I'd like to call to order the May 11th Shackle School Board regular business meeting. Tiffany, could you please do the role? >> Zedic >> here. >> Valdez >> here. >> Roofy >> here. >> Peterson >> here. >> Aldrich >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> M >> here. >> Brian >> here. Sean here. >> Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Starting off our meeting tonight is item three, which is our saber pride. And tonight um we have are going to be uh highlighting our staff awards and our growing old grant honoring the retirees. And I will turn this portion over to uh Jim McC. >> Yeah. Um, I would just kick off by thanking everybody at this table who had time to attend uh last week. It's obviously one of the great nights of the year when we just take a minute to celebrate our staff. We want to uh start today by acknowledging the many uh community partners we had that made last uh last Wednesday night possible. There's not a scent of of school district money that goes into that event. And it's it's made possible by generous donations uh by groups like HART. you know, Boardwalk was incredible with the way they discounted space for us, and we're just incredibly grateful that the community allows us to put this event on. Uh, from there, uh, you know, it was a wonderful evening honoring our teachers of the year, honoring our retirees, um, and and also looking ahead and just having some conversations about our grow your own teachers who are starting their road, uh, to become educators. And I know being out in buildings since then there have been another number of uh you know compliments just about the quality of the evening also just the appreciative nature that folks like yourselves made yourselves available and came out and celebrated with our staff. So thank you to everyone our HR department Tiffany um and others that that went to great depth to to plan and pull the night off and uh you know it's it's always one of the highlights of the year. Anybody thoughts or comments in regards to the event? >> No, I just I'll just add that it was a great evening. It's always great to celebrate so many wonderful people in our district and also to honor those that are uh retiring and leaving our district, especially after many years of service to our students. So, it's always one of the highlights of the year, uh, getting to go to something like that. So, I appreciate all the effort that went into it, uh, Tiffany and your team and everyone else that was involved. So, thank you for all your hard work. You bet. >> We could only get Minnesota weather to cooperate a little bit more, but I'll try to >> uh, 3.2 2 under Saber Pride is the ASBO International Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting Award. And I am going to turn this um piece over to our treasur Nick Synic. >> Yeah, excited to present here to the school board and uh we kind of learned this short sort of short notice and so we we're excited to present that to Borton today and to everybody else. Uh, I'll read the the uh promo on this. As as part of the Saber Pride agenda item, I'm excited to share that Chagraphy Public Schools has received the Association of School Business Officials Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. A designation that the district has been proud to receive for the past six years. ASBON International's certificate is a significant achievement and reflects a commitment to transparency and high quality financial reporting. Timing of the award is dictated by our final submission date of year-end financials. Applicants submit their annual comprehensive financial report for review by a team of financial professionals to provide feedback to improve future documents and determine eligibility. In the past years, our schoolboard treasurer has been proud to present this award to the director of finance and operations, the department, the district partners and leadership who ensure financial integrity and sustainability of the district. I this year I'm proud to recognize Mr. Dracovich and his team in meeting the guidelines of the certificate. I did do a couple other little bit of research on this particular award as I was kind of curious a little more about it. One of the things that the program was designed to promote was transparent and highquality financial reporting. Uh accountability to taxpayers, staff, and community stakeholders, strong financial management practices, and enhanced credibility with auditors, rating agencies, and the bond market, which we've all seen over the last couple years has helped our district in a lot of ways, including the bond market. It's nice to see that we had a streamless transition from in that department. happened to both of you here today, but that we're continuing down that road. So, please join me in celebrating the district certificate of excellence in financial reporting. >> Thank you, Nick. And how fitting that we have here this evening as well in the audience. So David and Bill, congratulations on on achieving your number six to start. >> Our next item on the agenda is the consideration of the agenda as presented. >> So move second motion by Brophy and a second by Smith. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I oppose. should carry unanimously. The next item on the agenda is our public comment and this is a time where members of the public can participate in the meeting without being part of the meeting agenda. A member of the public may address the board on an agenda topic or on another topic pertaining to school board business. We allocate a total of 15 minutes for public comment at this meeting. Each individual individual speaker may speak for up to two and a half minutes. The sign up for public comment has been conducted online and in person prior to this evening's meeting. No one has signed up for public comment prior to this evening's meeting. So, we will move on to the next item on the agenda and that is item six and that's our consent agenda. We'll see we have some personnel items are uh boarding minutes and authorization to for our bills and our wires. discussion. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> I second it. >> By Aldridge and a second by Zedic to approve the consent agenda. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> Motion carries unanimous. Item seven is our donations. And tonight we have u quite a list of donations once again um from our wonderful community um helping to support uh looks like teacher appreciation week all the way down to field trips and t-shirts um our senior celebrations uh etc. So, thank you to all of the generous donations that our community uh has provided to our district to support those events. That I would entertain the change to accept the donations as presented. >> So, second motion by a second by Smith. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, Tiffany, could you do the role? >> Yes. >> Bel, >> yes. Roing, >> yes. >> Peterson, >> yes. >> Aldridge, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Smith, >> yes. >> Item eight on the agenda is an action item. >> 8.1 is our student school board candidate approval and introduction. Last Thursday, myself, Vice Chair Brophie, board member Smith, uh, student board member um, Brian Van, Dr. Redmond and Tiffany Olsen had the privilege of interviewing seven truly outstanding student candidates for the next Exofficio student school board term. Each candidate was thoughtful in their responses, had a passion for leadership and a genuine commitment to representing their peers and the greater fac. Various are also represented illustrating the variety of student backgrounds that were uh interested and quite honestly any one of them could have stepped into this role um and taken it to the next level as our students consistently do year after year. We are incredibly grateful for the time and preparation and honesty that each candidate demonstrated. They were authentically themselves and every candidate shared feedback that they will be that will be incorporated into future efforts for our student schoolboard members. Today I'm here to share our recommended candidate for board approval is Clara Stal. Is that how you say it? Okay. >> With a start date of July 1, 2026. Clara is unable to be here this evening due to a prior commitment, but pending board approval, she will join us on June 8th to formally introduce herself. I also want to thank Brian for being an excellent partner throughout the interview process. His insight and collaboration was invaluable. After narrowing the pool from seven candidates to two, the final decision was unanimous and I would recommend the board approve Clara as the exopicio student school board member for the 2627 and 2728 school years. >> Madam Chair, the only thing I would add I believe it was a piccolo solo that had to do in a concert. >> No, I think that was a different one. >> Was that I know that somebody had that they couldn't be here tonight. I think there were I mean >> they're busy. >> All of them are extremely engaged. They um any one of them could have filled the role quite well to be honest. It's always hard. I mean I I've been involved since the very first ones that we selected and it it's they just continue the students continue to show what the future holds for us because they just their involvement and the things that they're doing just continues to get better and better. Um it's really really hard to pick one individual out of everyone and I think this is probably the most candidates that we've had for a few years with nine. So um yeah it was and I think Claire also um is involved in cross and some other groups within the school as well. So I don't know Brian was there anything that you'd like to share of Clare and what stood out to you? Um, I just want to start off by saying that this pool was very um, hard to choose from. Everyone, like you said, could have been chosen for this role, but specifically kind of why Clara the first moment when she stepped into that room, I could tell she had a passion and not just her personal connections to school boards. She was very intrinsically motivated and she knew what she wanted of the role. And I think that's what made Clara stand out out of the rest of the applicants. stuff. >> Yeah. Well, well, stab like like Christy, I've I've been involved in in all of these. So, I've gotten to meet all the candidates over the years, you know, including including both of you, you know, on our on our board now. And uh yeah, just echo what Christie says. Yeah. You know, the future's in good hands with with such great candidates. And uh uh just echo what Brian said. I have that top in my head too is that um you know I think all the candidates look clear for sure as well that they come in with a goal of what they want to achieve not not to check a box to list on a future resume you know you know future CV for whatever that they they want to actually you know do something with with the role and are self motivated to make that happen it's very impressive and >> I think Claire's mom is also an educator in a different district so she's definitely gotation in our in our household. >> Any other questions, comments about any of the people involved in the interview would like to make? >> The only comment I would say was this my first opportunity to be part of it and a few locally adequate just there's hope for our future and their leadership potential. So, it's just a wonderful experience. I think the next step will be to also um sometime between now and July to appoint a mentor for for CL as well. So stay tuned for that. >> I wish to make a motion to approve the recommendation. >> Motion by Brophy and I will second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I >> carries. Item nine is anformational item. Uh this is um an item in regards to our roofs, our parking lot exits, uh bonds, big and LTM. And here to present is David Baskovich, our director of finance and operations, as well as Michael Hart, our director of public finance. Welcome. >> All right. Everything here tonight. So, we're just pulling up the presentation and then I made one kind of a jump into kind of a high overview that would start with kind of a overview presentation. Then we'll jump into yours where you'll get more into the granular detail what makes up these bond pays. Great. So, we're here to talk about just the future plans and facility maintenance improvements for the district. Uh, today's focus um is a large scale roofing and replacements, large scale parking lot, parking lot access improvements. I did want the group to know that that our LTFM, LTFM bond, and regular operating capital efforts are meeting their goals. We just have above and beyond things that are coming to the district in the future that we want to tackle us moving forward with future building renovations and outdoor fields and spaces conversations taxes. Our expectation is that we will not increase the individual tax burden beyond the current levels that are being used for construction, renovations, improvements, maintenance of facilities and outdoor spaces. Why is the planning needed? Uh many district ropes and parking lots are reaching their age where major repairs and replacements will need to be planned for the coming years. Proactively planning long-term planning helps the district maintain safety and functional facilities address projects before they become larger maintenance concerns, better manage costs over time, reduce the need for unexpected repairs, and also protect the district's long-term investments of ports facilities. Uh, this plan, the proposed long-term planning approach allows Shaku public schools to proactively address facility needs before they become more costly and disruptive. uh challenges for Shaki public schools. Uh Shakville public schools is currently and is not currently an alter alternative facilities in A1 district Minnesota. Because of this, the gen the district only generates a limited amount of LTFM revenue through the state's per pupil formula. The district's annual LTFM revenue alone is not sufficient to fully address the large scale projects as roof replacements, parking lot reconstruction, and major site infrastructure needs. The district's facilities continue to age and the need for long-term strategy becomes increasingly important. This plan helps position the district to strategically manage facility needs over multiple years instead of rack and emergency repairs. Strategic long-term facility planning. The proposed plan provides the district with a structured multi-year approach to maintain roofs and parking lot access to district sites. Allows the district to prioritize projects based on facility condition timing. Spread projects over multiple years. Improve long-term mult uh finance planning. uh reduce the likelihood of unsed facility failures and maintain safe accessible operational school facilities. The proposed projects include roof improvements at Reto, Eagle Creek, and Shockby High School with parking lot improvements are proposed at multiple districts, preserve the district's infrastructure, and reduce future maintenance costs. And then I turn over to Michael Hart. Thanks. All right. So, uh, as David shared, the the LTFM program that the school district is under is limited, which is a big difference for districts. There are many districts your size who have really an unlimited sort of way of looking at LTF in terms of of those spending. And so, we it really implores you to be strategic with how you use these funds. So, we put this plan together. It's a long-term five-year plan to to tackle bruising parking lots. So, if you want to go to the next slide, there's a little bit more detail here. And this was prepared by uh your partners at W outlining a five-year plan for taking care of parking lot and roofing work. And so, it's split into five construction summers here on this uh slide. beginning in the construction year 2027 with parking lots at Pierce Center Lit Learning Center in Sunpath and then roofing project at Reno and and go going forward there at the local parking lot summer or the following summer and and so forth. And what I'm going to show you here in a minute is we put a finance plan on top of this uh and interact that with your current outstanding debt to actually finance this in two parts. The first part would be to finance the construction that takes place in 2027 and 2028, which is about $9.5 million, and then finance the remainder of that uh about $20 million in 2029 as those construction expenses begin for the the remainder of those projects. And you'll see in a moment why that that makes a lot of sense for the current situation. So, we're relying on two different state statutes in order to do this under board approval. So for largecale renovation, new buildings, you do it. It requires a school board to have voter approval to go out uh and issue bonds, but there are specific purposes that you're allowed under board authority to uh borrow money and increase the overall tax levy to pay for that. And one of those is within the LTFM program, you receive a prorated amount of $380 per pupil, which is that limitation that you follow. But there are four types of projects that you're allowed to get additional revenue from. Uh we use the terminology LTFM plus for this. So LTF kind of your standard LTFM money. This falls into this plus category. And you can do things like indoor air quality projects, but you've utilized that in the past of the school board. Fire suppression is best payment. And then as of the legislative session that ended about a year ago, we added a roofing projects to that. So, this is a new provision that actually begins with any construction that starts after July 1st of this year. So, we're not actually into that. Uh, but we can go forward with the approvals of this. That roofing is a huge deal because roofing projects were a major major component of LTF that if you were just doing the roofing, it was hard to do anything else. And there are other things uh that you could fund that way. For the parking lot work, we're relying on a funding tool or mechanism called abatement funds. And these do not require voter approval either. They do require you to hold a public hearing that creates a new tax levy. So this is additional new revenue that is coming into the school district. We're limited to 15 years in terms of the payback. And there's one additional uh what we call review and comment. A procedure that we go through with the state of Minnesota where we have to send in a plan and have them review it and get it back. with parking lot projects. This is very uncontroversial. It we just have to leave time for it in the overall process. I'll just take one step back in terms of the LTFM plus that would be approved as this part of the same action that you take each summer as a school board to approve your LTFM plan. So, we're here in May kind of setting up and I'll get into the calendar of that. You have to take that action to approve the LTFM plan this summer in order to to sustain that revenue. Anyway, so these are the two board approved statutes or funding tools that we're working with in order to to rely on this. And so it does have a uh a small tax increase tied to this. So we're borrowing about $30 million, 20.5 $29.5 million and paying it back over 15 years. And like I said, we're borrowing this first 9.5 or 9.6 6 million uh later this calendar year to to for the planning and construction in 27 and 28 to the remainder of it in 2029. And um the tax impact is $19 on a $400,000 home which is roughly a typical homemaker school district. This tax impact we feel is pretty conservative. We're not assuming any growth in your tax base in terms of putting that in place. So any growth in tax base overall, which I know you're in a growing part uh of the the Twin Cities, would or would reduce that tax impact for the taxpayers were currently here. Um and we're using an interest only for the first three years because as you see on the next slide, you have a large reduction in your debt service payments upcoming. So can I just jump in real quick? Yeah, just the the $19 is the worst case scenario with Shock Feet growing the city. The likelihood of, you know, the taxpayer seeing this $19 increase for the annual, it would be highly unlikely it to grow for what we're seeing in the community. So, best case scenario would be they would see nothing. Worst case scenario would be $19. But we know the community is growing. So on this chart, I know we've looked at things like this before, but the the colors that are on the each of the bars relate to the type of borrowing or the type of payment that the school district has. Each one of these bars represents a future fiscal year that the payments are due. So that dark blue color on the bottom is the voter approved bonds that you have in place. That whiter blue color that you see on the left, the first four years 2027 through 2030 were LTFM plus bonds that were issued in the past for indoor air quality projects. Those bonds paid off after fiscal year. You can see a large reduction in that. And then that green color is you have some leases, some capital leases that tie to a levy that would go away upon those going away. So the two parts here, the yellow and the red are the new proposed buds that uh are not yet issued here. But that yellow would be the first $9.5 million for the first two construction years. And you can see the payments are smaller in those first three years. That's they're really interest payments. And then we pay the principal off over a level time period for 12 more years. And then the uh red bars there represent the proposed payment structure for the additional $20 million that would be needed to fund the rest of this plan. And at that time, if nothing else is done, nothing else new is added, your taxpayers could see a reduction in the overall tax event. And one of the conversations we've had is, you know, this is really some basic infrastructure that you have for the school district. So this is the first part of the conversation of um you know you strategically used the last reduction in debt service as a part of the overall plan with your operating referendum that went through last fall and offset a large part of the tax increase related to that. And this provides another opportunity even with this plan to think about is there are there other things in your facilities uh as a school district that needs to be done and you have about a you know two or three year runway to be having that conversation as a school board if you want to utilize that for something else whether or not it's vote approved or it of course we have some choices we can make in terms of that this is a proposed payment structure when we sell bonds it's a little bit different than a home mortgage in that we have some choice in terms of how much principle we pay back each individual a year throughout the life of the bonds. Like with a home mortgage, you typically pay the same amount every month for 15, 20, 30 years. This doesn't work that same way. And so if you said, well, hey, let's just take care of this. We don't have any other needs. We could shorten all of these payments. You would save some interest costs, but and you could keep it level on the front end, or you could extend it out a little bit further, too, if there was larger needs. It's all like um a plan of kind of managing that overall tax for for your taxpayers. So, a lot of those decisions don't necessarily need to make be made with this first round of the plan necessarily, but we wanted to make sure we kind of outlined a broad scope plan for those projects and see how it all fit together as considering. So in terms of the on the last slide here we have a timeline for your your consideration if you would want to proceed forward with this. As I stated you have your LTFM plan that needs to be approved this summer. Typically you would do that at your second meeting in June which is held on June 22nd. And so uh the idea or concept here should you want to proceed forward would be to include the roofing projects into the plan. that's that's presented to the board at that time. And also the second piece that we would ask you to do is in relation to the abatement bonds. So they're two separate statutes. So they're two processes that are running parallel with each other. And with that abatement bonds, there's two parts what we would need to do. We would need to call for a public hearing which we would plan to hold in July at your July meeting because we call for that hearing. publish notice for that hearing and then you have to have create a forum where folks can discuss that particular uh financing mechanism. And the second thing is we' be asking for your approval to submit the documentation into the state to get their approval via this what we call review and comment process. And the the idea would be to move through that this summer. to have a public hearing in July. And at that time, we'd be asking for more formal action from the school board to call for the sale of bonds and proceed forward with everything. And we would uh secure those approvals in August and early September and be ready to go to the bond market in October of this year. The board would have a final action, a ratified action on October 12th. You see there highlighted in blue. And you'd receive the funds in November. uh upon of this schedule and then we would be monitoring and revisit this you know as the projects progress uh for the second second part of this funding with this particular of course I think it's just I wanted to lay out this so you could see visually the timeline and of course it's up to the board's discretion in terms of how you want to proceed forward here happy to stand for any questions and I'd like my colleague to weigh in as well. So, uh, it sounds like there's some options and I think I heard you we could leverage existing LTFM dollars and supplement with some bonds or we would have the option to do all of these call it the the LTFM plus. So essentially a bond for all that 29 million know somewhere in between. I think I think you wanted to keep some of that LTFM for other repairs and other maintenance. Is that >> Yeah. So what was presented to you is to to tackle the roofing and the parking lot work with a new additional funds to to maintain your current LTFM funds or other things that you're doing like testing if you're replacing carpet or painting or doors and windows. all of you know all of that kind of stuff. There's not a separate funding tool for and because we have this as a tool. Um and frankly because you're in a position where your buildings aren't brand new anymore and uh you are I mean let's call it what it is. you're a significant disadvantage to other school districts that you compete in in this part of the city because of the way that line is drawn with the the alter, you know, facilities school districts. And I think that really implores you to be strategic and make sure when you have the ability to use the additional funding, you're at least considering it as an option. >> That's fair. And then I think you alluded to this as well by choosing to kind of kick the can down the road and wait for something bad to happen. your costs associated with those repairs at an emergency basis. They're certainly higher than that of being planful. Does this afford opportunities then going up for you particularly in the working space and get some of that favorable, you know, contractional stuff up front so that we're not seeing cost increases, you know, between now and 2029. >> Yeah. And I wish Ben was actually here with this because we talked about it a little bit. Um, so what Ben's been seeing in the market is that the consumer of normal homes that's actually starting to dwindle. So that he's starting to see better bid proposals on larger construction projects um because that market's starting to kind of dwindle and so now biders are saying well we need to work. We still have people who pay and so now they're starting to see more competitive bits moving forward. So it's actually been it's a really good time to do it. Um and also the timing of it we just in information we get about roughly about a million dollars in LTFM which covers minimal projects. This would allow us to go above and beyond and get these maintenance of these, you know, roofing and also the parking lot. So then once the future comes, we can have old come come out and do a full year to study to say what do we need to do in future? What is coming up and have like a long-term plan to really make sure our district infrastructure is, you know, running smoothly for students to the teachers. >> Just a couple quick thoughts. I think great question and what you said if we used our typical LTFM it would take us 29 years to do this at a million a year then we'd have to stop doing all the other carpeting and things and your point is well taken you know doing a roof it's nice to do the whole roof one time staging same materials same uh same piece we do also have kind of our our order of sort of sharing information we shared some of this at our most recent facilities committee meeting. Uh it's on tonight's agenda as an information item. We do have it scheduled for June 8th as well. So even if there may be some questions, we don't Yeah, I think if there's a lot of questions for Ben, we'd make sure that that was available too. And we are working and have been to try to get that line to shift, Michael. Just four districts down would be nice for alternative facilities and us to become a 1A district. And we have been trying to, you know, there are some huge advantages in terms of being able to plan thoughtfully and being able to do projects as holes rather than partial and it just it makes sense. So I like that you allude to that although it's a little painful. >> I saw a presentation last week by somebody from the Department of Education. Those large districts are using approximately twice as much revenue as everybody else is the the numbers come down. So it's and it's it's not that they're I mean as somebody who works in this every day, I don't think it's because they're spending too much. I think it's because everybody else is deferring things that really should be happening. Um and they they have more tools to stay ahead of stuff. So I was just going to ask for those watching at home, uh what what is the definition of that 1A alternative district? Yeah, it's a metric that has to do with the number of square feet you have and the age of your buildings. And so it's a formula that was established in statute many years ago. And it it's kind of it predates the current long-term facility maintenance program. Um, but at the time when it was put in place, your buildings were too new to qualify in order to to get there. But there are many school districts that have less students than you do. that actually do qualify for that. I mean, so you're right on that that edge. >> So, I just had a couple of clarification questions. Uh, what is the average lifespan of parking lots and roofs? >> The payment bonds at 15 years if I remember correctly. >> Yeah, >> you can go about 15 years. >> The payments are that 15 years. I think he's asking how long >> how long is the average lifespan of the the pan parking lot. This is where Ben would say you go to 15 years and you'd probably get 15 to 20 years on a parking lot and you'd be looking at servicing. >> Okay. Um so when we come to the the roof cost the parking lot cost 2031 I'm just want to make sure so we're taking like what it would cost now and some sort of inflationary figure to get to that. >> Yes. And that is what B has done for us. >> Okay. Do you know approximately what that inflation factor is? >> I would have to ask. Okay. So I can follow with you on it. >> I just want to make sure that we're not using current dollars projecting out five years. So >> yeah, it's not current dollars and bet has a calc and it's been actually really pretty good for all the previous projects that I've seen done on it. So they do a conservative estimate when they build all these projects so that we thank you. >> Yeah, I I agree that um we can't let our facilities go without repair. Um, I think that's been done in our district previously before I was on the board that didn't maybe necessarily take care of our buildings like maybe we should have. And so that kind of put us behind the eight-ball different ways. And I'd rather be on the forefront of taking care of our buildings than to have an emergency. And all of a sudden we've got roofs leaking everywhere and got pal sitting in the hallway and I know there are districts that have that. So, no, but and I will put a shout out for the Sunbath Park lawn driveway. It's a that's a tire lower in some areas. So, um I'm glad that's getting fixed very soon. Senator, >> would you go back to the the paragraph? Yes. Because I think Christie made a good point and and just it's that good visual. So close. >> Yeah. What did I do? >> But the light blue on this graph, that was a purposeful jump start because we were years behind in doing any of this work. And so, you know, a lot of the indoor air quality and other things, but Michael had mentioned the light blue on the the first four bars there. And that's what I believe Cher Peterson was referring to was that jump start using some of our LTFM to actually repay bonds to allow us to begin to catch up and be good stewards in terms of maintenance. real quick. Yeah, I totally agree. These are the type of um repairs, maintenance issues that absolutely have to happen at some point in time. So, having a plan and being proactive is smart. We've had we discussed this at length in the in the finance meetings last week or the week before. My question is on the the timing of the bond, you know, the bond closing appears on November 3rd. Is that the date that we'd actually the school received the funds? >> Yes, it would be. Okay. Is there is there ability to push that off till the spring to save on six months of interest cost or is that cutting it too close to the time that you would actually need the funds for next summer? >> So, are you talking as when we'd spend it? >> Well, I know we're spending it next summer, right? Contractors before that. >> We can spend it before we receive the bond funds as a a reimbursement to ourselves. So, we'd have old out. They'd be doing kind of architecture work. They'd be planning. So we actually as soon as this was approved, we'd start planning it out. So >> yeah. So I think that's you you will incur some design significant design expenses to get into the fall, which is why that's way. >> One other topic that the board seeing yet this summer and it's planned kind of in in cooperation with this is that you do have a bond that is eligible for refinancing. And so there was some strategy in terms of putting this calendar together on a calendar that would align with the calendar that's required for that too which is why we put this together. And by putting those together there's some you know savings of cost of of going through the process. The other thing is that of course when the money is not is uh not being used. It's not just sitting dorf. it is earning interest and that that not entirely but in the current market environment largely offsets the interest expense of the the money not being used for that six-month period of time. So there's a balancing act. You don't want to borrow too early or too late and u certainly we could look at it different ways but this is what felt like made the most sense given all of the factors that we do. Uh that brings up a good point being as familiar with the bond market as you guys are for sure. Having the higher debt load will that affect any of our uh refinancing of future debt down the road. >> This is not a material change to your outstanding debt from a the bond market standpoint. I mean $30 million seems like a lot of money. us a lot of money, but from the bond market standpoint, it's not a material change that you're out of that. Questions? >> So, the the LTFM dollars and the ability to be able to use them for ropes is an example of a resolution that came through MSBA's delegate assembly that actually became law. So, I just wanted to put that out there that things that we do at Delegate Assembly really do make a difference at the legislature and what the school boards are asking for. So, >> and Madam Chair, if I might, and that's a great example that got us partway to that alternative facilities. It was an excellent move because again, you're watching districts that didn't have that literally do roofs a piece at a time and that just that that's just not good use of of funds, you're not being good stewards of resources and to have to bring, you know, companies out do multiple multiple bids, multiple staging. And so that is, you know, we've had that alternative facilities or the desire to do that, you know, as part of our legislative work now for a few years. And that was, you know, it's a great example of of why u and it was a really really good step forward. So appreciate you guys. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you for being here and give me information. >> Thank you. >> Next on our item is item 10 10.1. This is an action item and uh tonight David Brasovich is here, our director of finance and operations to present our regular transportation bus contract with all bus. >> Perfect. Well, thank you. Uh I wanted to bring to the board recommendation uh homer bus contract. met with Palmer uh Chris uh Champlain Jennifer who's actually here. She's the CEO of Power Bus Services. Um we met over I think four times and kind of hashed out a negotiation. I think that looks good for the district with the outcoming funding sources from FTE. That was kind of my talking point of you know the district went through cuts. We had to operate a referendum that we had involved with. Um times are going to be tough in the future. So what we negotiate on is the regular education increase would be 5%. Um at the first year for 2627 we are reducing from 171 days to 167 days which reduces that 5% to 2.54%. Uh midday shuttles and late activity extracurricular and athletic trips are at 2.69% increase. Um and then in 2017 to 28 that would be a 2.5% increase on all transportation costs. Um there is one adjustment also to the language. The fuel clause the district shared a 70% 30% cost sharing with Palmer. We increased the threshold of biodeiesel to $3 and then kept gas at 250. Uh Palmer does buy it in bulk. So they do receive a better price than just if you were to go to the gas station. Um so I thought that aligned good with what the district needed. And so also the other piece would they would extend the term for these two years and also give us an extension to negotiate for the next two fiscal years for 28 29 29. >> Any questions for David in regards to the bus counter? >> Yes. Real quick just to make clarify the thresholds on fuel. Anything above that we're splitting 7030. Yes, that is correct. >> How much like is that in the realm of what we're paying right now for these bulk prices? >> Uh in the realm, if I remember correctly, >> what I'm paying. >> Yeah. What you're seeing is a lot different than what Paul receives. If I remember correct, the last billing had um $3.60. So, we're sharing 60, you know, while on the new link would be a 60 cent sharing 30% 70%. So the original was 250 for biodeiesel and regular gas. So had that like increase since most of our buses I think all except three are bodies. That's what they run on. So >> questions So this is an action item. I will make a motion to approve the uh regular transportation bus contract with Palmer as presented. >> Second motion by Peterson and a second by Aldrich. Any further discussion? I'll just say thank you to Palmer for your years of service in our district and look forward to continuing to work on that relationship as we move into the into the future. Any further discussion or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Thank you, David. >> Thank you. Back toformational item 11.1 on our agenda is a county of literacy framework update. Here to present is NA Summer, our assistant director of learning, teaching and equity. >> Welcome here. Thank you for having me tonight. >> All right. Um I am here tonight to give a quick update um on our arts and letters implementations we are piloting and just kind of give you an overview of what's coming as we roll out the second piece of our curriculum adoption for elementary. Um, I do also want to celebrate tonight. We are wrapping up uh another round of our cohort training for the reads. And I can tell you right now that we are on track to have 100% completion both at Pearson and in all of our elementary. So I think that is a huge testament to the teachers that are working with our students in Shaki in early childhood and at the elementary levels. Um, I'm so incredibly proud and grateful for our teachers for engaging in this really, really important professional development opportunity. So, just wanted to make sure I shared that tonight. Um, I'm here to tell you a little bit what we've learned as we've implemented arts and letters. Um, just a reminder that this is a knowledge building curriculum. So if you follow anything right now that's out there around um ELA curriculums, knowledge building curriculums are really catching the eye um because they use authentic text. Kids go very deep into units of study to build background knowledge collectively um which is intended to increase vocabulary as well as deepen the the ability to think critically about text. Um, and it integrates both reading and writing with social studies content and science content. So, kids are really purposefully authentically engaging in these studies. Um, and our goal is to build a cohesive knowledging about the heart. Um, one thing we've learned is that it's a very different approach than how we are used to teaching. So, it really follows a fivestep process that is repeated again and again and again. Um, every lesson that we teach is attached to one of these content stages. So, students go through the wonder, organize, reveal, distill, and know um throughout their K5 journey. And it's very different because instead of teaching a skill focus per week, it's really embedded. And so there's multiple skills that kids are working on in each content stage. So this shows you our first stage, which is uh an entry point for all kids where they notice and wonder what they're reading about and they ask questions and they learn to annotate starting in kindergarten. Then they go to an organized phase and this is where they are working on those literal comprehension questions. Who, what, where, when, why, how. Um, and you can see those core critical practices there on the left. Um, again, it's a it's a beautiful integration of writing responding to the reading that you are are doing in class. So you can see they're collecting their their little who answers and then writing a summary in response to that text. Um this is another sample of how our organized lessons look. You can see very early uh crediting the source which we are starting uh sooner than we ever have before which is also very exciting. Then we go to a reveal stage. And this is probably my favorite stage in the process because we never did this in our benchmark series. And our students are learning to identify themes starting in kindergarten. And they're really having deep conversations about what's the message the author's giving us? What can we learn from this book? Um, and so I I think it's so fun. If you ever get an opportunity next year to get in a classroom, this is a great time to go when they are having those deep conversations. Um, you can see how they're distilling down to that central idea uh in a narrative text. They'll always go through the same process, character setting, problem resolution, and use all of that to collect their evidence to identify that central idea or theme. And then just like in math when I was here a couple weeks ago and we talked about lesson consolidation and synthesis that same process is applied at the end of every lesson that they do in arts and letters. Um so I think it's just really helpful for our teachers to see those parallels between math and with ELA. This is a sample of what a third grade classroom has done this year in one of their modules. There's a lot of learning that has taken place. They've created this class timeline of events by analyzing a variety of texts and creating this synthesized timeline in the classroom. Can see they've got their headers they've identified. They've done a lot of research to put this together. Um, so that's roughly half of the arts and letters block. It's reading and responding to reading through writing. And then the other half is really explicit teaching of writing. And what you'll see here is explicit teaching of grammar mechanics. Um probably growing up, if you were like me, you've got some daily oral language practice. We will do that, but it will always be connected to the content that they're learning about. So it's very relevant. um those old practices shouldn't shock us, but it didn't work for kids. Kids didn't automatically take that 10 minutes of our ELA block and then just apply it in their writing. So, this is very intentional. Also, you'll see that they are going to take everything they've been doing in reading and they're going to apply it in their writing. So, they're going to when they study the research and they annotate and they collect their facts, then they will use that as they're learning how to write a five paragraph essay. And this just kind of showcases some fifth grade writing that has been done after their first module. Um, looks like it's had some choice in producing it on the iPad or producing it through writing. And I think it's just exciting to see regardless of skill level, students were able to think very deeply and share what they learned um in response to that that module question. And of course, it's fun to talk to the littles. They're so excited to share what they're learning about. And I just love that little face because he's so proud of his work there. some of the shifts that we have been making and we've been communicating to all our teachers. So, we're moving away from small reading groups during our core instruction to whole group instruction. Um, this means that we uh have lots of opportunities to scaffold within those 60 minutes. I will say that our teachers are feeling very tired because they are constantly on with those kids um and monitoring and adjusting throughout those 60 minutes. Um and it's a big shift from content knowledge and isolation. So you you learned about social studies vocabulary and social studies, you learn about math and math science and science. This really takes it to shared vocabulary and understanding through these core texts for all students. So again, that shift from skills and fragments to really connecting through shared text, building that knowledge together, and integrating the literacy learning for students. Our materials are starting to arrive. So this week's a big week. Pallets are coming to every elementary school. Um the 26th through the 29th, the LTE team will be at every site. We'll unpack, we'll sticker, we'll barcode, we'll get things uh ready so that teachers can leave the end of this school year with materials in hand. Um we had a little delay in uh part of our our adoption. They're the prologue books that are uh language supports. So those are coming in June, unfortunately. Um but that's that's okay. They'll have plenty to look at when they leave if they choose to engage in summer work. Our articulation group is meeting tomorrow. Our agenda is to finalize the grading and reporting of Minnesota standards to families to finalize our key look fors for the implementation. So when I was here for math, you saw those 10 critical instructional practices that we are implementing and monitoring. Our ELA team will do the same thing tomorrow. Um we are working on a summer training plan for our principles. They have been engaged all year in guided observations with the consultant. We have our final one this year on um and then we'll do some work this summer. And then finalizing our PD plan for all staff. We currently have consultants scheduled for August 25th workshop week, October 10th, and then February 12th. We are hoping to do some extended PLC time for module study with each teacher team. Um, and that was recommended by our articulation teacher leaders. And then we're flushing out the details of the coaching plan. Um, because of course, you know, we we have wonderful coaches, but not enough of them to to probably give every teacher the amount of support that they're looking for. But we'll have a more thorough plan when I'm here in the fall after we get a chance to flush that out tomorrow. questions. And I suspect my colleague in some questions first. This is incredible. And I love the visual uh like all of the the timeline or the >> Yeah. You can you can see what they're learning. um you have had a highlight there in terms of if we look at an assessment from learning perspective. It seems like it's a big shift from you know the previous methodology to this conclus we've got the tools in place to measure success or is that some of what's still being developed in terms of you know measuring the success of the program? Um so measuring teacher success, student success, all of it. >> I think at the end of the day, successful teachers, you know, >> the student outcome >> Yeah. will itself to success in the classroom, right? So >> we're going to be held to state standards, right? We're be able to give the day, you know, can we demonstrate student learning? So it's really more that assessment for learning at the student level. Do we feel like we have the metrics in place to, you know, compare because you don't really have longitudinal data, I guess, is where I'm going. >> Yeah. >> Why don't you compare it against previous, you know, academic achievement? >> I mean, kind of like our math too, right? Like we're going to have a jump off point. >> Yeah. >> Um I do think one outlier here is the new reading MCA which went into effect this year. So regardless, we're not going to have comparison data. Um yeah, but we will have the new data this year once it's released, which will come out late late next fall, I'm guessing. Um so we'll have a baseline and then we'll be able to see the impact of the implementation over time. Again, three to five years, especially when we are talking about such significant teacher practice shifts. Um, but you know, couple that with our foundational skills, which I feel like we should see some good data once we get through the entire year this year. Uh, so the the ability for kids to read the text should improve over time. And then with those content stages starting in kindergarten, the ability to understand what they're reading should also improve over time. That's our goal. >> That's it's a lot. So kudos to you and certainly the teachers that have been put the efforts. It's a lot of change. >> The best situation, right, would be if a student is sitting down to take that MCA and they apply those stages themselves. All right, what am I noticing wondering? Okay, what is this really about? I'm going to organize my thinking and I'm going to put my who, what, where, when, why here. Now I'm going to reveal what's happening here and distill it. So that has happened in other districts that we have been connecting with. Um and that's our goal is that kids take that and they're applying it on their own. >> Thank you. Everybody else >> um out of curiosity, how many books would you say kids need to read every week? Is it like a book a week? Is it multiple books a day? It's different with every module and every grade level. So, kindergarten they read a lot of books because they um they're just exposing them to so many different texts to build the knowledge. Fifth grade, they will do one core novel per module and then they'll have additional articles and it's really a multimedia approach. So, they'll have artwork, they'll have poetry, they'll have songs, but one core text in fifth grade for a module. >> And how long is a module? We want to great question about a quarter. So the modules and so that that is a challenge we're facing is just the calendar years for the days, right? So every module is about 40 lessons per grade level. So we're going to be we're implementing every day our letters theoretically. >> Hi. Thank you, Nick. Uh yeah, I I would say from everything that I heard from the schools that have already been doing this through articulation, even my own students getting to see some of this, everyone's excited about arts and letters. It seems like a really refreshing kind of way to go through literacy, right? Um I'm glad you addressed that right away. That was one of my first thoughts on the professional development for staff. I think we currently have what, two people that are doing that for our fine buildings that are doing the coaching, right? So >> yeah, one other thing I want to tell you that our articulation team is going to do next year, they're going to offer quarterly popins themselves. So the pilot articulation rep will offer a kindergarten session each quarter so that they can kind of keep connected and troubleshoot with teachers when they're in the thick of it because, you know, you just want to reach out to somebody who's done it before. So we're going to lean into them too next year. >> That's a great idea. How about that? Uh I think I've asked this in the past. Does arts and letters itself have any uh training staff or resources that we can lean on and use to to help implement this and maybe our >> cost? We have our own identified consultant that meets with us. Her name is Sarah Olsen and she is on our speed dial. So when we have issues, Sarah, Steph, myself, we reach out to her. She consults with us. She helps us through some challenging circumstances. Um, I would say right now we're feeling pretty confident, so she's kind of just double-checking our thinking. Is this matching what you're seeing in other implementations? Um, and then Sarah Peterson does work with other districts that are also implementing arts and letters. Some a little ahead of us, some behind us so that they're staying connected. What are you finding? Well, what would you recommend for this? So we're trying to stay connected with different resources to help us the implementation. >> So it's more of a training the trainers type of uh resource that they have for us or it's not directly to the actual teachers. >> They have a helpline that they have available for for all teachers. Great minds has a submission process so teachers can reach out. Um, one thing I will say is that anytime one of our teachers reaches out, they do inform us of what the what's the question so we're aware and I really appreciate that because we do want to have an idea of how many times people are reaching out. What are the themes that that they're submitting to arts and letters so that we can work with them because I'm guessing if one teacher has a question, many many more teachers have that same question. So yeah, it is it there's there's anybody can reach out and then they're going to inform us of those questions and help us navigate those responses. >> Any other questions? >> Is there any plans? I'm a big comparison guys that count. Is there any plans in like a couple of years 20 28 that is the two years 2028 to like compare to MCA scores for like 2023 and 2018 just to see how they compare. >> We can we always do like a fiveyear trend. The tricky part is when the state changes the test. >> Sure. >> So this will be the first year of the new reading MCA. >> How different is it? >> I don't know yet. >> No. >> Yeah. We don't have really any idea. >> Well, I mean, how different you think it's going to be? I mean, reading reading, right? >> I mean, fast. Yeah. >> We can look at our fast bridge data. Yeah, >> I just wondering what kind of comparisons are we going to do to pre this to post this. Yeah, just to see if kids are learning faster and better. >> Yeah, we could definitely use our A reading for that. That's the generalized portion of fast bridge that we take. We'll have our early reading, but that is more closely aligned to our foundational skills. So, we could absolutely do that. Well, we will do that. I mean, that's Yes. Thank you. >> Anything else for Nika? If not, thank you for being here tonight. >> 11.2 is also anotherformational item tonight. >> This one is on summer programming and here to present is Jim. >> Thank you, Sharon Peterson. It's a long walk. Uh I am here tonight to present on summer programming and I'd like to be really clear that uh Eric Service who is away on military uh does oversee our summer programming. He did a great job of working ahead and you'll also see a number of program leads uh throughout the the slide deck. Those would be the folks that I would say are really um doing a great job of making sure that we're on track for for our summer program. Um we we offer five programs through what we call targeted services. Targeted services is essentially a state funding mechanism where when students come for additional learning in the summer, we have the ability to build back to the state of Minnesota. Uh you know to to make sure that those students are receiving the the education that that we believe that they need. Uh the first program that we have is our elementary summer school as we would have called it back in the day. Uh please note it's for students who are going into grades one through five. Targeted services does not cover students entering into kindergarten. Uh if you look at our numbers, we are right around the average of what we typically serve. Um and there's still times where students who would who would like to register um to register. When you take a look at the numbers, you can see we have roughly 20 classroom teachers and then six support teachers. A part of summer school is one, we try, yes, we offer core reading and math, but we also try to offer some alternative programming to make it fun in the summer and we also get to do it with with smaller class sizes than we do during the during the regular school year. I would note that some of the the high points of our elementary summer programming is we do have specialists on hand. Um, we were fortunate to receive a SE grant. I know we have folks on the board who are involved in SE and that will be supporting STEM focused programming consistent with what we're doing with STEM in the classroom right now. Um and then also we met this fall with Scott County and one of the things that we talked about enhancing was our library partnership and uh the read mobile will be at summer school and we're also hoping to have county library staff that can can come and support um you know some of our literacy programming there as we had hoped to do at the middle level. Uh we have our largest cohort ever. We'll have roughly 200 students. Again, you can see smaller class sizes with 10 teacher support staff. We try at the middle level to uh to match these programs to themies to give students additional exposure. It's also an opportunity for the rising sixth graders in attendance to get to know a little bit more about middle school life. And this year it's at East. So if you're a fifth grader heading to East, it's an opportunity to preview your school. And I know that students would really appreciate that. Uh some of you have been uh to the uh conclusion ceremony of what we call our summer launch program at the high school. This again would be an opportunity for eighth graders to go and spend time in their future environment. Uh they uh in addition to getting to be at the high school learning study skills, previewing curriculum, it's also a one credit class. So we have a group of 70 students roughly who have the opportunity to start the fall with one credit in the bank. Um you know have that sense of success and be on their road to uh to graduation. We also have a a newcomer program targeted at our high school age uh ML students. Uh newcomer means students who speak very limited English. They're often new to country. Um, again, we have an opportunity to offer small class sizes and really continue to support them as they become more comfortable with English as a as a conversational language. Uh, and then of course we offer our uh our summer credit recovery. Uh, students are still being identified for this program. Uh, typically students in credit recovery are those who are they failed courses. Uh, they may or may not be on track to graduate. It's a fiveweek opportunity for them to come in, work in a small group, um, and get themselves to a to a better place with graduation. And again, uh, we will continue to identify students uh, who may need this programming um, as grades continue to come in. And you, this is available to any student in grades 10 through 12 or somebody who maybe was one credit short of graduation and can wrap their diploma up through through the credit recovery program. Uh in addition to uh our services programming, uh we do offer extended school year uh for some of our students with IEPs. Um these students are typically identified uh during the IEP process for having specific or unique learning needs and it's written right into the documentation that they qualify for ESY. Special services invites them in. This would be something that would be uh funded through federal dollars and not through targeted services. And then we maintain our summer programming relationship with Vicasa who I think you all are all aware of of who Vicasa is and what they do. Typically uh these are Latino students that attend. However, I would add anyone who would like to attend is is welcome. Uh in conclusion uh you know we are always very fortunate to have any number of of community partners. You know you had Palmer bus here earlier. They're already out students and making sure we can all we can take them to our our summer sites. Um, and you can just see, you know, uh, you know, listed up there all the different people who who play a hand in our summer programming. So, um, it's really fun, exciting, and when you sit and think about the numbers we've looked at, it's roughly, you know, right around 10% of our students who will ultimately, um, you know, be involved in some sort of a of a summer program in grades, you know, K through K through I should say 1 through 12. So, with that, um, I'd love to to take your questions or or find out what else you'd like to learn more about. questions for Jim. Jim, >> uh, and Jim, you were clear like target services grades one through 12, uh, are there programs for that early learning cohort? In fact, when we met with the county commissioners trying to, you know, th those students that are age three or be eligible to to have that early learning uh, opportunity. Are there other programs for that? Uh, and if if so, are they funded separately? So, um, a couple of things. One, one of the things that we've started to offer in the last few years is kinder campam. Um, we didn't we didn't list that, but we do bring our kindergarteners in um for two half day sessions to get them used to um to to get them used to uh the school setting. Uh, we use our compensatory revenue to to fund that program because there isn't state aid um targeted for it. You know, I would need to look more into what Pearson offers. I would say if they're offering summer programming again it would be um directly in the students with special fees because otherwise it's based and parents but I do know that we will offer the the saber connection program out of Pearson this summer. Um so there will be that type of program right and I asked so far as like we great partnership the bookmobile and some of the library resources just seem to align with that conversation as well. So, I didn't mean to interact from from this. This is all great stuff. >> No. And not to go too far off track, but I know that we're looking at offering some additional summer um library hours in our schools. Nick has been working on that. We're looking at volunteers to help staff doors so we can get kids to and from the library with the parents. And so, we're we're really hoping to have those sites open and available to to our community. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah. Ready for ready for this, Jennifer? >> Sure. No. So, a few questions. Like my first thought on this is what exactly is our school district's philosophy on the the summer learning programs in general as far as are we hoping to get a certain percentage of the kids that qualify to attend or are we just kind of serving those that are are willing to take advantage of that? So, at the elementary level, it's typically done through teacher identification and teachers work with families. they talk with them at conferences in the spring of the year and encourage students to attend. We have no ability to to force a student to attend. It's an open invitation. That's why while we do the traditional reading and math, we also try to put some of the other activities in there that would encourage a student to to to want to be there. Um, at the middle level, we actually do open it up to anybody. And I think that's part of why you see different numbers of registrations there is we don't uh yes there are certain students who may receive an invitation but then we put out a blanket hey here's an opportunity for your child to to come to school and be involved engaged in these activities. Um the the ninth grade launch program again where we are looking for students who we believe will really benefit from having the high schools themselves for roughly five weeks um and then try to recovery. I mean we're pretty clear on that invitation. Hey, if you're if you're hoping to graduate on time, here's your opportunity to to make things up. So, I think it's a mix. I mean, we definitely have teacher identification. We're definitely recruiting students and then, you know, we are limited in our ability to to take attendance, if you will. >> Okay. Yeah. And that's that's good information on the middle school that they realize that. Um, a couple things that I noticed, you know, for the elementary side of things, we start at 7:45 a.m. And I think that's a hindrance to a lot of parents and folks signing up when it's quite different than the regular school year. Um, one other thought that I've had on this and our own family has looked into using these services in the past is a lot of the curriculum that we are using or or or the strategy that we're having over these summer programs aren't necessarily targeting our students that are qualifying for these things with any extra special services or ways to get them back to the classroom, you know, back to uh the classroom average that we're hoping to give to. So I what the question I mean are you well my my my question is like if we had maybe made this more convenient for folks maybe we'd get more enrollment or you know are is this something that we considered or is this why is it that elementary starts 7:45 and middle schools 8 I'm not involved in that part of it I do know that one of the things that we try to do from an efficiency standpoint is we do run elementary school and high school at the or similar dates so that we can um that we can have the Palmer buses run a series of routes much like they do during the school year with tears. As for why the elementary goes first, I I don't know that for sure. Um I do know that um you know part of what we do at Sunpath is MASA typically works out of Sunpath. So students who are attending the CASA programming they have a they're literally there from you know 7:45 8:00 until 4 o'clock because they they do run a complete day. Um you know as for why elementary is a 7:45 I would need to check with Sheriff Eric on that. Sorry that wasn't a good answer to your question. No, no, that is that is I just uh just an area that I think that maybe is a little bit of a good opportunity to improve student success in some degree is is having we have the time with the students, extra time with the students to maybe focus some of those skills and learning on the struggles that they're actually having in school. >> I think that that would be the goal of the smaller class sizes is that we can't focus more on individual students. So could do that. >> Jim, do you do a survey at the end to find out from parents that are participating in the program what worked, what didn't work, helping me make it better for the next year. That would include time if it is a burden for people. I know that there are some surveys that go in particular at the secondary level. I can definitely talk with that. I I I'm going to speculate here that the earlier elementary start time may have to do with um with programs like Saber Connect and that students can go directly to summer school and then end up in a Saber Connect program in the afternoon as opposed to starting there, leaving there and then going back. But that's I'm not that deeply involved in a typical year. >> Questions? Um, so for example, the Shopee current program, like if you're targeting families that are new to the district, how what does outage look like? Like are you reaching out to students at school? Like what does communication? >> Yeah, most of the the newcomers are the students who are already at the high school. So these would be students that are new to country in the last 12 years or like in the last year, excuse me, and their level of English has not reached a langu a level that moves them out of the status as identified by the state of Minnesota. And when new students enroll in our district that meet newcomer status because of testing, we do um immediately after enrollment, we do recognize as soon as somebody moved in right now. Um I know we've got some families coming in right now for seasonal work. um if they qualify it for newcomer status, they'll be by the summer as well. >> Anything else? >> All right. Thank you, John. >> Item 12 on the agenda is an action item. We have two action items actually. Item 12 in the agenda. First one is 12.1 and that would be our nine renewals. And with us this evening is Keith Gray, our director of human resources to re >> good evening. Um this time of year where we um we have an opportunity to all year long to evaluate our teachers. These teachers that you have on this list are probationary teachers which means they're either in their first, second or third year with our school district. They're still probationary status under uh Minnesota statute. So we uh our supervisors evaluate um the staff at that at the conclusion near the end of the school year determine whether they're going to renew people. So that's why it's not renewing. We're not um intending to bring these folks back for another year of instruction or teaching. So this is um the group that we are presenting you this year. questions >> should be for performance. >> Yeah, this would be all based on assessment of whether we want to continue these these features. questions for motion by second by approve the nine rules as presented. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I >> thank you. >> 12.2 on the agenda is our response to the name pack um letter. Let's turn over to >> Thank you. And I'm not going to read the entire letter to you, but there are a number of things that uh that I want to highlight and then would ask uh for schoolboard approval at the end. This is part of uh the typical annual process. So it's something we we do every year. Uh we get received a letter of non-concurrence from our NAPAC group and uh this letter is formatted with that in mind. I think the opening is really important uh just to express appreciation uh for the work of Justine Bogle who leads our American Indian education team. also for the uh Native American parent advisory committee, Apac. Uh lots of great things help are happening. Um and we certainly welcome, you know, their honest feedback, constructive criticism, and suggestions on the the best ways to continue to improve our school district's service to our American Indian students and their families. And as I said, there's five items, and we use the headers from the the letter that we received from NAPAC. Uh item one, uh tribal nations training for educators, administrators, and schoolboard members. We're certainly open to the idea of participating more often in uh tribal nations professional learning opportunities and in deepening the nature and substance of such learning. Um, and then towards the end there's a bulleted item. In partnership with the Native American parent advisory committee and our school district leaders uh of American Indian Education, uh we want to continue develop and fully implement highquality initiatives that positively impact student performance. Item two, intentionality and curriculum planning. uh certainly agree uh with NAPAC in terms of the native perspectives and histories. You know, they should be embedded in in curriculum. They're very important parts of uh our our state and our community's history. Uh and we will I will certainly uh direct our directors of learning, teaching, and equity uh to be even more intentional. I think there's a a pretty good degree of intentionality, but to be even more intentional in this area of our work moving forward. Item three, uh, increased staffing, professional development, use of ANI funding. Uh, this, uh, you know, much like every other, you know, kind of area. Uh, we have finite resources and as a school district, we've made three million in budget cuts for next school year. Uh we're certainly willing to always explore opportunities to increase revenues to to better serve our students. Uh and certainly willing to uh listen to specific suggestions about ways that we can enhance native education. Uh the dreamcatcher project number four. This is something that we've begun to implement. Very very excited uh about working in partnership on this uh terrific project. We think it's a a terrific fit with similar programming uh and uh think it will help us to support our our native students and all students uh you know better and more comprehensively and effectively. And then five the fifth and final item was shared responsibility and consistency in implementation. uh and and again I'm stating that we wholeheartedly agree uh that the Indian education staff should not be expected to produce carry or sustain the work in terms of uh learning about uh you know American Indian culture and history and uh you know I've listed a a statement that the board approved back in 2020 and then also you know uh really appreciate the opportunities from NAPAC uh to our board members to our district leaders to participate at their meetings and other events, other ceremonies and different things and that uh we certainly look forward to that and want to continue to do that and and I think our calendar that we've been implementing here with the school board uh in the last few months will hopefully help us to even be even better organized and um you know do more in that area. And then the final thought is, you know, it says the school board and superintendent deeply value uh the partnership with our American Indian education team at NAPEAC. Uh we look forward to continuing to learn and grow together and to provide better learning outcomes for our native students. So, as I'm writing on behalf of the board, I I hope I've captured the sentiment of the board and shared this with you on the wrap, but would ask uh you know, seek approval for this. >> Any questions? >> Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to approve our response to the NAC. So move a motion by Oakidge, second by Johnson. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. Motion carries. Item 13 on our agenda tonight um would be our committee reports and other information. And tonight we are going to start with recognizing um Sha as our uh class of 2026 school board member as she completes her final school board meeting tonight as our exofficial student school board member. And I will turn it over to Brian to present uh on our behalf. Um, I don't have a whole ton, but over the the two, three years I've known you, Shaa, um, you've just been an amazing friend, a mentor, and person to look up to. Um, not just solely because of your achievements, but your curiosity and constant drive for learning. I know you'll do great things at Princeton. So please don't forget Jaki all of us and me once you do those great things but just thank you for being an amazing person for the past years. >> I put together some words. Um, thank you for staying fine. Okay, so obviously like since I met Michelle and I was here since like since last year and this entire I can't believe an entire year has passed. It's it's been a very eye opening experience and I think this is like one of the top two experiences I will be taking to college just because I I I want to work in policy in the future and I think seeing how policy and um like bureaucracy works on such a like such a local level and then trying to be able to apply this on you know more national and global like federal policy levels I don't know it's just been really um it's been great working as also write things in nature. I I and it's been fantastic, you know, getting to spend all of my Mondays with the gold and doctor. Um, and I I truly think that the student board member position has so much potential of being this bridge between like administration administration and like teachers and staff and students. Um because like before before I was in this position like I didn't really know a lot about all of the stuff that the board does like like just to get like the presentation on groups and um months. So like being able to you know bring this information back to students but then also being able to vocalize and voice student needs at the board and you know to principles. I really appreciated the opportunity to get to know my teachers better with the excuse of like talking about work related um issues and agenda items and like I said I will I'm very grateful to be able to take this experience I know not many students get the opportunity to so I'm glad this I would also really appreciate a picture before >> yes I will take that was thank you for all that you've done and bringing that student voice to the to the board table. I know sometimes it could be challenging and some of the topics that we um wrestle with at the table and and contemplate sometimes they're not easy ones but having that student perspective is is always very important. So I appreciate that what you brought to the table. >> I I would think and I know that when I was in high school, I would think being on school boards and every every member that we've had has been just no intimidation. You're not afraid to say anything. It's been just an absolute pleasure to have you for the last years. Good luck. Exactly. >> Uh it's rare that anyone attends a policy committee meeting, but the fact that you attended one like one of your first uh student schoolboard assignments, you you would join just out of curiosity. So that speaks volumes to you just you dug in, you got engaged right away. You made great contributions. So >> I would I would echo that too. and Natalie, you know, every every one of your contributions, Sean, you know, were thoughtful and insightful and helpful through our discussions. So, I appreciate that. Um, I'd also just say having the student perspective in our room has helped us in a lot of a lot of our current situations and discussions. So, lots of times we'll we're sitting here talking about students want this, wait a minute, what do you guys really want? You know, we're right there and we can ask you guys. So, I love having that perspective and having great representatives like you in here is is very helpful and good luck. >> I don't think you need it, but good luck. >> I am very very excited. >> I started putting together my um class planning document for this fall and there's so many classes and I have to limit myself to a life outside of classes. >> Yeah, I believe. I just like to say thank you and uh wish you the best of luck. I just want to echo the great sentiments that were shared earlier. I love that. That was perfect. You have to limit yourself to four. So that that says it all right there. And uh why don't you just go out and do great things and help make our world a better place. So wishing you all the best. >> Come back when you're back home. And I would just say, you know, having watched your your trajectory since middle school and now through high school, I can't wait to see what comes next for you. And as uh Chair Peterson just said, I hope that you will come back and see us and let us know how it's going. >> In fact, I was new to the district in 8th grade and Mr. college gave me a chance to >> one of my favorite things to do as a principal. >> Thank you, Sean. We'll do a picture of the I think before we go. All right. So, we will go and uh talk about our committees and reports. Uh we'll start. Nick, how about you? Yeah, I was able to attend the Saber the Night festivities here um just Wednesday. Uh awesome event again, really cool venue. Really great to see the staff and everybody there, you know, socializing and rewarding the retirees always is kind of like a highlight for me because that's the people that have been here for a long time and put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this place. So, uh I enjoyed that evening. I also was a participant as a volunteer and a parent to a field trip that I don't know how long we've been doing. I think it's relatively new, a year or two that blended the high school with the elementaryaries. And we had it was really cool. It was uh developed around the ELC, the environmental learning center. And um we some students were walks, some were bus, but we went to the high school and there was about 10 different stations that were set up including one that was canoeing in the I don't know if we have a name for the high school pond there, but we one. It's like a pond at the high school, right? Uh it was blowing like 40 50 miles an hour. So maybe it was a challenge to to for a lot of canoers. Um but it it literally all the all the stations were either led by or helped by high school students. So these high school students were all experience and interactions with elementary kids and answering all the creative questions that came up. And uh we all just left with a smile on the way home. It was just a really good trip. We happened to be the walking group so we could make try to see how many uh cars we can make honking horn the whole way and then everybody would cheer the whole ride off. So it was awesome. I hope we continue to do that and Louis was running around making sure everything was going well and appreciate his efforts. >> Chair Petersonic um we're putting together a video on that and me and Mr. Lizel shared that's the 18th annual >> is it really? All right. Wow. So, >> first time. >> He's really excited about that. And maybe we'll see if uh you're in any of the video clips. >> Yeah. >> Hopefully in the canoe, >> not in the pocket. >> Caroline, >> um we have personnel tonight and it was really great to go to the night and see all the people being organized. So, that was really nice to see. And community engagement. Um we just we have a for the pro. I'm not part of it. Um, so I can't remember what date that is. >> Thursday. >> Okay. Well, perfect. >> Uh, Saber of the Night personnel committee. Uh, I think that's already been said. Uh, I'm trying to frame this up correctly. How can something so wrong be so right? Yes, that was the spring play. Um, like I've never laughed so hard. Um, and it's, you know, it's hard to say which one's your favorite, but it was just so well done. And having watched it a few times, some of the things that went wrong weren't even planned, but the audience never knew. Um, just a shout out again to the talent, uh, the direction, everyone involved. What a really great experience that was. >> Um, I I was also able to go to Saber the Night. I feel like I've missed a lot of things for end of the year activities the last couple weeks because I've been sick, but um I did get to save the night and that was a a great event to talk about earlier. But just a reminder um this is the last week of the legislative session. So we'll see what um transpires. I hear that the house is going to be taking a 12 bill on Wednesday and Thursday I think this week. So we'll see what happens there. The House did pass the uh land trust constitutional amendment unanimously, but unfortunately the Senate did not and offered an amendment to it, which means now it needs to go back to conference committee and then come back to I believe the House um for a vote in order for it to be on the ballot next. So that's still got a little bit of work to do. Um so stay tuned for that. um have a Southwest Metro Award meeting next week. We'll be reviewing budgets for the next school year. It looks like there will be some budget cuts that will be made for next school year. More to come on that. And then you have Thursday, I'm going to the bagels. I think it's bagels with the board members um at the crew hall. And then um May 1st and 2nd we had our MSBA annual meeting where we set our budgets and calendar for for the next uh school year starting July 1. So go home and Joe >> site I I've had the opportunity to go every year except for the co year in 2020. Um and just every year that great it's seven years of going to it and I just you know the be appreciative of the teachers and people retired it's just it's it's just a great event every year. Um that's it. I just I know that upcoming events is next, but Takata graduation uh June 4th and then Sha and all the seniors graduated on June 6. It uh sounds like a Dday or something like that for graduation or something. So looking forward to goss. >> I notic there was a lot less crying this year at Saber of the Night. Like last year was like super super emotional and this year was uh I don't know. I mean still like very joyful but just not as much not as much crying. Um but it's always a really good event. Um I really I consider myself lucky to be go um the other I've been up to uh I chaperon the seventh grade east middle school science class trip to zoo. Um so that was fun. uh they were students were presenting their projects on uh advocating for the role of uh uh muscles as in like little clams uh in the ecosystem. Um, so that was fun. And then and free zoo trip throw in. Um, but then uh and then I also uh because my son uh went to a prom, we went to the photos. So it was really fun to see like lots of familiar faces of kids that have, you know, been through this room for a different recognition or whatever. Say that kid. So it was a lot of fun. Um, you forgot to mention MSB phase 4 training. Oh yeah, we're both together. We completed that uh last week. Uh, so the saber of the night uh as everybody else said, it's yeah, it's one of my top five events being on the board. Just just great just great to celebrate everybody. Um, as well the student schoolboard interviews which we talked about which were also awesome. I don't know if that's top five. Top six for sure. That's that's way that's right up there. Um personnel committee. I'll be at the pro hall Thursday. Um and then I'll finish with the play that goes wrong. Uh my wife and I just just loved it. We I don't know. We just got lucky enough to be in the the the upper it was in the thrust stage. So, we were in in the front row of the upper section, and it was a perfect spot because there was so much improv going on with the cast members between between the like during intermissions and between the scene setup and and they were just like right in front of us doing all this improv and and they came up and talked to us and said, "Hey, we're looking for this this Duran Durant CD. Have you seen it?" It was just it was so weird interacting with them. Uh, it was just and and just the the everything planned and unplanned. It was it was just really great. >> Was the shadow coming right at you? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um, we had the national speech tournament shop this weekend. Brian did super well. I didn't compete, but I was volunteering. Our school was very filled and very colorful with everybody's fights. Students said it was it was fun, >> right? >> Um Sam Sha this week was very big for speech. all of after school Thursday, the Shaki speech team and other volunteers were working to run around the entire school. Um, putting up posters because I guess people don't understand our cardinal directions. Um, we were just making sure all of the judges lounge because there were schools already filing in Thursday night. So, we made sure that they were attended too. But all of Friday, Saturday, I was competing along with members of the Shaki speech team. And then Sunday was just solely awards. But I think this year was one of the really successful years for Shockby speech. So myself and I think four others octafinal, which means we were the top 60 in the nation. Um, three members quarterfinal, so that's top 30 in the nation. And then one of our senior members, she also won state just recently. She is I think fifth in the nation for the same category. So >> that was awesome. >> Shock had a really big showing and what better way to spend it at home turf. >> Joe, >> yeah. uh you all approved a prairie burn at the high school and it took place uh a week ago Friday and I want to say at no point did I feel the need to grab a fire hose but it it was really well done and when they talked about the educational components of it was amazing to see you know a few hundred students standing around outside in the courtyard while members of the SMSC explained what they were do why they were doing it and then carried it out right before our eyes. So that was really cool. Um, and then, uh, one thing to put on your radar, uh, we'll put the time in the in the in the wrap this week, but if you've never been to Glommy Track and Field Day, it's a week from Friday, and I would really recommend the opening ceremony when the uh, students from across the district who are are typically in our centerbased programs are bus to the high school and all the students come out and uh, set up a gauntlet and the kids walk through this pretty, you know, wild and emotional experience. And it's it's fantastic. And uh if you have the opportunity to attend, I would recommend it. >> I'm just going to echo sentiments that were already brought up from student schoolboard member interviews and just the caliber of individuals there. And I just love learning stuff from every single one to, you know, boardwalk donations and teacher week as someone of a group of many that's making the phone calls and it's like we have some teacher support. How many? almost 700. So, anything you have would be great. And it's one of those, well, we're absolutely going to do something. Let me figure out what we can do. Um, and I don't know that there was one phone call I made. I think one we exchanged, how about we do all of this for welcome back instead of teacher appreciation week. Sounds great. So, it's just I just love our community that it's not an option to support. It's just how they could best do it. So would just like to echo all the things you've done when you accept donations that we have a pretty outstanding community and it's all facets all industries really good people. >> Dr. >> Yeah, I would just echo that. I think the generosity of our community and supporting our students and our staff is just phenomenal and to you know you each mentioned the event saber the night without that incredible community support we simply can't do those things and uh you know and I know was mentioned you know we we don't use school district resources that's not an appropriate taxpayer you know expense uh and our community partners have just stepped up in amazing ways there and with our other employee recognition this teacher appreciation week again that's that's all donations and there's a district-wide piece and then you look at what our PTO's and other organizations are doing and uh it just makes me very very proud to to get to play a small part in you know in our school district community that way just really really fantastic things happening and as I wrote in that the uh head forward. I think it's really important for us to, you know, to continue to sprint through the finish line, wrap up our our kids deserve that and uh boy, it's just great to see our staff continue to do that. Great things happening, you know, each and every day in our building. So, thank you to to all involved. >> All right. upcoming meetings and important dates. Um you will see in our um board events. Uh there's still quite a few uh opportunities that are on the calendar to get involved. Um so I'm not going to go through and and read them all. But >> question do we know what time is the goal track and field day? >> I'll get that in the wrap. I I it's throughout the day and I just sent an email requesting information on it. >> Still says TBD on the >> Yep. They were going to follow up with me on that. That's why I said Yeah. Um there's anything um just want a reminder about graduation um which will be at Grace. Um if on that first Saturday in June um if you are not going to be in attendance, please let myself know or Dr. Redmond. Um, just so we can plan accordingly as to know who's going to be here and who's not. Anything else? I think Johnny said there was far less crying at the saber event. I think it's because the principles attempted so fewer jokes. >> You know what I mean? There is nothing further. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So move second. >> Motion by Brophy and a second by Smith. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I >> post meeting is journed.