Hello everyone. I'm David Law, superintendent of Minnotonka Public Schools. >> And I'm Dan Olsson, the Minnotonka School Board Vice Chair. >> We are glad you're able to join us for our school board recognitions program. It's important to take the time to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our students, staff, and community members. >> We begin most of our regular board meetings with recognitions to highlight the positive impact that so many people make in our district. Tonight we are recognizing boys alpine ski state runners up, girls alpine ski state qualifiers, varsity cheerleading state and national qualifiers, JV cheerleading state qualifiers, competitive dance state qualifiers, boys Nordic ski state qualifiers, girls Nordic ski state qualifiers, debate state qualifiers, first tech challenge state qualifiers and a national honor earned by a community education staff member. >> We'll begin with the boys and girls alpine ski teams. >> The Skippers boys took second place overall as a team and senior Oscar Anderson won the individual state title. >> The Skippers girls team finished in fourth place. >> Both the boys and girls teams are led by head coach David Gartner along with assistant coaches Marley Benson and Duncan Hurlebrink. Before we recognize each team by name, let's hear more about the team's season. >> Hi, this is Dave Gardner, head coach from Natucka Alpine. I'd like to congratulate my boys and girls alpine varsity ski teams for winning the section meet at Wild Mountain and advancing to the state tournament where the boys finished second and the girls team finished fourth. Congrats. Great job you guys. Congratulations to the following boys alpine team members. Oscar Anderson, Julian Pales, Nolan Lee, Lewis Ripple, Beno Sassinfar, Channing Scott, and John Turkott. Congratulations to the following girls Alpine team members. Isabelle Calhoun Lopez, Scarlett Clemens, Charlotte Kinszer, Ella Oland, Nora Richardson, Alice Seart, and Lena Witty. >> Minnetonka cheerleading has a legacy of excellence at the state and national level, which the team continued to build upon this year. The team competed at state in two categories, placing third overall in varsity tumbling and fifth overall in varsity game day tumbling. At nationals, the skippers finished ninth out of 113 teams in their division. The team competed in the finals for two different categories at nationals. >> The JV team also had a successful year qualifying for state and earning third place in the division. >> Let's learn more about the season from the team. >> What an incredible year it was for Tonka cheer. Congratulations to all the ladies on all of their hard work and all of the the great accomplishments that they had this year. Highlighting some of those accomplishments, the JV team competing at state finished in third, which is their highest placement since 2007. So, really incredible season for them. The varsity squad finishing in third place and in fifth place between traditional and game day at state. Awesome year for them. and then taking those routines down to Orlando, Florida to compete for a UCA national championship, finishing in ninth place in one of the hardest divisions at the high school level, which is small varsity division one. Some great programs all over the country. So to finish in the top 10 among hundreds of teams, it was a really incredible accomplishment. And then finishing in 10th place for game day, uh just a really special year. So great job to all the ladies, all the hardworking athletes and everything that you guys did this year. It really showed. Great job. >> I'm Clark Lenugle and I'm a seventh grader at MME. The most impactful part of this season was coming together to place third in state. I'm so proud of how hard our team has worked this season and I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish next season. >> Hi, my name is Greta and I'm a seventh grader at MMW on the JV cheer team. Being a part of this team means so much to me. The most impactful part of the season was building strong friendships and learning how important teamwork really is. I'm also proud of myself for learning new tumbling and stunting skills. As a group, we worked so hard and earned third place at state, which was such an exciting moment for all of us. This experience has taught me that hard work, dedication, and encouragement truly makes a difference. and I'm so proud to be part of this team. >> Congratulations to the following varsity team members. Stella Bombach, Natalyia Carvalo, Kayn Crossley, Lily Davis, Isla Deutsch, Autumn Drews Palowski, Kinley Hurst, Karina Johnson, Matteline Johnson, Audrey Lysing, Valentina Longo Schumer, Sophia Noah, Kateley, Ally Pleenpole, Quinn Schroeder, Vivian Siniscal, Grace Severson, Sienna Stiken, Cali Wilson. The varsity team is coached by Andre Brewer, Marcy Adams Helgrren, and Dan Weaver. Congratulations to the following JV team members. Greta Anderson, Neva Anderson, McKenna Balmia, Stella Bombach, Bryley Cook, Ava Daly, Leela Farney, Belle Fox, Piper Gray, Calli Hansen, Isabelle Hesselink, Olivia Erlin, Clark Linen, Cougall, Kateley, Vera Scanland, Sadie Schmer, Quinn Vogus, and Ellie Ziggment. >> The JV team is coached by Savannah Herbert and Marcy Adams Hilgrren. The Minnitonka High School competitive dance team concluded a remarkable season with an eighth place finish in the AAA jazz division at the state tournament. This was the team's first state appearance in more than 20 years. The team danced to the song Unstoppable by CIA, reflecting their months of determination and teamwork. >> The team's led by head coach Megan Row with assistant coaches Olivia Almond, Kaylee Bennett, and Skyler Put. Let's hear more about the season. >> Hi, my name is Megan Row and I am the head coach of the Minnotonka dance team. I'm super excited. This has been an unimaginable year for us. We advanced to the MSHSL state tournament, which is such an incredible honor um that has not been reached in 21 years. Our varsity jazz team this year really worked from the beginning of the season to get to this point and I truly am so beyond grateful to coach such amazing young athletes who really pour their hearts into practice every single day. Um, beyond the varsity jazz team, I'm so proud of the rest of the dancers on the Minnetonka dance team, too. We hit milestones that were really kind of unthinkable and unimaginable. And I know that our the whole on behalf of the whole coaching staff, we are all so proud of you guys. Um, way to represent your community, your fans, your alum. I know we are all so proud of you guys and I am so excited for these upcoming seasons to come and to continue to see all of the growth that the Minnotonka dance team has. >> Congratulations to the following competitive dance team members. L. Amu Gotfrieded, Julia Bonner, Meline Franklin, Bryley Hansen, Evelyn Husband, Laura Lowry Luther, Elelliana Meshler, Peony Miller, McKenzie Meccl, Kaden Pelstring, Charlotte Sand, Reese Schroeder, McKenna Seaffort, Tessa Talmo, Bailey Uttinger, Simone Yok, The boys Nordic ski team qualified for state competition this year where it placed 11th overall. Two members of the girls Nordic ski team qualified for state as well. The boys and girls Nordic teams are led by head coach Shan Kern along with the following assistant coaches and volunteer coaches. Ed Atwood, Caitlyn Groot Wasink, Olivia Groutman, Caitlyn Hawkins, Toeer Atwood, and Emily Maidinger. Let's hear more about the team season. >> Hi everyone, this is Coach Kern. I'm the head coach of Minnotonka's Nordic ski team. Um, we had really a tremendous season. A lot of snow. It kind of came early in the year right after Thanksgiving, so we got a lot of training in and had a great time out there on the trails. Just want to congratulate all competitors. Um, we had some really fun and fast racing out there and it was great to see that community be built. Um, really just a tremendous group of athletes and it was really fun to get to work alongside you this year as you pursued your goals. >> Congratulations to the following varsity team members. Reed Bevvis, Colby CPC, George Dolan, Peter Hackne, Micah Hunter, Tobaya Lang, Jacob Roach, Jackson Runk, and Charles Well. And congratulations again to girls Nordic Ski State participants Carolyn Hackne and Evelyn Malik. Four Minnitonka High School students qualified for the state debate tournament this year. One in the Lincoln Douglas category and three in the public forum category. >> Through debate, students learn the power of using rational reasoned arguments and compelling evidence to make a point. >> They polish skills in researching, organizing information, writing, and of course, public speaking. >> Let's hear more about the season. >> Everybody, it's Maline Smearillo, the head coach of the Minnitonka High School debate team. I am proud to be here today to discuss a little bit of our team's success that we had this fall. We were fortunate to place multiple students in the top 10 at every tournament we attended as a team this season. We also are proud to announce that we had four students qualify to the state tournament this winter and another four students qualified for our nationals tournament in Richmond, Virginia this June. So, I just want to say thank you to all my students for your commitment and participation in this valuable activity. I know you all have such bright futures ahead of you, and I can't wait for another season and beyond with you all. Talk soon. >> Congratulations to the following debate state qualifiers. Paige Barhoover, Isabelle Chen, Nikita Natraj, and Annie Tan. The team is coached by Maline Smearillo, Justin Abraham, and Demir Augustine. >> One Minnotonka student team, Team Terminal Velocity, qualified for the First Tech Challenge state competition this winter. First Tech Challenge, is an international program where teams collaborate to build and program a robot. >> The robots compete in a 12 x 12t field, completing challenges designed to help students think critically and expand their knowledge of the engineering process. At state, our team earned the Stratus Award for incorporating functional 3D printing into their robot design. >> Terminal Velocity was one of only 17 Minnesota teams to move on past state to premier outofstate competitions. >> Let's hear more about this opportunity. >> Hi, my name is Alton and I am a sophomore. This year at state, we won the stratus award which is given to the best 3D printed part. The most impact impactful thing this season for me was meeting other professionals and other teams. This helped us learn a lot about the STEM community, robotics, and the professional workspace itself. >> Congratulations to the Minnotonka students on team terminal velocity for the successful state appearance. Alden Go, Thomas Groander, Bodie Lton, Ora Wrenchin, and Ethan Rosner. The team is coached by Wilbert Go and Kent Anderson. >> Our final recognition of the evening is for an administrator from our community education program. Jenny Bedurka, director of community education, was named among the learn network's top community education practitioners in the country for 2026. She's one of only 20 administrators to receive this recognition. >> Jenny, thank you for your leadership which has contributed in making Mitaka Community Education one of the best programs in the nation. Congratulations on earning this national honor. >> That concludes our recognition program for this evening. Thank you again for celebrating with us. >> The school board meeting will begin shortly. Sorry. Good evening and welcome to the Minnitanka School Board March 5th, 2026 meeting. I would like to call this meeting to order. May we all stand and say the pledge to the flag. Sorry. Sorry. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Sorry, students. >> Good evening. I would like to extend a special welcome to our student board reps this evening, Michael Micah Lazarus and Izzy Shaw. Welcome and thank you for being here. Okay, first up we have the adoption of our agenda. May I have a motion to adopt the agenda, please? >> So moved. >> Second, Dan, and a second, Megan. >> All those in favor, please say, "I." >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Mot motion carries. >> Next up, we have our school report for MMW. Superintendent Law. Madam chair, members of the board, our first meeting of every month starts with the school report. We encourage every school to share what's happening in their building. Uh make a connection to our schoolboard goals and oftentimes include student representation going above and beyond. Tonight at Middle School West, I'd like to invite up principal fresher mocker. Welcome. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, Superintendent Law, members of the board. Yes. when you cast a wide net, sometimes you expect that only a handful will say yes, but we have a lot of very courageous and brave students who all say yes. So, it's wonderful. Um, so we're excited to share about M about Minnotonka Middle School West tonight. Um, we are going to talk a little bit about we've had some really major changes at MMW this year, but we've also held firm to some things that are very constant from year to year. So, we're going to share a little bit about some of those changes and a little bit about some of those core values that we really hold to um to help guide us through these changes. So, tonight we'll talk a little bit about what has changed, what stayed constant, and then our work in action. So, I'm going to actually be talking very little, and our students are going to be kind of sharing most of the information. We're going to talk about some of our new electives. We're going to talk about our continuing belonging and inclusion goals. um our women of color group will be speaking, our student leadership team and inclusion and unified will be sharing about their programs tonight. So, just to start out, I want to talk a little bit about some of the things that have changed. Um and guess what? A lot has changed. Um this is just a short list of all the different things that we're experiencing at MMW this year. um not only a new schedule, different classes, different numbers of students, length of class, new curriculum, new classes, um just a lot of change. Um and I put this picture on because I really just do have to give a huge shout out to the MMW staff and teachers who have really carried this change. A lot of teachers have said they felt like a new teacher this year, like they essentially were learning their job over again. Um but they've done so with grace and tenacity and just incredible amounts of hard work. and I'm very appreciative of them because sometimes when you're walking down the hall, you wouldn't know that we're experiencing this major change um because there's such great things happening. So, I just wanted to give a shout out to our teachers as we talk about all these major changes this year. Um but what is unchanged um and what is unchanged is our core beliefs and the tenants of what makes a really great middle school. That hasn't changed. We're a school that needs to be responsive. That needs to be challenging to our students, that needs to be empowering to our students to promote student agency. We need to be equitable to all experiences so every student has equal opportunities for success and achievement. And we need to be engaging for all students. That this is the place, as I've often said, they spend more time at MMW than you probably do in your own home uh waking hours. So we want MMW to be a place that you want to be and that you care about and that feels like a community where you belong. Our vision and our purpose has also remained the same. Um we want to create and foster a safe learning community where each and every student feels a sense of belonging and can discover their strengths and interests and reach their highest potential. A lot of the changes we made this year is uh the goal was to help us live into this promise and that community. And our core values have remained constant. And I just wanted to kind of highlight, you know, our core values of belonging, empathy, joy, courage, and integrity. And I just wanted to shout out belonging a little bit. We're going to talk a lot about belonging tonight. It's very essential in middle school that students feel connected. And looking at our uh developmental relationship survey data, the questions about belonging, I feel like I belong in the school. I feel like I'm part of a larger community at this school. I feel known and valued at this school. So, you can see our our survey data continues to be high 90% last year and that actually went up this year. Um, and like I said, it went up despite this these big changes. So, I think that's just a testimony um to our staff, to our school community, to our family, to the community that really comes together, cares about our kids, and creates the best possible learning experience. All right. So now this is where I'm going to stop talking um and I'm going to turn it over to some of our students. We had 21 new elective offerings this year. This is in addition to our previous like existing electives. So a lot of new electives, a lot of new experiences and I asked some students um I asked teachers just to nominate some students who they feel like maybe could speak to some of these new experiences. So we're going to bring up our students and when your name is on the screen you can come up and you can come up all the names on one screen. in a group and we will start with Kellen actually couldn't be here tonight, right? She had a basketball uh game tonight, but she wanted to share a little bit about sports history and sports psychology. She said it was a fun class. It was a light workload. She had lots of friends and she got to learn about the stuff she loves, sports history and sports psychology. Um, and I believe Max is next, who's actually also going to talk about sports history. Um, sports history was like a really unique class. I've never taken anything similar to that before. So, it was like super fun being able to learn about something I care about outside of school like sports and the different units like football and like basketball like with like stuff I really care about was like really fun. And then the fact that it wasn't like a huge workload either made it like a very enjoyable experience for me cuz I didn't have to like worry about the class when it came to that time of the day. And being it with like it was like a small group of us, probably like 10 of us and we were all like good friends. So, it was just a super fun class. I got to enjoy myself the whole time. >> Um, hello. I am Belle Wson and I'm Lucy Leven. We are both um from the forensics class which is a new elective and I think it is a great addition to the electives at MMW. We had so much fun. I learned so many things that I didn't had not known before. Um I learned everyone has distinct fingerprints. Everyone it's it's just a really amazing class. Uh we watched a lot of videos on different types of like crimes and how people solve them. We took notes about it. Um overall it was really interesting because there's a lot of different aspects about um forensics. All right. Web design, Omar, Jax, Oliver. Um, good evening. We're excited to share about our new eighth grade web design elective. At the beginning of this class, many of us have never built a website. Some, like me, hadn't taken a coding class. Our first major project was creating our own portfolio website. It was really cool to design something ourselves and actually see it on the wide world web. Our final project was to create a website for a fake business. At the time, paper darts were a big trend at our school. So, we decided to make a humorous business centered around paper darts. Um, we designed the brand branding, creating the page, and adding fun details to match our theme. One of the best parts was getting to collaborate. We had to share ideas, divide response responsibilities, and combined our strengths to create one finished product. The image on the slide link to our websites, though not the most impressive websites, these are coded from the ground up. While many websites you might see on the web are created using a visual editor, this class has helped us build real world skills and creativity, technology, communication, and teamwork. And it's been really exciting to see what we're capable of creating. Thank you for supporting opportunities like this for our students. >> Kid couldn't be here, too. >> All right. Animal behavior. Thank you. Um, I took animal behavior in quarter 2. It was a really fun class because we got to do experiments with live animals and insects. One of the animals that we did experience experience with was chicks. Up there on the screen, there's a picture of a chick. So, we um we like uh made obstacle courses for them to go through and we had to train them. So it was like we had to use teamwork with our partners to um and then we did uh beta we use we um we did experiments with betta fish where we um and then after the end of the unit we got to take them home if we wanted and yeah it was a really fun class. >> I'm just going to show this quick little video just so you can see the chicks in action. up there. You have to go there. See? Look. >> Nugget. >> Now they get a tree. Nuggets. >> Let's go up. >> Hello. Um, my name is Laya and I also be talking about animal behavior. So, to be completely transparent, like when I first got my schedule, I did not want to take this class. like I was not looking forward to it. I was like, I did not sign up for this. Like what am I going to get myself into? Um but I ended up really really liking it. Like this class, it was a really nice um it was something different, like something I'd never really done before. Um but it was something that like everyone could kind of relate to and everyone could um like find an interest in even if you weren't like a big animal person. Um and I really liked it because there's a lot of different labs. There's a lot of like moving around and like grouping with people. And so I always got to like be making new friends and talking to people which um in some classes you don't get a lot you don't get to do that a lot. So, I was really happy that I was able to do do that in this class. Um, it was also like not a ton of work, so it was a nice break from some like my other harder classes. And obviously, I loved it because well, I got to have a baby chicken. Mine's mine's name was Kia. I love my chicken. I still talk about my chicken a lot. Um, it was super cool because I got to like we learned about like how to train these chickens all quarter. And then at the end of the quarter, we got to like incorporate all of the things we learned in this like big final project. Um, which was the chickens. So, I had it like I had it every day. I worked on it um during class and I worked on it during advisory as well. So, it was always super fun. Like I got to wake up and be like, "Oh my gosh, today I'm going to work with the baby chicken in class." Like that's so much fun. So, yeah, I really loved this class. It was something different. It was something unique. Um I really found it to be enjoyable. >> Great. All right. Financial literacy. Uh, hi. I'm Arabel and I did financial literacy last quarter. Uh, in financial literacy, I learned about the basics of taxes, banking, budgeting, insurance, and all the stuff that you use uh as like a grown-up with like all your money. Uh, I thought this class was very helpful and taught us the basics of money in a fun and interesting way. During class, we'd have worksheets that taught us what we needed to know. And then we'd have like a practice or a project uh to use our skills. Like when we learned about budgeting, we then had to choose um like a job and just budget from there. And I really liked how uh we this class taught like real life stuff that I will use. In financial literacy, we also did a lot with how money works in the real world and how it will influence our lives. We used a lot of different ways to learn how money works through projects and class games and it was overall just a very useful class and it was also very fun. >> In financial literacy, I learned how to manage money. Some of the things we learned about were investing, taxes, insurance, and banking. We would usually learn about a topic and choose a um and have a project at the end of the unit. My favorite project was where we chose a job and came up with a monthly pay. After that, we calculated the monthly expenses of like living, groceries, and other costs. And at the end, we would work to balance our budgets. By the end of the quarter, I felt much more confident dealing with finances. My favorite part about financial literacy is that it teaches you a skill that you need in the real world. Fashion design. Hi, I'm Elliot. I'm Kenzie. And I'm Genevie. >> This year, sorry. This year, our middle school introduced a new fashion design class. And I would have never described myself as artsy or creative before this. I signed up because my friends did. and I had never designed anything before this class. One of the best parts of this class was creating our own designs using Canva. After finalizing our designs, we actually printed and heat pressed them onto real sweatshirts that we're wearing now. Oh, yeah. Seeing something we seeing something we created go from an idea to a screen to something we can actually wear was an amazing experience. We also learned how to create mood boards to help bring our visions to life, like this one, which is one uh me and Kenzie did with two other people in our groups in second quarter. Uh instead of just jumping straight into a project, we gathered inspiration first, cutting out images and textures from magazines, organizing colors, and thinking about and thinking and feeling about what we wanted our designs to communicate. We loved the hands-on nature of this class, cutting, arranging, designing, and pressing. It made the learning feel real and active. This class helped us channel our inner artist and creativity. Thank you for supporting opportunities like this in our school district. All right. Well, those are our electives. So, thank you students for sharing. I want to make sure I didn't miss anybody. I think I did. Okay. So, now I'm going to turn it over. We're going to talk a little bit more about belonging and connection. So, we're kind of shifting from some of the new things to some of the constant things that we really believe as core values at MMW. So, we're going to start with our women of color group. One of the things about belonging is you get to you get to be part of the group as you are. You don't have to change to be part of the group. And that's one of the things about women of color. Uh they get to be who they are at our school. So, I'm going to turn it over to women of color. >> Hi. Um, thanks for having so much for having us. I'm Sonia Warmouth, MMW student inclusion and diversity adviser and I'm also the adviser for women of color. And I have the privilege of working with amazing students who want to celebrate diversity and culture, build community, and dis discuss topics that are important to them. Student voice is central to our program. Um, my role is to listen to what their needs are and then empower them by creating opportunities that are meaningful to them while also helping them develop leadership skills and navigate complex conversations. Um, we always start our meetings with um by centering ourselves with our mission statement that you can see on the slide and it's to enrich the lives of young women by challenging their thinking to produce positive change. and I have all of my memor um my members commit this to memory. And um I've also had alumni come back and tell me that they still remember the mission statement. So um and speaking of student voice, I have Nina Quinley and Dao who are here to share some of the things that we've done through women of color. >> Hi, I'm Nina. Over the past few months, we honored all of the heritage months like National Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month and National American Indian Heritage Month. We celebrated the heritage months in a lot of different ways. An example of what we did in Black History Month is we talked about its importance over schoolwide morning announcements. We decorated the school's display case and we had a hidden figures challenge where we educated students and teachers about the important people in our lives. We put up posters with different women or men of color all around the school and had students go around and learn facts and then complete a quiz based on their defi based on their findings. Over announcements, we also showed our interview of an indigenous community member for Indigenous People's Day and shared how some families celebrate Lunar New Year. And just this week, we did a presentation on Ramadan and Eid. It was really fun learning about our peers cultures. We also had Minnotonka High School alumni come and visit. One was from Howard University and she was Mrs. She was Miss Minnesota teen and they came to talk about their journey to encourage us as we go through middle and high school. What we learned is how important it is to be yourself and the quality of friendships can be more important than the quantity of friendships. This February, we read to kindergarten to fourth grade students for a woman of color storytime event at Excelsier and Clear Springs. Whenever we do big projects, we come up with our why to ground us in our purpose and intent. Our why for women of color story time was to appreciate opportunities in spaces where the voices of women are elevated and amplified. To demonstrate leadership and be role models by building connections with youth and inspiring them to read. Women of color story time really kept the Valentine's Day love and spirit going. The students we read to were really inquisitive and were inspired to learn more about Minnotonka's diverse community. Thank you. We do a lot of fun activities that help us learn and have fun with each other, like guessing who the mystery person is, bringing in snacks from our own culture, playing games, and making women of color bracelets. We had a hoodie design contest, and you could see the winning design with the logo on the front and love in different languages on the back. I'm wearing the hoodie right now. Um, and we try to wear them when we go on field trips. Some students wear theirs every Tuesday when we meet. All of these things help to create a sense of community in a safe space where we feel comfortable talking about anything, whether it's something that brings us joy or other things that make us sad, obsessed, or fresh frustrated. I love attending Women of Color every week. Um, Women of Color is important to me because in a school that is predominantly white, I have a safe space with people of color. It's a place where I don't feel judged and I can be myself. I can talk about my experiences of racism and discrimination in a woman of color without having to worry about whether the person I'm talking to knows how I feel or is uncomfortable with the topic. Women of color is full of people who know how I feel because it's happened to them, too. I've been introduced to so many new people and have made so many new friends. Because of this group, I have learned so much from women of color and become cultured on so many different things. This group has shaped me into the person I am today. It brings me a sense of community that always has my back and makes me feel seen and heard. Thank you for listening to me to speak about women of color. Thanks D for sharing that. Um the group felt particularly important this year as many of the students were impacted by local events. Uh we spent time not only processing feelings but also supporting and creating moments of joy so students could continue to show up for their academics and their community. Uh that sense of belonging and support is really at the heart of what this program provides. Um I want to close by saying how proud I am of my women of color students. Um sometimes they say, "Missa, misna, we don't feel like we're making an impact. We don't know if anyone's watching morning announcements or if they're looking at the display case." And I tell them, I say, if you've impacted, positively impacted one person, and most likely you've impacted more than one person, then that one student or that one staff member felt included and seen and heard, and that's all that really matters. So, we are incredibly grateful to MMW and the district for continuing to support this program and the students whose voices make our school community stronger. Thanks, Thank you. The next part of belonging is our student leadership. So, we're going to have a little student leadership moment, which usually aren't very little. All right. So, Lisa and I are co-leaders of our student leadership. We call it Stoolie for short. And we're going to start with like a little bit of a story and then we're going to turn it on over to the kids. So, good evening, Superintendent Law. Madame Chair and members of the school board, we want to tell you a story about a student. A student doesn't love a student that doesn't love school. They don't hate it, but most mornings it feels easier to stay home. They don't feel especially connected. No big reason, just not pulled in. It's middle school after all. September comes around and tackle cancer fundraiser begins. Advisory classes compete to see who can raise the most money. This student's advisory wins. On a Friday morning, there's a doughnut party waiting for them. So, they come. They come for the donuts, but while they're here, they stay. They go to math. They turn in assignments for science. They sit with their advisory group and laugh about how competitive everyone got to raise money. For the first time that year, school feels a little different. It feels shared. October rolls around. Now there's the Great West hallway haunt. Every day, a skeleton is hidden somewhere new in the building. Students talk about it in the hallways. The teachers get into it. This student starts looking. They check before their first hour. They stop by the media center in between classes. They come a little earlier than usual just to see if they can find Skellyy first. It's simple. It's small, but there's something to look forward to. Now it's November. All of MMW is trying to fill that bus. And fill it we did. Advisory teachers nominate students to help carry out donations to the bus. This student's advisory teacher nominates them. They now have a role. For a week and a half, they show up because they're the ones bringing food out to the bus. They see how it's filling up. They see their classmates cheering when the bus really starts to fill. They feel useful, trusted, needed, and something shifts. They're not just attending school anymore. They're a part of it. Month after month, event after event, connection builds through advisory, through schoolwide, through schoolwide experiences, through leadership opportunities, through moments that might seem small on the surface, a doughnut party, a hidden skeleton, carrying boxes to a bus. But these aren't just fun extras. They are intentional experiences designed to create belonging. And when students feel like they belong, they come. And when they come, they engage. And when they engage, the learning follows. What our Stulie team and staff are building at MMW isn't just a calendar of events. It's a culture, a place where students don't just attend school, they belong here. And tonight, our student leadership team is excited to share a few of these events and the impact they're having on students and the community, just like the one the student in the story. So, here's just an example of our Friday morning fun. So we have a fun morning news show every Friday. We start the year off with um staff survivor. We for example here on the left and in the middle it was bigger and better. So each staff member was given a pencil and they had to go from classroom to classroom to classroom to find something bigger and better. Miss Fellain on the floor came back with a piano while wearing a helmet for example. She nailed it. Um we also did things like the donuts from the strings. You can see Miss Shock Shermacher downing a donut right there. Um, so we just try to start Friday mornings with fun. They're a little bit of chaos, but the kids love it. And we talked a little bit about the Great West hallway in our story. Um, this was our month-long um, find the skeleton hunt. So, every morning it would move and the staff members signed up to move it and they got really into it. It was really fun to see where Skellyy showed up in the school every day. Hi guys, my name is Kora. Um, this year Minnotonka Middle School West took it upon ourselves to fill an entire school bus with food to donate to a food shelf. Students brought in donations of pasta, rice, cereal, toilet paper, and peanut butter, which were all items that the food shelf requested. Advisories competed to bring in the most food in the just over a week duration of the food drive. First Student, our school's bus company, loaned us a bus for free, which we then packed with food, over 7,000 items in all. The advisory that brought in the most food, then rode on the bus to the Minnotonka ICA food shelf and helped load the food off the bus. This year's Fill the Bus food drive was an excellent way for Minnotonka West students to give back to the community. Hi, my name is Anie and I'm going to talk about the Roshambo tournament. Every year in late November, students and teachers participate in a schoolwide Roshambo competition. What this meant this year was that everyone started off the day with one beaded necklace and played a game of Roshambo or rock paper scissors. Whoever lost the game handed the winner their beaten necklace and was eliminated from the contest. Personally, I got out the first round, but the winner then gained the loser's necklace and was able to progress to the next round. Throughout the day, many people were eliminated and others gained hundreds of beads. At the end of the day, the finalists played each other in an intense tournament that was live streamed to the school. This activity brought together many people and many got to interact with people that they would have never talked to before and it was overall a great community building experience. >> Hi, my name is Evelyn and I'm going to be talking about the candy cane games. The candy cane games is a schoolwide activity where everybody is given a number for their grade. And there's two numbers. There's two of the same numbers per grade. And throughout the day, you're trying to find the person with the same number as you. And once you find that person, you will get a candy cane. And it really challenges people to get out of their comfort zone and like talk to one another. So it like it can help like build like more connection. Hello, I'm Francis Wear and I'm an eighth grader at MMW. And during the wonderful week of Valentine's Day, which I know all you singles love, we hung up paper hearts during the hallway. Through lots of love, dedication, and tons of tape, we managed to hang up every single student. Every eighth grader was a hot pink heart. Seventh graders were light pink. Sixth graders were white, and two student or teachers and staff were yellow. We managed to hang up every hallway, every heart. And as we watched the students walk down the hallway and point at others people's heart, it brought together a community and made everyone feel belonging. Thank you. Hi, my name's D. I'm here to talk about the eighth grade lip sync. The lipsync is is an event where the eighth graders get put into groups and choose a song they have to lip-sync to. You do dances or stunts during the songs and can have as many props or signs as you want. We then all have a competition against each other with our principal and other staff as judges. Many different awards go to classes in the eighth grade. Many different awards go to different classes, making everyone feel included. This is such a fun experience that everyone in eighth grade loves to participate in. We dance together, make unique ideas, and put our creativity to work. It makes people go out of their comfort zones and talk to new people. It helps all of us come together and really feel like a community. It's an amazing and very funny event that all the eighth graders really enjoy doing and watching. We thank you so much for letting us have this opportunity every year. >> Going to challenge them. >> We're going to give you each necklace you are going to experience from you or not. >> Everybody come out here. Let's go. All right, you heard the rules. Round one, everybody's in. You challenge anybody who has a necklace. If you lose, you have to give your necklace to the other person. >> Yes, I am. >> I didn't know if I was going to find you or not. I like the game. High stakes >> go up. Oh, you got this. >> Tell Francie. >> Wow. >> So, the superintendent takes it all. Wow. Nice job, Superintendent Law. Okay, but wait there's more. >> Um, we are now going to share our last segment is about our unified program. Um, so students who are sharing can come on up and we thank you for your patience. We know this is going a little bit longer than probably anticipated. >> Good evening, madame chair, superintendent law, and school board members. My name is Duke Fowler and thank you for giving my friends and I the opportunity to share about our MMW unified program. We hope you leave here tonight inspired and excited as the program as we are. >> So what is unified P? Basically unified P is a program supported by Special Olympics that makes sure every student gets a real chance to join in, try new things, be a leader, and grow in their physical, social, and emotional skills. Here's some kid perspectives. Building friendships and fun. Unified PE is a class to hang out with friends who have disabilities while doing fun sports just as you would in physical education. Developing healthy habits. The point in PE is to develop healthy habits and help kids find what they like to do. In U5 PE, we do tons of sports like swimming, soccer, volleyball, track and field, dance, yoga, basketball, football, ultimate frisbee, fitness center, and so much more. Hey, Jackson, what's your favorite sport to do in unified? >> Basketball. >> Core elements of unified PE. Students with and without intellectual disabilities get to learn and do activities together, which helps everyone feel included and a part of the same team. >> Teachers change up the activities, speed, and rules so that everyone can join in and have a good experience no matter their ability level. >> Our main goal is building friendships, respect, and teamwork while being active and having fun together. Why is it important? Inclusive mindsets building understanding and builds understanding and acceptance, fostering a welcoming environment for all students. Leadership empowers students to take on leadership roles and inspire their peers. Strong relationships creates meaningful connections and lasting friendships beyond the classroom. Healthier school culture promotes a positive and supportive school culture where every student belongs. Uh what we do, we do physical education together, also known as unified PE. We do field trips all year long. We do the polar plunge and we fund raise money for t-shirts and sweatshirts like these we have on right now. The sucker donations and the polar plunge donations. and we pair closely with Best Buddies. Best Buddies field trips. Uh we did bowling alley at Country Club Lanes. We did Pump It Up, Target Center to watch Unified State Basketball Tournament. And we're going to do Jump Start and a Wise at Track and Field meet. Um, so this is our in the front or middle. This is at the bowling alley. And then that's on the right is me and my friend Connor. And then Francis and Bennett. Then at this is at pump it up there was a basketball inflatable. Then in the middle there was the basketball game at the target center. Then that's another uh pump it up photo. >> Can I do it? >> So some things about the Polar Plunge is we paired with Special Olympics in Minnesota and roughly about 250 plungers participated and uh raised over $23,000. Plungers had to raise minimum of $50 to jump and students who raised over $250 got to nominate a teacher. Jumpers included students, building staff, building admin, and district admin. So, we got some Polar Plunge photos here. We got the handsome superintendent Lawson. >> We got Miss Splain, some other friends of Unified. Uh yeah, we have Mr. Mohamad in the shark suit and uh some other guys. So yeah, >> these are our hopes and dreams for unified unified music. Unified music is very similar to Unified PE. We will do classroom music and sing and play a lot of music for kids with disabilities to work with kids without disabilities. Lots of kids with special needs love using instruments and we can do it with them and teach them how to use it. We think that kids would like this and we could have a small concert for parents. Okay. Unified facts. Vocational education is a type of training that prepares individuals for specific careers through hands-on practical learning such as setting the table, baking, measuring, folding clothes, laundry, household chores, food preparation, technology related skills, gardening, and more. Unified P for the class to be offered year round rather than only two quarters, which is what we had this year. Okay. What's your guys's favorite part about Unifi? >> Basketball. >> Basketball. Gabe, what's your favorite part? >> Soccer. >> Soccer. >> Wait. >> What's your favorite part? >> Jackson, what's your favorite part? >> Uh, swimming. >> Swimming. Hi, I'm Wesley Drone and I'm here with my buddy Brady >> and we're here to talk about our story and why we love Unified. This year I joined Best Buddies and I really wish I had joined earlier. It is a so much fun and it's great opportunity to meet new people and learn about their disabilities and what they love and what they don't like. And this year I got matched with Brady and he's brought me so much joy. He's so fun, so energetic. It makes everyone around him so happy. And that's a lot of reasons why I love Best Buddies. Brady, what's the reason you love Best Buddies? >> I think I love playing see a new face and play basketball. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And then and then >> what do you say? >> Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? >> Yes. >> Are you ready? Are you ready? >> Are you ready? What a tape. >> They say it's crazy. >> They say it's freezing. >> They say they can't do it. >> But this isn't just about jumping in cold water. >> This is about courage. This is about community. This is about showing up. >> We plug for determination. We plunge for inclusion. We plunge for every athlete who proves ability is stronger than any obstacle. 3 3 2 1 of you >> take the plunge. >> Make a difference. >> Be brave in the attempt. >> It's cool. >> It's bold. >> It's unforgettable. >> So MMW, please sign up to join me, Scuba Steve, and the rest of our crew for the Polar Plunge. >> Sign up. >> I do get it. basketball >> co. >> All right. Well, thank you. That that was a lot of information and thank you for indulging us. I know we took a lot of time sharing about the things that are happening at MMW. There's a lot yet to come. um we're yet only in March. So these are just some of the this is just a small slice of what we do at MMW. Obviously, there's so much more that we're working on uh the rest of this year and into next year. So this is just a little snapshot of that. So again, thank you so much. Thank you for your patience. We went over our time and now if you have any questions for our students, if you have time for that, thank you for for having us today. >> All I can say is MMW. Wow. Can we give everybody another huge round of applause? Thank you so much. I started writing down questions for everybody and then I thought, well, that I can't ask I can't say to every single person who presented everything I wanted to say, but it takes so much courage to get up up here and speak. Every single one of you did a phenomenal job and I thank you so much for in being your inclusive belonging efforts and I love the Tonka includes that is fantastic. And Miss Rosati, thank you for getting us up during a board meeting. That is very unusual. So I love it. So we have a few questions from the board. Tanya, I don't have a question. I just have a comment. I just want to say how proud I am of all of you. And you probably aren't going to hear this from too many adults, but I would definitely go back to middle school if I were going to be at MMW. So, really great job everybody. Anyone else? Thank you so much again to everybody and thank you parents and supporters for being here as well. Thank you. >> Okay. Wow. Yep. >> That was >> That was a lot. >> Smile field trips something. >> You guys like >> he didn't send it. So I literally wrote down all that in like five minutes. Um, you'll go right there and as soon as David pulls you up, then you come up here. Okay. Now on the agenda is a time for community comments. And I see that we have no community comments for this evening. So, we'll move forward. Next up on the agenda, we have our presentation on school safety and security. Superintendent Law. >> I hope this next presenter uh is prepared to follow that last group. Wow. Our next topic is on an update on school safety and security. Just for a little bit of background, our district had an existing existing safety practices and protocols, but opportunities existed to align them across sites and to ensure consistency. Staff expressed the need for clearer systems and stronger supports and the same response school by school. We as a district committed to a full evaluation of our current systems. We conducted an audit almost four years ago that was comprehensive by a third party uh person who specializes in school audits, reviewed our building procedures, training, and culture, identified strengths and areas for improvements, and took some action. We revealed the need for a coordinated district-wide safety leadership, hired a dedicated security emergency management coordinator, and established a structured framework for improvement. Tonight we're going to get an update on where we've been over the last few years from our safety our school security emergency management management coordinator Scott Guricker. Mr. Gericker. >> Thank you, Superintendent Law, Madam Chair, school members. I do have some beaded necklaces here for you. >> Yeah, right. Um, thanks for having me and uh this I'm starting my third school year here at Minnetonka Schools. Um, actually I'm a 1986 graduate. I've been in Tucka High School. So, been living in the district my entire life. But this evening, I just want to kind of give you an overview of some of the things that we have going on as it relates to school safety and security. I've had a chance to sit down with most of you here to talk in the past about some of the things that we have. So, I'm going to cover, I think, a lot of different areas. I'm just going to talk a little bit about physical security and some of the things we have going on there. I'm going to talk about planning and training and give you overview of some of the planning that we have and are doing as it relates to staff training especially. I'm going to talk about some threats and threat assessments and how we handle that at all of our schools. I'm going to touch base on some of the partnerships and collaboration that we have especially with our government officials and our public safety officials. and then I'm going to talk some about some exciting security upgrades that we have in place that are are going to be taking place here in the coming weeks. So with that just wanted to touch base on um physical security and just give you a little bit of overview about that. Uh we've been doing a lot of things over the past few years even before I started uh to strengthen the security of our buildings and as I said that started uh before I I actually started and things like um improving the locks on our doors, improving the secure vestibules to make sure that the schools during the day are kept tight and secure. Um, we did a lot of talking with staff to get their feedback because we, myself, others can look at a school could can give it a good overview, but until you actually talk to the people that are working in that building, you really don't get a feel for what maybe some of those vulnerabilities are or certainly some of the concerns that uh those those folks are concerned about. securing our interestes in classrooms. As you I think are probably aware a few years ago we did uh change out all the locking mechanisms in all of our classrooms making them very easy to secure. One of the things during an emergency situation you don't want any sort of complicated locking system that you have to use a key or press a lever and and do a number of different steps. So we made it very simple. All of our classrooms have a simple flip lock which immediately secures the door to each and every classroom that's standardized throughout every single building in the uh in the district. As you know, we have secure entrances and vestibules with secured access points. So people can't uh come directly into the school. They actually have to number one get buzzed in through the initial front door to the office where they have to check in and then get buzzed in to secondary door. So there is a screening process that goes with that as well. If you visit schools during the day, all of our visitors um have to go through a screening process using our raptor visitor management system which queries everybody entering that school against the national sex offender database just to make sure that we're not letting any dangerous folks in the building. Uh parents have been extremely receptive to this process and it works pretty seamlessly as I'm sure most of you probably have experienced yourselves. um exterior and window improvements. We have done a lot of things uh over the years and recently as it relates to to windows. And I'm pleased to say we're one of the only school districts I'm aware of in the state of Minnesota that has protective window film on every ground floor window in our school district on every single building. And what that does, it delays entry for any intruder that would attempt to break through that window for whatever reason they might think they are going to do so. it would delay that by 10, 15, 20 minutes. By that time, we're able to muster up law enforcement resources to handle that. So, that's a very uh comforting protective measure for our staff and actually really help secure our buildings during the daytime hours, especially uh lighting um around the area and some of the other exterior issues. We I had a chance shortly after I started to do a walk through with each and every principal of their building both inside but also outside just looking at things like trees that are growing close to the building uh blind spots, spots maybe that aren't covered by some of our cameras and uh we were able to address some of those issues as well. That's an ongoing process depending on priorities and dollars. Everybody wants more and more cameras and we do have a several hundred car cameras as you do know both inside and outside all of our buildings. Um so that's something that we continue to look at. Um a couple other more recent things that we have completed. One in the past year or so we've implemented some new radio systems. So each of our schools has their own little walkie-talkie radio system that they use to talk internally with the paras playground supervisors etc. But we took it a step further. So now we have a district-wide radio system that each one of our front offices. All of our school administrators, principles, assistant principles, myself, and some of the key folks here in the district service center now have district-wide radios that can reach all the way from Glo Groveland out to Minowashta. So that in the event of an emergency where we need to do emergency communications about what might might be happening at a particular site, we're able to now do that using a radio system to better communicate with that type of information without having to rely on text message strings or trying to get through at a time when phone lines are busy. So that was nice to have. We also just recently in the past couple of weeks completed a digital mapping project and this came from a grant through the Metropolitan Emergency Response Board which governs all the uh actually armor um radio systems in the state of Minnesota and they put together a grant. We're the first school district that took advantage of that and what they did we brought in some experts. This it was no cost to the district whatsoever. They went through each and every one of our schools and digitally mapped everything in that school. Not just the entrance and exits, but the location of cameras, the location of AEDs, anything that we might need to see ourselves. But more importantly, we're now now able to share those dig digital maps with our first responders. and there will be preloaded into their commu computer AED dispatch so that a police officer respond to any of our schools will have access to a digital map on their mobile digital computer so they'll be able to see exactly what entrances are where, what's inside the building, what's outside the building. So again, free of charge to the school district and that just came online in the past week. All right. Um, really the most I believe the most important thing that we have done since I've been here doesn't necessarily relate to door locks or cameras or alarm systems or anything that it's training and staff training. And I I really can't speak to what was done prior to coming here, but I know in my work with Superintendent Law, you know, we talked and we want to make sure that every building and every employee in every building knows what to do during an emergency because you can have the greatest security systems and processes in the world. But if if your staff does not understand what to do during an emergency, that's going to be the biggest detriment to being able to respond quickly and save lives. So, uh, I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment, but we've taken the step of each and every year going out to each building, myself and Superintendent La giving a 30 minute security presentation around the start of school or in the month after, trying to get everybody together, giving them the exact same message about what their options are during any type of emergency situation. Uh, with that, we've established clear protocols uh, on what that's about. And in doing that, as you'll hear in just a minute when I switch slides, we have partnered with all of our first responders to find out number one, what do they do? What is their protocol? So that we can then relay that to all of our staff members so they know what to expect from fire, from police, from EMS during an emergency. As you do know, we have six different law enforcement agencies covering the Mitaka School District. So being able to connect with each and every one of them has been part of my charge to make sure that we have that constant communication and they do and I'm speaking with most of those law enforcement agencies just about every week or two about a variety of different issues taking place at some of our schools. Um going back to the staff security and training that we have done as I said we do that each fall. It's about a 30-minute training. It's been extremely wellreceived by all of our staff members. Part of that had been an producing a a video on active threats and active shooters and things like that and what how we would respond. And uh thanks to executive director Getty uh for helping to script that and put that together. And so we'd be able to were able to deliver that to all of our staff members each and every year to remind them here's what your options are. When we shot that video, we did so during the summer months at Mitaka High School and we were able to utilize some of our own staff members and students as actors in that. We also utilized our law enforcement partners who participated in that video so that we could demonstrate visually um to our staff members. Here's what you can expect when there's a lockdown situation. Here are the how the police are going to move. Here's when EMS would come into a scene in a situation like that. So that has been I believe one of the most impactful things that uh that has been part of what I've done since since coming here. Just want to switch gears and talk about threats and threat assessments. So we do a threat assessment um anytime there's a threat of self harm or a threat against a school or a staff member. And there's a number of different ways that we do do that, but we've we've taken some steps here in the last six months to really centralize that and and automate that system. And um myself, uh executive director Fay, and uh got to give a lot of credit to Director Annie Lumbar Benbson, our health services director, who's really been spearheading some of that mental health and training for all of our counselors, school nurses, social workers, and psychologists. And that training has been great. Um, previously when we had threats or we had a student that was making a threat of self harm, there was documents done, paper documents, they may sit someplace for a period of time, but let's say somebody transferred and went from MME to the high school. Well, there really was no centralized system to bring up that child's history of what may be going on in their life other than to call up that principal and say, "Hey, Johnny's now at the high school. Did you have any problems with that individual?" Now, all this information is entered by our staff, by our schools psychologists, by our counselors into the Raptor student safe system that we've now put into place. All of the forms that the staff have been trained on, our Columbia suicide screeners, our SEAG forms, those have all been electronically uploaded into the system. So, it's a fully automated process which is able to then follow a student all the way through their academic career so that we know over the course of their academic career what if any threats have been going on or this happened two years ago, maybe that's related to an incident that's now happening this year. So, to me, that's been an extremely uh beneficial tool that we now have at our disposal. And that was about a year and a half, two-year project to get that up and running. But thankfully, it's up and running now. And it's been very well received by our staff members that are using it. Um, all right. The other thing I just wanted to let everybody know is in talking about threats and threat assessments is that we do take each and every threat extremely seriously and and we treat them very diligently in dealing with them. Um we talked about some of the forms and some of the evaluations that our counselors do, but anytime we have a threat against a school or against a staff member, against another student, uh our school administrators get involved. We bring that kid in. We talk about what might be going in the home. We also often times get law enforcement involved, especially if there's any reference to any type of weapon. That almost always results whether that child is in third grade, 8th grade, or a senior in high school, law enforcement speaking with and doing a home visit to that child's home, usually after school or in the evening time to determine whether that child has access to any weapons, what might be going on inside the home. And we are absolutely religious about doing that. And one message that we also impart to our staff members as it relates to threats when we do our training is that we're not always able to share the results of those interventions with staff members and certainly with parents who hear about these uh because sometimes they're posted on social media, things like that. Uh but rest assured, we would never ever hold school, open school if there was any type of credible threat at any of our facilities, any of our schools. So we absolutely run down that until we can't run it down any further. And I just always like to make that clear whether I'm talking to a group of parents or our staff members or now all of you just to let you know that we take these threats very seriously and um do those investigations. There's always also follow-up safety plans put into place by the principles, the assistant principles whenever there is a threat. So, we didn't say, "Oh, that's good. Go back to class." It it always involves follow-up that could be days, weeks, or possibly months depending on the seriousness of the the threat that we're dealing with. Uh partnerships, I talked a little bit about that. We have a great collaboration with our law enforcement partners in the six different agencies that represent us and we've had the opportunity to work with them in doing tabletop exercises talking about how would we respond during an active shooter situation at one of our schools. Um going through and answering questions with them about the building layout. We've taken groups of law enforcement officers on non-school days into our schools to give them tours of the buildings so that the first time they're going into one of our schools isn't during an emergency, but they know in their head what the layout might be prior to going in for any type of emergency that might be taking place. Uh we do do annual safety meetings we've been doing with the chief law enforcement officers of all those agencies giving giving them an overview and answering any concerns and questions that they have. And then we also share all of our emergency plans and all of our emergency contact information with all of our law enforcement partners. Now, we've gotten to know all these law enforcement partners, which I think is extremely important because I don't want to have to introduce myself to the chief of police of Minnetonka during an emergency. I want to have that relationship. So I know I can call him on the cell phone, he can call me. We can talk about that. We have that relationship going. That's extremely important. And so um providing them not only with what those plans are, but making sure that they have the key contact information, whether that be the middle of the night or during a school day to get a hold of us and say, "Hey, Scott, what's going on here?" And we can talk back and forth. So it's some of the collaboration that we have done. Um, I love you guys and some of the training that we've done there a couple of years ago. We did some initial reunification training offsite with about 70 personnel, our person some of our personnel as well as some of the first responders that I've mentioned. And we've identified and since that time have done um annual refresher training and new training for new staff that may have come on board. We've pre-identified individuals on a reunification. In the event there was an emergency and we had to evacuate the school for whatever reason. We've identified roles and individuals that we can pull upon that are not student facing. They're not teachers. They're not tied to a classroom. It's folks that are in support roles or working here out of the DSC that we can pull at a moment's notice to respond to a certain location to set up a reunification. And we've gone through and practiced repeatedly go how what that process would look like so that staff are familiarized with what their role might be and exactly how to operate what is the process for bringing a kid in reuniting with that kid with their parent and accounting for that student. Um so that we make sure during an emergency everybody is accounted for. So that that reunification training has been key I believe. And then along with that are the terms that you see there up on the screen. Hold, secure, lock down, evacuate, and shelter. Those have now become commonplace throughout the school district. And so all of our staff knows that if there's a hold, that's a situation in the school where there's something going on in the classroom that may not rise to the level of a lockdown. It could be a medical emergency, which typically it might be. And the principal simply gets on says, "All staff, please hold in your classrooms until further notice." It allows us to clear whatever might be going on and then go back to business as usual in hallways. And a secure, that's a situation where there might be something taking place of a threatening nature outside the building and staff knows when there's a secure. They get the kids outside out from outside inside. They lock those exterior doors and we don't let anybody in the building until at which point we get the all clear from whatever might be happening outside. So, um, part of our annual training is to go over each of those terms and to talk about those with staff so they have a clear understanding of what we're doing and why we're doing it. Uh, we are doing some additional security assessments. I just want to mention I think you're probably aware of this but in recent months we've gotten some feedback from some of our parents as it relates to our afterchool programs explorers and um since that time I've partnered with executive director Carlson from community ed and we're going to be putting into place um parents ask well if the school is so secure during the day why isn't it secure after school when our kids are at explorer club it will be now because now we have a system and we put in just recently some hardware so that uh we will have a controlled entry point that'll be secure. Parents that are going there to pick up their children will be buzzed in identities checked and and they'll be directed to our Explore staff who will turn over the kids. I will say without those measures explorers is extremely safe and well supervised and the staff does an outstanding job. This is just one extra level of security that we can bride provide to parents and give them a little bit more peace of mind uh that the building is secure not just during the school day but after school as well. So that's going to be coming up very shortly uh here in the next hopefully month or so. Um and I think that's going to be a positive step in the right direction as well. All right. So, real quickly going over some um new and what I think is extremely exciting upgrades to security and and this is taking place really as we speak. Um our new audio enhancements, epic and safe systems going to be installed here in the coming starting this week or next at Minnitaka High School. And these are these are dollars. Thank we're thankful for the some of the referendum dollars that made this a possibility. And just to give you a very brief overview because I could talk for an hour on what this all entails and I'm guessing exe executive director Fay has given you a little briefing about some of this as well. But it does a lot of different things. It leverages technology that we have. It integrates some of our existing technology into this new comprehensive system which among other things will have a couple of kiosks at locations in the front office and other areas that will act as a nerf center if you will. It'll have building floor plans and layouts digitally displayed. And each classroom will have a a wall system that they're able to activate during emergencies. It also completely upgrades our classroom audio, intercoms, bells, and paging system, not just from a quality of sound perspective, but integrate some emergency response features into that system as well. And then each and every one of our staff members is going to be issued one of these, which I'll pass around, which looks like regular. But what that is is that's a panic button that by press by depressing a certain sequence of buttons on that for a certain period of time that alerts the front office and other individuals in the school who have access to the system that Scott Gerickert MHS has an emergency. It also displays the exact location of that individual, whether they're in the classroom, in the cafeteria, walking down a hallway, or directly outside, let's say, the main door. Um, once that's acknowledged by the front office, then we're able to dispatch staff very quickly to that location. It also integrates with some of our existing cameras. So, not only do we know it's Scott Gerlickers in the cafeteria, but we're it automatically will pull up those cameras so that we can see what might be happening, where that individual is located, and that will aid in the response. We're also then able to relay that to law enforcement. Now, the other feature of that panic button that you see there is by pressing a secondary button for a period of time, it also will notify 911 via text message that Scott Gerlicker at MHS has an emergency. So that that will automatically go to Henipin dispatch. They will get that and be able to dispatch without anybody ever having to make a phone call during an emergency situation. You've probably heard about those in other school districts. Um this is one system, but the systems that we're putting into place with the Epic and audio enhancement systems are really state-of-the-art. And we're starting this at Minnitankka High School. As I said, we have all the equipment right now. It's going to be installed and executive executive director Fay and a lot of her people are going to be involved in that along with some contractors. Um that'll all be installed prior to the end of school during the summertime. We'll be able to test this new system and roll it over, test all the security and safety features. There's some staff staff training involved which we will be doing prior to the start of next school year and at the start of this coming school year. All of this will be in place at Minnitak High School with other schools following in future years. So, that's a really exciting um system that we're going to be having that is um again, we're thankful for the some of the referendum dollars that was able to make that happen. So, what's next? Security obviously is a continual process. We're we we're going to continue to do the staff trainings, keeping work keep working with some of our partners and looking for other improvements. You know, we always look towards technology, but technology isn't the solution to everything. It really comes down, in my opinion, to people knowing what to do during an emergency situation. We're thankful that we do have some of the technology, but uh we'll keep looking at what is on the horizon out there, what are some of the best practices and try to emulate what might be going on in the rest of the country. And just some closing thoughts. You know, at the end of the day, we want our schools to be welcoming but also safe both for students and parents attending. And and as we know, safety is a shared responsibility. It's not the responsibility just of me, but it's the responsibility of the thousand or so employees of the Mitaka School District. So, I'm going to end there and uh if you have any questions, by all means, let me know. Thank you all. >> Thank you, Mr. Gericker. Superintendent, >> one of the uh leading things that experts will tell you about school safety is that students that feel connected and a sense of belonging at school are much more likely to help us with our safety efforts by reporting things they're concerned about. After our first 40-minute presentation for Middle School West, you can see we are certainly committed to belonging as our anchor to school safety. And these are other steps that we're taking behind the scenes. But I I I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the best way to prevent any incidents at school or to make sure that every student feels connected, supported, and cared for at that school site. >> Karen, thank you, Madam Chair. I have um a comment and a question. First of all, um Scott, thank you for your presentation. And I also want to shout out Superintendent Law and Annie Lumbar Benson back in January did a presentation at the Minnitankka School Board Association conference and shared with other districts a lot of what we're doing in Minnetonka and I think they found that really helpful and supportive for their school safety. Um and my one question is you mentioned that there's the Raptor technologies that they store information about students so it can go from one building to the next about a a information on a student. Just curious when a student graduates how long does that information get stored or what happens with that information after that point >> once a student is out of our system that information would disappear. I don't have the exact timeline of that but it once they have completed their time with Minnetonka schools it would be deleted. >> Megan >> thank you for all this. I um really appreciate how much we have done and I've told you before how important I think the prevention is, but I'm um very reassured about the reunification plan because I think that is such an important piece and maybe is e easier to overlook. Um the question that I had was um in an emergency and in a school, right? Like if you're if you're a teacher, at any given time you might have a student out at the restroom or a student who was absent at the beginning of class. So, will that system be able to also kind of inventory attendance? So, like will a student be able to say, "Oh, this one wasn't here at all today, so we don't need to look for him, but this one went out to the restroom and is unaccounted for." Is there an interface there, or is that a capability that will come along or how does that work? >> That's a great question. The system that we have isn't a student accountability system. It's a security system. The one thing that it does do during, let's say, a lockdown situation is that wall panel that I discussed previously, the teacher is able to mark their classroom green if everybody's good and accounted for. If they don't answer, it's yellow. And if they it's red, that means there's a problem in that particular classroom. So class by class we'll know a status but it's incumbent upon the teacher and the attendance that they take and the class rosters that hopefully are in the go bags that we have to help us account for those students at a reunification as well and then using our skyward system as well. >> But even that green, yellow, red, that would be really helpful, right? Because law enforcement could say, "Oh, that one's green. I don't have to that's not my priority. my priority is going to be this one that's red because there's some issue there that needs to be addressed. So, I think that um is a first step for sure. I appreciate that. >> And these things do take time to clear a building like that. I mean, in preparation for this system, we had to go to Menac High School and spent about two minutes in every classroom, every room in Menac High School scoping it out for the technology, four hours. It It's a huge school. And so being able to say, "Well, this wing's good. we just have to worry about this particular wing or these these rooms. That's going to be, I believe, extremely beneficial. God forbid we never need it, but if we do, it's it's a great tool. >> Mike, >> um just a comment or more specifically a word of thanks uh on behalf of all the parents in the community, especially those who have kids in multiple buildings. Uh, our families had seven kids in the 10 buildings, eight now if you out of 11 if you include the new Vantage Momentum building. Having a a consistent entry process for every building is so helpful that I can't even I can't even explain how difficult it was the first few years that we were here when we were jumping between buildings and had to remember which process was which. So, thank you for all the work you did on that and everything else. Sally, >> yes, thank you. I'll echo that. Um the the most asked question I've had over the last two months has been about the um after academic hours security. So, thank you for the update on that. We'll look for more to come on that. I have a question. It's student related. I've heard um secondhand about a student at the high school inquiring about what communications are available for especially I think our secondary students to understand some of these things as well because I imagine they're the most curious about security in their own buildings. We've had some discussions about that and we have continue to have discussions about that and how much we share or don't share because there are certain you know there's reasons certainly during a active threat situation one of the person conducting that could be one of the students themselves. So, uh, there's advantages, tactical advantages to making sure they understand during an emergency, do what your teacher asked you to do, but stopping short of providing them with all the nitty-gritty details of here's what is going to happen. There's some risks, I guess, in doing that and providing too much. I totally understand that. And there's two sides to that as well. One thing we did do just recently last week, I was not in town. I don't know if you knew, but you know, we we're required to do five active or lockdown, excuse me, lockdown drills in each of schools every year. And for the first time ever at Menitak High School, they did one during passing time because it's easy to do a drill when everybody's in class. Okay, shut off the lights. But we wanted to see what would happen when the halls are full. And kids were given a heads up, so they weren't surprised. But uh I haven't had a chance to really debrief with the assistant principles there. But those are the sorts of drills that I think are the most beneficial because none of these emergencies ever happen at a convenient time. So I'd rather work out the kinks during a time when it's practice. >> Thank you, Mr. Geriger. >> Thank you. >> Next up, we have an update on districtwide committees. Superintendent Law. Madam chair, members of the board, one of the schoolboard goals for the current school year is under the area of excellence and leadership and organizational support. It's related to district committees. Specifically, goal 4E states district-wide committees, including the calendar committee, teaching and learning advisory committee, finance advisory committee, mental health advisory committee, and community education advisory committee will each present an update to the board of their charge and current work. The mental health advisory committee was in front of the board in January, but the remaining four committees have a brief update on what's happening this year, their membership, their activities for the year. We'll start with Angie Flowers, executive director of HR and general counsel. Angie, >> good evening. Thank you, Superintendent Law. And good evening, members of the board. >> Well, I'm happy to give you the overview of calendar committee tonight. And at the next study session, I'll be going into detail about what we've been discussing. We've already had our first meeting this year. So, I'll start with the purpose of the calendar committee. It really is to provide that preview of what the year is going to look like. And we do a really fantastic job in Minnetonka of giving that out even a year in advance. So, what we're working on right now is the 2728 calendar. We comply with state statutory requirements, uh, instructional time, hours, days, breaks, conferences. So, there are quite a few parameters around the calendar, but we try to be creative as we can. Um, and we really have open and respectful dialogue. It's important that it's a place for everyone's voice to be heard, even if there is disagreement, and we have some really good members who who respect that. So we we've had some really good conversation. We always want to recommend a calendar that meets the needs of the community, the priorities and first and foremost in the best interest of our students. We have a diverse group of stakeholders in our um calendar committee. Students, parents, paraprofessionals, teachers, and administrators. These are the members of the calendar committee, district administration, site administration, staff members, parents at each level, elementary, middle school, and high school. And we have four student members as well. And our students are not shy about speaking up. Um, yeah, one of our staff members was was here tonight leading women of color, Sonia Warmouth. Lastly, I'll share the timeline. As I mentioned, we had our first meeting on February 24th um that evening and it pretty much everyone arrived. We have 27 members of the on the calendar committee. It is it's a nice size committee. Um, so we'll I'll review the parameters with you on March 17th at the study session, then go back and update the committee on April 13th. And one of the regular meetings in May is when I will bring that final recommendation to you for your consideration. Any questions? >> Board members, I I was thinking we go through all four committees and then there could be questions for any committee. >> Good evening. The next committee that we're going to review is the teaching and learning advisory. This is a committee that is both uh part of a schoolboard policy as well as is required or expected as a part of state statute. Um, this committee is meant to serve in an advisory role uh to the school board and the administration and really is looking to give feedback or help with recommendations as we look at our district curriculum programs. um when we're adopting new standards, we do um look at assessments, program evaluations, when we have changes in our graduation standards, um and a variety of other things that come up throughout the year that we really want to mix stakeholder uh group feedback on. This committee also is a committee that we work to have be representative and reflective of the students we serve, our staff, and our parents. Our district committee is made up currently of 21 members. Several of you have been on this committee either as a parent or as a board representative. Um, right now it's a pretty good balance between parents and staff. As a part of staff, we work to have district administrators, school administrators, teachers, paras, um, and then of course parents and community members. We also started uh in the spring of 2021 for the first time uh with a student district advisory committee. Um, we've always worked to have student representatives on the district committee and it's really challenging um because they're really busy to have them consistently there. Um, additionally, we really wanted a platform for student voice and input in a format that they felt was meaningful and gave them an opportunity to share their thoughts and perspectives and experiences in our schools. You can see we have 24 students currently. We work to balance students across grade levels, across programs, um, and really again work to have students that represent the Minnotonka student body. Uh, students have an opportunity to apply for this committee each spring when the high school puts out all of the opportunities that are available to our students. Um we asked them to fill out an application that just asked them to express why are you interested and what um strengths, experiences and background would you bring to the committee that would help add value um to this group. Um unfortunately we have more students apply than we're able to select. Um but at once a student is on the committee they have the opportunity to continue um either until they graduate or if they decide that their interests change or they become too busy certainly they uh drop off but many of the students stay with us for their entire high school career or have so far. Both of the committees meet quarterly. We've tried to have the student committee the week in front of the district one. This month it worked out with the hockey game today that we need to flip-flop it and it'll be in reverse order. But then after the student committee, we always invite representatives to come um to the district committee. And we've had really good luck with that this year. um some of the topics that we've covered so far. Each year we review the process we use for curriculum review, take questions, feedback. Um and then many of these topics are very familiar because they're topics that come before the board as a part of our cyclical work. In addition, um we use this committee as a sounding board and for feedback around requirements like our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness, um our ESSA or title programs that we have in the district. Recently, we talked about college and career readiness and gained feedback um from families and students in that area. Coming yet this year, we'll give the updates on the curriculum work that's underway. um newly being implemented and what's on the horizon. Uh annually we review our district assessment plan. And as you'll see um we also will have our American Indian education program uh reviewed at this committee. So those are the highlights from the teaching and learning committee. >> Okay. Thank you. Um um Amy, I am here for the finance advisor committee and I went uh back in time a little bit because uh the district was formed in 1952 and for the first 40 years till about 1992 there was no finance advisor committee. Uh but I uh went back and uh talked to my my predecessor Tom Bergie. uh he was in this position from 1985 to 2005 and the finance advisory committee was created in 1992 after a per period of what he called turmoil in the district back in the late 80s and actually for a long period of time u but through the late 80s there was no cap on operating referendums for us that sounds like nirvana right now right but um it was the primary funding mechanism for the district uh but there was a 198 1987 operating referendum to balance the budget that was heavily opposed by a citizen group named CARE, Citizens for Affordable and Responsible Education. Uh the referendum passed by 70 votes out of 7,000 cast. And at that time there was no recount statute, but there was a uh reverse election statute. And uh within 24 hours of the election, the care group began a recall election to reverse the referendum results or gathering signatures. So they obtained the necessary 2,800. Uh they ran the reverse referendum and the reverse referendum failed by 600 votes which means it stayed the referendum stayed in place. It was not revoked. But at the next schoolboard election, the careg group uh placed a slate of three on the ballot and initial results showed showed two of the three got elected, but the gap between the third and fourth required a recount. So there were um uh uh one of the care people and then a person who was not part of that care group. And I guess there's votes were counted in um in this the district offices and there were people observing the recount and the whole nine yards. But the recount actually reversed the election results and the third care candidate was also elected to the board. Okay. So um one care member though actually resigned from their seat uh before being seated and then the school board uh chose the person. they they selected a a replacement and settled on a replacement who happened to be a CPA. So um person after my own heart. Subsequently um a suggestion by by the board to have a financial advisory committee was made at the suggestion of this person who was um had been elected um uh but to have a finance advisory committee made up of financial professionals from the community to be a sounding board on district financial matters. So they established a committee with nine community members. We still have nine today. Uh Tom Bergie said to me though he kind of closed with the information he gave me with. He said it was a very politically charged time. He said he felt like he was stuck riding on an electric bucking bull and he could not get at the guy who kept feeding the quarters to keep it going. So, but they navigated that and started the finance advisory committee and it was very very successful because um when I first started here in in 2007 there was nine members of the committee but it's open meetings and so uh number of the unions were they sent regular representatives community members would attend. we'd have 20 odd people around the table uh besides the district staff and so they're very well attended and uh but you remember at that time we were had just gone through I guess kind of the the financial turmoil of the late 90s and early 2000s when there were so many budget cuts as we know from that that historic chart that we keep track of and um so there was a lot of people in interested because you know there's a lot of very deep budget reductions uh but as we kind of or organ organized the district, started growing the district and things got settled uh a little bit more. Um uh the attendance in the in the committee dwindled and it also became quite frankly a little bit harder to attract people. So we have we have three um three openings right now. Um so but our current finance advisory committee membership is John Groten uh as a chair. D uh dear Keller is a vice chair. They they have both been on on on around since 2010 and 2011, I believe. And actually, they're two of the people involved in this committee that were actually kind of really heavily involved with finance advisory at the time when we were really going through and kind of like stabilizing the district and and growing the district. So, they have that history with them. Also, uh Charlie Steining, Courtney Swenson, an Sen, John Fanning, and three openings, our current board member, Sally Brown, uh treasurer. again other attendees that we have superintendent, associate, superintendent. Uh we also have various business office staff that would like to um uh just keep up on what's going on. And so um and again they're technically open meetings. So come one come all. So uh you know in terms of recruiting people uh you know in 2019 uh the board uh decided to go through a more formal process. Prior to that we basically basically I was kind of responsible for recruiting them and Dr. Peterson would would review them and I'd always ask them one question. Do you know who Luca Polei is? And if they knew the answer, we'd put them on. So, um, Luca Petrolei was actually a close friend of Leonardo da Vinci and he invented double entry accounting. So, in the 1400s, um, but, uh, what what what does a finance advisory committee do? Basically, it reviews all the district financial activities. So if the board sees it, the finance advisory committee sees it. So you know, transparent, open, they serve as a sounding board. Are we on the right track? We we come forward with I, you know, uh, initiatives that we're talking about here, whatever, and what do you think? You know, and they they'll have suggestions. Um, uh, and if if they don't think we're on the right track, you know, what can we do differently? Do we should we tweak something? So they're a sounding board. And depending on the issue and the circumstances, uh, on occasion, they'll make direct recommendations to the school board. our our board member typically reports back. Um there's lots of discussion. The recommendations are always a consensus of the members and again communicated to the school board by schoolboard member. So, uh only two times in the last 20 years do we actually have Whoops, I back myself up here. Um uh the finance advisory committee chairs presenting directly to the school board. Uh you know, it could happen more often if you wanted. Uh but both both of those were related to large building construction projects that we were looking at as a district when we were starting to grow the district. One of them was in in the late 2000s 2008 2009 and Dan Seagurtson was the uh chair at that time and uh the board was looking at building 30 classrooms in one summer which we did. We accomplished at six elementary schools to provide room for growth and um they weighed in and supported that. Uh and then subsequent to uh the early 2010s, we were looking at switching from half day kindergarten to all day kindergarten. It took another 20 rooms all in one summer. We we got that done too. But Pat Schmidt uh was the board chair, I mean sorry, the finance advisory committee chair and he uh came and presented just saying yes, we're strongly behind this. We meet eight times a year, September through November and January through May or other meetings as can be, you know, can be called at any time if needed. Uh the uh um other thing is is if something comes up or whatever, I I'll send out emails to the group just to keep them up on on different things because we we meet for an hour and we try to stick to an hour and because they have other jobs and we try to get them out the door uh by 8:30 um at the end of every meeting. So, but again, a great group uh really helpful to have a sounding board. I had one of these when I was in uh Rochester and it's really really nice just to have somebody else looking at uh saying okay from the community uh you know how how how do how's the community perceiving this? How do they perceive this? You know that you know they got their ear to the ground so to speak. uh and also to be kind of an advocate for us because they kind of a little bit know more of a lot a lot more of the inside baseball of what we're talking about and if they're out and about in the community or at Rotary or wherever and somebody asks them something they can say yeah well you know here's the real scoop so it's been a very helpful committee very useful committee thank you >> okay good evening Paul's kind of a hard act to follow as well um our community education advisory council meets quarterly and That also is a schoolboard policy 901 which we'll be revising. It looks like it's been a while. So, we're going to take a look at that. It's also a state statute uh 124B which um requires us to have uh meetings as well. So, the purpose is really to be a bridge between the districts and the communities we serve um and advise our leadership on planning and uh they look at our budget. We talk about priorities, identifying local needs, communitywide trends, and making sure we're looking at for gaps and services in our communities, and then fostering partnerships to strengthen community ed. Here's our members. We have about 20. Um, last year we added three um student reps. These are 11th graders in our district. You'll see in my board we have a lot of city representation. So, Excelsier, Shorewood, Tonka Bay, Minnetonka, we really try to work together and I think that hits back to that gaps and services and opportunities to work together. So, so we've met twice this year and some of the topics we've covered, we had Molly come and present what's happening in our early childhood programs, giving us an update on curriculum, things that we're covering. Um, we look at our facilities, safety, security, upgrades, some things we did to our building in particular to um makes make our entrances, adding cameras, that kind of thing safer. We look at our summers. We've talked about enrollment. We give them um we had the explorers task force, which Kee was a part of, and uh gave some results and feedback on that. We look at our fee structure, talk that through, make some discussions on and give them time to ask questions. Um, giving us feedback. We had a presentation um from our aquatics program last time from John Bradley and Ellery Funk. And then of course we celebrate in community a lot and uh so we're celebrating the last time we got to celebrate and you saw it earlier too uh Jenny's accomplishment in earning the learn award. So those are some of the topics we cover and uh two more meetings to come this year. So I surveyed uh sent out a survey to our membership and um got some feedback just their thoughts on it and that it was really about making it helping us make informed decisions about current practices um offering input uh acting as ambassadors for us. uh one of the student reps said I wanted to be a voice for students of the district and gain better understanding and then being a well diversified group and giving important feedback to us. So and back to our leadership so we can make decisions on our program. >> Thank you all of you very much. Do I have any questions from the board or our students? >> Oh Sally. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I do have one question for Dr. Leoo. um question about teaching and learning committee and the student um group. Can you just give a quick u description of what a meeting with the students might be formatted like? >> Yeah, so we meet with the students over an extended lunch period um quarterly. So obviously we uh have them come at the end of uh I think it's second hour that it ends up being on Thursdays with the anchor schedule. Sometimes it's on another day of the week. Um, kids come in and when we start at the 10:45 time, we usually do our welcome, our agenda, refresh our norms, do our connect, and then uh cover go into topics. We usually get through a topic and then we usually bring in lunch and we have lunch together while we meet, cover our additional topics. Typically, we try to have opportunities for them to both discuss items with each other and with us. We almost always give them whether it's a note card, a handout, questions, a place to jot their thinking because sometimes they have something to share or maybe they shared and now it's someone else's turn and they thought of something else. So we really try to capture as much of their thoughts and ideas and then we often circle back to topics to tell them either what happened or you know what's going to come next. Um, again, that's where really having that diversified group that's had a variety of experiences through the Minnetonka schools representing different elementaryaries, middle schools, entry points, programs, really adds rich discussion. >> Thank you. >> Yes, >> Megan. >> Um, and I would pigg piggyback on that too as uh the I was I on it for two years? I don't know. At some I was on it for a while, three years. >> Um, I don't know. Uh, one of the things that I thought was really great about the student participation is um, from what I could gather, they would talk about the same topics and then the reps would come to the teaching and learning community um, with the adults and oftentimes they had really insightful contributions or they'd be able to say, "Oh, when we talked about this, somebody in my group said blank." And so I think they did a really good job of not only bringing their own opinions but kind of bringing back what was discussed by the group at large. So um it always felt like they they really contributed from a different perspective than the adults would, right? Because they're the ones in the building that are taking the classes that are experiencing the learning. Um, so I I thought it was really valuable for them to not only um come to the committee meeting but to kind of premeate in the way that Dr. Leoo outlined because I think it it gave them a um it like scaffold them to be active participants in the actual committee. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you all. We appreciate the great updates. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next up, approval of policy number 707, transportation of public school students. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, as you're aware, at a recent study session, we reviewed our transportation policy. There are some statutory required changes and some updating just based on our current practices. Tonight, executive director of HR and General Counsel Angie Flowers will give a summary of those policy changes for your approval. Miss Flowers. >> Good evening again, Superintendent Law, Madam Chair, and members of the board. Um, as a superintendent shared, I did go over this policy um, with proposed revisions in detail with the transportation manager, Jonathan Walmsley. And today, I'll just like to review some of those highlights. One of the things um, that you'll see just throughout the policy is just the language changes. I would say that was the majority, just really cleaning up the language. The policy hadn't been updated in a while. We also look to remove redundancies just to make it cleaner and a bit easier to read. In the resident eligibility um section, we updated some of the language to reflect current practice. Um that students who receive special education services and reside within the district boundaries will be provided transportation at no cost. In addition, students who receive special education services and choose not to ride a bus designated solely for special education services and live less than 2 miles from the school will be charged a fee. We also clarify the reserve seat. So, if a parent buys a seat and reserves it for a student, we cannot reassign that to another student. They have reserved it. We looked at video footage and updated it to current times to say video recording. Um um and also video footage is not public data. There was language about how to get it released. So um that language was stricken. And also the vendor retains the footage. Um that would be our our partner who drives the buses and earns them for first student. So, we did strike that language because that is something that they do. Um, another change we did is just saying that transportation of non-resident students was updated to reflect current practice. So, not really a change but just updating our practice and it just shows that the district does not transport um non-resident students. And lastly, we clarified that when students need to be driven home or somewhere in some, you know, emergency circumstance, that should be the principal or the social worker. So, we just wanted to be clear on those things and those are the highlights of the updates. Thank you, Miss Flowers. May I have a motion to approve the policy number 707, transportation of public school students? So, moved. Tanya, we have a second. Megan, all those in favor say I. Oh, is there any discussion? Sorry. No discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next up, we have the decision on our enrollment target increase. Superintendent Law. Madame Chair, I'm going to move over to the podium because I will be presenting the discussion and decision on enrollment target increases. Madam chair, members of the board, we have been discussing uh enrollment targets and potential increases going back two months into January. So, I will start with uh the schoolboard goal that we have for this school year. Specifically, monitor the financial forecast for future school years. Recommend adjustments that will improve short-term and long-term financial stability to include adjustments to enrollment reductions to expenditures, advocacy for legislative changes, and any other solution that would possibly impact our long-term financial situation. Specifically tonight, we're talking about this bullet, adjustments to enrollment. I'd share this picture. Normally, Mr. Bashaw does the financial presentations. He usually starts with something uh nautical perhaps. This is our sailboat. There's a storm in the future, and that is the fiscal cliff that we continue to be seeing um where our funding sources don't match the needs we have to meet the needs of our student, the financial needs. Our goal, just as a reminder to the public, is that uh these kindergarten students or prechool students get the same incredible opportunity that these graduates had from last year. That our long-term financial stability allows us to continue to be continue to improve programs and maintain excellence and opportunities for our students. Just for the members of the public, I know the board has seen this many many times. Our drivers of revenue are our state general education revenue which is about 53% of our budget. It is a per pupil. It's enrollment driven. It's about half of our budget. When that goes up 2.68% for the next school year that doesn't match most of our expenditures. You just approved an insurance increase for employees that was 10%. That's where the these fiscal cliffs come from. It is also only half of our budget. It's 53%. So 53% of our budget is going up by 2.68%. That that doesn't mean our whole budget grows like that. Categorical funding. Uh we we can't say this enough. I I was just at the capital yesterday. I sat next to a a representative from another district who said if we could have Minnetonka's money and I said I'd trade you because I knew that district and I knew their per pupil is significantly more than ours. We are 320th out of 329 in categorical funding. That makes up 21% of our budget. A lot of that budget is categorical for special education programming. Board approved. This board has approved local optional revenue. That makes up 5% of our budget. It's kept by statute and it's enrollment driven. So, you can't raise it, but more students would would raise that revenue. And voter approved revenue that makes up 16% of our uh budget that's kept by statute and it's enrollment driven. Both of those streams of revenue, we hit the cap almost 10 years ago. Now, all of our neighbors, I just talked to one of our neighbors and I had asked, "How much room do you have to the cap?" They said $6. So they're not at the cap, but like for us that if we hit the cap with that, that would be another 60,000. That would not hit our budget shortfalls. Not surprisingly, all the districts that are at the cap are at the bottom of the categorical funding measure. And federal funding, it's 1.8% primarily categorical. It's not guaranteed, but it is a very small portion of our overall budget. If you look at our enrollment history, um certainly we just heard a presentation about financial advisory committee. Uh this is a district that took advantage of open enrollment. Open enrolled students generate more revenue than they cost in our system. The district created space over a period of time for open enrolled students. But in about the late 2000s, 201819, lots of community concern about our enrollment. So a cap was set 11,100 students. We hit that cap in the fall of 2022, my first year here. Um, the blue line represents our resident enrollment. I was just speaking to a realtor group and they talked about why is the resident enrollment dropping? People move here and they don't leave and that doesn't create space for new families to move in and our housing prices aren't starter homes for new families. So, oftentimes people open and roll and then they hope to move in at some point during their time. This is the graph of budget cuts you've seen many times. I put this slide up because the period of time that we were growing. This slide mirrors the period of time that we weren't budget cutting. When we hit a cap in 2022, we had to start cutting. That was the last two years. We've cut just over $8 million um because we weren't growing and our state funding has been fairly stagnant during the time from 2007 to current. This slide shows all of the things we've done to make our system meet the the size of our enrollment. Anything with an asterisk has been community approved. Thankfully, last November, our community supported improvements to rightsize our buildings. They weren't intended to make significant additional space for our community, but just to make sure our schools met our needs. Again, these were needs that were identified by our community, but also address making sure our buildings have the right core space. Parent drop off and pickup at almost every site. Additional gym spaces at almost every site. The last site will be cleaned up this in the next round of bond building at Deep Haven. Um, additional restrooms, additional small group space. Every site has additional serving line space in the cafeteria. These are just elementary improvements. At the middle schools, we're we are just starting all of uh that next round of improvements. I I note that MME has had a significant improvement in parent drop off and pickup. recently. They'll be getting cafeteria and gym space, small group space, media center space will be improved and additional science classrooms that really we've been using some not science classroom space for science classrooms. MMW I'm optimistic that we will have some improvements as early as for next fall uh for parent drop off and pickup and all the things that we've approved at MHS. We've added 400 parking spaces, additional classroom space, additional facility space, cafeteria spaces coming, and we're also looking at additional parking. You're actually going to be approving some parking on the tonight's board agenda, and we've got some other discussions this spring about more additional parking space. Visiting with our students this year, every time I bring up those words, there's a small applause in the room. Even when I said, one of them was gracious enough to say this week, even if it's after I graduate, anything you do would be great. That's how wonderful they are. I said, 'Keep voting for us in the future. You approved an amended budget in December, and this amended budget reflected everything that we knew at the time. And things are constantly changing in school finance. I wish I would say I am optimistic they're changing to our benefit, but they're constantly changing. And that that amended budget demonstrated that for the upcoming school year, we have a small surplus and we won't need to cut. But starting in 2028, there was a surplus of or a deficit of 1,00 or excuse me 1,753,000 that grows to 4.5 million 7.1 and almost $9 million for the 2030 2031 school year. That's that storm on the horizon of the sailboat that we're trying to avoid. We have been actively legis or lobbying our legislature to raise those caps so that we would have the ability to raise taxes locally to support our finances. I I can't stress this enough. Sometimes people are critical. They say, "You don't talk about this as a burden on our taxpayers. It is property taxes high." I balance that with our community saying, "What can we do ourselves to not have to cut?" Our categorical funding is a reminder to our community. When we send money generally to the state, it gets reallocated and doesn't come back to us proportionally. As a district, we are one of the districts that we are much better if our taxpayers contribute to our revenue. If we give it to the state, it comes back and we're in the bottom 10 10 out of the 300 some districts. This deficit of $1.7 million is what we're really going after right now. I can see that there. We did get a slight financial update that's currently down to 1.5 million. Again, those things float up and down, but as of FY28 or today, FY28 is looking like a $ 1.5 million deficit. A little bit yet less, but still a cliff. I had initially proposed a hundred students a year for two years. Now I propose that at January we talked about at the February board May January study session, February public meeting, February study session and here our first March meeting. I shared all of this presentation as you see it with our local mayors. All of our local mayors had a chance to see it and give feedback. I included the proposal for enrollment targets in a letter that went out to every parent in the district last week saying you're considering this asking if you've got thoughts on this. One of the biggest pieces of feedback I heard from the board was, "Can you slow down the increases and match them to the expanded facility coming through the building bond?" So, what you're seeing tonight is a different proposal than has been before the board, really slowing it down. The annual increase went from 1.7% to 0.04%. So, the tax increase is less. The length of time is potentially more. And as the board has said, please prioritize new enrollment at sites with the most available space. That is the charge you're you're giving us should you approve this tonight. I want to point out that in the event we are successful with our case committee, this board has the ability on an annual basis to open up this decision and say, you know what, our financial forecast is a little bit better. We're going to pause open enrollment for a year and revisit it again in another year. You're not committing for all five years. you're committing one year at a time and to revisit it. If things are moving and the first year goes as goes well for us in our system, but there is not any change at the state, we would continue on this trajectory and you'd have the ability to decide if you want to talk about this again. Our commitments continue to identify solutions for arrival, drop off and parking issues that are seem to be the biggest issues we face. continue to monitor our core facility challenges as per for potential adjustments. We are constantly doing that in our system to make slight adjustments to ensure a smooth transition. Prioritize maintenance of our current class- size targets as you can see them. People ask all the time, what are our class size targets? What do we shoot for? And you can see a range kindergarten 21 to 23, first grade 22 to 24 and up fifth grade 25 to 30. Now, in parentheses are our current class size averages. You can see our fourth grade is the largest this year. That's a bubble of kids that has been working through. It's still in that target range. It's our it's our highest. That's unusual. Normally, it's fifth fifth grade that would be that. One of the things that's unique in Minnotonka, it's wonderful for us, and I'm not recommending we change it, but we have two languages in every grade level. We can't balance across sections. So there might be an average of 21 in second grade English and 24 in second grade Spanish in one building and we can't balance those out. And then in another building it would be the other way. Dr. Leoo actually pulled a study for current classes this year because the hypothesis was why are world language classes or or our immersion programs always bigger or why are English classes always bigger? Neither is the truth. Depending on the building and the grade level, it's one or the other. If we were to adopt $50,000 or $50,000 50 students a year over the next five years, this is a new document. You've all seen the this presentation, but for the public, the question was, well, what does this do for our budget over five years? You can see that our target for FY28 goes down from $1.5 million in reduction to essentially balanced. That's $119,000 in potential cuts. It also, if you look out to 203031, it's cut in half. It's gone from over 9 million in reductions to 5.7. We're going to continue to chip away at it. The financial impact of this increased enrollment I I'm going to go back to it increases the local tax burden, excuse me, by uh 04%. That's a typo. 04%. Point4%. That is accurate. Sorry, it's 1.7% was the old one. It is4%. Excuse me. any additional revenue stream other than a general formula increase will impact local taxes. If we're successful at the capital and you can raise local optional revenue or we can raise our uh voter approved revenue that would also do this. One of the mayors said, "Well, how do other districts do this? We are unique with our open enrollment. Other districts float up and down all the time and don't ever have board approval because the uh some districts might swing 300 open enrolled students and have it impact their taxes or not. We are, you know, potentially the most transparent about the impact of open enrollment on taxes. But these types of shifts happen in every district in the state annually raising or lowering taxes with very little discussion. I mean en open enrollment is legal. It's a requirement of the state. more students coming into a district would be raising local taxes because of it. Um, one of the questions the board said is, uh, for budget considerations, what would this mean if we had to cut $ 1.5 million? The first thing I did, these are not decisions. These are not decisions. This is a hypothetical. If we use the same proportional cuts now, these cuts from the last two years of $ 8.4 $4 million are actually administrative heavy cuts and lighter on teachers, although it doesn't look like that. Um, we disproportionately went uh outside the classroom, the non-personnel, student fees, district office, and building administration, but 70% of our budget is teachers. So, that is they end up being a big chunk of the cuts. If we rolled that forward to 1.5 million, it would be a 100,000 110,000 out of this building, 105,000 of building administration, 900,000 of teachers, 250,000 of paras, 87,000 non-personnel, and 42,000 student fees. Now, while that doesn't look like a lot, board members had asked, well, what does that mean exactly? That means less support for teachers and administrators from district office staff. Uh, one last body here would be depending on where it happened in the system. Um, proportionately less support for anything from teaching and learning to special education, HR, business and finance, just a little bit less support. Higher ratios of students to administration at the building level potentially less supervision for hight traffic time and events if you're cutting administration. Those are the immediate things people see. reduction of the lowest enrollment courses at MHS, MME, and MMW after making cuts at MHS. And I just sat through and looked at every single course we're offering next year. There are more classes we're not offering because we have fewer teachers. That's what happens. What we end up putting classes in a rotation of either not offering them because they don't get off or not putting them on the registration guide or trying to offer them every other year. But we try to honor something that people think they have in their pathway through their senior year. But if that senior year class is only 12 students, then we don't have that pathway anymore. We are constantly evaluating the financial investment of those courses and the impact on our system and if we can sustain them. Our goal is to like we said everything that our seniors had, our preschool students would have the elementary level. It could be an additional combinations of our smallest elementary sections can mean reductions to PAR supports at elementary programs, our elementary classrooms. We currently offer Paris support in every kindergarten classroom across the system. Um that has gone down in the number of hours we can put in there. But at some point what's going to happen is we're going to no longer have some of those supports in that are pair some of those pair of supports in those programs. Um we we are almost at that spot with this last round of cuts. So 1.5 million would be just all of these things would be if those last slides if these numbers played out that's what the impact would be. With all of this information, looking at this four times, understanding that ideally we wouldn't be looking at adding any students and would just have a budget that balanced itself and the funding streams we had would support it. Acknowledging that there's local tax impact, however we generate funds, that if we send money to the state and ask for it back, we disproportionately don't get the amount we generate. The options we have with our current financial reality are some type of enrollment adjustment. The some these are the things we can control or in the alternative uh acknowledging a not doing an enrollment adjustment is starting that budget reduction process for FY28. We will continue to advocate Mr. Bourgeois presenting on a bill next week that is essentially our local optional revenue piece. If both of these things would happen, there's a chance that that deficit for 203031 would be significantly less. None of this allows us to add any staff back. As I said in the community letter last week, we are what we are doing is trying to maintain everything we have. Nothing allows us. Parents will frequently say, can you add another section in this building? Nothing allows us to add back staff. We're trying to balance with our current staff maintaining all our programs and our class size. So with that, I'd open up for questions. >> Thank you, Superintendent Law. Questions? >> Questions? >> Motion to approve. >> Okay. May I have a motion, please, to approve the decision, the enrollment target increase. >> So moved. >> Dan, may I have a second, please? Second. Second. >> Megan, any discussion? Karen, >> thank you, Superintendent Law. I know that you've gone over it several times and I appreciate that. Um, just to and it's been videotaped and and all that several times, but this doesn't get our 40 teachers and 40 paras back that had to be laid off in the last two years. Correct. However, you will if we do do this, you will be carefully monitoring class sizes so that um and do I correctly understand that if we don't do increase enrollment, you will be forced to cut teachers, we'll have the same number of students, we'll have to cut teachers and then we'll actually increase class sizes by doing that. >> That that is a likelier outcome. We'd have to go through the whole process again. The last time we went through that process, Mr. Bruis and I presented at almost every building and gathered feedback and sent out to staff. But yes, if we're cutting uh we are either reducing the number of courses we offer, reducing the supports we have or and or raising class size. So, but it sounds counterintuitive when you say that we're adding um we are hopeful at the last that there may be paras some parah support with this when some of the class I think >> benefit of the public I do share class size elementary average class size which is the one that we monitor the closest we do we watch middle school and high school too but elementary we pay the closest attention to I share average class size with board members during the enrollment process this year I'm starting to do it every two weeks and I highlight areas that we would like to add either additional teachers support or pair support should they stay at that size and right now that's about three plus over our target. >> Okay. Yeah. Um anyway, thank you um for your thoroughess. >> Megan, >> um I just wanted to comment on two things. Uh, I really appreciate I think um I I appreciate the responsiveness that when the board was like 100 feels like too many. We don't have the construction projects done yet. I I really appreciate your willingness to go back and kind of rehash it in a way that feels um less impactful so quickly. Um and I appreciate the ability to revisit it yearly. So I like I just wanted to commend that responsiveness. And I also just want to share like we've talked about this a lot and we I don't think any of us take it lightly that we would be increasing the number of students like I don't want to impact our buildings, our teachers. We don't want stress to the to any of that. Um but I also don't want to cut programming more and I think that's the unfortunate place that we're backed into right now. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that this is it's not an easy decision. We've heard from the community around the concerns. We've talked a lot about how to address some of those concerns in practical ways and um it it it feels like it's a um it's an important decision, but I just wanted to acknowledge kind of the process that went into it and that um you know we we we have heard the concerns and we also have those concerns, but I also hate to see us lose electives or have bigger classes. So, it um I just wanted to acknowledge that. >> Thank you, Dan. >> Megan kind of took everything I was going to say. Responsive was also the word that came to mind. Um, I I think this this does the best job that we can do under the circumstances of of balancing the needs of needing to raise revenue to keep up with expenses and the concerns of the community regarding what that means for their taxes and and practical impacts. So, um, thank you folks for again going back and throwing something else together for us. This is great. >> Tanya Agreed. Thank you, Megan and Dan for mentioning those. Uh I appreciate the flexibility and thinking and to me it's like Megan said, we're kind of backed into a corner it feels like and um I guess I think of it as like the Goldilocks, right? Not too hot, not too cold. This kind of seems like just right for the situation we're in. So, thanks for the flexible thinking and the hard work. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Superintendent Law. All right. Next up, >> let's just get your seat. Approval of the 2026 legislative position statement. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, we have been um working on legislative statements and These would be love. Madame chair, members of the board, I'm going to talk about our legislative position statements again while I'm being able to be heard on the camera. What you have in front of you are uh the legislative platform that you saw at our study session in February. Just for the members of the public, I'm going to highlight the financial asks and some additional things we're monitoring. There are uh increase in local optional revenue by $250, which is an inflationary increase since it's been frozen. That would uh generate 300 $3.2 million annually. Just that one plank would with our enrollment that we just approved, that would keep us almost whole for another fh five years fiscally. Restore the $300 per pupil operating referendum cap that was taken away from a handful of districts in 2019. That's a fairly complicated um situation, but when all districts were raised in operating referendum cap, Mitaka was above was above that and lowered to that spot. So, we actually lost money in that time, trying to restore that, increased the cross subsidy in special education from to uh by an additional 4% to 54%. and what was new in February, some areas that we're monitoring based on our community's unique needs, any supports to school safety, including community- based mental health. There's a hearing on school safety that actually happened today. So, we've been monitoring that. Stabilizing compensator education funding. There's a proposal to make some shifts um that uh aren't a significant problem for Mitaka, but the uncertainty of that competitor education funding is a concern for all school districts. Support a re-evaluation of our assessment system. We gave some examples of how our current system doesn't make sense for our students. Support an emphasis on student experiential learning opportunities. That's a board goal we have. and support research about student technologies in school, including the use of AI. That came from our community. Uh I I just put a note on this. Our own Amanda Fay testified at the capital on a bill that would have not allowed K1 students to have an iPad. We shared concerns about that only as it relates to the fact that the READ Act requires some things that we are currently doing on an iPad. And so if they're going to make that shift, there should be some funding that follows it because we'll have to reallocate how we do those things. I'm not sure that that would pass this year, but we are paying attention to it. We are certainly supportive that students shouldn't have blanket use of technology all day and all night, but also we want to make sure that there aren't mandates that don't come with funding. So those are the planks that you have studied. They reflect our board goals, the Association of Metropolitan School District goals, things that our community has said, and our financial asks. and I'd recommend those for your approval. >> Thank you, Superintendent Law. May I have a motion to approve the 2026 legislative position statements? >> So moved. >> Karen, may I have a second? >> Second. >> Sally, any discussion? >> Dan. >> Oh, Dan. Uh, I just want to emphasize for folks who may watch this recording that these legislative position statements are in the board packet and I encourage you to go to our website, download them, and reach out to your legislators and let them know that you need them to support expanded funding for public education. It's an election year. every single one of them is up for election this fall and we need uh our folks as they're running for office to put public education front and center on their priority list. >> Thank you, Karen. >> Well said, Dan. I would concur on that. Um I would also encourage anyone who's listening to consider joining our case committee, Community Action for Student Education. Um, we are co-chairs and um, we would love to have you. We're going up to the Capitol and we would love to have you come along and encourage your legislators to send a little more money to Minnotonka. We actually spend less than the state average to educate a student. That is actually less than the state average to educate a student. We do a great job. I think we attest we have some students over there would probably agree. Anyway, that's my plug. >> Thank you. We have uh a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next up, we have the approval of bid for the MHS Northwest parking lot expansion. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, we have been working on this parking lot expansion. Uh, one of the things that came from our community facility task force was whenever there's an opportunity to purchase property near our schools for the purpose of things that our schools need like parking at the high school. So, tonight we have the opportunity to bid and uh pave that newly purchased spot at the high school. Uh, executive director and finance and operation, Mr. Paul Baja. >> Thank you, Superintendent Law. Madam chair, members of the board, uh number of decades ago, there was a really good artist named Carly Simon who wrote a song called Anticipation. And I think these are probably some of the most anticipated parking lot spots in the district. We were hoping to do these last year, but there is actually a reason why we were unable to do them. Uh you issued a bond uh for uh gave us the authority to issue a bond, and we did issue that. We've been earning interest on it. So, um, but, um, for the acquisition, demolition, and construction of the parking lot, and we were all ready to go gung-ho, but the city, uh, required us to do a, um, uh, something called a wetland, a renewal of a wetland delineation. You cannot build a structure within 100 ft of a wetland. And in the backyards of all the houses on on on Delton Road, uh, there is a a wetland down down below. And uh so there's a you have to be 100 ft away from that and the wetland delineation measures how high the water is and you have to do it on April 1st cuz that in theory is the high water mark. Well, by the time we were starting to do this, it was past April 1st last year. So we had to wait till April 1st this year. So we have it all lined up and we're really glad that the snow is all melting and going away really fast. Um because that high water mark will probably be a little bit lower. Uh and we're hoping that the high water mark will be not where we don't think it will be because the old wetland delineation uh is where we are inside with our parking spots, but um we are are uh hoping that we'll be able to charge ahead with this. We have our our plans into the city. Uh they just recently sent us a letter notifying us they have up to 120 days to review them. I don't think they'll take that long, but that's why we have a contingency in the um uh in the bids, but we had to do the bids now to make sure we got somebody on board before they got booked up for the summer. So, um that's kind of that's the backstory behind it, except that I do remember that there was an old Hines 57 commercial with the ketchup coming out on the hot dog. They're just waiting for it to drop. And so, this is kind of like what we're we're waiting for that ketchup to drop. Um, and they use the music from anticipation. Um, so we had uh actually uh seven bids uh were open at 2 PM on uh February 19th and actually the uh the high bid was within our was actually just barely within our budget. We had about a 1.1 million of the bond uh set up for the actual construction. Uh we had about 450,000 of the bond for uh property acquisition and then about 400,000 for all the odds and end design. uh um uh hazardous hazardous materials removal, all that type of stuff along with it and about $1.1 million for construction. So, uh urban companies not owned by Keith Urban, but urban companies with the high bidder just under our $1.1 million estimate, but our low estimate came in really well. Uh we had a um $69 thou $699,000 $400 low bid from Northwest Asphalt Incorporated and uh we are asking that you approve that bid so that we can be ready with backhole running uh when the city approves our parking lot for the Northwest parking lot. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bourgeois. May I have a motion to accept the low bid of Northwest Asphalt in the amount of $699,400 for construction of the addition to the Northwest parking lot at Minnitankka High School in summer of 2026. >> So moved. >> Karen, may I have a second? >> Second. >> Mike. Any discussion? >> All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Bourgeoa. All right, we are getting there. Next up, we have the decision on the resolution to permit board member to serve as a substitute. Superintendent law. >> Madam chair, members of the board, Minnesota state statute allows schoolboard members to work in their own district. Um, it actually is is more common than I I knew about. We have had members of our board work for Minnotonka schools in the past. I did a quick survey of of uh surrounding districts and found that during the time that there weren't very many subs. Some of our neighboring districts had multiple schoolboard members agree to sub in their district. The person tonight on our board, Tanya Colbringer, who has been a sub in our district in the past, is seeking to sub the ability to sub again in the future. what the statute requires uh Minnesota statute 123b.1 195 that a schoolboard employee may um maintain that employment if the there is a vote of the full board uh every board member needs to be present and the majority of that board support that board member being employed. Um there's some confusion on this that we need to clean up in policy. In 2022, that statute was changed to allowed up allow a board member to earn up to $20,000. Our current policy from 2000, the late 2010s or 2000s says it's only 8,000. State statute supersedes that. So, we will have to update our policy. Angie Flowers will be bringing that policy back up. She's excited about that. Um but tonight you are being asked to um give support for board member Colinger who would not be allowed to vote on this to continue to be a sub in our school system under the current parameters of the state statute not to earn up to $20,000 or more than $20,000. >> Thank you. Superintendent law. May I please have a motion to on the resolution to permit board member to serve as a substitute? So moved. >> Sally, may I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Dan, any discussions? Mike. >> Uh, I'm going to read this because I want to make sure that that I'm clear and I don't misspeak. Uh, before we vote on this resolution, I think it's important to point out a couple of issues related to conflicts of interest, whether they be actual conflicts or potential conflicts. And this is mainly to make sure the public knows that we are actively thinking about such issues and not just taking them for granted. Uh, as elected officials, we are custodians of the trust of our constituents and we are obligated to take steps to avoid conflicts and provide transparency to ensure that no actions have been taken that could constitute or be construed as abuse. Uh, our own policy 430 on reserved teachers stipulates that substitute teachers receiving an assignment of 5 days or less will be paid according to the predetermined casual daily rate. A rate which we the board set at and update on a regular basis. uh most recently in this past December. For assignments lasting greater than five days uh six days or longer, the substitute is paid on the first step of a salary schedule which is determined by the negotiated teacher contract. In order to avoid a financial conflict of interest, I think the public would reasonably expect any board member to recuse themselves from discussion or voting on the c on the casual daily rate. Additionally, it would also be reasonable to expect that any current or future board members in such a position be restricted to assignments less than 6 days in duration or recuse themselves from any and all discussions on voting on their bienial teacher contract renewal process. Uh there is also potential for influence of a board member in such a position in the form of preferential treatment by co-workers or supervisors and we should ensure steps are taken to guard against either that occurrence or claims that such activity has occurred. For example, while I don't think any of our building administrators would preferentially schedule a board member in order to gain favor, I would expect the public to be reassured if a report could rapidly be produced demonstrating reasonably equal distribution of assignments among reserve teachers at any given building uh to to um disprove that that claim. Uh lastly, I would expect that for a board as relatively inexperienced as our current membership is, not only should a board member in such a position be on the lookout for potential conflicts as they arise and diligently avoid them, but the board leadership and superintendent should also monitor for such conflicts and bring them to the attention of the full board once identified. With that, with all that in mind, I would be willing to support this resolution. U board member Rimikol on a daily basis I get every sub position across the district and so I will be it'll be very easy for me to monitor those concerns about preferential treatment and placement. >> Thank you Karen. >> Um I guess that um that was really thorough. I appreciate that. Um just so I understand like the state of of Minnesota law allows this and our current policies allow allow this. So um and if there would be any issues it could come back up for a vote like in terms of transparency for the public that it could come back up for a vote if there were any issue. It's not that we vote now and then for the next four years we can't revisit if there would be any reason to just for understanding >> this can certainly be revisited. I actually have heard stories of either the board member stepping down from subbing or actually in in one very unusual case that would never happen ideally here a board member was fired from being a substitute for an unusual situation. So yes, this is not a concrete forever. This could be revisited at the board's discretion. Okay. >> They want to. >> So it's allowed and can be revisited and you you monitor the sub. Okay. Thank you >> Megan. >> Um first I had a clarifying question. My understanding of the statute was that this is allowed kind of in um areas where there's an identified need like that there are not enough substitutes. So I'm assuming that uh if we approve this that we have an identified need for substitutes. Um my question was will Tanya sub at all the buildings to address those identified needs or um is is I don't I'm not quite sure if that I don't know if Tanya can answer that or >> I I can answer for uh Miss Colbringer. can tell you that on on a daily basis and especially Mondays and Fridays. It's a rare day that we have every substitute job filled. And what our buildings do is um buildings have float substitutes. So if they have a if they have enough subs, they can send a sub to another building. So any building that has a surplus can reallocate. Um since we every day we have a shortage of subs. it's not 20 but it's one or two and other teachers feel that and as a teacher you can remember giving up your prep to cub sub wasn't preferred. Um that that's a sign of a shortage that we it's we call it filled internally. So um after doing some research on that question anyone who subs in a building even if that building doesn't have a history of a shortage allows another employee to be allocated to another spot. So there is a there is a true need and any place you sub helps the system. >> Megan >> and then um oops there we go. Um and then along the lines of the conflict of interest and Mike kind of alluded to that um my thinking around it was a little bit different but um this employment kind of has the potential to blur the line between um the function of the board which is policy and the function of instructors which is academic in operational in nature. So, I'm just assuming that if there I mean and I'm assuming there's not going to have any incidents arise, but if there wasn't an incident that arose when Tanya was acting in the instructional capacity, any board action related to that would she would recuse herself from I would assume. Is that how >> that that would be um in a very unusual situation? substitutes are a very indirect report to the superintendent and would be under my supervision then I would be in the position to say there's a conflict here but uh Mr. Ramall has already identified most of those things. >> Okay. And then finally um I think just being explicit about the difference between those roles and monitoring to ensure that the boundaries are maintained. I think for both Tanya and then admin and leadership, I think just kind of being cognizant of that potential and keeping an eye out to avoid it is important. >> Tanya. >> Yeah, sure. I just want to thank you guys for your thorough questions and um looking at statutes. Um I subbed last year and I was most well strictly in elementary schools a couple times a month. So I would love to continue doing that as that's my passion is teaching. So that's why I'm asking for the vote >> and I I'd like to thank my board members for putting a lot of thought into this and for you wanting to serve our students and support our teachers. So thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. And do I say abstain? Do you have to abstain? And any abstain? I Okay. Okay. Motion carries. >> All right. >> I just have to comment on the consent agenda. >> Oh, okay. Next up is the consent agenda. Superintendent law. Madam Chair, normally the superintendent doesn't comment on the consent agenda, but I do want to draw something to the um attention of the public. The board members are all aware of this. We have made a slight change and our calendar approved for the fall fall. This does not impact the student calendar at all, but working with our teachers association, there was a staff development day set aside for the day before Thanksgiving that uh with at the request of the teachers association and with support of hundreds of teachers. That day is being proposed to be moved to the August workshop week. So the approval item H on here in full transparency is a calendar change for teacher professional learning. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So >> uh Megan, may I have a second? >> Second, >> Karen. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any discussion? Oh, no discussion. Okay. Um mo we have a motion and a second. Um consent agenda is approved. Motion carries. Okay. Next up we have board reports. Anyone? Karen. All righty. I want to report on dream makers which I had it written down here somewhere. All righty. Shoot. Does anyone else want to go while I start? Isn't my green Sorry guys. Um, yes. Thank you, Sal. This is why we're co-chairs. Okay. Dream Makers was a phenomenal success this year. They generated $194,490 that will go directly into classrooms and and impact every student in the district. Thank you to everyone who helped make that possible. And if I can say one thing, I don't mean to step out of turn, but it was a prom theme. And if there was I don't know that there was a bestdressed um person, the award would have gone to my co-chair of case here because she came as a chaperone with a ruler and it was whoever saw it you have to admit it was it was really something. So hats off to you and uh thank you. >> Thank you Karen. Any other board reports? Okay, Superintendent Law, >> a couple reports. Uh, we are at the wrapping up the end of the third quarter. Spring break's just over a month away. That means we are at the culmination of winter activities. Uh, tonight, I don't know what happened to our girls basketball team played in the section finals. I don't know if they made it to state or not, but it'll be exciting to see today. Our hockey team won the first round of the state tournament. Lots of fun seeing our students. You saw the recognitions tonight. just a lot of amazing opportunities for our students both academically and athletically. Uh pay attention to those things. Um and then I acknowledge that our our student school board members and Izzy was the first repeat school board member. He came to two board meetings in a row, but they continue to be enthusiastic and informed and sharing that this is valuable and encouraging the school board to continue this opportunity as they have reported that more students know what's happening on the school board this year than ever before. So I just want to thank our students for their representation. >> Thank you. Any announcements? Okay. Well, that brings us to adjournment. May I have a motion to adjurnn, please? >> So moved. >> Dan, may I have a second? >> Second. >> Second. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. We are adjourned.