student school board representation. Welcome to the meet. Uh the first item up is going to be a review of the annual report. Superintendent law. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, each study session in September, the board has a chance to preview the annual report that the district prints and shares with the community summarizing the previous year. Tonight, executive director of communications Dr. Jackie Getty is going to give you a chance to run through that report and summarize what's in that report. uh gather any feedback before we formally approve that report in October. Dr. Getty, >> thank you. Superintendent Law, Mr. Chair, members of the board, we sent you a draft in the board report last Friday that was incomplete. So, you have a complete draft that's in front of you today, and that's the draft that we're going to be looking through. We'll walk through the entire thing. Um it still isn't isn't ready to go to print. We'll go through several rounds of copy editing. That said, if you have things that came out of the drafts that you saw and you see them still present here that you want us to address, definitely give me that information later and we're happy to look through those. We love all the eyes on this. So, uh, just starting off, this image on the front is not the final cover. Um, at the end of our presentation, we will give you three options, um, to choose from, and we'll see what the majority wants for the cover options. So, look forward to that. Um, turning the page, we have the table of contents. shows you everything that's in this report and uh calls out a few of our features. We have the class of 2025 celebration at US Bank Stadium for their commencement. Uh the points of pride section that has four four pages filled with all of the different student achievements and uh and some staff achievements. And we highlighted there the girls varsity golf team that won its first state championship. And then we have a feature story and Mary will be talking later about which feature story we selected. There's always hundreds to pick from and we were really excited about being able to recognize this one. Uh the next page, page one, uh is the superintendent's message. And the superintendent's message leads out the annual report and really lays out for you what you're going to see ahead, what the viewer is going to see um as they read through it and really sets it up with this is what we do in support of the school board's goals. And we always love choosing a photo that we've taken with Superintendent Law and it's honestly not difficult to find one that is just a very natural smile. So, that was fun. Uh, this page two is the school board at commencement and then underneath it the schoolboard goals um from last year and there's also a link to the goals for this year in case people want to see how the goals have shifted or um changed over the years. But again, the three goals, excellence in well-being, connection and belonging, excellence in student learning and support, and excellence in leadership and organizational support. And those were the three goals last year. The other page that you're looking at there for page three is our Q&A with the school board chair Patrick um Leo Howerin Chair Leah Howerin was um generous in answering our questions about how are we doing as a school district? How are we doing in achieving the goals? What do we still have work to do on? What are you proud of? What are we looking ahead to do? Um and is there anything else that you'd like to talk about? And so thank you Chair Leo Howerin for giving us that that lens through the board's eyes. I'm going to hand it over to my esteemed colleague who wrote an awful lot of this report. This is Mary Cornelia. She is our communication specialist. Thanks, Jackie. On pages four and five, we feature some of our students outstanding academic achievements from the 2425 school year. Um, we have our 28 National Merit semi-finalists from the class of 2026 that it's fun. It's a newer story we get to tell, but we include it in the report because it reflects the work that they did their junior year last year um on the PSAT exam. And then we also have our 34 IB diploma graduates from the class of 2025 along with some details about what it takes to achieve that distinction. Uh the next page on page five, you'll see um the first of our student voice highlights. Um, we have two students speaking about the impact of n national caliber academic honors they earned last school year. Um, as it is for the board in our district, elevating student voice in our storytelling is a core value we hold on our communications team. Um, and so it's really this is the first you'll see of um several student spotlights throughout the report where students are speaking directly about the impact of programs um and what they mean for their futures. Are there any questions on these pages? All right, flipping to six and seven. Um, we have a snapshot of student academic achievement as measured by state and national exams. On page six, we have the district's MCA reading and math scores where you'll see we ranked first in math and third in reading among neighboring districts as well as far above the state average. Uh, Dr. Amy Leoo and Mr. Matt Breen will be presenting more about um, MCA results later this evening. Um, we also have the NWEA results on the right showing our students measuring above grade level right away in kindergarten and then their academic progress accelerating during their time in Minnetonka. Um, from fourth grade where they're scoring early seventh grade in reading and early eighth grade in math to by grade seven measuring beyond 12th grade in reading and beyond 12th grade in math. Over on page seven, we have details about the AP exam results from 2025, um, which are truly outstanding. Um, the fact that 89.9% of students who took exams scored a three or higher is incredible. That means that they've earned the potential for college credit. Um, my favorite number on this page is in the small text at the bottom, the congratulations to the 966 students who have achieved AP Scholar Award status in 2025. Um, that's a a record-breaking number and we'll be recognizing those students throughout the this fall in our schoolboard recognitions program. Any questions on those pages? All right. Then moving over to 8 and nine, we have um a celebratory snapshot of the class of 2025's graduation. Uh the page includes some stats like their 99% graduation rate as well as their post-graduation plans. Um and then some incredible photos from the event throughout the report. Um, all the photos you see are photos of Minnotonka students. Um, and so it's one of our favorite parts of putting this production together is getting to pair uh the information and storytelling with the visual elements. Um, our other highlight on this page is the student speaker uh Toby Thomasson who's pictured. Uh, he was an intern uh in our department for the last two years. So, as you've encountered our work in the last two years, you've encountered his work as well. Any questions on these pages? All right, back to Jackie. >> Thank you, Mary. Our next two pages 10 and 11, we thought it was really important to highlight the work of the Community Action for Student Education or case committee. There was a lot of work the past year that was a committee that really advocates for school funding both for our district and and statewide really explaining to legislators how important it is to fully fund schools so that we can provide the kind of education our students deserve. Um and we had maybe a handful of people involved in the case committee a couple years ago and then last year we had about 12 and this year we had over a hundred close to a hundred I think um including many of you here at the table. So, we wanted to talk a little bit about that committee and about its work that it did throughout the session, really becoming educated about what it was that would really support schools the best. Superintendent Law really led that effort, giving a weekly update to that committee to talk about what are the things that are really important to Minnotonka, what's going to impact our students, and how can you reach out to legislators, what is the best way? And then we also had a a day at the Capitol visit where several of the people on the committee came and spoke directly to legislators and that was really impactful. Um and so the the end result was that we really laid the foundation for future talks with legislators and really letting them know what is most impactful for our school districts. What can they impact? One of the things that we elevated for them was the local optional revenue. If they could increase the cap on that, we could go back to our voters, ask for more money there. were currently capped at that. Um, and that's something that they heard. Um, it in the end didn't make it in the legislation, but it certainly um, made it farther than it ever has. So, is there anything else you want to add on that, Superintendent Law? >> No, I I think that our group was impactful. I mean, that that story reflects the fact that our community is engaged and excited. I anticipate it'll be more people this year, but that is good summary of that. >> Great. Thank you. And we also in there invite people to become a part of it and show them how to. And we did have some students that attended the day at the capitol with us and got to have those conversations with legislators and that they love hearing from students because you are this the people who this impacts the most. So we welcome students to be a part of that group next year as well. The next two pages are um two staff spotlights I'm super excited about. um two of my fellow executive directors, our executive director of technology, Amanda Fay, who was our interim executive director for a year and now is the executive director, and our executive director of uh community education, uh Kim Carlson, and she's been with us a year now. So, we really got to see their departments and their teams through their lens and what was really most important to them, what were things that maybe you didn't know about that department and how impactful it was, what's a day in the life of it look like. Um, I thought that was really eye- openening and really um, poignant. Uh, and for um, Kim Carlson, it was great to see all of the experience that she brings to our district and then the lens that she's seen our programs and our opportunities through. So, um, excited to work with both of them and excited to showcase them to our community. Signature programs. I'm going to turn that over to Mary. So, the next five pages of the report detail updates from many of our district's signature programs that our community is familiar with and proud of. Um, we have a quote right in the introduction from Associate Superintendent Dr. Amy Leoo talking about the impact of experiential learning through these programs and how um these opportunities offer core experiences for students to discover interests and deepen their passions and skills that open uh future opportunities and possibilities. On page 15, we begin with our largest signature program, um, immersion, which serves more than 4,000 students between the two languages offered. I love the quote from, um, the student who is spotlighted here, Ellie Huer. She shares that only one in five Americans speaks another language, and now she's one of them. Um, flipping the pages to 16 and 17, you'll see four more of our programs spotlighted. I'll call out just a few updates from each story. Um and you'll also see that there's a student spotlight for each program. Um those students were uh recommended by leaders from the programs. So Minnetonka research uh on page 16 offers collaborative research opportunities for high school students to pursue their own questions in a wide variety of areas um driven by their interest. And these students have the opportunity to um seek out and be mentored by experts in their fields from across the world. Um 82 students were involved in the program last year. Uh the next story is about Momentum. Our district's uh design and skilled trades program. And a fun story from last year was that our construction system students entered a unique partnership with the city of Minnitonka fire department where they built training props for the fire department and then they actually got to travel over to the fire department to see them being used. Um we also have a student quote from um one of our uh graduating seniors. She was really involved in the aviation portion of Momentum her junior and senior year and a week after graduation she earned her private pilot's license. On page 17 we share about Vantage, the advanced professional studies program. Um and our spotlight student is from the public policy strand. um she was part of the case committee and in her quote she talks about um her experiences working with project partners and how impactful it was um the opportunity to present to you the board. And then the last story in this section is on our navigator program. Um the story also talks about that unique opportunity for exceptionally advanced learners in elementary levels and also about advanced learning opportunities across the district including middle school seminars and high school opportunities. And I love Maya's insight here about the power of growth mindset. Um, she's learning that early, so it's incredible. Any questions about these four programs before we flip? All right. Then on page 18, we have our last two programs that are part of this story. Um, the sale program. SAS stands for students achieving independent life. This is our district's transition education program for students ages 18 to 22 with disabilities. And the my favorite part of this story um the student quote of course and then the feature about the four new um community partnerships. Um Aaron Valenta talks about how um the you know these four opportunities that were driven by student interest give students the opportunity to keep expanding their skills as they move forward. And then the last story about Tonka online uh showcases the growing number of full-time and supplemental students in this program. Um as well as an awesome quote from one of the students talking about um the impact of her teachers and how they've made a difference in her coursework. Any questions about those? All right. Thank you. >> Thanks, Mary. Our next uh article is on page 19 and it is about the facility study task force. I thought this was a really important one for us to call out. They did an amazing amount of work last year uh looking at the district facilities. U 26 members of the community, parents, students, uh staff and administrators coming together to um give us input. Uh I think students did it through the teaching and learning advisory, but the group came together to tour every single building, hear from the principles, hear from the staff surveys about what the needs were at every building. And they came back with a list of the biggest priorities of what we could uh put in place to support students now and in the future. And it was a big list. It was about $193 million worth of things. And they brought that to the board. And the board, you said that was a little high. and they came back and it was about 120 million, still a little high for us to go to the community and asked for that support and then whittleled it to 85 million of the most important projects. And that is the building bond referendum that will be on the ballot on November 4th. And so a big thank you to all the community members, parents, all the people that were involved in that facility study task force and did all of that work. Um we have put together anformational campaign about the referendum. There's a link to that in the article so that people can make themselves um knowledgeable about what it all entails and make their decision about how they feel about that. Is there more that I should add on that? Okay. Anyone else that wants to speak at all to this one? Okay. And points of pride. This is Mary's baby. I'm going to definitely have her do this one. So, yes, pages 20 to 23 feature our district's points of pride, which are familiar to you. um we celebrate them throughout the year through our schoolboard recognitions program. And so it's very fun to be able to compile all of those achievements um into four pages. It definitely is um an incredible amount of work and effort by our students and staff and community um that's represented in these pages. And so each each bullet point is a story. Um but we have them uh broken into six categories across the four pages. There is academics, activities, athletics, arts, service, and then district and staff. We have six photos that correspond with each of those areas um showcasing just one of the stories uh within that category. Um on page 21, you'll see a third grade class that earned best in show, one of four teams out of a hundred uh in a NASA science competition. um as well as our uh high school mock trial team that made it to state for the very first time. And then our varsity boys football team who will all be cheering on tomorrow at homecoming uh celebrating their uh advancement to the state finals and second place finish in state. Flipping to page 22, the rest of those photos are first from our uh Minnitonka theater program, the award-winning spring production of Anything Goes. um as well as a service um a photo from the celebration of service representing the service category. And we have two students from the interact club who presented with the executive director of a food shelf at the fall celebration of service last year talking about um the impact of the food shelf at Minnotonka High School that they help to run. And then our last picture is of um Detective Armando Sanchez who was our one of our school resource officers last year. He was recognized as skipper of the year at the high school for his um leadership and service there. Are there any questions about the points of pride? All right, then we'll flip over to pages 24 and 25. Uh page 24 is our annual spotlight on the community education program in our district. Uh this article highlights the program's growth across offerings as well as new opportunities from 2425. The photo that's featured is the Project Soore Songbirds, um, a choir from the Project Soore program, and they, uh, sang the national anthem at one of the Saints games this spring. And then the story on page 25, Jackie referenced it earlier in the table of contents. Um, this story is um sharing with the community about the impact of a $100,000 grant donation that the Minnotonka Public Schools Foundation gave to our district uh last fall. They partnered with the teaching and learning department to really align with our district's literacy goals. They purchased more than 35,000 books that are in use in K2 classrooms in English and Spanish. And the the decodable readers are books that um are specifically developed to help students practice learning those um those literacy patterns. So the picture in there is uh those books in action uh in an Excelsier elementary classroom. They're holding those little phone. They're called whisper phones so that they can hear themselves reading. So pretty cool. Any questions about those two stories? All right. Thank you. The next two pages used to be called the world's best workforce and now they are called the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report the kacker. Um and so um the state in 2013 set achievement goals for school districts and there were five and so we've been working to achieve those to improve those every single year. Uh last year one was added and one was moved. So the one that was all third graders should be reading at third grade level was moved to become part through the read act part of our literacy plan. And so in its place we have prepare students to be lifelong learners as our additional fifth goal. And then on page 27 you can see the way that we um track and uh work to improve those goals like what is it that we measure? Um and you can see that for each one of them and again it it leans into the MCAs which again Dr. Leoo and Mr. Matt Pin will be talking about a little bit later and shows you how our district does um and where the gaps are compared to other districts to compared to the state average um in math and in reading. Uh it shows how we track how students are ready for college or career. What are the measurements we look at and then how are we looking at preparing students to be lifelong learners and how are we measuring that. So it really kind of explains that and walks through that and there is a full report that will happen that will be available to the public I believe December. Is that right Dr. Leoo? December. Any questions on these two pages for Dr. Leoo. Uh and then uh the the um next two pages are the financial report and this is a component of a of an annual report that is required by the state. Um we're also really excited to share these um these pages. Um our financial team is incredible. Uh for 30 years in a row our team has received for the district the excellence in financial reporting award. We are also one of the only districts in the state that has a triple bond rating from Moody's which is really high. It's like an exceptional credit rating um and helps us in a lot of ways. This really spells out the sources of where we get money, how we spend money, and then it shows the budget throughout the last year um as compared to this year. And one of the things that we really call out on page 28 at the bottom is how efficient we are in spending money on average. Now, these are the numbers that are available for comparison at this time. So, um, as of, um, this last, uh, 2324 year, we received $232 less per student than the state average and about $1,740, um, less than the average of all of these together receives. And yet, we're able to do amazing things and hire amazing teachers with that limited funding. And a lot of that is due to our incredibly generous community. Um, is there any more um, Superintendent Law or Treasurer Olsen or anyone else that I kind of missed that you'd like to call out on these? No. Okay. And then the final page uh, is uh, a snapshot of the parent survey. I know this is very familiar to our school board and to superintendent law. We did a full presentation of the parent survey back in August. It's available on the website and it's also available in our archives if you want to watch us walk through it and all of the results. Um, and the link is right there. But really just calling out some of the incredible responses we got from parents with 97% saying that our education is excellent or good and that was up a percentage from last year. Um 94% of parents saying our school provides a safe learning environment and that is up from last year. Um the measurements of well-being and belonging both up two points over last year and um 93% of parents saying they'd recommend their school to friend or neighbors again up over last year. Any questions about the survey or comments? No. All right. We are ready to give you a folder containing three photos. And one of these photos is going to be selected to be the cover of the annual report. So, I'm going to give you a few seconds, probably 30 seconds to look at the three of them. Pick your favorite and then pick your backup favorite and we'll see which one gets the most. hands raised. So, put them all side by side for yourself. Pick your favorite and then pick your backup favorite. Will you keep track of these, Mary, as they raise their hands? One column is just favorites. Everyone ready? Yep. Okay. How many people chose this one? Please raise your hands as your first one. Not your favorite. Sorry guys. How many chose this one as your favorite? We have one, two. How many chose this one as your favorite? I would say that this is going to be the cover of our annual report. Not going to show it to the camera. Uh so um any questions for us before we hand the mic over to the next one? And thank you again for the opportunity to present. This is always our favorite thing to to present. >> I look like we have a question. >> Um just a comment. Um I've seen quite a few of these now and uh it's always amazing and uh makes me really proud to be a part of this this district. Um you guys put so much work into it. You know, it's a I know it's a hu a ton of work and it's a labor of love and it's something that I know we win awards every year. uh you stack this annual report up with any other district, pretty much any other public company, and we blow them away. So, uh just really proud uh to to be part of Minnetonka. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mary, because she did so much of this. You're amazing. >> Anyone else? >> Yes, Megan. Um just for so if there's just like formatting or type of follow up with you later. >> Just follow up with me if there's anything that you see where you're like or if you see something where you're like I this really is a miss. We need to add something. I want to hear it. We've got um we'll come back with a final for you to hopefully approve at the October 9th board meeting. And then after that we'll send it to print and then it'll go to all district residents. It'll go to all families uh and then we'll give it to our staff and it'll be in welcome kits for new families um and new employees. >> Thank you very much for all this hard work. We appreciate it. >> Thanks so much. >> All right. Next item on our agenda, discussion of remote access to board meetings. Superintendent Law. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, in the 2025 study session, uh the legislature made an update to how schoolboard members can participate in board meetings remotely. Minnesota statute 13D.02 provides guidance for school boards to conduct a meeting using interactive technology. Because of that change, this board had a discussion on August 21st about how this board might consider remote participation in schoolboard meetings. Based on that discussion, the proposed policy, policy 219 was created. This policy reflects that discussion in the sentiment of the board. And I'll just read the purpose of this. The school board embraces accountability and transparency in the conduct of its business. The school board shall conduct its business under the presumption of an in-person attendance at board meetings. However, the school board recognizes and respects that in limited circumstances, board members may need to participate remotely in board meetings. The public interest is best served when there is full person full in-person attendance by the board members. This policy goes on to provide the definition of a meeting. The requirement of a quorum uh meeting the notice requirements. Now, notice for this policy, the notice requirements had previously been that if a board member was going to be remote, they had to be in a public place and note where that public place was. That is no longer a requirement. And this board acknowledged that for matters of public interest where hearing from all board members is important, but if board members away from uh Minnotonka, they can still participate as long as they can be seen and heard and they can see and hear everyone else in the conversation. Those procedures are identified below. Um remote attendance would not be required for study sessions. If a board member is remote, all votes need to be conducted by roll call so each member's vote on an issue can be identified and recorded. There are some examples that are holdovers from previous policy like in the event that there's some crisis at least one board member needs to be in the room. With that I' I I think this reflects the settlement of the board. You've all had the chance to review this. I'd open this up for comments. After this date, this will move to the consent agenda in October 9th for approval. Mr. Chair. >> All right. Um, ironically enough, I wasn't at the meeting where we discussed this, but I so I'd like to hear from you all whether you feel this captures the feeling of that prior discussion. Megan, >> um, I think it does because I like that it stresses that we hope to be here in person. I think we talked about that at that meeting. Um, I had kind of two practical questions. Um for the notice piece, it talks about um that we have to provide notice that members may be participating in the meeting by interactive technology. Does that mean that if a board member had a lastm minute reason that they can't be here in person that they would not be able to participate because there wouldn't be the window of time to provide the notice to the public that they may be remote? >> I think our intent is if we know in advance someone's going to be remote that we would do that. um we would have the ability and flexibility if there was an emergency at the last minute to announce it at the board meeting. We're not required to pre-notice that. >> Okay. >> Within this policy acknowledges >> that board members may be participating remotely. >> Okay. And then my second question was um for procedures G says remote attendance will not be required for study sessions. So I had a two-part question on that question on a question. Um, so does that mean that it is required for other board meetings? Like if somebody's traveling internationally, is the expectation now that they must participate remotely? Because the way it's phrased, it makes it sound like if it's not required for a study session that it kind of implies that it is for a regular meeting. So I didn't know about that. But then also I was thinking well what if there was a study session where somebody really wanted to participate in the conversation but they're not able to be present. Does this then exclude them being able to? So, yeah, that was my two. >> I I think it's a good question. Um, with the board discussion, I think the discussion was study sessions have because they're not voting sessions. they have less >> um they'll the presumption is if we're all going to vote on if you're all going to vote on something um we would want everyone to be able to voice it and at a study session since you're not taking a vote that there's less of a requirement. Uh we I I'm open to different language there. I I agree that the word required makes it imply that it would be required. Um, we could either scratch that line and not differentiate between meetings because it's always an option. That would I mean that might get rid of any >> Yeah. So I'm curious. So is are we saying that we will accommodate remote participation in study sessions? >> That's my that would be a first question. Are we going to accommodate it? >> Our goal is to provide that. It'll it's more challenging at a study session than it is here. Mhm. >> So maybe the word is will not be expected >> or that still implies that it's expected mix. >> Yeah. Um kind of agree with Megan here because I think um the the the votes are important, but uh really a lot of the substantive work and debate that gets us to the vote happens at the study session. So I think it could be really really important for people to have that option to attend remotely. My question is is there a technological obstacle to doing that or would we be required to have such a study session up here like we are tonight? >> I think the short answer is we would do it in this place if we needed to do that for that. I then I would recommend we just remove item G. >> Yeah, I think that is reasonable. >> Then we don't differentiate between it doesn't set a requirement and then in the event that in a study session we want to make sure we can see and hear everybody, we would do it here. Is it sufficiently clear that board meetings is a broad term that encompasses study sessions or should our procedures line first line before paragraph A say school board meetings or study sessions may be conducted? >> I think that makes sense. >> Patrick, do we perhaps want to tie that to the necessity of a quorum? >> When do we need to have a quorum? really only for >> Yeah. >> Well, for no for not sessions for board meetings >> for for board meeting. Sorry, >> we're up here so >> I'm already confused. >> But then would that be implying that if we already had a quorum, somebody would not participate remotely? I think somebody participating remotely would still count towards a quorum, right? >> Yeah. >> That you can that includes being a quorum if you're remote. >> So I think going back to chair Leo Helerin's question, I I think the phrase schoolboard meetings encompasses all meetings. I'm okay scratching G. I mean, I think that makes it less confusing. Okay, >> any other questions or comments? >> I had a question about the purpose statement from that last sentence says the public interest is best served when there is full in-person attendance by the board of directors. I'm just wondering if that's too strong a statement. If we are saying that allowing remote attendance is not in the public interest, which I don't think is what we're saying, and it would be the opposite of what the legislature concluded when they passed the changes. Um, >> how about the public interest is best served when there's full participation by the board of directors. >> Yeah, I think that's >> because I do think that >> I feel like that I mean, yeah, I think it's a great to point out. I think the discussion that we had was more um as we allow this um and I don't know if we said it exactly this way but that board members forcing remote attendance and so we really wanted to more talk about like to encourage in-person attendance uh was best served for the board for the public for the district and so that you know having remote participation be the normal isn't that I feel like I mean please correct me if I'm wrong but um I feel like that's what we were trying to go for with with this but we did want to accommodate it. So I think that's more into the recognizes the limited circumstances but and I think the followup sentence to that was really um maybe to be more strong from that standpoint to help protect future boards from a board member that might want to you know be remote all the time. >> And we didn't say it exactly that way. I I think I'm putting words in the board's mouth from that standpoint, >> but and I think to to your point, Chris, I think general statement of policy section 2 covers us in that regard because it sets the expectation that meetings of the school board shall be attended in person. So that's pretty strong unequivocal language that the expectation is that we be here. But to Patrick's point, sometimes the fullest participation, even if it's not in person, might be better than >> the alternative >> that a full just full pull participation is better than having somebody missing. >> If right because sentence two in the purpose talks about the presumption of in-person attendance and then section two up there also is the general statement of shall be attended in person. So I think that part is is pretty clear without >> So >> I think as I'm hearing uh and it's consistent with what I heard from folks after the meeting I missed is that this is an authority we have. We want to be judicious in how we use it and we want to make sure that there's a that the board and future boards understand the premium that we put on these interactions. And um I think this does that. My concern is as the board members remember and many people know, I'm also an attorney and I can't turn that part of my brain off. So this public interest comment just seems a little over broad to me as written. And I would be comfortable with either Superintendent Law's uh suggested amendment or striking that sentence alto together because I don't think it adds to that feeling of what our priority is and how we would use it. And I I do worry that it might be cross purposes. >> I will I'll restate my proposed amended language. The last sentence would read, "The public interest is best served when there's full participation by the board of directors." fine with that. Okay. >> All right. Any other comments, questions, suggested amendments? >> Just a just a quick comment. I was also away for that study session, but I watched the live stream because I was able to. I would love to have been part of the conversation, but even having that accommodation was really meaningful to me because I got to watch and hear it real time what was happening. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that. I think that addition to what we're doing for the public and and for us as board members is really valuable. >> Thank you. >> Okay, this will come back as uh proposed tonight. It would be on the consent agenda in October. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. Next item on our agenda is an update on excellence in student learning academic progress. Superintendent Law. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, each September we provide an update on academic progress. During my time here, we've continued to hone what the board should expect throughout the year as we measure uh progress in student learning. This is specifically an update on the board goal of up an update on excellence in student learning, academic progress, and we'll cover assessment results we have to date. Uh associate superintendent Amy Leoo. >> Good evening, Superintendent Law, Mr. Chair, members of the board. We're excited to be here tonight to provide you with an update on our student progress from the 202425 school year. Uh tonight I have with me Mr. Matt Green. Um he is our new director of research analysis and systemic improvement. As you know, this is a position that we redesigned for this current school year to meet our evolving needs. And tonight you'll also see uh that we're using a new format to share with you our student achievement data that's more integrated uh with the idea of making visible how we're working to maximize the data and the information we have to both inform and improve our system as well as to be responsive uh to our students and their learning goals. Um, tonight we hope you leave here knowing a broad picture of how we're doing as a school district. Knowing that we'll have future reports during the year where we drill drill down and look more specifically at student groups or different programs. as well as uh we want you to have an understanding of how we're thinking about data as telling a story and how it really helps inform us about the students that we serve in our district through all things teaching and learning. So, as Superintendent Law mentioned, this is a report directly related to our schoolboard goal, excellence and innovation in student learning and support. And tonight, we're focusing on student learning and how we're monitoring academic progress. Um, the action step related to this is our goal and our commitment to ensuring that each student is receiving outstanding instruction. And we'll be providing a variety of disagregated data um as well as how we're performing on various standardized assessments and our participation in rigorous course work. Tonight, uh this report will really address technically six assessments even though we've kind of packaged two together. Of course, the MCAs, which are criterion reference state tests that allow us to measure student progress with state standards. Our NWA measures of academic progress, which allows us really to look at student achievement, to look at progress and growth, and to look at that in a nationally normed way, not only at the grade band, but allowing us to really look at students across the continuum of learning. expanding beyond grade levels. Um, we're going to touch briefly on the fastbridge uh curriculum based measure and early reading which we use really as a leading indicator in our district. This is information that teachers use that's directly related to the Minnesota Read Act. This is an approved assessment to measure and monitor if students are reading at grade level as well as to inform how we're responding to student needs instructionally and which students we might need more information about to target our instruction aligned to their needs. Additionally, we're going to touch on the ACT, which looks at college readiness and is a predictor of how students will do um when they um attend college. And finally, the two that we packaged together. Um an overview of our AP and IB exams. Specifically, we're going to cover uh our MCAs. We'll look at Minnotonka trend data compared to uh the state neighboring districts and by grade level. We're going to look at our map data um doing comparisons to national mean scores by grade level um as a measure that you just saw in our annual report uh broken down as well as looking at conditional growth. Um and Mr. Sabrina will be talking more about that and why and how we look at that. Additionally, as we look at ACT, we'll look at the subtests as well as the participation rates or the number of attempts that students take because that's part of the story. And finally, as we look at AP and IB exams, not only will we look at exams completed, we're going to look at our participation rates, those average scores, and our passing rates. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Breen to delve into our specifics of our data and our achievement. >> Thank you. So, we're going to start with our MCA reading assessment and look really with our neighboring districts here. And so, what you're seeing in terms of a trend from 2021 where we were third place behind Weisetta and Edina moved up to a tie for second in 2022 uh behind Weisetta and tied with Edina. We were in first place amongst neighboring districts for 23 and 24. And this year we are in third place uh behind West Tonka and Edina. In terms of comparison with neighboring districts, we have continued to have small increases or decreases from year to year. And just as a collective, this is our second highest uh proficiency rate since 2021, only behind our 2024 results. On the math side, uh in 2021, we started out in from this uh window of time in third place behind Weisetta and Dina and we've spent the last three years in second place behind Weisetta and happy to point out tonight and it was pointed out previously that for 2025 we are first place amongst neighboring districts. Um there is some more depth to that story that we'll get into as well uh around participation rates and our participation rates remain high um compared to neighboring districts and compared to the state. Um and would be happy to to answer any questions about that as well. for our MCA reading by grade trend. What you can see with the bold and italicized numbers is 2024 really was a kind of uh signature year in terms of a lot of increases from 23 to 24. Um and off of that we did continue to increase in 2025 in seventh grade. The remainder of them had modest declines with a little bigger decline in third grade that I will talk about a little more later when we dig into the story of of uh really for any individual student. On the math side, again, we're seeing a little more dispersed numbers in terms of where those bold and italicized values are with grades six and seven really seeing really strong gains uh this year to their highest point. But also uh when you look at this the um sorry the 11th grade declined slightly this coming off that 2023 high point what you're seeing with that again is that slight decline but also when you look at our participation rates if you were to compare to a Yisetta for instance our participation rates were almost 20% higher than Weisetta on the MCA math and so it does make it difficult to do a onetoone comparison with the neighboring district when and you have that different participation rate. Looking at NWA reading, a chart that you've become familiar with, again, our students continue to score in alignment with means well above their grade. The sixth grade students, you can see that metric that you're looking at is again beyond 12th grade would be the average score for students in that grade if they took it. And the NWA does sealing out a little bit in terms of what you're going to see, and you'll see that a little bit when we start to look at our growth as well, the impact of that of that idea of the of the ceiling as we continue to move through the grades. So, I want you to keep that sixth grade in mind here as we look specifically at reading and we look at these numbers and you can see uh the improvements in kindergarten and first grade that happened over from 23 24 to 24 25. But what I want to get into just quickly to make sure that we're um on the same page about conditional growth. So MET growth is one metric that is often referred to when we talk about NWA. And MET growth again is really that idea of a student had a fall marker that you may have come familiar with come familiar with that uh if they made that fall to spring growth, they met growth. If they missed by one is the same reporting out as if they missed by eight. If they made it by one, same reporting out as if they made it by eight. And so what conditional growth really does, the idea is to bring more specificity to the data. And so when we think about any particular student, say a student who's in in fifth grade who has a 240 RIT score in the fall, that student then is compared nationally to all other fifth graders who scored a 240 in the fall. And all of those students make some level of growth. Whether that maybe is a slight decline, most of them grow right around that MET growth number which is gets to be as small as two when you get up to that with the higher RIT scores. And then some do go beyond that. And so what happens is their growth is normally distributed. The collection of all students who score that 240. And so when we're looking at this, we're really thinking about again not what percent of students met growth, but that idea that of all students and so you are being compared to like students, which as you get a higher RIT score becomes just a more competitive like student group. That's what we're starting to see. So I I bring that up really specifically here. When we look at sixth grade and the idea that sixth grade goes to 49.5 in sixth grade we had in reading uh we had 18 18 students who were already at the 99th percentile last fall we had over 50 students who are already at a 240 RIT and so they are really again pressing against that ceiling and being compared to other students around the country who are pressing against that ceiling. So again, we're looking at a little different metric, a little different competition um when we get to that point. Um and so that sixth grade number being a little lower is related back to the idea of that beyond 12th grade that we're seeing in terms of our student performance. Math, you can see also that beyond 12th grade and where that starts and that's impactful. But again, we continue to have those strong results, those consistent results in terms of what where each grade is scoring compared to again our third graders scoring at an what would early sixth grade student would average on this end of. So the conditional growth here again you can see multiple grades that have have in increased their conditional growth from 23 24 to 24 25. But you also see again I just want to call out that sixth and seventh grade where it is a little different impact here. And just to to put some numbers there uh there were over 250 students uh in sixth grade last year in the fall who were already at a 240 RIT or higher. There were uh over 75 students who were already at the 99th percentile. And so when we talk about that growth again there are students who are at the 99th percentile and still do grow 99% that still is plausible. It's again just a little different comparison our ACT trends. So our number of test takers you can see was slightly lower in the class of 2025 and we did have a little bump up in the uh reading subtest average. Um the other changes again modest declines from 24 to 25 in in English and math the uh science and the composite. But again, in the idea of really talking about the story, I do want to highlight one additional piece with ACT. And admittedly, when I started this, I had a goal to not bring up P values for the entire presentation. That was I I wanted to avoid it, but I just could not here because I want to want to make sure to at least talk about the magnitude of this change. So, I went back to 2020 here to really capture that last graduating class whose ACT experience was not necessarily impacted by COVID. And so, what you're seeing there in the top row, uh, the 24% of students who took the ACT once in 2020. In 2025, that went from 24 to 48% who took the ACT a single time. Uh, students took it twice, declined slightly from 2020 to 2025. that percent who took it three or more times went from 41% in 2020 down to 20% in 2025. And so when we look at the actual average number of attempts, 2.44 in 2020 and 1.84, which you can see was a little bump back up from the class of 2024. That difference is like powerball level difference in terms of the likelihood of that occurring just by chance. And so that was a a drastic change that again we do expect to see that bounce continue to bounce back a little bit as the narrative around the ACT continues to seemingly sort of change back to where we were previously. But that is an impactful measure especially when we're talking about uh these subcores and how a student's highest subcore or highest composite participation in AP and IB exams. So this is particip participation rate in terms of students who uh were enrolled in an AP or IB course on the really the first day of school and what percent of those students ended up taking the corresponding AP or IB exam. And so what you're seeing there is that um from 2021 you're seeing that we did bump up really in in um in both. And then ultimately in 2025 we had a a very slight decline uh on the AP sorry AP on top and IB on the bottom. The AP number went down to 94.8% the IB number to 88.5%. Um just a couple of impactful pieces there that I do want to bring up. Um we did see uh certain courses um in the Vantage strands where we had a lot of no grades on IB. So about almost 40% of our of the students who did not end up taking the IB exam came from courses in our Vantage program. Uh so that was a a notable measure and has had an impact also on our AP and IV numbers overall that um is is an important factor here over these next couple of slides. So our participation and trend on AP exams has continued to excel. Um and you see each year the both the number of exams but also the average score and pass rate increasing each year. And again that was a very modest decline in terms of participation rate but also an increase in terms of number of exams. Some of the the notable trends with the AP uh exam changes in numbers is we did have an increase about 80% in AP seminar exams since 2021 and about a 70% increase in the AP microeconomics. And again back to the idea of Vantage, these are two of our fastest growing Vantage or uh one of our fastest growing Vantage strands since 2021 is the that global business course that houses these exams. Um we also have seen an increase based on the scope and sequence in our English department in that AP English language and composition 10th grade. um that 73% increase in number of exams being the first uh advanced placement or IB English course that students can take, the only one offered in 10th grade. IB exams. So included here are both unique students and number of exams completed. Again, part of the bigger picture here is the idea that um where we hit our peak in terms of unique students in 2023. Uh since then, we have had a decrease of 16% in exams taken but only a decrease of 11% in exam takers. So, the exams have decreased by 16, but the exam takers have decreased by 11. And again, what that highlights is we have more students taking a single IB exam or um or maybe dropping from from three to two. Uh our average number of IB exams since 2023 per student have gone from 1.56 to 1.47. So the decreases is more in the number of exams. And I I'll call back again the impact of two areas. um the IB Langan lit course at the high school has seen a decrease with that AP Langen comp going up and then also the impact of that business analytics course and the global business course uh that we have seen thank you that we have seen at advantage many of those students are only taking that IB exam the IB business exam so that percent of students who took only one exam went from 65 to 72% but for the IB business students went from 67 to 82%. So that single exam has really come from that IB business group and then some of the impact of the average score. A couple of the courses that have seen declines were historically some of our higher average scores on the IB exam IV lang and lit being one of them that SL course. I want to transition now to dig in a little bit more of how we really want to turn this data into a story. And um over the the last couple of months uh I've spent over between now between uh the middle of October and and the beginning of J of July, I've spent over 20 days in buildings really just talking to building leaders uh teachers, support staff about data that's at the building level or the student level and all just really working to try and operationalize the story behind this data. And so I want to start tonight really with adding depth to one particular student. Uh a fifth grader in one of our buildings in the fall was at the first percentile last fall for NWA. Uh he ended the year at the eighth percentile. Again on the surface you look at that and look at the first and eighth percentile and think about all the room for growth and and may have a certain um response to that emotional response. But that student on that conditional growth, they scored tied or better than 94% of all students nationally who started in the same spot that they started. If that student continues to do that, they will end up in the mid20s by next spring and they would end up just under 50 in the 50th percentile in two springs on that continued growth. And so a lot of our conversations have really been about the meaning of that story, what we can learn from that story, and how we can operationalize that and reflect upon and think about how did we make sure that that student had the best educational experience last year and continue that path forward. So I want to go through our third through seventh reading, digging into this story a little bit. And I had referenced third grade as being one group that had an MCA decline. uh from last year to the or from 2024 to 2025. But I want to highlight so for this for the next few slides I have used students who took all of the included assessments. So if they missed one they weren't in this data just for the opportunity to be able to cross reference this data to talk about this story. So what you're looking at on the screen right now on the right half here you're seeing the number of students and percent who were proficient on the MCA in third grade and again amongst students who took all of these assessments and the left half those not proficient. I want to dig in on that left side here and really look at their data a little more deeply. So of those 305 students 189 of them had more than a year's growth on the NWA. And that year's growth is a is a term that can be thrown around maybe too casually at times. But what we're really highlighting here is the idea of students who on that normal curve were on the right half of that curve. They were not just to the MET growth but beyond on that curve. So that is 62% of our students who were not proficient on the MCA made that growth. So looking now deeper at the 116 students who had less than one year's growth of those students 29 of them increased by at least 10 percentile points on their fluency check through fastbridge. So again, another metric that is a real time actionable metric for those students who made notable growth from the fall to the spring on their fluency check and had had less than one year growth and were not proficient. But in the end, when we look at all of these students, we had 89.3% of our students when we look at that whole story met at least one of those three criteria. and again reframing and having those deeper discussions around that data. And so moving through a little more quickly with fourth grade, what started out as a as 25.5% on that not proficient side, 127 of those students made more than a year's growth on the NWA. And then we had of those 88 students who made less than one year's growth, 20 of them had that 10 percentile point or more increase from fall to spring on their percentile. So now we're at 91.9% of students who have a have a story for us to build off of and to talk about and to reflect upon. Fifth grade, the 17.6 more than one or less than one year growth. And looking at again that less than one year growth having another 14 who grew at least 10 percentile points up to 92 and a half% of the of that group that student group. Sixth grade same idea here. The only difference with sixth grade is we don't have that fast fluency and so we take one level of that of that digging into the data away. But again we're at 90 and a half% here. And then seventh grade, which has a slightly lower MCA uh proficiency rate locally and statewide, similarly though had a 100 students who made more than one year's growth and ended up at 86.7%. So where seventh grade was 8% behind sixth grade in terms of MCA proficiency, they were 4% behind when we look deeper into that data and really start to to understand that full picture. So again, our goal is really adding this depth and operationalizing this data, being mindful and intentional about how we bring this to staff, to building leaders, and making um making it certain that that reflection is really occurring. And again, celebrating those wins, not just internally, but with families and helping families recognize the growth that their students are making. Being clear about the purpose of each one of our assessments and how they interact with each other and how we can triangulate recognition that each alone is just one data point and that our story is to honor and best respond to all the unique needs and what we learn through each individual assessment and to provide that guidance and support for staff in both analyzing and operationalizing this in their instructional practices. Thank you. I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Leoo. So, as we plan forward and we continue our work, we want to ensure that we're becoming increasingly responsive to our students instructional needs by leveraging the data and the information that we have and really looking at that full story of how and where students are growing and what's next for them on that instructional continuum. We want to make sure that we're utilizing in this process the feedback that we're getting from our principles, our teachers, um the support staff that supports our students at the building so that we're meeting their needs to help them do this work most effectively. And then we want to make sure that all of the assessments that we're utilizing really are purposeful and that we're all clear about the purpose, the strengths, the limitations, and that we're using those both to think about our student achievement. We're using that to think about what we need to do instructionally and how we can be most effective. And we're thinking about what it means for the system. How do we keep improving our programs, our curriculum, and the work that we do to make sure that each of our students is having the greatest level of success possible. So with that, we would be happy to answer any questions andor take any feedback related to this shift in format. >> Thank you very much. Um, Superintendent Law, >> for board members purposes, we plan to provide a similar report every year at this time. And our goal, if you looked at that grade level data and the story behind the story, we want to start increasing the percent of students that are either passing or on their way to passing and be reporting that at this time of year. So that, you know, we're really looking for your feedback either tonight or throughout the year about how how we're presenting differently and other things you'd like to see us measure. Okay, board members, any questions, comments? Dr. Mike, >> um I have a few questions for you. If you wouldn't mind backing up to the slides where you're talking about conditional growth. Um you were you were explaining the the what conditional growth went and I just wanted to ask a point of clarification. Y >> um in Sorry, you had to back up so far. All >> good. Okay. Um so the you had mentioned that this is basically the average for uh these grades how they are comparing to their peers who scored at the same level during the fall test. Is that correct? >> So the numbers that we're looking at are functionally a percentile, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um and that's and that's what I assume by your description. I just want to make sure that I was understanding that correctly. So when we're moving forward with that uh that description, we have a better understanding of what that means. Um second of all, uh the ACT you were commenting on the the discrepancy or sorry the I um the ACT exam. Uh you were Oh, thank you. Um do we do we have some grasp on why what the reason for the decreased number of attempts is? Is it because like are are our scores dropping significantly? In other words, are people kind of giving up earlier and not taking successive tests be not repeating the attempt because they just are giving up on the system or >> No, I think that there were as you may recall there were some significant changes um around the COVID window. many colleges quit requiring these exams, right? >> Um, and they've continued to be have many colleges that have um submission of ACT scores or scores optional to submit. And so students depending on their college plans and the requirements of their college may not find that this is the place to put their time and effort that's the most valuable for them. As Matt mentioned, we are seeing more colleges start to move back toward encouraging andor even requiring um students to submit scores. And so we are starting to see that what what we believe will be a continued uptick. >> Okay. So we we expect that that that will probably increase as students are driving more towards getting those higher scores again. >> We have we would we think that that will be the case. Yep. The other part that's going to be potentially impactful is the dropping of the science section as a requirement. And so that commitment to taking it um is a potential factor that could also be impactful as we move forward. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Uh last question. Um the IB exams uh the you were comparing the unique students versus the exams completed the the decrease in 11% versus 16% respectively. Um do we know what the number of students uh not taking any exams are if that's if that percentage is is increasing and is probably or is possibly a a significant driver of that discrepancy between the 11 and the 16%. >> So you're saying not taking any AP or IB exams, >> right? So So these are only the students who are taking the exams, correct? >> Yeah. Do we have any numbers on students who are not who are taking the courses but are not taking the exams since that was part of our uh our change our policy change as far as the waiting grade? >> Yes sir. So that participation rate and I apologize this is AP exams on the top row and IB exams on the bottom row. We did see that slight decline in AP and again that IB change we really looked at those couple of courses that seemed to be a pretty significant impact on that change on the IB side. Um and then a little bit that kind of that vantage impact on really all of these numbers, students really wanting to experience the school of opportunity and um and then while doing that on the Vantage side having a little more of a uh students who aren't taking the IB exam out of that program. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you, >> Camry. I think this is really impactful and I I don't think we've seen data drill drilled down like this before. So, thank you. And the story behind the story is what I didn't even know that's what we needed, but I think we need it. And so, thank you. And I actually was wanting to drill in a little bit more to the Vantage IB. Do you have an idea of why specific to Vantage? I think it's it's the idea of a student who chooses IB at the high school is really choosing the IB program that IB course. A student advantage I think is choosing Vantage that happens to have IB or AP courses included in it. And so I think that is an impact on that in terms of really their the experiential side that they're getting where they aren't necessarily focusing on those individual courses involved as much as they are the actual strand. >> That makes sense. >> Well, thank you. >> Would you like to add on to that? Sure. >> Um, I know last year I was in Vantage International Relations and there were a lot of seniors in my class and the IB test date ended up being on senior day, which is where the seniors do like all of their activities. So, we only had two seniors in our class take the IB exam because it was on such an impactful day where they signed the rock and got to meet everyone. So, I know that was a really big part with that. Additionally, with ACT scores, I know. So, going back a little bit, um, they just restructured the entire test, so it's shorter and there's less questions, which will make the test a lot easier for students to understand and study for. I've recently just taken the new test, and I found it a lot better. And I know all of my friends have already heard about how much better it is, so the test scores will for sure go up in how many tests people will be taking. >> Thank you. Is that the is that the global politics course? >> Um yes >> in your that was this that was the single course with the most non-EST takers was global politics. >> Yeah. >> So now we know again the story behind the story at an even deeper level thanks to our students. >> Delila. >> Uh I also just want to add on a little bit about IB test. I've been talking around and there's a friend of mine who did inform me that she there was some misconceptions going on and spreading of people being like, "Oh, maybe you shouldn't take that course because they were saying like, oh, it's only international credit and things like that. So maybe it'd be nice to get out into the community of students and really educate them about the importance behind like taking an IB exam and take taking the class and seeing how even though it's not like AP which is as well known and widespread kind of going into also the benefits specifically with an IB course. >> Yeah, >> thank you for that feedback. >> Yes, Megan. Um, I'm thinking about that third grade blip and we kind of saw that decrease. And so what I'm wondering is with this and and looking for the story, do we have a way to kind of look at that particular group of students and see if there are some commonalities or I mean I have some guesses about why third grade like they may have missed a year of preschool during the pandemic, but did are we able to kind of look into the data and try to identify commonalities and then um then because we can follow them and see what their growth is longitudinally. But I it was just interesting that that there's that blip there at the third grade was so significant compared to the other grade levels. So it made me wonder like why? >> And as we looked back at even the national norms on NWA with that cohort, we saw that they trended down at kindergarten first, second. So to your point, is that part of COVID? Is that is there other factors? Um we haven't identified specific factors. Um but we have looked across the data and part of the reason that we started drilling down and having that conversation about so what else do we know? Are they growing? Are they making progress? And they're just not there yet. And certainly that's what we found. So continuing to look at how we can improve that. follow-up question. having the ability to have kind of all the data in one spot. Are we able to look at it with like behavioral data or I mean just I have talked to some parents in the community of that's one year younger than one of my kids and they have been saying that just like it seemed like the kids didn't know how to be in a classroom and that the the teachers were dealing with a lot of behavioral challenges and I feel like those things tie together but I'm just wondering if if by having that central location for all that data we're able to kind of match some of that. You >> want to talk a little? >> Sure. that is that behavioral side is an area we're continuing to look at in terms of how we have data that gets put into Skyward that we can access. Um there's also that data that's not necessarily put into Skyward where there's certain uh minor incidents that may occur at an elementary and and how we respond to those might be different in terms of of where we aggregate that data. But we are talking about ways to make sure that we can be a little more consistent in aggregating that data so that we can bring that in even though we won't be bringing it in through our edge of climber data system. We could then cross reference it with the poll from that edge of climber data and really start to look at you know by building by grade and and that potential um cross reference. Yeah. Thank you >> Dan. Um uh no no questions. I just thought this was a really great analysis and wanted to um I know like looking at data and numbers like these bell curves, standard deviations, percentiles, like a person's eyes can glaze over very quickly and it can seem impersonal and hard to understand and hard to see how that relates to my kid in this district. But we just saw with one NWA exam for one cohort the layers of analysis that we do with the kids who took the test and then the kids who performed this way and then examining those kids further and we've got what six different assessments that we can do that with and really pinpoint the needs of all of our students. So, I think the more that we focus on these tools and continuing to do that analysis analysis will just continue to prove out how well students do the longer they spend time in our system. So, I'm just thankful for the level of care that went into this. >> Thank you. Yes, Chris. >> Yeah, I think we were aligned. You know, I'm an engineer, so I'm a math nerd, so seeing another math nerd up there uh on steroids is is great. and it's a a a great thing for our district. Uh so I very much appreciate it. Very much appreciated uh the change in presentation and really when it comes down to it when Dan talked about it, you know, the things that we do and the policies that we're doing up here, um it's it's great to see how it gets operationalized and see the growth in AP um and IB uh participation in the classes and people t taking the test. And you know, we made a change in policy last year. It's good to see that we haven't seen anything from that standpoint. It's good to see as we offer Vantage and Momentum Strands and we sneak AP and IB classes in there that okay, maybe they're not taking the test, but they're getting that accelerated uh uh uh learning and that college experience. And I think that's so important. And uh to to Dan's point, um you know, digging into the data, this the story behind the story. Uh I I think what Minnetonka does and what uh our administration and our teachers do so well is operationalize that data and and to really impact students and uh again it's great for us to understand the story and see the presentation but the real work like Dan talked about um I think is the most impactful and it's really great to see that. So thank you. >> Agreed. I'll speak up on behalf of the nerds on the board that you know don't worry about the p value. Bring it on. Bring it on. We want to see it. Um and uh you know I I do think it's good to tell the story behind the story and it's you know that the story behind the data. What what can we drill down to? Um but it's not only just to tell a story. We're not just trying to say see we are fantastic here at Minnotonka. What we want to do is like you said operationalize that information. We want to find out what can we do uh now that we know that that particular student has great great uh great uh growth but is still at that level. How do we keep that uh comparative growth moving upward and uh I appreciate that. I hope we can keep doing that uh making that effort to operationalize what we're finding. Um, I just wanted to add also I think we already have a takeaway which is to make sure that senior day is not scheduled on a day where stakes testing. So I really appreciate having you here and being able to contribute that because I think that's a huge data point that maybe would have gotten overlooked. So um that and educating about what international balorate tests do for somebody and that it's not just if you're going to go abroad. So I think those are really important pieces of feedback. Thank you. >> Yep. Mike, >> and and also to make sure that we're uh in informing the public that we're not leaving behind those people that aren't meeting those three two or three criteria that those that those really are the focus of our attention here. Here >> all right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we're moving on to review of 2025 pay 2026 preliminary levy superintendent law. >> Mr. Mr. Chair, members of the board, each September, public school districts need to present a preliminary levy to the community and have the board formally approve it. Uh the you certify the preliminary levy today and this is formally approved in December, but that gives the public time to review it. Tonight, executive director of finance and operations, Mr. Paul Baja is going to go through our preliminary levy. Mr. Bajois. >> Thank you, Superintendent, members of the board. as I'm bringing this up. We talk about finances and money and the only thing I could think related to money is um pertinent thing about is there was a philosopher from the last century named David Lee Roth who said money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a yacht that you can tie up next to it. So um >> words to live by. >> Um okay, our preliminary levy is a very important uh document and uh very very important calculation because it determines uh a significant amount of our revenue every year. So this levy that we're looking at uh putting forth uh for for in December of 25 will be payable in 26 for funding 2027, fiscal year 27. And there's nine major levy categories. I'm not going to read them all on this slide. I just list them there, but uh these leveies make up actually 93% of the total overall levy. So there's over 40 levy categories. And uh but if if you have a handle on these, you have a handle on the bulk of it. And in fact, there's some prior year adjustment levies for operating referendum and local optional revenue. And if you tie those in with the just the the the ongo or the future levy, uh those dollar amounts make up 95% of of the proposed preliminary levy. So for our operating referendum, it's a very important uh uh uh source of revenue for our general operating fund. We basically uh pick up uh $2340.76 per adjusted pupil at we're currently at the state cap. We've been trying since 2017 to get that raised and uh that's one thing where we just got to keep keep hammering away to try to uh get that increase going forward for future financial stability. But for 25 pay 26, we uh will be proposing to levy 29.5 million, which is a a $1.3 million increase from the the current levy for 20 that we collected uh in 25. That's funding fiscal 26. It's a $7445 increase, 2.37% increase on a per pupil basis. I noted that the operating referendum prior adjustment there of 860,000. If you add those two together, we'll be um utilizing 30,379,000 worth of operating referendum dollars to fund our general operating fund. And as a proportion of the approximately $173 million uh budget that it looks like we'll be having next year, that's uh about 17% approximately. So it's a it's a significant revenue source. Local optional revenue is um $724 per adjusted pupil and uh with a couple minor tweaks to it, but we have we will be levying approximately $9 million for 25 pay 26. It's an increase of $113,000 which is related to uh the number of pupils that we we have uh that were up from a year ago. We think we're going to be able to bring those forward. Um we actually have a makeup levy there of $350,000. So about $9.4 million. If you again, if you take the two of them, we're at at pushing $40 million uh that is local revenue that goes into fund uh the uh primary the a big chunk of our of our uh operations through general operating fund. That $724 is actually has been frozen since uh the first chunk of it actually was frozen since uh 2014, $424 and then another chunk of 300 was was added on in 2019 that's been frozen. So they've lost against inflation. If we actually were able to receive an inflationary adjustment there, we would be receiving another $300 per pupil and that would be equal to about $3.7 million. Again, you know, talking about ways to benefit school districts in at the legislature. That would be one way we're something we should consider lobbying for uh again and again as we've been doing. Our technology referendum revenue, it's technically the capital projects referendum revenue. Um about $10.4 4 million up from uh $10 million and u it is a voter approved levy and it's calculated on the overall total property values in the district. There's a calculation that runs through and uh then a rate is applied to 6.569% of what's called net tax capacity and uh so it's up 3.6% from a year ago. I just put a couple on there from the prior years. uh the uh uh there was some really significant adjustments to uh uh values of property in the district in 21. There's it went up 20.3% 20 uh in uh I'm sorry 22 23 values increased 8.1% um over the prior year. So there's been a total of 34% increase in prop district market value and property values in three years. a lot a lot of that the primary amount of that is actually just market value andor reassessments um based on market value but uh there is one to one and a half percent every year that of new construction in the district. So uh even though it kind of seems as you're driving around that we are landlocked but there's a lot of infill going on and um a lot of lots being subdivided into two and three homes. Uh so there's new construction to spread future levies on. This equity levy is used to be over a million dollars. Uh now it's down in the $868,000 level because uh the the tiers one, two, and three um apply if you're below the average 95th percentile of revenue per pupil. Uh they each kind of kick in at different levels. And uh so we're actually we get the tier four amount of $50 plus uh another uh we get tier one and two but not uh not much on tier three but we're at about $68.90 per pupil. So almost flat on that levy going forward. It oh it actually the the individual amount went down per pupil by 4 cents but because we have more pupils the levy went up. Uh Q comp is alternative teacher compensation is the technical name. Um I guess Q is stand for quality and u so that also is not increasing in a total dollar value amount. We get $260 per the October 1 estimated enrollment for 2025. We'll get that next year and 35% of that is the $1,ion51,000 that you see on this slide. The uh total amount is is $3 million. Uh so the the remaining uh you know 1.95 million actually is coming via state aid and that's a fixed formula that that 35% of total level has been uh has and 65% state aid has been in place since the original QC comp program was was initiated. This next levy is called operating capital and it's to to buy the stuff that we use in the district. Um, it can buy anything including technology, but now we buy more stuff out of the tech fund. But it this buys everything from uh you know books or or uh um whiteboards that they're putting on the wall or a lawnmower for the ground screw just about anything that's stuff uh other than the stuff inside of an Oreo. But um we have about a $50,000 increase in there. This levy is actually been going up because the state used to pay for more of it back in uh fiscal 20. We only levied about 36% locally and the rest uh the other 64% was state aid. But the state as they've been having more financial difficulty, they keep shifting a little bit more onto the local level. So it's up to almost 60% on this particular levy. And then our total revenue is about 2.9 million. So, I u I only mentioned a two-tiered formula again because uh it's kind of the same old song as the really old song called the same old song says. Um but it's a the $79 per adjusted pupil unit and the $19 times our age of the square footage of our building have has been fixed since uh 2009. Um so it it again loses out to inflation because inflation up there cumulative is is up over 50% since 2009. Our instructional facilities lease levy is a levy that we use to make bond payments on 13 individual uh certificate of participation bonds that we used to build instructional additions and grow the district. Uh the drop in the levy is actually due to the refunding of our 2019 ebonds that in September 24. So we have lower payments on the new bonds because we refunded at a lower rate. Uh and we every year we levy for what our total bonds are. It's capped at $212 per pupil. Our cap is $2,673,000. We don't levy up to the cap. You levy up to what you need to make your payments. So I list a number of the things that we are paying for in terms of that we had bonded for all day. Kindergarten classrooms, numerous elementary classrooms and music rooms, middle school classrooms, high school classrooms and music rooms. Uh the gymnasiums at Clear Springs Grow and Scenic Heights. uh the uh Minnotonka Education Center, formerly known as TSP and uh uh the Momentum addition uh to the Pagel Center. So, and just as FYI, unused capacity to support another another bond issue, if there was a project that we needed to do, uh about $2 million could be bonded with the remaining capacity if something came up. debt service levy is on general obligation bonds is what we use to pay for bonds that are actually this levy is 100% for long-term facility maintenance bonds that we've done over the years to uh keep up our 1.87 million square feet of of space and 259 acres worth of facilities. The replacement value of all that is over $700 million if we were going to try to build it new. So, it makes sense to just keep steadily putting in four to5 dollars per square foot a year uh into these facilities to keep them uh uh ready for the long term and and kind of paying it forward from what we've been given by past generations who actually built the facilities in the first place. But, uh keeping our facilities in good shape, make sure that they looks uh you know, kind of stately and important to set the tone that hey, what happens inside of them is important is is is important. And so, uh we've got about 12.4 4 million worth of building bond payments on our general obligation bonds. It's up 1.4 million because we have a new payment that just came on for the 2025D long-term facility maintenance bonds that we issued for next summer's long-term facility maintenance work. Ironically, not ironically, but just as a matter of time, I guess the last payment of on the 1996 building bond um were are going to be paid in February of 2026. We actually bonded for them last year and are collecting for that money this year. So, it's there to pay in February, but that is actually the last payment from the very last building bond referendum that the school district ran on April 23rd of 1996. So, just like a mortgage 30 years later, all those bonds are paid off. Uh, as will be the case with all the bonds that we issue. Um, in prior years, we had some some uh levy reductions that dropped our levy a little bit and we don't have any levy reduction this year for for what's called levy excess. We have to levy 105% of our bond payments every year for general obligation to make sure that if there are delinquencies, there's still enough money collected to actually make the bond payment. That 5% adds up over time and as it gets to certain levels, there's a there's a formula that is used and you can utilize some of it to lower future levy payments. So, uh, I expect probably since we didn't have one this year, it's probably more than likely next year, we'll have a pretty significant levy, uh, excess levy reduction to our next levy coming up a year from now. And then we have our other post-employment benefits debt service levy, uh, $1.3 million uh, dollars. It's a decrease of $166,000 because uh, we had in this situation our 5% additional levy built up over time a little bit. And so we have a $245,000 reduction, but we levied these or we issued these bonds back in 2008, December 2008 to fund uh our post-employment benefits um that were contracted with other employees uh who are who have retirey benefits for life. And so we were able to to set up a trust fund and pay the dollars out of that. But trying to be good stewards, we actually initi at that time interest rates were at 6.83 and 6.24. We restructured down to 3% and we structured them down again to 1.64% just to keep everything as flat as possible. This levy is flat at about 100 1.55 million annually. Uh 105% of our about $146,000 payments. So those are the major levies that we have. We have this other list of 13 additional levy categories plus then there's a equal number of adjustments. Uh the u uh ice arena levy is unique to 13 school districts in the state that actually own their own ice arena. Every other school district that has a hockey team actually plays plays in arenas that are either built by the city or the county and and rent from them. But uh we own our own so we can levy for operational costs over and above the revenue that's brought in. uh our career and technical levy that funds all kinds of uh of the 35% of the programs for the MO that are in momentum including everything over in the momentum edition to Pagel uh including the aviation program that we just started up last year and is continuing on. Uh, of note, uh, intermediate district 287, there's about $200,000 in that $948,000 health and safety levy for 287. And then there's another approximately 500,000 for lease levy and another approximately 200,000 for safe schools. So about $900,000 of this of our levy, which is a little about 1.25% 25% is passroughs for our membership in intermediate district 287 for uh special needs uh students uh that we send there when we deem appropriate uh to have their services delivered there. Uh and then we also have community education levies and um adult handicapped home visiting levies uh small amounts. Uh, of note, the community education, early childhood, school age levy, those related levies, they're only about 8% of community education and they actually get about 92% of their revenue from fees for classes that they offer. So, uh, it's the the most entrepreneurial of our funds. Well, I could say maybe uh, nutrition services is giving them a run for their money now, though. Um, so our total other levies are about 3.9 million, and that's about a $464,000 increase over the prior year. And then prior year adjustments are up uh 257,000. Again, primarily because we actually have uh included in those prior year adjustments are the $1.2 million that I mentioned uh as part of the general operating fund operating referendum and the um um local optional revenue onetime dollars. I I included them above, but they they're included in that 1.2 million. And uh so basically they're the reason for the the total dollar amount of the levy. Uh, and there's actually a bunch of offsets besides. So, the net increase is 257,000. Uh, just as a FYI, some other notes. Uh, be we actually have um, you know, these are inflation adjustments that happened during uh, the years when we had high inflation and they provided significant one-time revenues in the subsequent year. And if you notice that uh, we actually and so it was declining as inflation went down. This year we're actually up a little bit because of $860,000 because with our with our enrollment growing, we have some operating referendum dollar uh uh dollars coming in because of the increase in in students that we have. So our total preliminary levy amount is about 73.9 million, just under 74 million. It's $3,821,000 and it's a 5.45% increase. Of that amount about 1.9 million or 2.75% is due to enrollment increase and annual inflation increases in the operating referendum revenue. Another 320,000 or46% is due to enrollment increases um and in in the uh local optional re uh revenue levy. So between those two we're at about you know $2.3 million of the 3.8 million. So, um, about 2/ird of it, $363,000 is due to an increase in the property value of the district for the capital projects levy. That's 0.52%. 268,000 uh.38% is due to an increase in intermediate 287 pastor levies. And then uh about 940,000 or 1.34% is net. It's uh due to the increase of 1.4 million on the debt service levy, but then we have other levies that actually have net decreases of 543,000. So just summarizing them, that's how you walk up to 5.45%. So selected home value estimated tax impacts. These were the estimated tax impacts on these home values last year. 300,000. 500,000 is about the district median. 700,000 is not quite the district average. The district average is 772,000, but uh it falls, you know, right between these two. So, you see the dollar increases of a $300,000 home would be $88 if they did not get reassessed uh or if they did not do any modifications such as renovation in in things that increase the value of their home. Uh a taxpayer with a $300,000 home would see an $88 increase from this proposed levy, $147 annually at uh $500,000, 212 at $700,000, and $277 at 900,000. And we pro we put uh just home values on here because we only have 251 commercial properties. Uh basically about 92% of our property value in the district is uh uh residential homestead and then residential non-homestead which people who are residents of other comm other other states uh but they basically have their second home here and uh so a lot of those people are people who had their first home here then became retirement residents elsewhere and they still have their home. So uh about 92% basically is is is basically uh houses um everything else you know any any apartment buildings any senior living buildings or any uh you know memory care facilities all that kind of stuff targets um mayards those all those types of properties make are in that other 8%. So uh the other thing is is uh the total property value in the district increased this past year by 3.2%. Uh again, some of that might be market value adjustments. Some of that about probably a percent and a half of that is growth to the percent to the extent that it's the percent and a half percent and a half of growth that helps to distribute this over um over more people and more properties. But I don't I don't have that broken out because it's really hard to ascertain when you have 10 different cities. they they may keep new construction figures but they don't keep it by u like for instance uh Minnotonka and in particular um or or Chanhassen they don't keep construction figures by school district boundaries they just keep you know city by city boundaries so it's pretty hard to break out um those types of things so uh with that um that is the preliminary levy that uh is going to be proposed at the next session we have to uh adopt a preliminary levy by September nomber 30th and file it with Henipin County and the Department of Education by September 30th. Uh so the preliminary levy also then is the maximum amount that we can levy in a given year. You could always reduce the levy later uh and when we adopt the final levy uh if if you think it's appropriate. Uh and uh uh so but this is where we we set the the maximum levy for that we are looking at and then any further decisions again would be made in the process of setting a final levy in December. Thank you. The other thing is I'm going to go through these slides again for the uh for the uh study session uh which will be also which will be televised but uh I will kind of take modify it a little bit more and go through it a little bit quicker. Um so you've heard them all but I'll still make sure that the the you know the 95% gets covered. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Bourgeoa. Board members, questions, comments. That's a lot. Thank you. All right. Going once, going twice. Thank you for that detailed information. All right. That is the conclusion of our study session agenda. We're going to take a very brief break, five minutes, and uh return for our special meeting. Everything's got to be different tonight. [Music] >> Okay. All right. We're going to call this uh special meeting of the Minnitankka School Board to order. We'll now stand to say the pledge to the flag, which is that way because it's outside. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> May I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So moved. >> Dan, may I have a second? >> Second, >> Mike. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed. We have an agenda. Next item on our agenda is the certification of the 2025 paid 2026 preliminary levy superintendent law. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, as you'll remember just a few minutes ago, we preview according to Minnesota statute, our preliminary levy has to be approved by the school board in order to be sent to the state by the 30th of September. This is the preliminary lever levy. It's set at the max amount. It can be adjusted down before it's formally approved in December and levied. Executive Director of Finance and Operations, Mr. Paul Bourgeois. Thank you, Superintendent Law, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh we just ground through every uh line item in detail of our overall levy in the in the study session just immediately before this. But for the uh uh community members scoring at home uh we are going to go through some of the larger levies and then some of the tax impacts in this uh re second review of this and then ask you to uh certify the levy so that we can get it submitted and start the process of uh finalizing it in December. Our our levy is made up of nine major levy categories and I will not read through these but uh the levies make these levies biggest one of is operating referendum revenue and the second biggest is local optional revenue but uh those are all local and these levies make up about 93% of the preliminary levy proposed the prior year adjustments that we actually have in operating referendum and local optional revenue actually bring that percentage to 95%. So, an understanding of these nine items really gets a gets a person in a ballpark and a solid understanding. Our operating referendum revenue uh is proposed to be at 29.5 million, which is an increase of $1.3 million. Uh we are able to levy $2,340.76 per adjusted pupil unit. And that's a $7445 increase from the prior year, about 2.37%. uh with the the an operating referendum adjustment that we're actually going to be making this year because of increased enrollment over initial estimates from last year. Our total operating referendum revenue that we'll be utilizing for fiscal year 27 is 30,000 or 30,379,000. Uh local optional revenue is another levy that's based on a per pupil amount for every pupil in the district. It's uh uh pay 25 26 or 25 pay 26 is at $9 million up $113 from uh fiscal year 25. Uh the $724 is an important dollar amount. It has not been inflation adjusted since 2014, but uh it is still a an important block of money that we get. uh between uh local optional revenue of about 9.3 million when you include the uh prior year adjustment that we're going to be doing this year and the 30 uh a little over $30 million that we're looking at for the operating referendum. Uh these two local funding sources fund about $40 million of our approximately $173 million uh revenue for operations uh for instructional operations. Our technology referendum revenue is uh 10,412,000 which is a $363,000 increase from pay 25. The rate is uh 6.569% of net tax capacity. It's valued on that's a calculation that is valued on every piece of property in the district. It's important to note that the market value of the district has gone up about 34% in three years based on the inflationary years primarily of 2021 and 2022 uh and and 2023 but uh values have gone up about 3.6% this year. So that's the primary reason for the increase that we have over last year's amount. Equity levy is a a dollar amount of $686 per adjusted pupil. Again for every pupil that we have in the district. Uh it's a a complicated formula that's based on various uh various calculations related to property value relations related to certain demographic factors. Uh and um so it's a a nice dollar amount. That's a nice complement to some additional funds that we get. Uh alternative teacher compensation. This is a uh actually a $3 million total program of which 35% is levied locally. The levy is 1,51,000 up $17,960 from last year. It's funded at again $260 per estimated October enrollment. The state makes up the difference between the million51,000 and the $3 million by state aid. Operating capital is uh a funding formula for revenue that we are allowed to use to buy things. We buy uh you know everything from whiteboards to for classrooms to desks and chairs to uh lawnmowers for the grounds crew. The total revenue is about $2.9 million. Of that amount, 1.736 million is the local portion and the remaining approximately 40% is state aid. Uh so this is an increase of about $50,000. Uh but it's a very important uh revenue source for us. Instructional facilities lease levy for 25 pay 26 at 2.496 million is uh bond payments on 13 individual bonds that we have uh issued over the years to build various classrooms across the district. All day kindergarten classrooms, elementary classrooms in music rooms, middle school classrooms, high school classrooms and music rooms, Clear Springs, Groveland and Scenic Heights gyms. uh a momentum edition at Pagel and the uh purchasing the Minnitonka Education Center which is the former TSP building. Uh so we are able to levy up to $212 per pupil or whatever the amount is below that that uh our bond payments are and we're actually below our cap of about 2.673 million. Then we have a debt service levy for general obligation bonds uh 12.457 million. It's an increase of 1.483 million. Uh the primary reason for that increase is because we issued additional bonds to maintain our 1,870,000 square feet of space in the district and uh uh for with our long-term facility maintenance program and um that that first bond payment is coming on on online with this levy. Then we have other post-employment benefits debt service levy of about $1.3 million which is actually a decrease of uh one of $166,000 from the prior year. This is to uh this is bond payments that were used to issue bond on bonds that were issued to establish a trust fund to pay post-employment benefits from uh various retirey health insurance obligations that were committed to by the district and contracts prior to 2002 and where people had benefits for life. So by having this trust fund we're able to fund those payments out of there and that way it doesn't take dollars away from classroom instruction. So this is basically for the most part it's flat. The reason it's down is because we're required to pick up an additional 5% uh on each bond payment in terms of additional levy in case there are delinquencies and that builds up over time. And so there's actually a $245,000 usage of that extra 5% balance that has built up over the last several years to lower that. So we have uh numerous 13 other levies. I won't go through them um individually. I will like I always like to point out the ice arena levy because we are one of 13 districts that actually owns its own ice arena and operates its own ice arena. Our total other levies then are about $3.9 million which is a $464,000 increase over u last year. We also have prior year levy adjustments of $1.2 million up a little bit from $961,000 in 24 pay 25. And um we've had other prior year levy adjustments that we were able to uh get additional revenue for the operating referendum because of inflation in prior years. This year we're picking up $860,000 be in the operating referendum from prior year adjustments that'll actually go to help fiscal year 27. So our total levy is about 73,984,000. Uh that's a $3,821,000 increase from 2425. It's about a 5.45 45% increase. Of that amount, 2.75% or 1.9 million is due to enrollment increases and annual inflation increases in the operating referendum. 320,000 or uh46% is due to enrollment increases in the local optional revenue levy. 363,000 about 0.52% is due to the increase in the capital projects uh referendum technology levy. 268,000 or 38% is due to the increase in the intermediate district 287 pass through levies for building leases and safe schools. And then 940,000 or 134% is due to an increase of of 1.4 million that we mentioned for the debt service levy, but that's offset by all the ins and outs of the other levies about 543,000. So that's how you get from zero up to 5.45%. uh selected home value impacts. Uh these assume that a home value uh stays constant from the prior year. And so we have 300,000 500,000 which is above the district median, 700,000 which is just below the district average and then 900,000. And we only have uh residences on here because residences make up approximately 92% of the property value in our district. We don't have a a big entity like a large corporate headquarters or large, you know, like the supervalued warehouses or any of those type of large industrial things or Boston Scientific. We mainly have residences and a few other uh about 251 commercial properties and other properties. So, we're looking at a $300,000 home. The 5.45% increase would be about $88. That's on an annual basis. Of course, you would divide by 12 for to get a monthly basis. 500,000 would be a $147 increase, $700,000 at 212 and 900,000 at 277. Uh so the um uh it's important to note that total property values in the district increased 3.2%. A lot of that was because of reassessment. Uh but we get one to one and a half% of new property values in from new construction every year. And so to the extent that that has occurred, uh that would go to spread these levies on on across more properties. So you'd end up with a person with the same home value would not be seeing a 5.45% increase. It might be slightly less than that. So with that, uh we would ask you to uh uh review or to approve the proposed motion. The proposed motion actually has a very important word in there that we're allowed to do under statute. Uh it's it it recommends that we approve the levy at the maximum amount authorized by statute which is the 73 million which is currently estimated at the $73 million figure. And that reason that's in there is because it's actually a hold harmless because the state actually computes a lot of factors that go into our levy and oftentime they will make changes actually into October. So if there's a change into October that we need to have included in there, it would be included by having that by by adopting the maximum allow by statute, which is again um a terminology that actually is in statute and allows you to to you know have that hold harmless. So thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bourgeoa. Um let's kick it off with a motion. Would someone like to make the recommended motion in our packet to certify the preliminary 2025 pay 2026 property tax levy? >> So move. Chris. Uh, may I have a second? >> Second, >> Mike. And just for the record, I'll read this motion. Resolution to certify preliminary 2025 pay 2026 property tax levy. Be it resolved that the minute that the school board of Minnitankka Independent School District 276 does hereby certify the preliminary 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy at the maximum amount authorized by statute which as of September 25th 2025 totals $73,984,61912 and authorizes administration to file the certified 2025 pay 2026 preliminary levy with the Henipin County auditor no later than September nomber 30th, 2025. Any comments, questions or discussion? We went through this in detail as Mr. Bourgeois noted in our study session. Thank you very much for the assistance. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bourgeoa. >> All right. Next item on the agenda, we have approval of election judges. Superintendent Law. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, I'm thrilled to see such a robust slate of election judges. We are seeing a rebound in that area. Tonight, executive director of finance and operations, Mr. Bourgeoa, will summarize the selection and approval of election judges. Mr. Bourgeois, >> thank you, Superintendent Law. Um, Mr. Chair and members of the board, uh, every two years we actually run our own election. Uh, because we run in off years, we run our own election for school board. And this year we're also running a building bond referendum for the first time in almost 30 years. But uh the process of actually running the election is um having had a daughter who uh got married and we went through that process. It's kind of like setting everything up. It has to be perfect on the day. And I mean I I say that I'm not it's a little bit of of it's I'm not kidding though. I mean it's very similar. And and so part of that is making sure that we have a good slate of election judges. And with CO 19 the last several years, we had a hard time actually getting a a strong slate. But uh this slate of election judges is is it's a deep bench, which is also good. Uh but everybody's motivated and and willing. And I've got to give kudos to our coordinator of procurement, insurance, and elections, Elizabeth Weeble. I'm sorry, Wyel, who is um doing just a fantastic job in her first goaround at this. And um so she's going to be really good at it and she's going to be really good at it for a long time, I think. So anyway, uh we just need you to approve the slate of elect of election judges and then uh we'll we'll go about getting this election uh going. Thank you. >> All right, we'll also kick this one off with a motion. So make the recommended motion to approve the uh election judges. >> So moved. >> Camry, you have a second. >> Second. Sally, this is a two-page motion, so I won't read this one for the record, but we have it in our packet. Any discussion, questions, comments? Seeing none. Oh, Dan. I just want to say thank you to the folks who have signed up to be election judges. It's a critical part of the democratic process facilitating these elections. That's how this board representing this community is staffed. And without these folks uh working to do this, I don't know what we'd do. So, thank you so much. >> Agreed. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say, "I." >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries. >> Thank you. >> All right. That's the conclusion of our special meeting agenda. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Megan may have a second. >> Second, >> Mike. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? We're adjourned. All right. Now,