Calling the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. This is the board of directors regular school board meeting for Monday, January 26, 2026. Uh, welcome to all of our visitors, guests, and media. Uh, we're going to start tonight off with the board and administration roll calls. Mr. Felt here, Mr. Burns here, >> Miss Danielson >> here, >> Miss Schultz >> here, >> Miss Gatsco >> here, >> Miss Nathan >> here, >> Mr. Oel >> here, >> Mr. Scheler >> here, >> Mr. Hen >> here, >> Mr. Girtton >> here, >> Miss Okonnell >> here, >> Miss Payeyton >> here, >> Mr. Dalton >> here. >> Mr. View >> 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. >> Prior to the meeting, there have been no public comments. 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 on the agenda? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Nate. >> Motion carries. Next up is the consent agenda which includes the school board minutes from the regular school board meeting on December 15, 2025. The truth and taxation meeting on December 15th, 2025. the reorganizational meeting on January 5th, 2026 and the school board work se session on January 5th, 2026, as well as the personnel consent agenda and the business consent agenda. >> Move approval. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion made by Mr. Burns, seconded by Miss Gatsco. Any further discussion on the consent agenda items? All right, hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All oppose. Nate. Motion carries. Moving right along to the recognitions, presentations, and showcase. Tonight, we have a presentation on the profile of a graduate. >> Star of the show. So, >> good evening. Uh, I'm going to turn this over to Jen in a second here, but just kind of give a little bit of background again. I think it was two years ago, we went through this process again and redid the profile of a graduate. And probably one of the biggest changes we made was we included more involvement from just more just different groups of people. Chamber of Commerce, more students to be honest was the biggest change. And and since then, I think one of the things we've always struggled a little bit with is how do we make it more living, especially with our kids because a lot of these things are not they're not measurable test things. They're again they're skills. Um so I think this year as a as a conscious effort, the high school staff especially wanted to make it um something we could all buy into and something we could do in every one of our classes. So, I'm going to turn it over to Jen to talk a little bit about again how it this was part of their professional grow plans for all the teachers this year. >> Hi, I'm Jen Pepperdis. I teach Spanish, um, multiple language learners and some English. So, Chris Fiscus and I, Chris is a math teacher. She and I work together with Bob to do the content for our RPTs, which is our reflective practice teams. We meet on Thursday mornings. And one of the pieces that we work through in that is the profile of a graduate specific to this year our professional growth plan. As Bob said, we've tried very hard to make a conscious effort to include it in our classes. Um it wasn't something that we originally had targeted because we were getting into it, trying to figure out what this was going to be like, how it would catch on. But we discovered last year that when we talked about the profile, not all kids knew what we were talking about. And so we thought, well, it would be a good opportunity to kind of marry the process of our professional growth plans, which is basically an action research process, if you're familiar with that, um, with the idea of the skills of the profile of a graduate. So, this was put together at the beginning of the school year, and it just shows the process that we go through each trimester. So, if you click on, you guys should have the live copies, you can click on the fill out the professional growth plan. That's a plan that I did as a sample and shared with the staff at the beginning. Um, this was one that I was working on at the time. So, this is the professional growth plan that the teachers have seen for the last couple of years that we've worked on. So, nothing is new on this document. The only thing that's different is we asked them to use the profile of graduate skills as the focus for their professional growth plans. And the requirement was it needs to be in a class. Um, it doesn't have to be more than one class. Maybe I teach, let's say I don't, but let's say I taught three sections of Spanish one. I could do it in Spanish one in all three of my sections or I could focus in one of my Spanish one as long as I was doing it somewhere in my levels. And then we asked them to switch for the next try. So we've gone through one cycle with trimester 1. And this is where we started at the beginning of the trimester in our reflective practice teams is coming up with our plan for what we would do in our classroom. So that shows you that. if you'll just flip back please. Is it Heather, you have the magic is Darren. Thank you. Okay. So, the professional growth plan was there. So, in a nutshell, what we do is we choose our class subject. We choose a profile area. We just have to choose one. If you want to click on that, that's the one you've seen. It's board approved. And I'll talk about it my from my perspective just to give you an idea. U my first trimester I did I taught a class on technology and artificial intelligence and creative and critical thinker was my area that I was going to focus on not the creative part but the critical thinking part. So if we can bump back Darren please. >> Thank you. So I had to decide how was I going to teach that skill in that particular class. I was lucky because it was a brand new class. I had to write it knowing that we would be doing this. So I was lucky in that way. I wasn't trying to fit something in. Um I was able to overtly build it in when I wrote the course. So I was lucky that way. So then we teach that content with a profile area in mind. Again, for me it was that critical thinking. Midri, we give a feedback survey. I'm sorry I could have linked it, but Chris actually has the the fe the form and sorry I forgot. So it's not linked there. But essentially it's just a form that we ask the kids. It's a drop down. It says, "What class was this for?" Um, it gives one of the skills. They just drop down and choose which skill we were working on. Hopefully, they know. And then it asks some just general questions. So, each drop down has a few separate questions for the kids. Then we could all see it in the spreadsheet mid try and we could look at our results and say, and I discovered very quickly that I had some kids who didn't know that I was doing that, even though I thought it was very overtly. >> So, then it's make adjustments to your teaching. You know, use that feedback, that summitative feedback. You can do it more than once if you want. I chose to do it one time. So, I made adjustments to my teaching, continued to teach the skill through the rest of the trimester. And then we got to the top corner there that says end of try one. Um, we give the feedback survey again at the end of the try, get those results, compare them back to what we saw mid try. Hopefully, they've improved and complete our professional growth plan for that try, which is just reflect what did you learn, what would you do differently, and we go from there. And then you start try two and three with a new class. >> Thanks. >> Thanks. >> Thanks. >> And I would say, you know, in addition, I mean, the other thing we're trying to do this year probably again more overtly is like we're collecting just on a Google form of every time our groups are involved in the community just to track that. I mean, we we we know our kids do a lot. It would just be nice to have actual amount of like how many kids participate, how many hours they participate and things like that. And this was actually started a few years back and and Jen maybe you're the one who did this too, but you may have seen these. We send these out for every kid who gets nominated for student trimester round. They get a postcard. So even if you don't get the actual award, you get the postcard just for nomination and the criteria now is based upon the profiles of a graduate. So it's one of those skills and the teacher will write up a little, you know, synopsis. It gets put on there. It gets sent home to the parents. Again, just kind of a cool way to recognize kids that not just for maybe an academic reason all the time. It could be for a skill, something they've shown in class just to again to promote these skills because kindly we said it's it's hard to kids just inherently aren't going to look at go, oh, there's a profile graduate, but if we just keep continuously kind of immersing in what we do, they do start to pick up the language a little bit and understand that we're trying to teach you more than just, you know, a grade all the time. So I think again just trying to make a more conscious effort from a whole teaching perspective, not just a handful of teachers and and every teacher is doing this this year. >> Yeah. All of those profiles of a graduate, we have the bigger ones and they're posted in our classrooms and it's given us as teachers common language to talk about some of these soft skills. Um you know, we we all have things that we want to teach for content, but all these other things have to happen not only in the classroom, but in the jobs that they have and as they graduate. Those are all things they have to be able to do. And so being able to talk to kids about that that you know we're doing this in class but let's talk about where you might see this outside of class or how does this play out for you in your clubs or your sports or you know other things that you participate in. So it's been helpful that way. How do you not um choose I mean like how does a team maybe choose different ones and not like overlap or do you try to do some overlapping on how >> you know a certain subject or whatever would >> this was the first year that we decided to actually collect data >> okay >> so in the past we've just asked teachers we were all doing something related to one of these it just wasn't formally written down and part of now something where we collect feedback from students so we have talked out after this year of collecting during these couple of tries, we then as a leadership team will probably go back in. It's one of our building goals is to improve the interactions between students and the profile in all of our classes. So, this is going to give us our baseline data. You know, which classes are teaching what, which of the profile skills are not being taught as much as they should be. Is there one we're missing completely that people aren't focusing on? We know we do them, but we need to make sure we're focusing on all of them. So, >> yeah. >> What was the faculty's overall reaction to putting it into a more formal plan? >> I think overall really positive. I think they like the fact that they could they were doing something that's relevant to them because one of the challenges when you do like a building wide thing is, you know, how do you unite the you know, the egg teacher, the FIA teacher, the Spanish teacher, the M and it's just hard sometimes. So I think this is the one thing we everybody could agree upon that you could find a place in your class to emphasize something. Um so I think if you know I haven't heard any push back at all because I think it's we're doing it already anyway. Now it's just a way to collect data on how well we're doing it. >> So I think that was the nice part is we didn't have to create anything new really. We just had to do really overtly teach it more than we were. >> And for our building goals it really helps us get that baseline so we can continue to have that be a goal and to build on that goal. Yep. Which is nice. >> Exactly. >> No, and I think you've done a great job at the high school, Bob, you know, for this kind of embedding it, making sure that, you know, these six items and and and like we've talked about, they're not numbers based. You can't say what does a skilled communicator look like? It's not an A, B, C, or D. They're they're the soft skills that you need after you graduate. Um, one thing I was thinking of and and and maybe Mr. Scheler, you can kind of help here, too. Is by the time they get to the high school, is it almost too late for a lot of these students to to garner these six where maybe we need to kind of you've kind of started this at the high school. How do we push it to the middle school, elementary school, you know, the community learning center for all those things? It may not be as robust as it is at the high school. You know, engaged community member. One of the things that I mentioned it at the MSBA conference when we were talking was, you know, from a my kindergartenner, maybe it's something like going help mom and dad empty the dishwasher or, you know, doing something like that to be more engaged in different things. So, are there any plans, you know, to kind of go down building levels because this is great from the high school level, but let's take it and kind of >> enhance it across the whole building. I think you know now that especially middle school high school are probably a lot more aligned with schedule a lot of shared staff >> again like I mean they're doing it now you know elementary they're all doing it it's just really now I mean like for us to take take that step to be just more overt >> and just because they're doing it I mean they're doing these skills but now how do we align you know that you know especially middle school 512 >> so then we know that like you said they're we're not missing anything on the way and it really is just building but I mean I think that's just the next step probably is just that we just need to be more clear, you know, again, because that's what we had to do because we knew we were doing it, but now specifically where are we doing it and >> more intentional. >> How do we get that feedback that kids know what we're doing? >> Yeah. >> And you have to say it 50,000 times. >> Yeah. >> You know, I mean, that's the reality is I know I was teaching critical thinking skills, but I had to call them on it. Like I had to tell them this is a critical thinking skill. Write this down. These three, these are the one three we're working on. What are the three the next day? What are the three the next day? >> You know, and even after doing that, I still had some kids right on their mid try, not sure what we're doing. >> And part of it is using studentfriendly language. I mean, what we think versus what they think are two different things sometimes. >> Thinking to them is like, >> so >> it's just it's a different world, you know, that they're learning in and we have to keep adjusting to that world. >> And some of these things should be second nature by the time, >> you know, they Yeah. Does this plan at all include like reconnecting with a lot of those student groups that you've met with just to, you know, check in with them on, you know, how they see things are going as well? >> Yeah. And that's, you know, more of the language or >> Yeah. And we do, you know, part of we do the senior exit surveys. We ask these questions and and yeah, that's something we definitely know that we're about halfway. We could check in with groups again and just and almost do those focus groups say all right especially after this year to be like all right even like next year like all right now if you've heard it a lot for a year. >> Yeah. Is this common nature now? You know what what would you say? Do you understand what we're doing? >> Because again, kids give pretty good feedback. Better than people realize actually because they're just they're you usually brutally honest with because >> yeah, >> they have nothing to lose. Really, didn't >> And are we able to reach out to former students as well and see how this has helped them with that's kind of the next step is, you know, if they're willing to give that information and willing to answer some surveys. I mean, we do have at least now a few years of data collected on some of their cell phones and things like that that we could potentially do that. And a lot of it is honestly just subjective and word of mouth. We I mean, a lot of our graduates come back, you know, so even just talking to them then as soon as you get a pretty accurate picture on, you know, how well they're doing in their next step, whatever that is. >> Thanks. >> Anything else? >> No, this is great. >> Awesome. Thank you guys for all this. >> Nice. Can we use these cards for nominating like board member of the trimester? >> Lisa, sorry. >> Self- motivated learner. >> Well, yeah, and I think it's that's just another avenue that we can promote and and and recognize our students as well. All right, moving on to our action items. Action item A, the acknowledgement of donations, contributions, and fundraising. Mr. Schuler. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh we have a number of great donations here in January. I'd like to recognize uh Trinity Lutheran Church uh donation to the Watertown Mayor uh Middle School for $100 to help with student needs. Uh the American Legion Post 121 um to the middle school for a field trip fund. Uh there were three different field trips um again uh that were given out there. Um Hollywood Auto uh to the robotics program for $500 for supplies. Again, the Legion Post to uh Family Consumer Science for $4,000 for sewing machines. And I think I don't know, Mr. Hennon, is she still there? The sewing machines. Can you remind me again? That was kind of an interesting um what the need was there. Yeah, she started a re started a uh textiles >> class >> and she just realized I mean the sewing machines were beyond repair so this was just a way to because it was it's actually been a pretty popular course >> but to to fix them would have almost cost as much or more than just buying them. >> We think some of them were late late 80s early 90s vintage um sewing machines. So, um they're coming back maybe making a re coming back. Um another donation again from Legion to the student council for $500 for uh general use for activities. Mayor Baseball family consumer science again for $1,575 for sewing machines as well. Uh Wilson Development Services to robotics for $2,000 for parts. Mike Denami Construction Robotics, $1,000 for parts. Uh again, the Legion Post to Wiretown Mayor Middle School special ed department for $7,000. Purchase of a Nook sensory station. Uh the Legion Post 121 to the student council for at the middle at the high school, excuse me, for $500 to offset student council activities. And then uh again, another Legion Post uh for to the high school random acts of kindness fund, $100 for student needs. uh the Legion Post uh Wiretown Mayor Elementary uh for again document cameras for teachers in classrooms. Um again the post Legion Post to Wiretown mayor activities for uh $5,000 to um defay some of the costs of the Hall of Fame displays is we've transitioned from our old uh Hall of Fame uh plaques to a new version and our new wall. So if you get a chance to come into the high school, you've probably seen that at a game. Um, we're still not there yet, but uh, we are ordering more of those plaques now. The refunds are coming in to change those out and update them, >> like replacing the old. >> Okay, does that make sense? >> Replacing the old ones. Thank you. Uh, Speed Prom Imaging Northwest Incorporated, uh, robotics for $250 for parts. Um, just to note too, I I think again we talk about our our generosity of our of our clubs and people in our community, but the American Legion Post came to to me in uh early December and just said, "Hey, we've got some yearend funds here we'd like to to distribute." And uh we took it back to our admin team and they went to work with a number of needs that they knew within their building. And uh you can see a lot of them here were a direct uh correlation to those needs. And so again, a huge thank you to the Legion, especially this month, for thinking of us. Very kind. >> Do we ever have students that go to the Legion? >> Yeah. Great. >> Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up, actually. Um, yes. Uh, we worked with John Wines, the the lead commander, and our our admin group uh all went and thanked them. So, I know Miss Hokinson came personally, uh, Mr. Girtton, Miss Okonnell, um, Mr. Samanssky, and Miss Payeyton all came, I believe. But I didn't miss anybody. I don't think all came and gave a uh a thank you to them. >> I think they do like we did this before too from the softball side. Having the kids come in >> and and talk to them about what they like what they needed for, what they used it for. I know those lines members love that. So maybe taking a one step forward, I think especially look at how much they gave and they're always >> maybe one little small step. I think that would go a long way. >> Yeah. And that's a good point. After we start using some of this equipment now to come back Yeah, the sewing machine. Maybe they could make something for the legions. Yeah. >> Mhm. >> They can make some of the t-shirts for the printing shop. >> Yeah. Just a thought. But I know they love that. They ask a lot of questions of those kids. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Critical. I mean, hey, what does that go for this? Right. >> Communicator. >> Exactly. >> Whatever. Yeah. >> I make a motion to approve the donations, contributions, and fundraising. >> Second. >> Have a motion made by Miss Danielson. Seconded by Miss Gatskco. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All oppose. Nate. Motion carries. And you know, echoing what Mr. Scheler said, thank you to everyone who month over month helps donate to our school district. Item B, the second and final read of district policy requiring review. Mr. Scheler. >> Uh, Mr. Chair, we bring back uh policy 513 for a second read. It's the student promotion, retention, and program design. As we mentioned last month, um this one uh took a pretty deep overhaul. And again, thank you to uh Miss Okonnell and our admin team uh for for taking time to revise us and get more in alignment to our current uh reality in terms of u how students are promoted or um early entrance to kindergarten, those type of things. So, uh no substantial changes since the last time we've met. >> Move approval. >> Second. Motion made by Miss Schultz, seconded by Mr. Burns. Any further discussion on policy 513? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. >> Item C, first and only read of district policies requiring review. Mr. Schuler. >> Uh again, Mr. Chair, our policy committee met last Wednesday and reviewed um the annual policies. Just again as a reminder uh these are the policies that annually that we are charged with reviewing. So good or bad the good thing is uh not much has changed uh since last year when we reviewed these but they do get the annual review and um I think through the policy committee they are recommending a first and only read >> approval. Second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Burton, second by Miss Schultz. Any further discussion on the first and only read of those laundry list of policies? >> That family medical leave. I just have a quick question. Did that get updated with the Minnesota? >> Yes. Everything had to be updated, I believe, since the last time we looked at that back in what month it was. >> I can find that for you. It was it was it had already been updated for Minnesota state statutes prior to our annual review. >> Um and that adjustment would have happened as I scroll in uh January. Yep. Okay. Not a >> All right. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item D, resolution 2609. Mr. Scheler, >> uh, each year, uh, we come to the board and asking, uh, for me for permission, um, and direction in terms of the, uh, possible reduction or potential reduction in programming and, um, uh, teaching staff. Um, again, this does not mean we're we're going to do any reductions whatsoever, but it does direct myself and our administration to begin that conversation, which we will here in February begin those conversations um looking at our staffing needs um and programming needs. So, again, this is an annual uh right of passage, I guess you'd call it. So, >> and obviously any if there's any reductions, those obviously will come to us at the board. >> Yeah. Uh, and if you remember the process when we've had to reduce, which hasn't been very often, we do u typically bring those to you in March for review of any possible reductions and then the board would act on those reductions in April um at that time. So >> approval, >> I'll second that. >> Yes, sir. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Onell, seconded by Mr. Felt. Any further discussion on resolution 2609? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Next up, item E, resolution 2610, uh, approving the legislative priorities. Uh, Miss Huan was gracious enough to print you out a hard copy. um based on what we talked about at our work session, um kind of combined it all into really two categories, funding and local control and safer schools. And then on the back side, tried to be less wordy and more graphical in in the intention there. Uh hopefully it's easier to read for everybody. Um, again, kind of talking about one or two bullet points for each of those areas and and sort of what they mean to us here at Watertown Mayor. So, I think what the next step here and and there is a resolution too, um, if we have approval on this, if there's any changes, I know I've asked for feedback on that and kind of incorporated, um, any feedback that was received into that. Um, again, once we approve it, then we can actually put it on our site. If we go today at the capital, which I think is March 10th, I believe 9th or 10th, you know, it's it's a talking point for us to talk to our members to have in our back pocket. >> Move approval. >> I'll second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Burns, second by Miss Gatskco. Any further discussion? Everything look good from your guys' perspective? >> Awesome. >> Looks great. >> Thank you. >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. >> Moving right along. Item F, the 2728 school year calendar. So now we're trying to get a year ahead. Uh trying to keep that year ahead schedule going forward here. Mr. Schuler. >> Yes. Uh as promised, uh Mr. chair, we said we would bring back the 2027 2028 calendar um to get a year out, if you will, um in our planning. So, um hope you had a chance to review that for last couple of days here. Again, uh nothing too major in terms of differences between our calendars. The the spring break goes back again to that last week in March, traditionally where we've been. um just the beginning of the school year. Again a reminder that uh Labor Day is uh the 6th of of September. Um so it is late again and that is the reason the state has given us opportunity to start before Labor Day but not before um uh September 1st. So our first day with students in middle school and high school will be the first. Uh the elementary will start the 2nd. again, they have their royal orientation on the 31st and 1st. Um, so we're going to start that early. Um, so that's just a little bit of a change there as well. Um, otherwise, I think pretty much straightforward as as calendars have been. >> Why would um November 24th be for middle school and high school only staff development? Is that because of the elementary school starting two days later? >> I believe that is the day we got an extra day there for the >> because the Monday >> of the 30th start you have workshop and we don't. >> So on the 30th of August the elementary would have a workshop day and the high school would have it on the 31st. So they switched those out >> in November. >> In November >> November and August what he means to say. Yeah. So, that's what bumps the calendar that way. >> 30th of August is elementary school only staff development. >> Got it. >> So, and because of Royal Connections, the way that all shakes down, then it was decided the 24th as a high school only. >> Am I explaining that correctly, Mr. Okay. >> Again, this is a first read. We'll bring this back in. uh February. >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2728 school year calendar first read. >> I'll second motion made by Mr. Phelps, second by Miss Nton. >> Any further discussion? >> Yep. Just one more question. Is it um so this time we're not ending before Memorial Day. Is it just because of the way I I obviously the calendar lies that we have to go that week after Memorial Day instead of like our 26 27 were ending before. >> Correct. >> But just the way the days line up. I guess >> it is. Yeah. It's one of those those years. Um >> weird that it's like a day later >> but yet we still can't >> end before Memorial Day >> even though we're starting early. >> Like I don't Okay. I think it all has to do with those student contact days. Yes. Right. >> We try to stay Yeah. within that 171 student contact days is our kind of our spot we need to hit. And so it really is all dependent on that. And it's a shorter >> um you know holiday break u winter break. So you have that. Um but >> yeah, it's just trying to find to get all those 171 days in is the key. And if you can do it some years before Labor Day >> or before, excuse me, um, Memorial Day, that's great. Some of these years it just doesn't work. >> Initially, this looks okay. >> Anything else? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> All oppose? Nay. >> Motion carries. And that ends the action. >> Hunter, could you repeat who made the motion and who seconded? I'm sorry. Uh, Mr. Phelp made the motion, seconded by Miss Nton. >> Thank you. >> Yep. And moving on to the review and information items. Uh strategic plan update. Mr. Schuler. >> Uh just the only update I have today is just to keep you posted on kind of our midway through um our strategic plan um check-ins with folks. I have met with the high school, middle school, elementary admin team, school board. Um and we're still uh connecting with um the CLC. We're trying to find a time to grab people from that building just because it's a lot of different moving schedules. It's a little tougher. And then I'm I'm planning to meet with our high school student council as well to kind of walk them through that process again of um give us, you know, what progress we made, what evidence uh you know that we you've seen that we're making, any barriers, and then any action steps moving forward. So um I've been really impressed by each of our staffs that have been part of this process. only takes about half an hour for us to walk through it at a staff meeting, but getting some really good feedback and um so kind of excited to compilate that when we're all done and share that back with you here hopefully and hopefully in February if we can get to all the other ones that we're trying to to get feedback from. So, it's been good. That's um all Oh, and and lastly too, I just want to uh mention um at the MSBA conference, speaking of the profile of a graduate, uh Mr. Hennon um led a session with Mr. Felt and I kind of assisting um on the profile of a graduate and then we had three different sessions. Um they do it in a roundt type format. So you get people gathering around a table and listening in and uh uh but I bet we had uh about 20 probably at each session and uh so roughly 60 folks attending but um Bob did a really nice job of again kind of explaining what he did tonight in terms of how we're taking that next step making some of the making that more of a live document and making it real for students and staff. So um that was really wellreceived. We got some great feedback. Um, again, Hunter came from a board perspective on how the board uses it. I looked at it from a superintendent lens and how we're kind of branching out now even into more of the community engagement opportunities and really making that connection as well. So, um, it was fun. Again, thank you for Bob for taking time out of his day to to be a part of that session down there. >> And 60 folks through the three sessions at 8 o'clock on a Friday. >> So, that >> we got them out of bed. >> We got them out of bed. >> That's right. Got them out of bed. They just completely like that. Yeah. >> Any other questions for Mr. Scheler? >> All right. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Uh item B, the five-year budget projection review, Mr. Netsky. >> So, this is something again that as a board, we've never really seen a five-year projection roll out at at the board level. the finance committee is very uh up to speed on this process. So I asked Mr. Neski to come and and and just kind of give the board an update as a whole kind of how he does his assumptions and and kind of where he sees us, you know, using his figures in the next 5 years and it kind of helps set the table for future discussions. >> Thank you. >> Didn't mean to spill any thunder there. >> No, that's perfect. Yeah. So, we've begun discussing um the building of a five-year financial plan or a budget projection, if you will. So, I just wanted to talk through and and update the board kind on the steps we'll go through, the decisions we'll need to make as a group um at the finance committee level. And this will be a a group effort. This isn't like my five-year financial plan, if you will. This will be the group um collaboratively and as a group making decisions on first item here what our enrollment projection is for the next five years. Um this is a very simple migration of our current students at each grade level migrating through the grades. Um not assuming any positive or negative migration in or out. So, if this were to happen, you can see we go through we go from uh 1,423 students in FY26 to 1,214 in FY31. So, dropping uh what is that about 20 210 29 students or so in five years. Um so, again, just preliminary these are our students by grade migrating them through where would we end up? Um then as we scroll through >> so just for that you didn't use any projection you just kind of a roll forward and just >> roll forward >> 80 kindergarteners every year >> correct? >> Okay. >> Yep. And here another assumption we'll need to agree on um is the basic formula. So this is the revenue that's applied to our pupil units to generate uh the largest funding stream for us. Our general ed general ed a aid represents about 70 75% of our total general fund revenue. Um for FY26 it's at 7,481 per student. Um currently there's a CPI uh index gets applied to the prior year um dollar amount per pupil unit. So for FY26 it went up 2.75%. um in statute right now um we have a base of 2% each year that it's going to go up um but we know the state state's budget is in um not a good spot right now so that could be in jeopardy so we may choose to you know go with 1% there was up until I think it was two years ago or maybe the two sessions ago we never knew what that number would be so a lot of times we'd have to go a zero or one or just depending on how conservative we wanted to be. Um hopefully the 2% stays. That helps a lot in this process, you know, to know we can at least count on 2%. Um with that simple migration of our students forward, you can see the year-over-year change in our formula revenues. So, a lot of parentheses there, unfortunately, because even though the the dollar amount per pupil is going up, um with our loss in enrollment, um we're likely going to have negative revenue growth going forward. Um and then our special education state aid, that's our number two largest uh state aid that we receive. Uh for FY26, we're estimating 2.8 million and then just growing that at 2% is what we're currently assuming. Uh compensatory revenue is uh number three on the list for largest state aid 519,000 per year. This one also has the potential to go backwards a little bit. Um the legislature has a hold harmless right now in terms of how they gather the data that's driving that revenue. Um, and it's going to go from more of an automated system back to collecting forms from families and parents and so forth for free and reduced numbers which drive that revenue. So potentially this could go down for us in the future. Um, federal grants, those are pretty stable. Those are the title funds that we receive, special ed federal revenue and so on. And then our property taxes and the majority of our property tax revenues are also driven by our student counts. So you can see there we're projecting some negative revenues too in as well in the future and other local revenues just holding those flat is our current look at that. And I'm listing expenses up next here. just the things that we're going to um speak to, think about, plan for. Um any FTE changes across the the district based some of those will be driven by those changes in student counts of course. Um benefits, health insurance generally is going up for us. Um of course we had the addition of the PFM PFML which is a new cost to us. and then other expenditures like technology initiatives, curriculum, all those types of things. So all things we need to think about inflationary impacts just on our general supplies, contracted services and so on. And then in terms of the ultimate goal here is to have a fund balance projection and primarily looking at our unassigned fund balance and how that lines up with our board goal. So, so we'll apply those assumptions to our revised budget and um see where we're at. Um it'll also come into play when we're looking at with our students going down and uh we have two two choices in terms of how to impact the budget. Either we raise revenues or we cut expenses. And it's likely we'll probably be in a situation where we have to do both. Um so we can play with that operating referendum number per pupil. um and you know zero in on cuts, new revenue, you know, where where the sweet spot is. So, and it'll be a fluid plan. It'll keep changing with better information and this will be kind of a a process that we'll bring to the board um each time we adopt a new budget. So, we'll do that at revised budget time here when we adopt next year's budget. We'll revisit the five-year plan again based on where we're at. So, so any questions on that? >> No. So, Todd, is is your idea to get like let's say the finance committee together to help walk through some of those assumptions at this point? >> And then typically then, do you bring those >> that, for lack of a better term, completed five-year plan back to like a a work session? Do we need a work session? Do we want to take it at a board meeting to discuss? Is is that kind of what you >> That's a typical Yeah. process that we go through. Um a work session would be great to have more interaction. I mean, we'll get into the details at the finance committee level, but then yeah, I've even had it where we have, you know, ran different scenarios at a work session. Um, as well, especially when you're talking, you know, at some point there might be what level of cuts, you know, what if we uh do $600 per pupil unit on the referendum? What if we do 700? Then what is the cut level? So, we can work through that together. Um, yes. And then so when when we start talking staffing levels and buildings Darren here that's like you said what next month March. >> Yeah. In February we'll start uh meeting with principles and directors on their um projections of where they think they'll be at in terms of staffing needs. And okay high school will be finishing up their scheduling along with middle school as well which plays a big component in that as well. And I think too, I know, you know, last year when we switched to the sixth period day, we knew and we did, we found some nice efficiencies there and uh with combining middle school and high school staffing, we found some efficiencies and I think we'll find even more this year in our second year. We kind of projected that. So, um we'll see where that lies as well. So, um yeah, time will tell. So then I I would assume we would want a finance committee meeting here relatively shortly to get those assumptions. Maybe a work session around the same time that you're talking to the building. I just want to make sure we're doing this all sequentially in the right way. >> Right. And like I said, we would if there were cuts to be made, we would bring that in March. So I would say by the end of February we would be able to have a finance committee meeting to start you know uh get getting serious I guess at that point >> just seeing where that projection is. >> Yep. Okay. >> Any other questions for Mr. >> Nope. Thank you. Thank you for that and look forward to >> getting more granular. Uh, next up item C, the facilities a audit world architects. Mr. Schuler. >> Yeah, I just wanted to to bring this to your attention. Um, so the facilities committee has engaged I'm going to try to enlarge this a little bit. Um, on an opportunity to work with W architects in terms of a long and shortterm planning model. Um, one of the things that, um, we feel like we need is a more accurate look at, uh, our facility needs. And going back, um, to the 2019, uh, referendum, obviously, there was work that was identified and work that was completed. Uh, we're kind of at that point where we we need to take the next 10 years and look out of where we're at. Excuse me, lost my mic. um in terms of our facilities and conditions of our facilities. And I think we've kind of called it like looking under the hood, so to speak, uh to see what are some of the needs that we don't see on a day-to-day basis. Um and so we can budget for that moving into the future. Um the state does allow some neat funding opportunities that we could possibly take advantage of um at minimal impact to our taxpayers. Um and so I think that is something that the facilities committee is looking hard at as well. Um but just to see kind of what is the facility assessment. Um so W will come in um and again it's given us a general overview of the condition of our facilities. Um and general building info. Um it does talk about life cycle. So how long is a piece of equipment going to last so we can have a better idea moving into the future of what is the lifespan on a piece of equipment so we can budget for that. Uh we don't currently have that. Um priorit prioritization. what really is the highest need items and wool to be able to tell us like, "Yep, this is your top uh needed item. You need to get that repaired, you know, in the next two to three years or whatever that might look like." And then it builds out a two-year, they build out a two-year LTFM plan uh with dollar estimates attached to that. I think they have a inflationary piece that ties to that as well. And then they have a 10-year forecast again budgeting out what that could be into the future. Um, also the way they will plan this is they come out and they have they'll meet with our admin teams, our principles, um, possibly some teaching staff, um, just to get a better idea of of the space that we currently have and how it's being utilized. Um, they start looking at class sizes and programming, um, space standards for, um, you know, certain core spaces, future programming needs. Uh this one's a big one I think in especially as we look like at the CLC building with the growing uh child care section that we have there. What can we do differently in that building um to maximize its space? It's a really it's a great building um you know in terms of where we have classroom space and where we have childcare space. But we know that's getting to the point where we need to make some some decisions and do people have to move out of that space? We have to do some things differently. They'll give us some feedback on that. And then again any future programming needs that we might have going into the future and any capacity issues that we might have. Um so the bottom kind of gives a a five or I guess a sevenstep process. So they'll start with a kickoff meeting with our um our site group here to really establish the protocols and what that looks like. Um and then they'll come out and start touring the facilities. And I think that could even start happening this week, late this week or early next week. Um, and starting looking at the conditions of of the the equipment in and the facility. Um, again, document all the findings with a a comprehensive condition format and then again start looking at how we base this um in terms of categories and priorities. Um, give us some solutions. That's the next step five of what these costs might be down the road or currently. Uh and then sitting down uh to prioritize and process what the rank and of those items are and then come back to to the facilities committee and then to the board to recommend uh improvements to our um maintenance program and what we need to do to stay on top of that. Um again, we know roofs are a need that we need to address. uh we have some roofs that are coming due. So that plays into this as well. But again, this is just more of a deeper dive and a plan moving forward for our facilities committee and and um board as well, just to know kind of where we're going and the next 10 years facilitywise um and how we can budget for that. Any questions on that? >> So they've already been selected. Were there other people that >> this is the group um that we selected just through some recommendations from other districts that have and they're probably the premier group in the in the state in terms of facility audits and certainly one of the top architects in the state. Um so I've worked with these guys previously in another district as well and and they come highly regarded. So um the price point was about $12,000 for the whole process. So, it's a really good um price point for us, I think. So, um again, uh we feel like it was a good opportunity to move forward with at this time. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Moving on to the admin reports, starting off with Mr. Hennon. Uh two things for you guys tonight. One is registration as was alluded to is starting up now for the next school year. Counselors are leading this. So I'll I'll have more information next month to give you because we should be wrapped up. Um information will be shared more with um parents on the website I believe tomorrow or Wednesday. And what they do is they go into classrooms so they connect with about 30 kids at a time. So to get just that more of a personal connection with registration. Um they're going to try to do it more online this year. So, it'll be a little more for like a college type where things will be pre-loaded for them, but kids will go in and just be able to make their choices right there. So, it'll just automatically upload to Infinite Campus, which just save us a lot of time. And then secondly, we went through some AI training last was it the 19th when we had our last professional development day. Um, spent about an hour and a half with Britney, Miss Rocka. Really valuable training. I'm sure you hear more and more about this and you've heard I mean it's it's a pretty big game changer at the high school level, especially with what kids are doing. And I think the big thing for us is just the mind shift around seeing it as, you know, how that's hurting us versus how can we use it to help us because I mean it's just it's a significant mind shift that needs to take place. But it's here and it's not going away. So we had a really good start. I think the teachers gave a lot of feedback and I think we have to keep going with this. But it was a good start for something I think that they desperately are asking for because it is I mean it's really making things more of a challenge. But I was proud to see the mind shift go from how do we you know how do we stop it versus how do we use it. So, it was a good start. >> Um, with registration now being more online, will this give kids the ability to almost know their schedule? Like, >> uh, it'll help us because we'll get information way quicker. Yes. So, instead of >> the biggest thing, and we're going to do the same thing in the middle school, which should help speed things up with so many shar so many shared staff. >> We should have by the middle of February hopefully all the data back where last year it was April. Yeah. >> By the time we got that back. So, it should give us about a month and a half a head start already. So that should help us get them their schedule before they leave. >> Yeah. Yeah. My student was just asking. >> No, it it should dramatically increase it because it'll make it it'll much quicker process. >> Anything else? >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Mr. Girtton. >> Good evening everybody. Uh just to piggyback off what Mr. Hennon said, registration, we're going to follow suit using the same system. So, our eighth graders will register through Infinite Campus along with our seventh and our sixth graders at a minimum. So, it should just speed everything up and really streamline things to have everything in the system, let it do its work, let the AI grind things out, so to speak, and then produce optimum schedules for both our buildings. So, we're we're going to follow suit with that. Um, couple things I want to talk about. Registration, I'm sorry, recognition. Let's talk about some positives. I want to thank our PTO. Uh we had a great fundraiser on Saturday night. Uh this was our annual bingo fundraiser and we had a really good turnout. Uh we ran out of room in there. Uh hard to beat Chris Baron's as a bingo caller. His entertainment alone is worth uh the money. Uh but it was really fun and just had a good time despite the cold weather. Everybody got out for that. So thank you to our PTO. Uh also our flex learning day. I think it was really successful. So, in the middle school, kids have to enter into a Google Meet and check in and meet with advisory teachers. According to Mrs. Winker's data, uh, we only had 16 students buildingwide that were marked unexcused. So, that's really impressive. Kids showed up and just kudos to the district for being able to in advance prep everybody. I think that was really helpful, too. >> Yeah. >> Uh, people knew they needed devices. They knew it was going to happen. So, um I think it was very successful in terms of um adolesccents getting up and participating. Uh a couple of other real quick check-ins uh as a staff on the last staff development day. We just had a midyear uh schoolwide goals check-in uh meeting just to kind of look at where we're at at that halfway mark. And just some real positive things to share coming from our students and our staff. Survey results are really positive. Uh 90 plus% of our kids are feeling connected to the building. uh 96 plus feel like our adults in the building want them to succeed. Uh over 90% of our kids feel safe in school. Uh but with that we're adding some action steps to try to improve those results. Uh one of the big things will be teachers uh at a classroom level giving classroom level surveys and looking at that data and analyzing that to make sure that in their environments uh things are matching up or maybe even better than they are at a building level. So, we're we're implementing those trimester 2 along with just some other systems things around supervision, those kinds of things. Um, second goal, uh, we want to see at least 80% of our kids that get that tier 2 social emotional support, which is they're meeting with a therapist, they're meeting with counselors on a routine basis. We want to see at least 80% of those students progressing. Um, and so right now 79% of those students that are working through uh those supports with care plans are making adequate progress. So kudos to our mental health team and our teachers that are involved in that. Lastly, I'm very optimistic about getting to that 85% in reading and math. And I know you're tired of hearing that, but right now uh on the math side of things, we have three cohorts of kids that looking at midyear data are in the 80 plus range. So, we're moving that direction with the math. So, it's about systems. It's about keep the goal high. The timeline might have to adjust, but um we're starting to see that come through on the math side of things so kids have the skill sets they need once they get to high school and can avoid remediation. Uh the reading side, it's taking more work and more time. Uh right now, we're just really building out tier 2 systems in the middle school this year. Um, but I'm confident that just consistency, habits, staying the course, progress monitoring, we'll get there. So, um, proud of everybody for a lot of the growth and also just the growing pains of it's going to be uncomfortable until we get better, but um, doing a great job. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? >> Thank you for the fun event on Saturday. >> Yeah, it was great to see you there, >> Miss Okonnell. Good evening. On January 15th, we had our kindergarten Royal Roundup. Um, this year we welcomed our prospective kindergarteners for another fun event. We had 21 students who attended who are brand new to our school system and don't have anyone in the system yet. And as of tonight, we already have 29 registered to attend for next year. Um last year at this day we had 21 registered so we're eight ahead of where we have been which is great and exciting. On January 19th our um classroom teachers had a three-hour professional development in our new literacy curriculum Arts and Letters from a trained rep from the company Great Minds. The teacher shared that it was really valuable and impactful. Many shared that they wish they had it at the start of the year. Although teachers from Nick's building who came out and used it as a preview were kind of lost because if you haven't had the information yet, it's really overwhelming. So it wouldn't have really worked to have had it ahead of time. Um so it was really helpful and then they spent the rest of the day doing grading because that was the end of the semester. So our grades are now available online for the first semester and we just completed our winter fast bridge for literacy and math and that data is looking good. So, we're on track to meet the goals that we set for our school improvement plan. And this week, we just started our sabers, which is our social emotional screener. And then that data will help us to get new groups going for kids who need support in that with Miss Vasquez or Miss Brandenburg. Any questions? >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Mr. Dalton. >> Good evening. Um what do we got going on? Uh winter uh spring registration is underway and and we're really happy with what we're seeing. Um registrations are at at a higher level than what we've seen in the recent past. And we've got our summer catalog. We're putting that together already. We're we're reaching out to part our partners, working on our production timeline, getting that set up. We learned a lot in the last process, so we we think we're going to be better at it this time around. Um on the 22nd we had our preschool openhouse. We had 32 families attended. We were really happy with that on an evening that there was cold cold weather and a lot of cancellations. So um we we were thrilled that we got that many people to come out. One thing we doing a little different with pres with preschool is in uh that event is in past years it was an open house and a registration event. This year we we split those things out. So, we made it just an open house much more relaxed. There there wasn't really a herd mentality to get registered for the for the program that you want and and and the p the patrons, the parents, the the staff, everybody seemed to like that. So, now registration opens up a week later. So, we'll be having that soon. Um our aquatics lessons are going well. Really registration really high there. And we have kind of developed a system where we will be able to um give district residents priority next time around. Basically, it'll be a not out of district residents will be held off a little while before they can register and there'll probably be a a small difference in fee. Out of a district, out of district residents will probably pay a little bit higher. So, um we're excited to have that um set up. Child care, we're really um pushing to get our weight list down. That's really what we're what we're working to do. We got a great building. We got great staff. We don't have enough staff. That's what So, that's what we're working to do. We're we're working really a push um to get some applicants in and get some um some more staff hired in those positions so that we can lower those those amount of people on that wait list and service the people that want that service in our community. our youth enrichment. We're we're really happy with what we're seeing with our our soccer shots and our new Skyhawks sports. All the levels that we offered are are running, which is kind of uh you know, usually when you put something out the first time, it takes a few times to get it going. They're all running and excellent excellent reviews from the patrons. So, we're really happy with those programs. Um we're undergoing a kind of a marketing review. We're looking to strengthen our outreach um outside of we've kind of worked on our catalog. Now we're going to work on things like our Facebook page, our newsletter, and look to maybe revitalize those and and get those to be an a help to our registration, a help to our information in the community. Um our community partnerships, couple of things we're doing. We're working with the uh the Commission on Aging. Uh we're doing a monthly event with them. uh a senior fraud event, coffee with the doctor, that sort of thing. Um we're also we're working with the historical society. They're in they're in our our building and we kind of let's see we we want to see them utilize that space a little bit better. So, we're we're uh we're trying to work with them and maybe archiving some of their um um displays, make some displays, maybe almost have a a little bit of a a museum type of of situation in there. Um we're going to be looking at working with with some students to help us out with that in terms of internships or National Honor Society. Also, um, one of the things and I also talked that we we work with I talked that we work with the, uh, festivals and events. Um, they had they have a, uh, winter frolic coming up. All of those partners are, they're really great community partners. One of the things we're trying to work with them on is is there a way we can get the information earlier? Get them to get their planning se um cycle out a little bit further out. If you plan event a month or a month and a half before, it's awful tough for us to help you with that. Seeing as we're we're we're planning our our summer catalog now. So we're working with them trying to help them that you know what if you can if you can plan six months ahead instead of one one or two months ahead we can help you with with better PR take your registrations help you facilitate and they're they're receptive to that but they're kind of just used to doing it their way so it's it's it's you know we we're just showing them benefits so we're working with that and our facility use we continue to to work with improving our our scheduling our communication and and the way we uh service our community. So that's what I've got. Any questions? >> No. >> All right. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Mr. Samsky. Good evening everyone. Um it's hard to believe that we're already or only two and a half weeks away from the start of section tournaments. Uh it'll start with gymnastics and wrestling very very soon and then before you know it it's going to be March and then the snows will start. So that'll be no fun. Um but it's very exciting time of the year. We're working at u you know building all that momentum towards tournament time and our teams have been pretty successful this uh so far this year. All of our athletic teams have been in the top half of the Wright County Conference this year. So, it's very exciting. Our fine arts competitions are underway and doing very, very well. BPA just had regionals on Friday and 23 of our students qualified for state in March. Spring play auditions and practices have been underway for a while. Both are AAA nominations. William Mant and Eliza Rowan did very well at the subsection um competition, if you will, a couple weeks back. I'm told that they gave the best speeches out of all the subsection participants, but unfortunately they finished second, which was very disappointing. Uh both of them did very very well. But uh on the good news side of it, we did learn today that Evan Jen was selected as one of the 34 Excel award recipients for 2026. This is out of 348 applicants across the state. Evan will participate in an encourt awards ceremony March 14th which is during the halftime of the AAA girls basketball finals. So that again is very exciting. That's two years in a row for us and I'd have to go back and take a look. Um we've had a number of Excel winners um over the years. So we'll have to compile a list of that but I know that's two in a row for us. And uh just to make you aware, the activities department will be moving to a new scheduling platform starting next fall. It will replace the current system, our school today, which was purchased by Arbiter last year. So right now, Arbiter is in the process of of transitioning and and and launching that for next year as well. Uh Wright County Conference voted in December to move to this platform as well. Some of the schools are already on it. uh we will be moving towards it um officially the fall of 26. We're in the process right now of of um all the work that happens on our end that needs to um go into the system to make that all happen. So it's going to be a busy rest of the winter and spring and an exciting fall. So >> is it a very similar type of system or is it look very different? >> It will look very different. Okay. >> It will look a lot better. Um, >> will you still be able to like select >> like your sport to upload to your calendar, like your team? >> You know, I don't want to say too much, okay? But the the schools that have used it, it's it's a lot more user friendly, >> okay? >> And they're a lot more interested in, you know, um, features like that. You know, if there's something, hey, wouldn't it be neat if it did this, >> their developers are much more receptive to that and they've done a lot more with it. So, I know that um there's going to be a lot of appbased access. So, it's going to be um I think it's going to be much better. >> Okay. >> So, >> thank you. >> Thank you, Paul, >> Mr. Schuler. >> Thank you, uh Mr. Chair and board. Um just sticking with the facilities um theme a little bit today. Um, one of the neat things that we get to do as a facilities committee is to look through our LTFM list each year and decide what is priority. And this year we've really focused more on the performing arts center. Um, it is 20 years old and we know a lot of the technology and the lighting is is starting to uh to fail. So um, we have started a lot of that of those projects. Uh, a lot of it's behind the scenes so people won't really recognize the the hard part, believe it or not, is trying to get access to that that facility. We always say, are we using it enough? But when you start breaking down the different performances, Paul mentioned that, you know, spring play is already started in there and soon will be in summer and then the summer youth theater gets in there. But finding time to get a lot of this work done, but we're working on lighting as we speak. We have a lighting um contractor in right now that um is looking at different shades of light. So you you know currently we have one shade. Uh this is the house lights. Uh we have some opportunities to do some some neat things with some LED uh pieces in there and some rebates too. I think like we're looking at hopefully 75% of the project being paid through our L uh LED rebates. So it's a really good um um fit there for that project. Also sound um is another one. um the DSP system, which is kind of the brains of your sound system, uh is all being replaced. Um the digital mixer, which is another big piece of equipment that um is really going to enhance the sound in there, as well as a new video projector um uh that is about 20 years old as well. So, um there'll be some really nice upgrades. I think our customers and students will see some nice changes. Most of this work should be done by the time school starts next year. So, um, uh, lastly, uh, the other one we're working on as, uh, the year goes on is we're going to add some more of those Halo, uh, vape sensors, uh, in the middle school. And, uh, we've learned that kids can be, uh, even more, um, tricky at times and finding other locations in the buildings. And um, that has been an area that we're going to target next. So, um, some additional capital dollars that we have can be dedicated to upgrading and continue to to get that system in other parts of the building. But again, it continues to be a really huge success in terms of u really eliminating um a lot of the vaping that's happening certainly in the bathrooms and other areas of the school. So, this is that next area or next areas that will uh help enhance that uh student experience in all the bathrooms. So cut that uh that out. Uh that is all I have for tonight. >> Any questions for Mr. Schuler? >> Thank you. >> Moving on to board member reports. Anybody have anything they wanted to talk about from the last month? >> The education foundation is doing a purse bingo February >> 22. So that's a it was very popular fundraiser last year. again. Um, so yeah, >> we had our reorg at Southwest and uh happy to say that everyone's face was very familiar. So no new faces for anyone. Um, so that was pretty exciting. We went through uh the audit and we did just fine. And then we did actually have a few presentations which actually were amazing. Uh we got to see uh the transitions program. We had reflections and we even had um someone actually from Watertown that was um he has some hearing loss and actually had a little presentation about his ear that they presented. he wasn't there. But but it was pretty amazing to uh actually kind of see uh each building's goals and actually see what the students were doing as well. Um they actually kind of lead their um their um sessions, you know, kind of tell them what they expect from uh the program. And I mean you could really um the teachers there you could really sense that they really cared and and I mean it just showed and just even the students from one of them coming in and just I think the first couple days they were in the office crying the whole time and after finishing the program they they were sad to leave. So it it was just really really good good meeting and and enjoyed those presentations just like everyone else. So it's good meeting. >> Anybody else from a uh a thank you side. I want to say thanks to those that attended the the leadership conference. Uh Katie, Joe, Erica, Darren, and especially to our presenters, Mr. Hennon and and Mrs. Ross Holtz. Mrs. Russult and especially the students. She brought four students along with her for the summer youth theater. So, they got to experience the conference, the vendors walking around um and I me and Katie Joe even caught a couple of them walking around and talk to a vendor >> with the students. So, you know, to kind of get them excited and to see the stuff that we do at the schoolboard level. So, thank you guys uh for attending. overall attendance uh I would say was probably down but still over 60% of all schoolboard members across the entire state attend you know that's the whole state down south up north um a lot of boards actually make it a a annual event where they all go to manise or something I don't know who pays for that but um no and and >> there you go exactly exactly um and then one of the things that we do is have a director district meeting. So, I'm district 13. It's about 10 districts. I we had over 25 board members and superintendents in that meeting, which in my 8 years at that conference, I don't think there's ever been more than about seven or eight at that. So, for some reason, everybody decided to to come and talk. So, that was a really good thing. Uh there were five elections, so we have three new board members on the MSBA board. Um, also too, I wanted to mention, uh, Miss Huin was kind enough to print you out a sheet. These are your trainings that you've taken through MSBA. Um, the reason I I kind of wanted her to do that for me was, you know, if you haven't taken the one through four, if you haven't, you know, if you're interested in officer trainings, all there's a lot of things that are out there from the from the association side and I take it as we want to be an example, right? So, if we want lifelong learners, if we want our students to get something and and to to keep up with that learning and doing the best that they can, that's something that I think as a board we should strive as well. So, I I haven't looked at anybody's. I'm not, you know, anything like that, but I do highly recommend taking those. It just helps being a better board member, better at the table. And if you're interested in in taking, you know, the chair position at some point, you know, or or clerk or treasurer, you know, take those officers roles, it does nothing but help and and to get a better well-rounded knowledge base of of sitting here at this table. Um, also too, they're actually coming out with online learning. So, it's going to be like an LMS system that they're going to use for for training on demand. So, more to come on that. Um, I guess one of the things I sat in on that was really interesting was um a school district that is working with their local airfield and um yeah, just to start training some of those uh potential aviation students so they have the um um they purchased the flight simulators and stuff like that. So the students can actually start to learn um how to fly which was really really interesting. So >> and I would say one that I went to a few finance ones probably bore a lot of people here but uh >> the SMS >> mine also included the CDL or so getting your commercial driver's license too. though working with the trucking >> whether the sky or the road. >> Um, no it wasn't Ashby. >> Ash's got that too. >> Yeah, it was Little Falls. >> Oh, >> yeah. So, anyway, sorry. Go ahead. >> No, no. The one that I did actually think could be beneficial and I know Hunter, you know, and some of us have talked about this was uh the student uh school board person. They I actually went to one of the meetings for that and seems like quite a few actually of our neighboring districts have those and pretty much they're the student voice because we don't always get to hear from them. So I thought that was uh pretty pretty interested interesting in how involved they are in the meetings. Obviously, they're not voting, but um you know, it could be uh something that maybe we could do and bring more information. Maybe we could even have some of our district uh neighbors kind of come over and let us know, you know, how it all started. But they did uh the presentation actually had the students actually talking to us about why they did it, how they did it, and the involvement and that could be one of our communicator, you know, kind of goes with the >> our profile. So, I thought it was a good one. >> Lots of good ones. Couldn't attend all of them, of course. I think one takeaway I had was in in the regional meeting with some of the folks that the school districts are in our region. It's mostly that south of the metro group, but all to a point we're talking about outgoing senior classes, incoming kindergarten classes. There's a lot of discussion about what we're seeing is very similar in a lot of districts and I think was it new Prague >> was the one who and I don't remember the numbers in in front of me but uh just a significant drop from outgoing seniors to incoming kindergarteners. >> Um but again it's a theme in just about every district >> except for Wisetta. >> Yeah, >> they're growing. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? Scott. >> All right. Well, with that, is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> I make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Danielson, seconded by Mr. Burns. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned. 7:18 p.m.