call the October meeting of the West hona School Board to order everybody would please rise and join us in the plge of Allegiance IED alance 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 thank you chair for approval of the agenda is there a second second all in favor I all opposed motion carries announcements um October uh 23rd facilities committee meeting at 7 a.m. right here November 8th uh teaching and learning uh special board meeting at 7:30 a.m. in the um ESC conference room a and November 18th policy committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. uh followed by a regular school board meeting here at 6 um that's it for announcements and at this time uh for the share of the success um I would like to invite uh um principal herel up to to share the success with us guys come on all right good evening I am excited to share this this evening um some of our semi our National Merit semifinalists um both of these students so Raul and Rohan um are two of our current seniors last last fall around this time actually this week last fall they took the P set so it's the preat test and in that test when students do incredibly well and I'll share some stats here in just a little bit um but when they do incredibly well on that they end up being Advanced further in the National Merit Scholarship program so these two students so Rohan Nella um and then rul Jordan and their parents are here in the back um they took that test and did incredibly well out of 1.3 million Juniors last year 21,000 schools across in 21,000 schools across the country um students took the Pat the semi-finalists these two standing up here represent this group are a pool that represent less than 1% of high school seniors across the country including the highest scoring seniors in each state so as the students as these two took that test last year um they they scored incredibly well and they can choose to share if they'd like to but that's up to them um but they did incredibly well and we learned in September of this fall that they did qualify as semifinalists and what that means now is they completed an application that we just submitted last week um right under the wire we got everything turned in and the two of them now move on in the process to be recognized potentially as as actual Nation Merit finalists um we will not know the results of that until this coming spring um we actually find out in April of 2025 is when we find out so they have a long wait between now and then um but I just want to recognize them and congratulate them and also thank the school board and everyone within our school district um literally from kindergarten preschool um for some of them all the way up to their current teachers for all the wonderful work that they do and also I do want to take a moment and recognize both Raul and ran on um they are incredibly involved and I ask them to share some of their involvement in our school with you so we'll do that here in a moment but you will learn that they are incredibly involved and give back just as much as they take from our school and make our school a better place because of their involvement um so with that I am going to ask them to each just kind of share a little bit about their education experience with us and highlight some of the things that they have accomplished um since they've been with us and they can also share a little bit about their future plans I told Raul this morning we were maybe a little short on sub this morning so I spending some time subbing this morning so I walked in and both of them happened to be in the class that I was subbing in which was fantastic um and Rohan came up and asked now do you want us to say something again at the at the board of meeting I said yes and went through it and then we kind of joked and said now let's go to Raul and we walked over and said keep it under seven minutes though Raul nothing more than seven minutes but I think he figured out pretty quickly that we were joking around with him um but I'll go ahead and have R if you want to speak a little bit to your experience at mon West Hut yeah sounds great so I'm ra Jordan obviously a senior here here with my parents been well and Amy um a little bit about me at the school I've been involved for soccer uh boy soccer for The Last 5 Years track and field for four years Science Olympiad last year and I've involved in link crew this year some of my favorite classes have kind of been AP Bio and AP US History I think those have saved me a lot and as much as I'd like to say that I am the only reason why I got scored as high as I did um I'm PR in my environment so I'd like to thank my parents and I'd like to thank the classes I've had all the teachers I had in the past years hi I'm Rohan I'm here with u my mom and my dad in the back um I got a perfect score on the P set so I got to say it's a one probable no but um yeah basically I'm involved in robotics and Ma athlete get our school which you know obviously have done really well in the past few years so um you know I just want to you know just show that like I started in these programs with and these teams were like eight members big and now you know the robotics team is 40 you know members math leagues like 27 currently and so uh I just want to thank the school district for um you know giving us these opportunities to do this I used to be worried that because I go to a small school and I know people who go to like big you know giant schools like wetta and minetonka i' always get scared and like feel overshadowed but it's nice that like with the connections that we have here and the support from my family and the support from our district that we can uh do really cool things like this and get Awards like this so yeah thank you congratulations sh congratulations and these guys are going to want to shake your hand absolutely good news in congratulations congratulations UL do they have to do any more testing or anything they just the test has been done right now how what's what's the determination between semi-finalist and finalist so I don't know if people heard my question I asked what this the what's what happens between semi-finalist and finalist what are the other criteria they look at I'm just real Curious on that so both had to put together a pretty extensive application process so they learned about it in I maybe the third week of January or excuse me September and then last week had to enter their final um application basically and with that what National Merit will look at is they will look at their academic success um how they scored on the test but now they also look at letters of recommendation they look at the the rigorous cours work that they took um they look at a number of different pieces so both of them had an opportunity to really sell themselves on I would call it a rather extensive you you both should feel very prepared for applying for colleges because you did a lot of those different pieces to be able to prepare so what will happen now is the National Merit program will go ahead and review all those applicants so again recognizing 1% um of this year's seniors and what they do is they look through that 1% within the nation and then they choose from that so it's a very selective group um but yes they did I there was maybe 11 or 12 different pieces of information that they have the opportunity to put together and present to the program so they've been on that for the last few weeks you're welcome good luck guys congratulations and you're welcome to stay for the board meeting if you want entertainment or you're welcome we're entertained right now that's we're moving up um at this point um are there any citizen or employee briefly wants to uh address the board thank you if not we'll move on to uh the student uh represented report and I guess that's okay all right um then at this point we'll move on to the U treasurer's report and Heidi will be delivering that report tonight we also a before that here is to record and superintend I'm ready for it congratulations so it's that time again when the school board evaluates the performance of superintendent Kevin bour over the past year and each form member as well as uh Kevin's administrative team evaluates him in terms of the goals and initiatives he identifies seeks to pursue um along with his ability to communicate the details of those initiatives and his ability to lead the district in accomplishing uh agreed upon goals so along with um the many ongoing efforts he's involved in supporting the efforts of the district such as mtss multi-tiered systems of support uh and supporting implementation of things like the new re act which is the raing literacy initiative um mandated by the state legislature a large focus of Kevin's time was um particularly dedicated uh to focusing on the district's facility improvements plan if you recall the improvement process began with extensive discussions and surveys of all the stakeholders with Community surveys and parent and Community input sessions and staff focus groups and from all input came a smart package of facilities and improvements that Kevin spent countless hours that fall explaining to people out in our community Uh Kevin very clearly understood and communicated what these improvements would mean for the safety and learning opportunities for our kids his tireless determination to get the community support for the bond project played a huge factor in the referendum passing security upgrades and outdoor projects have already begun and we're all excited to watch the rest of the work unfold early this year Kevin proposed that it made sense to address our district branding at a time when our buildings were going to be renovated and to this end a professional design firm was hired and students staff and the community were engaged to provide input on this this past July the Design Group under Kevin's leadership landed on a sharp new set of images to coincide with our building improvements a few things that staff members noted in their evaluations of Kevin's performance this past school year he leads with a continual growth mindset he leads by example and cares deeply for our district he's a great communicator he relates well on a personal level yet provides the necessary leadership to guide important decisions for a district so with that on on behalf of the board Kevin I would just like to thank you for another great year thank you Heidi thank you for all your work on that as well this uh was a nice process and U um something we really wanted to do so thank you yeah we want to let people know what's going on that's obviously when you get to work with a high functioning board and then a talented team uh you get good results and it's hard to know where one effort starts and begins but I I take that just on behalf of of our whole team because there's many hands involved in all that work and appreciative to be part of it so we love our time at West Tonka it's great working with so just so I'm clear we're keeping him yep now we'll move on to the treasur report okay thank you all right Mound American Legion special services $1,250 Brian geart son Hilltop Primary School $11,000 Anonymous Hilltop Primary School $230 M Farmers Market Shirley Hills Primary School $100 Everly Farms LLC Shirley Hills Primary School $828 Steve and MaryAnn Miller Shirley Hills Primary School $1,000 blackb giving fund Shirley Hills Primary School $200 GMS PTO Grand Middle School $3,621 68 Anonymous Mount wanka high school $40 Charities Aid Foundation Mount westa High School $873 westa Community Ed football Mound West hka High School football $3,332 66 Northwest Tonka Lions West Tonka Community Theater $5,000 Northwest Tona Lions music in the park $2,500 Butch Humbert Larry XL Memorial Scholarship $100 wiser Insurance Agency wiser Insurance scholarship $500 Mound Farmers Market GMS student Senate $100 be like Tommy project Captain's Club $ 5,880 Mound Farmers Market Captain's Club $100 Jubilee Foods hackets dance team $100 dock andyt hacket dance team $300 kig go Inc Mount wanka cross country team $186 the total uh year-to date for fiscal year 25 is $70,000 $ 7,839 think we'll catch up with any any additional information from uh Treasurer Ralph Harrison returns thank you for stopping in tonight on that um now we'll move on to the finance report Kathy we all waiting so Mark has a new computer so slideshow I'm not an apple person reting My Touch oh okay thank you Mark appreciate that um good evening board um tonight we will be presenting um our the findings of our 2324 audit but before I turn the floor over to Andy I wanted to give um my uh brief monthly uh board report first okay um enrollment um as you know we the first month plus of school is underway and um and is closed out this slide before you shows our um student enrollment counts as of October 1st and you can see there's four clusters of numbers the um far left hand um represents our elementary school and uh grades Early Childhood through grade four uh the next category is our Middle School grades five six and seven and our high school grades 8 through 12 and then lastly on the far right hand side is the um collection of all the district um enrollment together um the Red Bar shows where we ended last year was our final um student enrollment count the black bar is where we um set our adopted budget and lastly on the far right hand of the grade is our October 1 count uh you can see that um uh we are um serving three more students than we did last year which is great news um we graduated a large class so we had planned again we run conservative so we are planning on less and um most importantly uh at this point we are serving uh 22 students higher than what we had planned in our adopted budget so we're we're pleased with that um our student enrollment is a the major driver of our revenue and so um each month as I come back during the school year as always we'll continue to monitor student enrollment um and in a few months we'll take the collection of the these fall enrollments and then we will fold those into our revised budget any questions on enrollment okay all right um financial data revenue and expenditures through the end of September um we have received 3,65 th000 or 7.5% of our adopted budget of 4,760 um expenditures um uh indicate through the end of September we have spent um 6,944 or 17.8% of our rev excuse me adopted budget 40, 190,000 um our revenues um and expenditures are both trending on track um um according to the prior year uh just a couple other quick notes um last school board meeting uh you uh approved our adopted budget at maximum um that information was submitted to hennipen County as well as the Minnesota Department of Education at maximum um by the deadline um of September 30th and the uh uh final uh increase was 3.89% is what we submitted um on behalf of the board our truth and Taxation hearing will be held here prior to the um Regular December meeting on December 9th um as I mentioned we'll be having our audit report tonight um statute indicates that school districts um must publish their uh District revenue and expenditure report one week after the acceptance of the um of the audit and so that will be displayed in Saturday's Lakers so you can look forward to seeing that and um and lastly um without any further Ado it's time to introduce um Andy Grace of Bergen kdb um again he will be presenting a summary of the 2324 audit and on behalf of the W TKA School Board I'd like to publicly thank Andy for being here tonight um and also to his team for their professional nature their customers service um Bri and kdv um they share our same goals of um good being good stewards of fisal dollars and um very transparent reporting so thank you Andy okay well thank you for having me here tonight here to present the audit results for the year ended June 30th 2024 and to start wanted to talk about our uh different components of our audit part of our audit role as your auditor is to provide an opinion on the financial statements or assurance that the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects and happy to report that we are issuing a clean unmodified opinion on the financial statements which is the best that we can give as your auditor also included in the financial statements is our report on compliance with major federal programs we tested the special education cluster this year and one thing I wanted to highlight is that the district uh meets the definition of a lowrisk AIT te so we have less coverage needed in terms of our test work so instead of needing to test 40% of the district's Federal expenditures we test uh 20% and um again with that testing of the speci special education cluster uh we had no compliance related matters noted and no internal control findings so a clean report when it came comes to Federal programs hey Andy I meant to ask this morning sure it in past years we always had this finding of not having the redundancy of the internal people um I'm not saying that exactly the right way sure I noticed that wasn't here this time sure and and so that particular report um does not have um this particular report does not have that finding and if I take a look let me just reference the reports here that condition does still exist I think yeah so when it comes to our government auditing standards report I think I have a typo on the on the presentation materials if you look at the communications letter there is a there is um a note there related to the lack of segregation of accounting that's segregation no thank you for pointing that out and so that again that's kind of the that top bullet point there is one internal control finding when it comes to government auditing standards and again it's related to that um uh lack of lack of segregation of accounting duties and just wanted to highlight that here real quick when it comes to the financial report uh when we present that information in that government auditing standards report we do present that uh again at a material weakness level or a significant deficiency level and we do have that finding U at a significant deficiency level so it's not the most severe internal control finding but is one that uh still needs to be acknowledged for reporting purposes so do want to clarify that there for the record uh when it comes to our Minnesota legal compliance report which is that second bullet point there uh the office of the uh state auditor issues legal compliance guides that cover certain State Statute including the district's deposits of Investments conflicts of interests um contracts and bidding and other miscellaneous Provisions there and we had no findings to report related to compliance uh related to those State statutes and then the last component of our audit is our Communications letter uh we again go through and Report any matters identified as a result of our audit and again we had the one um significant deficiency related to a lack of segregation of accounting duties and then also includes all other required communication which talks about um again our responsibilities significant estimates involved in preparing the financial statements other matters that we consider when planning and Performing our audit procedures as well as financial analysis a legislative update and then the some emerging issues the uh Financial Communications that we include um take a look at a couple different things we uh take a look at some Trend data but wanted to start by taking a look at State sources of revenue and specific include the general education Aid formula allowance so General general education Aid is a function of this formula allowance along with enrollment at the district and here in 2024 that formula allowance was at $ 7,138 which was a 4% increase over 2023 when we take a look at the enrollment numbers uh we first start to take a look at the resident uh ADM were the students that could be served within the district boundaries and that number was fairly flat comparing 20 23 to 2024 declining just four to 2,692 and to calculate total ADM served we need to take into account the Open Enrollment process so students uh going elsewhere or students coming in and there is a net loss overall and ultimately uh led to Total ADM served of 2,44 a decline from 2,412 in 223 so that compares to the the enrollment number that she just presented of 24 oh it is about 2404 right if you go back one slide sure okay so that's actual enrollment 2404 the bottom right and then overall um students available for us to serve in the district is 2692 that would be if only those that lived in the district boundaries attended those that would be your kind of maximum amount that you could serve got it all right okay all right going on to general fund sources of revenue I just wanted to highlight here that there was an increase overall uh in general fund revenues of 2.6 million or about 7% as we saw in that general education a formula chart there 4% represents that increase in Formula allowance there's also an additional special education Aid that was provided in that state sources a revenue number here for 2024 there's also an increase in the property tax levy that increased to 10.9 million here in 2024 and then other Revenue sources is also increased which include donations Federal sources of revenue as well as investment earnings and with the increased Market rates we did see increases in that category and that again also includes the federal sources of revenue which you see increased significantly in 2021 with the covid-19 uh pandemic related funds that were available and those continued to be available through 2024 so we we'll probably start to see some of some of those resources decline in future periods uh to take a look at how those different categories make up overall general fund revenues 64% our state revenues 28% come from property tax levies and the remaining 8% are is in that other category the next chart that we have is the budget to actual results uh the board adopted a budget that called for $ 37.7 million in Revenue uh$ 37.7 million in expenditures and anticipated uh an increase in fund balance of about $55,000 dur the year that budget was amended with some better information becoming available and the final budget was at just over $39 million in Revenue 39.5 million in expenditures and anticipated a potential decline in fund balance of $443,000 I did want to recognize the district and uh you know how accurately um those projections came in on the revenue side uh looking at the final budget there uh actual revenues came in within 1% of budgeted amounts uh excuse me within 1% of the original budgeted amount and just .1% on that final budgeted amount so just a $55,000 variance there and it was uh between local property taxes and state revenue sources um uh and it had to do with the coding of the county apportionment and and um having a bit less um Aid than anticipated on the state revenue side but overall uh minimal difference there compared to budgeted amounts on the expenditure side expenditures came in at 39 million1 126,000 $42,000 less than anticipated uh a 1% variance uh again with the with that final budget and uh most of that variance came in the sites and buildings category that was $323,000 uh more than anticipated with more contracted services and other maintenance uh coming in higher than anticipated and all other categories uh related to wages benefits and and just the overall um um conservative nature of the budget in terms of um full full positions being budgeted and then those coming in a bit less than than anticipated after taking into account other financing sources and uses ultimately did have a surplus or an increase in fund balance overall of about $94,000 when we take a look at the overall over operations here over the Last 5 Years again uh with the Surplus here in 2024 fund balance increased to $ 6,271 th000 and if we look at the U second part of that chart down below uh there is uh several different categories uh one being nonspendable uh in the middle we see restricted amounts we have amounts that are committed for separation and retirement benefits and then we have some assignments for specific purposes and that leaves what is left over uh and that is the unassigned fund balance and there is a policy the board has adopted related to unassigned fund balance to maintain between 8% and 18% of Prior year expenditures and the district is in compliance with that policy at the end of the year uh we did see that those restricted categories declined here in 2024 with the purchase of some land uh the operating capital resources were utilized so that went from 429,000 to zero here in 2024 and that with the offset to that um there was an increase in some of the assigned categories it did have an increase in amounts assigned for special education class size reduction as well as an amounts signed for furniture fixtures and equipment and then the remaining increase occurred in that unassigned fun balance category which went from 3,162 to 3,374 th000 in the end of the year another way to look at Financial Health is just to take a look at Cash investment balances at the district and this is specific to the general fund uh with the Positive operations we also sign an increase in cash and investment balances which went from 8,173 th000 to 8 m291 th000 that is significantly more than what what is in that unassigned fund balance and again we do have some amount set aside for specific purposes and there are uh certain components of um cash and investment balances that relate to it uh property taxes levied for sub subsequent years but wanted to highlight uh those two numbers here uh over that 5year period and then another metric that we take a look at to measure Financial Health is unrestricted fund balances a percentage of expenditures and um this would combine all committed assigned and unassigned amounts and gives you a metric to compare your uh in terms of Financial Health the prior years but also to other school districts here in the state of Minnesota and uh again ending the year at the highest in the F in the five years presented at 18.7% and a reminder when looking at that comparatively to other school districts uh back in 2020 2021 that is when the covid-19 funding uh began and so some some districts did not utilize that immediately or did have resources set aside as a result of some of that some of that additional funding so just wanted to have that in terms of perspective when evaluating those results uh did want to highlight uh two other special Revenue funds in the financial statements one being uh first one here being the Food Service fund um this fund has experienced uh some significant changes over the five years presented especially with the covid-19 pandemic and some additional Federal funding that was available during the uh 2021 through 2023 fiscal year and then with the state's um efforts in providing free meals to all students uh we did see a an increase in Revenue in 2024 increasing meals served and ultimately revenues came in uh at $2,176 th000 and that was about perfect in terms of what expenditures came through for the year the surplus of $1,138 so something to to to maintain some awareness of going forward U but um the fund balance that was established over that period again with some of the additional Federal funding did increase fund balance to the highest level in the in the Years presented at uh one about 1 $2 million and the district does have some Capital needs in mind as it relates to that what are the other funding s sources so uh specific here it could be any sale of assets and I'm guessing that's what it is just based on the dollar amount there so if any assets are sold uh those are technically other financing sources the next fund we have is the community service fund uh this fund did experience an increase in 2024 and is at the highest point in the 5 years presented in terms of reeven and expenditures with increased programming and SCH age uh Care Program uh we did see an overall Surplus here of about $110,000 increasing fund balance to $288,000 at the end of the year again uh do have certain components there that are restricted majority being for uh Community Education the last chart that we have is our uh highlight of the government-wide statement of net position and this is all funds combined it includes all assets uh long-term assets and long-term liabilities associated with uh the district's financial position and uh here in 2024 we did see an overall increase in net position it went from about 23.7 million uh up to $29.4 million and uh part of that is the uh Improvement on the unrestricted net position uh Big Driver in terms of why that's negative the district does have to carry a net pension liability on its books uh something that the district won't have to write a check for uh but does have to acknowledge uh the portion of unfunded um pension liability at the state level and two other things to highlight you will see a significant increase in overall assets going from 98.5 million up to $153 million in 2024 uh there are cash and investment resources related to the 2024 uh Bond issuance so just based on the timing of those projects you do have some cash on hand as as the that uh gets underway and then you also see the offset on the long-term liability side which increased for 58 .5 million to about 98 uh 99.9 million at the end of the year that's a highle look at our audit results uh next would just like to open up for any questions I have a question getting back to the U segregation marked here I think it's at the very very first thing in the communications um I I'm aware of the the reasoning and things like that but is this systemic from an economy of scale of districts generally this size that it's a matter of maybe and if I understand it correctly it's segregations in other words more people should be interspersed with oversight on the budget instead of just what would appear to be two people yeah I wouldn't say necessarily the budget but just the significant accounting functions in terms of pay process accounts payable um reing and then the overall Financial closing and Reporting process um there are individuals that need to have different levels of access to the accounting system and could perform multiple accounting functions and and that's why we have it at the significant deficiency level because we do believe there's compensating or mitigating controls and oversight uh to limit that to a material weakness which is the most severe level so I think like as as you said it is a function of the size of the office staff and needing to you know determine from a cost benefit standpoint you know would additional individuals to uh limit further access be beneficial overall do you see this as a systemic thing for generally speaking of say relatively speaking for school districts of this size and Staffing level and everything else there should be a common there should be a commonality to that then I I would say that there are um a good number of school districts in a very similar position just based on that size and ALS and also districts much larger that continue to to battle with that just because it is um it is a high bar in terms of internal control that we evaluate so just want to make sure I heard you right so you said that there like the systems um were able to mitigate some of those risks that correct so even though an individual might be able to um record a transaction within the you know general ledger but also prepare reports for the board for example um you know or make direct adjustments to the general ledger through the journal entry process um we do look at the controls that are in place to mitigate that you know access to perform multiple functions and ensuring that that journal entry for example has additional sets of eyes and reviews on it so we take a look at those U processes there to make sure that those are there and imple implemented so the the um concern it isn't mitigated isn't being isn't able to be mitigated by the systems so correct so in order to be free from that particular finding you would have to have additional individuals and limit the access that others have to perform multiple functions and the amount and the potential for gaining a certain amount of safety issue on that that at this time is not worth balancing the cost of attaining that that's ultimately kind of a border management decision kind of on that Comfort we've managed this sign in for a number of years it's funny because of funny probably not the right word but Kathy's never leveraged this she'd be one that would say I'll take another staff person that great it's but she's never said Kevin you should really but I think our district as Andy mentioned a number of districts this is U what I found also is pretty common and I think we try with our staff that there's uh checks and balances with the staff that we have to really avoid um issues that could arise and th you do your due diligence and it it sounds like this has happened obviously the way you're talking in the past it's something we've dealt with and you have a certain amount of obviously to doces is to report it but you feel that professionally that we're mitigating anything that would potentially be a problem correct because there are um several instances I could point to where it is at that material weakness level that where we don't believe those steps have been taken yeah typically it's been a finding I've been on the board 11 years I it's been the same finding every year yeah that's why I notic that it wasn't on the slide that was just a test make sure we were listening okay I I have one question about a note in sure um just read it said says recent experience demonstrates that the legislated re uh Revenue increases have not been sufficient to meet instructional program needs and increased cost due to inflation is that is that just a standard thing that you typically put in there because we need to supplement our Revenue with out with other funding yeah I think it just goes just from an inflationary standpoint to you know trying to correlate with that with the percentage increases that are coming from the legislature and obviously you know over time there it's just not there to fully absorb some of the cost increases that you're seeing yeah okay and we got that one bump what was that 24 then we got the 4% bump but we knew that wasn't going to right be the standard that it was going to be a one-ear thing and and we' probably see more than 2% 2 and half% funds that wece Andy thank you yeah thank you so much for having me any other questions feel free to reach out thank you we'll move on to teaching and learning Mark I guess this means that we're keeping Cathy too okay C we're keeping you too okay okay was was going to remark Kathy when he said less than 1% I was going to say so there is room for thank you well was0 one on the one thing was it it's getting a little bit harder but still well I'm going to try and deliver some good news tonight too let's see let's see if we keep you that's right pressure pressure let me swing the bath here know um just have a just a couple updates uh for you actually some really exciting news so there's a concept a concept of what we might see here in in a couple years and I wanted to give you an update from from my neck of the woods what I work on you know is uh the program the the course development and we've been working very hard on figuring out Machining the certified nursing assistance program EMR EMT what do these rooms look like what are the floor ples what's the equipment we're quickly moving into the phase where let's talk about the courses the course content we need to get certified by the state we need our teachers to have their Career Tech licenses um all these different things I just want to give you an update where we are with all of that and it is an exciting time I I will say that you know there's many things when we go into our different careers and Fields I I didn't know that I was going to become a machining expert but I think I can confid stand on two feet and really talk good talk about Machining uh with you but in this area we have um just a great partner with de Woody Technical College uh they're going to be a player with us as we develop this and I I really appreciate that so we have identified our equipment we have a network of vendors manufacturers organizations like Dunwoody that are going to be partners with with us and then this process of getting a Career Tech certification um has started with the Department event and we want that because if at a minimum you can tap into our career check lby dollars that help support and pay for these these type of programs which is very important so Machining is on its way and then we get into certified nursing assistants uh emergency medical responder iCal emergency responder or emergency medical technician programs those are even more complicated because you have to have a certified program that's not only blessed by the department of B but it's blessed by the Department of Health so uh Jolene and I are going to be meeting with someone at the department of bed next Wednesday and we're going be starting that process and really get into the details of what's what's the timeline what are the tasks involved and again we're going to be in great shape and one of the most important things that we have to have in place is a medical director and our parent Community member Uh Kevin SEL who's emergency medicine physician with r view has volunteered way back year and a half ago to say hey I'm going to be your guy so we got we have that in place and then with the uh CNA program we have to find a nurse that has Assisted Living experience long-term care experience and they would be delivering the instruction in that program along with a teacher of record that we'll have here in the district so that is happening as we speak and the other thing that I really appreciate this whole last year my work has been just getting word out about we had these programs coming and right here in our Community Presbyterian Homes Arizon Bay rge View they have been signed us up how can we be a partner with you what can we do to support you do you need equipment do you need a certified nurse what what is it so they're going to be with us along this way also and then there's a a company called matter matter is a nonprofit uh organization in St Louis Park and I went over there last week and and what they do they're like a clearing house for hospitals clinics medical centers Across the Nation uh medical equipment um devices just consumable supplies instead of throwing them away they go through here I got to see this huge Warehouse of materials and they are going to be a supporter of us also where we do not have to pay retail for um materials and Equipment it' be very deeply discounted and what they do with those dollars they take those dollars and supporting the building of Hospital in clinics in Thal countries so when we purchase things at deeply discounted prices it also goes to help others less fortunate than us so this is where we are in this this whole process it's a great place to be if we know our equipment we know what the layouts are going to be now Jolene and I are getting going with the course development who's going to be teaching these courses um all these details because a year from January we have to put these courses into our registration manual it's sooner than you think okay so it's some really good things so any any questions I just do you anticipate um that all being new staff or do you anticipate some of the staff being trained in the fields we would hope it be we'll start with existing staff existing staff yeah and we're in development done on okay just um just want to hit just a couple very brief quick and review cycle updates just a few things for you to be aware we have new 2020 Minnesota Ela our English language arts standard and Benchmark so this is the the normal work that continues on that we have to embed all of these new English Language Art benchmarks into our K12 Curriculum by the end of the school year and we were in were in fine Pace with that uh what I wanted to point out for you though the changes from the current standards to the new standards there's very intentional work around grammar that it used to be grammar was taught isolated and now they're bringing them in as you're in the writing development process to bring the grammar instruction in and that makes a whole lot sense there's still room for direct instruction with grammar Concepts that we're bring you into the writing process but the biggest change that you'll see would be um intentional benchmarks bringing in um literature from our Minnesota native tribes Dakota nanabi uh Indian authors that U that have they have literature they have different resources that now in our benchmarks specifically in English also in science we have to find resources that bring in that voice and and that's coming along just fine but you'll see a little bit of different flavor of the different literature books that kids are reading because of of those benchmarks and then the last thing I would just mention that's a change is that um in the current standards each grade level focuses on different types of writing now going forward every grade level is going to hit the four big areas of argument persuasion informatory and and creative writing it just happens every year so there's some work we're going through just in or curriculum and programming that means something different for a first grader than it will be like an eighth grader or a senior but that is intentional because there's a recognization that that kids need to be proficient in all those areas be successful outside of when they graduated from school and then uh in Spring 2026 we have the first um MCA 4 MCA 4 reading test there'll be some changes coming through um with that test and and another night to talk about that and then the other the other thing I wanted to mention to you there hasn't been a lot of Buzz about this but it has been a big deal in the Science World that this is the first year across Minnesota that we're offering all districts are offering a high school or science course and and and that's a big deal um that that's one of the four core areas of science that has been neglected a little bit so not a huge change but the right hand inside the new sequence shows you what currently now is a sequence of science learning and now our ninth graders are taking earth science all night graders take Earth Science Why the change in the sequence I guess because we didn't have a spot for earth science at the high school level earth science would stop at the middle school in eth grade okay and now in this new sequence it actually has a home along with chemistry and physic physics and biology earth science is another one of the four pillars what's the difference so like the old sequence had two years of physical science correct the new one has two years of earth science what's the what you see is that difference so basically what they did you notice in the old sequence you had physical science in Middle School in sixth grade yeah and then you had physical science in high school in the ninth grade and now you have with Earth sign you just have it you just have physical science in e8th grade so what happens to the eighth graders that took earth science last or ninth graders that took SC earth science last year and then again this year they're not we went through a whole transition went through a whole transition so they have to finish the cycle yes oh this is only for new new new students yes yes yes every one thing that came out with h physical sciences some of the concepts for a sixth grader and the depth that you can get into that was probably more age appropriate as they continued on for 8th grade so this was across some of that discussion so starting some of that uh later was beneficial isn't earth science sort of traditionally in ninth grade at least when I back back in our day it was it back in our day it was and that that that shifted and changed okay where it was standard in E once the dinosaur di out we didn't need as much now we're back here and then the other big development is um it'll be the first this spring will be the new MCA 4 science test and the way I would describe the mca4 science test these these assessments just go deeper and expect more rigor um out of the students so this is going to be more and more um given a science problem and I'll apply your skills to solve it where there could be more than like one way to solve it now how they're going to figure that out on a standardized test they say they figured it out um unfortunately stays pretty tight on showing us samples of that at this time but we'll have lots of talk about um after the administration here in April and May but that is coming up the spring so so a lot of great things going on and uh really excited about the work that happening at high school and our programming and um exting time coming is extra special longer is another way say uh so uh first of all we've really had a incredible start to the school year in so many different facets and I would just start by saying it's uh it's the engagement of many that make that possible um it also you talk about it seems kind of minor but the warm weather has just made things like homecoming we just had great weather for our homecoming and our homecoming parade and Community gathered and it's just some of those things that make um the mound area the West Tonka area just a really special special area you get to hear about um the alumni breakfast and you have our alumni coming in and they're so proud to come back and they tell stories of what's familiar to them and just um just thankful that one there's just a lot of Engagement from our community from our staff and then you have these moments like homecoming that bring it together and you were part of something really really special and I feel very thankful to be a superintendent here I feel thankful working with you as a school board going to highlight some of the efforts that have been going on and some of the results and so this fall we've we've gotten a lot of updates about different rankings and scores and uh one thing I love about the staff the team that I get to work with is as we're proud of what we're accomplishing we also know that there's room for improvement and how do we continue to move forward and so this represents our students and we have we have a lot of really talented students and we have a lot of support for parents not just with their own kids but with our community our staff is focused they're intentional about their instruction we have some good systems in place and you got uh someone that's about as humble as they can come Mark femite who just has a really good interest and direction of how we go about things and so he can take things like the read act and that's all directed at Mark of how we can take some state laws and really engage with our staff to make good benefit out of it and so you look at some of these and there it's really some nice acknowledgement of our students but really collectively how people have come together to make these improvements it's exciting seeing some of the construction that's going on and some of you have seen this time lapse but this is a time lapse of of the tennis courts and I'm just going to play for this group it's about 16 seconds it goes fast but you can see that in June we had some rain and then you can see these formulating these courts and it's uh it's really been a a great experience seeing these come up just this morning I had uh I had some people that are with the pickle ball community and they were out there looking at the shed of how they can roll their Nets and one of those sheds and roll it out and they were so complimentary so complimentary of just the thought that went into this and there's a theme of what I'm going to be saying is how people come together and when we did this Design Group we had people that represented the tennis community and and Brian was part of that and we had people that represented the pickle ball Community we had our coaches we had talked to students we had admin and we came up with this design that we're just so excited about and it really will be some phenomenal courts that are going to serve us so long I think one thing where you have a number of you that have been on this board long enough we know some of the struggles of the past tennis courts and so going post tension here knowing that you know we're setting this next Generation hopefully with less headache by taking something that's going to crack less that's going to hold there how you can navigate and spectate with thought about the fans we thought about the community of how they could use this during the day and not on our campus there's just a lot of intentional thought but the DNA and the fingerprints are with many there's a lot of people that gave input and really pleased about where that's coming so where we sit they should be doing asphalt now on the site uh Wednesday Thursday and that's intentional because our buses are not running Wednesday Thursday and if we're going to do that road we got to try to find a day so uh luckily the weather is starting it's still cooperating with us I you know you're two weeks out and you say it hasn't rained all of September but I bet it's going to rain like crazy over mea and just happy that we're able to put down that asphalt you're going to see that the the uh netting and um the fences are going up starting next week so it's going to start taking more of a shape with the asphalt and that the court surface is going to go on next spring and people would ask when and I'd say if you can tell me WEA first tell me what to call for snow days ahead of time and then tell me when this is going to begin but once it's warm enough that we can put that seal coat down and then that final layer then they're going to be used so uh that's really what we're waiting for this project has moved along really well successful project the other one that we've com are completing is the security at Hilltop Shirley Hills and also our early learning Center and so that's door monitoring that's lock down capability it's hardening of glass it's some of the strobes for alert systems and so we're finishing that up this month and we hope to have that activated here parts of it obviously are already so we have the glass installed we have some of the door monitoring but this working as a system we hope that that's going to be finalized here shortly we're working through some of the training and programming with it but really excited that we have a respon system and you talk about door monitoring for example and a door monitoring if that door is open that is a door that shouldn't be opened and you don't swipe out we're going to get a notification and so part of this is our training with students and staff so we use the systems correctly but that's also good for us to know that there's not propped open doors and doors are locked in order to have a secure facility and so excited about that with the lockdown system people are going to see this integrated not just if there's a lockdown but what we get people access to after school so when you're dropping off kids or early in the morning for Adventure Club or if it's a weekend activity we're really working through how do we stay um in a good place with our programs so they're not running into a locked door and can't get to what they want to do but also that we don't give people more access of a facility than they need to and so excited about what we're doing here and there we go so with October we're finishing up on these projects that I talked about and the tennis courts will be ready spring of 25 we're also finishing the design of the high school today that went out the plans went out for potential biders and so we're going to start giving tours for people that are interested in bidding this over the next couple weeks and collecting those uh one thing that's attractive about that project is it's it's about 18 months in length so it's not just a Summer Slam there's uh there's a length of the work we're also finishing up a design of the middle school and so that is the school safety security moving the office to the entrance and improving the media center area we're making an improvement to some special Edge space and then it's a lot of uh maintenance safety security November December we're going to get these bids in and we're going to start the design process on the Shirley Hills and Hilltop deferred maintenance projects and then the High School stadium and then in Spring of 25 we will be finished with the tennis pickle ball area and we are going to begin construction on the high school uh expecting that around April weather permitting and so we're going to be going for from April all the way till second week of August 26 is what we would expect and so we're U we're buckling in we we got a lot of work ahead of us we feel very thankful for the work I would say with the high school design there's a lot to it Mark talked about a sliver there with a curriculum but we talk about how we're going to run safety security we're talking about our our uh student support services and that new space that they have some of our teachers uh have new instructional walls and how can we take full advantage of this space And so there's a lot of different elements that go beyond the construction that we're starting to prepare for and again a theme that you're going to hear we've had really really great staff involvement talking about their space and how we can really create the best space that we can for our students and so construction is an exciting time we talked a little bit about branding and continue to and you look at this timeline from last January to August there's different stages and I'm not going to read these to you but there's a lot of intentional steps along the way that this process took and we knew that if we passed a bond this is the time that we really got to check into is our brand what it should be and what came out of this is we saw that our district brand which you see on the far right there that had more of a change our White House it was more of a refresh with with that design and so really listening to our community we did a community survey over 500 respondents we sent a postcard out we really had good Community engagement it wasn't just parents it and staff it was the community really engaged with this and so we really got a lot of good feedback and we're excited about the different brand elements and we've been rolling this out and so first we wanted to focus on some high visible areas uh again trying to take some of those we obviously could have some quick fixes which was some of our digital and print areas and then also just connecting with people doing apparel but one thing we also mentioned is you got to a school district is going to take some time in fully implementing the brand we're not going to throw perfectly good uniforms if it is that they're old brand people are going to continue to wear their older white hawk apparel until that's starts cycling through um you're going to notice on facilities with the high school we're not changing over much for Logos over there because we're going through the constructions process same for Grand View so we're really trying to pick our spots move along so we do this cost effectively but also thoughtfully and hit some of those high priority areas so we this year are going to continue to address more and more spaces that can last but we're excited about this roll out so next next steps as I mentioned we have the construction work that'll take some of those areas we're working with our principles and directors of what are some of the next areas that they want to improve we're going to have a new website that's coming through later this fall so you're going to see some updates there um but there's there's a lot to it I'm going to tell you you start going to the second third layer of a website and all of a sudden you see oh there's Kevin in a older white hawk apparel and need a new picture there and so there's there's steps that you know we know that we have to continue to take one thing that came through this process when we're doing our survey is the West honka name and when we looked at it it became clear that West Tonka and mount westonka instead of complimenting each other they compete against each other in our brand and how people refer about us and so we asked when you refer to the district which name do you typically use and you can see some parallel between West Tonka and West Tonka when you talk about the high school name you see a pretty close result really between those two and so when we dig into that a little bit we know that there's a lot of ways that our district right now is being referred to we count over 10 in both local state media but just people how they reference about our district and we know that if you're going to have a strong brand there has to be consistency in this and so we wanted to bring this up and we announced back in July and we've done some communication since then that we're bringing this up to the board and we called out in July that we're going to bring this to your November school board meeting because we we can either say that we are are going to deal with this uh discrepancy and just let that ride or we're going to try to address it but the time to deal with it is when we're doing this construction because of the cost that it takes when you're addressing the high school and the middle school that name and that logo is a lot of different places so if we're going to do something this is the time to bring up that conversation and really what we're looking at is having an agenda item at the November 18th meeting of looking at Gran View Middle School and mount West honka high school should that be West honka middle school and West honka high school now if the board were to vote on this this change would happen for the 2526 school year so the names would be as you read for the rest of this school year we'd be talking about the next school year when we look at the reasoning of the change what we really look at is just the strengthening of our brand and the consistency of what we call our district and you can look at some examples of the neighboring districts you look at Orno it's Orno Middle School Orno intermediate Oro High School the Oro School District wetta same thing motanka the same thing Delano the same thing Waconia the same thing and so you have this consistency when you go to the Middle School West honka middle school you go to the high school West honka High School you're in the west honka school district and we feel like that repetition is what gets you that brand identity we also know that it represents our community now we're incredibly proud of we we have over a hundred years in our district and we're incredibly proud of people that are alumni of Mount High School people that are alumni of M West honka High School all their stories and traditions and we want to represent that in our new building in multiple different ways we want to continue to celebrate that but we also know where our community continues to grow and where it is and when you look at both nonprofits and also businesses in the area West honka is clearly a reference point of how people refer to the area and so with this we feel like it's an important topic for the board to consider and we just want to make sure that people understand the rationale is that we're proud of our history we're proud of all the different people that have and continue to walk through our halls but when you go back to to a slide like this where we're re referred to interchangeably different things which leads to 10 different names by different people we know that your front of your building can't have that many names it should really be one and so we think that's uh important to bring forward to you as a board to talk about and make an action uh or not at that November 18th meeting and so just want to announce that that will be on on the agenda uh last comments that I would like to make and then I'd open up to any questions uh again uh thank you to Kathy and her Finance team uh that was um there's there's a lot that goes to and I joke a little bit about the room for improvement point one but you talk about the difference of students and I mean they they really do look each year at how to improve and so in some ways I'm not joking at all because they've refined and refined and refined their processes of how they can really dial in I'm thankful for our finance committee of how you work and the different staff that work but there's a lot of hands that are involved in that and so that's a really really good result and something to celebrate congratulations Kathy and team questions that you have on either construction some of the academic school name branding other can we keep Mark too no Mark Mark it's to stay Mark Mark isn't allowed to he's he's referencing some things back older days we're just going to keep that I ask question about you and Kathy I figur I should ask about Mark too I'd like to keep him too yeah we have to Rebrand Mark though he's he's a machining guy now so we're bringing up the school name at the next meeting what happens between now and next meeting or what what will we have more what more information might we have at the next meeting when we when we vote on this or well that would be a good question if you want something in addition what I can share with you is uh the information and the logic of why we think that should be brought to you um I feel I feel as far as demonstration and evidence the reasons why we're bringing has been presented but just to be clear we're voting on it next evening yes okay and so I'll take some time to present to you again so there's a presentation of what it is you're going to see very uh similar things did you have you done anything for Community feedback on that at all or like at the alumni I unfortunately I wasn't able to make the alumni breakfast but yeah so we've if I'm at a PTA meeting a school staff we've been bringing it up when I go I'll be at the community of Commerce meeting coming up and so when I'm at those meetings we have a newsletter that's going going out to our whole Community that's in print and so we've been trying to address this in email we talked a little bit at our last board meeting trying to get it out but uh our newsletter will go out to everybody uh coming up um again I see I see this as something of how do we uh strengthen who we are not redefining who we are we we have a very proud history that will continue to hang on to and showcase yeah I I you know I we've talked I think for some people it will be an emotional issue I mean I'm I'm very comfortable with the change as an Alum knife here but I know there will be some I think Alum knife I've talked to a bunch of you know what and they seem okay with it I haven't gotten a lot of uh um you're not going to make 100% people happy but I mean I I I think we're laying this out we making people aware of why yeah it's a good good thing so yeah and if if the board would like uh certain things that's what that was a reason to be able to present to you today that if uh I'm proposing to put this on the agenda uh and talking to Gary that will that's what our plan is if you want different information please ask me I'm happy to prepare as we prepare agendas for you no I was just I wasn't implying that we need anything more I was just asking what but happy too if something comes up well and thank you for all the hard work on all and everybody here everybody here has been involved with a lot of stuff and U doing a great job it wasn't just done on a whim there's been a lot of work chair moves for approval of the consent agenda is there a second second all in favor I all opposed guys ready to move on to the alphabet here move on to the discussion items chair moves for approval of action item 8A approval of one additional special education par of professional position at Shirley Hills primary school is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion carries chair moves for approval of action item 8B approval of a pseo by contract agreement with the crown college is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion Carri chair moves approval of action item 8 C approval of $3 increase in ticket pricing for M tanka High School theater performances is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion carries chair moves for approval of action item 8D approval of additional .5 hours to GMS kitchen assistant one position and O kitchen assistant position is there a second second all in favor I oppos carries chair moves for approval of action item 8e approval of changing the early Learning Center ESC custodial position to day shift hours is there a second second all in favor I I oppos chair moves for approval of action item 8 F approval of the 2426 contract between the Food Service employee group and the school board of ISD 277 is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion Carri chair moves for approval of action item 8G approval of the 20 2426 contract between the custodial employee group and the school board of ISD 277 is there a second second all in favor I oppose motion carries chair moves for approval of action item 8 H approval of the 2426 contract between um school special service employees group and the school board of ISD 277 is there a second I'll second that one second all right all all in favor oppos chair moves for approval of action item 8i approval of resolution of governing board supporting form a application to Minnesota State High School league Foundation is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion carries chair moves for approval of action item 8j approval to update AR 4231 salary guide for non-union hourly Personnel is there a second second all in favor I oppos chair moves for approval of action item 8K approval of the first reading of policy 5220 Title Nine sex non-discrimination and grievance procedures is there a second second all in favor I all oppos motion carries is there any further um business anybody has at this time all right um we'll see everybody in November and uh at this time um I would chair moves for adjournment is there a second second all in favor oppos meeting is ajour have a good one everybody