Good evening everyone. Like to call tonight's meeting to order. Like everyone to rise with me and join us in 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. Again, welcome everyone. Uh, all board members are present. We will start our evening tonight with uh, Laker Pride, Dr. Thomas. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Chair White. Board of Directors, welcome community and everyone. Um, starting off the night, uh, we got three things tonight. Uh we will have a special recognition, one of our administrators, our uh winter activities, which is always one of the highlights. Um and then also a recap on our Greece uh trip with our students who performed um overseas. So, I will start off by sharing that our director of student support services, Michelle Chuka, has been named for the 2025 uh school year. Um the Minnesota Association of Special Education Administrator of the Year award and um she has been recognized by her peers and colleagues all throughout the state. I know this is when in one of my previous Fridays fives, but I got to tell you um when we were able to get her from an unnamed district. We were very pleased that uh she was joining the PLSAS family. And to date um Michelle, you have truly um outdone yourself and really opening up pathways and supports and and opportunities for our kids who need it most. And so I just want to say on behalf of all the staff and your colleagues here, um, congratulations and, uh, you do us proud, but clearly you do the whole state proud as well. So if you want to say a few words and I also have a nice certificate and we're going to have the pose. Yay. Um, well, thank you. Uh, it's I'm deeply honored that um, my colleagues recognize me for this, but one thing I know to be true, I'm getting a lot of credit for a lot of work other people do. So my team across the district is amazing working um with students with disabilities and then the leadership team whether that's at the building level or district district level also really supports our students with disabilities and for that I am forever grateful. Inclusion has always been the heart of my work and to see that play out in greater ways here in Prior Lake Savage area schools is just amazing. So thanks for the recognition. I appreciate it. Glad to have you. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay, we'll do it tomorrow, I guess. All right. So, now I'm going to call forward uh Mr. Jeff Marshall, who is our district athletic director, and he will have the honors of introducing um a lot of our students this evening in recognizing their uh phenomenal accomplishments along with a little bit of a presentation as well. Uh Mr. Marshall, I will leave you with all the certificates that the students will pick up at the high school. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And I'm just trying to get the slides up. Do we How do I get the slides up? Press escape twice. One more time. And it's minimized at the bottom. They're here. Perfect. All right. Well, good evening, Superintendent Dr. Thomas, board chair white, and school board directors, and other guests. It is my honor and privilege to present to you the 2024 to 25 winter activities and athletics report, as well as to recognize and honor those students who have qualified for state or achieve tremendous success in their given activities from this past winter season. Before we begin bringing students in, I wanted to share a few reminders of our athletics and activities department. As you can see on this very first slide, we continue to live by our vision of students experiencing an enjoyable environment of a wide array of co-curricular activities that promote pride, character, sportsmanship, and development of personal and team excellence. With over 75% of our student population participating in some sort of co-curricular activity, this is a testament to the wide array that we offer and the enjoyable experiences our students are having within these sports and activities. As we switch to our next slide, you will see what we use for a definition of success within our programs. While it is always our goal to win in our competitions, when we reflect back on a season, our coaches, advisers, and students should be looking at whether or not they created lifelong memories, they developed lifelong friendships, and they taught or learned lifelong lessons. In addition, we use the Laker acronym to define our purpose statement within our department, starting with developing moral character skills. These are skills that we want our students to learn and display in all aspects of their lives, not just within their sports or activities. Thus, love, appreciation, kindness, empathy, and respect are all skills that our students and adults should reflect on and display in all interactions within and outside of their activities. The performance character skills of legacy, advocacy, knowledge, enthusiasm, and resiliency are skills that we want our students to display specifically within their sport or activity, but would also carry over to other aspects of their lives. And we refer to them as skills instead of traits because traits are things that you're born with. And we believe that skills are things that can be taught. And it is the role of our um our mentors, our coaches, and our adviserss to work with our student athletes and our student participants to work on building these skills and teaching them to them. This next slide shows the participation numbers from the last two winter seasons, so you can see a comparison of where things are at for student involvement. A few highlights to point out. Our girls basketball numbers increased enough for us to field four levels again this year, something we have not been able to do for quite some time. Our dance numbers continue to increase and we saw the addition of a male dancer to the team this year. Our wrestling numbers continue to increase and while we had fewer females this year, the female number continues to grow at the middle school and youth levels. So, we will see that number increase in the future as well. and our inter mural basketball numbers continue to be strong with well over 200 students participating in this during the winter months. Now at this time we will start to highlight some of our specific activities and sports. We're going to start with our activities and our non Minnesota State High School League sports weightlifting. The first group we're going to bring in is our olymp our two members of our Olympic weightlifting team. And looks like we only had one be able to make it tonight. This is Lillian. No, Lillian and Anelica Bonitez both qualified and placed at the state championships. Lillian finished as runner up in her category and Anelica finished as state champion for the third consecutive year. This was also Anelica's fourth year of qualifying for state. Both athletes have qualified for the national competition in Colorado Springs that'll be taking place in June. And the team is coached by Scott Felstead. Congratulations Congratulations. Our next group of students that we're going to bring in is our DECA group. This year we had 22 students who qualified for the state championships. Payton Collie, Tanner Long, Sanjanna Ra, Ravindraath, Grayson Peterson, Jonathan Sheay, Logan Santi, who's standing in front of you right now, Schllock, Jane, Vic Ram, Candulla, Bladlav, Ginsburg, Broden Persal, Devin Zender, Jesse Tupi, Ashwin Mandal, Benjamin Sandaval, Ethan Rinsbach, and Sapria Up. In addition, six students placed at the DECA state championships and have qualified for the international competition taking place in Orlando later this month. That is Maline Ban, Maline Banis. Is Meline here? He's not. Oh, okay. Maline Banis, Olivia Zerbil, Josh Biscanic, Drew Japa, Lena Johnson, and Grace Cullen. The team is coached by both Brook Whan and Gemma Kilmer. And Logan, congratulations. Congrats. [Applause] Unfortunately, we were not able to have any members of our mock trial team attend tonight. Uh, however, the mock trial blue team qualified for the state tournament again this year after advancing through regionals where they finished fourth at the state tournament. Team members for this year included Veronica Cruz, Bella Ellert, Ikram Fida, Aiden Green, Brena Green, Elodie Neimoth, Sophia Saputo, Finn Schlipchure, Evelyn Timberman, and Anna Wong. And our mock trial is coached by Tum Takuma Padilla, Matt Bear, and Fatima Aayor. Next, we have our debate. Go on up there, girls. Good job, mock trial. This year was the second. Yeah, congratulations to mock trial. They're not here unfortunately, but um they did a fantastic job. So, uh this was the second year of us being able to field a debate team. Um we did have two individuals who qualified for the state tournament this year, which again um knowing that we only this is only the second year in existence of a debate team. To have anybody qualify for state is truly um amazing. So, and the amazing thing about both of these girls is they are both ninth graders. And so, we have Marie Forton and Shria Agarwal. And a big thanks to Allison Roberts for continuing to coach the team. Congratulations, ladies. We look forward to the next three years. [Applause] Congrats. Congratulations. Our one act team this year there. You can come on in. We're I'm just giving some highlights still. Our one act advanced to the section final this year where they finished in third place just barely missing making it to state. Jenny Wit came back out of retirement to direct our competition one act this year and did a fantastic job. Um our SSC visual arts exhibition um unfortunately none of them could make it here tonight but we we uh participate in the South Suburban Conference visual arts exhibition and at that exhibition Tomas Valde Valdivia won an award of achievement. Michelle Burlesen won an award of excellence and Danny Nong won an award of merit. Uh special thanks goes out to Christy Malongren, uh one of our art teachers at the high school who coordinates and organizes the entire event. So congrats to our uh visual arts participants as well. Standing in front of you right now is delegate Abigail Hy who participates in Model United Nations also as one of our adviserss Aaron Zimmerb. Sarah Summers is our other adviser. Uh, delegate Abby won the best position paper this year for the Security Council, which is a huge honor to be able to earn that that title as part of the Security Council for the Model United Nations. So, congratulations, [Applause] Abby. And both debate and model United Nations are programs that we run through the school, but are technically studentled groups. We have to have people who step up to advise them, but those who do step up to advise them are unpaid people who just uh do it out of the goodness of their heart to be able to continue to run these programs. So, a big thank you to Aaron and Zimmer for doing that as well. Aaron and Sarah. Congrats. [Applause] Next up, we have our first tech challenge, also known as FTC. I think quite often we hear a lot about robotics which is the F FRC. The FTC is also um similar to to the robotics program but their competitions are actually run a little bit differently than F FRC. So the first tech challenge this year the team started their incredible journey on home turf. They competed in the Minnesota FTC Prior Lake qualifier that's held on Sunday, November 24th last year. If you've never attended that event, I would highly encourage you to come out and see the high school that is completely transformed into this amazing robotics event that happens out there because it really is miraculous to see the work that they put in to use all of the gyms, the commons, the entire building. It's really, really a neat event. They competed relentlessly and finished qualification rounds at eighth place. They were actually picked by the third alliance. And because they were picked by an alliance that was higher than them, they ended up finishing fourth in the playoffs. They then competed in the Burnsville State qualifier that was held on Saturday, January 11th. They ended the qualification matches in 10th place. However, they were picked at that point by Alliance One to join in and work with them, and they won their way through the playoffs and eventually won the tournament. This then qualified them to the FTC Minnesota State Championships that were held on February 15th. They went seven and one in qualifications and end up ranking second at that point. And they would go on within their alliance to become the second alliance captain and make it to the finals of their division. Eventually, they fell short, but certainly taking second place is quite a huge accomplishment. They did finish second overall. They didn't get an invite to the world championship, but they did get an invite to the FTC premier event where teams that were not able to make it can show off their robot and will be competing at the Michigan Premier Event on June 19th to the 22nd. This is an honor that a prior lake team has not had in a long time. Team number 45509, the Excalibat included the following team members. Sam Holm, Justin Ortle, Ethan Leler, Jack Schmidline, Harry Jen, Philip Komaov, and the coaches are Mike Cerillo, Andrew Bannis, and Martin Davis. Congratulations to the FTC team. [Applause] I see Will's in there as a coach as well too. Congratulations [Applause] Gentlemen, next up we will be bringing in our all state band and orchestra folks. These are folks who are who are uh determined to make the all state honors for both band and orchestra. We have Maline Duke for their obo playing. Samantha Chai playing the clarinet. Anna Wang playing the clarinet. Any Okansky playing the clarinet. Kale Solomon playing the French horn. Peter Maize playing the trumpet. Henry Walls playing the tuba. Jack Nichollet on percussion. Harry Jiang on percussion. In addition to those students earning all state, we also have um an additional list of students who are our two 2024 to 25 Minnesota Band Directors Association state 9th through 10th honor band members, which is all state for 9th and 10th graders. This included Harriet Presley on the flute, Austin Klehorn on the bassoon, Audrey Ferraru on clarinet, Jackson Vigilleti on trumpet, Griffin Bemer on trombone, Alexander St. Helair on tuba and Andrew Coleman on percussion. And we had one student who made the 2024 to 25 Minnesota Band Directors Association state 9 through10 jazz honor band and that was Austin Klehorn on the baritone sachs playing a different instrument than he played for um the honor band where he played the bassoon. So our directors are Keith Kulmoose and Justin ShraMM. Congratulations to all of you on earning all state. Congrats. [Applause] [Music] And I know that you'll be hearing in a little bit um some stories and information about the Greece trip. Uh many of those students who are up here on the Greece trip. I had the uh I guess I can say privilege and honor. I'm not sure if that's those are the right terms to use when describing chaping a trip to Greece with 150 high schoolers. But um it was quite the experience. We brought them all back. So, um, you bring them all back, that means that it was a a successful trip. So, and again, I know Keith will be coming up and sharing a little bit about that in a little bit. Coming in now are a number of our choir students. These are our all state choir students for 2425. Uh, the 2526 results have not been posted yet. We had nine students earn all state this year for choir. Sarah Langage, Amy Weaver, Ree Olsen, Connor McCrae, Jonah Baker, Leo Choy, Mason Bass, Zack Glum, and Rowan Wilson. And our directors for the choir are both Randy Erson and Rob Han. Couple really uh interesting facts and statistics about All State Choir. Typically, the maximum number of singers allowed to earn All State from any school is six. This past year, Prior Lake High School was the exception to that rule. We had nine. No other high school in the state got as many as Prior Lake High School and nor has it ever happened before. Our six teners and bases were the ones who first filled in the slots. They filled in the allowed six slots for Prior Lake High School. MMEA, the the governing body had not even begun to seat the Sopranos and Altos. So they when they went to seat the sopranos and altos they found that all three of the prior lake high school uh students were in the top five for their respective parts and two of the three were actually in the top three in the state. So that when MMEA realized this they were willing to withhold ex they were unwilling to withhold acceptance from such strong candidates. They knew that these candidates had to be a part of this and so again they bent their rules to allow all nine to be able to do this. In the state, there are just over 450 schools that have juniors and senior students who are eligible for all state. When you look at the all-state um numbers, however, 20% approximately 20% every year actually come from the South Suburban Conference, which is the conference that we are in. So it also shows not only the depth and the strength of Prior Lake High School but also the depth and the strength of the conference in which we are in especially when only seven out of 10 of those schools within the conference are ones who are actually uh competing for this. So congratulations to all of you. This truly is an amazing honor. [Applause] Congrats. Congratulations. [Applause] At this time, we are going to switch over now to our Minnesota State High School League sponsored athletic teams from this past winter. Unfortunately, our alpine skiers were not able to make it. Uh, but our alpine skiers repeated as girls conference champions. They were the section six champions, um, meaning that they qualified for state by winning the section. At the state championships, they finished in third place overall. Team members were Annabelle McCann, Coven Rice, Olivia Reid, Emily Reid, Ashley Schaefer, and Elizabeth McCross McCrosski. And they were coached by Dave Everson, and Anna Smothers. Congrats to our girls alpine ski team. In front of you is one of our members of our girls Nordic ski team, Brooke Markwart. Brooke was one of the captains for our Nordic ski team this year. The team took second in section one. uh by finishing in the top two, they qualified for the state championship as a team. This was the first time ever in the history of the school that we've qualified for um the Nordic Ski Championships as a team. Um which was a huge accomplishment. Um our the team members who qualified for state were Brooke Markwart, Sophia Bile, Elelliana Recmeire, Sarah Rich, Samantha Rich, Caitlyn, and Kate House. And the team is coached by Paige Larson, Jake Styley, and Sean Straa. Congratulations, Brooke. And congratulations to the Nordic skiers. Congratulations. Both of our basketball programs had tremendous seasons this past year. Our boys basketball program finished 22-7 overall, 13-5 in the South Suburban Conference, losing an unbelievably tough section final to Shakipi. But worthy of note for both of our basketball teams is we had two individuals who actually surpassed a thousand career points. Unfortunately, neither of them could be with us tonight. But Norbu Jmpa surpassed a thousand career points for the boys team. He was coached by Brian Youngworth. And on the girls side, our team finished 21-6 overall, 13-4 in the South Suburban Conference. They lost to Minnetonka by one point in the section semi-finals and just a heartbreaker. But Brie Bowman, she surpassed a thousand career points um as well, which is again a huge accomplishment. And she is coached by Maurice Hodes. So, congrats to both of our thousand point scorers in basketball. Our boys swimming and diving, unfortunately, the individuals were not able to make it tonight. Most of them are actually in the pool training right now as they get ready for either college or to to participate next year on our high school team. But our boys swimming and diving team finished 9 and0 in the conference. They finished as conference champs once again. They finished third at the state doubleA championships repeating as the 200 medley relay state champs. That was Ethan Kosen, Owen Badett, Griffin Lining, and Braxton Helmers. In addition, you can see from that list the number of other U placeholders that we had u which really covered almost every event at the state meet. The only event that they did not score in was the 100 freestyle. Otherwise, we had people scoring in every event at the state meet. Um again, finishing third overall for the second straight year. Uh, coaches were Joe Bowlinger, Andy Weiss, Joe Selchow, Julia uh Julia Andorok, and Kylie Seban. Congratulations to the boys swimming and diving team. So, you might find something that's kind of unique on these five individuals standing in front of you. That's not all their natural hair colors. I can tell you that right now. These are some of our wrestlers who are up here right now. And our wrestling team finished seven-2 this year in the South Suburban Conference. Going into the section meet, they were seated third, second, were seated second going into the section meet because they had lost to Apple Valley, perennial wrestling superpower in the conference in the section. They had lost to them during the season. At the section tournament, however, they were able to come back and to beat Apple Valley in the section in the section finals to qualify for the team state tournament for the first time since 2015. John's up there saying that was pretty easy. It looks like um it was an amazing experience to be able to take the whole team down to the XL Energy Center and to be able to have them wrestle down there where they finished in sixth place overall um at the state tournament. In addition, we had four individual state qualifiers this year. Team members included Rockco Michelisac who also qualified individually, Chase Foster, Dai Brown, Michael Atkinson, Liam Collins who also finished sixth as an individual, Jack Gerstead, Brody Daly, Owen Tronson, Wyatt Smith, Zack Gabler, Brady Gagenheimer, John Graham, who also qualified individually, Garrett Wood, Scott Hendris, Charlie Nelson, Tommy Wyoff, Isaiah Olabody, Brock Zern, who finished third individually, Alex Tmaine, and Adam Jerulis. Our wrestling team is coached by head coach Joe Block, Alex Head, John Tolbert, Clint Hodgegen, Bill Gabler, and certainly a slew of other volunteers because you have to have a lot of different wrestling coaches to be able to help out at all the different uh wrestling weights that are out there. The other piece I want to point out is that our head coach, Joe Black, who I know is here somewhere, the state class AAA coach of the year, the best coach in the entire state for AAA for this past year. Congratulations, coach. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Next, we're going to bring in our cheerleaders. And our cheerleaders have made it a habit of of uh being able to be here year in and year out. The success of our cheerleading program is absolutely incredible. This year they were competing in a different division. And when we talk about the cheerleading program and the success that they have, it isn't at a state level. It's at a national level. Every year, our cheerleaders qualify for the national championships that take place down in Orlando, Florida in in uh early February. This year at the UCA Nationals, our varsity team took second place in the nation for the medium varsity game day competition and fifth place in the medium varsity traditional competition. Again, second in the nation and fifth in the nation for both of theirs. on the JV side, who also qualifies for nationals every year. Our JV squad took first place national champs in the small game day division and they took fifth place in the nation in the small traditional division. So again, these girls make up some of the best cheerleading and one of the best cheerleading programs in the nation. Our varsity members include Ava Bildo, Azera Olsen, Caris Taylor, Josie Belin, Payton Johnson, Stella Goodman, Willow Blatsky, Ella Arbach, Hattie McGilly, Kate Cusera, Caitlyn Clout, Lindseay Higgins, Madison Pickinpack, Morgan Nemichek, Kylie Gerky, Payton Sukup, Reese Guggamos, Llaya Kramer, and Taylor Caspers. And our JV squad includes Brooklyn Clam, Cameron Fangle, Dari Anise Dilly, Esme Brics, Evie Fischer, Camry Walters, Key Stewart, Kira Young, Lealia Cron, Miller, Mava Goodman, Molly Zack, Piper Brown, Quinn Willie, Sadie Kronm, Miller, Sydney Long, Tenley Arbach, and Tenley Canwell. And our coaches for cheerleading are Mattie Bills, Britney Ryan, Megan Musil, Pam Sonic, and Kaylee Brown. Congratulations to all of [Applause] [Music] you. Congratulations. Thank you guys. I'm upset you guys didn't do a pyramid or something. Congrats. We can totally The final team we're going to recognize tonight is our gymnastics team. Our gymnastics team this year took second at section 2A. Um just barely missing qualifying for the state tournament as a team. All right. They did have five individual state qualifiers. I believe some of them are Yep. Here we come. five individual state qualifiers this year. That is a school record for the most amount of gymnasts ever sent to state. In addition, the team broke the school record in terms of the overall team score. They scored the highest um score that a team has ever scored from Prior Lake High School. And they also broke the school record as a team on vault, beam, and floor. Our state qualifiers were Maline Shapi in floor exercise and vault. Annie Drain in the all-around the uneven bars the balance beam where she took fifth place the floor exercise and vault. Claire Drain on uneven bars. Avalness on the vault and Brooklyn Thorson on balance beam and fuller exercise. Annie Dra becomes the second ever medalist at state where she finished in fifth and she became the second most decorated Parlake gymnast of all time with three state appearances. Congratulations to the girls and our coaches Patrick Clchner, Liv Spitzer, Julie Seagull, Amanda Macier, and Kimberly New. Congratulations girls. [Applause] Congratulations. We have two other uh awards that we are going to recognize tonight. And these are awards that are sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League. The first is called the Excel Award. The Excel Award stands for Excellence in Community Education and Leadership. And it's a unique recognition program designed exclusively for Minnesota high school juniors who are active in school activities, are leaders in their schools, and who demonstrate a strong commitment to community service. This award is sponsored by the league's corporate part corporate partner, True Stone Financial Credit Union. And this year, the two recipients from Prior Lake High School for the Excel Award are Taylor Hendrickson, unfortunately, Taylor couldn't be with us tonight, and Sid Callum. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Congrats. Congrats. And our final award, uh, the Minnesota State High School League sponsored the AAA award. And AAA stands for um athletics, arts, and academics. The academics, arts, and athletics award, commonly known as aa award, honors high school seniors throughout the state who have extremely high GPA, and who participate in league sponsored athletic and fine arts activities. AAA award recipients are selected through a multi-level process involving member schools of the league, the league's administrative regions, and a special committee of educators, business leaders, and members from the fine arts and athletic communities. Our male AAA winner this year was Sam Holm. Um, unfortunately Sam was unable to be with us tonight. Our female AAA winner this year was Brooke Marquart who's standing in front of you. Uh, Brooke was very unique because we are we're pretty sure pretty pretty sure that Brooke is the first AAA recipient from Prior Lake High School who actually won the next level. She was chosen as the region winner as well, which then means that she went on to the state level competition uh where they had a nice lunchon for her during the state basketball tournament and she was actually recognized during halftime of one of the state basketball championship games down at Williams Arena. So again, a huge honor to win not only the the state or the school level, but also to go on and be able to win the region level for the AAA award. So congratulations, Brooke. In closing, I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to all of you who are sitting here in front. I want to say thank you to all of you who are sitting here in the audience, whether you're parents, grandparents, family members, fans. Uh we get fantastic support in this community for our arts, athletics, and activities. And it is very very exciting to see um without a doubt our teachers and administrators, our coaches and our adviserss, the district office staff as I mentioned, custodial staff at the schools who help support us. Um and most importantly the wonderful student participants and spectators that we have as well because they really do make us proud. um between the sportsmanship that they display, but in addition the sportsmanship and the respect that they display when they're in the stands is is very top-notch. And I'm very proud of our students and our community because of the things that they continue to show. So, thank you very much. I appreciate this opportunity to be able to come out and honor these students. [Applause] Okay, Chair White, I've got uh just one more um this evening. And um you heard earlier that our band went on a um uh trip of a lifetime to showcase their skills and talents across uh the globe in Greece. And uh directors Keith and Justin, they are phenomenal. um at their craft, your ability to connect and support our students, you know, whether it's locally here, Chicago, or you like I said in Greece, we are really proud of the work that you do and I can't thank you enough and really proud of our students as well. So, thank you so much for facilitating this uh great opportunity for our kids to not only perform, but also get a nice immersive cultural experience of something that's a little different than Prior Lake and uh uh and probably something that they'll uh remember forever. So with that, I'll turn it over to you to showcase a little bit of uh the uh experience for our kids. Well, thank you Dr. Thomas and members of the board uh for having us for for this invitation to share a little bit. They say pictures worth a thousand words. So I will try to do it by pictures mostly. Um this of course what you see here before you is one of the touring sites that we got to see. It's the um the largest and the oldest um theater in the world um in Epidaris in the Masonian uh uh spot and it just seemed like it was a good background to start our little tour. Um of course we were a performance tour and so the performance was the big thing of why we even went at all. And um while there weren't you know festivals or things we were a part of, we created a space to perform in. um our tour partners with Grand Tours um had a number of other bands from the Minnesota area and a lot of these other bands had already been to these towns and these loc so we were kind of the grand finale of a month-long of series of concerts um through through them uh the first performance right away so we left on a Thursday we got to our hotel in Naflio just two hours yet so so all the flights and then a 2-hour bus ride to Naflio on the first night so we got it all the way there. Um, so Thursday to Friday night, Saturday morning, we got got a little fresh air, went out to Msia. We'll do a little bit of that. But that night, that Saturday night already our first performance. And again, Naflio welcomed us. Um, they had a stage set up um for us and had lighting because of course at that time it was about 700 p.m. there, a little darker. their um daylight savings was that night. So, we got to experience that, but nobody was on any time schedule yet. So, it was just fine even though it was an hour shorter than the night before. But again, there you see we are in Naflio in their town square. Um the I think the kids were surprised by the audience that was assembled as well. And a number of people approached me afterwards saying, "Oh my gosh, you're a public school. Like, how does this work?" and all these many many many many questions um about how we do this in in both the states and in Minnesota and specifically to our community as well. Um and then from there we went up to the north of the Pelpineese back over to the mainland and we performed again in ATA and again this town you can see same time frame it's just a little lighter um but they still had lights up for us um near the Oracle of Delelfi um and so that's part of why we got to the the locations we did. there was stuff to see there as well as a very welcoming community. The gentleman there you see welcoming us is the mayor, former mayor um and he's an expat from the United States that has embraced this town as his own and and brings lots of people and and brought great support for our kids while we were there. Again, you can see us on the waterfront. Some beautiful pictures there. Uh the kids are facing uh hilltops and where the deli um location of the archaeological dig is is visible from from where they they stood. Um and again more more Lakers in in their gear. And what I thought was the big performance was back in Athens. Um we performed in the Metropolitan Cathedral Town Square. Um, and this particular location, um, they don't have kings and queens in Greece anymore, but when they did, this is where they were coronated, uh, in this this location. So, very central to the heart of of Greece. Um, and they welcomed us there. Um, our, uh, performance was so wellreceived that the priest came out and said, "Hey, if your kids want to come on in and and and look around, we'd love to welcome them in." And so, a number of our kids did. We had to disassemble things at that point because we had to get ready for our flight already. Well, like I said, the performances are what made the the the trip. Um, our kids always play great, but there was a little something extra. Uh, you stand up a little taller when you're playing for people you don't know. And and and and just there's a little more pride. They they they shouted P R I O R L A K E. just a little more precise and and and just a little deeper than than not that they don't when they're here, but but there was just something special about all of that that they represented very well. So, you know, the sightseeing of course they were very um uh able to take in. We had wonderful guides that gave us all the information and all the stories. You saw the mian we went to Olympia. We got to see, as you see here, they're going into the stadium and they got to run their 200 meters um and uh and test their their their health. Um some of them took longer to recover for the museum, but but it was a museum time and we did okay. They had olive branches. We talked about all those different things um that we were able to see there. Um that was again just on the first day and the second day in Olympia and then we went up to Delelfi after our second performance already. And this is where the oracle and all that advice giving that was given out by by the people of that time. Um and again there we have some of our Lakers just taking in all the the many many uh new ideas and thoughts. Also a theater very prized thing of that time certainly. So every place had to have their their theater if they also had their sports arenas. Uh think a lesson for us there perhaps. Um and again just you see the beautiful beautiful sites up in Delelfi. We're up in the mountains and and and looking um through the vastness of all of Greece. Um and of course the Parthonon and the Acropolis. Um and so that's where you see Lakers taking that in. Um unbelievable. Um and you see when you're in the city itself and then you're looking up, oh this is where all of that was. Um and you can see how the people of the time would have made this into such a great and wonderful uh place. Again, so much history. The kids took it in. Um it it was just cool enough that we didn't get sweaty when we were walking around. There was one day they were able to get in the water in the beach. Everybody thought we were crazy. This isn't that day, but that's okay. Um but then we also took a little boat cruise of the surrounds. And so just um a full day. Uh we left at 8:00 in the morning. We got back to port at 7:00, saw three islands, Poros, Hydra, and Agina. Um and very ilic. Um some of it we went along the mainland coastline. Some of it was completely um through through water and then just to the island in itself. Um but you always see just these little dots of of all these places. Um the hotels were very nice. Um we had time and space to be able to have the kids be kids as well. Um in addition to taking it all, in addition to the doing the great things of performing, um they were able to um have food, have the great great food. Here you see our last hotel. Just kind of an idea of what the buffet line looked like. You've seen buffets of course, but when when there's real kamal kalamada olives, when there's real um feta cheese, it and the and the yogurt, well, you know, it's Greece, so you get Greek yogurt. Um we did some dancing. We had uh meals offsite as well. Um and we had folk dancers that were dancing to the music. Brought the kids out onto the dance floor. It was not hard to get them out on the dance floor. Uh there you see a gentleman uh in garb and uh shouting of course opa and the kids got very good at that as well. Again time to be with friends. The kids were very good at finding time uh and using that time to get to know each other better. It was always interesting even though these kids are all in band. They're in five different bands. and to see who they chose to be with that social element that that developed and for us to see that in in new and different ways was really really exciting uh from a teacher perspective as well. And so you know the kids were great. Um, this was a note that was sent along by their free day shopping in the old town in Athens, uh, which was, uh, within a walkable distance from the hotel. And we gave them, you know, groups of four or five. And when there weren't, well, we got told and we were informed and then we found them. And then we they had a chap room buddy. Um, but this was brought to us by a uh, student that said, "Hey, you're part of this group?" Yeah. Here. They stuffed a couple things in there and then said, "Take this to your your chaprons." And what was inside was what's called the evil eye. And it's essentially a good luck charm, warding off the the evil, you know, glances and stairs. Not that there were any of those, but it's it's it's if you've been to Athens, you would know it and see it very prominently. Um, so it was a good luck gesture given from the people who our kids were buying from and interacting with on the streets. So, I thought that was a wonderful thing. And of course, this doesn't happen without some good supervision and oversight. And we had a crack crew of chaperrons that came along with us, including Mr. Marshall and and Mrs. Fuller from the activities office along with other teachers from the high school who all know kids and and knew that when a kid was dragging a little bit behind, knew to give a little extra attention and hey, what's going on? And and figure all these things out. And yes, there were relationships that started, there were relationships that ended. All of the things that that you expect might happen uh in the course of a tour, and we got through it, okay, but thank you for all that you do to support kids and our students in in all the things that they do. Um that's really all I have to share, unless there are questions, but um please know that we appreciate all that you do in support of all of our kids. So, thank you so much. [Applause] Oh, this is for real. Okay. Mr. I just want to say as a parent who um had a student on the trip um just how wonderful everything went from um the beginning of the trip a year ago to now um you guys your team did a great job and um I'm so grateful for the volunteers that really sacrificed their entire spring break to fly multiple flights and um battle jet leg and um really over you know volunteer to be with these kids so they could have this amazing lifetime experience. So thank you. That's awesome. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is the superintendence report. Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair White, board of directors. Um, just a couple of things I'll share with you all. Um, I think mid year we discussed uh a postreerendum survey and just kind of where we're at with um, you know, what the communities were were thinking. And um we talked to Morris Leman who did our pre- survey and uh I I'm very thankful and appreciative of Peter and the team and he said, "Listen, I'll I'll save you $30,000 and I'll tell you the two reasons why it didn't pass." And uh given all the other post uh surveys that he's done, just given our financial reality, he knew that that probably wouldn't be a good uh uh spend of our resources. But he said economic insecurity and property taxes, two dominant things as to why a majority of uh levies did not um pass in the metro area. He said given um our turnout and the rate that we did get support. He said that was quite surprising because he wouldn't anticipate that given the the situations that many in throughout the country were in to have that high of a support. Obviously, it didn't pass, but still one of the things that he just said, if you're going to do it, do it on your own versus doing it through us because that's what we're going to tell you and that's what we're finding across the entire metro area. Um, with that said, uh, Christine and I talked and we are going to be doing a survey, um, that will, uh, launch, uh, tomorrow and run through the 29th of April. And this is something that we'll manage inhouse. And obviously we don't have the same capacity as a Morris Leatherman um or the statistical analysis tools, but we are going to hear from our community um and we'll be posting this on our website, posting it in public spaces, our libraries, etc. So folks from our community can do this. One of the things I will share with the board is that our ability to survey just the random public um obviously is not the same as Morris Leman. Um, if that is something we want to do, we did uh ballpark about $5,400. It would cost us. If we wanted to do some type of postcard mailer um to get it printed, put the survey on there, you know, and mail it to everyone so they can do that. Um, so that is something I'll probably talk to some of you offline about. Um, but we'll see what our feedback and our turnout is on our own internal. Um, but again, April 15th to the April 29th. Um, it's open to all of our community members who wish to share their thoughts and experiences. And I will say that if you do receive that survey because you're a parent and that's our our uh population that we can easily access, I will just ask our community to openly share that survey as well and help you know word of mouth spread that. Um, and so again, it's open to all. The results may not provide a complete representation because we're not doing target searches and all that, but we're just going to do a general open call for um feedback and then a summary of that feedback will be collected and we'll be sharing that with the school board and district leadership so that we all can have discussions as to what the future may hold um should that be a conversation that we want to entertain moving forward. So stay tuned for that. More to come there. Um over spring break, we began uh the branding um process of our strategic plan. Um you know, I I shared with some of our students and some of our staff, namely some of our students, we're talking about what is being on brand look like and many of our students understand various brands that they support, whether it's clothing brands, music icons, etc. They understand branding and marketing. So that was pretty impressive to have that conversation with our kids, but really engaging them because they were part of the strap process as well as part of the um the uh learner attribute process and understanding that we need to become what we espouse ourselves to be in print. And so over spring break, we began with our new iterations of district signage. Um it was my last week's Fridays 5. Um, if you notice when you walked in today on the outdoor windows, you'll see our big vision placards that are on every main entryway. And then there will also be the entire strategic plan. I was looking around the room if we had one here. They will be coming. Um, that will be in main adult corridors in all of our schools as well, our conference rooms. And then we have an array of signs that buildings can purchase that have a lot of our values, our priorities, as well as our learner attributes. And those become onbrand recognition. So when you walk into a Prior Lake Savage area school, we own the front marquee from a district standpoint um as well as some key adult spaces within that building where adults would look at our plan and understand kind of the hard work that went into that. And then the schools um will have a combination of some of the things that they've produced as well as some of the signs that we've produced um that are aligning to our new strategic plan. So um be looking at those as those are starting to um be put up. And you heard me all throughout the strategic planning process that it's not just a shelf document. This is a living breathing document. All of our work is being aligned to that. And from an administration standpoint, this is serving as our northstar. And um and this is something that we will continually, you know, rally our resources around to ensure that we are meeting kind of the expectations of what we heard from our community throughout that engagement process um of developing that new plan. Um so again, be looking out for that. Um uh I will just share that I have my annual realtor meeting coming up at the end of April from 10 to 11:00 here at the DSC. It's again a great opportunity for me to learn um kind of what's happening in the market around us, namely rooftops that might have babies. Um it's always a good thing. Uh Chair White and I um he joined his first quarterly meeting with all of our elected officials, our mayors um uh and uh some of our police chiefs as well uh just was that this week? Friday. Yeah, last Friday. Um and uh one of the things that I will share is that there is some new developments coming into our district. Um it's not going to change drastically overnight, but there are about uh 40 to 50 homes that uh Prior Lake is uh going to be bringing online in that 600 to $700,000 price range. And there are conversations about some other um kind of family slashcommercial land that's been um kind of in and out of discussions for many many years as I understand it. I'll just leave that one there. Um and it sounds like uh there's a great opportunity that there could be, you know, a significant chunk of land developed for both housing and commercial um that's right in our um uh uh district proper, if you will, on the Prior Lake side. So, a lot of good opportunities. And then lastly, I will say we got some updates recently too um around uh the gravel pit area by HRE and that there are uh they are grading the next phases of that Keeland development. I believe it's going to remain Keeland and uh as well as a very massive park that will be center to that um community larger than many other Savage parks as well. So a lot of exciting opportunity there. So, um, it's also a way for, uh, me to bring a lot of conversation to our real estate agents who, um, have families coming literally from all over the place, coming here for the first time out of country, out of state, and wondering where should they go and where should they move. And we want to make sure that our realtors understand all of what's happening that's great about our district so they can sell our district and and obviously sell houses um, as well. So, it's a it's a real reciprocal relationship that I have. So, that's coming up. And then lastly, just give um our board and our community update. Just before spring break, um I joined a team uh with uh the Minnesota Association of School uh Administrators of about six of us that went out to Washington DC to lobby federally. Um I have spent many of days lobbying at the capital here. I've never been out to DC to do this work. Um it really deepened my appreciation for our elected officials. not something I could ever do. So, thank you to all of our Minnesota delegates who are are both locally here as well as serving at the federal level and bringing our collective voice to that national um platform. Um we divided and conquered and met with all of our federal delegates um and both Republicans as well as Democrats. Um and then we also rounded out our experience with the Department of Education. Um and it's very different. It's it's very uh empty. So, you can definitely feel um the tenor out in DC right now. There's a lot of uh a lot of buzz, but not what you typically see in DC. It's kind of a sombering buzz. So, a lot of change is happening as we all know. We can watch any kind of news reel or feeds that we get with our social media. um a lot is happening federally and we want to make sure that as those things continue to unfold at least within education um we in Minnesota as well as you know selfishly speaking us here in Prior Lake bring our voices to the table and I'll just say there are key topics that we brought forward um on that trip and um one of them was our sped our special education cross subsidy. This is something that starts uh woefully uh underfunded from the federal and continues to get underfunded um by the time it reaches districts. We've made up a little bit of ground here locally. So, thank you to all of our folks in the legislature here in Minnesota who are doing a fantastic job getting additional resources with the federal mandates. Um but again, be great if our federal partners could follow uh that lead and really fully fund things that really matter so that we're not robbing Peter to pay Paul constantly here at the local level. spent a lot of time talking about grow your own um no surprise finding um quality educators whether they're licensed certified folks or non-certified. We need folks to come into education and that pipeline is something that is really concerning to many districts across the country. And so we brought a lot of uh examples of abilities to com uh do your own grow your own for example our non-certified programs giving specialized rates with higher ed institutions to get teacher uh their bachelors or get teaching licenses so that we can have a continuous pipeline of high-quality folks coming in to fill um uh many vacancies um throughout the entire country namely here our our Minnesota delegates. So that was a big conversation. Um, we also talked about uh the maintenance of federal title funding and ensuring that the title funding that has been earmarked um really stays in effect. So kind of hold harmless with our title. And then lastly, maintaining public funds for public schools. There's a lot of conversations around um voucher type programs or p privatizations of public schools. And so again, our appeal um to our federal de delegates were the fact that we want to make sure that, you know, with um our public tax dollars that are they are funding our public learning spaces. Um so that was another conversation point that we brought out. So that's an update on on our uh federal lobbying efforts. Um, and just uh the the last thing I'll share is um I think it must have been around February um every school district received a dear colleague letter from the Department of Education um making certain demands around DEI initiatives and things of that nature that was kind of following along the line of our current federal administration on a variety of executive orders. um that really kind of um sat kind of in a space, you know, for us here in Minnesota because in Minnesota, we have um uh state human rights laws that actually supersede any executive federal executive orders. And so our attorney general um issued a statement on on this and or not a statement, an opinion, which effectively becomes the law of the land. And so at that point, everything was kind of holding as is here in the state of Minnesota. And you probably saw the same news reel as I saw. Lot of challenges going on in terms of what's happening federally with the states and unfortunately I think we get kind of caught in some of that crossfire. Um a variety of nonprofits, public sector, you know, institutions, etc. Um, but just over spring break, we had the second dear colleague letter that's supposed to clarify the initial dear colleague letter of exactly what we weren't supposed to be doing and I think it caused more confusion than anything else. Um, it didn't really clarify much more. Um, but I will say that my conversations out in DC with the Department of Education was really kind of pushing for clarity around this. And uh you know I gave a clear example of how we uh built uh or remodeled a a new playground for early childhood. Um and it be was one of our uh first inclusive playground spaces. And you know I you know really pushed and said that clearly falls under the eye of DEI for inclusion. So am I going to go to jail? You know like help me understand as a superintendent when I hear all this national rhetoric about you know this acronym what are you really saying? what does it really mean and what is the real problem you're trying to solve for? And so that that was a respectful push that I offered with, you know, not much clarity given saying that a letter will be coming. And so we received that letter and um and again I think um a lot of more questions than anything um our commissioner responded on behalf of the state of Minnesota um essentially stating that what's being asked in these letters to to basically sign a certification um vowing that you're not breaking any federal human rights law around DEI um initiatives um in the state of Minnesota that are receiving federal funding. Otherwise, your federal funding could be at risk of being pulled. And you know, one of the statements that our commissioner shared is that, and this is true for all states, when you receive federal funding, you sign a a statement of assurance basically stating we by accepting this, we will not break any federal laws. We already do that. We've been doing that for as long as we've had federal funding. So, the again, I think the respectful push was what are you really asking us to do? If we already doing something you're asking, why would we have to do this twice? And so there's going to be some back and forth um board and our community around this issue. Um so we will continue to abide um by what is right for kids. Um we are a public educational system that serves all students no matter who they are and how they show up in our classrooms every single day. And that's non-negotiable as your superintendent. and uh and that's something that I will continue to push for as we work, you know, to um doing what's best for our community and ultimately for our students and our families and our staff. So, um those are my updates on the federal advocacy trip as well as some of the DOE uh chatter that's kind of going back and forth between states and the federal government right now. So, I'm I'm sure more will come. Um so, just stay tuned as we learn more. I will share more. Okay. And with that, Chair, I'll turn it to you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. If uh Director Dah would like to make his way to the podium, we have a series of uh approclamations uh before you tonight in your packet. The first one is uh National Volunteer Appreciation Week, which Prior Lake uh Savage Schools will be recognizing April 21st through the 25th, 2025. Director D. Thank you. Good evening, Chair White, members of the board, and Dr. Thomas. Um I don't know if uh are we going to read the proclamation? Okay. Um so youth uh we've got a couple different proclamations here that I'll be covering. Um the first one is the volunteer uh proclamation. First of all, thank you for recognizing the amazing volunteers who provide countless hours of their time and energy and resources to support our students and our schools. Specifically, I want to recognize our community education advisory council, which is made up of community members, um, business owners, um, partners in our city's parks and recck programs. Um, all of them are volunteers to sit on our council and help support our mission and provide valuable insight to assist us in our program planning as well as meeting the needs of our community. So again, thank you for recognizing the many volunteers in our schools and in our community. Thank you. Second proclamation is uh the district will be recognizing April 21st through the 25th as afterchool professionals appreciation week. Yes. Again, thank you for recognizing all of the afterchool professionals that work uh in our district. We have many talented individuals who support our students during their out of school time and experiences to ensure that they have safe spaces where they can continue their learning um and meeting their friends and just enjoying some time together. Specifically, our Kids Company program truly has some of the most caring, creative, and committed staff whose top priority is always the safety of the children they serve. They're dedicated to serving the whole child and providing a safe space before and after school that encourages positive growth and development, allowing each student to reach their full potential as a learner here in the Prior Lake Savage area schools. So, thank you again for recognizing all of our afterchool professionals. Thank you. Our next proclamation is that the district will be recognizing April 21st through the 25th as youth appreciation week. And again, thank you for recognizing the many talented young individuals in our community who make a difference each and every day. I'm going to invite up Dan Steer, who's one of our Prior Lake High School Junior Optimus uh adviserss, just to share a little bit more about our junior optimist. Okay. Thank you, uh, Mr. Dah. Thank you, um, Dr. Thomas, Chairman White, school board, all present. Um, I do advise the Junior Optimist Club. Um, so in that capacity, I'm here representing really all the youth in the community whom you are um, honoring by that proclamation. Uh it is remarkable to me the depth and the commitment that the depth of the commitment that kids in this community have to service. Uh when I took over as one of the advisers of the Junior Optimist Club some years ago, um being of a certain age, I was wondering how I could possibly motivate kids to do service when they were so so much younger even than my own kids. And uh honestly I just had to um provide a couple opportunities and get out of the way. So since then uh the junior optimist club at the high school has grown to be the largest in the world um if wow by a significant margin with 250 active members. Yeah. Strictly speaking that wasn't part of my script but that does it does it does find its way in. Um and we do um that does represent 10% of the enrollment of the high school which I think is truly astonishing. So in that respect we are representative even though we're just one club. We are representative of of the uh the entire youth community here. So I just wanted to introduce a couple of our members. These are not just any members. These are our two uh picks for youth appreciation this year. In a club of 250, it's difficult to stand above everyone else, but these two certainly have this year. Um, in the white, we've got Clarissa Harris, who is a sophomore. Clarissa has done um since the school year began, she's averaged one service project every week. Uh, she's currently doing has done the most service hours of anybody in the club, which is no small feat. And um, standing next to her is Kavia Mupiti, who is a senior. Kavia um along with her colleague Nissa France um runs two mentoring programs that we do in the middle schools. So each month she puts on a program. She meets with the teachers responsible for um those classes and the middle school junior optimist club and they put together a um a learning and life skill program where they recruit volunteers to help them and they uh execute those programs. So, um I don't actually have a way of wrapping this up. So, uh anyway, thanks you very much for the the proclamation and um and your support. uh community ed, we appreciate your support because uh youth appreciation is a is an optimist international program, but um here in Prior Lake and Savage, it has the benefit of uh support from community ed, which really gives it the traction that it needs to become something more than just a bunch of old um optimists um you know, talking. So, thanks everybody for that support. Thank you. [Applause] Our next proclamation uh is that the district will be recognizing April 21st through 25th as administrative support professionals week. Director Herman Chair White, members of the board, thank you very much for another proclamation. We're really heavy on all amazing stuff this this week. Um, and wanted to to give a special shout out to our administrative support staff. These dedicated team members really perform essential functions throughout our district to ensure that our schools and programs run smoothly every day. Whether it's aligning substitute coverage, um, to scheduling assessments, generating required state and federal reports, tracking budgets, ordering supplies, coordinating logistics for meetings, um, uh, events, programs, and so, so much more. Their work is foundational to the success of our district. And we appreciate your recognition of their efforts and the vital role that they play in supporting our students, staff, um, families, and community members. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. And our final proclamation for the evening is that the district will be recognizing April 28th through May 2nd as National Principles Association Week. Director Edwards. Thank you, Chair White, members of the board. uh great opportunity to recognize the leaders in our system that on a day-to-day basis at each of our sites uh provide that unwavering commitment to the experience for our students. I mean tonight we've celebrated a number of students and the great opportunities that they've had outside of the classroom. Uh principles are behind that and supporting that. Uh we obviously know that the success of our students uh begins with great classroom teachers, but great classroom teachers need great principles to lead uh the buildings in order to be successful. In the proclamation, it states all the various uh responsibilities, and I work handinhand with our principles on a daily basis from a 7 a.m. text or phone call to a 9:00 p.m. text or phone call. uh related to making sure that our schools can function as they need to so that our students can come each and every day to a safe supportive environment where they can uh excel at whatever uh aspect uh they're focusing on whether it be their academics, their co-curriculars or their service to community as we just recognized. So our principles do an amazing job of supporting uh our great students. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is the open forum. This is a 15-minute period of time set aside to receive citizen input. Tonight we have one speaker. So we have Michael Gillis would like to step forward. Chair White, board members, Dr. Thomas. Good evening. My name is Michael Gillis. I'm a resident of Prior Lake, a voter and taxpayer, and a parent of students in Prior Lake Savage Area Schools. I see on the agenda on the agenda for tonight's meeting, there is a resolution that includes eliminating the position of director of equity and inclusion. All members of our community should be concerned by this. Now, it seems that some people are terrified of words like equity and inclusion. Whether they've arrived at fear through misinformation, willful ignorance, or cynical malevolence, each person's journey to that place of fear is unique and their path back to understanding uncertain. I hope that such people will come to see these words mean something that we've long held as ideals in this country, equality of opportunity and a level playing field. Equity and inclusion means that something that was practiced in the past, whether it was 50 years ago or last week, doesn't pass muster on tradition alone. It means we strive for giving each student the best opportunity to have the best educational experience that we can offer. Equity means making sure that a student who needs special accommodations for a class isn't forced to miss that opportunity to learn and grow with their peers. Inclusion means that every student in our district is a Laker. And while they might be different in almost every aspect of their background or their learning or their ability, they are no more or less a Laker than the next student. We are all Lakers and we are one prior lake. Your position as board members is not enviable. You put in many hours of work for our community and you must withstand criticism for decisions you make and even some that you probably have no part in. The elimination of the director of equity and inclusion, one of many eliminations and non-renewals on tonight's agenda, was no doubt a difficult decision for you to make. We are a district with several hundred students receiving special education services or English language services, or sometimes both. We're a district with students coming from homes with different belief systems and traditions, different educational backgrounds, different home cultures, and different languages. All that being said, we are still all Lakers and we should all still be one Prior Lake. Eliminating the position of director of equity and inclusion sends a signal that Prior Lake Savage Area Schools perhaps does not value uniqueness or fairness. That students should hope they meet some sort of standardized expectation if they are going to succeed here. That signal should be of concern to everyone in the community. I trust that in elim eliminating the position of director of equity and inclusion that the district has a plan in place to ensure that no students school experiences are hindered by their background or their ability. I look forward to the district sharing that plan very soon. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause]