Good evening everybody. I'd like to call the October regular board meeting uh to order. If everybody would please uh stand and join us in 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. Thank you. >> Chair moves for approval of the agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Announcements. Um October 27th um uh is a public accuracy test 4:30 in the ESC community room. November 4th is a general election for school board. Uh November 7th is the quarterly teaching and learning meeting 7:30 um in the ESC conference room A and November 10th um policy meeting at 5:30 in conference room A and the board meeting to follow at 6:00. Are there any members of the public that wish to address the board? Okay, that being said, we'll move on to the student report. Welcome you guys. >> Thank you. >> Well, hello. I'm Edie Hollenstein. >> I'm Denn >> and we hope you're all doing very well. Um, obviously a big event for us recently was homecoming at the high school. So, that was the week of September 29th to October 4th. Um, the senior girls did crush the juniors in the Powderpuff game on the Sunday to start off the week. The score being 158 to nothing. That's the best the biggest discrepancy we've had from senior right here. So, um, and then the class of 2026 celebrated and started off their senior year on the Monday of that week with their senior sunrise. And we also attended the middle school pet fest on Monday, which was MCED by George and myself, and attended by the 2025 homecoming court, fall sports captains, and our very own cheer team. >> And then finally, on Friday, we ended the week with festivities. Obviously, uh, it started off with the, uh, alumni breakfast, which we had 225 alumni go into, which is amazing. was actually spectacular to see all the people come back. And then the high school pep fest uh featured the coronation of homecoming king and queen Seresa Bray and Shawn Dolder. They beat me. It's okay. Don't worry. A performance from the Hawkeye dance team came and then more things like Mr. Heber and Miss Barnes were guarded in as the mixing spoons. Uh the parade was also a big success. We had 20 groups coming in. Uh we went down the normal route this year which we might switch up next year. Uh the homecoming carnival saw the best attendance in a very long time and just other things going on. And then finally, we ended the week with the dance on Saturday night. >> Yeah. And then going into some sports report, both girls and boys soccer seasons were unfortunately ended in sections. The boys actually did receive their highest seat they have in a really long time, being the second seat in their section, and they were able to host two section games, which was awesome. And then girls volleyball will play at Jordan for the first round of sections on Wednesday. And then football team will actually have their first section game tomorrow at 6 against Providence Academy. So best of luck to them. Uh swim and dive received their second best true state team which is awesome. And then cross country has been holding a very successful and steady season which is great as well. Then winter sports are being uh beginning very soon here with dance team actually starting today >> which is awesome. So sports are going very well at the moment. Uh on the art side of things, all we have at the moment is the fall musical Chicago has begun the rehearsals, but we're still waiting on the dates for that at the moment. Um moving into academics, MEA just finished and everyone is working hard at the school before the end of the quarter. Uh some turnarounds are needed to be made. And then the high school activity fair was also today where we had many clubs and leaders coming out to encourage other students to join new clubs. And then finally, just for some construction updates on the student side of things, we have been learning in the new spaces as they give us much more opportunities to collaborate and work effectively. I personally have been really taking advantage of all of our new spaces like the breakout rooms. They're private, they're quiet, it's great to get some work done. And then we've also the construction has also kind of continued throughout the school day but has not been disrupting whatsoever to students. I think I mean maybe some sounds here and then but I mean we haven't experienced any major issues with that. So yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now we're going to move on to the HOSA presentation. Good evening. Thanks for having us here tonight. I'm here with um Oliver Berg, Ameilia Homeberg, and Ruby Smith. And these three students reached out in July and said, "We'd like to sit down and meet and talk about starting a new uh club." And I said, "Awesome. Miss Herurfl handles all the clubs." And so I was at the meeting, but as we talked more, um realized that this isn't a club. This is um this is more of a a school activity, same similar to uh DECA. And uh so we talked about a lot of different hurdles that would be in front of us at the moment and said, "Hey, let's just kind of wait. let's maybe start this next year. Well, between Oliver and Amelia and Ruby, they're very persistent. We continued to meet and talk about uh how we might get started. And um we needed an advisor. So, you're looking at that person here right now. Um Miss Herpull said, "Uh, we need somebody that has some experience in the medical field." And I said, "That's me. I used to be a high school health teacher and um so I can start this out. I can get this going. So I'm going to turn it over to uh these three. Um these this arrow here is how you move from slide to slide. So >> okay, I'll start by introducing myself. I'm Oliver Bird. I'm a sophomore here at Wisconsin High School. Um I am a DECA officer. I am a student senate executive. Um and I also do gymnastics. I'm Amelia Homeberg and I'm a sophomore and I'm involved in the student senate. I'm a board member of girl up and crafting hope. I'm a part of DECA dance team and a tennis manager. I'm Ruby Smith. I'm also a sophomore and I'm involved in student senate, DECA, dance team, track and field. And this year I was a volleyball manager. So you may be thinking what is HOSA and why are we here with you guys today? HOSA is a medical professional for students to it is a nationally recognized career path for students and is for helping the better of students and learning about the medical field and how they can better prepare themselves for the future and see what is truly involved in the healthcare field. The organization offers educational programs, community outreach, and competitive events. Um, as a group, we are all fascinated with the medical field. Amelia's parents are both involved in the medical field, and her brother is also decided to go into the path of medical field. My mom is a nurse, so I was always surrounded by that growing up. And so, I it was it was it's an interest to me to go into that for my profession. And then Oliver thought saving lives and being involved in people's journeys was fascinating. So we all have some sort of connection to the medical field and all have aspirations to eventually going into the medical field someday. >> Okay. So why should you guys approve HOSA? We're going to start with the learning aspect of it. Students get the opportunity to learn about being prepared. Um which will help them learn about their future careers. Um this doesn't just apply to medical field careers. The skills you can get from HOSA can apply to any career you want. leading students have the opportunity to be on the board for HOSA, the state HOSA board and also they just get opportunities to involve with other students and lead in that way around HOSA. HOSA also is is has a lot of involvement. Students get to interact with other students at different schools and people in the medical field at the competitions. people will be collaborating and actively working as medical professionals. So students can have a chance of making connections and networking. Some of the benefits to students um the main benefit is the skills that the kid kids will get. I already talked a little bit about it, but mainly soft skills kids will be getting as well as communication skills, collaboration skills, all the different events the kids can participate in um really help build up confidence within them as well, which is really important to their teachers. >> So, we appreciate your time listening to our presentation. So, does anybody have any questions? >> Mr. Peterson made the reference that uh kind of similar to DECA with you being also involved in DECA. Are you choosing a project then where you bring a project to district regions etc where you're competing in that area with students from other HOSA programs and other districts? Is that kind of how it works? >> Yeah, I can answer that one. So it's it's very similar to DECA in that aspect. There are different sections of um competition I guess. Um but um separate from DECA there's like in HOSA different conferences that you can attend that are specifically for leadership. With DECA it's just competition based but with HOSA there's um different aspects like um coming up uh towards the end of October there's a fall leadership conference that we're hoping to attend and it's just about networking and learning about healthcare. Um, and then when it comes to actual competitions, uh, it's less like preparing like how with Deca, you prepare a presentation beforehand. Um, that does happen in HOSA, but a lot of the events are focused on like in the moment like can you perform CPR on this dummy or can you wrap this ankle? >> These are pretty much all healthc care related though. >> Yeah. >> Uh, projects or exercises that you would have to >> Yes. So for me the obvious question is with the remodeling re redesign we're doing we're adding courses in EMT and nurse assistant how do you see the the whole to me it seems like a great connection how do you see it paralleling complementing meshing with the classes that we're going to be doing. Does that make sense? >> Um I can answer that one. So basically with DECA they have marketing classes where you can work on some of your DECA projects through the class and basically you can do that with the EMT programs. You can learn how to do CPR wrap ankle put on some bandage that is really adhesive to the skin and you will basically learn all these styles for hosa that will impact it. >> Okay. Uh just give me a a brief rundown for instance you know you're starting it's new got to hit the ground running. um how to get like-minded members, where you're going to meet, how you're going to fundra, uh what projects you want to start this first year. First year is kind of critical, I would imagine. >> Yeah, I can do this one. So, this first year is pretty developmental for us. We're just we're preparing ourselves for to opening up to to school next year for sure. We did um participate in the activities fair today and a lot of people seemed interested in that. So they were we already do have a pretty good group of kids that is already interested and that we know is interested and we do have our board pretty set in stone right now. We have reached out to some students and we have met with them and they're willing to help us with the developmental stage of >> So this year you're kind of in a rollout phase and then next year you're going to be in the full swing for your yearly activities. >> Yes. >> And like you said you're hoping to go to the leadership conference later this month, right? >> Yeah. Exactly. learn how to I assume part of that will be learning how to set up a a site here. >> Yeah, we have a like a representative from like the Minnesota port of it um that we've been in contact with and they're kind of giving us different documents that we can use to help build like bylaws and other things like that that will really help us start up the chapter. >> Like how how I haven't honestly I haven't heard this my my problem but um like how extensive is this? How many high schools have this? I mean, what's what's the size of the scope of this? Is this a national thing, state thing, reg? >> Okay. >> Your journey anyway. >> So, uh right now, uh yes, there's many many high schools in Minnesota. The number I'm not I don't know, but it's a high number. Um but in across the nation, there's over 250,000 HOSA members, and that's students student members. So, um, also to kind of go back to your just to your question a little bit, um, as an intram advisor, the, um, our our goal is is to really create kind of a good a base or a structure for this year. So, as we move into next year, which is which is also really important with our with our new classes that we're offering to be able to connect with uh potentially that teacher to uh implement some of the um opportunities that could present themselves at a hosted competition. And really, there's three components with HOSA. There's really there's the competition, then there's a service component, which is awesome, and then there's the leadership component. So, if approved, we're planning to attend uh a leadership conference on the 31st. Where is that? >> St. Cloud. >> Eden Prairie. >> Oh, Eden Pra. >> St. Cloud's the state. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, so to just go and network and see what some other schools are doing and figure out how they're building that program. Um, these three did reach out um and create a Google form that we sent out over schooly to kind of gather other interest and um had some decent numbers, but also want to try to kind of control that initially to a group that can help create bylaws and all of those types of things to kind of get us set up in in a good spot. So, moving into fall of 2026, um we're in a good spot to be able to kind of hit the ground running. >> Yeah, >> I know that there's been a lot of comparisons with DECA. Do you is there a risk that people will choose HOSA over DECA? >> It's a good question. Um, maybe I could answer that one, but Ben, you could answer what you might choose, but right now we offer so many programs. It is it's incredible. Thank you for for creating the opportunities for kids. What happens is is we we work incredibly hard with our adviserss to be able to um work with kids who want to do more than one thing. So um so they can have a just a broad experience and so it's not like you have to choose one over another um you know speech DECA science olympiad math league it's it's the the the opportunities are almost endless and so it really feels like um the same type of culture would be within this program. Obviously, the the leader of the program has to be able to be flexible and collaborate in building those things, but I think it I think kids could participate in both >> and they're both sort of a different direction. I mean, yeah, >> business and marketing versus medical and type of things. So, it might be that the first there might be right for some person one, the other one isn't. So, >> what if it's business, marketing, and medical? I work in the medical device industry. So I've been kind of thinking is there any is there anything related to that but if there is you guys can always reach out I'm happy to connect you to companies physicians things if you want to have interviews meetings things you contact me we can help you >> that' be perfect >> say that again I try we tried to put this group off in July and they just kind of kept coming back knocking down knocking down the hurdles and just kept on working. So, by what date do you need to know with the conference? So, >> we have we have it in the do we have motion? >> Yeah, we'll approve it. Okay, good. >> All right. >> I I know I speak for everyone in this room that uh that this is studentled. Gives us a ton of pride. We know that you guys are really busy. Uh just reading what you're involved in this fall is really impressive. It speaks to what Mr. Peterson just said of doing a lot of different things. Um, but this program is important and to find one kids's interests to get let them work with those outside of class, but it's also really important in our community that kids do develop interests in this area. And so, uh, it's exciting. Love that it's studentled. Nice job. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll move on to the treasures court. We're going to do two months today. August and September. We begin with August. A obviously Mount American Legion programs. SEC $1,500. Darius Hilltop Families Hilltop Primary School $1650. Peter Marsh Foundation WMS $1680. Various WHS families. West Tanka High School student support $1360. Ohio File, Inc. West Tank Activities, $25.98. NW Taka Lions, West Tanka Community Theater, $5,000. NW Tonka Lions Music in the Park, $2,500. Anonymous West Tonka Friends of the Arts, $35. Uno West Tonka Soccer Club. OSC Soccer Scholarship, $2,000. Butch Humber Larry XL Memorial Scholarship $100. Long Lake Fire Department, Long Lake Fire Department Scholarship, $1,000. Black Bog Giving Fund, Captain's Club, $20. And Travis Hansberger Wrestling Club, $500. Going on to September. Various Hilltop families, Hilltop Primary School, $290. Shirley Hills PTO Shirley Hills Primary School $14,280. Various WHS families West Han High School student support $275. John Stevenson Junior Estate Steve Jess Stevenson Memorial Scholarship $5,000. Butch Humber Excel Memorial Scholarship $100. Blackbod Giving Fund Captain's Club $40. Ibis LLC West Tonka Dance Team $500. Alma's West Tonka Dance Team $500. Rock Vanam Boatyards West Tanka Dance Team $500. West Tonka Animal Hospital West Tonka Dance Team $100. Travail LLC West Tonka Dance Team $500. Mound Family Hardware West Tonka Dance Team $100. JDP Electric, West Tonka Dance Team, $500, Chiropractor, Inc. West Tonka Dance Team, $150. And Wedgshide Westonka Dance Team, $500. And finally, Magic Taylor, West Tanka Dance Team, $100. We appreciate all of the donations made to the school and its programs and its students. and board members and chair. I've looked at the check ledger and the various supporting documents and all seems to be in order. >> Thank you, Ralph. >> Are there any school board committee reports? Anybody? >> If not, then we'll move on to financial report. magic touch. >> Um, good evening board. Um, I'll be sharing this month's uh budget overview and enrollment update with you this evening. Um, started with enrollment. um month number one of the school year is um in the books and this slide shows how our October 1st enrollment compares to last year's final numbers and also how it compares to our budgeted projections. Um each of the clusters are our grade um grade different grade levels and then um on the final column on the right is the total of all three of the the grade levels displayed. The red bar is our final enrollment counts as of last school year. The middle bar in black represents our our budgeted assumption and the gray shows our October 1st count 2025. So as of October 1st, um we are 31 serving 31 students more than the prior school year and we are 40 students over um what we had planned in our adopted budget. Uh the student enrollment is the primary driver um of our revenue and so we will continue to closely monitor the enrollment numbers throughout the school year and in the coming months we will incorporate any necessary adjustments into our revised budget. Right. Um financial data through September 30th, 2025. Uh we have uh received 5,522 million or 12.8% of our adopted budget and we have expended 8,539,000 or 20% of our um um adopted expenditure budget. Um both the revenue and expenditures are trending um on track compared to the previous two years. Uh just a couple other items to note. Um last month you approved the levy. Those were submitted um both to our county auditor and the Minnesota Department of Education at maximum um by the September 30th deadline. And we will be holding our truth and taxation hearing with the um final numbers um at the beginning of our December uh regular meeting on December 8th. And um on your um uh agenda tonight is an action item to approve the budget. And all school districts are required to um publish our budget um following the one week following the approval which you'll do this evening. And so you will see that displayed in Saturday's edition of the Laker. And at this time, I'd like to introduce um Aaron Dah of Bergen KDB. Um he will be presenting a summary of the 2425 audit. Um and on behalf of the West Hanka School District, I'd like to thank um Aaron for being here tonight and to his team for their professional nature and customer service. Uh Bourbon KB shares similar goals and values of being good stewards of public dollars and for transparent reporting. fingers. All right. Thanks, Kathy. Thank you board for uh the opportunity to present here tonight and the opportunity to serve as your district's auditors um again for fiscal year 25. We'll start with the independent auditors report. So the first one relates to the financial statement opinion which uh we issued an unmodified opinion which is the best opinion we can give as auditors. Um with that we're seeing that the district district's basic financial statements which comprise the governmental activities each major fund and the aggregate remaining fund information um as clean or unmodified. Uh with that we provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements do present fairly in all material respects the financial position change in financial position of the governmental activities and each major fund and the aggregate remaining funds. Um and also of note here we have the federal program report in compliance and internal control. Um the federal government actually hasn't issued the 2025 compliance supplement yet. So um we're unable to issue our full report um related to that single audit. Um but we can share that we did take a look at the special education uh federal program for fiscal year 25. didn't find anything of note but uh that report will need to be dated separately based on uh the delay there in the compliance supplement. Uh we also issue a report related to the government auditing standards. Uh we did note one material weakness and then one significant deficient deficiency in internal control. Um that deficiency relates to the lack of segregation of accounting duties. So something you've seen in u prior years as well um just kind of that uh overlap in duties related kind of the initiation recording uh the processing and the reporting of the financial data. So um and I always like to point out it's not usually costefficient to have that complete segregation of duties but we still find it important um resident ADM. So kind of that middle line there that does include all residents who are enrolled in the district, those educated in other districts, which tuition is paid um or those um under open enrollment options. So you'll see the difference between those bottom two lines there. Uh the total ADM served um that's kind of the um more important number I guess um the one that Kathy was looking at as well. um that's the one um that your kind of student aids are based upon. Um so as you can see there's a bit of a decrease between the two um that relates to open enrollment. So there still are some open enrollment losses with the district but um pretty steady there. Taking a look at that resident ADM number that did decrease by just three. So um.1% so pretty stable um compared to fiscal year 2024. that total ADM serve number actually increased by about 11 or.5%. So, um again, a little bit less of a loss in open enrollment for fiscal year 25. Uh kind of taking a look at the 5-year trends here, we have that in graphical form here as well. So, pretty steady over the past 5 years, especially the past four. Um you'll see both the resident ADM and the ADM serve have remained pretty stable, which is commendable for a district. um kind of taking a look at that 5-year trend. Um a decrease of about 25 in that ADM serve number since 2021. Next, we'll jump into the general fund and the sources of revenue here for the past 5 years. Uh overall for fiscal year 2025, the general fund revenues increased by about 4.4 million or 11.2% compared to the prior year. Uh the main driver there was the state revenues which increased by about 2.3 million um due to an increase in general education aid uh based again on that formula allowance and the steady enrollment and also an increase in uh special education aid as well. Local property tax revenue increased by about 1.7 million compared to the prior year uh just based on the increase in the levy allocation for the general fund. And then the other revenues category um increased by about 383,000. Uh so that category does include federal revenue um other local sources and then also investment earnings are mixed in there as well. Um the result of that increase primarily did relate to investment income for fiscal year 25. Next we have the pie chart just kind of breaking down those different percentages. So um pretty similar to the previous year again uh state revenues making up the majority of the district's um general fund revenues at 63% uh property taxes at 29% and then that other category at 8%. Next we have the general fund budget to actual results for fiscal year 25. So um with the final adopted budget there was a projected surplus of about 733,000 there at the bottom. uh the actual amounts uh saw a surplus of about 1.7 million. So a positive variance there in the bottom right corner of about 937,000. Taking a look at the different pieces, the revenue side came in about 1.5 million or 3.6% over the final amended budget. Uh the largest driver there was again from the state sources revenue over budget by about 895,000 with special education aid coming in uh more than what was anticipated. Also the other local revenues category was over budget by about 571,000 um with increased programming and program attendance um for miscellaneous activities and then also again that investment income produced um higher than the budget. On the expenditure side that came in about 559,000 or 1.4% over the final amended budget. Um, one of the drivers there was the regular instruction category which was about 155,000 over budget. Uh, instructional services was about 81,000 over budget. And then pupil support was about 195,000 over budget. And it looked like a lot of that related to salaries and wages along with equipment costs um incurred during the year. So coming in a little bit higher than uh budgeted, but again overall pretty pretty steady and close to uh what was anticipated both on the revenue and expenditure side with minimal variances across the board. Here we have the kind of full picture or operations for the general fund for each of the past five years. Um revenues increased by 11.2% while expenditures increased by 6.8%. So good to see the revenues kind of outpacing the expenditures from that side of things. Uh the end result was an overall increase in fund balance of about 2.1 million. So uh going from about 6.3 million up to about 8.4 million at the end of the year. Uh the general fund had fund balance of about 8.4 million. Of that amount about 50,000 represents non-spendable balances. So things in like inventory and prepaid items. about 90,000 in committed balances, a little over 3 million in assigned balances. Restricted fund balances total about 1.3 million. Um, and then that left the unassigned fund balance at about 3.9 million at the end of the year. And that was an increase of about 500,000 compared to the prior year. Here we have the financial position. So, kind of taking a look at the unassigned fund balance in relation to cash and investments. Um as you can see uh each of the past five years you have seen increases across the board for each of the categories and those do tend to kind of go hand in hand. So um kind of similar lines there for each of the past five years. Uh cash and investment balances did increase kind of due to those operations that we just looked at um along with recognition of the market value adjustments related to investments. Here we have the unrestricted fund balance as a percentage of expenditures uh both for the district there in green along with all school districts in blue. So traditionally uh the district has kind of been lower than the average of Minnesota school districts which doesn't necessarily mean that's a bad thing. Um just kind of means you're spending your your resources as uh you're comfortable there and within budget. uh fund balance as a percent of expenditures for 2025 did increase to 19.8% so up from 18.7% in the prior year and up from 15.2% kind of over that 5year trend. And then lastly we have the special revenue fund. So starting with the food service fund um revenues here decreased by8% so just a slight drop there while expenditures increased by 6.1%. Um the expenditures did exceed revenues by about 149,000 for the year. Uh which I do believe was anticipated kind of spending down some of that fund balance. Um at the end of the year you still had a healthy fund balance of a little over 1 million on the food service side of things. Um expenditures did increase due to higher food costs along with some increases in salaries and benefits as well and some equipment purchases there. And then lastly, we have the community service fund. The five years presented here for 2025 revenues increased by about 429,000 uh due in large part to increased levy allocation along with growing school age ch child care program and higher participation in programming overall. While expenditures increased by about 485,000 uh just related to staffing to help with the increased growth in participation. Uh the end result here was surplus of about 54,000 for the year. Uh which also increased uh fund balance for the community service fund from about 287,000 up to a high of 394,000 which is the highest of the five years presented. And good to see kind of that continued growth from year to year um on that fund balance as well. I know CO definitely impacted the community service fund maybe most of all. So, good to see it rebounding quite well. All right. And then lastly, this kind of has some net position numbers um here. I won't go over those in too much detail um but kind of providing the overall financial um position uh kind of including both those long-term assets and long-term liabilities. So, kind of mixing in capital asset items, um things like the net pension liability, um any OPED liabilities, compensated absences, things of that nature. Uh and we don't spend a lot of time analyzing these because they can fluctuate so much from year to year, especially some of those pension liabilities. If they change one assumption, it can change things by millions of dollars. So, that's why we don't put a whole lot of focus on that. We're more so focused on the fund balance and the individual funds. You heard about HOSA tonight? Um that in my research development of medical programs across high schools in Minnesota, HOSA is very prominent in very well established programs. And I had a conversation with Jolene Hurfell earlier this summer, I think before Jeff was engaging with students, and it was one of those things I said, you know what, maybe in a couple years we could bring that in. Let's get the program launched. And here we are. So, I had a big smile on my face when I saw it. They're coming tonight and they're going to get going tonight. What a great compliment to our EMR, EMT, and nursing programs that we're going to have that that outlet for students that really want to go deep into this kind of programming. They're going to have it already. So, that was a great thing. So, tonight I have uh three three brief updates uh for you. Um the readact uh continues. Uh we're going into our third year of the readath and we continue to focus on ensuring every student is really at grade level across prek all the way up to 12th grade. And the work this year uh is still focused on uh training and what is new this year is required care professional literacy training and we've started that and we have a very you know a healthy group you know almost 60 pair of professionals that are touching kids involved with our students with reading support. They are required to receive eight hours of training. So Natalie Bulo, our elementary literacy coach, and Robert Bevers, our high school reading intervention uh specialist are leading those trainings. And and we just had u four four-hour training with Robert um our workshop group and then Natalie was doing the same thing with our elementary parents. And again, it's very all-encompassing to ensure anyone that is working with kids around reading support is getting the proper training. Also, in the second bullet, uh you heard me talk about the letters training, and that is a 2-year commitment, and we have 37 elementary teachers now. They're going into their second year, and it's going to be about 80 hours of literacy training that they're going to go into. So we were really strong in area literacy before. We'll be even deeper by the time you're done. And that training will be in the entire year. They'll have our last their last session and our last day of school. But they're doing great. And then the last piece of training that is coming and we're awaiting is secondary teacher training which will be really our high school English teachers. the English department they know that's coming. Uh we are waiting for details from the department of ed and that'll be something that'll be a focus next year and that'll be again part of the read. Some curriculum updates for you tonight. Uh we have started a full K12 math review as part of our curriculum review cycle and and math was up and I I give you just a visual of the new academic standards in in mathematics and and the main thing I want to point out is on the right hand side of that visual they are bringing in what are called math principles and and basically we think about higher order thinking we think about modeling we think about problem solving but they I'm sorry these are math practices rather these are things they're going to call out in the benchmarks where before we assume kids were doing these things now they're going to be called out which is which which I think is great and then under in the lower right hand corner dimension two every new math standard benchmark will be tied to a real life application you'll notice some some maybe some new things in there where there is financial literacy, computer science and then all of the four core academic standards will be tied in some way to what they call Minnesota tribal nation context. So the we are just starting this work with the review cycle and over on the right hand side uh something that is new there's more emphasis on data and statistics and probability that'll be something at the high school level in particular we'll need to grapple with to think about there's just more data statistics how do we deliver that what does that look like all high schools will be grappling with that no answer tonight about that there is more awareness this is coming and then the deadline for this implementation is the 2728 school year and then with that comes in the spring of 2028 a new MCA4 assessment align standards so we're in a great place this is the year just to learn think reflect look at our curriculums uh with the idea that if we need to make changes in curriculum that'll come in two years and and we'll be ready to go for the 2728 school year. The other piece around curriculum updates will be the new 2021 social studies standards and this is the year when we need to finish that work of embedding that into our social studies courses. The one thing that I would share about these new standards in 2021 where fourth grade was all about the countries of of or the states across the United States and the capitals. You'll notice over here on the right hand side, fourth grade has changed to contemporary world is the term. So it's a much more global approach to what kids are learning in fourth grade. And then the other one that is changing a lot is in eighth grade. Eighth grade was about different regions of the world. Now what they're moving into is what called it's called a comparative model. So take the concept of poverty. Now in eighth grade they need to find three different countries and analyze poverty and the impact on that population in three different countries. Now let's talk about um productivity. Same thing. Pick three countries and choose and analyze reflect how this particular topic is impacting in different countries. It's a shift. So we're already in discussion and talks about what needs to change in particular in fourth grade and eighth grade. But these are our new standards. These are our benchmarks. Um so the work that we do is we talk about what's changing. We think about what are the curriculums out there, what are the publishers doing in these areas and that'll be our work between now and school year to do this realignment for the coming this coming school year. >> So do this the new standards exist yet? >> Next year. >> Next year. >> Next year. This is this is the year to do the embedding. >> Okay. >> Address the changes. address any gaps and then we're ready to go next fall. >> Okay. >> And then the last last thing I want to share with you tonight really some some great news that we learned um today and we had a hunch last week with an email from the department of med. We are now the recipient of $20,000 in Perkins funding to start supporting our machining program and and the the total Perkins dollar amount which is federal dollars that we received this year was around $31,000. Last year is about 12,000. So this is the work that we're doing working with the department of ed letting them know hey machining is coming um EMR EMT is coming nursing is coming these federal dollars support the expenditure the purchasing of this expensive equipment. So already this year we have $20,000 we'll be spending. It could be uh spot loaders, grinders, uh drill presses, and then as we go into the fiscal year 27, there'll be even more, a lot more that we will be purchasing. But where we can get support that's 100% a reimbursement for up to $20,000 on these pieces of equipment. So we just got that word um today. So, some really good things happening. >> So, just to wrap up, uh just a reminder, we'll have our first quarterly school board email meeting on Friday, November 7th. I'll send you all a calendar invite. Um we're going to start out talking about artificial intelligence. We're going to talk about MC4 assessments. There'll be I know we'll do some discussion around career tech courses and planning and a number of other things. So, if you're available on the 7th, we'll be meeting at 7:30 for that for that meeting. >> We will start out, I guess, as we lead into that, we'll start out about talking about the construction phasing schedule. Um, the last time I was here, we touched on um a few of these areas and after, I guess, further investigation into the building. There's been a couple modifications to this phasing schedule which we feel we've had a lot of contractor input as we got into this and saw some of the conditions in some of the areas. We've spent a lot of time over this last month with different trade partners bringing them in looking at the areas and trying to make sure that what we have here um we're comfortable with uh as we move forward. Um, with that being said, as we get into phase one, um, some of the science areas, those are looking at, um, November turnover dates. Um, on the lower level, that November 10th date is the >> I think Yeah, >> I think November 10th is the main level interior. >> Yeah. >> So, I think that's when >> that Yeah, I'm sorry. I was ahead of myself on that. that main level interior. Um phase one, we have furniture getting delivered on the 26th of November. Um so we'll be working through that. Um the other areas, so maybe when we get through the some of the updates, you'll see um footings and foundations have started on the on the administration area. Um we're looking at completion dates in there in April along with some of the media center. We've adjusted as you move south, plan south um on the lower level. Some of those areas to the south will be completed next summer. Um probably if I can go to the board, is that maybe easier? >> Sure. >> So >> English, but I think because there's science rooms opening, people can shift around and make it room. Although she's telling me she's going to be putting the hallway down, so I don't know. So some of the big area I think some of the biggest changes on here that we talked about last time is the the biggest area that we saw maybe some current concerns with what they had for durations of the original project were related to areas obviously the storm shelter and then that of the little theater. So, as we started looking at what it's going to take, not only to demo this out, open up to get footings and foundations in at that lower level, but then also probably a big piece of this was the demo that it took to remove the concrete um the like mezzanine floor out of here. We're shoring now down to first floor to support that shoring to get the concrete out of the out of the mezzanine all while maintaining access uh through this ramp. um looking to complete next summer um the shop area, the band, the cafeteria and serving areas with the the storm shelter um turning over in uh March and then December with the small theater. We are hoping that this we're showing this at the same time. We think that there's opportunities to likely get finished out of the lower level first. Um, and one of the other coordination pieces is knowing that this is the new fitness center, maintaining access through the existing. While this is being built, there's some utilities that need to run through that space. So, we'll coordinate that work with the district. We may be opening up some of the areas to get utilities through, then putting it back in a temporary situation until this is open, and then we'll take this offline and and repurpose that. >> Where where are the new programs going? I don't know if you can that or Kevin like the construction's happening already, right? Where and then so where are the construction the machining and the the nursing programs going? Just kind of curious. >> So I think what you see in salmon here, that's where that's going to be opening up November 10th. That'll be um some of our special education program, but also a couple more of our English classrooms. Right now we have some programming going on in the pack that will find classrooms uh finish off those classrooms by right after Thanksgiving break. We'll have the remaining darker gray which is science and a couple math classrooms that will open up. So the full lower level will be open and then right after winter break when kids come back we'll have this whole complete academic wing both upper and lower will be open probably right before winter break >> social classes in there. >> Yeah. So then the admin area the counseling end will be in April. uh looking at the machining, the machining, the wood shop, the engineering, the robotics program being a summer slam, the English or the art and music band summer slam. The nursing will start in the spring and turnover. So, >> so those are will all be ready to go next fall. Is it the construction classes? Aren't those already started this year? This fall? We do have construction trades going, but we're able to use the wood shop for that. >> Okay. >> So, really when we get starting up next year, most of our construction is really going to be designated in this courtyard on the lower level, upper level in this pocket going onto the little theater. All of this around it will have been completed. There's going to be some tile work that has to be done that we have to coordinate in the construction. So the the bright red, the lower level is the the >> fitness athletic wing. >> What what classes are impacted like on the upper level by the bright red? >> Uh we have a courtyard there. We have part of our cafeteria. We have a couple special ed classrooms. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So how um now that we're into this, we're talking about finishing some of this, which is great. How how do you advise us to read this to the extent that there's a difference between an occupancy date and a completion date? Are we talking about like I'm thinking about like that the exterior walls that doesn't necessarily need to be all finished before our students are actually inside the classrooms. Right. for which area or in >> Well, I was just thinking about like the phase one and phase four where it's the exterior part of it of those new classrooms. Can we >> Yeah. So, reading the schedule here, it gives a date there. Is that the date that they're they're occupying those those rooms or the date that they're actually done done with everything including all the exterior work? those dates are that they're occupying. Like right now on the science wing, windows are going in, brick is starting. I think the brick is starting tomorrow out there. So, we'll be chasing that through on the exterior um fairly quickly. So, the timing of that should be we should be there and where we need to be um on all of these. and echoes for the and we'll see a little bit of it when we go through the updated pictures. But even the admin area, there was some issues early on with some shoring and then some footing foundation things that were some were some modifications. Those the helical peers are all being installed. Footings and foundations are started. Uh steel erection we should be looking at next week. Um so we'll start to see how that come together as well in that light green area here shortly. >> Okay. So it says the light green says April for the >> for the admin area. Yeah. Means they really won't be in there until April. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> April 26th or I'm sorry, April 2026. >> Yes. >> I said before. Was it August before? >> No, that was >> or it's August to April of 2026. That's the phase. Yeah. I see. >> Any other questions on this? We'll be putting this up on our website for families and we'll be doing a communication also. >> So, is this all updated that >> Yeah. >> Are you feeling a lot of questions regarding this the timeline? >> No, I would I would really compliment uh first of all, the open spaces that have opened, people really appreciate. They're excited about what's continuing to open up. I think um one thing that's one thing I mean we chose to do a remodel because if you built brand new this would be about double the cost of what it is. And so we're able to get incredible value for really updating our whole high school at uh at a much less of an expense to the community. And when I look at, you know, you heard Edie speak here and that's direct testament to staff that are creating and normalizing and putting a lot of attentional efforts so that we can keep on hitting benchmarks, but also speaks to our student body. I mean the flexibility that they show shows to our partnership with KA of trying to minimize certain impacts takes a ton of coordination and so a lot of people are really working hard uh showing some grace flexibility but also being concentrated on the important things and to all different parties coming together uh appreciate it. I think the fuel that engines it, you know, when I talk about staff, you have different people that haven't experienced their classroom yet. If you don't have your classroom yet, you're going to get one of those exterior classrooms likely with some of those windows. And I can I just promise just in the these months, you're going to have I mean, the natural light that's going to be pouring in that area, I'm just thrilled about. And so, uh, no, I I haven't. And yet I know daytoday there's different things that are happening that people are problem solving and working through. And our kids have done a great job. Our staff have led the way. Some of the updates through phase one. Um you can start to see the exterior coming together. The second picture on the right, we've got window frames and glass uh being installed. As we just mentioned earlier, brick and some of the exterior finishes are scheduled to be on uh get started here this week. Um inside uh the steel stairs and those two stairwells are on site and being installed and there's a lot of mechanical electrical roughins kind of happening throughout along with um some drywall and uh as you can see uh partitions and walls being framed. So they're making good progress in there since the topping slab was poured just a week and a half or so ago. Um, so we're making a lot of lot of um getting a lot of positive momentum through that area. As we get into the administration wing, you can see the equipment in the back. That's those are the helical peers going in. Other footings and foundations are being put in in back field. Um, we have some more, you know, there's obviously some more concrete and stuff going in, but we're we'll shortly behind this have the concrete steel um being erected in this area as well. So in that main level um the main level classrooms on the addition um again there's mechanical electrical going in walls being framed um getting ready to start closing up some of those areas. And this is those classroom wings in that phase five area. Um, as we're getting finishes and stuff put in, flooring starting to go in, ceilings, um, all that, all the finish is kind of that last couple weeks of work for new year. Any questions on any of that? >> So, obviously you feel good about the the nearterm deadlines. Yeah. Yep. >> The November and the December. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> We should do. >> And I feel like we're in a good spot as we come out of the ground on the activities. >> Mom or Brian's wife wants to know if we're definitely going to be done. >> I know. I'm I'm sure. I know this conversation this time. You heard it. So, we're we're hoping that we're here this time and we've um got a schedule that makes sense to everybody involved. >> Yeah. So I I guess I don't know if you have them in your packets. Um so we took bids um here on the 9th and the 14th. The first bid was for the primary school projects. Um and those came in great. Um as we were sitting through the bid opening for that project, you'll see the work scopes that were bid out here. We had just over 50 uh biders uh submitted a bid on this project. Um, so what were I guess Kevin in the past have you went through the low biders on each one or just the totals? Do you want to go through that? Maybe you should have asked that before, but where we were at with the budget, uh, construction budget, we were just about $6 million. Uh, so our low bids came in at $4.1 million. um a number of mechanical electrical bids and I think that a lot was attributed to the fact that we were able to working with W get some of the piping that was in the that we saw in the tunnels at Grand View out and put up in the ceiling which uh a lot seemed to bring out a lot more biders. There was a lot more competition through the mechanical and electrical. Um, so we we benefited from that on bid day. Um, allowing us to what we're asking for today is to approve the alternate for the added window work. Um, also for a total approval tonight for the primary schools of 4.2 4,254,442. Uh, so couple couple things further. Um, this bid opening was was about two weeks ago. Um, I think in talking to Cross Anderson, they feel good about the low biders. They're a lot of your contractors they've worked with before. We were uh pleased by the competitiveness of these bids. We're pleased with some of the design that was put in place. For example, at Shirley Hills, we have a lot of tunnels where things were chased. they found a way to bring it out of some of those tunnels which uh made it more attractive work for people to bid on. We think that directly attributed to more competition which in end helped I think these bid results. Um and so um these came out very favorably. Uh not only did we have contractors that they would recommend, it also financially came in favorably. So, for the primary project, uh, our alternate was for, um, working on our windows and our cafeteria at Trillley Hills, and we're excited about that aspect as well. Uh, one thing that are in our original bond estimate that wasn't part of it was improving the media centers, and we were able to um work on making some improvements in that common space. So, at both of our primaries in the 2011 bond, we were able to address our classroom spaces. Uh, media was lighter. At that time, it was 95 that we actually did improvements to the media center. So, believe it or not, that seemed newer at that point and now it's showing that um that would be an update that would help our students >> be able to do those as well. So feel really good about the expanded expanded scope where it's directed how these bids came in and that we'd accept that alternate. >> Then we had our stadium uh bid opening that was a week ago almost a week ago Tuesday. >> Tuesday >> and again large number of biders for the project. >> Yeah almost 100 biders uh for the stadium project. Um we are recommending award of all the work scopes with the exception of roofing and the track surfacing. Uh we received numbers for both. Um but we only see we only received one number for the roofing that appeared to be the full entire scope including roofing and metal panels. Um we're just going through that process of vetting them to make sure that they have the scope and that we're comfortable with the number that they provided. We had two biders. I will say that one didn't bid the metal panels in it. So, they were considerably less. So, we just we we talked with Kevin and we're going to take a little time just to go through and vet to make sure that's that they have the right number. Um if so, we'll come back on November 10th and ask for approval of that. If not, we'll have the discussion if we're going to rebid that roofing number. Um which we still have plenty of time to do that in the process. Um same similar situation with the the track coating. We had two contractors bid on it. Um the question that came up um after the bids were open was the product that was specified and the amount of experience that the low bidder might have had installing that product. So we're looking for references from them or experiences they've had applying this certain product. So again I think as we go through that process and vet them and the second bidder we likely will bring those back on the on the 10th of November for approval. um all other bids, like I said, we had um just about a hundred biders um propose on this project. So, what we're recommending today without the roofing and the um track surfacing bid that we approved the base bid of 10,620,609. Um and also on here for approval are the alternates which were the lighting for field 789. um the the team building and storage team and storage building and then the grading and prep for the turf uh that would be installed on those the fields 78 and 9 as well. And that alternate price was 1,864,436 for a total approval recommendation tonight of 12,485,045. And remind me again what what were we thinking of originally on this for the lemonary cost planning cost >> for the alternates or >> for the stadium. You give them a reference number for the primary. >> Yes. Um we were 11 11.4 on the base bid and roughly 3.1 on the open. And so >> did you come in >> under on the alternate and within a percent and a half I believe on on the base from our estimate >> including the roofing and the >> Yeah. Yeah. And one thing we're doing Ralph, one thing we're doing separately or directly with the school is the actual uh purchase of the artificial turf. Correct Kevin? >> Yep. So two things will come to the board directly either in the November the December board meeting. One will be for the turf itself and then the other is for the scoreboard uh for the stadium. Those will be on state contract and we'll bring those separate to you. For those two products, we wanted to make sure it wasn't uh that that we were able to negotiate interview those based on safety or value versus just have it be lowest bidder. And so we were able to um continue to move those conversations along and I I believe that I really think that the November board meeting you'll have for turf and scoreboard >> and those numbers now reflect in your report but they are in the >> overall budget budget for right. >> Yeah. >> And the numbers that we went over in the meeting last week there's no in your it was prior to your recommendation for the biders. >> Yes. All fundamental items other than the things you broke out separately tonight are still unchanged and can be voted on as recommended by K. >> Remind me that um the alternate to do lighting 70. Is that actual lighting or is it just prep? It's the actual lighting for >> including the >> because the bids came in a >> really >> the whole enchilada light bulbs and everything >> uh I I think uh a couple couple thoughts. the primary projects are going to be done over summer of 26 and so like Graan View it's going to really be concentrated over those summer months uh for the stadium and then Field 789 that's going to start when we can start in the spring and then it's projected to go till November and so if you can tell on the stadium how many rain days we get we could probably tell you the other of it but that's right now what the scope is appearing to Uh with all of our projects, we want as many current kids to be able to use the spaces. Uh it's just I don't know how long the seasons for all of our kids are going to go, but obviously November is going to be tough for some of the kids with fall activities. Uh to be spring, it will be up and up and going for sure. And so we're um one uh these are our last two bid packages out. I think it's a a compliment to uh the facilities committee. It's first of all the community passing it but the facilities committee a compliment to uh Wald and Ka all the design groups uh in each design group we expanded uh the value of each project and we had the ribbon cutting for the tennis courts and how we how we took that project on. Uh you look at what we were able to do at the middle school and expand how we incorporated some of the special ed classrooms into that project. High school, multiple angles of that project. Uh a lot of angles of that project really expanded. Now it's 789. uh to be able to put the stadium west of the Thaylor building to maximize the space on the north end for parking and future space to then move the JB baseball field over to 789 where originally in our bond we talked about turfing the infield to now share that that softball benefits, baseball benefits but also soccer, football, lacrosse that we have a multiuse field uh that was made possible because of a large part district financing that was made possible because of a generous donor. It was made possible because of some aggressive writing of grants that we hope that we can continue to secure. But clearly the district finances of being able to expand what was going to be an infield for baseball to be a multi-use space and that's consistent with our project of how can we bring maximum value to the space that we have. So now it is that softball and baseball are going to have that turf field. But because we're going to roll the out the the fencing on the outfield fence, then in the other seasons that can be used for football, soccer, and lacrosse. Just really smart design, smart use of space. Uh it's going to really greatly benefit our spring activities. Um has just a lot of incredible value. really made possible from the beginning step of saying, can that stadium fit west of Thaylor, which is a much better spot. So, I'm I'm really proud of the design. I'm proud of everyone going along with how we can bring maximum value here. And to be at the end of these bid scopes is really exciting because now now we just have to go on the project of finishing them. U bring that full circle to where we began. Um, we um I'm excited to be turning over some of these next classrooms November 7th and then right after Thanksgiving. I'm excited for our kids, most of all our staff that are working through this that there's a little bit more space. Uh, but as people work in these new spaces as they're happy with that first phase, this one is going to start connecting people to the natural light. I'm just really excited to take down some of those walls and allowing us to benefit from that. And so, um, really, really good bid results. Uh, great effort to get here. Um, incredibly thankful.