Calling the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. This is the board of directors regular school board meeting for Monday, April 28th, 2025. Welcome to all of our visitors, guests, and media. And thank you guys all for coming. Uh it's usual. We're going to start with the board and administrative roll calls. Mr. Felt here. Mr. Burns here. Miss Danielson here. Miss Schultz here. Miss Gets here. Miss Nathan here. Mr. O'Neel here. Mr. Scheler here. Mr. Hennon here. Mr. Girtton here. Miss Payeyton. Miss Dimmler. Mr. View here. Mr. Samansky here. All right. Please stand for 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. There have been no public comments prior to the start of the meeting. So, our first item is a motion to approve the agenda and addendums. So, moved. I'll second. Motion made by Miss Nathan, seconded by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion on the agenda? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item three, the consent agenda, which includes the school board minutes for March 31st, 2025 meeting, the personnel consent agenda, and the business consent agenda. Move approval. Second. Motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Schultz. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item four, the recognitions, presentations, and showcase, which is the reason we have a full house tonight. I'm going to turn it over to uh Mr. Samansky. The floor and the show are yours. The circus is in town. Okay. Um, we'll follow the order in the agenda with a couple of little changes. Um, first off, I just want to congratulate the coaches and the participants on a successful winter season. It was a lot of fun all winter. Um, spending time in in St. Paul at at wrestling and watching state gymnastics and all the success that we had uh both in our fine arts activities and in our athletic activities. It was a great winter. It made it go by quick. So, we're very, very appreciative of that. And again, I just want to thank all the coaches. Um, at this time, what I'd like to do is we'll start off with gymnastics. So, Steve, come on up here. team uh finished first and we were undefeated, won the academic award. Important. Um we had eight girls qualify for the state tournament and then our team made it to the state tournament and finished fifth. So I'll read off the girls that uh and also one other thing in 50 years we've had gymnastics, we've had four state champs and we had pretty unique situation this year. Hadasa Gonzalez was a state champ on beam and last year she was kind of almost like on a junior high team or a middle school team. So for her to go all the way up past JV up to varsity and then win the state and she didn't know it at the time and when they announced her name she was like looking around like she couldn't believe she had won. So um that was quite a accomplishment. So, um I'll I'll name off the uh girls and um Evelyn Evelyn Milky, uh Grace McCabe, Ariana Me right here supporting our team, Nora Kelly, Maddie Sanders, Erica Johnson, Lily Mitsell, and Hadasa Gonzalez. And then uh we have the same ones for team and we also had Haya Anthony uh Ka Cali Jackson um well here's Ari Ariana again. She was part Kaylee Egleman Josie Drezen Laney Moore and I believe that is it. Oh Marley Hagen was another one. Um, and then we had our manager Aubrey Skiillings and Maya Carlson and Kayn Stiffer. And then myself, coach Steve Gardner, Mike Ericson, uh, who was section or region coach of the year again for assistant coach. Um, and then we also had Elsa Go Gilbert and Keith Henselin, another coach. All right, so any questions? Well done. Congratulations. We also have one a little addition. I just wanted to recognize um Deb, our Deb Han Gardner here, our longtime assistant. Um, I don't want to say finally because we're disappointed to see you go, but finally did completely retire from the coaching aspect of in gymnastics, but I just wanted to to uh share a little bit of information about her. She coached for 37 years in Watertown Mayor. um dedicated towards making positive influence with the many athletes she coached, developed strong relationships over the years, serving as a mentor and role model, had a tremendous impact on the gymnastics program. Although we're sad that she's retiring as a coach, we are happy that she's transitioned into helping us run efficient meets and working the table at some of our home meets. So, we're very, very happy with that. Um, Deb was a large part of the success that we've had in gymnastics over the years and I just want to thank you for your many, many years of service. Thank you. Okay, a couple of others that are out of order just a little bit. We've got some state recognitions for our coaches this year. Again, we had our wrestling coaches, section 2A and DA state coaches of the year and state coaches of the year in all classes, Kurt Becker and Bill McDonald. In addition to that, in our wrestling program, Troy Peterson was the coaches association co assistant coach of the year. And then we also Minnesota secondary BPA advisor of the year Brittany Miseratka. straight here. Okay, back in order. Now, I get the privilege tonight of introducing our state participants with boys swimming. of the team members from Watertown qualified with the state team that are we're co-op with Delano. The first one, Sam Daniels. Sixth place in the 100 free, 11th place in the 400 free, 12th place in the 200 meter medley relay, 13th place in the 200 free relay, and named Class A all state. Congratulations, Sam. Lars Anderson was not able to be here. Uh, 11th place in the 400 free relay. And last but not least, Zack Lman, 12th place in the 200 medley relay. So, we're here to recognize our wrestlers. Um, we will start with our team members. Our for uh wrestling, you pick a 20man postseason roster. So, we had obviously for most of you um pretty good postseason these guys. The first ever state championship. So, um not all these guys could be here. We had actually three of our wrestlers individual state entrance and 10 members of the team who just got done competing at Las Vegas at the US National Trials. Um and then some are on vacation. So Blake Broie could not be here tonight. Logan Lighter's here. Come on over Logan. Jackson Blacker. Joel Fredericks is in Vegas or on his way home. Titan Frederick's on his way home. Yeah, in Vegas. Gavin Moriceet. Sully was also wrestling in Las Vegas. Sully Marks Lewis is here. Lewis Foley Caleb Meis Carson Tuy is not here. Parker Jackson. Isaiah me, Kenny Lightner, Austin Stein, Carson Palmer, Bryce Berquette, Oliver Larson, Kyler Vermeister, Matthew Gallas, Bryce Moss. And that's it for the wrestlers. We got managers Ella Drier, Evelyn Becker, Breen Miller, Bela Lensen, Ruby Reinert, and Ava Hannah. Guys, picture and then coaches Kurt, Bill, Troy Peterson. Picture it right here. Look at Heather. Look at I know. I'm so sorry for that boys. Look happy about it. Along with coaches Ty TJ Frederick's, Eric Reinert, and Bryce Colinbach. So those are state and team pictures. So these guys won the first state championship in team history and I believe the only the second boys state championship in school history for any boys sport. Congratulations. make our first boys state championship. Our superintendent, Mr. Scheler, was a part of with the football team a couple years ago. Where's the picture? So, congratulations on the accomplishment of these guys. It was pretty awesome weekend. So, very cool. Um, you guys can sit down except for the individuals that are here that's qualified. So, we have Kyler Burmeister, Blake Broie, Sully Marx, uh Bryce Berquette. He was a twotime state championship, winning his second this year. Wrestle for the University of Oklahoma next year. Titan Frederick's won his third state championship this year. Will be a senior next year coming back. Joel won his first state championship this year. and Caleb me placed fifth the state tournament. Awesome. Congratulations. Oh, well done. So, thank you for taking the time tonight to recognize these young men. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Hello. Hello. There we go. Okay. So, I'm here to talk about the mock trial team and our performance this season. Um, we made it all the way to the state championship round. It's only the second time this has happened in school history. So, we were very, very proud of them. We just missed it by a hair. But that does mean this is the first time we've ever won second place at state. Yay. Yay. We got a trophy and everything, guys. It's great. Anyways, um, so Eliza Rowan was named an allstate attorney, but she can't make it tonight. and Riley Delaney was named an all-state witness. Again, couldn't make it, but this is actually the second time Riley's won that award. So, congratulations to her. Um, clearly there's a massive crowd here tonight, so I'll just breeze through these names pretty quickly. Um, we have Griffin Gatskow, Natalie Johnson, Honorary Bay of Timekeeper, Mattie Johnson. Yay. Um, Ella Skoo, Avalon Libra, Ella Hunkkins, Will Mant, Lonnie Gilbert, Amaly Keller, Lincoln Shinzy, and then I mentioned Eliza and Marley already. So, that's that was our team and we are very proud of them and very happy with the way the season uh worked out minus not winning. But other than that, it was a great time. Well done. Congratulations. Congratulations. Griffin, turn around. Turn around. Yeah. Pat, don't go anywhere before you leave. Well, I get the pleasure of recognizing our BPA students. Um, this year we had 25 Watertown Mayor High School BPA students compete at the state competition in 15 different competitive competitive events. 13 of our students are moving on to nationals next week in Orlando and they are competing in parliamentary procedure. We had the first and second place team at um state. We have uh Lucy is competing in computer modeling. Um we have somebody competing in fundamentals of web design and then we also had students that placed um on the parliamentary procedure written test. Uh, so lots of competitions happening next week in Orlando. They'll be busy. They'll also be enjoying the sunshine. Uh, I looked and the weather looks great. Um, okay. Bryce Tangga, McKenna Basic isn't here. Lucy Riley Delaney wasn't able to make it. Mara Elg Triton Frisbee, Lonnie Gilbert, Cade Hazy, Henry Janakula, Evan Jwison, Luke Jwison, Nicholas Johnson, Sophia Coley, Anna Lammansky, Paul Lightner, Jaylen Matthews, Elizabeth Metaf, Maline Munchko, McKenna Ranken, Eliza Rowan, Kayn Stifter, Miranda Stifter, Connor Tax, Clara Wetland, and Rowan Wetland. Yay. guys right here. Ready? One, two, three. Good job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good luck at nationals. Yeah. Have fun. Well, that ends that part, but I just want to say thank you to the to the parents and the students for showing up tonight with the potential weather issue that we had. But honestly, thank you. you guys did uh represent Watertown mayor quite well at all levels and not just in athletics but BPA and other activities. So congratulations and thank you guys again for coming out tonight. I know we appreciate it on the board. So thank you to all the coaches and advisers too for all your time and energy that you put in. So thank you. You're all dismissed. Thank you all for inviting us. Thank you all. Thanks for coming. so much hair. Yes. Oh, yeah. My husband would be very jealous cuz he's like, "Uh, did you at all over there?" I don't like mine. It's pretty easy. I know what she was getting at because we talked about it at the one meeting. I know it's really easy in the morning, right? The way she laid that spreadsheet on that. Bless you. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Now we have a smaller audience. It's much more a lot more intimate. Yeah. Move up to the front row. Yeah. You guys can move closer. So we'll move on to the action items. Um item A, acknowledgement of donation, contributions, and fundraising. Mr. Scheler. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh we'll go through our list of donors and their kind donations. uh Bartell uh band booster club um donation to the band uh for $2,95 for the purchase of a new baritone saxophone for the program. I was a former baritone player warms my heart to see who we're learning a lot about you tonight. Uh Steve Hayne Gartner uh donor uh would like to donate to athletics $31862 purchasing of chairs for the athletic program. Um donor uh mayor baseball club incorporated to BPA for $1,500 to their nationals. Ron Ritter to BPA for $25 to their nationals. Uh, Elf & Joe Coffee Incorporated to Letters of Love for $41 for supplies and food to support the creation of and card holders. Um, Community Giving, uh, would like to give a donation to the robotics program for $1,000 robotic parts. Progressive Systems Incorporated, um, robotics, $500 for robotic parts. um Phyllis drove her fund or the Minneapolis uh foundation to the uh summer youth theater for $3,000 um and again for their summer youth theater expenses. So, thank you to all those donors. I'll make I'll second. Motion made by Mr. O'ell, second by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion on the donations? All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. And thank you again to all of our donors. I know I say that every month, but they help us out a lot. Absolutely. Item B, the final read of district policies requiring annual review. Mr. Schuler. Uh, Mr. Chair and board, we had um brought back the fund balance policy 714 um for a second read. And uh I know there was a subcommittee that was formed after last meeting to have a little deeper discussion on um the policy and specifically if we scroll down to the minimum fund balance part um part five um and I don't know if any of the policy members want to speak to that but uh the the piece there that was changed and you can see the the language but the school district will strive to maintain a minimum unassigned general fund balance of not less than 10% and you can see that in green of the annual general uh fund operating expenditures move approval. I'll second motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Gatskco. Any further discussion on the policy hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. And thank you to the subcommittee for yes for meeting and and and talking about kind of what's in the best interest of the district. So appreciate that. Um moving on to item C, resolution 2520. Mr. Schuler and Miss Rder, I guess, too. You're first on the list. Says Miss Raider and Mr. Schuler. Thanks first. Thanks for coming. Um tonight we bring forth um a resolution to uh reduce um two positions uh this year. Um again as we've uh brought forth back in March our recommendations for uh reductions and budget adjustments. Um we've come up with the two uh positions and those are based out of the elementary school. uh one is a retirement and one is a long-term um leave that's just not coming back. So, we're not going to renew that position. Um so, again, uh basis there is um a lot of our enrollment shifts have been out of the elementary and due to their enrollment dropping. Um at this time, this seems like a pretty logical move and just responding to the enrollment change. Um again, uh due to some of the shifting we're doing at the high school and and middle school in terms of shifting to that, uh six period day, uh we're able to to do some shifting there that supports those two buildings. Um and uh again, just very appreciative of the work uh the principles have done and certainly the staff uh in both of those two buildings for uh just working together. Uh this is a really big lift. It's a heavy lift for uh certainly the principles but the leadership teams as well. Um this process again started way back almost probably 15 months ago. We started looking at different uh schedules in the area and what other districts were doing. Um Mr. Hennon and his uh leadership team came down with a six period day and middle school uh staff accepted that as well. Um and in and we're just about there in terms of our staffing. Um and um I think we're pretty proud of the fact that um really nobody's impacted necessarily by these cuts in terms of uh individuals losing their positions. These are people that are already leaving the district, if you will. So, I think we we're kind of proud of the fact that we were able to do some budget shifts and thank you to Miss Rder as well for some creative uh work on that end um uh to shift some funds um again or positions over to compensatory and some of our access dollars. So, um I don't know if you had anything to add to that, but um work of of a lot of people to to make this as minimal as possible um impact I should say. And so with this resolution, it's just not bringing we're kind of eliminating those two positions at the elementary school. And I believe that um this is going to require a roll call vote for us too once once it's uh motioned and seconded, too. So just heads up on that. Is there any other questions on the resolution? I assume that we'll be able to keep, you know, class sizes at a pretty manageable level with the change. Yeah. What we're do, my understanding of what we're doing is that the class sizes are kind of moving and then those positions we're not renewing are kind of in those classes that are smaller in size. Correct. Yeah, we have some really nice classes sizes next year projecting K through three. Fourth grade gets a little bit bigger. Uh we're monitoring that. Um he's probably looking at about 26 to 27 in a classroom. Um so it's a little larger for what we've traditionally seen, but u not unheard of. I think if we looked at our our metro area fourth grade average is probably around 26 is a metro average typically for fourth grade. So we feel within range. Uh but to that end we're watching over the summer if there was a shift there in terms of uh major increase. Obviously we can respond to that like we have in the past at the board level and and made a move in in August if need be. So, we'll be watching that and Miss Okonnell is prepared to, you know, add a section there if if that would ever come to be provisioned. So, yeah, good question. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2520. I'll second. Roll call vote. Hunter Felt. I. Jim Burns. Hi, Erica Schultz. I Katie Joe Danielson. I Heidi gets I Jeffell. Motion pass. Yep. Unanimous. Moving on. Item D, resolution 2521. Mr. Schuler. Um, Mr. Chair and board, we are bringing forth a resolution to uh terminate and uh non-renew uh two teachers. Um you can see there uh those individuals uh both out of the elementary school. Uh these positions will be rehired or reposted I should say. Um but whenever we non-renew somebody we need board action to do that. So that's we're bringing forward tonight. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2521. Second. And this one is also a roll call vote. Roll call vote. Mr. Felt. Hi. Mr. Burns. Hi. Miss Schultz. Hi. Miss Danielson. Hi. Miss Gatskco. Hi. Miss Nathan. Hi. Mr. O'Neal. Hi. Motion carries. Seven. RIP. Moving on to item E. Watertown Mayor athletic activity fee schedule 2526. Mr. Scheler and Mr. Samansky. Yeah, I can maybe say it. Mr. Spansky and Trip. Um but uh we are not um motioning to move forward with any additional changes to our activity fee schedule for the 2526 school year. Um and again some of the rationale I know uh Mr. Samansky looks closely at the area schools especially the schools in the west side of the conference which are more our size and more demographically similar. Um those schools uh we're probably at the higher one or two I think if that be correct Mr. Lansky in terms of uh where we are. So, we feel we're we're right sized and at this point in time and and did not see a need to um to increase. We're probably more aligned actually with our fee uh schedule and structure with the east side schools. Um but u for that reason, I think we're comfortable leaving those uh where they're at at this point in time. Move approval. Second. Motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Schultz. Any further discussion on the fee schedule? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Moving on. Item F, Watertown Mayor Facilities Handbook. Mr. Scheler and Miss Dimler. Uh, yes, Mr. Chair and board. We uh as you know it's coming to that time of the year when we're starting to get handbooks and the facilities uh handbook is kind of the first one to come to in front of the board for approval. Um, the only thing I would note, uh, Miss Dimmler and Miss Taylor, uh, our facilities director, have done some work in terms of, uh, page eight in the facility handbook, um, primarily doing a lot with the concession stands and what is brought into the concession stand, um, from our our our groups, our our booster groups and our associations. Um, they just wanted to clean that up um, and make that a little bit more clear. um when we've added Miss Taylor back uh into this role now as the facilities coordinator um she's taken a lot of pride in in working with our outside folks coming in and kind of reconfirming some of these guidelines. Uh she's been able to see it now kind of a full year of of how it operates and uh these are some pretty simple recommendations that kind of fit within our safe serve guidelines as well. That's the other piece on this is that there's obviously some some state um department of health guidelines that we have to follow. Um so these are some recommendations that she and Miss Dimler um have worked with and I think Lisa and I have had a part in this as well just reviewing this. I know she's worked a little bit with Miss Nathan and Miss Mr. O'Neal as well just getting some feedback. Um so uh with that being said, we're we're recommending uh these changes and looking for your approval. So moved. I'll second. Motion made by Miss Nathan, seconded by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion on the uh facilities handbook? All those in favor say I. I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Item G, K5, English language arts curriculum. Mr. View and Mr. Scheler. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to be here. Um, just wanted to go over and review for you a a little bit of the process that we went through uh for this K5 recommendation. Uh, our groups met, uh, for the third time last Tuesday. Um, and as we've gone through the process, uh, Miss Okonnell has got together a reading group and we reviewed, uh, several curricular areas. Um several of them were already pre-approved by uh MDE uh as part of their recommendations for what met the science of reading standards as well as our Minnesota standards. Uh we reviewed um comprehensive. So these kind of fall into two categories if you're following the science of reading at all. They have a foundational component, they have a knowledge component, and then if you have a curricular area that does both of them, it's called a comprehensive uh uh resource. Uh so we reviewed open up education which is a comprehensive resource. Um we've worked over the last couple years with uh youly which is a foundational resource. So a comprehensive we felt like you know it didn't first of all it didn't match up with what we thought was the best curricula area. Secondly it also had too much information because we really liked what you has been doing for us. So we just decided that you know that wasn't necessarily the resource we wanted to go with. Um, Witten Wisdom was a resource that was uh approved by the Department of Education and that company Great Minds is coming out with a new product in uh the fall. So, it'll be a 2025 copyright. Couple things that are different about it. Number one, instead of a 90minute knowledgebased curricular area, it's going to be a 60-minute knowledgebased curricular area. So that opens up a half an hour of our time to fit in that found those foundational skills. So we can map that all into our day and still meet all the requirements that that are set before us. Uh and since it's put out by the same company, we know that their research indicates that what was working is what they're going to continue with. So uh we're excited about that opportunity. We also did some research about area um schools that have been using Witten Wisdom and what their scores were. We had found very few schools that had been using it for a long period of time. Uh there were a couple that had it for two years and hadn't necessarily seen um a lot of movement yet. Uh but what we did find out is uh Becker, for example, uh used Wit and Wisdom this year and because it was 90 minutes, they're going to move over to Arts and Letters next year. So they're going to go with the same uh same company for good reasons. It's just that that time constraint really uh become uh a barrier for them. So uh they'll be moving uh along with us in that regard. Uh we're looking at uh asking tonight for board approval on that as a K5 um knowledgebased resource. We've got a foundational resource for our K through2 teams. So we'll also be asking for a foundational resource which is called functional morphology um for our grades three, four and five. And then we will have both a knowledge base and a foundational base K through five that should be very systematic uh and is a very well vetted uh set of resources for us moving forward. So, we would ask that the uh that went to our committee and our committee um recommended board approval for that. Are there any questions? Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the uh language arts curriculum as presented. Second. Motion made by Miss Gatsco, seconded by Mr. O'Neal. Any further discussion or questions on the K5 language arts curriculum. All right. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. And that ends the action items of the evening. Moving on to our review and information items, a strategic plan update. Mr. Schuler. All right. Uh, tonight I'd like just to share a little bit about our strategic plan survey. uh our as I mentioned last month our leadership team um has has met and worked through a number of questions. A couple of the things that we looked at this year was to shorten our survey uh obviously to match to our current uh strategic commitments um but also just again um make it so that it's it's more relevant to the district and then back down to the building level. So at the staff level, remember we interview uh survey our staff, our parents uh and our students. At the staff level, we'll have five questions um from the district side and then again very simple. Um our district provides effective academic supports for all students. Uh communication from school and district leadership is clear, timely and relevant. The district supports my professional development and growth. I have a clear understanding of the district mission and goals and I'm satisfied with my current role in the district and that'll go out to all um staff across the district. Um parents, uh we got that down to nine questions. Um those questions are, I'm satisfied with my child's uh overall educational experience. The communication I received from the district is relevant, timely, and effective. Uh district facilities are clean, neat, and well-maintained. Um, the district is fiscally responsible. The teachers, staff, and administration in this district demonstrate a genuine concern for my children. Um, I feel like my child has multiple opportunities to be successful at school. I feel like my child's social and emotional needs are being supported. I feel wart provides a safe learning environment for my child and I feel my child has a connection with at least one adult in their school. And then lastly, the student uh survey will be generated by the building. So the building leadership teams are generating those questions obviously to to give out to those students here in a couple of weeks when we do our our survey process. So um we haven't exactly quite got down to how we're going to report back on this in terms of if you remember we had a vision card previously. Uh we're not 100% sure what that's going to look like yet, but over the next month we should have something to share back on that too. But um I think parents will appreciate the shorter piece of the survey. I think in the past it got nearly 20 questions. Um I think last year we had almost 100 parents. Uh which it wasn't great. Um but we're looking to raise that up and find multiple ways to get this out into their hands to to give us some feedback. So um we're hoping again for about two weeks from now to to roll that out. So any questions? No, but I just would like to say that your last email was already um information, you know, kind of on our strategic plan was very nice. Oh, thank you. There was a lot of good information in there. Appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. And and for the questions, especially that, you know, from the parents and the staff that that have been developed, are there going to be open-ended responses, too, so they can say yes, here's why, or no, here's why? Yeah, I think we're not going to provide open-ended at each question, but one at the end for one general open-ended question to give us some feedback. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. We're on to the admin reports. Mr. Hennon, good evening. Uh just now that we're getting close to May, it's the time of big events. We just finished home with prom. We had I think over 170 people either attend prom or postp prom. Went really well. Um and again, just a big thanks to everybody who helped with that, but it really had beautiful weather and it was really nice for them on Saturday. Um senior athletic banquet's coming up May 7th. The awards and scholarship night is the 14th. I think this year we had over 60 students apply for scholarships. So again, it's been pretty consistent, but it's always nice because I mean there's a lot of opportunities for them. And then obviously graduation is May 23rd. So I mean again this month will go by really quickly. I was told by some seniors today that the forecast is 75 and sunny. So hope they're right. Either way the address and any you know they they told me no matter what. Yeah. Um tornado. Just one piece I thought was pretty interesting today. one of the uh Logan Spitzer counselor shared this. I asked him to kind of track this year like how many of our kids get exposed or how many visits to like college reps, speakers, and so on. He said this year we had 37 either visits or speakers about college andor careers. And he said there have been 1,06 student visits to those opportunities. Thought that was kind of cool just to track that to kind of just get a measure on, you know, is it really working? Because sometimes colleges come out and we just don't know if it actually is effective or not. And so I thought that was pretty interesting that obviously that's kids getting multiple exposures, but they are at least getting chances to connect with college reps, hear different career speakers, and again that's been kind of a point of emphasis to make sure that they are getting that chance. So I thought that was nice that he's tracking that actually. And then lastly, some schedule change information. I'll let Mr. G talked more about his but I think we're at a point where probably the last hurdle we had overcome was we have I think I want to say nine shared staff this year which is n or 10 which is a bit more than normal. Um creates a little bit of more of a burden when you are talking about sharing staff and also sharing facilities because obviously you know again when he has a like an eighth grade industrial seventh grade industrial tech you know I can't use the woods room then and it just is a little bit more than normal. So, it took us a little while to kind of get there, but we are on the right track. Again, I I I said this in the district advisory committee the other night is, you know, right now and obviously got some work to do to balance, but I mean, we're well over 90 some% of requests have been granted for kids. So, I think that was the big goal that we, you know, just like always, if a class only had a few people, we're not going to offer it. But that's not even going into their alternates that they put. So, realistically, you know, most kids are still going to get out of those 18 spots. most are getting 168 16 to 17 of what they wanted and that's really was the key of what we're trying to do and if anything I think the schedule's given us a lot more flexibility and we've changed some of the dynamics with it but overall it's good we are on track that you know by next week we should be starting student schedules already which is really cool and that's much earlier than normal and I think you know hopefully our our goal is that most especially our older kids will see a draft and of their schedules before they leave school. Wow. So that's something that hasn't been done, I don't think. So that's kind of where we're at right now. And um if Mr. Girtton would have just No, I'm just kidding. It's again, it's been really good. It's a good partnership between the middle school and high school that I think both buildings are going to benefit a lot from that collaborative 7 through 12 schedule. So any questions from Thank you. Did you get those boards painted yet, Bob? They are going to be done. And by the way, Thursday's ready. Well, good evening everybody. I'll start with the schedule pieces here. Um, everything worked out after I handed Bob the middle school schedule and allowed him to blow it up. So, no, in all honesty, it's been really a good process. So, I think we're it's fair to say that everything right now has been merged and it's just going through details. So, really excited about that and better opportunities for kids, especially with those elective classes. Um, quick staffing update. If you have students at the middle school, fifth through 7th graders, Josh Razer, uh our long-term sub, band sub, has started working with kids. So, last week was his first week getting in to do small group lessons with our middle schoolers, and he'll continue that through the end of the year. I'm sure you'll see him at our concerts coming up. And then Miles will continue to do the large group. So, we're we're they're working really well together with that piece. Um transition planning, like Mr. Hannon said, you just you get drugged through May. It's just very busy, but very fun and exciting. Our fourth graders are coming over already this week to visit the middle school. We have two band and choir concerts. We still have another fundraiser to kick off. Uh for us, it's eighth graders uh leaving the middle school and we'll have a celebration that our PTO will will put together for us. And then field trips. So things are moving fast and furious, but um also very positive for the whole school. Last thing, I just want to take a minute to recognize our middle school unified program. Something really cool uh is taking place. So, Aaron Blair and Ashley Denami have organized our unified program. It's just a a micro version of what they do in the high school. We have about 35 kids that participate 5'8. This year, they're expanding our program to include participation in sports. So, uh, we have, uh, May 2nd a soccer invitational and our middle school will be a part of that now and, uh, hosting and playing with Minnetonka and Wakonia Middle School. So, we're, this is a big step. This is how you unify kids. You know, it's another opportunity to get everybody together, um, and cheer on a soccer team. So, kudos to them. And, you know, we're just more and more bridging, I guess, with the high school, which has done a fantastic job. So, just wanted to point that out. Uh that's all I have. Is that by invitation only to students or is like any are any students all our kids are going to be invited to participate. So we have a uh organization it's a club that has our students on that uh in that group and then um those kids along with uh the student I I think it's just those students in that group if I'm thinking correctly on who will be participating. Okay. Yep. Just those kids in there. So, it's a it's a big step forward, though. I'm sure it'll continue to grow into other sports. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And as you may notice, Miss Okonnell is not here today, but we do have Mr. Schuler giving her update. I do. Thank you. Um, under the first strategic commitment of all students exhibiting physical and social and emotional well-being and being connected to their school, uh, Miss Okonnell notes that kindergarten registration is at 63 students um that they have completed registration and and for the upcoming school year. We continue to monitor registration and actively employ outreach efforts to households from our census data as well as those in Roundup who have not yet registered who came to Roundup and then again to encourage families to complete their registration. Uh under learner outcomes again they're excited to share that the ELA team the English language team um has also completed their extensive review of the core resources to support the new English language arts standards and the science of reading. After carefully studying multiple programs and meeting with a variety of vendors, we're proud to announce the selection of arts and letters, which Mr. V just noted a few minutes ago, as our knowledge building resource for grades K through five, and functional morphology, a vocabulary and word study resource to strengthen instruction in grades three through five. We also continue our successful use of UFly as the phonics resource for grades K through two. We look forward to these positive highquality resources that will have an impact on our students literacy development. And then lastly, also their third and fourth grade students at the elementary recently completed their math um and reading MCAs over the past two weeks. We just have a handful of students remaining to finish these tests due to absences. Uh we're really proud of the efforts they've put into these assessments, taking their time and showing what they can do um and trying their very best. Any questions? Thank you. Welcome, Miss Demler. All right. Good evening. So, I am excited. I was just kind of looking at our numbers. Our winter programming is it's still going, but it's kind of in that tail end or wrapping up. Um, we've had about 854 enrollments to date and then I looked at where we are with summer registrations right now and we have 831 um, enrollments for summer already. Um, so I thought that was pretty cool and we're still accepting summer enrollments. So, we're doing pretty good with that. And then we um have RFPs out right now for fall. So, we're just we're keeping it rolling. Um, and they are due uh May 14th and we will have our fall book out uh mid July with uh register registration open uh August 4th. So, you know, we're just going to skip right over summer. We haven't done yet. Um we did recently receive a thousand grant from the city of Watertown which will just help with pro programming. Um and right now our registration for preschool is at its highest number that we've seen in a long time. We have 110 kids registered for preschool for the fall. Um, and our child care continues to grow. So, we're also excited about that. We're looking at our staffing for the fall and we've started that interview process. Um, we've also had a really successful kids self sale um, April 12th and we have our kickoff to summer event on Tuesday, May 21st um, at 6 o'clock. So please come and join us. And then finally, we will be having our last community ed advisory meeting on May 13th. So we invite you to join us for that as well. So that is our community in any questions. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. H. Uh well, thank you once again. Uh I just wanted to touch on the three years curriculum assessment and professional development. Real quickly, curriculum we've touched on. Thank you again for all all of your approvals and work on that. I did want to mention maybe one more thing that I've been working with Lisa and we are within budget. So there which is an important thing, right? Um but uh we've been working and we've been kind of planning this out over the last several years and we our our structure of our review cycle is as such that there's some lower expenditures on the front side and lower expenditures on the back side planning for this bigger one. So just to keep you aware of that. Uh as Mr. Schuler mentioned MCAs are wrapping up. I think we've got about 10 kids less than 10 kids in each math and reading that need to finish it districtwide. So we're we're getting really really close. Uh we've still got science this week and maybe next to to wrap up at 5th 8th and um at uh after biology in high school. So that'll be coming down the lake uh pike. Um uh MDE, just to get you informed, MDE approved a 4 through 12 dyslexia screener recently. I don't know much about it. I'll find out more about it here. Uh I've got one of my meetings with it with St. Cloud uh during the middle of the month in May. find out more about that, what its costs are, who has to implement that, how long these are all going to take, and who's um I've seen a little bit about who we should be looking at testing, but um so we need to be prepared for that in the upcoming years. Uh professional development, we're looking already at fall. Um we have uh worked with uh Education Minnesota. uh some people from our association here have worked and we're going to be bringing out some trainers that will do uh reading training for staff members who haven't had the science of reading training, but that's still a K12 requirement. Uh and also we're going to get um some uh American Indian history and culture for the staff at large since we see that as a weak area all all across the district. uh and it is a license renewal uh requirement as well. Um and just one more thing uh Mr. Schuler and I sat in and we talked with several staff members uh who are interested in becoming early career teacher coaches uh resource training and solutions which is our co-op got a grant. They'll be providing free training uh of four days for coaches for teachers who are new to the career or non-tenured. so that we can support them, give them great support for what good teaching looks like uh in the classroom. We've talked about tier one over the last two to three years. So, we see this as a great opportunity to continue to bolster that particularly with some uh staff members that might be new to the profession. So, we're really excited about that as we move uh into the future. So, we'll have that for supports for next year. What a second half what Mr. View said. I I think the teachers that we interviewed, I think we were both just amazed by the skill set of our teachers that maybe we didn't really know because we didn't know that side of them, but just their willingness to help and mentor new teachers and and the passion they had to do this was really rewarding and kind of made our week really at the end of the week is like let's select everybody to be a part of this. Um and and was there was not one candidate that we said this would not work. They all really stepped up and and you can see the passion they had. So appreciate and they were all excited to work together too even with other staff members. So we see it as a win-winwin all the way around. So great. One last thing. I don't know if we should mention this or not, but Mr. uh Mr. V uh had his first uh MCA audit. Um I think maybe in his illustrious career, uh can you explain to the board what that looks like? Because it's a real thing. We found out it is a real thing. So, the Department of Ed comes out, they visit somewhere between 80 and 90 school districts every year. Surprise, unannounced day of testing. So, that's part of the reason that we have to have our assessment calendar posted. So, she just showed up at 7:30 on our first day of testing and said, "Hey, I'm here. Where do you want me to go?" And u the poor teacher that I pic selected was the first one that I saw. She happened to be a secondy year teacher, but she did super super super super well. Uh, and actually uh it took about two and a half weeks, but I got the report back. Everything was pitch. It was fantastic because at the at the beginning of every school year, we get a report on what their findings are. So after these 80 visits, we find out that, you know, 75% of the infractions are from teachers not reading the directions as printed. done. You got all these reports back about all the things that are violations. Um, but ours was gold star. So, was phenomenal. It's great. Great to hear. Nice. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you. Mr. Schuler. Yeah. Uh, just a couple of uh personnel pieces. Um, we'd like to uh introduce Crystal Sunby as our new HR uh human resources manager. Uh, Crystal, as you know, is uh currently our high school admin assistant and uh went through a a very rigorous process uh but uh was named um just this last week and I think we'll put that out officially. Um again, just uh very excited to have her in that role um replacing Mrs. Eton. Um, also uh we continue to look at candidates uh for the uh director of finance uh and operations and uh Mr. Burns has been kind enough to give us some of his mornings to be a part of that process. So um we have uh we've been uh had some applicants uh again none of which have school finance uh experience. So I think um we're we're struggling to find that right fit person who um you know who's going to be able to translate into what we know is a very difficult realm in school finance. So um Mr. Burns, Miss Rder and I have been a part of those interviews and we have a couple more scheduled hopefully this week. Um and we've we've put a a wider net out there too using Indeed um as another way to capture some people outside of our area. Um, so we're continue to work through that process. So, um, yeah. So, thank you for those who've been a part of that so far. We hope to have some good news in the May meeting to share with you on, um, a hire. Uh, also, uh, one last piece, um, Miss Dimler and I have spending a lot of time together in terms of looking at um, some opportunities at the CLC building for some additional child care space. Uh we'll continue to do that uh into the into May here. But um just trying to maybe even encompass one classroom that we can take over potentially for next year um to to add. Again, we've talked about that weight list being about 60some students, our young young children. Um and it's a it's a really it's a need that we have in our community. And I know Amy's and I have been kind of looking at multiple different ways uh that we can restructure and just add a classroom. believe it or not, that that building is is space is tight, you know, and you think, well, you know, there's not much happening there, but there's a lot happening. Uh, and that space is is all well used. So, um, we're going to continue to work on that. Matter of fact, one of our candidates that we interviewed, um, you know, one of the things that she mentioned, I love our child care because I use it myself. I have a think a two-year-old and she said, what a valuable resource that is in our community. So, we kind of heard it firsthand that day of like, "Wow, um that's pretty neat that um you know, someone in our community is actively using it." So, and then lastly, um I was handed a note to not forget Miss Okonnell, unless she forgot this, but uh Strides for Students is uh coming up on Saturday, May 3rd, their big fundraiser, the one and only fundraiser of the school year. So, uh that's this Saturday. So hopefully great weather and a great event. So thank you. Oh, I just wanted to add that if they make their goal get signed. Uhhuh. Wow. That's why she didn't mention it. Breaking news. Thank you. That's exciting. Yeah. That's all I have. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Scheler? All right. Uh, last but not least, board member reports. Anybody have anything since last month? Um, policy committee hasn't had anything recently. We just met um the district advisory committee to go over the curriculum. Um, and marketing communication is looking for a date in May, like upcoming May. So, we're just trying to find the right date for everyone. So, personnel committee is actively in negotiations. So, we've got the teachers another round on Wednesday and then we've got um Paris and who else we have scheduled? That's it. That's it. That's it for right now. Y for now. For now. Uh for Southwest, we met a couple weeks ago and uh actually it was a really fun fun um board meeting um at the beginning because we had60 people in attendance. So it was really fun. Yeah, it was uh crazy. Uh we had um the 65 international students which as you know with the shortage they've really helped out uh and they're um we continue actually to uh to kind of look at hiring more. So there's more coming. So we got to recognize them and meet them which was really nice. Then we also um recognize Chef Donald uh with the culinary program and they actually uh made our food and uh from the uh was it the sewn oven, you know, for the pizza outside. So that was really good. Uh and then after that we had a long followup uh strategic uh meeting um you know continuing on and it it actually has been uh really nice. We're making some real good progress and uh it's always nice too when we even have the staff of course you know they're staying late and then we also have some of the parents coming as well just to uh give their input. So uh we'll have another one next month again after our board. But everything's moving along really well over there. So, it's it's been long hours, but I feel really rewarding for all of us. So, that's it. Anybody else? I'll try to keep mine short and sweet. Uh, finance committee, we met on the 24th. Uh, kind of discussed sort of where we are in the the 25 budget, true up, and then the looking forward to 26, even though some of us aren't going to be here. Um, obviously there's lots of moving parts with with kind of that first pass of the 26 with the legislative priorities and kind of all the unknowns is, you know, for the insurance. How is that going to play out? All of that stuff. So, you know, talk about throwing darts. It's literally throwing darts but doing it blind at this point. Um, negoti and also too with the negotiations and kind of the unknown on the settlements on what those are going to be. So, more to come on that. Um, also to the finance committee, we're going over the food service contracts. We had uh two two bids come in. Um, and the the three of us on the finance committee are kind of putting together our recommendations on on that here in upcoming this week. That is all I have. The only other thing that I have is I want to say say thank you to Mr. Scheler and and the board members that attended the state of the city uh for Watertown here. Um, attended that meeting. It was kind of good to get that presence there. Uh, unfortunately, mayor does not do the same thing. So, um, I have reached out to the the mayor of mayor and the city administrator to kind of set up some time to kind of have discussions with them. So, but again, thank you guys for giving up your lunch time to come here and and eat the free food and and listen to the state of the city. So, I appreciate that. Anything else? All right. Well, um we're going to take a five minute recess and then we're going to enter into a close session um for the purpose of discussing discussing personnel and contract updates. So five minute reprieve starts now.