[Music] okay I think we're ready to move along with the legislative update Dr Thomas you want to make the introductions yeah thank you chair white and board uh tonight um as we discuss um our legislative agenda we thought it would be appropriate to U uh bring in um several of our elected officials um we have representor panson with us tonight Senator Port may be joining us um she was a little tentative senator and representative bakeberg um all have been very instrumental in advocating for what is best in public education so I want to thank all of you for your tireless work um I jokingly but I'm really serious say I don't know how you do it um and I know many of you say the same about us um but it speaks to the fact that we don't do it alone that collectively we do this work together to really Advance what's best for our students every single day so I just want to thank you all for coming out tonight and just asking you all to just speak to the upcoming session and some of the things that are before us and as we get ready to dive into um our uh legislative platform which again as I've shared with the board um in other contexts is a a carbon copy of almost of msba and amsd it's a it's a dominant platform that really speaks to I think many of the issues um that have already started to begin conversations so um you know so again thank you all for com coming and I'm left-handed so I'll go to my left and everybody knows that about me so they usually sit to my right um so representative Hansen if you want to start about just some high Lev conversations about what's happening yeah well I'm representative J Hansen I represent 55A which is the entire city of Savage and then the Northwest part of bernsel so I have two school districts this one and the 191 District obviously quite different districts too so trying to juggle what your different priorities are always it's always fun to do that um this year in the legislature obviously you're seeing a lot in the Press about what's going on uh we are negotiating to make sure that we can get to a co-governance [Music] [Music] making sure that we're closing those cross subsidies whether it's for the elll or for uh the special education one which we have quite a bit of ways to continue to go there um we know that children with disabilities need continued ongoing services that we can continue to improve on as well and making sure kids feel safest at school has always been important to me as a kid I grew up very very poor in poverty school was one of the only places I ate uh so it's really important that we preserve the um you know affordable lunches free lunches wherever we can as much as possible as well well and then making sure that we have enough support staff there so we pass the bills to make sure we have a social worker in every building and also making sure that we have nurses in every school as well so I know that wasn't so much of an issue here but Statewide I think it was really important to push that forward um and then making sure that our educators are supported you know remains a high priority too making sure that those negotiations between you two can go as they need to go without us intervening too much in those but also making sure that we're advocating for our teachers uh we know that this is a tireless career and it's hard it's hard there so uh I'll kind of wrap it up there or I can talk all night about it thank you representative Senator Brad thank you uh thank you uh members of the board and and uh the administration it's a it's a pleasure to be here uh Eric Pratt I uh represent uh Senate District 54 which is most of Scott County so the communities of uh Shak Prior Lake in Jordan uh as well as four townships and before I get started let me just um I got a text from Senator Port uh she got stuck in a meeting in St Paul and sends her regrets U but we'll be uh we'll be in touch um I don't need my my comments to be partisan but you know certainly I have a a point of view that U that I'm going to address and and uh feel free to uh U you know this just these are my thoughts as a former member of this board I you know certainly appreciate the experience that I had um um and the perspective that it gives me when I'm you know doing the work in St Paul so um we spent an 18 billion doll Surplus a record Surplus and after doing that an increasing taxes $10 billion we are now faced with a $5.1 billion deficit in the coming years now let me just explain I'm the uh co-chair SL ranking member of the finance committee and I spent 30 years in Banking and Financial Services so I if I geek out on the numbers on you I'm sorry that's just who I am um so with a you know facing a5.1 billion deficit after this panium uh and and into the next um money is going to be tight and we just know that I was disappointed to see the governor's budget uh came out and uh really uh remove supports for nonpublic school students um as well as um for our disabled Community what is that mean that means it's going to be pushing more of that responsibility more of that financial responsibility onto the school districts and onto the county which will then lead to property tax increases for all our residents we spend in in in this current Bia which ends on July 1st we will spend almost $29 billion on education it's roughly about 34% 35% of our budget and in the last just in this budget cycle from from um it went up uh $4.7 billion the issue isn't that we spent the money the issue is how we spent the money we spent the money on new mandates that are costing you uh your funds to implement they're taking money out of the classroom taking money away from kids to meet the mandates that that we in the legislature provide and essentially usurped your authority to do the job that you were elected to do and so uh as we're looking uh forward you know to the budget negotiations or discussions um I'm certainly looking through the budgets right now trying to find Opportunities to uh save money um we added almost a thousand new state employees over the last two years looking at where those positions aren't filled and seeing if we can uh call some of those back uh would be a huge cost savings but um I've been where where you are I mean it's it's hard to believe we spent $4.1 billion doll more in education and not just prior l savage but districts across the state are finding themselves having to cut budgets and um we need we as as the uh legislators need to do better on that we need to respect the authority um I often say that you know Prior Lake is not the same as Pelican Lake or pequ you know or any of the others um our kids have different needs and the one size fits all uh solutions that we that we passed over the last two years just don't don't fit I often say one size one size fits all rarely fits anybody so uh and then you know after represent vaker are be having to take any questions well on that positive note you be the good guy so I and I think you I'm going to focus my comments on on what we you know what we can focus on to improve schools for kids there's a lot going on in the house and we could we could spend all night and we could have a just walk out the same way we came in but but I just want to I want to focus my comments on just the priorities that that I have and and really it's grounded in my experience as a as a practitioner I'm currently a middle school principal as well I was at school this morning and I'll be there tomorrow morning um but I before I jump into it uh I want to just say thank you uh I I've said it before and I truly believe it that I think your job as school board members is the most difficult job uh for an elected official because you make it a hard decision and you're going to have some hard decisions to make at this board table and then you go uh to by lenss and B and you're shopping and getting groceries and you're going to have hey do you have a second hey do you have a second and about 3 hours later your your meal is cold and your spouse is like where were you and well someone just needed a second and it was a few hours later so so thank you for the work you do um and it's personal as well many of you are parents so the decisions that you make could you know positively or negatively impact your own children and um and I think that really you know many have asked me you know why do you do this and Dr Thomas you you talked a little about this and it's it's really about my perspective and my lens so I'm the only current Middle School principal serving in any level of state government there's there's a couple other Educators and different roles but I'm the only one from an administrator lens and sometimes people automatically assume that well he's just another administrator but I was a teacher I was a coach uh we're all Educators so I worked as a par professional uh in college on my winter break uh I worked as a custodian so I've seen multiple perspectives within schools so that's really the lens that I bring um so I'm going into my or starting our my second term I'm the vice chair of Education Finance so um so you know you know honored to to be a part of that I'm on our exec team uh in the the GOP caucus so part of our our leadership team at school we call it our faculty Council um and then I'm also on the labor and Workforce committee and and wanted to ask to be on that committee really with a desire to look at how do we how do we make the school experience how do we marry that and work with um the needs of our Workforce and the needs of the business Community um you know to to be able to prepare our kids for and in our district we talk a lot about the three e whether it's education whether it's enlistment or or whether it's employment but preparing the kids and giving the kids the tools so that they can be successful whichever path they choose to go so that's those are the Committees um and I think my my passion is to support kids first and foremost like that and I think that's every single person whether you're a teacher in the back or whether you're a board member at the table uh are you do this because you want to support kids and um you know I think that we we have to recognize that the decisions that we make legislatively tie your hands and force you to make decisions that you maybe do or do not want to make so you know Senator Pratt talked about the governor's proposal um there's a and he highlighted some of the concerns within it uh I share those concerns probably my bigger concern within the governor's proposal is that there's an increase for the Department of education and there's a decrease of of money going to schools and and I I just met with the department and and I I talked about the concerns Senator brat did and I just said how in the world can you justify increasing your budget at the department when districts across the state are cutting and the response was it's just inflationary in you know just just adjusting budgets to inflation and then I just said how about you cut your budget because if you don't do here at the department schools across the district are going to be cutting so um so I have significant concerns and and to the teachers in the back I would just ask you to think about like how how can the department increase their budget and decrease money going to schools because that's what the governor's proposal did so decisions have consequences kind of coming into session my priorities that that I've been working on and you know um Miss Herman and Dr Thomas testified did an amazing job of representing and and I'll be honest not everything it certainly wasn't a partisan conversation it was you know you both said some things that some of my Republican colleagues were like ah but it's your experience and that's what we need to hear that so that we can make the best policies available um so you both did an amazing job thank you for doing that in in both the house and the Senate but what I heard um in testimony was a significant concern about Paid Family Medical Leave earned sick and safe time uh the unemployment for hourly workers now like this is where things can get off the rails because people will start to say well if you're not for this then you're against this and it's just not the reality Senator Pratt was the author of another option for paid family medical leave um you know so that was that was something we could have we could have talked about earn sick and safe time um you know there are obviously we want to take care of people that um that want to be with their families when you know during difficult times um but the reality and what I heard overwhelmingly is that whether it be school districts whether it be counties cities townships already have negotiated contracts um and the thing that was the most concerning to me was one of the things that was concerning was there was a a comment that someone made just about um you know about having to get subs for Subs that was an issue but the biggest thing was and I believe it was the superintendent from Becker you guys correct me if I'm wrong but said we now we now have to increase our administrative cost to address these mandates and we don't want to do that we don't want to increase Administration but we have no choice so that's pulling money from the classroom um so uh so one my number one priority is to address some of those issues that you guys are facing Paid Family medically doesn't start until 26 um so we have we have some time with that um I just introduced this bill now with everything changed um you know I'll have have to figure out what it means but um it's it's a a discipline repeal um mandate and and pulling back the the the ban on K3 suspension pulling back the recess detention um you had we had Elementary principles there testifying and and Mr Glenn did a great job talking about it is a tool in the toolbox and and I think about the years that I was an elementary principal it was it was rare that we suspended a kid and it was a last resort and it was after multiple interventions that we did and it was a tool often times to get parents to the table to be able to have a conversation of how do we support your kid your kid is disregulated there's some issues happening what's going on at home really to facilitate conversation and and this one is you know just as a principle this is a this is one that that I'm passionate about that we need to fix because this is just a bad law the the the thing that from the the testimony I think it was a Noah henip and said that their classrooms have been cleared out about 300 times let that sink in so the community members you know 300 times kids that are in a math class at an elementary or learning to read because of a student's disruptive behavior have been the the kids that were doing what they're supposed to be doing were asked to go somewhere else that's not the intent of of that law like we can come together and come up with some common sense solutions to support schools and most importantly support kids um and you know there there's a lot of things that passed and and superintendent law from the minaka district talked about we need to get back to funding our prior priorities so one of our um another bill is is talking about raising standards and reducing mandates and it really focuses the bill focuses on Innovation and allowing local school districts to innovate for what what best fits their needs because Prior Lake is different than peat Lakes so when we have this one- siiz fits all it doesn't it doesn't allow you to get creative we just um you know the msba just had their superintendent conference and and we joke as principles in Jordan maybe I shouldn't say this but we joke okay what are the board members going to come back with what new flashy idea did they get at the msba conference and then they're going to want to have us do and um so we had our board retreat this weekend and you know we we talked about some of those ideas yeah so it's local control Innovation and then literacy are those pieces but yeah so that's kind of where I'm at Dr Thomas told me to wrap it up so I can allowing for some discussion so this point any questions for any yeah I just have a question the last bill that you mentioned raising standards Innovation what's do you know the what the bill name is or who authored it or what number so Peggy benett it's it was house file six it'll get reintroduced it's the one about the read it starts out talking about the readout hf6 yeah there's three articles three components to it but it's within that bill thanks anybody else questions I don't have a question but I just have a comment I want to thank you all for what you do um I really appreciate Senator Pratt the experience you have on the board um been your your um experience and your current you know serving as a principal while doing this and also um for you Jessica um just I really appreciate what you're doing um I think that the comment that sticks to me the most is what you said Ben regarding in the um increase in the department of Ed I did I did um you know skim through that budget the Governor's budget and it's it overwhelms me to skim through it but I appreciate what you said with the increase in the department of bed and with the less less money's going to schools um it kind of wraps the everything the it wraps it up for me um this challenge that we're we're facing and um so yeah I just want to say I just really want to say thank you I appreciate how um approachable you are I appreciate the experience that you bring um in representing us and let me just say thank you and if you're going to call them benages call me here I'm sorry sorry I started really formal and then I'm like yeah that doesn't work Mary you had a question yeah I just um one of the questions that I've had and and I and I don't need a dissertation as a response but there's always a fight between the Federal Government funding ideas and the state and I know that that was a big issue in the last couple of years if it's not our fault it's not our problem the federal government has to but you know all across the nation but particularly in Minnesota um the cross subsidy to help um spread uh students has uh just strangled us for almost 20 30 years and it's getting worse even though the funding increased to barely cover the increase in the number of pairs that we needed as well as the renegotiation of those contracts for those Services is that something that can bind everyone together because I know there's listen to the news today about what's been going on and I mean but that alone I I would hope that everyone would at least be on the same page of trying to find a way to fund that since we are seeing increased numbers I think yes that's going to just be my bold answer as a person person who needed extra help at school that didn't get that like I just know firsthand what it's like to kind of grow up and try to learn that as an adult so helping our kids early that early intervention is really really important and so I've been a big supporter of making sure we can do that it ought to be a bipartisan issue because you know again kids deserve an equitable education regardless of what their ability or disability is I you know I it was it was something when I was on the board that I I re against you know when when idea was passed back in the 70s the federal government said they were going to cover 40% of the cost I think that the highest they've gotten is either 11 or 14 I can't remember the exact number with inflation it's actually much less yeah so um it's it's always been a struggle um I would say that there's always going to be some cross subsidy that you know part of it is we need you guys to have skin in the game to look for those efficiencies um that that we can try to find um you know I was I was meeting with uh uh director bullan the other day talking about you know kind of how we manage special education cost um when we had a a deficit uh that had that really gripped this district for you know almost 10 years and we were able to move out of that because special ed was one of those things that was always we we you know we would plan to make a cut or we would plan to to do something in order to balance the budget and then we always came in over budget because of meance of effort um I think it's something we have to be a partnership with uh back in 201 uh 18 uh when I was chairing the education policy committee we had a series of of hearings we came out with six bills identified several areas where uh state law exceeds what the federal requirements are and in some CA I think we got three of those passed uh the biggest one was decoupling the functional Behavior Analysis from the IEP to help save teachers time and let them spend more kid time with their students um and I think there's still some more that we can do um I'm not always saying that we we should always follow the federal um the federal the federal uh guidelines to a te that there's something that we want to do for Minnesota kids we should do it but I think there has to be some evaluation that this is a low value or a high value uh mandate that we're putting on it and then um making sure that we pay for that mandate if we do uh if we do in fact require it yeah I think there's bipartisan support on addressing the cross subsid so I I'd agree with both of them I think Eric brings up a good point about like we have to have skin in the game as well so you know moving to 100% the money is going to come somewhere and one of my roles as a principle is is to be a district rep in IEP meetings so and I go back all the way when I I was up in St Michael and one of the special ed trainers would would always challenge us you know and what's appropriate what what does appropriate mean in faith and my definition of appropriate is very different or could be different than a parent's definition and a teacher's definition so being being that that District rep in that conversation to talk about okay yes that might be best and often times it's Paris having one-on-one PA that might be a great way to do it but you know I I think we have to think about how does AI play into some of this stuff and are there some areas that we can support um you know I've been at different conferences and and they talk about that like how how with some of these emerging Technologies and there's all kinds of issues I get it but um how does that look for for some of our students could we could we provide that support uh in a different way U and then the other thing I'd say about just bipartisan work as well uh Heather Keeler she's a rep from the the Morehead area and she and I have been working on um we we did an attendance and treny task force came up with some recommendations and have some bipartisan bills um to really support Educators support teachers support parents to be able to understand um some information so I can talk talk about that more another time uh questions first thank you all for being here appreciate it um my question really goes to all of the unfunded mandates from you know that came down what is your plan to either get us money and or take them back that's not a hard question at all you know I will I will just say that I repeatedly asked for a list of what because every District finds something different 191 is telling me something different than what you guys are telling me so I would like to see that list of what you're finding to be an unfunded mandate and then I think we can have a more like transparent conversation about what that looks like if we're talking about students being allowed to have their you know native students being allowed to use their regalia at College at graduation on their way to college I think that's a little bit different than you know earn sick and save time or the Paid Family Medical Leave mandates right and so having a conversation specifically about what those mandates are um some of it is protecting kids rights to be who they are in schools and those are things that a lot of us are really wanting to hold firm on cuz making sure that again kids feel safest at school is a priority so I would ask anybody and everybody to send a list of what you find those unfunded mandates so that I with two districts can compare and contrast and then bring that back to more conversations sure thank you thank you yeah I mean there's you know there there's a multitude of mandates the biggest cost drivers that I've heard from schools consistently not schools and counties um is is earned sick and safe time Paid Family Medical the UI was funded upfront but what is going to happen in the future um so it's just to be very clear to people in the public like right now it's funded but in the future it um you know if you're forced to to Levy for that that's that comes with a cost it's a decision so um um you know so those are just a couple of them and then there's it's not necessarily just the the the cost the the dollar cense cost of a mandate but it's the person cost as well and that's really like I think about all of the discipline mandates the the person cost like that is really all that that we did as as principles is okay how do we how do we adjust all of these things and and actually represent Hansen was the author of a of a a language added in around um sadist what is it sadistic and and and I just like number one I thought it was sad I mean it totally great fine like that's one of the mandates but there's not a financial cost to that malicious and sadistic conduct yeah it's a the Beyond bullying policy which makes sure that schools have a policy around what is considered malicious and sadistic bullying which is when Bullying happens for a student being who they are whether it's the color of their skin who they worship how much money their parents make whatever it might be or their disability um and it's my understanding amsd has created a model policy trying to offset that from having to be created at each individual District level as well so what was telling to me is so every year we do a um we do a words matter presentation to our kids where where we go in and we talk about um you know all of our our discipline um stuff our PBIS um kind of Matrix we walk through we talk about you know if we talk about teasing bullying harassment then we added in malicious and sadistic conduct and I had a kid say well that definition is really sad and I'm like I agree but we need to talk about it because it's happened somewhere so so that there was no Financial cost to that but there was you know conversations and and not a bad mandate like not all the B mandates are bad um but there's there's a there's a financial cost but then there's also a human cost and that human cost is for me the hardest to quantify uh on a spreadsheet and I you know I like what representative Hansen said is is you know I'd like to know which of the mandates are really causing you the greatest heartburn um you know when I talk to the guys in in northern Minnesota there are certain mandates that are hitting them harder than they're hitting the metro schools and so you know as your representative I want to make sure I'm advocating for that you know Ben touched on paid family medical leave and ESS which was always negotiated in the contracts which we've now um superseded and again taking away your Authority and quite honestly the ability for you to work with uh your staff make sure that you have the right benefit package as you're meeting the needs of of the people that work for you and that you serve you know I when I was a uh an officer at Target in US Bank it was always about you know how could I help my employees be more efficient more effective right um and and every time we step in and do some of these I think we removed a little bit of that of that person contact that's a person cost as I would see it um so and you know I don't know how much of this you you know you were already paying in and and how much is a new uh cash flow uh drain on the district so I I agree with representative Hansen let's see what the uh you i' I'd like to know what's what's impacting you the most I I will if I may chair white um first of all thank you all for for coming out and just giving us a little teaser of what's to come in in the upcoming session and and appreciate the opportunity for us to be able to come down and uh and we'll continue to have those conversations as we go through session just big picture and we'll unpack it a little bit more later tonight but with some of the mandates are the ones that we could actually quantify and and represent bakeberg I I appreciate you bringing up this real dollar cost and the hidden cost of time and in times a hard thing to quantify um but I will just generally say we are between two and $2.5 million in unfunded or underfunded mandates in our district and we'll walk we can set time to walk through that more granular with with you all we'll do some of that with the board tonight and that's just the things that we're able to kind of get our hands on right and and understand enough about it to say okay this is what the cost and then there's some hidden costs you like esst for us we have a number but because of the language of EST we don't know would that have historically been sick time normally or would that been something else for I mean we we are going to split hairs on truly the cost of ESS but if we just said it's new for us it' be upwards of $38,000 right if we just said it was all new ESS and historically not sickly right like that's the magnitude of the challenges that we're facing and in a district that historically has been managing some issues financially you know almost 4 million this year 4 million next year and for the next 5 years we can foresee another $20 million cumulative you heard heard our colleague talk in another District about $18 million cumulative over the next 5 years like and then we have our community said but you've got all this cash right and and that's kind of the narrative that's out there that we have to kind of work against and feeling like we're swimming uphill so part of it is I think it is this joint effort of telling the whole story of kind of what happens because we all have skin in the game and at the end of the day our communities are paying the price right so we have to be mindful of that and stewards of that um so you know we will continue to be a partner with you throughout the session to give you real context for what does this look like on the ground so that you can take that perspective you know to your um to your sessions um but just wanted to give that before you left um just a ballpark we are between 2 and 2.5 million in just a tip of the iceberg of the mandates that we are able to uh take a look at and Dr Thomas could you in when you get that information to us tell us not now but when you get a chance what would it look like if we were to drastically cut public education funding across the board I think Senator Pratt and I disagree on this um I do think that we should increase our funding we have different tax I say we're going to cut funding well and I think saying that finding how we're spending the money is important and I agree with you on that but I think that we are running a risk of potentially some folks thinking that that is the best solution in order to shrink some government spending um and and I support with senator PR says more so than what I've heard from others um around me is that reallocating how we spend that money as opposed to just not but if there were a cut to public education funding I would be interested in learning more about how that would specifically affect this District if you could include that in any Communications with thank you just one comment um just to be very clear like I have no interest in cutting education funding now reprioritizing absolutely yeah but zero interest in in cutting I actually just drafted a three and three Bill and and dropped that bill um and Senator Pratt um Senator duckor have the the Senate companion so so getting behind funding education 100% now there I think anyone who understands Public School Finance understands there's some issues with the formula so um so just a little so like and let's get together and let's actually let's let's solve that problem so that you're not having 20 million in 5 years and and let's address that so there's also another bill on the local option Revenue which is more dollar for dollar so um so 100% supportive uh of of how do we how do we increase and and support our school districts increase funding but we're going to have to rep prioritize it's just the reality thank you thank you can I add one comment um I would just also like to call out and um just the impact to our employees as well what we hear a lot at the negotiations table is the increase in um inflation and making adjustments to our contracts to try to help with that and I just want to call it with especially with the paid family medical leave um with our benefits in place already with paid uh time off and with um long-term disability that the increase of of about 312,000 up to 425,000 depending on where the rates fall that's also going to be Equity impacting all of our employees so they're going to be seeing less take-home money with that as well so I just want to make sure that the impact to the the financial impact to the employees as well with these mandates is taking into consideration because I think that might be a hard hit especially for some of our employee groups well and I don't have it specifically for schools but I you know I when we were passing that I asked specifically um what was the impact to uh public employ ERS so school districts cities counties um the the proposed tax was about 1.5 billion it's going to be closer to $2 billion a year um I don't know what the updated number is but I can tell you it was it was probably about 210 million was going to be coming from public employers and so then all that will be Hing on to property tax uh payers as well as as your budgets now cities and counties get to increase their Levy you have to go ask for it and that's always been a challenge as well you uh before you leave um thank you for being here um truly and um I will be in touch with you all as well because I would like to sit down um I just want to name that there are so many students so many teachers so many staff who are terrified right now to come to school to leave their homes they're worried about Mom Dad Grandma and Grandpa not being there when they get back from school and what I'm what I'm thinking of is the trickle down effect to our state of a lot of this and I'm and I'm not just talking about immigration I'm talking about you alluded to it earlier about people not feeling welcome to be themselves um and so I just want to name that that that is something that is a very big priority for me for our district to make sure to abide by our Equity resolution that we have in our district to make everyone feel welcome and safe here and I worry about the trickle down so I know that there are so many other things all of these conversations notwithstanding they are so important and we're going to be talking about them tonight and you said too our job is hard so is yours but equally hard are the students in the classrooms and the teachers who teach them and who are on the front lines every day and so I just want to make sure I name that that there are a lot of terrified people right now and um that's going to be a major Focus for me personally I would just like to add a representative bber Senator Pratt represent Hansen I think at the end of the day we as a board sit here um we we live in nonpartisan roles different than you do um we're here we're we're all here to educate kids and it's all about student outcomes so if you guys could just keep that on top of the Mind as you're up at the capital and you're working on um partisan issues things like non-exclusionary discipline disruptions in the classroom it impacts student outcomes and we have done no favors to our students in this state based solely on proficiency scores and we're we're failing our kids and we need to figure out how to work together and how to get back to educating our students so thank you for being here we'll be in touch you ever need anybody to um testify at the capital please feel free to reach out I'm happy to do so thank you see thank you all for having usate thank you guys appreciate you thank you all right moving on to the 2025 legislative platform discussion uh thank you chair white uh and board what you see here is a draft um uh that kind of a lot of what we talked about just a few minutes ago and I'll just kind of walk you through some of the context around this but you've probably seen this too within your your uh advocacy with msba um so a broad category of of enhancing student centered learning um you know going going back to the notion that director ainson was just talking about like we're here for the kids and there are a lot of things that have come through legislation that don't fall into the perview of of that necessarily and so that's another thing that we would like to make sure that we're we're focused on and there's a lot of things that you'll see that may or may not be here but then like mess B mask was taking so like Patrick was down talking about some of this so we've kind of bifurcated a variety of these things to um respective advocacy SE sessions but here um one of the things that we're going back to the model of Education we are really driven um by this old model of seat time versus experiential learning of kids and being able to apply that for credit and so learning for kids doesn't necessarily have to be just between 8 and 3 sitting in a 30x30 classroom there are alternate ways that students can actually demonstrate competencies uh mat of competencies um academic competencies as well um and so that's another area that we feel that um to not just be wetted to hours of instruction that we actually have some flexibility in where those students can actually get some of that um instruction um to have it take place um replacing the MCAS at the high school um with a nationally recognized college entrance exam like the acts uh we continually see um across the board that students part here's a very real example kids who take the a uh MCA in their junior year aren't going to get those results back until August of their senior year there's nothing that's going to change for that student okay uh colleges don't at the MCA that student has already committed they're they're they're on that I'm in my last year mode so of all timings of the test that's the worst timing aspect right so but what we do see is Kids Care heavily particularly if they're going off into the military going off to college um the asab acts Etc so um looking at ways that we can Target some of that um versus just purely the MCA as the sole distinction of that and I would say that the a collective argument around um our current state assessment system is it working is it appropriate is it aligned to the standards even within the same Department are the standards written by mde matched to the assessments of mde and we are seeing many holes in that you've heard a lot of conversations those of you who have been on the board we've done some conversations with that um from some of our teachers who have spoken to the gaps and so finding ways that we can get a work group to really um View and potentially overhaul the state assessment assist uh system so that aligns that we can progress monitor the outcomes for our kids in in a better way um ensuring safe schools uh essentially going through um a Vari of things are safe schools levy as well as ltfm to allow for greater flexibility with ltfm to maximize our resources and supports for security modifications that's currently not allowable um as well as uh tailor um instructional spaces to accommodate um additions or remodeling to address the safety issues that might come up in schools so that's kind of the general sense of what's happening around the safe schools um restoring managerial rights and enhancing local control uh if I were to prioritize this is a big thing I mean we just we just heard in our short 15 20 minutes um when you don't have control at the local level and things are being decided at 30,000 foot level and there's no connection to what's happening at the ground um this is where we find rugs and um we would like to find ways that we can maximize that so A couple of things here that are listed is uh this past session our operating Levy gives boards the authority to one-time renew your current um operating the collective advocacy is around if you have a capital um project Levy to be able to do the same we don't have a capital um Levy U but being part of that advocacy group um this is a big conversation point for many should we ever have a capital Levy um gives this board the autonomy to be able to extend that one time if that's something this board would like to do um and for example just put in context with our current operating Levy if we don't ever go out for a different Levy and this one expires in two years or a year and a half or whatever I get my math right um versus going back out for what the taxpayers have already agreed to you would have the onetime authority as a board to just renew that same would apply um with a a capital ly should that the capital L like a tech Levy or different capital capital well it it could be um it could be classified um Tech can be classified as capital that's c um most times um Tech levies will ride on their own but very similar okay um and also uh calendaring so right now we have to you have to meet uh a series of requirements if a local school district wanted to adjust their start date before um labor date and um the threshold has historically been really tied to Capital Improvement projects and that's really the only time that you would get approval to the tune of $400,000 and above um and those distri who have had that have never gone back um and giving flexibility again at the local level to set your start in end times so if you recall when we're having calendar conversations here and we were going to that Levy campaign um if there were some things well there was some things particular around the safety remake of the high school entry would have easily qualified US with some other ltfm to be able to adjust our calendar start date um and that accommodates for construction Etc but the other component we saw is that in the 26 27 school year did I get that year right with the Y Labor Day I think is like almost the middle of September and so um to start then we're going to be going to school almost to the end of June and so to be able to if our community said well that doesn't make sense based on what we typically do as families in this community we would like to start before Labor Day if we didn't meet the criteria that the state has set even though our community would want it we couldn't do it and so giving some latitude at the local level to manage your own calendar versus having um the Department of Education manage individual school calendars um we've already um have the uh bullet around um the publishing our uh proceedings uh on the district website in Le of newspaper because we're seeing more and more Suns and Prior Lake Americans and all those kind of you know um smaller papers uh not uh continue moving forward and essentially the ask is allow that to be permanent because as we discussed earlier the wave of those small print papers we're not going to see the demand likely come back to that so we're going to have to evolve to new ways of publishing so that's something that we would like to continue versus just the one-year REI that we have um and then um also given the flexibility um for boards to eliminate the requirement of a 3-day notice for remote school board meeting access um something happens one of you get sick and you still want to participate and we want to go remote um allow for various things well we would have to notice that 3 days in advance for us to be able to do that and we don't necessarily forecast when we're going to have situations occur in life and so giving boards the flexibility to be able to still maintain and hold their board meetings um should at the 11th Hour um need to Pivot or individuals needing to Pivot uh funding priorities uh you heard representative bakeberg talk a little bit about uh local optional Revenue um this also has been something not tied to inflation and so the advocacy is to bring that back up to 974 where it should be if we had inflation um you know in a district like ours where we don't have a a strong um commercial base it's it's statistically harder to pass levies because everything goes on the residential um tax base and so when you have you know a community like Edina that has Southdale or Bloomington that has a m of America it's fairly easy to pass levies in those spaces because the commercial really manages that for you um I mean so um L would be balanced out um with Aid so that we wouldn't have to go to our community and ask for as much because we would get some of that reprieve um in aid from the state in districts that are composed very similar to us um and there anything else I missed on that one okay um and then looking at the funding formula um this is also a historical component that has not been tied to inflation just this past session they began to tie it to inflation with a cap of 3% um and we know that inflation is kind of in a weird space right now that may or may not um bode well in in the long term um but if we're capped at three and inflation goes kind of where it has been we're going to be underwater again and when I was testifying last week with a team of folks um one of the things that we talked about in for just our district had this been tied to inflation and this is an outdated number now um but we would have netted about $1 million in our budget so we would have never had to have gone to our community just this past year if inflation at the state level would have been something on the base funding formula and then I'll close with a quick side editorial on the funding formula it's outdated so again looking at our and you heard a couple of them talk about this our base funding formula is predicated on a continual supply of of uh families having babies coming into schools and in an aging State um the rhetorical question is is an Antiquated formula when that premise is no longer our reality um so that is going to be likely a push for a task force and this is something that um the Mayors and I were advocating for when we had our regional mayor's meeting um two summers ago is really planting the seeds for the state to um um really review that because um every school is buying for enrollment right now um in the state many schools I should say are buying for enrollment particularly in the metro area and this isn't like these are bad schools bad districts things you know are going right we are just not seeing the K12 birth rates and so we've we've got to find a way to address that at the state level um of how they may have to adjust that formula um down below um you'll see again and I know you all have seen a lot of this in in your in your groups but um we're mindful that there's not a uh well of money at the state level but we're just putting the reality of what we think it would take to begin to make us whole given some of the other factors that you heard a couple of our Representatives talk about earlier tonight so 3% um on that funding formula would at least get some more traction of adding fuel to the underfunded um issues that we've just discussed as well as the general funding formula that's upside down due to inflation talked a little bit about L already um a big one is provide ongoing uh funding to cover State mandated costs of Minnesota unemployment um that ex that money is projected to run out in 26 so um and that was a big discussion point and I know Emily spoke to some of this last week too down at the capital um but that's a big one um and we'll talk about some of the bigger ones um in in just a few minutes um provide additional funding for the read act wul underfunded um for us that is equating to nearly a million dollars um given the Dynamics of of how many staff we have to train curriculum as well as what we get in state aid to provide the mandatory training we're lucky I'll just say it like that that we have an agreement with our staff as well as a board that has a calendar what time built in to be able to do this PD during the contract day if we couldn't have that we would be about a million dollar underwater okay so again it's a very real underfunded issue and again it's it's just we're lucky some of our colleagues are not um the cross subsidies we could spend an entire evening on Cross subsidies and I'll just say with El and special education um it's a significant adustment that they made very appreciative in the last uh session um that we're in that 40 to 45 thou uh% um funding range but we're still having to cross subsidize quite significantly with what we are continuing to see more and more students coming and becoming identified and getting special ed services so the population of support isn't going down it's only increasing and uh and then um uh increasing Equalization of various funding formulas and allowing for greater flexibility once that whole package hits the Omni Omnibus build so what you see before you here team is essentially uh a lot of parallel language between msba and amsd it reflects a lot of the conversation that you heard from some of our Representatives um and what you don't see here you're also I would say your mespa or Elementary and secondary principles associations are also carrying some pretty heavy uh direct practice uh um advocacy as well um uh to the capital uh and then lastly which is not on any uh uh platform so to speak is what is to come federally and anything that changes federally we know eventually is in a fin its way into the states a lot of unknowns for that were watching and kind of monitoring you know any of those leaves to tell us uh what potential impacts that might have um on K12 education but more to come on that so so chair why had to turn it back for um feedback discussion questions um and I know I've said this every year that we go to the capital but um the more we ask for kind of the less we get and we only get little pieces of it um you know we need the task force the the formula was I think the formula that we're running on was written in 1979 originally if I'm not mistaken 71 okay I knew it was in the 70s so um um it's it's written like the tax code it's awful it's needed overhaul it's not going to happen this year but if we get a task force to look at it as long as the task force has representatives from you know School Finance departments is the key um so they have a realistic cu the last thing I want is a whole bunch of legislators sitting down and trying to write this um so I think that's a key but that and that's something that's an ongoing thing I don't think it's going to change immediate but what you have in the last pink here and the very last thing is kind of the summary of what we need immediately and is probably the most important because it also includes local control control and again when we go up to the capital and we're speaking with people and we have a list of all these different bullets again we don't get any of them fully so could we potentially with amsd msba say we're going to put all of our eggs in these three baskets and really really fight for those three or four things does that make sense yeah I just want to capture it here for the discuss absolutely sense and I love the way this is but we always come with these lists of things and and they're really hard to articulate and a lot of them are codependent um so I I just would ask that if if if we as part and we fight for this with msba and we fight for this AMD go with our top three that we can put all of our you know all of our power behind and we're probably going to get them uh instead of splitting them out the question because it relates it kind of goes off of um director France's um comment when I when I read this which I think I really like this I think this is very well done um my first thought was page two should be page one um because to director Francis Point like the this is kind of like the the bulk of it right and I wondered if we could if it could become page one and page two because these are you know our talk points ESS essentially when we're meeting with these lawmakers um and so that's that's my point number one and then in this in the yellow in the yellow box it's yellow right yellow box on page two you know a formula that hasn't been updated since 1971 I want to put that in here um parentheses whatever it takes skywriting put it in bold um that's just asinine to me um and then um you know you Dr Thomas you said the um the react funding that's nearly a million dollars for us and we're one of the lucky ones and I think I would like to put that dollar amount in here um well and and I want to be clear to would be a million for us and if we if our calendar changes or you know we don't have success in getting it in then we're going to be on the hook for a cost to cross subsidize the mandatory training correct um and then there's those ancillary costs that I won't get into right now T about curriculum I just that's that's a pretty million dollars pretty big number can you quantify that now or no put it in there as you yeah I mean I we we s i I think I mean this is a conversation that we've had so we can say if we didn't have the ability to have it during our contract time for our district it would it would cost us $1 million to meet the letter of the law we do have that ability so what does it actually cost us right now is there a cost current currently do you you uh the Cent the current cost the current cost uh for the training uh well we have a allocation that we haven't fully utilized yet um but when the when the training is all done and we don't know the training that we need for phase two cohort 2 um we would know better and that's not going to be established until October of next year so um to add to that that's for professional development only um we also have an ant anticipated cost of curriculum around 200 to 500,000 um it removes our ability to reimburse for existing curriculum that we would have been able to to do the cost round and then this is one of those um to representative Baker's question this is one of those um underfunded mandates that kind came with a lot of human capital attached to it whether that's a curriculum Specialist or Dr Edward's team the principles um really having to wrap their heads around all this and change practic practices and support our staff around it those are the those are all the items that it's very difficult to quantify right now how much that's going to cost us in the long run and and to that end putting a dollar amount could sell us ourselves short in giving that cost estimate can I just ask a question I'm not trying to user director Dead's time but how much of that is the new curriculum because everything that I've studied about this thing is a really just changing methods of teaching and we're applying tools to what we already have I'm worried that we're having to rip out our foundations curriculum as well and replace that and that's a hard cost correct and and that's yet to be determined if in fact that is the direction that our uh committee will go um to do so and then there would be cost what we do do know currently is that we would not get reimbursed for that right uh investment that has already been made would we be out of compliance with statute if we didn't replace and add the curriculum that's being recommended but there will be additional addition additions that we do need in order to be compliant with the curriculum that's the hard cost yep and that's the hard cost so again we haven't gone into the investigation of those options at this point but we will be doing so uh beginning this spring and into next summer into the following school year to be up and running the year after um I just had one more thing and then I can um uh then I'm done um under restore managerial rights um the last two bullets um they are incredibly important um I would Advocate I don't think they need to be on this on the platform um and I think it would make this section stronger if we had the top two bullets um I'd be curious what other people thought again important um I just I don't know if they belong on the platform where are you referring to the under restore managerial rights the last two bullets okay cuz a lot of the stuff on the on the managerial rights it's not well first of all the official proceedings and all that kind of stuff that's just memorializing something they did temporarily last year and that's not a cost issue issue but the other things um in the and this is what we can actually focus on what's schools there's a lot of stuff on here in that paid medical lead that affects small uh small businesses all the way to large businesses and disproportionately so and I think we can depend on some of those but yeah I don't want to touch the top but this is all local control okay yeah it's keep first two bullets strike the last two yeah is what you're saying director yeah but I don't know if they with everything else on this platform I think there are stronger advocacy points I'm I'm happy to keep replacing the high school MCAS increase your school safety Levy get rid of everything else on the first page and then keep everything in the yellow on the second page other than that I like the format of the first first page everything else right keep it short keep it sweet keep it one page and that's it so we had one page last year and then everything blew up this year with every advocacy group to multiple pages and so we tried to capture it just to have you all see cuz last year we went down to a one pager and F four or five buckets understand and and all the advocacy groups are right they're going to advocate for everything that they want we should advocate for what we want and that's where I think you know these things here and then those two bullets just myself personally I think those things really hit I completely agree with you on the last two I think everything else on here would you be amendable to front and back that's what this is Technic sure you know um I I really like the layout here right if we can go just two bullets like one liners that we can hit and then everyone should be able to speak to those somebody's asking a question about it right but just really big things you know easy to read let's let's go let's let's I do like the work group though and in that first box uh um director Johnson uh the first the second bullet yes the replace the high school MCA talk that is is for the MCAS they are not really meant to be an individual student assessment it is because of the late time it's really mca's really assess is the school district curriculum assess assess so how do we know if our school district you know I think you're following me on that so I I'm actually not I it as someone who moved into this District you know six years ago and when I'm looking looking at it I I look at as someone coming in from the outside you know what are the ACT scores at the high school because because it matters and I had no idea what an MCA was when I was looking at it but I knew it an Act was because it's a national standard we do both yeah so that's where I think and I think the Dr Thomas's point would be a maybe a lot of the 11th grade don't decide to do the MCAS maybe they decide to opt out of it because there's no point in it um that would just be my my two sets on it if we want to keep it I I think to and I think uh director Mason you were kind of talking about um evaluating School Effectiveness and things yeah and I think that's the the third bullet is to ensure that we have a system that's accurately doing that cuz right now there are gaps in IM yes and and significant so I would I what I'm hearing is at the high school level specifically um looking at a national assessment um is likely going to be where our kids are going to put their their their priorities in our families um and then comprehensively basically K8 you know or other uh grade levels how do we then have a functional assessment protocol for the state that actually is aligned and makes sense because again this hasn't been in I mean I can probably it everything from profiles of learning to where we're at today nobody nobody gets this thing right right um so it needs to be reviewed um keeping something there for accountability but what's what we have right now has so many holes in it nobody puts weight into it so I mean many people are questioning the validity of it put it that way well and speaking about data right I mean these tests are outdated and haven't been updated for a long time I I like the working group I was very excited to see this bullet point um personally I think we just have to make sure that sorry I interrupted you again no you're fine I think we just have to make sure that as long as if we move to it that everybody takes something so that we are ensuring that we are getting and collecting data appropriately nobody likes standardized tests but we have to make sure that we so whether that be an act an MCA Asam whatever it might be somebody needs to take something there's even talk of fast bridge going into the high school so yeah something will be there something's going to be there all right so can I just I'm sorry we're getting close to the edge of getting a slightly off topic I'm understanding what you're saying but we're talking about organizing a platform and what Mary said was almost mirrors what I was thinking I think we need to zero in on a few things that lend themselves toward local control if I said this once I said it million times we have a school district chocked full of phds and master's degrees give us control and we'll figure it out that I mean that's a plain way to say it but it's I guarantee you it's true and so I like this working group as well but the rest of the platform I think should zero in on a couple of things like Mar said if we if we zero on two or three we might get them if we zero in on 11 we'll get three and they won't be any good and so however that that shakes out the the things on the list that lend themselves to us pulling back some of the control the mandates I think woken a lot of people up to that um I think that's our best bet because what I heard at the on Wednesday at the testimony was the same song from every school district big small rural tiny huge didn't matter that's pretty rare that all districts are experiencing the same issue regarding this kind of this kind of tell the the the structural deficiency greater level that's all I'm looking for let's let's just zero in and then um send this back out for review yeah can I add something I'd like to add um there's I feel like I agree with you less is more um you know this platform should represent the unique unique needs of our community and it should align to our strap plan I feel like that one thing that's really missing is um representative bakeberg is up at the house advocating for a change in the non-disclosers discipline um principal Glenn went up and testified thank you so much that has had been a huge impact on our district it's not listed anywhere on our platform so that would be a way that we could save schools and staff I mean put right right right right right and so um that finds myself at the local angle right right and then mandated curriculum I mean that that those mandates um and then obviously the funding formula but I I do agree that keeping it very simple even like three bullet points um then we can just focus in on when we're up in the capital talking because looking back at our legislative platforms um the whole funding formula and how we as a district have a harder time passing a levy than somebody in Bloomington you know you and I talked about that um that is a very local issue that you know I think hits hard hard because our taxpayers our homeowners um absorb the taxes um much more than somebody who lives District who has a lot of commercial property so to me it's really like three things it's the discipline it's the mandates and it's somehow the for funding formula is really what I would like to sum summarize up to be I do have one thing though that I want to add is um for the testing um if we really want to do something let's say it is the act then we should do it at 9th and 11th grade because right now we have the same issue with kids not showing up for the MCAS as with the ACT they they come and they take it as a practice test they're not preparing they're not trying and then the ones that can afford it go and take it themselves so if you really want it as a gauge you you need to have a way to test prior to the 11th grade Mark so that they have a goal we have feedback Etc um doing it once and just replacing the act and then also has to fund it but I'm going to go back to what Dan said and that let's just get a some three or four Heavy Hitters and put everything behind it and have that focus on local control so if the heading is local increased local control as the heading um I'm hearing four things and there might be a parenthetical component to the last um going uh address uh writing about the funding formula and then within that we can talk about l ET like we could parenthetical that K12 assessment review um task force that would include things of the act as well as all the other aspects of Assessments that we need to look at okay so we kind of lump it together K3 discipline and repeal SL revise um previous session mandates and then we can list um like our top four and that's going to be redact EST unemployment um and paid family Le could you write a dollar amount by those like this is what it cost us as an easy like go-to reference or as long as we have a some sort of yep we we could do that I I don't know yeah we let us take a stab at that on if it should be on here or if that should just be a companion note cheat she okay I have a few that so I I'm very much in line with that I agree like let's shorten it keep it short and sweet I really would love to see it be very specific and setting at what we think are a aable goals um I don't think that's super clear in here but you know a few things I actually kind of disagree with the um the two bullets on on the bottom there because I think those are things that we can probably accomplish and they're very specific goals which ones the two like elimination of the three-day notice for remotes that's something achievable that we can have as a goal and and it's very clear um I don't love that first bullet there I I would Advocate to remove that um it's it's probably not not a priority for us first of all we don't have a capital project Levy but also I don't I think that should stay with the voters personally um and then the last thing I had is um that first um sorry the last bullet under enhanced student centered learning the last sentence that says that better supports student centered learning um I don't love the wording on that I wish that we had it say something more like this that better support yeah we maybe State like that measures academic outcomes like I think we're really missing pushing academic outcomes and excellence in this statement better reflects measures measures academic outcomes are better and everybody's method of getting there is going to be different gotcha okay so we can words so so I I I hear that feedback and I think um yeah I agree with the like let's stick to a few things make sure they're achievable goals and and really make that clear if I just might add I know that we separated last year down to one pider the language was still really broad so we allowed the legislature and and all the different deliberations to kind of fill in the blanks and it didn't help us I know we didn't ask for those unfunded mandates and the and the uh um um and the mandates that were not fully funded but at the same time I agree with director dor Mason that if we're going to pick a few things let be very specific and I think if we if we if we have this last section still The Heading restore manage your rights and enhance local control the things that are important to all of you fall under that would that be a general agreement stat okay so so again going through addressing issues of the funding formula and then you know just listen to director Mason just a second ago we focus uh more on the funding formula and L um and the inflationary indices and not going into um the renewals and all that kind of stuff just those three examples okay of funding formula of funding um K12 assessment review and I'm hearing to make sure that what we talk about that best supports um um academic learning for for kids kind of focusing that language there to capture that because that's what we're trying to measure through those assessments got that K3 discipline we've got the repeal language that we can surface through our testimony already and that's going to be something that's going to mainly hit obviously our K3 and then the last is repealing revising mandates and then the mandates that were talking about with specifics would be those four big ones that I just mentioned that were basically what we just talked about with these folks just you know a few minutes ago um and then I will one page of that and then what I think I'll do is um so we would our plan was to bring this to you all at the February business meeting but I can have um uh two by ones or one by one uh connections with you all just to see did I capture this um um conversation and then um we'll bring this to the board for discussion and if there's any last tweaks that you all want to make there you can say okay yeah we'll approve it with these two things that just need to get quickly revised okay all right if I have one thing to add is in meeting with some of the representatives one of the things that they uh mentioned over and over again is the story that we tell right having the story so I couldn't agree more with having just a few bullet points to speak about but what is that if you could help us with that story of Prayer Lake Savage area schools something that scks that they will bring forward you know it's like um we H we having the the three or four bullet points yes but what is that story that that will stick with them it's one thing that um was mentioned multiple times sure having that story and um you know we all could try to make up our own but I think it we can give you some anecdotes that you can refer to I think that is helpful it's helpful for me at least all right we're good that all right thank you for that discussion uh moving on to Staffing and employee groups designation direct thank you chair white members of the board um so just to go over quickly oh that's me right turn it turn that's hard oh turn it on I didn't read the note I apologize turn it on all right while that's going um just to quickly go over the objectives today so just doing quick refresh on the budget reductions to date and overview of various roles and positions of the district um kind of a summary that we've already talked about a lot tonight is just the Personnel required for statuary required and essential programs discuss the different Staffing models um impacts of provide an overview on Staffing models and then just highlight some additional resources um that we can also go into Tammy's um presentation too because ours kind of piggy back off of each other okay so um just a refresher for um some of the newer board members and for the community um reductions have been made to date since the 1920 school year we've approximately reduced our budget by $5 million um or used our savings account um to present a balance budget last year alone we made $4 million in cuts which is about a 3.3% reduction um with the district office departments taking about a 1.2 million reduction which is 4 7% of the department budgets administrators reductions was a little over half a million which was 5.6% of administrative cost and then the enrollment based adjustments um to to the um to the reductions was 1.8 million or 1.8% um when we we speak to the enrollment based um adjustments that's where we made adjustments the number of teachers we had in in specific schools because we didn't have the enrollment to justify the the additional sections so it didn't change any staffing models this for this current year um talking about that story that um Vice chair Bing just spoke to um just want to give a story behind what some of these Cuts have looked like to date um from Dr Edward's Department yes so uh we think that the context of the historic reductions that we have made in the area of academic Services is a story that we wanted to make sure we have it a as a common proping um and the end of this story is that the number of bodies that we have uh available to support the work in the area of academic services and ultimately academic achievement is significantly less than it was uh in the year 2021 um at the end of the year 2021 a initial reduction was made in which the assistant superintendent position uh was eliminated uh the following year we failed our technology referendum in the fall of 22 or 21 rather and we were forced uh to make some other financial decisions at that time we eliminated three FTE uh that were part of our support team that were out across the buildings we had actually Four uh but we only realized three of the reductions because we moved one of those positions into a peer coach model with a focus on our Tech uh support and integration um but we did in fact lose three uh people who were full-time uh folks two that were supported at the secondary level and two that were supporting at the elementary level and they were pushed into the sites to do that for um we then uh maintain a status quo in the 23 24 school year um but then last year as we prepared and as was shown in the previous slide we identified uh needs to do additional reductions uh to realize our reduction uh T and we since uh reduced our differentiation Specialists that were uh supporting at the site levels across the district by two FTE uh and we also reduced a curriculum specialist position in which we had both a secondary and a uh Elementary curriculum specialist previously and now we are down to one uh FTE uh curriculum Specialists that supports K12 curriculum these are when say toes just as a reminder that terminology is teacher on special assignment so these are licensed teachers who um in uh most cases uh and in all cases currently uh the remaining uh are teachers that have been uh serving a teacher role with us previously we also uh are you'll see in our reduction list that we bring forward uh later this evening in this conversation there is additional uh proposed reduction in the area of TOA specifically in the peer coach and we'll we'll speak to that in a moment but the point of emphasis here is that the Personnel that are uh not in the classroom uh but yet supporting classroom teachers at our sites those positions no longer exist with the exception of a curriculum specialist and and a differentiation specialist that serve uh in the case of the curriculum specialist k12 and in the case of differentiation specialist K you Dr um so just wanted to give the the board a a quick list of all the different um positions that are throughout our our school that help um achieve our mission so it really takes multiple different positions whether that's Operation of the building buildings cleaning buildings um supporting our students um in non-certified positions or certified positions I won't read this whole list to you all but um there's just multiple different um positions through our our district and it's very important when we're looking at different reports whether that be external or internal that we have a a common understanding what those definitions are um so that we use the same parameters when talking and comparing different reports because each report especially external has different definitions and they change quite frequently so I know um some of the board members that have been present already this is a repeat for you and I apologize but just for new board members an example um that we've spoken to at a couple different board meetings was like the star report um is utilized in some um reports that have showed up in our audit to show the different Staffing throughout the years but the star report definitions change every single year so which which um position on our list falls under administrative assistant position position or a director position that changes every single year with the star report so when looking at a star report for example uh you can see that like um it doesn't in 2022 it says that we have 11 administrative assistants well that's not accurate we have more than 11 administrative assistants or it shows that we only had um we had zero directors from the year 2013 through the year 2019 that's not accurate we had directors at that time it's just the definitions under the star report change so then when it rolls up into these reports that are utilized for different purposes it appears that we have these different changes over time what we we didn't it just the star report that's used for a very specific purpose for mde is then utilized to create these other reports that don't have a standard definition over the years so we just have to be very cautious when we're looking at different reports externally and internally that we are comparing Apples to Apples and um we have a common understanding of what positions fall under those different categories um I won't blaber this point because I think we've talked about this quite a bit but what we find quite frequently um um especially over the last two years um I said this in my testimony at the capital as well from my POS from my experience um working in public schools the last few years has been um very unique in the amount of new mandates that we've seen and the number of impacts that it's had not only on Direct Financial impacts but indirect human capital impacts of how much time is taking and dedicating to our staff to to fulfill those mandates it's extremely hard to quantify so I don't know Martha did you get a chance to hand out those printouts okay but one example that might be helpful um for for you all and and especially for the newer board members is there's some um resources on msba for you under legislative impacts that just is this is just one example that I have found helpful so I wanted to provide a copy to you all that it just by category of impact and then it lists all the different um legislative impacts the schools for tracking with the different times that they're implemented so as you can see this alone is over 240 some lines I believe um six pages long and that's from one year legislation of new mandates that got passed down um so as we're tracking and making sure that we're responding to compliance um it's taking away our abilities to have our staffing directed to other um programs um so we really now are at the stage where all of our staffing models are either essential programs or statuto required programs um because we have to meet all these statutory requirements um the list on the slide is definitely not anywhere near exhaustive it's just it's just examples um each one of our departments and each one of our schools and classroom teachers can probably spend at least two weeks explaining all the statuary requirements that they have to meet and again that's just the 2023 that or they have the 2024 summary on there as well as just a resource if if you all want to look through all the different changes that have happened um MSP has some really great resources on that um next slide is just again this is not an exhaustive list but just to provide some examples as we talked about our last board meeting um from some of the the board questions every single Staffing model is going to have impacts to our students so while we have tried our best to keep our Cuts away from from our impacting our students and a a system of ours and how directly everyone's position helps reach our mission we're going to see key impacts no matter what we do um these are again not an exhaustive lists but just some key examples so when you're looking at increasing the class size that's reduction individual supports if you're looking at reduction in administrative assistance A disruption to operations and supports for our teachers and our staff in the buildings um all of this really is just to show regardless of what we do there are going to be key impacts that come to play and we have to balance that with what we statutorily have to move forward with um and though that becomes more and more burdensome every year as we get more and more statutes that are passed down to us um and then this is just some examples of some of the reports that we have available I also attached um an FTE by building list um I just want to denote that um with the transition from Skyward SMS to Skyward Q there there's a lot of data clean up and we are working through some of that so I do know there's some positions that are located under different buildings that really should be under um other ones and we are doing our due diligence to fix all of that but I wanted to get you guys a a report of the building FTE so um that's attached in the board packet but these are some hyperlinks to some additional resources um for not only for um Staffing reports and and financial information but also um the link to see all the different statutes that impact school districts employment all all of that those other topics the chair oh sorry um key takeaways um that since the 1920 um school year we've been um in budget reduction mode um future reductions are going to affect essential programs uh essential functions sorry requiring thoughtful prioritization of limited resources mandated programs including over 70 new state mandates um in just in the last two years continue to grow in scope and increasing costs and straining resources and it's limiting our funding for professional development and teacher support challenges efforts to increase um um growth so just the fewer staff heavier workloads and reduce capacity sustain and increase academic outcomes for students and operational efficiencies so chair white I don't know if you want Tammy to go into her presentation because they kind of attach to each other if you I was just going to say we're about to dive into the one that's going to probably take some time need four minutes here or just dive in how you guys good go okay