Good evening everyone. Welcome to the October regular meeting of the Pri Savage Board of Education. At this time, if you would you stand as you're able 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. Okay. Uh, we have one member uh absent tonight. That'd be Director Olstead. And I think Director France has been trying to get in remote. We'll keep track of that, but the rest of us are here. So, we will start the evening with Laker Pride, Dr. Thomas. >> Thank you, Chair White and board of directors. Um this evening uh I'll we'll start off with our Laker Pride to um uh celebrate our Spanish immersion class of 2027. These are students who have put in a lot of time and effort to earn the seal of bilingual uh proficiency from their test last spring. And with us tonight we have Professor Dunley Professor. Get my Rs there. uh Kate Dunley uh at the high school and she is going to uh speak a little bit about um what that means and Kate we have a certificate for you on top and then also certificates for all the students as well. >> Thank you. All right, you all good? All right. So, thank you for the introduction. Um, good evening, Dr. Thomas and esteemed members of the board. My name is Kate Dunley and I am a Spanish teacher at the high school. And amongst other things, one of the courses I teach is the uh language arts course that is dedicated to the Spanish immersion students. Many of you know that the immersion program here in Pri Lake begins in kindergarten at Laola Delago. Um but they have a specialty Spanish course just for them um and their unique abilities that they have and developing their skills um in the secondary program and they continue that through 10th grade. And then during their sophomore year, they take a proficiency exam. They take these proficiency exams along the course of their program. So in second, fifth, 8th, and 10th grade. In 10th grade is when their score on this proficiency test can earn them an award from the Minnesota Department of Education um for their bilingual seals program. So I'm just going to move this out here. So there are several different qualifying exams students can take. Um we administered the Avant stamp 4S. 4S stands for four skills. So it is a rigorous several hourong battery of their skills in Spanish of speaking, listening, reading and writing. And then they are graded on a scale that was developed by ACTful, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. And they get a composite score. They get a score in each of those skills, but then they get a composite score. And depending on their score, they can earn these bilingual seals. So you can see where the red kind of showed up. Anywhere that they can fall within that range from uh intermediate low to advanced low will earn them an award. Um here's just some information kind of on the different awards. The highest award is a platinum seal. If they earn an act full proficiency level of advanced low, they earn a a platinum seal and they earn four semesters of college credit. A gold seal is the next level down at intermediate high and they get three semesters of college credit. and the proficiency uh certificate is the level below that and they get um two semesters. Most states have a bilingual seal program and so it's not even just the University of Minnesota system that accepts these for college credit. Um so it's a really um big award and accomplishment for them to earn. Um all right, there we go. So, that being said, I would like to introduce the students who took this test last spring. Now, this is the inaugural class of Spanish immersion at Prior Lake Schools. They will graduate next year in 2027. So, they are currently juniors. So, they took this test in their sophomore year last spring. And I am so proud to say that every single one of them earned a bilingual seal award. [Applause] All right. So, the proficiency certificate recipients are, if they want to come in, which >> um Bradley Egan, Mason Lampert, >> Bradley, >> Lampart, sorry, I think I said it wrong. Dominic Lopez, Jaden Nelson, Mia Oor, and Jillian Resin. Any of them are here. So Bradley, you can come on in. Huh? >> Yep. That sounds great. And Jaden and Mason, I know. I saw Mason. Awesome. The gold recipients, I'm going to read all of them, but any of them that are here can come on out are Aubrey Bernett, Griffin Beamer, Amelia Brower, Dalen Quayar, Jack Frenzel, Ella Martin, Maya McFale, Nathan Moroso, Kira Nelson, Lindseay Wentz, and Emma Ziegler. And the platinum seal recipients this year were Eleanor Basons, Michaela Kger, David Dale, Xavier Husum, Sophia Coach, Tate Merin, McKenzie Richardson, Ella Schmidt, Liza Weightman, Brag, and Ellen Jankan. Is she here? Can you guys scooch down a little bit so they can all fit in? >> Okay. So, one thing I just want to say about these kids really quick. I've been their teacher for I got to be their teacher for most of them for two years in their freshman and sophomore year. And these kids, like I said, they were the inaugural class. Calling them trailblazers is an understatement. They have stuck with this program through all of the highs and lows that come with forging a new program and their character reflects it. Um, I've been a teacher for 15 years and never in my years have I met a more resilient group of kids. They're going to make me all sad. Just looking at them, they're so cute. There's um I believe as part of being part of the immersion program that they are more kind, compassionate, and curious about other cultures than they would have been without it. Um and I just I commend their tremendous achievement. I was so proud of them and I encourage the board and the district to continue to support our immersion program. I had asked several of them to if they could just write a little statement in Spanish about their experience in the program or about something, you know, just a great memory or something about it. And so just you can see I gave you guys copies the board members um of those statements that they wrote and I also had them translate it to English for you. So they wrote kind of just a reflection on their experience in Spanish and put the translation to it. So that is all I have but one more applause for them. Thank you. [Applause] >> Oh, okay. [Music] I want >> I'll do one more and then some parent picks. Okay. One, two, three. >> Not shy. >> Yeah. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] for this evening. >> You Dr. Thomas. >> All right. Next on our agenda is the superintendent report. Dr. Thomas, would you mind introducing our distinguished guests? >> Yes, thank you. Um, we have a couple of guests with us tonight and then a couple other reporting items. Uh, joining us, we have, um, our state senator from District 54, Senator Eric Pratt. Um, uh, Senator Lindseay Port, uh, sends her regards who's not able to make it at the last minute. And then we also have joining, um, Senator Pratt is our state representative, Mr. uh, Ben Bakeberg. Uh, and, uh, Representative Jessica Hansen was also unable to attend. Um so um just want to thank the two of you for coming out this evening and uh just to give us a little highlight of what's to come in the upcoming uh policy session uh as it pertains to education. >> Well, thank you uh superintendent and board. Uh as he said, I'm uh Eric Pratt. I'm your state senator. Um, I just got to say I served 12 years on this board and um, one of the highlights was starting Laker Pride and it's nice to see that it's it's still going on and we still have our student, you know, recognizing our students for doing really great things and I I think that's always been important. Uh, I'm going to start off kind of high level and and um let Ben take over. As we walked into the uh, session, um, we had just come off of an $18 billion surplus. Um, and we uh uh spent most of that. We also uh increased taxes over $10 billion uh in the two previous years. And and so we were coming in with 3.8 billion um sitting on the bottom line, which sounds like a a good place to be, but all that money was already encumbered. uh the forecast had us coming in uh pretty flush uh to this year a little underwater and and facing almost a six billion dollar surplus uh in the next in the in the following bianium. The reason for that is we we overspent um we overspent on using one-time money uh to cover ongoing expenses and that became a real problem. So, for example, now we've we finished our budget in June. Um, we started off with a $3.8 billion on the, you know, in the bank account. We're going to finish with $1.9 billion. We made uh several cuts to several areas, but we're still spending almost $3 billion more than we're bringing in in tax receipts. And then when we look at the next two-year cycle, fiscal year um 27 and 28, um we'll be looking at um a $2.9 billion deficit and um overspending um by about 2.2 billion. So it's um it's still going to be a very tight budget scenario at the state house. and and I should have said I'm the uh lead on the on the finance committee. I am the numbers nerd and I apologize if I've put any of you to sleep. A couple of things that um not only affect education but are affecting uh enterprises statewide and a big one that I know we've talked about is paid family medical leave. um you know, school districts, uh a lot of employers negotiated, uh paid family leave time for their employees. Uh some of it was documented, some of it wasn't. I mean, I when I was at St. Gertude's on their board of of directors, we worked with our employees, but we didn't have anything documented. We kind of worked on a pay as you go system with our uh in order to meet our needs. uh that's now going to cost uh school districts, cities, and counties about $300 million a year in new in new premium. That's going to be uh cash flow that's going out the door that that previously wasn't going out the door. Uh earn sick and safe time was another one. You know, we certainly don't want people coming to work when they're sick. Um but this went well beyond giving sufficient PTO in order to be able to do that. And a lot of businesses are struggling. Um, you know, I know um some, if I remember right from our discussion, some of your substitutes now qualify for in earn time. So, they can decline a placement and get paid for it still. Um, that's kind of how how uh this got implemented. And then another big one that's affecting school districts is having now to pay unemployment benefits to seasonal employees. um you know, folks sign up for a 9 or 10 month uh work schedule. They you know, and and unemployment benefits were intended to be for uh unexpected job losses to help cover families from kind of falling into fiscal into fiscal despair. Um, in part because of this, um, our our state, um, unemployment trust fund, which is is the reserve that we used to pay those claims, fell below a statutory uh, sufficiency level and we had to increase um the, uh, the unemployment premium tax uh, to all employers. Now, as school districts, many of you, and I think you are, uh what we call reimburseable employees. So, you're having to pay back um on a quarterly basis uh what your what your employee benefits have taken out. And I think that's going to be a real struggle particularly as we go forward because that comes as one big bill that we expect you to have to pay when you've already got stressed budgets. Uh before I hand it over to Ben, I'll just say, you know, we didn't do schools any favors. Um over the last couple of years, um after running a campaign of saying we were going to fully fund schools, uh the governor and the Senate and House at the time uh failed on that mission. And now we're seeing a record number of schools having to go out for referendums and make budget cuts. And it's it's really disappointing because of all the new mandates, uh, all the new expenses that we that we put on to schools and and we've really usurped what I think is the local control that you've been elected to to manage. Um, that's my opinion and I'm sure if Senator Port were here, she would disagree with me, but um, that's how I see it. I'll let Ben take over. >> Yeah. Thank you. My name is Ben Bakeber. I have the privilege to represent the communities of Prior Lake, Jordan, uh a portion of Shakipi, and then in my my normal life outside of politics, I I also serve as a middle school principal. So, um not only are the things that are happening at the legislature do we have to discuss in St. Paul, but I actually have to implement it. So, that's that's the lens that I approach my work uh with. I serve on the labor and workforce committee, and then I'm the co-vicechair of the Education Finance Committee. So, in the House, we're tied. So, that's why we have co-chairs. Coming into session, we had a number of priorities. Making Minnesota safe, affordable, um building for the future, uh addressing fraud and stopping fraud. We're currently at two billion uh dollars lost in fraud, and that continues to grow. Uh and then from an education standpoint, we really talked about raising the standards and reducing the mandates. And um you know, Senator Pratt did a good job of of outlining all of the um the fiscal impact. Um but when we approached our work within the House, there were really three things that we looked at from an education standpoint. The first was was local control. You are elected a locally elected school board uh by our community and the needs of Prior Lake are very very different than the needs of Peekquat Lakes, than the needs of Jordan, than the needs of Shakipi. you as an elected board have to have the authority to make the determinations that's best for your district. Uh the second was mandate relief. Um and and we've we've talked about that. Um but there the our local school boards have been saddled with a mountain of mandates that you did not ask for but you have to implement. Um and then funding and flexibility. And and when I think about uh like I hear a lot going into this session that there's no money, there's not going to be any money moving forward. That is true and Senator Pratt outlined it. But we also have to understand that we can go back and we can rep prioritize things uh that we have done previously and that is what we need to do. one example and I want to just give some some concrete examples uh of things that we could do to rep prioritize funds to be able to allow for the funding flexibility. The first uh the one example uh Andrew Myers is a representative from the the Lake Minnetonka area. He has a bill um that would that would provide a hund00 million about $100 per student to go into the local option revenue account. It is flexible funding for you as a board to determine however uh you would best use it. It could be for safety and security in in your schools. It could be to lower class sizes. It could be to hire mental health staff. We feel very strongly that we should empower you. We should give you the funding and the flexibility. And then we should get out of the way so that you can determine what is best for your district. Lakeville has uh a 3D response system. That's fantastic. um both of us toured it. Uh we have ideas of of funding mechanisms to fund that school safety piece, but we should be giving districts the funding and flexibility with the local option revenue so that they can meet the needs for their district because Lakeville doesn't need um the same safety and security that Prior Lake Savage does. So, a one-sizefits-all does not work. The second thing is local control. Uh, I think I saw Principal Glenn here. Uh, but he came and he testified and he advocated for his teachers, for his students on a a school, uh, safety bill that would allow him and his K through three principal colleagues to be able to suspend students uh, for up to three days with superintendent approval. Uh, and he came and did a fantastic job advocating for for his students and his kids. And I we need to understand that when a principal gets to a point where they're going to suspend a student, it is after a mountain of interventions before it gets to that point. Collaboration with parents uh with with the school community. So making sure and um we need to continue that work. That did not pass. That was an amendment that we brought on the House floor. It did not pass, but that's something we need to continue. And that's a school safety piece. Um and then mandate relief. Senator Pratt talked about paid family medical leave and earn sick and safe time. Uh and he talked about the UI piece. I think it's important that we understand that that we we love the the hourly workers that work in our school. My mom was a pair of professional and and honestly she worked that job because the three of us boys, there's a good chance we would have killed each other uh if we were home alone during the summer. So um it it's not a a placement of value on the employee. It's just a reality. In the future, you as a board will be tasked on how you fund that. It's funded for now. Uh there was $77 million found to fund it um in into the next couple years, but that just shows the priority of the the legislature saying we are going to tell you Prior Lake Savage School Board how to spend the money. We don't trust you enough to do it. And I fundamentally disagree with that. Um the other piece that is in extremely important that you be aware of is there's this blue ribbon commission. So that commission is tasked with finding 250 million in cuts to special ed. If that commission does not find $250 million in cuts to special ed, it comes out of the cross subsidy. So in essence, that is a general education cut. Prior Lake Savage schools will get less money because of that. That was a a cut that happened that we accounted for in this last budget cycle. So with that, um Dr. Thomas, um I just want to say thank you to you and and your honest conversations and and we can push each other and I really really appreciate that. Um, and I appreciate you coming and testifying and and just really advocating for the needs of Prior Lake and and you have been a champion for the district and and really an example to other superintendants to speak about what's best for your district. So, I just want to say thank you publicly for that. Um, and and and yeah, um, I just really appreciate the work of the board, uh, the work of the community and advocating for the needs. and we just need to continue to work together to find common sense solutions for our community. Thank you. >> Thanks, guys. Any just any questions quick or >> I don't have a question, but I I do have a comment. I want to thank both of you for the work that you do. Um I thank you. Uh you're always available. I really appreciate that. Um um I want to just encourage you both in um you know our district it's a it's a nonpartisan thing and so I I appreciate the the the collaborative work that you you know the efforts that you put forward toward that. Um so I just I just thank you both. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks guys. >> Thank you. Thank you both. Just couple sorry just a couple more quick things chair. >> Um I just want to give the uh board and community an update. So we um have gone live with our I guess our beta website of continuous improvement data. And this is the dashboard that we mentioned to you. So we'll have uh the mockups that we've shared with you on on different occasions of our survey results, our scorecard outcomes and enrollment. And this will be an organic. We'll kind of grow and modify that as necessary. Um, I'll make sure I um have that link for all of you to take a look, but it's now found on our continuous improvement website. Um, and that's where um we'll continue to post um live data as we get it. Um, also uh want to share that uh our school board scholars October 21st, we're going to recognize 562 schoolboard scholars for the 2526 school year. These are students um who have received or achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.8 or higher. So um we're really uh proud of those students um to get that special recognition. Again, October 21st, we'll be doing that at the high school. Um also on November 12th, we will have a Chamber of Commer commerce partnership community conversation. Um I alluded to this a couple weeks ago. Um but this will be a partnership with the Prior Lake Savage uh Prior Lake and Savage Chamber of Commerce. Uh a collaboration between schools, businesses, and community leaders. Uh we'll have some district updates, but also learning what skill sets employers are looking for from graduates as they walk out of our doors and create deeper partnership opportunities and we'll be showcasing some of those um uh pathway uh partnerships with our Minaps program. And then also we have put out an extension of an invite to our local lawmakers and they're also invited to hear the collective priorities of schools and business and community kind of to what we just heard a minute ago how we can help bring our voice from Prior Lake um to St. Paul um so that we can ensure that our students and our community needs are met. So looking forward to that November 12th at Prior Lake High School from 8 to 9. Um then also uh this just recently we inducted uh several new Laker Hall of Fame inductees, 2025 inductees. And I will just share that it's uh I posted this in my Fridays 5 a couple weeks ago, but I know not everyone in the community gets that. Uh but I'll just say Aaron Lehard uh activities uh honory for class of 2003. Matt Brown for athletics class of 2000. Rob Edwards, athletics, class of 1996. Alexandria Hirs or Catroski, um I think make me the maiden name. Athletics class of 2011. Paige Kooplick, athletics class of 2009. Joey Shimick, athletics class of 2002. Terry Hearnney, distinguish achievement uh recognition. and then the 1998 one act team of distinction um honore. So congratulations to the 2025 inductees. Uh always a great way to celebrate those folks who are making a continued uh difference in the world as well as when they were students. And then lastly, just to remind everyone in our community, early voting is underway. Uh we do have a special election um happening here for our district with an open board seat. um special election uh that will go through January 4th of 2027. So if you live in Savage or within the district boundaries, your polling place is at McCall Pond Environmental Learning Center in Savage. Um early voting for all PLSAS voters is at Prior Lake City Hall. And if you any details, you can go to our website plsas.org/election for additional details on that. And those are my reports. >> All right. Thank you, doctor. All right. Next on the agenda, we have one proclamation this evening for business and finance finance staff appreciation week. Uh, Director Atinson, would you mind reading the proclamation? >> Yeah, thank you. Prior Lake Savage Area Schools recognizes October 27th through the 31st, 2025 as business and finance staff appreciation week. This week, we celebrate our thanks and gratitude for these essential staff. Whereas Prior Lake Savage Area Schools has seven business and staff finance staff. Whereas business and finance staff are responsible for the overall district budget, processing payables and receivables, student nutrition, meals, transportation payments, completing the completing the annual audit, tracking and reporting enrollment, monitoring contracts, maintaining account codes, preparing monthly financial reports, and ensuring fiscal compliance. Whereas business and finance staff provide accurate and transp transparent financial reports for our Prior Lake Savage area community and taxpayers such as preliminary final budgets, property tax levies, audit summaries, enrollment updates, and more. Whereas business and finance staff are overseeing the $123 million general fund budget for the fiscal year 2026. Therefore, let it be resolved the board of education hereby extends its appreciation to all Prior Lake Savage Area Schools business and finance staff for their fiscal responsibility to our district which ultimately impacts the su success of our students and declares October 27th through the 31st, 2025 to be business and finance staff appreciation week in Prior Lake Savage area schools. If I may, um, good evening, Chair White, Superintendent Thomas, and members of the school board, and our public. It is an honor for me to be able to take a moment to shine a light on our team whose crucial work often happens behind the scenes, yet is absolutely foundational to everything we achieve as a district. It's our business team. The work of this team is fundamentally about service to our students and to our community. Every purchase order processed, every expense tracked, every report filed is a direct link to ensuring our classrooms have the resources they need and our facilities are maintained. Their diligence means our educators can focus on teaching and our students can focus on learning. I'd like to individually acknowledge the dedication and expertise of this remarkable group. Andrea Bradford, our district controller, thank you for providing the financial leadership and dedication that strives to keep our district on solid ground. Matt Tim, our senior accountant, Jess Dalton, our staff accountant, and Kylie Gilbor Gilbo, our accounts payable administrative assistant. Your meticulous work keeps the lights on, the vendors paid, and ensures our financial records are accurate, transparent, and compliant. We appreciate the tireless attention to detail. Michelle Lambert and our MAR our MARS coordinator and Beth Tlesie, our business services assistant. Your complex work with student reporting is vital for accurate funding and compliance, translating data directly into resources for our kids. You are the helpful and welcoming face to our enrolling students and their families. This team's commitment to fiscal responsibility and operational excellence makes them essential partners in our mission and I am proudly profoundly grateful for their professional integrity and their commitment to service. Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Ryder. All right. Next on the agenda is the open forum portion of our meeting. This is a period of time set aside for speakers to address the board on a topic of their choosing. Just ask that you would uh respect the threeminut uh time limit for each speaker and then to speak as he would choose to be spoken to. So we have three tonight. And first is Ellen Fehee. Hello and thank you very much school board and chairman for everything you do for our community. Very much appreciated all your hard work. Uh my name is Ellen and I am a resident here in Prior Lake and I was a sped parah and I'm here talking about wireless radiation and I'm concerned about Westwood Elementary School and um Edgewood because there's a huge cell tower and um it scares me, you know, because I've done a lot of reading and research on this and I've actually gotten my own uh meter to to go out into the middle of the Westwood Elementary playground and I've taken my own reading things and it was called a tri field meter. It's only like a $300 meter and of course I'm an amateur. But what I came up with is um the Trifield meter said a safe reading as far as peak readings would be like there's a pulse coming from the cell tower. That's a peak would be 1.0 uh millowatts per square meter. And what I picked up on the playground was 5.3 millwatts. Okay. Per square meter. Um, I know we can't see this toxin. I know we can't see it, but it's affecting everybody's cells, okay? And and to see drive by it every day and to see the kids kind of baking and basking and that radio frequency and microwave really, you know, disturbs me. Now, I know that the school board does not have any legal, you know, concerns about this. It's it's not in their hands, but the FCC is outdated right now with their regulations. They're like 25 27 years old their regulations and lawsuits aren't going through because the wireless industry has captured the FCC. We know that um at this rate, you know, it's it's affecting their health. It's affecting their brains. It's affecting their performance. It causes toxins in the body, free radicals, you know, which our kids are already being poisoned to death anyways. we all know with the food and the other stuff that's going on and the Roundup that they're soaking up. So, I I I just hope that if there's another time when a school can be closed, like I know Westwood was supposed to be closed and I went, "Yay!" And then I found out Las Solus is moving in and I'm like, "No, please." And so I know a little Spanish. I'm going to say so estro. So I hope the parents and the students and the teachers of lasolas look for their own information. They start researching it because it's their kids. It's their bodies going into that space. Okay? And they need to the parents need to take care of their kids because um NOS's aren't going to do it. They've been letting us down. FCC is letting us down. Okay. Again, we have no legal grounds, I know, with the school school board, but please take that into account. Thank you for your time. >> All right. Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Maryanne Vanussi. Good evening. I sent an email through Dan White to the to four members of the school board. Excuse me. Uh but I I mistakenly uh called it title 10 instead of title nine. So I'm going to read that message to you with a correction. I note with alarm but not surprise that four members of the Prior Lake Savage school board have signed on to the Title 9 anti-child letter circulating around the state these days which it attempts to bully school boards into policy change under threat of losing federal dollars which are dwindling daily. So far, 278 of the 2,000 or 14% schoolboard members in Minnesota have signed on. A minority, but a potent force of animus against children in our state. I say animus, not hate, because certainly any true adult does not need to plague children with political issues. I get that some of you don't like kids who are different than your notion of the ideal child, but that does not mean you should try to hurt them. That's the stuff of the Ku Klux Clan, not school board members. Being trans or gay is not catching like measles. Self-identity is what children are forming in these years before 18, although some take longer. Your parents let you find yours and you are in in local parents need to allow them to do the same. They will soon leave your responsibility and find their own. I will affirm that gay and trans children remain beloved as do all members of your family, the ones who are close to you. Surprise. and when they grow up to become caring, giving adults. You are proud beyond words. Thanks for your for listening. I am grateful for your attention to this matter. Let's hold the students in our schools close and tell them we support their efforts to grow and lead our communities to make a better future for everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miriam. And our last speaker tonight is Jen Owen. >> Good evening, school board members and Dr. Thomas. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Jen Owen and I'm a proud Prior Lake parent to my young son, Paxton. Tonight, I'm here to thank the four school board members for choosing to support and empower the Prior Lake female athletes by safeguarding the participation of women's sports for biological women. And tonight, I'm advocating for the remaining board members to join them in unanimous support. Before the enactment of Title 9, female athletes faced few opportunities in sports with minimal funding or support for women's athletic programs. Title 9 mandated equal treatment and benefits for all, essentially enforcing educational institutions to expand and support women's sports. As a result, there was a dramatic surge in the number of female athletes in the high school and the collegiate levels. However, in recent years, women's athletics has been under attack by those advocating to place biological males into women's sports. I'm a prime example of Title N. I was a multiport high school athlete. I earned a full ride volleyball scholarship to play at Minnesota State University Mano, where I became a collegiate all-American volleyball player, was an NCAA woman of the year nominee, and inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame. All of this was possible because of Title Nine and the women before me that paved the way and pushed to expand athletic opportunities. Post college, I was hired into the Lakeville public school systems as an educator and a varsity volleyball coach. I helped build that volleyball program at Lakeville South High School when it first opened into the powerhouse that it is today. I have witnessed as a player, as an educator, as a coach, the value that athletics instills in our young women. Sports helps girls find success on the field, in the classroom, and later on in their careers in life. This is all possible because school boards choose to do the right thing where men compete against men and women compete against women. As a parent, I want these opportunities for women to participate and excel in Prior Lake. I'm grateful for those willing to stand up and fight so that biological women like me would not have had to compete against men. We wouldn't have had an equal playing field. I am grateful for the continued expansion of the opportunities for all kids in high school, in private club level activities and sports and community education programs. And while I do not have a daughter that will compete in Prior Lake schools, I do have a niece. I also want to advocate for women always in athletics because it's near and dear to my heart. Young girls need sports heroes who show them what they're capable of doing. And seeing female athletes win at high levels gives them the faith to chase their own sports dreams. Having these examples matter in building tomorrow's champions. And once again, I implore the school board by keeping sports separate and safe and empowering our Lakeville women. You're increasing safety and providing great opportunities for female athletes. And most of all, you're protecting the integrity of women's sports. Thank you. Appreciate it. [Applause] >> Okay. Okay, next on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. And just to make sure, Director France, can you hear what I'm speaking? Okay, we can't hear you. So, just one second, folks. Yeah, you might have to try to relog in. Mary, I'm going to move ahead >> or call. >> Yep, we can't hear you. So, we're going to move ahead. Uh, first in the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Uh, is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> So, me >> by Director Bullion. Second. >> Second >> by Director Johnson. We're >> We're going to have to roll call this. We'll start with Director Johnson. >> Hi. >> Director Atinson. >> I. >> Director Bullan. >> I. >> Director Mason. >> Hi. >> Director France. >> Thumbs up. That works. And I. That carries. 6. Uh, next is the consent agenda. These are items that are considered routine in nature to be enacted in one motion. If anyone in the audience or here at the table has anything they'd like to pull and discuss separately, let me know. Now, if there's nothing, we will I will entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented. >> So, >> by director Mason, second >> by Director Atinson. Again, we have a roll call. Director Johnson, >> I. >> Director Atinson, >> I. >> Director Bullian, >> I. >> Director Mason, >> hi. >> And Director France, thumbs up again. And that motion carries 6. [Applause] Next on the agenda is a resolution for the acceptance of a couple of gifts and I will we have two gifts this evening. Uh, first from the Prylike Lions Club, a donation in the amount of $1,500 for the community education Halloween party and a donation from an anonymous donor in the amount of $150 for Blackbod funds for Westwood Elementary. I will entertain a motion to accept these gifts with gratitude. So made >> by Director Bullion, second by Director Johnson. Again, a roll call. Director Johnson, >> I. >> Director Atinson, >> I. >> Director Bullian, >> I. Director Mason >> I. >> Dr. France and I and that carries 6. Next we have one personnel item um student support pair is from the ANI budget. Director Kther. >> Yes. Thank you chair white director superintendent. It's the memo is attached into the uh into the agenda. It's the district is looking to add three elementary student support pair educators for the 2526 school year. Uh these temporary positions will provide additional instructional support to students and will be paid out of the approved achievement and integration budget with no additional cost to the district. >> All right. Is there a motion to accept? >> By director Bullion and second by Director Johnson. Any questions or comments? Okay. Please again roll call. Uh Director Johnson >> I. >> Director Atinson >> I. >> Director Bullion. >> Hi. >> And Director Mason. >> I. >> And Director France. I heard her say I. And that carries 6. All right. No unfinished business tonight. So we'll move on to new business. Uh annual class size report directors Ryder and Coher. So I think I'll take the lead on this one with the packet information that you have received. We have taken a look at our current um enrollment projections and rolled them forward with the latest information that we have from our finals off from the 2425 school year. So updating that for that purpose. We now are looking at the 26 year and forward and um looking at those enrollments compared to where we had planned for budget for example. So the top part of the sheet um states the the projections by grade level. And if we're focusing on the K12 for example, the budget for the adopted 26 year was put together with 8,435 as K12. Okay, ADMs. I'm talking average daily membership. As we take a look at where we are at this moment, October 1, we are looking at that number being 8,539. This is not a final fall count. This is simply the count as of that Friday the 1st. And so that's 104 kids more than what would have been budgeted. But we also know that this is potentially being shifting, I should say, as we move forward because of errors that need to be corrected before the end of the December time frame for the fall report, as well as the um the students that may have been with us last year, for example, maybe didn't return yet, and the 15-day drop has to just get finalized and recorded in the system, if that makes sense. So, there's adjustments that we anticipate being made. We'd like to take a look at that again on November 1st and see how that's looking um compared to where we are at um and and just keep an eye on that compared to the budget. As we revise the budget for the current year, we would be then adjusting that based upon more known information at that point in time. Um at this juncture the the projections forward are slightly declined from previous um assumptions but not far different from what was discussed last May. So that seems pretty in sync with what you had heard in May and um just slightly off just because we want to update for newest numbers. Right. So that's the enrollment um projection piece. And the second document that is uploaded into this agenda item is the class size averages. So what we did is we took the October information and um for elementary class sizes, we looked at that information and um Michelle Lambert went and spoke with every single elementary school to make sure that we had a clear understanding of the number of sections in each of the schools. And so you can see that that information is listed with the grade levels K through five. Um you see a target column as to that's the um number of students we would anticipate being our target for that grade level. And then a discussion cap when we reach that number that's when we have to talk about whether or not we have to do something different. And then you see all the schools listed off to the right from there. There's one cell in second grade at Jeffers Pond that is um over our discussion cap by a 33. Otherwise, you see that everything is is less than the discussion cap. In the center of the page is the averages now by grade. same information but just kind of showing it a little differently so you can see what is the average class size um for each grade level considering all of our elementary schools as of October 1. I did include also the bottom row there that says the discussion cap just so you would have that handy as well. So you can see that all of our grade levels at the elementary level are below that discussion cap there. Um, next we had a conversation um via email with our principles at the secondary level and um they put together the information for the course subject data and so you can see English, math, science and social studies and these are all averages. So you're going to find that you know in detail you'd see some classes that were maybe less and some that were maybe more but on average this is the numbers we're talking about. So taking the number of um of students and the number of sections and and how you know what size is that average. So you can see for 6 through 8th those numbers and then 9 through 12 separately stated. Again this is just a quick look at where we're at at the time of October 1st. >> Any questions for Dr. Rder? >> Just one. um or maybe I don't know who this is towards but um as far as like the one classroom that we are seeing over the discussion cap are what are we doing to support that that teacher or address that is there anything to do still this year or >> yeah so those are conversations that we're having um with the principles and uh looking at resources at the building level as well as any supports from the district that we can use to offset that um you know we held back some FTE reserves curves in the past and those those have been allocated. But if we need to adjust um instructional support, para support hours or something, that's where we can look at um offsetting some of that. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on uh to the elementary attendance boundary discussion. Uh directors Ryder and Powers. >> Good evening everyone. Um the document that we've got here is the one we've been using for the last couple of months. Um we've been adding to it um to make sure that we're getting the most up-to-date information. Let's make sure that I can ex if I can get it to change pages. >> H >> slideshow maybe. Yeah, I was >> just arrow down. >> Well, there we go. Bonus. It's still not doing anything. There we go. All right. So, as we're looking at the Wowza, stop moving things. As we're looking at um these are the assumptions that we started with. um making sure that we've got that Lola dela pro lola delago program um moving out to Westwood. We're in still in the discussion phase about the Sage program because I know there's been some discussion about holding that still at Westwood. Um and I want to make sure we continue that discussion because is that the best location for those students or is there a different location? And so we'll continue that conversation, but right now with that assumption, we're looking at continuing them at Westwood. Um the data we're using is current um as of right now. Um some of the attributes still are from previous data. Those are going to be things like free and reduced, um special education numbers, any of those different types of things. One of the things we wanted to make sure we've talked to several different groups about this is that we aren't grandfathering anybody into the school that they were in. So, as we're red doing these boundaries, we wanted to make sure and give ourselves the best chance we could to balance things out based on those other attributes that we talked about. Now, as we get this conversation concluded, we'll be talking to all those families that have uh an inter district transfer that they would like to proceed with and we'll make sure that they go through the process with that. Um, which is the same one we've had forever. And then we'll be looking at making sure that we've get our open enrollment, the open enrolled students, that they get their options put in for us so that we can review those based on the availability per grade. Um, and then also for our our new students that are going to be coming in, our new kindergarteners to make sure that they are set up and enrolled ever. This is current boundaries. This is the way the district is right now. Now, some of the minimal criteria we were talking about contiguous boundaries. We wanted to make sure we weren't isolating a community on the other side that's going to come all the way back over to Five Hogs or Red Tail. wanted to make sure we were within our discussion caps for our classroom sizes and capacities. Our aim was four sections per grade per building. There are a couple buildings that we are able to go to five sections just because they have extra classrooms. We want to ensure that we have equitable access to programs and learning opportunities for everyone. And we cannot significantly increase the cost of transportation. That will come in. Um there's a couple of the scenarios where it didn't it doesn't look as good. Base numbers for all these scenarios. We removed the Lola de Lago students so that I could manipulate those numbers without them in there because they're going to be coming all over the district to come to those locations. So they weren't needed in that open enrolled students, same thing. We pulled them out. They aren't in our boundaries. first scenario um that I pulled up, scenario A. Um basically this scenario pulled most of the Westwood students into five hawks. Um the challenge with this one, it affected the least amount of students except for the Westwood students. The challenge for this one is it's would be a a really large dollar amount hit for our transportation costs. we would have to add a minimum of four buses in order to accommodate that school going in that with all those students going to that school. It just doesn't work out for any other way we do it. >> Otherwise, I mean, scenario A meets the minimums. It's not necessarily balanced. Um, this is an analysis of a few people, not just myself. We've all looked at these things so that we could try and look at to try and compare apples to apples for all of these different scenarios. But and the scenario A, we basically pulled off of it because of the really substantial increase in costs. Oops. As we're looking at scenario B, I switched it around a little bit. We've got uh every every one of the schools is uh is picking up students from the the Westwood group and then we're resizing a couple of these boundaries. One of the things you'll notice as we're going through these different scenarios is it's going to change how many students are affected. This is just how many students are affected by where the boundaries move. There's an added cost thing in there for students affected. So when I'm looking at scenario B meets the minimum criteria, it's not particularly balanced. There's a couple of schools that are much higher and much lower. Um fivehawks at over 80%, Glendale at 59%. not future proof. We've got at least one of the schools that's a little bit more isolated. So, if the district when it starts to grow, we're going to have to redo the boundaries all over again whenever. It's I know we've done this every five years in the past. My hope with going through these scenarios was to make it so that we didn't have to do it in five years. I'm not guaranteeing that. But I would really like to come up with a scenario that is more future proof that we can expand with as the community does grow. biggest challenge with scenario B. Um I would have to change start times for at least two locations which will change the number of students that will be affected. Initially we're going to have 572 students that were going to be relocated by the boundaries. To that we would need to add 1,600 students that would be affected by the different change in starting time. Scenario C, much the same thing. Almost exactly the same number of students that are affected by the boundary change itself and 16 just under 1,600 students affected by the start time change. Scenario D, much the same. We're looking at 649 students being affected by the boundary changes and 1,600 students affected by the time change. Scenario E is a an exception on a lot of different things. I actually pulled this one from a a previous boundary that we had. Um, basically it lines the district up so that we can be more futurep proof. we can grow as the school district grows in every direction that we need to. Um I mean if we're looking at growth at Red Tale, we've got that new apartment or apartment complex over there. There are the places in that area that could grow. If we're looking at Glendale up at McCall, that's one of the boundary or the the farmers up there is looking to start building on his land. Same thing with uh where 13 takes its nice little bend over there. Um the city of Prior Lake is looking to expand that area potentially a lot of homes. That's not going to happen anytime in the immediate future. So it's not going to help us um as we're looking at our declining or flat enrollment at the moment. But this particular scenario looks better for a lot of those things. So when we're looking at the total number of students that are affected, 635 right off the bat just by the boundaries moving. But this is the only scenario that I was able to create that did not require a time change for a start time change. Part of the reason we're looking at start time changes. So, we had a really long discussion with the the bus company about their capacities and how many buses are needed for each one of the elementarymentaries. And to keep with their resources the same number of buses, I'd be looking having to juggle these around because Westwood only needed five buses, six buses. Most of the rest of the elementaryaries need at least seven. So there just wasn't the capacity to be able to pull that in. And Westwood was one of the late start schools. So that's one of the reasons that we're looking to having to move things around um with those other scenarios. There's just we don't have the right number of buses to take care of those students. That's just the flatout quick answer for it. >> Director Powers, just just interject. And then the alternative to that is then to put the money into buying more buses. >> So that that's the other piece that we want to make sure >> which is where we came up with scenario A. Um four to five buses is a million dollars. They are just that expensive to buy these buses. And that's that's on the cheap side. That's not looking at the any inflation recently. That's the numbers I had last fall. So if inflation has hit harder recently, look at those numbers being closer to $300,000 a piece. So it just I mean we I'm not digging into that side of things because I really I don't want to think about spending more money on transportation. We've our transportation is already high enough. Any questions about any of those things that I brought dropped up? >> Amy, >> I have one question. you had mentioned um boundaries changing every five years or that in the p in the past like you you had stated that the the desire is to futurep proof so we weren't having to um >> change boundaries and you mentioned five years and maybe I heard wrong but I'm I only sitting on the board um as long as I have not even three years I although I've been in the district since 1999 and I know We've gone through boundary changes. I'm just curious if you could tell me more about is boundary changes. Do we go through them on a consistent basis? >> We have in this district pretty consistently. Part of the reason is the growth that we've had. So, as we're looking at the last big boundary change was right around 2020 when we pulled Hamilton Ridge online, right? >> The last one before that was when we were looking at adding Red Tail. >> Okay. >> The last one before that was when we were looking to add Jeff Pond. So, we have been a I might be mixing the schools up, but I know it's been averaging averaging about five years. >> Okay. I just I that was just one thing I wanted to get a little bit more cont. >> If we don't have to, I don't want to ever boundaries again. So, >> I didn't think so, but thank you for >> Yeah, I have uh I have all the historic boundary changes. So, that's some of the things I was able to use. The challenge is is that every time we changed the boundaries before, it's because we were growing. We were adding a location online, which changed much of the discussion that we had in the past. Um, this is different. It's trying to balance with what we've got, taking one away. >> So, I appreciate the the keeping in mind the potential for growth given all the different areas like you explained, all the different school areas. I really appreciate um you using that as a lens or a filter to for you know bringing these scenarios forward. Thank you >> Director France if we can hear you. I think you have a question. >> Got her hand up. >> Can't hear you. >> Still can't hear you. >> I don't know if it's able to come through. If she can print it on the dialogue, we might be able to see it that way. >> Put in the chat. >> Yeah, put it Mary if you can put it in the in the chat. to watch your typing skills. No, it's not working. >> All right, Mary, I'm afraid that's not working either. So, >> she can try. Oh, there we go. >> Oh, there we go. >> Mary, can you hear me through your phone? Yeah, we still can't hear you. I don't know what's up. >> All right, Mary, I'm I'm sorry. We're gonna have to have you maybe get that question to Dr. or Director Powers privately. Sorry about that. It's just not working. So, as we're looking at um tomorrow morning, I'll be giving all of these scenarios to our finance and operations committee to hopefully they can help us narrow it down to the two. Um, honestly, right now there's one of them that I personally think is better, but I really want to hear other people's input and I really want to see what the discussion can be for us tomorrow so that we can bring those two recommendations back to the board for October 23rd. Um, I think it's pretty obvious by looking at the numbers and looking at uh a lot of the different things um where we're going to end up, but I I'm it's not always obvious to other people what you know I'm not going to see what they are. >> Lisa. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I just have a question. Oh, sorry. >> I have a question. Um I know in our finance meeting we talked about um there would be in the buildings after the the the reboundering the I ideal capacity is less than 80%. Is what we talked about in the finance meeting from my notes that I have. My question is if you're looking at like scenario A where five hawks is at 81.6% would that mean that they would not be able to take any open enrollment students in that scenario? that honestly it really depends on how we set everything up. It's going to depend on the class size per grade um as much as anything else. So when we're going and breaking it down that far, if the class size for kindergartens are all full up, then we may I mean if if someone's coming in that doesn't have any siblings, maybe for fifth grade, but we really need to look carefully at how they're coming in and what they've got for their family members because open enrollment or any of those other things have so many different variables that are popping in on top of it. If I could just extend that, um, Director Atinson, so that 80 to 85% threshold that most districts use is for your resident enrollment, leaving room for future growth and or open enrollment. So that we again, but that would based upon the individual grade levels. So we we would have the capacity still um specifically for that eb and flow for that. >> Yeah. >> And still feel comfortable. Charles, >> um, you put on scenario E, shorter average bus ride times. Can, and you might not know now, um, do you know what that time would be? Do you know what that would be compared to what it is now? >> Right now, the average bus time, the goal for the bus company and us is 30 minutes or less. >> Okay. >> There were some of the scenarios in there, um, a in particular, that would have increased the bus times for five hawks. Um, we're still the goal is is 30 minutes or less. I think with scenario E, we'll be sitting closer to 25 minutes. It's not going to be appreciable difference just because some of the boundaries are a little ways away. Um, if we're going down to a particular area, we could fill two buses in that area and they're there. They they're quick. >> But when we're scattered a little bit farther out, >> 77 students can fit on a bus. That's a lot of stops when you're talking about some of the rural areas. >> Yep. Okay. Thank you. Did um after your meeting with transportation did any of these um come with like a reduced cost in transportation at all or about the >> So that's a very good question. Um most of the scenarios came with an increased cost. >> Okay. >> Um we really don't know the reduced cost part until we actually get the routes starting to be built. >> Sure. >> Um there again scenario E the boundary the school are a little bit more condensed. Um the biggest thing about for transportation costs is uh the number of buses or the number of vans. That's that's our cost more than anything else. And we had a really long discussion with the bus company just last week about um why our costs are the way they are. And I'm hoping that from that discussion that we can work on a lot of different things. But this particular boundary scenarios, I'm not necessarily expecting any nec the large cost reductions. The biggest thing is going to be um because of the way we brought the students in for Sage or the way we I mean there are other things that would have added to those costs because of that extra bit of transportation that it may not exist going forward. >> Mary, you were trying to chat in a question, I think. >> Oh, did we get one? Yeah, there's >> there we go. >> That's a good question. So, um, >> read it. >> Yeah. >> Oh, sorry. No one else can see it. Do all the buses turn between high school and middle school to the later elementary student pickups or just some? Um, and are we still using 150% capacity for our buses? So, um, those are very good questions. So, as we're looking at the high school, um, in our conversations with the transportation company, many of our buses from the high school are figured at 150% of the capacity because we know many of them are getting rides. You know, there's a lot of different things for transportation that are happening at the high school level compared to the middle school or elementary. as we're looking at start times, middle schools first. Then we've got the high school and two of our elementarymentaries in the that second that earlier tier for the elementarymentaries. And then in the third, the latest start is just the elementary schools. Running three tiers gives us advantages that running two tiers couldn't. We'd need more buses to run two tiers. So on that side of things, we're doing a good job. Um, changing that would be problematic. I'd have to do a lot more work. >> And then second question about like airline booking, over booking the buses, knowing >> Yeah. No, I I think I I talked a little bit about that. Yes, we do buck the >> We expect attrition to not be there. >> And we do expect attrition for the high school. Um, if we end up with a bus that's full, they can dispatch another one pretty quickly to get to the high school. And that's they plan on having at least one or two buses available that if capacity goes weird there it's the substitution or if a breakdown happens or something along those lines. They they try and plan for that side of things a little bit. >> Okay. There's anything else. Lisa >> question. Um I'm just looking again back at my notes for um our finance meeting and um one of the questions was um do we have I know you talked about the bus capacity. Um, do we have the bus capacity for each of these scenarios? Um, not capacity, like the number of buses that would be needed to run for each of these scenarios. I know you said A needed more buses, but do we have it broken down by each scenario, how many buses each scenario would need? >> Every scenario after a is the same number of buses that we've got right now because it's the same number of students. The biggest thing is is with the the scenario A, the the distance traveled makes it harder for us to keep it within that half hour time range without adding more capacity. Yes, we'd be sitting at closer >> I was going to guess 40 to 45 minutes. >> Okay. >> At best. >> Yeah. >> Charles, >> one more. I'm uh going to bounce off Director Mason's question here. Once it is narrowed down to two, can you get us the costs on the two for transportation to see >> what I know it's not going to be 100%. I wouldn't ever expect that to be, but at least an estimate I think would be >> a rough estimate. It's going to be the same cost as we've got right now because it's based on the number of students and the number of buses needed. the push is going to be I think the biggest difference might be um where again the those um efficiencies come in. So I will do my best to get those numbers for you. >> Um I don't expect much of a change on some of that stuff though. >> Yeah. I think everyone's concern is just seeing another increase in transportation. >> Oh, for sure. >> That's that's what we want to avoid and that's the last thing we want is a lastm minute thing. So, if we can even game plan it and sit down and say, "Hey, we understand that nothing's going to be 100%." But we would like to think through these two scenarios, right? And at least have it and foreshadow what we're doing before before something final comes out. Um, so Director Johnson, if I may, um, to Director P's point, um, because we have the same amount of buses and and, uh, routes, >> we can anticipate the types of costs that we've been currently incurring with transportation. That that will be the estimate because nothing is changing. Um, scenario A is the only one that we would forecast a higher because we're going to add additional buses to to make that happen. I think the question if I may go a little deeper in your question is what's the over the bigger transportation solution and I think that's separate from this boundary conversation and that's something that would be um addressed by way of looking at um uh future contracts and what uh kind of proposal proposals would come in around that from current bus company or any other bus companies to really start to do a comparative analysis We are actually going to be doing um a third-party audit of our current transportation contract and routes um to identify, you know, efficiencies um where we might be able to find cost savings, etc. When we have that information, we'll be sure to share that with the board. But I think your question is separate from the actual here because what we're your question here, it's going to be the we can expect the same because we're not going to change our our amount of buses. Um, so stay tuned for that. When we have that information, we'll definitely get that. And if there's any changes um to Director Johnson's questions, if we do ping anything, we'll make sure that we have that in our final recommendation to you all too um come uh November 10th. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> All right. Moving on to uh Dr. Thomas's goals for 2526. Uh thank you uh Chair White, board of directors. Uh couple weeks ago you all provided some comments uh on the goals and so I've taken uh re-watched the tapes and taken account of all the comments that were made and I've incorporated those into um the revised version that you have in the packet. And if you have any questions, sorry my my red line did not transfer into the PDF. Um, I could certainly walk through some just real key things of incorporating. So, if you take a look at uh uh under the first goal, you'll see at the very uh let's see, sorry, under progress indicators, it starts with 100% of school buildings departments submit. If you take a look at that last bullet, target achievement gr achievement and integration support for identified students with achievement gaps. This gets to um uh a director's comment about uh looking at students who are um not uh at at grade level. So, we've I've incorporated that specifically and then what are the support plans specifically for that pilot program that you all just approved tonight with those three um student success success coaches. Um, also the examples of evidence added um a curricular mapping for our four core um ELA, math, science, and social studies which was some comments that were shared by the board. Um going into strategic uh or goal number two under progress indicators, uh rewarded the language of the third bullet um to reflect the policy language of striving to maintain a district budget. uh and then put the slash of fund balance policy verified through regular monitoring and communications. That was the other um component that was brought up by several board directors. And then going to goal number three. Uh the comments, there were some grammatical uh changes under progress indicators. Um, now it reads establish two development sessions versus board development sessions because it read um your your work that you're doing versus uh the work that we would be in um working in partnership with the board. So I rewarded that to reflect some of the grammar stuff. And then there is another bullet um that's at or in the second bullet growing district partnerships went really specific to supporting the strategic the strategic plan and a specific focus called out being directly linked to the ANI tutoring support that we are looking at bringing through that pilot program um this year. So I've incorporated that uh point of feedback. Um uh the other part was the last bullet in that section by June 26 join formal staff meetings. There's a slash resources that was added per the discussion that I played back. And then lastly um examples of evidence added community testimony whether it's myself administration uh community members. So, how would we bring that voice uh more specifically as as examples? Again, this these are illustrative. They're not exhaustive of things, but just incorporating your feedback. So, those are the key things that came out of our last discussion that I put into the uh version that you have this evening. >> I will enterain for questions. I'll entertain a motion to accept uh Michael's 2526 goals as submitted. >> So, made by Director Johnson, second by Director Mason. Questions? Lisa? Yeah, I'm really confused. Could you just email us a copy of this so that we know what we're approving because um I'm I I'm well, I was listening very carefully. I'm having a hard time understanding. >> Yeah, I'll what you were saying. So, I would like to actually see it before we approve it this evening. >> Sure. I can actually pull it up here. Oh, that would be great. Let me see if I can do that. I was just having a hard time following. So, because this document is different than what we reviewed at our study session, so I thought the corrections already have been made to this. >> No. >> Yeah, they haven't been. They haven't >> because the the two it says establish two development sessions. So that word board is already taken out. So I'm sorry I'm confused. >> Yeah. Sorry. I was just calling you out to the bullets on yours because my red line didn't transfer into the board doc. >> Yeah. So let me see if I can just quickly pull that. >> You know what? Let me see. I'm signed in. I'm not signed in, so I wouldn't be able to access my Google Drive. >> Is there a way? Let me let me let me try something here for it. I apologize. It's a Google doc, but I'd have to sign in under me to access my Google Drive. It's on the shared drive, but it's my personal shared drive. Let me try this real quickly. >> Still can't hear you, Mary. So, if you're suggesting something, >> can you share it with Liz? >> Can you share it with Liz? Because she's the one that signed in on here. >> Yes. Let's see. Yeah, there we go. That's I'll do that. >> All right. I should be able to go into Google Docs now. So, me and her shared, but it's >> Yeah, I don't know. Right there. All right. So, I'll I'll take it. Oops. So, I'll just scroll through. This looks a little different because it's it it's not in a PDF format. So right here, this this red bullet is a new is the new bullet that was added per conversation. So the changes in red here are the ones reflecting the conversations. You have the final version that's incorporated already. It's just I couldn't color code it. So that's the first. In the second goal, here's the language change. I see in the third. There's the language change. Again, you don't see the strike out in the red. And there's the addition piece at the end of that second bullet. There's the resources I mentioned and then there's a community testimony. >> Back to the budget one, please. Sorry, and a typo up here that got fixed as well. >> So, what you all have there in front of you is the the final version. All right, we clear. >> Final. I'm sorry. So confus you were reading things that weren't on here. So I'm sorry if I was confused. >> Yeah. No, I was just bringing this back to to pull out the conversation that you we all had so you I could point out where it was on the final. >> But there's still not something about the ANI in here, is it? >> Yeah, there was. >> Oh, it's underneath. It's underneath. Okay. Sorry. >> Yeah, it the format. >> Apologies. Yeah, the fair the format as it converts from Google Docs to the PDF is a little wonky, but it's all there. >> All right. Okay. Thank you for that. >> Yep. Apologize. >> Other questions or comments? >> Um I just had one comment was the um where are we? Poll three. The I I don't know if that was on the original by June 2026 join two formal staff meetings with every building in the district. Yep. We talked about that. that was on the on the original >> for for whatever reason while I was going through the packet for tonight's meeting. I'm just really um pleased with that. I don't know that that >> and that's specifically going to the positive learning environment so I can hear from staff what do they need differently um that I might be able to be a value ad um to help create for that school. I'm just very appreciative of that because um whether for positive learning environment for academic success I mean you hearing straight from >> um the buildings I I I just really appreciate that. >> All right. Thank you. If there is nothing else we will take action on this and this does require a roll call. Director Johnson >> I. >> Director Atinson >> I. >> Director Bullan. >> Hi. >> Director Mason >> I. and director France. Thumbs up and I that carries 6. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. Uh, no policy this evening. Are there any administrative reports? Okay. And any board reports? I can start at Charles end if you have anything or >> Yep. >> Okay. Director Johnson. >> Uh, we had our first uh policy meeting of the year. Uh, I wrote a few things down. Uh Dr. Thomas uh joined us. It was uh director Catherine. Did I say it right? Okay. All right. Um his first one as well uh Dr. Thomas uh discussed the charter uh went over the committee's roles and responsibilities, their scope and authority as well as the time commitment for our new members. uh director cawin showed everyone the different websites they could go through uh as well as you know to be able to conduct research on all the policies that we will go through. Uh then we talked a little bit about this year's policies that we're going to go through as well as the future agenda uh policies that we're going to have as well as uh a little bit of the process that we're going through and next year's and future year's processes that we will have. and we will have a broken down um report of the actual policies that we went through uh sent out to everyone here shortly I would say to go through that. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Please >> um I do have a finance report update and then I have a another update but do we want to start with um because I think your update director Mason >> from the before >> it's before mine. Yeah. So you don't mind. We we attended two finance meetings and director Mason has the first one. And I have the second one. So in chronological order. So >> yeah, and I'm happy to email out the detailed notes. So I'll just cover the high level, but um yeah, this one is from the finance committee notes from 99. Um so we welcome new committee members at that meeting. Um discuss the purpose and statement and commitment required. Uh went through the financial board report and just some proposed changes to the board report. So, for example, um the debt service report, which only makes sense to present two times a year given the debt payments only occur August 1st and February 1st, um there really weren't a lot of questions around that. Uh and really focused time on boundary discussions. So, um reviewed a lot of the same deck that everyone has seen um showed the maps. Um there was a lot of really great questions. So, I think some of them just to maybe touch on um that we kind of didn't cover tonight too were just a question around the percentage of students who ride the bus, but then also asking are there certain schools that maybe we have um student less students riding the bus because they're um more at kids. Um so, different factors like that. Um talked about um just some asks of relaying re um overlaying the old map and adding maximum number of students per grade. um discussion around the Ola Dilago and the growth there. Um and then talked about the new development. I think we mentioned this at a prior meeting too, but just the assumption around 50 to 75% of new houses would have students in them. Um and the sav savage expectation only about 50 houses per year um and 500 over the next 10 years. Um and then talked about the savage apartments too. Um and then next steps really which I think is you know the calendar that we went through. I also have um special ed advisory committee notes. Steve, do you want me to do those? >> Could I just make just one quick corre correction? Um >> the you noted about the um new development with 50 to 75% of students in them. Actually uh the new development we can bank on having 0.5 or up to 75 of a student that would come from that. >> Right. Sorry, did I state that incorrect? >> Yeah. >> And I think the discussion was 0.5 typically from apartment or 75 usually the higher end with housing >> on the housing side. Y >> go ahead with the special ed group. >> Yeah. And then uh we just had our special ed advisory committee seek on October 8th. So um went through a lot there too with the group. Um so you know I think just overview of the special education numbers and the 30% increase over the last 10 years. Um and then large um percentage of that is centerbased needs. So that is rapidly increasing. Um and we have that at four elementary schools. So um those were some interesting numbers shared. Um talked about staffing updates. um did a review of the 2425 last year's department goals and outcomes. Um so they have a goal set for each of the four priorities on our strategic plan. Um I'll email out specifics around this but um and talked about you know the goal of of the academic achievement for fastbridge fastbridge learning scores and four buildings meeting that. So that's great. Um and then talked about 25 26 department goals also in the same um four categories. Academic excellence, positive learning environments and focusing on health services and using tracking metrics to um try to decrease the number of kind of unnecessary um health office visits. um optimizing resources and developing guidance materials, community partnerships, so developing and working with um some of the work-based learning programs at the high school. So, I think their goal was to have five new sponsors um who can help provide job- based work experience to our students, which is great. Um talked a little bit about the readact and the requirements for the teaching staff there. Um the site consolidation uh went through most of the same information. Um there weren't a lot of questions raised um in that meeting around the site consolidation. Um the only thing to note was just that the Westwood has a life skills program which would need to relocate. Um upcoming events for them December 8th through the 12th is inclusive schools week. Uh and then talked about re um trying to bring back the inclusivity awards which we did not do last year. So hopefully we'll get that going. >> All right. Thank you. >> That's it. >> Okay. Thank you. Um so we had another finance committee meeting on September 22nd. I don't know if I'll be able to top your detailed notes, um Director Mason, but anyway, um at that meeting we back in June, our board agreed that we would be setting um board budget board budget goals. And so at the September 22nd meeting, director Mason and I um presented a template to the committee because we wanted to get the feed the um finance committee's feedback on this process of setting bud board budget goals. And the template that we will be sharing with the board at our study session really centered around our four pillars of academic excellence, optimine optimized resources, positive learning environments, and community partnerships. So that was um about 15 to 20 minutes that we got some feedback from our community. Like I said, I'll share that at our study session and I can al also email this recap to the entire board. Um the second part of that meeting was really looking at these um the consolidation and a lot of the questions were answered here tonight. Um I tried to um give some of the feedback during that presentation. I think a couple other things to note that were mentioned in that meeting that um I think are important is that one thing that was a comment was made that keeping into consideration some of our older buildings and the high capacity of students in our older building like five hawks. So, keeping that in mind as well as we look at these consolidations. And then one of our community members um made a comment that I just it really resonated in the back of my mind is that as we're sitting here and we're talking about this consolidation and we're all talking about how many how many students does this impact? We really have to keep in mind that I really think that the number is greater than what we're even talking about it talking about here on paper because it's not only the students um in the buildings that we indicated on the right hand side of that spreadsheet but the Westwood students are going to be impacted, the Lola students are going to be impacted because they're going to be moving and our open enrollment students will also be impacted. So, the community member um just suggested that we be careful with our messaging and be mindful that this cons consolidation is really a community effort and a shared approach. And I really love that. I thought it was such a a great way to look at this that this is really a team effort. Um the next thing that I wanted to touch on this evening is I just wanted to share an update on a project that I've been working on as an individual schoolboard director as it relates to Title 9 and advocating for MD and MSHSL to follow federal law. On September 30th, an investigation was completed and it was found that MDE and MSHSL are in violation of Title 9 for allowing biological males to compete in female sports and occupy female intimate spaces here in Minnesota. Once the findings were completed, MDE then had 10 days to respond. It was at that moment that a coalition of schoolboard directors from across the state felt it was important to come together as individual board members to advocate for MD Minnesota Department of Education and Minnesota State High School League to comply with Title 9. We developed a website, contacted individual board members who had expressed concerns with MSHSL policies related to Title 9, and I was designated as a spokesperson for this project. The website title9m Minnesota.com titlemn.com was launched on Monday and as of this morning 274 schoolboard members from across the state representing 109 school districts have added their names to the list as individual board members calling for MDE and MSHSL to comply with Title 9. As a spokesperson for this project, I think it's really important to share with our community why I decided to get involved with this project. Not only do I believe that the Minnesota the current Minnesota laws don't comply with Title 9, you can view the 65 pages of violations from the investigation on the website at title9mn.com. But I also know the position this puts our district in with a possible loss of up to 3.8 million in federal funding and future litigation against our district with the conflict between state and federal laws. The true heart of this issue for me is the safety and well-being of every child in our district. And I don't believe our current Minnesota policies deliver on the intent of protecting all students. As a board director, we took an oath of office when we were elected to follow federal and state laws. And when the laws are conflicting, it put our it puts our board directors and our school districts in a tough position. While some board members might wonder why I took on this project or feel that it's political theater or divisive, the fact of the matter is for me remaining silent on important topics like this that touch every student in our district means compliance. We are elected as individuals to be the voice of our community and this is one issue that I could not be silent on. My mother's generation fought hard for equal opportunities for women and girls as there was widespread discrimination against women in academic and athletic opportunities. We cannot turn back the page on what our moms work they work so hard to advocate for. I was two in 1972 and I can't believe I'm here today 53 years later advocating for the same rights our daughters and granddaughters rights right here in Minnesota. Thank you. >> Amy, do you have anything? >> Uh, I do have a a community ed we I did have a community uh education advisory council meeting that I attended. Um the goals were changed this year for the advisory committee. Last year our goal was to increase the advisory committee's numbers. Um and this this year has shifted probably adding to that goal is how do we um have more involvement from our advisory council and what that looks like. Um it has been a pleasure sitting on the um community ed advisory. I think um I've been I've used community ed since coming into this district in 1999. Um and it says uh one of the one of the members said community ed is the best kept secret. And I I appreciate the support that community ed gives the district um financially and just the um birth to earth learning environment that it that it um that it gives our community um and I too will print up um a report on that for the for the board to have as a whole. I attended the um the policy uh advisory committee with director Johnson. Um I really look forward to this work this year's work. We did add um some formatting work. Uh we had discussed as a board that we are we would like to have all of our policies be consistent in nature how they're formatted and and that. So, um we're looking at um um adding some the formatting of the 400s through the 600s to this this year's work because this would be a lighter year of policy work. >> All right. Thank you. And then uh Dr. Thomas on behalf of Mary, we can't hear her. And uh I would just say directors Johnson and Bullan uh I think got the first volunteers for subcommittee work already of all of our committees already. So they're they're cooking with with with steam. Um yeah so uh on behalf of uh director France uh she and director Olstad uh joined our first uh teaching learning advisory committee uh uh along with uh Dr. Anderson and many members from our uh LII division to talk a lot about our um math updates. So that was our big focus. And so a lot of what you all heard um at the board we brought forward to the TAC committee. Um I should also state start or state that we did a lot of the front-end work about statement, purpose, charge, um expectations of attendance, all that like we've done with all the committees. Um but then the content work was um really wellreceived. Um and then we also foreshadowed our next meeting which will focus then on our elementary ELA components as well. Uh and uh we had some great feedback. Uh Dr. Anderson does a lot of exit ticket um strategies and we got a lot of good information um positive information from the group about how that meeting went um the content as well as any future structural changes that we might be able to make and we'll modify some of that to make sure that we are meeting the needs of everyone as well. Dr. Anderson, anything I might have uh left out? >> No, that was my experience of it. >> Okay, got it. >> All right. And OB student council. Yep. Um, academics at the high school are going really well. Our mains program just had a career fair with our business, healthcare, and education pathways. So, that was really nice. AP classes are going great as well last year. Um, there was an 82% pass rate amongst all AP takers and so we're just looking to build off of that. And then this past Saturday, juniors had a practice ACT and then seniors were also trying to get that final practice in before sending those scores off to college. As for our sports and activities, the football team had a tough battle against Lakeville South this past Friday, but we're looking to get back into the wing column against Farmington for senior night. Um, girls soccer plays tomorrow in the section final against Chanhassen, so that'll be big. girls and boys cross country both doing really good. They had conference championships last week. And then our Prior Lake High School choir is currently having their masterwork at Shepherd of the Lake. So I can hear the music from there right now. And then our band, they've been performing great at all our football games and school pepfest. So that's awesome. And then our Laker leaders actually went down to the middle schools to help volunteer for our fun run. And so they're just hanging out with all the middle schoolers and it was a great time. And then we have clubs like NHS, DECA, and speech all starting up at the end of the month. So that's huge. And then as for student council, uh we had a really successful homecoming week. Our girls football event went amazing. Our boys volleyball event went great. We had recordbreaking um signups for all those events. So that was really great to see. And then we had a pepfest on Friday and out of my four years in high school was the greatest pepfest I've ever seen. And so I love that. And then to top it all off, we had a great win against Shakipi. And so that was huge. And then um we capped it all off with a neon themed homecoming dance. And so that was really fun to attend. And so now student council is just having plenty of community service projects for the rest of the year. and we're just excited for another school year. Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. >> I just have a question. How did rock paper scissors with the beads go? >> It it went great. I remember I saw in like one of our Yeah. main hallways two kids were going at it and you just heard a big eruption and it was it was fun to watch for sure. Yeah, >> it's a great idea for whoever came up with it. So, it was awesome. >> All right. Thank you. Okay, we are at the end of the agenda. Future events, uh, please note those. I want Yes. >> Can I say one more thing? >> Yes, you may. >> Thank you. Um, I just wanted to, um, Director Atinson, you shared on a project that you've been working on. And while I appreciate your efforts in said project, I think it's important that it's stated that not every board member across the the state of Minnesota has received the information in which you are advocating for. And um again while um I just think it's an important piece of information because when numbers are discussed about who has signed on or um you know all of those things I think it's just important that not everyone received it. Not every it wasn't like um you know as a board team we receive the same board book information. it wasn't as if um like Minnesota School Boards Association did a a thing to all state board members. And I I just while I appreciate your efforts in this, I I think it's important for people to know that it wasn't received by all board members across the state. >> Yeah. And if I could just add that that's you're correct. Initially, it was not um and the whole point of the project is it's a grassroots um project. And so the point is really for board members individually to go onto this website and to add their name if they want to advocate for these changes um at the state level. I do believe there was one email I think received last week from I don't recall the name of the project but it was an email that talked about the funding that we would lose in our district. And I think I thought everybody I mean I don't have visibility to all the emails you guys received but I think we all received that email and there was a link in that email as well. So, you can take a look at that. There's um there's information in there. >> It's from >> um I don't I can't get I can go look, but it's um ISD. I'm sorry. I don't I was I Well, I'm the spokesperson for this project. I was not in charge of communication. There's other board directors, but I I thought I saw an email last night that came from um someone that basically talked about the funding that we would lose regarding to um regarding the the Title N. So, you can take a look at that. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um, at this point I will entertain a motion to adjourn and transition to a close session for the purposes of discussing negotiation strategy with the Pri Savage Education Association. So is there a motion on the table to adjourn and transition into >> so made >> by Director Bullan. Second >> second >> by Director Mason. This will require a roll call. Director Johnson >> I. >> Director Atinson >> I. Director Bullan >> I. >> Director Mason >> I >> and Director France and I that carries 6. Why don't we take uh five minutes come back here at 7:51 and start our close session.