Calling the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. This is the board of directors regular school board meeting for Monday, May 19th, 2025. Welcome to all of our visitors, guests, and media. Uh, as usual, we're going to start tonight with the board and administrative roll calls. Mr. Phelps here. Mr. Burns here. Miss Danielson here. Miss Schultz here. Miss Gatskco here. Miss Nathan here. Mr. O'Neal here. Mr. Scheler here. Mr. Hennon here. Mr. Girtton here. Miss Okonnell here. Miss Payeyton here. Miss Dimler here. Mr. View here. Mr. Samansky here. All right. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Um, there have been no comments uh prior to the start of the meeting. Uh so the next on the agenda is a discussion action item and a motion to approve the agenda and addendums. Mr. Chair, I move to amend the agenda and remove item A, the Southwest Metro introduction and updates by Dr. Jeff Horton, who was unable to be here tonight. I'll second that motion. So we have a motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Schultz to amend the agenda to remove the Southwest Metro introduction and updates due to Dr. Jeff Horton not being here. Um, any further discussion on that. All those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose, nay. That motion carries. So, we're going to strike that from the agenda. And I believe now we need a will be reflected in the minutes, not stricken from the agenda. Oh, reflected in the minutes. And now we have to have another motion to approve the agenda. Yes. Yep. The amended. The amended agenda. She keeps me straight. So So moved. Motion made by Miss Nathan, seconded by Miss Schultz. Any further discussion on the amended agenda and addendums? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Moving on to uh section three, the consent agenda, which includes the school board minutes for the regular school board meeting on April 28th, 2025, the personnel consent consent agenda, and the business consent agenda. Approval second. You guys are all quick today. They're really quick. We got We want to get to the good stuff. Have a motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Gatskco. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Moving on to the recognition, presentations, and showcase. Um, Mr. Scheler, do you? Yes. Tonight, uh, we'd like to start, uh, with a recognition of our retirement. Um, retirement is, uh, Miss Lori. I believe, um, Miss, uh, Okonnell, there you are, uh, is going to say a few words about Miss. Good evening. Miss Utter is not here with us this evening, but we would like to recognize her for her 24 years of service to this district. She is a very valued member of the community at our elementary school. And over that time, she has touched countless lives and the lives of students, hearts and minds, and she will greatly be missed for her time serving students. She is um a part of the fabric of our elementary school and we are going to miss her dearly, but we are so thankful for her years of service and everything that she has brought to our community at the elementary school. Thank you. [Applause] Congratulations to Miss Utterson on her 24 years of service. Moving on, item B, the elementary school student council presentation. Come on up to the podium, guys. [Applause] Yeah. Come on, parents. Come up. If you need pictures, you come on out. Yes, you can come behind us. You can come up behind us for pictures. My shots. You can understand my for real. I mean, good try. Nothing wrong with that. Oh, I can get out of it. So, we are from the elementary student council. Hi, I'm Evelyn. Hi, I'm Harper. I'm Henry. Okay. Do I read everything on the page? We're not too scared. Do you want me to start it? Then you just over 40th graders serve on elementary student council each year. split into two terms, fall and spring. Develops and strengthens leadership skills, allows opportunities to share with admin, promotes school spirit, and helps community. We we earn money to spend on a project each each year by running the school store. Open twice a week. Items are selected by members that are fun as well as have some education value. Each year we run the elementary food drive. Students collect collect gets from classrooms ready to collect by delivery boxes and hanging signs. We collect all the food from each room and get it ready for pickup by our shelf. Each year, student count decides on a project that would help our school for years. Past Legacy projects include benches in the library courtyard, gaga ball pit, bottle fillers in each pod, flags for flag football, bingo cards for the elementary, family fun night. We will make we'll make and serve popcorn. Uh we will run games and crafts. uh set stations. Uh we will set up, we'll clean up. We We do the green book sale twice per year. We donated used books. We still donated these books. We used to earn money for the elementary school library. Thanks for allowing us to shell. Good job. Y don't go away yet. That's away. Come back up. [Applause] So, I do have a question. So, with the legacy projects that have been in the past, what are you guys doing this year? Do you know? Like what do you mean? There was the Gaga ball pit. There was the bottle fillers. What What are you guys doing from student council? Um we're trying to replace one of the tire swings because it kind of broke and Oh, okay. We're getting a new one and also the gargo ball. Yeah. So, we're trying new ball pit and we're hoping to replace the swing with a different type of swing. Good deal. What is your favorite project that you get to do for student council? Do you have a favorite? Yeah. But all the ones that you showed us, what was your favorite this year? The family fun night. Family fun nights. Absolutely. What is the best selling item at your school store? What do What do students like? Putty. Yes. Yes. I may may or may not have some of that answer. Well, thank you for doing Thank you guys for coming tonight. Thank you. [Applause] All right, moving on to the middle school student council presentation. Good evening. Yes, parents, you can still come. Middle school student council and they're gonna take over. Good evening. My name is Shelby. We are here tonight to highlight the accomplishments that our middle school student council has made during the the the course of the school year. Representing us tonight are fifth graders Scarlet, Gage, and Jaylen. Sixth grader Olivia, and Lydia, Evelyn, and I are eighth graders. Our student council consists of 22 representatives whose names are listed here. We all completed an application process in September to run for student council. We were elected by our classmates to represent them. Once we started our meetings in fall, we got really busy. Our first big event was homecoming week. We planned the dress up days and we ended the week with our homecoming pepfest. We opened the school store on Tuesdays and Thursdays before school where students could purchase gum, treats, and fun school supply items. We then hosted an activity night for fifth and sixth graders and a dance for seventh and eighth graders. We celebrated Thanksgiving with our schoolwide turkey bingo. The bingo winners won frozen turkeys. We started our first big community service project in December. 12 Days of Giving started as a toy drive, but it became so much more. We collected almost $1,700 and $250 toys from our students. Our student council went on a Target shopping spree to purchase gifts for families in need here in our community. The toys also were given to kids in need from our school. In the winter, we also assisted with the PTO BGO night, their largest fundraiser of the year. During our schoolwide reading celebration in February, we sponsored a field trip to Barnes & Nobles along with the PTO. Selected students spent a morning exploring and shopping for books. Our next community service project was a partnership with Gather and Grow. The goal of the middle school was to collect personal care items. Over 600 items were donated. We also hosted our spring activity night for fifth and sixth graders. The seventh and eighth graders had their spring fleeing dance this past Friday night. We are wrapping up the school year with our biggest service project yet, Pennies for Patients. It's been a long tradition at the middle school to raise money for LLS, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year, we decided to donate half the money we raised to Hope Chest, a local breast cancer foundation, to honor Miss Tam Anderson, our middle school band teacher who is currently fighting her own battle against breast cancer. We will wrap up Pennies for Patients this week. We will have an assembly at the end of the school day. And if we meet our $3,000 schoolwide goal, we will have a teacher danceoff and Mr. Girtton has agreed to dress up like a hot dog. Six raffle winners will be selected to score him with ketchup, mustard, and relish. And I believe that we're like $500 off of our goal. So, Mr. Girtton, get ready. We can't wait to see it. Are you taking contributions? Yeah. All our efforts this year would not have been possible without the support of the Watertown Mayor community. We want to thank everyone involved for helping us out and following the Royal Way. Thank you. [Applause] So, I think we should ask some of the same questions. I have something I forgot to mention for the elementary students. If you guys need anything from us on the board, you guys can reach out to us at any time, okay? Whether it's coming in one of your meetings, we can one of us will try to make it. So, we just want to be there to support you guys since you guys are kind of that next leaders in the schools. So, sounds like 500 bucks would help. Yeah, I got Mr. Burton sitting right next to me. So, but what what was your favorite project this year? I'd say the toy drive. There was a lot of people that really that definitely surprised everybody. The overwhelming support from I liked for patience. Patience. Yeah. And we make it competitive between grade level. It's very competitive and it's kind of scary. I know the food shelf gather and grow was very appreciative of your donations of those other goods too. That was very appreciative and she mentioned that I know a couple of different times, Angie, the director. So, she appreciated that. So, thank you. Great leaders. Absolutely. What dress up day do you find most kids participate in? Sports. I feel like sports day. Anderson. Yeah. With the pink. That's great. That's really good. That was very overwhelming. I bet. Yeah. Emotional. very cool every morning. I bet she really appreciated it and loved it. So yeah, thank you for being here. [Applause] All right. Wait, wait. I have one more question. When is the hot When will the hot dog day be? Friday. Friday. This Friday. This Friday. Okay. So what time? About 2:30. 2:30. Okay. Oh, live. Oh, good. Live feed. Yeah. All right, Mr. Samansky. Good evening. Tonight, it's uh my great pleasure to introduce a couple of coaching awards that we received over the past winter spring activities. First off, I'd like to recognize robotics coach Nick Denami for being the section 5 robotics coach of the year. [Applause] And the section 4A speech coach of the year, Amy Mant. [Applause] Hello. I have the honor of recognizing some kids on my speech team here, but so come on over you guys. But I just want to first say that I have been coaching for 20 years. And Tessa has been my assistant coach for the past 10. Although my husband says behind every great speech coach is a great husband. really behind me is Tessa. And so I do want to give her a little round of applause. This year was a great year. We had 40 kids that came out, grades 6 through 12. And I see some of our speech kids are here tonight with their student council groups doing a great job. And then we had five people that went to state this year. So we have two of them that are here. Uh uh it was Millie Linder, uh Paul Lightner, uh Triton Frisbee, Eliza Rowan, and Natalie Johnson. And so before we before you guys come up, I want to say two other things. So, because I'm the um belong to the Minnesota Speech Coach Association, students are eligible if at any time during their high school career they competed at the state tournament, are at the top 25% in their competitions, have a certain GPA, and have just community involvement. They're eligible for the alt state speech team. And so, also Natalie is one of those people as well. Maggie Flynn is another one, but she could not make it tonight. So, I do want to recognize Millie Linder for as a freshman making it to state, which is kind of a big deal in case you don't know that because it's all juniors and seniors. And there she was killing it in poetry with everyone else. So, bravo Millie. [Applause] And then a farewell to our Natalie who joined the speech team in the sixth grade. So that is seven years on our speech team at Watertown Mayor and she has done a remarkable job this whole time. We are so proud of her and we wish you well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, uh, robotics, uh, went to state this year as a team. Um, I'd like to thank all of the the generous sponsors we had this year, uh, allowing us to go to two competitions for the first time where we've managed to get, uh, first place at one and, uh, second at another and make it to state. So, um, if, uh, the kids want to come forward and we can give them certificates. Uh, looks like they're in alphabetical order. My first name. By first name. By first name. You're first. So, the first one is Paco. Um he's a senior this year. So he's graduating where he's been a really good uh driver for the team for the past four years. So he's going to be deeply missed uh at competitions. Um next we have Antoine. He's a first year this year. Um ninth grader. Yeah, ninth grader. Um and um uh helping out with a couple different teams. Um, next we have Ben Hearthorn. He's one of our programmers. He's done a really great job this year, uh, making it so we're competitive at competitions. Then we got Brevin. He's a ninth grader as well. Few years on the team. Um, helps out with some projects here and there. And yeah. Um, next we have Kaden Horseman. He's our media guy. Um, he is actually kind of mad at me right now because we didn't grab the team camera to take pictures while we're here tonight. I'll send you what I got. Then we have Eli that's not here today. Then Gregory. He's a ninth or eighth eighth grader that uh has been on the team for a couple years now and helps around with different uh teams throughout the year. Then uh we got Liam Sullivan. He's our one of our main electrical guys. He's graduating this year. Um then we have Quinn. Uh he's another senior. He's graduating but not here today. Um he was a operator at competitions. So, he's going to be another one that's uh going to be greatly missed at uh our competitions next year as we have to get the next generation of the drive team going. Um then we have Samuel Trronis, he's our ma one of our main mechanical guys. Will Helt, he's going to be our new main electrical guy now that Liam's graduating. Uh Zachary Jensen, uh ninth grader, eighth grader, eighth grader that stepped up to help with uh media this year. Zachary Lulman, our uh all-around helper on the team when he can make it when he's not at swim practice. And that uh then we got our mentors. So, um, like to thank all of our mentors that, uh, help make the team run the way it does. Um, first we've got Alan Hyorn, which isn't, he's not here tonight, but he helps with programming. Then we've got Angie Hearthorn. She helps with uh fundraising and many different activities throughout the year. Um, then we've got uh George Beal. He helps with uh CAD and some other stuff on the team. Cool. Jeff Tronis, he helps with the mechanical side of things and helps uh whenever we need to CNC parts or whatnot in the shop. He's our go-to guy. Teresa Sullivan helps uh drive us to competitions and driver so we can make it there in the school vans. And that's it. Can I have the robotics team come on up here for I know you guys are so quick. Get on up here. Gather yourselves. Let's get a quick picture and a round of applause. Squeeze [Applause] in. Squeeze in. Ready. Calling Jeff Tranis. Calling Jeff Tranis. All right. Ready? I'm going to do three. Three, two, one. Thank you. Good job, guys. Y congratulations. [Applause] Well, thank you guys all for coming tonight. It's always great to see kind of to to for us on the board to see all the recognitions and then all the different great things that we're doing for not just athletics, but all the other events, whether it's robotics and speech and even our student council members. That's really awesome to see. Um, y'all can be dismissed now. Unless you want to stay for the rest of the meeting. Unless you want to stay like Do we get dismissed, too, or No, you got to stay. No, we got to stay. You got to stay. Jim asked if he could leave. Yes. Be right behind you. You have to dry off your car, right? [Music] Yeah. [Music] Good job today. See you later. [Music] All now we have parking spot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Should give them my car keys. Maybe they can move my car a little. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on with our uh action items. Uh the acknowledgement of donations, contributions, and fundraising, which is resolution 2522. Mr. Mr. Scheler. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have uh five uh donations today and five donors like to recognize uh the city of Watertown uh a donation to community education for $1,000 for uh programming. Um also city of Watertown to the community youth theater group for $1,500 for their summer play. Um American Legion Post 121 to the trap team for $1,000 for expenses, shells, jerseys, etc. uh Watertown Mayor Lions Club, excuse me, Watertown Lions Club, the trap team for $5,800 for range fees, shells, and jerseys. And the uh Royals Soccer Booster Club um a donation to the Unified Sports Team uh for $500 for um soccer day lunch expenses. So again, thank you to all those donors. I'll make a motion to approve the donation contributions. Second motion made by Mr. Felt, seconded by Miss Danielson. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Uhhuh. He's taking too long. Uh item C, the first and only read of district policies requiring annual review. Mr. Schuler. Uh the policy. Yes, Mr. Chair. policy committee met last week to review these um policies that uh brought forth this month. Um nothing substantial in the first and only read of the first group you see there. Um just to note the uh 1,027 policy is approval of quotes and bids related to building projects. Uh that is not an MSBA policy but a district policy. We don't not we don't have a lot of standalone policies but that is one uh that was developed. It looks like about the 2005 range when they were uh doing some remodeling to the high school and the elementary build. So um that was put in place and um still stands true today. Um so at that point we're looking for a motion um to approve those policy for a first read. So moved. Second. Motion made by Miss Schultz, seconded by Mr. Burns. Any further discussion on the first and only read of the policies? All right. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item D, first of two reads of district policies requiring annual review. Mr. Schuler. Mr. Chair, we're asking for a second read on the two following policies. The unmanned aerial vehicle and drone policy. Um main reason there is um the state high school league kind of uh helps guide this policy. Um I think they probably put something into place and then school districts did the same. Um but we we're just checking for some updated language there before we would ask for approval. Nothing major, but just making sure we're in alignment with the state high school league work. And then also um policy 1001 is also a standalone policy, a district policy, not an MSBA policy. Um but again um it speaks to uh non-public um students and homeschool students. Um participation in some of our activities and such. Um but uh we are looking through that with a little bit uh a fine tooth comb, if you will, to make sure um that we're accurate in how that's being um um played out, I should say. So um we'll come back next month with a final um piece there. I know policy uh committee members, anything else that I missed or things to note on those two, but is there a motion? So move. I'll second. I'm not on my team today. Motion made by Mr. Burton, seconded by Miss Gatskco. Any further discussion on the first of the reads? All those in favor say I. I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Item E, the 2526 parent student handbooks. Mr. Scheler and the admin team. It looks like it's um community ed. Yeah, we'll ask uh Miss Dimler to uh come up and just speak to any particular changes. I don't think there's a whole lot to note, but we are in the uh starting the handbook approval um process. So, um early childhood and child care are first this uh for this first round and then uh in in uh June we will see uh the high school, middle school and elementary handbook. So, Miss Dimler, do you want me just to show the notes? Yeah, that would be fantastic. All right. So, in the first one, we have our child care handbook. Um, and really this one was just reflective of going through um we just recently had our licensing visit which happened on I believe it was Thursday of last week. So, we just had a few um minor tweaks that we needed to make that our licenser noted on. Um so we did those updates um to our child care um handbook um specific um notes that our licenser um not noted that we had to have. So we put th those in there and they really were just um you know minor things that we needed to add language type policies or procedures that we put in there. So that was really what we added to our child care handbook. So nothing substantial. So um and we do have to have a separate employee handbook for child care as well even though we have a staff handbook. So it's it's really a duplicate. Um so I don't know if there's any questions on that. And then our early childhood handbook is very similar to our child care. We really try and kind of thread them so they are similar. Um and we've tried to just um update those to reflect some of the changes that we are doing for next year. Um we've removed um because our current early childhood coordinator has resigned her um coordinator position, we have made those edits. Um we've updated some of our screening. Um we've made some changes within our building. So we've really tried to reflect that in our our handbook. Um and again try and make sure that we've updated any emergency um our our protocols to our standard response protocols um in terms of late pickups um I'm sorry arrival and pickup we've tried to make sure that we reflected that so it also is very aligned with what we do with the child care. So everything's aligned within our building. So those were the changes that that we made between our early childhood and our child care handbooks. And again, really just making sure that they are are similar. So if there's any questions. No, thank you for kind of combining them and making them as as close as we can have them together. It's just as easier for everybody. Yep. And all the parents and everything. Sure. Um, so I'll make a motion to approve the 2526 parent student handbooks. I'll second. Thanks everyone. Motion made by Mr. Felt, seconded by Miss Danielson. Any further discussion on the handbooks? All those in favor say I. I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. And that ends the action items of the evening. Uh moving on to the review and information items, the strategic plan update. Mr. Scheler. Hey, Mr. Chair and board members. Um just wanted to share some results and it got me a little bit long but bear with me. Uh this year um I did um some rounding again. What is rounding? And it's an opportunity for um the superintendent or others to visit school buildings, get out um within the district and talk directly to staff. The goal is to build on relationships, gather feedback, and ensure alignment with strategic plan goals. And that was kind of the main piece is just again to see how we're doing towards some of those goals that we're continuously working on. Um, by the way, there's a picture of our first year teachers there. So, uh, doing a great job. Real quickly, just who participated in the process. Um, I sent an open invitation to, um, all staff across the district to, uh, let me come in and visit. And uh so 22 staff members um I visited with um met with them typically in their classroom or their office space. Uh you can kind of see the breakdown of how it was allocated on what buildings or what um bargaining groups uh participated in. So um that was the breakdown. So So again, five really four questions. Uh the fifth question was kind of a bonus question, but what's working well in the district you're building currently? uh what's an area of the district or your building that we can improve in? Uh what's one thing you would not change about our district? And then one person in the district that's been helpful to you in your role or made a difference in our school or district. And then last one is kind of a bonus is how can I better support you in your work? And and uh that one was more random. So you'll notice some themes and the themes are basically the the second line. And so strong relationships, culture and community was the theme that kind of came out here. Uh and again some areas that um that were more highlighted were uh positive school culture and climate in all levels. Um high school was was noted there especially um supportive leadership and staff. So um the group there were um noted as all supportive uh to our staff. um strong teacher collaboration and team dynamics and there were some specifics there noted um and again feeling uh students feeling connected to teachers and staff strong involvement in the PTO um and all buildings and then welcoming and community centered atmosphere um across the district um again another wide range of student opportunities was a theme that emerged in um academic curricular and uh athletic opportunities for all students high school offerings to prepare students for life um well beyond the um schools that we have here. Um and then again um programs like those internships through the high school, the elementary recess coaches or the high school recess coaches that come over and then um preschool team facilities, electives and co-curriculars um rival that of much larger districts was also noted. Um again in the areas of strength, effective communication and transparency. So again some of the improved uh district-wide communication was noted. Um you can see some of the areas there. Um celebration and recognition of students and staff on social media. Uh intentional parent communication and community outreach and then transparency in initiatives um and like right sizing uh and strategic plan was noted. Uh continuing in areas of strength is the quality instruction and support system. So again, great teachers and educational support staff throughout the district. Um teachers who lead professional development uh are encouraged to take risks and that was noted. Um some of those academic supports that we've talked a lot about over the last few years, reading corps, um some of the read act training like OLA and letters um and our reflective practice teams were noted. And then that shift to science of reading um and and some of the success that we're seeing uh people are noticing as well. So that was encouraging. Uh and then facilities resources and and strategic process again noted that facilities are well maintained and comparable to larger schools. Um some of the upgrades were noted especially the CLC improvements uh the walking trail bike and the playgrounds. Um and then flexible learning spaces uh made a big difference in that intentional design uh when that was designed um again just for um spacing in in the elementary and the high school and then um supportive structures uh like the special ed department, the dean of students in the high school um and then again doing the profile of a graduate uh beyond uh book study and then there's strategic vision for positives. So areas of improvement. So these again uh focused under that staff support, morale and HR and communication. So again just really a theme about continuing to look at ways to to increase transparency, refining the onboarding process, um talking more to staff about benefits, um employee perks and other areas like the employee assistance program. Um again, just getting more communication out to our people. uh making sure that they're clear on what their benefits are and and how they can access those. Um again, morale continues to come up from time to time and just again keeping that positive atmosphere. Um recognition of longtime um team members um making sure everybody's equally valued and supported and um again making sure that we have an inclusive and uplifting environment. Some ideas again were to build those connections through mixers and u better building to building camaraderie. So you know more K12 things which preK12 is which is difficult to do but again uh more leadership opportunities and recognition for staff retention and experience. So again giving staff opportunities to step into leadership roles and grow their skills was noted um under facilities resources and strategic process uh progress again uh noted the facilities are well maintained um those upgrades did I go backwards there I'm sorry there we go wants to flip back um okay um communication and leadership one more Yep. Jeez. Back one more. No, backwards. I got to use that. I'm sorry. It's touchy. That one. All right. Thank you. Student behavior and support services. Um, again, ongoing challenges with behavior. I think one of the things this year is we had a lot of um staff who were out this year in the elementary for behavior supports. So, we had injuries and other things. So, um I know that was noted and and understood. um need for again uh more sped and EL and ASD licensed staff. Uh that's an area too that we know we have to continue to look at is our growing EL population and also our ASD students. Um providing get getting more trained staff in that area. Um and again more support for our level three program in the elementary and again this happened to be a difficult year with injuries and staff being out. Um so there was certainly concern there about getting support. Um and we know that um again social divided at the high school making sure that again all groups are able to get along and uh calling for more community involvement and student accountability. So community involvement is a theme that I've heard a number of different times like getting our students out into the community and doing things. May maybe it's a spring cleanup day or helping with uh elderly in the yards. and our student council is a great example of getting out and doing those things. Um so there has been some talk about that. So I'm glad that came out. Um curriculum and instruction and academic expectations was a theme and then um looked at better vertical communication across um our curriculum. So prek12 um continuing those conversations. Um higher standards again um not avoiding the easy way out at times uh was noted um teachers desiring more training u with smart um systems clarity around some of the assessments that we're doing and more curriculum time. Um and then uh technology is always a one that's going to be coming up and more support for AI um learning upgrades and then uh bring your own device um continue guidance around that. Um again um one area of improvement under communication leadership visibility is just clarity of roles especially at the CLC. Uh and this is one we are aware of. Um, I know Amy's worked really hard in trying to restructure. Um, and just over the last few weeks, we've done a lot of work there. Uh, I think the problem sometimes in this CLC, there's just a lot of different things happening there with a lot of different folks, a lot of different groups. Um, and we've done a nice job of now, um, starting to put those into a facilities bucket, early childhood bucket, and child care bucket, and, uh, coordinators in each of those areas. and and uh Amy's done a really nice job of of really making that clear already. Um more visibility from administration and board members, classroom visits and things. Um need to be consistent uh on internal updates like staffing changes. So again, getting the word out when we're hiring new staff, making sure people know who they are and even retirements uh and promote the successes at the high school more widely to build pride and I'm assuming that's enrollment gains. So um okay and then one area again staffing levels operational efficiency we know uh sub shortages uh continues to be a problem and um that's an ongoing work that we're doing there. Uh potentially looking at raising our sub uh rates again both for pair professionals and teachers might solve that. Um again request for parent support you heard that earlier. um issues with the teachers on call process and again making sure that process is smooth and streamlined so people are having ease to get into subbing. Um and then just bringing back an elementary PE teacher and support for coaches and advisors. Um all right. So some things that we would not change in our district that was the next question. Um, again, strong relationships, positive culture, and you can kind of see again, relationships between students and staff is is positive. Um, culture where teachers feel encouraged to take risks and grow professionally. Um, strong sense of community and pride within the school district and staff who generally care about um, our kids and um, I like that our kids mentality was noted. Um, supportive and accessible leadership. um appreciation of our superintendent and principles. Um again, some other things not to change would be student opportunities and whole child focus. Wide variety of academic and extracurricular and athletic opportunities for students, emphasis on making connections with students and preparing them for life after graduation. uh that emotional, social, emotional development and that inclusive environment where all students can try new things and be seen. And again, uh communication and community engagement came out. People are noticing uh again some celebrations through social media um and work some of the work that Heather's doing in terms of getting that word out. Great things that staff and students are doing. Um some new communication tools are noted. um strong partnerships with the PTO and then again just a clear vision and regular updates from leadership um and school board things they would not change. So again at the end I asked for staff to just say tell me again one or two or three people and uh some had more than that of people that were making a significant difference and I could have listed them all on here but we had over 65 individuals that were noted as being helpful and made a difference. Um, one of the things that um that I took that a next step further and sent them an email basically stating the fact that they were recognized and just thanking them for uh being that person who stepped up and made a difference in our district. So, uh that was really fun and um nice to get some feedback on that too that people are really appreciative being recognized. So, um thanking them for their contributions and that is the end. So, just in a little longer recap, but again, um it was a good exercise, fun to connect with staff. It's always different when you sit down in their classroom and you're sitting at a desk and just having a pretty open conversation, I think goes a long way and people are appreciative when you take that time and and um been a few years since I'd done that, but um again, definitely worthwhile. So, any questions? And so, you know, Mr. Schuler, are you kind of going with some of those areas to improve on? Is that going to be part of your goals, your build the building's goals kind of along with I would say sort of those parent surveys that are going out too and the building surveys that is all kind of be kind of put together and correct. Yeah, this is work that, you know, certainly myself personally and our leadership team can take a look at and build into our our school improvement plans or our professional growth goals next year. Um, thank you for mentioning the survey. Yeah, the parent survey and the staff survey went out uh late last week. So, you should have seen those in the mail hopefully or email if you're a parent. Um, so um we're looking forward to those results. Those do close up on May 30th, so another week or so and we'll see the results from those as well. Did you get into any further discussion with staff on just some of the opportunities that they were hoping like leadership opportunities that they would like to see? Yeah. Um, a couple of them I know are either working towards their admin license or currently have their admin license. And what's difficult sometimes in a district our size is we can't provide a ton of other things beyond. Um, so, you know, I always encourage them if you see an opportunity that, hey, you could step into a role and lead a group or lead a a program, let us know and I'm always willing to do that. Or if there's a project you want to entail, glad to help you out there. But, um, that's a little bit tricky in a smaller district because we just don't have the breath of opportunities to do those things. But, um, many of them got their clock hours because you have to get over 300 some clock hours to do that. uh get your license. So many of them did that work through summer school or other uh leadership opportunities in in their buildings or even across buildings. We always encourage them to hey if you're in the elementary try working in the middle school or the high school and try an activity there to broaden your scope because when you get your uh administrative license it's a K12 license. So right uh you're able to do any of those uh that scope of grade. So yeah, it is something and I know even as an admin team to constantly look for those people that want to step into leadership roles is again we want to encourage folks to get into the principal ship into the superintendency as well. So good question. Anything else? Well, thank you for that update. Welcome. Uh item C is the director of business operations hiring update. Again, Mr. Mr. Schuler, I'll let you take a drink of water. Yeah, I need that. Thank you. Um, just a real quick update on our director of business operations. Um, as you know, we posted that um last month. Um, and we had um uh very few candidates that had um the level of skill that maybe the posting had initially noted for. Um, and again, that school finance background that we were looking for uh just wasn't out there. And I think the more research we did and the more conversations we had with other districts and uh MASBO for example is the business uh officers um association um and they just said there's there's not a pipeline right now for those type of folks um coming out into um district. So um we did interview u two candidates uh who did a very nice job. Um we interviewed them actually a second time for second round of interviews. So, our personnel committee helped participate in the second round. Um, again, um, very good candidates, different skill sets. Um, not the school finance, uh, area that we were looking for. Um, right now, we're still kind of in a holding uh, pattern right now with those two candidates. Um, but we're also looking at some other options is to possibly outsource our school finance position. um which has led us to talk to two u organizations that work in districts across the state um SMS and CISO which is CESO um and we talked to those uh representatives over the last couple of weeks and got a little better background on what they can provide um to us and the pricing and so um that also is become an option that we're taking a a pretty deep look at. Uh tomorrow we meet with uh the representative from SMO, the owner of the company, um to kind of look at his proposal and seeing how that could meet our needs possibly. Um the one thing we've learned pretty quickly is that um you won't have someone on site daily like we currently have. Um so that is a change. Um so you know, we're certainly u weighing the options there if that's something we can we can we can withhold and take on. Um, the other piece I think and we've talked to about three or four other districts that use these companies and talked to superintendent and just getting their feedback and I think and both Hunter and Jim, thank you for sitting in on those calls. Um, it was pretty overwhelmingly pretty positive. Um, the one question I think we all asked is what's it like not to have someone there on a daily basis? um you know maybe once or twice a week on site to do this work and uh they said no it took a little time but after a while the communication starts you get a game plan how you're going to communicate um you know it's either through uh text email or Google meet um and you're communicating that way um the individual does come on site at least once a week and sometimes maybe more um they do come to board meetings um you know they would assist with negotiations all those things that we would typically ask our business manager to do. So, um there are some some pieces there. Financially, I think, you know, I think we were a little surprised on on where the price point was. Like I you know, it's it's in our range without a doubt. Um but I still think we've got a little deeper dive on um just some questions we have um what that might look like. So, I don't know Jim and Hunter if you had any thoughts or comments. No, I think you covered it pretty well. Yep. No. And it's just one of those things where school finance is different than regular business finance. You know, knowing all the stuff that our business manager is doing now and all of that. It it's it's a specialized skill. And when there's not a pipeline, it makes it a little bit tougher to find the right fit without a either a mentor mentee or bringing somebody else in but as a third party and then training somebody up. So more to come on that any other or go ahead. No, I I was saying, you know, one of the ideas was that um you know, if if we had someone staying on, if Miss Rder would happen to stay on in a consultant role, could she train somebody to to fill that role? And the training model that we looked at is typically a three-year plan. Um so that individual who doesn't have school finance experience would get trained over a three-year period, and you'd start weaning off over time. Um, some districts have used that model, some successfully, some not so successfully. Um, the one thing about these organizations is you get a, you know, a fully trained individual to be doing this work. They're wellversed in school finance. Um, the the hard part is they might be working in two or three other districts as well. So, they don't have just Watertown Mayor. They'd have another district, maybe uh, one other small district. So, um, they do get farmed out, but the benefit is is what they'll tell you is that we have a cadre of folks in our in our short, you know, call list that we can call to get questions answered quickly because that's just what we do every day. So, definitely definitely a different mindset. Um, but it's been very successful in a lot of districts. So, um, yeah, any other questions I can ask? Again, the timeline I think we need to move fairly quickly here. Um, you know, I'm hoping uh within the next week or so, week and a half that we can um come to you with a decision and and what direction we're going. So, all right. Well, thank you. All right, moving on to the administrative reports. Mr. Hennon, you have nothing going on, right? It's pretty quiet. Pretty quiet. Uh, yeah. Today we did our grad practice and elementary walkth through and it it was chilly but it was fine. We got through it. Most kids showed up. So um last week we had our awards and scholarship night. I think we had 63 students apply through the foundation for a scholarship. Every student got a scholarship which was really cool. Uh I think it was over $90,000 in scholarships awarded that night. So it was a really cool night. And along with that, we had I think over 80 students were recognized through the academic or co-curricular awards, too. So, again, it's just it's a really nice end of the year to to see that many high school seniors up there get recognized. So, that was a really cool night. Um, obviously, graduation Friday night. I think the plan is for usually to meet at 6:30 in the district office. Again, I'll remind you of of limited parking because that is the one event people show up very early for. So, um, 126 seniors walking this year and yeah, I mean, obviously they're pretty excited. It seems like it's come up really quick. So, you as of now the forecast is 60ome degrees that day and not very windy. So, be ready to be outside. Otherwise, you can tell the kids were not. So, I've heard that that's about 40 kids a day said even if it's like this, we're outside. I said, "Well, I don't agree with that, but if the wind goes down, we can talk." So, but I mean, they're excited. Like I said, I mean, it's this has been a really really good senior group, and it's really been a a fun year with them. So, and then lastly, just working on uh hiring admin assistant with Crystal going down to the HR position. We're looking to fill that spot. So, we're going to start that process this week with hopefully have that wrapped up by the end of the week. So, we did have um I think 11 people apply. So, we're we're hoping to uh replace that because that's a obviously a very important position and Crystal is amazing at what she does. So, we're hoping to fill that ASAP. Any questions? So, for us 6:30 at the district office. Yeah. I think that and again, if we change locations, we're still fine probably just to meet there anyway and we can go from there. But um Jim said he's enough heaters for you guys anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem. He's a setup guy. So if you don't, it's Jim's fault, not mine. You got enough propane, right? Yeah. Hopefully we can tap down now. Still burn the turf. That's all. Yeah. Don't do that. We'll put some board. It was something. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Girtton. Well, good evening everybody. Uh kids and staff are doing great. So, as we look at the last two weeks of the school year, just a lot of fun events for kids and just a lot of recognizing. So, not quite as grand as what the high school has planned, but we're still having a good time. So, uh we in fact have our last concert tonight with fifth and sixth grade. Our student council heads off to Feed My Starving Children tomorrow. We have a pennies for patients assembly coming up at the end of the week and then we'll have a massive end of the year uh royal assembly and we'll do that outside if it's nice and sunny outside otherwise we'll do that in our auditorium and just a couple of field trips. Uh and then eighth graders of course we're going to do an end of the year eighth grade celebration. PTO will promote that with us. Quite a few groups going to the park if it's nice out and we're wrapping the school year up. So um it but it's been great. Uh the cool weather I think has calmed people down a little bit. So we're grounded again in the middle school this morning. Um and then it's, you know, we get the kids and the staff, teachers out the door and we start working on our schedule. Uh we have a couple of positions to fill right now, uh a long-term subbing position for maternity leave. And then Mrs. Tam Anderson, we're looking at a long-term sub for her in the fall as well. So, but everything's moving along nicely. So, any questions? How much? $500. You know, I don't recall the uh amount. So, so has the costume O? I I borrowed the costume from Mr. Hen and he happened to have one. So, I asked him if I could borrow it uh for for the afternoon. No, it'll be exciting. Uh I stayed out of it. the kids came up with it and it's for a good cause. So, they've been awesome. Our student council has done a great job with that one. So, I feel like a Facebook post like to promote it just a little bit more. This is what they wanted to do. Oh, I'll be there. No, I mean to promote it like we're $500 shy. I think we'll probably in the final hour meet it. They always parents are going to find out. They'll hit you up for money, but they seem to find a way to meet that goal. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Okonnell. Good evening. As of today, we have 74 students registered for kindergarten for the upcoming school year. So, that is 12 more than last month. So, we're getting those numbers up there slowly but surely. Um, we have been busy completing our spring fast bridge testing and we're seeing a big move in our intervention numbers. So, for reading intervention this year, we have served 81 students in intervention services with Michelle Shaw and Angie Hillman and our reading core. Based on the spring data for the upcoming school year, we would have 12 students who would be eligible for tier three services in first through fourth grade and we would be sending three students to the middle school in fifth grade for tier three. And in math intervention, Angie Johnson served 45 students in tier 3 math intervention services. Based on spring data, we would only have three students eligible for tier three in first through fourth grade at the elementary next year with two students moving to fifth grade eligible for tier three services. So that means with less students eligible for tier three, that allows us to expand to serve kids who are in the tier 2 range, which then helps us get even more students into that tier one range. On May 3rd, we held our annual Stride for Students events at the elementary. Thank you to our PTO for their organization of this event, which is a huge, massive undertaking. The event was a smashing success. For the third year in a row, we broke previous fundraising records, bringing in a total of $34,000, which is $4,000 over last year's record, which was a record-breaking over the previous year. So, we just keep breaking records. Um students were challenged to bring in $25,000 which they exceeded in bringing in $26,000. So as a result they got to give a principal punishment and slimed me along with nine of our staff members who were good sports and stepped up to the challenge. Kelly Hansen, Lauren Hagen, Madison Fleming, Misty Roberts, Karen Schwarzer, Scott Isacson, Angela Cardinal, Hannah Russell, and Coach Crystal, our recess coach. This Thursday, we'll have our final family engagement evening of the year, which is our celebration of learning, which serves as a culminating event for students to showcase their growth over the course of the school year with their families. At this event, our mural, which students created through an artist and residency that the PTO provided with strides for students funds from last school year with MEARS um is was um installed, which is a giant feature, which you should come see. um it which is now a permanent installation in our school will be unofficially officially unveiled for everybody to come see. All the students created it so there is no adult hands involved in it and it's all the murals canvases put together make one large landscape. It's beautiful. Um and lastly on May 28th we will have our field day which is going to look a little different this year. Our PTO has generously paid for a Ninja Anywhere course, which is an obstacle course, which will be at our school. Kids and families are very excited about this and so is Coach Julie. So, we're switching up and we're trying something new. We only have eight families who haven't turned in their permission slip for this. So, Nikki keeps calling them. We're going to get those permission slips in and everybody's going to participate. And then our fourth graders, the 80 of them that we have that are junior coaches, will be going down to CHS Field immediately following that to participate in a Playworks event down there with 400 other junior coaches and three of our fourth grade teachers and Miss Brandenburg. So, should be a fun day for them, too. Any questions? No. But I have to say, you did a very good job not flinching when you got slimed. It actually Kayla made it nice and warm, so it actually kind of felt like a spa day. It was an enjoyable experience. I would do it again. Good. Anything for kids? Anything else? No, just I was part of strides for students I think year two and such a whole year. So just to see the success and where it is today PTO but also the student population. So great job. Thank you. Very proud of what they can do. And it helps when you put torture on the line. Teacher torture and principal punishment. It gets them every time. Do they still get to do raffles like to earn like principal for a day or has that gone away? Um, those are things that they can like vote on like in the auction. Okay. But they earn prizes at different levels of donations. So there was like a orange frisbee looking thing that they could get. There was um a reading light that they could get. There's different like prize donations and then they get a crown. And then the top earners are the ones who got to slime me and slime teachers. Um, and then at the unveiling, is that taking place at a certain time during? No, because it is hung if you when you walk into the elementary school down the main hallway. If you walk all the way back to where that bridge is, if you were to turn around on the second level, there's a giant green wall and that's where it is hung. So, we had to use a lift in order to get it hung. So, we can't like actually hang a curtain or anything. It's just going to be on display for the public to see for the first time. But it's beautiful. It looks like a Monae. So, I'm hoping to come. Okay, perfect. It does. It really does. It's gorgeous. Are the kids all excited about it so far? Mhm. And they'll tell you, I think I painted this canvas. I was part of the sky. Sure. Sure. Very exciting. Very cool. Thank you, Miss Dimler. So, that's pretty hard to follow. All right. So, as uh we kind of talked about, um we've kicked off a restructuring plan over at the community learning center. And the idea is to really help serve our families um in our community, and it's really based on helping our child care weight list, which I've talked about I feel like forever. Um as of today we've got about um 65 well not about we have 65 families on our uh caring hands wait list. So um this in so our restructuring plan is going to include adding an additional license place license space for three-year-olds and it's going to work to rellic another class to accommodate more infants and toddlers. These changes are going to optimize our building um layout and also imp improve the resources and utilize our supports for basically all the programming in our building. So we currently have like I said 65 families on our caring hands weight list. So we've been really working on trying to minimize right now just with our resources many of those families on our weight list. Um and this is really part of you know our strategic plan. We've also distributed our family um survey this week to hopefully gather some of our insights um to find out what is that feedback of our families. Um, a key element of this plan is we have hired a full-time early childhood coordinator for the 2526 year. And the coordinator will not only support um our prek and ECF programming, but she's also going to play a vital role in our prek child care, helping to achieve that restructuring goal. So, kind of taking prek off our current child care coordinator so that our child care coordinator can really focus on child care. So, the infant, toddler, and the school school age as we're really um trying to build up that um and we're also really actively working on hiring additional prek um teacher, ECF teacher, and additional child care. And that is by far the biggest struggle, finding qualified staff that can meet those qualifications so we can open up more spaces uh for child care. Um looking ahead, we are thrilled to host our kickoff to summer event this Wednesday, May 21st. Looking for some good weather. Um the event will be 6:00 to 7:30 as we do have it planned outdoors. If not, we have an indoor plan. Um this event is hosted by our Watertown Mayor Early Childhood Advisory Council and the Watertown Li Lions. Um the event will herald in the start of what promised what what promises to be a very vibrant summer of activities. Um and as I've previously reported, we've already launched our summer programming and enrollment is off to a great start. Um, and then I want you to get ready for an exciting fall. Our youth and adult program schedules are almost finalized and we will be heading to the printer very soon. Um, we have got a lot of engaging activities and classes ready to go for all ages. Um, you really won't want to miss those um, for the upcoming year and that should again be out in July. And then I just want to finally uh conclude by saying thank you so much for trusting me as the community ed director over the past four four years. It has really been my privilege and honor to serve. Thank you. Thank you. Four years. Four years and then nine years as a child care. So thanks. Thank you so much. We're really going to miss you, Amy. Miss Payeyton. Um, all right. Good evening. Um, special education continues to evolve in meaningful ways to meet the needs of our diverse needs of our students. As we close the 2425 school year and begin planning for next year, I just thought it would be a great time to reflect on the incredible work of our staff and celebrate a few key accomplishments. So staff recognition and evaluation growth. Um just a friendly reminder, we won the AAA award where Amy Frank, Amy Matt, and Ashley Denami were teachers of the year. So that was really awesome. Their tremendous recognition was recognized for their dedication and impact they provide. In early childhood, we had um um double the amount of evaluations we had before. So we had 81 just showing our child fine process is working. Across our K to2 programs we conducted 102 evaluations, 46 of which were initials. Um that's nearly um 23 were school-based referrals, a four-fold increase from last year. Um that reflects the strength of our MTSS process um allowing us to identify and support students earlier and more effectively. Um, hiring and staffing is the next one. Um, we are excited to announce that we hired a school psychologist um, who brings strong MTSS experience from previous work at a high school there. That's a really hard position to fill. So, we're super excited about that. Um, we also have verbal commitments for hiring um, for early childhood SLP um, evaluation coordinator and a high school pair professional. um the highest goal par profofessional needs to be highly qualified. And what that means is they either have to have 60 credits um either um a bachelor's degree or the par educator. So it's always a little tricky when you hire someone because you have to go through that extra work. Um we're fortunate enough that we can proctor here at Watertown Mayor so they don't have to travel, making it a little bit easier for them. Um we also are going to have an SLP student teacher this fall and she's a former Watertown Mayor graduate. So we're excited to welcome her. The middle school um um scheduling for special education is complete and that was a big hurdle um going from a seven period day to a sixth period day. So we were able to piece that together. um ESY, we're really looking forward to that and that'll be in the month of July, Monday through Thursday, 8:30 to 11:30 and we're staffed for that as well. We're very fortunate. Um for professional development and training, um Jenna Olsen is going to our behavioral interventionists will continue to do her outstanding work training our staff in the fall and so people are signing up for that right now. Um and it's called crisis prevention intervention. It's really about um providing proactive strategies and safe interventions, methods for supporting students in crisis and which you know we we need a lot of that. So um also with the Minnesota Read Act, we had seven of our special education teachers complete the um online language and literacy academy. So it was a big investment in time for PD because it was around 50 hours um for that instructional practice. And again, once again, I just want to highlight the unified um how how important that is for our school district and what an amazing job they do. Um we um won the unified champion school and also we are a banner school and it's also exciting that the middle school and the high school are partnering together. So, thank you. Do you have any questions? Hiring's been a big focus this spring. It's been really busy just this year. Yeah, I know. Seems like everything's pretty positive. So, that's a good It seems like everything's pretty positive. So, that's a good place to be. Yeah, we have a good staff. I think they're all about like focusing on helping kids and it really shows, I think, with the work. Very much so. All right. Thank you, Mr. Samansky. Spring sports are on the downward uh trend right now. They're uh wrapping up. Softball sections started today. Unfortunately, we were not successful and that ended. Um I think they had about a 2 and a half hour rain delay or lightning delay. So, it was quite the ordeal. Um baseball seating is tomorrow and section play begins on Thursday. Track day one of section starts next Tuesday. Boys and girl girls golf are next Thursday and trap uh they've got two more competitions I believe. Um and right now we've got we think we've got two individuals qualified for state. Um possibly with our team qualified for state as well. Triple crown and royal high five pictures will happen this week. We have 38 members that will be in the Triple Crown banner and 36 that will be on the Royal High Five. The Royal High Five. That's in order to hit that, you've got to be in five of the 17 different activities. And there were a few of those uh folks that had nine activities. I don't understand if they have more time in their day or more days in their week. And and I I want to go back and take a look at this. I think there are some that are going to be on both and that's really that's just amazing. It's very impressive. Football schedule is uh almost complete and what I mean by almost complete, it needs to be finalized in the June 3rd meeting of the high school league board of directors. Um homecoming week tenatively is September 29 to October 4th. Uh next year is year one of our new section assignments. There's really no changes for us. We're sort of right smack dab in the middle of everything. So, it would take a monumental shift to for us to do any kind of moving in any of our sports. So, for the most part, we'll stay the same in all of our our sports and activities. There might be some changes with the different schools that we'll compete against in sections, but for the most part, it'll be the same. And 84 days till August 11th, which is the official start date for the fall seasons. Any questions? Paul, did the ninth grade um state high school league decision is was that made and official now that ninth grade is now a part of the state high school league? Yes. Uh the rep assembly pass that well technically it's not official until June 3rd. The board of directors will approve that. And really what that does is is in the past the Minnesota State High School League was a 10 through 12 organization. Now it'll be a 9 through 12 organization. it really won't impact us because for the most part most schools operate that it's a 9 through 12 organization. So we really won't notice a whole lot. Thank you, Mr. Schuler. Yeah, I'd like to just update tonight um we did have our Royal Champion of Education awards uh nominations and we have selected uh the uh recipients of those. So, uh this is our first year of that uh award and the champion of education for a non-school personnel uh went to uh Russ. That guy seems winning a lot of awards lately. I don't know what he's doing or he has a lucky horseshoe or a rabbit's tail in his back. I don't know. But anyways, uh Russ was nominated and uh received the most votes. Um and we had nine nine nominations for that. And I'll read a little bit about Russ's bio from the person who nominated him. Uh I don't know who that is, but um here's what they said. His passion for education in Watertown mayor has not gone unnoticed. His pride for Watertown mayor basketball, BPA, FFA, and the business education department is greatly appreciated. For over 20 years, Russ has been an invaluable asset to the students and staff at Wirettown Mayor. He has consistently shared his expertise as a guest speaker in every personal finance class bringing energy, insight and realworld revalence to the classroom. He is engaging um and he leaves a lasting impression with students making um making sure that he's a dedicated mentor always um willing to support students directly or help connect them with other valuable mentors and resource resources. He also volunteers his time to the um BPA group, parliamentary procedure groups. Um and he loves working, our students love working with him and he has a fantastic track record for sending students to compete at nationals. He's also without a doubt the royal champion of education. That was Russ. Our local business also was awarded and there were n uh excuse me, six nominations for that. um some really good nominations, but the uh winner for this year was Marketplace Foods and Jim May. And here's what the nominee or the nominator said about Jim. Jim May has been an invaluable supporter of Wartown Schools and the surrounding community through his work through marketplace foods. His generosity and willingness to have has left a lasting impact on countless school initiatives. Whether it's providing food for athletic team travel, supporting fundraising efforts through salt sales, or donating meals for special school events, Jim consistently steps up without hesitation. He's warm, he's welcoming, and he's generally happy to see the customers walk through the doors at Marketplace Foods. His positive attitude and approachable nature make him um make it easy to visit the store uh and makes it more than just a shopping trip. It feels like being a part of the community. He goes beyond uh to support not only individual needs but also the broader goals of our local organizations which he's has many he's involved in. His willingness to assist in any way. He can be a testament to his deep rooted commitment to our schools but also the community as a whole. We are very fortunate, incredibly fortunate for someone like Jim to have someone like Jim in our corner. And lastly, we have our last award which is the Royal Pride Award. This is goes to a staff member uh could be any staff member, any area of our district that goes above and beyond to show their royal pride. And that uh we had 15 nominees and uh the winner this year was Janine Canudson. Oh yeah. Janine is a prime example of royal pride. When the wrestlers were at state, she made sure to update the building on scores throughout through the intercom, which had my preschoolers cheering in the hallway. Her royal pride is contagious, and anyone who walks through her office or the office will say the same. So, congratulations to Janine. Very welldeserving um yes, recipient. So, uh, we'll be bringing all three of these folks in to our end of the year teacher lunchon on J, uh, excuse me, June 2nd, was it January? June 2nd, uh, at 11 p.m. And they get a very nice, uh, well-designed plaque that Miss Hugh and I put a lot of sweat and tears into because Are you all on the same page? I think we're there. We got it there. It was We delegated effectively. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Thank you for your work on that side because took a lot of time, a lot of effort to come to a consensus on what it's going to look like. So, we'll we'll show you. I didn't want to show it tonight because it's not in final format, but it'll be very nice. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Anything for Mr. No. Oh, one last thing. Don't forget, uh, you have a MESPA MSBA, excuse me, uh, superpower knowledge upcoming workshops and event. I'd be remiss in not doing my duties as superintendent if I didn't show this to you because we were told to show it to you. There's lots of opportunities for PD in July, August, September. And you get a very nice quote from our own Hunter Felt on this far left corner. Wow. Of the board chair. So the longest, please take a moment to read that. Wow. And see Heather for any um registrations. All right, moving on to board member reports. Anybody have anything to discuss since last meeting? Um, policy committee just went over policies and we'll get to do it again next month, I'm sure. Um and then uh nothing with district advisory committee till the fall I would assume. So yeah. Um and then marketing communication. We recently had a meeting um just to kind of briefly go over our royal roundup um and what will be going on there. um discussing um photography and videography options um just to highlight more of our things and to use for our website and the um billboard in St. Bonnie. Um and then a lot of discussion around our athletic apparel. So just kind of um streamlining. I feel like we have a really good handle on our uniform situation now. Um, and then just kind of talking with coaches regarding more of the like spirit apparel or team, you know, apparel fan things that they would like. So, just kind of touching base with them on what the branding guidelines are and how they can get around being a little bit more creative because that seems to be the the topic that they want to discuss, just being a little more creative and everything not looking the same. So, but BSN is an easy avenue for them to use because they do everything. They have everything templated. but sounds like they're very willing to work with us. If you know coaches and students want to be a little more creative, we can submit designs to them to look at. So, I don't know. We're headed in a really good direction. So, for Southwest, we're meeting tomorrow and uh we're going to go over our strategic plan still, which is moving really nicely with a mission, vision, our pillars. I mean, we've put in a lot of work, but you can really tell it it's going really well. Well, Jeff was going to be here and as you know he isn't, but doing a really good job um since he stepped in and uh we also are going to be working on his evaluation which honestly I don't think we ever really had one before. So, this is kind of new. And then we'll be uh once we kind of have that going, we'll also give him some goals. But, you know, so far um you know, kudos really good good job. But I think he's taken really good feedback from everyone just you know with his 100 day um you know plan and and just even uh listening to the superintendent. So it's it's been really nice. So um I I'm happy you guys allow me to go to to the meetings because I'm sure you guys are probably like I want to go to those and and I haven't allowed that yet. So sorry guys, but but that's about it. I don't know if from the personnel committee did we share that we have a temp an agreement. We have not shared but you can't just yet. Here we go. Congratulations. Yes. So we have a tenative agreement tenant agreement with the teachers. So that was good. Wow. Um nice and quicker yeah than usual. So that's good. And then we've got paras coming up and we've got food service and custodians still. Yes. So we professionals start tomorrow night and um custodians and food service. We just ink some dates like this afternoon like June 5th looks like the first one. June 5th. Yeah. So start those. Well done. We're going to do those dual. So, it's going to be custodians and food service um backto back. So, we'll start with one group cuz the same representative that represents them wants to stay for both. So, can we just put them in separate rooms and we can just flip back? That's a good idea. Like a Jack and Joe, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Um last week we had a facilities committee meeting. uh just kind of touch base where we're at with some of the projects we were considering this summer. Um still waiting on results I guess from different tests that we were kind of doing uh specifically on our our geothermal system. Um some of it's like pulling teeth uh to get them out here to get the results. So more to come on that down the road. Uh and from an MSBA side, uh we had our annual board meeting, uh the ETH in St. Peter, and one of the things that we do is we do a roundroin, um kind of what's going on in our district, and I mentioned that we have a tenative agreement with our teachers and all the other board members, all the other directors looked at me like I was crazy. So, um they're like, "We haven't even started even considering, you know, negotiations yet." And I'm like, "Well, we're done." So, you know, pick it up. Um, but thank you for your hard work on that. Um, couple things that I I have that I thought were kind of interesting. There's a lot of there's a lot more school districts this year that are going to four day a week four day a week school versus five day. Really? Yeah. There's Yeah, that's kind of that's the new big thing is more people are going to four days. And I'm not sure. I'm assuming you probably have to go later in the I would think so to make up for those lost hours. when it like they go longer and the longer days too, right? Longer days probably longer shorter spring break. But does that all does that help with budget? Is that the reasoning? That's the reasoning. Yeah, it makes results. I think I mean it's h it' be interesting to see how you know what like student I mean just their ability like what their ability is to handle that. I mean for a longer day at school. I don't And I mean that affects everybody. That affects, you know, the teachers and contracts, you know, admins, parents, everybody. Yeah. But it was interesting that, you know, there was a couple districts that, you know, that are moving that way. It's interesting. Yeah. I feel like it is almost Yeah. Um, we elected a new president, so we have a president-elect, uh, Tim Rear, not of Rock Ridge, so up by Virginia. um he's going to be our president once Christy Peterson rolls off. We have three candidates we got to interview uh for that. Um you guys have seen all the videos hopefully for the one voice, you know, the the school board members. Uh that initiative is changing a little bit. Um they're going a little bit deeper and bringing it inhouse. They were using it outsourced. Um I think the visions weren't aligned there, so they're bringing it inhouse to MSBA. um a lot more marketing, more kind of what's in it for the kids, you know, let alone on the schoolboard side. So, um I have volunteered us as a district if they needed material to come out and visit us. Um that uh I was part of the student school board uh selection committee where we gave away three uh scholarships um to the tune of $9,000. we had over 40 to 45 applicants with surveys and or not surveys uh papers that they had to submit and stuff. So that was kind of a time suck but it was great to see that there were so many kids interested in that. Um day at the capital like we talked about before but there was 196 attendees which was 58 more than last year and in 2018 as an example had 63 attendees. Wow. So they're they're kind of really growing that um on a basis there. Leadership conference January 15th and 16th uh if you're interested put that on your calendar. Um we're also MSBA is also working on an LMS tool for training uh to provide more deeper dive into training. Now obviously it's going to be a slow roll out because it's all that training has to be created. It can't just be off the shelf. uh more to come on that. And then the last little bit I'll say here is uh the delegate assembly which is in I believe November. Um if anybody here has interest in that, it's up for elections this year for our district area. There's six delegates that we have to elect. It's a two-year commitment. Um it's you can self-nominate and then it's all voting electronically. So there'll be more emails on that for you guys if you're interested. Um, I guess I'm grandfathered in. So, um, if you have other questions about that, definitely feel free to get a hold of me. That's all that I have. Hunter, do you know how many schools participate in like having a student school board? I probably a third maybe. Okay. And is it usually just like one or two students or it it's kind of all over the board? Um, no pun intended. Um, what I've seen is, um, usually it's a junior and a senior. Okay. So, the senior will be there, sit on the board, they'll come up here. Um, there's different avenues of that. Some of them I some of them just give a, hey, here's what's going on in the high school. Sure. Here's what's, you know, they maybe go out to the middle school, too, and say, here's what's going on in the high school and middle school. Um, and then there's other school districts that actually utilize their student school board members where they're advocating out there. They're going to, you know, if they're going for a referendum, they're part of that process. They're learning about that. They're advocating on behalf of the kids, right? And the students in the in the district. So, sort of like the seniors, the the leader, if you will, and then the juniors kind of like the mentee, the mentee. And there's some districts have like selection processes where there's interviews, some are, hey, we're looking for a student school board member. You want to come on? Is that anything we've ever had in the past? Anybody? No. No, but we've talked about we've considered the past. We've talked about it. We just haven't done I I guess the one concern that I would have is I mean we heard what you know Mr. Samaski was saying for the the royal high five, right? I mean typically even reading all the the essays that they all wrote those typically are the kids that are involved in this 16 18 different events throughout the day right so it is one more thing for them it might be easier in a bigger district than it is in a small district but it is something we have considered I don't you know it just hasn't made traction anything All right, I make a motion to adjurnn. Anybody seconding? Second. Motion made by Miss Danielson, second by Miss Nathan. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. meeting is adjourned at 7:37 p.m.