Yep. All right. Next up on the agenda this evening is the review of policy number 703. >> I'm sorry. I won't take a person. >> I'm going way too fast. >> Sorry, Annie. >> That's okay. >> First up, first up on our agenda is our well-being update. Superintendent law. >> Madam chair, members of the board, as you're aware, one of our school board goals is wellness and the fruit of that specifically on issues related to the entire student wellness and focus on mental health. We have a a variety of activities planned or in place in the district foundation audit that Paul sits on. We have a health advisor committee tonight as another part of our board. All of our committees will have a chance to come in front of the board and give an update. We have an update on wellbeing. I'm not >> Well, you can't. No, that's fine. Uh, Madam Chair, Superintendent Law, members of the board, it really is a pleasure for me to be here tonight because it's an area that I am so passionate about, and I I promised Carrie I could talk for hours, but she said I couldn't, and I had to keep it real short. So, I will provide a highlevel summary of kind of the things that we're working on in the district while also just acknowledging that so many of the supports and things that we do happen um on a daily basis. And those are those those small things that probably don't elevate to the the board report. But what I love is that so much of what we do really aligns with my background as a public health nurse. It's really focused on prevention. We want to try to intervene before there's a problem. And obviously we are ready and stand um to support if something does come up and they need more intensive supports, but so much of our work is focused on prevention and how can we support kids in their holistic health. So really looking at physical, emotional, mental and um all of those pieces. So some of our current efforts and priorities around well-being in the district are our relate colllocated mental health services, our district comprehensive approach cohort which was offered by the Jed Foundation and then an AASA partnership, our comprehensive threat assessment infrastructure, a responsive and aligned attendance system, focus of our mental health advisory group, and then I'll just touch briefly about the AASA leadership for well-being and learning summit that we'll be hosting here in May. So that's kind of the high level things that we're working on. It has been really a journey with relate and happy to say through really intense partnerships and dialogue and discussion we have strengthened our relationship, reduced barriers and developed systems and processes to ensure that students and families are the at the center of what we do. We've streamlined communication to ensure that the district and relate providers are supporting families efficiently and it's been really effective. So as a result, we are seeing those positive benefits for kids and students. This year we h are fully staffed in all of our buildings. So each building has a a relate therapist assigned to it. The FTEES vary from a 2 to 1.0. At the high school, it's more than a 1.0. And what's what's great about that is it's really a dynamic approach. So we are adjusting that uh staffing to meet the needs of students. So when we are looking at assigning FTEES and practitioners to each of those sites, we're really looking at how many kids are being referred and being placed, how many kids are on our waiting list, and we're adjusting that in real time to make sure that those students are supported. On top of that, we have a dedicated.3 uh drug and alcohol counselor at the high school to help support any of those chem health violations. So that's just been um a real highlight and a victory for us as a district. So, for some of you new board members, this might be a little bit of new information for you. Those that have been on the board previously are aware of our partnership uh with the Jed Foundation and AASA around the district comprehensive approach. So, at a very high level, it was a partnership between AASA and Jed. Jed was an East Coast nonprofit organization that did a a great job of developing high schools to support kids mental health. They kind of said, "We have a great tool here. How can we take this nationwide and replicate some of the things that are working well in that community and do it for districts throughout the country? So, we were one of 15 districts that were chosen. Uh it is a mix of rural, urban, suburban, remote. 14 states are represented with really diverse populations, diverse political leanings, and over 480 schools are represented as part of these 15 districts. So, as a result of this initial cohort, the impact is um has the potential to be for 356,000 preK through 12th grade students. So, this is just a brief snapshot of the other districts that are in it anywhere as far-flung as Alaska. It has been just a really interesting learning experience to see how we do things compared to how other districts do things. And at the beginning of this, this was not not very yellow. the the yellow highlighted things are the implementational deliverables that we have already completed. So, as you can imagine, when we started this process, most of this had not been accomplished. So, we're really moving into the final stages of this implementation. And originally, this was designed as a two-year project. This was what was laid out as the timeline. And as you can see, some of these key reports were the findings summary, baseline report, a strategic plan, and then a sustainability plan. So, right now, we're right at about here. We haven't had that site visit number two yet and we are in that ongoing technical assistance. Of course, as with anything when you have uh big visions and new ideas, sometimes your timelines don't always align with the reality of what it it looks like. So that the the two years was aspirational. It looks like this will probably be a three-year project. So we have about another year that we'll be working with Jed and at the end of this year looking at that sustainability plan. some of the goals that we have been look working on. There are 10 different goals. I won't read them to you. Uh but our active priority areas are asterisked and when it within each of these goals, there are many subobjectives to help meet that goal. So the the great thing is is as a district, we have been just really outfront in that many of the action steps that were outlined in our strategic plan have already been met and are fully implemented. But what that strategic plan is, it gives us a vision of uh where we can grow, where we have opportunities to to change the needle and it's work that we were already doing. It also just helps us to prioritize and focus on full implementation of that strategic plan. So again, when you're looking at that, goal one, goal four, goal five, and goal six are the ones that we're really focusing on. the uh the priority areas within those are governance and leadership, policies, partnerships, and data. So the governance and leadership really looks at the district leaders, the school board, our advisory, and that shared responsibility with families and community. When we talk about policy, we talk about policy with a little P, not necessarily policy that's brought before the board, but really more procedures and processes around how we do our work. One of the things that we've really focused on around that is streamlining to ensure consistency across the district. And then our partnerships, ensuring that we have those community partnerships in place to support them and meet the needs that we cannot meet in the school district. And then just using data to guide our decision- making and our interventions that also helps the trends and district specific data helps to guide that. So then one of the other huge uh undertakings that we've had is the threat assessment infrastructure. So two years ago we started the process of ensuring that all staff that intersected with well-being and supported mental health in any capacity had training in threat assessment both in threats to others and in threats to self. So we we they were all trained in how to use the SEAG which stands for the comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines to evaluate threats to others. So those professional learning days that were approved, much of that time has been dedicated to this work. And part of that was really clearly delineating and disseminating our processes and procedures if a student had a threat that they posed to someone else and ensuring that all staff were knowledgeable and trained in the processes and how to manage this. As part of that, we often say that when kids make threats, it's because they've run out of options or solutions. So by using the seastake model, we offered a a systematic and consistent approach to evaluate and classify threats. And that could be that it's determined that there is no threat, that it's a transient threat, that it's a substantive threat or a very substantive threat or excuse me, serious substantive and that ensures that we pull in the right people to respond and we develop the right response based on that level of threat. A review of these processes this year have also been within the Raptor system, which I'll get to in just a minute. And then training was also done for the Colombia suicide severity rating scale, so that if a student was threatening harm to themselves, any support staff that they came in contact with would be able to do just a quick risk assessment to determine whether they are at low risk, moderate risk, or high risk. and then again offers us guidance as to okay what are next steps to help support that student. So as part of that we worked to develop and um train on the Raptor student safe system. The Raptor visitor management system is one that we already utilize in our district. That's the one that allows fam parents any visitors to go in and out of the door. One of the pieces that they had was an an electronic module that could be utilized with the new trainings that we had done with the Seasteag and Colombia. So once that was developed and ready to roll out, we provided that training in November to ensure that all of our support staff and subsequently our administrative teams knew how to utilize that electronic capacity to do that. So now we have that electronic management system where we can do that threat assessment and the Columbia screeners within that platform. Not only does that provide longitudinal data for students from elementary school to middle school to high school, but also can give a snapshot of the the school. So how many threats to self or others have occurred in that school or you can pull up a particular student and have that information historically about what their experience has been throughout their years. So really does provide that comprehensive picture and that data management piece that has been really important and that history follows the student throughout. So it's really easy for a receiving school to see what might have happened in previous schools. And then the last piece of this has been a an aligned responsive attendance system because what we also know is that attendance goes handinhand with belonging, academics, and really overall well-being. So part of the focus was on aligning attendance types and codes that were streamlined, consistent across all sites and met the needs of every single site. We provided personalized training for any staff that worked with attendance or had their attendance or hand their had their hand in attendance in any way and really made sure that we had a shared understanding the goal of the goal around our intentional work around attendance and really the goal of that is to reduce barriers that are preventing kids from getting to school on a regular basis. We wanted to ensure that all schools were following the same processes and timelines. So we reviewed all of that with each of the sites. We redesigned and provided consistent notification levels letters at established thresholds for excused and unexcused absences. We ensured that the work that we were doing was aligned with the newly revised district policy around attendance and the guidelines of the two counties that we are positioned within Carver and Henipin. And that just really a partnership and intentional work with the director of student accounting, associate superintendent, and the executive director of student support services. so that all of this work is aligned through all of the groups of students. And then last but not least, our wonderful mental health advisory committee. We just start uh are in our sixth year since being established. We meet on a quarterly basis with a rotation of committee members and it just really offers that unique perspective of students and families in our community. So goals and priorities for this year really include identifying the needs from the perspective of the community, what is beneficial and needed, prevention and intervention strategies, linkage to community services, and then identifying and disseminating mental health related professional development opportunities. And then last, we have the opportunity, we are the hosts for the upcoming AASA leadership for well-being and learning summit. So it's really a collaborative effort between AASA superintendent law associate superintendent Dr. Leoo and then executive director of student support services Dr. Breen. So it really brings together the work that we have been so intentional about doing and how we might share that out with others. Some of the objectives of the conference are going to be exploring comprehensive measurement strategies for mental health initiatives using proven frameworks for student screening and early warning systems. Learning strategies for including student belonging strategies into core district priorities. Identifying and cultivating strategic community partnerships that amplify student and family support. Developing proactive approaches to supporting educator mental health and well-being. Implementing systems that identify and address staff burnout before it impacts student outcomes. And then creating cultures where staff feel genuinely supported and able to thrive professionally. So, as you can see, there is a lot going on in the district. It is exciting things that are happening and I think it just we continue to be affirmed in the work that we're doing that we are doing it well and and have a lot of really good things in place for our district. Any questions? >> Thank you so much. That was a great presentation >> questions from the board. Tanya, >> hi Annie. Thank you for that. I'm very impressed by all the different um avenues you guys are taking to support our students. And I have two things. One, I want to say um I really appreciate that you have worked hard to get Reate in all schools as a teacher who's leaned on relate in another district. I know how important it was for my students to have that service. So, thank you for working on that. Um my question for you is um how or what is the district doing or what have you um been doing to support our students impacted by ICE as it pertains to well-being? >> Sure. Yes, absolutely. And I think thank you for asking that question. We obviously know that when kids are living in fear and having aren't having their basic needs met, it's really challenging to be fully engaged in school. So many of the messages that we have sent um we've shared with the support staff ways that they can help families that are impacted by ICE. But more on the practical side, you know, we're really trying to ensure in communicating with families that if there are families out in the community that have needs, connect with your principles at your site, connect with the support staff. There are families that are willing and wanting to help. And so we're trying to ensure that that that those needs are being matched and being as respectful as possible. I know that some schools have utilized their parent uh Facebook pages to also just post on there. If you are a family in need, you can email this address. We can help you with whatever. Trying to again honor that confidentiality. So just ensuring that they're reaching out to the people at their school if they have needs and then we can work together to figure out how to identify and support those needs. >> Thank you, >> Ally. practitioners. >> Yes. What does that look like? So the the relates are they are professional therapists that were in are within the school and really oftentimes what we say is we have colloccated services because we want to ensure that there aren't any barriers for students to access care. So if that is a need that a student might have at the elementary level they would connect with counselor a teacher might refer them. At the high school level you can connect with your counselor and say I'm interested in learning more about this. And again, lots of times with our practitioners, there might be a waiting list, but um if if that's the case and that's something that you're interested in, you can connect with your counselor and and they can make a referral. >> Megan, >> um to piggyback on that question, I actually was asked yesterday, this is a perfectly timed presentation because the question I got yesterday was um what happens in summer? So for students who receive services through school or at school, >> is there a way that they bridge services over the summer? Do they go to Relate? Is it still happening in our buildings? Can you just talk a little bit about that? >> Absolutely. And it's a mix of both. So there are relate therapists that decide to continue their work over the summer and that's on an individual basis. So we ensure that any of our relate therapists that want to continue to see clients over the summer are able to do that within our schools. Some of them transition to office-based uh care over the summer. So, it really is just practitioner dependent, but we really try to honor those needs as much as possible. So, if a student was only able to be seen in the school, we would try to make that happen during the summer, too. >> Yep. Care doesn't we always say care doesn't stop just because it's summer. >> Karen, um a little bit more about relate. Um is that just so that parents maybe who are listening might want to know, is that is there any cost to parents? Is it covered by the district? Um, are parents involved in making the appointments? Do they need to be involved? How does that all work? >> Sure. Also, great question. So, again, we want to ensure that cost is never a barrier to care. So, relate uh does bill insurance. They also have opportunities for sliding scales if people can't afford or don't are underinsured or don't have insurance. And then they also have a safety net that if there is no other way that they can access care, they have some um partnerships that will provide reduced cost or lowcost or free therapy so that no student is denied those services because they're of lack of ability to pay. And yes, if they are under 18, parent has to be involved and there's a whole intake process through relate and they they walk them through and they make it as easy as possible. Any other questions from the board? >> Yes. >> Well, I was just wondering how I remember. >> Sure. Yep. And I think you're 100% right. A lot of times the elementary students might go to their teacher and so teachers are able to also make a referral. Um there are support staff in every single building that help to kind of comprehensively meet the needs of those kids. So if a student feels most comfortable going to their parent then the parent would absolutely can engage with the support staff there to to make that happen. >> We're just going to check sound on that side because we're wondering if the mic >> Oh, sure. Megan, >> is mine mine's working. >> Yeah. Um, yours is. >> I just realized I had we had talked a little bit about the growing through grief program and how it's transitioning. Yes. Um, is there any update on that or can you get an update to us when there is one? Because I have had people reach out to me since then just kind of inquiring about >> what is happening with that. >> And I think that's Yes. So, for those of you that don't know, um, our growing through grief program used to be supported by the Park Nicollet Foundation. the foundation has decided to go in a different direction and so the program as we have known it is going away uh and which is just a real loss. Dr. Leoo and Dr. Breen and I have a meeting set up to talk about what can we do, what will that look like and how will grief support look in our district last next year, excuse me. So yes, that is that is on our our radar and we would be happy to provide an update once we have more information about kind of what that might practically look like. >> Yep. Absolutely, >> Sally. >> And just very briefly, I was just glad to hear you mentioning about the staff supports as part of the summit. Really glad that that component is included. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Great presentation. >> Okay. Next on the agenda is what I talked about earlier, review of policy number 703, fund balance. Superintendent Law. Madam chair, members of the board, this policy came to light as we were going through our audit and there were some questions about uh how our audit was me measuring and discussing fund balance and what was in our policy and with after a quick review and I' I'd like to call this the Dan Olsen question after we brought this forward uh our policy executive director of or of HR and general counsel Anie Flowers and Paul Bersois got together and uh tightened up some language so that what we're having in policy is what we're doing in practice. Mr. Thank you, Superintendent Law and uh Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh Superintendent Law summarized it very very succinctly there. Uh for decades, probably since the inception of this policy in 1987, the district has managed the um the the finances of the district to adhere to the the tenants of this policy of six of a minimum of 6% unassigned fund balance. uh that means dollars that are unencumbered by anything else at the end of the year. And um actually at uh in the when this policy was first established in ' 87 and all that, I started working in 1994 in a different school district down in Rochester. And we we manage our policy the same way. Basically, it uh fund one, fund three and 11, our general operating fund, our um transportation fund, and our student activities fund all roll up into what we manage our 6% fund balance to. We subdivide our our books in greater granularity than what we actually end up reporting to the state of Minnesota. The state of Minnesota rolls a bunch of our funds. for example, the capital projects technology fund. That fund rolls up into the general fund at the end of the year. Uh what the state calls the general fund. Uh but that is a a project a fund that actually has its own financing and it's one of those funds where you spend the dollars that you need and as long as we're above zero, we're fine. Um it's it's not the it's not the safety valve fund. Uh, another example of that is the um um our uh construction fund is actually uh it rolls up into an other construction fund. Our operating capital and lease levy fund, same thing. They they roll up uh into the general fund, but they have very specific dollars and we just have to stay above zero because it's more projectbased. And so, uh, it's it's been a little confusing when our auditors come in and say with all that rolled up and say, "Oh, well, you're only at a 7% fund balance that we're going, you know, we're at about 16%." And so, it it just is a matter of clarifying what our actual practice is. uh this actual benefit uh be a benefit when I have to talk with movies about a bond rating because I'm always telling have having to tell them all these years of saying well our general operating fund is this and that's what we're managing to uh because they actually look at what the the auditors write in their audit report and go well your your fund balance is a little bit on low side and then once I explain it they go oh okay that makes sense so we're really just making the policy make sense with the way we actually operate the district and the way we've actually manage to our 6% fund balance. So what you have in front of you is just clarifying language and uh making very specifically which it will be very clear to the auditors also when they show up next uh next July and um let them know that this is what we they need to be looking at in terms of what our what our policy refers to. >> Thank you. questions. Dan, >> thanks, Paul. Um, I I I had that plan. >> Yeah. >> Uh, I would choose different walkup music if it were up to me. Um, I I had a question about uh the as applies to nutrition services and community education fund. just if is has it always been 6% for those funds as well and is that or or should different funds maybe have a different reserve level and then second part do does the unassigned fund balance in those funds impact our bond rating at all >> uh second part first uh the unassigned fund balance in those funds do not impact our bond rating it's nothing that I I have to explain uh those are those are and and those are two segregated funds the uh in on the state on the books for the annual financial report. Those are actually one of the separate funds. We got the uh general the general fund which has a bunch of these funds rolling up into it. We have the um debt service fund. We have the community ed education fund and the nutrition services fund and and uh there's basically that's the handful of funds that everything rolls up into. So everything else rolls into the general fund. And um so getting then back to the first part of your question, uh 6% is is a a good number. Those both of those funds have operated and have funds well in excess of that, but it's a it's a good lower number. Uh if we could have a higher percentage if if we wished. Uh but they're more uh they actually have, you know, unique sources of revenue. Also they're they're uh they get revenue more on a a per pupil basis but in the nutrition services fund they also have all the cart revenue which uh helps to generate additional fund balance and community education of course they have 92% is based on the revenue that they generate from classes. So it it just kind of puts a floor but they're they're well above that floor. >> Any other questions from the board? Thank you, Mr. Bourgeois. >> That policy will come back to the board for probably a brief explanation and approval in the first meeting in February. >> Perfect. Next up on the agenda, MME and MMW construction projects update. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, in a very short period of time, amazingly, we will be breaking ground on two significant projects across the district. We want to bring an update to the board on where those projects are going and what the board and our community should be expecting over the next 18 months as we go from um fields and space around the building to beautiful additions to our building. Tonight, Mr. Bourgeois and our partner in construction ATSNR Dave will be providing an update on what you should be expecting over those 18 months. Mr. Bourgeois, >> uh thank you. We successful technology connection there. So, I feel like we just docked at the space station. Um, so thank you. I have with me uh uh partner Dave uh u also CEO of uh ATSR Architects. Since November 4th passage of the bond referendum, we've been very busy uh busy as bees working uh to get everything ready to go. I have multiple meetings with the staff at uh at MME and MMW and also with the city of Chanhassen and the city of Minnitonka. So, we're we're on the way and I'm going to turn it over to Dave just to kind of have you see where we're at so far. We're but we're we're we're heading down the road. >> Thank you, Paul. Um again, my name is David Moroni. I'm a president of ATSNR and uh an architect and a proud resident and uh all my kids went through the school district and just uh haven't had a chance to congratulate you all on the successful passage of the referendum and uh it's a it's a great thing and we're going to make a great great impact on the learning and and the and the kids opportunities in the school district. So, thank you for initiating it and thank you the community for supporting it. So with that, let's go. Okay. So this is this is how we've been presenting to the the principles, the user groups that we've been meeting with. We've been giving this kind of the overarching, you know, what are we really doing um approach, but yet we're focused totally focused right now on the two middle schools because those are the two first two projects that are going to be developed. And uh but of course we're keeping everything else in mind. And uh but we're totally focused on that. We're working with that. These are the uh descriptions that came right out of the review and comment that was submitted to the state of department of education and approved by the Department of Education. We also share this type of information with the staff and the user group so that they know they're grounded. They understand that there's finite scope, right? This is what we're doing. They're very similar between the two middle schools. The only difference is really the new bus loop at MME and replacing the track at MMW. the uh schedules are very similar. We're really um getting our designs in order by the end of February and that's pretty fast, but we're moving at a good pace. I'll tell you the the user groups that we've met with are totally committed and they're just doing a great job. They bring such value to the to the process and uh it's I it's just kind of a delight to work with the staff. So the um but basically we're going to be completing our designs February 2026. We're looking to bid them uh in June, July type of thing, you know, in the summer. We're going to be our target is to open uh part of the the facilities fall of 2027 and the other part January of 2028. And that sounds like a long time from now, but it's coming fast. Okay. And we're also sharing with them that there's budgets that we have constraints. We will not exceed these budgets. we will work within the means of the the funds available and that's important and everyone's taking that very seriously. So again applaud them. This is pretty much what we did. We started with step one was our kickoff meeting with the principles with Paul myself. We really just kind of rolled our sleeves up and said okay who are we going to have involved? How's it going to work? How you know what are we going to do? We started setting some meetings up. We decided who the user groups were going to be led into step two. uh you know that was back in November when we had the kickoff meeting and then in December the first week of December we we met with the science teachers we met with the music drama and fied as a group because it's really one shared space we wanted them to be together on the initial understanding and decisions and confirmation of what we're doing I think that was a good move and I think that they all they all worked very well together we've been meeting with the authorities having jurisdiction in other words the cities so we've met with the city of Chanhassen uh actually early January and and just literally yesterday we met with Minnetonka. So, you know, we really have to have our site plans in order and so the engineers have been working on that and we really had really productive quality meetings with th both of those uh entities really the clarity of the process. We've got our dates established for submitting and getting them on the planning commission and uh community meetings and that kind of thing. uh this week or last week and this week we've been doing step three and that's design development. So schematic design is kind of a big you know hey are are the things in the right spot or are the rooms the right size. Design development is a whole different thing. We're talking about drawers and we're talking about outlet locations and where light switches might be or what kind of light you know uh fixture you've got and u all the cabinetry and just all the detail. And uh that's what we really just wrapped up about an hour ago with the FIED group. And so we've met with them uh science first, then we then we separated the two groups focused on music drama on Tuesday and then FIAD this afternoon. But again, their involvement's just been really really helpful. So these are some little bit updated images of the three-dimensional. So this is east of course and we're doing both the additions on the west side. You can see the bus loop. You can see the retaining wall. We're trying to re, you know, retain as much play space as we can. And uh but we're getting a whole new bus lane. We're getting some additional parking here. Not a lot of activity on the east side of the building. This is uh west. And here we've got our science in the same spot between, you know, the media center and connecting back. But then the gymnasium is in a different location at west because there's a water tower where it would have gone um if we would have done the same thing as east. Uh so actually the groups are interesting. There's delight in both of them. Kind of the uniquenesses of the two solutions are really delightful in two different ways. Uh we have detailed schedules. Uh this is something we put together right away and we just keep expanding it. So we're these are literally down to days now in dates. uh the community meeting uh is going to be on this date and we're going to submit to the planning commission on this date and we're going to take that time. We're pretty much in this in the realm of the schematic and design development and we've explained to the staff that that once we complete our design development uh group meetings that we're going to go kind of quiet because we have to prepare construction documents, really get the specifications in order, get it ready for bidding and that kind of thing. We may have a followup just to confirm, but that's that's to be determined. The uh you can see the long haul here and the couple of summers that go by and and and the different completions. We've got interior remodeling that's going to occur. We've got this site work that's going to occur when it can, you know, not days like today or tomorrow. So, let's go up in the air here and look down on MME. And this is a real working plan that I'm sharing with you tonight. Okay? These are not final drawings, but these are literally all the balls in the air. We've got we got the we got we we're starting to under, you know, we we know where the bus loop is, but that's also going to be a staging area for the construction on the west side of the building. So, these are starting to establish fence lines. The letters and and numbers you see here, that ties in with this preliminary, what we call a sequencing plan. And what that does is that really orchestrates the whole construction activity. So, the contractor bids the project. We suggest when you're going to be doing it and what you're going to be doing and when and you're going to get this done then and then you're going to move over to here and you're going to move this fence from this spot to this spot. And that's what the these types of plans are all about. So, we've started this. So, we've been communicating this with the staff too and the principles. So, they're starting to get a feeling of where the impact's going to be and when. Uh like the FIAD people, G, we won't be able to use part of the long jump pit for a while. That's true. Sorry, but the benefit is going to be, you know, in the end. So, uh, you know, I I think that the science is going to be ready for fall of 2027. Make that prediction right now. But the but the stage and the and the gym, it's a little more complex, little larger structure. Uh, that's going to take a little more time typically. And we're, you know, I would say second semester, you know, January 2028. All the interior remodeling is really going to happen one summer and that's going to be 27. It's not going to happen this summer. We are going to do a sewer line installation though because we got to do that. So even things as subtle as, you know, where does the waste go, right? B1 that's got a specific date when that happens and it has to be completed by August of 26 so you can reopen the school for the fall but it has to be replaced now because it can't later. >> We have a very old clay tile original pipe and it's been cracking and breaking. We're lining it and it's we know it's has to go. So first thing >> and that's what those plans are for. Um, this looks a little bit different than what what we've been talking about with one big exception, and that's that track right there. But the uh the loop road looks the same. I don't know. Um, you know, during the early phase of this, we're always talking about we have to have a staging area for that gymnasium. This is at east, excuse me, at west. And we're going to have to reroute all of the daily traffic. So, we have to step one, we got to build a temporary road. And you know, then step two after we get all done, we got to rebuild the road again back where it was. Well, you know, we were really looking at this and and the kind of the the circuitous route of that existing road, we were just going to mimic that. And it it occurred to us that you know what uh best value is to leave build the road once, leave it. Don't rebuild it in a less configuration. Smooth out that flow of traffic. allow the parents to come driving in in a safer manner, in a more fluid manner. And it's just a big win. And what we should do then, see, because we're always fighting that existing old path, you know, that track. We call it a track, but it's really a paved path, you know, it's not even the right length. Um, you know, it's not it's 428 m or something. But anyway, the uh we were always fighting that. So now we stopped fighting that and we said, you know, okay, all the hundreds of thousands that go into putting this in, tearing it out, rebuilding, let's reinvest that. Let's put the track the way it should be. North south track is much more universal than a east west track. And let's size it properly so we can get a full width soccer field in there instead of nothing really. And let's leave the road where it is. In fact, now we've created a space for a good pond. So the engineers are putting the storm water retention in that location and it's just a much better setup. So what we get this is then this became phase one because we had to get this road realigned before school started. That was absolute. Okay. And when we're bidding it in the middle of summer, you can't always guarantee that it's going to get done. So we're going to advance this project. We're going to get this out to bid earlier, about a month or so earlier, get it in permitting earlier, and get this construction done. So, this has become formally phase one. So, all of the work you see here, including the re reorientation of that track is going to be done by the end of this year. So, that's a big change, too. Now, all of a sudden, next year, the school can use the track and the playfield again. So, what does it take? It takes a little retaining wall on the north side there. We got our field events. We've reviewed this with staff. They love it. You know, it's it's it's just such a much it's a superior solution. So, then what does that mean? So, basically, we're going to let phase one contractor know that phase 2 contractor is going to be showing up mid to late July, so they're not surprised. And by then the road is built and uh we start to go into this version here. Now this is phase two construction. So that staging area is already established. The roads already established. Phase one contractor still working off to the east and the south. That's fine. Totally separate areas. Our phase 2 contractors now coming in here and starting construction on the gym and the stage science area, their staging areas and going about their business. Can I just add a thing? >> You sure can. >> And so the the the thing is we were struggling also with the storm water storm water retention rules and there was issues with putting additional underground storm water where the location was going to be. So we by doing this we saved money by building the road once as opposed to building it. >> Yeah. >> Which you have to get all the drainage and all that kind of stuff set up even for a temporary road. Then you have to tear it out which is very expensive and then build the other one rather than build in fact build the road three times the equivalent of it. Yeah. >> Uh and and still looking for storm water issues. This configuration allows us to save money because we can put in an actual pond in that location which is less expensive than an underground pond. And we save all the money on rather than doing triple the work on the road. And that allows us to put some of that money into the relocation of a field. >> Absolutely. And this too has a nice sanitary line that's part of the project that's scheduled as B1 also. And that has to go in summer of 2027. And that'll be that'll be servicing the restrooms in the um the gymnasium area. It's kind of funny. Everything's on the west side of the building. We would have had to go through the entire building just to get those new toilets out there. And we would have had to put lift stations in and pumps and all sorts of things like that. This is the most economical solution. Basically flow it downhill underground of course. Thought I'd add that. Okay. Clarify. >> Okay. Again, we, you know, extract as much as we can right out of the review and comment because that's our rule book. That's our playbook. So, these are literally excerpts right out of the review and comment. Uh, we've been tracking them. You know, science labs. We've been uh yes, four science labs. There were 1250 in the reviewing comet. Well, guess what? Ours are 1290. 1,290 square. We're a little bigger. Perfect. That's good. Nothing wrong with that. Um the prep room, we were going to have four individual ones. They consolidated as four as as as one 425. And that makes sense, too. It's much more versatile, easy access from the other labs. And um again, just good decisions are being made. >> Gymnasium, same kind of thing. We're watching that like a hawk, too. The gym was supposed to be 6,300. Well, it's 6360. Not a lot more. Just just, you know, it's good to be on that side, though. And um and we just, you know, we look at this weekly as far as the sizes of these spaces, the the impact on the costs and the budget and everything. So, here's the overall. So, here we are at West the big overall plan. Uh we've also been meeting with principal and talking about small group rooms. We had that small group allocation as part of the bond referendum. You know, we had it kind of concentrated in one area. No, the wise thing is is to get them out where they need them. So, we've been distributing those carefully in the building and sizing them appropriately and kind of working them into the fabric of the learning as opposed to one space you go to, right? So, I think those are good decisions, too. We've been watching, you know, the the science labs. So, we know that we've got two science labs on the left here. We've got two old science labs in the middle. We got the three science labs up on top. But we also had other science labs where the pluses are and those are converting over uh you know because they're not going to be teaching in there anymore. We're building the new science labs and and West is actually getting an additional one because they're kind of tightly scheduled right now. So they're they're kind of excited to have a little more freedom and and just a better fit. But basically, we're starting to recover, you know, a couple classrooms here again just to kind of loosen up that scheduling. Boy, they run those things tight. And uh, you know, they use every square foot and every hour of the day. And it's just amazing really. Kind of like the high school. >> So each each middle school will then have 11 science labs. Right now, West has 10. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Exactly. So we got our new for the new science labs there. We've located one of the staff restrooms in that area that now connects those two wings. So, that's a strategic location for the staff restroom. You notice the two blue ovals in the middle where the courtyard is. Those are uh two staff restrooms. So, those are our three staff restrooms that are part of the bond. Now, we've taken one of them and expanded it a little bit because boy, it sure would be wise to have a changing station, an a real changing station for larger students, you know, and uh adults basically. So, so that was introduced, you know, it's already there as part of the project. We're just going to make it a little bit bigger, put a cod in there, and it'll be good. the um the other areas of of of activity are well the the uh what I'll call loft style learning off the media center. We thought long and hard about that and the value of that classroom just north of that green spot up there. Um and the impact of just taking both of those classrooms out of the mix was too impactful on the actual teaching and learning. We've consolidated that concept which is exists in the high school and the loft up in the loft on a smaller scale. It's more like a thousand square feet, but it's it's the green area directly off the media center. So, it's still going to add the windows. We're still able to keep create that transparency. We're going to have that glass and and all of the nice stuff just on a little bit smaller scale. And it was really a joint, you know, decision made by the administration and just everybody involved. And it does make a lot of sense. Totally support it. The uh gymnasium area here off of the cafeteria. So you know how how do we increase a cafeteria without increasing a cafeteria? Well, we take that stage function out of there. So now that's opened up. It's going to be dedicated to cafeteria dining and and that activity only because we're creating our new stage to the right. Gymnasium stage. We've got our our common lobby that separates the two. We've got a restroom bank on the on the south portion of that where the public restrooms are, which are also staff restrooms. And there's also a changing station in there required because of our occupant load. The little red um box around there, you see it says storm shelter. I know some of you know what storm shelters are. If you're involved in the Van Vanmo building, the Vanage Momentum building, we have a storm shelter in the van. So when you do a sizable addition to a building like this, um we're required to provide accommodation for that. And we have decided to uh dedicate the entire gymnasium, the stage, the storage, that entire box is going to be a hardened six-sided essentially box that can resist a tornado. And that's >> the top F5. >> Yeah. Yeah. And the nice thing is is that we can fit all of the students and the staff into that, which is how Vanmo is too. I mean, that was a brand new building, but but with an addition, you don't necessarily ever get there with an addition. And sometimes there's a lot of people left out and um but in this case, this is going to be sized appropriately for the entire population of the building. So, I think that's a real win. I'll tell you what, it's not it's not cheap, though. I mean, we're spending, you know, big numbers to make that happen, but A, we have to do it, and B, it's a good thing to do. >> Yeah. The whole thing is a reinforced concrete bunker. >> There's no surprise. There's no surprise. It was in it was in our budgets. I mean, it's not like we're cutting things to do it. We had the money in it, but it's one more reason why the dollars are where the dollars are, >> right? the uh going to zip over to west or excuse me east and um again the overall configuration we've gone through we've tracked all the science labs the pluses you know we're going to be looking at um the small group the same type of distribution really we're really making them very similar. Uh the big difference is of course you know we got our science here but the big difference is the location of the gym and the stage. It's a little more complicated here. We've got essentially three levels. Uh we've got our main floor, we got our pool deck level, and we got our lower lower level here. So, it's it's been interesting and and um I won't dwell on it too much here, but you'll see how that works in a minute. So, here's uh the outcome of our science um or at least very close to the outcome of our science meetings last week. Uh each of the science labs have eight stations in them. 8* 4 is 32. 32 students. You know, that's a good fit. That's where it's at. Uh we also have an ADA station that doubles as the teacher station. So we've got an extra sink, ADA size sink. So we got full accommodation. The uh layouts are very flexible and uh I think they're really working. You can see how the prep room is centrally located. The staff restroom is right there. Emergency showers in each of the labs. Emergency shower in the prep room and a fume hood in the prep room. We're designing all of the science labs to accommodate essentially um silt traps so they can do rocks and that kind of you know general science stuff. Uh in the prep room we're actually stepping it up a notch and and there's a chemical system in there that's capable of chemicals. So you know I think they're making wise decisions um and putting things where they really can. And what's exciting about that larger prep room is that, you know, the three science labs just south of here can now utilize that and they've got access to a prep room now, which they never have. At east, uh same kind of a thing where uh it's a little bit different because we've got our bus loading here. So, it's a little bit wider hallway, you know, to accept the students in there. One interesting thing about East is the architect apparently couldn't decide what floor level it should be and just kind of kept changing floor levels all over the place. So there's I think there's like a 4ft drop between that door going into the addition and that door going out of the addition up there. So we've got some ramps, we got some steps. It's working. Okay. But again, the labs are literally identical. And um and I think that's been you know all four are the same but also the two schools are the same also when we really look at detail in these design development meetings like they're really concerned about the kind of mobile table right because they got some good ones I got some bad ones I want to make sure we get the good ones the ones that work that are safe okay we ran them through A B C D cabinet configurations for each of the labs and we settled on D.1 one which is a variation of all four. So that's how it works, you know, but that's that's the kind of thing that we that we do. So we're literally going through and, you know, they understand where the soap dispensers are and the paper towel and where the electrical outlets are going to be and how many outlets are going to be and that kind of thing. We go through detailed lists like this to so I can give this to our engineers so that they know what we're doing and what to expect. There's hot and cold water. There's all that kind of stuff going on. So, no gas. No gas in any of the labs. Okay. Strategic decision. >> Well, and they they don't do a lot of gas work and so they they can use little >> portable. Yep. Exactly. >> Wise use of funds. Okay. So, now let's um let's get into that was science. Now, let's get into the gym. And I'm going to kind of straddle with the the stage because it really is one thing. And uh you can see at west how we've got >> performasium. >> Perform Yeah, they started they rebranded it on last on Tuesday. They the performasium. It's like a new one >> because they think it's heavy nicer on the performance side now. We'll see. Okay. So, essentially what we have here is we've got our our common lobby corridor. So, we get access good access from the north parking lot, good access from the south parking lot. That's also the student drop off pickup door that's going to be re slid over. Now the students will come into that new lobby. All the restrooms are right there. You can see they have access into the cafeteria. So after that it's all the same. We have our gymnasium. The bleacher bank is on the left wall. The stage opening. The precinium is on the right wall of the yellow. These are all the different court stripings we were talking about today and how that's going to work. Storage. We've got a table storage. that little purple sliver that's excuse me chair storage >> chairs >> because we've got some mobile uh folding chairs as part of this design so we've got a place to put them so they don't get stuck somewhere else. The uh stage area is elevated 30 in and we've got all that accommodated. There's a ramp access over there for wheelchairs. We've got side stage. We've actually made the stage a little bit bigger to make it a little simpler for the storm shelter shape because it would have actually cost a lot to put a jog in it. So, why do that? Let's go ahead and and everybody wins. The other fringe benefit of this being a storm storm shelter, you'll see there's some restrooms down there in the uh off the stage area. Now, what are those for? They're because we have to have four toilets, water closets, toilets for the storm shelter. So, let's use them as changing areas. Let's use them as backstage uh makeup area. We need two sinks. Well, let's put a counter in there, you know. And now all of a sudden, we got a makeup area. And everyone's really excited about that because that's not in the program. We didn't have that kind of stuff. This is the biggest one. The um well, the little mezzanine here to expand the storage because we got the volume. We might as well use it. We have a mechanical room. It's all enclosed because we can't have an air handler up on the roof blowing off of a tornado. So, it's all enclosed. It's literally a a big concrete box on the back side. You see that purple area there? That's a control area, control room, a tech room. So, yes, there's going to be a control room as part of the auditorium. Well, now I'm calling it an auditorium. No, the perform. That's that's why we're calling it a performasium. It's a lot of money. Uh it started at East to be totally honest with you because East has multiple levels. It's like, okay, we're already on the second floor, man. We could just cut a hole in that wall and we could see in there and we could make a control room. Yeah, of course. But what do you do over here at West? Well, this is what you do. We got to put a stair in. We're going to put an elevator in. And it's going to be full service and it's going to be a lot of money. But that's what our job is to do is to make this work, right? Make it work out. So, um, the group was fair though. They said, "Well, if you can't afford to do it at West, don't don't not do it at East." That was a wise thing. But yet, man, West has a super strong program >> and um be like cutting them off at the knees, you know? So anyway, so we're making this work and this is the most economical version of what we've come up with and we're pretty excited about it. >> It's going to be a full control room like you have at the art center or any other >> Yeah. theater you would go to in the area. >> So >> yep. So let's take a quick peruse of east now. Same thing just, you know, flipped, right? Different location, but we're on the lower level now. We're on the gym floor level. So, basically, if you come down that hallway uh between the the gyms, keep on walking past the restrooms, the existing restrooms. We don't we don't have to add restrooms here because those are good for this new facility. And we'd come right through that stairway. Instead of stepping outside, we're going to step into the new lobby. And it's all on one level. And we're going to uh add a a changing station restroom. to a a single user restroom off the lobby which we need for code. Also a custodial closet just like we have at uh east or at west. You get into the gym, the stage, same configuration, it's just flipped and uh the elevator is shown new because that is an old relic of an elevator and nothing really fits in it and >> it's safety. >> It's I know. Okay. >> It was put in 1982. >> Yeah, that's true. >> Yes. But it's small. >> Okay. It's not an old relic in >> it's small though. >> It's younger than I am. I'll get >> it's not it's >> a lot younger. >> Well, and and you cannot fit you cannot fit a mima in it. >> That's the that's the thing. >> Which is the one of the biggest instruments they have in terms of >> you meet with the music teacher. They say, "Well, this is great. We we like to perform music on the stage. How are we going to get it from the music rooms? We can't afford to buy two. There's no space to store one permanent. How do we get it there? Do we just drive it across the yard? Do we load in a truck every time? drive around the building. So, what we're going to do is expand that elevator, just one wall on the left, and put a new fresh elevator in this new expensive edition. So, it's done and have something that's large enough for so they can get their musical instruments in there. >> And also for people who are going to be going down, grandparents or people who are not even, there'll be more room >> to come to a performance. >> Exactly. So you go up to the mid level. >> It was put in in 1982 when the ADA first came out and they did the bare minimum of what they needed to comply, you know, so which so was fine and it's again still works fine. It gets inspected every year and it goes up and down. >> It's safe. Sorry, but yeah, we're just going to replace it with a larger one, >> right? Uh, so if we go up to the mid level, there's this is where the pool deck is, and there's an exit on the pool deck that goes into that stairway. Plus, there's also um access via the elevator. And we're going to create a little storage room there, uh, just to get some of that clutter out of that hallway. So, a little nook for that. And then we go up another floor. And now you see that there's the control room and the access from that. What I didn't talk about earlier, maybe I did I talk about the access routes to I don't think I did. The hallway that's behind the music room is going to be the new access point from the main entry to the this new uh performance performance stage gym. Perform a gym. What' they call it? perform. >> Actually, they call it something else. I just call it >> It's not really rolling off my tongue yet. So, >> I just made that up tonight, actually. >> Yeah. But we're going to be utilizing that little known lesser used hallway and we're going to improve that and clean it up and maybe even pop a couple of windows in it. I mean, just to make it and it >> that that hallway was constructed to access the elevator in 1982. >> Yeah. All the way up to there. Right now, we're going to use it. And you know, part of that was we we were originally trying to come out of the the classroom area here and then turn and go through there. We're just burning up square footage and we really weren't getting any value at all. And then the science teachers were saying, "Well, are you kidding me? You're going to have all the people going down our hallway now, that hallway, and it's just going to be nuts and there's lockers." And Paul and I went out that night and we walked down this hallway and it's like voila. We can have less square footage, a more direct route. Better, better, better. >> And that money can go into the control room. >> And it's going into the control room. Exactly. >> Right. So that's um that's what we got going with that. This is a little section through. We shared this with um the FIAD people today. You know, we probably will paint the bottom blue. We probably will have blue pads on the wall underneath the basketball back stops on the ends. But they were very interested in the size of their projection a, you know, capability so that they could have their groups in there and they could be around out on that floor and still see the message and see the information. Marker board, scoreboard. You see the little pattern on the wall up above? That's going to be a little different. We're going to do a little performmannasium stuff because we need some acoustical. You know, we've met with our acoustician and she's very concerned about two parallel walls in a wide house and trying to get any kind of performance, you know, performance. And so what we're going to do is just let that veil kind of undulate in and out. And we're going to alternate between reflective by the precinium and then soft reflective soft reflective soft reflective depending on which angle it is. So we're you know very deliberate about that. We're also going to soften the back wall of course like we do in every auditorium. And um and that's what we're going to do. We've got a single light bar out in the out in the house. We'll call it now the gymnasium. You can see the little gold triangle up there. And that's strategically placed so that we can get full illumination of the front stage and a little bit of the stage as it steps down because the choir is anticipating stepping down in onto the stage floor onto the gym floor to expand their their group so that they're all visible so that the parents can see them all and they can be heard. So, you know, we're taking that into account. Uh, I've got another drawing and all the backstage stuff, wall pads, you know. Here we go. This is This is now talking about kind of as as this now turns into a performance area. The bleachers roll out. It's very much like the ones in the cafeteria. They're blue plastic right now. We're looking at maybe getting a little pad on the seat side and what that costs and the feasibility of that. But um right now they're they're you know very comfortable stadium type chairs on platforms. We've got our movable uh seating in the front. And then we start to move back stage here. You can you can start to see we've designated 70 foot wide wood floor. All the rest of it concrete for kind of working function, building things, you know, storing things, trying to conserve money things. You can see the little vignette of the uh the well the required restroom facilities for the storm shelter. But now it looks a little bit more like a makeup area like a like that. We've hit our number of 750 uh seats, 751. And the precinium is 50 feet wide, which is a little bit wider than the high schools, not much, but a little bit. And it's 18 ft high. And it will be separated by the two the two uh elements are going to be separated by a very heavy velour main curtain drape. We have landed on that. We had talked about operable partitions and all sorts of stuff like that and understanding that the acoustics weren't going to be good anyway and they're going to get damaged and we went through a series of meetings with vendors and suppliers and logistically where does it stack? What is how does it disrupt all of the other stuff that's going on in there? We we jettison the idea. >> They couldn't guarantee soundproof. you've been in very >> very uh elite hotels, right? And and you're in there talking about something serious, maybe like, you know, uh student mental health or something and next door they're talking about something else and clapping laughing or whatever. You cannot have a portable wall that will be sound attenuate and just block everything out. >> So, we've we've shared that with all the groups, you know, that are going to be using this. And basically, this is going to be treated like a secure area anyway. Uh we're going to have a card reader on that door so we know who's going in. Teachers are in and out and that kind of thing. It's not a casual kind of environment. You know, this is a this is a multi-use space and um respect for each other. The scheduling is going to be separated. Of course, we knew that even before when we were planning the the super expensive wall that didn't work. Um but this enables us to do all of the the elements the same way and everybody's on board with it and it does make sense. So the uh yeah the summary of the seats. So there are some loose chairs and I think that's it. This Oh no, I got one more here. There. So you know when we look at it with the with the drama people and the music people, we're talking about the electrics. You know, we've got proper stage lighting. I mean this is a full-blown deal now. Uh we're not flying things vertically. It's not like a fly loft. It's not like the high school in that regard, but it has all of the functionality. It has it has the borders. It's got the main drape. It's got the borders, two borders. It's got the rear traveler, so they can close off the back. They can go behind it, so they can go from stage right to stage left. Behind the rear traveler, there's a psych cycllorama, so you can cast onto that. I mean, they are just I don't know. They're pretty excited. >> Yeah. And and on on both of them, it's like you got a lot of room stage left and stage right. So if they do want to change scenes, they can, you know, build them on wheels and slide them in and out. >> So >> and you can see the proximity little purple box up there. That's that control room. So we've, you know, positioned that appropriately so that when the a tall, you know, student stands up, they're not blocking the view out of the control room. So, you know, we're looking at all the sight lines and and this really is a tale of two distinct uses that are just kind of melding together nicely and um it's it's fun to see that happen. So, of course, these are some older images here, but um you know, the whole idea of having two rows pulled out so we can get about 70 80 spectators here watching a game and have a team over here. That's that's what we're doing. All the basketball hoops of course swing up or swing sideways to clear the precinium to open it all up. So that looks more like that by day by night or midday and mid-after afternoon. >> And we think the elementary schools will also probably want to uh book time in there for their concerts because it's a nice big venue. >> The people we're meeting with sure hope that happens. Yeah. >> Yep. So, you know, I mean, just some other little things. We we track things. You we draw something and we review something and then we re-review it and then we we just got to keep tracking all this stuff. And we're tracking very nicely right now and making some really good progress as of this afternoon. And there it is. >> That's the end. Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. >> That was the timer, right? >> Thank you both. I really appreciate it. And I we're in good hands. I I appreciate the you've you've come a long way since November. It seems like everything's on task and we really appreciate that. So, >> um questions, Karen. >> Um more of a comment. Um I really appreciate that you're including the staff and it seems like such a thoughtful process that I'm actually not surprised, but um appreciate all the work. Um and David, you did our Vanmo building too, right? Just for the public. So, you Yes. This is not your first rodeo with >> 41 years of rodeo in >> Yeah. So >> it is not my first rodeo. >> In our little alcohol there and and one one that we still have to hang up for aviation >> was involved in terms of designing those. >> Yeah, I appreciate that longevity. And I appreciate Paul, you are project managing this to save us money, correct? >> Okay, that's I think important to know as well. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Mike, >> um, thank you for, uh, thank you for your work on this design. Um, as a father of a, an actress who is going to be able to take advantage of that stage on Hi. Hello. Hi. Um, who's going to be able to take who's going to be able to take advantage of that that theater for her eighth grade year? Um, and hopefully will be on that stage performing. Uh, I really appreciate the work you did. mainly because I also had a lot of contact with both both theater directors from the directors of both sites and they were really nervous about how it was going to turn out and it looks like you've addressed all of their their needs. So, thank you. >> Thank you, >> Sally. So, just I think I'd like you to explain to folks who may not have heard about the adult changing. I believe that code went in what within the last year or so. >> Yeah, it's a more recent Yeah. >> Can you explain that for Well, yeah. when we have when we create a larger assembly space uh that is well it's just absolutely required and it's just a normal thing and I'd say it's probably been three years actually on that one. Yeah, >> recent very recent >> but that's recent. Absolutely. Yep. But um you know it's just the right thing to do. I mean why not right? every building should have something like that and uh you know it's kind of frustrating when it's not available and it's literally available to the public. So any any person that may you know be there every day or once once a year you know may may have a need for that. >> Megan >> um thank you for all this. Uh two questions or one's a comment one's a question. Um, I'm assuming in the science uh storage area that the fume hoods are ducted. Like they're not okay because I taught in a chemistry classroom once that had one of the like portable ones and they don't work. >> Um, my question, I don't know if it's a question for you guys or for David. Um, I'm just thinking about the things that are happening um over the summers are pretty big, right? like the um waistline and pavement and so how does that work with um community ed or the sports programs that use our fields or the aquatic center um how does that impact those different programs and then follow-up question some of this is happening during the school year um and I haven't been on the board while we've had something large going on during like we had Vanmo but that was offsite so can you just talk a a little bit about how these things impact um the different programs that use our facilities and then during the school year how it impacts the students in the building. >> Sure. And we've got a lot of experience building um as as we built the district and built 128 classrooms and things like that. We typically would start in April to for a September as we grew the district. And so um you have to uh segregate the construction. Uh yes, there is some noise. There's some interruption. Uh you try to minimize it, but you you it's not it's not like walking, you know, through the arboritum. Uh it's there's there's some noise that does come with it. Um but you separate everything as much as possible from the rest of the building. We've met with community ed and they know what the the schedule is and they're going to be able to work around most things. Uh we're trying to minimize uh we've we've talked with them about the need to replace the uh the uh sewer line at East and uh that will when that will require the water to be turned off and so there's going to be a period of time. We're going to try to do that uh in July from July through when the teachers come back this summer and schedule that time. But yes, so there's going to be some downtime there and uh they're aware of that. They're looking at maybe finding some other options. Uh most of the fields will stay open uh until until construction starts for this summer. Uh the um but at east all of the fields that are to the west of that little dotted line that Dave showed you on the on the u one of the first slides, those are going to be able to stay open. They'll be able to access them. They'll be fenced off. Uh so and the and the main field at east is going to be able to stay open because we're not touching that. Um, we can't really do too much of that with anyway because it's it's very close to the wetlands and it's it's the water table is super high. It's it's like three or four feet below the below the the depths there. But um then at at West uh we've told uh uh we we we are we are going to be meeting with um all the various groups that are actually involved with this. We have a actually have a facility scheduling meeting with everybody. So, the football association, Ton United, etc., etc., etc. And, uh, we're going to be getting that scheduled here in February. So, they have a little bit of advanced notice. But, uh, particularly for Tonka United, their season pretty much wraps up by the end of June. And so, uh, when, um, there though, we may have to start sooner. So, they're going to be impacted uh, right away, probably after school's out in in in June. and uh um but then if we get all that work done the following summer the whole site will be available because we're just going to be working inside and finishing up construction. So there's a period of time where it does impact some people. We're talking to all the the stakeholders, you know, so it's not like surprise. Well, I mean it is a little bit of a surprise once we bring them in, but we're giving them advanced notice and um uh so we're breaking a few eggs to make an omelette. Yes. But um you know for the most part and it's um uh you know everybody's been understanding and they recognize the value that these changes are going to make and so they've been very cooperative and we're going to do whatever we can to minimize the interruptions for sure. You know, the second part of your question, it was really during con during school and the safety and and just, you know, the impact on the kids. Like Paul said, there's going to be a lot of noise and stuff, but that's really why we put those sequencing plans together because that's like the orchestra conducting the activity. We're not in charge of it, but we have to guide it. We learned that years ago. I mean, we were contracted design a new high school out in Namony, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia. when my kids were in middle school here, uh, just starting middle school. I re I remember it because it was a seven-year project. Both my daughters went through middle school while I was working on that project. But we literally built a new high school on top of an existing high school while the high school was in session on top of it. It was the most amazing thing. And it worked. That deer originally had had that that school originally had deer running through it because it was just anyway it was like this really bizarre. >> Yeah. and and in our our in our history here as we as we have we as we've added on to the schools, we've had actually several uh four, you know, our science classrooms are um four classroom editions, right? And we've done a bunch of four classroom editions and some six classroom editions where again we started in April and we were able to uh finish by uh you know for the start of school. At the middle schools, we have the uh at each middle school, we added five section or five classroom additions on the se well the south end southwest corner and and of uh east and the northwest corner of west in 2012 and we started those in April and were there ready in September. So there was a little noise for a few months but then it was they were completed. So uh we aren't going to be able to break ground in April. It'd be it would be it would have been amazing if we'd actually be able to these are big buildings, big additions, and the permitting process has gotten much longer. >> And so, uh, we're looking at, you know, submitting, uh, our our plans and probably having another three to four months before we actually get our permit. And it it used to be that you would put your put your permit in and uh, and they would do a lot more administrative review. Now they do a lot more planning commission and um and city council review. They've like decided to look at more things and that's fine. That's how they run their cities, but it it takes longer to go through that process. And then also typically after you get your permit, uh now there's also additional data that they require and they won't give you a permit until all those boxes are clicked off in their system. So there's different layers that have been added on over the years that have extended the time. Uh but uh and so that's why we can't get a permit for say the the science classroom part of it um and break ground in April because if that was the case we you know we'd still be able to like break ground in April and probably have them ready by fall but because of the permitting process it's going to be going on longer and and it's going to extend out the construction and we're going to run into winter conditions and that will extend out that. So that's why we're saying hey we're going to have those ready for the fall of 27. >> Right. >> That's all on that schedule. Dan. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. This is really, really minor, but I heard mention of lockers. >> And do the middle school students even use them? >> They do. >> They do. >> Do they really? >> Uh the the young the younger ones do. Yes. Okay. Yeah. >> They have them. >> And gradually they do move away from it. And by the time they're high school, hardly anybody uses it. >> But the the the lockers that we're relocating are are in use. They were actually put into the media center. We're taking them out of the media center so we can have get so east can get their media center back and putting them off site. But uh yes, there's less use as you get up in age, but they still they were not like, "Oh, you know, uh principal div was going, "No, we can't get rid of those lockers. We have to replace them." Yeah. >> We're not buying any new lockers. >> We're relocated. >> Yes. But that's a good question, man. But it it is true. is the the older they get, the less they use our lockers. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Next up on the agenda, self insurance fund history and update. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, um the timeline for approving insurance for our district has moved forward. uh and what we used to happen is maybe in late May with an enrollment period is now going to be happening in March and that has pushed this discussion forward for the board at a study session. So, um we're going to get a a brief update on our self- insurance fund. We're one of the districts in the state that manages our own funding for insurance internally. So, executive director of finance and operations Paul is going to give a a history of our self- insurance fund and a update of where we are. We already have been meeting with those employees groups to set funding rates for the future. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, my computer went to sleep while I was waiting. So, while he's uh keying up, I'm just going to make one comment on our last agenda item. Between now and the fall, many community members will be asking questions about construction. I would just remind people that what we just presented was taped and we can certainly um uh either look back at the notes on this or we can get the presentation so that you're not expected to memorize all those things but we can share those things get a copy of the presentation and share with community members too. Mr. Bourgeois. >> All right. Uh still connecting here. Here we go. Yay. All right. [Music] I should have some kind of, you know, in entry music like Yeah. Before you get a movie, right? >> All right. Um, and so, uh, this is a a an update that we do at least once a year. So, some of you have been on the board longer have seen it. Uh, some of you are newer on the board. I think it's it's worthwhile just to understand our self- insurance fund because it actually has saved the school district a lot of money over the years. So, we actually our our self- insurance fund actually started uh in 2001. Uh and so we've been in in operation for 25 years. Uh for fiscal year 26, uh I'm not going to go through everything on this in detail, but uh you have you have this in your packet, but we had a 5.25% 25% premium increase. Uh what's interesting about that is the trend in health insurance has been in the 9% range on for health insurance for for uh uh just medical and then uh uh drugs have actually been going up in the similar range and sometimes in the double digits. So we've we've had a pretty good um a pretty good run overall. We've had a couple years where things have been a little bit higher. Uh but when you have a small group you might get spikes. A few years ago, we had a lot of cancers and so we had had to have a lot of had a bigger premium increase. But, um, we have four different health plans. We have a base plan that is kind of a standard traditional deductible plan. Uh, they're listed on there. I'm not going to walk through each one of them. We have an HRA plan which is our most popular and and this is one where we actually have a higher deductible but we actually deposit a couple uh or several several chunks of dollars uh into employees accounts for on behalf of them into their HSAs uh so that uh they can use that to kind of buy down that deductible a little bit. And then we got a couple of of uh high deductible options which are are least used. Uh but it gives employees a chance to decide to have that coverage that level of coverage if they want. This is our premium history over the 24 uh it's 24 years because I didn't I didn't I don't include the first year because the first year is kind of like the base and so fiscal year O2 was the first year. So this is the increases after that first year was set. And uh we've averaged 4.15%. You can see three years where we've been in the double digits out of 24, but even with that, the average premium increase has been 4.15%. Um, this this particular chart just shows those same numbers in a bar chart. So, you can see versus um the trend and uh so most years we've beaten the trend. Uh there's been I think it's looks like four years where we haven't beaten the trend, but the trends in red and our our increases in blue. If you take that on an index basis uh and you start with fiscal year the base year is as 100 on the index and then you took the increases and ran them up on a percentage increase on the index. Uh you can see that if we uh were probably going if we were not self-insured and we're basically getting renewals that were always at the annual trend rate which is what mostly happens uh when you just go out on the market every year and and and um uh don't have your own plan. uh we'd be up we basically would have had almost a se over a sevenfold increase in what we were paying when this plan started. Instead we've had about a 200 you know a 250% well 150% increase over you know off the base year of 100 um by having our own plan. The thing about self- insurance also means that we have our own our own uh pot of money. And so if we save money in a year, that money stays versus if we are not if we're what's called fully insured in the jargon of the insurance industry, that means that you're getting uh you're just buying somebody else's plan. And if you save money on from the premiums, the money then goes to their bottom line. And that's okay. It's, you know, it's it's it's okay to have that. But uh by basically running our own plan, we get any savings and it's helps us to basically maybe not have as high a premium increases. Uh this is um our age dispersion and we have 2354 members and uh so so that is actually employees and their dependents um spouses and uh uh other dependents, children. Uh the um interesting thing about this is our our uh numbers are in black for the for the current year for for FY25. We're in FY26 now, but and then uh the the current year in orange is actually the book of business for for at that time it was Health Partners. And then uh green is the prior year and yellow is the prior year uh aggregate for health partners. But what you can see is that we have uh we have less younger people. So, so there's a lot more people around like me that need a little more a little more finetuning as we kind of get gain wisdom, right? Um, but uh uh so that makes us even on the expensive end, right? Uh because we, you know, in from 40 and above in particular, we have more members on our plan in terms of the the number of of of them versus the younger younger on other plans. Uh this is um uh a chart showing just uh what what was is going on basically um for the for the in the last fiscal year we were higher in psychiatry and uh and we were actually higher um two years ago in cancer that's the green but then you can see that came down so it's just a couple of of other items like that uh orthopedic and uh arthritic conditions uh we are below that average. So, we're getting a few less hip replacements and things like that. Um, but uh um you know, so it just kind of gives you an idea where we're at. This is actually just our our cash balance. We actually account for it on an our our fund on an acrruel basis at the end of the year and record liabilities. But cash is king. You need a lot of cash to pay the the annual the the monthly premiums. Uh not premiums, claims. And uh excuse me. Uh so we've actually uh built up our fund balance over the last couple of years and then spent it down. If you look at fiscal year 20 21 and 22 those were the years that were impacted by COVID where people were not going to the doctor as much and then after COVID people started going and making up for some things and probably because of some delays of people waiting uh we had more people going and it might be more serious conditions. So you can see that we had had a a uh our our balance was actually being spent down, but then we stabilized it in fiscal year 25. So um I'm not going to go through each one of these slides, but just to give you an idea of like the dollar amount per person. The the bold number, monthly claims per participant, is just something to to kind of track in terms of these particular charts. And uh you know, in fiscal year 17, we're spending about $418 per participant. So the participant in that case is again employees uh their spouses their dependent. Uh in fiscal year 18 that edged up to $440. Fiscal year 19474 and then COVID hit and so every we dropped down to 377 and started acrewing some dollars and fiscal 21 it started edging back up a little bit back up to 410. So we were where where we were at about 5 years before and then fiscal year 22 451 23 543 that's when it really started jumping as we came out of COVID and people started uh taking care of of things that they might have put off and then uh again up to 585 and then 605. So that is a significant increase steady increases particularly after COVID. This is just a uh average monthly claims expenses by year and you can see again how it dropped in fiscal 20 which is when the year the fiscal year that co impacted and then just just started edging up. So it really just returned it just returned kind of to the average trend. We had a drop and it delayed things but we we caught up very quickly to to kind of a steady trend. And that's that's again the same chart showing those dollar amounts all on one. So this last this next chart is basically uh a historical well from fiscal 13 but just again trying to show show the increase because we've been around 2200 to 2,300 um uh participants on our plan. We've been fairly steady as as we we've we've added staff as we've grown, but uh we've we've really stabilized the last five or six years. And the um the interesting thing about this again you can see the in in black green is revenue blue is expenses and uh in black is a net profit or net net gain and then net surplus and then red is a net deficit. And so we are running we were running some surpluses. We had a few years where we did some m minor deficit spending. Uh then we actually gained some dollars back during the co years and then we had a couple years right after again. So we we uh squeaked out a a net gain for fiscal year 25. So we we kind of got back to break even. So at the end of the year, we do a claims runout liability um uh dollar amount that we set aside and then something for excess claim stop-loss liability. claims run a liability is if we decided to go out of business, there are health claims that are in process. And so we'd still be getting bills in for x number of months after we went out of business. And so you have to every year acrew a dollar amount that's set aside that no matter what, if you decide you're not going to run a self-insured plan anymore, you still cover all the claims that are in process. And then the excess stop-loss liability is a dollar amount that we have uh to cover what's called a donut in our in our coverage. We actually get uh every year a policy for 125% of expected claims for catastrophic coverage. And uh that dollar amount is is like in in like a worstcase situation where like everybody got something weird or another pandemic came through and infected just like all of us and we're just running through a a huge increase in claims that was going to just wipe us out. The stop-loss liability insurance that in any given year we only pay for claims up to 125% of what we've expected and then that stop-loss insurance kicks in. Well, uh the uh uh we so what we do is we also acrew a liability at the end of the year for uh our auditors let us acrew a liability that's equal to the claims rental liability because actually the the excess claim stop loss uh gap from where your expected claims are up to that 125% is actually bigger than that. But we acrew another million dollars and then when we actually close our fund balance out we basically reserve the remainder of that amount. So, we've got about a $4 million donut hole in that excess stop-loss um liability uh gap that we've got covered between the liability and between what we set aside and designate in our fund balance for this umbrella stop-loss gap. And so then the blue number, so those are highlighted in green. And then the blue number then is is the unassigned fund balance. So we we ended up fiscal year 25 with an unassigned fund balance of about 3.5 million which was about a 16% fund balance. Uh and uh on a from a cash basis we have about a 40% cash balance uh about 40% of claims. So we we're we're in steady shape and good shape. Uh this year we're working through the process uh and we'll be coming forward in February with uh with with the uh we're working through the process with the self-insurance advisory committee. uh and we're going to come with a recommendation for premiums uh at the end of February uh to the study session and then hopefully have you approve that in March because we need to be able to get our employees information about what premiums will cost for each plan. Uh we're required by law to have that at least three months ahead of time of when the premiums take effect and our new premiums take effect on July 1st. So right now things are looking uh we're running a little bit hotter again. So we might have another low double digit in the 10 or 11% range, higher than we wish. But um uh the uh and and right now there's not any particular um uh uh medical area that's standing out like like a cancer or um or more, you know, more more more orthopedic or anything like that. Um or sometimes you have a severe claim where like you have a premature baby and stuff and that runs you know almost a million dollars. There's nothing like that going on. It's just everything is up. The national trend uh by uh from uh the insurance firm Seagull uh they're known for their trend analysis every year their trend projection and they have the national trend at 9.7%. It sounds like it looks like we're not going to be under the trend where we've been so many times. It looks like we're kind of running for next year like at the trend. So that's kind of where we're at so far just to give you a little bit of look ahead. But that's just an update on our self- insurance fund. Over the other thing is overall this self- insurance fund has really good coverage. My daughters once they were no longer 26 or over older than 26, they they didn't they didn't realize um or they really appreciated what they had while they were still able to be on our insurance coverage because we cover uh every everything. The other thing is is I'm an administrator of it and so uh we've had situations where um I just happen to be in the position of the person who's supposed to be the administrator, right? So um and so uh we've had situations where we've had people who've had some really uh dangerous life-threatening situations and the only chance they had left was to do something that was experimental and it wouldn't be covered. normally insurance company. Oh, sorry, we're not covering, but we can make we can give them authority, give them an exception. And so there's been uh four different times where we gave people authority and we saved their life. This and the other thing is about our insurance uh is you can basically get to University of Minnesota, you could get to the Mayo Clinic, the you know Cleveland Clinic, um you know, St. Jude hospital in Memphis for your child if you needed to because all that is part of our of our plan. So it's really good coverage and you know knock on wood we're looks like we're going to be at the at you getting all that coverage at the trend would be great because most people don't have coverage nearly that good but hopefully we'll you know also get back down underneath the trend long term, you know, because that's what we've done the majority of the years. So it's a really great asset um for our employees. And uh you know the other thing is is it is expensive but my the one profoundity that I thought of in my whole life that I probably should write down and say I wrote it is the the reason that health insurance is so expensive is is because it's the only way you can buy time. So yeah now I sound really smart right just just for five seconds. Anyway so uh that's update on our self insurance. >> Thank you. Thank you Mr. Bourgeoa. Comments or questions from anyone? Oh, Dan, >> I just want to throw out a thought in advance of our case committee coming together and everything like that. Health insurance costs are obviously a huge pressure on our budget on our employment contracts with all of our bargaining units and everything like that. And I know we're we're always looking to the state on the revenue side of the equation as far as giving us more latitude to absorb those costs, but I think it's also important and and we've got a platform to emphasize that the state might be in a position to need to take a serious look at what's going on with health care and the price of health care and what can they do to help control those costs for their public institutions. ions and their citizens and that would that would provide us with a little bit of relief as well. So just just clarifying for for our legislators how how much of a drag on our budget health insurance costs are. >> Anyone else? >> Well, can I just add one thing? Sure. Yeah. in related to that I wi with other you know just in in interacting with other business managers and and what that fully insured uh side of the equation looks like there's horror stories that I've heard from other business managers about we we had a 40% increase we had a 30% increase we had a 60% increase they don't know what to do so but I'm not sure the state the state is having issues too because they had the you care for retirees and they couldn't afford to pay for it anymore so they just um we had 212 people that were on UKare that have come back onto our plan now. Um, which is okay because uh you're entitled to stay on our on our the plan that you retire from. As a district employee, you're able to stay on that for the rest of your life under state law, which is fine. So, we have them back under our umbrella and uh you know, they're uh they they have protection. >> Is that a perfect segue to our next agenda item? >> No. >> Okay. Our next agenda item, OPED trust fund history. Superintendent law. >> Madame chair, members of the board, members of the public, OPED stands for postemployment uh benefits. So, it's the thing the money we set aside for employees who have retired. And we'll get a history of that and a statutory change in the early 2000s that allowed districts to take advantage of it. Minnitankaka was very savvy in how they took advantage of that and uh created flexibility to use those funds. Frequently people talk about all the money we have set aside in fund balances. It's important to know that this is dedicated funding and how we've chose to use it. Executive director of finance and operations Mr. Bourgeois will share that history how we've used it and how we're funded projected forward. Mr. Bourgeois. >> Okay. Thank you superintendent law madam chair and members of the board. Um, this actually kind of ties into the way school districts were funded. Uh, we've all talked during the during our budget process about how uh prior to about 1995, school districts primarily could levy for what they needed to run their their district. Then the state decided we're going to take over and take over more of the burden. And we, you know, you all were, you're familiar with the the graph showing then, okay, then we went into 10 years of of uh of a lot of budget reductions until 2007 and then we started working our way through open enrollment and passing referendums and and being able to grow our way out of that. Well, part of during the time when they could actually just kind of levy for what they needed, uh there was a lot districts across the state gave away very generous benefits. they would do things where they gave lifetime benefits to their staffs. And so these liabilities were were were were were piling up. And so once they switched to not being able to levy for all those costs, there were some really serious issues with these what they called unfunded post-employment benefits. And in uh 2002, the state required uh districts to cap their uh benefits for that would go on in perpetuity for retirees and uh and so so everybody had to do that. So you could no longer actually negotiate that uh for any bargaining unit. And so they kept uh uh the these people with these perpet well I guess perpetual for them but uh unemployment benefits through you know for the rest of their lives in 2002. So fast forward then to 2008 every district was out having an uh uh having a difficult time trying to fund this liability uh still. And so this uh in uh in 2008 the legislature passed uh this particular statute that allowed public entities to fund a trust fund for other post-employment benefits and um I kind of go through the liabilities there about lifetime health benefits but uh and to establish a trust the participation in these types of benefits had to have been capped by July 1st 2002 and we could trust the trust fund could be funded by issuance of a of general obligation bonds. So, in other words, you could actually sell bonds, levy for the bonds to cover for it, and then uh not have to pay for that out of your general fund so that all your more money could go for for classroom instruction. And actually, to be honest with you, I saw this and come out and I I took I took this law and I went into Dr. Peterson's office. I said, "Dr. Peterson, we have to do this. This is like this is like so good too good of a deal." I said, I'm worried that if we don't act fast, the legislature is going to like, you know, cut it off and and we would miss it. And and so we actually did that and we moved ahead. The board moved ahead quickly. We set up our trust fund and sure enough, we got our trust fund established in 2000 in 2008 at the end of 2008 and sold bonds and funded it. And sure enough, the 2009 legislature actually said, "Uh, wait a second. Now you got to run a referendum to see if you can do this." So we got in before the window was closed. So um anyway sometimes you have to was it fortune favors the bold or whatever I guess. So um anyway so the legislature allowed two types of trust funds. One is an irrevocable trust and that locks in the funds for paying re tyrie benefits into perpetuity and that's all you can do with them. A revocable trust allows more flexibility uh to utilize the funds if the investments of funds produce more assets over the liability. There's a certain thing you certain number of criteria you have to look at and if you qualify for those you can actually pull excess assets out of the funds for any reason that you deem appropriate or necessary. Um so what that does is and re we p we picked that most in fact I I'm I have not found another district that did this that has done revocable. I think we might be the only district in the state, but we picked that because when this the these the liability is calculated based on the number of people who are eligible for benefits and of course father time is undefeated, right? And so eventually all those people will have maxed out their benefits so to speak um uh they'll pass away and uh so at that point in time if there's money left over it gives you the ability to do something else with the funds. So uh that's why we chose to establish this. Um and the other thing is is with a fixed set of participants again receiving benefits over time mortality would result in the liability decreasing significantly. I had the actuaries do a conservative 3% discount rate to calculate the initial liability because I knew that's what we could earn at the time by doing our own investments. That's what what we were earning. Uh the thing is is uh if we had professional services uh to manage the investment uh there's there was likelihood that they could do uh better than us because if you use professional services they were able to actually move ahead with other funds. the same kind of funds that the state board of uh of investment manage uses for for um pension funds for the district not for the district sorry for TRA or PR and all the other uh or MSRS the state pension funds. So that's that's uh uh why we thought that we would have have a chance to do something about with excess assets acrewing over time and that there was a significant chance. So we started the the the trust in 2008 and we had a liability of 17.7 million and 615 participants. We selected Wells Fargo Private Wealth Management uh to be the tr uh the the investment manager for the trust. And so that by doing that then we could invest in things that were not earning just 3%. We could invest again in anything that the state board of investment could invest could invest in because we had professionals managing it for us. So from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2025, we've uh had about $10.9 million has been dispersed to the general fund to pay for retirey benefits. So that reduced the uh the expenditures of the general fund by that amount. Without the OPE trust, the general fund unassigned fund balance would be about $10.9 million lower and be at about 7.1 million rather than the actual 18 million that it was at the end of FY25. So, it's been a very valuable asset to the board. Uh, we did actually have one opportunity to pull some access a excess assets out. Our oped trust assets as of June 30th, 2021 had grown to $28 million and the liability had declined from 17.7 million down to $10 million. And participants had declined from 615 down to 209. We're actually at about 175 now. So, uh, the statute, uh, reads that any amount in excess of 100% of that political subdivisions or public entities actually determine liabilities for post-employment benefits as determined under standards by the governmental accounting standards board may be withdrawn and used for any purpose. That's the fourth of four tiers that you you qualify for. Go through the first three tiers, you get to that fourth tier, and this is what you can do. So at that time we were looking at at uh trying to construct the Vantage Momentum building to replace the rented uh the rented space at 4350 Baker Road. And uh so on October 7th the board actually approved the use of $7 million of excess assets out of that fund. We had built up very rapidly particularly the last in 1617 18 it it started snowballing and and got us up to 28 million. So, we had these assets available and uh on June 2nd, the bids came in though higher than estimated due to construction and face inflation. So, the board approved the use of an additional 2,850,000 in excess assets from the OPED revocable trust fund. And uh we actually pulled it out at a good time because there was a pretty significant market correction right after we pulled those funds out. So, we actually were able to pull them out rather than just have them disappear. Um, so we're getting into the OPED in uh revocable trust liability components. There's actually two components of the trust liability, explicit and implicit amounts. And uh the explicit amounts are going to actually eventually end due to mortality. Uh that's that that's what applies to the people who were employed before July 1st, 2002. There's implicit amounts that relate to the fact that under Minnesota statutes, those those retirees that I mentioned or anybody for retiring from the school districts were allowed to stay on the plan. And so, uh, since we're more expensive, um, even though they're paying playing paying full premium, we have to make sure that, uh, we acrew a liability for that. So, there's an explicit liability component of this OPE benefit, although it's not assigned to any specific person. Uh so uh this is just a a hard thing to look at, but I I just put it in here just to let let you see that this is what the 30-year projection of the un uh the unfunded actuality acred liability that this is the total. So it was at 10.3 million for fiscal year 25 and then it shows it dropping down to basically about $2 million out into 2033. I mean getting very low and then the explicit unfunded liability is is about 5 million of that uh in 25 and and 469,000. So the explicit will will disappear. So the the difference in the in the total and the explicit is what the implicit is. So uh that that's going to drop um considerably. And so what that means is as we get to the the majority of people who are um who will pass away by 2039, which is 30 years after the the start of the fund, uh it's going to be a very small amount, a relatively small liability. And so there's going to be other opportunities for the school board in in another 13 years in that regard. So this is our investment returns just a history of it. You can see how we had had in 2021 things were uh doing very well. Uh which is one of the reasons we got so high. And then in fiscal 22 after we pulled out funds for the Vantage momentum building there was actually a negative return because of the market drop. Uh this is the return percent. The average annual return including the startup year is 5.9%. The average annual return excluding the startup year is 6.3%. So, better than the 3% if we uh did it ourselves. This is actually a a total of the benefit withdrawals. Again, $10.9 million. Um and uh in fact, I just put in there again FY25, the general fund operating assigned fund balance is a lot larger uh because of that. This is a chart that uh just shows that we have um uh how we pulled dollar how the liability versus the uh total uh uh I'm sorry the total assets available in the fund compared and what the excess funds were. So you can see that in fiscal 21 the liability was 111 million. We had $28 million in the bank and then we always have a $15 million excess because we actually acrew uh the next payments that we're expecting for the following fiscal year out of that. But there was $15 million of unassigned fund balance and the board used about 9.8 of that. So our actual actual projected future liability um is calculated to uh when we get to the ex explicit amortization year fiscal 39 is 10 million33,000. It's going to drop down to 5.9. That's the total uh actual future benefit withdrawals based on the number of people that are still on the plan. We're going to pull out another $9.2 million almost $9.3 million over the next 13 years. Uh so this is a a projection of future investment earnings very very uh conservatively projected. Uh so I just have it projected at 3% for the years that we're not involved in right now for fiscal year 26. If we hit 3% for the rest of this year, which we're actually probably going to beat, we'll be at 967,000. I'm expecting that to be more like 1.5 or 1.6 million in earnings. And then our future asset balance again assuming those 3% annual returns it looks like it's going to decline but at the same time the liability is uh the excess assets is going to increase because the liability is going to drop faster than um than any usage would be and again if we keep getting u averaging 5.9% or 6.3% uh these charts will turn around completely. So your total assets and and excess assets that's just putting them all together show how the liability going down um excess assets uh increasing at the end of the year. So just kind of a summarizing piece here uh the net result after 17 years we invested 17.7 million. The cumulative dividends paid were 20.7 million uh listed there 10.8 8 for benefit withdrawals and 9.9 about in excess assets to pay for advantage momentum which is a 100-year asset. And we still have $14 million in assets remaining as of June 30th of 2025. Over the next 14 years, another $7.3 million uh in investment earnings, another $9.2 million at that's at 3%. conservatively. Another 9.3 million benefit withdrawals and we'll have about 11.5 million in assets remaining and 5.7 in excess assets on June 30th, 2029. Again, if we actually hit if we hit, you know, the uh the 5.96% range on average over the next 39 years, that $5.7 million is going to be closer to 12. And you know, you you'll have you'll have an asset that you'll be able to decide what you want to do with. So, uh, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bourgeoa. Comments or questions from anyone? Dan? >> Um, thank you, Paul. I know when we met with Wells Fargo back in November, they sort of briefed us on the status of this fund and, um, they recommended sort of a defensive risk averse posture. you know recommended basically that we not tap this for anything in the short term for any reason. Can you just go into that a little bit? >> Yes. Um yeah uh they their recommendation and um which is you know we all agreed with is that this is something that we should just just let percolate. Uh if you do have a big market correction we have enough assets to cover it. uh and hopefully that doesn't happen, but the lower the liability lasts over the long term, uh the more you have available to absorb a market correction. So, and there's not really anything of of a u of an important nature that would necessarily warrant pulling dollars out at this point in time. The um the important thing to remember is is that again it compounds the the the van momentum piece was really a one-time thing. We had you know we had basically almost triple the assets compared to the liability and we don't have that situation right now. Um it we have assets uh that are about double maybe well not quite double the liabil I'm sorry we have excess assets that are about 50% of the liability you know. So, um, we're in good shape. We're in solid shape, but they they recommended us holding the course. >> Thank you, >> Megan. >> Thank you. Um, just clarifying questions. So for the folks who came back onto our plan, the retirees who came back onto our health insurance plan, >> um that itself is not a cost because they're paying their premiums, but it may impact premiums like going forward because we have more folks that are older and going to kind of bring up the average premium a little bit. Am I understanding that correctly? uh in the self- insurance fund. Yes, that is would probably be the case is that they would tend to push premiums up a little bit more because they were not in and they're not included on this. Now, at the same time, the explicit liability did go up because it it was scheduled to drop about down to about 900,000 and it actually I'm sorry about 8.9 well about 900 sorry 9 million. Um but it actually increased up to 10.3 million. It went up a little bit when those additional retirees came on and so um uh but it will it will it will continue to decline over time. That's according to the actuary. So we we actually in in essence part of the dollars that we pull out of this fund every year is the actual payment for people who are for the 175 people who are still getting cash payments out for for towards their whatever premiums they have whether it's for us or for anybody else that were negotiated in those contracts through 2002. But then the other part of it is uh the actuarial estimate of what's called the implicit liability in terms of what those retirees are costing us. And so that money gets pulled out also al also. So and the the implicit is is always going to be there in some measure but it's going to it's going to continue to to to drop um over time according to the actuarial tables. >> Okay. So the increase is not just based on the premiums but it's also based on the actual claims made by those participants that that increases the self- insurance payment. >> Yes. Okay. Mhm. >> Anyone else? >> Well, thank you for the history on that. We appreciate it's always good refresher for everybody. So, thank you, Mr. Bourgeoa. >> Well, it's a good asset and it's going to pay dividends for a long time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Our final agenda item for this evening is our discussion on long-term financial stability and possible enrollment adjustment. Superintendent Law. Madam Chair, members of the board, I'll be handing out a two-page document for you to review um as we discuss the levers to uh maintain financial stability. And as you're aware, one of our goals in excellence and operational support is um maintaining long-term financial stability so that our kindergarten students can have the same opportunities that our seniors have. As you're aware, uh, the district has several drivers for revenue. Our per pupil fund that comes from the state, compensatory education or a other funds that come from the state where we are among the lowest in the state to receive those funds, local optional re uh levy that you as a board levy on an annual basis, voter approved levy. Those two are capped and enrollment. Um tonight I'm gonna for your first uh document that I handed out is what you approved as an amended budget um earlier this year mapping forward. And what I draw on this for the members of the public and I'll bring this back again should the board want to talk about it is for our current year our amended budget has a surplus of $3.9 million. For our projected budget for the upcoming year, there's a surplus of $3.6 million. And then after that, we're deficit spending. Starting in 2728, $1.7 million as a deficit spend. That would be a reduction. Then the next year, $4.5 million, $7.1 million and FY30 and almost $10 million in FY31. So, we there's a pretty quick waterfall of deficit spending. Um, one of the things that we have the opportunity to do is adjust our enrollment cap. Since I've been here, the board has done that once. When I uh started here in 2022 23 school year, the cap was 11,100 students. And you can see the enrollment number on the top of this includes in person and Tonka online students. And moving forward from the 2000 the current school year it's 11,457. That is assuming we maintain our enrollment cap. And that's that on the top the line below that talks about um you can see a number of growth year-over-year but we're capped at 11,457 toten total students. So I've asked Mr. members want to provide for us tonight. What would happen if over the next two years we added 200 more students in person. The next page that you have with you is assuming we grow over the next two years from 11,457 students our current number for in-person and online students up to two years from now 11,657 students. And what you can see below is the uh immediate impact. Next year we'd have another up a million dollars to $4.8 million in additional surplus. Then we go from deficit spending to having a surplus again in the 2728 year and then it still drops off, but we're about $3 million ahead. We we still need to advocate at the state level. But what this does is it pushes our cuts out another year or two. um and we're able to maintain programming, able to maintain class size assuming that we raise that board target over two years. Now, there's a list of assumptions in this um and what those assumptions are that we always talk about is that our teacher settlements are four and four. That's a settle something we talk about every year. All other bargaining groups are at three and three. that the the reduction that the state has planned for special education funding of $250,000 for the next bianium happens. So, this assumes that the state does cut funds for special education. Um, this assumes that the state does not fill the gap for summer unemployment pay that we're currently paying $785,000 a year for. So, this assumes that the state doesn't step up and fund that moving forward. It's not currently budgeted to be funded. If that does happen, this is still our projection. This assumes that we generally absorb these students into our existing staffing ratios. The good news for that is maintaining class size. The bad news is we're not able to lower class size. We wouldn't be able to lower class size anyway. What we'd be maintaining our staffing ratios. So what we're proposing is since we're we don't have any other levers, we have cuts coming. This can delay those cuts for a year or two. Even assuming the worst case scenario at the capital of them doing the special education cuts that they proposed to do for the next bienium and not funding summer unemployment and we have that burden. If those things are adjusted through legislative efforts and the state continues to fund summer unemployment, there might even be another year here where we wouldn't have to reduce that. So, uh, this board has adjusted this. You, um, I have done a preliminary class size analysis that I'll be sharing with you in the next two weeks, and I would include, uh, a summary when we present this to the board. we're able to maintain below our targets at the elementary level and at our targets for middle school and high school currently and even if we accept these students across our system in the majority of our classes. So, we would do this. We would um we could certainly if we phase this in, we can revisit this again in a year and and set a a target for that. But, uh it would be my recommendation exhausting all other opportunities that we maintain the same programs for our students and that you would raise the cap from 11,250 where it currently sits to 11,450 uh that this budget reflects. And at that, I'd pause for questions. Mike, >> um based on the uh what our historic open enrollment applications both in person online are concerned, would we be able to meet these increases? >> Um that is always a a a question. We um we currently are on track for next year. We could meet these assuming the board approves this. Um the K12 enrollment statewide had been trending down, but all of our neighbors in the western suburbs experienced a a increase in enrollment this year. So there there's trend data that suggests we would for the next two years. um our kindergarten class this year again last year was very strong this year applications are again very strong and what uh just for a reminder to the public many open enrolled families end up moving into the district during their K12 experience. So they they become residents over time as housing opens up. But this proposal would be that um our resident enrollment that was about 7,20025 years ago and has dropped to about 6,800 plus or minus has been you know fairly stable on that upper 6,800. This just assumes of those of those 4,200 students that are open enrolled, that would be a 200 student increase. You know, we're not talking thousands, we're talking a small percentage, 5%. >> Sally, excuse me, Sally. So, I'm hearkening back to community sentiment um that led into 2019 when that cap was set at 11,100 and we had lots of schoolboard candidates that ran on a platform of capping enrollment because of concerns about our buildings bursting at the seams and not enough cafeteria space and all that. And so would like to just hear what your perspective is on that and what has changed that would make it possible that we could do this and not face an avalanche of you know a backlash from the community for you're just playing with the numbers again and we're not accommodating students properly. >> A handful of things that that I mean the significant changes we went from 2007 to 2022 with no cuts and then we've cut $8 million over the last two years. I think the reality in our community is what can we do to prevent further cuts, which is starting to be as loud a voice as where we at with our target. The the numbers we're looking at is approximately one student in every five classrooms because we have about a thousand classrooms in our district. We're looking at at at that spread. If you look at our our 10 buildings and uh 200 students, we're looking at and it doesn't work proportionally because some buildings are small smaller than others. You're looking at about 20 students or less at across our elementary schools. Probably like closer to 15 new students at our elementary schools. Uh a little bit more at middle school and high school. And our middle schools are the closest to where our targets are. So where you'd notice this would be some at the high school. We have 300 more seats at the high school than we did in 2019 with our uh Vantage building. And you know certainly we've got a lot more creative programming at our high school that uh impacts that. So I wasn't here at that time but I I can share that our reality as we have talked about budget reductions is what can we do to prevent this. >> Just a follow up on that. So yes, certainly from a financial perspective, I'm understanding that, but I think it it and I get the one one child per classroom, but where I remember the pressure coming from was the cafeteria space, the common spaces, the you know, all that. And I realize some of that might be addressed with some of the construction that we'll be doing. And so I just want to make sure that we're thinking through that thoroughly because I I do anticipate that people will be questioning this. >> Sure. I um I I think the impact just talking with our principles, the impact on on core space, there's there's room for cafeteria space. You know, the the thing that probably um in the classrooms, you know, it's class- size space. Ironically, if we pick up more students, we have more ability to support class size than we we do without that. It it's counterintuitive but it gives me the resources to add additional support for classrooms that they are a little bit bigger. Uh we've had to scale back par support in classrooms and we've had to scale back teacher resource in classrooms because of those reductions. The you know probably the area that we noticed the most has been um parent drop off. Since that time almost every site has had improved uh drop off access. We've updated uh east, you know, we're looking at east parking lot air drop off now. Updated west parking lot. We've made uh improvements. We've got some ideas. Uh we've tried to work on deep haven. We're working with the city on that. But that's probably a change since that time is what we've done with u traffic flow. Our core facilities. We we have made gradual improvements over that time. I'm looking at the high school students and I know restrooms for example at the high school is a tender point there. So just just considerations that we will need to talk through if we're going to sell this to others. Thank you >> Megan. Oh okay Dan. Um yeah, I think um I think the the the you know in in a in a way the community came together and supported this through the efforts of the facilities task force. I think what we're doing in a lot of our buildings builds in the space in the infrastructure to allow for this expansion. And it might feel a little tight up front, but I would wager um that folks would like to see that see us utilize that new space that we're building and would like to see us pull the one revenue lever we have left um to keep our programming in place for all these kids. Um, I, you know, I I dislike the idea of more traffic congestion and and things like that as much as the next person, but um, all of our assumptions in here are conservative and I think it's wise that we don't assume the state is going to come to the rescue financially. >> Now, Megan, >> um, so I would echo echo some of what Sally said. I mean, I think the numbers piece of this looks great, right? Like, I would love to move a desk deficit out a couple years. I also am thinking on the parent side, and I know that if we start talking about this, the first thing I'm going to hear about is, oh, you know, um, and I'll use Groveland as the example because that's the one that I hear about most since I have a kid there. Um, but, oh, we already have so many lunches and kids only have 20 minutes to eat and they have to eat in their snow gear because they have to get the next group coming in. So, I'm just wondering how if we can think through some of those things and think about how to mitigate them ahead of any of these changes. I know we also have a couple of schools that are under their projected or target enrollment and I don't know if we can think about ways to get I mean Groveland's always desirable because it's on the edge of the district, right? Um, are there ways that we can make going to the um the buildings that are in the middle of the district, is there a way we can make that manageable for open enrolled families or can we be creative around um, you know, enrollment at those schools so that the ones that are already pretty at capacity are less impacted. So, I'm just thinking like if we make this change, because I agree like financially it looks fantastic, but I think if we if we make that move, we have to think really practically about some of those challenges that we do hear about the most from our families. And I do think we have made some improvements like we're getting more cafeteria space at the middle schools and I do think we've added that whole building at VanMo and that's a really good point. But when we get back to those same complaints from 2019, like we need to be very thoughtful about that and make sure that we're addressing those concerns because otherwise it just seems like we're just packing more kids in the building and we're not listening to the community and we're not hearing the concerns. So I think we need to kind of anticipate and think about how to address those challenges ahead of making a decision like this. So I I would just say the easy answer is we are constantly trying to put students where we have the most space. So u we already do that this year as we just uh the approvals for enrollment that came through and went out on Tuesday the majority of those new enrollments go to the places where we have the most room. So we that's a that's a structure we have in place. We don't you know we proportionally put students where we have space in buildings. Um, and when I look at Groveland, and we've talked about this before, from the time before I got here till now, they're give or take five students unchanged. You know, the parent perspective is, boy, it's 100 students more. You know, Groveland's been around 910 students for five years. Even if this was to go through and they were to see 15 more students, which is about three per grade, lunches would be unchanged. You wouldn't notice anything different. We probably, you know, that doesn't mean that every student is going to say, "I have too much time in lunch." I I will tell you that for for our smaller elementary schools, we still have those concerns like still kids go to the lunchroom when they're snowshoes that when you have small students, you have them go ready to go outside because it takes a long time otherwise afterwards. So those are just some of those are are practices that are common, but we of we do of course prioritize the places we have the most room, >> Dan. And then Karen. >> And then to continue on the thread Megan was pulling on there about just needing to think creatively and be proactive about preparation inside the buildings. I think we need to do that outside the buildings and take a hard look at transportation too and how we can incentivize busing and try to get as many cars out of those lines as possible because that's a that's a a big painful point for for parents and for our municipalities. So, I don't know what the solution is there, but we need to to come up with an incentive to get as as many kids on those buses as possible if we're going to do something like this. Karen. Um, yeah, lots of lots of great conversation. Am I hearing correctly, David? Like, if we don't do this, we'll be cutting deep soon. Cutting it deep soon. And then is there any will this bring more teachers into the classroom or is this keeping us basically stable? If we don't do this, we'll within the next three years, we'll be going back and looking at another $3 million in teach or in employees. Now, it would be proportional across the whole system again. But if you look at $8 million led to 40 teachers, 45 teachers and 45 Perez, if you cut that in half, you'd be looking at th those proportional cuts again. Now, certainly those would come to the board. We'd go through a robust process, but at a surface level, you're looking at another half as many employees. that was those were 45 and 45 plus another 20 other employees plus across the district. So you'd be looking at 50 employees again in starting the 29 school year. So th this would be to try to maintain all of our staffing and delay cuts. Not doing this in absence any other funding changes looking at you know ironically raising class size again >> or cutting off supports for students again. Yeah, I would say. Yeah, I would say that's what I've I mean when we're talking about this, I think it is very important to bring it down to you talk three men this but when you say 45 and 45 or 40 and 40 or whatever the numbers are that I think helps put things in perspective that those are the cuts that have already been made with these measures. We're not even getting those teachers and parents back in the classroom. or ju just maintain >> there isn't there isn't um there isn't a plan to reinstate that will require some other things to happen we need the ability to ask our community for support again to start lowering things and moving the other direction >> which is if our community I think the one thing that as we're talking to our community we need to talk about is come with us to the capital talk to our legislators because this is a lever that we can pull right David but the real big levers are in St. Paul for finance. Am am I correctly understanding? >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> And uh the last thing I want to do is it is irritate the community on things that are a problem. But one of the things the board has charged me with is long-term financial stability. We don't have long-term financial stability and we're working on that with every lever. This in the board goal that you've given to me, it says including budget reductions and potential enrollment adjustments. We've already done the budget reductions part. This is the potential enrollment. is really the only lever we have. >> Yes. >> Right. That's Yeah, that's what I'm hear. Okay, >> Tanya. >> Um, going back to the uh 200 student increase, have you ever capped uh student enrollment per grade? Like for example, fourth grade is higher. So next year, whatever, if you do increase, we're not going to take in fifth graders. >> We do cap by building. >> Okay. >> All the time. So we have caps already. We do cap. Um, middle school East has been capped for a new sixth grade for two years. So, building and grade level, but we don't cap a grade level. Um, capping a grade level if would mean we don't have space at all at that grade level. And some place in the district at every grade level for next year with the exception of maybe kindergarten, we have room. And so, and there are two times to cap it according to state statute. If we cap it before January 15th, students can only get in and a lottery um with the exception of siblings and children of staff members is written in a state statute. We try to avoid that lottery piece because there are families who have been waiting for a while to come here and we want to provide access to families. So we try to place every person who comes in open enrollment. They don't get their first choice for a school necessarily, but we try to place them and we've been successful. We're getting very close at middle school to having to do a lottery for middle school placement for open enrolled families. But um we do cap buildings uh and we do cap grade levels within a building like a building might be open but no more students in fourth grade. And some of that is for the numbers for next year and some of that is the impact for two years from now. So when we know that that's a likely go grade to go from three sections to two se two sections in order to keep those two sections at the right size, we're capping them two years in advance. And some of that has already happened like there's a second grade at one of our buildings that um the classes are a little small, but that building has to go down to two sections in two years. So we can't put any more students there. >> So there's a lot of enrollment management that happens. >> Thank you. >> Um just to clarify something you just said. So, um, does statute allow for you to lottery at one level and not at another? >> Yes, we'd have to create a lottery process. Minnitankka has never had that, but you can say we don't have enough seats at this this wouldn't happen in Minnetonka, but we don't have enough seats at middle or senior your senior year. So, any new seniors that come in, we have room for five and we're going to do a lottery out of the 50 applicants. And I say that wouldn't happen as senior year because that is the lowest that grade has the lowest number of open enrollled recommendations. >> And I would like to say as a board David's good about giving us timely updates specifically to class sizes and buildings and what is too big. I mean you've given us those before by Excelsier and so we have a good idea of what is too big and you know where the enrollments are. So I think if we do decide or we discuss this more I think that would be really important for him to keep us you know apprised of those numbers as well is my two cents. Somebody raised their hand. Karen >> Oh yeah sorry I was I don't know. No, I was just going to say um what would be a timeline just to understand like we're talking about it tonight like would there be a time that we vote on it or is there more discussion or what kind of what would what's the plan moving forward with this plan? >> Assuming that you want to scale up over the next two years ideally we'd have this approved in February so that I could use it during this enrollment window or March. um you know what we were looking at in the timing of this a lot of things went into play for this uh some of it is what's happening at the state capital some of this is what's happening within our facilities some of this has to do with what we're seeing with enrollment trends so we February would be great that's only two weeks away if the board said you know we want to do this in March we can pull it back up have another discussion at the February work session and approve it in March or or not approve of that. That's really at the board's discretion. >> Good question. Anyone else comments, questions? >> One other before you gave us for those people still watching, I have learned throughout the meeting that there is a phony email saying that school is in session tomorrow. No, certainly our web page says school's not in session. The cheers from the high school should have been that our two students here know that >> school is closed tomorrow due to the extremely cold weather we'll be experiencing from now until about 11:00. So, if you're still watching the board meeting and someone forwarded a fake message says that there really is school, there is not school tomorrow. Thank you. >> Have a good evening everyone. Thank you.