I'm going to call the May 12th, 2020 sixth regular business meeting to order at 6:30. Today we have quite a bit on the agenda, but first I'm going to read the land acknowledgement. We are gathered on the land of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Dakota and Ojibwe community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. St. Louis Park Schools also acknowledges that it was founded upon exclusions and erasures of many indigenous people, including those on whose land this school district is located. This acknowledgement demonstrates a commitment to dismantling the ongoing legacies of colonial power and the district's desire to support the ongoing work of local indigenous committees or excuse me, communities to thrive in our schools. Um so at regular school board meetings we have public comment but it doesn't look like we have anybody signed up for public comment today so we'll move on to the approval of the agenda. Why are you pointing at that? What's going on? Um it is recommended that the school board approve the agenda for May 12th, 2026 as presented. Do I have a motion? Thank you Taylor. Second? Thank you Patrick. All in favor say I. Um all opposed say no. Passes 7-0. Oh, I see I went out of order. Thank you. All right, we're going to start with the superintendent's report and it's cheers to the class of 2026 retirees. Woo! >> Good evening everyone. So um today we are going to celebrate the retirees of the class of 2026 and so we have a dedication video that we will run. >> See. Mhm. Mhm. >> So again, we just want to thank our class for their longevity, dedication, and lasting impact. >> Congratulations on your retirement. I hope that you have great, wonderful plans of sitting and you know, doing what you love to do. >> Grandbabies. >> Grandbabies and things like that. So we're moving on to discussion items. Our first discussion item, actually our only discussion item, is online safety and digital learning. Um Tom Marble, our executive director of information services, Megan, here we go. Fershiga, um director of innovation and learning, and Angela Branson, director of digital learning, will be presenting. And Dr. Cooper. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you, Board Chairman Mancini, Superintendent Dr. Hines, and Board. As we get ready get ready to present here on technology, we want to acknowledge that once again we do have a responsibility on making sure that we provide safe tools for our students to use, but also equitable access for our students. So, in this presentation you will see how we will have safety guardrails guardrails in place. Along with that, also how it goes into the classroom and our learning platforms that we have. So, I'll pass it over. >> Thank you, Dr. Cooper. Um uh Chairman Mancini, uh Superintendent Hines, uh Board members, it's it's been a while since I've actually been up here speaking to you. I'm I'm running around the back here all the time, but um I'm going to talk a little bit about the uh technical things, so don't fall asleep on me. I'll try to get through this quickly. If I've droned on, Angela will kick me and get me going, but um so, we've had some discussion recently within us uh in some public comment here about wondering about what we're doing to keep people safe and how we're selecting certain things to use. So, we're going to go through some of that tonight. I'm going to take some of that, and obviously uh Megan and and Angela will, too. I'm just going to start from the technical standpoint about what we do to try to keep our uh systems safe and our and when our uh students and our staff are online in our district um uh doing their work, doing their studies, all of those things. So, um I'm going to start at the kind of a layered approach. So, the upper layer um we've actually partnered with an outside firm um it and they're called what's known as a security operations center. And what they do is they're actively scanning our networks internally and externally all the time and constantly. And they're looking for vulnerabilities, they're looking for abnormalities, anything along that line. If they find it, they communicate with us immediately and it's based upon the severity of what they find. Um and then uh we partner with them to mitigate this the uh vulnerability. Um and this is 24/7, so they have my phone number, they have several other phone numbers across the street over here. Uh um and uh you know, hopefully we don't hear them in the middle of the night, but uh if we do, we know we've got they've got our back and we we have that partnership. Um one of the other things that's been real prevalent recently is when uh some of our uh users' logins get compromised, um you'll start to see them trying to be logged into from all over the planet. So, our security operations center is also monitoring that. If they see something coming from slpschools.org trying to log in from Belarus, we get a phone call. And then we're in uh identifying who that account is, changing the information so that they can't get uh logged in. So, that's a high level and that's a partnership that um you know, trying to replicate what they do internally would be really tough and really expensive. Um then there's kind of the network level. So, we have our firewall and our firewall plays multiple roles, but the the main thing that people think of is filtering and filtering content. Um we filter content on um uh different categories that are set forth in the Children's Internet Protection Act. And in order for us to get uh certain federal funding for some of the for some of our infrastructure, we have to have those things in place. Um when people think about content filtering, they obviously they're thinking about bad images and things that we don't want students to be accidentally stumbling upon or but really what it also does and and mostly what it does is it protects us from malicious websites. Um and if you look at our logs on any given day we're we're repelling millions of hits um that we keep out of our system through that level of um network filtering. There's also device filtering. So every device that every one of our users has has agents on it that are monitoring um what's on that device, um antivirus protection, all of those things. If something is detected, then that device is quarantined and we are able to mitigate that and keep it from spreading throughout our environment. Um our Google environment is probably the most used environment in our district and the Google environment has many many different settings as as Angela can attest to as well. Um but we think about email is probably one of the most used pieces and one of the one of the biggest things that we deal with today is fishing and spam. And so there's all kinds of things within Google that we employ to try to keep fishing to a minimum. All of these things are not 100%, okay? Um it filtering and all of this stuff is a moving target. And you know, if we talk about artificial intelligence AI, this is one of those areas that we really believe is going to help us in the long run in helping with uh um identifying these things that are constantly coming at us and trying to it infiltrate our systems. So, uh we just hope and see that these things are going to get better and more accurate over time. They do have false positives or blocking things that they shouldn't, and then they also let things through. Because again, this is it can be a gigantic whack-a-mole game of uh one day this site is is being let through, the next site we block it, the next thing it's moved on to something else. And uh believe me, our students know about these things. Um Um so let's uh let's take a turn now away from kind of that, and we're going to talk about applications and online resources. And um kind of process by which we choose things that we approve. So, I don't know if Angela wants to step in at this point and talk a little bit about it. >> Right. And prior to 2020, really, we only had a couple of systems that were system-wide because a lot of our devices had come in by curriculum or there were carts, there were we had sets of Chromebooks, sets of iPads, kind of depending on what uh the needs were across the sites. So, there was not a one a model that we didn't have a one-to-one program. So, we had Schoology for quite some time since 2013. We were one of the first uh districts around to to adopt that. So, that was kind of one of our main platforms that we've done professional development around and building um infrastructure through. And over time then of course once 2020 happened and we one went one-to-one very quickly, and as Director Rainsity you talked about um like all the tools that came in for teachers, there was lots of free stuff. Um so, post-2020, we had folks using all kinds of things, and then began to rein that back in as we were kind of settling into what one-to-one looks like for for SLP. Uh Chromebooks 3-12 and iPads K-2. And once we kind of paired back and started to look at what is our instructional goal, what are our priorities, what do we really need uh for our learning environment. So, we have really uh stuck pretty cleanly to tools that are both for creators. Like, we want tools that kids are going to be able to do really cool stuff with to show their learning and demonstrate their learning. And we want that learning management system, kind of that hub, which is Schoology and Seesaw, to kind of bounce from and to kind of be that that starting place for resources and just building that uh classroom digital um resource community. So, those are pieces that kind of now as we've come into like 2022, 2023, and we really started to get kind of an idea of what this looks like, we at that time started to create uh a vision for what the alignment could look like with our strategic priorities. And that included starting um a team together that looked at kind of the overall needs of our learning environment. And that was teachers and building administrators and district leadership. And at that time, we created um really looked at a vision and then what type of system would make sense to um allow folks to to be innovators and to ask for different things. So, that kind of started that that approval process, which kind of starts with teachers that might innovate or we look together around at districts and what are what folks are doing around us, and we would bring that to then our instructional learning team, and then we talk about it as a system. So, Yeah, more about that. >> the the next piece of this is the next piece about this was, you know, how what are what are the criteria that we use to choose different things? Well, this is the the uh um uh uh word salad up here or the acronym salad up here. So, I actually had to write down so I could tell you what these things mean. Um So, what we look at first is compliance of these um uh systems that we're going to use, especially if it's going to be using personally identifiable information about our students in there. Um so it the Children's Internet Protection Act, that's CIPA. Uh FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. And uh HIPAA, of course, deals with uh health information. And if we're sharing health information with other entities outside of us. Um the other piece of this was the most recent um uh I think it was 2022 when Minnesota passed a Student Data Privacy Act. So when we're choosing anything that has student information in it that's being moved into their system, they have to have privacy statements, and they have to have practices that are compliant. Uh they're not reselling data. They have statements about that that we have agreements with them that they're not reselling the data that we're putting in there about our students. So um we do have a new tool, and that's up here on the screen, too. So if you go to uh www.slpschools.org/families, you'll see this link. And that will bring you to a list of all of our approved apps. And each app has a description about what it is, and they also have a link to that company's privacy statement. So I I would uh encourage anybody who's interested go out and and uh you know, dabble and spend some time learning about our stuff that way. >> Okay, I have a quick question. So >> Yep, go ahead. >> in addition, like that really has uh driven a lot of what we have adopted, um ensuring that we have a few really great tools rather than a whole bunch of tools that don't have the privacy protections in place and licensing. So we've been very thoughtful about bringing in tools like WeVideo. Um you see a few examples there. Um uh Adobe Express, uh things that Sorry. Things that um definitely keep kids in that safe environment. So we've asked staff to stick to those tools. >> Right. And there's also a process the the question always is, okay, so what are we are we only allowing teachers to use those approved apps or are they using other things? Well, we don't actively restrict our teachers from going out and and uh exploring other tools, right? We can do We can put things under evaluation and before we adopt them. Um and if we do, those would show up in that list as well as under evaluation uh and not as adopted. Um but it's also a training with our staff about you should not be going out um uh using students' information in systems that we haven't adopted. So, um you know, with it it's again an awareness and a training that we have to continue with our uh staff and and we'll be touching on that a little bit as we move along throughout the presentation. So, I wanted to share some information here about the one of these new tools that we just put into place and I I decided to show some of these screenshots because screen time seems to be a real uh concern and uh a topic out there, right? So, this is a new tool we put into place and they have just generated this report for us. So, this is a work in progress, okay? What you're seeing in front of you is a report from the last 60 days and this is an overall average use at each one of our schools and we can we can go down to the grade level at each school. Right now, we cannot go down to the classroom, so that's part of what we're working with with them is to develop reports where we can roster uh individual students into a classroom and you can see from classroom to classroom the the amount of usage because again, this is an average and yes, I'm sure some teachers are using it more than others because of their comfortability you know, how comfortable they are with with using technology versus others. And so again, we can talk about consistency of use as as we talk about the future plans that we have for helping our teachers be comfortable with this and using this in in um the most effective way possible. So, these are just again, take this a little these numbers with a little bit of a grain of salt cuz it's kind of the first stab at this. Um this is the middle school for the last 60 days overall average. And this is the high school for the last 60 days overall average. Um So, Angela um alluded to our digital vision. So, back in the spring of 2024, we gathered about 60 people from the district of all MLL teachers, special education teachers, classroom teachers from every level, administrators. We got together and read tried to identify every last piece of software that is being used in the classroom. We organized this into a spreadsheet. We we said, "Okay, what's the reasoning for using this? We the costs of all this, where is it being bought purchased out of?" That was a huge thing for us cuz things were being bought bought out of this piece of pot of money, that pot of money, and trying to get this all into one place and organize so we know exactly what we're paying for, what's being used out there, is it compliant, all of those pieces. And as part of that, we developed this vision for digital learning as well. Um and that with So, then last year in 2025 spring of 2025, we we brought a smaller subset of those people together and we reviewed those applications again. Um so, this is the vision. Um this speaks to all of the things that uh end up really in Ascend now, and it talks about equity, um and it talks about uh uh having our our students be creative and uh and critical thinkers and all of that. Um so, I'm going to pass it off now to Megan. >> Bless you. Okay, Chairman Seenie, Superintendent Dr. Hines, and board, thanks for having me here tonight. This is my first time speaking at a school board meeting here in St. Louis Park, just having joined on July 1st of this year. So, I'm going to shift us into visioning forward and our plans as we move into the 2026-27 school year. And some of the changes that we've made, standing on the shoulders of the great work that came before, as Tom mentioned, that vision coming out of 2024, is reorganizing our media specialists within the schools to be through a district-wide coordination. So, they will now be um learning and innovation technology specialists that will serve to support our learning and innovation department. We are looking to that team to work collaboratively across the system, where we will be designing um curriculum across a vertical alignment that has to do with digital citizenship, so that we can be critical consumers of information. That's a major important part of learning. Um that online safety component as well. In addition to that, we really want to be thinking through a learning and technology framework that encapsulates all of the um elements of portrait of a learner. So, in addition to uh digital citizenship, we also want kids to access and analyze information, to be critical consumers of information. We want kids to collaborate and be curious about connecting with one another um as connectors in our portrait of a learner. We want kids to be nimble. We want them to be able to know where to go when they're researching. And we want kids most importantly in a in addition to the safety, to be able to create and innovate and publish their thinking in multiple ways and have some agency around that. So as we bring the team together, we're going to be anchoring on our Minnesota standards. So this is one example of one standard that comes out of the ELA standards for the state of Minnesota. It's from strand three, so that acronym stands for listening, speaking, viewing, and exchanging ideas. And the purpose for including this in the presentation is in a moment Angela's going to show you an example of how we are getting at and building from the standards. What I want to highlight here is anchor standards, regardless of the content area, are the same kindergarten through 12th grade. So we see the same anchor standard and what changes are the benchmarks, which are a learning progression. So we're looking at both, both are important in how we're integrating those standards in the decision-making that we are putting in place around um digital technology and how we're providing professional learning opportunities for teachers so that we are creating those equitable learning environments for kids. So Angela's going to speak to an example that we have here. >> Right, so as we've always have been thinking about ways to impact our learning environment, we've always known that it's not about digital learning instruction or digital instruction, that instruction good instruction is good instruction. And we've not wanted to ever isolate just the use of technology on its own. And when we have done that or needed to do that for learning various tools, sometimes it's very difficult to wrap it into exactly how this can really enhance our learning environment. So, as we think about moving forward and what it really takes to kind of create some ideas and some some visuals for what this learning can look like as we put kids into the driving seat of of being creators and really having agency and being able to demonstrate and lots of creative ways. Um one thing that we've kind of done lately is created this inspiration menu and this is just a highlight of a snapshot of third grade, but it was really quite quite easy to take our portrait of a learner, look at all the tools that we have available to us, look at the ISTE standards, which is the International Society for Technology and Education. It's kind of the gold standard for learning experiences and driving um educational technology use. Along with our standards, we have everything we need to do a great job of really bringing out um awesome learning experiences for kids and giving them context for what they're what they're learning. So, this is just an example of one grade band of that and I hope that this can help us to get some um just some mindset uh shifts around what this learning can look like, that it's really engaging, that it's thoughtful, that it really provides a lot of ways for kids to to uh work through their learning with lots of ways. Okay. >> So, so next steps in this as you've heard about pitting, once again, technology and learning. They cannot stay separated, but we got to blend this together in what we're doing. So, as we evolve in this, the next steps in this, as you saw the filtering system that outlined how many hours were spent on screen time, uh Light Path, which will our administrators will have a chance to take a look at it, too, as it continues to evolve. Also, the next steps is forming a committee, A committee that involves parents, students, and staff, and administrators on working together on how the technology is evolving in our district, and working together on that. And also inviting that group onto learning walks as well, to be able to see it first hand on what is taking place in the classrooms. So, those are our next steps as we continue to evolve in our work. Questions? >> Yeah, I mean we've been as we've been working working through it even that many of inspiration. Uh we included early learning, we included P plus because there is all of those elements. And as we look about an ecosystem, we know that adult learning is probably like right alongside of being curious with kids that our adult learners also need that inspiration to think about how they're using things. So, I would say that definitely we are looking to to not miss any area of our district when it comes to really positive use of technology. >> Is that my turn for a >> Mhm. >> I think that's great and I think looking at our early learners and every but I do think sort of outside of the classroom experiences, too. My kids are in Kids Place, right? And so I see them using technology there, and I just kind of love it. But I think as we think about the totality of what screen time exposure and what you call all these things, we would think this is >> Yes. I would briefly say I appreciate the fact that you're talking about critical digital learning. I think it was I think it was exactly. But something that Like I mean critical media consumption, all sorts of things. It's just really important for people to learn that. And then that made me think You know, I do work at Henrico County and one of the areas that I supported a little bit in terms of communications was broadband digital inclusion in the department there. And some of the same things that we're talking here are the same things that like are helpful for people to be thinking about for again, adults and other people too just in terms of you know, thinking They had a campaign called like "Think Twice Before You Click Once." You know, some things like that. Just, you know, being careful what you do with yourself. Just appreciation that we're teaching our students how to do this work and just think about it. So, thank you. >> Um I think one thing that I noticed that maybe you could consider thinking about it if we're going to go out into the community and talk a little bit more about how technology's being integrated into our um system, but teachers use technology that students don't have any time with. And I think that's an important aspect of your jobs as you support teachers because teacher burnout is real. Um and what I have noticed significantly in my life over the last 2 years that it's gotten easier because there are certain things that technology has helped with. And so, while when we talk about technology, I I that it's much broader than just what is what might be in front of kids. It's also what teachers are using to be more effective and innovative in their own classrooms. Um and uh it has um I'm not ever going to say that it's made my job easier, but it has made my job um more efficient. It has guided so like what is really important about my job is giving feedback to kids in a timely manner so that they can learn and become those um student agents of their own learning. So um I think that that's an important thing to remember. And just the the last thing that I think is also important for um also cuz a lot of the digital literacy run like falls onto the English language arts teacher. So we have three different strands of digital literacy in our anchor standards, but the anchor standards are also in other areas. And so like when we're looking at media specialists, they have anchor standards that have to do with um different technologies and things like that. So um we do want to stay cutting edge and we want to stay innovative and we want to make sure our kids are prepared for the future. And I recognize too that balance. And I think that um what I'm experiencing as a teacher just within the profession is that having the conversations with communities is really important. And I don't think that we've done a good job. And I'm saying we as teachers, not you as like um leaders of technology in this particular district, but um I think that educators can do a better job of explaining how technology is impacting the classroom and what the hopes and dreams are of us and why we're using that application. So I thank you for having um that discussion and starting that good advisory because I think there is it does need to be more clearly communicated. Awesome. Oh, and I guess we do have one question. >> Oh, thank you. It was really helpful for me to see the daily screen time hours. I think a lot of us Well, I will speak for myself kind of exact exaggerated the time I thought that we're spending on lying in classroom. So, this was helpful. Um, but how was this captured? Is this like the the computer was open, so it was active or was it just was somebody actually recording this how much time he spent on here in the classroom? >> No, this is a there's an agent on the computer on the device that will report back. And so, this is about activity on that um on that device. Now, it's not telling us was that um directed effective use by the teacher or was this passive consumption? That's, you know, I think that's the challenge for districts right now about how do you collect that data. You know, screen time is this general term, right? And so, I think one of you asked the question in advance about what if the teacher is up front on their smart board? Do we count that as screen time? I guess you could, right? But if take the smart board away, if they just had a white board and we're writing on the white board, are they doing the same things, right? But um you know, we can get into the whole thing about you know, the smart board is supposed to be more dynamic and give students opportunities to to interact with with things and with the class and and with the teacher and all that as well. Um but right now it's just what we were showing you is just activity on a device, right? And that's during school hours what we were showing you. We're not showing you for those students who take it home. Uh we can show that as well after 4:00 p.m. I think we have it set up and and uh um you know, that that bar is is much shorter for those devices than what has happened. So, maybe about 4/10 of an hour or something like that on average at home, right? And the other point that I don't know if I made when I was talking about filtering is that at the device level, those things that the agents on them when they take them home they when they take our devices home, they're filtered. It because of that agent on on that on that device, so. Um but yeah, it's this is evolving about how I my statewide group I was just on not too long ago and this is a huge topic with everybody as you can imagine because parents are concerned about screen time, right? And so, how can we report this? How what data do we need to capture to report this and show that yes, your student was on this an hour and a half today and 3/4 of an hour of that was directed use and the other half hour or whatever was uh passive consumption, right? So, our goal with what we're doing with the reorganization and the and the lit team and the learning and innovation technology team Yeah, it's to uh It's the lit team. Um you know, we're going to be using all of those people to help us develop and and also that is going to help us with the consistency of delivery across our classrooms, across grade levels, all of those things, so. >> Uh briefly, I I appreciate that you're forming a committee and I think it's so important that we have a diverse group of students on the committee, too, because students are such good reporters of what's going on. They can tell each other they can tell you exactly what websites they're on and I feel like using their voice to direct our policy would be really helpful. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming in. This is great. Thank you. Look forward to hearing more exciting things from Liz. All right. Um so, moving on to the uh consent agenda. It is recommended that the school board approves the consent agenda with the following items for the May 12th, 2026 school board meeting as presented. Is there a motion? >> I move it. >> Thank you, Colin. Second? >> I'll second. >> Um all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. Motion carries, 7-0. Uh There was a lot of action in the consent agenda. So, now we're to some of our action items. So, action item um resolution and bid approval for the renovation of the SLP Lynx Community Center. Um it is recommended that the school board of Independent School District number 283 um approve the base bids totaling $1,115,996 $1,000 or $100. I got that. Plus the conditions and general um conditions of $418,245 for the total contract amount of $1,534,241 along with the resolution as presented. And um I think Jim is going to be presenting. First, we got to get a motion. >> I move it. >> Thank you, Colin. Second? Thank you, Celia. All right, Jim. >> Uh thank you, um members of the board, Superintendent Hines. Yes, we were fortunate enough that uh this bid came in within uh about 1% of our actual total. So, our our our budget was $1.5 million dollars. We had to do some engine you have value engineering on the backside to get it down. Initially it came in about $300,000 over, but we value engineered a couple of things around and got it down to 1 million 500,000 roughly. Um just to knowledge that this is part of the '22 bond referendum and one of the final projects with the '22 bond referendum that we have left. >> And we really appreciate the folks at Lennox for their patience and working with >> Yes. Um yes, cuz original budget was 1 million dollars. We added 500,000 from the savings from the high school so we could get the secure entrance at Lennox. So it is consistent with all our other buildings at this time. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> And and I it sounded like you were saying that secure entrance because we have we have students and every every obviously you said the community center >> Correct. >> and seniors to be there and have community ed classrooms and stuff which are all important for security. But we also have students who are >> Very uh yes, and that was one of the bigger challenges with this site is we wanted to make sure it's welcoming. So we moved their front office to where it was currently to right as you walk in the door where there'll be a brand new um doorway sitting there and you'll enter in and automatically go to the left where their conference room used to be. So we did some juggling to make sure that this was as welcoming as possible for the community as a whole. We've met with them on numerous occasions already. And the intent is not to shut down entrance number one at all through this construction project. Um as well as we uh we'll have uh bond referendum voting going on. So we will make sure that that is also a site that we can use at that time as well. >> Can I make a point? I didn't check on this with We're kind of challenged with the parking lot with having the size of the building and the number of occupants in there and um one of the bigger challenges is they wanted to see a ramp from the lower parking lot to the upper parking lot. We would lose too many spaces and the city would have a challenge with that. So, um what we've done is we are going to be kind of persuading them with by putting a rail um down the center of the median there to make sure that they don't try to cut through the rock and the the block and pushing them down around the side to where the sidewalk goes straight across and then up the other side. >> Any other questions? Awesome. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> All those opposed say no. Motion carries 7-0. Next is the budget assumptions. So, 20 20 2027 budget assumption and 2026 mid-year budget approval. It is recommended that the school board approve the fiscal year 2027 budget assumption and fiscal year 2026 mid-year budget approval as presented. Do I have a motion? Patrick seconds. >> Second. >> And Suzy and >> Yes, thank you. Good evening, Chair Mancini. I'm Superintendent Hines, members of the board. Nothing has changed since we talked about this at the end of April, but I want to run through to just reiterate a few items. This is just for the general fund. Um and tonight we're going to do a couple of things. I'm going to put do the whole presentation for the next two um motions. One's for the fiscal 27 budget assumptions and one is for the mid-year budget, if you don't mind. I'll just keep going. Um >> So, actually all in one >> They are in one motion. Yay, good. So, here we are down to the approval portion of the budget and you can see in detail um we're doing the mid-year update tonight and then um at the next two board meetings in June, we'll be looking at the fiscal year '27 budget. So, um the good news for the general fund is that we are increasing our projected ending fund balance. We are still in a slight deficit, so our expenditures in this budget slightly exceed revenues. But, it is about $400,000 better than it was in the original budget that was adopted and we will do everything we can to um end this year in a balanced budget, but this is where the um in a balanced actual, I guess. This is where our budget is at right now. Again, nothing has changed. Our revenues are going up by um our projections are going up by about $768,000. The majority of that is in the state aid category because of increases in students and in the special education category. We did um take a reduction in the property tax budget to reflect um what happened last year with uncollectible taxes and um so, we just want to make sure that we're not surprised by that in this year's um audit. Our mid-year expenditures are going up just slightly um less than a half a percent, $293,000. The main category is um in purchased services for substitute teachers and transportation. We increased the budgets just a little bit and then in the supplies and materials budget um building fuel and um software costs. Um this better reflects the costs associated um with those budgets and getting categories in the right places. Um, so that's the slight increase in expenditures. I'm going to walk just a little bit through this. It's a lot of numbers. Um, but this general fund balance um, depiction eliminates our board assigned for severance. And I just want to make sure we're really clear about that. Um, if you look at that first column of numbers, last year we ended with a $6,097,000 unassigned fund balance, which means that's the general fund um, that can be used for anything. That was a 10.35% fund balance um, according to the state, the way the state calculates it. And the way that's calculated is the state also includes any board assigned funds. So, we had a $1,076,000 set aside for future severance payments for contracts who still have severance in them. All of those have been eliminated for folks who have new contracts for the last 20 years or so. Um, so that's the way the state looked at it. So, in that calculation we were combining both of those items. And then we had this separate calculation internally. The finance advisory committee made a recommendation that we combine those two fund balance, eliminate this board set aside, and have the fund balance that we use internally reflect um, what is reflected at the state level. The restricted funds um, are there's about 20 categories of restricted funds in that um, 1 million or 3 million $600,000 um, for restricted. That includes things for capital like operating capital, long-term facility maintenance, the technology levy, and then all kinds of little things like a little bit that that must be set aside for media specialists. Um student activity accounts have to be set aside. You know, some of them are as small as $50,000. We have to keep record of those individually. They are required to be restricted by state funding purposes. So, can't be used for general operations. So, that's something I wanted to point out for the board. So, we are increasing um our year-end fund balance from what would have been 9.38% in the original budget. And we are projecting now a 9.81%. Um year-end um fund balance percentage using the new calculation. So, our our fund balance in the general fund is projected to go up over midyear or at midyear um by $474,000. It's a lot of moving parts. Um but the the main bottom line is I want to be clear that we've moved a million dollars from a board assigned balance into the unrestricted balance cuz that's how the state sees it. So, we wanted to reflect that um um equally. But, all of these percentages are apples-to-apples comparisons. So, our request here then is to have the board approve the budget for revenues and expenditures. And then as far as assumptions go, we These are all of the recommendations from finance advisory committee. We're recommending those um as you see them here, and we will move forward with a budget for fiscal 27 if the board approves these budgets that reflect those assumptions. Our next steps then, once um we get our approval from the board, we continue to build the budget. We'll have a preview for you for fiscal 27th on June 9th. And the board will approve the final budget on June 23rd. Keeping in mind, we've been keeping the board updated all along um all year long, so we do meet many more times with the board than these two times to talk about the budget. Um but these this is the formal action step. >> Okay. >> Uh are there certain questions? Say that? >> Uh so first of all I I just wanted to explain briefly that our budget uh we have our budget balance at Doing it the way we did always required additional dialogue to understand what what we were doing. Um and it will also it also makes the the questions I have somewhat confusing. >> Mhm. >> Um so I'm glad we won't have to do that looking forward. Um try to compare the what we're looking at for our assumptions going to next year with the FTE definition if we were just to compare them. >> Yes. >> So with our board goals of 8% starting with the last year >> Mhm. >> without that FTE calculation Um and then with another path but like another bucket for the severance payments it comes to about 10%. >> Mhm. >> Um so the fund balance with the assumptions that you're going to next year is 8%. So does that mean the budget will be created somewhat dipping into the current fund balance of about 10%? >> So the budget will be created with both of those things in mind. Unfortunately, at the time or coincidentally, I guess, um at the time the the finance advisory committee's goal was to not dip into fund balance. So we're going to or to not move fund balance down either by percentage or by um revenues versus expenditures. What I did here was just moved forward the finance advisory committee's assumptions. I think come fall, we're going to want to change that number to eight to 10% or something different. What I didn't want to do was intervene artificially here. Certainly the board can do that, but the two goals combine, I think keep us from uh from eroding fund balance. >> Okay, so yeah, just uh I just want to make it a firm number or not. Like that's not the intention. >> Exactly. >> Okay, perfect. >> Mhm. >> That's just Sorry, Sarah. Just a really specific question on on the severance. I I totally understand >> Mhm. >> why we're making this change, but that number that you were having there like the $76,000, is that an exact calculation of what >> No, our severance um liability is larger than that over the next several years as folks retire. For instance, there's $800,000 of severance built into this year's budget. So, we have several teachers in Summit and a few a handful of administrators who who are retiring under contracts that still have severance. So, it wasn't enough to cover our ongoing liability and we've been building that into the budget over the years for several years and not really dipping into that severance set aside. Um it was set aside before I arrived, so I wasn't ever really sure what the intent was behind it cuz it was never sufficient. Um >> It's such a specific number. >> Mhm. Mhm. >> You know, to that end I just think that it's worth considering as we look at what the severance we look at that recommendation or assumption presenting a balanced budget. You know, when you're talking about almost a million dollars for severance, that's not money that is necessarily going to serve the students. That works if it's passed or something here, and it's there, and it's contracted, and you know, honor our obligations, but I just think it's important to us to Mhm. strive to have a balanced budget Mhm. It was a wise, um, previous board and administrators that, um, wrote those out of contracts over time, so we're paying folks, um, so we don't have this deferred item, and we're paying folks in other ways with ongoing benefits. So, that will will benefit from that, um, decision from many years ago, eventually. >> Other questions? Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor of the FY 2027 budget function and FY 2026 media budget, who will say aye? >> Aye. >> All those who say no. Motion carries. And Sarah, um, and now we are to see employment contract for executive director of business services. Um it is recommended that the school board approve the employment contract for the executive director of business services as presented to the board. Thank you, Taylor. I'll second, um, and Okay. >> Good evening, Chairman Zini, members of the board, Superintendent Hines. Um, bringing to you this evening the executive director of business services contract. Um, the district, we posted the position, we went through the selection process, and, um, through the interview process, we did determine that Josiah Nebo was selected for our next, uh, business service our director of business services. We're are excited to welcome uh, Josiah into this position effective July 1, 2026. Josiah is currently serving as our director of business services and has been with the district for almost about 2 years now. >> That's great news. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. >> Wonderful. >> And he had a great mentor. >> Who will be missed dearly. >> Um does anybody have any questions? Colin? >> Uh brief comment that we're unfortunately seeing around us how important it is to have a good director of business services. And I know from serving on the board for a number of years and looking at budgets that it's not an easy job. And and and I think as we talked about too, it's also not a job that the pay that we can provide as a school district it's enticing and it's maybe some of the people who do this work could get paid in the private sector as well. But um just appreciate the people who are driven by our mission, driven by our work. And the district it's very important. I look forward to working with him in the second half. >> Listen. So, all those in favor of the employment contract for executive director of business services, say I. I. All of those that say no. None. Motion carries 7-0. Awesome. Um and now we are on AE employment agreements fourth year of probation. It is recommended that the school board approve the employment agreements as presented. Do I have a motion? Thank you, Sarah. Second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Patrick. >> All right. So, I know a number of you had some questions around this. Um what happens here in the state of Minnesota is when an individual a licensed individual is employed they have three consecutive years of probation. Upon the third year um when they return on the fourth year they then become a tenured staff member, which uh gives them certain job securities. It doesn't mean they have a job for life, but they have certain protections under Minnesota law. Um in when a when a teacher leaves a district upon being tenured, um and they move to a new school district, they then have 1 year of probation. Um 1 year of probation sometimes is not enough given the fact that they only have to be in front of students for 90 instructional days. Um 90 instructional days sometimes does not give the principal enough time to properly evaluate and assess all the different aspects of their instruction that are needed. Um so in some cases, individuals will come to us, they'll be tenured, we will want to make sure that they are a good fit for St. Louis Park and our students and our community. And if the principal sometimes evaluates the person and sees um some areas of opportunity that they feel are manageable, coachable, workable with that employee, we will provide feedback, monitor the situation. In a situation where the person might not be making as much progress as we would like, but they are making meaningful progress, this option is used for an individual to extend that additional year of probation to let them know, "Hey, we need you to continue to work on these areas that we see as opportunities for you." But then it also provides a commitment to um the employee as well on behalf of the district to say, "We are still interested in playing you." Um how the statute works is that we offer this additional year in lieu of probation or in lieu of non-renewal, excuse me. So, it is an opportunity for both the district and the employee to um just kind of continue to test things out and make sure that everything is the right fit. >> And this is pretty standard. >> Yes. >> I mean, it's like it's a it is something that I'm well familiar with, and it's something that many districts do. It's not um but you want to save us practice. Does anybody have any questions? Excellent. So, all those who I lost my place. Um all those in favor of the employment agreement for fourth year of probation, say I. I. All those say no. Motion carries 7-0. And now we're going to move on to 7E and the motion to forego the reading of individual names of probationary non-renewal staff. It is recommended that the school board forego the reading of the individual names of probationary non-renewal employees. Roll call is required. First, I need a motion. >> I'll move. >> Thank you, Colin. I'll second it. Director Director Owen? >> So, basically what we do here is we just go we forego reading the names for the sake that this is a public meeting as broadcasted, it's on the internet, and there's a variety of different reasons why we might non-renew someone. It could have nothing to do with the person themselves. It could strictly have to do with budgetary or maybe a teacher's coming back from a leave of absence. So, we just want to make sure that it's clear that, you know, the names are not read and it gives that person the opportunity to remain confidential. >> Director Owen? I'll call for the person. >> Yes. >> Okay. Anderson? Balboa? >> I. >> Director Cross? >> I. >> Director Davis? Director Kaufman? >> I. >> I. All right. 7-0, the motion is carried. So, now we are to 8F, approval of probationary non-renewal of staffing resolutions. It is recommended that the school board approve the resolution related to the 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026 non-renewal of contracts of 15 probationary employees. Uh Director Lloyd? >> Yeah, so as I mentioned, all of >> Sorry, you got to do the motion first. >> Sorry. >> So, so um motion. >> I'll move it. >> Thank you, Patrick. I'll second it. Um did you want us to read the resolution first or did you want to do the second? >> Whatever you choose. >> Director Lloyd? >> I can read it. >> Okay. >> Yes, the resolution to termination of non-licensed and licensed contracts for probationary employees. Whereas three licensed employees were first employed as teachers at ISD 283 for the 2023 school year and whereas three licensed employees were first employed as teachers at ISD 283 for the 2024-2025 school year and whereas nine licensed employees were first employed as teachers at ISD 283 for the 2025-2026 school year be it resolved by the school board of ISD 283 under Minnesota Statutes 122A.40, subdivision five that the license contracts of those 15 uh employees of ISD 283 are hereby terminated at the close of the 2025-2026 school year. Be it further resolved uh by the school board of ISD 283 that written notice be provided to said teachers regarding the termination and non-renewal of said teaching contracts provided by the law and shall be substantiated by the attached forms. >> Yeah, so as I mentioned before, um our licensed employees were notified by the principals of their non-renewal around spring break. Um it's very difficult, challenging time for our principals to have to communicate some of these things to our staff. Um so we always try to do it in the most humane and um humanizing way as possible. Um human resources then follows up with the teachers. So this is a very transparent process. We communicate with PAT to ensure that they are fully on board and understand what we're doing, what teachers are being non-renewed. Um and then what ends up happening is we work with the teachers to um provide them the letters that will be signed this evening by the board. >> Any questions? >> Roll call vote again. Dr. Anderson? Dr. Ball? >> Aye. >> Dr. Cox? >> Aye. >> Dr. Davis? >> Aye. >> Dr. Hoffman? >> Aye. >> Dr. Lindsay? >> Aye. >> So the motion passes 7-0. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Lindsay. Um and now we are to board updates and then 7:35 pm. Um I uh don't have a lot of updates, but I have just a few questions. We have a number of listening sessions coming up. Um I sent an email. We just want to make sure that we don't have three board members at a listening session or excuse me, um more than three board members at a listening session. I'm attending most of them, so if you would rather go instead of me, let me know and I will gladly not go. Um and we have uh excuse me, in my email I did not include um the PSI, I think, and Linux. So, I'll be sending out or you can just send me an email indicating if you're willing to go to those cuz they're at different times of day, so that might be more challenging for some board members. By that time, I will be on my break, so I won't be able to make those as well. Um graduation is coming up. There's all sorts of things that are happening at the high school. It's a really exciting time. Next weekend is Dollars for Scholars and Wednesday. Um the listening session There's a listening session on Thursday. I will say the Peter Hobart Peter Hobart carnival, and I will say that I've actually been to now three carnivals. I am stocked when it comes to um my daughter's favorite places to go to eat and drink. So, I have all of the good cards. Um so, that was my busy two weeks. And whoever else you said check. Patrick? >> You looked this way first. Um yeah, I'll be at the listening session at the high school community engagement high school on the 14th, that's a couple days, and also June 1st at 7:00 p.m. Um so, I was at the middle school last week for incoming family rally night. It's two middle school principals there. That's also where the elementary principals were. And the purpose faces of some familiar families. Uh well, I don't I don't really have a lot else either. All right. Um I Yeah, it's because I think we we just had a business meeting, so we got to do our report on Thursday. So, um the one thing I just got to talk to is that before dinner tonight or before I got here tonight, it was at the block. And I just because it's a fundraiser for Echo, we should save this part and let's go to the paper. And they're open till 9:00 and they're donating a portion of the proceeds to the Echo. And I have a vested interest in the success of that because I want to be involved with it. And I I I got some I think I got a mailing that said that they did something about helping hands and after sale too. And these are just good reminders of that when the community asks, you know, what more can we be doing to support our school financially? Well, this is one small way you can do it and it doesn't go directly to our general fund but it's supporting activities, supporting our students, supporting the many things that they do. And so I just I'm appreciative of people when when the students come to the door and they happen to make it nervous ditch. And some students came by my door the other day and they waited for about 5 seconds and then they ran away. And so I felt a little bit bad but but but they're learning some of those skills but also there's just a value. And again, if people can find a way to support our students in this community it's possible. It's just >> This will be quick. Um we just had prom. I heard prom was great. I heard the kids had a good time. My daughter had a good time. I appreciate that. Um shameless plug, so I I'm on a subcommittee at Zep and I've been in there advocating for them to reach out to our kids here and get their feedback on how um Zep can show up for the youth and in our in our schools. So we're looking forward to that. I think we you know, we're trying to connect with our students and I can't remember which one or some other programs where I know kids are passionate. Um we can let them know we have student board members that we want to um put their input in. And um yeah, I think that's it. Yeah. >> This might be a little short too. Uh I also attended the Theodore Roosevelt Carnival last Friday. Uh wonderful event. Thankful it was like awesome weather for it as well. I feel like the last few times we've had something like this break down. So, it was great. A lot of people were there. Great food trucks were there. Kids were having a blast. My baby had a great time. So, yeah, it was a it was a good good event. So, thank you for >> I had a chance to go to the Teacher of the Year award ceremony with my wife and one of our kiddos are in the district. Which was really inspiring in general and then when Mr. David Davis won, that was very very exciting. Um So, really grateful for him and the way he's representing our district nationally and the work that he's doing. Um It's just a really inspiring opportunity to be there. Superintendent Hines was there and the chair of the school board was there and and there were some other teachers and other folks from the district there as well to support him. And so, I'm looking forward to ways we can continue to uplift and celebrate David and his and his incredible work. >> Director Copeland? >> Just to follow up on that, the Elders with um show was on Monday and so, that was right after he had gotten that honor and got a standing ovation from the crowd of parents and students and other teachers at the AFI. So, that was really great and also the Elders with >> was um great also. The kids were creative and funny and it's really one of the cool unique things that um Monica Park Elementary schools do. So, that was good. I also want to shout out to the middle school quiz team that went to the national tournament in Chicago this weekend and they did very well. I also have a vested interest in that team as my daughter's on it and she placed like 300 out of 900 kids. But, it's pretty amazing these kids are future Jeopardy champions. So, that's it. >> Um, Virginia I forgot one thing. I'm sorry. I also had a chance to go to the city council meeting and watch you present. So, I'll just I'll kick it back to you for that, but I want to make sure that that we get a shout out to our PTOs. >> Um, mine's just going to basically be about how the previous week and this current week a lot of the students at the high school have been doing their AP tests in the gymnasium. So, they're all going through extensive studying and spending hours in testing and I really hope that those who still have some are going are confident when they enter that room hopefully with a charged computer and don't forget their passwords. But, I hope that once it's over things feel lighter until the very final project every class gives you. But, yeah. >> Yeah, I was also going to talk about the AP exams, but she already said that. I was also um going to talk about how next week at the high school we're going to have the George Floyd memorial for soar and we've been working on that like these past few weeks. Yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you for sharing those updates. I did want to mention that the city of St. Louis Park did award our PTOs. Actually, the nomination was for the families of St. Louis Park because the families really pulled um pulled together during the Operation Metro Surge and out of gratitude I did nominate them for the Human Rights Award and they needed a singular person, so I just put down the PTOs as a way of representing the parent group. So, it was really it was it was an amazing night. It was amazing to see all of the families there. I cried. Um you know, Council member Baldwin cried. We all not Baldwin Baldwin cried. You could have cried, too, if you had been there. I was So, I was like I was kind of a bucket of tears, so With that, no more updates. So, we have graduation coming up. That'll be very exciting and we're going to adjourn this meeting. Woohoo! At 7:44. >> Nice.