Good evening and welcome to the meeting of the St. Peter School Board. It is Wednesday, September 17, 2025. We are in the governor's room at the St. Peter Community Center. Uh we will call the meeting to order. First item up is 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. >> All right, we need to consider and adopt the agenda which is in front of you in the packets and also online at boardbook.org, your favorite website. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. The agenda is adopted. Kimberly, do we have any requests to speak? >> All right. Next up is the approval of the consent agenda items which can be found starting on page three in your board book packets. items as presented. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion or items we'd like to call out specifically? >> May u there was a resignation in elementary level uh just prior to the start of school year and I was filled very readily. So my compliments administration for how rapidly they acted and it sounds like I was a very good hire. Other discussion, discussion, discussion, discussion. Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion carries. The consent agenda is approved. Um, we do not have a student spotlight or student council report tonight. Accurate. All right. Then we'll move into our action items. The first is to consider the acceptance of gifts, donations, and grants. Dr. Graph. >> Yeah. So, tonight we have two uh very generous uh gifts uh and donations for the district. The first is a $500 donation from the American Red Cross, which goes towards scholarships. And the second is a winter slip and fall grant through SFM, uh which is our workman's comp company. Uh and that is for the amount of $2,000 uh which will be used for a plow truck or to help support our plow truck. >> So we'd recommend that you accept those gifts. >> I move that we accept the gifts as listed. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you to our generous donors. >> Next up, Megan is with us to talk about uh consideration of the certification of preliminary 25 pay 2026 levy. Megan, >> the most fun topic of the year. >> All right. So, we are required to adopt or approve our preliminary levy before September 30th, which then we have to get to MDE and to the county. Um, just to remind you that we certify our levy in the fall of 25. The taxes are collected in the calendar year of 2026 and the bulk of this is our revenue for fiscal year 27. So, it's school year 2627. When they calculate the levy, it's 39 pages of calculations. The biggest factors that go into this are our student counts, which as you know um are decreasing, market values, which are increasing, and then equalization factors, which are part of statute. So this very first page, there's three documents in your board book. This very first page focuses on the market valuations of our community. So if you look, it's 5 years worth of data. In the middle, you'll see 25 pay 26. Um the top line market value is the market value of all the properties in our district. So we're having uh just under a 7% increase in the market value of our properties. The next line down is referendum market value. So they utilize that figure in um roughly a quarter of our calculations and that is the market values excluding seasonal wreck properties. So cabin and the big thing for us is egg land. So, it includes your homestead, your um your garage, an acre, but then excludes all of the acreage above one. Um so, you'll see that's why there's a a difference between the market value and the referendum market value. Again, an increase on that net tax capacity then or the adjusted net tax capacity is used on the other 75% of our calculations. So, for net tax capacity, it looks again at all of the parcels of land, but they get assigned a classification. So whether it's a homestead or commercial property or um egg land, they're assigned a classification and then they take a sales ratio. So they try and make sure that assessment uh assessing practices across the state are equalized to some extent. So they look at what are homes selling for versus what are they being valued at. Um if you have a sales ratio that's less than one, it means that houses are selling for more than the um more than the appraised value. if they're selling, if the sales ratio is greater than one, then the houses are selling for less than what they're valued at. So, as you can see, over the last five years, we've always been under one, um, creeping up towards closer to one, but less than one. So, then that adjusted net net tax capacity of $20 million, um, is the number that they use in 75% of the calculations for our levy. So, the big thing to note here is that our market values are going up, our student counts are going down. How that impacts us then is when we get our revenue um they use equalization factors. So districts that have a high property wealth per pupil will have to levy more. Districts that have a lower property wealth per pupil will get more aid and have to levy less. So the higher our market values go and the lower our student counts go, our property wealth per pupil goes up. We have to levy more, we get less aid. So that's why this is important for us um to note to keep track of. Overall, our total levy is just over $10 million. It's an increase of $117,000 over last year, which is equivalent to 1.18%. Uh they rerun this levy every day until September 30th. As of this morning, these were the same numbers as what we had seen last week. Um, I will note that last year, you'll note the 29% increase, just a reminder, that that was when our bond payments for the HVAC and the men the middle project came into play. So, that's why there was that large increase there. Uh, but this increase is substantially smaller. So, any questions on this first document? All right, going to the second one. much more detailed um line by line itemization of all of the increases up or down for the different components. So when we levy, we levy for the general fund, for community service, and for our debt service or our bond payments. This first page is all general fund. They run calculations for this year and then they have anywhere from 1 to three years worth of um prior year recalculations. So we could have adjustments up or down based on levy amounts from previous years. So, I'm not going to go line by line through these, but just some of the the bigger um adjustments [clears throat] or calculations, increases, decreases that we had from last year. Um if you go on the very far side, we tried to number the lines. So, line 26 is an increase of $50,000. That's for other post-employment benefits. So, we are able to levy for our retirees. Um we pay for their health insurance and life insurance for a pot of money. um and we levy for the actual cost that we pay for that. Along with that, we levy for um the implicit subsidy. So our insurance costs based on an actuarial study, our insurance costs are increased because of the retirees that are on our plan. So we are also able to levy for that. So right now that estimate that we have in there is $50,000 more than the previous year. So it's an increase to our levy. I will note that we talked to MDE earlier this week and found out that historically we've always input next year's estimates and we were supposed to be putting in our last year's actuals this whole time. So that number is going to be adjusted by the time you see this again in December, but we did want to note that as of right now that is part of the increase um of the 1.18%. So, we have that. Um, we have a positive adjustment of $77,000 for unemployment. So, every year we we enter into the system, what we anticipate we're going to play pay in unemployment during the school year. This does not include the summer unemployment that was recently put into place. This is unemployment for during the school year. So, we input our estimates and then we get we levy for the actual amount that we pay out in unemp unemployment claims. Um during COVID, there was a year where we put in a substantially high number um because we weren't really sure what what was going to happen with unemployment. Now that we our actuals were submitted to MDE, that's where we have that negative adjustment of 74 uh $77,000. Um and then the last one is a prior year OPEB adjustment. Um, so we had a a positive adjustment last year, a negative adjustment this year for a net of $74,000 down on our levy. So for the general fund, if we were looking at just that, our levy for for 25 pay 26 is down just under $25,000. Any questions before we go to the next page? Okay. Um, the next page on is community service. So nothing real notable there in terms of recalculations or adjustments up or down. The last thing is debt service. So our debt service is based on our bond schedules, the payments that we have to make for our bonds for both the high school and the middle school. So based on our debt schedules, um we have an increase on both both the high school and the middle school. And then the debt excess when we love you, we love you for 100% of the payment plus 5% extra for any taxpayers that maybe don't make their tax payments. They want to make sure that we're able to make those bond payments on in full on time. And then after the year is complete, they go back and look and see we collected too much and they take that extra away from us. So you'll see an increase for the new bond payments that we're making as well as a decrease for the the debt excess that they're taking back from us. Again, as a whole, we're levying $10 million just over an increase of $17,000 or 1.18%. >> Yes. >> Who's taking it away from us? >> Well, MDE does it in their calculations and then the the taxes that we take from taxpayers are reduced. >> Okay. >> So, it's not necessarily taken away, right? >> It just reduces the levy amount that we collect. >> That [clears throat] is passed on to all the taxpayers. >> Yep. Okay, >> thank you. >> Yeah. Uh the very last page then is just a summary of the um general fund community add in debt service. So again, the general fund is split based on either the referendum market value or the net tax capacity and then both general fund and debt service are based on net tax capacity. Um, we really only brought this so that we could show the significance of how large a chunk our debt service is in comparison to the other two. And just sort of to remind you of that that increase from last year with the 29%. You can see the big jump in the purple um last year. But every year we recommend certifying the max. MDE will tell you that 99% of districts certify the max. When it comes to December, we can always levy less, but we can never levy more. We can always underlevy different areas. Um we have to be careful about which areas we would underlevy. Um but we have the opportunity but we cannot go up. So we recommend certifying the max at this point and then in December if we decide to um make reductions anywhere we could do that at that point. >> Mr. Chair, I'll recommend that or I'll move that we certify the backs as recommended by the business manager and the business committee. Second, >> we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? business committee as Bill [snorts] and Rita could attest to and John of course we spent a fair amount of time digesting this and um as Megan mentioned last year with the the men the middle project obviously there was a sizable tax increase this year it's it's much more manageable and we're pleased to see that We do have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? >> Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. We will proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you, Megan. Item number three on our agenda, consider approval of teacher substitution rates. Dr. Graph. >> Thank you, board chair. Uh on a periodic basis, uh we we adjust or or we recommend the adjustment of our substitution rates. Um, at our last business committee meeting, we talked about teacher substitution rates, and it is recommended that we raise the rate from $180 per day to $200 per day and $100 per half day. And the reason we recommend that is to stay competitive with area districts, uh, specifically Mano. Um, we have heard from a fair share of substitutes who who do come from Mano who who will say, um, that they make more money elsewhere, so they will stay elsewhere. Um, so we feel that that will make us competitive. Uh, so we recommend uh that that addition of $20 per day and the business committee also took a look at this uh and approved. >> I recommend that we approve this the raise in the substitute ray rate from to $200 a day and a half $100 per half day. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Do you know Do you remember the last time we >> altered? >> Four years ago. >> Four years ago. Thank you. We do have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. >> You just want to add that we also will take a look at custodial rates and pair professional rates in the future. >> Item number four, consider approval of community center lease for the community education program. Dr. Graph. >> So for a number of years, uh, community education has leased space here in this this wonderful building. currently lease five classrooms and we have been running on a three-year lease agreement. That lease is up this month. Uh so we recommend renewing that lease. The new lease has a 3% increase for the three consecutive years. Other than that, the lease is identical. Uh so the values are in there. Year one is $3,98527 per month. Year two is $4,1483 per month. In year three, it's $4,227.97 per month. So, once again, a 3% increase each year um in that agreement. So, we would recommend that lease. >> My understanding is that we like this space, >> love this space. This is outstanding space for community education, >> kind of the hub of the community and we want community ed to be a part of that. I move that we approve the community center lease uh for the community education program. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. We've approved our lease for the community education program. >> Item number five, consider policies for approval with a single reading. Dr. Graph. >> Feel like it's the John Graph show right now. Uh okay. So, uh on a schedule, uh we review policy and right now we're working through policies that require changes based on legislative changes. Um, so these have all been brought before the policy review committee and we're recommended to come forward with a single reading. Uh, so if the board is okay with it, we'll go through each of those and then you can decide how you'd like to approve or or not of those. So we'll start with policy 418. This is our drug-free workplace and drug-free school policy. It uh is really set up to ensure a safe and healthy environment by prohibiting drugs and alcohol. Uh the updates are really statutory uh and it includes the language tribal medical cannabis programs uh in the in the document or in the policy uh and essentially says that you can't um discriminate against employees or students if they are a part of of those medical cannabis um programs. The next one is 534. It governs our school meals. Uh the updates in the policy once again are legislatively driven and it's all about adding language for our free meals program. And then the remaining policies are really policies that uh need updates just based on staffing changes. So policy 402 is our disability non-discrimination policy. It's uh prohibits disability non-discrimination in employees. And we need to state our new 504 coordinator who is Carrie Lewagi. If you remember, Kelly Jensen retired and Carrie Luagi will be taking on those those uh that position. Next one is uh policy 413 harassment and violence. It prohibits harassment and violence uh within the district. We need to update our human rights officer. Once again, that is moving from Kelly Jensen to Carrie Luagi. Policy 521 is student disability non-discrimination. Same name. Uh we need to put our 504 coordinator in there. That is Carrie Luagi. And lastly, policy 722, public data and data subject requests. Um there's a section in there uh that needs my name. So we'll be changing from Dr. Olsen to John Graph to signify the new superintendent. So I would recommend your approval of these policies uh with one reading. >> I we consider or that we uh approve all of these policies in one batch since they require just um minor changes necessary changes but no stat no language changes. >> We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? [clears throat] >> Mr. C, >> I noticed in the last one that public data and data subject requests that Dr. Graph, you're listed for two different positions. And I would um urge you to kind of track that because there are many districts who I think it's referred to as the data practices compliance individual is someone other than the superintendent. The superintendent is the chief data person. But so I would ask that you kind of keep track of time spent and so forth and down the road if you feel you need to uh bring back that to the policy committee. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Good input. >> Any further discussion? Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. We've approved policy 418, 534, 402, 413, 521, and 722 in one reading. Just wanted to say all the numbers. Uh, consider policies for approval with second reading. You're doing so great. Let's just give it back to you again. >> Keep it rolling. Uh so these two policies, policy 806 and policy 515 are coming back to you for a second and final reading. Uh policy 806 is our crisis management policy. If you remember, we presented that last time. Substantial changes in that policy, but really all driven by legislation and our crisis management plans are designed around this policy. And then policy 515, protection and privacy of pupil records. Once again, some legislative changes in there. The other big piece with that is we have been recommended by MSBA to state what we consider our definition of of directory information. Uh so we put that in the policy and we have or the policy review committee has said that directory information means information contained in an educational record of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasive uh invasion of privacy if disclosed. It includes the students names, dates of attendance, grade level, enrollment status, participation in officially recognized activities, sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams and honors and awards received. So by signifying that as directory information, we can give that out uh without consent. Um that is within the the law of what is allowable in the state of Minnesota. anything to add policy committee. >> Um these are lengthy lengthy policies and um we wanted to make sure everybody had a chance to to read through them carefully and not have to rush and make some dis uh some comments to the to the policy committee or the board if they if they felt like they needed to. So that's the main reason for the second uh reading. [clears throat] I move that we accept um for a second reading policy 806 and policy 515. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> I do just want to say something. I'm just realizing we move through this agenda rather quickly. We do have some people uh in the meeting today and that's nice. But there are a lot of things that go on in in committee meetings here that take a lot of time. So all the discussion that you're not hearing right now has gone on in committees and we do spend quite a lot of time on this. Um each committee is very very diligent on what we're doing especially with not especially the policies are included in that. Any discussion on these two policies in second reading discussion? >> Just a followup discussion. >> Mrs. Martin said not only are the committees diligent in their their thorough work, but also we all receive minutes of transactions and discussion. If we have questions, we can follow up. >> Yes. >> With the appropriate person. >> Sure. >> Yes. >> All right. Last call for discussion on these policies. Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Policy 806 and 515 have been approved on second reading. Next up, consider approval of ELA curriculum purchase. >> Dr. Gra >> and others. >> Yeah, we've got two uh two guest speakers with us today, Mr. Doherty and Mr. Scorum. Ready to go. I guess we weren't invited up here, but we came up here. >> No, thank you. Uh, but, uh, as you will recall, ELA, English language arts, is in the middle of a curricular review process. On top of that, new standards are being implemented, and on top of that, we've just gone through redact training for about threequarters of our staff. Um, in that process, we've learned a lot. Uh, so these folks are here to present a proposal to purchase some curriculum. >> Yeah. So, um, our K12, um, ELA curriculum team met last school year, multiple times throughout the school year, really evaluating, breaking down the new standards, looking for similarities, differences, etc. And then we met this summer to do some planning because we are implementing [clears throat] now. And the discussion this summer was that we were going to implement the new standards using the materials that we have. And that's part of that new curriculum review process that's been adopted. Um, and so our teachers are getting into that. They did a lot of curriculum writing, adjusting materials that they already have to meet the new standards. Um, but our hope is then by the end of the year, we will have identified where these gaps are and where we may need to make some purchases. But along the way, we're going to need to pilot and try some things to determine what is going to be a good fit for what we're lacking. Um, and right away we identified an area um, grades three through five. Um, and so Mr. Dherty is going to talk more specifically about that. Um, but the request is to make a purchase to pilot a curriculum so that when we are making a recommendation in the spring for a longer term purchase that it's an informed decision. Um, so Mr. Dohy, tell us about the pilot. >> Yeah, and we currently we're we have that multi-year multi-phase curricular review cycle that aligns more appropriately with how the state updates standards. And so currently we're on year three phase five of ELA. And Jana um is in charge of leading those curricular reps from each of the buildings. So that's why she's sitting here talking about that. She's been doing a great job um kind of unpacking all the training with the Reed Act. Um trying to identify where those gaps are. Um, and uh, specifically in this case, um, it was pretty glaring to see that after we got like a lot of those phonics morphology training, the writing, the vocabulary tiered instruction, um, that we are severely lacking an area of core morphology curriculum for grades three, four, and five. Um we're pretty well covered right now at the kindergarten, first and second grade level on those foundational phonics skills using a curricular tool that we have called UFly. And that's been um multiple years now supplementing our font classroom um curriculum um as that as that curriculum was great for exposing kids to wide ranges of text and practicing um listening comprehension. like it it does a wonderful job at that, but as far as like foundational phonics and morphology and word study and vocabulary, spelling and coding, like it's it doesn't exist. It kind of leaves it up in the air and it's many elements of kind of that whole language model. Okay? And it's not systemic um the way that the readact training has done um informed us that we knew we were missing those areas. So at the like Jana mentioned usually at this year for our year three phase five cycle would be teaching toward the standards but using the tools that we currently have so that we can come forward in the spring with a recommendation. Well, we don't really have anything to use at this point. So what we are proposing is to put um a a state approved curriculum in place and that's that Kerry morphology um which comes directly approved via the legislation from the read act and Kerry stands for center for applied research and educational improvement um and it's been um vetted. It's supported by the state. There's multiple um curricular tools that are fully supported, partially supported or not supported. The state is fully supporting this one and it really gets after um the morphology development of words so kids can understand text better at the third, fourth and fifth grade levels. Um and we need to continue to expose students at that those grades those grades on level besides intervene using our other tools. So this would address multiple needs, get behind our you know um a device or a tool or curriculum that aligns with the read act. We're gonna close some of those like tier one instructional gaps. Um, obviously I already mentioned it's approved and then also supporting struggling readers as well because we're going to expose them to on level but then continue to intervene using our our current tools which are still effective. They're quite effective. So our hope is at the end of the year we we know more so that we can recommend going forward with a more permanent um approach to this like part of our regular curriculum. But we're not going to know that until we put it in place. And we have full support of our third, fourth, and fifth grade ELA teachers on this. Do we have any questions? reluctant to ask this because I'm going to display my ignorance, but the uh the gap the instructional gap that you alluded to uh is that to some extent a lack of congruence with what we have been doing relative to what we're now doing with the read act and you refer to to two other uh training programs for lack of a better definition um fontis and and panel if I'm pronouncing those correctly. Could you just delineate a little bit how they differ and how this addresses that gap? >> We can. Yeah, absolutely. So, when we talk about the gap, um, with our current curriculum through Fontel Classroom, it has an element in it that's called word study. Um, and it's really quite designed to be um quite loose and up to a practitioner's decision on like that sequence of um exposing students to certain phonics skills or morphology skills meaning like you know base words and prefixes, suffixes, Latin roots, Greek roots, like it's kind of up to each individual teacher on the pacing and which um which progression they want their home room students to follow, which isn't a good example of like guaranteed and viable viable like learning throughout when you have six home room teachers at each of those grade levels, right? That leaves things a little bit like subjective um and it could be a different experience. Okay. Um, also we've been spending many um of our last years really trying to make sure all kids have um if we see some gaps on some foundational reading skills um in order to manage it. We've been really maybe teaching like to a level that's lower in rigor than it should be, right? to try to get, you know, if kids aren't at a certain point along that progression and it's a large percentage like we were kind of keeping the rigor lower and not still exposing kids to on grade level. >> So that's that's probably the big gap and that's it's probably a byproduct of that word study of our current curriculum. It just left too much open in there. >> I'm not trying >> Did that Did that answer any >> It does. I'm not trying to be critical, but I'm not an expert at all in ELA literature and and teaching methodologies. So, I I trying to >> absolutely >> educate myself a bit here. >> Curriculum that we're using for phonics instruction right now is a K2 curriculum, >> but they've used it in third and fourth grade the last couple of years because they don't have anything else. But I think what Mr. already explained is you know having that grade level curriculum is really important because >> the kids need to be exposed to that systemically also like the exposure in fontis and panel is good >> but what we learned through that redact training was that it really needed to be explicit instruction on these pieces not so loose >> thank you for the explanation was very helpful >> y thanks for the question >> so when you talk pilot program. Explain to me just exactly what is meant by pilot program because my understanding of pilot program is if you have six sections or that one section is going to do it and now the other five don't get that experience. So I'm just wondering >> how this works. Yeah, because it is a it's kind of a vague term like what do you mean by piloting? And we've we've tried to structure pilots in many different ways over the years. Um especially when it comes to using or potentially learning more about a curriculum. We've had sets of home rooms use a certain curricular tool and another set use a different one. Um trying to stay aligned with like a common assessment and then seeing if students were progressing or achieving at those same levels. In this case, since we literally don't have a tool um that we know in our current curriculum um repertoire, if you will, um we we have nothing to go on. So, we can use all the grade levels, all those home rooms at those grade levels as a pilot program for this year, see what our results are compared to our previous years and see like is it manageable? Is it making a growth uh index? are students achieving at higher rates and then we feel better about making a recommendation to continue the course or discontinue um and go with one of our other more um comprehensive curriculums that we're going to be investigating this year. >> The ELA curriculum team is looking at two other comprehensive curriculum that ha like fontis and panel has the comprehension components but also has the phonics and morphology built in. Um so we're looking at those as well. None of what we're none of those have been fully investigated by MDE to say that they're fully or partially meeting the redact standards yet. They haven't completed their evaluation process. So that's why we're not we don't want to invest money in piloting those at this point, but we do have materials to review as a team. This we know is fully aligned and it addresses that specific gap that we're missing. Um and so that's why we're coming forward with this pilot. And to me, it's a pilot because we're not committing beyond the year. >> But you are committing. If you're buying materials for everyone, you mean to tell me if you feel that this is unsuccessful, you'll be back next year to buy a whole new program and all that all those materials will be. That's where it's to me it's difficult to >> make a decision like this so early in the year because you're really committing to this program >> for this year and I and >> well yeah but >> I think part of it too is that these curriculums come often times with a yearly cost because of consumables and workbooks and things like that. So, it would just be the one-year commitment for now. There's also some digital licensing that they're going to be giving us at no cost. >> Um, so that >> Okay, >> that's a good thing, too. >> Yeah, the program is allowing us to pilot and have digital access for the whole year free of charge. Obviously, there's going to be a cost associated with that. Um, as far as printing costs and stuff if we just print them. Um, I I I I would recommend moving forward with the the print materials just because we can get a consistent implementation um across the board so that we can draw a more concise conclusion. You know, when you have those resources because we're we're talking about like phonics, you know, fluency, comprehension skills, writing skills, spelling and coding, like it's really comprehensive. Um this in my opinion is a lot more manageable as a regular ed home room teacher. Um my experience is that we've had comprehensive curriculums. I think our last one in ELA was called Journeys O Midland and it has you know it has all these components. It has the it had the um all the reading skills, the writing, the spelling um and we were picking and choosing as home room teachers as far as like what was important and what wasn't. um our teachers are so much more informed now of all these components that it's like a symphony, right? They're they're controlling all these different aspects of ELA teaching and learning. Um it's just that with this identified piece of phonics and morphology, there isn't a tool in the toolbox to reach to to to expose kids to on level content and practice. So you did say that this has been vetted by the department and is fully endorsed. >> How many programs are fully endorsed by the department in this area? >> Well, they have they have full and partial >> support. Um, and probably the partial one I counted eight like because >> I think there's only like three in the foundational skills that are fully and UFly which is what we're using K2 is one of them. >> So, and EUI doesn't go into >> doesn't go beyond second grade. So, if you have three programs that have been fully vetted and approved, I'm assuming you looked at all three and then chose this one as >> this is the one that specifically addresses that gap that the teachers have identified. Okay. >> Yep. With the new standards I [clears throat] and what we learned last year during our read training >> and the other two don't. >> Well, you fly is one of them. That's K2 and I don't remember. I think there were there were three in that >> and some of them it seemed to make the most sense with the band that we're at, right? Because we had this K2 tool. Some of those other approved ones were like a like a 25 and then a three like they were kind of all over the place and this one seemed like it made the most sense especially with the jump from fourth grade to fifth grade at the middle school and just continuum of morphology development that way. Um, as I am I correct in understanding that this really pretty much fits in with our revised curriculum review process in which they're doing the implementation before we actually commit to all of the curricular material in the in the last year. So, this fits what we have moved everything toward. Is that correct? >> On the on the comment about the pilot, I don't know this from now. I'm asking I don't know if it's how nimble the curriculum is, right? But pilots to me aren't always scrap it if it's not great. Like there is some adaptability that can happen, right? Maybe. I don't know if that is if certain parts of it work really well, but it doesn't mean you have to say we're getting rid of it after a year. >> Maybe it can be tweaked moving forward and work in better ways. That's one reason I like the idea of having all of the teachers try it because then you're going to have different people with different strengths and challenges working with all of the students to be able to give that perspective. It's not just one person saying, "I really love this." So, on behalf of everyone, I think we should buy it. You're going to have multiple perspectives um and experiences. So, I think that's really important. >> Mr. Sher, I will move the approval of the ELA curriculum purchase. No second. >> Motion and a second. Further discussion. >> I just find it curious that there are three fully endorsed programs, but only one addresses this need we're trying to address. So, >> I guess logically speaking, we should endorse this one. Right. [clears throat] >> I think there's value here. >> We're not talking about ripping out an entire curriculum. We're talking about addressing a relatively specific gap >> um in our curriculum set and this is fully aligned. It will specifically address that and um I think on a risk factor of having it work or not, I think we're much more likely having it to >> work out pan out in our favor. Little tweaks. >> Fair enough. I also appreciate the fact that instead of making teaching to a lower level of rigor, this is going to allow for uh individualized instruction that way and allow kids to go at their at an an acceptable rigor level >> given the state of a reading at the national level and my compliments on identifying the gap, the weakness, what can be done to address that. So it's a it's hopefully a major step in the to rectify the situation. We have a motion and a second. Further discussion discussion discussion discussion hearing none. We'll proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you both. Appreciate it. The final action item, consider declaration of obsolete and outdated equipment. Dr. Graph, >> thank you, board chair. We have three items uh that we'd like to bring forward as obsolete equipment. They are all for, you know, the the the sake of summarizing rebounders. So, we have a Dr. Dish rebounder, a tossback rebounder, and an Aircat volleyball toss. All three function in terms of you throw the ball at it and the ball comes back. One's for basketball, one's for more of a baseball, softball, and one's for volleyball. Um, Mr. Orassie has shared that they do not work well and they haven't been used for a number of years, so they'd like to get them out of their space. So, we would recommend uh putting them out as obsolete so that we can put them on the market and see if we can get anything in return. This requires a motion. >> I'll move that we declare the identified uh materials as obsolete. >> Second. >> Motion in a second. Any discussion? Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. >> Just curiosity. If a student wants to take one of these home, can they do that? >> [clears throat] >> I think they have to go that >> they have to go out on the auction first. They have to be posted for I believe a minimum of one week. >> Okay. >> Um from there. >> Sure. >> Buy them for a good deal. >> Yeah. Well, exactly. >> Yeah. >> Don't tell my children, please. >> We sure have a question. I can't remember >> the name of that auction site offhand. >> Do you do you happen to remember? >> No. >> Any memories? Yeah, >> Seth >> is that >> is it UBID? >> I don't [sighs] know if that's right. I can't remember. I don't want to say the wrong. >> Just curious. >> Seth would know. >> Seth would know. >> All right, we have a motion in the second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion carries. Thank you. On toformational items. First up is the first reading of revisions to the policy manual. Dr. Graph. >> Okay. Our first policy uh coming to you for a first reading is policy 516 student medication and teleaalth. Uh there were some updates uh brought about by some legis legislative changes. those updates change the term of what we call an epinephrine um device, an administrative device um from a I have the exact language here from an auto injector to a delivery system and that came about because we now have nasal >> um you can you can take epinephrine through through your nose. Uh so they changed that. So that's a fairly minor change. Uh but we did as we went through the policy uh as per our practice, we went through the exclusion section. There's a section here that basically says you don't have to follow this policy uh with medication if this this and this. Uh so I went through this with nurse Rachel and the policy review committee. And we have chosen uh to eliminate some of those areas that exclude from this policy. And really the idea was we want to make sure that we have a better oversight over student use of medication within schools. Um so if you're okay, I'll just read those and then because this is a first reading, please take a look at it. Uh see if there are things that we're not thinking about. Uh we'll get this in front of principles and and we'll just make sure that we're following what we need to. So the first piece that we want to um eliminate from the policy is purchased without prescription. So, we want to make sure that all medication comes through the nurse, whether or not it's prescription uh used by a pupil who is 18 years of older. We want to make sure that even our 18-year-old seniors are still going through the nurse uh and that we have the proper protocol for that medication. Used in connections with services uh for services in which a minor may give effective uh consent. Used off school grounds. used in connection with athletics or extracurricular activities, used in connection with activities that occur before or after the regular school day. So, we have chosen to remove those from the exclusion section once again just out of precaution uh out of wanting a little bit more control um knowing where those medications are. And truth be told, this probably matches our practice more than the former policy. Great. Any questions on >> So does that mean that when you say it goes through the nurse, does that mean that all medications have to be given to the nurse's office and then you go to the nurse to get it? >> Yeah. We want to have a medication uh procedure on hand. We want to know what that is. We want it on file, especially if it's prescription. But you said nonprescription also. So is that >> in in this section there? Thank you for clarifying. There is a section later on. >> Yeah. >> That says secondary students can carry um >> like aspirin >> like aspirin >> things of that nature they can they can carry on their body. >> So any questions or further discussion on that policy committee want to add anything? If not, I'll move into the last policy, which is policy 621. Policy 621 um is all legislative. Uh it's the ReadAct. Our our current policy in the books really says that we will have a literacy plan. It's one paragraph. Due to legislative changes, this is pretty beefy and we wanted to make sure that people could get their eyes on it. It's all legislative. Ganna, who is our literacy lead, has taken a look at it. she feels confident that we are in a good spot to be compliant. Um, but we wanted to make sure everybody had an opportunity to read it and then bring up any questions or concerns back to the policy team. That's all I've got. We meet in three weeks for policy committee. So, let us know if you have thoughts. Otherwise, we just sit there and look at >> writing on paper. It's boring. >> So, we'd love your feedback. >> All right. Next up, quarterly fund balance tracker. Megan's back. >> So, as you recall, last year we brought back quarterly fund balance tracker so that you could see um where we were at compared to where we thought we were going to be for the budget. So there are two pages in board book. This first one is the actual quarterly fund balance tracker itself. The top section is our preliminary adopted budget. So beginning fiscal year 26 our unassigned general fund balance was going to start at 5.5 million revenue in expenses out a net transfer out ending the year at just under 5.4 million which equates to 69.9 days. Uh the top section is in relation to changes in revenue since we adopted that budget. So the legislative session ended and one of the changes that impacted us is that special ed transportation used to be reimbursed at 100%. It is now only 95% um reimbursing prior year expenditures. So because of that um our fund balance any number in parenthesy is going to decrease our fund balance. Any number that's not in parentheses would increase our fund balance. So, as a result of that, we're going to have just shy of $40,000 less from uh special ed transportation revenue. We received the Habitat grant for $100,000. That wasn't in our adopted budget. So, we have additional revenue there. Um we had a budget adjustment plan coming into this year. If you recall, very small change. We're billing MVE a minimal amount more for the school resource officer uh compared to the budget budget adjustment plan that we had. And then the last line on there is an adjustment for enrollment. So if you recall, Dr. Graph um had sent something out where our enrollment compared to last year is down. However, when you compare it to what we budgeted, we are up 29 kids. Uh this is a number that we're going to continue to watch and over the next couple months continue to adjust. Um because we are up 29 students, uh historically from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, we lose students. These last two years, we have gained students. So, we're just trying to figure out, we want to be conservative in this number, but we also want to recognize that yes, we are up students compared to where we thought we were going to be this year. So, at this point, it's 29, but when you see this again in December, that number is definitely going to have changed. So, on the revenue side of things, we've added $353,000 to the fund balance, unassigned general fund balance. On the expenditure side, uh we were awarded the ADSIS grant. So we added two behavior and one reading interventionist that will decrease our fund balance this year. Just a reminder that we are reimbursed for them next year. So we'll have additional revenue coming in to offset that at roughly 70% next year. We are adding a behavior interventionist at Ashwa. Uh similar concept. It will add expenditures this year. It's reimbursed in next year's um special ed revenue. We were awarded literacy aid funds as part of the read act. We've used that to pay for redact training last year, the participants going through redact training this year, and we still have a few dollars left over. We're going to use some of that for curriculum purchases, but then um we are going to shift some of Janna's time as the literacy lead over to that pot of money. So, that'll increase our unassigned general fund balance there. Very similar concept with MA money. So, we've been working really hard to increase our MA dollars that we have and we already had a pot coming into this year. So, we're going to be able to shift some of our expenses for our health nurses and health aids out of the unassigned general fund into the MA bucket. So, increase to the fund balance there. Uh, we did sign off on the True North Consulting Partners um contract. So, that will decrease our fund balance just slightly. On the expense side for the legislative session, um they did have the hold harmless for compensatory. So, we were able to regain $200,000 on compensatory just for this year because of the hold harmless. We also have a a small increase for student support personnel aid and a small decrease for library aid. Uh this shows up in the expenditure side only because we take expenses for staff out of the unassigned general fund and get to move them over to those other restricted reserve buckets. Um so that'll be a significant um increase to our unassigned general fund balance for those legislative changes. Um again the habitat grant. So we have $100,000 in expenditures that we'll see. And the last line is for the budget adjustment plan for the expenditure side. Um this number the 3911 is comprised of staff. So we had estimated that we were going to save about $200,000 through retirement and resignations and replacing them with different staff. Um as well as the MVED social worker. We had Kelly Jensen retired. we replaced it with an MVED position. Um, so we were just shy of that of $4,000. On the expense side, we added $38,000 to the fund balance. Overall for quarter 1, we are up $392,000 compared to where we thought we were going to be with an ending fund balance at the end of fiscal year 26 of 5.7 million. Uh, this will equate to 74.9 days, which is is really positive. It's looking really great. Um, one thing that John and I continue to talk about is that this year is looking really good. And as we u move forward towards December, we'll get back to doing the three-year roll out so that you can see now what do these numbers mean for 27 28 29 because we do want to keep 29 in mind. Um to to see that, you know, while these numbers are looking good, we we just have to keep looking forward and being fiscally mindful of everything that we that we do. Um hopefully in quarter two we'll be able to see some adjustments based on negotiations and um and we'll go from there. But the second any questions before I go to the second page. >> I just like to add you know you guys uh we we discussed the three-year roll out last year and I just want to stress that it's not doom and gloom. things look really good. But as we continue to graduate classes that are significantly high or larger than what we're bringing in, when you when you think about each student roughly $10,000, um we're down about 46 kids this year compared to what we ended last year, that's $460,000. Uh that adds up very quickly. So, when you think about that three-year roll out, that's when we really have to stress fiscal responsibility uh and being wise with with where where our money is going because um there's a lot of uncertainty with funding right now coming from the federal and state levels um and inflation and declining enrollment and all those three things add up to the need to be to be diligent. [clears throat] Perfect. Uh the second page is just an enrollment comparison. So the very left column is where um where we were at for our adopted budget. The middle column then is the enrollment as of September 8th. And then the right column is the difference. Um so as you can see, like I mentioned, we're up 29 kids compared to where we thought we were going to be. We'll continue to watch this. Any number in parenthesis is a number lower than where we anticipated. Any number without parenthesis is higher. Um but we'll continue to watch this. We'll use it to update our quarterly fund balance tracker over the next couple of months. Um, that's where we are. >> Is there an explanation I lost so many second graders? >> Just it's just that all the kids that moved happen to be in second grade >> because there's not a new school or anything opening up, right? But on the flip side, gained roughly 10 seniors. >> Yeah. >> So, um that's part of the part of the the analysis is is how do we keep families? How do we attract families? And we'll go to work once we start to get those enrollments. >> Thank you, Megan. Moving into reports, building principles. Looks like we're going the two-tiered approach. >> All right. Well, here we are. September board meeting. We made it. We made it here. It's a good thing. I wanted to first give you a little bit of an update on Read and Feed. I told you last time I would. So, we do have our total numbers. Read and feed this year served 13,422 meals. And so as we look at that previous the the history of that program as you recall in years 23 24 and 20 uh summers of 23 and 24 we were not eligible for the program. In 2022 we served over a little over 16,000. So we're making a comeback. Um June and July are definitely our heaviest use months and then in August things start to trickle off when kids are kind of tired and that summer is is waning. So, um, but just a really positive program for both our, um, extended school year programs, our targeted services as well as the community. So, I may have mentioned last time when I said we were eligible for the program that now we are eligible for the next four years as well. So, um, we can look forward to a North event again next summer. >> Very good. >> The hub is coming back. >> Yep. Um, in early childhood, of course, we hit the ground running. It was fun to have our children and our parents in our building for conferences. It's it's just great to get to know them. This time of the year in preschool, we're really focusing on developing relationships, learning routines, learning to walk in a line, using the bathrooms. It's that type of thing. So, a lot of routines based. Um, and it's been going well. We've had a few tears, but mostly smiles. A lot of kids are excited to be here. Um, so that is it's always fun to see. Also, this time of the year, we focus on all things safety. So, we're talking about bus safety. We'll be talking about fire safety. Um this is our second year of using um city transit for our school readiness program that continues to go quite well. That's a bus that um a transit bus that will hold about 15 passengers and they're buckled in. It's airond conditioned. So that has been a really nice switch for us. It's a little bit of cost savings for parents and it's a significant cost savings for our program. So we're excited uh to continue that partnership. Want to just do do a little shout out to staff who came in this year with a lot of unknowns and just really jumped in and helped one another and we got everything set to go and kids came when they were supposed to and everyone was Yeah, it really built team so that was great. >> Thank you. A lot of the similar things happening at South in terms of figuring out routines, practicing star pride, um and then getting to know the kids and building those relationships. It's always just so exciting. Um those back tochool conferences with te with parents and teachers right away are such a wonderful way to begin the year. Parents are the expert on their kids. So it's nice to hear from them first, but then getting to know the kids without parents is a fun adventure. Also, um there's nothing like kindergarten tired and that's something that we talk about with our families. Um and so our we're in week three. Kids are figuring out building that stamina for school. Um, but kids are tired in our building right now. We're also doing a lot of safety things. Um, we had our first fire drill. We had our first hold, which is a standards response protocol term. Um, we did bus safety and we're also just practicing safety and respect on the playground. Um, we have we've just about wrapping up our fast assessments, which is another big component, but that's important to learn right away where first graders are after summer and where kindergarters are coming in. Um, and then our first parent council meeting is uh in about a week and a half already. So, bringing parents in to just talk about some some areas that we think we could do better in or some places they want to have an impact. Um, kind of a district piece is that our first professional development day for teachers is on Friday. So, there's no school for kids K12 on Friday. Our teachers are going to be um doing some learning with Educ, which is our new uh data system, data warehouse. Uh our curriculum teams are going to be getting together. So ELA, social studies, science, and math, and then some other teams as well. Um we're going to have an opportunity opportunity for some building professional development. I know um we're all kind of looking forward to some time together. And then our PLC's are meeting and we are also doing a session on culturally responsive pedigogy um in alignment with the new teacher evaluation requirements. So Friday should be a good day for teachers. >> Busy days. >> Thank you. Greetings from North Elementary School. Kindergarten tired, huh? I was just going to say at North humans are tired like generally at that point. >> Tired, but [laughter] there's nothing like kindergarten tired. >> Number of parents visiting for lunch today and one was leaving. It's like, wow, that that is great. That's some great energy in that room. I'm glad you guys are good at what you do. She's like out the door. No, it was great. Um, so yeah, a lot of similar things going on at North. Um, you know, we always like to start the year with like that general assembly, get all the kids in the same spot and celebrate being back together in that space. Kindness kickoff. Um, kids, you know, kids getting in front of everybody and sharing where they've already seen kindness, where they've seen kindness from teacher to teacher, student to teacher, all over the place. And that's what they're practicing this first couple weeks. And that rolls into respect, which is the first theme of kindness. Like how is how does being respectful lead into being kind? So, um, we're we're currently working on our first episode of Saint Center. Um, our PBS team puts that together and gives kids lead that as well at kind of a anchor table with a green screen. Um, lots of great ideas for incorporating kids into that, recognizing students for being super saints already with golden tickets and awards. Um, obviously this whole first 10, 11 days is about building relationships so that we can move on to the learning need, right? And Jana had mentioned, you know, getting through the fall screening information so we we know where kids are at, you know, at the beginning of second, third, fourth grade and where they need to go. Um, and so this this day coming up on Friday, I mean, that's where teachers get all the stuff right as far as like here's what we got, here's the students, we got a relationship built, now where do we need to go with our learning paths? So, it's a really a great a great day for for planning. So, I'm looking forward to that. Um, also just making sure kids get uh in the building back home safe. We spent a lot of time going through drills already standard response stuff with evacuate um um lockdown. We've also a lot of time a lot more time this year on just getting to school safely since there's so many more uh independent um devices kids are riding [laughter] to get to school nowadays, electronic things, things or electric things. Uh, so we've had a lot of talk about helmets and biking and crossing the road and getting on the bus and off the bus. It's great. We love We always want the highest level of independence with these with the kids um in second, third, and fourth grade is a way to a great way a great time to practice that, but then there's cars and buses and like we got to get there safely. So, spending some more time on that this year. And of course, uh, we're planning and finding signage and trying to identify, um, a large group celebration for our school of excellence award that we're awarded this. So, got to get some signage on the building and, uh, getting things in place to hopefully do like a winter concert as well as a celebration and try to get all 2,000 plus people in one spot at the same time this winter to celebrate. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Round two. [laughter] >> Welcome. How are How's ready to go? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, just kind of post construction. We've started the school year and uh we've come a long ways from the beginning of the school year. Some of the highlights that I would like to see is or just kind of point out is that first floor when you go down by the art space, you have these lights, you have these display cabinets, and Miss Kaepernick's doing a really nice job of getting that started up so we can display some of our student artwork. So, very excited for those pieces. Cubbies are a huge hit when you go out on lunch. We've just got bags and bags into those cubbies. So that's a huge um kind of just creates a safety net. Um you know, they used to be in the hallway, now they're in a specific space. So that's very good. And then that third um the new stairwell is the traffic is um moving in and out is there's not a lot of clustering or bottlenecking. So that's very nice and especially for our drills that we've been doing as well. Just a new outlet for all individuals being able to evacuate a lot faster. So some some great things that are happening there. and uh teachers are figuring out how to utilize their new spaces and to showcase our student artwork. So, um and their their work throughout the kind of the school year so far. Uh just kind of capitalize and piggyback off of our you know the bus evacuation uh making sure that we're doing that bike safety and our drills using that common language from the standard response protocol. So, going quite well. And then we had last week our first PBIS assembly heading highlighting our pride expectations and we had a very friendly competitive game of hungry hungry hippos uh between teachers. So very exciting. Lots of great things happening with our PBIS and how to um start that tier one expectations with all of our students. So >> I think you forgot to highlight the principal's costume at that first event. I don't know if you guys saw photos from that. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, >> that's awesome. >> Um, exciting news at the high school. You probably saw it on the website, but we have a national merit semi- finalist uh in this senior class, Alan Nino. Uh, and what that means is he's in the top 1% of kids who took that um PSAT. So, we're really proud of him and he should be proud. um and his next step will be to um take the SAT and do a lot of other online application type stuff. So, I'll keep you informed on that. Uh I also promised I would give you a cell phone update. Um it's actually been going great. Um what day is this? Like 12 or something at the high school, I think. And it might sound high, but it's really not. We've had 21 phone violations, but that's just a step one violation, which means that they had to turn it in in the off at the office and pick it up at the end of the day. Um, we haven't had a step two. Uh, we've gotten really great feedback from teachers and parents. Uh, and actually from kids, too. A lot of parents are telling us that their kids are saying that classes feel different. um that they feel like kids are more engaged with each other and the teacher. So um the only negative feedback that we've heard was one student reported that it's ruining friendships. But the good news is is that that particular student's mother had visited with me and said how great she thinks the cell phone policy is at the high school. So I don't know who to believe. Um so it's it's uh it's it feels really good. Um, even walking through those pods, that's considered an academic space and there are no phones out there. So, um, the staff is really on board and it's going well. Um, our student reps, hopefully I pointed their seat, their empty seat. Um, I I have met with the student council um, presidents and since this is on Wednesdays at 5, they do think that between the two of them, they will be able to make some of the meetings. Of course, they're our busiest kids, but um but hopefully they'll be able to make it. Uh and they would be reporting on this were they hear it's homecoming next week already. So, we've made it to homecoming. Um which is great. And lastly, I know I said I only had three things. >> Um I it occurred to me sitting up here. I think it is school board appreciation month. So, thank you. You get a you guys get a whole month. I think we get a day, which is enough. That's enough. [laughter] But we do appreciate you guys. So, thank you. >> And you're just telling us on the 17th. >> I Dang it. Your gift is in the mail. >> Turn over angle. [laughter] >> That's it. >> Cool. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Graph, >> just two things. First thing I [clears throat] just want to share is uh it's it's been fun stepping in this different position. Um as a principal, you're tied to your school and you see your school. Uh I've had the opportunity to go to every school and just kind of be a part of it and blown away at just how amazing our staff is. Um one story I want to share is just going to South Elementary. Uh on the first day of school, I overestimated how helpful I was going to be. I'm like, I'm going to save the day, right? Uh, I got there and I very quickly learned like my job was to get out of the way. Like everybody knew what to do. Um, I was like holding the door trying to act like I was important and I'm like crying because of just the the care and support that families and and staff were providing kids and it's just uh really neat experience to be able to see. So um kudos to staff uh on a great start of the school year. Uh, and then the last thing, not as heartwarming, uh, just want to mention, uh, that Megan and I were doing a little research. We may need to bump back the start time of our December meeting. Uh, that in December, we approve our levy and we need to do our truth and taxation meeting. And the truth and taxation meeting has to occur after 6:00. So, logistically, it might make the most sense for us to start our meeting at 6 and then just go through the typical flow of that December meeting. So, more to come on that, but wanted to uh get that in front of you. >> That's it. Awesome. Thank you, board members around the table. Miss Rosbach, >> just excited for the school year. Thank you to all of our staff for making everything wonderful for our students. I really appreciate that. Um, congratulations to North on the school excellence award and I am looking forward to homecoming week next week. So, thank you, >> Mr. Russell. >> Again, a real nice start to the year. Eight more months to go or eight and a half. So, enjoy enjoy uh and it's it's fun. It's it's exciting. Um really nice news on the national merit. That's great. Speaks well for the whole district. And thank you also to the two principles that so nicely answered my my uh low-level question explaining the uh language arts. So, appreciate that. Thank you. >> Um, I'd like to echo my colleagues comments concerning start of school and so forth. Um, I would like to really point out that I enjoyed the employee breakfast. >> Yeah, >> it was a well-run program. I was fortunate enough that I could stay to the very end. I want to compliment uh Dr. graph on his presentation. He really validated our decision, I think, with that [clears throat] performance. It was an excellent job and it set the tone, I believe, for the upcoming school year. And hopefully some of the things that have happened, some of the announcements with the school of excellence, etc., we're building momentum that will continue throughout the uh school year. and we need to toot our horn so that we can get people from outside the district to come in here and keep those student numbers high. So we can you so continue to um continue to point out all the wonderful accomplishments that occur. I think there are probably things happening every day that are worthwhile mentioning, but we tend to get so wrapped up in everything we forget to overlook that. Um, and then keep your fingers crossed. Um, custodians are voting tomorrow, right, on their tenative agreements. So hopefully after tomorrow we'll have one down and only what, four or five more to go. So we're making progress on all those. We're uh looking for a date for the the teachers, but everything else is in progress. So great. >> Things are going well. Hopefully. >> Great. >> Mr. Nixon. Uh yeah, I wanted to address two topics having to do with uh school safety. Um and they're positive things. Um there's been an incredible amount of work done for the safe routes to school and we've all seen many of us I'm sure have seen that throughout the um neighborhoods and town. new sidewalks, um ensuring that students, families, kids have a a a safe way to get to um our buildings. Um and I think that's just a really positive thing. It's it's we see it all over. >> Um so I appreciate all the work that you know, Department of Transportation, the county, the city have done. A lot of people have been involved um with that and uh we appreciate that. Uh second, if you have been traveling north or south on Washington and have been over by North Elementary where we have crossing guards, you will see now I don't know what they're called, but they're like >> yeah, traffic deleting. So what there what's happened in the past is that there will be a hold up and rather than waiting for you know if I'm driving in traffic there's a little traffic jam rather than just waiting people will attempt to pass on the shoulder >> which is a scary thing to happen when you have students crossing the road. Um, so the city has installed these reflective vertical traffic sticks uh [laughter] to to help make it obvious that oh no no you don't we can't be passing on the on the shoulders and um so I'm thankful for that too. These are little things that we don't necessarily think about on a day-to-day basis but I think they go >> a long way to help keep things moving and keep our kids safe. So, thank you >> for those. >> Absolutely. >> This is my favorite time of year and I love the energy and all of the reports and the the kids are back and the parents are supportive and everything looks really good. If we continue this way, we've got a great year coming in for us. Um, I said something earlier about the the committee meetings that go on and I want to give a special tip of the hat to the negotiations committee that is working so hard at this particular point in the um cycle. And on behalf of the NAPAC, Native American parent advisory group, there are two events. On the 30th of September is Wear Orange Day, which is to commemorate students who are um vict uh survivors and students from the boarding school experiences. So, everybody's encouraged to wear orange. And then on um the Sunday, the day before Indigenous People's Day, that Sunday, that's when we're having our I think it's our fourth uh native indigenous people's walk. and it will start at the middle school. I think it's at four o'clock and then go down to Minnesota Square and we have a drum present and we'll have some food. So, we really would like to have uh staff, administration, parents, the community come and participate. It's on a Sunday afternoon and I'm quite sure according to director Cout that the Vikings will not be playing during that time. So, we should all be good. All right, that's it. Thank you. >> If they are, it's a long game. [laughter] I think they're in Europe >> that day. >> Kate, is that uh October 12th? >> Yes, I'm sorry. That's October 12th. Yes. >> All right, Charlie, one other thing. Um, I did receive uh notification from MSBA that our resolution did get to them and will be brought up for their board of directors to determine whether or not it'll go forth the delegate assembly. So, >> good news. >> Uh, any committee updates that we did not get to this evening that we want to share? Yeah, >> believe everything involved with has been addressed today. Yeah. >> All right. We've got uh several upcoming meetings. Um a couple negotiation committee meetings. Uh and then business and policy all before our study session which is Wednesday, October 8th at 5:00 pm in the St. Peter Middle School media center. Uh and then uh a month from now we will be back for the regular schoolboard meeting on Wednesday, October 15th. >> Next up is I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> Yeah, it's nice to have guests, some visitors. We we sometimes just get a little lonely here, so please come back anytime. >> Thanks for being here. >> Given that if I may move to a Go ahead. >> Motion in a second. All in favor? I >> Meeting is