might happen, right? It's like you're you're not going to the kids aren't, you know, they're not going to be in class at Cooper if you're doing a White Bear Lake style renovation to that building there. There basically wasn't walls at White Bear Lake for, right? They're not going to class there. I don't know where the kids going to school then, right? Like just there there's got to be some level and I know it's way early but just to kind of start like because people are going to start asking immediately. What if right just a eye level concept? >> I'm lost. >> Can you say the >> I'm just saying if you're renovating if you're doing option B let's say >> right and you're renovating Cooper High School that's a two-year project probably 18month >> at least >> at least a two-year project. The kids probably aren't going to school that. >> Uhhuh. >> Yep. >> Yep. Right. >> Right. >> Right. >> Right. So again, >> yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> People need to know. >> Yeah. And that's that's really just a high level >> how how do you pull this all off? Bowman, >> just a historical perspective from a high level perspective. My 1971 Armstrong class yearbook has construction workers in all of the pictures because the school was not completed yet. And in the a in the uh choir room, it was students sitting on the risers with construction workers. In the band room, it was the same thing in the auditorium. So, our 71 classroom or class yearbook was filled with photos of construction workers and not a lot of activities for students. So, um it it has been done in this district. Just let me point it out. >> I was there for the Sandberg renovation. There's a picture of me with a saw walking down a hallway at one point in time. Don't ask about that. >> I know. I mean, it's just one of those things that occurs. >> Okay. Do we have enough information to last us till our next meeting >> for two weeks? >> March 2nd. >> So then we could move on to our nexus, >> which is number four on there. >> To the nexus. >> Yes. >> We can move on to our nexus next. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Who's taking that? Are you taking that? >> I don't know that it's in the slide deck. Is it? It's uh it's the vision 2030 master planning support project. >> Yep. >> Backup. >> So I don't think it's not a presentation. It's in the packet. >> It's in the back. >> It's in the packet. And who's talking about it? >> I I can speak to it. >> Okay. >> And we've got Nexus here. >> And we do have And we do have Nexus here too. >> Actual experts here. >> So what is provided in the packet is uh the vision 2030 master planning support agreement. And I would just want to, and we've already mentioned this, we've had a a few hours now of conversation about Nexus's involvement with the district thus far. Um, they were brought on board to help with the visioning committee and do uh work with our long-term facility maintenance of which there was a full uh scale facility assessment that was done at that time. And then in a on August 18th work session um we had discussed a contract with Nexus as it related to LTFM in uh 2026 and 2027. And at that time um we had talked about you know uh why we didn't go out for bid, how they're a one-stop shop, um all the various components of the Nexus service offering compared to the competitors. Um, and so at this time I'm just going to kind of move forward and open it up for questions. Uh, they are very familiar now with our sites. We are on a limited um a limited timeline for work. I would say our partnership thus far has been um even though it has been uh mutually beneficial for everyone and I would ask the board um and we discussed it partially before if you would be um interested in entertaining entering this vision 2030 master planning support agreement uh tonight so we can continue with the work that we're talking about with option B and option C or the cascade of decisions that are happening. To me, it wouldn't make any sense to go with anybody else. >> Exactly. >> So, I would be I I would be in support of it. I mean, they're the ones that have been working with us all the way along on this and have all the information and to get anybody else would be more expensive to redo the work. I'm in favor of this. >> You director, >> for what you've stated, the reasons you've stated, I also agree with that. But I am not willing to make changes at this point. >> Doesn't seem prudent. >> Anyone else want to speak? >> Yeah, I do. >> Dr. W. >> So, just for clarification, a lot of the pricing models that we already know of is not going to change based off this contract. It's just us entrusting you guys to be able to do this work for us. >> Ellie, will you make sure you're talking to the microphone? Thanks. is not. It's basically to the point of a referendum, like helping you getting the things that you need. getting the things that you need, helping putting the numbers together, getting the background of what your buildings are going to need to get to a referendum, the numbers to get to the referendum, and then all the referendum services to get you there. So, we have a full marketing team. We will help you with all the communication, get out to the public, do anything as much or as little as you need to get you there. And then what it basically says is whatever when the referendum should pass, we don't win till you win. So like if and when um the referendum passes, we do the professional services which is the same fees that we agreed upon with the LTFM work that we're currently doing. So yes to answer make your make it really long but yes. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Dr. Long, >> I you know last time we voted on this contract my vote was no because I felt like there's a conflict of interest and so >> Well, the conflict of interest is yours. No, >> no. I think Director Long is talking about the the fact that in my previous district I also worked with Nexus and I would hope that um I certainly would not be recommending a company that didn't meet and exceed every expectation that that school district had um with a very significant um referendum and work. So I certainly in in this profession I certainly do not see this as a conflict of interest. I see it as I would hope that because I have the experience that I have with the company um I have zero reservations and I'm excited about the opportunity to continue to work with them. >> Dr. Brenesen, >> I I'd asked this in the emails, but I'm sure someone's going to ask, so I'm just going to ask it in public so everyone hears it. Um the money doesn't come out of the general fund to pay these fantastic people or anything like that. It comes through LTFM and all those other cool things. >> That is correct. Fantastic. >> Thank you. >> Um, >> do we need a vote tonight then? >> Uh, yeah, we do. And it would have to be a roll call vote. But first, we would need a motion. >> Matt, I would like to move that we move forward with this contract and um, whatever language I need to use, I'll wave any reading. >> Perfect. >> Second. >> Director Hillbrand move. Director Wuto seconded um approval of the partnership development agreement vision 2030 master planning support plan with Nexus. That is what has been moved. Is there any more discussion on this? Not seeing any hands. Let's move right away to a roll call vote. >> Great. With pleasure. Uh Chair Evans Becker. >> Yes. >> Director Hill and Brand. >> Yes. >> Director Long, >> no. Director Bowman votes yes. Director Basset, >> yes. >> Director Brennes, >> yes. >> Uh, Director Wuto, >> yes. >> We uh 76. >> Actually, 61, I think. >> Wait a minute. One. >> Yes. 61. >> You said >> 61. Sorry about that. >> It's the new math. 6 to1. So, it it carries. >> It carries. >> Darn it. >> Question. >> You have a question. A follow-up question >> related to uh the planning. I think I was thinking about um Oh, well >> later. >> Came in late. Came in. >> Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And let me just see what's coming up. Oh, coming up next. >> The revised. Yeah, we did that one. Board number six, board governance. Correct. Everybody else think that's where we are? >> Yep. >> All right. That's me. I was in contact with Gail Gilman from MSBA and she wrote back and she has contacted Molly. And so we will have a board self evaluation. It is at no cost to us as part of our MSBA membership. And what it is is tomorrow Molly will send a link to all of the board members and the superintendent to do a self evaluation of how we think we are doing as a board. And I think it takes like she said 20 minutes maybe 20 to 30 minutes to do. And then um once it's all submitted she compiles it and works the magic on the numbers and then sends back the information to us so that we know how we rated on this type of question or this type of question and that one. Um, they also have a service that costs money that they come in and they explain the results. Last time when I was on the board, David Boon was still the chair and we did it and I felt when the person came to explain the results, she just said what was on the paper. And so I think that we will be just fine getting the paper back from them with the results. And then if there's big questions, we could always ask for some more. But it was it was enough for me and I think it will probably be enough for us to get started. Uh we get the link and if we could if you could do you think you could do it by like the week by the weekend or by Sunday night and then get it all submitted. everybody get it submitted and then it will take maybe four weeks maybe less depending on how soon everybody gets it in for us to get our results back and then we will have a study session and talk about our results Dr. Bess. >> So, um, you know, as far as having Gail come, she does a great job and I've worked with her or MSBA in doing this and getting the results back several times. And so, and I would say there is value in having Gail come and facilitate the discussion about it. I think is very important. I think if we're making forward motion, I'd like to think we are. I mean, I'm not being facicious. I'd like to think we are. Uh I think to ensure that I'd rather have somebody who is steeped in schoolboard business. The last time we had a conversation about some things we should do and improve ourselves. It was delivered by the law firm. They have a different lawyers, as long as I've known them on all these years, have a different orientation than schoolboard people do. Okay. So that's not a casting dispersion. I'm saying if we have the experts and we and the other thing is we can do is we can do comparisons because we've done that same SB they've changed it. We've done the MSBA survey in 2018 um when David was around uh but we've done it before. So there's historical data that that they can look at if we ask them to and take I will say this the arduous path in my opinion that we have taken to be able to work through what we just did a few minutes ago as a board. If we're spending money having somebody come in and referee us who's from the law firm to not do that with an expert from the schoolboard association to help walk us through it so we keep that autonomy. It's professional. They can give us some comparisons. It's worth the money. That's my opinion. And it's not very much if we're already doing the assessment for free. I think you know. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Well, I mean, if the board wants to have it analyzed and presented, that's fine. >> What they think? We've heard what you think. >> I know, >> director. >> Well, we did do one when I first came on the board. We did a review. We filled out some form and then who was the lady who always flew in. I don't know why I can't remember. That's completely different >> because she was going to go through our review with us and then we got sidetracked. >> Yeah. That's completely different from the MSBA one. >> Yes. So, uh, feelings on having it facilitated. >> No. No. >> Neutral. >> Neutral. Neutral. Neutral. >> So, what happens if we start having a discussion and then feel like maybe >> then we give her a call. >> Well, but I think I didn't hear anybody else say. I I didn't hear him. He said something. I didn't hear them. We have >> I would rather see us wait and see before we >> Okay. >> I also want to see the questions also too. Did I I didn't hear what the other >> He said they were neutral. Neutral. Neutral on it. >> So there's one who says bring them in. There's one who says not bring them >> neutral. You're neutral either way. >> Wait. I'm not interested in bringing someone in at this point. I'm interested >> in seeing in participating in the evaluation first, seeing what we have. And if we get stuck in conversation, then I'd be willing to entertain bringing someone else in. >> I understand. And I didn't hear. >> Okay. And then that's what she said. Do you know how much the fee is? >> Not much. >> I thought it was like $1,000. >> Well, I mean, she can find it was like >> Well, I think we should just find out specifically how much it cost. >> I can find out tomorrow and let you know. >> And I think that's I'll just say this. We have paid for an attorney to be here at this meeting for the last two years. And I think to now that we're going to do a self-evaluation, I'd rather have a person who's expert at doing this doing it here to help facilitate and go through it. That's just common fundamental, you know. I mean, as far as I can see, I don't see a downside. >> You know, and I didn't hear from the director of WA. >> He said he was neutral. >> Okay. And did did you is that what you said too, Aiva? I couldn't hear you. I I'm thinking about it cuz I I I'm kind of neutral on it, but I also know where we've been and that maybe to stop us from sliding back, it might be worth the investment. >> Oh, that's right. I know. What's wrong with you? >> Director Long >> opinions. I I have to think about it. Sorry. That's okay. Director Brenesen, I >> I don't have a strong opinion, but if other board members do, I have no problem if >> Director Basset or whoever, I'm cool. Let's do it. I will let you know tomorrow what the cost is. As soon as I Well, actually, I will ask her and when she gets back to me, I will let you know. >> We have time. >> We have time. We have time because you still have to answer the questions. They still have to be computed. So, we have time. We don't have to settle that part tonight. Yeah, >> just know that Molly's going to send you a link and please fill it out at your first chance that you get and then we'll move on and get our results and if we need it facilitated, we'll have Gail Gilman from MSBA do that. Okay. Anything else on board? Oh, board school board meeting. Uh, >> is the caregiver survey? >> So, here's a question I have for the board. Um, we are in the process, there has not traditionally been an annual uh caregiver and staff survey here. So, we're in the process of creating one. Trying to keep it short, but wanted to ask if uh board members are interested in having a question or two about the board. Again, this is in addition to your board self-evaluation. I checked with some other districts. Some do have board questions. Some don't have board questions. So, I just wanted to bring it forward. Uh, a question that I brought forward just as I was working with another school district and what they were working with. I brought forward the question of asking because I know trust is something we're all trying to build with our community. Um, the question I trust the Robin Steel Area School Board to make decisions that are in the best long-term interest of students. >> I like it. I like it. >> And whatever answer we get, we work with. we get >> whatever answer we get is the answer we get and we work with it from there. >> Right about that >> the the timing issue I know director Long just asked if she could think about this. I the timing issue of this I know that the rest of the survey is in the process of being translated now and I want to believe that the 24th >> is the day that it's I know it's coming up so I think I probably need direction this evening. >> Well I would say Oh go ahead Dr. Woud. Yeah, I don't I mean it's a survey to the community, right? It >> staff and careies. >> It tells us really how people are looking at us. So >> I think it's important information. >> Let's let it out there. >> I agree. >> Can you put in Are we improving? >> So we'll eventually have trend data for this actually. >> I mean what is the community view of us? We have our own view of oursel but >> beyond an election where does the community stand right now? >> Right. And whatever information we get is good information. >> Exactly. >> So you're okay with that? >> I like that question. >> I like it. >> One good question. That's all I need. >> And and decide. >> You okay? >> I'm thinking. >> You're thinking approve. I'm for >> Okay. I don't know. >> All right. >> Doesn't hurt. There's no net harm in the question. So, >> and Director Basset, >> I'm in. >> Okay. Well, six of the seven of us are in >> and so that is a majority. We'll go with it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Schoolboard meeting schedule draft. >> Anything we need to know out of the ordinary on this? >> It looked good to me. >> It looks like Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday. >> Some Tuesdays. >> Some Tuesday. >> And then >> Tuesday, November 3rd, >> September 1st >> is the electional. Okay. >> Tuesday, September 1st. >> There were so you're going to those and I don't know if your mic you're going to need to have a mic or they won't people won't hear you. >> Two Tuesdays in September. >> Other than that, >> I believe the first Tuesday was due to our school start date being earlier. Mhm. >> So, we wanted to do that on Tuesday instead of Wednesday like we normally do. >> And then on the 22nd, I believe it was for a Jewish holiday that we were anticipating that we didn't want to conflict. >> Okay. >> Any other questions about this? >> Well, is that it says election day for November 3rd, Tuesday? >> First Tuesday in November after the first Monday. >> Always on there. on the calendar just so that we have No, we don't have a meeting. It's just stating that >> just election day. Okay. >> But >> actually, we have to have a meeting a week after the election to verify the election results. >> Yes. >> As long as we have a >> And so we need to just add that one in there. >> Yeah. No, that could potentially be >> it would have to be like the 10th. >> Yeah, >> we could do it the 9th or the 10th probably, but we have to verify the results. >> I think you can do it pretty shortly afterwards. I don't even know if you have to wait a whole week. >> Within a week, I think you have to. >> Yeah, within a week. >> So, the Monday, we could have it be a Monday and that is was just when we did it last time, it was a very short meeting. >> Yeah. One thing about the November dates though is we have not yet verified uh when the fall music festival will be. So we got to also make sure that we're not hitting that date. >> So we will verify that. We'll also look to see when we can do something within the week of election and bring and get something back to you so we can still try to go for action. get it back to you with some revisions so that we can seek action at the next. >> I'm okay with approving it as it is, but then we have to add an add something in later. >> We could just make those changes and bring it back for action next time. >> March. >> Okay, fine. >> As long as it's not a rush for you guys. >> We know if we're going to do that. Do we know about graduation yet? For >> 2027, >> it'll be in May. >> Yeah. Maybe >> it'll be in May. >> We have we have the month narrowed down for that. >> Okay, then >> doing a quick check on our agenda. >> That's it, I think. Right. >> Sadly, it's not even 10 o'clock and we are done. >> Sadly, >> is there a move to Oh, we don't have to move to adjourn. This is a work session. We're done. Thank you everybody. Yeah. >> Do you need a new