Shakopee Public Schools — Transcript
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Student Programs and Recognition
State Legislative Update and Education Policy
City of Shakopee Operations and Growth
School District Facilities and Lease Renewals
School District Budget and Enrollment
Community Engagement and Feedback
Votes (6)
Takata Learning Center Lease Renewal
Dissent: None
Moved by Aldrich [0:43:24] · Seconded by Peterson [0:43:24]
The board discussed the upcoming lease renewal for the Takata Learning Center, noting its current lease expires in July 2025. The space, located in Pack Town Square, requires a refresh (carpet, paint). The proposed agreement is a five-year lease at $8 per square foot, which is significantly below market rates for similar spaces in Shakopee, in exchange for the landlord covering improvement costs. The lease retains an annual termination right for the district. Discussion also covered a temporary 'bridge space' for an additional 5,000 square feet at a further discounted rate, and acknowledged the building's age but recent landlord investments in major systems. An alternative to buy or build an equivalent facility would cost $6-8 million.
Community Education Census Resolution
Dissent: None
Moved by Roope [0:45:51] · Seconded by Peterson [0:46:01]
Lisa Ron presented a resolution for a census update, indicating that the State Demographer determined the Shakopee School District's population increased from 50,562 to 51,639. This population increase is advantageous for securing additional funding for Community Education and other school district areas. The population figures include residents from Savage and Prior Lake townships within the school district boundaries.
LTFM 10-Year Plan
Dissent: None
Moved by Belz [0:55:54] · Seconded by Roope [0:55:54]
Bill Maas and Ben Barry presented the annual Long-Term Facilities Maintenance (LTFM) 10-Year Plan, which outlines spending for deferred maintenance, health and safety, and disabled accessibility. The plan's projected revenue and fund balance are each around $1.5 million. Key FY25 expenditures include allowances for various operational needs and a $1 million renovation project for East Middle School's toilets, addressing decades of wear and bringing them up to current accessibility codes. This project was selected based on a comprehensive facility audit, input from head custodians, and the principle of equitable investment across district facilities.
Fiscal 25 Budget Approval
Dissent: None
Moved by Aldrich [1:10:04] · Seconded by Peterson [1:10:04]
Bill Maas presented the proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget, emphasizing its alignment with the district's mission. Major assumptions include a 2% increase in state aid formula allowance, which, due to a projected decrease of 203 students (7,430 total), translates to an actual $336,000 decrease in state aid revenue. The budget accounts for decreasing pandemic relief funds and declining birth rates leading to projected continuous enrollment decline. The unassigned fund balance is projected at 10% ($12.3 million), aligning with the board's 8-12% policy, partly achieved by utilizing $725,000 from district programming assignments. Total budgeted revenues are $161.5 million, with expenditures at $163.5 million.
LTFM Resolution for Southwest Metro
Dissent: None
Moved by Aldrich [1:12:56] · Seconded by Mohammad [1:12:56]
Bill Maas presented a resolution for the Long-Term Facilities Maintenance (LTFM) Levy for Intermediate District 288 (Southwest Metro). Since intermediate districts do not have their own tax base for levies, they pass these costs onto member districts based on utilization. Shakopee's utilization rate is 25.77%, resulting in an LTFM levy contribution of $39,104.27 for the intermediate district.
Safe Schools Resolution for Southwest Metro
Dissent: None
Moved by Mohammad [1:14:40] · Seconded by Valdez [1:14:40]
Bill Maas presented a resolution for the Safe Schools Levy for Intermediate District 288 (Southwest Metro). This is an annual resolution where Shakopee contributes based on its utilization of the intermediate district's services. Shakopee's portion for the Safe Schools levy is $57,267.67, representing an increase of approximately $4,000 from the previous year. These funds support various safety initiatives, including School Resource Officers (SROs), safety equipment, and non-instructional technology hardware.
Notable Quotes (14)
Our the rent would be $8 per square foot and just to give you some perspective rents in in Shak for office space are about 15 to 1850 a foot retails about 16 to 20 a foot and just simple barebones Warehouse base is 550 to seven bucks per square foot and what we're talking about is paying is eight bucks a foot so I think it's a a very good deal uh very cost effective particularly given that it's not warehouse space right it's highly improved space that works you know that is designed and built you know to serve the students.
What would it cost to build or or require equivalent space?
You and again just a rough estimate because just to weigh the cost to to acquire a build relative to this maybe 68 million bucks you know to get a you know a building you can go out and buy a building but we all know that to to make it a School building we've looked at this at Central we've looked at this we've had these exercises and so um you know so the good news is that that money was spent on the on the front end we did the initial lease um and once that was done we went back down to these discounted rent right.
There's a census update the state demographer has determined that the population in SHP um is um for this upcoming year is increasing from 50, 562 to 51,6 39 and so um those are numbers um straight from the demographers department and so um I'm bringing this to the board because there's advantages for um funding for Community Education with the possible and and other areas um with the population increase.
So the population this would be school district population only um so there would be um town I believe we have townships in our school district maybe Mike can answer that but um and includes those areas as well um not just the city of Shak so the areas Savage prior yep.
The larger project identified um Is East Middle School toilet renovation project um she allocated about $1 million uh to renovate the toilet rooms uh that um uh those were identified um they are eight uh I think it's been at least 20 years it might actually be 30 years but it's at least 20 years um since they've uh been renovated uh and um uh so they are just uh have lots of wear to them uh that needs to be addressed uh but then in addition uh as we do that we'll bring it up to current accessibility code thus uh being a qualifying ltfm expense both under U maintenance of your current uh assets but also bringing up the current accessibility code.
We wouldn't want to see all of it go to one building consistently uh we want to make sure it's spread across as you can see East um doesn't have that Arrow there so it made sense um based on kind of the age and and where investment has been to take this time to invest.
In the chart that you see on the screen I mentioned at the at the beginning that we are scheduled to receive 2% increase in the state aid formal allowance and so how this chart reads is the state aid form allowance this year is $7,150 per pupil unit a 2% increase increases that state aid formula outs to $728 per pupil but uh given our decrease of 203 students the corresponding pupil units you can actually see that that 2% increase from the state is actually a decrease for us in our state aid Revenue uh of about 336,000.
When Bill Reynolds was in here he said that a shaky uh population is going to include their increased by 8,000 people amazing that none of them are students I'm isn't it yeah is it is it just unknown we don't we don't don't I mean obviously it's unknown we don't know who these 8,000 people are but you you look at the projections going forward it's like if some of these people have um that would help so please start children.
To see the unrestricted fund balance at where it needs to be for consecutive years and and hopefully going forward is just is is just a remarkable accomplishment uh for the entire District.
Intermediate District all intermediate districts but specifically 288 is what we're talking about now they do not have a tax base for Levy purposes uh however they have needs just like regular school districts do for ltfm lease Levy and save schools levy important funding for the school districts so uh as such intermediate districts are authorized to pass pass along those Levy dollars to their member districts in accordance with our utilization.
So our our contribution of this is based on our usage so it's not based on enrollment of the member districts it's based on usage so that's where that number comes from.
Our portion again for safe schools for Southwest Metro uh based on our utilization is $57,267 67 um last year was 53,000 and some change so an increase of about 4,000 related to Southwest Metro safe schools levy uh recommend approval.
So it includes the the cost of an SRO Safety Equipment non-instructional Technology Hardware so that's what this stand for.
Ordinances & Resolutions (10)
State legislation focused on literacy, receiving additional funding and renewed focus.
City document used to manage growth and plan infrastructure, protected by legislative efforts.
Annual plan outlining spending for long-term facilities maintenance, health and safety, and disabled accessibility projects.
Required annual approval for the Long-Term Facilities Maintenance 10-Year Plan.
State statute requiring school boards to approve a budget before the start of the fiscal year.
The proposed budget for the school district for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Resolution to update the school district's population census for funding purposes.
Resolution for the school district's contribution to Intermediate District 288's Long-Term Facilities Maintenance levy.
Resolution for the school district's contribution to Intermediate District 288's Safe Schools levy.
A national benchmark survey on public attitudes towards public schools, referenced for comparison with local community feedback.