I'd like to call to order the January 13, 2026 meeting of the Mountains View School Board. Good evening and welcome. Our first point of business today is an oath of office for our newly elected school board members. Our community held an election on November 4th of 2025 to fill three school board seats and our community has elected Shauna Bach, Tasha Just and Mark Sakai for four-year terms on the school board. So, I'd invite the three of you to stand for the oath of office. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of this state and of this state and that I will discharge faithfully and that I will discharge faithfully the duties of the office of school board member the duties of the office of school board member of independent school district number 621 of independent school district 621 to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of judgement and ability. Congratulations. [applause] [applause] Now on to the less exciting agenda items for this evening. Um item 1.3 is our adoption of the agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Our adop uh agenda has been moved and seconded. Uh any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Our next order of business is the organization of the school board. I would entertain nominations for any officers to the school board for this year. I would like to make a motion to nominate the following officers. Uh Heidi Danielson for chair, uh Shauna Bach for vice chair, Jim Day for treasurer, and myself, Alyssa Dar Nelson for clerk. Thanks, Alyssa. Are there any other nominations to come before the board? Hearing none, we need a second. Second. Great. Any discussion? Right. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thanks so much. We would now Oh, actually now I need to uh remind everyone that um we have a couple of um pieces also of how we organize the board for the year that we reiterate each year as we um uh nominate and uh approve new officers. So it is recommended that the board affirm policies BG400 and uh board school board ethics and BG41 school board members code of conduct. Uh those policies are as part of the agenda tonight. And it's also recommended that the board affirm policy BG107 rules governing the transaction of business will govern the proceedings of the school board. And that is Robert's rules of order. Newly revised will remain the parliamentary procedure guide for the board. All right. Well, our next item of business is 2.1 um student representative reports. So, we are really uh glad to welcome Elelliana tonight from Irondale to share what's going on at Irondale. Our Mounds View High School representative had a family emergency and couldn't join us tonight, but I know they also have great things going on there. So, thanks so much for being with us today, Elelliana. Yeah, you start. Thank you. Great. We'll turn it over to you. Um for bowling, the varsity bowling team qualified for the state tournament held on Sunday, December 7 at Mermaids. Um Camden and Finnegan have also qualified for the boys singing state tournament. Rise and Lung, both eighth graders at Edgewood, have been invited to participate in the Rising Stars tournament. Um, we're we're proud to announce the BFW Post 724 Voice of Democracy Contest winners. First place is Buana. Second place Hannah, third place, Lucia. The Voice of Democracy competition is a written and spoken essay essay contest hosted annually by the BFW this year. This year's pro promo was how are you showing tourism sorry and support for our country. Um in the last weekend of November student council and NHS spent some time collecting foods for the raw fooder food shelf in our own Arendelle food pantry. Approximately 1,000 pounds of food was collected with 473 pounds going to our school's pantry. Before winter break, student council held Cocoa with council with the side of caroling to kick off the holiday spirit. For DECA, DECA hosted its annual week of giving between December 8 and 12. Um, classrooms participated in a schoolwide competition donating canned and perishable goods or money toward the Iron Food Pantry. overall donating classes or top overall donating classes got to see the hypnotist and the top donating class each day won the food prize for that day. Um, one class alone donate up to $2,000 in the day. Oh, wow. Um, for debate, Still Water um Area High School November 15th results. Juniors Lily and Tegan placed with a 3 to1 record. Seniors Buana and yeah, Buana each received individual speakers awards. Um for the Minnesota class debate state competition results, Novis um Sara sorry Sara and Seda um were third overall and varsity varsity quarter finalists Osma and Buana were six overall. Um, in November, the Irondale Band and Orchestra had their very first concert of the year. In December, the Irondale entire performing arts program, band, orchestra, and choir also performed their annual seniors to seniors concert for the community. This week, the Irondo band had their Westwide band festival where they performed along all the middle schools and elementary school bands across the district. Um, I band was in invited to an auditionbased state competition of bands around the state. Iron's top band auditions annually and has consistently been accepted to compete at the convention. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being with us today, Alana. [clears throat] Great. Our next um item on our agenda is gifts. Uh Jim, would you read the gifts for us tonight? Okay. Thank you. Um, once again, our community is very generous to us and they're very generous to members of our community that might need a little help. Um, Ralph Reer uh food shelf has been receiving um excellent amount of volunteers and volume of food and cash contributions these days. So, we're very grateful for that. So our recommendation there were 21 gifts for schools and programs received this period for the total of 22,468.94. It is recommended the board accept these gift gifts and extend the thanks to our donors. The total year to date is 359,374 and.76 cents. So thank you. Thank you Jim. Um upcoming meetings. Um on January 27th, we'll have our next um regular meeting of the school board here in the district center at 7 pm. Comments to the board at 6:30 that evening. And on February 5th will be our next work session um here at 6 p.m. All right. Uh item 2.3, superintendent report. Thank you, Heidi. I just have a couple things uh tonight and uh visual aids uh with me. So, Moundu High School principal Rob Reets uh was named the 2026 Minnesota High School Principal of the Year by the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principles, also known as MASSP. Uh this recognition highlights his exceptional leadership in creating a positive school environment. Uh for purposes of the award, uh MS MASSP divides the state into eight different regions and selects a representative from each region to compete for the award. Rob was selected uh earlier this year to represent the capital division, which includes 93 schools in the east metro. Uh in December, the statewide selection board uh reviewed all eight finalists and eventually selected Rob as the statewide winner. he will go to represent more than 450 lead principles now at the national level. So if you get a chance, please take the time to congratulate principal Rob Roberts on this wonderful accomplishment. And second, uh also school recognition for our high schools. I'm pleased to inform you that both high schools were recognized by the college board for their work on welcoming students into advanced placement courses and then supporting them on their path to college success. Irondale High School was placed on the silver honor role and Mounds High School placed on the gold honor role this year. And I I really would like to take the opportunity to just thank uh our teachers, our deans, administrators, and certainly the students and parents for all they did uh and their efforts that went into making these recognitions possible. I just want to congratulate everyone uh that was involved in these wonderful awards. Great. That will be my update this evening. Great. Thank you. All right. Our next um item on our agenda is uh 3.0 approval of the consent agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Our consent agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, moving on. We have item 4.0, financial oversight and stewardship of resources. Uh we're going to have our director of finance Paula Steele join us to walk us through our 2026 27 budget assumptions. Good evening. Tonight we are reviewing the foundational assumptions for the 2627 budget. These parameters reflect our collaborative work sessions and serve as the green light for our principles to begin site specific planning later this month. For fiscal year 2627, the districtwide weighted pupil units are projected at 12,289. This projection is based on our October 1, 2025 count less our outgoing um senior graduating seniors and our anticipated kindergarten enrollment. We also have strategically increased non-resident enrollment where building capacities allow. Financially, we are planning around a 2% increase in the state basic formula and an inflationadjusted operating referendum. A core priority remains keeping class sizes within board approved ranges. We have set a target of for 90% of our classrooms to meet these standards. To handle growth or unique needs, the superintendent will retain nine FTEEs specifically for t for targeted interventions and contingency staffing. As shown in your handouts, our operations remain steady. We are maintaining the two mile transportation policy and ensuring our activities programs remain accessible through fee waiverss for families in financial need. We have also sustained our per pupil supply allocations in a small discretionary fund for emerging emerging priorities. Once these assumptions are approved on January 27th, our principles will begin the heavy lifting of sitebased budgeting. The varieties the variables we've discussed tonight from revenue to enrollment to staff and will culminate in a final budget for your adoption this June. I'm happy to take any questions or hear any comments. I would just add that to share with the public that the board um received these um actually we received them in December and then we worked on them um in our work session last week and we're able to really ask a lot of questions, explore things for those of us who have been on the board um for a while. We see these assumptions every year and love to um just see any changes as you were talking about with enrollment. We really watch that. Um we have some really large high school classes right now. So, as those students, those seniors graduate, we're looking at smaller kindergarten sizes because of birth rates declining um in our state and across the US. So, um one of the things we as a board do is really really um look um conservatively at our fiscal responsibility and we thank you for your leadership in that area, Paul, and helping us do that. We'd rather be um surprised by more revenue than be in a deficit situation in the fall. Any other comments or questions from the board? Uh, I would just thank Paula too and and her team. Um, this is where we talk about it publicly, but as you mentioned, the board has already seen this a couple times in work session and literally daily, you know, down downstairs, we're working through watching enrollment, uh, taking weekly counts and making sure that we are, uh, on pace with, uh, the budgets. Um, and in preparation for um, coming up in June, we always do that final budget. So, this is early work. We'll bring this back to you next meeting for final approval. Then we'll begin the staffing work at each building, and then we'll bring it back to you again this spring. So, lots of work for Paul and her team, but thank you so much for all you do. Great. Thank you, Paula. Thank you. Great. Moving on. Um item 5.1 updates AMSD and legislative. Tim, do you have any? Okay. Yes. Um the Association of Metropolitan School Districts. We had a meeting last uh Friday morning at 7. Uh we um had uh two reports. Um one from the um Minnesota Department of Education that spoke to us about the Minnesota Student Survey. Every two years they go out and they survey all our students. It's very throughout the whole state. It's very comprehensive, very strong uh data. And you know the good the highlights is are that you know during COVID we had every meaningful number dip okay and that we are have moved up moved up and we're getting to uh pre-COVID numbers once again. So that's senses of belonging senses of being helped um those types of things. So that was very very very encouraging because we all know what a challenging environment we had during um COVID. So um it it's just great to see those numbers and these are reported by students. There's no filter out there. They can put what they want, answer what they want, um, and not answer if they choose not to. We also had a fun presentation from some students from Minnitonka public schools that took on the, uh, task of, uh, working out a problem uh, called um, school funding in Minnesota. And if you're aware of school funding in Minnesota, it's a real blast. There's about 14 different buckets. There's this pays this, this person pay this paid this. But it was just fun. It's always good to be around the kids and they did a great job and they took it very very seriously. So uh uh we also worked on our legislative uh reports that and position papers that uh we will bring the upcoming legislative session. It starts in February I believe uh Friday, February 6th is the legislative kickoff for AMSD. All us uh folks up here are invited. So if you want to go let me know. So thank you very much. Great. Thanks Jim and Shauna. Do you have an update from Northeast Metro 916 school district? I do. So, Northeast Metro 916 is a intermediate school district made up of 13 member districts of which Mounts View is a member and I am the Mounds View representative that sits on that school board. Um, we use 916 for some uh maybe low incidence uh or high need special education services as well as career and teched um programs for our students in Monzu district. And we met uh December 10th, but this board hasn't met since uh that board met. So December 10th was our last board meeting. Um we had a really interesting presentation from assist of technology. Um, so some of the district assisted technology people came in and gave us a presentation. Um, everything from super high-tech devices that can be a voice for students um to really low tech like an automatic fingernail clipper. Um, so it was really a neat variety of things that 916 has in their assisted technology library that are open to member districts uh to use. So, if we were to have a student who maybe needed some assisted technology, we could um try those items, kind of try them before we buy them for the student to see if, you know, those items work. So, um they currently have almost 3,000 items uh in their um in their assisted technology library. So, uh it's a really nice resource that we're able to access. [clears throat] Um and then we got to see a little bit of a sneak peek. So there are four intermediate school districts in the state of Minnesota. Three of them um got together and made a documentary about um kind of what is a intermediate school district, what do they do, what services do they provide. So 916, 917 and 287 uh went together and uh made a documentary and that is available on 916's website. Um it's pretty cool uh just kind of to see how students are impacted by the services they provide and uh how staff are also impacted by the services. So that was it was really neat. Um and then we approved a handful of policies just um you know school board regular school board work. Um and then we meet again at the end of January for that uh school board. So I will provide an update again in February. Great. Thanks, Shauna. Next on our agenda is school board member member reports. Well, that came out we r um with two new school board members. I just want to reiterate to everyone that even in the public that um all of us as schoolboard members serve as layons to different organizations and different schools within our district. So like Jim is our AMSD rep and Sean is our 916 rep. Um all school board members are lazens to different organizations um different schools in the district and we al also try to um go to activities across the district and also naturally go to some activities for those of us who still have kids in the district. Um so we use this time to report on those kinds of things, share with the public what we're seeing and also um any other observations. So I'll open it up to any other school board member reports. Uh, as we heard our Irondale rep uh briefly mention the Westside Band Festival was yesterday. So that includes um this year it was fifth grade band, sixth grade band, seventh grade band, and then the Irondale uh 11th and 12th grade the more advanced band. Uh and it was students from Irondale, Edgewood, High View, Sunnyside, Pinewood, Valentine Hills, and Bair. Um, so each of those bands will play two songs uh independently and it's just incredible to hear the fifth graders who've maybe only had their instruments since June um and you know they've only been playing six months to seniors who have been playing their instrument since fifth grade. It's incredible just to hear the progression uh of the kids. And then um they play all together one song at the end that they've never practiced and the joke is always we're going to start together and we hope to finish together but we don't know what's going to happen. And so they play O to Joy uh at the end and they started together and they finished together and it was just uh beautiful and just such a great testament to the amazing music program we have here in the district and just the the dedication of um our band directors um to to just always put on such an incredible event. So it was really uh really fun to see. Any other school board members have any reports for tonight? Jim? Yes, of course I do. Um um maybe didn't mention this last time, but Irondale did the seniors the seniors concert is always a big hit. Um it was just fun to see the community come and hear the holiday songs and um everyone was greatly pleased. I also went to the Mounds View Holiday Choir concert. It was really um really really great. Um you know, hats off to Rob Reets. Um, I got a great call from I've been volunteering with YMCA Youth and Government and uh the Mounds View in the North Suburban area, which is Mounds View in Irondale. Um, we got ourselves a governor this year. They elected a Moundsu student governor. So, that made me very, very, very pleased. Um, and you know, um, we have a special day coming up Monday, Martin Luther King Day, as folks in our community are hurting and they're scared. Um, you know, it's good to remember um um Reverend King and um honor him. The Shview Lions Club at the community center will have an event from 9 to noon where you can do a lot of activities to do community service. Uh I know uh Alyssa and I have been over there before. Uh I've been there I think the last three, four years. Encourage people in the community come over there. There's stuff to do, good stuff to do, and it's a good way to remember MLK King Day. And you know, in these times of trouble, I will throw out an ML King quote. It's one of my favorites. Um, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. So, happy Martin Luther King Day. Yeah. Another event a few of us were able to attend in December as well as the seniors to seniors concert was um Operation Joy, which is put on in conjunction with Ralph Reer and some of our uh community partners. and um they work with um students in our district um and families in our district and provide um holiday gifts. And a few of us were able to be elves, I guess you would call us, and help families shop for different gifts. Um and uh it just it's it's an amazing event every year and I'm so encouraged um by the work of our Ralph Raider staff to really meet the needs of our students and our and our families um in our communities and they're working really hard right now. So, we think uh like Jim was saying with the gifts, we really thank our community for supporting them. Um I also went to several different events. I kind of called it an Irondale weekend. Um the Irondale drama department put on a children's play on Friday night and Saturday. They um take a children's play to the elementary schools on the west side of the district and then invite families in and it was a it was a huge full house on Friday night for Susakov musical. Um and it was a great production. Uh so kudos to the drama team there. Um on Saturday morning I went over to Irondale and to um to be part of the Nightcrawlers which is our uh the Irondale robotics team 20th anniversary at open house. And so um it was amazing to see um uh they had done a great video of of different things. They had a lot of their robots out from the years. Um the I don't even know how many tables of um trophies that they had to have across the entire side of one room um to share all their successes over the last 20 years. It was really fun to run into um grads from 2015 and and and older and lots of people in the room celebrating 20 years of a great program at Irondale. Then I headed over to Target Center where the Irondale girls and boys basketball team got to play. So that was a really uh fun event just to be um at Target Center um this huge huge [clears throat] place and cheer on our Knights uh both the girls team and the boys team as they played St. Cloud Apollo. So, we know that that is a very small small testament to all the activities that are going on in all our schools right now. And um like everyone here said, uh we are so appreciative of the students and the family members who who take the time to participate in all those things and for the staff members who make those happen. Uh I just want to remind the public that we are continuing our process for filling our vacant board seat. Uh that process will continue on uh this Thursday, January 15th. Uh we will do um interviews. I believe we had 17 16 people apply uh for the open position. And we will be interviewing um starting at 5:30 on Thursday. And then we will finish up those interviews the following Tuesday, January uh 20th. And we look forward to appointing our new board member at our February meeting. Great. Is there anything else to come before the board? Yes, yes. Uh, I first would like to say thank you and I I hold this this role um with honor and also want to remind folks or let people know that on on Friday, Irondale is having a community movie and everybody is invited, all ages, elementary, and they're watching age one, which is a really fun movie. So, uh we can all come together as a community and this is really a time where uh hugs and smiles and just nice moments is really important. So, if folks can come, that would be wonderful. Wow, that movie seems like it's really old and I love it. [laughter] I think I had it on VHS. Okay, so yeah, Mark. Yeah, I'd like to just uh thank a few people if that's okay. Absolutely. All right. I want to share a few words of gratitude u to begin this term. To the voters of the district, thank you for your trust and special thanks to those constituents who welcome me into their neighborhoods and allowed me to place signs in their yards. To my fellow school board members, I look forward to working together to service our students. Toa, special thanks for your partnership as we navigate our new journey together. Jim Deay, thank you for being the goat. Your guidance, passion, and strategic brilliance. Acronym goat. Acronym goat. Acronym goat. Exactly. Your strategic brilliance were invaluable. To my family and friends, thank you for believing in me and giving me the encouragement I needed to run for the Mountains School Board District. Finally, to my wife Kim and senior political adviser, thank you for your love and your belief in me. You have shown me what you what it truly means to be involved in our community, and I couldn't be here without you. So, thank you. Thank you. We are proud and excited to welcome our Canasha to the table and like Shauna said to welcome another new member next month. So, um anything else to come forward? Great. We are journed Heidi.