is Monday, December 8th, and we have a quorum. So, I will call this meeting to order. Uh before we move into our approval of agenda, I would like to take a moment to recognize that there have been some remarks and comments made on the national level that have caused fear, distress, and anxiety for many of our students, families, staff, and community members. Most recently, these remarks have targeted members of the Somali community. These external hostilities do not align with the mission, vision, and core values of Edina public schools. One of the greatest strengths of Edina public schools is the diversity of the people who make up our community. Our families represent a wide range of backgrounds, cultures, language, beliefs, and lived experiences. And this richness enhances every aspect of who we are as a district. I want to be crystal clear. At Edina Public Schools, we are committed to ensuring that every student feels respected, supported, and empowered to thrive. The perspectives, traditions, and talents that our families bring to broaden our understanding and prepare our students to thrive in a global world. I would be remiss to not mention that earlier tonight, the board received a stakeholder report regarding our superintendent search. Over 900 students responded and one of the items they expected our district leaders to have is a commitment to inclusion and belonging. Students emphasized that ensuring everyone feels welcome and valued is central to who Edina is and should remain a top priority. I'd say we have pretty astute, independent, globally thinking students. As a district, we stand firmly in our belief that every child deserves opportunity and excellence, and we will remain a community of belonging for each and every student, staff member, family, and community member. I want to thank those of you who continue to partner with us to ensure all our students and families are valued and appreciated. and for the many ways you contribute to the vibrant, welcoming community of Adina Public Schools. Thank you. All right, the first order of business is agenda approval. I'd like to remove one item from the consent agenda, and that is the board holiday letter. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting with the board holiday letter removed? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> We'll vote to approve our agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Tonight's agenda with the holiday letter removed is approved. Do I have a motion to approve the board holiday letter? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Board members, what changes would you like to make to the holiday letter? Um, I had a couple items [clears throat] minor changes in the second paragraph. Um, inspired by your um, I thought dedication was a good word to use there. Okay. Um, in the third paragraph, the start of the school year is filled with remove the word always. Um, as winter break approaches in the second sentence in that same paragraph, um, you can take time for yourself. >> And then in the last sentence, please take the time to celebrate. >> Okay. Min again very minor changes but but yeah that's the way we have to do it right and it goes through consent board members there were some minor little edits there um I wanted to remove the mdash I'm an anti-mnet mdash person um so pending those changes is everybody okay with those minor changes yeah okay all right then uh we will now vote to approve the board holiday lover all those in favor of for approving the board holiday letter. Say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The board holiday letter is approved. All right, moving on to excellence in action. So, this month's excellence in action features highlights of Cornelia's professional learning community PLC implementation. Principal Lisa Msika and administrative dean Leona Santel Nilly will present their work which is a model for how to build collective efficacy for teachers to discuss tier one instruction and learn from one another. Welcome. >> Thank you Director Gabber and uh board for having us here tonight. It's always fun to highlight the things that are going on in your building and the hard work that teachers are doing every single day. Um I'm going to open up So, we're going to talk a little bit about professional learning communities um and our implementation at Cornelia. Um we have been through kind of a journey of developing this and improving this every year. Um and one of the things that we've done is really to try to align some of the things that we're doing around our strategic plan. Um you can see the two up there are the strategic or strategy A um really advancing academic excellence and growth and readiness and really hoping to support our teachers in implementation of their curricular resources and their instructional practices within the classroom. Um and then second what I'll kind of talk about tonight is really just identifying um how we are supporting our leaders within our sites and helping to support them move and advance the work forward um with the students that they work with every day. So as I move forward here, I'll talk a little bit about what this looks like um from a district perspective and then al also the then within Cornelia. So when you look at it, um the district office really sets up some of these all different um areas both grade levels and then we have representation from our EL um teachers, our special education teachers, our intervention teachers um and then also our specialists. And so when you look at the chart up here really talking about the site leadership um that um green bar at the bar with teaming within the school those three tiers are present within our BLT leadership team and the ways that we support teachers and what they're doing with instruction. So that tier one you'll often hear people talking about our MTSS um structure. That tier one really is talking about the classroom teacher um general education um teaching that all students are receiving within their classrooms. That tier two is additional support that might be pullin support that might be pushin um but kind of a extra level or a layer of support. And then that tier three is typically um our students who are pulled out for more intensive support. Um, sometimes that would be our special education students or kids who are receiving more one-on-one support or more individualized support. Um, and all of those teams are really represented within our BLT um, at our school. So, like I said, our building leadership team exists of every department, every grade level um, and they're really working to advance the steps on our CESIP plan. And so our CIP is developed in June based on data that we have um looked at and analyzed from the year previous. Where are our students needing more support? Where are teachers needing more support in their instructional practices? And what is our data telling us? And so we make those goals and action steps together as a building leadership team um right away. We check in on where those goals are at and talk about what are the things, what are the action steps that we need to adjust to help support our students. We're looking at our data uh on a weekly basis to take a look and say where are we seeing success within the classroom and where are teams hearing from their teaching partners and teams? Where are they needing additional support? um those individuals within that, we really take that as a time to um develop them as leaders. So, we're taking our BLT, we're talking to them about what is your data telling you at your grade level or your department level and what kinds of things do you need as a leader of your team to help support advance the work. um as you can imagine on every single team, everyone has um strengths and talents and some people have some weaknesses and things that they um need to rely on their teammates for. And so we really talk through with those leaders what are the ways that Leona and I can help support you in helping to develop your team. Um we get brand new teachers, we have veteran teachers, and so really playing off of each other. What are their strengths? How can they help support each other? and helping to coach those um leaders within those groups to be able to be successful at doing that. Um so one of the things that we started this year is really focusing on what does PLC really mean and really our goal is is that every um adult in the building is bringing collective data to the table to look at to see what is it telling us about our student groups that we're working with. Um, and then from there really to spend the amount of time that they have aotted to talk to each other and learn from each other. Um, it's a way for our teachers to help support each other in what they're doing. They go through a very structured process. They're taking notes. Leona and I are circulating around to different groups. They all meet at the same time. Um, and so we're popping in to help support them. They may ask us originally to come, you know, can you stop by our PLCT meeting because we're really um trying to work through some pieces with um let's say math. I just talked to a fourth grade team about how do we how are we moving kids from extended math to enrich math talking about what does the data tell us and and where are kids needing to go. Um we go through this process, but then Leona and I on a Friday then go over all of those notes to take a look and see what do our team say. The last question on every week is what kinds of support can Leona and I provide you? What things do you need from us? What resources would be helpful? And so that we can kind of make that a cyclical process that we're checking in every week with them. And so I'm going to have pass it over to Leona Santellin to talk a little bit about what we did most recently with a special PLC that we hold in in November. So three times a month we have um our PLC's or professional learning communities and most of the time um with the new curricular implementation of benchmark we are looking at benchmark um so teachers are bringing data to every PLC like Lisa said and we are really analyzing the data not only from like where are students at but maybe where are things within this curricular resource that we need to um analyze we need to adjust we need to scaffold and support. So most recently the November we focused on writing. We asked each grade level or each teacher to bring five writing samples from their most recent unit um to the PLC. Um and then we used the curricular resource as the writing rubric. So they got together with their grade level teams. They had 20 writing samples and they talked about how they're grading writing in a way, you know, that is consistent among team members. And then maybe what are they noticing trends among students writing at their grade level. Then we took a little bit of time and did some vertical alignment. So had kindergarten through fifth grade plus specialist in groups together. And they really took time to talk about how does how do the standards progress from one grade level to the next? How did the skills progress? What circles back? And really got a time to come together um as colleagues and really lean into that collective teacher efficacy which we know is one of the greatest indicators of achievement for students. So, um, we did that. We called it [clears throat] Nacho Average Writing Rubric because we really needed a time to come together and just celebrate. Our teachers have done really hard and amazing things with Benchmark this year. It's been a heavy lift for our teachers and we just wanted to come together. So, we came together on a Wednesday afternoon, had some nachos, queso, um, and really use those um, writing rubrics to support the collaboration amongst grade level teams. any questions from you? >> Thank you very much for your presentation. Um my only question is is that with this model that you you've been implementing, do you see things as you progress through the rest of this year as also into next year, are there things you want to like add or you want to modify from what you've been learning and so on and so forth into the next phase of whatever you're doing with this? there will always be something for teachers to learn. We'll always have a new group of students. So, yes, um I think the hope is is that we build on um teacher instructional practices because that's really what this is about is being able to develop them as professionals. And so, one of the things that we're looking forward to is with the help of our um literacy coach is upcoming in the winter term, we're going to go into classrooms and look at where are we seeing successes with benchmark, but also where are teachers struggling with implementation. And so the first year of implementation of any curriculum is can be very challenging. It's the first time you've taught it. Um you you know try to hold true to fidelity of what the lesson is teaching and sometimes it lands with your students and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you know you might have questions about how um how can we do this better. We most recently had a benchmark um person I can't think of the Tanner trainer come to do model lessons and that was very eye opening and a lot of really good sharing she was the teacher we got to watch and so everyone from the grade level got to watch her teach and then come back together to talk and so again that was another kind of form of our professional learning to talk about okay this is what it should look like and there were some kind of ahas like oh I might be spending too much time and really discussing the vocabulary or um that's a resource that I hadn't considered to help support some of my students that you know um might be English learners that don't have a solid understanding of that particular vocabulary word. And so it was nice to see someone who was really proficient in teaching the curriculum and then be able to go back to the team to discuss together. Um and so we will be doing kind of a mini version of that moving into the winter and then developing goals around what what kinds of support do our teachers need um to further advance that. And anytime you implement a new curriculum that is just kind of the process that needs we need to go through just to make sure that we're um you know really understanding how it was intended to be taught. So >> yeah, that's great. Um my follow-up would be um you know we've hear a lot from teachers in general about the the heavy workload and the burden and the and the the capacity right the challenges from that standpoint it would be fair to say that this type of approach really helps to try to >> shorten even though it's an implementation process and we got to go through that but the main goal of it also is to try to give them some support as they're trying to manage all the different workload capacity challenges that they have and that this is a good way to try to help alleviate that. Yeah, that's one way and I think leaning into your colleagues around how do I do this better or what are you seeing from your um students when you're implementing this. I think what we found from writing in particular is it's quite rigorous in terms of the expectations for students. And so because this was not a curricular resource that students experienced in years previous. So minus kindergarten, we have grade levels of students who are coming up with um a new way of teaching writing that they may be lacking some skills. So we really talked in that vertical teaming that Leona talked about of what are you seeing with your particular grade level or your students and how are you supporting them within that? Um what kinds of scaffolds are you building in for them? Um where are they struggling where maybe didn't they have that great foundation maybe from the prior curriculum that we use? and how do we build that um with them now so that I think we'll continue to see students again as they go up through the years to be able to be much more solid but this is kind of that transitional year for all of those students who didn't have this prior to so >> that's great thank you so very much appreciate it >> thank you for joining us tonight and talking to us about the great things one of the great things that's happening at Cornelia >> thanks so much >> yeah all right Next on our agenda this month, we have a public hearing for our annual truth and taxation portion of our meeting. So for this portion of the meeting, the regular part of the board meeting will need to be recessed. So I'm asking for a motion to recess the regular board meeting. >> So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor of recessing the December 8th board meeting say I. >> Any opposed? The meeting is now recessed. I welcome to the dis director of finance and operation Mert Witter to lead the public hearing. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the school board. Thank you for allowing me to present on our truth and taxation for taxes payable in 2026. As a reme uh reminder to those who may be present or may be interested, this is required by state law. Um tonight's agenda is a very brief overview of education funding in Minnesota, the district's current or fiscal year 2026 budget, taxes payable in 2026. Finally, a public um comment period. Again, that public comment is required by law and is specific to just taxes or the school district's budget and no other topics. Before we actually get into taxes, I thought it'd be a good um good for the community to hear about how state funds um education in Minnesota. Nearly all major funding sources in the state of Minnesota are regulated by state law. The state sets revenue formulas that determine revenue on a per pupil basis for the most part. And [clears throat] also they structure and um highly regulate how much a district can raise through local property taxes. Although they do allow a couple of voter approved tools so that districts can supplement um state funding which may or may not depending on who you ask keep up with um inflation and the demands of providing an excellent education. And we'll touch on that in future slides. Overall, that framework means that school districts have very little authority um to increase their revenues, which is a little bit different from the way that cities and counties operate. If cities or counties need more money to operate, they need to hire more um police, fire, um health service professionals, etc. they're able to set their levies um to meet those demands which is quite a bit different to school districts again which are um very reliant on what the state um provides on a per pupil basis or actual enrollment which is what uh almost all the formulas are dependent upon of those formulas the one that all school districts rely on mostly in Adina that represents about 43% of our overall revenues more than $75 million so quite significant and we're very sensitive to changes to that is something called the basic education formula. Extremely easy to understand. A certain per pupil amount that's again state set by the legislature every two years multiplied by the number of students you're serving. Over the last two decades, and we'll get to that on the next slide, that formula has lagged behind inflation as measured by consumer price index increases. Although in 2023, the legislature did um approve tying that um future increases to inflation. So this school year is the first year in which we're experiencing that. So rather than the the 2% that we've got on average, we're receiving 2.74% or a $200 increase per student from last year. And next school year, estimates indicate that we'll receive about 2.37%. Um however, we won't know that for sure until um February or March of 2026. This is the chart that I mentioned previously, and I I know it's a little bit harder to read, but this is available to the public in your in your board book. Um the red line that is on top is had that formula been tied to inflation since 2003. The bottom edina green line is [snorts] um the actual appropriations year-over-year from the state. And you'll notice that the you know the lines are quite convergent and there's a a pretty pretty big significant um gap between the inflation adjusted per pupil amount and what we've actually gotten. It's about $1,454 per pupil um for next school year. That's our estimate as of now, which in the Dina terms is about $13.9 million. So quite a bit of a gap. And um one of the reasons or the primary reason that school districts seek voter approval for operating referendums is to supplement that shortfall and and continue to operate in in a manner that's um better for students and families. Next is one of our requirements of tonight is to overview the the current fiscal year budget. Um, if you're paying attention to city or county taxes, they're actually reviewing their proposed budgets for their fiscal year, which starts on January 1st. We're a July to June fiscal year. So, this budget has already been approved by the board at our, I believe, June 8th, 2025 regular meeting. Total revenues about 20 27.6 [snorts] million with expenditures of 209.2. 81% of those um expenditures are in the general fund um with the rest split amongst the food service, debt service, community service and building construction fund. Uh the next slide which has a kind of a donut chart lists our revenue sources um within the general fund. You'll notice that that large Edina green slice on the right about 61.5% of our revenues um is state aid. So the bulk of our revenue comes from the state. um property taxes, which is the slightly lighter green shade on the left, represents about onethird of our funding, um which is higher than uh virtually every district in the state with the exception of a handful of districts that are west of Minneapolis. So, in the Western Metro Schools, that's a more common ratio of property tax to state aid. Um but statewide, it is a little bit unique. federal aid, um, investment income, and local miscellaneous revenues, um, represent a very small portion of our overall operations. Um, however, still significant in the grand scheme. Next slide is all about expenditures. As you can imagine, um, public school district operations are heavily reliant on, um, humans providing services both in the classroom and outside. uh about 77% of our um expenditures are split between salaries and wages and employee benefits. And I would imagine that virtually every school district in the state and country is between 70 to 85% in terms of what they're actually paying to to staff to perform duties. Purchase services, utilities, liability insurance, school supplies, technology devices, etc. comp uh comprise the remaining 30 or um so percent 30 to 20 to 30% of our overall expenditures. Finally, we get to why I think all of us are here tonight, at least I am, is our taxes payable for 2026. Overall, we're seeing an increase of about 4.49%. Um which is very closely aligned to the 4.86% we've seen over the previous nine levy cycles. Uh the majority of that is directed towards the general fund where we're seeing a 4.46% increase of about $2.5 million. The community education fund is seeing actually a slight decrease this school year um due to prior year adjustments. So they're going down by about 8.7%. And the debt service fund has a plan increase of about 5.73%. And that fund exists purely to collect tax revenues to pay for both voter and non-approved voter and non- voter approved debt. So, the levy calculation report that um the state produces is about 39 pages and has more than 5,000 different um calculations. Um if it's okay with the group, I'm not going to review all 39 pages. I'll just go through a couple of the major revenue sources and and some of those changes. The first of which is, and I mentioned this a little bit before, is our operating referendum. This is um all-purpose funds that are core to the district's day-to-day operations. That's a voter approved component. Um voters in the in the school district or residents of the school district approve that being um virtually at the the cap provided by the state and also tied to inflation. Um so that one's going up by about 4.28% just short of $920,000. Um the increase is both attributable attributable to again the inflationary component and also a modest student enrollment growth. The second major revenue category that we get from our property taxes are capital projects levy, otherwise known as the tech levy. This one is a simple tax percentage multiplied by the overall tax base of the school district. And that's the only levy category that's actually tied to property values. This one's going up by $286,000. Again, that 3.12% is what the property base um property tax base went up by. Next category is our oped or other post-employment benefits which are increasing by 9.25%. This is actually what we call a usage levy. So the amount of money that we're receiving is based on eligible expenditures that occurred um during last school year. until fiscal year 25 and since we're levying for taxes payable in 26 which fund fiscal year 27 operations uh that levy category is in a rears by a couple of years. The next category LTFM or long-term facilities maintenance supports deferred maintenance projects against the 1.853 million um square feet of facilities we have in the school district. That one's going up by um just over 8% and just over $800,000. Again, that's going to support all the deferred maintenance throughout the district. So, roofing projects, um auditorium uh maintenance at Fick Auditorium, for example, projects of that nature, the mechanical project at the high school, etc. Um you'll notice that that increase um relates to a corresponding decrease in the debt service LTFM category at the bottom, which is going down by just under $3 million. Um, as principal and interest payments decrease um for our bonded debt for deferred maintenance plans, we we put together plan increases on the pay as you go portion so that we can continue to have adequate cash on hand um to meet all of our deferred maintenance needs and not put those off into future years um as construction costs um do rise quite quickly and more than CPI in most years. Then finally, there's our um the voter approved portion of our debt service program, which is mainly the 2015 voter approved bonds of about $126 million. Uh that one's gone up by just over $4 million, and that's a planned um increase, which is purely derived from our principal and interest schedule on those bonds. This bar chart depicts our levy increases since 2018. So 2018 through um which is taxes payable in 2017 through fiscal year 27 um which is taxes payable in 2026. The cumulative increase is about 43.27% over that 10-year period which is about 4.86%. As I mentioned previously the increases reflect increased enrollment inflation increasing deferred maintenance costs and then our two voter approved levies which have increased um since 2018. Finally, we get to uh perhaps the most interesting part of the presentation um both locally and statewide, and that's resident tax impact. Each property owner's tax change really depends on the combination of a few different factors. So, not everyone's tax statement will reflect the same increase. So, you can't look at your tax statement, see that I presented a 4.49% increase, and then think your taxes are going to go up 4.49%. That's because a everyone's individual property value is different. Um, everyone's individual property value is changing um at a different ratio in relation to all other properties in the district. Um, I like to think of it as a pie or a pizza. Your slice of pie or pizza is going to change again depending on those two factors that I mentioned. And then the third factor is how much the school district, the city, and the county are loving. And then we have an example of how the tax impact will change from year to year. We're having a four-year look at this. And um before I continue, I'll just mention that this is based on school district taxes only. Um so none of these calculations or estimates have anything to do with um the Henipin County increases, city of Edina, or any other special taxing jurisdictions that might affect um your tax statement. each um property owner within the district's boundaries um will have received a parcel specific notice in November um which will have the city's um tax increases, the county, so on and so forth. The examples on this slide and the and the next slide represent a cumulative 9.2% increase um to the property value, which is um kind of the benchmark figure that our municipal adviserss have suggested. Um, for example, a home that has a $750,000 assessed value um estimated for 2026, which is um roughly equivalent to the median home value in Edina, would have been worth um $686,680 in 2023. That property in 2026 will pay about $3,972 in school taxes, an increase of $389 um year-over-year, and about 2.7% a year over the last four years. Uh that's less than the 6.14% cumulative increase that the school district's taxes have seen from 2023 to 2026. for a $500,000 home. Um, that increase is $217 from last year and an increase or actually from this year to 2026, about 2.4%. A $1 million residential property is going up about $528 or $2.7% per year on average over the last four years. And a $1 million commercial or industrial property is going up by $537 or about 2.6% over the last four years on average. Uh you might ask why a million-dollar home and a million-dollar um commercial industrial property pay a different amount of taxes. Uh that's due to the class rate system that we have in in Minnesota where commercial industrial properties um pay a higher percentage of tax. Next up, so we've um before I turn it over to public comment, we'll have fulfilled all of our statutory um requirements and obligations. Um later tonight the school board will be asked to certify the proposed increase of 4.49% and that uh that's allowable by law. You can approve that um levy at the same meeting the truth and taxation hearing occurs. Um we'll transmit all that information to the county auditor. Um they'll begin collecting taxes from property owners in the new year and make their first distributions to the school district in May of 2026 and the last distribution in December of 2026. All right. Is there anyone here this evening to publicly comment about the truth and taxation? Truth in taxation portion of our meeting. Okay. Director Woodard, then thank you. And can I get a motion to bring the board out of recess and resume the regular board meeting? >> So moved. Director man, can I get a second? >> Second. >> Alenberg, all those in favor of resuming the regular board meeting, say I. I. >> Any opposed? The board is now back in session. All right, we are moving on to our hearings from members of the public. So, I want to thank those of you who are here to address the board. When you signed in and asked to speak, you acknowledged an understanding and adherence to board policy 206, which are our community comment guidelines. Pursuant to this policy, each speaker has a maximum of three minutes to speak. A clock on the screen will be visible reminder of your time remaining, and I will prompt you to verbally um finish up your comments if you go over the three-minute mark. When those three minutes are up, you must conclude your remarks. This time is not designated to address items concerning specific staff or students, and personal attacks by anyone at the podium are unacceptable. If this happens, you will be warned, and if you persist, you will no longer be able to continue your remarks. Any feedback about district employees needs to go to their respective site level leader, the superintendent, or be submitted to the board in writing. The public comment period will be limited to 15 individuals. Per our updated protocols, the school board will give first priority to Adina public school students, individuals who have children attending school in the district, individuals who reside in the district, or individuals who are employed by the district. The school board will give second priority to individuals who wish to address a specific item that is on the agenda for that meeting. If your form was not filled out completely, you are not eligible to be called to speak. All efforts have been made to ensure multiple viewpoints are expressed. Multiple individuals expressing the same viewpoint or multiple people from the same organization con should consider consolidating the remarks. If you are not chosen to speak, your voice is not any less important to us and please consider consider sending us an email at schoolboardedchools.org. Finally, during the public comment period, our role as the board is to listen, but this is not the place for the board to resolve any concerns and as such no comments will be made from the board. issues will potentially be referred to the superintendent for appropriate follow-up. Thank you for your cooperation. So now after all of those comments, I would like to welcome up to the microphone Shukri Ahmed. Welcome. And you just need to press the middle button there to get the microphone and it'll turn green for you. There you go. >> Sorry. Okay. Um, good evening board members. Um, my name is Shukri Ahmed. Um, I'm here tonight as a concerned Adina parents with four children that attend the school district. The Somali community has been facing a lot of hateful language and prejudice, not just across Minnesota, but nationwide, fueled by the hate, hurtful rhetoric coming from our president. I came I came to this country at the age of five, and this is the only home I'm ever known. My children were born in this country and know nothing else. Now they live with fear that ice might come and take them away. My oldest child tells me she knows her rights, but is still worried about what happens when the law isn't followed by the federal agents, [clears throat] sorry, when detaining our fellow citizens. It's heartbreaking to see our community's right be disregarded. With these fears and anxieties growing in my children and others, a few parents and I reached out to the district leaders asking for a message um to be sent district-wide that conveys hope, solidarity, safety, compassion, recognition, and reassurance of belonging not just for our children, but for all members of Adina community, especially during this difficult time when our sense of inclusion and is being challenged. While the district did send a message, it was only addressed to the ESL Somali community. Sadly, other members of the Somali community who do not identify as ESL did not receive this, including my own family. I also appreciate the effort made by the high school principal who sent out a message but it seemed to only reach students not their families. So my question my question is why are such important messages limited? Are we all not part of this community? When one part of our community faces hate, it isn't a concern. It it isn't a concern for all of us to feel. It is a concern for all of us to feel. This message this is a message of hope that we should hear that we should all hear not limited. A message of hope and unity should be shared with everyone not kept isolated as if only one group of people is affected. Hate and discrimination. Hate. Hate and discrimination hurts us all. And I believe in our collective strength against hate. The entire Dina school district belongs to all of us. We must support each other through compassion and solidarity. Sorry, I was a bit nervous. >> Thank you very much for speaking this evening. I'd like to welcome up to the microphone next uh Sana Hersy. Welcome. It's already pressed. Um, good evening and wanted to thank you guys for all the work you guys do. I want to start with the [snorts] the concerns regarding the hateful comments made by our president and I'm just wondering what the school board is doing to ensure the safety of our children and oops and secondly what is our plan to safeguard students at the school check on their well-being and address how how this situation is affecting their mental health. I just wanted to share some personal experience in my household. Um both of my kids were born here and my son is older. He's 18, just started college. And the first question he continues asking me is where are they going to deport me? I was born in California. They going to send me back to California. So, he's a little older. He kind of understands and makes jokes funs out of it. Where my eight-year-old is um sad, in tears, and saying, "I don't want you I don't want you to be deported. I don't want us to be separated." So, these things is questions the children are asking. It is very saddening. And as a mom, as a parent, I don't really know what to say. Like, what do I say to them? you know, it's just where I'm like, um, I continue looking for questions, but I don't I mean, answers, but I don't really have the answers to give them to. So, I just wanted to share what some of the children are going through and asking the questions that they are asking due to the hateful comments that came from our presidents. So, thank you for having me. >> Thank you for speaking tonight. And our last speaker this evening is Assad Deir. Welcome. >> Good evening, Madame Chair, board members. I hope you have an amazing day and you continue to have an amazing productive evening. I'm sitting in front of you tonight as a concerned resident also as a father of five kids in the district. I'm glad you mentioned, Madame Chair, the hurt and the anguish and the fear that we have all lived through the last two weeks when insults and violent rhetoric when vile remarks are racist remarks are made at the from the highest office of the land. Those are not just empty hollow words. Those are deeply hurtful words that are designed to demonize and dehumanize a whole community. I am proud to be an Adina resident. I am also proud to be an American Somali American citizen. These identities are not mutually exclusive. They make me who I am as a person. both pieces equally important. I've heard from countless colleagues, neighbors, and friends that shared the heartbreak and offered solidarity both in words and in deeds. Many school districts sent out district-wide messages offering hope, solidarity, and support that sets the tone that Adina Adina was not one of them. We wanted a message that offers hope, solidarity, and support that sets the tone that Adina celebrates all members of the community. So, I was really perplexed when I didn't get that. Is Adina too cool, too shy, too timid? I wouldn't say too supportive or supportive because I think all of you are amazing, decent human beings and I have a lot of respect for you. So I was really didn't understand why the kids were already talking about this in the classrooms. Parents and neighbors were having conversations out in the porches, in the roads. Why was the district missing when it had an important opportunity for them to comment and set the tone? So we're not asking you guys a favor. We're asking you guys to affirm and uphold the core values of Adina Public Schools. It's on your website. It says integrity, compassion, courage, commitment, appreciation, and respect. So, you missed the mark. And we want to make sure that you guys have an opportunity to partner with us and figure this out together. You guys don't have all the answers. We don't have all the answers. Collectively, we can sit down together and figure out how to support the youth, the kids, the community. Thank you very much. Thank you for speaking this evening. All right, we are now going to move on to our No, we already our our consent agenda. Um I think we already approved our consent agenda, didn't we? >> Okay. So, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, moved. >> Do I have a second? Second. >> All those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? The consent agenda has been approved. Thank you. Thanks for that. Uh we are now moving on to our discussion items for this evening. Uh our first item is our legislative action committee 2026 legislative platform discussion. And for this discussion, I will turn it over to to Director Aram, the chair of the legisl legislative action committee, and director Bergman, our legislative action committee member. >> Thank you everybody. Um we're excited to present the draft of the legislative action committee platform for um consideration by the board. Um I'm joined by three of our LACE members uh student members of this group. We have 15 uh student members, one community member and several other uh staff people who helped put this together. Um this deck is or sorry these priorities are based on uh compilation of um Edina's historical um kind of platform pieces MSBA's uh 2026 platform initiatives as well as AMSD and AASA pieces of it. Um the students also um put together some information and uh did quite a job um trying to help build the platform. we um we did a little bit of a different um model for this year where they are more engaged with that and so we are excited to present this. Um three of these representatives decided to um take the time to come and present to you all and so I'm going to turn it over to them and they're going to go through each of the the different priorities for the um for the LAC. >> Okay. >> So if you could just introduce yourself with your name. >> Hi, I'm Laya Skull. I'm in 10th grade. Hi, I'm Hannah Hine and I'm in 12th grade. [snorts] >> Hello, I'm Alvie Budro Borwa. I'm a senior. >> Okay, so our number our first priority on this uh this platform was priority one to stabilize education financing. And so this is a very like big priority. It consists of a lot of different sections. So the first one is to protect the basic basic education formula infla inflationary index and extend it to other components of the general education revenue to ensure consistent and predictable funding that keeps pace with actual district costs. Um so the second part of this would be to increase local optional revenue to $979 per pupil to restore purchasing power to loss to inflation and and index it to the general education formula. And then expanding on this, this would provide full ongoing state funding to cover the statemandated costs of the summer unemployment for non-licensed school staff. And it would also fully fund Minnesota paid leave program for school school districts or allow districts and collective bargaining units to opt out of the state program. Um expa um further expanding on priority one uh is to level the key K through 12 formula grants such as title one funding and require federal government released by those dollars release those dollars by July 1st preserving the long-standing dis disbbursement schedule on the federal level. Um, again, this would allow school boards by board resolution to transfer balance surpluses of non-federal funds between district operating accounts and to meet financial needs without the need for additional aid or levy authority. um new mandate. And then we would also call for new mandates that increase costs to districts or budget reductions that impact districts must have a fiscal note and must be enacted by March 1st of the concurrent legislative year or delay enactment until July 1st of the following fiscal year to allow district staffing and perform and program adjustments. And then our second priority um it is for the mental health support for students and staff. This is very important to us but it's a bit shorter. So number one we would want to provide funding to hire additional support staff and develop programming resources to address the mental health needs of students and staff. It also includes the increase of statewide capacity to provide intensive mental health services for children and youth experiencing mental health crisis. Sorry, I can't. >> It's a very efficient process. Our third priority is to ensure safe school facilities. So, first we want to increase the safe schools levy to $100 per people for school districts and $35 per pupil for intermediate and cooperative districts to provide districts with a greater flexibility to address local safety needs. Second, it is to strengthen and secure gun storage requirements. Third, permit limited removal time with a non-exclusionary discipline to support effective re-entry planning and maintain safe classrooms. And it is to remove per people limit and expand allowable uses of long-term facilities revenue to allow school districts and intermediate school districts to enhance safety and sustainability through security modifications, remodeling, and additions to exist existing buildings. Our fourth priority is for increased support for special education and multilingual learners. First, this means to include protect this means to protect existing special education funding and ensure the blue ribbon education task force 200 million uh dollar reduction target does not reverse the recent progress in lowering special education cross subsidy avoiding new pressures on general education budgets and local taxpayers. Next, it is to reduce the cross subsidies in special education and multilingual learner programs. Additionally, it is to fully fund the idea act of the federal program and it is finally to enact efforts to find solutions that address the growing shortage of special education par support throughout Minnesota school districts. All right. And then our fifth priority is to address the educator workforce shortage. We'll do this first by strengthening programs such as the grow your own and teacher apprenticeship programs to recruit and retain teachers of color and teachers in shortage areas to ensure teaching staff is representative of Edina's community. Second, to maintain and expand pathways to teacher lensure. And finally, to remove barriers and provide incentives to address the shortage of substitute teachers, school bus drivers, pair professionals, and other staff. Our sixth priority is providing support for greater career and technical education or CTE programming. We do this by increasing local career technical education revenue levy authority from 35% to 80%. Investing in career pathways and technical education by allocating targeted funds to fully implement Minnesota statutes specifically section 127A70 sub finally strengthen career pathways and advance equity by ensuring consistent access to highquality career connected learning opportunities for students in rural and urban communities. And finally, our priority number seven is ensure sustainable and modern school facilities. And this looks like allowing school boards to renew a capital project levy at the existing rate following a public hearing and supporting a constitutional amendment to modernize the permanent school fund distribution allocation, replacing the outdated interest and dividends formula with the percentage of market value or POV framework so that there's a stable yearly funding while protecting the existing trust fund for future generations. Any questions for folks? >> From folks. >> Um, so there are some oldies but goodies on this list. You know, the perpetual stabilized school funding is on there. Um, but then I noticed some some new items this year and I'm just curious, um, were there items that you guys were particularly excited to advocate for as high school students? What's really important to you all? >> Yeah. Um, so I think I can start with this. Um, Lee, there's been a really big concern for school safety and making sure our schools are modern and can protect against disasters or um, maybe people who come into the school that are not necessarily um, supposed to be there. Um, and I think that was a very big priority as Edina students who see our school ourselves and we wanted to fund some action for that we can visibly see. >> Um, one area that I really care about is the career and technical education section. As a member of the career and technical education board at Edina High School, the student board, we work on organizing things like the job fair and career fair for Edina students. Last week we also had a healthc care panel which had community members who are involved in healthcare trying to bring some education opportunities for students. But I think in terms of like advocating that as a legislative priority, there's been a lot of improvements in current technical education in neighboring communities and school districts with bringing in community members. And I think that's something that's really important to show students that a variety of pathways and futures are welcome and encouraged and that there's support for that. So, I think it's important to pursue that legislatively. >> I think a really important priority for me has also been school safety, specifically gun safety, especially with the extremely hectic and fearful events that have occurred this year. Um me and a few other students on the LACE work with Representative Julie Green on a gun safety storage bill, specifically for vehicles in like public school spaces. And it helped me realize that there's a lot of very common sense gun safety bills that just have not been passed yet. And I think putting attention and focus on those will increase student safety. And also besides materially increasing student safety, it's helping us feel safe in the school we're in. So, it's been very exciting to work with everybody else and also having a lot more student voice this year on the LAC. >> Did I also see that you had an opinion piece in the Star Tribune? >> Uh, one of our members, Anushka Nariel Walla, who also works with me and Representative Julie Green, did publish in the Star Tribune. Yeah. >> Okay. Well, thank her for us. >> Yes, >> we will. >> Director Helenberg. >> Um, first of all, amazing job. I'm always amazed by our students and think back to when I was your age and it's would not look anything like what you guys are doing. So, thank you very much for coming up here and presenting this. I'm fully supportive of everything that's in here. A question slash comment that I had is under priority two for the mental health support for students and staff and I was wondering um one thing that I've heard um over the years is that there's a similar acute shortage of mental health care providers in our state um al along with some of the special education supports and I was wondering if you guys felt it might be useful to add into this um a similar type of grow your own type of program or even if we got funding for mental health care providers, there aren't mental health care providers to hire. And so, how do we advocate for the state to do something about the shortage of mental health care providers? In addition to that, um there's an even more acute shortage of mental health care providers of color for our students of color. And so I think that in looking for um educators of color that match our um student body, this is something that's equally as important. So those two aspects, it was just a thought that I had um for this specific piece about the mental health care support for students is making sure that we have the resources to back up any funding that we might get. So >> feel like that's a great I feel like that's a great combination of priority two and priority six um and the grow your own act I believe. So yeah I just wanted to point that out. >> Thank you. >> From your perspective CTE portion of it a big component of that has to do with healthcare. >> Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we've been involved in that and I think having more support for those kind of grow your own programs is a great way to do that because I mean we're advocating specifically for an educational legislative agenda but things like the shortage of these professionals is such a much larger issue and I think those programs definitely have a lot to do with that >> and they've started with the CNA program you know has one foray into it sorry [laughter] >> I should know by now >> um but you know they the state government started with the CNA program where they've been doing some fiscal support and um kind of um tuition free programs for developing CNAs as this that so potentially there's a model for um mental health related uh support as well or training as well. Well, thank you all for taking time out of your busy lives because I know you're all busy um to come and speak to us and you've heard this before, but student voice is so important in us crafting this platform and also when we go and advocate for these things because oftentimes, as you said, Ila, like through the eyes of a student, you see things differently and so it's helpful to have your voice at the table when we're shaping this platform and advocating for these things. So, it's very much appreciated by this board. So, thank you. >> Thanks everybody. >> All right. Now, next up on our agenda is the audited financial statements for fiscal year end June 30th, 2025. And so I welcome uh Director of Finance and Operation Mert Woodard and Bill Lawauer, our CPA with um LB Carlson up to the microphone. >> Good evening, Madam Chair. I'm pleased to be joined um by uh Mr. Bill Lauer, principal auditor from LB Carlson. Um some of you may um know the former name MMKR and he's here to walk you through um the key findings of our audited financial statements for last school year. Um before I turn it over to Bill, I just like to make a couple of remarks. Um the uh financial um activities of the district last school year were reviewed in quite a bit of detail at two separate finance and facilities committee meetings. Um one in October and then also in November. And um we'll be submitting our audited financial statements to the Association of School Business Officials International um which is a national organization for school business officials um to be considered for their certificate of excellence in financial reporting. Um we re we've received that award the previous two years and um we're pretty confident that we'll receive that for a third consecutive year with without any further ado. Mr. Bill Lauer. >> Thank you. Good evening madam chair. Superintendent, members of the board, thank you for making time for me in your busy agenda this evening. Uh what I'm going to do just briefly is try to cover three things. First, I'm going to talk about the role we play as auditor. Uh secondly, I'm going to go through the reports that we issue as a result of our audit and the results for uh the year ended June 30, 2025. And finally, I'm just going to touch a little bit on some of the highlevel financial results for the year under audit. [clears throat] As I mentioned, um, one of the things that I'm required to do when I'm addressing, uh, the board because you are the body charged with financial oversight and reporting for the district, uh, is make sure that you understand the responsibility as far as the financial statements that you received in your board packet tonight. All the data and disclosures that go into that document is the responsibility of district management. we come out and audit it to provide an opinion that goes at the front of that document as to whether it fairly presents the district's financial position and results for the year under audit. In addition, you uh report in accordance with governmental accounting standards. So, you'll find a separate report letter uh regarding the district's uh internal controls and compliance over financial reporting. Uh and also, you're subject to an audit of your compliance with Minnesota laws and regulations. Uh we audit to a a guide put out by the state auditor's office each year for all local governments. Um something we usually talk about at this time which is going to be delayed delayed a little bit this year is your single audit of federal awards expenditures. Each year the district earns more than $750,000 in federal awards. Those dollars are included in the overall audit, but you are subject to a separate compliance audit of your spending of those dollars. uh because there was a delay in issuing some of the guidance from the federal government this year. Um we are not we were not able to complete that at the same time uh as your financial statement audit. Um there's a uh a part of the uniform guidance that we have to use to audit as an annual compliance supplement that basically is where each of the grantor federal agencies has a chance to kind of weigh in on their their priorities for the single audit. uh that document is typically out in August every year. This year it came out the day before Thanksgiving. Um so in order to make your your uh meeting here, um we're going to be issuing that separately. The state did recognize that delay. Um they are u they extended the deadline for submission of your single audit uh to coincide with the March 31st of 2026 deadline the federal government uh has for that audit. Um, we should have that out in January shortly after year end when we circle back on those now that we finally have the guidance. As far as the results for the year, um, the audit process itself went very well, very efficiently. The district's uh, records were in good condition and ready for us when we came out to audit. Um, we were able to again provide an unmodified opinion on your basic financial statements. Uh, it's the highest opinion that we can give. Um, once again this year, of course, there was another Gazsby statement uh that you had to implement. I think this is maybe four of the last five years I've had to have have a conversation like this. Um, basically they continue to try and uh add things to your entitywide financial statements to kind of true them up with for-profit financial statements. Um, the last few have kind of focused on the capital asset side of things. This one is more taking a look at your employee benefits. uh Gatsby statement 101 which is accounting for compensated absences. Um the main thrust of this is to kind of unify the treatment of your various different compensated absence benefits that you uh do offer your employees. The biggest change was for how sick leave was treated that was being accounted for a little differently than vacation and PTO. Um so this this basically unified the guidance so that you're accounting for all of those different buckets of leave the same way. Um because of that change um you do see a change in your beginning net position of about $15 million uh for that change in accounting principle. Uh that does not affect your fund statements at all. It's only going to affect that top level entitywide financial statement that you see in the first two docu or first two uh um statements in your financial uh in your apper. Um, also from an internal control standpoint and compliance, um, we had no findings to report this year. No issues with your compliance with governmental accounting standards. Everything was very good. As Bert mentioned, you're actually, um, kind of going above and beyond preparing the uh, the act for each year, putting that in for the ASPO certificate. So, um, as far as your audit of compliance with Minnesota laws and compliance, we have two things, two things to report here, and these are basically the same two things we discussed last year. Uh, once again, this year, we selected a sample of your claims uh that are being paid. You're required to pay those within 35 days of receipt of the goods or services or the invoice for the goods or services. um two of the 25 that we selected were not paid within that time frame. Uh the problem here is the same thing uh we talked about last year. Um basically once they get to the business office are being paid quickly. It's getting them from the buildings approved and over to the business office uh in a timely manner that allows you to pay that within that 35 uh day deadline. Um that seems to be the issue there. Um and the other thing uh unclaimed property report. You're required if there are either general dispersements that are outstanding over three years or payroll dispersements outstanding over a year uh to file a report and turn those uh payments into the state uh the commissioner of revenue uh for they then um look for the u look for the rightful recipients of that. Um, you've got seven payroll checks totaling about $7,000 that were outstanding more than a year. Um, and they were not that report was not filed and they weren't put in in a timely manner. Those there's an annual filing that needs to take place. Um, that was everything I was going to cover from a compliance and opinion standpoint. Questions on any of that before I move along to uh some of the financial results? Okay. And I'm going to start by taking a look at the district's general fund. This is your primary operating fund. Um, this graph shows your financial position over the last 10 years in terms of your year-end cash and investment balance in the fund u which is that blue bar and the uh fund balance total fund balance which is that yellow bar. Uh the green line there I'm not sure if that's a Diana green. It might be a little late, but um that is just your annual expenditures to give you uh some idea of the scope of the operation. You spent about $155 million total in the general fund this year. You had $57 million in cash at year end and about $36.5 million in total fund balance. Uh fund balance did go up just under $10 million from the year before. Uh just to address that disparity between your cash and fund balance. Um you just went over that tax levy. Your your uh your taxes are collected on a calendar year and because you're on a July to June year, um your tax levy that you're collecting in 2025 calendar year is your revenue for the 2526 school year. So that first half collection, you get the cash, but it doesn't hit fund balance. is offset by an unearned revenue outstanding um those collections. Uh so you have the cash but not the equity for those collections. Kind of drilling down into what makes up that fund balance. Uh you report five different components of fund balance in the general fund. You've got about $55,000 that's reported as non-spendable fund balances. Uh these are small amounts of inventory and prepaid expenditures that you have in the fund. Um the next category that was about $9.6 million at the end of the year is restricted fund balances. And these are essentially the state funding mandates that come along with some of the aids and aids that you receive. Um that $9.6 million is made up of a number of different restrictions. The largest portion of that is capital related. You had about $8 million restricted for operating capital or leftover capital project levby funds that hadn't been spent at your end. Uh you also had about $595,000 for staff development, about $570,000 uh for medical assistance services, and roughly $360,000 of other smaller restrictions. The next category there is a committed fund balance at $2.5 million. That's something that's based on board policy. Each year uh you commit about 2% of your subsequent year's budgeted unassigned expenditures for cash flow. Um then the assigned fund balances are uh also an internal earmark but a little less official. It's not board policy. You can set these and change them year to year without uh official board action. That assigned fund balance of about $13 million again made up of a number of different assignments. The largest portion of that, roughly half of it, uh, six and a half million is for post-employment benefits and severance benefits. You've also got about two and a half million for unfunded state mandates that you were talking about during your your uh, levy presentation. Um, you've got about two and a half million in various different budget carryovers that were unspent by your school sites during previous year and about a million and a half for literacy and curriculum. Um we do have a couple of um percentages that we track there just to kind of show uh from year to year how your fund balance reflects as a as a percentage of your total expenditures. First thing I want to point out your internal uh policy calls for the district to uh retain an unassigned fund balance equal to 6 to 10% of your next year's budgeted unassigned expenditures. At the end of the year, you were just under 9%. So, you're right kind of towards the top end of that policy. Um, the only thing I'd point out from the two ratios that we show there, which is your unrestricted, which is those last three categories of fund balance as a percent of total expenditures, and then that unassigned fund balance as a percent again of total expenditures. Um, just more looking at the trend. Um, you've been trending upwards the last four years as you've been kind of rebuilding your fund balance of spent down pretty low during the co years. So, you've been getting more to what's a typical level for your district. Uh, one of the things that was also talked about during your levy presentation um is the importance of the number of students the district serves and how that drives a lot of your funding formulas and your levies. Um, some of your levy formulas. Um the district served an average daily membership of just over 8,700 students for the 2025 school year. Um that's kind of the raw numbers after you uh include the waitings for a different um for the different classes. Uh the pupil units generated from that were about 9,542. That was an increase of about 190 or roughly 2% from the year before. So this graph shows the general fund revenue for the current year or I guess not current year 2025 fiscal year um to budget and compared to the previous year uh your general fund generated just under $170 million in revenues for fiscal 2025. You were about $6.3 million over budget. Um most of that was in what's shown here as the other category. Essentially that's kind of the um smaller uh kind of non-recurring revenues that you receive such as fees, admissions, gifts. Um the biggest part of that is your investment income. Um this is a typical result for your district. You budget very conservatively for those revenues. One because a lot of them are non-recurring and vary a great deal yeartoear. Also that investment income, a good portion of that is the change the fluctuation in the uh market values of the investments you're holding. It's not realized revenue unless you actually sold those investments, but you have to acrue that each year. So you budget more based on what you're looking to actually receive in interest payouts and not uh picking up all of that projected revenue because that can really go up or down quite a bit year to year depending on the market. Uh mere state aids were also about a million uh $1.4 million higher than budget mainly in special education aid and property taxes were about $650,000 over budget. Uh again that's mainly due to conservative budgeting. You allowed uh allowed for um delinquencies and abatements and came in a little better on collections than you had projected. This graph shows similar information on the expenditure side for the general fund. As I mentioned earlier, you spent about $155 million in the general fund in 2025. Uh your spending was about 1.44 million over budget. Uh variance of about 1%. Um some of the areas where you spent more than budget were in salaries and purchase services in your regular special education uh program areas. Also pupil transportation. Um, kind of one of the big things here that drives this year-to-year though is your long-term facilities maintenance program. You do collect a levy in this fund and depending on the size of the projects, you transfer part of that to your building construction fund. And depending on the size of those projects, if it's over 2 million, you have to account for it in the other fund. If it's a smaller project, you account for it here. Um, you did spend less in long-term facilities. uh long-term facility, I'm sorry, you spent more in long-term facility maintenance in the general fund, but then you transferred less an equal amount less to the other fund. So, between the two, that kind of evens out. I'll move on to some of your other funds. These are smaller operating funds, but no less important. Um, just to give you some perspective, your food service special revenue fund and community service special revenue fund, the two that are pictured here, as I mentioned, you spend about $155,000 in your general fund during the year. You spent about $5 million in the food service fund in 2025 and about $14 million in community service fund in 2025. Uh, your food service fund ended the year with an increase in fund balance of about $249,000. At the end of the year, you've got about $2.3 million in fund balance, which is about 47% of your uh spending compared to or based on your 2025 expenditures. Um, community service fund ended the year with about a $290,000 reduction in fund balance. Uh, ended the year with about $2 million in total fund balances. Um, that represented about 14% of your uh expenditures for 2025. two other funds that I don't have a graph for, but I'll just mention um these kind of run themselves based on your bonding and the uh levies for long-term facilities maintenance long-term projects. Uh the capital projects fund uh you uh had bond issues a bond issue this year which including premium took in about $6.6 million of proceeds. You also had about $6 million transferred over from the general fund. uh you completed about $8 million of projects in that fund. So your fund balance went up by roughly $5 million to a balance of 8.4 at the end of 2025. Uh most of that about $7.4 million is restricted for long-term facility maintenance projects. And you've got about another million that's uh restricted for general building. um your debt service fund. You uh levied about $15.5 million and expended about $15 million on scheduled debt service payments. But some kind of unique in this fund this year, you also issued uh just under hund00 million of refunding bonds with which you replaced two older bond issues uh with new bonds at a more favorable rate, which is going to save the district roughly $8 million in future debt service payments. At the end of the year, um your fund balance went up by about $394,000 net at the over the year. And then the final presentation that I'll talk about, this was that um kind of districtwide statement and deposition that I talked about before. Um this is where you're going to see that change in accounting principle come into play. This is the very first presentation in your financial statement. It takes all of the fund information that we talked about and puts it in a single presentation and brings in all the long-term assets and liabilities that you don't report in those funds into play. So, it's to trying to give you kind of a longer term perspective on your change in in financial position. Um, the top part of this presentation kind of walks you through how you get from the roughly $53 million in fund balances and the funds we just talked about uh to a total net position of about $18.5 million. Um, you can see you've got about $294 million in capital assets, net of depreciation. um just under $200 million of outstanding bond certificates and other debt that you issued to either purchase or construct those assets. And then um the last two categories are primarily rel related to long-term uh benefits for your employees, pensions, other post-employment benefits uh and the compensated absence liability is in that other adjustments category there. Um, as far as the change during the year, your net position um, actually went up by about $21 million from 2025 activity, but that was partially offset by that $15 million negative restatement due to that change in accounting principle. So, that that's where you get that net of about a $5.8 million increase year-over-year. Um, as far as the different components of net position, your net investment in capital assets went up by about $3 million. That's basically driven by how quickly you're depreciating or amortizing your assets versus how quickly you're paying back the debt that you issued to build those assets. Um because you are adding assets through levy where you're not issuing new debt, you've been seeing that component of your net position going up yeartoear. Um the restricted net position essentially relates to the um statemandated spending restricted fund balances in your general fund plus um your food service and community service funds. Those fund balances are restricted by uh being in those specific funds since you can't spend them for any general uh purposes. That went up by about $8 million. kind of the biggest driver there was a increase in those operating capital related restrictions in your general fund. Um and then the final portion of that unrestricted net position. You see the deficit there of about $99 million. Uh this basically is the um assigned committed and unassigned fund balances in your general fund offset by those long-term uh liabilities for employee benefits. Um, the biggest thing there you see in that $111 million in pension and OPED liabilities, uh, are your proportionate share of the two statewide pension plans that your employees participate in, PER and TRA. Uh, you don't really have any control over those plans other than the number of employees that you hire. All of the U benefit levels, funding decisions, investment decisions are made at a statewide level. uh and each government that has employees that participate in those plans gets aortioned uh their share of any underfunding based on what you contributed to the plans during the plan year uh versus the statewide total. So you have to report that just on your entitywide statements. Again, that doesn't impact your funds or what you pay annually during the fund. That's all driven by uh your employees and the contribution rates that are set by statute. So I just went through a ton of numbers. Hopefully you followed that. Questions on anything that I covered from a financial standpoint? >> No, thank you, Mr. Lower, for coming to talk to us and walk us through that report. Um, I did want to make a note to you, M Director Woodard. Um, I want to commend and congratulate you for the work that your team does. Mr. Low, would you hold up that thing that's on the table next to you, that booklet? This is uh a comprehensive financial report, and it truly is comprehensive, and it's quite a beautiful report. So, if anybody is having trouble sleeping, um I would recommend that you check that out. But if you want to know about our district finances, it's a great um really well put together tool. And school financing isn't always exciting. I know you two gentlemen think it's captivating but >> riveting >> riveting some might say agree >> but it is essential to the daily operations of what we are able to provide to our students and if it wasn't there we would have some really difficult conversations to have. So I want to thank both of you for the role you play in that and Mert please pass along your thanks to your team because we have a lot to be grateful for and proud of in that report. >> Thank you. Any other comments here, board members? All right. Thank you. >> All right. Next up on our agenda for discussion is the international travel proposed change to the approval process. And I will welcome up to the microphone director of teaching and learning Jod D. Hubert. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Gabler, Superintendent Bitman, board of directors, uh, community members and colleagues. Um, we have two different components of our international travel in front of you tonight to discuss um at this meeting. The first is, as uh Chair Gabler mentioned, we're looking at a proposal to um just shift the process of how we approve our international um travel exchange experiences. This has been a discussion point that um we just recently had at TNL board committee and has also been included in an update this fall. So, it's been a discussion point with uh several administrators, specifically with the high school team and also all of the board members throughout the fall. One of our um key things to recognize is that over the last three years with school board and administration collaboration, we've worked really hard to strengthen um and adjust our international travel experience um application and process. Uh co really prompted a lot of really deep conversations and allowed us to dig deeper into what we were doing to support our students and our our staff on these experiences. So the adoption of the changes in the process really included primarily an adoption of an approval um pre-approval checklist and that being gone um that being reviewed at multi levels of the system. Um because of this um process, we feel really strongly that all of the components of international travel that are important to us and the safety of our students have are covered with a lot of depth at the administration level in the building and then they are brought to me as the teaching and learning um director and then also to Dr. Bitman. So everything that we're bringing to you again has been brought to several layers of people in the system before it is brought to you. Um, so our our main request is that we're requesting international travel proposals be placed on the board agenda as a consent item and that the change maintains the board's authority and over oversight by streamlining the process. Um, and tonight is a discussion about this. So I am open to hearing questions and feedback and then we will be bringing this back to the board for approval at our January meeting. So, are you specifically looking for feedback right now about the process moving to consent? >> I thought I would break that down and then yes, good question. >> Any questions or feedback on moving the process to consent? >> Director Birdman, >> I'm very happy with the way the process has been evolving over the last couple years uh because I remember where it started uh when I first came on the board. Um my only question in looking at all the different opportunities that we then have, I know that it used to be a discussion item about the cost and then how costs continue to rise for these types of programs and this and accessibility and equity um availability for all students. Um >> so what I'm just curious is in the process >> where where does that fall? where does the fall to that consideration and how do we try to address that to where we have these exciting opportunities. We want to be able to do them, but then how do we make them accessible and equitable for all students to have access to? >> It's a great question. I was actually going to touch on that a little bit when I talked about the seven propo seven proposals that are in front of you. Um it really does happen throughout the process but at the initial application um there is the checkbox there to really have the principal and the teacher who is suggesting the trip so the teacher lead discuss um one the cost. Have they explored other travel companies that they can partner with? Have they explored other options that might cut costs that the teachers are so in incredibly conscious of this for the students? So had lots of conversations with our teachers around that and they do that directly. And then I've really watched over the last couple of years our partnership and collaborations around fundraising. Um I would say synergize. So there might be two leads that work with the same travel company and they utilize each other and extra funding. the travel companies are very invested in providing scholarships and providing discounts where they can um providing those opportunities to make sure it is more accessible for more students. And I've seen what our teachers have submitted as fundraising opportunities. We know that's we know fundraising is not always accessible and easy either. Um but those have grown in depth and variability so that they seem to be a little bit more broad for students and families to access. >> Thank you. I think my follow-up would be is there a sort of um rubric in terms of when we look at the different opportunities that we're offering in any one particular calendar year opportunity for or the different grade levels and things like that. Are we looking at things to where, you know, if we have one trip that's 14 days and it's $6,000 and so on so forth versus something that's six days and it's obviously a significant part an average daily cost or whatever it might be to where we're trying to get enough flexibility to where there's different opportunities at different levels um to make sure that that's more of accessible. And then second, is there a certain cut off that says, "Hey, anything on a seven-day basis or whatever is averaging more than X dollars, it unless it's an extraordinarily unique opportunity or whatever it might be, it's kind of saying, "Yeah, that's really not going to fly or or there's a lot more hoops that would have to be done in order to get there." Is there kind of guidance? We've definitely said no to some costs that have been proposed because of the cost and really um I don't say we do not have a concrete number because unfortunately the cost of travel have increased immensely and when we're so committed to making sure that our students have a safe and positive experience. We are working with companies that increase costs. I mean there just layers as we um tighten up our process that increase the costs as well. Right. So, we have definitely um I'll say gently pushed back on some proposals and definitely told some staff no to some proposals. Um but I do I you know I did notice even the cost this year increased slightly from last year. And so I think that is something that's happening everywhere in the world. Um we we ha we have in the past balanced the regional experiences um with more intentionality. So, we've been recently talking um it's been really fun to engage in this with Principal Patesel and also clearly Jen Carter has a ton of experience over the years traveling. She travels with a lot of our students has a very good handle on the experiences that are happening. Um so, for one for you know to make sure that we do um have a breath of experiences and so I know that as principal paidel continues to be in the role that that will continue to lean into that. Um and um we are working to capture the regional experiences and updates to all of you. I just made a list actually tonight of okay what are some more recent ones that we haven't that have come to us that we haven't updated you on. So I I we we always need to keep an eye on that. It's >> I I think that's my only thing in terms of if we if we agree on the process of consent um approval and so which I don't have a problem with at all. It's more of making sure that our principles around that are still kind of um leveraged and that I would say as we look at maybe maybe the idea would be making sure we have some summary report that kind of provides us with what we've seen this academic year, what we're looking for next year. So so we can see that breath of regional and cost basis and accessibility. there might be a useful exercise of making sure that we see some sort of report card or whatever it is around that just to make sure that we're staying principled to that part because having to go through consent what I always worry about that from an optic standpoint is that people just think then it's not really being looked at and that's clearly not the case and I know that's not what you're asking for but I'm saying given all of our conversations over the last several years we've as we've modified this process I do think it has gotten considerably better from where we were. Um I don't want us to lose sight of that fact, especially if not all the people here are going to stay the same people here. You're going to have new people come in. They're not going to know that. They're not going to have that history or so on so forth. I want to make sure we build in enough um understanding about that if we go forward with this proposal. >> Yeah, I really appreciate that. I know um Pam Berlin and I were just working on the last document we shared with you in an update. Um actually we were looking at it and it's to make sure you're aware of the regional opportunities but it was just chalk full of information almost too much. So we she actually just created something that has both the international and regional opportunities and I I like the we can put that together in a way that shows you the balance. Um and and then that helps us be continue to keep a close eye on it and be more intentional with it. So thank you for that. >> Director Alenberg. Um, my feedback is similar to Director Birdman's. Um, however, I want us to be honest with ourselves that thousands of dollars of trips can never be equitable. >> We're offering something that only certain segments of our population can ever pay for. >> And some people can fund raise, but there's a lot of people that this will never be accessible for. So, I just want us to be honest about what we're offering and my kids are lucky enough to take care of this. When I was a student, my family wouldn't have been able to afford this. I still think it's wonderful opportunity, but I just I don't want us to approve these under the misconception that it's ever going to be an equitable opportunity and we have students across all socioeconomic classes going on these field trips. Yeah, >> it's a lot of money. >> It is. >> Um, and in saying that, I wholeheartedly agree with what Director Bergman said. >> Um, if and when these come through consent, I really want to be able to see not just the international trips, but what we're doing from travel in general. >> Yes. So, um I would not be comfortable just approving these in consent without understanding are we offering >> um not just regional trips, but regional trips that offer components of what we're giving these students >> and travel doesn't even have to be the component. Some of the things we're offering are access to global skills and global competencies. You don't necessarily have to leave the four walls of Edina to do that. So, how do we create opportunities that are low to no cost to um I sat in when we um some high school students had um conversations with um other high school students in Ukraine >> and it was live and they it was learned about each other. It was a virtual pen pal situation. >> Yeah, >> that was an amazing experience that cost no money. Um, so I would just love us to do some um thinking [snorts] about it's not just about the travel, it's about the experience and embedding those things um for all of our students and acknowledging that um this will only be accessible to a certain number of our students. Um, and I think really as a leadership team being honest about that, not to be a downer, but thank you. I think transparency is important and I do appreciate you bringing up there are a lot of global experiences happening that we can be highlighting that are beyond travel and and I do know there have been some kids that have been intentionally um tapped on the shoulders, walked through getting scholarships who we would not ever imagine could access this because of income with their family. So I I do agree with you. I want to be honest and transparent and I do know our teachers are working incredibly hard and I have seen the list of some of the students and know that that sometimes there are some opportunities not nearly as >> and I don't want to make it I I don't want it to come across that that's not the case and I know our teachers are working very hard to find opportunities. >> I just know having kids that have fundraised it's a lot to ask to fund raise like $6,000 to sell like crates of oranges. So, >> absolutely. And >> so, I just want us to be honest about all of it. Yes. >> Um there are opportunities. It's hard. >> Yeah. >> And let's as a district figure out how all of our students in different ways can access these competencies, these experiences, these interesting science things so our kids are learning outside of the classroom >> in um all different ways. And that's what I want for all of our students. >> Yeah. Fabulous. Thank you. And I just have a question that kind of marries those two as well. I'm fine with it going through consent. I think there's still conversations that we're needing to have whether it's cost, whether it's um the, you know, we've talked over the years about the safety piece, time out of buildings. I know I've heard um from time to time there's questions about when students are gone from six days and they're not in great academic standing to begin with. >> Is there some of that? And that's that's not the scope of the board. Our job is to govern, but just that those conversations are continuing to evolve and happen. And I think we've had some rich conversations at the board table because they were coming through >> for discussion >> and action. And so I would hate to not continue to have progress on just continuing to make that process better and better um if by moving them into consent. So, >> thank you. >> Okay, thank you for the feedback. Um, as I said, I'll note some of these things and bring back for uh action in January. Um, and then we specifically tonight are discussing seven international travel experiences and they will come back to the board for action as well in January. Seems like a hundred years away, but it's so soon. So we'll be back talking about them again. Um there are seven specific proposals and these are for 2627. Um to take a step back that also kind of carries on from the conversation we've just been having. Um there is really an abust robust process for having these come in front of you in whatever format they do and um really commit to sending our students and our staff leading them on these experiences. It does begin with me talking with administration. It's primarily high school administration. We know we have our middle school experience at Valley View and our elementary school experience at Normandale. Um but we have talked about at the board again another example of robust conversation, middle school experiences and international travel and is that developmentally appropriate? Right? So the main group um I do talk to all the administrators but the main group that I partner with is the high school team. um they send communication to their entire staff. This is open for any staff member to bring a proposal to the table and um we give them the timeline to do so. We give them the application to go through. We ask that I I really impress upon the principles and the administration at that time. One, I need your help opening up that communication to everybody. and two, I really need your help in committing to you sitting down with those staff members and having the conversations that you're bringing up here today that are on the application, asking the questions, leaning into your experience and making sure that we um have a great proposal here to bring forward to me and sometimes I collaborate with specifically Jen again on parts that are brought to her and we ask teachers to go back and rethink things and then once Jen and I have done that um our high school represent admin representative I bring the proposals to our superintendent and our superintendent and I have a conversation and then that's signed off on. So I just wanted to reiterate the robust process um that happened before any of these seven proposals were brought to you tonight to discuss. Um I also want to note that um as as chair Alenberg and we and we were noting um is that director I still do that but as director Allenberg it was specific to director Alenberg's conversation about the hard work that our staff put into these experiences that the the staff members that lead these experiences there is a um in our contract there is a stipend for travel coordination and really if you look at the stipens within our contract it's on the four ends of our stipens for the amount of time that they put into organizing the experience. So once it's approved, they send out communication to students. They meet with families. They meet with students. They work with the travel agencies. They collect all the information and organize and then um they take the students on the experience. We do have other staff members that often attend as chaperones and they do not get additional compensation. So I just wanted to be clear about the role that the lead the um educator leads have in this and um really um grateful for the time and energy that they put into this because yes it's great to go on any travel experience and we all know when we're traveling with a large group um of students that's a huge amount of responsibility and for us to be able to offer this to so many students in so many different places and locations is pretty phenomenal. So, um, with that, the proposals you have in front of you, there are five from the high school and one from Valley View and one from Normandale. And, um, if I would just love to hear what questions and concerns you have about any of them specifically before I bring them back to you for action in January. Dr. Hooie, >> I had a question on the France 2027, the high school one where it's sort of a experienced living >> and then students come to the US to also stay with those families. >> Yes. Um, so we've sort of talked about the equity piece here from purely the cost of the travel, >> but in this part of the cost is hosting the French student >> here and then paying for meals and experiences while the student is here. >> How is that managed from an equity perspective? If a student wants to have this experience and pay the $1,500, which not bad, [laughter] >> but they don't have a space for somebody to stay with them or they don't have >> the ability to host somebody. Yeah. Then, so >> that's a great question. >> Thinking about that piece from an equity perspective because not >> everyone have the space or the Yep. or the resources in any format for whatever reason. I couldn't because I'm at board meetings later [laughter] tonight. Just kidding. That's a that's a great question and I can follow up on that. I don't know the answer, but I will follow up and I can make note of that to comment on at the next meeting. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> I think I just have a question regarding the overall intent or goal of the program, the the travel opportunities. Do we have a goal every year about the number of opportunities we want to provide to students and geographic and cultural and academic relationship whatever it might be is there a particular thing that's so like when I see that there's five for the high school not not in not not including the Bordeaux and and Montreal which are very specific to Normanddale and Valley View but specific to the high school >> are there is there a kind of plan at every year. This is what we kind of are trying to do. We're trying to get four, five, six sort of things done for international travel. Is is that how it is done or is it just sort of by chance by based on who steps forward with their proposals and so on and so forth? So, some years it could be three, some years it could be eight or something to that effect. >> Um, in my short time here, I feel like we've always had from four to six at the high school. I do know that one of the things as I commented on collaborating with principal paidel is that he asked anybody he asked this year for people that were interested in proposals that there were experiences in different locations. And so that was um something he worked on specifically with one of the people and said, "Hey, can I encourage you to head in this direction and look for an experience here because then our students have a wide variety of different locations." Um, so that can answer one part of your question. Um, I don't know that there has been intentionality in the past to say, "Hey, we only have two offerings. Um, we need to rally up a couple more." Um, I I don't know if there was before I arrived during that co time and people with more >> I don't think there has been and I think especially since it's out of a lot of them are during the summer, >> it's up to the goodwill of our staff. Um, I would say on average we probably have three and they tend to land in social studies and science and maybe one or two in each of those. >> Yeah. Yeah. And not counting the foreign language >> and the global studies has that become I I think the global studies seems to be a pattern in the last couple of years and I could look into what that history was if the if the >> start of global studies was intentional to include travel. I don't know that. So >> got it. And then the only other question I'd have it's not specific to the ones that are being presented here but you talked about regionality and you talked about the different kind of intents and so on so forth. I don't know if Edina has a history at all of looking at domestic exchange programs as opposed to foreign exchange programs. Um I am a product of that experience from long ago um in a little place in Arizona to where we actually found it quite foreign to actually go to the east coast of the United States. Yes. >> Um and having them come out to the west which they had never seen cactus, they'd never seen a mountain before. and most of us in Arizona never seen green grass the way that it grows in Virginia. Um, when I talk when you talk about the accessibility of different experiences and those things that Erica was talking about, I think sometimes we only think of it in this sort of international flavor, I think there's a, you know, our country is so big and so vast and so different um, for good and bad. >> Um, having experiences along those lines domestically can also be a very worthwhile endeavor if we haven't considered that in the past before. And again, more accessibility for other people uh to be able to make that happen. You don't need a passport, at least not yet, to travel >> um to Maryland. >> Great suggestion. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anything else? Okay, great. Then these will come forward for action in January. >> Okay. Thank you. Mhm. >> We're going to shift gears now and talk about the 2026 2027 course ads and change recommendations. >> Thanks. Okay, we'll shift course to this. Just shifting some papers to make sure I capture things correctly. Um so we discussed the proposed course ads and change recommendations at the November board workshop and we are today discussing it and we'll also be discussing this report and the recommendations for approval at our January board meeting and um I at our board workshop I did quickly go over what our process is for this very similar to what I just described with travel. I start with talking with our administrators. They communicate our timeline and our our ask and process and then anything that comes to me to review has to be approved by building admin. And then once it comes to teaching and learning, we talk about it and we make sure that my teaching and learning staff who are connected to each content area, connect with the leads and make sure that everything just aligns with um our progression of work and support for students. So, the three key things um there's there's not as much in this report as there have been in the last couple of years, but the three key things that I did want to point out. One is there's um an addition to math um the new course proposal being AP pre-calculus. Um we did talk about that math is in a curriculum review right now. And so aside from the this proposal um there Mark Carlson will be coming to the board I think it's in February to give you an update on any new resources and how the review is going in alignment with the new standards. Um we did also note that there might be additional um things that we bring to you that would be more middle school focus that would have to be updated in the course registration book. And at this time, we we don't have anything. If there was to have be something for January, we would get in an update before it comes to you, but it's looking like there might not be an ad. And I just want to give you the heads up that there this all, as you know, takes some time and things are still in conversation. Um, so that math ad is the AP pre-calc. It does not um it does take into account staffing. it would be a class that students are taking instead of another just to provide more access and more pathways for students. So, that I wanted to point out. I also wanted to point out ELA. We've had a lot of ELA course ads over the last couple of years. Um, at one point we proposed to you a three-year plan. Our ELA staff have wanted to pause on that three-year plan. They're really positive about the first two years of the plan and are gathering feedback from students. And you'll just note that there's some course description changes in there that allow for students for two classes in ELA to get both a non-fiction or a fiction um requirement met. So that just broadens opportunities for students and helps with those graduation requirements that sometimes can be challenging to get done. And then the final section to point out is just the engineering section. There are a lot of changes within there. But um we linked in a kind of a flow map of how students could be looking at that engineering even as they are at the middle school and entering into the high school to get an idea. Um most of the changes happened within this department. Um because of um that just the the the um the smaller amount of students showing interest over the last couple of years. Um, we really believe that's because of the tightness of our schedule, which we do talk about a lot and we want to really address. And so, a lot of the the classes are shifted from a year class to a a semester class and um are just taking into account how we can help students um try out these electives um and have the experience without being so tight on their schedule. So, with that um I will turn it over for any questions or feedback. >> Hello. First of all, I love all the new classes. I love the changes. Love everything. >> That being said, I have one question. Okay. >> Um, AP pre-calculus, um, it says as a prerequisite, algebra 2 with a grade of 90% or better. >> That is not consistent with our other math classes and how they're listed in our course catalog. right now >> they either say um must have been um like must have performed well in the class or even for um AP calculus BC and AP calculus AB it says a prerequisite of an A or B. >> Okay. So, I was just wondering, is there something about this class that makes it so selective? Because I'm not a huge fan of us leaving kids out of a AP class based on a letter grade. >> Yeah, it's a great question. I do know that when we were looking at this, I looked at other districts and that was very similar to what other districts stated, but I appreciate you bringing up what our course catalog has in relation to that and I'll follow up so that I can >> So, I suggest that whatever we do, it's consistent. >> Um, >> course catalog. Yes. And I I like us being more fluid knowing that we have kids with all sorts of strengths and we might have a kid that's has a high aptitude and might not do well on tests and >> yes. >> So I just think that whatever we do I want us to be consistent and thoughtful about inclusion. >> Thank you. Really good point. Um, I really appreciate the kind of roadmap for all the engineering classes and the recommended for 9th, recommended for 10th. Um, I think that's fantastic and we've got some really exciting classes to offer. Um, I know I brought this up in the work session, but it would be really great if we could talk to our middle school families, especially our eighth graders who will be registering in two months, I think, for high school. Um, if you're interested in these really cool engineering classes, you might want to think about taking this class in ninth grade. Um, and I, this is probably true of other departments, too. These are great classes when you're a junior and senior and you're not thinking about that because you're just thinking about >> how to physically mechanically register for your classes and it's a lot. But, you know, if we can start to get them thinking about what are you interested in? we've got really cool things down the road to get to these classes. You might want to think about taking these classes now to make that easier. That would be a really great conversation to start having sooner. Thanks. Thank you for that suggestion. >> And I had a question about the enriched Spanish 4. Is that replacing or in addition? I think it is not in addition otherwise we would have it under new courses and so I think it's just a um our language department has team been teaming vertically 6 through 12 and I think it's just a little bit of a um edit to the course description. >> Okay. >> And yep it's under course description. So that's in red. I think there's just a couple of pieces that are different in there I could certainly look at. is a class we're currently already offering. It's just a change to the description. Yes, that's all I needed to know. Okay. Thank you. >> Great. Then these will come forward to for approval in our January meeting. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Director DC and Hubert and your team for working on this. >> Absolutely. >> And to our teachers for always coming forward with some really >> novel ideas for classes and the work that goes into that. So, thank you. All right, next up on our discussion topics is uh the Concord flood risk reduction infrastructure project update. And I welcome back to the microphone director of finance and operations Mert Woodard. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the school board. um the city's request to construct an underground um storm water retention facility between the um edge of the South View Middle School parking lot and the edge of the Conquered Elementary playground. Um I guess we can call that McCarthy Field, which is a large portion of that parcel. Was first discussed with the school board at I believe it was the September regular meeting and also at a couple of um different finance and facility meetings. I won't um review all the details of that meeting and the information. It's in your board packet, but I will just give a a brief overview for those who may be watching and may not be up to speed. Basically, the conquered neighborhood is at a pretty high um level risk of um flooding issues. Um particularly our campus and the surrounding residential areas because of the fact that they're lowerlying in nature and water um generally goes, you know, to the lowest possible point. Um those who drive through the neighborhood after a period of um higher rainfall might notice that the day or days after um the entire field is kind of covered with standing water. So much so that uh the the local um ducks and whatnot might um make a home there for a few days. So it's a pretty noticeable issue. um studies that the city and their construction or um engineering team have done um indicate that that um this neighborhood can't really handle more than three and a half inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Um that sort of storm is kind of seen as a once in every 5 years possibility. So each year there's, you know, if you do the basic math about a 20% chance of that happening. So, um, relatively likely to happen, you know, uh, at least once or twice in the next 10 years. And due to the location of our campus and again the lowerlying properties of that field, they've deemed it um, kind of the best location for the neighborhood to install a regional solution um, that would mitigate those problems. Um at the September board meeting, there seemed to be a general consensus um from the board that they um support the the idea of a regional storm water uh management facility um in concept, but there were I think three main questions that you all had that um you would like to be answered before you would move forward. The first of which is the um future feasibility of constructing um I believe what um is likely to be an educational facility on that um parcel of land in the future after the city um potentially installed something. And um the information that I have from a couple of different construction partners and the city um and the construction partners are Bolton and Mink who we work with on a number of different projects um that relate to our surfaces both um hardened surfaces like parking lots but also impervious surfaces when we're constructing new facilities and then W architect who of course um plans and designs um building structures and also our deferred maintenance plan. and then the city. Um all those parties indicate that a future construction post a regional storm water facility would not be possible for a myriad of reasons. Um mainly due to obviously the presence of those structures underground and placing something on top. Um the complexity, the cost and also the fact that um you know the city and watershed likely wouldn't permit um such a structure. The second and maybe more um interesting um question was the feasibility of current construction on that site where the um district and the school board to say you know we're not interested in partnering with the city on a regional solution. First the watershed and city kind of view um there's four actually different parcels of land on the conquered southview community center um property. So we've got the small parking lot to the north of the district. We've got the community center, we've got um south view, and then there's um two parcels um that conquer is on. Um so that's the four different parcels. They view that as one. And if you disturb the imperous surface, so um things that allow water to go through like the grass um to a level that's deemed at 40% sight disturbance, then all the parcel is subject to a review. um in terms of the storm water management throughout. Um we're about 3,000 square feet short of hitting that 40% disturbance on this parcel. Um so for example, the courtyard that's um downstairs and um kind of outside the welcome center that Early Learning uses sometimes, if we were to redevelop that, um I think that that space is more than 3,000 square feet. So 3,000 square feet is roughly three classrooms. So three classrooms of grass if that were to be developed. Um then the entire site is then subject to upgrading all of our storm water shelter to meet um the current requirements of the 110ear flood plan is I think what they call it. Um, Bolton and Mink did a preliminary analysis on um, what that would entail and what that would cost and they came up with a rough estimate in today's dollars and of course that increases over time of about $3 million and the district would be responsible for that and we would have to raise resident taxes to pay for that and that doesn't include again the structure that would need to be placed elsewhere to accommodate a new structure of significant size on the McCarthy field property. Um the second reason that the development is of a structure is impractical and this came from W is due to the size of the parcel. It's less than 5 acres. Um there's really no law or um hardfast rule of thumb, but W recommended that a a facility of maybe more than 40,000 square feet would need about 8 acres as a minimum. Um all of our elementary sites have at least I believe um 16 or so acres. Um, so the structure that you would put there would be relatively insignificant in size and on a square footage basis, probably a lot more expensive than you would want. Um, because you'd have to, of course, accommodate all the storm water um, issues that we have. Um, and finally, I think the third question board members had was disruption to um, roadways in the area, particularly Southview Lane, Conquered Avenue, and Normanddale Road or Wilson Road, depending on what you want to refer to that as. Um our partners at the city have assured me that there would be no um like no road closures. We wouldn't be tearing up the roads. Um parents um would be able to drop off, you know, without much disturbance. Same with our buses. And they would plan all of the distribution of materials and construction um around our operations. So that's kind of the information I have for you tonight. Um I think the district administration is going to recommend that we enter that agreement at our January meeting. This um meeting tonight was simply to get some additional feedback and to understand your concerns. Um before I turn it over to reaction, I I think one additional benefit um that's above and beyond the obvious benefit to the residents um of this neighborhood in terms of flood reduction is the fact that we would have the opportunity to reimagine what McCarthy Field looks like at the um city's expense. And so we would be engaged by the city and of course we would involve our stakeholders on seeing what that would look like. Um we have some administrators in the district who are um quite visionary and and have ideas already. There's a der of I think softball fields in the city for our softball players. Um maybe there's a turf softball field there in the future. Um of course that's maybe putting the cart before the horse a little bit. Um but there are possibilities to enhance our um athletic and recreational facilities um for all users in the future. >> Board members, what questions do you have for Director Woodard? I want to thank you for coming back to us with this information because I know I was one of the ones that was very vocal about needing more information before I was ready to make a a recommendation or vote on this. So, I really appreciate that. It helps me feel more comfortable moving forward. Um, and I also didn't ever know that that was called McCarthy Field. Who would have known? So, thanks for bringing that to my attention. Um, all right. So yes, >> I neglected to add one additional point about the benefits and this is um somewhat significant and we we did speak about this when Mr. Bentner from the city was here and those are those um storm water credits that would be yielded. As I mentioned, we're at that 40% sight disturbance. So, if there were other projects at one of the other facilities on this campus that we want to do in the future, this regional storm water um facility that the city would construct would likely um yield significantly more reduction credits, storm water reduction credits than would be necessary. And so, future development could then use those credits and offset district costs. So, we had a an addition at Conquer Elementary which was postponed a couple of years ago. um if uh this board or future boards wanted to um you know uh relook at that and and perhaps do it, they wouldn't have to necessarily worry about storm water if they wanted to redevelop Coleman Field um if there are um projects at Southview etc. So something to consider. >> Great. >> All right. Well, uh then we will see this up for action in January. Thank you. Uh our next item, our last item up for discussion this evening is uh policy review. And I will turn it over to Director Aaron Ellenburgg, uh chair of the policy committee. >> We have only one um policy for discussion tonight. is policy 305, administrator code of ethics, which I was going to turn over to assistant superintendent Swenson, [laughter] but he didn't come up to the podium. So this was updated with um state um MSBA model language which is why everything is crossed out and all the blue. So basically all the blue is state statute and MSBA model language. Um there were no changes that policy committee made um except for if you see the red um line where it says min Minnesota board of school administrators. I was hoping that um maybe Superintendent Bitman you could explain that update. Um why that was changed to issuing a variance by the board. Um it was a vague language and that's um I think you would do a better job explaining that than I would. >> Happy to do that. Um the language in the policy previously led to board and there was confusion by some around was that the school board was that the board of school administrators etc. And in actuality the school board has no jurisdiction to provide licensing. And so the information really was specific to the state board which is why that language was enhanced. >> So everything new is statute. Um nothing it's literally statute except for the red which was changed to clarify. Board members any questions concerns about that? Oh, not about that. A different part in the policy. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Um, so under uh letter B where it says a district administrator must take reasonable action to protect students and staff from conditions harmful to health and safety. Um, you know, I understand that in normal [clears throat] times it's there's glass in the hallway. What do we do? This percentage of kids is out with the flu. Um, but unfortunately I think my head and a lot of other people's heads might go to if there is ever, god forbid, an active shooter situation, what are we asking of our administrators? Because I think there's a wide variety of ideas about what reasonable action might be. And I just want to make sure our administrators and people looking to become an administrator are comfortable with that position. >> That's a great question and I'll turn over to superintendent. >> Great. Thank you. Yeah, this this policy does not um the intent of it is not to address some of the safety and crisis. It's more of the planfulness around making sure that we don't put students in a situation around that. Your question is a good one because the word reasonable requires some level of interpretation. Unfortunately, that word is primarily in the code of ethics and also some of the statutes. So, it's yet to be defined at the state level. Is that something you'd like us to discuss or check with um we we're more than happy to check with like NSBA or Trevor. We literally copied and pasted the state statute. So, but that doesn't mean that if there's concern that we can't discuss it further. So, I don't want to not address your concern. >> Okay. Well, I appreciate that. I I had some question about it, but if everybody else is fine with it, I'm >> I I think I would just ask a followup question to Dr. Pitman. [clears throat] >> Um given Director Barry's concern that this if it's vague or it's not fully well defined at state level, so on so forth. Does this put an undue burden or risk to a district administrator in any way from your perspective um that we would need to then work towards a a more detailed description or whatever it is to alleviate that concern? It's a very good question. State statute and federal statute really give the benefit without mal intent. School district administrators and staff are protected. Would you like it? Are you okay or would you like >> Oh, okay. All right. Thank you for raising that. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Um, so that was all for our policies up for discussion. >> Okay. Thank you and thank you policy committee for reviewing that. That will come forward for action in January. We are now moving on to the action portion of our meeting. And do I have a motion to approve the audited financial statements and assigned fund balances for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh Birdman and Aram. I welcome Director of Finance and Operations Mer Woodard back to the table to discuss this item with us. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the school board. I don't have any um additional information other than um what our principal auditor, Mr. Law presented before. I will add um a little bit of context though to a statistic that he um read to you. Um he mentioned that um expenditures in the general fund were over budget by about $1.4 million. That includes um long-term facility maintenance um which is highly variable and dependent on um how quickly we can actually um progress through construction projects. Um so if we have make more pro more more progress in the general fund than we anticipated, obviously we're going to overspend, although the the funding is all there and available. Um if you subtract the long-term facilities maintenance activity from the overall general fund activity, we were within 25 basis points for about $80,000 of budget. So um we we spent exactly as we planned to. Um this agenda item um also asked the board to um I guess affirm the district's recommended assigned fund balances. That's in addition to I believe policy 702 which was made a couple of years ago. Um this was briefly discussed by Mr. Low, but the assigned fund balances that we're recommending are um a donations carryover, um field trip carryover, those are um sight specific. And so um if a donor um makes a contribution to a school site and they don't spend that uh that money in the year that it was donated, it simply rolls forward to the next year. We have the facility rental operations which is the residual value of our facility rental um scheme since I believe 2017 um excuse me 2007 which is just short of a million dollars. And that funding is in place to um help support um the replacement of assets over time that cannot be maintained or replaced with long-term facilities maintenance. So, if we need need to install new volleyball standards, um perhaps new turf, any myriad of reasons that don't qualify for long-term facil facilities maintenance, that funding will help offset the cost to users. Um also, um utility costs continue to increase. There's degradation to our buildings, etc. So, instead of increasing user fees by a significant amount, um the assigned fund balancer that's related to oper facility operations is there to help offset the burden. Um we've got our literacy and curriculum um assigned fund balance. Um you'll recall from a couple of years ago we made um a couple of deferments to um literacy adoptions. Um and also math and I believe science and social studies curriculum. Um so we put those off to future years as part of the Berg. Um those are going to be coming due. They some of those have this year and we'll have a couple of more years of significant spending. Um this fund will help uh adequately support those initiatives. And then we have our ongoing OPED. Um we've got a liability of more than $20 million that's going to be coming due over the next um 20 to 30 years. Um not all of that is leviable. So we're we're putting money away when we can to support that. And then finally, a new category of fund balance, assigned fund balance just short of $2.5 million for um underfunded state mandates. >> Board members, any questions? Director Bman, >> it's not a question. It's just a comment. Um, it's in the report, but I just want to call it out. Um, when you see our unassigned fund balance percentage moving from 7.41% to 8.85%, which is in line with our policy goals of between six and 10%, that's been slowly increasing over the last several years. Um, again, that's with proper fiscal management, proper focus on where we want to go, board directive, and and strategy. um that's what has been one of our driving forces to make sure that we're fiscally sound for when uncertainty arrives. So, I just wanted to point that out and so thank you again for your continued stewardship on that level. Um I think it's really important anyone who listens to this or reads this understands that. Thank you. >> Great. We will now vote to approve the audited financial statements and assigned fund balances for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. All those in favor of approving say I. >> Any opposed? The audited financial statements and assigned fund balance fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025 is approved. Thank you, Director Woodard. Uh we are then moving on. Can I have a motion to approve the C certification of property taxes payable in 2026? Some >> moved. Second. Director Wood. >> Thank you, Chair Gabler. Um, similar to the um the audit item, I don't have any additional information to add that was not already discussed during the truth and taxation hearing at the beginning of tonight's regular meeting. Um, we're going to ask the school board to approve um certifying property taxes payable in 2026 in the amount amount of 79,360,1867, which represents a 4.49% 49% increase over taxes payable in 2025. Um, should you agree to certify that amount, we will then um transmit a file to clerk Barry who will sign it and then we'll we'll give that information to the Department of Education and the county auditor. >> Board members, any questions? >> All right, we will now vote to approve the certification of property taxes payable in 2026. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed? The certification of property taxes payable in 2026 is approved. Do I have a motion to approve the city of Edina request for TIFF district extension? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Director Woodard. >> Thank you. This is one that the city approached me about um a couple of months ago now and and something that was discussed at one of our finance committee meetings. I believe it was in November. So the city has a couple of tax increment financing districts or tiff districts. One called 70th in France and one called 72nd in France number two. And those have already been in place for um I believe the first year of collections was either this year or last year. And they're expecting us or um asking for us rather to extend those by 10 years and 5 years um in addition to the duration that was already put into place. Now on once a tiff district is certified for a number of years the um the school districts that are related to that tiff district and the county that's related to that tiff district must approve any request extensions that's in state statute that's in state law. Henipin County approved that at their um November regular meeting and so that the city is requesting that we do that before the calendar year 26 begins um so that they can proceed. For those who don't know, who might be um paying attention or interested, tax increment financing is a redevelopment or financing tool that um cities um I guess relatively commonly use um to offset um increasing um the property tax levy for residents. And you know, they're using a different tool to do that. And really what that is is um the development um to a property or to a number of properties in a district is going to cause an increase to the property taxes that new property would pay. instead of um the the city collecting those and then um using them for whatever purpose, they're collecting those taxes from the rest of the tax base and then they're applying them um directly towards those redevelopment costs. It might be paying down principle and interest on debt that supports the development. It might be other development costs and it's a tool that Edina has used a number of times over the last um several years. I believe there's 11 tiff districts in Edina. Um but don't quote me on that. Um that does not however reduce the school district's property tax revenue. As you know our property taxes are um mainly based on student enrollment. Uh the only levy category that does adjust with the change in the property tax bases our capital projects levy which is fixed at 5.932%. So these districts are already in place until I believe 2041 and 201 respectively. So, if the school district were to move forward and approve this, we would um defer seeing that capital projects levy increase tied to the increase in these um tiff districts until 2046 and 201 respectively. Um so, there is going to be a payoff once these properties are fully developed and we see the the huge increase in property values. It's just going to be deferred a little bit longer than um 16 years from now. >> Thank you for that. Um, I just wanted to say I appreciate you explaining this and um I plan to vote to approve this. However, I wanted to just make sure that I um that we are on record that we're kind of being put in a tough spot here. Um I understand how you explain this and I've read it all and I appreciate your background on this. Um I understand that it doesn't for us our bottom line it's not making a big difference. However, I also know that if we say no, the city has the option of turning around and putting it on property taxes for our residents. And I'm very cognizant of that. And I feel like it's putting us a little bit in a tough spot to approve this, but also I feel like it's important that that's out there. Um because there's been a lot of discussion in this community about TIFF financing. And so, um just wanted to say that. If I may just add a just a little bit of context. So the the city could have originally certified those tiff districts at the um the level or the number of years or duration that they're seeking now. Um the fact that they did not do that and are seeking to extend is why the school board needs to act. Had they certified those at the proper duration at the time um neither the county nor the school district had any authority to say no. So just putting that out there. >> Yes. Thank you for that clarity. So we I think there was a misunderstanding earlier. We had a gentleman come and speak to us. We don't get to approve. We have no say in if district districts go in place and so this is unique. This is in fact is the first time I think that we are seeing any kind of discussion around tiff fund funding and having a say in that. So thank you for that >> director Bman. I think the only comment I have is that while I did read the presentation, whatever it is, there's not a whole lot of clear justification as to why the city is choosing to extend this tiff's district an additional 5, 10 years, 15 years, whatever it was on the different two that they're providing. I would only advise our colleagues at the city of Edina that they need to be a little bit more transparent as to what their reasoning is around things like this, regardless of whether we have the right or not to um respond to that. So I don't have a problem extending this given the nature of what director Wooded has provided us. But as a constituent of the city of Edina, I would like to see a little bit more transparence about why that's the case. Thank you. Any other questions or really comments? All right. Uh we will now vote to approve the city of Edina's request for TIFF district extension. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? The city of Adina request tiff district extension is approved. Thank you director Woodard. Do I have a motion to approve the 2025 2027 data metrics plan? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> I welcome up director of teaching and learning Jod D. St. Hubert uh to talk to us about approval of the data metrics plan. And while she gets settled, just a reminder for listeners, this has is a metrics plan that the board has had a chance to see at a work session in October and uh up for discussion in November at a board meeting and uh now it's up for approval. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Chair Gabler. Um I thank you for giving that overview as well that this has been to the board for discussion and collaboration with administration on multiple occasions. Now the data metrics plan in front of you is the 2527 plan and is the highest level of our EDINA comprehensive assessment system. Um you'll note in the executive summary that it is a two-year plan that's broken into um it's broken down vertically K through 12 in most areas and six key focus areas. And um these areas are listed. And also I wanted to note that in the executive summary um we outline that this data metrics plan is an alignment from the last two-year plan the 2325 plan which has also been to the board a couple of times this fall so that um they connect to our strategic plan, our vision and our mission and our action steps that we are putting in place in order to ensure excellence for our students each and every student in Edina public schools. Um, with that I'll open up to any questions or or feedback. >> Director Ellenburg, >> I don't have a question. I just wanted to provide feedback and thank you and your team for putting this together. I could not be more proud of this document and the effect and positive impact it's had on our culture here of continuous improvement. Um, and what you just mentioned about how it overlays with our strategic plan, our mission, our vision, our continuous improvement plans for our schools. I truly think it's a best-in-class document. And I would highly recommend that you guys go on a road show and show it, too. I'm I am absolutely serious because I have seen lots of different um ways people are measuring and I've seen nothing as comprehensive as this. and everyone in our district should be very proud of the document. So, thank you very much. And >> it makes me sleep well at night knowing that we have this and I quote it all the time. I'm like, people will say something about I'm like, well, according to our data metrics plan actually blah blah blah. So, thank you. It provides transparency and keeps all of us accountable for what we want our students to attain. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. I'll be excited to share that with the team. There's many people that work hard on putting it together. So, thank you for that feedback. >> Well said. All right. We will now vote to approve the 2025 2027 data metrics plan. All those in favor say I. >> Anyone opposed? >> The 2025 2027 data metrics plan is approved. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the proposed 202527 Education Minnesota EDA collective bargaining agreement? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? That was ma'am. Uh, executive director of human resources, Sonia Sailor and Director of Finance and Operations, Mer Woodard is back. >> That was not >> Oh, sorry. Sorry. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> I thought it was like a ventriloquist act because I was like, I swear I didn't see him talk, but a lot there's just [laughter] a lot going on over here. All right. Welcome to both of you. Uh, floor is yours. >> Thank you, Madame Chair, Dr. Bitman, members of the school board, good evening. We are here um and very pleased to announce that Education Minnesota Adina, our school district's teachers have ratified the tenative agreement that is before you this evening for a new two-year collective bargaining agreement effective July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2027. Our negotiations teams worked collaboratively to problem solve and reach compromises that allowed us to provide the fair and competitive salary and benefits package being proposed for your approval. We would like to thank um our and commend our EME team comprised of EM president Jason Doctor and our teacher negotiation negotiators Dave Boon, Carrie Disher, and Angela Ruby for their partnership and dedication to this important process. We'd also like to thank the district team represented by school board member members directors Birdman and man. Um, of course, Director Woodard, Assistant Superintendent Swinson, Director Stefen, and Assistant Director Ericson. You have been provided with a summary of this tenative agreement and a draft of final um a draft and a final version of the proposed cont contract. Highlights of the economic improvements include step advancement for eligible teachers in both years of the agreement. A merging of the first and second steps of the salary schedule to strengthen the district's starting salary and improve recruitment of new teachers. A 3% increase to the salary schedule in both years. an increase to the district's contribution towards a teacher's health insurance by 10% on January 1, 2026, an additional 6.3% on January 1, 2027. Finally, a 2% increase to the district's contribution towards a teacher's dental insurance plan will go into place as of January 1, 2027. Using the Minnesota School Boards Association costing formula, the 2-year total package percentage increase for this proposed agreement is 8.86% which is within the authority provided to the district's negotiation team by the school board and as a result we seek your approval for this agreement. Do you have any questions? Thank you to you and your team and all of the individuals that you mentioned. Thank you to our board members that served on the committee. This is an important um this is an important contract. So, thank you for they all are, but thank you for your work on that. All right. We will now vote to approve the proposed 202527 uh 2027 Education Minnesota Edina collective bargaining agreement. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? The proposed 2025 2027 Edina Education Minnesota Edina collective bargaining agreement is approved. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve policies 622 and 913 by quick review? >> So moved. >> That was ma'am. Is there a second? Alenberg policy chair Ellenburgg. Um, pursuant to our policy, these are coming to quick review because they have no um changes to the um actual how the policy works. They're um just updated with um verbiage for 622 or to um how it reads. That doesn't make sense. Um the for the copyright policy policy 622 um the this does not go through the media um media specialist um media specialist anymore. It goes through teaching and learning. Correct. And that's why that is um taken out of the of the language. And then these policies exist on the district website. And so as opposed to where in B it said um that it's available um through the media media and technology services department that was assuming there was like a hard copy available. So that's why those changes are there but other than that there weren't any changes to how the policy was functioning. Okay board members any questions about those two policies? All right. Thank you for your work on those. Uh we will now vote to approve policies 622 and 913. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Policy 622 and 913 are approved. Do I have a motion to approve policy 911? >> So move. >> Director man. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Arum policy chair Allenberg. Floor is yours. Um this um it basically has a different um purpose and general statement of policy for district volunteers. Um other than that the um process for um how the volunteer system works is unchanged. Um so um it that's the change to this policy >> and we did see this policy in November. So um board members, any additional questions? All right, we will now vote to approve policies 911. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed. Policy 911 is approved. Board members, do you have any leadership or committee updates? Dr. Arum, >> um I just wanted to speak about the uh legislative action committee um and the opportunity I had this weekend to attend the MSBA uh delegate assembly. Um it was where MSBA uh brought together um different members from all around the state um to discuss their legislative um platform activities and vote upon what the um the MSBA will be supporting throughout the program. It was it was quite an interesting experience. Um 36 different uh policy um recommendations of which I can't remember the amount that was approved. I believe it was somewhere around 30 of them were approved to be advanced as uh things. And so great chance to meet uh fellow um board members throughout the state um and hear their different interests and um things that are kind of keeping them awake at night and some of the things that are common with our district. So I really enjoyed the experience um for both nights. And then we also had a great presentation by uh Larry Jacobs from the Humphrey Institute on uh Thursday night or sorry Friday night um talking about you know the elections and some of the different um trends and those types of things. another very insightful um presentation. So all around all a very good thing um two-year term. So I'll be going back again next December, but um but it's a worth worthwhile experience. So just wanted to speak about that. And then the legislative breakfast coming up with our p um January Friday the 23rd I think it is um is coming up. So any community members who want to attend um we would love to have you there um at that January date 7:30 in the morning. Great. Thank you. And thank you for representing us um on that. That was um the first time, I believe, at least in my knowledge that we've had someone there. So, I really appreciate you um representing Edina. >> And I'm glad that you were able to come back. >> It was very I was very far away. I was in Bloomington. So, >> Oh, okay. >> Did Did anyone say anything nice about Edina while you were there? >> Of course they did. >> They did. Yeah. They always do. >> I'm happy to happy to hear that. Um, I just wanted to make a mention that earlier this evening, um, in a special meeting at four o'clock this afternoon, the board was able to meet with our search firm for the superintendent search and review our leadership profile and the vacancy brochure and look over the stakeholder feedback. And um, Edina, you showed up. We had uh, close to 2,000 people that provided feedback on the search. Um, they did say this is the most robust reaction they've had. And so I'm proud of you. And um the search firm will be then meeting with the board next Tuesday um where we will finalize the job posting and determine next steps. So I just want to make sure that the public is aware of that. And as always, you can find information about the search on the tab on the district website and the um stakeholder feedback report will be up there as of tomorrow, I believe. So Dr. Bitman, do you have any updates for us? Madam chair, members of the board, this has been a busy time as you know, but want to just compliment the school board as well as the administration, teachers and staff throughout the district. We have had a really aggressive strategic plan and we continue to work tirelessly to meet that. Tonight's meeting is a perfect example of that. Just the work that's coming together um takes tens of hours, hundreds of hours on behalf of everybody's work and the school board like the community as well as the cabinet continue to show up for kids and for families. So just very appreciative and look forward to the future. >> Do I have a motion to adjurnn our meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> May an aram. We will now vote to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? The motion is passed in the December 8th, 2025 board meeting has adjourned.