Sorry for the delay. We're having some camera issues. But if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America to the stands for all. Any changes to the agenda? No, Mr. Mayor. A small council tonight. So, who wants to make the motion? Motion by Amanda, second by Gina. All in favor? I is adopted. We have a presentation that we have the state of the new Craig schools. Welcome. should have all clapped or something. And Linda, did you turn on the mics? You have a green light on your microphone. I do. I feel a lot of pressure since you clapped for me as well. Recording in progress. I'll give you a second here. I'm just checking with our remote AV person to make sure that they unmuted. Should be good. Okay, I think we're good to go. Well, thank you for having me tonight. Um Andy Vulma, superintendent of the New Pra, proud superintendent to the New Prague Area Schools. Um thank you, Mayor Julius, for having me. U uh city manager Terry and I meet quite often and he extended this invitation a couple of of months ago and thought it'd be appropriate to to kind of give an update on the city, excuse me, on the school district. And I know you have a busy agenda tonight. So, um, I have a presentation that I'm going to let you scroll through if is is it working? Okay, one second. I can step away from the mic a little bit too. Perfect. Um, again, thank you for having me. Uh, I won't take a lot of your time, but I have a short presentation that I think we've put together to help quantify kind of the experience of the new Prague area schools. And, um, so I come uh with greetings from my seven bosses, the seven school board members. And I'd like to call attention to Miss Jean Schmidt who's here this evening, Elco New Market resident, as well as Miss Carrie Cuff, who's here as well, who's running for the school board. Um, but my bosses uh extend their warm greetings and uh thank you for their continued support, your continued support of the new Prague Area Schools. Um, as you can see, yes, I have seven bosses, but I think the bosses that I've really pay attention I pay attention to the schoolboard. Yes, I do. Uh, but it's really on the next slide. It's really serving our students and staff. What can we do to make sure that we're providing great welcoming learning environments for all of our students and providing our staff with the resources that they have or that they need to meet the needs of all of our students. And I'm proud to say that we have great staff throughout the new Prague area schools and we really have are blessed to have wonderful students and wonderful families which we're able to serve. In terms of our district strategic roadmap, you can see our mission and our vision. I won't go through all of this with you, but again, our goal is to be that premier school district district that models excellence and prepares all of our students for life's opportunities. And those opportunities are rapidly changing, which makes our job very interesting as we think about how we are changing our practices to meet the needs of our students um as we go forward for things that that we don't even really know what we're preparing them for um at this day and age. And for in terms of our core values, we continue to talk about innovation. How can we innovate? Uh even at times when maybe there isn't we aren't resourceri. We talk about being open-minded, the the importance of relationship and and having integrity at all times and in all places. And then those areas of uh improvement, those improvement efforts are four strategic directions that you can see on the right hand side. I won't read those through for all of you, but that is really our compact to the community, our agreement in terms of our strategic plan and what we hope, what we promise to our community. Um, and as we continue to work, as I continue to work with the administrative staff, we continue to think about those four strategic directions all the while being grounded in our core values. We talk about in New Prague, you can go to the next slide, the importance of culture and uh this is this is my uh beginning my second year as the superintendent and I am proud to say that I inherited a very strong culture in the new Prague area schools. So I thank Mr. Dip Earnner uh the former superintendent as well as the staff who have helped create a culture um in terms of that is very student focused that is very innovative that is very relationshipbased um and looking looking to have uh positive and collaborative relationships with our families and our community partners. We define culture in three ways in the new Prague area schools. It's doing what's right. It's committing to excellence which is on the next slide. and it's showing people that we care at all times and in all places. And so, um, we talk about the new PREG way internally. And when we do that, we go back to those three, uh, statements of committing to excellence, uh, doing what's right and showing people that we care. In terms of a school district, we've tried to quantify the experience of the school district. So, these next few slides talk about it from last year's data, of course, in terms of who we are and what we serve. Um, so about 95% of our students, about 1% of our students are English language learners. About 16% of our students receive some sort of special education services, whether that be uh learning disability, whether that be speech and language, so on and so forth. About 20% of our students qualify for free and the federal benefit of free or reduced lunch. Our graduation rate of 95% continues to be steady. We we we we we push to make it a little bit higher, but we have 95% of our students who are graduating. 81% of our students have a master's degree or beyond. Um, and we have close to 600 or 550 staff members in the new Prague area schools. That's our licensed staff members. That's our non-licensed staff members as well. Our total enrollment, um, if you include our preschool is over 4,200 students. Um, we would like our enrollment to continue to grow. Um, and so we continue to when when Mr. Terry and I get together, we talk about development and how we can partner together to to increase homes and and families in our communities to that will then become students in the New Prague area schools. But you can see the breakdown in terms of high school, our CLC, middle school, elementary school, and preschool. About 4,200 students when you add them all together. In terms of the I think some of these next slides are just some interesting stats that even shock me a little bit. Uh if you go to the next one, our transportation fleet travels over 867,000 miles a year in a school district that covers 160 square miles. Our transportation fleet, which is our buses, our vans, and our cars, travels that many. You can see we have over 28 full-time employees in our transportation department. We're lucky enough. We're a school district who owns our own transportation fleet. Um, that allows us to provide really good customer service. It allows it also allows us to maintain costs um much more so if then we were to go to a third party vendor. Um, I've had them check that stat twice, 867,000 miles because I had found it hard to believe the first time and they verified that that is indeed true from year after year. Uh, the next slide I think is interesting as well. our nutrition services almost serves almost 700,000 meals a year in all of our buildings. You can see the number of uh total breakfast serves, lunches that are served as well. If you continue on um you can see that our fitness aquatic center uh and the stats of the number of check-ins, the number of daily admissions. We have over a 100 staff members, not full-time, but who work in the fitness aquatic center on a regular basis. It's a very hot and popular spot for our senior citizen population to meet during the school day. Over 425 of our of our members are senior members and they're there on quite a quite a regular basis. In terms of the school day experience or more so our oper not operational but academic and arts and activities. We have over 30 athletic clubs or 30 sports that we provide at the high school. And when you add in those clubs, those activities that we offer, it's over 40 plus clubs and activities and sports that we offer our students in New Prague. So we'd like pride ourselves on being a fullervice school. So it's not only the what what we do during the school day to provide that high quality education, it's also what we do outside of the school day uh to provide opportunities for our students both at at the high school and at the middle school as well. If you continue on, and we've had great successes. Last year, our boys soccer team made it to the state tournament for the first year. Uh they played their opening round a year ago on a night much like tonight in the rain in Farmington. I'll remember that for a long time. Unfortunately, they didn't advance. Uh but they made it to the the the state tournament last year. Our girls volleyball team won second in state, took second in state last year in the highest class. Um and was quite an accomplishment. and I know they're continue on in the playoffs um this next week after winning their first game in sectionals. Our girls softball team also took second place in state and our adapt adaptive floor hockey and we're very proud of our adaptive sports and those opportunities we provide for our students. Um we're state participants and award winners as well. So there's great successes, there's great things that are happening um in the new Prague schools on a on a daily basis. Um, if you continue on, again, it's not just athletics, it's the arts and activities. These are some um slides and some pictures that we took from our our arts evening that we had um in the middle of last year. And I encourage you to find ways to to check out a musical performance, um, a play, any of those things that we do. They're they're really really they're they're done very well and they really showcase our students. And then, of course, there's the academic side and the perception data. Uh we we have room to grow as all stu as all schools do but we are you can see our achievement on the left hand side in terms of the Minnesota comprehensive assessments in reading mathematics and science and how we compare to the state average. You can see those that uh graduation rate of 96% as well. And then you can see I just pulled out a few things in terms of uh feedback that we get from our students in part of a student satisfaction survey where they've said that our school meets academic and social needs. And last year um as we talked and we surveyed our caretakers, 90% of them felt that our education offered to our students was of high quality. And so yes, we're proud of that. We want to continue to improve that to make sure that we're meeting the needs of both our students and our families. I've said this multiple times and I'll end on this. Uh I I start even though we've had some had to make some difficult decisions. We cut $3.5 million at the end of last year. If you think of the year prior before I started, they cut about $3.1 million. If you add that together, that's 14% of our operating budget over two years. Um which is pretty significant. Um I still have great hope. I look at this school district as have so many positives and we have such great staff. We have such strong strong support from our families and our communities and we want to continue to grow that and I have great hope for this school district as we continue to go forward because there's such a strong foundation here though we've had to do some difficult things and have some difficult conversations and make some difficult decisions. I think there's great things and there's great potential going forward. And um my last slide was cut out, but we talk about proud tradition and promising future. And we want to continue to build upon that proud tradition to ensure a promising future for all of our students and our families. And so we thank you for your support, your ongoing support. Um and we want to continue to work with you on behalf of our our communities and more specifically our student our families. So thank you for having me. Thank you. Do you mind if I asked a question? Um, sure. Yes, of course I would. You know, the Vikings are playing in just a few minutes. That's I'll make it I'll make it quick. I forgot that I signed up for this and the Vikings were playing on a Thursday night. That that's fine. Ask me ask questions away. Go ahead. Regard enrollment. Um, I mean, I'm assuming it's going up, but I'm really curious about open enrollment as well. Yeah, we're we're net in terms of open enrollment. So, there were two parts to the question. One was open enrollment and the other was enrollment overall. Um when you look at our open enrollment, we benefit by about 450 students compared to the number of students who come into our school district versus the number of students who exit our school district. That number is pretty high in comparison um to other places. We capture about 86% of the students who are eligible to come into the new Prague area schools. And for somebody who has experience in other school districts, a capture rate of 86% of students is kind of unheard of. You don't see that number in in other districts. That's typical. Uh 75 would be high. So 86 is very high, right? In terms of enrollment, uh our overall, if you take out the preschool enrollment, we've dipped below 4,000. Um we're more so I think we were projected, we did projections at about 3,920. Don't quote me on that. We're about 50 to 75 students more than projection, which is a good thing for us, but we need that number to be over 4,000 in order to support the programs and the and the business model, if you will, that we that we have that our families expect and that our students um have really benefited from, right? So, uh the enrollment isn't trending the way we would like. It's it's kind of flatlined. Um we would like to see that number go up. Um the number of kindergarten students uh that we have planned for next year and that's a moving target but I think this is a this these are some stats that will be beneficial to you. Um you asked me a question now I'm giving you a really long answer. Right. Yeah it does. Right. Uh we graduated about 325 students last year. Okay. We're expected to have 190 students entering into kindergarten next year. And again, we're capturing 86%. That's maybe not the most up-to-date data, but we're capturing a majority of the students that we have. The problem that I have continued to say and and Mr. Terry and I continue to talk about um our school district is predicated in houses having three to four to five to six f kids in those houses. If you think of new pre years years in the past, right? And people are shaking their head. That's not the way it is anymore. And so the number of how either we have to have more. So that's where I continue to push development. I continue to to to say how can we have create development? We need to continue to maintain a strong school experience for our students so that families will continue to want to come to the new Prague area schools. Um, but when you look at our data, it's that there's fewer students in the homes and there aren't as many homes being built, right? So, how do we counter that? We counter that by having more homes being built as one method to do that, all the while maintaining a high quality experience where students want to come. Thank you. Long-winded, but there you go. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? I have a a question that kind of piggybacks on that a little bit, but the tax abatement has been a hot topic in I didn't know that. Sorry. And I don't know, this might be like a a Tom question or a you question, but I don't really understand like the process and what the school board like how it's presented to the school board. Who like are there like with we'll get some sort of a proposal. Tom will, you know, present it to us, give us recommendations, the facts, the pros, the cons, like who does that for the school board, who does and who evaluates? Yeah. like who like the city of New Prague brings it forward and obviously they're trying to sell something to get you on board, but like who does that evaluation piece to be able to weigh the pros and cons for the school board? Yeah, that's a really good question. So ultimately that's a schoolboard decision, right? So the school board hires me and uh their voice, the majority opinion of their voice is is the message that goes out. So my job is I believe to to give them as much information as they possibly can to make an informed decision. So in this particular case uh you know I I I'm I'm really pleased and and and happy to be able to work with multiple city administrators. And so I would probably be the entry point into that. Then it would be me working with our uh director of business services to help evaluate that to see does this make sense to our to our school district. all the while then engaging our school board in discussions and giving them the information so that they can make that informed decision um based on the information that they have at that given time. So, um I don't know if it's as as linear as that, you know, coming from one person to another, but um that's why I think it's important for um for Mr. Terry and I to have regular meetings at at local restaurants or in offices um to to have to be able to understand the pulse of of in my case multiple communities, right? Um and so I don't know if I answered that, but that's kind of how that works. I think that's helpful. Um I have one more really not a question more of a plug from citizens of Elon new market is the um activity bus that used to come out here. Um bring it back please. I know there was a cost to the the families out here as well as so I'm not I don't understand the whole obviously it was a split cost probably between the school district and the parents that were assisting in paying for it but it was a real benefit for us to have. I appreciate you sharing that that reduction was made I own it but that reduction was made prior prior to me taking over. Um, I will tell you that one of the things that I could help that helps us in that is we need additional revenue, right? No one in no one in the school district wants to make budget reductions, right? No one wants to do those things. And the the reductions of the spring of 23 um were the first reductions, my understanding, that the new Prague area schools had made in 13 years. So, they could do things that didn't affect classrooms, not completely, but generally speaking. Last year, our reductions significantly affected classrooms. We cut over 30 staff members as a result of those reductions. So, um, we're not in the bringing back mode just yet, right? I I I hear it. I understand it. I've heard some from some residents as well. We would love to be able to do those things, but then I would say to everyone that's going to be important for us to continue to partner to find additional revenue sources. Do you know about how many of your students are in Alonum Market? Great question. Um I do not I do not. Um I know that um when we look at growth um I think of of of Eagle View Elementary and I think of the possibilities around Eagle View Elementary. About 550 students are at Eagle View now. Um I don't know how many move on in throughout the system. I could get that information and send it to you, but I don't have I don't have that completely right off the top of my top of my head. I was just curious. No, it's a very good question. Any other questions? Go watch some football. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Thank you for your support of the new Prag area schools. Thank you. All right, with that, we'll open it to public comment. Anyone here to speak under public comment tonight? Okay, we'll close public comment and move on to consent. Anyone have any questions or items they'd like from consent? I'll entertain a motion. No motion to approve consent. Second. Motion by Amanda, second by Gina. All in favor? I We have no public hearings tonight. We have nothing on general business. So, we'll go to reports. administration public works. You got any report for us? All right. All right. Uh, no, don't have Craig today. engineering looking forward to it. Uh, community development have the cannabis bit, right? Yes. Um, did you want me to put my presentation on or do you want to just discuss what was in the M? This is really just a matter of what how much feet do we want to look at for buffers on? Right. Yeah, we're good with 100. Okay. 100. Love it. Did you have a recommendation other than that? I truly didn't. It was completely up to you guys. It makes no difference to me at all. Okay. Uh assuming there's nothing more for parks, CCC, my bi-weekly plug for the Halloween party. It is this Saturday from 10 to noon at Eagle View. Hope to see everybody there. Uh there's no scale. reports. Is there anything for service delivery? Meeting is later this month. Okay. We have no Josh and assuming nothing no one has anything for I35. Okay. Any discussion by council? Okay. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion by Amanda, second by Gina. All in favor? I is adjourned.