I'm very happy to let you know that Edgewood Middle School teacher Zoe Courage was named a finalist for the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award.

Lulu Samakula from Irondale High School and Kate Robber from Mountains View High School. They were each named this year's Athena Award winners for their respective schools.

operating funds and then if you'll notice on the far left hand or right hand corner it has percentages giving a kind of where we're at now that we're threequarters of the way through the year.

We're buying equipment. We're buying stuff for the for the cafeterias, whether it's a walk-in freezer or uh new appliances or even furniture in those areas. And and the revenue is is going to be less than the expenditure because we we're spending fund balance that's required by the state.

this is always important, I think, to get in front of you guys and in front of the public for that fiscal transparency, right?

middle school is not just a bridge between grade levels, but a foundational stage that shapes long-term student outcomes and success.

The design team came together and developed a product. Um you have a pro the product is in your packet tonight.

The four main elements are um that we really want middle school students when they leave us to be curious thinkers, resilient learners, solution seekers, and empathetic community members.

We've been with you guys start to finish and a real big thank you to our principles who lead on this and are going to have to implement this. So, uh um it it you know it's important and um we saw this as an area that we needed improvement and uh you've laid out a great plan.

last year July 2024 new state requirements went into effect um for reading instruction across the state and as Angie mentioned that fell into those three large buckets.

The resources they submitted for recommendation are 95 phonics core for the foundational skills and they would like to have that used K5 TKLA they submitted for recommendation for knowledge building also in grades K5.

This is a big bite. It is a really um um substantial change in the science of reading and how we teach it and we're, you know, have great expectations, but uh the state has put on some really tough guy or timelines and has messed with us a little bit by giving us a little late guidance.

I just want them publicly recognized because um, you know, not not a lot of complaints. It's just work. It's like we need to get it done. we're we're picking it up and a lot of great people, but these two uh really are the face of this work and and I want them to know how much we appreciate them.

state budget $66 million. 70% of it is in HHS and in education.

in the long run, as they say on the budget tales in 28 and 29, there's a pretty substantial reduction in education funding by $700 million.

About six of our $10 in the school district come from the state of Minnesota and we are greatly appreciative of that.

I was able to attend the Pike Lake PTA meeting last week and I know this is the first year or two that we have PTAs at Pike Lake and Snail Lake.

I did get to go see a little lacrosse at Mounds View. The girls team played and that was a lot of fun. And I also attended briefly uh military academy night.

1 to6 Saturday is the POW at Irondale. It's our seventh annual and it's always a fun event.