Good evening. The time is now 7:00. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, [clears throat] February 9th, 2026 will please come to order. Will the clerk please call the role? colleagues. >> Heidi Kedar >> here. >> Sheila Prior >> here. >> Alicia Little >> here. >> Paris Bendy >> here. >> Valentina Ays >> here. >> Dan Janestra Dan Janestra is present. >> Nolan Sahonyi >> present. >> Chase Anderson >> here. Thank you. >> Thank you. We have a quorum. Please rise to recite recite the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everyone to the second regular board meeting of the year. We are glad you could join us this evening. If you wish to speak during the audience opportunity to address the board, please fill out a form placed at the back of the room and hand it over to a district admin assistant, Amy, sitting to my right. The first item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda items. Consent agenda items are considered routine in nature and we will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so requests in which event the item will be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed. The consent agenda items are listed in the materials. The recommended action is to approve the agenda and the consent agenda items. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. Moved and seconded. Will the clerk please click a roll call vote? >> Colleagues, Harry Kar. Yes. >> Valentina, >> yes. >> Janestra Janesterra votes. Yes. Alicia Little. >> Yes. >> Paris Bendy. >> Yes. >> Sheila Prior. >> Yes. >> Melan Sahony. >> Yes. >> We have an agenda. Thank you, Dan. >> The next item on our agenda is reports from organizations. This this section of the agenda provides an opportunity for a Weisetta High School student council representative to report on information and events at Weisetta High School. I would like to invite Rachel Lynn, student council vice president from Visetta High School to please come forward. Welcome Rachel. >> Thank you Rachel. Congratulations to all the winners in all the events and everything else. So colleagues any questions comments with dignity and Ready? >> Yeah. >> Congratulations. Thank you. [laughter] [snorts] >> Again, congratulations. And our next employee of the month is from our transition school. And I would like to invite Effie Cel to please come forward. Congratulations, Effie. [applause] And again, I'll share a nice script that was put together uh highlighting the great work that Effie does at our transition school. Visetta Transition proudly selects Effie Cel as one of the February employees of the month. As a special education paraprofessional and job coach, she is a critical team member whose ability in supporting all students, meeting them where they are, and encouraging students to to continue to grow helpsetta transition in many important ways. FE consistently brings a genuine positive attitude to her work. No matter the circumstance, situation, or student she is supporting, she is always willing to take on challenges and approaches her role with professionalism and leadership, representing both her team and community partnerships at the highest standard. She builds meaningful rapport with every student she works with, always treating them with respect and never complaining, even in challenging moments. Her commitment to a growth mindset is evident as she actively supports student growth and independence, helping them develop skills with confidence. She has a genuine desire to understand what students are communicating and consistently goes the extra mile, even by learning new languages and songs to connect more deeply. Maybe she'll sing a song for us here in a [laughter] you good with not doing that? Okay, just wanted to ask. You never know. Effie is kind and creates a positive environment for both students and colleagues. From her creativity to her ability to stay composed and professional in all situations, Effie brings both joy and stability to the team. She builds strong, meaningful relationships through her work across transition programming. From the transition location to the Henipin Technical College campus and beyond, she connects with each student as an individual, supporting them with care, patience, and respect. Congratulations to Effie for being named one of the February employees of the month. We're grateful for your dedication and the positive impact you make each and every day. Congratulations [applause] Congratulations. Thank you. >> And our next and I think final recognition for this evening is to announce the names of those who have indicated their intent to retire uh since our last school board meeting. It's not uncommon that the February meeting has the longest list because there's kind of this February 1st magic date when uh uh employees intending to retire will often uh submit their names to our human resources department. So, we have a fairly lengthy list. Looks like about 15 names here that I'm going to read and I'll announce their name and uh indicate uh which building they were a part of and for how many years of service uh they uh provided to the school district. First, Barbara Bisy, assistant activities director at the high school, serving 30 years. Christine Bradberry, par profofessional at Northwoods, 19 years. Lynn Deareay, teacher at Sunset Hill, 26 years. Anne Farenbach, teacher at the district service center, 15 years. Julie Hadani, teacher at Plymouth Creek, nine years. Mara Lewis, unaffiliated district service center, 22 years. Terresa Lackler, paraprofessional, Meadow Ridge, 27 years. Mary Mackey, principal at Gleason Lake Elementary, 36 years in the district. Kristen Nelson, paraprofessional at Weisetta High School, 14 years. Sarah Pinsky Czech, teacher at Plymouth Creek, 27 years. Lori Schultz, teacher, Plymouth Creek, 27 years. Belinda Stzman, technology integration specialist, 18 years. Tom Walrred, paraprofessional, Weisetta High School, 20 years. And Ross Williams, principal at Sunset Hill Elementary School, 11 years. I don't think any of these individuals are here tonight, but we'll provide them with a round of uh applause in honor of their work. >> [applause] >> WE GREATLY APPRECIATE THEIR YEARS OF service and know that their contributions will continue to make an impact uh through the coming years and uh just know that we appreciate uh their work a great deal. So with that, that concludes our recognitions for this evening and we thank you for being here tonight and uh thanks for all your great work. Appreciate it. Congratulations to the honores. Thank you Dr. Anderson and thank you Paris. Okay, moving on to the school spot school spotlight presentation. Tonight the spotlight is on early learning and transition schools. Uh I'll turn it over to Dr. Anderson for the introductions. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board, uh, those in attendance this evening. We're pleased to welcome the Early Learning School and the Weisetta Transition Program this evening for our February school spotlight presentation. Michelle Bador, our director of the Early Learning School, and Alana Walsh, supervisor at Weisetta Transition, are with us to share an update on their school growth plans. They will also highlight how their teams are partnering and thoughtfully support meeting the needs of students. Thanks for being here tonight. We look forward to your presentations. Thank you. >> Uh Superintendent Anderson and school board, thank you for having us tonight. I hope you enjoy our combined program from our early learning to our transition program. Um we wanted to start by giving you um just a little bit of an overview of each program and then we have um some of our colleagues here who are going to share more details about our combined programming. So um with that I'll start off. Um I did early learning by the numbers for you just so you could get an idea. Um we have um and these are a a day and time because our numbers are shifting every day. Constantly enrolling and um starting new students practically every day. I our friends in the back are in our front office and they are getting a ton of phone calls. So um we um have 360 students in our partday preschool, 178 in our full day. Our early childhood family ed has about 177 students and parents coming together. Our early childhood screening program sees about 800 to a thousand screens per year. And then I broke down the birth to three, three to five and speech special ed numbers for you in that last column. Um the the sites are listed below that and then how many classrooms about are assigned to those. We have some crossover. Um and then the number of staff working in each program. So we have about 125 staff across all of those programs in the early learning school. So, those are our numbers. Um, this is our enrollment history and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. I know it's been presented um a couple of times, but you will see we peaked in 2122 and have um kind of shifted downward a little bit since then. You will notice that because we had taken advantage of some elementary classrooms that were freed up and so we programmed there and as those have gotten a little bit tighter. That's why you've seen a decline in our enrollment. So those are mostly in our full day and school day program that are no longer in the elementary sites. Um with that I'll talk a little bit about our school growth plan. We um started out at the built institute and talking about all things data for little people. We settled on two um teaching strategies gold objectives. The first one is 19A which is learning to write your name. The second one is solving social problems and then the third one is we focused on our staff incorporating the basic needs work into the sense of belonging for children and families. We went with 100% as our goal for this year and that was purposeful. Our team had a lot of discussions about if we went with 80% which 20% of kids would we be leaving out and we decided we weren't leaving any kids behind. So we went with 100% of all the kids will be at their age expectations by spring. We have been um the team has been working with um all of our staff. We did a big um event on October 15th during MEA and we tried to hone in on what is the experience and the learning that we want for our students at the early learning school. I'm not going to read it to you because I know you all can read and I know you have a packed agenda, but this is what we've come up with as a team and that included all of our staff gathering that information. All right. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about transition, which is the other end of our educational system. Uh, so thank you for having me, Mr. Chair, Dr. Anderson, and schoolboard members. So, the Wisetta Transition, um, we're going to talk a little bit. It was May, it was founded in 2019 with 14 students. At that time it was located at a different site and then we quickly grew and added another site where we were partnering with Henipin Technical College campus as well and and then in the fall of 2023 we moved to the former district admin building and that's where we've been ever since. Uh we have over 40 students and next year we're planning to have close to 50 students and transition is for students who have completed their four years of high school but have not yet received their high school diploma. It prepares students to become confident, employed adults who live independently as possible and contribute to the vitality of our community. Um, and all of the students here are young adult learners, ages 18 through 22. The cornerstone of instruction at Transition is around the portrait of a Wise graduate. And there's a three-year cycle that at transition intentionally focuses on specific characteristics within that portrait of a graduate. Each and every student is learning also and practicing the skills in the three areas of transition which is independent living, employment and post-secary education. We support mental health throughout the day and in a variety of ways as well. And this year our focus within mental health is specifically on how to access community resources and how to respond in a crisis whether that's a personal one or a crisis of others. So thinking of our growth our school growth plan and when we met at built as well uh using the portrait of a graduate as the foundational framework we focused on the valuing diversity inclusion embracing collaboration and communicates effectively this and then the school growth plan was created within that knowing how all those areas intersect with employment post-secary education and independent living. So, we've done a variety of different things to get at this. Similar to the conversation had at the early learning school, we also said 100% of students because again, we're not going to leave anyone behind. So, you can see here kind of what our goals are focusing on for this school year. This isn't new to uh you all, but we had a lot of conversation a few years ago about the portrait of a graduate and how it's no different if you're graduating from the high school, if you're graduating from transition. The skills are still the same. We are just practicing those skills in employment, independent living, and post-secary education. So when we think about that, we think about then how can this portrait um be seen from when you enter into our system all the way to when you graduate, however old that may be for you. And so I would love to showcase a fantastic partnership that um happened really organically between the early learning school and transition. So, we're going to turn it over to Jerry Klene, who's the transition work coordinator, and Christina Libre, the school social worker, and Janette Sanders, as well as the district family liaison to talk about how these two uh programs have partnered together. >> [laughter] >> Which one do we sit in? >> Good evening [snorts] everyone. On the right slide. Okay. So, as Alana was just mentioning, the portrait of a graduate. Something that's really important is our collaboration for our students to work on those independent living skills, the employment skills, and how we can best serve them from where they are now to where that they can get be in the future. So, we came together last year because there was a need in the district from both levels of how can we support each other as we're working to build these students skills as well as helping our families in the community. So what we did is we created a clothing closet that our students can support those early learning families through sorting, organizing, restocking donated clothing that has come into the district. Students practice those job skills such as data entry, advertisement, inventory management, organization, teamwork, customer service within the career pathways identified identified through the CTE cluster wheel. That is very important. And the early learning school staff help identify the family needs um and connect those families to the closet. In some cases, our um services are in the community. So, our birth to three staff sometimes will bring items from the closet out to the homes. Um, the clothing is provided at no cost and we really encourage the word shopping when the families come so that they can use the space with dignity. Um, and everyone has access to it. It's not limited to income. There are no screeners. If you're walking past, you're welcome to um come in. the highlights. Um, this year alone, starting in September, we have had 312 items of clothing, 54 packs of diapers, 154 children's coats, 62 pairs of snow pants, 43 pairs of snow boots, and 639 food items. Um this is our why excellence for each and every um we create a win-win. Families receive needed resources and the students gain hands-on experience that builds confidence, responsibility, employment skills. Um the impact of collaboration, we support families with essential clothing and diapers for young children. We provide meaningful real work experience for the transition students and we promote inclusion, independence and community engagement. So we have also found ways to extend these partnerships beside or beyond the clothing closet. We have transition students that are working Oops, I'm sorry. Double up here. We have transition students that are out in the community picking up lost and found items from other elementary schools. We have students organizing materials, setting up activities for classroom teachers, um cleaning and resetting spaces. >> Um they also assist with our seasonal and special events. Um, so we have uh a food shelf, a diaper drive, a winter clothing drive, as well as we create activity packs for families who maybe aren't leaving um the area during those big vacation times. And some of those essential workplace skills that we work on at the building are um age appropriate interactions, social interactions, responsibility in a community- based setting, communication, um flexibility, following routines, data tracking, teamwork, and time management. All important. Um other community partnerships that happened organically um just by opening up the uh Trojan Care Closet was um being joined by St. Phillips of the Deacon, Yellow Brook Road Early Childhood Development Center, Interfaith Outreach, and Every Meal. Here are some beautiful pictures of our students working at the clothing closet. We have some videos in action. >> Good job. What do you think would fit? I had a lot of socks. Did you have to sort all these out? >> Yeah, >> it's a lot of work. You think she'd like these ones? >> The baby. >> You put those in my bag, too, please. Thank you. for a newborn. Yeah, kind of. >> I like to help clients by getting their items and telling them, "Hi, have bye. Have a good day. And what are you doing this weekend? Not much. [laughter] >> Oops. And then here he sees. >> Oh, okay. >> I don't think it's distract. >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. Is there are you thinking about doing broader distribution or not at this time? >> Yes. >> There is conversations with the whole thing broader. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. >> Thank you for being here tonight. I love seeing kind of the book ends of our system together. I really It I don't know. It does something to see the whole system together. Um I know how incredible and how much work it can be to sort items and to go home feeling tired like you've had a full day of effort. Tell me about how our transition students are feeling at the end of the day. Uh what what's your observation? >> I can tell you this is one of their favorite places to go. They feel a sense of accomplishment. They might have um they help set up the closet and when they go to the closet to work, they have there might be a basket there of clothing that needs to go out. So they can see, you know, the beginning of their shift, they have this stuff to do. and then by the end they've folded, they've sorted, they've, you know, accomplished the organizational piece. Um, having staff at Early Learning Center that are amazing and welcoming and then having all of the guests that come and shop there also is just a sense of accomplishment. You're helping others. The m middle video you watched, one of our students was helping a staff member bag diapers and clothing for their family. So, just really feeling that sense of accomplishment that you're helping others and they see their work and they love the closet. So, >> yeah. Well, thank them on my behalf, please. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, thank you again for presenting this. I have two questions. Um, sorry if I missed it. How how old is this program? >> Um, it's exactly one year old actually. Okay. Um we we proposed this to our supervisors um and opened in February. It was a soft soft launch I suppose. >> Um we weren't expecting actually to be able to get it up and running that quickly. Um Jenny Eert cleaned out one of the closets literally one of the storage and you cleaned out the closet actually, but she gave us access to it. um and the shelving and then all the donations and we filled it mostly with some of the items from the lost and found that had been laundered by the transition students. So this is our one year how perfect our one year anniversary. >> Good congratulations. It's a win-win. I'm sorry. Did you want to say something? I was just going to add, we started working, they were collecting um donations and washing them and bringing them over to IOCP, but we had the need to get those um clothes or things out to families immediately rather than going over to IOCP. So that's why we just kind of collaborated and thought, huh, what could we do to get these items to our families faster? So >> So every project usually starts with a goal. Have you what where is what's your sense of having achieved the goals you started with goal or goals you started with at at the beginning of the year where do you where do you think you are >> I don't know what microphone to speak into which [laughter] one do you want to start >> I just want to say I we want to do this throughout the district so a big goal is to we started early learning and then hopefully um within the elementary schools and middle schools too. So the middle schools were like, "Hey, you guys are doing that. Tell us how you got started and we'd like to do it too and can we use transition?" So you know that like they said there's only 40 kids in there at transition school. So um we haven't quite figured out all of that but yeah a a big goal would be to do that >> throughout the whole district. >> And one one quick question again final question. So I know that our family is usually looking for help when we have to organize things and organize the closet and everything. Are are these experiences ending in results where they are employed? The transition students are getting employment from from this experience. >> These are stepping stones. So our students, you know, we want each and every to have every ability to be independent and to have employment opportunities. So these are students that are working on those social skills, working on those organization skills, working on independence. So, and they're doing that through the stepping stone of a smaller location such as the clothing closet. And then we partner with different businesses in the community to build those employment skills also. So, we look at it as, you know, where the student is, what their goal is for, and what they're building on. And every student is meeting goals. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. You bet. >> Thank you for coming and >> thank you for having us. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> All right. Next is the audience opportunity to address the board. Amy, do we have any speakers tonight? None. Okay. So, I'm going to skip that and we will move on to the next item which is the administrative reports and recommendations. First, the superintendent report. Dr. Anderson will present two board policies for approval and two for suns setting. Dr. Anderson. >> Mr. Chair and members of the board. Before you uh this evening are uh some policy actions. Uh the first document indicates uh that there are policies for your review. Uh following uh the work that uh our policy committee did. The policies and regulations were reviewed as part of the regular cycle and using the Minnesota Schoolboard Association model policy by district administration and other districts uh stakeholders were necessary. A final review was completed by the policy committee of the school board and uh policy approvals recommended are for 524.5 personal electronic communication devices and 904 political election campaign materials. And uh the recommended action uh for this item is to approve the above policies as presented in the attachments. And just as a reminder, I know the board's well versed on this, but for the larger community, we do have a policy committee that meets monthly most generally and um uh reviews policies and has a lot of conversation regarding those uh prior to their coming to uh the board for approval. So um that's the recommended action for these. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. So board colleagues, the recommended action is to approve the board policies as presented. Do I have a motion to approve? >> I so moved. Do I need to wave the second reading as well? I would like to wave the second reading. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Moved and seconded. Is there a discussion? >> Um I'll just say something quickly because I'm on the policy committee. Um just a clarification that policies 918 and 910 are being sunseted, but that's because they're being incorporated into policy 9004. So, we're not really losing anything. We're just combining [snorts] them. Um, and voters that have been affected with the polling location change will get a notice within the next month before voting starts. Uh, the second item before you is the appointment of the absentee ballot board. You might have a little dja vu because it's the same action you took last year. Uh, the same members will serve as the absentee um ballot voting board. So, recommended action is before you. Thank you, Amy. So, board colleagues, the recommended action is to adopt as presented the resolution appointing absentee ballot board election judges for the general election on April 14th, 2026. Is there a motion? >> I so move. >> Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. This is a roll call vote. Uh >> colleagues, Sheila Prior, >> yes. Idi Kar >> yes. >> Valentina ays >> yes. >> Dan Janineestra Dan Janeestra votes yes. Alicia Little >> yes. >> Paris B spend >> yes. >> Melanony >> yes. The motion carries. Thank you. >> The next action before you is the election judge hourly pay. Again a little bit of deja vu. Nothing has changed from last year. Uh but it does require your approval for the 2026 election cycle. >> Thank you again. >> Recommended action before you. >> Okay. Thank you again, Amy. Recommended action then is to approve the 2026 hourly rate for election judges. Is there a motion? >> I so move. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? This is a roll call vote again. >> Colleagues, Alicia Low, >> yes. >> Paris Spendy, >> yes. Sheila Prior, >> yes. >> Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, Dan Jester votes, yes. Melan Zahony, yes. The motion carries. Thank you, Dan. Okay. There is no teaching and learning report today. And so we'll move on to the finance and operations report presented by executive director Trevor Peterson. Trevor will first present the combined financial reports for the month ended December 31st. Is that right? 31st, 2025. [clears throat] >> Good evening, Chair Sahony, members of the board, Dr. Anderson. Um, this month's uh combined financial reports, we look at year-to- date activity through December 31st to 20, 2025. Um, as has [clears throat] been the case for um, many months in a row, there are no real surprises or um, large [clears throat] discrepancies from what we might see at any beginning year or um, to the budget that we have established in the preliminary budget. Um, just a reminder too that we have started working on a revised budget that will come forward to the board in the in the coming months. So, uh, some of these there are certain definitely always things that we look at, um, that will be reflected in the revised budget, but for the most part, um, everything is, uh, in line where we would expect it to be. Um, one thing I do want to point out, um, we do have a new schedule, um, that is in the packet. Um it has been uh discussed at prior board meetings as well as at the finance committee of the board about um maybe a little bit more clarification as to uh some of the adjustments that we're seeing in our restricted fund balances that are making the revenue versus expenditures look a little skewed um maybe from what we um is a true picture or accurate picture. So um in this document, it's the second page and it's one that we have pulled up in front of you right now. um you will see that we broke out for just the general fund um the restricted revenues as well as the restricted expenditures uh aside from the unrestricted. So, this gives a little bit of a clearer picture um as to some of those unassigned or the unrestricted revenues and expenditures that you might see. Um taking not so you're excluding some of those one-time um either whether it be a levy adjustment um to that really is skewing the data to make it look like um something that's not really happening because we do have restricted fund balance set aside to accommodate for some of those. So, um, again, I there's not a lot on here other than, um, pointing your attention to that new schedule that, um, is alarming or needs to be discussed. Everything is is where it should be. Um, one thing to, another thing to point out, too, is um, we think about December 31st as being halfway through the fiscal year. Uh, you might look at our expenditures and we've only spent about 38 to 39% of our budget. Um, as a reminder, we have um the majority of our staff and you know, salaries and benefits make up about 80% of our budget and the majority of our staff receive their um first paycheck starting in September. Um, so those who do receive um either 9 months worth of pay or 12 months that start in September, um they have not yet received 50% of those salaries and benefits. Therefore, we're not recording 50% of salaries and benefits. So, uh, just wanted to remind folks of that so you don't look at that to say, well, we're on our we're well on pace to be way under budget cuz that's not quite the case based on how those salaries and benefits work. So, um, the other thing, um, Amy, if I could have you scroll to the last page um, that looks at our cash balances. Um, we have started to see some of those interest rates dip a little bit as would be expected. Um so we have actually um begun some work on maybe looking at some other options for investing investing um as interest rates start to decrease um there are some opportunities to maybe lock into a current um interest rate which would allow us to to um maybe safeguard against some of those interest rate decreases for a short amount of time. So uh we have those conversations all the time um with our with our banking partners. So um just based on the current market activity, we do expect to see some of those things happening over the the course of the next 3 to 6 months. So otherwise there there is no board action for this but certainly open up for any questions or comments you might have. Thank you Trevor. Any questions comments on this? >> So I have a question Trevor. So when you talk about banking partners, uh does that is that only Mistlaf or does it include Mislaf? And >> yes, it it does include MSL. So Mislaf is um where our state aid payments are are sent to. Um there are other um investment options out there that we're starting to have conversations with too. So um we we would certainly look at um a hybrid or combination of u multiple investment options out there. Okay. Thank you. >> There are no other questions or comments. Can we move to the next item? Will you will seek a resolution relating to general obligation school building defunding bonds series 2026A. >> Yeah. Um Matthew Hammer from Ellers is joining me at the table. We'll give a a brief brief introduction about this and hopefully I do a good enough job, [clears throat] but we'll uh entertain some questions afterwards. But um together, especially with the help of Ellers, our financial adviserss, um we are constantly, we as a district are constantly looking at ways to reduce future debt service um obligations or debt service payments. Um and there are multiple ways to do that. Uh one of the most common ways for school districts to do that is through um a refunding of bonds um of existing bonds. And that's the the most common way is if you um have bonds that have maybe a higher interest rate than what current market activity might look like. Um you could go out and refund those bonds to achieve a lower interest rate um where the full principal amount would remain um but the decreased interest rate would um would lessen those tax impacts through the course of the the remaining lifetime of those bonds. Um we're here tonight because there is actually an opposite, not necessarily, not really an opposite, but uh a different method to look at this where um the district does have bonds out there. We have bond holders that are currently holding on to some bonds for us that are the opposite where they have a low interest rate. Um and while that is good news for our district, we're paying very little interest on that. Um we do acknowledge that there are some bond holders that might be interested in getting out of those bonds. Um so for example um a bond holder might be holding on to a certain amount of of um I guess assets in order to pay those bonds when they come due. Um but yet they are not acrewing a lot of yield on those um funds that they are holding. Um so they might look to um get out of those existing bonds um to be freed up to invest in a different manner which they so choose. Um so we would like to look at an opportunity to um what's called a tender offer um where we would invite them to um basically allow us to sell bonds at a prem or at a discount to them. So, um, what that might look like is in 2021, um, this is when the interest rates were really low. Uh, the district did have bonds that were sold in 2014, um, that we refinanced. We we'll call it the normal way, um, where we then lessened or lowered the interest rates um, for the life of the bonds um, to decrease those interest payments. Um, at that time, the principal interest was about $133 million. um over the course of the last four or five years just based on um principal and interest payments that um principal outstanding principal now sits at about $105 million um from for the callable maturities with a a date of February 1, 2029 and after um that is where we are seeing those low interest rates that range from 1.65% to 2.3 [snorts] um which again is is great. Um but um what this would look like is is we would extend an offer and it's all voluntary based on the bond holders. Some might choose not to do it, some might choose to do it. Um but we would basically allow them to let us uh sell new bonds to get them out of their existing bonds. So um what that might look like is um let's just say we have 20% participation in this. So, of our 105 million um outstanding principal, if there's 20% participation, that's about $21 million. Um that we might sell bonds for $19 million. Um so, we're essentially selling bonds for $ 19 million to reduce the 21 million. Um those would likely have a higher interest rate than what's currently on it. But when you look at the lifetime of the bonds and you combine the principal and interest payments together, um it is a reduction in future debt service levies, which is the goal of this. So, um it's kind of a win-win. Um the banks are allowed if again if they so choose um or the bond holders are allowed to get out of um an investment that they might not currently like. Um and we are reducing our debt service payments for future bonds. Um I [clears throat] I it's one of those things I've I've explained it to a few people and it's not exactly like this, but um usually when you think of a general or a normal refunding of bonds, it's like a reortgage of the house uh where you or refinancing where you go and get a lower interest rate. Uh this might be a little bit different where if somebody has a $400,000 principal remaining on their mortgage, uh we would offer to the bank to say, "Hey, we'll give you $350,000 at a higher interest rate um to basically get out of that mortgage." And then these bond holders might like to do that. So, um I know that's a it's a lot to talk about, a lot to take in. Um but just remember the bottom line here is it is it it feels like a great opportunity to allow some bond holders to maybe get out of some um bonds that they might not like [snorts] and it would allow the district to lower future debt service payments which is always a good thing because that is paid for by our taxpayers um and that would lower their future tax burden in the future. So um I know that was a lot. Sorry about that. Um, Matthew, I'll see if there's anything I missed and otherwise we can certainly entertain any questions as well. >> Good evening. Um, Matt Hammer, district's financial adviser. Um, you you hit on most of the points. I think one of the main points in this is the bond holders kind of hold the cards from the standpoint it's going to be a voluntary tender offer. But with that said, um the district um isn't obligated to move forward with the refunding um unless participation is at a level that makes sense for us to move forward with. So um our objective is to lower the overall cost for property owners as part of this process and where we're at with current market conditions. um this opportunity from what bond holders as they hold their assets right now in their portfolios might be interested to um get out of those low yielding investments and invest in something else um and take their cash elsewhere. Um and for us what that means is we're really in essence really just uh um being able to in essence buy those bonds at a discount and take the savings um for our property owners. The other piece is is we still hold those low interest rates with the other bonds. So whatever is not tendered, if nothing's tendered, we still pay at low rates. Um if we do get 20% participation, we still keep the other 84 million at those low interest rates. So, um, really it's, uh, it's an opportunity for us to explore and, um, from the timeline perspective, we're looking to open up that tender window in mid-March and then our anticipated, um, sale date or pricing date for the new bonds would be early April. And then the board would be looking at taking action possibly in April depending on um, what kind of interest we get. So, we'll have updates over the next month in that regard. And I I think that that level of interest that we get in this will depend on the actual savings that are recognized. Um so if we were to get a a 20% participation rate, we use that as an example, we we would save right around 100 or $1.2 million for the life of the remaining bonds. Um if the participation rate creeps up to 30%, that creeps up more to about $2 million in savings. So uh again, it's all relative based on that. So there there are still some factors that we will look at um to see if it makes sense for the district to go forward or not. [clears throat] So I'm going to read the recommended action. It's a long one, so just be patient. Recommended action is to approve a resolution relating to general obligation school building refunding bonds series 2026A authorizing the issuance and authorizing the superintendent or executive director of finance and operations and any board officer to award the sale thereof and to take such action and exeute execute all documents necessary to accomplish said award. record and sale authorizing the issuance and sale thereof and providing for credit enhancement with respect there too. Is there a motion? >> I so move. >> Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. Is there a discussion? Um and again I know we discussed this at length uh but just for some of our board colleagues here and for community um just wanted to clarify. So again really great idea. I think it's a good way to look at the current market conditions where the rates are and and see where we can save money. Um so definitely that makes sense and again we're not making final decisions here right the today's approval is just for us to get starting get started on the process understand what the participation is you know submit those tenders if you will. So we will have an opportunity again based on the responses how the underwriting will be done. There will be a step two for board to review and approve if it makes sense. So is that fair? So again for board colleagues this is not the final sale and done deal. This is just a step one for us to do that assessment and again there will be some minimal cost but looking at the opportunity it makes sense for us to invest and at least assess this you know option if you will >> and maybe one thing to add to that too is as we realize that getting 100 100% participation is not likely it's not realistic. Um so there will be existing bonds remaining on the initial um series 2021A. Um those are still callable um in February of 2029. Um so at that time we could still yet look to see if um a refunding might make sense at that time which with the interest rates on these bonds are at that's not likely. Um so for these bonds this is this is actually the the better option. um you don't see a lot of low interest rates that interest rate bonds that actually have an opportunity to save taxpayer dollars, which is why we're um bringing this one to the table as it's a a little bit of a different model than what you might normally see, but still accomplishes the same goal over time. >> Yeah. Um it sounds like there's a certain threshold where it will make sense for the district to do it and underneath that threshold like we wouldn't do it is was it 20%. And and there would be like an understanding of the people who said they would be interested that if we didn't hit that threshold like it's not going to happen. Is am I understanding this correctly? >> Yeah. And you'll see in that the resolution in essence says that we aren't able to move forward unless we create savings, right? That's the basis of the parameters that are set out. Um and really there's the threshold is going to depend on which maturities too. It's not just 20% across the board participation because if we get 10% participation on the outyear outyear yielding maturities like 2036 those are going to offer more savings than if we do um 10% of the 2027 maturity for example. So it's really going to depend on a lot of factors and really the main point of what we want to do is be able to go present this out to the markets. we don't know who those bond holders are at this point in time. Understand who they are and then be able to come back and see based on who they are, what their interest is, what how much we potentially could save as part of this deal. So, um this param the parameters that are set forth in the resolution, we're not moving forward unless we create savings, right? And we're not bound to bound to move forward with the bonds. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So, I just want to thank you for bringing this um entire presentation to the finance committee of the board last week. We dug into it in quite lengthy depth. Um and it was our recommendation at that point that we move forward with this board colleagues. Um I just want to say so I'll echo what Paris said and um also that I'm appreciative that our partners and our finance department are always looking for ways to not leave a penny on the table for our taxpayers. And this is exactly what that this is. So this is really in hopes it would be a win for our our bond holders, but most importantly, it would be a win for our taxpayers, and that's really really important. So thank you for doing the work of this. I know it can be a little bit of a hassle, but we appreciate that very much. >> Okay. Um, a part of my first question I think was asked by Sheila, but I'm going to add on to that. So there is a threshold and we have expenses right obviously we pay ellers they don't work for us for free so we pay them and so there are some expenses that in are incurred when we do all these transactions so maybe there you don't have the exact number but do you have an idea of what percent of the of the bond holders would need to be agreeable to this offer for us to even break E1 what kind of expenses are we looking at >> um from the exposure from the tender offering piece um there is uh there is a fee of around $10,000 right to just do the exploration right based on that if we don't find any um participation at levels that are going to meet the needs to move forward that's really our exposure and then there's no other out-of- pocket cost to the So, >> and those and those funds would come out of your debt service funds right now. So, that wouldn't be a general fund exposure. >> So, at the most if we don't do anything 10,000 about $10,000 is the cost for us. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Uh second question I have is this resolution if passed tonight >> is this a continuous approval for let's say sometime in next year we will have to do this again right then. >> Yeah. It gets uh the expiration on is June 30th of 26. >> Okay. So, it does have an expire. >> Yeah, it's got an expiration. >> All right. Thank you. I don't have any more questions. Any Chase? Go ahead. >> Yeah. I just offer to I would imagine part of the reason you're here tonight presenting this is that conditions would seem such that it would be likely that it would be conducive for the district and for the bond holders uh to move forward with making this type of a recommendation to explore it. Would that >> be an accurate statement? >> That's an accurate statement, right? So, our anticip we're anticipating we're going to be able to generate savings. Otherwise, we wouldn't have brought this forward. Um, with that said, we don't have control over what the bond holders do because they're in control, right? But based on what we're seeing in market conditions from the standpoint of what what they're holding from a taxable yield versus what the markets present right now from a taxable yield, there's a pretty decent spread, right? And so, um, it'll come down to whether their cash to them is better served somewhere else, right? Whether they would want to take that discount we're in essence offering them to move cash somewhere else. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. So I'm going to read that recommendation again is to approve a resolution relating to general obligation school building refunding bonds series 2026A authorizing the issuance and authorizing the superintendent or ex executive director of finance and operations and any board officer to award the sale thereof and to take such action and execute all documents necessary to accomp to accomplish said award and sale authorizing the issuance and sale thereof and providing for credit enhancement with respect thereto. This is a roll call vote. Colleagues, Valentina, >> yes. >> Dan Schnestra, Dan Schnestra votes yes. Alicia Little, >> yes. >> Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Sheila Prior, >> yes. >> Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Melanie, >> yes. The motion carries. Thank you again, Trevor and Matthew. Appreciate you. Okay, finally for admin reports, executive director of HR, Dave Luds will seek a resolution on the approval of the 2026 pay equity implementation. Dave, >> thank you. Uh, board chair Sony, Superintendent Anderson, members of the board. This one's a quick one, so I'll present from here if that works. Um, so I put before you um as recommen required by Minnesota state statute uh pay equity implementation report uh that we submit to the department of employee relations once every 3 years. Um and so once approved the copy of the report is sent to each exclusive representative and also the public library. Uh the report the compliance report that's provided in front of you demonstrates that we have passed this statistical analysis test. Um in short what the pay equity report does is it classifies our positions as either a male or a female or a balanced class position depending on the number of employees um that are in each position. And then it completes three different statistical tests. Um one is is a uh payment test. So looking at the the uh rate of pay for each of those positions. The next is a salary range test which looks at the number of years that an individual in that position would uh take for them to get to the maximum pay level of that position. And then the last test is an exceptional service pay test um which is uh looking at the longevity component to that position. So, is there any pay in addition to the base or is there longevity language articulated with that position? Um, so we did pass the compliance report. Um, and we used a third party consultant, uh, Kathleen Murphy with with Murphy Management Consultants. Um, and she's kind of the the expert here with with many districts. She, um, does pay equity reports for for a number of districts. So, um, we have passed that report. I did do a study of some past reports today. Um, looking back to 1997, um, and these statistics, just cuz I was curious, uh, seem to to align generally with with what you see in other years. So, um, this is good news that we passed this uh, test. Um, we wouldn't have another one now until 2029. So, uh, there is an action. Uh the board does need to approve uh the pay equity implementation report which is the motion I'll allow you to read and at this time I'm open to any questions. >> Thank you Dave. So the recommended action is to for the school board to approve the 2026 pay equity implementation report. Is there a motion? >> I so move. >> Second. Moved and seconded. Thank you. Uh, is there a discussion? >> Yeah. >> So, I'll simply note thank you for bringing this to the HR committee of the board last week. We had an opportunity to review it in pretty in-depth um way and um makes sense to us and so we're moving forward as recommended with the approval of the report. >> All right. There is no other comments. Uh again, the recommended action is to approve the 2026 pay equity implementation report. This is a roll call vote. >> Colleagues Kedar, >> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Danestra, Dan Janestra votes yes. Alicia Little, >> yes. >> Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Sheila Prior, >> yes. >> Milan Sahonyi, >> yes. The motion carries. Thank you, Dan. There is no board action this evening. And the final item on the agenda is board reports. This section of the agenda provides an opportunity for board members to update school board members on schoolboard related work or to make announcements of interest to the public. Today we have three board reports. Dan, Alicia, and I will present a report on our attendance at the MSBA leadership conference. And I will go first. because I have to introduce what MSBA is. First of all, the M the Minnesota School Boards Association, also known as MSBA, is a private nonprofit organization founded in 1920 as a leading advocate for public education. It supports, promotes, and strengthens the work of Minnesota school boards in the areas of governance, management, finance, communications, policy, legal matters, elections, and advocacy. MSBA provides workshops, resources, services, and connections designed to help boards save time, reduce expenses, govern efficiently, and stay inspired. Every year MSBA hosts a leadership conference in January. This year it was held on January 15th and 16th at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Board members Janestra Little and I were able to attend. The conference featured nationally recognized speakers, workshops, and exhibit hall, a school excellence showcase, and an awards banquet dinner. MDE Commissioner Willie Jet welcomed attendees. As the MSBA board director from district 4 representing 15 school districts from the west metro, I preided over a discussion with my director district school board members. At that time I was also reelected for a second three-year term on the MSBA board. Io also hosted three workshops, strategic planning, diversity in public education leadership and creating safer schools. I have found the conferences to be extremely valuable and a time to learn from board members around the state. Dan will go next followed by Alicia. Dan. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I also had the privilege of attending the MSBA conference. It was absolutely fantastic from the um featured speakers as well as the awards banquet. Um I also attended some of the uh workshops, one of them being uh strategic planning points for your to point your school in the right direction. That was absolutely wonderful. Understanding the why for uh strategic planning, a history of it and really understanding that um governance versus management dynamic as school districts do strategic planning. An additional piece was a report from the government relations team. um Denise Dietri providing a wonderful um overview of what kinds of positions are going to be featured in the uh MSBA platform in the new legislative session. So, a lot of really fantastic stuff going on at the conference. It was a joy walking around um and meeting so many folks in the process. So, um I'm grateful to MSBA for hosting such a a wonderful um event and I look forward to attending in the future. Thanks. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Okay. I brought my new kid energy. I started off before you guys actually. I went to the phase 3 workshop on Wednesday or workshop on Wednesday which was super fun. Um met a great group especially from Austin, Minnesota. Their entire board and their superintendent was there and I got to run into them throughout the rest of the week which was really nice. Um I did all the things. I tried to get a good variety. So I'll just tell you what I did and if you're interested you can come to me for more information. So I'm not even going to touch Robert's rules. Amy was there. She's she knows all the things. I think she knew more things than the presenter, but it was really neat. There was a student par parliamentarian team that was um basically working through some of the scenarios and I've got my book at home. I'm trying to read it. I got a little note card from them with my rules, but it's still a little overwhelming to do all the rules up here. So, that was helpful. Um I did a how to avoid costly open meeting law and data practices mistakes. Um that was given by a labor and employment law attorney group. Um, and I was actually happy to report that I've been pretty well trained so far about what to do. So, that was helpful. Um, I attended, I don't know if anyone's heard, there's a lot of acronyms here, but the integration of MNMTSS, which is the Minnesota multi-tered system of supports, and BAR, which is building assets reducing risk, and this was presented by Austin Public Schools. They were talking about how they were marrying the two um, and implementing it primarily at the middle school level and all the successes they were having with that. So that was really inform informative. Um I attended board superintendent relations just to get a little bit of a overview on contracts, conduct and communication, strategic plans, open meeting law again, and performance evaluations which I know we'll be using in the future here and I will learn more about. And then I jumped in on the MSBA's new schoolboard handbook template and was happy to share what we've been working through. I know I'm brand new here, but I know that we're also working on our own um schoolboard handbook and there were a few people at the table and I was actually able to give them some insight as to how we have been adopting that. Um and then actually I ended with the best practices for handling the rise of generative AI in the school setting. And this one was unique because it was presented again by uh lawyers. And my biggest takeaway from that is I'm not maybe using AI as much as I should be or could be, but to keep in mind, we're focusing on our students a lot, but especially as staff and board members to be really thoughtful if you're ever using AI to respond to emails that we're getting from community members or from parents, making sure anytime you're inputting student data or information that that is in the AI bubble. And so you can get into some legal consequences if you ever are get issued a data request. and you're not able to clearly explain what you were intending by the response that you sent. So, that was my biggest takeaway. If you need to know more, we can talk all about it. I've got lots of handouts. So, it was really fun. I definitely will go again. I was not able to do the fun dueling piano situation because I had to go home and mom, but maybe next year I'll make it more of a I hope more of us can attend next year. >> Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Alicia. Board members, any comments, questions, and you feel free to talk to any of us. about uh our experiences afterwards. Yeah. Go ahead. >> Any questions? >> No, I couldn't attend this year but last two years I attended and Alicia wholeheartedly it is really the best forum especially if you are new to the board just socializing with other board members throughout the state even superintendent it was it's a great experience. Um I've observed the speakers are really great. um they come with data points which are relevant to us and obviously the student outcome. So overall I've seen that being organized and executed really well. So yeah hopefully next year I'll make it too. >> Okay. >> Yes. [laughter] Thank you. I was just going to add I think it was really nice to meet with various board members that are coming from such so many walks of life and you know small towns from all all aspects of Minnesota and to hear the different perspectives and issues that different districts are dealing with. There's some that you know we maybe can't relate to quite as much but there's others that it's like it's the same even if you're in a small town Minnesota. Same things here. So all in all the collaboration felt really nice. >> Okay. All right. Thank you so much. So, I guess this concludes the Visetta Public Schools regular board meeting. The next board work session will be on February 23rd at 4 p.m. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> I so move. >> Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. >> I. I. >> Oppos. Nay. The motion carries. The time is now 8:20. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, February 9th, 2026 is adjourned.