[applause] Calling the meeting to order at 62 p.m. This is the board of directors regular school board meeting for Monday, June 22nd, 2026. Welcome to all of our visitors, our guests, and the media. As usual, we're going to start tonight out with the board and administration roll calls. Mr. Felt here. Mr. Burns >> here. >> Miss Danielson >> here. >> Miss Schultz >> here. Miss Gatskco >> here. >> Miss Nathan >> here. >> Mr. O'Neal >> here. >> Mr. Scheler >> here. >> Mr. Girtton >> here. >> Miss Okonnell >> here. >> Miss Payeyton >> here. >> Mr. Dalton >> here. >> Mr. V >> here. >> Mr. Samansky >> here. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Next on the agenda is public comments, but there have been no public comments prior to the start of the meeting. So the first action item is a motion to approve the agenda and addendums. So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion made by Miss Danielson, seconded by Miss Nathan. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. >> Motion carries. Moving on to item three, the consent agenda, which includes the school board minutes for the regular school board meeting on May 18th, 2026, the personnel consent agenda, and the business consent agenda. >> Roll. Second. We have a motion made by Mr. Burns and seconded by Miss Schultz. Any further discussion on the consent agenda items. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Moving right along to item four, the recognitions, presentations, and showcase. Uh we're going to start off tonight with some state recognitions. Mr. Samansky. >> Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to recognize our state participants. Um, first off we have state girls golf. And I get the pleasure of introducing Maddie. Uh, Mr. Finglesson was not able to attend tonight. Uh, Maddie qualified for state in a playoff. Um, that's good news. The bad news was it was with her teammate. So, it was, uh, bittersweet, but she qualified for state and went to Ridges and competed there for the two days and ended up, I want to say, 78th or 77th place. There was an argument before She doesn't [laughter] is one of the two. So, um, so our first recognition for state girls golf is Maddie Sutter. [applause] >> All right. Yes. Oh, good girl. [laughter] >> Congratulations. our other state um participant um Micah Schmidt. He was not able to be here. He is down with Unified at the U right now in a very very intense uh commitment that they've made um with our with our unified program and in the US games. But for state track, Micah qualified in both the long jump and he finished in fifth place and the triple jump where he finished in 14th place. So congratulations, Micah. [applause] [clears throat] >> Hello, Stacy Gatskco. I'm here representing the Watertown Trap Team. [laughter] Anyhow, uh we've got three athletes this year that qualified to compete at the Minnesota State High School League yet to come on Friday. So, uh, uh, to do that, they had to finish in the top 100 in the state out of 13,000 shooters and, uh, for average for the season. Um, it's it's a very tough to get to this point. Uh, Eric, Eric Scog, one of the top 100 shooters in the state overall. Please come up here. And, uh, the other one is Ryan Lang. Ryan Lang is not here today. Um, uh, this is the sec both of these guys both the second year in a row that they've qualified for all states. Congratulations. [applause] >> Yeah, I get a picture. I know it's a weird thing, but [laughter] >> thank you. >> Now, uh, Isabelle Newion, uh, this is her first year qualifying for state. She's one of the top 25 shooters in state for the girls. Um, come on up, Isabelle. >> [applause] [applause] >> Is that it? >> I love that you're wearing your uniform. >> Awesome. >> It looks good. >> Very cool. >> Congratulations and good luck. >> Congratulations. >> And you don't have to stay. It's lovely if you want to, but you certainly are not obligated to. [laughter] >> I get you. Yeah, >> guys. Thank you. Good luck. Good luck at state. >> Oh, [laughter] we had a big show planned, >> but it's all right. >> Okay. Um, thank you for this opportunity. It's our time for the activities year end review. Um, some of our goals that we try to achieve throughout the course of the year, uh, high participation rates, which we just want to improve on last year. That's really it's it's simple, but we just want to beat last year. The numbers that I have here, these are duplicated numbers. So, um, if you play three sports, you're counted three times. It's not unduplicated. So, but we want high particip participation rates and compared to last year, we are 38 better than we were last year. So, that's a a positive thing um for us. win three conference titles per year, team or individual. Uh this year, girls soccer, gymnastics, wrestling, boys swimming, all won team titles and we had one uh golfer win the conference and that was Paige Ericson. We have 108 team titles in school history and counting. Uh along with the high participation rates, we want to keep um our athletes and our participants in the various activities. Our goal is to to retain 80% of our ninth graders going into 10th grade and we did that this year with an 88% uh 60% of our 10th graders into 11th grade overall 81%. So we achieved both of those goals. Um getting them out is important. Keeping them out is also important. Um but there is a natural attrition as they get older. Some folks, you know, hey this isn't for me or I want to get a part-time job or you know there's all sorts of different factors. So, um, it's kind of a a a a pyramid shape where we have a lot of freshmen, fewer sophomores, but, uh, we're achieving our goals there. And I didn't do I have a clicker or do you have a clicker? >> I got >> All right. Um, our continued with our goals, promote the benefits of healthy lifestyle. 90% of our participants throughout the entire year said the experience was a positive one. Our goal is 80%. Um, we wanted 80% to believe their physical well-being improved during their activity. 89% said they got basically in better shape while they were out for an activity. Uh, 80% felt connected with their teammates, coaches, and program or 80% is our goal, I'm sorry. And according to our surveys and information, 95.3% of our participants felt connected to their teammates, coaches, and their programs. Next one, please Darren. Um, we also have high expectations not only on the field, on the court, in the pool, but also in the classroom. Team GPA, this is our 10th through 12th graders. Overall, we were 3.39 um all throughout the entire school year. coaches associations give out various awards, academic awards, and for the 2526 school year, receiving the gold um level was football, volleyball, swimming, girls cross country, not boys cross country. Uh girls basketball, boys and girls track, and then the silver was softball. Now, there could be a few others mixed in there. Um I'll get some little pla little plates for our plaque here sometime this summer. Um, it's kind of one of those things. Coaches do this with their associations and sometimes I hear about it, sometimes I don't. I'm aware of it because they ask us for the GPA and we provide them. So, we may have a few more. Um, we want 80% of our team participants to understand the rules are are clearly explained. 92% agreed with that. And we also want the rules applied consistently to all. and 87% of our of our athletes surveyed um answered in the affirmative for that and 80% was our goal. So that was another positive thing. Our yearly recognitions, our Royal Triple Crown, these again remember are our participants that are um three sport athletes. We had 42 of those. I believe all but one were pictured. And if you ask Heather, it took us a long long time to get that picture taken. We don't know what the deal was, but um I was worried that Heather was going to start swinging here soon. Uh Royal High Five was much much quicker and much um much smoother. 34 of our participants fell into that category, which is really a tremendous accomplishment at being in a minimum of five activities. Um and the activities a lot of times they're, you know, go twothirds of the of the school year. So it's very similar to playing two sports. So this is quite an accomplishment. And we have 34 there. I believe that's up by a couple from last year and I think we only had um one or two that weren't uh pictured in this picture. [clears throat] So, I'm picking up the banners tomorrow. So, those should be hung up sometime soon. Um hopefully by August 1st, we'll have that all shifted and moved and ready to go for the school year. Next one, please. Darren, updates with the high school league and the Wright County Conference. Wright County Conference right now is currently stable. There really isn't any public talk of anybody moving, changing, switching, or anything like that. I'm sure there are schools on the east side that would like to move or or have things a little bit differently, but right now u before you leave, you have to have a place to go. So, right now, it's it's one of those things where both the east and west halves of the Wright County Conference are still mutually benefiting each other with all our activities. Uh so, currently, right now, the Wright County Conference is stable. high school league ninth grade governance just completed year one and as I mentioned before this really didn't affect us in too great a fashion we were already sort of doing that before the high school league was a 1012 organization now it is a 912 organization this affects what um some of the kids can do when they can do it uh with who they can do it with with what coaches and that sort of stuff before if you were a nth grade coach uh you could basically coach year round now you can't do that so Um, year one is complete and for the most part there last fall was a little bit tricky with some things but for the most part once we got going with it it was it was just fine. So, uh, next one please. Um, bound update our new scheduling and registration platform. This will be a much better system. We're very excited about this. It will take time to learn and learn everything that it's capable of. the if I had one complaint about bound, it would be that there's multiple different ways to do the same thing. It would be very very helpful if there was just one way to do it. Here's how you do this. Um, and then you can learn that, master that, and then move on. But now, it depends on what level of experience you have and who you're seeking help with. They can bounce you all over the place and and that's been uh a little bit frustrating, but for the most part, the system is much better. Uh Deb and I are both uh u working hard this summer to get this all up and ready. We will be ready for registration um opening in July, July 13th. And you know, if you've ever gone through a a a platform change, it is it's more daunting than people realize. Uh what I would compare it to is if you know, I drive a you know, my car and all of a sudden I borrow somebody else's car. It's a different car. It's going to take you to the same place. The basic fundamentals of driving a car are the same. But how do I turn the lights on again? Or where are the wipers and that kind of stuff. It's all the little things that take time to do. Um, so that's what Deb and I are experiencing right now and and we're um moving through that. But um it's been good and it will be a much better system than than Arbiter ever was. So we're happy with that. Next one, Darren. It is a Hall of Fame class this year. Royals Hall of Fame class of 2026. We have five new members going in. Trey Burhow, class of 17, Monica Sesano, class of 18, Paul Nesvald, who's been a supporter of royal activities for a very, very long time. Uh, Jannine Helt and class of 88, Megan Gian, class of nine. Uh, the ceremony is Friday, September 18th, which is halftime of the homecoming football game. So, halftime of football is going to be extended because we'll be introducing royalty and doing the the Hall of Fame. So, it's going to be quite the show. Next one, Darren. Current coaching openings that we have right now, uh, I believe as of today, actually, we did fill the JV boys soccer. So, that one we can take off the list. Um, right now it's pretty u sparse, which is wonderful. We're still looking for a C team softball coach. And currently, all of our activities and fine arts are full. So, that's very, very good. 56 days until the start of fall camp. It'll be here before we know it. uh this fall, just as you're making plans and looking at your calendars and that sort of stuff with Labor Day being as late as it is, the athletic calendar is going to look a little bit different. For example, um you know, typically football game number eight is the Wednesday of MEA. That's going to be game seven this year. Football game 8 will be the following Wednesday just because of where things fall and and that sort of stuff. So, this is one of those years you just have to get through and um it'll be a little bit different, but it'll be here before we know it. >> Any questions? Yes, sir. >> Mr. Samansky, when you mentioned about we're a plus 38 year over or from last year, is that just athletics or is that >> activities, BPA, all those that's everything? Okay. >> So, that's good to see where they're just more involvement. >> Yep. Do you anticipate next year upping your goals like from 80% to maybe 82% or do you generally keep it at that 80%. >> Um I guess I hadn't really thought about that. [laughter] Um we definitely could I can take a look back and see what the average has been and make it sure it's just shy of that. And I'm just kidding. But 80% seems like um where I I took that information from that was just kind of the standard that was used was the 80%. So >> sure, >> but we definitely can look at upping that. >> Sometimes it's good to have stretch goals, right? >> Sometimes. >> Sometimes. >> Yeah. I would I mean to your point, if you see that consistently that you're beating that, you know, then would make sense for us to look at other goals potentially. >> It's a good sign. >> It is. >> It's a good sign. Yes, >> it is a good sign. Yep. >> I think it's impressive too that 42 [clears throat] uh Royal Triple Crown athletes, you know, participating in three sports, which is again just vital for a school our size to having kids [cough] do just [clears throat] that. Um I think that is that's huge. So, whatever we can do to keep encouraging that, that's appreciated. >> Well, and the Royal High Five because I feel like the first picture I mean the first year that we ever did that it was not as many kids. So, >> definitely increased. There's maybe a dozen. No, there's way more. So, >> exactly. >> It's good to see. >> Sometimes they act like it's not a big deal, but they like their picture up on the wall. >> Oh, yeah. My daughter does. She gets excited when she gets called for the the high five. So, >> anything else from Mr. Samansky? >> No. No. Sounds good. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to our action items. Item A, the FY28 LTFM plan and updated roofing bond resolution. Um, Mr. Schuler and we also have uh Mr. Manazi from PTMA virtually here with us. >> Yes. Um, good evening. Um, Bill, thank you for uh joining us virtually. Bill had another school board meeting tonight. He's uh in northern Minnesota, so uh we're doing the old uh virtual uh connection here. So, um, with that being said, um, Bill, I think if you'd be willing to, uh, take again, we're looking to approve our, um, LTFM plan, uh, for this year and updating our resolution, uh, for our bond, our roofing bond that is coming up here, uh, the next month or so. So, um, we'll let Bill walk us through that. >> Okay. We'll get back to that in just a minute. Um, okay. Thank you. Can Can everybody hear me? Okay. >> Yep. We got you. >> Before I get started here. Okay. I was just going to share my screen and I ran into a a screen that I was not familiar with. Let me try that one more time. Okay, it looks it looks like it might be working now. Can everybody see the presentation titled fiscal 28 LTFM plan revised roofing systems project? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. And as superintendent mentioned, thank you for your flexibility this evening. As you can imagine, um the the last meeting in June with LTFM process and and many school districts are proving their LTFM plan. This is a rather busy uh meeting for us and so I do appreciate your flexibility. Um related to the action item tonight, there are uh five different attachments and um the the one that I will primarily be referencing is the one you see on your screen which is just a brief set of slides uh related to the roofing systems project in a revised LTFM plan. There are other attachments in the agenda item uh and those are the required attachments from the Minnesota Department of Education that are required as a part of your fiscal year 2028 LTFM long-term facilities maintenance plan approval. Those documents are due to MDE by July 31st. So that's the other piece of why you're having uh this action item on the board agenda tonight. And those other attachments are the 10-year revenue projection, the 10-year expenditure spreadsheet. Those are both Department of Education spreadsheets. And although they are very useful tools in terms of financial planning, they're not great in terms of presentation. And so we've really summarized those on the slides that you see in front of you. Uh there is a statement of assurances that the superintendent has and and will plan to sign um after the meeting and and get up to MDE. And then there is a revised LTFM resolution that Peter Martin has prepared related to both your LTFM plan and the roofing project that we're going to speak to tonight. So those are a number of agenda items in your board packet. And like I mentioned on your screen is the um roofing system project slides that I will reference tonight. So starting first and just to sort of level set with what currently is. This is our current outstanding debt for the school district. And you can see shaded in dark blue are your outstanding school building bonds. shaded in green uh are your abatement bonds and then sort of a lighter blue are your LTFM bonds. And so this is your current outstanding debt. And you can see coming up in fiscal year 2028 as shown in the bottom. That's that debt service decrease that we've been talking about all along and how to structure uh the roofing bond to um create space for another potential indoor air quality project if desired moving down the road. So, I always like to start first with what currently is. This is your current outstanding debt without the roofing or the IQ, which stands for indoor air quality bond. That gets us to project financing. And so this is most likely a familiar slide with some updated numbers on that. So two main bullet points here. The first one is now $5,695,450 for the roofing project. That's updated numbers from from SMX related to the construction bid opening from June 9th and also including some of the construction costs in there as well or the construction costs in there as well. Uh the board approved LTFM plus is the financing mechanism and we're still on target to issue the bond in July. So next month uh this summer and the first payment then would be made in taxes payable 2027 which is fiscal year 2028. In other words, um we're still in line to issue that bond and have it be part of the uh 2027 levy cycle that will start in September and conclude in December as a part of the truth and taxation presentation. So that's really the first part, the roofing bond just with updated numbers related to the uh construction bid and the other costs now included. And I have down below in the second bullet point that does leave space for up to a $15,650,000 project for indoor air quality projects at the middle school, high school, and elementary school. Uh I will say that that leaves space for up to that amount. It certainly what you're the action you're taking tonight does not obligate you to any of that amount or up to that amount. Right. What we're really trying to do here is structure the roofing bond so that we can fit up to six 15.65 million and still remain tax neutral related to that debt decrease. And so what you're doing tonight doesn't obligate you to anything, but we're structuring the first bond so that you have space. And the only item that I would note that 15,650,000 is slightly less than the total projects identified in the W study which amounted to 15,910,000. So an important consideration there but again that doesn't obligate you to anything but just leaves space. Okay. Uh again the funding mechanism for that would be board approved LTFM plus under the um indoor air quality HVAC funding mechanism. It does assume that it qualifies for indoor air quality funding which your building engineer would confirm that with the Minnesota Department of Education. And then that would be a summer 2027 bond issue. And the first payment would be in taxes payable 2028 fiscal year 2029. So the process starting in September of 2027 concluding with the truth and taxation presentation in December of 2027. So looking out quite a ways at this point. I touched on the total amount from the W mechanical estimates and then I have down below depending on interest rates and market conditions the total amount of both issues the roofing bond one and the indoor air quality bond 2 in order to remain tax neutral with that debt drop is not to exceed 21,345,450. That's the not to exceed amount. And that total is the first bullet point, the 5,695,000 plus the 15,650,000. So if you did the all-in, that would be the all-in amount for those two bonds in order to remain tax neutral based on market condition estimates. So with that, just a few visuals uh to to help drive home the illustration here. Um the first one is the roofing bond. Okay, so that is shown in yellow and is represented by the 2026 proposed bond and the bullet points at the bottom. It does include a larger payment in the first year for taxes payable 2027, fiscal year 2028 in order to preserve this decrease that I'm trying to show with my cursor. Hopefully that's showing up on the screen. And it preserves that decrease in taxes payable 28 fiscal year 2029 for that potential second bond for indoor air quality. And so we've preserved this debt drop to create space for that potential second bond. And as I mentioned, it's a July 2026 bond sale for that roofing bond. And so the the bond math here was just simply trying to structure this so that we created enough room to do a second project if the board decides to move forward with that project. And then all in if you decided, again, not not a tonight thing, but if if you decided to move forward with the 15,650,000 indoor air quality project, this is what your debt chart would look like. The gold represented by the 2026 bond for the roofing project hasn't changed from the previous slide, but we have overlaid that with the 2027 proposed bond for the indoor air quality projects shown in red. And as I mentioned, you would still remain tax neutral related to that debt drop in taxes payable 207, fiscal year 2028. and your two bond dates are below. The first bond is July 2026 for the roofing and then summer 2027 we have reserved for a potential indoor air quality bond. Getting towards the end here uh as I mentioned there is a board resolution that Peter Martin and his team has prepared for this evening and a summary of the bond resolution is shown on this page. What you would be doing by approving that bond resolution is you're approving your fiscal year 2028 LTFM plan, including the revised roofing systems project with the revised construction bid amount. And you may ask, well, why are we approving something for fiscal year 2028 when we have not yet started fiscal year 2027, right? And that's not a misprint. Uh fiscal year 2027 starts on July 1st. So in I guess that's a week and a half. Um and what you're doing this evening is approving the fiscal 28 LTFM plan which is taxes payable next year in fis in calendar 2027. So it's actually a year ahead of time. So you are approving the right year. That's just the requirements that MDE they're always a year ahead when it comes to that LTFM plan. It does allow for the submission of the state credit enhancement application which guarantees uh that the state would backfill any bond payment should the school district uh not be able to make its bond obligations and that really decreases your interest rate. It does allow for reimbursement of any project expenses. So if you do incur any roofing expenses before you receive the bond proceeds, you would be able to reimburse yourself out of bond proceeds once those are received. and then approval of proceeding with the bond sale subject to certain parameters and those parameters are listed below. It does give authority to the superintendent or business manager and a school board officer to execute the documents and complete the bond sale if the following parameters are met. Uh a maximum true interest cost of 5% related to the bond sale. a maximum PAR amount not to exceed $5,785,000 and it does expire should you not execute it on December 31st of 2026. And then after the bond sale, the full board would have the chance to ratify the sale at the next meeting after the sale occurs. And then lastly, here's your bond timeline. I'm going to move you over just a little bit so I can see it. Um, we started this process way back in February with the original approval of a revised LTFM plan. Um, we fast forward then to June 9th when we had the construction bid date for the roofing project. We are tonight here on June 22nd doing a revised LTFM plan for fiscal 28. And then we are scheduled later this week to have a ratings call with S&P related to that roofing bond sale. That's scheduled for this Thursday. Um we would expect to receive that rating from S&P on July 10th and the preliminary official statement would be released to the market at that time. We would go ahead and sell the bond on or around July 21st. And at that point, your interest rates would be locked for the roofing bond. The next meeting after that is July 27th with the Watertown Mayor School Board where the board would be asked to consider the ratifying resolution. Uh and then August 12th, lastly, the last point related to the roofing bond. The bond would close and the district would receive the funds related to that project. And then way down at the bottom in summer of 2027, I do have the date for the bond sale for a potential indoor air quality project. That's a whole lot of information, but hopefully that provides some clarity and sort of walks us from February through current. Um, with that, I' I'd be happy to take any questions if you have them. I might just add for the rest of the board, um, as we're talking through these things, um, as Bill mentioned, the IQ bond is future. We don't know what that is yet. So, we're working with W and some engineers and designers to figure out what we need to do. W did their assessment. There are some things that should be addressed. Um, it's most likely not $15 million. This is kind of a worst case scenario. We want to make sure we know what can do. Um, but it's hopefully significantly less than that. So, just so everybody knows, you know, this isn't something, you know, come back and spend another 15 million. >> We haven't made any decisions yet. >> Yeah, we've made no decisions. We're still waiting for the designers, the engineers to come up with a recommendation um and then come back with that. So, the goal for today is let's get the roof thing figured out and get that nailed down and structure the bond in such a way that it leaves us some room to address the stuff and so we don't lock ourselves into something that we're not able to do that. So that's the bigger picture. So when you see some of the numbers if you're concerned about that at all that's [clears throat] Bill maybe one quick question. I don't know if you can hear us or not but um at what point do we have to lock in the payments uh schedule for that roof bond? I mean if we wanted to not extend some of those payments out into the 2040s >> if we wanted to more front load front load the payments >> if we if we find out that the IQ bond is smaller than we're thinking and we don't need as much room there to stay exact >> so it would be the point at which your payments are locked are when you would sell that bond so right now it's the middle of was it the third week of next month I think it was July 20 something or another around there that's when your payment schedule would be locked. Um, and I'm I'm glad you mentioned that, Jim. Uh, really the the the only part that we needed to to make sure is that we structured that roofing bond so that we didn't come back a year from now related to any potential IQ project and all of a sudden it is not tax neutral. Um, that's the last thing obviously we would want to do is come back and and there's a tax impact related to that. So we tried to structure it with the the larger payment in the first year to create room but to answer your question directly the the principal and interest payments and the turn would lock in when we sell that bond the third week of July. >> Any other questions for Mr. Manazi? >> [cough] >> With that being said, is there a motion to approve not only the LTFM uh FY28 plan, but also the updated roofing bond resolution? >> Second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. O'Neal, seconded by Mr. Burns. Any further questions for anybody, including Mr. Manazi? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Bill, for jumping online and enjoy your next board meeting. >> Okay. Thanks for your flexibility tonight. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Bill. Appreciate it. >> All right. Item B, the approval of roofing bid resolution 26.19. Tonight we have um Mr. Rear from SMX. >> Thank you. Uh uh Superintendent Schuler and uh board members. Um I'm here [clears throat] to talk about the bid opening um that took place on July 9th for the uh roofing projects. Uh it encompasses all the buildings essentially in the district. Um let me other one. >> Yeah, that one. There you go. So Oh, >> there we go. Let's stay right there real quick. We had um uh four biders on the projects. Um they're all under one contract, but the way Garland broke them out was by building. So you see um you had base bid line item 1, two, and three. Um line item one was for the CLC, line item two was for the elementary, and then line item three was for the U middle school, high school. Uh the elementary also included a alternate for replacing insulation with the new taper instead of uh reusing and um that alternate you can see in the next slide but it came it came back as an ad rather than a deduct. So um we're recommending you do not accept. Um but uh again four biders uh one of the biders only bid one of the projects u which they're allowed to do. I think one of the biders bid all but one. Um uh long story short, Jackson Associates is the apparent low bidder. Um myself and Mr. Thompson with Garland, who's here today. Um we had a pretty long uh bid review with Jackson Associates on Friday the 12th asked a number of questions. We're very confident in their abilities. Um they did present a pretty aggressive schedule. The bid documents allowed work to start on anytime after July 1 of 26 and be complete by September 1 of 27. Uh giving them flexibility. Um they intend on completing everything uh by like the end of November of this year. So um that's good for the district to get it done. Um there obviously there's concerns just about the amount of work that's going to take place in a short period of time. Um, their intent would be to start at the elementary in August before kids are there. Um, and then they and actually there's a bit of a schedule. Mr. Schuler, if you want to scroll down just a touch. Um, so they'd start at the elementary um do a lot of the nasty work over there. Um, the really uh stuff that would disrupt classrooms, try to knock all that out before class actually starts. And then they would continue on until roughly uh the beginning of September at the elementary wrap that up. Uh at the CLC um they would start uh like the second week I think it is in September. They anticipate barring any weather issues being there for about five six days um because they're only doing that one section. So they should be in and out of that building. Obviously the middle middle school high school is the biggest piece for them. Um, and again, their their schedule is very aggressive. Um, Mr. Thompson, I talked with them at length about how they plan to achieve that. Um, they're going to run uh what they call a modified second shift. Um, so they'll have essentially two shifts on through the whole pro for almost the whole project. Uh the first shift will be handling kind of the uh roof replacement or excuse me uh roof restoration and the the um the work that's really not going to impact the learning environment. Um the second shift will handle any uh hot tar roofing or anything like that. Um and that would start at 3 pm and then they would go as late as they need to with the caveat that whatever they open they have to seal that day. We don't want to have any mishaps. Um but they also proposed um performing the ballast removal and that's all the rock on top of your roofs uh in the summer because that is quite noisy. Um so if we can schedule it with the contractor, the ballast movement contractor and with the district uh we would get that done in in throughout August so it doesn't impact uh any learning. So by the time school starts they've got all that work done. Um and again they fully intend to run two shifts. We talked a lot about um what delays to expect and with roofing it's mostly weather. Um they crews that they have allocated to the middle school high school um they're scheduled Monday through Friday but they have blocked out weekends for those crews until November um to make up any weather days. then they would work Saturdays and Sundays because their goal is to be done by roughly the end of November. They'd rather get it done this year. Um we we're talking we're still talking through if we needed to push some of it out. It's a possibility. We just got to work through some of the details. Um but all in all, um the the schedule is doable and Jackson Associates um they've done work in this district in the past. uh they've done a lot of work around the area, so they're they are I would say they're reliable. Um they're uh they're a good contractor. So they um total combined they have the lowest bid. Um numbers are slightly higher than what we originally budgeted. Uh during the bid process, uh Mr. Thompson with Garland ordered some infrared scans of the roof and unfortunately we discovered significant amount of wet insulation that has to be replaced though that wasn't included in the original budget amounts. So, but we did confirm when Mr. Thompson I spoke with Jackson uh we did confirm that um they fully accounted for replacing all of it in their in their number. So, you won't we're not looking at a a large change order down the road. It's already in that number that they're going to replace all that wet insulation. So, um, any questions? So, right now we're looking for a motion and a second to approve Jackson and Associates. Yes. >> As our roofer for this project. >> Correct. >> And is that bottom line item there? Theoretically, when we first started this one, we wanted it done by September 1st of 27th. That was the bid documents. Uh they in the in the contractual bid documents, the substantial completion date is September 1 of 27. We did that strategically to allow um the roofing contractors the ability to come in and out of the district as needed to try and keep the prices low. Um and I think it worked. We honestly we didn't plan for a contractor to come in and try to knock it all out in 3 months. It's great and their numbers are still in line. uh when we work in that added insulation, their numbers are still in line with where we thought um where we were budgeting for. So technically they still have till September 1st because it's in the bid docks, but their goal is to be out before the end of the year. >> And we've worked with them before, right? >> Correct. They did the bulk of the storm damage replacement stuff. Uh they've done a significant amount of work at the middle school, high school, right? >> 2022 or so. >> 21 22. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, Mr. Rear, I know you mentioned too, um, that, you know, two crews would be up to 50 contractors potentially working on the project. Are there any concerns regarding, you know, student staff experience with the, you know, once we get into school, uh, in session with the project? >> I think, um, in my opinion, and and I believe Mr. Thompson shares the same opinion, Jackson is a very safe, uh, contractor. um they're going to do whatever they can to make sure it's a safe environment. Obviously, perception of the community has to come into a factor and we did discuss that as well. So, if if the community has perceived issues, we'll have to address them and and try to stretch it out or how we can handle that. Um and that was part of that conversation about if if a portion of this has to get pushed and maybe it's because um just community members are pushing back saying there's just too much activity and that I don't feel my kids are safe. So, we talked about it and they're flexual to it. We just we have to work with the details if that was the case. But >> what about like classroom disruption, smells, noise while school's in session? >> Yep. That's same thing. We it fell in that category for us. We did discuss it. Um the way they're the way they're structuring their their uh work plan right now >> is to mitigate that. >> Still could happen. Okay. um still could get some complaints or um just their minimal disruption that turns turns out to be not minimal. Um and again they are flexible with uh adjusting their schedule somewhat dedicating area workers to utilize that instead of >> Yeah, we've got some staging areas identified and where they would store. The one question would be is, you know, vehicles, uh, construction worker vehicles and where we want to stage them. Um, you know, we've talked about potentially the the entry side entry parking lot. They're the one that we refurbished a few years ago by the football field as an option. Um, but yeah, I know there's certain restrictions obviously parking along the road u Corey which wouldn't be allowable. So, um, yeah, we're a little restricted there, but I think we've got some ideas and >> potential moving of equipment for homecoming. >> Sure. >> When we >> I'm sorry to interrupt you. Um, when we issued the staging plans, we we gave them the the schedule of the for the school year. >> Um, so they know um especially when kids are not in school. Um, but part of the um, staging plan also talked about um, no deliveries during peak times, which I think we put like 7:30 to 8:30 and then 3 2:30 to 3:30 somewhere in there. Um, we highlighted where they can park, where they cannot park. Um, we uh, identified staging areas. Uh, and for each building, it's actually just one staging area. We try to keep it kind of in the back of the building or to the side. Um but um during our conversation with them, we did discuss things like football um because obviously for them they would have a lot of people here and obviously that's a busy time especially right after school. So we discussed that um and they uh fully intend once they're kind of on the building trying to stay on that building not getting off. Um they mentioned to us that um there will be times where they have to move equipment close to the building um just for access purposes, but they will coordinate with with us to uh get that done so it doesn't interrupt because I know like the the football players, they they cross that section, right? So um they're more than willing to work through those pieces and and stage when they can. So they're fully aware of it. I think for the CLC they can park on the north on the road on the north side. Um and then at the elementary I think we gave them the very outside row of parking in that curve. Um we didn't we did put in the staging plans that uh per the city there is no parking on Quarry. So that's at their own risk. Um, and we told them they couldn't park on what is that road uh in front of the elementary. >> Um, Robert there, I think. >> Paul. >> Paul. >> Paul. >> Uh, yeah. No parking on Paul. And And we actually talked about the the um student drop off and pickup on Robert. >> Yeah. >> That they can't go on that road. >> So, they're flex they're flexible. >> Make a motion to approve the roofing bed. I'll second. We have a motion made by Miss Danielson, seconded by Mr. Felt. Any further discussion on the approval of the roofing bid resolution? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. R. >> Thank you, Mr. Appreciate it. >> Moving on to item C, FY27, proposed budget. Mr. All right. Good evening. >> Okay. Looking at the adopted budget assumptions for fiscal year 27, estimated end of year ADM projected to be 1,377, which is down 46 compared to end of year FY26. So in dollars, that's roughly 350,000 in less state aid uh than we had in FY26. So that's a big hit. uh estimated special education state aid increase of 85,000. Um expenditures drive our special ed revenues and uh so that's driving that increase there. Overall general fund revenues of 21,398,370 which is a decrease of 171,958 compared to FY26 and overall general fund expenditures of 21,821441 which is up 566,550 compared to FY26. Oh, it's got a mind of its own here. >> And we're done. >> Right to the bottom. >> Any questions? [snorts] >> So, this is taking a look at, [clears throat] excuse me, where do our revenues come from and how are we using them? So you can see on the revenue side, 76% of our revenues are state aid, 3% federal, 16% property taxes, and 5% local. And [cough] the use of our revenues uh primarily salaries and benefits which account for 70% of our expenses, 22% purchase services and 5% supplies, 2% equipment, and a small fraction going to other. Uh so here we're taking a look at our unassigned fund balance history and it's been tracking um as high as 14.9% in the 2026 revised budget dropping a projected 2.2% for FY27 >> and our unassigned fund balance policy is minimum of 10%. just to kind of level set. So, we're kind of hitting up against that a little bit. Getting getting close. >> So, here we have some uh educ or legislative updates impacting our budget for next year. Uh the formula allowance per pupil is increasing $2.69% to 7682 per ADM, which is roughly $200 per uh pupil unit. and special ed funding is changing. Um, historically for quite a long time, FY25 and back, we would receive 100% um, dollar for-doll reimbursement on our special ed transportation costs. That increased or decreased to 95% in FY26 and is going down again another 5% in FY27. That's roughly a $30,000 negative impact on our special ed aid. um summer summer unemployment for hourly workers. Um FY26 was 100% funded. FY27 is estimated to be at 80% funded. So in FY25, the legislature set us set aside a pot of money to fund that and they anticipated running out during FY27. And also in FY27, the paid family medical leave act um went into play on one of 26. So we experienced half of that cost uh which for us is 044% per per wage paid out. So that's an estimated impact of 52,000 for fiscal year 27. And this again, uh, we've been talking about the enrollment graduating classes of 140 and incoming kindergarteners of 80. You can see that we're taking about a 46 student drop in FY27. And here's taking a look at the general fund um, budget. We have our beginning fund balances on the left and uh projected June 30, 27 fund balances on the right. You can see bottom line, we're projecting a deficit spend of 423,71. Uh 391,474 of that is going to be a hit to our unassigned fund balance again causing that to be reduced that 2.2% 2% roughly uh to two 2,778,167 and our restricted fund balances are going down 31,597. Uh still very positive at 2,66915 and our projected non-spendable fund balance um tough to project prepaids in the future there. So we're leaving that as it is. And our assigned fund balance will be at 2.7 million. So overall general fund fund balance of 7,563814. So probably the first time we've had a deficit presented for approval in a while. Um but with those class or student enrollment dropping at 46 and expenditures continuing to rise, um they've uh kind of crossed paths there in FY27. Food service looking to be positive by 6,611 ending with a fund balance of 482344 and community services initially projected here to end with a deficit of 193,54 and we do have chargebacks and accounting. Uh we'll work with Tim to make sure uh we're managing that the best we can as we start next fiscal year. and trying to um keep those individual fund balances too within community services in the black. Um school readiness is always the most difficult to uh sustain uh in a positive manner. So construction fund. So I was not aware of the aggressive construction plan. So initially here we budgeted uh roughly I believe it was 70 75% of the project to be completed in FY27 and the remainder to happen in FY28. So uh we will adjust to actuals midyear if that happens. So all right in the debt service uh proposed FY27 budget here projecting a deficit of 89,513 um and we do have still a very healthy fund balance there of a million3813 and again that can only be used for principal and interest on outstanding debt. So the state did have a excess fund balance of adjustment of over 200,000 on the pay 26 levy which is driving that intentionally trying to bring our fund balance down. So we levy at 105% of our uh principal and interest payments and eventually that builds up over time and they take it back as a credit. So okay so here we have uh the total revenues total expenditures by fund uh to be approved by the board this evening. You can see the total all funds revenue 35,120,974 and expenditures of 34,210,0001 which is a positive overall variance of 910,973 and again that's positive primarily driven by the construction fund um revenues exceeding expenditures by 1,710,000. Any questions on the proposed budget? 23,000% >> correct. While it kind of sucks deficit spending, we're still okay. >> Um, it's one of those things where going forward, we're just going to need to kind of keep our eyes and ears open and start planning ahead because if we do that again, we're going to be below our fund balance, >> right? >> So, it's expenses are going up and revenues are not coming in as well as they should. So, >> mostly because of enrollment. >> Any further questions for for Mr. Netky. >> Is there a motion to approve the 2627 budget? >> So, move second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Mr. O'Neal. Any further questions, comments? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose? Nay. >> Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. >> Item D, acknowledgement of donations, contributions, and fundraising. Mr. Schuler, >> Mr. Chair, we have a number of uh donations uh this month, and here they are. Uh Peace Luther Church um donated to our Royals room uh $863.64. uh resource training and solutions to our agriculture department for $7,571 uh for our floral design class equipment and floral cooler. So, just as we were talking a little bit before the meeting tonight, uh this was a neat opportunity um uh that Spencer Rogan, our instructor, was able to get another grant through our resource and training as kind of the facilitator. But as you me as it's noted there, the floral design class is a new class that she's offering. And um the hope there is to do more of that floral work where you know we could certainly have some um fresh cut flowers um that could be delivered uh to folks in the community certainly for some of the events that we host here. Um and then she is now has a cooler to put them in. So uh something that was needed uh to make that happen. So a nice donation >> and the goal is to grow those cut flowers in the greenhouse [laughter] >> part of the plant sale then grow the cut flowers then do the fold >> start to finish. >> Yep. Exactly. >> All right. Uh Royal Soccer Booster Club uh donation to our unified sports team for $500 for the pizza uh for unified soccer day. uh WTO Lions Club to girls soccer for $2,500 to support girls soccer uh and 2026 travel and equipment. Um Lions Club again uh girls basketball $1,000 middle school practice jerseys and training aids and then uh the American Legion Post 121 uh to our unified team $1,500 for expenses in the uh US games. And then also the Legion again for girls soccer for $1,500 for travel and equipment and expenses. Thank you to all those donors. [snorts] >> Yes. Thank you. >> I'll approve the donations as presented. >> I'll second. >> Motion made by Miss Gets, seconded by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item E, first and only read of district policies requiring review. Mr. Schuler. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, again, we're looking for a first and only read of our wellness policy 533. Um, as we went through our food service audit uh this spring um and uh that that was pretty extensive. There were some pieces that we had to adjust in the audit. um the auditors basically said from MDE that uh your wellness policy is not in alignment. So in order to get our our audit passed and through we had to make one very simple adjustment and I'll just pull it up here briefly. Um basically it's really stating who is your wellness coordinator in the district. You can see in green um we we've named the district nurse as the district wellness coordinator. So um uh Miss April Gezinger will be taking on that role and she was aware of that and um that is the change. >> I'll make a motion to approve the personal >> reading of the uh policy 533 for wellness. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Gatsco, second by Miss Nton. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. >> Motion carries. Item F, the 2627 parent student handbooks. Mr. Schuler and Mr. Dalton. >> Yes, we're bringing the uh first of um excuse me, the first one is the parent student handbooks with uh Mr. Dalton is taking on tonight um in support of um Miss I'm gonna plug my computer here, sir. Um thank you. um of Michelle and uh making sure that uh he can share those out. Would you like to start with the notes tonight, Mr. Dton? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. All right. >> Um what you see before you is the notes with the change the handbook edits for the child care. Child care was was one of our areas that was um we we did a a quick review of it and we saw it was pretty solid, pretty pretty solid program. So unlike some of our other programs that we're going to hear about a little bit later on, we did not do a deep dive into that and take a look at it. We will be we'll be doing that with all of our programs as you know my tenure here is is starting and and we'll be going through those things. These changes primarily are procedural for the most part things. We changed people's names. We had to change some things because of state laws for for care programs or so on and so forth. The one key change that's in there that we did add was um we added uh quite a section about appropriate dress. Um we we we ran into more and more issues with that this year. Um, again at at at that child care level surprisingly. Um, but we did we did um first of all we put in that the school district policy does apply not just when you're at school but when you're at care programs and then we elaborated on that a bit. So that's that's really what the what the care uh book and again the the employee handbook just just just changed some names and um that sort of thing. So that's that one. Um, do you vote on these separately or >> Sure. Any questions on that one? Pretty procedural. So yeah, if you want to go through, >> we have one line item to to approve both. >> Okay, sounds good. Okay. Then the next one is the early childhood um early learning, early childhood uh handbook. That includes our preschool programs, our ECF programs, screening programs, learning readiness, those type of programs. Again, those are areas that were pretty solid. Did not take did not take a real deep dive into them this year. We we really see some areas for um expansion in that. Um and that's something that we're going to be talking about next year. So, there'll probably be a probably be a lot more changes in that handbook next year. The one change that I'd like to point to in early learning is that we um for the last few years, door two, if you're familiar with, we've got door one. Door one is the kind of the public entrance. Door two is kind of a preschool entrance. And then door four, that's our our business entrance where our office was. We we worked with the preschool teachers on this one. But we saw more and more people, miscellaneous people we'll call them, coming in that door and it really raised it really raised a concern even though it was only open during certain times. We time we timed that door. Um we worked with our we worked with the instructors, we worked with the parents and and and everybody says, "Yeah, coming in door one, door four, I'm sorry, would really not be that much of a of a difference. We have staff there." One of the problems with people at that transition time is preschool. the teachers can't monitor the door. They're too busy with the kids making sure they got their bags, making sure everybody's got their stuff and getting out the door. So, so we uh we're going to try just having that door closed for this for this year. So, that that's the major change that's in that early learning handbook. So, any questions on any of those move for approve second? >> Motion made by Mr. O'Neal, seconded by Mr. Burns. Any further discussion and questions for Mr. Dalton on the handbooks hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. >> All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Item G, first of two reads for the Watertown Mayor facilities handbook. Mr. Dalton. >> Um, yeah. Uh, can we let can we put up the slides? >> Sure. >> That would probably be easiest. I I won't make you read the 13page book. So, um, as we talked about a few months ago, I came to this body and I and I showed that we have we we did do a deep dive into facility use in a couple of different ways. The way we use the pack for one thing and then just facility use. We led kind of with the the deficit and this and this this slide kind of shows that deficit again that we have an annual expenses of about 85,000. we recovered about 38,000 and that leaves a gap of about 41,000. And there you saw that the the community service budget. This is kind of an undesated area. So it it needs it needs to get to where we are basically breaking even otherwise otherwise we're deficit spending in this area. Um that said, money caus money draws attention. That's why that's why we've kind of got this here. >> [snorts] >> Another big piece that we're doing with this is we're we're we're really clarifying and simplifying the manual um the handbook. We're going from a 20 plus page manual to a 13page manual. So, making it a lot clearer. Um one of the ways we're going to make it clearer is with the multiple discounts. The way that they were applied in the past, it would say, well, if you're going to rent the gym as a category 2, which would be a local nonprofit organization, it says $25 an hour. But in the end, after the capped user and so on and so forth, they were really only paying $447 an hour. Well, it's hard to give somebody a an estimate of what they're going to be paying if the rates don't don't say what they are. So, we're going to talk about that a little bit as we go forward. Um, so again, our goal here is to preserve community access while moving facility use towards more financial stability. Um really we remove the key is kind of remove that capped user and the rebate practices. Um we were essentially rebating money that we didn't have is is a way what was happening and and we just we're recommending we stop that and then that we would phase in some um fee increases um strategically. not don't raise it from $447 an hour to $25 an hour in one year that we would have to take some steps. So, we go to slide two here. Again, we're leading with that money piece. Um I just I wanted to show what some of the other districts were charging that in the area and these are for their most affordable court hours. Now, some some have less cheaper fees for say an elementary gym and may maybe a more expensive fee for a high school gym. Some don't. So, these are these are these districts most affordable rates that they have for their gym. And the other piece, this is by court, okay? It's not by it's not by the entire gym. What we're proposing uh going forward so that we don't uh we don't shock everyone right out of their shoes is that we look at a $6 an hour elementary court gym charge and a $10 an hour for a high school gym court and rather than $25 an hour or $20 an hour, what they might be. Again, we want to make sure that we still have reasonable access for our programs, our local programs, so that they they can utilize our gyms. We want them in those facilities. We just can't run it at a $50,000 deficit. So, we can go to the uh next slide, please. That's, you know, $6 and $10. That's kind of the strategy for this year as we as we look for where we go down the road. And again, this is isn't cut in stone, but just kind of the strategy would be a dollar a year increase as we go down as we go down the road. To give you an idea of what that means, um, we rented out about 2500 hours to our to our groups this year. So it would it if at a dollar an hour this year it's a little bit more for the first year because we're cutting out some of those programs but at a dollar an hour we're looking at 25 2500 or $3,000 each year as we go up in terms of revenue that we would take in. We may look at that we may say hey what we we need to go $2 an hour next year to get moving. Whatever the case might be. The idea is that it's phased in and it is not one big whopping increase uh in one year. We go to the next slide. This one just shows I I I mapped it out over seven years. You can see that we're the first year here. We're we're going to bite into it pretty good um by 10 grand. And then as we go through out through year seven, we would still be at a at a 23k um deficit in in this program. So as we go, we may we may want to talk about $2 an hour three years from now or whatever the case might be to accelerate those increases so that we can get more towards a a flat a flat budget on that. Um the other thing I wanted to note is in the little box you'll see um we are we're going to we're going to work to um on the cost side um one of the things we're doing the online facility use and management system that should reduce the amount of time that we have to have staff working on this. The other thing it'll do it it'll give clear rules and approvals. Um for instance maybe we won't get calls at 4:00 asking to be in the gym at 5:00. If we make it clear to these groups, you know what guys, we we can't have people come open the door for you at four o'clock at 5:00 uh on a Saturday. You need to have that planned and we're going to make it easier for them to get their reservations in order so that we have less of those those incidents. And the other piece that I want to put is we will we will really push to market the higher um um revenue um events. For instance, events when we have out of town groups like dance groups and so on so forth or rent our pack, they can be quite lucrative because they play they pay at the high level, they pay at the the top level and they can be 20 to $25,000 per weekend in um in profit essentially in revenue for us. Um so if we can if we can sell a few more of those weekends, well, that's really going to help this budget look a lot better. So it's not just it's not just raise the rates. That's not what this is about. It's about trying to do it better, try to do it more efficiently, and try to market it to some more of those some more of those people that that are willing to use our great facility. We go to the last page if I can get to it. This is the handbook changes. Again, there is a there is a page with all of the changes listed and of course you have the handbook. This is a little bit uh uh more concise. Our handbook, we want to make it simpler, clearer, and more sustainable. Um we want to update the revenue piece. U replace a cumbersome approval, discount, rebate structure um with a clearer process. Again, it's going to say $6 an hour. That's what your rate will be. It'll be $6 an hour. It won't be well, we'll figure it out when we when we when we give you the bill. um simpler process. We're going to eliminate the capped user um agreements, the rebate calculations, whether that's the capital the capital um rebate, I call it a rebate anyway. Um and and I'll note that we just did it just a few minutes ago. The district already has a a donations process and that's where we would funnel those people that if you want to donate something to the district, if you want new chairs, if you want new basketballs, whatever the case might be, there is a donation process and and and we would utilize that um clearer expectations. Uh we we just um make sure that we're following the Minnesota State High School League guidance, state laws, district policies. That's just kind of outlined in the in the policy. um clarify insurance supervision for spaces for our users. So make it a little clear to them what what our expectations for them are. Um, and again there's that fee structure. Rate two rates. We're $6 for elementary courts and also the CLC. That would also fit there and then $10 per hour for the courts at the high school. And uh hopefully that gets us moving down the line towards a better financial picture for that and and again a much clearer and easier and more functional policy and access for our groups. That's all the talking I plan to do. Does anybody have any questions? This is a first read. Um and just so that you know um we will be meet between now and what is it the 27th of July I believe. >> Correct. When we come back for the second read, we will be meeting with the uh local associations. We have we have an annual process where we meet with them, talk about what it looks like, kind of get get a little feedback from them, what worked, what didn't work, that sort of thing. and we will go through this with them so that they understand what what what we're trying to do so that it's not a big surprise to them when when they come to to make their reservations. So, and and we'll we'll share that feedback when we when we come back next month. >> Two questions for you. One is have you done that impact analysis already to those tier 2 groups of I know you're presenting them later, but >> have you figured out what that difference is going to be between what they've been used to paying for? We have >> season >> we have um you know you can look at um basketball is basketball is is is the big >> the big one in the room. Most of the other groups they would meet their capped use and and that and and that would be about it. So it would it wouldn't be a huge discount. Basketball had a huge discount because they had a huge amount of hours. They say their bill would have been $25,000 for the year if you followed the if you followed the process. The cap user kept it down to about $7,000 for them. So for them, they're going to see they used about $1,600. They're going to see about a dollar and a half increase next year on those. So $2,500 approximately is what they'll they'll see for an increase next year. That's our our biggest users. the smaller users certainly much less. >> And then you um focus mainly on courts, but what about other parts of the facilities and >> um fields? >> We we we kind of applied the same strategy to fields that that were used. Um you know, the fields might have said $25 for a field, those would be $10 a field also. So, same kind of concept. Again, those users not a huge impact because they don't they they would be they would not go over and above that cap so far. So they you know when uh I'll leave it at that. >> Did you go like for like like so I get the you're inside of a facility right? So you've got I'm just saying each sport and association is different >> and there's there's two way streets as far as the maintaining on both sides. So when you meet with the associations, are you going to take that in consideration? Because it's not I don't love this because it's a cookie cutter approach. And that's what I love about a smaller school is we're a public school. This is where I mean you can show off all of your different um we want to be royals, right? So I just >> I like I I get it. We have a deficit spending and I think we need to to cost recover. I don't disagree. I also don't like the cookie cutter approach either. I think there needs to be looking everywhere >> this >> and it sounds like you're going to talk to individuals, right? >> Yeah, we're going to talk to the individuals and that's that's why those rates that were really impacted are the ones that you're seeing brought down to the the $6 an hour or $10 an hour. The others they weren't I I could go I we have figured it all out but we do know what what they're all and really the other associations really aren't going to see that much of a change. It's basketball is the one that's going to see is going to see the the change. >> It's the cap the capped user. [snorts] And how many other districts have a from a community perspective have a capped user program? >> The only other one is Howard Lake Waverly. And then I I guess the other question is um for those other districts when we did a comparison um are how much you know obviously their rates were quite a bit higher but are they closer to being netneutral or are they still deficit spending in this particular area? They're probably close to being net neutral. That is, you know, overall that's best practices in community community education. It's your facility uses basically basically scratch. It's a cost recovery game. We provide a service to the community, but we don't have any funding to survive to to provide that service. So, we need to recover those through through use fees. on the expense side of things that 85k is most of that fix fixed expenses some of that variable I mean if if some of our groups say well you know what that's too expensive we can't afford that so they go away do those expenses go away or is that staying the same >> um some of them would yes um certainly custodial fees for when they're having a tournament and that sort of thing some of them would not um well I I can't say that if if we reduce the amount of time that staff spent on them we we would we would apply less of their cost to to that to that >> figure has other things that they would work on. Yes. That would not be >> Exactly. >> All right. >> So, >> I know like custodial use during a tournament that's an extra cost to the basketball association. So if you're factoring that in that should be a one for one shouldn't really be well I mean it could be in the revenue and the expenses but if you're missing that as a revenue item potentially >> you know the way we do it is a lot they spend a lot of time without um staff in the building that most of their custodial costs are when they have tournaments. >> Yeah. Yeah. I know. Same. >> Yeah. So >> we wouldn't push out. So, you said we're going to go after higher revenue events, but but we're not going to do that in instead of our local associations getting the first dibs. Correct. Correct. They they would have first priority. And when I talk about that, that's primarily the pack and um that's that's where we have there is we do have opportunities for tournaments and we do bring in some outside tournaments, but they are second priority and for and I'll talk about that a little bit later on in my report how we have worked with activities to look at what that what those schedules look like so that we can see where those opportunities are to bring in some some of those groups outside events. >> Yeah. As we've increased our interest in using the pack, we we're doing just like Tim mentioned, we're trying to work with the fall and spring musicals, certainly the band and concert. They get our students get first priority. I think what Tim's trying to say or what he's going to mention down the road is that yeah, we're trying to find those gaps within their programming in order to have some of these larger scale events that bring in the revenue. So, um I credit Tim for and and Paul's helped with that too is just bringing the key people to the table because we never really had that. It was really just like when does that play start? Now we're dialing in like yep, the spring play is going to be here, the fall play is going to be here, and we kind of know where we can fit in between. So, it's kind of a coordination piece. >> Yeah. When we know a couple years out when those when those plays are going to be, then we know when those those weekends are available that we can have the dance competition. And they like they they would like to know two years ahead of time. They that's just kind of the way they do their business, two or three years ahead of time. So it would give us an opportunity to even um establish a contract with someone who to come in and you know on a yearly basis. So >> well shame on me it's a lot to unpack. So I look forward to going through a lot this see like and then the meetings of the associations too. >> That is the um I apologize whenever the advisory council talked about it that it's a lot. It's a complicated piece. Um these are projections. is I can't guarantee that it's going to be perfect like that. I can tell you that if if if we follow this policy and it comes up that somebody's got a $40,000 bill and they expect it to be uh you know 15,000, we're not going to bill them $40,000. We're we're going to we're going to do what we can to keep our to keep our associations available to to use our facilities. that that's like I say, money draws people's attention, but but that's that's really one of our driving forces is we want we want our buildings busy on Saturday, Sunday, and evenings. >> And again, this is the first of two reads as well. So, >> yeah. >> Yeah. And Tim did a nice job this year kind of building this out. This was a pretty big uh project that he tackled in his first year, but uh certainly had his advisory committee well advised in in terms of the process and had them in the loop. And then we met uh last week, you know, grabbed Hunter, myself and and Mr. O'Neal as well as another set of eyes and ears on what he was presenting tonight. So, um yeah, appreciate the work you've done. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions I can answer? So, I I'll make a motion to approve the first read of the Watertown Mayor facilities handbook. >> I'll second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Felt, second by Miss Schultz. Uh, any further discussion at this time on the first read? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item H, the notice of general election. Mr. Scheler. >> Yes. Uh we will have three board members whose terms will come uh expire here uh in January. And we um are getting ready uh for the uh November election. So as you can see, this resolution uh calls for the election of three board members for four-year terms. Um it's just an annual uh process [snorts] that we have to go through when um folks are uh up for reelection. So, um, this just basically states that, um, we're doing a general election in 2026. >> I hear a lot of see a lot of the word clerk on there. >> That would be clerk Heather. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] >> The high speaker >> and I'm just behind her going, "Go Heather, go Heather." Um, motion for approval of the notice of general election for 2026. >> I'll second. Motion made by Miss Gatskco. Second by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Item I, notice of filing dates. Mr. Scheler. >> Yes. This is another resolution that we do annually with uh when we're up in election season, but um it uh notes u some key important dates for filing uh for uh board positions. Again, July 14th, 2026. Uh, and it runs for a week and will close on July 28th, 2026. Again, there's the the common expensive $2 filing fee. [laughter] Um, and um, and it must be paid before the 5:00 p.m. deadline. Um, Heather follows that to a T. So, if anyone out there is filing, please >> cash or check or just cash? >> Cash or check only, please. >> Okay. >> Preferably before five. Take that. No. [laughter] >> And there is a new affidavit. It is not. They have come up with a brand new app for filing. So I will have those available in the district office. They're also on the secretary of state website. >> Just making it easy. Making it easy. >> I'll make a motion to approve the notice of filing dates. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mr. Felt, seconded by Mr. Burns. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Item J, District Official with authority, otherwise known as the Iowa. Mr. Schuler. >> Yes, Mr. Chair. Uh, board members, this is the annual [snorts] um resolution in which we designate uh Miss Heather Huan as our uh district authority to um do the the identified official with authority in the Iowa. Um so we approve um to uh reertify Heather as that individual. >> Approval. >> Second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Nathan. >> Nope. Miss Gatskco. >> Agetsko. >> Seconded by Miss Gatskow. >> Um any further discussion on the Iowa hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Moving right along to item K, the Southwest Metro Long-Term Facilities Maintenance Resolution. Mr. Schuler. >> Uh, yes, Mr. Chair. This is a annual um approval that we do with Southwest Metro. Again, um an organization like Southwest Metro cannot levy for any of their um their their buildings or for their safe schools. So, uh they rely on their 11 member districts to do that levying. and it's done proportionally to the amount of usage that each district uses um per year. So um this uh resolution again um puts in place how much we are contributing um to the Southwest Metro um LTFM account. It is up a little bit this year just because our usage was up. I think we went from 3.1% out of the um 11 member districts which is still very minimal. uh I think we went up to like 3.8 this year. So um the increase in usage will subsequently show an increase in our levy uh contribution back to Southwest Metro. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Schultz, seconded by Mr. Burns. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Item L, Southwest Metro Safe Schools resolution. Mr. Schuler, >> again, similar uh language here in terms of um our contribution back to their safe schools levy. Um our district again is right around that uh 3.8% um usage. So, we had a slight increase in on our contribution this year due to that uh increase in usage. >> Second. Thank you. Motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Finally, item M of our action items, the recommendation >> the alphabet. We're running out. [laughter] >> We're not in a double A letters. >> The >> the recommendation for tenure, Mr. Scheler. >> Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair and board members. This is always an exciting uh piece of of the June meeting is that we have a number of staff this year that are moving to tenure status. So again, they have completed three years in the district or uh if they came from another district and were tenured previously, they have one year probation in order to be tenured. Um so uh and that offered a fourth contract, I should add. So, [clears throat] um, all these teachers, I'll recognize them by name. In the elementary school, Lauren Hagen, uh, Emily Narlac, um, Abby Vasquez Cruz, Monica Goodram, and Kimberly Archerald from the elementary are recommended to gain tenure status. In the middle school, Emma M is um, that individual. In the high school, uh, Spencer Raglin, uh, Anna Palman, and Taylor are all recommended to be moving forward uh, for tenure. and the CLC uh Amy Sincler is also being recommended. So, thank you. >> Make a motion to approve tenure. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Danielson, seconded by Mr. O'Neal. Any further discussion on the 10-year status? All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. All right, that wraps up the action items of the evening. Um, moving on to the review and information items. Uh, strategic plan update, the problems of practice presentation. Mr. Schuler. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair and board members. Um, as you know, um, our admin team, [snorts] our leadership team has been working on this problem of practice as we went um up to they're all coming out. Look at this. This is nice. >> Um, >> the um, the piece that we wanted to explain to you is just a little deeper dive on what we did and what we accomplished. Um this is a really short presentation but um we surrounded it around our our commitment to learner outcomes and again ensuring all systems and supports are in place to address to our social emotional mental health and academic needs of all students. So that was uh our focus. So what was the problem of practice? Again it was a a 4-day uh retreat um at the resource and training facility in in Sartell. But again, the three key points there were to identify and analyze a key problem of practice in each of our buildings. Um, uh, develop actionable evidence-based solutions, uh, to those problems. And then, uh, craft a tailorm made roadmap action plan. So, a lot of this was done in the first few days that we were up there in August. Um, we were able to work throughout the year, and we'll explain some of that as we we go along here um, in our piece. and uh Miss Okonnell uh gets to start with our first slide. >> Good evening. Um so [clears throat] last year I was contacted in the spring and asked to lead um and be the keynote speaker at our initial problem of practice summit. So this is just a little bit um you can read through on your own. and I won't read it for you um about what that presentation was about of the keynote um presentation that I did. The whole conference was based on an article about one small step. And so I was just asked to share the successes that we had at the elementary school with taking one small step. In our case, many small steps in our MTSS journey. And then that kicked off the event asking other school leaders, what is one step within your power that can move your school closer to equity for all learners. Take this one. Got it. >> Nobody all [clears throat] this is me. Um our identified area of focus again uh our goal was to improve the overall student experience by using datadriven uh MTSS systems that really focused on literacy and that was kind of our focus as you'll see here in our goals. Each building, as Miss Okonnell said, will take that one small step was which kind of was the mantra as you can you'll hear that often to move to improve literacy scores, especially in those tier one instructional areas, so that every student feels uh supported, challenged, and connected every day. So, one of our goals, and Mr. Dalton will explain that was uh development of a prek uh preschool teacher and kindergarten transition team. >> Yes. And this was a successful process and and I just I do want to I do want to give kudos to the district and to superintendent Schuler of the what 13 14 districts that were there only two had anybody from early childhood represented amongst their team. So that we're thinking preK12 and most districts are thinking K12 and and that that that's really important for a person in my position. That means this group superintendent, they care about what we're doing. It's an important piece. It's a conduit to our K12 program and that that that's impressive. So um the main thing that that that had to do with preK was was our transition team. We established that basically Mr. Schuler's um impetus behind this. Uh we established monthly meetings between our prek instructors and teachers and our kindergarten teachers. Um we had support from resource and training. Um some of their staff came to some of our meetings and talked to us. Um we changed the um the orientation visit where it wasn't just a visit to the playground. It was actually to the two classrooms and um cross crossclassroom visits um visiting and then we really work um to have sped be involved in that. It's a really important piece for um both both prek and K. Um, a a lot of what we found is it's it's there's a lot of similarities, but there's but there's a lot of differences. And and the key to it, I think, is that the group, the teachers, they wanted to continue this process next year. I don't know whether we'll meet every month, but we will continue this process and continue to try and bridge that gap so that there's there's a um colleiality between between those groups. They're in two different buildings, but we're going to work to kind of break that down. I think just to add to that slide, the cross classroom visits again where preschool teachers got an opportunity to go visit kindergarten classrooms. Kindergarten teachers went to visit a preschool uh classroom. So, we had a really good opportunity for them to see. If you recall 10 years ago or so, uh kindergarten uh was in uh the CLC building. So, there was a lot of conduits, a lot of connections that were made that way. when they left 10 years ago, what we heard from the staff was that yeah, there was definitely a separation of of communication that we we don't know exactly what they're doing anymore there. And so trying to build that back again of just communicating and this helped that. So, thanks Tim. >> Okay, thank you. >> Good evening, everybody. Uh kind of working its way up K through five. We looked at arts and letters as being the curriculum that we decided to use. So now we have a strong rigorous curriculum uh starting in kindergarten all the way through fifth grade. I was able to go in and do classroom [snorts] visits uh with teachers do fidelity checks. Uh we'll now be bridging that next year in a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So, you know, that legacy literacy model is going away thankfully and we're pulling in a very well-connected researchbased curriculum kindergarten through 8th grade by the end of next year. >> And just a couple of more things on it, like 96% of the time when we walked into classrooms, they were using the arts and letters curriculum. [cough and clears throat] Excuse me. um and about 90% of the time they were using high um highly effective strategies for student engagement. So there's a lot of really really good things going on there as well. Um I'm going to talk a little bit in Bob'sstead since he's u high school and he's not here this evening. Uh but what we were doing and I believe we mentioned this at a couple board meetings, but we really took a focus at um our ELA group 9 through 12 and aligning our assessments to the standards uh to the new standards that were just tested um this last year on the MCA. So, what we're taking a look at is um using AI to input and upload our assessments and then see how that maps it out into each of the benchmarks to see where now we're going to look at gap analysis and what kinds of things we can do to ask uh questions closer to the standards and at the appropriate level of rigor so that we can continue to move that dial for for all of our kids at the high school level. Um and um we've got a documentation um log in there for grade nine, grade 10, grade 11. I've got the assessments all linked in there. We can see what it codes as to each of the standards and then a tally for each of the I don't know 32 standards of what we've got in ELA and see how many questions we're asking in each one of those. And some of them we're not asking any questions in yet. So we're kind of getting a good start on taking a real close look at that. That's at the high school level. So uh in conclusion, I think uh Tim mentioned this, right? Uh we we had a successful roadmap and a planning guide. Uh we um took uh bimonthly meetings uh to keep this fresh in our minds as an administrative team and hold ourselves accountable to these goals. Uh we utilized some support. Uh this was all put together, I think, by a grant at resource training and solutions. Uh so they were able to provide some support for us uh at a couple of these meetings and um also with a navigator so we could bounce some ideas off as the year went on. And then um uh as we look forward to next year, we're going to take and put this in as one small step. We're going to do that more locally rather than taking four full days uh out of the offices areas for our administrators. We'll probably combine that into a couple of half days or maybe one day at the beginning and one day at the end to put this together uh for next year. and then to recap it um at the end of the year. >> Any questions? >> So for all of our listeners out there, we love to use acronyms. Can you just say what ELA stands for? >> Oh, yes. English language arts. Yes. For [laughter] our >> MTSS, >> MTS, multi-tered systems of supports. Very good. >> Yeah, I know. We live in a world of acronyms. >> Do we need like an FAQ? >> I just think sometimes it's important. Actually, for we just went over this with our new teacher orientation. We've got a document of >> educational acronyms that is linked in for our new teachers coming into the district because it's Yeah. Crazy. >> Providing that to board members, new board members is probably not a bad idea either. So, >> yeah, that's actually >> Thank you. >> Yeah, just the two quick end pieces there. I mean, the resource and training facilitators was a really cool benefit. I think when we sat down as a team um they would join alongside us and when we were struggling with a problem a lot of times they would say hey have you thought of it in this eye or this perspective or you know I know another district that's done this. Um so they really brought us together and gave us some really good feedback and to the point where they're coming back and joining us next year in a few different areas to give us some assistance. And if you didn't know they're uh considered a regional um center of excellence is the name that they're given. So Minnesota now has broken out, I think, to five um regions of excellence in and resource and training is now one of those. So there's some really good folks on staff um that are very supportive. So and then again, uh just a shout out to our leadership team. Again, um as Tim was kind of mentioning, I think we're the only district that had all of our principles and directors um at the table. And there was a good testimonial. A lot of the folks there said, "Wow, pretty cool commitment to give up four days of your August and and of your June to come back and finish this work." So, I want to thank our group. Appreciate it. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there any opportunity for continued um grant support for ongoing um >> Yeah. U again they are supportive. A lot of it is at a cost um to the district. So you can use professional development dollars to have them come back. Um like the early childhood um coordinator from uh her name is Jennifer Johnson. She's going to be joining us next year for a whole year basically working alongside uh Mackenzie Bournemger, our early childhood coordinator in support. And then um again just kind of uh revisiting uh our work in early childhood. And so, yeah, it's it's available. And Kelsey Harps is another one that we've worked with over the last two or three years. U Miss Okonnell has used her extensively um uh through some of the ReadAct work we were doing and also um with the arts and letters curriculum. So, she's been a really great resource for us and knows us very well. Knows our even our teachers well enough to know when she's going to get some push back and when she's able to I mean, she's good. I wasn't sure if there was a if it was a onetime grant that you can't reapply for to help offset costs or if it's >> Yeah. And the problems of practice was just it wasn't necessarily a grant. Uh it might have been a grant on their side, but for us it was an opportunity at a very lower minimal cost. I can't recall, but um to have this, you know, pretty high quality PD and build out your your year basically. So, >> thank you. Um, next up is the superintendent evaluation process. So, if you want to bring that up, it's that [snorts] time of the year again. Um, with the fiscal year ending at the end of June, uh, Superintendent Scheler is going to provide us sort of like his year-end goal summary. Um, at that same time, I'm going to send out a survey to to the school board, kind of linking it all together, as well as the admin team. You'll be getting an email from me as well with the survey. um try to have that done by July 13th so I can kind of compile all the results and then at the July 27th meeting we're going to have a close session after the meeting kind of as we do annually it's a lighter typically a lighter meeting >> um and the admin is is you guys don't have to show up for July right >> correct >> I think they get July unless they want to >> you more than welcome to come but >> um fishing probably sounds the head knots, >> but kind of we'll have a closed meeting um at the uh July 27th as well as we'll kind of discuss upcoming goals for the uh 20 was it 26 27 school year >> and then with the goal of reviewing those goals and providing his uh review at the August 24th schoolboard meeting. So, kind of a lot of dates there. Um, key ones, you'll be getting a survey from me. So, checking your email, getting it done, and then close meeting on July 27th. Kind of the CliffNotes version there. So, all righty. Any questions? Same old process as we've used the last year. So, all right, moving on to the admin reports. Uh, Mr. Henan is not here, obviously. Mr. Scheler, I think you kind of have his update. >> Yeah, Mr. Shannon is uh was down today at the uh US games and supporting our our students and and athletes. So, um I'm taking his spot today. So, he had a couple notes here. Uh summer school around 15 students are participating. Um good sign that the number is lower means that uh more kids are on track um going into the summer. Um staffing, all of his positions are filled at this point. Knock on wood. uh graduation was a a big success. An estimated of about 1,50 uh people were in attendance. Thanks to the people who helped uh make that quick transition from the stadium inside to the building and especially Jeff Lisman and his staff um did a great job given the decision uh was made Friday morning. All was ready to go within a few hours. uh received many compliments on the setup in the gym and uh people were especially complimentary of the video board. That was a big hit. Absolutely. Um and again lastly, overall the year was a big success. The students were great until the end. Uh I had the opportunity to meet with all teachers for checkout meetings to review the year and and uh preparing for next year. the transition to the sixth period day uh which is again hard to believe that was you know just >> right >> year ago uh was a big success uh overall uh he learned a lot along the way and there's areas to continue to be improved upon but students were given all the opportunities and uh more and then that they previous received under the block schedule so again uh it's definitely a plus for students that's Mr. Hannon's report >> Mr. Girtton. I just want to hit some end of the year highlights for you guys. Um, first just say thanks for supporting our schools. I think we just we had a great end of the year, at least from my perspective. Um, one of the big highlights is getting outside on that stadium with the kids. So, we had an eighth grade celebration thanks to PTO and the weather was wonderful. Kids had a great time. A ton of prizes given out. Just great to have those kids hang out together with the teachers and have a good time. So, we spent time doing that. The other thing that we were able to do is have our end of the year assembly outside as well. Um, kids love that stadium. U, Mr. Henning gets a little nervous when he sees us out there, but he let us have it. And, uh, kids like to see themselves on the screen. They like the bass. So, it was it was a good vibe out there for kids. Um, students of the month, web leaders, student council, our unified club, which has just really expanded uh in into our building this past year. Yearbook club, our YES club, which is a biology group. We also had uh recognition Americanism award was given out to Jace GU uh from the Legion. They do that every year and that's just a really awesome experience. Um parents were there just very proud and also our eighth graders of the year, Marita Gbransson and Carter Blackader, just awesome role models for school. Uh it was [snorts] hard to say goodbye to Bill. Um I'm still getting texts from Bill McDonald. So we gave him a little bit of a farewell. Um a lot of shots of Bill's barn uh lately. He's spending a lot of time enjoying his man cave over there. But we said goodbye to him and the kids were really excited and gave him a really great goodbye. Sort of. We'll see you again anyway. We kind of know that about Bill. Uh, pennies for patients was also a really big highlight. Uh, we shattered a building goal. We had set a $4,000 goal and uh, within a day of that goal, Mrs. Sinking was sweating. We were a couple thousand short and kids somehow brought in another $3,000 within literally 24 hours. Um, and I think that'll be featured. I know Mrs. Huan is working uh with Hope Chest on that being highlighted. >> They're working on it. >> They're working on that. So, there'll be a really nice um video recognizing that that was inspired uh really because of Vicky Tam Anderson uh and so forth with her her battle with cancer. So, that was a really exciting thing to do with kids. Uh the last piece I just want to say I'm really proud of is our student survey results. uh looking at our goals and our data. Our kids uh were in the 90s, but um even more positive from kids in terms of feeling safe, feeling connected with staff and really feeling like we advocate for their success. So, good school culture results to kind of end the year on a very positive note. So, again, I'm just very grateful and thankful. Uh kind of moving ahead now, we're looking at finishing up our master schedule. um staffing. We did hire a new math a new FIAD health teacher, Matthew Mensel. So, I've actually been working with him and and Joe on curriculum and then it's starting to think about August, you know, once we get through the 4th of July, it's that uh transitioning into getting ready for next school year. Until then, just taking a little bit of a break. So, thank you. Any questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, M. It was a very busy May with lots of [clears throat] exciting events to culminate a fantastic year of learning. On May 5th, our junior coaches headed to Day of Play at CHS Field. There were nearly 1,000 Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota elementary school students gathered at the home of the St. Paul Saints for an end of year recognition that included a parade on the outfield and once again WMEES had the largest group of students from a single site. So it's quite exciting. On May 6th and 7th we had transition visits with our preschool students visiting our kindergarten classrooms, our cafe, and our playground and our fourth graders visiting the middle school. These visits are important for easing anxiety and helping students to get excited for their next educational adventure. On May 21st, our fourth graders had their spring sing performance at the PAC, showcasing all of their musical skills and talents that they have acquired during their time at the elementary school. Thank you to Miss Roshol for her leadership and hard work preparing our students for this experience. On May 26th, we had our field day experience for all students. This year, we returned to a traditional field day model with students rotating through various experiences outside. Thank you to Coach Julie for her time spent planning and organizing this event. Then on Thursday, May 28th, we had our last family engagement evening of the year, our celebration of learning event, which serves as our culminating event for students to showcase their growth over the course of the school year with their families. At this event, we also had our school of excellence recognition award ceremony where we are officially awarded our school of excellence. students, families, and even superheroes attended. Uh, the Minnesota School of Excellence program has been around since 1986 and honors schools who have received this designation. Thank you to the committee who worked countless hours to put together our application and plan our celebration. And to the robotics club for adding additional fund to the event with the t-shirt cannon. And if if you're on LinkedIn, you can see that MESPA just publicized that a week ago, complete with pictures with some superheroes in costume. >> And then on June 3rd, we held our kindergarten celebration recognizing our littlest learners and their accomplishment of completing their first year of elementary school. We proudly recognized this feat and sent them off to first grade with a strong foundational skill set. And lastly, our Growing Royal summer school program is set to begin on July 6th. We are ready to welcome 67 incoming kindergarten through fourth grade students for this three-hour a day program focused on helping students retain their academic gains that they made during the school year and protect against learning loss during the summer. We have five teachers who will be teaching this program. Miss Hagen, Miss Johnson, Miss Thompson, Miss Jacel, and Miss Narlock. And lastly, thank you to you for the last four years for supporting me and for offering me this opportunity. I has been the honor of a lifetime to be here and to be your principal and I will be so sad to be saying goodbye to all of you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. [applause] >> Um seems a good opportunity to transition. Um, we'd like to also, uh, welcome our new elementary principal, uh, Miss Jodie Hansen. So, if you'd be willing to come up and maybe just say hello and, um, no long speech is needed, but just, uh, a little bit more about maybe your who you are and a little bit about your background. >> Sure. Good evening, uh, Superintendent Schuler and Mr. Chairman and school board members. First of all, thank you for this opportunity to come tonight and introduce myself. I um my name is Jodie Hansen and uh currently I am the assistant principal at Caposia Education Center in South St. Paul. I have 28 years in education. 18 of those are in leadership and eight as uh a dean or administrative um and assistant principal. So, I come to you um having served a lot of different populations in a lot of different situations, a lot of different dynamics of students, and I'm really excited to get to know this community. I'm excited to um learn from my colleagues and stay connected to Katie who has I just want to give a huge shout out because each time I um open a web page or I I look at a document, Katie's name is on it and it's um really strong work. And so she's um I I I hope I can I big shoes to fill except for it's summer so I'm going to say big sandals to fill. Um but I hope I can carry the the strong work on um in this community of excellence. So uh I don't know and that that's awesome. >> That's great. Thank you. [laughter] >> And I look forward to meeting with you um and giving a wonderful update as well. So thank you for having me. >> Will you be having to commute from St. Paul here? >> Actually I live in West Bloomington. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So my commute will just be like 30 miles. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So not >> not terrible. Not terrible. >> Okay. >> No. >> And one of the questions that was asked during my interview is why a small town? Why why the fringe? And I said, well, here's the deal. I grew up in Redwood Falls. I student taught in Gleno. And um South St. Paul is four miles by six miles. So, I haven't been able to escape this small town feeling yet. Uh so, um thank you for being so welcoming and I look forward to working with you all. >> Yes. Welcome. Thank you. Mr. Dalton. >> Okay. Good evening, board chair. Um, we summer programs, we are we jump right into it right away. A lot a lot of things happen right after school. A lot of those high school sports camps and so on so forth, they happen right away. Some of them are over already. Um, but we were busy with that. Um, currently we have 161 children enrolled in our summer childare programs. Um I I I'm embarrassed to say I can't tell you whether that's more or less than than the last but but we have 161 right now. Um our acclaimed summer youth theater program is underway and preparing Save the Service. Um they will have performances in July 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th. Um and at the performing arts center. Tickets are 10 bucks. um Arox transition. This is a transition to um the new facility you new community education facility use management um and registration software um that we're right now we're we're just finishing that up and we're looking at a transition date targeted for mid July and again that's uh Paul mentioned to it when you change when you change a platform sometimes there's some challenges this one hopefully comes with a few less challenges because it's essentially a change in name and a change in company and not so much a change in software, but there will be some. So, we're we're we think we're ready for that. Um, again, shared this evening the first read for that facility use handbook. Um, again, our updates are intended to improve consistency, transparency, cost recovery, and reasonable access for local groups. And one point that maybe I didn't make make clear and there was a question in the draw was we looked at we looked at each group's use and all those adjustments were made according to for those spaces use. So we we tried we tried to accommodate for that. So that that's part of the picture. Um the pack and fine arts scheduling um we worked with the high school activities department on a longer range pack and fine arts scheduling framework. We now have the busy spring framework basically set up for the next six years, seven years I should say. Um, which is again very helpful for us to know when we can find those sweet spots when we can get when we're not going to be stepping on the toes of any of our program any of the school programs, but we can get other ventures in there and utilize those spaces. Um, our fall catalog right now we're we're just tying that up. um going to be going to the printer pretty soon and that will be out um we say late July probably more like mid July quite honestly it'll it'll be in uh in homes uh facilities and other updates we may have talked this about a little bit that the pool is getting drained so it's going to be closed for about a week it's getting drained down new water pumped in um a little bit of maintenance and cleaning um when you have approximately 150,000 gallons of cold water, it takes a while to heat that water back up. So that that's going to be something that that we're going to have to keep our eye on. But we are making some adjustments. We did plan for this and yet we're still making a little bit of adjustments of our pool schedule to make sure that we have got time to do that. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Mr. V. So close. >> Jumping [snorts] too. You to get up here. >> Sure. >> Yeah. And um Mr. Burns, I was curious about your comment about the M. At least it wasn't a Roman numeral M for all your action items that [laughter] um I wanted to get you up to date. Uh so thanks uh for allowing me to be here tonight. Get you up to date or give a little bit of a report on our early career teacher. uh coaches and the program that we went through this past year. Um this was through a grant from uh through resource training solutions through the new teacher network. And so we sent nine teachers up to resource training and solutions last uh June to get them trained to be uh early career teacher coaches. So they would learn how to be inquisitive about questioning and asking and planning and assisting new career new teachers to the career classroom management skills, lesson planning skills, how we do things in in Watertown to be successful. Uh and so we trained um nine uh coaches over the course of the year. Um we had our target audience for teachers who were not tenured which there were 19 of them throughout the course of the year. So those nine coaches coached 19 staff members throughout the year. Uh they went through um we met with them last September uh as a whole group. Then they set off and they were to meet you know monthly or bi-weekly to monthly depending upon the need and depending upon what courses they were teaching. And the goal was for our our teacher coaches to go through two cycles to kind of question, maybe do some observing, get some feedback and kind of come full circle around on that and go through two full cycles during the course of the year. Uh it it seemed to be very successful. When we look at the early career teacher coaches, um uh I met with them three times u throughout the year just to get feedback from them and support them and so that they could support each other. uh their feedback was very positive as they went through the experience. And then um at the end of the year, I took a survey uh of our new teachers, the first year teachers to the district and 100% said that they would recommend continuing this program moving forward. They really felt supported. They really felt like it was a strong positive thing to keep them here in the district. So, uh again, very seems like a very positive thing. And uh one of the things is to you know uh recruit and retain quality staff. And so uh this mentorship program hopefully will continue to build on that and bring our new teachers into quality uh experienced teachers as we move forward. >> That's all I have for tonight. >> Was there some in each building then from the mentor side of the world? Yes, we had um one in the CLC, two in the elementary, three in the middle school, two in the high school, and one special ed. >> Okay. >> So, we covered most of the the gamut there to be able to support teachers in almost every realm. >> Awesome. >> Anything else for Mr. V? >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Payton. Thank you for being patient. [laughter] >> I'm just so excited to speak today. >> Well, good evening. Um June is a time to celebrate and reflect on another successful year in special education. I want to thank all of our staff for their dedication, collaboration, and commitment to supporting students and families throughout the year. It's not an easy job, but a very rewarding one. Um together with your support um we accomplished a great deal and I would like to highlight some of this year's accomplishments. Um our district um was recently awarded a $500 special Olympics transition grant to launch so fit um an exclusive wellness initiative that supports our possibilities students um in improving their emotional, physical and nutritional and social wellness. We had another successful year in MA building. Um we generated $255,000 in revenue and that money um comes from federal Medicaid reimbursement for eligible um health related services and we use all that money to help support students um for their special services. ESY programming is organized and ready to begin in July. Um we have 28 students enrolled and our staff is prepared to provide high quality instruction and services to support to support students. IEP goals throughout the summer. Um, next I just want to highlight some of our staff development and growth summary. Um, we have um, five staff members um, earning their special education teaching license through the teacher pipeline grant this year. Um, we established a water town mayor teacher apprenticeship program with one pair of professionals starting this summer. um pair of professionals participating in per um professional learning on CPI crisis prevention institute read act literacy instruction [laughter] trauma informed practices introduction to neurodeiversity and children's mental health we received a grant to support a book club for our paras that will be reading Lost at school by Dr. rostering. Um, our teachers as well have been um trained in CPI training to help prevent behaviors along with professional development implementing um achieve 3000 Alex curricula. Um program highlights, we strengthened our MTSS child process for the nonpublix and we saw a big reduction in our um our initials for special education evaluations. Our evaluation team completed 59 early childhood um evaluations. Um Jennifer Slipka does them. She does a great job, our special education early childhood lead. And then we had 23 initial special education evaluations and 87 revals completed by our school psychologist Marine Hoodek and Kimberly Archbald, our evaluation coordinator. They also do a great job. Our due process consultant and early teacher coaches were a huge support just like what Joe said. They're they've been amazing. Um we saw a lot of positive impact. Our due process consultant, she works 10 hours a week virtually. She has over 50 hours 50 years of experience and she does an amazing job as well. So, it's so nice when like a teacher has like five IEPs, we can, you know, have her come in and help out or when staff are really stressed out. Um, we expanded it and strengthened our middle school unified program. We continue to build a positive culture. That means a lot to me that we um that are our special educations feel like they belong and they're making progress and they're not getting burned out. So for me, I'm oil and engine trying to improve um systems. Um our restricted procedures decreased this year and I think a lot of that had to do with our professional development, our focus on positive behavior support plans, relationship building, and social emotional learning classes. Um our elementary speech and language pathologists implemented speech interventions um trying to expand early support for our elementary students. So trying to reduce those um evaluations as well. So as we prepare for the 26 27th school year, one of our primary goals is to expand autism spectrum disorder programming at the middle school and high school. And we will continue to you know strengthen our programming um building staff capacity and developing systems to support support students and our staff. So thank you. Thank you for another great year. um their dedication, professionalism, and just making such a difference in all our students lives is just so appreciated. So, hope you have a restful and fun summer. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Mr. Schuler. >> Um thank you, Mr. Chair. Um just to be very brief. Just want to give a quick recap on our SO SRO position. Um, and I know you've seen some of the communication come out. Um, but, uh, the finance committee, uh, when we met back on June 11th, uh, Mr. Neski put together kind of again that that game plan. Uh, now knowing that we did not have that safe schools funding that we were anticipating. Um, again, pretty devastating not to receive that. Um, so, uh, we asked Mr. Keski to put together a three-year plan given the cost model that we that was presented to us by the city of Watertown. And uh as we started to look at some of those models, um the excess was of over $300,000 over three years to to fund this and make it happen. So I think in in the advice of the finance committee was that you know to to reach out to the city and let them know we want to really thank them number one for bringing this to us uh for a really neat cooperative opportunity. Um obviously the funding um just wasn't in line at this point to do it. Certainly maybe in the future it' be something to revisit. Um so again thank you to the city council members who were part of that um city administrator uh Mr. Tolsma and certainly the the the sheriff's department too was really good in terms of sitting down with us and scoping and mapping out what the role could look like and and again very appreciative of of Deputy Wallen's uh work, Commander Wallen's work on that as well. So, um, with that being said, we're still staying engaged with the city and, uh, the sheriff's department in terms of the other idea we had, uh, was to have a a resting spot, if you will, an office spot for a deputy in our to be in the district. So, uh, we had offered up a high school, uh, conference room within our office um, where they could come literally 247 to write reports, um, you know, do some check-ins, whatever is needed, um, all times of the year. So, um, we did offer that back to them as a potential option. And again, I think for the district, we would we would certainly more than open to that and create a spot, a parking spot and up to the front of the building and just again being an additional presence. Um, but not as an SRO. So, more to more to come on that. And then lastly, again, um if you hadn't seen uh the unified basketball team and and uh the competition that started today, it sounds like they had an initial win uh in the USA games against Mississippi. and haven't heard at the second game if anybody else had heard what the latest was there, but um just been a really cool week in in terms of uh what had happened um with the uh with the torch run uh at the beginning and uh this last week and then certainly um ending with Saturday's um games uh the opening uh ceremony at uh U of M and pretty cool uh had an opportunity to go down and watch and it was just a pretty moving ceremony. um and just the excitement and that it was generated was was neat. So again, congratulations to our athletes and uh best of luck as they continue their journey and to all the athletes who are participating. Pretty neat. >> Anything for Mr. Schuler? >> No, just to piggyback on the events and the exposure that uh the Special Olympics has brought to our school district, I think is pretty impressive. And so again, huge kudos to the um unified sports that really have been so instrumental to just opportunities for students here, but then also what it has done for our district is pretty impressive. >> In such a short amount of time. >> Exactly. >> Too. So, >> um are there any board member reports from the last month? Uh, Southwest met Tuesday and actually Darren forgot to mention he was our guest superintendent. Um, which was great because we hadn't seen him in a while. Um, so appreciated that. Our meeting wasn't as long as the previous month. So he was, I'm sure, pretty happy about that. Um, we actually also um, it was the beginning of the meeting was pretty nice. We actually uh had a few uh students that got their GED, so they actually came over in their cap and gown and you know, so we got to see that. That was they got to speak a little bit. And um so that was always kind of nice to to see that considering it's kind of a lot of graduations. Uh then we did have close meeting and um came back out of that and we actually accepted Dr. Horton's resignation. Um, and we also posted his uh position and in the meantime we will have our Shaka superintendent um you know be there for us uh until hopefully we find someone. So um thanks again to Mike Redmond to step in on that. And that pretty much concluded our meeting. Is that just because of proximity that he's chosen as kind of the entrance? >> Yes, he's right in Shakabi. So, it makes sense. Y >> So, and he did this previously when they were transitioning. So, this is his second round. >> He did say he will not do a a third time. So, [laughter] we better hopefully, you know, >> find a >> kind of deja vu two years later, >> right? >> But yeah, very appreciative to Superman Redmond for stepping in. >> Anybody else? uh facilities committee. We're still meeting kind of going over that W report kind of as we talked about earlier this meeting um with some of the bigger um issues from the IAQ project as well as they did a detailed building by building. So trying to figure out what we can kind of knock off with our LTFM money from the not so big projects. uh finance committee we met went over the the preliminary budget also talked and went through the transition from SMS to CISO. So SMS is our contracted um finance group. They got bought out by CISO CESO. So we kind of talked with a with a discussion there. It sounds like we're getting a a different person than Mr. Netsky starting uh July 1st. Um and I think she's out she's in our area with some other districts kind of us and further west. Um uh from a MSBA side of the world uh two big initiatives that are kind of undergoing. One is the Minnesota kids rise. I don't know if you've seen it all on social media. Um it's nonpartisan. It's it's trumpeting public education as a whole. um very uh gonna be empowering is what I think it's going to be. Um and the kickoff for that is going to be at the state fair and from what I've heard is we're going to be kind of featured as part of the kickoff group. The Watertown mayor we we have a video that they came and filmed filmed a while ago. So, we're going to be part of that kickoff group again for that. Kind of talking about public education, [snorts] why it's important and the generational learning that our teachers have here. Um, and then from another side, the MSBA is the permanent school fund. Uh, you should been seeing some emails from MSBA on on that. And again, that is uh simple terms, there's a fund that's about $2.3 billion right now. The Minnesota Constitution says you can only be given interest and dividends [clears throat] provided back to the school districts. And I can't remember what exactly our amount is, Darren Deon. >> Oh yeah, it's a little under 300,000 I think is what we're projected to >> projected. But but right now we're about 150 >> um to to up that amount because that the the the >> the bucket of money is not going down. it's only interest in dividends. >> So they're going to what they're trying to do a a different group is to change the Minnesota constitution to be more of a endowment model. So it is going to give the schools roughly 40 to 50% more revenue per the districts across the state uh without affecting the taxpayers. Um, and to me that's the big piece is without affecting the taxpayers. >> And one of the concerns I know that I have and I think others have too is with that change in the endowment model, is it still sustainable 5 years, 10 years, 50 years, 100 years down the line and it's not just a here and now. So I I think that's kind of one of the big questions I know I have. But there's going to be a lot more talking points, a lot more things with that. But again, that's going to be on the November ballot. A blank ballot's a no ballot, no vote. You're going to need 51% to change the Minnesota Constitution. So, more to come on that. And that is all that I have. >> Um I did attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting. Um so, if we did want to participate in the duck race or the pageant, that's opt an option for us. Um, and also I mean there's just a lot of talk about Rails to Trails upcoming and then um the city I think it's their the new committee they have for like >> festival >> festival stuff. Yeah. Um really decorating downtown. So they're getting um a lot of red, white, and blue lighting um especially on the bridge um so that they can use it multiple times, not just because it's the 250th anniversary of um the United States, but also for like Memorial Day or Veterans Day or Homecoming. So um they're just asking businesses to really be patriotic and decorate as much as they can for that. So that was kind of all that went there. Anything else? [snorts] Anybody else? >> Is there >> I make a motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Danielson, seconded by Miss Nathan. All those in favor say I. >> I. All approve or all oppose? Nay. Motion carries at 8:23 p.m.