e e e e e e e e e e e e e e at 6:01 p.m. this is the board of directors regular school board meeting for for Monday August 26 2024 welcome to all of our visitors our guests and media uh tonight we're going to start out with the board and administration roll calls Mr phelp here Mr Burns here miss Danielson here miss naon here Mr onel here Mr Schuler here Mr hennon here Mr girton here miss okono here miss pton here miss dimler here Mr V here Mr samansky here all right please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have received no public comments prior to the start of the meeting so is there a motion to approve the agenda and addendums so move second motion made by Miss Danielson second by miss naton any further discussion all those in favor say I I I I'll oppose n motion carries next up is the consent agenda which includes the school board minutes for the July 22nd 2024 meeting the Personnel consent agenda and the business consent agenda approval second have a motion made by Mr Burns seconded by Mr onell any further discussion on the consent agenda items hearing none all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries all right jumping right into the recognitions presentations and showcase going to start out the night with the girls and boys state participants Mrs man floor is yours hi I'm Amy man I am fortunate as one of the components of being speech coach I get to help with uh finding boys and girls State recipients I'm going to quick call those for kids up so you can see their lovely faces and they can stand here with me I'm going to speak a little bit about what boys and girls state is and then I will open the floor and you guys can ask them questions and they're all great public speakers so you can throw whatever you want at them so I'll first welcome up uh in the order on your piece of paper I'll first welcome up Emma kber then I will welcome up Lilia Larsson [Applause] and then I will welcome Ella hunin and finally Lonnie Gilbert our lone boy [Applause] state so first I'm going to tell you what boys and girls state is for those of you who don't know uh it's described as one of the most repres rep respected and selective educational programs of government Institution for us high school students so this is a program where students become a part of the operation of local County and state governments and they learn rights and Privileges and responsibilities of citizens so every year boy state is held at St John's University so that's where Lonnie attended and girl state is held at bethl University it's a week-long experience and they can speak a little bit about that and how do they get to this point well they are welcome to say hey man I I would like to go to girls or boys state they are also uh the teachers and all the coaches are asked do you have people that are leaders and maybe not your captains but the people that you see that could make a difference they're not maybe the loudest people in the group well one's on the speech team so she's the loudest but and we all know Lonnie he's always performing too so but they're not always the loudest kids they're the kids that we as coaches and teachers see as needing that extra nudge like what can they do given this week-long opportunity with people that you know can implore all their knowledge and help them grow and so that's how these four are selected every year uh we are approached by the Watertown American Legion and the new Germany auxiliary and they usually say you can select one boy and one girl and we're fortunate that they always say however many you can find find we will find money for you and so this year we with uh the trip to Germany that took away a lot of Junior boys's opportunities because Germany or boy State it's a tough one and so so Lonnie went this year and then we are fortunate to get some extra seats for our girl State and um I just want you guys to each me we'll start with Emma here um nope I'm going to let the board come up with questions for you um cuz that would be more fun for all of us uh so the so these are your four this year this has been going on for quite some time um Mr hunen is usually has helped be a part of choosing it and I do not know if we've ever had someone that's gone to Boy Nation do you recall I did not think so either so in my this is going to be my 24th year and you've been here a little longer than me and so I I don't ever recall anybody going to boys Nation so Lonnie's step and where he made it all the way to Washington DC is a really big deal for little Watertown mayor right all right so board these are you ask them whatever you would like what was the most difficult part of working with other students that you were there with um personally I would say um voicing your opinion um because especially at boys Nation there's two senators from each state so like everybody has different political views and it's Reaching Across the aisle while also not compromising their own views for me the hardest part working with other people was understanding where they were coming from and making sure to open your mind and your heart to everyone um i' say for me because I'm pretty shy so just kind of get out there and like voicing my opinion took a lot of Courage um I I was kind of same as Lilia um I I found it kind of hard to voice my opinions sometimes and um and also like um having like full attention and listening to did any of you take the opportunity to present a bill on the floor and if so or present a bill and then did any of them make it to the floor um or is that not something that happened this year yeah boys Nation it's a pretty prevalent thing but specifically at boys state um I was part of the senate for like three hours so it was pretty quick um but there was a couple there was one on the school board um it was a lot that you discussed about um not a ton reach the floor given the time constraints but so you participate at least in my experience you participate in a lot of um debate on maybe a few bills not a lot of bills for example there was one about school board and just student representation what that should look like if it should be required compensation Etc for me I was an associate Supreme Court justice so I wasn't necessarily on the floor of the senate or the house um a lot but I did write a bill to be considered for girls nation which was about um Public Health in a time of a national emergency so I'm not sure if it made it to the floor at all but it was written as a national Bill okay um I did not write a bill um I I wrote a a state bill um so it uh and I I'm not sure if it reached the floor as I um I wasn't in the house or Senate either sure okay thanks I have two questions so how is your position chosen is that something you volunteer for or is it selected for you and has this sparked an interest um for you to participate in government in any way yeah so um uh for boy State specifically we went from City to County to um state of course uh and at each one you ran for something different so at City I went for a councilman where you had to run a campaign get elected then at County I didn't go for a county position I went to be a senator so I got elected as that and then as a state we had to give a speech in front of the 200 some boys who were there and then I was elected attorney general there as well oh and yeah um uh maybe I it was it definitely sparked an interest I never really thought about doing anything in the government and now possibly um I don't think I would do anything specifically like um in the US but I love to travel so possibly International Affairs international relations maybe become a diplomat nice um so girl state was a bit different you were allowed to be elected to multiple positions we didn't have that this is my first time hearing about this we allowed to run for one position so we had um City positions County positions and state positions and I knew I wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice so I held out on it and like every day I was like oh do I like run for this because otherwise I won't have a position you just get put in the house or the Senate if you don't have a position by the end so but I got elected so I had to campaign for that as well as make it through the primary voting and the top six of us I believe had to give a speech in front of like the 300 girls who were there so it was pretty fun in my opinion but I enjoy stuff like that um and then if you made it through so three were chosen to be Supreme Court Justices and I've always had an interest in politics I've been helping with campaigns this summer for um House Representatives and uh along with wanning I do want to go into a career in public health diplomacy mhm yeah so I had to also campaign I went for auditor and so yeah I had to go to all these girls dorms at night and kind of hand them these cards and try to get the other girls I how to look like make myself look good it was stressful you only had much time I was running down the hallways and just begging people for their money I my whole life story it was it was a task but I got it um so I I went for a city level position um so my campaigning was a bit different instead of like going uh door to door in the dorms at night I um I talked individually with um everyone in my city so about like 20ish people and um and I I I was a elected as a Treasurer the city treasurer so um and uh and in girl State we uh we each had like different tasks assigned to uh like our different positions like for example as a Treasurer I was in charge of collecting everybody's taxes which were a quarter every day so do either you have any interest in working in government at all or um or did it turn you off right I mean it it was a lot of work man I was getting kind of tired no um it definitely sparked an interest in me because I never had a big opinion on government and now like I do find myself more interested in it but I don't think I would ever pursue it sure um I uh I don't think I would ever pursue government either but it did um it did make me more aware of how meetings worked and uh in compaining and gave me like um it it just made me have a lot more respect for those in government positions you know you said you had to one of the things you had to walk in and you had you had your own opinion and then you had to see the perspective of other did any of you change your mind or change your opinions after listening to everyone else did that ever happen on op on like uh topics I'm really passionate about now but on topics that are very Niche that I have no clue about maybe a little I don't know like some like weird tax bills were introduced I was like I don't know what's going on sounds right got it in my opinion one thing I did learn about politics is you need to have a certain image to get people to vote for you so on some things I changed visibly but not internally until I got my position got it I like that okay um I'm basically same as Lonnie I was just kind of agreeing with everybody and there's some things I would like poke my head in and just like I don't know that but right okay um I I I also agree with Lonnie I had some um some opinions that I was pretty stuck on but I like I I changed my mind after hearing different stakes and things did you think anybody was there that you could see like oh I'm going to be voting for that person someday yeah Governor your Governor yeah our girl State Governor TCA she is the sweetest most amazing person ever and it's very passionate yeah guys City she was oh my God she's the most amazing person she's so talented um I still talked to her to this day I talked to my whole city to this day awesome we all like Snapchat groups with each other so anyway yes I could see her definitely doing something and I will vote for that's awesome well thank you for representing yeah that's awesome all right so I'm going to say their names one more time in case you guys see them one day and you have to vote for them so you know whoever every body is so first we have Emma Kerber and then and then Lilia Larson and Ella [Applause] hunkins [Applause] Gilbert awesome thank you and you can always dip your toe in the public field as a Schoolboard member Just DE I know Ella did get nominated as first alternate for Girls Nation wow she did congrats congrats yes that's awesome thank you guys for coming grab you all right next up on the agenda we have our you can go yes sorry you don't have to stay for the whole uh next up on the agenda we have our uh Watertown mayor director of buildings and grounds uh Mr Leeman come on up for an introduction and updates you're new to the world of Watertown mayor thank you school board and everybody my name is Jeff lman I'm a new building grounds director here at uh Watertown mayor it's been 63 days and so far it's been pretty good so we'll stick around for 64 more so um some of the some of the things that we've been going through um we all know about the parking lot project that we've been doing um seems to be just pretty much done um everything looks really good uh there's a few things that we're going to fix up around we got some so we got to fix up a little bit um also uh just some a few areas that need to be that need to be cleaned up so we'll get that get that handled um some of the things if we can go to that uh on the I have some computer there uh what one of the one of the things that um I want to implement here that we've kind of started is this 2425 project just this is something that I wanted to do for all the schools um this this is anything pretty much big budget items that we you know I know we have long-term long-term facilities maintenance that we want to look at to but these are things that little things that I've seen within the within the last few days or months that I've been there some things have been completed some things need to be looked at and uh prior ized and um I've shared this with pretty much all the principles and anybody who who wants to is they can put stuff in there uh into their school that they want to that they want to add um sometimes it's a bigger budget item if it's a smaller one then this is something that we you know that we just do in house but most most of the stuff is something that we have to have you know somebody come in and take a look at so this is sh like I said shared with all the principles and uh um and we can actually share it with school board so you guys can look at it anytime you want and see what's kind of going on awesome um next on the list then is the custodial audit reports this is something that I I've come up with years ago um this is something that I do with our custodians monthly on a monthly basis I go through I check their rooms and make sure everything is is looking good and this is different different things that we look at and I give them a give them a score and if it's if it's something that I see that hey you know what our standard is going to be a little bit higher than it used to be um something we work on uh I I presented this this to the uh to my team on on last Friday and they all thought it was a great idea so hopefully we can uh implement it and and it kind of helps out too that if it's something that we seen it's a trend that's kind of going downward we can start doing maybe more more than once a month we can look at it weekly you know every two weeks or something to kind of help them out to make sure we're getting the best that we can and uh my my my standards for you know cleanliness and things are probably a little bit higher than than most but um I'm not going to apologize for that so and then thing I just want to talk about a little bit is we have you know all of our contracts and bids um you know we we have a lot of contracts out there and at some point um when I get through reading them all and seeing what's what's all out there there might be times where we need to look at not only the contract we have but but looking at getting other bids and other quotes for the for the same work being done I just want to you know make sure where we keep everybody Hest so they don't think that they can take advantage of us as as a school system and you know I think sometimes and they know that you're you're out there looking at other at other people too sometimes they they give you a good deal too um our work order system uh the the one we have is is good we don't utilize it on the facility side as much as we should and I'm working with with Dustin and John in the it um to bring this up to speed and make it make make it very user friendly for everybody that's in the building and and that can use it and also user friendly for us in the maintenance group so that we can keep track of our assets keep better track of our um preventive maintenance that we need to do on a monthly weekly or yearly basis and this is going to really help once we utilize it we pay for it we're going to utilize it the best we can and so far it's it's going to go real good so uh the last thing is something I'm kind of proud that we did we actually fig got uh locked down today our mail route that we do um was in the past has been done with a couple of my team members at the CLC and at the elementary school we have now um have an arrangement with transitions plus the the transition 18 they're going to be actually doing our mail route which I think is going to be a great thing for them also for us that it kind of frees up my team a little bit and it gives them some responsibility and get on in the community and and help out there so something I'm kind of proud that they were able to help us out with so other than that any questions I like it good I'm I'm impressed so far with all the different changes um you know why don't you give us a 30,000 foot view of your background I don't know if the board knows your background where you came from uh well I started my maintenance career on the farm as a kid you know you grew up on the farm you learn real quick how to fix things whether it's using you know b or twine or whatever you learn how to do it and you got Grandpa and dad to teach you all that um I I worked at Hutchinson Hospital for almost 20 years was there for for a long time and then I always knew that I wanted to be in the director role at some point and it ended up that um the hospital we were City owned we ended up getting bought out by AA and they had to do a lot of cuts and I was one that we were a bunch of us were cut you know that were nonpatient Care from there went to the Hutchinson school district and was there for quite a few years and there again I knew I knew I wanted to be a a director at some point and um my boss there was very implementing um instrumental in helping me Implement what I wanted to do and what I wanted to to become there so and then the last year here I was at Mount West hka as their facility director and decided I wanted something better and here I am so I thank you all for WooHoo for bringing me on board I think you walked into a pretty good situation after all the bond yep our facilities are in good good shape for you said we have a great crew we have a great Administration team so it's been great so far so thank you very much awesome thank you welcome thank you welcome uh next up is Miss St is that um the deputy director from the Carver County CDA and you have a presentation so thank you for being patient even um Alison strike I'm the deputy director for cber County CDA um if you are not familiar with the CDA the mission of the CDA is to provide affordable housing opportunities and Foster community and economic development for the cities within cber County um so we do affordable housing affordable and subsidized housing so we have just under 800 units of affordable and subsidized rental housing that we own and manage throughout the county um I just closed on a new 60 unit project that will break ground this week in the city of cver um and we'll be bringing another 43 units online in the next couple of months in that city as well um and then we do a lot of Community Development work so if you're not familiar with choose carber County great website promotes all the cities and the chambers within the county um and then we have a land trust program which is an affordable home ownership program um and some other uh home ownership type programs that we do in our community development area so we did an updated uh comprehensive housing study needs analysis in 2024 the impetus for that was the last time Max Feld research did a a countywide housing study for us was in 2014 um in 2017 we did some City updates using another provider um and that really was to help the cities write their 2040 comp plans so fast forward to 2024 um um it had been 10 years since we had done a County countywide Housing study um our agency is in the middle of our 2024 to 2027 strategic planning process so it was going to help us sort of guide what we were going to be doing um and then the county is required to do a community health assessment every 5 years and out of that Community Health assessment comes what's called a chip or a community health Improvement plan um and we are in the process of finishing the community health assessment to implement the next Community Health Improvement plan and so this will also have an impact on some of the goals in that oh I'm sorry I got to plug you in I'm sorry that was my fault and that should say sorry water tone and mayor data um so when our community truly supports abundant hosing options we all benefit so children have their grandparents schools have skilled teachers music Halls have bands coffee shops have customers factories have workers College grads can come home entrepreneurs take chances and young families can build a future there we go so this is just a snapshot and I say a snapshot this document is on our website if anybody is interested in reading it but it's like 340 pages long so I've sort of picked out some of the things um based on Darren attending the water tone chamber meeting um and some of the other presentations I've done on information that people found helpful um so the home ownership rate among water tone um and when I say submarket so Maxville divided the county into nine submarkets so there's a couple cities that are grouped together um and mayor New Germany is one of them and then um all of them have townships associated with them um so the home ownership rate among the water to sub Market is 90.7% and 92% in the mayor New Germany submarket the median home value is 27 3,615 in the Watertown submarket and 293 867 in the mayor New Germany Watertown saw the largest increase in the county in the median sale median resale price for multifam so that's Ro um romes or town houses units at a 72% increase since 2017 um and the median household income in Watertown in 2023 is 89,1 4 in mayor New Germany it's 88135 and that's compared to the county media of 10658 um this just lists out some of the major employers both within the water town and the mayor um this specific one uh they had a separate slide for New Germany so for mayor it it is just specific to Mayor um but you can see that your school district is the bigger emplo the biggest employer in both cities um so this chart summarizes housing affordability so both by rental in the for sale and for sale housing So based on an average weekly W wage for each submarket compared to the median contract rent in the resale price for detached so this one is specific to detached single family homes um so that you can see in Watertown an average week the average weekly wage at $857 that P that household can a afford a rent at $1,114 and this is telling you the median contract rent in water tone $766 um I will tell you that Watertown predominantly the bulk of your rental um Market is USDA housing that's all subsidized and that is why your contract rent um your median rent is so low okay um and uh somebody making $857 as an average weekly wage could afford a house at $131,700 and the 23 2023 median re resale price in Watertown was 37,500 so home ownership is not is Out Of Reach For That average weekly wage earner um and then the mayor New Germany average weekly wage $879 can afford a a median rent of 1,143 the meeting contract rents 860 again that's skewed there's very little rental in mayor and um the one property that we own is also USDA Ro development um they could own uh purchase a house at 149,00 and the 2023 meeting resale price was 300,000 um so this slide shows the median contract rent by the submarket um within the county So based on uh an allocation 30% allocation of income to housing so that's what we consider um that a household should not spend more than 30% of their income on housing um so when you own a home that includes your mortgage your insurance your taxes um and if you have any HOA do when you rent generally it's and generally it's talking about um your rent in utility um household incomes would need to range from 20776 and colone to 65897 in Victoria um so you can see in the Hamburg norw no sorry mayor New Germany you would need an income of 34,42 to afford the median rent in in Watertown an income of 3,648 but those are based on the median rent not necessarily what's available either right well the median rent is based on what's available what exists or what's available for rent I guess is what I'm asking if all the places are rented they would be looking at what's available not to rent I'm sorry what exists so they literally would contact all the apartment complexes they have a separate um chart in their um in the the full study that actually will show you them what the actual vacancy rates are at each property got it thank you um this is median list prices by submarket um so the top in the blue is detached single family homes so you can see in mayor New Germany um the median list price is 42,000 and Watertown it's 392 and then the multif family that's specific still for sale but that would be like town houses and roow houses um so Watertown is 2999 and mayor New Germany is 397,000 um so this just talks about median resale prices for multifam and again that's specific to town houses and row houses um so highest in Victoria and Carver um strong price appreciation incurred in every submarket but again the wat Town submarket experienced the largest increase um as the price jumped 72% between 2017 and 2023 this just shows annual um average annual housing units permitted by submarket to get a feel for um between 2010 and 2022 what's been permitted uh by city um so in Watertown um a total of 25 and mayor New Germany as well 25 and that's average annual and so for from this graph it looks like it's you know Chanhassen chasa and then as you move further west you have Victoria then Waconia mhm do you does the study get into sort of future growth or is this okay so this it it it looks back and then it uses back to also project forward between IT projects 2022 2023 to 2030 and then 2023 to 2040 okay oops so this this so here's part of their projection so this this is the 20 I added 2023 to 2024 demand growth specific to water toown so this study um calls out a need for 1,292 General occupancy units um and of those they're saying 1100 should be for sale um 770 should be single family detached 330 should be the multif family and that's like the town houses and roow houses and then of that total 1,292 that 192 should be rental 55 of them should be subsidized and that's where there's um an income limit and then the household pays 30% of their income and the rest of their rent is subsidized typically by the federal or the state government um 45 of those should be affordable so that's where there it's still income restricted but where they don't pay 30% of their income they just pay the full rent but it's restricted on what the rent amount can be um and then 92 market rate and for mayor New Germany they're saying 1,40 General occupancy units with with 952 for sale um 809 of those being single family detached and 143 multif family and then 88 rental um with 19 subsidized 29 affordable and 40 market rate and so is there I don't think you had any your presentation but on the on the larger presentation is there sort of a comparison between like for this this slide mayor New Germany it's, 140 General occup but currently they're at 800 yeah you know a comparison between the two so it tells you where they are right now and okay where they think they it actually breaks it Down based on where they are right now what they think should be added between 2023 and 2030 and then what should be added between 2030 and 2040 I just condensed it into 2023 to 2 a lot of 300 pages is a lot to condense in 10 slots so in general how far off are we I mean for watert or mayor New Jers if Germany needs 1,40 where are they at now no so this is what they're saying you need between 2023 next 17 years should be looking for but you just want to know if they're close right now well yeah what I'm looking at is where we at today and then if we're doing 25 a year are we going to get here you know yeah if that's our average 25 homes right um and they even go into like again so much more detail about what's lot like what are lots are available like and there there we don't have enough no City in the county has enough Lots ready to meet the demand and so they look at lots that are like platted and ready to go versus that aren't you know they break it down into three different categories but regardless of how you look at it there's still a deficit um on lots for four sale I think that's the last one but happy to take questions no I definitely appreciate this you know it's one of the things where we're seeing a you know a decline in our student enrollment so we're trying to work with our cities to try to figure out creative ideas uh working Partnerships to try to grow our communities grow the school district so I think this is something that you know hopefully you do get consider you know to the city council you know of Watertown and of Mayor to kind of give these presentations too just so we can all work on the same Playbook yeah and so when we go to the cities we do um a little bit different from this because um the housing study does have examples of what cities can do to try to I mean from a CDA perspective more so like get some of the affordable stuff but even just the develop just even like for sale units like there's different things cities can Implement like at a like a City Zoning level that they can do oh um you know we've got our like I said our land trust program um so with land trust the purchase the land comes out of the purchase price of the the house um and we put it in a 99e renewable ground lease so the homeowner only buys a mortgage on the house so that we can Target households at 80% of area median income or below so that's one way for us to help like get homeowners like into a community that might otherwise not be able to afford it um and then we've got some other funding that's coming from the state that's called the local affordable housing aid that we're going to be able to do um some first time and some first gen uh down payment assistance programs too that might be able to help again households that might not otherwise be able to afford to live in the community get into that community that was another Point too that brought us to you know more attention is we've had a number of teachers that can't find market rate and housing in our community and they they're moving to other communities around us because whether it be an apartment complex you know the multif family um even single family we're just having a hard time finding those folks uh housing within their price range so it's so it's a big issue well we're excited to launch some of our funding you know funding opportunities that might be able to help somebody you know get into a community absolutely you know just because of the down payment assistance option and anything else this just good and if you're interested the full 30 something 30 page document is pinned on Carver cda.org is our website uh we have it it's a news story but we have it pinned to the front page um there is obviously an executive summary in the front and like the conclusions and recommendations in the back if you don't want to read all between you can kind of get the high level at the front and the end of the report J read it for us thanks again Alison taking us appreciate we'll be in touch thank you so much moving right along um our first action item is the acknowledgement of donation contributions and fundraising Mr Schuler all right Mr chair tonight uh we have another number of donors we're going to recognize for their contributions uh the wown Lions to wirel May Community Ed summer youth theater for $5,000 support their budget supplies and materials uh Alice and Jeff nton for summer youth theater as well for $100 um Melissa from back Channel um to gymnastics for $230 Mac and tun's uh Foods gymnastics also for $300 Mr Sanders uh CH gymnastics for $1,000 Nathan Sanders uh for gymnastics for $500 those are all leotard purchases marown American Legion uh industrial tech for $2500 to get a new inverted router uh the city of Watertown to Watertown M Community EDG for $1,900 for um Community Based programming uh Mar area Lions Club robotics program $500 for parts and then Anonymous donor to boy basketball for $1,928 58 to purchase an alternate jersey the exact amount right to the penny they wanted the fancier Jersey was that apparently interested to see what I mean I'm men right yeah City look JY we need pictures right have a home in way make a motion to approve the donation and contributions second have a motion made by Miss Danielson seconded by Mr Burns any further discussions on the donations hearing none all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries and thank you to all of our donors this month we greatly appreciate it um Item B the second readings of District policies requiring review Mr Schuler hi Mr chair um we have the second reading of our uh policy review from um last month and these are the ones that were vetted out um additionally remember uh when we talked back in July uh a lot of our administrators were on their summer break so when they came back we were able to kind of put these uh in a better place so uh with that being said we're asking the board and also I should add the the policy committe has met a couple of times I think for sure um to to kind of work through these um again we have one more additional policy we're bringing back hopefully next month uh in regards to Title 9 that didn't make make this cut um still looking through some legal um um pieces on there for commentary um but um right now we're asking for approval and I remember we kind of did a second read on some of these to get admin review on them I'm assuming they've reviewed it the policy committee has reviewed it and we're all in agreement yeah yeah approve second motion made by Mr onell seconded by Mr Burns any further discussions on the second reads of the policies hearing none all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries item C the 2425 superintendent goals Mr Schuler Mr chair and board I just wanted to give a high level overview of some of my goals this year um I'll have I have four goals that I'll be working towards and some action items attach to those but this is more of a high level view of some of those areas uh goal one is just to continue to Market um our our schools and our strategic growth um and again that kind of fits with our strategic commitment of communication and Partnerships um our second goal will focus more on developing a budget adjustment process and um long-term facility needs plan um kind of excited to work with Mr Leeman on some of the work that needs to be done there and uh putting that together uh will be one of my goals and that falls in line with the U commitment of final Financial stewardship excuse me um goal three um is is that continuation of the mtss plan in year four um we're kind of looking at this as a five-year plan this would be our fourth year and again um it's taking that to that next level and then goal four um is just going back and um retaking some the MB U msba phase training I took those all in my first year of superintendent kind of due for a refresh uh to go through those training and they're recommended every 3 to four years will'll be my fifth year so it's time to go back um one area also I I'd like to add was just the area of legislative platform design uh Mr felt and I have been working a little bit more uh with the legislature and msba in terms of developing our our own wiel Mar legislative platform and bringing some things forward and I think our next AEM next agenda item speaks to that a little bit also um so working with him on that and then our chat of commitment there would be again under that Financial stewardship piece so high level and then underneath these there's more specific commitments but this is that high level review shared that with the Personnel uh committee as well and just giving an up update on where I'm at with that so questions make a motion to approve uh the 2024 25 superintendent goals second motion made by Miss Danielson seconded by Miss naton uh any further discussion on the goals for this upcoming year all those in favor say I I I I'll oppose nay motion carries next up oh sorry just question when do we get updated on those is that quarterly we do that or is that yeah yep I just remember right um item D the approval of the Watertown mayor employee handbook Mr Schuler uh Mr chair and board we are bringing forth the uh District handbook uh this is all staff handbook uh you can see it's in draft form as we speak uh once you approve it tonight we will move that to its final form now when I say final um as we do with a lot of our handbooks there are certain things within the index or other areas that just need to be cleaned up but our hope is to share this with staff this week while they're here for their professional devopment week and um let them peruse that there are certain aspects of the handbook that they need to sign off on um we'll have that process completed as well where they have agreed um that they have reviewed the the said policies um reviewed everything within the PO in the handbook um it's pretty thorough I want to just again um really thank uh Lisa Raider uh Cindy Ean and and Heather especially in our district office staff for working on this has been about a 2year project um it's finally longer I can't oh okay been to do it for many many years yeah uh and all history there from to our knowledge and I know some our principles have wait it's been it's been at least over 10 years since we've had an all district handbook if you will so it it' be it just we felt it was time U to put this all in one document to refer to uh and that any employee can look at that and um you know be confident that this information is is relevant what they need um so uh we're excited to to release it this week um so is is the plan to move forward with this sort of on a regular annual review Cadence maybe with the school handbooks too just to kind of get on that regular Cadence probably wouldn't hurt yeah I guess we didn't decide that and but it would make sense to do it on an annual basis obviously it's a working document um there'll be updates as you can see down below there is a whole section on policy which all staff are required to review so um the annual review so um again uh we think we think this could be a an ongoing approval process and and selfishly selfish plug the Committees aren't filled out completely for the the board commit yep I'm I'm with okay but uh I'll make a motion to approve the Watertown mayor employee handbook second motion made by Mr felt seconded by Mr Burns any further discussion on the handbook all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries great job it looks really good yeah I think that everybody um next up is item e proposal of upcoming resolution to the msba delegate assembly all right now you guys got to listen to me um so as as as Mr Schuler mentioned um we've been in contact with the legislative um bodies at msba there's there's two ladies that once the legislative session comes that's all they do they go down there they Lobby for public education um part of their process is very Grassroots right they take all the school board information input from all School boards bring it to the msba board all these resolutions they'll approve them or deny them the msba board will and then at that point it goes to what's called the delegate assembly I'm learning all this on the Fly too um that's something that as a district we've never really been a part of but uh with my role as nsba I'm learning it on the Fly and this delegate assembly it's it's I think there's all 130 districts are there it's about 160 180 people all get into a room by their District directors or by their District groups and they talk about all these resolutions at the end of it they vote them all and at the end of it that's mba's position um a lot of them don't change you know year over-ear you know fully funding schools okay that's always going to be on the list that's kind of the pipe dream right um but the government relations team will then go with their top five or so priorities 10 priorities and then go and attend all those meetings attending all those uh hearings and meeting with uh the different legislators that are on those committees um the first step in that process is for school boards to do a resolution and in talking to them one of the areas that me and Darren kind of talked about as as we were meeting with them was the declining enrollment right how do we try to keep our good staff our staffing levels our opportunities and connections to our staffs and a declining enrollment um so the resolution that I created and and bringing forward to you guys um and and bringing it forward to you guys it's just meaning we can go on that next step to submit it to msba okay um there's probably going to be a lot of wording changes between here and there but the concept the thought process behind it um is trying to figure out how to best manage that declining enrollment so my idea was you know some sort of a a rolling cycle you know your threee prior to declining enrollment funding and your threee of declining enrollment kind of bringing it back to try to level that significant drop off I think what Darren we had 30 student drop off this year in a district our size that's that's a lot of funding you know if you can try to smooth that out a little bit more and still provide those students with all the support that they need and the opportunities to take those courses that we might have to cut otherwise um that is sort of the the impetus of this and I I talk about Watertown mayor but really it's bigger it's Minnesota wide it's small districts our size where 10 20 students makes a huge difference in the budget so with that I know Darren's got the the draft of the resolution up there and again one of the things you needed was just you board approval they implemented that this year because prior years they've seen other board members just randomly submit things that are really extremes so now they want to make sure that the whole board is at least aware of and in agreement with sort of that next step so not sure what the next couple steps look like but again this is sort of what I wanted to bring to the board to to bring to the msba there's a September 23rd deadline to submit this to msba to the delegate um groups so I think trying to get ahead of that a little bit would be good um and also some supporting data we will be including in there too to kind of tell our story at watert mayor kind of where we're at and where we're headed so um and to I put him in charge of that and Kurt snan is the one who uh is the executive director of MSB and and he said there'll be other districts he think they'll have similar platforms so we probably won't be a standalone either which is good I mean that hopefully will rise to the top um in their decision-making process and definitely keep people informed I get this is like the first run through we approve it we'll still get to see the final with the data I mean already definitely for sure share that but we just kind of wanted to make sure we did that process yep timely so we do need a motion in a second if you guys actually want to move this I'll make the motion to approve the resolution to msba fire wow yeah you are he's here in the Thunder um have a motion made by Miss naton seconded by Mr Burns uh any further discussion on my resolution all right all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries and I'm not sure Heather if I can vote on that or not but regardless we have a you should be able to think so I would think so too but just trying to make sure we're on the up and up great job on there's still four of y'all this is good stuff this is really good to get this out there so and if you have other comments concerns wording changes definitely you know let me and Darren know all right that ends the action items of the night moving on to review items uh project updates Mr Schuler yeah I'll be real brief this evening um on our Batman Bond parking lot projects um we're kind of in that spot where we're we're done with most of the work um we have still the CLC work to be completed and the uh parking lot the additional parking lot at the high school uh we did receive some word today that um delivery week um could be pushed back a little bit but they're still planning on uh this is the materials uh the structures until starting the week of the 9th now so that's a week off from what we had hoped for I communicated that to miss dimler today at the CLC because they're the most impacted but hey all right well looks like they're sorting themselves out um but to continue on um that work is um again looking at the ninth um we are hoping that that lower lot is done for homecoming if it does not get done they are prepared to make it a gravel lot to help with homecoming parking as we've talked about um finishing touches some other things we have a flag pole at the at the district office needs to be wrapped up um Railing at the high school a temporary railing right now um and then some signage would be going up as well this week um gate at the elementary the sleeves for that um could be completed this week I'm hearing uh and then we might see some ball field uh fencing starting um this week as well so some of that um CLC lower level um Ballfield start getting that put back together so um those are some big ones um again I think for the most part welcoming students and staff back this week and next week uh we're in really good shape so it's exciting and we're also waiting on IC and our and Lisa to just double check and align the budgets just to make sure where we're where we're sitting and if we can accomplish more we'll accomplish more one other item too the elementary and the High School um punch list items from CRC our friends at CRC has been now completed so we are now officially done done wow don't you get champ so that's like with the saber kind of yeah Elementary High School um punch list items yeah still Middle School and Middle School flooring yes was also completed a part of that yes thank you any other that's all I have any other questions all right moving on to Item B which is the 2324 superintendant uh evaluation summary so I got a statement uh we'd kind of do it annually um we are pleased to share that the Watertown mayor Board of Education alongside superintendent Schuler recently completed the annual review process during July's closed meeting of the board yes I'm reading it I didn't memorize this as part of the annual process we reviewed the goals approved by the board for the 2324 school year superintendent scher's performance was evaluated based on these four key goals as well as his overall leadership within the district the board was particularly impressed with superintendent Schuler's management of the Strategic roadmap process and his successful implementation of year two of the mtss initiative furthermore we greatly appreciate the strides he he has made in enhancing Communications and fostering positive interaction actions not only with us as a board and staff but also within our broader communities our consensus is that superintendent Scher do an effective job in leading the district and we the Watertown mayor Board of Education remain supportive of superintendent scher's continued continued development and Leadership of our school district so thank you Darren for your continuing uh efforts and your ongoing support and dedication to our district and your former District thank you thank you appreciate it so all right that's off the plate now item C superintendent Schuler the update on your strategic directions it's the vision card yeah this uh now you don't have TVs behind you oh yeah what happened sorry the power went out everything got well this yeah we'll just have to uh punt a little bit so what I was going to just bring to the board's attention tonight in the fact that we did uh recently complete our vision card um for last school year um come on back up let's see an airplan um there it is uh once again uh we use our shic uh plan vision card to kind of outline our um how we've done in terms of each of our siic directions as you can see um this is for 2425 but reflects the 23 24 school year um data so um again our strategic directions are on the left hand side um the the specific uh measure that we're using is in the red um along the side there and then of course on the uh the middle section the description describes the actual goal that was accomplished and then on the uh levels um we have the four different levels um and you can see see how those are U listed above um again uh I think we're we're very excited in the in the fact that we continue to grow in most areas uh or stay steady I don't think we really declined in any areas um which was was exciting you know I think we talked about some of the areas that we want to really work on uh one of the things is the student survey uh question where um percent of students who agreed or strongly agreed with a statement I feel seen valued and heard at school uh you know we're going to do some Digger deeping a deeper digging on that just to see again what what are students thinking saying feeling um when they they rate that a little bit lower again we are right around 84% there um but an area we want to continue to improve on um on the flip side again I think on a highlight uh if you go to the top one students who uh agreed or strongly agreed with the statement I have at least one classmate that cares about me and wants me to succeed you know again we're in that 90 uh 7 percentile I believe so some really cool things happening there um again as you scroll down a little bit further um some of our staff piece too we've talked about that I think in our last meeting um where staff um feeling supported my current role little lower than we'd like to see so that was an area that we're going to try to address as well um at each of our buildings one of the areas to uh continue on um in Reading again this is for second grade through 8th grade students on the on track category is measured by fast Rd so in the spring we take our fast tests so right now we're right about 49% just didn't quite make it to 50 are on considered on track to pass um the MCA so that is one that we know we need to continue to improve on um we don't include kindergarten in first grade with that because they actually have a different type of assessment within fast that doesn't quite measure it the same way where we see some phenomenal growth in K And1 it's just a little bit different in uh grades 2 through 8 so those are areas that we're going to continue to work on so again we have a fast goal an MCA goal uh another math fast goal and an math MCA goal uh we had our graduation um goal and again you know that 97 98% I think last year uh there um how many students uh graduate with college credits um again you know 94 to 96% of our kids um have um some graduate credits as they leave um Watertown miror um Mr Hen does an exit survey every year and again I feel prepared to take the next step in my life after graduation um we're getting that 90 to 94% so some really high ratings there which is exciting um this core Advantage piece all children are ready for kindergarten we kind of combine our preschool data along with one kindergarten data point and you can see how our young Royals are doing in terms of being uh on track or considered low risk and uh well above in the 75 percentile in that uh young Royal program um oh by the wayal is social emotional learning just in case that one pops up we do measure that as well and then kindergarten too I know we talked a little bit about that probably last time but just some phenomenal growth uh this past year in kindergarten so again percent of kindergarten students in the lowrisk category as measured by fast Bridge assessment so um again most of our kids almost 80% are are uh not at risk essentially they're in the low risk um as far as their benchmarks so pretty exciting um and then finally just some parent satisfaction survey results WE Post in our vision card and that is uh percentage of parents who agreed strongly agreed that again we're proud to have a child in the district you know that 90 94 percentile um and then again um teacher staff and administration the district uh generally care about my child and that's still that 90 to 94 percentile so we always encourage again uh community members to take a look at this again this is a great way to see how we're doing and again we're going to continue to look at this is the vision card the best way to to show how we're doing uh we've seen a number of other you know different ways to show that um this one doesn't show comparisons to the previous year so we've had some talk about that what could we be doing to to do that um but this is year two um data that we're put back on so and and as a as a district do we have goals or is that something we should come up with as a board so let's say the student survey is 84% and Below you know what is the is our district goal 92 is it 63 you know what is our specific goal that we're shooting to obviously you want 100% but that's not that's not realistic in in almost all of these categories we should have some simple measurable yeah where where we want to be and if we're above it fantastic what growth like do we want to see a 5% grow we had this discussion the other day and I think most of the time 3% seems to be the the goal point that you're you're looking for in terms of percentages so then as you get closer to 100 that it's going to get less it's going to get yeah yep um we're working on three other districtwide goals uh as well this year that I'll have like about three point growth measures um three percentage points so um that's kind of been our standard that we've been using typically so not would it makes sense to tweak the levels so that say level three is our goal and then level four is the stretch is the stretch part of it yeah then at least it's like okay if we're all in level three or above that's where we want to be want to be to for the other thing that I think we could look at adding would be to indicate which direction we're going so did we improve from last time or not even just a Green Dot or a red dot or an arrow or something yeah we' even looked at like a speedometer model that shows where you were last year with the point and where you went to this year and in between is kind of that green area if you will so yeah I think this will probably get a revision um you know going into next year but um it's a good starting point it's a good starting point yeah is again I and I'm excited I like we've talked a lot about this administrative we've never really measured ourselves so to speak and um this is one way to again go back out to the community and say we're doing pretty well yeah there's areas we need to improve and it's certainly documented in there as well but um I guess it it gives us that where we want to go um mentality awesome thank you thank you all right since it is almost back to school we have all of our admin reports coming so starting it off with Mr henon good evening uh today was good first day back with the staff uh you know I think just it was it was unusual because usually we always have the back to SCH stuff in the PAC we didn't so a lot of staff were coming I was different but I think they kind of enjoyed just the time to you know again staff culture it's nice that they can actually have chances to talk with each other and catch up and you can just kind of even for me just to go around and be able to have a chance to talk to everybody it was a good first day back um Wednesday night we have our nth grade orientation and we'll do it similar in the past where they get chances to tour the building but then we have a chance where we meet with the parents and the students together then we send the kids off to follow the first uh quarter schedule and then we meet with the parents as well and answer questions and again it's usually a really highly attended event and we've had good feedback in the past it just calms a lot of nerves this is that first day when they go open their lockers and all that good stuff and get to see all the teachers and I think the teachers said they actually like it too because they get up they get you know five minutes with their kids that first day is not as kind of overcome some that that first day awkwardness um two new staff to the high school Emily Victor's teaching art she's doing one block a day uh Emily does some local work in in down on Watertown just some things I think Community would be an awesome addition to the art program and then Anna palman is our new high school counselor and then lastly I just want to publicly thank the custodial staff uh High School's a kind of a weird building this summer because we don't ever seem to not have like kids or teams or programs in then I just give them a lot of credit they always work around us and I appreciate that a lot because again it's a pretty busy building and our facilities look great and just want to thank them for again their flexibility and everything they do so any questions for me thank you thank you Mr girton good evening everybody uh we really kind of started things off on August 21st we had our fifth grade orientation went really smoothly uh that morning was Menor coming in to work with fifth graders our eighth grade mentorship team our mentorship group of kids came in and it was just a very smooth uh day from that point on our kids were really happy parents were very positive about coming in and their kids being able to show them around so that went real smoothly uh today went really well um some of those systems that we started talking about with mtss four years ago now we're starting to see the benefit of those systems coming into play so um which also kind of led to um the structuring of goals that we're working on that are connected with District alignment strategic planning so just felt much better this year in terms of those things those systems and um the alignment pieces we have a couple of new staff uh we have Lizzie Shaw she is a new fifth grade teacher she has a year of experience she started with us today and Emily scha she is a special education teacher uh fresh out of college so two new staff members there so we're in a good spot with Staffing um just want to recognize some of the different folks or groups that play play a big role our Administrative Assistant I can't say enough um in fact I said to Kathy helget at the meeting kiddingly I was able to take some time off in July this summer thank you um but just phenomenal people working in our offices and I guess that would include Mrs Huen as well she's a part of that team she's been my mentor for a few years now um our web program is excellent uh and that that's Ashley wise and the students that she uh coordinates with um our mentorship program continues to get better and better I did talk with our new the new teachers and one had been in another district for a year and she said it was amazing um the support that she felt and that's just that's the credit to um the administration the district that piece um just a couple more uh thank yous our special ed department for holding together a lot of problem solving a lot of teamwork to fill some of our um tricky vacancies uh custodial staff Jeff came in hit the ground running our building looks excellent uh thanks to him and his team our tech department last but not least our PTO they stocked our fridge for us so when we came back we had all kinds of food today uh Katie Joe I know you're stepping down but we have uh some new leadership there too so just very very fortunate and grateful for what's going on around here so that's about it thank you thank you you missell good evening today we kicked off our Workshop week with an all staff meeting focusing on our theme of the year which is goalgetter we took time to celebrate how far we have come in a few short years as well as the amazing growth that our students has made as a result of the hard work and dedication of the staff so here's a data point that we reflected on today that I think carries a lot of weight um it was a big moment of celebration for our staff this morning so in the fall of 20 21 18% of 2 through fourth graders at the elementary school were in the high risk category in reading this spring that number was reduced to 8% wow in kindergarten and first grade in the fall of 2021 26% of kids were in the high-risk category um and 42% of them were at on grade level Targets this spring there was only 7% in high- risk and 77% on grade level so they've totally flipped where kids are at in just two years which is amazing um after recognizing How Far We've Come everyone took time to talk about how we need goals to keep us aiming higher and that's why we're working on being goal-getters we took time to talk about how we're pursuing being a school of excellence and getting that endorsement through Minnesota Elementary School principales Association this year then everyone took time to set a personal goal for the year that will be publicly posted did to hold them accountable towards working towards that goal it didn't have to be an academic goal it could be arriving at work on time or working on work life balance which is my personal goal um and then lastly we talked about supporting one another through the story of the mirold and the walnut tree which is a story I can share with you if you're interested in um on Thursday of this week we're going to have playworks out for half a day from 9: to noon to do a training with our incoming fourth graders and our high schoolers that will be junior coach at our recesses to support recess we have 41 incoming fourth graders coming to attend seven high schoolers and our two recess staff and Katie Brandenburg who's kind of been running this whole thing um this training will equip our students to build their confidence and Empower these student leaders to step into the role of coaches making sure that every child who they help at recess is actively engaged in play every day at recess and that our playground is a positive experience for them every day do you have any questions thank you thank you miss dimler all right good evening Well Community Ed took a little sigh of relief for the first time we had no programming going on this is our the start of our summer break this week um just to give you a little kind of overview of our summer programming um for adult and youth programming we offered um over 77 courses we had um 1683 participants 896 of those were unique um uh participants and we had 1437 87,000 brought in for Revenue wow so we are kind of excited about that for ECF we had seven courses and 78 participants 58 of those were unique so again excited about our participation um we served 142 um children in child care this summer so again our staff just took a sigh of relief and just kind of enjoyed not having you know any responsibilities um this week um as we go into fall we are looking at offering 118 courses um in Youth and adult and 30 ECFE courses we have 141 children in child care and 100 um children in our preschool uh today we had our all staff meeting and we had 46 staff um at the CLC um that are working between custodial Child Care um Early Childhood special ad um special education and transitions um and it was a busy day any questions we're working on the parking lot for you we appreciate that um I also did want to share too that um this is the first year our early childhood grants have all been um used up um with um 37530 all going to families for preschool so we excited that we are able to use all of those this year so yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr VI well good evening everybody thank you for the opportunity to be here just a couple of updates um MCA information will be publicly available on Thursday okay I'll be sharing a Mr Schuler actually be sharing just a little bit of information at our um all staff meeting and welcome back on Wednesday at about noon um so we've got some and I think we'll have some fun exciting uh news to report there has been echoed there um so we'll be sharing that uh on at the next board meeting for sure we'll talk about that um new teacher orientation was last Wednesday and Thursday we had seven new staff members uh climb aboard and I got to tell you I thought we had a wonderful hiring season I think uh all seven of those seem to be very quality candidates very um seemingly very capable so very excited about our new hires uh I just wanted to um talk to you about cindra Camp off she'll be delivering our keynote address on Wednesday after Mr Schuler is complete uh she is an award-winning keynote speaker and she'll be talking to us on uh three parts of her 10 powerful practices from um Beyond grit uh the three areas of practices dominate your controllables m your thoughts Live and Let Go be the topics that she covers she'll cover the other seven uh on January 20th and on March 31st she'll be coming back for those three dates also she'll be speaking with our um athletes from 2:15 to 3:15 uh she is a uh psychologist from down in the Mano area she's been working uh with area businesses Verizon Wireless Target Mao Clinic uh in the Minnesota Vikings uh um so she's been working with people kind trying to keep their professional brains in order and at the top of their game and to have Peak Performance and so we're kind of using that providing that for our staff to help them um manage uh their work life balance and or just work to help them be and perform at their top notch um at all times and yeah so she'll be um speaking to us I think um 12:30 to 2 as the staff and 215 to 3115 for the students any questions thank you thank you Miss Payton um good evening um I want to take the time to start by sharing our special education highlights over the summer um the first one was that we received notification from mde that they reviewed our records and we passed 100% for our due process so um we met all of our due process requirements according to MD so that was great news in July um throughout the month Monday through Thursday we had esy extended school year we had 21 students um five teachers six Paras and it um it ran really smoothly and I think the staff and the students were um with happy with the results that was um a good feeling um in August um we just finished our CPI train so that's the Crisis Prevention intervention training um and it's exciting we had our first um Watertown mayor a trainer um we got really good um feedback on it and they really worked on the new restrictive procedures um guidelines that they just came out so it'll be really beneficial for us moving forward into the school year um Joe vou um and I met with the nonpublic principles um and the reason we met is to discuss our child find process and MD says that the child find process has to be similar for private schools as it is for um Public Schools so as a result we went over steps to ensure that the requirements were met um currently about 43% of our initial evaluations come from the non-public schools um therefore an evaluation process was needed to ensure that we were following the state guidelines um and then also um in terms of Staffing we are doing well um I think especially compared to other school districts we are currently looking for a pair Professionals in our elementary middle school and high school um and also like a 05 halftime position in our DCd High School position um so we are busy posting and getting the word out in social media blast um today we had a really big day with the back to school Workshop today we had met with the parents for an hour and then the teachers as well so it was great to see everyone and everyone seems excited about the the coming school year so any questions Randy maybe just you know you mentioned that data point from the nonpublic schools yes is it 43% of your referrals last year came from a nonpublic the non-public schools yep for initials yeah for initial referrals yeah that's a big deal and I think you know it's something board members probably don't know is that we still have to service all of our non public schools in our sub May Luther and Zion and Christ Community in terms of their special ed needs so if a student is is maybe achieving below grade level um you know we have a pretty firm mtss process here that you have to go through with documented interventions and things that you've done as a classroom teacher to get you know that student supports that they've needed they don't if it isn't happening if it isn't turning the corner then you move to a referral but that's I guess Randy and Joe's point was meeting with them to kind of give them some supports that's a really high number uh 43% of the kids that were initially getting referred are coming from or not it's almost half um and that's really a it's a Time component that we're really trying to wrap our hands around because you know we're we're not overly staffed in special education so getting our our what we're trying to do is help them you know go through a process in order to hopefully lower that number down um so it's not so taxing on our staff um and certainly down the road you know we can support them even more so it it is a collaborative type of agreement and and we're trying to work with them but I really appreciate Randy and Joe taking the time just to go visit set up some ideas and how we can support them in in their process too so thanks for bringing that and and from a funding aspect do we do we get reimbursed from those for those for our time spent we we do for the ones that qualify that qualify but not the initial okay we get the referral yep and once they qualify then yep it's our responsibility to to vet that child out through our evaluation process but yeah we wouldn't get paid for that but as a public school that's our responsibility good question yeah yeah we we're trying to encourage two six week interventions because that's what in the public schools and so we're trying to say that what interventions would you do and if you didn't do them why didn't you do that so just a little more communication um and also with the administration the principal so they're aware of what the students um are going through this because like you said 43% a it's a it's a big number of our staff is spending all the time on those so no thank you thanks R appreciate it you Mr samansky good evening um just a couple things in the world from the world of activities ini participation numbers compared to last year we're down roughly about three participants down seven uh from two years ago but keep in mind Middle School volleyball Middle School football just started today so we're sure that those numbers are going to fluctuate a little bit so we're hoping and it looks pretty good that we'll be over last year's numbers at this time uh numbers are pretty consistent with other schools in the conference boys and girls soccer and volleyball have started competitions last week both home and on the road football scrimmage on Saturday as well with four schools thank you to our football parents for feeding the players and coaches all teams except for girls swimming have started competitions by the end of this week girls swimming will start next week with the competition and thank you to the Royal boosters for feeding our athletes and parents at the cap meeting and on August 12th to kick off the start of The Fall season technically girl swim starts tomorrow a me oh yeah yeah should get him a bus I'm kidding got it I can't believe I missed that yeah I think it's it's a new ad I mean it's not one we've done before but yeah I think first home one will be next week yeah next Thursday yeah are you sure I'm positive my daughter's the captain or one of the C yeah won 6:00 p.m. tomorrow bus sounds good so everybody's like everyone will going go there we go so any other question dire thank you for adjusting today with the heet index on moving I'm glad it worked out we're very fortunate we've got great facilities here and and with one team able to practice during the school day because not teachers that worked out really well it freed up some space so it it did work out well so one think to not tell IO is great installation that's probably happening on Wednesday it sounds like that yep I Y wait on that wait on that no we're uh we're having the the wall of fame case looks like it's going to be tentatively up on Wednesday that's the goal from the company and we're excited about that so it's starting to take shape and becoming a little bit more real the custodians the maintenance did a great job again clearing that space out we removed some pop machines and and stuff and they took care of taking care of the walls and and getting a Fresh coat of paint on it so it's going to look sharp PR next month I want a picture I want to see it absolutely perfect all right initial initial stuff look all right thanks thank you admin you guys are free to go I know with the weather tonight you guys can bolt we're almost done here anyways um but one thing real quick before you guys go think about this msba in January is having their um their their conference their leadership conference they're looking for um school districts to present their K12 adult Early Childhood uh successful programs initiatives stuff like that again I'm on their board so I'm trying to pump our district up as much as we can you know Nick whether something like web you know there's a access on the application on their website me and Darren can help you guys through that too so sorry didn't want to keep you guys any longer but throwing a Shameless plug out there thank you best of luck on the first day of school thank you thank you thanks for all right Mr Schuler well I'll be very brief because I think most of them stole most of my information so I I won't uh I don't have much to say we you had a really good two days with our new teachers like um as was mentioned um only seven this year I think we're down from about 15 last year so that was encouraging uh meaning that hopefully our turnover is a little bit less potentially um but again we have some really cool Community sponsors uh May prize Financial sponsors our lunch on the first day which we cater uh in our own kitchens uh Beth from P tah caters that uh and then uh we go to mayor for our bus tour which is always fabulous um and we we uh stopped at agave and uh the McNeely family is a really big um School supporter in uh May and they've always uh purchased the meal for all of our new teachers there too so and Nikki gave the tour and Nikki gives the she fantastic job she does and um Nick Johnson our uh City administrator in mayor joined us as well for lunch and got an opportunity to talk to our new staff and Hunter also joined us as well so it's nice to kind of get a a nice time with those folks and a different setting and um I think they felt really supported so one I thing too we do a survey at the end and we can certainly share those survey results too uh when we on board these new people so um I think I think it's a pretty good process and and talking to some of the teachers too it very you know we really appreciate you know learning more about the community that like we've never any other District we've ever taught and there's never been that type of sense of community you know taking taking me on a bus you know and showing me the local sites and you know where our students come from so to me that that goes a long ways we've done the last what three four or five years yeah it's fun we enjoy that uh lastly just a quick update uh obviously I've been informing you as the board and our community about our lead in the water concern at the elementary school and um we are working to some some resolution on a few areas um on Friday Thursday we talked to um someone at the Department of Health he had ironically been to Watertown that day and I wanted to connect with them um but we were in in new teacher training that day um but um Doug from the city U Water Treatment Plant met with him he was doing his annual uh City inspection but he had a really good opportunity to talk to Doug about some of our concerns and uh had a good phone call with him um that that next day and so uh he led me to another individual who actually specializes in lead in schools um in terms of water and so um she and I have just not connected yet but it'll probably happen tomorrow um but again um we feel like we're moving the right direction we've got a our plumber to come um this week as well to look at some options for filtration systems again we can turn off the the um the faucets the water faucets that are are considered above the level uh we can turn those off but the one that we probably need to use is the kitchen um we have one kitchen faucet that's higher than U normal levels so uh that one we're trying to figure out like ASAP can we get a filtration system on that to to get in compliance so that that's some of the work that we're doing right now obviously the long-term goal is to see if it is feasible to put uh filtration systems on all of our faucets um you know that that there is going to be obviously a pretty significant cost there uh and then just deciding too how much do you really need I think every grade level has four different water um fountains if you will I should say fountains not faucets but fountains um One in Every Corridor every grade level has the B bottle filling station which is filtrated water that's obviously what we're going to be encouraging kids to use the other ones not all of them but some of the ones that did come high on the other four in each grade level again we're just shutting off and there'll be no use uh for those at at this point in time is it the faucets in the room or the no so it's hard to explain so if you go in let's say the first grade Corridor that they have the bathroom and then they have the bottle filler and just a regular push button facet or a fountain here and on the other side of the bathroom wall coming out the other side there's two more uh fountains and they're just the you know the older variety where you push the button and you know but they're just not filtrated water on those so that's what we could retrofit to get them to filtrate or take them out add another filler you know that type of thing so it just we have to just weigh out the costs and see what's most feasible um but yeah again we're we're surprised I think the thing you're trying to figure out is the why you know and we'll certainly be communicating out to parents um as well as we get more information but um yeah it's very interesting but the reality is we met the requirements before they changed the requirement now we don't need the requirements so that's really the thing to a month ago or a month and a half two months ago we would have met I mean your letter out to families didn't say that yeah we tried to make that a separate entity in itself that hey you know back in may actually when we did the testing uh we we would have been legal uh unfortunately testing changed July 1 and now yeah and again we just want to be transparent open with families on this um again wasn't something we saw coming but uh we'll certainly react and do the best we can to make it right and make sure everybody's safe so I think it's a little ridiculous they didn't give us a chance to like right stud give us give us a year to get in compliance like that's just ridiculous to go that restrictive from where it was is MHM pretty insane those are some of the questions that I'll be asking too from the the expert that was and just say wow you know why why did it suddenly go from that to so restrictive like we didn't all die pretty sure right absolutely but just think there's only a handful of of fountains you go into like the older districts where their buildings are right decades decades old 100 years old plus you know and and they're probably smaller than their us their budgets are tighter than ours M you know you feel for those guys silly and like I said too Middle School was tested in may as well came back totally apping under the five parts per billion all across the building so let's going to be like for even like churches like in their commercial kitchen they have I think it's going to be a big you'll is it just for schools or is it all um you know that's a good question all I know is schools but I I guess I don't know it's a good question yeah so kids are yeah we can let them have le at church yeah whatever else but not that's public funded here so be different is there any uh board member reports yeah any other committees going on not at this moment okay I know policy you guys have met policy we keep meeting Welcome to our world in the box once a month at least um marketing and communication I don't know are we like kicking off our the school year what like in person meeting I feel like probably should yeah yep and then um as far as like the district advisory committee we usually wait to meet in October I think now yeah Jo like we decided because just to give us some time to let the initial testing things to come in and so um I'll give you a quick couple brief msba stuff you know going to be on that tour um they did a communication review because obviously we get all the emails from msba you know are they do they work is there too little too much um and that was actually done by the dalor group which Ron wilky our former superintendent actually works for them so it's kind of nice to hear that um dates were provided out for that advocacy tour again not really too sure what those meetings entail I know I signed up for the one last one in September I think um it's like an hour long I think my understanding is they break you out into groups and you talk about potential things that we want to bring again to that legislative level um I attended the the leadership conference uh a couple weeks back um it was effective leadership for Student Success the main keynote was Dr Phil Gore it was more how boards work together how do we determine student achievement you know sort of like your um our our vision card but it's more than that it wasn't just fast School scores MCA scores how do you continually monitor you know it's not just a snapshot in time you know is it monthly updates how do you kind of ongoing um ongoing reflection ongoing metrics so that's something you know maybe we can think about as a board too is sort of you know is there something that we could provide more that we could get just to make sure our students aren't falling behind aren't they're still progressing um there was a whole session on policy and District success and that was done by Dr Terry Maro who writes a lot of the msba policies and the one big thing that I took out of there is there's still no AI policy oh that's going to be it's going to be more of a guidance and it's going to be up to each district to kind of figure out how that works uh AI is completely different in the schools it could be you know from students using it to write their papers it could be from you know us helping write Communications out to parents it can be teachers writing their lesson plan right you know all the different Avenues of it um but another thing that he mentioned too was when we're using those model policies um one are we hearing from our students in our communities you know think of like a dress code are we reaching out to our students you know so we're not up here unilaterally making that decision you know for hats or whatever it might be and the other one is the purpose statement we should be able to edit we we can edit that we can change that to fit Watertown mayor it's not just a cart Blan statement so put in there what we believe what we feel so those are some things that I got um leadership conference is January 16th and 17th in Minneapolis already mentioned they're looking for excellent showcase if you want to nominate anybody for All State School Board that's by October 14th Jim Burns a second um you know there there's going to be a lot more things that come on that you know I'm trying to give you guys some more information as I know it um but you know if you can book out the January 16 17th I think in the last six years I think I've been more or less the only one that's gone you know it' be nice hard it is hard it's during the day it's a Thursday Friday um just throwing that out there you know I'd like to see everybody go I'm not going to I'm not is it Martin Luther King weekend is it the going into it I don't know I think that sounds like it is 1617 167 Steve's usually out of town that's why go to you and again it's one of those things where you I always pull back a few nuggets and some information here that we can talk to at the board but y um that is what I have I'll be sending out probably here in the next month or two board self evil and legislative stuff for us to talk about you know kind of get your guys ideas as we develop a Watertown mayor legislative priorities uh kind of want to wait till we get msba done as well as uh Masa the superintendent Association they're all kind of in lock step that helps us and they want you to copy it they want you to take their talking points so you can go and talk to your legislators and talk to the community so that is what I have and it is the weekend that's what I thought y Monday the 20th y so with that any other further comments concerns questions is there a motion to adjourn second motion made by Miss Danielson seconded by Mr Burns all those in favor say I I all oppose nay motion is passed and meeting is adjourned at 7:42 p.m. e