All right. Uh, next on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So made by Director France. Second. Second by Director Bullan. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. That carries. 70. Next on the agenda is the consent agenda. Before I ask for a motion, is there any board member or member of the audience would like to pull anything on the consent agenda? Uh, Chair Wade, I'd like to pull 10 C, the monthly financial report, please. Okay. So, 10 C, we'll move just uh after leaves of absence. Then on right before resolution, can we pull 10 A7, the monthly check detail, please? Did you say A7? 10 A7. Yes. Thank you. All right. And that will come right after the financial report at the end. Then if there is nothing else, I will uh entertain a motion to approve uh the consent agenda minus uh 10 A7 and 10 C. Is there a motion? So made by Director Johnson. Second. Second by Director France. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 70. All right, we'll move down then and take the monthly financial report. Is there a motion to accept the month monthly financial report? So made by Director Atkinson. Is there a second? Second by Director Johnson. Uh discussion. Yeah, thank you. Um I just had a question for um director Frederickson on the February monthly um highlights which is on I believe it's really the second page of the report um regarding our unassign unassigned fund balance um which is estimated for February at 8.4 million which is 6.86% um 6 8.86% and then per our board policy 701.2 to anything under 8% um um per policy basically says that as a board um should be we need to be able to review it and address it and I just wanted to understand um more about the fund balance. Certainly. Thank you, Director Atinson, Chair White, members of the board. Um, as I have um said several times in the past at at several different meetings, one of the things that we don't really have a lot of control over in the district is our revenue streams coming in. Uh, and that's no different in this case. Um if you'll notice on the cash flow report um there is no property tax payment coming into the district in February. Last month when we discussed the uh financial statements we had anticipated having about $2.5 million of local property tax come in. That did not happen. There's two times during the year that the county does not send us u property tax money. It's usually when they're collecting the property taxes. Uh so in October we typically don't get a payment and then in uh March we typically don't get a payment. So we were kind of anticipating a payment in February which we did not get. However um we as you know in the levy process uh we have levied for $20 million. That is exactly how much we're going to get by the end of the year in the levy. So, um, as we discussed last month, um, we were anticipating our, uh, fund balance in February to be a little over 9% and if you do the calculation, if we had gotten that $2.6 million in property tax payment, it would have been 9.1% I believe. Um, because that didn't happen, um, the fund balance is sitting at 6.86. However, I can say if you look at um the balance sheet, which I know we had a uh conversation last month about whether the balance sheet was a valued um report to look at, but if we do look at the balance sheet from the end of January, you can see that the unassigned fund balance was $7.6 million. um at the end of February in your latest financial report it's 8.4. So you can see that we have in fact increased the amount of unassigned fund balance that we have. Um, also if you look at the cash flow report, um, if you look at the cash flow report from last month, we anticipated the expenses in February to be 11.7 million. But as we've also said, we have taken a lot of steps in trying to find efficiencies and cutting costs whenever we can. So, if you look at the cash flow report this month, when you have the actuals for February, our actual expenses came in at $10.1 million, which is $1.5 million less than we thought it was going to be last month. So, we in fact are uh making strides in finding efficiencies and cutting cost in the district. Um so again I um have uh again in the cash flow report if you look at the year-end projected last month in um if you look at the year-to- date projected we were anticipating the net cash flow for the year end to be a negative 2.4 million. If you look at it this month it's actually a negative 1.4 million. And as you all remember, the board did authorize a $957,000 use of fund balance. So just in one month, we've gotten the um year-end projected um fund balance to um improve and we're less than $445,000 um over what we have anticipated in our budget and we still have four more months left. So, um I would like to just assure the board that we are in fact continuing to look at cost cutting measures and that we will um find whatever efficiencies we can. Um and I also just want to add that um one of the things that is challenging is when you don't get revenue in in perfect increments. Um we get money from the state at a tenth of a of of what our entitlement is every month for the state aid payments. The um property tax comes in when um over the entire year we get federal sources that uh come in after you spend the money. You um apply for the federal revenue. Then we have other miscellaneous revenue that comes in sporadically. But one thing that we are not allowed to do is not pay our bills. Um, and there is a Minnesota statute. It is um 471.425 that actually says school districts must pay their bills within 35 days. So, we can't just because we didn't get property tax revenue, tell our vendors, we can't pay you this month because we didn't get the revenue. Um, we still have to pay our bills. Um, we also I can just add that um the way that we kind of pay our bills is we run accounts payable every week on Wednesday and then twice a month we have payroll that comes through and as soon as you run those um payments then we transfer money from our investment account into our bank account to cover whatever those are. And you also in your board packet get the uh investment um statement every month. And you can see we we still are sitting really um really nicely in our in our investment account that we are able to cover all of our payments from accounts payable and payroll every month. So um I hope that answers the question. I can elaborate more if need be. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. I think the confusion was when it was stated um last month where you said by February we would be back to 9%. And then when I looked at the report this u month we're at 6.8%. So understanding that we didn't get that um state revenue um payment is um I appreciate you explaining that. Um now given our revenue is $2 million up to last year. Where do you think our ending fund balance is going to end just from a just from a projection? So that like as a like as a board like it doesn't matter to me so much um monthtomonth where we're at because I understand that it does eb and flow. I think the most important thing for the board to understand and for me to understand is where are we going to be at the end of the year are we going to be um aligned to our policy. So again if you look at the cash flow statement and we're looking at um in fact if we do end up with a negative 1.4 4 million of which, keep in mind, about a million of that has been authorized. We're going to be sitting um over nine, probably closer to 10% of our fund balance. But again, it's going to depend on some of those year-end um audit adjustments that we don't necessarily know what those are going to look like until the auditors are coming, which by the way, the auditors will be here uh the last week in June to do their preliminary audit work. and then we have uh the end of July when they'll be here to um complete all of the other work that they have. So, we're anticipating we're going to be within our budget. Um and again, we've been able to show just in one month that we've cut the expenses by over a million dollars. So, we'll continue to do that. Um again, I'm anticipating that we'll be within our budget. And then director Frederickson, there was an adjustment though because LA you had forecasted the teacher salaries flat to last year but there was a payback last year. So that really are we really cutting a million dollars or was that just a forecast? It's actuals now. No, I understand. But you're talking compared to forecast. So I think just being real clear with our community about that is really important. Well, that teacher payment was one time in February and we have actuals now. So right. So that's where the change was in expenses. We don't have any anticipated additional expenses for the next four months of the year. Right. Thank you for clarifying that. Anyone else? Any other comments, questions? No, I just want to say thank you, Tammy. I know a lot of this was discussed last month. Um and um also with the March actuals in here for the transactions and the totals from that that was and that that shows um where we are. So, thank you very much. Okay, there's no more discussion. We have a motion and a second on the table. Uh all in favor of approving the monthly financial report signify by saying I. I. Opposed. That carries 70. And then the uh monthly check detail. I'll entertain a motion to approve the monthly check detail. So made by Director Atinson. Second by Director Mason. Questions, discussion? Um, yeah, I just had a follow-up question about um the payments for the mural at Prior Lake High School. So, I saw there's two separate payments. It says first and second payment. What is the are those final or what is the total cost that we're projecting for that? And I would like to understand if that's being um offset with fund raise and donations or how much of that is coming out of our Yeah, those are our contributions um through our ANI funding grant. Um that's um going to be uh our portion of supporting that um community mural project at the the school for our students. Um and right now we are working with uh students that are actively doing fundraising as well as our partnership with the uh Prior Lake Rotary who will be also um uh bringing in resources to cover the the difference of the mural as well. Um, Director Oak, are we uh was it the the total price just just around $18,000 is the total price and that was our portion um through our ANI funding that we utilize. The rest of it will be fundraised um and supported through community. So the portion we're covering the 7,000 they will fund raise for the and other community components as well in kind support with uh organizations. Is there a reason that we paid for this upfront without fundraising first or is that are some of those funds raised already? I'm just curious. Director Oak, do you want to come forward? Just questions around fundraising efforts to date if you can speak to any of that. So the work is being done through um student council and the student advisory group um and they're going to raise some portions of funds through through the culture fair that they're putting on on May 10th there. They're also um connecting with uh ser different service club. Rotary is just one of them. They are planning to connect with the junior optimist um and other service clubs as well. The 7,000 upfront is because the artists have been working with our students already, coming in to meet with them, um, connecting with their ideas, um, coaching them on, you know, the type of visions that they can have there, connecting their ideas with, um, what could be, um, put onto, um, the wall as well with matching the colors and all that. Okay. Thank you. I also just kind of want to speak to this. We've been working on this project for like over a year now. It's been like developing. we've been thinking about it and um taking the different steps to get here. So, we we just really wanted to take initiative and get something done before class of 2025 leaves and most of us who are leading the project and started it um can kind of see it start to actually happen. So, yeah. Okay. Any other questions or comments? No, I'm just assuming we'll see the donations on the donation register for any of the donations coming when the additional revenue for the generous donations. We'll put those into our gift portion of our board meeting. Wonderful. Thank you. Mhm. Okay. There's no further discussion. I We have a motion and a second on the table to approve the monthly check detail. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 70. Moving down to personnel. Director Herman. Thank you, Chair White, members of the board. Um we have a series of actions um today. Um the first one starting with the voluntary furlow memos um for any of our bargaining units um that our 12-month employees to have a one-time option to select for a 3-day voluntary furlow. It is 100% voluntary with no obligations. Um therefore, we have not counted this in any of our budget reduction projections to date, but once we have those final numbers, we will be adding that into our um budget presentations um moving forward. So the four um you see today are in connection with any bargaining unit that has 12-month employees. Okay. And no action is required here as far as I know. Okay. Any questions? No, there's action for there is action. We need to vote. We need vote. Sorry, I should have said chair wait. That's right. Uh is there a motion uh to accept the voluntary furls? So made by director France. Second. Second by director Johnson. Discussion. Um yes, I have a question. Um, so given the fact that this is really just the paperwork that says there's an option in order to take a furlow, um, I think originally this was budgeted $86,000 um, in our district. Um, as you're tracking the furlows, what's sort of the plan that will be put in place to come up with the additional money if we don't for budget cuts if we don't hit the $86,000. Um, Director Atinson, the $86,000 was pull pulled out of our recommendations for cuts and assumed in other reductions that we've taken. This would be on top of what we've already proposed. So, um, that was also a number just keep in mind where we were mandatory making those furlows and so if we get 100% we'd be in that ballpark, but I anticipate that we're not going to be at 100%. So once we get those numbers, that will be information that we'll share with the board and built into our budget reduction cost sheet uh moving forward. Okay. Thank you. I mean, I think I was clear during the budget process that I felt myself that this was sort of a bandage. We did this last year. We're doing this again. Um so um I I don't support the furloss. Um I think we hire people, they're expect to get paid for what they're hired for. And um honestly, we need people working in our district. We have a lot of problems we need to solve. So just wanted to add that. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Hearing none. Um, sorry. Go ahead. Logistically, how are we voting on this, please? Uh, just a standard vote. Can we do a roll call vote, please? Yeah. Well, well, hold on a second. There's 12 A, B, C, and D. We're only voting on one. We'll go down one at a time here. We're just doing A for this one. Thank you. Thank you. And there's a roll call request. That'd be great. Thank you. All right. So, we have a a motion and a second on the table. Um, Director Olstead I. Director Johnson I. Director Atinson nay. Director Bullan I. Director France I. And director Mason I. And I. That motion carries six to one. Uh, letter B. The probationary teachers non-renew. Director. Chair white. Members of the board. Um, I'd like to take an opportunity to provide a little bit more um, uh, information regarding the non-renewal list. Um, and I know that it it looks quite extensive. So, I just want to give a a chance to explain a little bit more. So, each year, school districts across the the state of Minnesota face not only difficult challenges with managing the contract and the probationary statuses by lensure, but also budget reductions and performance. So by statute, any probationary staff member who has yet to receive continuing contracts uh or otherwise known as tenur status um their contracts may be non-renewed by the board without an individualized action. So that's why you see all these on on one mo uh one memo to the board. nominees occur for a v a variety of different reasons including lensure constraints um expired long-term substitute contracts, performance concerns, um and then any reductions for staffing adjustments due to proposed budget reductions. These decisions are never easy um and they reflect a combination of legal requirements, strategic workforce planning, um and then the ongoing efforts to ensure our students receive instructional instruction from appropriately licensed um educators. So for one example, the Minnesota's tiered lensure system has four different tiers. Um the tier one specifically requires us every year to non-renew an individual that's on a tier one lensure. Um at that time then we have to post the position for 60 days with the intent to try to find a fully licensure staff to fill that role. The vast majority of the time, actually every single time that I'm ever aware of in my career, we end up rehiring a tier one teacher because of the unique aspect of that role. but it is just a statutory requirement that we have to follow through Pellsby. Those are conversations that we have with every single individual that's on this list specifically as to why they're on the list and they also have the right to request the rationale and reasoning in it and in writing afterwards and they are communicated with that process um after the board takes action today. So, I just wanted to make sure that the the board and the community and staff are aware that there's multiple reasons why individual can be on a non-renew list. Um, and I happy to answer any other questions for that. All right. Is there a motion to accept the pro probationary teachers non-renew? So made by director Bullan. Second. Second by director Mason. Discussion or questions? Hearing none. All in favor? I'm sorry. Go ahead. I just um this is hard every year. Um, and uh, I just want to thank everybody on this list for their service to our district. Um, thank you. Thank you, Director Olstead. Anything else? One of the questions I had um is are the positions that are listed in here we back in February actually it was in December the board was tasked and approved um making these cuts in our district which was like eight I don't remember the the number of FTE but does this list um represent all the cuts that um that we made that were made in December or will we see additional like or is this a full list? Dr. Atinson, um, Chair White, members of the board, um, it's a very complex process with the staffing process. So, everything you see in the board packet today isn't a reflection of all those reductions. Whether it's a reduction because it's a non-renewal or um, the next difficult memos we'll have to go through with the unrequested leave of absences. The differences between those two are the probationary status or the tenure status. and depending on what lensure is required for that, what sections we have to reduce based off of student enrollment, um the registration, um the budget at FTE we have in each area. So the non-renewal list is part of that, but it's not the whole story either. We also have um any retirements or resations that were then not backfilling, um any full year leaves or requests that we have. We take all of those pieces of the ins and outs in the staffing process and then at the end of the day then we have to figure out how many probationary staff are we non-renewing and then when we go to the the additional um difficult conversations is what tenure staff do we have to place on unrequested leave of absence based off of all those different moving pieces. So, we frequently refer to it um with the administration um and the departments that work very closely on this as a very complex puzzle that we don't always know what the piece p pieces look like as all these are moving around. Um but to answer your question, it's a part of it and and the whole story is in the board packet tonight. So, we do not anticipate bringing forward any more non-renewals or um ulas with the certified teaching staff. And this is a product of as we've gone through and we've looked at enrollment and the students have enrolled in their classes. This is the exercise that came out of that based on class size. Is that correct? As we've discussed in the past, Dr. Atinson, chair white, members of the board. Yes, that is accurate. So that is part of the piece especially at the secondary level. The elementary level is um and early childhood that's a little bit more either enrollment based or um uh the different um student data there. But with the secondary specifically, we also have to look at what uh courses they selected and then what offerings we have along with the class size guidelines that the school board approved. Thank you. Chair White, if I may just may and just I I also and I wanted to share this before we had the conversations of 12B and C or 12B C and D. Um to director Olad's point, you know, as you all understand, our budget uh 80 plus% of our budget goes to people. uh the people are our programs and I oftentimes would say during the budget conversations that math doesn't teach itself, language arts doesn't teach itself and kids don't feed themselves. Like we have phenomenal people doing phenomenal work on behalf of our students every single day and I also um know how challenging these conversations are. Um it's never fun being in this mode. Um, but we also understand that this is some of the reality before us right now that we're going to work through. Um, and do everything that we can with the resources that we have to put everything that we can in still in support of our students. And so I also want to thank all of our staff um, and our administration for working through this very complex situation of staffing knowing the emotionality behind a lot of these conversations and decisions. Um, I've had to work through it as many sitting here tonight have had to work through it. In my career, I've been at the other end of this conversation. So, I understand what this feels like and I understand what this means and I just want to express my appreciation for our our community and our staff working through this as collaboratively as we can to ensure the best outcomes for our students. Thank you. If there's chair, I just want to add one more thing because I don't know that but I was clear on it. Um and as as we go through these non-renewals and unrequested leave of absences, as things potentially change after this board meeting, if we get more resignations, more retirements, um those those type of openings come, these are the first people we go back to. Um especially the uh the on requested leave of absences, they have contract um rights to their position back. And then for the non-renewals, we that is our our list that we go back to right away to try to get them back in our district. All right. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, all in five, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries 70. Next on the agenda is a resolution um proposing placement of unrequested leaves of absence. Director Herman. Thank you, Chair White, members of the board. Um this is the the um resolutions that need to be read independently and roll vote on each one. starting with the resolution re reducing and discontinuation of programs um and re overall with the 512 communication lit uh literature teacher the 512 German teacher the 512 French teacher is the first resolution that needs to be read out loud and then a roll call vote okay let me find the place So then I need to take a motion uh to approve this. Uh is there a motion on the table? So made by director France. Is there a second? Second by Director Atinson. Um, be it resolved by the school board of independent district 719, the following programs and positions or portions thereof will be discontinued. Uh, first, the 512 communications literature teacher reduced from 1.0 FTE to.4 FTE. Uh, 512 German teacher reduced from 1.0 FTE to.8 FTE. and the 512 French teacher reduced from 0.85 FTE to8 FTE. Are there any questions or discussion? Hearing none. Uh this does require a roll call vote. Director Olstead I. Director Johnson I. Director Atinson I. Director Bullan I. Director France I. And Director Mason I. And I that motion carries 70. Chair White, members of the board, the second resolution is the resolution proposing placement of unrequested leave specifically for the communication literature teacher um going from the 1.0 to the um placed on a 6 unrequested leave of absence. Again to clarify for the board and the community and the staff um these are areas where we had to make reductions that there weren't sub uh probationary staff members available um with those lensures and that's why we have to place them on unrequested leave of absence um for the board and the community to know these individuals remain on the unrequested leave of absence list for 5 years where we will reach back out to them should opportunity present itself. This does require to be read out loud and a roll call vote. All right. Is there a motion to um to accept the the resolution proposing placement on unrequested leave? So by director Johnson, second second by director Atinson. I'll read the resolution. Uh be it resolved the school board of independent district 719 as follows. It is proposed that Kelly Diesel, a 1.0 zero FTE teacher be placed on 6 FTE unrequested leave of absence without pay or fringe benefits at the end of the 24 202425 school year effective June 5th 2025 said action is taken in accordance with the 2023 through 25 collective bargaining agreement between the district and the Pri Savage Education Association and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A.40 40 subdivision 10. The grounds for this action are as follows. Uh lack of pupils, financial limitations, and discontinuence of position, namely a6 FTE communication/ literature teaching position. Be it further resolved that a notice of proposed placement on unrequested leave together with a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Miss Diesel. Is there any discussion, questions? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. Roll call. I'm sorry. Roll call. Director uh Olstead I. Director Johnson I. Director Atinson I. Director Bullan I. Director France I. And director Mason I. And I that motion carries 70. Chair white. Members of the board the next resolution proposal placement unrequested leave of absence is specifically for a German teacher at a 1.0 0 FT being placed on a point 2 um FT on requested leave of absence. All right. Chair will entertain a motion to uh relating to the resolution proposing placement of a German teacher on unrequested leave of absence. Made by director Johnson. Is there a second? Second by director Bullan. Be it resolved by the school board of independent district 719 as follows. That it is proposed that Mary Douly, a 1.0 FTE teacher, be placed on a2 FTE unrequested leave of absence without fringe pay fringe benefits or pay at the end of the 202425 school year effective June 5th, 2025. Set action is taken in accordance with the 2023 through25 collective bargaining agreement between the district and the Pri Lake Savage Education Association and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A. 40 subdivision 10. The grounds for this action are as follows. Lack of pupils financial limitations and discontinuence of position namely a.2 FTE German teaching position. Be it further resolved that a notice of proposed placement on unrequested leave together with a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Miss Douly. Any discussion hearing? None. Uh this also requires a roll call. Director Olstead I. Director Johnson I. Director Atkinson I. Director Bullan. I. Director France I. Director Mason I. And I that motion carries 70. Chair white. Members of the board, the last resolution for proposal of placement on unrequested leave um for the certified staff is the French teacher um specifically a 8ft FTE being placed on a 05 FT unrequested leave of absence. Is there a motion uh to the resolution proposing placement of unrequested leave for the French teacher? So made by director Atinson. Second by director Mason. Be it resolved by the prile or by the school board of independent District 719 as follows that it is proposed that Mary Bonaface a 0.85 FTE teacher be placed on a.5 FTE unrequested leave of absence without pay or fringe benefits at the end of the 2022 25 school year effective June 5th 2025. Set action is taken in accordance with the 2023 through25 collective bargaining agreement between the district and the prylike Savage Education Association and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A.40 subdivision 10. The grounds for this action are as follows. A lack of pupils financial limitations and discontinuence of position namely a 05 FTE French teaching position. Be it further resolved that a notice of proposed placement on unrequested leave together with a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Miss Bonaface. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. This also requires a roll call vote. Director Olstead I. Director Johnson I. Director Atinson I. Director Bullan. Hi. Director France. I. Director Mason. I. And I. That motion carries 70. Chair White, members of the board, we're now um to the next um set of action, which is resolution for reduction and discontinuing of programs and positions, specifically the 1.0 assistant principal, the 1.0 director of equity and inclusion and the 1.2 2 FT for Laker online program. The Laker on online program um reduction has already been accounted for in the non-renewals um uh listed previously in the board packet. Um and the corresponding letters for the assistant principal reduction and the director of equity and inclusion reduction are included in the packet. This memo also needs to be read out loud with a roll call vote. All right. The chair will now entertain a motion uh regarding the resolution reducing and discontinuing uh these programs and positions. So made by director Johnson. Is there a second? Second by Director Atinson. Be it resolved by the school board of independent district 719 as follows. That the following programs and positions or portions thereof be discontinued. Uh assistant principal at 1.0 FTE, director of equity and inclusion at 1.0 FTE, and the Laker online program at 1.2 FTE. Any discussion? Hearing none. Once again, this requires roll call. Director Olstead, I. Director Johnson, I. Director Atkinson, I. Director Bullan, I. Director France, I. And Director Mason, I. And I. That motion carries 70. Okay. Next on the agenda is unfinished business. Uh the new version of the financial report, cash flow report. Director Frederick Frederickson. Thank you, Chair Wright. Members of the board, at our last board meeting, um I presented uh a requested cash flow detail report along with a summary report um that was requested by the board. Um it was on two different pages and there was a request that was made that uh on the detailed report you would like to see the um an actual budget amounts the act the annual budget amount and a previous year-to date to compare to the current year which all of that information was on the summary report. So um the request was to put them all on one page. So this is the new report combining those two summary detum page and the detail page are now on one page. So as I understand it that was the request. So this is the report that I'm presenting to you tonight. I just want to say at the outset I appreciate this. This um I think captures for the most part the different uh positions that board members were taking. Uh again, my overall goal in, you know, um looking at how this is presented to us is to create less work for the business office and and not more. And and I'll continue to check with you to make sure that's the case moving forward because that's that was certainly my intent moving forward, but I appreciate the effort. This is this is really good. Any other comments? Director Brand. Um, Director Frederickson, um, will this replace all the other detail reports or will we still have the balance sheet? Can you just kind of give us a summary of that? Yeah, it was my understanding from the last board meeting that there was no consensus on what should be added or should be removed. So, at this time, we're just continuing to have all of the reports. um we with the caveat that the bank statement may be a month late because we just aren't going to have time to get everything done that um we previously had been doing. So other than um seeing a later bank statement, we will do our very best to make sure that all of these reports are included every month. Would you do me a favor? Just qualify that when you said all of these reports. I mean we are adding these two additional reports and not taking something away. Correct. Um there's one report in here that is obviously manually created and that's the monthly summary with your handwritten or not hand but typed obviously. Um you know that is a repeat of a lot of the detail in here. I was wondering if the board would be okay with eliminating that one since the totals are in all of the other reports and again in the interest of trying to reduce the amount of work um and the redundant work that are in these reports. Any comments question or I mean that I think we get more than enough especially with this new format. So I'm I'd be all in favor of that personally. Yeah, I I'm in sort of part of that as well. I think um and and other people can chime in. I think the one thing that I would like to see is that when I started on the board, an overview of the finance report was part of a standing agenda item and then somehow it got put into the consent agenda. So, I think it would be really helpful with this report um to become part of a standing agenda item so that we could get just a brief overview. So if you're not writing it in the the recap, um sharing that with the community is going to help share some transparency around our financial situation. So having it as a standing agenda item is what I would like to see as it used to be um on the board. I don't remember it ever. I I know that it was chair had a um during their study sessions, we would have a review and we would get an update on the budget manually, but I don't remember any of these not being part of the consent agenda except for when you were doing updates. Um it was um just so you know and you can we talked about this. I'm actually asking Director Frederick She go ahead. Yeah. I think the uh so when I first got here three years ago, there was no financial statement um done at all. So when we started doing that um in the interest of helping the board understand what was all in the report, I think we included it in the financial update, but then um at the request of the um board at that time said, "Yeah, we've got it now. We don't need you to um discuss it every month. It's in the consent agenda and if there's questions I'll bring it up which is why it got moved to the consent agenda. Yeah. I I personally don't see why it needs to be a standalone. As long as you know there's you can question anything on the consent agenda at any time. I think that would be an appropriate way to move forward. There's no reason to in my opinion make it standalone. That's just me. As long as we still have the opportunity to question um anything on the consent agenda. Um I think that should suffice. My specific question was the monthly highlights um because it is redundant. It is a manual report. Um I would be okay with that not being continued. Um the other detailed reports slice and dice the numbers 10 ways to Sunday. Um and uh whereas um there there's always some confusion with with people who don't usually read a balance sheet or something like that. still it's represented in so many different ways that um I feel that it's it's even without the monthly highlights it's still overkill and I'm and I'm I would be okay with that. I don't know how the rest of everyone feels. Um Chair France, are you referring to our community being confused about who doesn't read about Bo? Could you clarify who you're referring to being confused? I just want to be, you know, be respectful up here. So when you say things like that, are you referring to it being confusing to our to our community? Obviously, not everybody is has a financial mind and when you break the numbers down in different ways, I'm sorry if you took that personal. That's No, no, I'm asking who you're referring to. So are you referring to our community? I'm just trying to get clarification of how we report the numbers because we not only report to the board who has a pretty good understanding of the numbers and we look at it before we get the you know we get these numbers um a week prior so we have time to digest it. So I'm really trying to understand are you referring to when the community sees these as far as being confusing? Um I mean one thing we did talk about is we did talk about having that monthly report become a quarterly report. That's something that we talked about at the board table here as well. So that's something that So is that propose is that a uh a direction the board would be interested in going to make it quarterly instead of monthly that would I mean kind of meet halfway as far as reducing the workload a little bit and still giving us a a regular update that um you know some board members may may be in favor of Director Mason. Yeah. No, I was going to say I support pulling that monthly highlights if it's manual and it takes a lot of effort. Absolutely. That's great. Um, I I would say though I I appreciate I think every month that I've been on the board so far, we've pulled the financial report out of the consent agenda with questions. So, I actually think the context helps for our community. Doesn't mean you have to put it in writing, but I do think it's helpful to just, you know, highlight and explain a few things. So, um, I would be for that too, as long as it's not more effort for you to just kind of verbally talk through it. Anybody have a problem with going to quarterly on that? Okay. Any other questions regarding the uh this particular document here? Okay. Thank you, Director Freder. Moving on to new business. Uh the American Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee written statement. Um chair for point of order. We we have the finance advisory committee membership update. Did I miss that? 14A. Yes. Sorry, Sam. Almost there. Uh I have the printed copy that it's not on. So, uh, the I will take it off to Dr. Thomas's computer here. We do have the, uh, the updated finance committee roster. Um, and then, so if, yeah, Director Premington, you want to just update the board on the the proposed new members? Sure. Thanks, Chair White. members of the board. Um we had um obviously new um committee members um from the board representing on our finance advisory committee. So Director Atkinson and Director Mason are our two representatives um starting in January. And there was a request that um because some of our finance advisory committees, all of our committee members um don't necessarily show up every meeting. So there was a request from the board that we open up for uh new members. So we did that. We got six applications. Um Director Atinson, Director Mason both reviewed those and identified four that we would invite to join our committee. They're on this sheet. We will send them an invitation to the next meeting which is April 29th. action requested on on this or are we just gonna No. Nope. Okay. All right. Thank you, Director Frederickson. Now, we'll move on to the AP APAC written statement. Director Oak. Good evening, Superintendent uh Dr. Thomas, uh Chair White, members of the board. Um every year, um our APAC, our American Indian parent advisory committee hold a vote for concurrence or non-concurrence. Uh this year, the vote was held on February 25th. Uh the vote was non-concurrent. So therefore, a letter of non-concurrence uh needs to be shared and presented to the board. Um it was scheduled to be presented on March 10th. However, the letter wasn't ready at that time. So we are presenting tonight. After the letter is presented, we will have as the board will have 60 days to um do a reply to the letter concurrence. So at this time, I would um like to invite our Apac chair, Sierra, and u members of the Apac committee up as well. All right. Thank you. I'm extremely nervous. This is my second time speaking in front of people. So, um jaba. Hello my friends and relatives. My name is Xiaawini. It means southern woman in my Oj in my Ojiu language. My English name is Sierra Mallister. I am Bearclan. My family and I are from White Earth Indian Reservation. I live in Prior Lake. I am the current chairwoman of Prior Lake American Indian Advisory Committee, also known as Apac or PAC for short. I've lived in Prior Lake for 28 years. I went to Five Hawks Elementary, Hidden Oaks Middle School, and was the first 9th grade class in Prior Lake High School. I volunteer my time at Five Hawks in the classrooms in field trips from time to time and when needed. I'm an assistant coach of my girls travel basketball teams for the last 5 years. I've also coached the in-house in in-house volleyball teams for the last three years. I don't mean to make this speech about race or anything like that, but I'm here to tell you a little bit about who I am and my journey at the Prior Lake Savage Schools and the change that is coming. I think it ties into building together as a community. Living in Prior Lake or living and going into a pred predominantly white district wasn't wasn't a struggle for me as a child in elementary school. Back then, young children didn't see the difference in skin color, hair color, or eye color. they just see friends to play with. I was the only mixed native black and white girl out here at the time. As I got older throughout middle school and high school, more students of different nationalities joined. That's when I realized that I was different. The comments about my hair, skin color, and where I lived before turned me into an outsider. Friends I once once I friends I once had judged me based on my the color of my skin and turned away. I had a son at a young age and I wanted different from him. I have two additional daughters now and teach them all to speak up from for themselves and others. I'd teach them the importance of coming together as a family and a community. I always lose my place cuz I when I look up I look back down. I dove in and I'm teaching them everything I know about my Native American culture as they grow. I joined Apac meetings out here in hopes that to give my kids a sense of belonging because back then when I was their age, I didn't have other students who looked like me. I witnessed the many different Native coordinators come and go with little help from our district. Very little education in our community about native injustices and other than what's read in our textbooks. Now, I'd like to dive into the Apex letter of non-concurrence. I will not be read reading it word for word because the district already has the letter in full detail. Um just touching on some key topics here tonight. Uh dear board members and Dr. Thomas, the um American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, Apac or PAC um for the Prior Lake School District cast a vote of non-concurrence in the district with the district's Indian education program plan for the 2024 2025 school year to attest to our belief in the school board and district are not in compliance with the Minnesota Minnesota law and are not meeting the obligations of the Native American students in the district. We submit this letter which requires that the reasons for non-concurrence and recommendations shall be submitted with resolution of non-concurrence. The pact first wishes to acknowledge that this year has included some positive events. These these include the hiring of the liaison to assist the work of Freddy Delejon, the district's American Indian student support coordinator, and serving our students, hiring tutors for middle school students, sustaining regalia and making regalia making and drum and dance sessions during the school year in the evenings, working with and being supported by Sam Oak. A presentation by Mr. Deleó to teachers during the inservice training event that occurred on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in February. The student group at the high school, the Native American Student Coalition, which was founded in 2022, continues to be active and plan important events um that celebrate their identity and enable them to share their culture with their peers, enriching the experience of all students and staff who engage with them. These events include the bit the bridge bridgewalk community cultural fair and for the first time to our rec recollection at the prior lake American Prior Lake High School. Uh a student organized POW was held at the Prior Lake High School last month. Unfortunately, the pack's concerns, requests, and recommendations remain much of the same that has been repeated ex repeatedly expressed in the year the letters of non-concurrence issues over the last several years. Since at least 2022, the pack has issued specific requests to where to which there has been either no response or inadequate response. Such unanswered requests are as follows. There will be an administrator appointed to work with it and address issues and request and requests raised over in oh my stumbling over my words uh raised in the 2020 letter. It is not particularly particularly productive for the process in which the pack and the district engage in limited to single to a single annual letter and single response. The pack desires some dialogue and action as we partner with the district to address the needs of our students in our Indian education program. Native students well-being and graduation res rates improve when they are exposed to cultural languages. $11,000 of our funds were used to pay with the district's ran for the district ran native language class. If the district is supplementing the class, the district should be paying for it and not supplanting it into our funds. We are seeking some clarity on expenditures made from this year's bud budget and I therefore request a copy of the accounting for Indian education program for the last year as soon as possible. The the issue of how funding is being spent is an ongoing issue for each new APAC committee. Sorry beeping. There is little to no input from the AP pack taken into consideration when decisions are being made on how um on how funds are spent. Previous committees have requested budget updates and detailed expenditures expenditure reports to which we have either been told we are not entitled to the information or that we have to pay for it. Upon paying for it, we have been given redacted expenditure reports. It is the Apex committee request that we be freely provided with the budget update and expenditure tracking each of our APAC meetings going forward as we identify the specific concerns that led to the vote of non-concurrent this year. Will we will embed our recommendations in the paragraphs included specific reasons to the statements that the district provided in its response to our letters in the 2022 2023 and the 2023 2024 school years. Areas of concerns for the educational success of Native American students in this district includes the following. The achievement gap. The packet asserts the achieve a achievement gap between native students and the majority of the students in the stric district is an important measure of whether the district is meeting its statutory obligations to our students. We do not see data or information that shows this gap is narrowing. We therefore recommend the district to the district to develop a strategic plan that outlines what steps the district is taking to address the uh to address and reduce the achievement gap curricular curriculum development. The district has responded to this by not fulfilling plans set forth in the response letter dated July 8th, 2024 where it's where they stated, "We hope to work closely with the APAC and increase representation in our district committee as our teaching and learning advisory committee and our educational equity and excellence advisory committee. Having the a having APAC representation on these committees will help parents of native students learn about the systems and activities we have put into place address various needs across the district including reducing achievement gaps, cultural rep representation, economic disparities and other challenge challenges facing our students. District advisory committee. Each student board each student board must establish an advisory committee to ensure active community participation in all phases in planning and improving the instruction and curriculum curriculum affecting state and district academic standards consistent to uh subdivision two. Bullying and harassment. Students continue to experience unacceptable instances of racism, bullying, and harassment tied to the identity of native as native individuals. While we understand that there has been a topic of one of our schools, one of this year's schools caring and committed conversations, we recommend expanding a proactive discussion about respecting peers to a broader student population. We are aware that the We are aware that there may be opportunity for the district to engage in consultation to receive guidance on improving academic outcomes for native students through the Every Student Succeeds Act, also known as ESSA. The pack recommends that the district determines how to engage in the ESSA consultation to facilitate achieving our shared goals. We must emphasize the district. We must emphasize that the district has obligations pursu pursuant to state law as well as access to resources available through the Minnesota Department of Education that we are more committed to ever than committed to ever to support to supporting our students. It is also crucial that the district understands that the obligations to native students derive from the sovereign existence of our of our tribal nation. And thus, Native Native American students are the district group based on political classific classification and not a racial classification such as uh must not be swept under swept into the anti-dei policy framework. And this is my first time coming to a meeting like this. So, I didn't know that I should have um came to the 15minute no you're fine sneakage. So, I'm just going to continue to go cuz I worked hard on this. So, I also want to speak on the elimination of the director director of equity inclusion position. Letting Sam Oak go from the position will be going in the wrong direction here at PLSAS. Here was the he was the only one getting to know our program parents, students, and willing to help us along with Dr. Thomas Sam's position as director of equity and inclusion has has help has is helping and has done and he has done amazing things in our community already. Um diversity, equity and inclusion is not about gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, background, disability, culture, age or mental health. It's about all of us. Diversity ignites uh diversity ignites creativity, problem solving and innovation. Equity is fairness and inclusion of all students. Inclusion promotes belonging, purpose, and well-being. It is the vision of a better world for all of our children. The PLSAS commitment to equity and inclusion on the Prior League board website states it the best. I was going to state five of them, but to cut things short, I think we know where we're going with that. Community is about coming together and celebrating our differences regarding size, age, color of our skin, or where we came from. We need to go beyond paper, words on a paper, beginning a Oh, jeez. We need to go beyond words on a paper, beyond a speech at the beginning of a presentation or event and take action. It is important to keep Sam Oak in the directory director of equity and inclusion position to help us continue to to encourage cultural understanding and break break down the communication barriers. We look forward to working with the district in collaboration in a collaborative manner to improve and and support the health and well-being and academic success of native students here at PLSAS in hopes of coming together in unity as one. Thank you for giving me the this opportunity here today. Mitch, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, moving on to the next item on the agenda is policy and we have a is there allowed any discussion? You may have a if you have a question or comment. I I just I the 60 days um response. So what are the next steps? Can should we be talking about that or director Oak? So I I sorry I'll you want to or you want me to speak first? Well, no, go ahead. Okay. The board has already taken one step in what we've said and that was the elimination of the position that Samo currently has. So, as we've stated, that is a step backwards in the progress that has been made over many years and partnership that the APAC is trying to build. Um, and uh, Chairman White, you said were there questions or reasons for the elimination of the position? Was it purely No, I was asking the board if they had I got a question from the board and I was wondering if there was I forgot to ask for comments or questions regarding what we just heard and that was my my bad. So that's so so director Olsa to answer your question um when we receive this letter um we sit down as an administrative team we'll begin tomorrow morning as a senior leadership team to reflect on the conversation that we heard this evening um several of us have key aspects and connections to some of the concerns that were expressed either tonight or even dating back to 2020 which is something I'm curious to understand. I I appreciate you including the anecdotes. um I wasn't around then, but I understand the connection point that you're making back um there so that we don't repeat that history. So, thank you for that. Um and as I shared earlier, our commitment is to ensure that within the 60-day time frame that we develop a response um to the concerns that were laid out that in partnership with Apac would be able to um inform how we would be moving forward beginning next year. So as we move forward to to uh have stronger concurrence with with APAC. So that's the process that we go through each year, you know, when we hear um the concerns. Um director, is there anything else you want to add? I think just along that process uh there is then we'll be meeting with uh groups of you at a time to go over uh the statements as well to um to get the final statement down. And then after that um before the 60 days then we'll present it again at the board meeting um in terms of the response there and then that will be delivered to to APAC and then based upon what we develop with those responses that would also be something that I and others would be sitting down with Apac then next year to identify what does the plan of success look like moving forward um to ensure that we can meet concurrence or at least begin to address some of the concerns expressed tonight and or some of the ones that are historical as well. Um I have director I have a question. Yeah. So I've been on the board two years. We've been non-concurrent both years. The theme a lot of the same things we continue to repeat ourselves and I know one of the things that we talked about last year was having representation on the teaching and learning committee. Um do you have any feedback on like did you guys participate in that? was Freddy De Leon participated in that as it was spoken to in the statement here and okay so earlier in the meeting. Yeah. And and he's wonderful. He's actually my student is in his Dakota language class and that's been just that's like an incredible class and he does such a great job. So, um um the other question I have is there's surrounding districts and it was um me and the other chairs, we like took turns rotating, but like this next year we just wanted to incorporate more parents, the APAC parents versus not just the the board members. Yeah. And I there there's a really great group of parents um on the teaching and learning committee. And that's the whole point of the committee is to have a representation of parents and community members on that committee giving diverse view points on how it impacts our total um community. Um the other thing is we have surrounding districts that are concurrent and so is there anything that other districts are doing that that we can do better? I mean I know you spelled some things out in your letter but I I mean obviously it's disappointing. It's disappointing. And have you met with the other boards to ask them what they are doing to get concurrence? No, I mean I think that's something that we need to explore work that I would suggest that we would suggest that you do. Mhm. Yep. Will we go into one of them? Anyone else comments, questions? Because the letters um I've been part of the authoring of them and uh all these families have that it's been pretty clear and laid out very simply that do these things comply with the Minnesota state law. the treaties of the state of Minnesota and then our vote will be concurrent. But specifically, if you want to see the number, it is an achievement gap where you look at academic achievement of native students and that is equal on par to all other students in Prior Lake. Then I personally will vote yes and until then I will vote no as a parent of native students in this district. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? I just have a quick comment. I want to thank you Sierra for sharing your story. I know it's one familiar to myself and a lot of my peers and it is still happening. So a lot of the things like you talk about here um they are still happening and like we can see that like I know that and we all see that as students and the work that you Mr. Oak have done um and your department have done for this district is like undeniably life-changing. Like I can I can say that because it's changed my life. So thank you. Changed my daughter's life. Yeah, same here. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. All right, moving on to policy. We have uh 10 policies 801 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09, 10, and policies 902 and 903 for a second and final reading. Um, I will take a motion to accept all of them as one motion. So made by Director Johnson. Is there a second? Second by Director Atinson. Discussion. Um, I would like to pull 903 out of that. Sorry, I should have asked that first. My bad. And I'll ask for an amendment to that motion um, separate with 903. Is there a motion to amend? So made by Director Atinson. Second. Second by Director Johnson. Any discussion? Okay, hearing that. Um, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. 70. So then we will go back to the original motion to approve the the first nine then on the list. Um, is there any discussion regarding those nine on the nine? I I'm sorry. The first the first nine I pulled we pulled 903 with the amendment, right? The Do you want to discuss 903 now then? Or I'm going to we're going to we'll we'll take we'll approve the first nine on the list and then we'll we'll discuss 903 separately. Okay. So, there's a motion and a second on the table to approve 8010, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 809, 810, and 902. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. That carries 70. All right. Policy 903. Uh I don't entertain a motion to approve policy 903. So made by director Atinson. Second. Second by director Johnson. Uh discussion. Um yes. The first question that I have is on the first of all I want to thank um the chair for um pulling the piece about the communication out of the board policies because it didn't belong there um of the 200s anyways. Uh but the revision of the appropriate communication um was there any discussion of bringing that through legal at all? Um this doesn't seem enforcable. on the appropriate communication piece of policy 903. Chair, sorry. Um, Director France, um, Chair White, members of the board. Um, we did not discuss bringing this this forward. Um, when we discussed, um, uh, Vice Chair Bullan, Director Johnson, and myself, we were looking at the language um, trying to find ways to to make it clear what the appropriate communication um, was in alignment to. and the conversation that we had um fell back to like talking with the signs of what we what we are looking for with positive um behavior intervention strategies. Um so we aligned it with the district strategic plan around like respectful unity, safe learning environments. Um from my perspective of the language, um I I do not feel like we need to seek legal counsel. I would say that this we would implement this policy the same that we currently are. If somebody is acting disrespectfully, um if they're creating unsafe learning environment, we would act in the same way that we have always um including the consequences for the behavior, including like ending the the conversation, um recording the incident, all those same aspects. So, as uh Vice Chair Bullan, Director Johnson, and I talked about it, we were trying to align it with something as um Dr. Thomas said that the str plan is our northstar. Um really bringing it back to that to have what we expect and what our core beliefs are. And then we will I I don't see us implementing anything differently than we have with this policy moving forward. Um and I think that we even without as we talked about the last boarding even if we did not have this policy I think we would still be well within our legal grounds to terminate a conversation document that conversation call um police if somebody was acting um egregiously. We would still have all those rights. This just helps add that layer that I'll ask Dr. Edwards to speak to from the principal's perspective for staff and and principles and building administration to really lean on um to really have it spelled out for everyone involved on what happens if you're not acting in um um in alignment with our core beliefs in the strategic plan. Yes. And I would say that the uh listed uh courses of action uh should there be uh occurrences that are in conflict with our strategic plan and our uh values and beliefs. Um I think that this gives a adequate uh range of action steps to take um and gives us something to point to as to why. Okay. So strategic plan, aspirational, visionary, non-specific um policy much more discreet, specific, something we can actually work off of. They sit subordinate or below the aspirational statements. Um I've never been part of an organization that didn't spell this out. Um and um to say things like, you know, the shouting and yelling, using obscene language, using insulting or demeaning language, and then going through physical threatening, you name it, as examples of inappropriate behavior. To take that out and say, "Okay, we're going to recursively go from a policy level up to a strategic plan is not necessarily enforcable." Um, and if we're going to do that here, our entire 500 series for students discusses appropriate behavior also an appropriate dress. So would we take that and tell our students we're going to get rid of all the detail here of examples of that and just say please behave according to a strategic plan which is non-specific fairly nebulous and again aspirational north star that does not spell any of this out I 30 some plus years in corporate nonprofit and other educational institutions have never seen it recursive or or basically circuitous back up to you know a mission and vision statement to an organization. Um there you usually provide some sort of examples of what would be appropriate communication in here. That's my concern. And if there isn't appropriate communication and you're doing one thing for the adults and another thing from the students, that could potentially be an issue, too. Um, Director France, I do recall we had a lot of conversation around this policy um at our last board meeting and um one of the things that I recall is the difference between student speech and adult speech and there's different um laws that actually protect student speech versus teacher speech in our district versus adult speech. Um I also recall a conversation against um about being this communicating a positive message versus being appropriate versus inappropriate and we talk about appropriate communication then we talk about all inappropriate communication. Um so I I I'm fine with the way this um with the way that you guys put this together. Um I think I think it's I think it's fine. I mean, we all are aware of what our strategic plan is and um as long as you know, like I said, I'm I'm fine with the way this is written. So, well, I remember the conversation and um correct me if I'm wrong, uh, Director Herman, that there was some confusion about the definition of shouting and yelling and who considered something as obscene versus so instead of being defining that or using industry standard language, which this is, we went even more nebulous, which makes no sense. and student didn't really come into play here since the scope had nothing to do with students. Um, so I'm a little confused and I know that if I was sitting on a corporate board, bringing this back up to even higher level of non-defin would usually be a red flag. um legally even though you can say we've always done it this way all that when the policy becomes this broad it also becomes harder to enforce and the original purpose of having that pulled out in one of its own um um policies although I didn't agree it belonged because it's not a board policy it's a it's a district policy um is that you know it's it's protecting our staff as well as uh parents and parents that come around. So you want to have some sort of definition of what is appropriate behavior and communication. So that's why I'm concerned and why I would not I in my in my professional opinion I would not assume that this would be enforcable particularly with the consequences. Um so I am concerned. I I understand there's a way we've already done it and and and it's assumed and all that, but given the communication of having the tenants what I thought was fairly common sense, the board seemed to be confused about the definition of it. So why would we take it up to a higher level, more broad definition? Um, Chair France, I think if I go back and I remember the conversation, I think there was the concern is who determines what's appropriate or inappropriate when where somebody may think one thing is appropriate, somebody else might think something is inappropriate. And that's where that first amendment right gets really tricky. And so I think in this example that keeping it more general actually will protect us to be honest with you from a first for first amendment from a first amendment stance. So I understand why it's written the way it's said and that's why I said I I do appreciate the way it's written. So and I believe that the way it's written allows people to actually perform these things which are clearly inappropriate and then say there's no policy on it. That's what I'm worried about. And I would just be blunt because we've had this happen. And it's very important that we do keep more prescriptive examples of this for adult behavior. And I'm asking Director Herman um about the the thing that you really believe that this would be legal that we could still use this even though we're taking it out of the policy and still have it be enforcable. That's what I'm concerned about. Director France, members of the board, as I stated previously, I I feel that we would still implement the policy the same that we always had. If someone was shouting, yelling, um, using file language, we would implement the same exact policy. I don't see that changing. Um, but again, that's my understanding and and my partnership with two of the board members to draft this language um, based off of the board's conversation. So, I just would redirect your your direct or your question, sorry, to the rest of the board members because from my stance, that's that's how I would view the language and implement it and support the administrators on implementing it. But I also understand that there's the will of the board and I'm happy to support that. Director Bullion, you had something? Um yeah, I would just say that um you know as Director Herman and uh Director Johnson and myself collaborated, this is what we came up with. I understand um having uh there is in other policies we have examples of of things that we're talking about. So I do understand uh the point being made by director France. Um, and I think I'm I'm just asking Chair White, would it be something that we um the the examples given? So, we we rewrote the um the the paragraph as shown in red. Um would it be helpful if we just went through and got will of the board um board director by board director on whether to keep the examples in or remove them. I also understand that um uh what inappropriate is is subjective. Um but we do have in other policies where we do give examples. Um and the goal of policy is to support the staff. Um support the it's to support and we want to make sure that we are offering the most support. Um so uh I think we could talk about the pros and cons. I think if I'm just asking if we should just get will of the board to to leave the examples or to have them removed. We did I think the the reworking of the um the language above it. I think I think we could just get will of the board. Yeah. Because from from where I sit I I I hear you, Mary. I I I I honestly do. Um, but the sentence below everything that says the building administrator will be authorized to interpret would would would carry no matter what we have here. It seems to me and if if if administration um and the the members of the um policy committee are comfortable with this, I I would tend to be as well. But I'll put it like this. Is uh anyone uncomfortable with not having uh these examples listed in the policy? Cuz it really comes down to that. It seems like everything else is is um been agreed upon. So, um is there any disagreement with with pulling everything that's been redlined uh one through five and then one through five again or one through four? anybody can go. I'm okay with it. It references also the Minnesota statute which defines the disorderly conduct. So I feel like that from a legal standpoint is probably well I just from the number of years that I've been on the board, we've had parents send in some interesting emails uh to teachers. We've um I personally have witnessed some of this behavior and I'd like to be able to not have any gray zone in it um in order to support our staff um as well as parents. Uh we've had issues where parents have also um been in the same area on school property uh and visitors uh to our school district. And so, um, um, while I do appreciate the fact that the administrator who this gets brought up to would have the discerning, uh, capabilities to to take action. Um, not having these examples of the behavior in here, I think, does leave a gray area that makes it a little um uncomfortable for me to say the least, especially given what, you know, we've we've experienced here over the years or I know I've experienced here over the years or been witnessed to. Personally, I haven't been, but I've been witnessed to it. Okay. Thank you, Chair France, members of the board. Um uh again to reiterate I think unfortunately as much as we try to be clear with policy they whether we had examples or not it wouldn't be an all-inclusive list. The examples also could be um you know somebody brought up at the last board meeting what does yelling and shouting mean to one person might be different to the other person it might not be. Um I think in these situations we have a very very low risk because any of these behaviors aren't impeding on their first amend amendment rights and from a legal standpoint. We're really just ending a meeting. We're documenting it. If we are calling um enforcement, law enforcement to come help, they are the ones that take over that. They take on that liability. This just helps provide that extra coverage for individuals um especially at the school level to point back to um policy that appropriate communication is expected and inappropriate communication will not be um accepted. And I think from there we would we would navigate all of those um quote unquote gray areas as you said and again regardless if we have examples or not. I feel like that will become an issue because people will argue the examples or argue that something that we deemed inappropriate is not listed as a specific example. Um so those are kind of the conversations that when Vice Chair Bullan and Director Johnson and I were looking at the language, we couldn't come up with an all-inclusive list. We couldn't define everything to the point that everyone would completely agree with it. So instead, we specifically talked about was appropriate and then we talked about that inappropriate will not be accepted. And again, if it gets to the point where we're calling and it becomes a legal issue, that would not be us determining that. That would be law enforcement determining that. And um to Director Mason's point, in alignment with the statute that's listed there. So again, I I don't have concerns with the ability for us to um continue to utilizing this this policy to Vice Chair Bullan's um point to support our staff, administration um and students to ensure that we do not have um people in our schools whether they're visitors, parents, community members um that are acting inappropriately. Okay, I have just one more question because this is another concern. Sorry, don't mean to I hate to say beat a dead horse because I like horses. So, um, you know, um, the there there are no all-inclusive lists, and that's usually brought out in the majority of policies. Most of the other school districts do have a policy with examples in it. It's not meant to be all-inclusive. It's you can't do that in anything that we do. Um, but one of the reasons why you don't simply rely on a statutory reference is because when you're communicating these policies to the public, you're not expecting them to understand uh all the time or be able to go out and read, you know, a statute and understand all the intricacies of the statute as well as the court interpretations of that statute as it's challenged. Um, so that's why there also are examples in here so that you have a baseline of of of uh, you know, a baseline from which to start off on. Um, and with that, I understand it's the will of the board, but um, I simply have never been in a workplace, a nonprofit, or any of the other educational boards that I do sit on that didn't have these examples in there. And there's a reason why. So there is less gray area even if they can't be all-incclusive. All right. Thank you. Um I'm fine with leaving it personally. So I don't know if we wanted to keep having or you had a comment though, Director Johnson, before we move on. One just one thing. Um and we really wanted to to emphasize the strategic plan here. Um it's getting put into all the schools. Uh so hopefully right if there are any visitors to the building the students as it gets implemented even more throughout the year all of these things get lessened right and it's taught throughout the community it's going to be more prevalent throughout the community and then the issues that you that you're raising I understand I I get it I appreciate that you're raising them um but the words that we have on the strategic plan were done by the community. And that's that was I think our thought process on there is that we had a very large group, a very robust group of individuals who came from the community that put it in there and that was our thinking. I think we spent probably an hour and 15 minutes and 55 of those minutes were spent on this alone and um that's it. So I'm I'm happy with the way it is. Okay. Not to cut off discussion, but are you two? I'm assuming you're good with it. I'm I'm fine with the way it's written. Thank you, Amy. I'm fine. Yeah. And Director Olstead. Um I I appreciate the work put into this and never an easy job. Um I just um the the sentence about the communication that must align with the core beliefs in the district strategic plan. I just don't see that as realistic. Um, I don't think a mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, neighbor, emailing a teacher or calling a teacher is going, you know, before I do this, I'm going to go online and look at the strategic plan. That is not a disar strategic plan at all. Um, I just I don't I don't look at that part of the sentence as being realistic. Okay. Appreciate it. Yeah. Dr. Rollstead. Um, members of the board, um, respectfully, I I also would like to say I don't think that they look at our policy either. Um, it's really when after they send something like that, then we are able to point to policy to let them know that this is an unacceptable behavior that we will not be tolerating. Um, and then have those conversations to set those expectations of what is appropriate conversation or appropriate communications in those situations. So, um, I completely agree. It's unfortunate that not everybody has all of our policies and strategic plan memorized. Um, but it's also not an expect expectation I think is realistic and I and I completely agree with you on that. It's it's our ability to point to something to have those those um lines drawn in the sand and also to help uh communicate proactively and reactive um when these situations occur. Just one more comment to piggyback on that. Um when we when we were discussing and and we we chose to put in the the district strategic plan into the policy that was also an understanding that the the strategic plan usually has a fiveyear shelf life um that it's something that will transcend you know this specific um strategic plan. So um I I do I agree with you as well. um, Director Olstead. And I do think that, you know, uh, when I think about from what our our strategic plan was, it was very wordy and it was very large to what it is now. and the efforts that the district is is bringing forth to um have it be a living breathing document that it's not just doesn't just sit on the shelf, but it actually goes into the classrooms which will help it spread out into the community. Um you know, it's not it's not something that we can just flip a light switch. it it doesn't happen as fast as maybe the creation of the strategic plan was, but it is through all of our efforts together that um we all start um treating each other in the manner in which our core beliefs stayed on the strategic plan and and hopefully that ripple effect continues to grow. So, when that light, are we going to be consistent and take the policies in the student handbook out since this only has to do with adults? Um, for the most part, are we then going to tell students they're not going to give examples and we're going to have them abide by the strategic plan? I if I could just interject, I would suggest we discuss that at the time we review those policies because I don't know how we could answer that or director and I I hear I get what you were doing. That's fine. and Dr. Fans, members of the board. Um, I I don't know exactly what policies you're referring to, but a great deal of those policies are statutoily driven. Um, and so there there may or may not be flexibility with those policies. All right. I get the impression, if my particle math is correct, that we are uh the will of the board is to leave that language out. So, if there's no further discussion, we have a motion and a second on the table to approve policy 9003 as presented. All in favor? signify by saying I I opposed nay nay. Motion carries 52. Thank you for the discussion. Appreciate it. Moving down to the second set of policies. Uh the 200s starting with 2011 uh 201.1 202.1 208 10 11 13 and 14. Um, is there any one of those that any member of the board would like to pull out to discuss separately? Otherwise, we can approve them as one. Um, I still have an issue at 2011. Um, it's got conflicting language in there or both governing and management and we took our specific statement out to say that the board delegates. Um, so that was that one. The rest of it um seemed pretty good. I think that um I was okay with the majority of the other ones except for the fact I don't really remember discussing um all of them that are on here. It was a long night. Um I didn't I did I kind of thought we kind of ended a little bit earlier. Um um but um other than that, I had no other issues other than that one. Okay. Well, then we will pull 2011 off and I will enter. So, actually 2011.1 the schoolboard vacancies. Um, you want to provide some clarification on that, Director Johnson, because it's actually not even it's not in what we have and I think there's some intent with the It's not in here. 2011.1 isn't. Okay. So, we'll we'll eliminate that one as well. But I think we discussed a procedure on that. So, you guys removing it, right, as a policy and making it and bringing it Yeah. to I think another meeting to talk about the procedure. So, okay. Then I will um entertain a motion to approve policy 202, 202.1, 208, 10, 11, 13, and 14. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. That carries 70. And then policy 201. Uh I will entertain a motion to approve policy 201. So by director Johnson, second by director Atinson. Discussion. Um the primary concern was that in the language um we have um both man again it was some of the default language um that a lot of school boards have completely taken out now because it was in my terms last time kind of word salad. Uh but there was a specific statement in the original one that basically said that uh the school board uh delegates to the superintendent the day-to-day administration. Um so without that and I know we had significant discussion on that. Um and uh that had to do with the powers and duties where it kind of cons it kind of mixes up overseas administrative function and then and then the next one C shall superintendent manage the um the schools of the school district. Um, and that is usually, you know, when the MSBA put this together, and as I stated, it hadn't been changed in decades. The only thing they really updated was was the numbers on the statutes. Um, it was meant to cover really small districts that did day-to-day management and then, uh, school boards that were governing boards like we usually are. Um, so I don't know if there's a reason we shouldn't put that in there because we can't, if we're going to be a management board, then we're going to go into everything. You can't pick and choose based upon the topic, right? Um, but we're going to be a governing board, you only do it by exception when something rises to the level of the board. and by not putting it in there um or using the general language that we see in school districts that we like to quote quite a bit from um it can get a little confusing. Um, so Chair France, we I remember we had a robot robust conversation about this and the will of the board coming out of that meeting was to and I think director Olstead recommended this to add um B, which is highlighted in green, the powers and duties. The school board oversees administrative function, adopts and revises policy and is the final for appealing administrative decisions um was what the change that was recommended coming out of that meeting. So, I think it's it's not really fair to um go back and how do you say like rehash something that we spent probably 45 minutes on talking about. Um and then the other thing is is that the sentence that you are specifically referring to that was in our policy is not in MSBA policy and it's also not in other board's policies. So it's delegating that authority when we as a board our authority is written in statute which is what aligns with this policy. So um I personally like the way this is written because it's exactly aligns to the law and if we don't want to follow Minnesota state law for what our authority is um then we can go back and put that sentence in. that I am I am not supportive of that because we as a board have we have responsibilities as a board which are aligned to Minnesota state statute and so I don't think we need to spend 45 minutes rehashing this when we have already did that and this policy represents the changes that came out of that meeting that night. So, first of all, um the the discussion I didn't believe was really finalized, and yes, I do appreciate letter B. Um but it was director Olstead that also brought up last time that we totally missed out on that. And as I pointed out, this in initial statement or template from the MSBA hadn't been updated uh totally in almost two decades uh that I could find. Um and other um districts don't have this one at all. as was also pointed out, they basically say um that it's going to follow statute and all of the interpretations of, you know, the court interpretations of that statute, but because Minnesota has independent school districts, um we kind of determine how we govern ourselves and that is also in statute. Um so the original language says we delegate and in that same meeting we had questions of whether boards should independently approve each and every facility use going down into the management level and um that also did not um succeed with the will of the board. So I question again when you have B and C under powers and duties and we don't say we delegate the functions until it comes uh until it rises to the board or appealing administrative decisions and the next one says we superintendent manage the schools. That's actually a contradiction in statement. That's my that's my question. We either do one or the other. Um I would choose governing given the size of our district. Um, we didn't always do that here. I was wonder. So that's Yeah, I appreciate you know the points and that's I think the to me maybe the sticky word here is superintend. We also don't manage the schools of the school district. We we we leave that to Dr. Thomas and his team through through the administration in each school. So, um I guess would would would striking superintendent manage the schools of and just replace it with govern be a more accurate reflection of what we actually do. Well, I I want to pull up the statute because this is very specific to the statute and I understand chair France, you served on a board that was more about delegating authority, right? And this is a different board, right? And there's a reason why boards um are are in the situation that they are nowadays because they've delegated a lot of authority away that is not necessarily to be delegated away. So if we can pull I don't want to speak for other boards. Um what's that? I don't want to speak for other boards. No, I don't I don't want to speak for other boards, but I also want to reiterate that there's a lot of boards that have this policy in the state of Minnesota exactly as it's written because it follows the law. And that's the thing that's really important is that we need to follow the law. And so I want to just pull up if we look under 123B.02. One second. I'll get I I think we need to pull up Minnesota State Statute 123B.02 and read what it says because that is what our authority is. And I don't think anybody's questioning ultimately our authority, but there is words mean things. And we do not superintend the district. I I have to agree with with director friends uh on that point. And we don't manage the schools in in the way that everybody thinks of that on on a day-to-day basis. And um I want the policy to reflect what we actually do and still be within the I think that's still within the spirit of the statute that you're referring to because ultimately if if this if the district is being managed poorly, we have the authority to make a change where is necessary. And so that's how I'm wondering I think if is it these words that are that are confusing the issue when they really don't need to? Director Johnson. So, subdivision one board authority. The board must have the general charge of the business of the district, the school houses, and of the intents of the schools thereof. The board's authority to govern, manage, and control the district to carry out its duties and responsibilities, and to conduct the business of the district includes implied powers in addition to any specific powers granted by the legislature. and and and I when I when I hear you hear that I I I hear um our managing the district is delegating day-to-day operations to the people that are, you know, appropriately um um skilled in those areas. And so, like I said, I don't think I don't think that that scratching the superintendent manage the schools of um takes away from the spirit of the law. We we we do govern the district. Yes, we we manage it, but but I think there's some confusion what manage actually means. And I I don't I want it to reflect again what we actually do. We govern the district. Yes, we manage it through our the our single employee and then by extension the rest of the employees, right? Because because we aren't there's not enough of us to manage the district in a way that I think is confusing, right? We have one employee, the superintendent, and we direct him and we have them just like we do on an organizational meeting when we delegate uh the roles uh to individuals to you know do what they need to do in order to manage the district. Um, so when so to me words matter and um we I would agree with with uh Chair White that if we change C to be govern uh that would uh eliminate the contradiction. Director Bullan, I'm just you know looking at statute here uh what Director Johnson read was subdivision one. Um, and if you look at letter D in, so right now we're discussing changing wording and in letter C. Letter D, it says the school board shall have the general charge. That is that is words straight out of the first sentence, correct? Um, of the statute. Uh, MSBA policy has uh split that um subdivision one. Um and I do agree that we are a governing bar body that is what the um general statement of our policy and a the school board is the governing body of the school district. I do agree that this language does um conflict a little bit. Um and so I think that uh um we do not operate as an adi as a managing board and so we have to come up with what the language should be and personally I'm not I wouldn't be threatened by scratching what I suggested and put govern in. I I I fully understand our authority. To me, this doesn't take anything away. I think it just makes it pretty clear to the public how we're going to operate. We We certainly have the ultimate authority on every subject that comes before us. Chair, does that does that change then? Okay. I I agree with you. I think scratching that and putting govern in there, I don't I don't see that as any kind of a threat. In D where it says the school board shall have the general charge of the business of the school district, that too could be muddied into um managing. I'm I'm I'm I think the word general makes that pretty clear that we we are generally in charge of the business of the district. again by through the employee and by extension employees that we have I that language doesn't necessarily and that comes directly from the statute is directly stated I think that's in subdivision one yeah and like I said most many of the school districts I didn't certainly do an empirical study of every single all 38 something or whatever school districts but um we used to have that one statement in there that said we are in charge but We delegate the day-to-day to the superintendent that we hire. Um and then we we have the right to supersede that as as required. Um and again um what concerns me is that when when you talk to the MSBA, they did kind of put a soup in here um so that districts can make their own decisions. Well, then would it be uh could I throw this out here? Does anybody have any problem with scratching the word superintends of replacing with the single word govern? That's exactly what I was going to recommend. Um, if everybody's comfortable with that, that would be a simple Is that a simple change that we can still vote on tonight? I think that's good. I think that works because govern the school district to adopt rules. So, you just need like the word Yeah, we might have to add to rules. So, that's fine. Okay, the semicolon works. Did the school board shall govern the school district? Okay, that's fine. Yep, I'm fine. Okay, we good. Yep. Yes. I have one other question on this one, too. Unrelated, but I agree with that. Um, so under section 4, organization and membership, point B, um, sorry, under section 4 organization membership, uh, there was a B that was about the election cycle. Sorry, let me pull up last meetings. I don't recall discussing why we needed to remove that and I'm just curious. I'm not sure that I have a strong feeling one way or the other, but I think the discussion was that it wasn't part of the legal status of the board and it was just procedure. Yeah, it was more it it was because we could have changes uh in midyear due to changes in somebody resigns, you know, that sort of thing. also that was that was taken out as well as a student, no offense, being an exeicio because she didn't legally meet that uh definition of exeicio. Yeah. No, B was just the numbered years on regular election cycles where it stated alternative schedule, four members, one cycle, three members the other. So, we just decided to remove that because it will be in procedure. Yep. Okay. If we're good with that one change, um we have a motion and a second on the table. If there's no further discussion, all in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. That carries 70 and we will move down to administrative reports. Are there any tonight? Director Herman. Yes. I just wanted to call out two separate things. Um, first of all, I wanted to call out um all the district retirements that we have um on the agenda today. Um, we have 10 retirees that represent over 262 years of service with the district. Um, which is quite outstanding. Um, that's averaging I know I'm not great at math, but I used my calculator. That's averaging over 26 years of service per retiree. So, I just wanted to to give that a quick call out. That's absolutely outstanding. um all the years of service and dedication that they've served to our district in many different roles throughout. And then the second thing I wanted to say because I I failed to say it at the beginning um is just a gratitude for all of our staff. Um one thing that I've heard loud and clear from staff and administration as we were making those very hard conversations with individuals to let them know that their um positions were impacted next year. It was such a sense of um camaraderie with staff and really being there to support each other and um help lift each other up and they all came back with the utmost professionalism to be there for their their students um after receiving some really difficult news. So, I just wanted to express my sincere gratitude for all of our staff and all of our different employee groups that have been significantly impacted this year. Um and I just I I felt you could feel it coming through all the stories that they're sharing just how amazing they were to support each other through all that. So, I just wanted to thank you to all of our administration and staff for being there for each other. Thank you, Director Herman. Appreciate that. If there's no others, we will move down to uh board reports. Anybody have anything they want to share? Student council, of course. Yeah, I just want to wish all juniors good luck tomorrow on the ACT. Um, that's no easy task. And then also good luck to spring sports which are starting up. We're going to have a great season. Um, one event that I want to highlight is the National Honor Society 5K. This year we do it annually and this year we're um doing it to honor Adeline Shepard, a young girl who passed away last year due to childhood leukemia. And Addie was the pitcher for the Prior Lake Tenu softball team and her natural curiosity and leadership was admired by all and she never failed to leave a positive mark on everyone around her. For this event, we're collaborating with PLAWY and donating proceeds to families of children battling leukemia, directly helping those affected by the disease and hoping to make their tiring days just a little bit easier. So, we're working with Add's family to try to get as much community participation as possible. And we'd love for all of you to join us on that day. We'll also have like a food truck and a raffle, so if you don't want to necessarily run in it, you can come and donate and hang out. Um, I'd also like to shout out tomorrow senior class committee is going to have a fundraiser um at Adal Vice all day 7 to 2 and we're just raising funds for like prom, senior banquet, events like that. So um come pop out and buy something if you're available. Yeah, it's a good excuse. Um in regards to student council, we have presidential elections coming up this Thursday, which is really exciting. So by then we'll have a new student representative for the board and we also have executive board elections the following Monday. So next Monday. Um so yeah, we'll get to see new leadership coming up. And then right now we're just continuing to plan for our spring events. You know, paint wars, pickle ball tournament, surf and turf. Um but one new event that I'd like to highlight is wellness week, which would be the week of May 19th. Um May is mental health awareness month and student council is partnering with our serenity society at the school in order to week um hold a week full of full events with the goal of educating our student body about the importance of mental health. So we're planning on bringing in like therapy dogs um doing morning yoga highlighting different mental health tips on social medias and just stuff like that. Um speaking with student councils like around our area. They do a lot of them do these wellness weeks or like mental health weeks. Um and a lot of our kids this year are really enthusiastic about it. So, we decided to get that going and we hope to get a lot of support from like local businesses, get lots of donations for giveaways and stuff. So, yeah, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Any other ongoing board reports? Director Olstead. Uh yes. Um we are on the Southwest Metro board. Um still in the throws of strategic planning. Um we have a the monthly meeting tomorrow. Uh Director Mason is sitting in for me. Thank you very much again for doing that as I have a conflict. Um so uh really appreciate that. Uh more to come on the strategic plan as that gets finalized. Um the teaching learning uh committee met last week. Uh kudos to everybody came. It was the first day back from spring break. Um so uh appreciate it. We did a really deep download on professional development around redact which was really powerful. A lot of really good information um that we had uh presented there. Um, and uh, thank you to everybody who participated in that because it was really learned so much. I mean, you know, you read a lot, no pun intended, you read a lot about the readact and you think you know, you know, your basic stuff and then you learn that information and it's just like really deep down um, what uh, these teachers are are learning about in their professional development. So, I really uh encourage anybody to learn more about that. Um, and then uh at the risk of uh truly not my intent, but at the risk of sounding um somewhat tonedeaf, uh I just I wanted to uh extend um my appreciation uh for the first uh pow-wow um a couple weeks ago. um my daughter and I attended and it was so meaningful um and very powerful and I'm I'm just so grateful that uh that happened. It was it was very well attended. Um they had a really good crowd um and learned a lot and it was it was beautiful. So I just um I wanted to say that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Director Johnson. Um, I just wanted obviously thanks to all the teachers retiring or you know, holy cow, I did the math on that too. So, director Herman, you beat me to it. Um, but I wanted to say a special thanks to um, you know, our athletics director. I've been able to work with him a lot. I was able to go to a a PAAA meeting for the first time the other day and just knowing how much those parents know about everything else that he does too and then he came in here and was able to name every single one of those names of students and do it really well. Um just small things like that. Um you just know that he's he's just doing great things. Um, and then a special shout out to I don't think Sam's here anymore, but thanks to everything that I did. You know, he'll be missed. And uh, so yeah, that's it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Dr. Bullion. Um, I attended Oh, my thing is I attended the caring and committed conversations um at the link center last month. Um, it was a bunch of elementary schools. Um, it's the uh third time that I've attended that as a board member and uh this one was really special. I I um was really appreciative of the topic being the strategic plan and listening to all these elementary age students talk about our core beliefs and the pillars of our strategic plan. Um, you know, we sit here in the boardroom and we talk about, you know, I was part of the strategic plan committee and the desire for it to be a living breathing document only happens when it is um actually talked about and used from um the boardroom all the way to the classroom and then again having that push out. So I was I I I did an RSVP to go. it was the last minute that I could go and it was um my favorite one so far. So that I attended my first community ed advisory committee. Uh director Dah shared earlier how wellattended that advisory committee is um and it it truly is. I I have um been on most of the or been to most of the board or committee meetings and that committee is very uh well attended um and uh the role of community ed in our community is huge. When I first came to Prior Lake in 1999, that's how I um submerged myself into this community. and uh I just really appreciated um stepping into that to that uh committee. Um yeah, that's it. Thank you, Dr. France. Um for what hasn't been covered here today is um scale. So um in the last couple of months of scale, we've had a series, we're about ready to go through our last one on, believe it or not, waste management. Um, and the the topic is incredibly complicated. Uh, but what it really came down to is we are out of landfill space and have been. Um, and our older landfills uh are not lined and they're sinking. Uh, they are leaking uh a lot of toxins into our water into our groundwater. And so their uh latest update and we still have one that goes into the actual organic. Our next one is going to be really exciting. I believe it goes into organic decomposition processes. So that'll be cool. But um you know they sent out surveys about improving organics and regular recycling and how important it is in order to save off uh as much of the uh increased uh property taxes that we will all be going through if they have to find more landfill space. And this is going on not just in our county but in the state. So that was pretty interesting. And then we had a very exciting uh breakdown of how our property taxes are are are determined and the entire process, what goes to where, everything like that. So, everyone did get a property tax uh update or estimate and then you have so long to um basically contest um your property tax statement. Um and they went into a lot of detail. the presentations are online of where the money goes, what the process is, and uh of course aligning uh with the needs of who receives those funds, including schools. I do want to shout out that um the uh the county is very happy with our school district as well as other school districts and our recycling uh processes and how many field trips these kids go on uh to go see the various facilities and how organic recycling works both from raw food to paper, plastic, etc. Um so that was uh they had a lot of pictures of all of our students visiting and it was pretty it was pretty fun. Dr. Mason, anything else from me? Oh, I just have a couple things. Uh, just a reminder as the next series of 200s, you know, comes forward uh as soon as um Director Johnson and Bullion uh get their drafts out. Would be very appreciated to get all comments um back to them ahead of the next study session as you are allowed. Certainly, they're outliers where something comes to you at the end, but that's fine. but do your best to uh to get those to them um uh before the um the next study session. Um I had the rare opportunity to uh attend the last AMSD board meeting. Dr. Thomas was also in on that on that video call. The news is terrible um for the most part. We may or may not have used more colorful language as we uh discuss what we saw. Uh but uh stay tuned. It's it's it's not looking super positive at in St. Paul right now. And then lastly, um uh just FYI, moving forward, our study sessions, um with that new setup that we have that I think everybody thought was was fine, uh we're going to continue to live stream and record, um but with a single camera and I believe a picturein picture that'll catch that table for the most part. Uh but Liz will not be back there. We're going to hit record at the start and and stop at the end. And um the only caveat is there's a chance something could go wrong with the live stream. So, we'll kind of just keep plugging along here. And if if it works, you know, we'll we'll keep doing it that way. I'll have um uh I mean Christie will more than likely put out some kind of a communication to the public to say it might look a little different. Um we feel like with these mics here, the big complaint I've I've heard over the years is we can't hear you during the study sessions. that should be alleviated for the most point, but for the most part, but with with this not being back there, which was part of my goal for reorganizing all of this. Um, there may be a technical issue that just, you know, this live stream could could go and we'd have to post the recording the next day. So, take it one meeting at a time and and and go from there. But, I I think I think it'll work just fine and and add to that little more casual feel for the meeting that we I think we're looking for. So, uh, future events, our next study session is April 28th at 6:00. Um, if nothing else to come before the board, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, made by director Bullion, second by director France. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? That carries 70. And we are journed.