e e e e e e calling the meeting to order at 602 p.m. this is the board of directors regular school board meeting for Monday September 23rd 2024 welcome to all of our visitors guests and media uh tonight we're going to start with the board and administrative roll calls Mr phelp here Mr Burns here miss Danielson here miss Schultz here miss Geto here miss naton here Mr onell here Mr Schuler here Mr hennon here Mr girton here miss Payton here miss demler here Mr vo here all right please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have had no public comments prior to the start of the meeting is there a motion to approve the agenda and addendums so moved I'll second motion made by Miss naton seconded by Miss Danielson any further discussion on the agenda and addendums hearing none all those in favor say I I all oppose nay motion carries next up item three which is the consent agenda which includes the school board minutes from August 26 2024 the Personnel consent agenda and the business consent agenda um I do want to mention a couple things on the Personnel consent Agenda One is the we have anou with the teachers unions correct Darren for the uh the read act um and also too we had a couple um resignations wanted to call specifically out uh Miss Kelly Moss who's been with the district for over 20 years and then uh Mr Hyde who was the elementary school head custodian who' been with the district for over 15 years and just to note the redak piece too was um was a template that was um designed by a number of State organizations the idea is to make sure teachers are getting uh compensation for their time they're putting in for their read act letters training or call it Ola is the other uh training source that we're using so um we worked with the teachers union to uh put that together and just completed it last week and um it's again just uh something that the state put in this last legislative session to make sure that um teachers were being paid accordingly for their work move approval I'll second motion made by Mr Burns seconded by miss getco any further discussion on the consent agenda items all those in favor say I I all oppose nay motion carries item four the recognitions presentations and showcase uh starting tonight out with uh Miss pton in the special ed program review good evening thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about our special education Department um so um the purpose of this meeting or this presentation is WR an update of a new and exciting water town mayor thank you um special education department um for all of our new developments so our mission statement is um our goal is to provide each student with a quality individual education plan that allows them to leave water Public School District with opportunities to meet their full potential r y is the students um in 2023 2024 special education program served 370 students 21 of which were non-p students which represented 177% of our student population and that um is very comparable to Delo at 16% Howard Lake Waverly at 177% WKA 18 17% in the grand winner Buffalo 21% we um for this 24 25 school year we have a lot of different disabilities that we need to serve um so we have one student who has traumatic brain impairment we have approximately 133% of our students with autism blind visual impairment at 1% developmental cognitive disability mild and moderate at 4% severe and profound at 1% developmental delay about 8% deaf and hard and hearing around 2% of our population emotional behavior disorders at 6% other health disabilities 11% physical impairment around one student and our largest population goes the specific learning disabilities where students need help with math reading and writing and second place goes the speech and language impairment all right and with all those disabilities we need to staff for them and have the proper license um so after many sleepless nights I can tell you that we are finally um completely staffed for the 2425 school year and as you know there's been a complete shortage of special education teachers and supports staff I mean we had to be really creative this year and and trying to get staff so we pieced together um jobs together we um we moved internal staff around we hired contracted employees and we also applied for a variety different variance licensers licenses um to make sure that this all came together so um all right at our um Early Childhood we hired a speech and language um pathologist assistant who we have um mentored bya contract at SLP at the elementary we hired two special education teachers one concentrating on developmental cognitive disability DCd teacher and a date Teacher as well as we hired an SLP and two PA of professionals um I just want to add that now every pair of professional that's hired has to be highly qualified and that causes a great barrier that causes a lot more work for us when we hire a new teacher or new par professional at the middle school um again we hired a par professional as well as two teachers one focused in um emotional behavior of disorder and specific learning disabilities at the high school again another par professional a long-term High School substitute teacher and as well um we have a shared teacher for the middle school and high school for the DCd teacher the district evaluator coordinator position was very difficult to find um we had two candidates who fell through but we do have a candidate starting next week so we look forward to to having him and getting caught up on our evaluations um with Southwest Metro we really have a strong partnership which I appreciate um they provide us with an audiologist um physical therapist deaf and heart of hearing blind visual impairment and physical impairment a lot of times these are low incident disabilities that we only have one or two so it's really hard to um hire for those positions but they tend to have really big case loads and they don't see students as much but they do a lot of consultative work with our special education teachers um our case loads um this year um the Minnesota state average for elementary is 15 to 18 students and at the secondary level it's 15 to 25 um our Elementary School this year is at 13 the middle school is at 15 students on the case load High School is at 20 so it's fairly large and the transition we have seven students this coming year um I um went through MD's data bank and I was just curious about the data Trend in the last 10 years if you look in the light blue it's like from 2013 and then in the Royal um blue it's 2425 and then I tried to like do like an analysis of it and what I came up with is that um we um after covid we had an increase in students in special education and that's starting now to dip and I can attribute that to a couple things one is our declining enrollment but I think most importantly it shows our strong work in our multi-tier support system um we are we have strong academic interventionists we're doing positive behavior supports plans we're using fast bridge to to progress monitor students and we have a great staff um we have a really dedicated special education staff and general but um they've really done a great job of working with our students to improve on them and I I think we're seeing the results um so I thought that was exciting um I don't know if you know like how long the average special education teacher lasts in this profession does anyone want to make a guess I'm afraid what I said I'm afraid we're for them what three years it's three y it's three and so I feel like it's my job to help with programming and systems to try to make things a little smoother for them like the oil and the engine um so in our Middle School we um our setting 3 EBD ASD program we expanded their space um and that has created just more of a relaxing environment for them we also have two rooms a reset room and a resource room the reset room helps with social problem solving and self-regulation so kids that need that break um and then the resource room is for students that need academic support as well as maybe test R to them we created a master Grid it's a Google sheet that has every student on it in special education as well as their important information and so when staff wants to um update information on the student they just click on the comment box rather than filling in paperwork and sending it across different buildings um so this helps us be a little more accurate in our systems and coordinating Infinite Campus and sped form so they're talking together we hired a due process consultant to help with due process um she is extremely knowable and MD mandates and timelines and she's been a great resource for us she works virtually and she's amazing um we're having an MD audit um in the spring and so they're going to look at about 10 different data points and then from that determine if we're high risk or low risk and then the fall they're really going to focus on that progress monitoring of our due process so we've been working hard and try to prepare the the staff on progress monitoring that we did that over a workshop week um um we were busy with um evaluation roughly we had about 73 last year in% officials came from the nonpublic schools and 57% came from our Watertown mayor every three years this they um a special education student needs to be re-evaluated to show continuing need and sometimes we we can move that upper um back or up if there's emerging needs they help me grow referrals and and parent requests also generate initial evaluations um when they have developmental concerns with their their child oops I think I skipped one I apologize you skipped a couple yeah I got a little carried away huh sorry okay okay I think now we're back on track yes okay um we've worked on streamlining our non um our private school systems and I I think mentioned that their last board meeting that Jo Bay and I met to talk about improving the child find process and working on helping them understand interventions and providing us with specific information for their students for evaluations um couple changes we made is that we are having a designated case manager and a designated speech and language person so that there's one point person just for better communication and then we also hired uh or we also purchase some curriculum that's evidence-based for math and reading um so that this case manager can work effectively with the students um prior to that it was like if we got for example if we had an eighth grade student they would go to the Middle School get an eighth grade case manager and then they would need to develop the curriculum so this way it just supports them and takes away um some of their their work in that area um I just want to remind you again of like how much work our special education teachers do they are um responsible for class preparations they need to help um they need to be prepared in an academic social emotional learning behavioral skills mentoring new staff that's a big one with um with our being creative and staff organizing Paris schedules you have to write a legally mandated education individual education plans with our legal documents evaluations progress reports Positive Behavior Support plans manag case loads both direct and indirect Services organize and plan evaluations and IEP meetings and really collaborate with the general education staff students and families um we had an um we Pro um provided training in Crisis Prevention intervention again this year it's really to help organize identify and prevent those escalation crises but the exciting news is we have our own trainers now we don't have to um contract out for that so we trained our own trainer due process nights we offer that once a month and it's an hour and a half after school and they can get support writing IEPs evaluations um the district provides two days or 16 hours of paid due process time which they really appreciate and then I went over this one and then we are going to continue and work with our um Watertown mayor especially education advisory Council we're hoping it'll um hoping to grow more um it's really for parents to discuss resources connect with each other and advise us on their experiences with our special education department our next meeting is Friday October 4th um 8 to 9 a.m. um at the salc and I can't thank you enough for your support and your leadership and helping us as a team so is there any questions or concerns that you have I have some but I'll let you guys go first anybody else have anything I well I have a question obviously we've had change in the nursing staff and so forth and you guys are very coordinated with cares that need to be handled by their nurses so are you guys feeling comfortable with where we're at um yes I know um Mr henan has been more in charge of the hiring of the nurses but I've in close contact with with Nikki to make sure our most vulnerable students are being taken care of and their health plans are there I've also met with her on Ma billing and third party um um the third party you know billing and stuff that's brings in like $190,000 for us so yeah I think it we're going to have a little bit of a transition but we're going to do everything we can to ensure that it goes smoothly yeah there's just a lot of collaboration there so yes there is you're right that's a great question so you mentioned that about 370 students yeah kind of are are in the special ed um does that maybe you maybe you missed or I said it and I missed it how many are because we referred them to Southwest Metro if they reach a certain criteria yeah for like a setting four for a setting four how many students do we refer to Southwest do you know that um yeah not a lot we have five right now um and then we have one that's Elevate our online school and we have one referral right now okay yep and then that 370 kind of es and flows throughout the year to is it does more students might need help some need less support right yeah okay and uh how often do you have those uh advisory Council meetings three times a year three times a year okay just want to make sure we Market it out to yeah that was something new you started last year right yes yep we had um two last year and I wanted to improve it add one more this year so just make sure we get that out on social yeah I think it's a one that our case managers also get out to their students on their case load to those families let them know that that's a a nice hopefully a valued opportunity to come in and collaborate and then it's also going on the newsletters the administrative assistance put on for the schools different schools is it only um families that participate in that or is there some staff members that also participate in that y we've had some staff members okay it's open for and it's open for you all yeah it's yeah more the marrier so just want to collaborate and support each other especially with those resources I think word of mouth is so helpful for parents what's worked with us absolutely anything else for Miss pton awesome thank you so much thank you uh next up is the 2024 MCA data or data review Mr R viiew well good evening everyone and thank you again for the opportunity to be here uh I told you last month we were going to do some sharing of some data and it's here it's exciting we are well ready to to pump the tires for sure I I'll go over some of our results I did do some comparisons to our surrounding School District you can kind of see where we fell as well as some comparisons historical where where did we kind of end up and then uh uh I don't know if we have celebrations but we're going to celebrate along the way but then also just kind of some of the reasons why because I imagine one of your questions might be what's the reason for the change so we'll kind of give a couple bullet points there perhaps to take a look at uh so the first slide is just kind of telling you where I I received the data from so it's all out there on the MD website and if you use those filters uh with any luck at all they will match the data that I've got posted here for you tonight um but just so that you're aware uh districtwide so these are all districtwide uh statistics uh for reading uh 61% 61.8% of our kids were proficient in other words they met or exceeded the standards uh science was 46.4% and math was 60% uh the reading was up 5.5 points from last year which is about 14% the science was up 5.8% excuse me uh reading was up 9.8% from last year uh the science they were up 5.8 points which is about 14 point percentage points better and our maass scores were up 9.7 points which is 19% better than last year so uh kudos to all of our kids our staff for sure that is a well word that doesn't happen usually when you set goals you try to bump your scores two to 3% every year so to see these you know double and triple where we were uh that's kudos to our staff how did we compare to the state so this graph just kind of gives us a line graph of where we were since the pandemic okay so you can see in 2021 our Mass scores we were below the state average in proficiency rate by percentage Point okay so you kind of use that zero is the state average zero yes so zero is what we're comparing to we were below the St below the state average uh in blue there and then we were above the state average in in reading and science that same year yeah so thank you yep and then you kind of see how that kind of ebed and flowed but then how we took a nice surge up this last year um you know all the way up 15 points better than the state average in math which which is again uh Quite a feat and then how did we do compared to some of our surrounding schools well as it turns out we're right smack dab in the middle we're number five out of 10 in all three areas if you were to chronologically say so I put them in order West Tonka had the highest percentage of kids with their um uh proficiency rates in math and in Reading uh I didn't s uh so anyway it's we were right smack daab in the middle um but let's compare that to how we did last year because we did we did some major things moving in the right direction in science we were up 5.8 points well that was number four out of uh those 10 schools um but in reading that 55% increase had us number one across those 10 schools as far as Improvement numbers Improvement compared to last year correct not the overall proficiency rate that's where we were smack dab in the middle y yep and then in in math we are also at the top as far as those Improvement rates from last year uh again so that's reason to celebrate this is excellent news uh so what why why right we I it's it's incredible but I I I think there's about two or three probably strong answers as to why these uh made a significant bump one is our our staff and our administrators they put an emphasis on it says guys we just want accurate data so teachers and and leaders were going around just give us your best effort and that relationship that we talk about and those connections um I think that paid off dividends because I I'm not sure that this was a focus around uh in this district for you know the previous couple of years but you guys know this it's a competitive market so if we want to put our best foot forward these are the scores that get posted out there um on the MD website so we've got to got to look our best and so their focus on that uh in the classroom uh we did a lot of focusing on standards and really zeroing in on what the kids need to learn and hammering that home that made a difference um datadriven teams right so getting our teams together and talking about what the data is telling us who needs more support what did you do that was working or not working uh um so that made a large difference I believe as well um our as as Randy said our mtss tier one instruction and our interventions uh having licensed teachers in those intervention spots particularly at the elementary and the Middle School uh is is paying off dividends for us uh and somewhere in there that science of reading that it's hard to say cuz that science of reading has been kind of K2 and K3 so how much of that has really had an effect I think we're going to con see continue to see these numbers uh maintain at a higher rate or even get better as more kids get uh instruction through the science of reading um the data is pretty solid on that if as you've heard from Miss oconnell so so that's good news guys congratulations to our student staff and and the whole faculty for sure any questions as a benchmark where were our percentages before Co that's interesting um if you if you go if if you go and I didn't compare because I couldn't go back and look that far the mde website only goes back five years but from the data that I received coming into this um So Co was 5 years ago so probably about 10 years ago our proficiency rates were higher but then they started to slowly dwindle right before covid and then at Co they took about another 10% drop and now we're getting back where almost to preco numbers but just for do we have any ballpark I mean we're at 61% in Reading were we at 71% 15 years ago uh you know it's it's it was something like that uh 10 years ago we were probably around 70% in Reading um probably about 65% sing math if again that that's I'm ballparking it from what I I think you're pretty accurate though I think there was a Crest about that time frame about 10 years ago and then there was a slight decline you know all the way to co period and then now we're kind of getting back out of that um where we were what would be the reasoning for that that we would kind of take that dive before Co like what I mean what what would be the reasoning behind that no it's hard I mean not being here at that time I I don't know the reasons um but you know certainly getting away from some of the standards maybe the emphasis on the MCA and and like we've talked about we know the MCA is just one measure of of data it's not the end all be all but as Joe said when the state you know uh posts that across the the public and certainly in the media where you're at um we still have to take that pretty seriously but I think to that end we've we've really like Joe mentioned U principles have really put a considered effort back on the MCA saying we've got to take this more serious um students have taken it more serious so I think it's just that changing of mindset too which has helped kind of get us back to where we where we should be and again 60% is not or we're not happy with that that's certainly not our endgame goal by any means so um we still want that number to go up considerably the next couple of years but we're moving the right direction that's exciting iess I guess I'm curious on the proficiency right so I mean if we're above the state average like what are they what is in that proficiency scale I mean I don't think that anyone would think that 60% is a winning score it's not a it's an f grade if you're grading in our systems right so but if the entire state is below that like is there something are they are their demands too high on what they think proficiency should be or you know where is there a disconnect because it feels like there's a disconnect in my data brain um going back a couple of uh iterations of standards that go yeah when they when Minnesota decided to put algebra in 8th grade probably 15 years ago or 2010 standards that kind of changed the game and upped the ante a little bit I will tell you and it's probably been since about 2010 since I've seen studies but like Minnesota standards and to be proficient at our standards like only 20% of Tennessee would be meeting our standards so I mean there is a little bit more rigor in Minnesota standards than there are in some of the other states that kind of got washed away when they started to look at the Common Core so I don't know what it's been like since then because that Common Core was then to try to even things out a little bit but um there's definitely some disparity among states when they particularly at the beginning when they got to choose their own I wish there was a ranking for the rigor and then a ranking for where we're at because compared to other states because I think get a lot of kudos for our education system in the state but then when you look at something like this and you're like really yeah yeah and our our standards are they're rigorous and that's part of the reason you know we went through a phase where we're you know let's meet the kids where they're at and let's try to teach them where they're at um we tried to change that that mindset a little bit let's teach the standards and then pull the kids up to the standards this last year and that so there was some of that going on um and being much more intimate with what the standards are the standards if you read them they are rigorous but if you don't read them and you just turn the page in your book you may or may not get there so all of that is kind of all part of this big picture that we're trying to put together I mean still impressive yeah improvements for sure yeah it'll be interesting to see too because the states overall I mean we've dropped in our rating educational rate I mean the state well compared to the state where we Minnesota has dropped I mean just where our kids are at so it'll be interesting to see how and the legislation I mean whatever tries to correct that yeah but you know I I I think the success story here is we're up in science yeah reading math significant am abely month ago there's stories saying how the state is dropping we're exceeding that correct regardless of the data you know where where the State Bar is set I think it's it's it's showing that with the resources we have with the stuff that we've done as a board and as Administration and as a district it's working and I think that's something for us to be extremely proud of to tip our hats to to share y that you know we're what we're doing is right it's working well and I think just some of the recently start tribun had it out this this over the weekend I think it was but I mean letters training was very much front and center there and we invested in that early on and I think that you know we're see of that it's good we're seeing the benefits it's bad because we don't get to reap any of the funding by govern but yes true but you know I mean we made Investments the right way and it's showing it's having an impact so yeah what's our what are our goals then for next year like what a percentage are we increase stay tuned well when when I I'll be presenting them to the DAC committee got it um and then we'll I mean it's basically it'll be probably two and three% from where we're at is going to be probably a realistic goal and then we'll you know have those five areas for the world's best Workforce which by the way is changing names too so yeah about time for that yeah anything else for Mr RW no thank you awesome thank you so much thank you all right moving on to item C presentation to board members I'm assuming Mr Schuler oh yes this my favorite presentation of the Year buttering us up I get it all right good evening thank you for the opportunity board members to uh present uh the Minnesota school board recogn recognition month as you know it was formally in February in the past uh the msba folks decided they were going to move this to September because there's just too much to celebrate in November they want you to have a special or excuse me February yes they want you have a special a special month so the celebrate in November the theme this year is public school boards have heart so with that being said we have a proclamation this year again and it's wown mayor Public Schools recognizes the importance of public education in our community and whereas wown May public schools appreciates the vital role played by those individuals who as local Schoolboard members uh establish policies to ensure an efficient effective school system and whereas the Schoolboard members serve as a voice that enables our community to preserve local management and control of our public schools and whereas the school board members are charged with representing our local education interest state and federal governments and ensuring compliance with state and federal laws and whereas the school board um selfishly devote their knowledge time and talents and as advocates for our school children whereas the local school board members are as strong advocates for public education and responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the Public's expectations to the district now therefore it be resolved that the waterelm public school Community recognizes and salutes the members of the Watertown mayor school board for proclaiming and by proclaiming September 2024 as school board recognition month and now we have some nice a lot all right we start with our board chair Mr PHS [Applause] chair Mr Burns [Applause] schz director thank you for your service Lisa thank you for your service director for your service never put of having a heart for heard that yeah right that's new honestly hurting a little chest hurting but thank you for all the time and and energy you put into being on the school board uh giving up nights and the fourth Monday of every month and everything so you know whether it's missing kids events or family time at home it's greatly appreciated not just by me the administration but everybody in the community too so thank you guys well you thank you moving on to the action items acknowledgement of donation contributions and fundraising Mr Schuler uh we have four donors this month uh we'd like to share with you uh Minneapolis Foundation Phyllis Jean d drer uh donation to The Community uh youth theater for $5,000 Daryl and Darcy Hansen to the elementary uh music program for $2,122 for the purchase of3 three ukuleles for student use uh Eagle aluminum uh care of leaf Schmidt and donation to The robotics program for aluminum tubing for the about $1,200 there for robot construction and then last but not least Midwest motion Products Incorporated donation to robotics for $3,000 for robotic supplies thank You You's districtwide or is that just Elementary oh okay so if you don't have anyone the elementary school it's going to be quiet like fun yeah I don't think they'll go home I think they'll stay I think they'll stay they're going to come here perform with us we want to see the or we can go there for a concert go good idea well I I'll make a motion to approve uh the the donation contributions and fundraising yep Jeff got it motion made by Mr felt seconded by Mr onell all those in favor say I I I all oppose nay motion carries and thank you to those who donated uh to the district this month um moving on Item B the first and only read of District policies requiring review Mr Schuler uh Mr chair we would like to present uh the first only read of the following policies um the policy committee um a smaller group of policy committee met last week along with Miss huan and myself to review these policies um the one I gu I just want to call attention to is the policy 522 um Title 9 sex uh non-discrimination policy grievance procedure and process as you know this has been one that's been kind of playing out a little bit in the courts Nationwide not in Minnesota um but uh it went into effect at the national level on August 1st officially they called it the final rule so to speak um so uh the policy is in place uh msba recommended that uh even in limbo as this policy has been in in terms of the national level uh locally they said put it in place just because in Minnesota they are following the rule of of the of the feds basically at this point and much of the Minnesota rules in place follow the feds rules uh in this new uh Title 9 policy so just a little back history there again like I said it is being litigated in some states um certainly not here right now um but um Department of Education is enforcing it as um presented tonight the other uh policy uh 613 uh graduation requirements needed just a lot of cleanup uh just want to thank Mr hennon uh for taking some time at the high school level where most of the obviously work needed to be done uh he took some time to help clean that up so uh the graduation credit language has changed uh there's a new um table in there that you can see uh some of the newer requirements that have changed over the last year or the last couple of years um so those needed a pretty uh substantial cleanup if you will so I don't know if there's anything else to add Mr hennon from that or thank you for your work on that um that's all we have looking for approval I'll make an approval to approve the policies as um read tonight sorry motion made by Miss getco seconded by Mr Burns any further discussion on the 6522 policy hearing none all those in favor say I I I all oppose nay motion carries and thank you again to the policy committee for the time and effort and reviewing these as well as to Mr Schuler and Miss huan um item C the 2024 payable 2025 Levy certification Miss Raider the floor is yours thank you good do you have as good enough good news like Mr Vue had oh [Laughter] sure um tonight I'm going to present the first read or the first numbers of our 24 pay 25 Levy um the levy that um the levy produces revenue for three of our um funds the general fund uh Community Ed education and The Debt Service and the information that I'm sharing with you tonight will be collected in 2005 from the taxpayers and then it will be used what did I say you said 2005 I'm in let's do it 2025 we're not going back 20 minut um it'll be used in the 2025 2026 school year so we're going to start with the general fund um how these slides are are arranged is the top part is last year's lby the bottom part is this year's lby um there is an adjustment column the column is all the numbers that we're going to be certifying tonight are based on um estimations so it takes the uh state of Minnesota about two years to um go through adjustments to get it to what we should would what we should have gotten so the first page is our Equity our local options and our referendum um portions pretty consistent the largest increase was in the local options but that is because there was a large negative adjustment last year so that is why there is such a large positive this year uh the next slide is operating Capital ltfm safe school and abatement um I was asked at the finance meeting what a batement was and I was like you know I've seen it for so many years and I really don't know what is so I have something I know what it is now basically if um property taxes are reduced after the levy is certified the state comes in and TRS that out so the district isn't at a negative so and then of course there's always adjustments in years so it could be a negative but more times out of n it's a positive adjustment so that's what a baitman we have no control over it the state sets it so um I thought I'd bring that to you pretty much all those numbers for those categories are pretty um similar the largest is operating capital and that's just the formula how it worked out for this year and you're and you're specifically talking about the bottom set of numbers there when you're saying yes it's comparing it to um the 24 Levy and the last set of um categories for the general fund is the Career Tech the lease Levy and re-employment uh the lease Levy is on behalf of the Southwest Metro for their buildings um they're not able able to Levy so they have to go through their member districts um pretty consistent there is a decrease in the Reemployment and that is because last year was the covid year uh we had a lot more um uh unemployment unemployment that we got levied for so that was the true up of the re-employment so that's why you're seeing a decrease this year so in total the general fund is going up about 54 ,000 it's about a 1.72% from the 24 Levy next we'll go on to the community service fund uh the first couple categories is the basic Levy youth service after school and school H care pretty consistent except for the school H care last year there was a large reduction and again it was due to covid we had three months of um not much operations so they did take some funds back um so that is why you're seeing the positive 16,000 and in the school Age Care the last set of uh categories early childhood home visit and abatement pretty consistent um the total increase for the community service is about 22,000 which is about a 13.6% increase from last year the last is Debt Service um this is based on the principle principal and interest payments of our bonds um mde does allow districts to Levy 10% over which is our debt excess um the debt access is capped for three years so anything above that threeyear threshold is returned to Debt Service that's why you'll see a large um adjustment for debt excess pretty consistent our uh Bond and interest payments are pretty consistent for the next two or three years so and then the last is a baitman and ltfm again pretty consistent we have a about a $25,000 reduction in debt service for this year or mean compared to last year that's a negative. 58% from last year um this slide I always like to show that our Levy is a very small portion of our total revenue budget um in 23 it was 15% of the general fund budget 14% of the community service fund and the 90% of Debt Service the next slide shows just a history of what our um change of Levy Authority has been for the past several years as you can see we're pretty consistent except for the two years when there was actual statute change so we're pretty consistent and that's what we sort of like because we don't want to have a lot of shock to our tax fairs so the last um slide is I'm asking the board to approve at this point we proove the maximum Levy amount MD still has a week that they can tweak numbers so if it goes up or down a little bit um we just approve the maximum so then we can take effect any of the positive or negatives so you can see uh theal ly is 7,848 38654 it's an increase of $51,000 a 69% increase and any questions and all of these numbers are formula driven all of them all of them so I mean really there's no wiggle room in any of these it's not subjective it's all the only thing districts can do if they want to Levy less but that's not it well and because we don't have it maybe if we were looking at a 20% tax I mean impact to our taxpayers we would consider that but nobody's even going to feel this I mean a0 65% it's going to be somebody's GNA call actually I will say if your property value increases you will see an increase sure but if you're looking at the same amount of U property value no one will call experience approvement he [Music] made any questions move for approval second motion made by Mr onell seconded by Mr Burns any further discussion on the certification of the 2425 Levy hearing none all those in favor say I I all oos nay motion carries thank you Miss Raider for the presentation moving on to the review and information items uh Mr Schuler with the uh project updates yeah we just have a quick update on construction uh as you seen it's been about a month long uh stalemate if you will um our crews had left uh and went to other projects when our our uh some of our structures uh were still on order so getting the underground crew back to do some of underground underground digging and and getting some of the structures put in um was delayed and and they are back this week so uh Friday they completed some of the underground work at our um our side parking lot there on at the high school and then today uh they got underway at the um CLC and they'll be working their way from the the retention Pond the West Side working their way up the hill towards the top of the parking lot so as this really s afternoon about 400 p.m. or so they were pretty much um already halfway up the baseball field there um working their way up the hill so I'm what we're hearing it's going to be about a week of that so um week to to possibly up to 10 days of time so we're we're back moving which is a good sign um obviously we're hoping that um we can get the concrete work and the asphalt work done as well there's still asphalt and concrete work to do at the um upper uh Greenhouse lot as well that has to be finished up um that's all going to be done at one time as you know all contractors work it's getting them on site and and filling in all those little missing pieces that need to be done so concrete and asol um is going to be right at the end so we're still looking at November 1st as kind of our wrap up date and um kind of holding true to that so but thanks again to the CLC staff and even some of the uh residents around the CLC too have been putting up with a lot of extra traffic extra parking that have that we have to do street parking um so we we appreciate people's patience and we've worked with some homeowners uh to make sure that we're making clear of their driveways and giving them all you know adequate space to get in and out with trailers and such so um again thank you to those folks who have been very patient so and Miss dimler thank you as you remember that was the first project started now it's becoming the last to finish so so um any other questions we do have a boach meeting scheduled for Wednesday we we're back on track there for some updates is that lower parking lot not usable for Friday homecoming it will be usable it'll be it'll be gravel or dirt if you will but uh they're past years well I wasn't sure if they'd have a bunch of equipment parked any they said they'll move equipment if needed or you know I think for the most part it's back far enough right now even that we'll be able to park cars there yeah yep so good questions oh give the kids something to climb on don't encourage that I know they will do he see leave the keys from Bob [Laughter] so um just I have a question how the floor is holding up the new floor in the middle school any yeah rave reviews uh we've got some really nice compliments and Mr curton could probably speak to floors more but I think staff is just like wow I mean it it does look really good and um so Mr CT now if you have anything else to share on that but uhing looks [Laughter] great Shin yeah no last piece too that there is a lot of lighting that needs to be completed in the uh that additional parking lot the CLC has a new lighting which I think people will appreciate too cuz that's it's kind of a darker parking lot and then we're getting one more at a parking lamp that is kind of overlooking the intersection of the school entrance at the high school and and Highway 25 uh lighting that up a little bit better in the middle of the winter that's a really dark intersection too and just for student safety and staff safety too and parents leaving games late at night it's it's a dark intersection so hopefully get that lit up and then also the trail also gets some additional lighting too especially behind the visitor bleacher there to light that up a little bit better for kids walking in those winter nights and and mornings that are pretty dark so that'll be an ad hopefully be wrapping up to this October so nice anything else thank you you're welcome and you might as well just move right on to the Strategic direction oh I'm sorry one question about the the are they going to come and do like maybe some lines for the middle school because I know we have like cones there right now we are yeah so that's a good question we are we've walked that with um Mr girton and Jeff uh lisman and we've uh identified some areas and Dan from IC locked it with us and we've identified some areas that we're going to do um more of that designated area for drop off and then some signage in terms of arrows on the actual pavement or the asphalt to show which way to go it's been good I would say our parents are doing a really nice job it's the visitors coming into the district who are here for events that are get confused cuz some of them who have been here maybe for events previously right don't realize you can't cross over anymore so you know they get caught in the district office parking lot and a little confused and then they'll go back out but we added some signage um if you if you if you go in the high school um main parking lot the big sign with the signage we added one more spot that said event parking take a left basically so you hope we catch them before they get to the middle the district office area back in there so um we're just monitoring that um obviously for homecoming we're going kind of coing off that middle area just for for pedestrian traffic and so we'll have I think when we talked today four or five of us will be out doing parking lot Duty on homecoming to and just getting people parked accordingly so yeah okay you get the orange wands for Bob out [Laughter] there the off but uh we have we have vests we have vests we're gonna have orange vest so you can sa you first is that hard hats maybe that's not the theme of the night anyway safety right for the looks like a really nice night it does yeah uh moving on strategic Plan update um I'll be really brief there um this is more focused on learner outcomes uh this year um we are uh assessing uh n9th and 10th graders with our fast testing as you know we do K through 8 currently uh this year we're doing n9th and 10th grade students uh currently enrolled in a math or a uh English language arts class so those students are also getting screened uh we're hoping for at least two times a year possibly three I don't know if we've totally decided on that either um but again um the idea kind of started with um in special edcation we felt we needed a monitoring system at the high school level then it kind of expanded to well let's test the nth and 10th graders uh we know some area districts around us that are doing something similar um so we're kind of curious to see how those results um look and then how we identify those students who are below grade level and and what type of screening can we do or what kind of interventions can we do there as well so um right now we've got some early data that shows us about uh 75% of the students are on on track for math um and 66% are on track for reading um or on the in the low risk category so not all students have tested yet or been screened but um that's is our first year at that level we'll see how that goes ninth graders that should be pretty easy in the fact that they've tested in eighth grade and probably for many years prior to that uh 10th graders have had a year off so it might be a little tougher to get them back in the groove of doing it but again our fast uh screeners are really 20 minutes long they're not extensive but hopefully give us some good information to help those students who are struggling that's all I have any questions thank you welcome moving on to the admin reports Mr Hannon did you want to give both of them yeah I'll give while you're up there so you have sit down and come back up start with the activities update from Paul um obviously this is homecoming week a lot of events starting today with boy soccer then we have coronation right after this as well and then pretty much every night whether there's either home like athletic event and Wednesday There's Powderpuff and bad boys volleyball obviously concluding with Saturday then is the homecoming dance so busy week um Hollow of Fame at at halftime on Friday night there's five inductees I believe musical rehearsals are in full swing at the performance on November 21st they're performing Mean Girls this year uh Fine Arts registration is open with most of the programs be with the next month uh winter registration actually opens up Monday October 7th and then his last bullet point was fall participation numbers are plus three compared to last year so there is a positive and then one thing not just to clarify for events in the week I know we've been asked a few times like why doesn't every sport get a home game during homecoming week the simple answer is because when the conference schedule's made they don't take into account our homecoming weeks you know unfortunately this year we don't have a a volleyball home game you Rockford and how Lake are not just going to give up their home game just because it's our homecoming so right in case you could asked we had a few people ask I mean we'd love to make it work out when you can but you know we lose Monday night and Wednesday night and we have soccer now that has to be done by 7:30 so just in case people ask that is the reason why it's obviously we'd love to have everyone at home but it's easier said than done so uh for the high school update um really good start to the school year students have been amazing uh for some reason it it's the transition to school for everybody was just much cmer it was just an easier start I don't know why necessarily but it was just a really good first few weeks um and again it just seemed like you know those first few days I was a bit more difficult but it just seemed like by even like day three day four it just felt normal already which was just a really nice way to start the year um to give you an update you know we did put those Halo air quality sensors in um first day or two it caught some kids by surprise um but you know we've really been fortunate you know we like today we didn't have we had one hit today and it was a masking event and that's us when a a kid sprayed cologne in there it'll pick that up it's called the masking event and this kid just had cologne it was anything else in that but it was kind of funny cuz they're like whoa um we've had other times where like noise alert I mean so it's really effective and I just I haven't like surveyed kids formerly but I probably talked to 30 40 kids and just said what is it making a difference and almost to a person they've said it like I've talked to some seniors they said it's the best it's ever been uh you go to the bathrooms you don't got to worry about it kids aren't in Mass groups anymore um sending a mess I mean like I said it triggers it and we get alerts on our phones and it's pretty quick so I think you know the Grant and again thanks to Randy for spear and that has really been a major investment for us and it's really changed I think just the climate and the feeling of safety for our kids so um lastly I guess just want to give you an update I know I talked about this probably last spring but you know weirdly enough we're in the first few weeks of of our school year this year but talking about 2526 schedule I think it's been very well known that we're we're going to be probably looking at a different schedule in the high school for 25 26 um we have narrowed our our Focus onto a trimester based system either a five period or six period trimester the reason for that is because neither one of those schedules will dramatically impact the amount of courses our kids can take in fact even a sixth period trimester would actually increase our our courses our kids take um that's been a main focus I think of us is that no matter what schedule we go to we don't want to take a step back for I mean when I talk to kids and I've kind of been informed me again talk to probably 70 80 kids it's we want college and the schools opportunities we want work experience opportunities we want to be able to take electives in the CT area I mean those are the common themes so the goal is to find a schedule around that um and again there's multiple different schedules but you know the reason why it's on a six period cly is because a kid would lose 16 choices over four years a six period trimester they would actually increase by eight over four years and people ask how's that done it's because you rearrange how many sections teachers teach to be quite honest with you five period think they would lose one a year so they would lose a total of four but either way they're both very close into what kids are getting now uh obviously waiting on some budget numbers and things like that but I mean Mr G and I are working closely together try to align some 7 through 12 schedules um but again I feel pretty good about you know where we're at I'm going to offer parent listening sessions and information sessions on on conferences next week so they'll get some information tomorrow about some times for that um by tomorrow I will met with every High School teacher a second time to talk about this transition so I mean I feel like the process is moving along and that when we do kind of make this decision probably at the end of October that it's it's not going to be something anybody's going to be shocked about um but again I just want to reassure people that you know we're not looking at a schedule change that's going to cut back on what kids get to do it'll just look different and different isn't always bad like I've told people I mean sometimes it's an opportunity to actually like fix some of the things maybe we don't like um and again kids kids are resilient they'll they'll be fine so I'm like I said I think we're have a very good schedule next year but it's a big undertaking because we want to make sure we still are are providing things that that we want for our kids any questions for me all have the new phone rules gone over you know for the most part really good you know we had a few kids here and there that we kind of to remind them like hey you know and again for the most part you know especially our younger kids because again Mr G started this last year um really no issue sometimes our older kids not because they're just pushing it but just because you know sometimes they have jobs and they they think they have to have it on every second know their life and but we haven't had any bike push back we haven't had any kids go I have to have it on or I have to take it out right now they really they they kind of get it like there's going to be a time in the high school but when teachers are teaching or you're told to put it away put it away and we haven't had one issue really like fighting that just some some reminders for some kids yeah because they could go to the extreme of having to put in in a locked bag like some schools seen you know and actually the the the biggest struggles we Face are the kids that have the watches yeah right but again I mean for the most part it's that of okay here's here's the worst case so just do what we need you to do so we don't have to do that and most and again our thankfully we have kids who are they kind of get it like we're giving you this so don't push the on right stupid watches well thank you for the transparency and thoughtfulness on the schedule change I know the last time that that went around wasn't all that smooth so having that transparency I think is going to be super yeah yeah that's what I've I was in the Middle School those two years but that's what I heard so again we're trying to make sure there's going to be no surprises when we make these decisions and and and again teachers have been playing a pretty active role and have been given feedback and which is again I I think there's it's going to be very good yet for kids the fact that we're partway through that and we don't have a room full of people here at a school board meeting is a good thing it's good thing I I actually had a parent asked me last week about that like well how is that going to impact uh college and the schools I said you know the whole Focus you know as as you just shared is that not to lose out on any of those opportunities I mean in in the really there shouldn't be any reduction in the opportunities for next year so the it'll just be a transition like I said for some kids but there shouldn't be really any reduction in those opportunities thanks for the work on that thank you thank you Mr gton good evening everybody our first first month the school has been smooth just to Echo what Mr hennon said it has just been a very nice transition back for kids for staff for everybody so hopefully parents feel the same way um just the first couple weeks again routines getting kids back into learning mode building strong connections with kids but everything has gone very well was tell Mr Schuler we have a good framework in place right now too with our multiple tiered support system we're really starting to feel the benefit of that so I think I can lean into that as is part of what we feel that way uh and the floors look very shiny facilities are great uh parking lot is working out really well uh minimal road rage and we'll be putting arrows in but in all honesty it's been really great and makes a lot of sense it's very safe for kids um especially Walkers and the the bikers especially the kids that have um bikes that do 30 m hour now you know the battery you know electric bikes are a big thing um this is a really exciting week for middle school kids they get to dress up every day all kinds of really interesting outfits uh emerge uh but a lot of Royal Pride a lot of lot of excitement so we're having a lot of fun with that so uh really really exciting week for all our kids a couple of programming things I wanted to highlight uh I want to talk about our stem program really quick we added Automation and Robotics and I quite honestly every time miss Mrs Young invites me in see something I have something going on but in talking to her just I said give me a little bit of feedback on what this looks like so she's learning her way through for the first time teaching all these things and so are the kids but she said you know right now we're doing coding we're working on mechanisms I said tell me more um gear trains bevel gears universal joints terminology I'm not familiar with which is a good thing right like new stuff and they're going to take all this and put this together and the application side of this is really cool so once they learn about the coding and they start to tie in switches and they understand how gears and things work they're going to do some form of a project they'll either create a spinning sign an animal entertainment system or a dragster and so you know kudos to take in the leap with Project Lead the Way but that's the application of learning kids are all doing and it's exciting and they're using those different faculties to try out to figure out how to solve things um and it's hard different brains work differently so the group work and the collaboration and all those pieces are just super cool to see um the other programming piece uh all our kids uh is part of that tiered system of supports we have what's called a wind period embedded through our whole building uh the schedule right now and that's been interesting to see kids in eth grade that are struggling with literacy they have to take an extra literacy class and it's interesting to have kids say can I retake my fall fast bridge I didn't try so hard on that because I don't know that I belong in here but it all makes sense right we're responsive to the data and the instruction and so forth so we're we're kind of working through some of those Kinks but um it's been good um a couple of other just real quick pieces uh Mr Hannon talked about the schedule uh we're going to go to a period schedule and it won't be as much of a transition for the Middle School our staff know it's coming we're going to be aligning with the high school um and I think October will be the month where we're really getting into the nitty-gritty of what that looks like after we Shore up the rest of the information that we need in place financially um Staffing wise uh we're in really good shape our health services we've uh brought the middle school and high school back together because of the the timing of some resignations with our nursing staff I think it's working out okay uh we're still looking for a nursing assistant but um while that's happening um our kids are up in the high school they're getting into the routine and our secretaries are doing some triaging too they're taking Tak care of Band-Aids and things like that so we're trying to make sense of this um whole piece uh just to wrap up some recognition I want to thank our special ed staff um there was a lot of problem solving and just flexibility to try to fill the holes in our 512 DCd program we have three teachers tag teaming that this year a middle a high school and a CLC teacher so it was a tough role to fill and they're doing that job um also uh Emma Springer a social worker right now she's kind of growing uh Jenna Olson our interventionist is out on a matury leave and and Emma's just jumped up and taking over leading some of these support groups and things so she just kudos to her um and then lastly just um student leadership in our building we have just terrific families and kids that want to lead um but we have a really successful student council um making a lot of decisions and and and leading a lot of the events in our building our web program continues to get better that mentorship for fifth grade our eighth grade internship where we have our eighth graders going up and mentoring and supporting students with disabilities in our DCd program and now we have a Yes program which is a youth Eco Solutions Club ran by Mr nordberg and they're out leading efforts to promote you know environmentally sound practices and sustainability in our community they're the ones that La your Christmas lights if you're going to recycle them but they're doing good stuff they're taking care of a lot of the recycling in our in our building as a whole actually so good things going on uh at the middle school so that's it any questions or comments is there any collaboration between that yes and then ecology Club at the high school I don't know if they are not that I'm aware of not yet maybe there's an opportunity there think they know one another exists um so I think it's just a matter of time so awesome thank you thank you uh we're going to skip over Miss o Connell at this time Mr Scher is going to give that um update during his so we'll go right to miss dimler all right hello so the Community Learning Center busy as usual things have just also gone really well as we've transitioned into fall programming our ECFE classes are going well we're offering 30 classes right now right now we have about 70 participants enrolled in those we have3 preschoolers which is up from last year we are really excited with that um in seven classes and we have 140 kids in child care so also really excited about that and for just our programming Aquatics is probably our biggest um youth or um programming going on right now it is fall we've actually had to close programs uh between private and swimming lessons just because the demand is so high um for Early Childhood we have some fundraisers coming up we have our DQ artn coming up um as well as some elephant Joe's U fundraiser on October 22nd so if you've seen that um please feel free to participate and for child care we are working working on expansion with licensing um so we're looking to expand our enrollment by 35 so having some additional licensing um to bring in more kids which we are really excited about and I am really excited to say that with all the construction that's been going on our families have been phenomenal coming in a different door carrying those child child seats across the building they have been great and not complaining um we did have our community advisory um meeting this week and our group's a little small so we're working to try and grow that group so if you know anybody that would like to be on our advisory we would love to have them and then uh finally we've opened up winter um proposals for our winter catalog so that'll be we're accepting those through October 8th and um the new winter catalog will be out in homes mid November with the registration open December 2nd so if you wouldd like to teach a fun Class come talk to me so any questions I'm just want to mention too I think that adding of that 35 students uh in child care is a pretty big deal and um we've been looking at I know some of you we've talked to about expansion because of those weight lists and I think that was a neat opportunity to take basically two rooms um that have an open middle section and and one has a bathroom which was needed uh and then just adding a couple of door closers to the doors um was really uh Michelle and Amy were able to work with the state on making sure that was kosher and uh were able to add you know a significant amount of more students and staff to accommodate now so uh if that was one of our biggest concerns I guess is just that weight list were getting longer and longer I mean that we we got to fix that and that was one way to to kind of Remedy that so can I ask how big weight list is currently so we have 64 kids on our weight list for um 0 to three okay but some aren't born yet correct some notor okay well make a difference we are finding that people right now the minute they find out they're pregnant they are siging up so which is a common thing in most child so um and so the process right now to get the licensing that does take just a little bit so we submit paperwork to to the state we have to wait for you know Fire Marshall visits licensing visits so we hope to have this all completed before December does the state have like a maximum on like how many students you can have in child care is there is that such a thing well it's by room size te requ teacher ratio so if we had more staff we could probably have more kids on top for the room updates having more students but then you need more staff right it's all cyclical do we have the space to accommodate them if we were to get the licensing and the Staffing well we right now we can only do an additional 15 more okay up to like that zero to well three year olds um but it's kind of a snowball effect so if we take in those we have room for other you know sure kids so yeah what percentage do early child care then go into our preschool program is it pretty hot like old um 90% 90 I would say almost 99% so we need to grab exactly yeah exactly and and one of the things that we talked about at the Community Ed Ed meeting um was some from the ECFE side the ECFE grants Pathways grants yes the pathway dollars correct what we got 35 37,500 we've put out in Grants We There were families that were turned away and that's never happened here before so word of mouth has gotten out from you talking at the board meetings or or parents talking so parents are taking advantage of those grants which is much needed all right thank you thank you Mr Schuler I don't know if you want to start with Miss o connell's update I will uh Miss Connell would like to first update on learner outcomes in the elementary uh they just completed their fall reading of math benchmarks with fastbridge uh we begin the intervention services for students who qualified for tier one and tier 2 today uh Trends are showing that gains were made in the spring um are holding even with the time off over the summer and so the learning loss over the summer was looks like it was not as significant as they anticipated so um new this year because of the gains we have um made in the area of literacy we are able to shift one of our interventionalists uh Miss Johnson over to math and she'll providing tier three math interventions to K4 students in addition to her El time so she worked works with some of our English language Learners as well um we will conduct our Sabres which is the social emotional screener at the end of the month the data collect from the screener will help determine which students will be eligible for interventions with our school counselor Miss Vasquez uh or behavior interventionist Miss Brandenburg uh in terms of uh Partnerships our Junior coaching Partnerships with fourth graders and the high school students is off and running our four high school students that are with us for the first quarter are a huge hit yet uh engagement at recess continues to increase while incidents of behavior and off task behavior and conflict continue to decrease um our one area of need is that we are currently down one staff member and are seeking a pair professional to join our recess team so here's the plug for that so listen closely yeah you're guaranteed to close your rings on your Apple watch each day soak up some vitamin D and possibly impact back the lives of students and have uh kids bring a smile to your face the hours are from 10:50 to 1:50 p.m. um and the pace starts at 1830 an hour ideal candidates are Monday through Friday but we're willing to be flexible on that as well so if you know any positive energetic candidates who might be the right fit please tell them to take a look at joining our recess team so it's like she wrote that for a ad kind of yes yeah very nice though so and I know she has talked about the fourth graders that are coming over and that's been a really cool thing and Mr hennen's worked with Miss uh oconnell on making that happen and I think uh they're more of the athletic type of uh seniors and Jun Juniors and it's just been uh a lot of fun and I don't know if the high schoolers having more fun than the kids but uh she's exactly right the uh incidents of of just um misbehavior has gone down significantly when they have an act of person out there that's willing to put the time in get DED on yeah yeah yeah right so it's been working well all right I'll transition to uh the superintendent update um just last week on Wednesday we had the annual Chamber of Commerce education appreciation dinner uh a big thank you to Jim May from Marketplace Foods who kind of shares that from the chamber side I guess he's done that for a number of years and and just loves doing it uh we had over 100 staff members uh attend and spouse as well uh there were some great restaurants that contributed to the Food Part there was bees Legends on Main Marketplace Foods Loos line Lodge Subway uh lanista cookie store and um again a lot of other businesses provided donations of of gift cards and and such I think just about everybody walked away with something it was it was amazing so it's a lot of donations so again great food great entertainment great fun um thank you to the chamber also just working uh we're meeting tomorrow with with Brian Cook at the bus company and um Jackie his assistant here in Watertown I've just got three weeks in how are we doing with some of the bus changes uh we've talked a little bit about it's working well on the School site side maybe not so well on pickup times and drop off times so just trying to smooth that out and I we kind of knew that would happen in terms of just some of the times they put on the postcard would go home to parents in the fall is not as accurate and I see a KN ahead over there um so we're working with uh a cook on that um but I know both Bob and Nick will say from the principal side and staff that today I think we were out about uh 303 305 305 buses were already pulling out of the house of the high school parking lot where in the past it was as late as 3:25 so we've gained almost 20 minutes of time kids not having to stand outside supervision all those things that were a struggle for for many years so um again it's it's not Perfect by any means I think on the route side we're going to try to work with them on on some of that um but I really want to thank you know the especially cook for the for the effort they put into making this happen and it's starting to show results um across the board more details will come on that later I was going to say maybe at the next board meeting kind give a report back on that absolutely uh lastly and I think um Mr smky mentioned it we do have the Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday this is an every two-year event um and uh we try to core Coraline when we have a two-year football schedule when that comes out we can align that so um it is over homecoming which was kind of a cool time to do it but again Joe train a former uh coach and fied teacher here um is being recognize Russ Runk um as a teacher and a community um adviser here as well working with our Bea program um Pat H former uh teacher Dina students and now doing an amazing job with the Ed Foundation uh Mike naton uh kind of a do-it-all a fan um booster club I think he originated that maybe way back when and then Paul detel um as a outstanding graduate as you know Paul's very successful I think in the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame um also family of the summer dillow um so he's being recognized as well so um if you haven't seen it and we I should have brought a picture we have a new Hall of Fame board if you've been to a volleyball game or an event this fall um uh at the high school You' able to see that but it's it's a very beautiful wall that we're going to put the plaques in and um give it a nice designation uh really key spot in the high school so looking forward to that and again thank you to the uh lions and to um uh the legion and I'm think boosters thank you the boosters thank you uh as our donors there so um yeah it's very nice halftime is when the celebration occurs so and then a follow up at bees on the river afterwards will Mr un Make It or is he doing a fly over again fly over was guess it was anticipation of this maybe yes okay cuz he was really bumed that he was going to have to choose yeah I bet he was being able to do the flyover for military night was much better and he got to fly as his orb so he was happy about that too that's all I have thank you any questions from Mr really cool that he does that mhm all right are there any board member reports congrats to the Education Foundation on their fantastic bust move fundraiser I don't know if anybody knows the actual dollar amounts but I think they're yeah they posted it um like 23 23 Grand I think was yeah what they cleared after all expenses so attendance was down a little bit but there was a lot more auction items and so forth but um yeah and it was it was earlier in the year than what they've done previously but yeah yeah I think they were like 10% over last year so I me total dollar amount grew like you said yeah their expenses were a lot less um the band was fantastic yeah very good very good not that you're bias or anything hey they didn't ask me to get up at sink so that was that's a win in everyone that would have brought some more people in probably I'm sure uh policy Committee of course we just met um we'll meet again when the next round comes up uh District advisory committee uh will be meeting in November I think our first one will be in person this time so just so we can meet each other and marketing and communication I think we talked maybe about trying to do an inperson one the first the first one at Le just toober okay get something on the calendar here yep yeah uh Southwest we we met on Tuesday actually met last month too but I wasn't there um anyways uh our new superintendent DR Horton is amazing it's just new person uh leading South West um just even the meeting that I attended um Tuesday was just so different um he actually invited the new uh staff members to come up and introduced them and kind of welcomed them which I thought was a nice touch um also kind of the thing that I really like about him as well he's very transparent um really wants everyone's opinion he has a 100 day plan has probably listened to half of the staff already also the superintendent and then actually in November he's going to do A needs assessment with the superintendent and then the directors of uh special for all of our districts to kind of see what the needs are and what we can do together which I think is pretty amazing so we I've also invited him to a board meeting to do a presentation sort of uh Mr kermas the prior superintendent came and gave us a presentation I've invited DR Horton out for that and he said he'd try to come out at some point as well as whether it's either presenting or just sitting in the audience you know getting to know us better so yeah he definitely a different feeling from from that position so yeah yes I'm now part of two or three other committees I'm joining monthly so U lot more involvement so it's it's a good feel but we'll see so far so good so I think positive feedback from every board member there and even the superintendence too so anybody else finance committee we met prior um to talk about the uh the certification that we approved tonight um plan is for us to meet more frequently going forward uh as we kind of ramp up and to talk to you know Mr girton and Mr hennon to um on their plans uh for the bach or facilities committee we're kind of wrapping down the boach a little bit I would say and probably going to eventually switch it don't be giving me that look go he gave me like I he gave me like I don't believe happy um but but as a facilities committee we're going to need to meet and kind of just figure out where we're at with remaining items and where we are from a fun perspective um because I know we still have some Bond money left um let's see the only other thing from an msba side uh they did a advocacy Road shows the last couple weeks uh attended the last one probably 40 to 50 board numbers were on there and they did sort of a round robin you know say what are three things that you want um and it really there's a lot of common themes and they mentioned there's a lot of common themes from a from you know the school board side you know it's those unfunded mandates we got the increase in Formula funding but now we have to spend it on those o other regulations also to the formula funding is is a big one and then enrollments a lot of schools are seeing declining enrollments which last last month we approved the resolution uh they're going through all those from all the other districts uh eventually I will have to get in front of the delegate assembly and state my case on that so that'll be a fun fun adventure and I'll keep you guys up to date on on sort of where that is as well as kind of their legislative priorities as I learn them too so I appreciate you guys approving that last month and we dipping our toes in the water by diving into the deep end so that is is what I had so is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second motion made by Miss Danielson yes and second by Miss naton um all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries meeting is adjourned at 7:32 p.m.