This happens as school. Water. like to call to order the shock school board truth and taxation meeting for uh December 15, 2025. Tiffany, can you please do the role? >> Here >> Peterson >> here. >> Smith >> here. >> Aldridge >> here. >> Johnson >> here. here. >> Brian >> here >> and >> here I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. Uh before we continue with today's agenda, I'd like to share news regarding a student in our school community and observe a moment of silence. Um last weekend, East Middle School received difficult news regarding a current student who previously attended Eagle Creek Elementary and has connections to West Middle School and the greater shop community. Early in the week, East Middle School was sad to communicate the unexpected loss of Cooper Kennedy, a sixth grade student in our district. With care and on behalf of Cooper's family, this news was also shared with West Middle School families and district staff. The gathering in his honor was held before this meeting. As shared in a fundraiser that was organized by close friends and on his family's behalf, Cooper's kindness showed up in a thousand small ways, especially in the way he went out of his way to help the people he cared about. To his friends, he was loyal, steady, and someone they could always count on. This loss of Cooper will continue to raise many emotions for those within our greater middle school community. Our crisis team, which is made up of dedicated professionals trained to help with the needs of students, families, and school personnel, will continue to be present at various district sites as needed. Uh, I'd also like to share a quote from the memorial tonight. There are some who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone, with our support. Please join me in Next on our agenda is the truth and tracks taxation presentation. Um, and here to present is David Daskkovich, our director of finance and operations. Good evening board members here to present the 25 Able 26 truth and taxation. Um before I start my presentation, I just wanted to take a moment to thank my finance department um for their diligent work and continued support. Shocki of Shock Public Schools. As I move on, a little bit of a financial highlight. For June 30th of 2024, we received the ASBO certification of excellence. Um, we will apply for that. It's due December 31st for the 25 June 30th, 2025 audit. We will fill out that paperwork, do the review and comment and submit for the certific. Another financial highlight I just wanted to bring to the board is the past eight years of unassigned fund balance for the general fund that the school district has seen. As you can see in 2017, uh it started at 2.2% in the last two fiscal years. We've been around 10% on the signal in our general fund. Um this just shows a significant uh effort commitment public schools board and also uh their administration. All right. on to the requirements of the truth of taxation. Um, with Minnesota State statute 275 065, we are required by that statute to walk through the 25 table 26 final property tax levy change from prior year. specific reasons for those changes from prior year such as funding formula adjustments, enrollment changes, referendum backs, also debt service changes, distribution. We also need to review the distribution of revenues by revenue source which is our 2526 budget and also spending by program for our 256 budget. And then there's a section for public comment and questions from the board. an overview before we jump into our 25 26 proof of taxation. Uh our finances of Minnesota's public school district is made up of four combination of funding sources. One, state aid, which is the majority of most school districts funding. Um local generated revenue, property taxes, all of the work uh in federal occasions. All of those work to support educational programs and operations in need of the school district. On to the 25 table 26 le 25 versus pay 26 levy comparison. Um I will walk through this um just as the dollar differences. Uh the general fund we are seeing a $9.5 million adjustment from prior fiscal year. This is an increase for our 25 paid 26 taxes. This is due to questions one and two being both passed. Question one was $620. Question two 310. There also is some additional adjustments in there for prior fiscal year pupil enrollment adjustments. During September we have to enter the what we project for student enrollment into the system called medium. This generates what we are going to receive for those for levy revenues during this uh pay 256 for previous fiscal year adjustments. The lobby is two years behind you start to see those adjustments once they're reconciled. And so with us being conservative on the student enrollment, we're starting to see a slight increase in those revenues based on what we put into the system. education. Uh this is a reduction of roughly 49,000 um or 77.36% general debt service um as a reduction of 30%. This is due to the 2016A goal refunding bonds following up for the 26 27 fiscal year. Uh this reduction we did see we plan for and that's why we came up with question one which was an opposite of that. Question general fund. Um this is the general fund breakdown of all the funding sources in the levy. Um the biggest ones I want to talk about is operating referendum. This is due to the successful passage of question one and two which is a $7.9 billion increase. Local optional revenue. This increase of 88,000 is an additional this is a $724 per pupil um with an increase on the am is 90 students um which shows 88,000 um the equity levy states equalization act that is a reduction of 306,000 is due because of questions one and two be passing um is increased our operating referendum which then we get less equalization in our um and also as we move through The capital projects technology levy. This is calculated based on net tax capacity. This has risen for the pay 26.526 which we are seeing a $257,000 adjustment for that increase. Um the other big one I would like to talk about here is longterm facilities maintenance. Um this shows an increase of $459,577 from the actuals of K2425. Um this is due to part of reduction in debt service with some of that LTFM funding applied towards the final payoff and now it will switch over from being debt levy or debt service funding to general funding. on to community service. This is the funding sources we receive for our levy um for community service. Um the main two I would like to talk about is community education. Um this is a reduction of 13,179. This is due to a basic levy cap reduced by legislation from 003289 to 03128. Uh legislation reduced this calculation by that amount which is reducing our aid even though we are seeing higher student population. Early childhood levy this tax rate decrease from previous fiscal year which is reducing it by $22,61. This is annually by the commissioner of education. Those are two of the bigger ones. The total proposed levy for community ed is a reduction of 9,24 is what I want to touch base on. Next slide is debt service. This one's relatively easy compared to the other two. Um it's just one line. We are seeing a drop 5.4 million in the debt service fund and this is due to those bonds falling. This is a graph of the pay 25 versus 26 levy comparison. Um kind of shows you where the levy is trending um with general educ general fund increasing for the 26 27 fiscal year. Um debt service also decreasing due that debt fall off with community staying relatively neutral. The total net change is4,31,96.36 with what we need to do with the truth and taxation. We do need to look at the prelim budget for 20 256. Uh the prelim budget, this is a requirement of Minnesota state statute. This was approved in June. So it's something you need to do approve this budget again. approved during your pre budgeting. Um so just a quick overview, you know, our budget for the total funds was 174,6,825 with the general fund being the majority of that budget at 132,254,55. expenditure budget. Same thing as revenues. We just need to look at it and talk through it. So with the troops in taxation, we'll look at it real quick. So the expenditures did I screw up the previous slide? Okay, let me go back. Revenues were 125,566 527 with total budget of 167,326 and 700 sorry expenditures. This total budget of all funds was 174,16,825 with the general fund being the majority of that portion at 132,254,55. Uh we are showing for 2526 the budget the prelimin budget reflects deficit spending of 660 sorry $6.6 million per budget deficit of expenditures over revenues. Additional information. Um, main variables that may cause property tax increases and decreases, changes in market values, shift in residential, commercial, agricultural values affecting tax distributions, uh, changes in class rates, property classification, legislation adjustments or shifts in how properties categorized for taxation, voter approved referendums, which one we did for the P2526. operating levies, capital projects, tech technology, building referendums approved by the voters, uh total district debt levels and interest rates influence the impact of bonds. Um the last one but not least is state adjustments, changes in state funding, equalization factors and mandated. The next slide is the spread levy pay 25 versus 26. Um, we had talked about when we were going out for our referendum what houses and values would pay for the next fiscal year. This is just kind of recap. It came from PTMA. Um, I added into this slide. So, if you want to take a look at the house, it's 381,000 roughly 400,000 what we talked about. The net change for next year is $114. This doesn't take into effect any growth within the district or the city bound. So, as development is built out, comes available for taxation. So this in line is not taking that into account. This is the last slide 20 25 B26 levy overview. This is just pursuant to Minnesota state statute uh school board independent school district 720 Minnesota is authorized to make the following tax leies for general purposes. General fund 37,479 488.38 committee education fund at 619,19553 that service at 12,819,7187 total final levy tax levy at 50,918,4261. The levy to be levy for 25 elected 26 is at 50 million 50.9. >> Thank you. Next our agenda is public comment specific for the taxation meeting. Uh this is the 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 upon an agenda topic or another topic pertaining to schoolboard business. We allocate a total of 15 minutes for public comment at this meeting. Each individual speaker may speak for up to 2.5 minutes. The sign up for public comment has been conducted online and in person prior to the CVS meeting. No one has signed up for public comment prior to the CDs meeting. We will move on to the next item on the agenda. And the next item is to um adjourn the truth and taxation portion of the meeting. >> So move by Aldridge, second by Peterson. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. >> Truth and taxation meeting is adjourned. With that, we will call to order the regular schoolboard business meeting for December 15, 2025. Tiffany, can you please do the role? >> Here, >> here. >> Peterson >> here. >> Smith >> here. >> Aldridge >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> Brian >> here. And >> here. >> We have already done the pledge of allegiance earlier. So we will uh move on to the saber pride portion of our meeting. It's always the favorite part of our meeting. Um and tonight our saber pride is our student voice edition. We have two students here tonight to present. We have Kayie Remington and Dona Solarano Herrera. And uh accompanying them are Tiffany Olsen and they're supported by Sarah Gillson High School. We'll give him an early round of applause. >> So, per usual, I am just here to help shine light on our students and the fantastic work our educators do. So, I'll be a little bit of the moderator here, but why don't we go down and make sure we all know who is who, maybe share what you do with the human services. >> Yeah. Hi, I'm Sarah Gilkerson. I teach in the human services academy and one of the courses I teach is the advanced course and the teaching and education pathway called multicultural education. Um I'm currently a junior here at high school also ambassador for our services and I am a participant in I'm also a part of So, as with any good saber pride, somebody shares something that's going on in the district and there's thousands of things every day. Uh, but this is definitely a saver supporting savers moment that was really great to highlight and hopefully ladies can share that today. So maybe Donna, if you want to share a little bit of the overview of the project and then we'll go to some of these questions that we have for you. >> Um, this project was a picture book lesson. We had to create our own lesson for a certain grade. Both of our class focused on those younger kids like kindergarten, first grade, second grade. I was lucky enough to go to two different classes, first and second grade, over at Red and Eagle Elementary. Um, I think it's a very special opportunity that we get to have very on hand experience that go through multi. um like learn different tactics of how to teach kids how to hand situation. Um I feel very fortunate because hopefully everyone got that you had beautiful preparation that you had from a curriculum standoint. go into that a little bit more kind of what you had with the assignment and then share more about that experience. >> Um I think the thing with the assignment is finding something that you're passionate about that can help eliminate the stigma when it comes to diversity and making our schooling system um as equal as we possibly can. Um we have so many different assets that come into our schooling systems and I think by teaching the young learning with that I think was something that I mostly liked as I was prepping for the lesson was how can I make a difference in you know I'm only there for like 30 to 40 minutes to read the book what is the biggest impact that I can make on a child and I think that um that was like kind of the main thing with prepping for is like what is it what is going to be the outcome of it you know what what is going to be the big take for us what do I want them to go home telling their parents I either like, oh my god, we read a book. No, we read a book on like how it's okay that I can like the color that I want to like or my hair can be as long as I want it to be, whether if I'm a girl or if I'm a boy or, you know, discovering also selfidentity is I think what helped me be successful by prepping for the lesson. >> Fantastic. And then what was the most rewarding part? You did all this preparation. You're in the human services academy and you got to go What did you think? >> I think the most part was like being teaching them. Um like something that stuck with me that just made my day. So that's why like it just like this is what it's about you know very >> um the classroom I went to um assisting with my classmates was I've been doing a lot of um kind of partner work with um my fourth grade teacher Kristen Hangle at Jackson Elementary. I have her as a student and went back for a previous course and I was following and taing for her class and then I got to go back and read a picture book lesson and it's really cool because the teachers can see um the growth in a student of like I had you once that age and then you come back but then it's also the kids can learn and like uh Donna pointed out was like they can see where they will end up one day um but als teaching them that the differences are okay and um to also help them pursue what they believe and what they're passionate about. >> Fantastic. And change reinforce your education pathway that you're having in general or you have a different journey. I am I'm not particularly taking the education method but I took the experience to learn about the differences that make up um children at the school. Um I think it also it didn't really change my perspective. It just added more to my belief of believing that everybody is different. Everyone's beautiful. They bring a formal style. And I think that just solidified more information that I learned about people, not just with equity, but with learning about um poverty, you know, um the LGBTQA, um immigration, like all those different things. It was just solidifying more things that I can use as a person. when I go outucing. partnerships or just >> Yeah. Well, certainly these lovely ladies and my students grew a lot in their public speaking and communication skills and their and how to work with children. Um, but we had some great partners. Um, Sarah Peterson, our literacy coordinator, came in and modeled what a picture of lesson looks like for our students. Excuse me. And then also um our media specialist um Katie Bone, excuse me, Katie Bone and Sandy Righteous came in and talked about how books are windows, mirrors or doors and how we sometimes see ourselves within books. Um and also other people's lives have empathy for others. We appreciate all of you. You only shared a little snippet of this amazing opportunity, but hopefully everyone got a little bit more of a flavor. And if there's any questions, these are the experts here, but this is our saber pride of sabers supporting savers and mentoring our younger students. >> Inspired just listening to >> It's always great to get into the classroom perspective when you're around the students. Thank you all very much. >> Next on our agenda is the consideration of the agenda presented. A motion by Peterson, a second by Johnson. Is there any discussion? See none. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next is the public comment portion for our regular business meeting. This is the time where members of the public can participate in the meeting without being part of the meeting agenda. Member of the public may address the board on an agenda topic or on another topic. to schoolboard business. We allocate a total of 15 minutes for public comment at this meeting. Each individual speaker may speak for up to 2.5 minutes. The sign up for public comment has been conducted online and in person prior to conce item on the agenda. Next on our agenda is item 10, consent items. And We have those on the screen. We have personnel items and meeting minutes, bills and authorizations, wires, and field. Motion by Aldrich and a second by Valdez. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I post motion carries. Next on our agenda is item 11. This is a resolution for donations. Those up on screen. We thank all the our generous I would like to point out on your way out in you'll see a lot of these donations for winter weather here in the welcome center. Motion by Aldridge and second by Brophie. Any discussion? See, Tiffany, can you do the roll? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Johnson, >> yes. >> Yes. Resolution passes. >> Next in our agenda is an action item, item 12.1, our district office lease renewal. And here to present is Corey Whitbeck from Tonka Real Estate Advisors. Welcome. Thank you for uh thanks for having me. I'm Cory Lack to talk advisors. Um and I've been an advisor consultant to the district for over a dozen years now. I was involved with the Takata lease um and moving into this this building district office lease from when we moved in do with the sale of Central as well. So been around for a while. I've got three kids that have graduated from uh from the school. So, thanks to all of you and the efforts you have here. Experience has been great to see the young people speak. It's it's really a fantastic experience here. Um, I'm here because uh the district's lease for the space that we're sitting in today expires next year. Um, and so, um, so the district engaged me to assess the current situation. We have a lease that expires in October. Um, and so we spent some time taking a quick look at the market, trying if there are any better opportunities out there to either purchase, you know, purchase a building to retrofit, move into other lease opportunities um and such. And and with that, um I think we've come to conclusion that there are really aren't any better opportunities that this remains a very economical solution for you. Um and so what was in front of us is a a right or bill to renew for another three years. So, we're recommending that um that we do exercise that right to renew and extend the lease for another three years. Um there's going to be just a slight increase in the net rental rate. We're at 745 a foot today going up to 775 foot November 2026 with some incremental increases each year after. Um a couple of highlights um you know to this lease that it's not as exciting as it's been in years. the last renewal we did, we we really leaned on the LER to have them do some work to the parking lot, the roof, the HVAC systems. Um, and they've done those things. I think everything is going much better than it had in previous years. Um, and and then unfortunately there was a major water incident uh here where there was a lot of damage to the space. Um, and so, you know, that was not so fun. But the good news is, you know, you've got brand new carpet ceiling tile. Um, and so this for this most current discussion, there just wasn't really the kind of work that has needed to be done in the past, which I think is great. It just means things are going better and the space is is working for you. Um, and so, um, I think, you know, couple of highlights is is that we're really not doing much. So, hopefully that just less distraction for folks and the space is in good shape working for you. Um, in addition to this existing three years renewal, we were out of options and so we um have discuss with the land when they've agreed to give us another three years. And so this renewal that we're asking you to approve is from, you know, it's from November of 26 through October of 29. And this would allow us to then go from 29 to 32 or at least have the right to do that. As a reminder for those of you that haven't been paying attention, we've also got the right to terminate in this lease um annually. So it really provides ultimate flexibility. Um so um you have the ability to decide not to allocate funds to this and you can terminate. So again between shorter term extensions and the right to terminate it really gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility in particular if you decide you want to do something different um you know whether it would be find an opportunity really inexpensibility to buy it's be tough to do that because you know the rents are very very reasonable but again just ultimate flexibility we think the space you know works well for you. Um on the next page here um we've been doing this for some years as people challenged and said why we own buildings why are we you know why are we leasing space and um I think this is just you know an interesting tool first of all we've looked at owning buildings we you know some years ago we looked at retrofitting central um and you know really cost prohibitive when you compare to how little rent we're paying here and then when we look at the market um there's not a lot of office space we're kind of at the edge of the office frontier here in Jackie um but just to give you an idea of how our in stock. So, we've done this just as a comparison. So, we've taken a typical office building in the marketplace um and if you were paying $15 per square foot in in base rent, so it's exclusively your tax oper you'd be at $382,000 a year in rent. If you were in an industrial building, we built all office space within that industrial building and we've given a rent range and we've that particular building a foot compared to that we're at. Um so that'd be $292,000. And then again, just our sample building green there. Um just pure warehouse space. So just walls, lights, heat, other air conditioning. You know, even at that, you're paying about $6 per square foot for just raw warehouse space. And so we've done this just to give you a sense of how does our rent here compare to what's out in the marketplace. You can see why we've discussions because I think this is really economic opportunities we have, you know, we'll continue that. Um, and then this is just a copy of the lease document that we're um looking to approve that get approved, which as I said has these rents, the ability to renew for three years, you know, an additional three years, that right to terminate, and then the lander is also committed to making some some improvements and fixes to seems to have some problems. So, they agreed to step up for for that piece as well. Otherwise, it's a pretty it's a pretty straightforward document, but you know, I think it's I think it's a good school good solution for the school district both as real estate expert and as as a resident of I think this is a a good solution for the district. So, with that, any questions? >> Question. So, I mean to me the warehouse portion it looks much Is it because there it would be essentially more money than it is? >> It's just a box. Yeah. Yeah. So when I say $6 per square foot, that's a concrete floor, four walls. There's a heater in there with an air conditioning, there's lighting, sprinkler system, that's it. So where and one of the reasons that office, you know, rents are so much higher than warehouse because it's going to build out to look like this. that construction costs Canada have gone an awful lot over the last few years. And so to take that a box like that and then spend all the money to build it, you know, then you get up closer to that $15 whether whether the district will spend it or the landlord will spend it on your behalf. Um the other challenge is when you do those scenarios where you get the landlord to give you some money to build the space for them to get reasonable returns, they're going to expect a longterm lease, seven, eight, nibs, just a quick question. So, this is correct. >> It's not just a district office. >> No, this is this is just a >> district. So, the I just wanted to make sure that this is just the district office and not the >> correct separate and and not at the same time. >> So I mean hypothetical >> talk about this every time this comes up but in the event that this space goes away um what what are our options other than you know, facilities that you might have shown here earlier. >> Yeah. >> Um, would we look at one of our schools to see if there's space there or I mean what would you what would you do because obviously this is this really this space works well for for us but I just >> Yeah, we talked a little bit at at finance committee and I talk about it fairly often. Curry does a really good job of staying a breast of what's available in the community partly because we know that you know we have that annual option to get out if something kind of came up. Um you know we we have a contract provided you know building still standing and I think you know the the landlord that we work with and again there's three parts of this building they own one of them you know one of the three parts uh they've been able to some, you know, some places out and it seems like it's going better than it was just a few years ago. So, I think u, you know, in terms of the building going away or a change of course and never say never, you know, things change, but we would typically have some time if it were through that because of the contract that we have um or the ability to be compensated to help us find a new location, but I do want to address. >> Yeah. So that when we talk about the ability to terminate, you know, annually, that's that's a one-way street. That that means that the district, the tenant has the right to the landlord does not. And so so you know, certainly if the building was destroyed, you know, this clause is le that changes, you know, everything. But you know, outside of something catastrophic, um, you know, we really are protected here for another six years, right? So it's the three years asking you to approve today plus we have the right to for another three years. Um and so for six years um I mean there could be you know a taking an eminent domain type situation but you know points out especially as the mall is doing a little better I think that's a long shot anyway so this probably unlikely could happen but it did you know there was an option to find something cheap >> and that's why I think about if something like that would come about because you know there's a lot of development and there's a lot of somebody can come in and offer the property owner a nice >> offer to have this space for developing for something else >> that's right >> it's close to 169 um you know what would you do and would there be opport Yeah, and we do we haven't taken you know I think every year our capacity changes a little bit but we have done some of that and we'll continue to do that in terms of you know there's no quick like oh my gosh be really easy just move in here and you be shifting and doing some things and even that's part of when we looked at Saber Fields you know we've done that leg work in the past because we had heard oh yeah you can build a school in an elementary for example on that site. We went and verified that with you know W and other folks who looked into it. Yes. And that would be you know again we have no plans of building. we don't see our student growth at that level. Uh but certainly I think always kind of being aware and then I think the other part that I appreciate, you know, Cy is what's on the ground, what's out there and we're a little bit outside the typical metro realm or office type space, but that doesn't mean that won't change over time and there might be other options and so doing the best we can. I think that, you know, the key piece of is we would have a runway to do some of that. So, we do, you know, I'm not going to call it really detailed planning, but we're it's one of those pieces we're always cognizant of. I appreciate Cody checking in. You know, we're looking even and again some uses of our buildings pretty simple right now. Yeah. Be just a different whatever group of students using a classroom space. when we're looking at doing other things where we're building out or doing that which is a more permanent investment. We're doing that you know trying to figure out where we are as a district. We haven't done a lot of that because once you build it out, it's not very economical or prudent to then ship that. So there's a number of things that all those possibilities just how far west we are three ownership which is that's complicated as well. You have to try to get those. It's an odd project to start with. So there's a family that owns section with the exception of the movie theater which is separate and then someone else owns the rest that way. So you know just it just doesn't seem like new development you know is is coming here quite that quickly and there's other land that would be cheaper to put you know where you scrape it parking lot. So again you never know but I don't think that's likely foreseeable future. Like I said, every year we'll check in and say, "Hey, here's here's kind of what's out here. Here's some some purchase opportunities." And it just it never really seemed to make sense compared to just, you know, just thinking more proactively. I know nothing of zoning if this is even, you know, something that manifest itself in a long-term contract. of refusal. to mention the multiple parties at home. So having that first round of refusal if the land were to become the property become available for sale at the district have an opportunity to make a purchase at market that that kind of gets you out of that having to go find a new space and redevelop if it was something that you could turn to and again I'm saying that without any knowledge of what market perspective and we're not the real estate business right we're the education business so >> yeah I we not approached that with them. Again, difficult multiple owners and also have to be the least >> I think there's some probably some statutes that have prevent you from >> some sounds good conceptually, but just something to >> Yeah. We looked at potential a number of years ago even >> second motion by Brophy and second by Aldrich. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I oppos. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Do you both want to come up together or want? >> Oh, sorry. But but you're you're listed as separate items, but would you like to come to the table together? Okay. All right. So, we have two information items. We have item 13.1, our secondary curriculum update for social studies and English language arts with Sarah Wenberg, our assistant director of LTE. And then we have 13.2, a comprehensive literacy framework update with Nica Summer, our other assistant director of LTE. Welcome, ladies. >> Thank you. >> Apologies. Moving too fast. Smith, Dr. Thank you for having us back. Um, last spring I came and I asked for some money and an approval of curricula for our social science and department and I'm here with an update of what we're seeing and great news that I'm excited to talk about. So, I'm going to give you an update on those content areas and then a brief update on our 68 social studies curriculum which is currently they're in articulation beginning the process. So you may remember 68 ELA 912 ELA both adopted our 912 social studies has two different curricula human geography is using the broad our US history and world history. So this fall with our coaches and our principles we did a variety of implementation walkroughs for each team in the content area. So the teams had already determined what these walkthrough criteria would be for year one. So we worked with our teacher leaders. We worked with our departments to say what is our what is our qualifications of excellence for year one of the implementation. Our middle school team came up with these eight criteria. So utilizing text provided by the curriculum, utilizing vocabulary and before during after reading strategies provided by the curriculum, incorporating a variety of strategies to engage all students, routines and protocols in place for students to share thinking with peers. An adequate range of examples are used at demonstrate levels of quality. Self assessment and reflection protocols are in place. So those are all things that we need in the classroom and doing an observation. They also to be held accountable for certain things within their PLC and that's that bottom section those PLC implementation reports they wanted to be held accountable for following approved scope and sequence for utilizing the text provided by the curriculum and then for analyzing common sumance rubrics and exemplary tasks together. So we looked at eight different teachers across the two sites and then we compiled the data. You'll see there's quite a few places that we are at 100% which we are very pleased with for fall. Our teachers have only had months to get to know this curriculum and we're working hard to understand it and improvements to the instructional practices. So, we're all very pleased at the the number of criteria that we're only at 100%. You'll see one at the very bottom where it says PLC's PLC's just started in structure in middle school mid October. So, off the ground long enough by the time we were looking at their PLC agendas to see if they had done that yet. So, we'll take another look. There are two places that we want to pay attention to and that's using a variety of strategies to engage all students in learning making sure that we're creating environments that are engaging and that we're we're watching 100% of students should be engaged in intellectual work in class. It shouldn't be a you know 60% are engaged with that. the teacher's job to create the conditions while kids are engaged. That second place that we're going to focus on is using an adequate range of examples that demonstrate levels of quality. Teachers want to do this, but first year with the curriculum, they're still figuring out what that exemplary work looks like. So they they know that their next time teaching. Um you'll see some additional comments. Some of the things that we are learning is our teachers are adjusting to a faster pace and increased rigor. This is something we're hearing across the board with middle school teachers. Um it is a hard adjustment but it's also right adjustment. It is so good for students. We have a quicker pace where we're learning more. We're being challenged more and we're expected to do more working classroom. Couple other things to note. Our teachers have such a deep commitment to their PLC's and I think it is so fun for us to hear when we're trying to set them on a path towards continuous improvement and then to hear from them the kind of conversation they're having in their PLC or the additional meetings to collaborate and solve problems. Uh this group of teachers is going to do their science of reading training next year. So there's a little bit of urgency around developing confidence this year so that next year they're going to be dedicated. Then I also just have to shout out three of our rockstar middle school teachers mainly Megan and they are doing such great work not just with the curriculum but also with their peers through this change. Next we've got 912 ELA. So same curriculum but the team set four different criteria. The thing that they wanted to be held accountable for inform is using the PLC determined common units following the sequence of lessons within units using the common novels and texts within the units and having PLC determine some of the assessments and then using the vocabulary lists and vocabulary lessons. So before there was a lot of variety and a lot of autonomy and now we wanted the team wanted to be wanted to be lock step teaching. We went in and we observed three English n teachers, three English 10 teachers, four English 11 teachers. We also did a scan of canvas to make sure that what we were seeing can design metit This is a credit to the team working with each other. They all come in for different articulation days with Sunday and myself. They did a little bit of coaching and guidance leadership here. But again, so passionate and committed to solving problems amongst themselves and figuring out how this work. Uh this group will also be doing science of reading next year. So again, there's really next year and want to shout out, Justin, Caroline Cook, and for their leadership at that level mental social studies. So this is a two years curriculum. We did the same process again five differents that the team wanted. These were all through campus. So what was really important to the social studies team was that consistency and high quality summitive assessment work. Now we looked at 13 teachers canvas courses and we're pretty good. We've got 100% with PLC's using 100% using the common format just a little bit of variety with the PLC determined summitive assessments and then now again this team you give them feedback you pose a question and the team is eager to course correct and work with each other work um so wanted to shout out Jen Tavios and Colleic for their phenomenal efforts passion and leadership through this uh the in progress for summit of assessments. We had a set criteria but pretty early on the team decided that this wasn't the right set of criteria for the summit of assessment. So we did not on that. We're going to work as a team to develop a better set of criteria for the summit assessments and then all right last but not least social students. So this group has met a couple times. They have already finalized their evaluation group of materials. These are the five categories that they want to stick with. These are also the same five categories that the 112 social studies teach. So integrating inquiry based instruction really putting that focus of learning on students supporting culturally responsive education utilizing standards based instruction and assessment connecting to high quality diverse sources and then providing instructional supports. So does provide guidance for teachers on students on students who might need accommodations and key additions and extensions for students that might challenges. So you'll see our timeline up there as well. Um right when we come back from holiday break we'll have vendor presentations from those presentations will determine if any of the areas has new standards for middle school social studies and it is quite a different sequence than we are used to and then a lot of states have so we'll see if the national publishers who make middle school if not any questions Sure. And and this may apply to both subjects. Uh when you talk about summit of assessment and that am I correct in understanding that's how students success will be measured in terms of the results of that assessment or is that the teacher assessing the curriculum is a measure of success student? >> It is a measure of success from the student. So that summitative is there that is where it's kind of like a culminating task where we want students to show what they've learned through and show proficiency in certain field. >> So I can glad because my question we don't have 100% consistency right that would lend itself to slightly different standards to measure that success. And then I guess part B, how does that align to the state standards having to do with meeting whatever represents the teaching standard if it's not yet? >> Sorry, >> the last piece. So like the standard the state standards like they might still be in >> they have implementation isn't until next year. >> So that's really the curriculum will support the standard not so much the standard >> standards are clear that align with the standards in a way better teachers I've seen some districts that science that nicely standards and then teachers are swapping books left between grade levels which is just a level of chaos for teachers'll will depend on when we were deep. >> It was really more the consistency of measuring success and having those summitive assessments be clear on what that looks like and then to your point when it comes to curriculum because so the states release their standards do they do they provide a compliance grade for these different everybody's reviewing or just does every district have to evaluate that individually? >> They don't. Some states do, our state does not. So, we come up with our own internal criteria. I think it what we do when we develop these rubrics is we do a lot of research to see what are the other examples out there. What are other students doing? What are the criteria that true to the Minnesota state standards and what are the criteria that our valid? >> Yeah. Well, we open up books and then chapters were printed upside down so we had to return them and get new ones. So that happened about 40 of the books that we purchased a surprise. Some of it a lot of it is piecing so trying to figure out like we anticipate this never before we anticipate it's going to take this long and then when we get in and it ends up taking a lot longer. So there's some course correcting that has to happen but um our teachers heard a lot about good job and they are deeply uncomfortable. So I think that the biggest couple for one I love the compilation piece of this and articulation team input sounds like passion and a group of people that I really dedicating a lot of time and effort into this. Um, as far as the social studies better presentations pilots, is there is there a lot of options out there or how many are we going to be vetting at this point in time? >> We are four. >> Do you want to know which one? >> No, no. I'm just curious. We've gone through a few adoptions around here. Yeah, we usually we cast a wider net and so we go and we do a lot of research on which ones do we think are going to be worth it and look at our group as we're pursuing different resources online or talking to people and try to cast a pretty wide net. Um I I apologize we cast a wide net and then we sample. So that was our first step is we sampled a bunch of material from six different vendors and online resources. We compared the material physical materials to our We whittle it down for the vendor and then the vendors we can ask our more specific questions if we couldn't find something when we were using the resources. We also get to learn about some of the online and then we rate it again. those same articulation teams are going to be a big part of that presentation process. >> Yep. And then we expand that group too to make sure that we have somebody from somebody special. Okay, thank you for having me back tonight. I am going to give a little update on our comprehensive literacy framework. Um, and tonight we have um these six buckets that we continuously come back to and talk about. I'm really going to focus on um our arts and letters pilot tonight. We've been talking about foundational skills throughout the fall. So, tonight I'm going to really hone in on that high quality resource kind of how the science is connected to the practice and then also kind of what our teachers are learning through the process. So last spring we came with our recommendation for arts and letters to specifically teach the language comprehension part of our literacy that that scar bro wrote. Um and we're we've been really excited to have that with a team at every site that's implementing uh the resources here. So I'm going to go deep tonight with as our example because it gives you that holistic overview of what this is going to look like with kids. So first grade out of the out of the gate they come and their first unit is why are books important. Um and this presentation was put together by Abby Parin. She's a first grade teacher at Eagle Creek. She's not able to be here tonight but I'm presenting on her behalf on behalf of her team. and this is what they have put together for their colleagues so that it helps them next year as they are implementing this resource. So these are the books. One of our main criteria when we were looking at adopting our our resource was that we had actual physical text that kids could pick up and sit and read and study. And so this is an example of of the text that students will have access to throughout that entire module. One module is about one quarter. So they go very deep into these books. They read them over and over which is part of the science of reading that kids are multiple reading texts multiple times to really get to a deep level of understanding. Not only do they have the text uh but they also have articles, they have poetry, they have videos. So we have this um multi- multi-ext presentation for students to participate in. and they have been loving the videos especially and and actually artwork that they're studying in the classroom. In addition, uh we have purchased the the geo. These are our decodable books that also match the content that they're learning about. So, it's a really great opportunity for kids to practice the foundational skills while also learning about that unit of study. This is just an example of the vocabulary that our first graders are not only learning about but using in the classroom when they're talking about their text. So very rich language development that is happening every day in these questions. And this is just kind of going to show you what it looks like if you were to visit the classroom. Um you can see the vocabulary words are over there on the right. They each have a picture with those words. And then the The way that the resource works is it develops world knowledge. So kids are learning about science and social studies um and the world around them and also English language arts knowledge. Um so you can kind of see here a little bit what that looks like. So in the world they're learning there are primary colors. Uh they read the books and they pull out uh the students pull out what they've learned and the teacher records it on these charts to kind of keep track of their learning over time. And then you can see they're learning in English that text uh you can learn about text through the words and the pictures and the message is the central idea. So really kind of a powerful way. I think what also this shows you see the language notice and wonder. That's the exact same language we use in our math curriculum. So they're seeing a nice tie there and the consistent use of those skills for students in math and in our ELA. This just kind of goes a little more deep into those world knowledge charts that they're developing with the students and then the ELA knowledge charts. And then um our summit of assessments are really assessing student writing. So the way that the curriculum works is there's kind of these scaffolded tasks throughout. So they'll read a bunch of books and then they'll have a challenge or or a question. Write a story in which a character visits a library. So they've read these books where characters visit libraries and then they invite you a response to that. So you can see here this little student is saying and her friend sing for the golden book. First she drives to the library next she sings for the golden book last she has the golden book. Um so this would be the first assessment for first graders which is pretty impressive that they're writing you know three to five sentences right away really early in the year. And then the second one um a story where the character learns something from a book and then it progresses through an end of module task. And I included the task here so you can see that they're assessing the students understanding of the story, the elements, the transition word, and that um they get that concept of a beginning, middle, and end. They're also looking at the mechanics. So upper lowerase letters, they're using the phonics and applying it in their writing. They're getting that idea of capital and period. And the cool part, we talk a lot about AFL and assessment for learning. For our youngest learners, they have student samples so they can see what is a strong example of the writing tag. Um, and they can really strive for that excellence. So, I thought it'd be fun to kind of showcase how this all comes together. Aurora likes smoothies, but she doesn't know how to make them. First, she goes to the library. Next, she reads the story outside under the tree. And finally, she makes a she shares it with her friends. So, you can see uh very early on the beginning, the middle, the end. They've got the character of the problem. They've got that resolution. There's a setting in there outside under the tree. The drawing matches. There's so much going on here in a really powerful way for student experience. Of course, I had to share this one. Justin Jefferson likes to watch tackle football. He wants to play tackle football, but he doesn't know how. First, he goes to the library, then gets a book. All next, he reads the book, finds football. So, thought that was a really fun one to share. So, I think our teachers are learning a lot through this process. We have never talked about a central message or theme in first grade. They are already identifying that um as their focus in these texts over time and we're seeing just really good application through writing with our youngest learners. So I am grateful for these teams of teachers that are putting all the work into these soft starts here. Um oh what's next? So um as we go through this process, they are going to be creating curriculum maps and pacing guides for their peers. You can see this whole PowerPoint is intended to be given to all the first grade teachers next year to really guide them through that planning process and give them examples of what they expect to see with their students in the classroom. Um they are going to continue to think through those assessments and develop uh report cards and rubrics so we can share the information uh in a parentfriendly way. Um, and then really helping us develop those key look for like what Sarah showed her team's developing, what do we want to be held accountable for? So, they will help us develop that. Um, and that will help us determine how we use the curriculum, the critical instructional practices to focus on, and then what they want feedback and coaching around for next year. Um, and they will also help us determine our training plan for supports for staff. first happening. >> Yes. >> Quick comment more than anything. I guess I did seen this topic coming up to member of the articulation team at my school. I have first graders. So this stuff, all this writing feels right at home. It's on my refrigerator right now. Um but uh yeah, they they in general seem to love this this uh new curriculum that it does build on itself. It sounds like quite a bit from 11th grade to grade. And so some of the early challenges they predict will be the pacing of this because it's new to third graders fourth graders and also that it's quite different than anything we've done before and that it's going to take a lot of teachership mindship and training on this. So I'll be interested and hopeful that we have a really good training strategy and all these things that that we can do to make this really successful sounds like everything that >> Yeah, thank you for saying that and and I again this is where I think the teachers that are piloting or stoparting it are really thinking intentionally about how do I support my colleagues in this process. Um you know one thing that we're trying a little bit this year is popup PD for the youth line the 95 with Sarah and Steph and um we've had a pretty good turn up. So we're trying to think about what what does everybody get guaranteed and what are additional offerings that we can continue to provide because it is a big shift in traffic. Absolutely. >> Does it um just to shift the both presentations that make sense to do some data compilation kind of like did with the middle school and high school on some of these doesn't correlate? >> Yes. Yeah. The critical instructional practices. Yeah. And I I'm hoping to come back after the new year and kind of share some of the data pieces around Ulineics. Um we've been collecting observational data and we will also have um some initial student data after we do our our screening in January. So I will share some of that and we will do the same for this implementation. >> Just a good followup and I I agree that it seems that the reading comprehension is manifesting itself. I was going to ask about the book report. We just saw it in the imagination illustration kind of coming out creativity as you get into like the fourth and fifth grade and we heard it from our student presenters earlier tonight. Just the the ability to have that confidence to be able to present that information back to fifth grade. we had a group project to do commercials, you know, where it's recorded, kind of getting into videography. Does some of that play into this to be able to do like presentations to the class? >> Absolutely. >> And I know that it's still kind of a blank slate, >> but I think that's such an important skill set, but also reinforces everything we just saw on paper as well. So one of the shifts actually is a Socratic seminar which even starts in kindergarten. So that routine of teaching kids how to have conversations and dialogue and learn from each other. You listen with with intent. You respond. Absolutely. That's a key piece of this resource. So you're just kind of seeing some of the writing, but those practices are built within. So they will start right away in kindergarten with those those whole group conversations, small group conversations, like really learning from each other, building that knowledge together, debating. Yeah, it's active. >> Well, and that, you know, goes back to my Mrs. kindergarten, it seems pretty early to be writing stories library, but it's it's interesting. Next our general item 14 second reading of policy 701 and Johnson. >> Yes. So policy 71 you might remember is just adding some additional purchasing protocols more specific outlining see if I can summarize it quickly anything between 25,000 50,000 two quotes between 50 and 175 sealed bids for contract signend finance director and operations director and then any over 175,000 requires seal contract. So this is a formality question. It's a small item but I mean for the one require two or more quotations. Don't need to add one available if we had something really some sort of that problem in the future. We're mirroring exactly what's in state law and there are some rare occasions and if that's the case, we would bring that into that conversation for approval. See no further discussion. We will move on. Thank you. Now we have several action items. Uh starting with 15.1 student activity edition flag football. And here to present is our activities director Andy Brown. Welcome. >> All right. And see everyone again. a little quicker turn around since last time. Um we so last time I was here, I talked about that we have a grant application in um with the Minnesota Vikings for the girls flag football league. Um and then since uh we met um we got approval of that grant uh in the total of $10,000. Um and then they let us know that we had to um accept the grant and um commit to participation in the league by next Monday, the 22nd of December. So, uh, I didn't, those were deadlines that I didn't see anywhere else. So, I said, "Okay, we got to get back in front of the board as quickly as we can here." So, um, so basically just with that, um, we have kind of run up a budget, um, to try to figure out, uh, where kind of roughly where we think things are going to be at and what that's going to look like. Um, we think that that budget number, um, we kind of line item it out to, um, $22,280, putting a little bit of cushion in there for just don't know everything that's going to come up gets us to about we were thinking $24,000. Um so with the $10,000 grant um and then we would propose charging $150 activity fee that's in line with what we do for Ultimate Frisbee which is the closest comparison for um a sport that participates in an independent league that kind of then exists under my purview as opposed to the athletic director because it's not a high school league sport. Um so the ultimate roster um We haven't received all the information about it, but the way they did it last year was there are three teams that can each roster 15 people. So, we figure 45 girls um that $150 activity fee gets us to 6750. Um so, between the grant and those activity fees, then we just need a little more um budget allocated to get us to that 24,000 total. So, um I don't want to try to do the math in my head. I thought I had on this document, but I believe it's $7,250 to get us the rest of the way um from the 10,000 plus the um 6750 there. So, um so that's kind of where that sits. Um you can kind of see the the stuff there. Obviously, like in most things, staffing is, you know, about about half of it. Um the general schedule for this um we would take place the intent would be to kind of start um practice and try out process as early as March if we can um and be able to to hit the ground with practice twice a week um games starting in May. The games are kind of run like four or five consecutive weekends um and we rotate so we'll host like three teams and then travel to other events where there are three other teams there as well. So that's all the way they've done it. We don't know if there will be any changes to come down, you know, in the league organization, they might do things differently, if there are more programs um and so on. So, we're just kind of going after the best information we have based on how they did it last year. Um, one other thing that I had mentioned last time is that we weren't sure what the Vikings were were going to provide in terms of starter equipment. They're only going to provide this year um a set of 25 like belt packs, the flag packs for that. So um last year they provided some training equipment and balls and things like that. So that's a little budget there. So that's kind of the deal. So we're just looking for approval for um you know that to get that budget allocated knowing that we have you know a large portion of it coming in um and to start the process of finding some staff and working from there. Oh, I should mention also that the grant is um with the approval it it includes it's 5,000 next year and then 2500 the year after and then so that's kind of their their startup decreasing grant. So take the itemized list $24,000 of that how much of that is like a one time investment you mentioned some of the equipment. Oh, sure. Um, so it seems as though the budget in the subsequent year would be less than the 24,000 as a result of >> Yeah, likely. Yep. Yeah, we've got about 6,000 there that um is kind of the equipment purchases. That's most of that is start up and then it's kind of what did you um hang on to? Didn't break some of that. But yeah, and uniforms, you know, the first time through and uniforms are that not typically not an every year expense, right? you try to get yourself on every few years or you know however that that works out. So just thinking more in the context as the grant rolls off. So so do some of those just did you say it only ran for a month? >> Um the the games go really they run every weekend in May. So we would start practicing before that and then I think typically I mean it's they might change it again course but it has been like four games or four consecutive weekend and then with the state tour after that >> the one thing that obviously this is fast moving forward Um there are some challenges with it. Um with the Viking running this program um the National Federation of High Schools which kind of oversees and sets the rules for that we adopt or modify um is different and so I see that to be a little bit of a challenge. The equipment requirements are different requirements. So looking out it's probably going to be three or four years to go through the process. Um there will be some additional equipment that will have purchased a number of people on the field at a time from what I understand is different between the two weeks as well. So um that's unfortunate and not other states already have this >> that was going to be my other states have similar program unless you're abiding by more of those rules and regulations. Sure. Yeah. I think I mean once something's under high school per then there's no national anything attached to I haven't really dug into what other states are doing that sort of thing. I did take a glance. That's a good call. The other difference is right now Saturday. >> Yeah. Part of the design of it is that they didn't want to be pulling students away from the spring sports that they're already participating in. But obviously high school some this is running kind of similar path to wrestling in a lot of ways and how fast that has taken off the numbers for football. Very very I was gonna say I'm guessing that the Vikings asked you to make a quick decision on this because they realize how much free time they have in January. >> I'm afraid or the the fee the set of fe is that more of an attractive fee to get people involved in this or as our grant orders you know grant dollars drop down maybe increase in that fee as we get participation. Well, that that fee is just set with it's in line with my more expensive activities as well as the other athletics. So, um you know, we're not going to what what they're doing at all. That would be much bigger. We've had that conversation a couple times. Um you know, with the board along the way and said that that's not something we're interested in doing. That's but that's the ultimate kind of job of the board. we get to a point finally where they want to charge more. I know we try to keep everything really affordable here as well as providing a few waiverss as much as possible because of financial hardship. So we want we just want everybody to play >> football motion by Peterson, second by Johnson. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? >> I oppos. Motion carries. >> Okay. Thank you so much. True to form. I'll go straight from here to a choir concert. That's seems to happen almost every time. >> Next is another information item. Item 15.2 memorandum of understanding Pearson Early Learning Center 267 calendar and 20 26 work group. And here to present are Keith Grey, our director of human resources and Dale Anderson, our CA president. Welcome. >> Good evening. So, um, just giving you some broad understanding. Um, Pearson Early Learning Center operates similar to our regular schools, but yet there's some pretty significant differences. So, when we when we were negotiating our contract, we were negotiating calendar issues and some um school day issues. We worked a great deal on that plan, but we didn't have a full understanding of the differences uh that would happen with that calendar and with that approach with um early learning center didn't really I mean in a sense is just didn't quite mesh up but that's true of much of the contract. So thisou is an attempt to um kind of look at the next year and try to figure out how do we do a better job of integrating it I'll let because he's done a lot of work with the teachers on that and we've met with administrators and had a lot of involvement but we have still got a lot of >> Yeah. So I mean the prim the primary is that you know K12 is funded primarily by the state whereas um finance director was David was was talking about earlier you got those four funding streams but basically so are you providing free public education to those K12 but It's a it's a fee based program and so that program needs to kind of pay for itself to a large extent and that money tends to come by the number of days that you have a student. And so as we looked at the the number of days in the calendar wasn't matching up very well. And so the calendar issue is is one element that needs to be done. But then as we began looking at calendar issue There's a variety of other things about how Pearson functions because they're on a K12. They're also on a K, you know, with us in this K12 contract. Uh that doesn't align particularly well. There's actually a subset section in the in the top that addresses early childhood. Uh and there's some conflicting language as a result of that. You know, one part of the contract it says the teacher due year will be 180 days and another part of the contract it says the district due to the unique Pearson program in the district has the right to set what that new year is for. So it creates kind of this uh this conflict. So one of the the things that we're seeking to do here is we did a short kind of a shortterm um solution on the calendar adjustment because of the fact that their funding again is driven by the number of days that they have students time. Um, and so there's kind of a short-term fix on the Pearson calendar for one year. And then the whole idea was to pull a group of teachers and district leaders together to kind of take a look at Pearson programming in general and say how can we do a better job of helping that kind of align the word I use but align with what's happening at K12 so that we're treating if they're being paid similarly being treated similarly they're having similar conditions etc. So that's really what the purpose is. We're the the first part of the the of the memorandum is asking for or it's basically setting up hey here are the days that Pearson will be in session with students that K12 is not necessarily going to have student contact. They might have they might have a PD day or they might have a work day something along those lines whereas Pearson will be in with students because of the funding issue. Um the second part of the memorandum is really saying hey we do a better job of kind of aligning what's going on between Pearson and K12. So, we want to put together a work group that includes the leaders and teachers from those programs to uh help kind of brainstorm how can we do a better job getting the Pearson program align better with the K12 since they're all in the same um and address the calendar the forward going issue as part of that as well. So that would involve looking at you know kind of research what's best practice for early childhood education that would involve um doing comparisons across districts what are the surrounding communities doing in terms of early childhood uh and you know in terms of what do they do for a calendar what do they do in terms of what they what they charge what what programming do they used uh and how do we stack up you know in terms of those sorts of things. And then again trying to to figure out ways that um we can make sure that we're uh treating those teachers as similarly as as we are K12 teachers. So that's the the big push here. So that group would work basically we're setting up from January to December of 2026 that that work group would function during that time period with the whole idea they would be bringing back some recommendations to the negotiations process for the 2729 negotiations. If I could add one piece to that, I did add it to the our organizational meeting the school boards on January 5th. You know, we always have kind of ad hoc committees on occasion. This seems to fit that one of those spaces of this work group. Uh really seems to align well be a good fit for a member of the schoolboard personnel committee who will also then most likely be a member of that negotiations team in the following year. So, not something we're going to take care of tonight, but It is provided the approved. It sounds to me like in all reality what needs to happen. This is very surface level obviously decided but the programming has to fit our calendar in the future more than likely like we're not going to change our K through 12 calendar just for the group right so negotiate or find a good chunk of programming slots and time frames calendar and it's not doing that now. Is that >> Well, I think it's you know some of it is that there's a um there's kind of a a history of how the the program has kind of functioned in the district over time. And so if you look back, you know, previous to the current uh leadership administration, you know, there was a time time period where essentially kind of the the teachers who were in that program were kind of running themselves. There was a a supervisor who was overseeing it, but in all, you know, in all honesty, it was the teachers kind of operating this program by itself. that creates some some real challenges because then what happens is you don't get the communication all the way through the system in terms of how this aligns with what else is happening uh at the K12 level. And so now that we have um some federal oversight, we actually have a a principal who's in charge or an administrator who's in charge of the Pearson program who's directly overseeing that and um trying to make sure that it actually aligns with with what's in the contract and um finding some anomalies in terms of just you could argue bad past past practice. I mean, not there's nothing here that's egregious, but there are things just that need to be because either there's a significant advantage given to those teachers, maybe additional prep time or something like that that that can create, you know, a sense of a uh again, it's almost impossible to have things be totally equal, but you are trying to make a sense of fairness kind of exist across the program. So, the whole idea here is to say we haven't really done a deep dive, you know, in terms of how this stacks up from a contractual uh standpoint in a long long time. Um, and there's been pressure across the straight the state uh across the state for for a long time. Early childhood was not um on the the full teacher contract in terms of pay and benefits and those sorts of things. Um there's been a real real strong push in the last 10 years to give because they're licensed. Most in this district they're all licensed. Uh in some districts they're not licensed which might might make a difference but in this district they're all licensed. So strong strong push across the state in those cases where there are licensed early childhood to bring them into the the teacher contract because everybody else who's got a license like that is on that contract. Um but again when when there hasn't been that vetting to make sure that everything that's happening there kind of aligns well with that you know there's some anomalies that exist in terms of how they function that don't fit very well. So it's a really good timing in terms of taking a look at what are they actually doing? How does that how does that align there are again the key challenge I think is the funding side of it because the funding again they're having to favor themselves and uh when you have to do that and it's again not based on minutes it's based on the actual days you offer program that creates some problems when we're looking at calendar changes and that sort of thing having to account for that. Um and so part of it is looking at all those different That's the purpose of this group. Hey, we need to take a good close look at this and try and see if we can't do a better job making sure this >> that's a long that's a good answer. Yeah, you know, we just we just approved the prek curriculum not too long ago. So I imagine that that adoption and this whole process align well for timing along as a whole group just to expand I would presume that early childhood is not measured by contact just because of the nature I might have come on Tuesdays and Thursdays right as opposed to a full week so That in of itself creates a it's a just different expression business model and it's the number of days the business is open that translates to the revenue. So this makes sense that early childhood and counter in the realm of that is going to differ slightly but you also want to beable. question, but it does seem that it's unique that it's not really contact. >> Yeah. No, I think that's uh that's true. Some some kids are attending Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Monday through Friday. I mean, so they have a wide variety of different and that does create a challenge when you're looking at what's the teacher for those pieces of it and then you have the special ed piece of it and then you have the parented which is another. So there's four different kinds of program at Pearson and that's that's a challenge in and of itself because each one of those programming pieces different elements of calendar the big systemic thing is if you look at the history of early child regular teachers that's like only within the last 10 years that teachers have been on the teacher contract who work in early childhood. So everybody's sort of creating this what's the right way to blend these things because they are such different programs even the length of time that that students can tolerate being school you know so I mean there's all those kind of things everybody has to I mean It's been how do you plan it to help people be on a future contract quite a bit? >> So, we're going to try to see if we can do a way better job than it has. But that's part of why those things exist because it's common sense that we might just hopefully provide a little bit of clar There's two agenda items. The first is approval of this view and the second is approval of a one-year contract one year contract. the one year calendar and that one year calendar was kind of a as this idea for the calendar and then we kind oh there are a lot of things that we really need to talk through learn about and plan better at Pearson and so the oneear calendar is really meant to give us the time to have really good conversations um from January to December 2026 to really work and have solid long-term solutions. And so that's why that's the second item on that agenda. It's not the perfect calendar. It kind of buys us a year, sort of a compromise, if you will to really have these discussions and then have hopefully a much better plan next December when we're here. >> Some of the staff can be part of the script. Yeah. So a goal the way the is written there be six uh district people because we we probably need somebody from community overse uh and then we'll have one from one teacher from each of the programs. So we have um early childhood special education birth to three, early childhood special education 3 to five, ages three to five. You have what they call stepping stone which is kind of primary learning early learning program and then you have parented early child and family education. So those are the four. So we want a rep from each of those four groups to sit on the committee to help bring expertise to those different pieces. How does it affect the you know how does it affect the teacher group in that particular area? Um just just as an example some of the uniqueness um in the the early childhood special education birth to three they're on a stretch calendar where they were you know 180 days spread throughout the whole year and not not the typical 184 days right now. Um and so you know that is a different kind of a challenge you know those particular but we want representatives to those groups and then they'll be um negotiator and also on that committ >> motion by Peterson and second by Brophie. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I oppos? Motion carries. And then you've got another action item, both of you. Uh the actual calendar, one-year calendar. So the again the challenge here was um we needed to keep uh Pearson's number of student contact days uh the same as as the current year and currently is 170 days. Um and so we had some kind of creative ways to think through that uh because we had taken the overall teacher calendar from 184 next year going to 180 days from 71 student contact to 167 student contact with an extension of 10 additional minutes on each of those 167 days so that the instruction minute stays the same. And the unfortunate thing is if your funding comes based on the number of days you cut days up. So you cut funding. Additionally, um just from an educational standpoint, lengthening this the length of the learning period for um prek kids was not considered best practice. Uh and that's part of what the work will take a little bit more. So making that swap, you know, where we're kind of saving the same amount of instruction time um doesn't work particularly well at least from what we understand at this particular point. So we needed to look within how do we stay within 180 days but um you know keep 170 days rather than 167 days of student contact. We started by just saying hey what if you just maintain the current uh number of days 184 with 171 student contact days and reduce the length of the workday and um the teachers were like well 180 days. Uh and so it is one of those things where you're trying to treat people fairly. And so then obviously if there's 171 days and there's 184 total days 171 student contact 184 total days or 1670 there's a you know a group of days, additional days that are being used for other purposes. So, the short-term solution is to take some days from those other purposes. So, that might be professional development or teacher work days at the end of the quarter where they turn grades around or those sorts of things, swap those into student contact days for the purpose of allowing them to earn the same. So, if you look at the calendar on your screen, you'll see um there are I guess might not show exactly on this in in the way that you would like, but just for example, I think I listed on theou, if you look at a copy of the four days where they will be in having student contact, um you'll see four days that other teachers would either be in a PD day or having an end of quarter workday and the Pearson teachers will actually have students on those on those days. So they're not working a longer calendar, but they are having more more of their calendar. Um the district really didn't want to lose the PD time. So as another part of the agreement was to take those 14 hours of professional development and turn those into one hour professional developments one time a week, 14 different weeks over the course of the school year. that actually dovtales pretty well with the the curriculum implementation that they're doing because it's going to give them ongoing time, you know, an hour here, an hour there over the course of the year to kind of look at how is that implementation going. So that's the other part. That's where you see all these little go back to the calendar just for a second. Uh you'll see a whole bunch of pink boxes around and those are all the dates that they picked for these one hour trainings there. So um so those are the essential pieces. You got those those four dates that are going to be student contact that are not on K12 that are being used for PD and end of quarter days on K12. And then you have these 14 pink boxes. They're all Thursdays. You can see on there where they're going to be doing these 1 hour trainings uh to make up time. calendar. >> Second motion by Pearson, second by Brophy. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor. >> Thank you, gentlemen. Uh, next is another action item, item 15.4, acceptance of the audit report. And here to present is our director of finance and operations, David Daskovich, and Jackie Nolles, the director of creative planning at JD. >> Dr. Thank you for having me. I'm going to be going over a summary of the audit results for 2024 2025 and then a summary of one operating results for the year. Uh so the main purpose of our audit is to provide our independent auditor's report. In this report we are providing an unmodified or clean opinion on the district's financial statements. It's the best that we can offer. We're saying that the district has been receiving. It provides assurance that the financial statements are presented fairly. Uh the position or the financial position of the district is June 30th, 2025 and all of the activities that are given here. Uh we also are required to provide three additional reports. Uh the first listed here is the report on the results of an audit performed in accordance with government auditing standards or GAS. We take a closer look at the district control and we also look for compliance with law grants contracts and other regulations. We did not have any compliance findings but we have one repeat internal control finding that I'm sure will sound familiar with the lack of segregation of accounting fees um that the district has been receiving and is very common for districts to receive. Jackie, can you touch what would be one way around that? >> Um, basically to eliminate that finding, it would take additional FTE in the accounting department, including having your main director of finance, not having access to make any changes to the system, just strictly review access, which does a challenge, but just getting done. Um, and then also the cost of adding those activities. Um the second additional report listed here is the report on the results of a single audit performed under the uniform guidance. So this is a federal requirement where we tested compliance with the title one and child nutrition programs for this year and we didn't have any findings related to either of those programs. And then the last report is the report on the results of our testing on Minnesota legal compliance of the office of the state auditor ask us to test for compliance with certain statutes to Minnesota school districts and we did not have any findings there. So clean reports all around just the one repeat finding. So with that, we'll move on to some of the financial results for the year. And we'll start off looking at the basic formula allowance. The basic amount that the state gives to all districts and that amount per pupil unit was 72.81 for 2025 and that is a 2% increase. So we'll see how that factors into revenues in a few slides here. But then of course the other u main factor on the general the basic general education aid is going to be those student counts. So first off we have the resident students which are the public school um students residing in the district boundaries regardless of where they are attending. Um and this number has been overall going down over the last five years although there was a slight increase in 2025 from the previous year. And then this next slide takes those resident EDM and does also factor in the effects of open enrollment and then also convert converts those numbers to what's called a PUN or pupil unit number served. Um basically preschool through grade six are weighted at 1.0 and then grade 7 through 12 are weighted at 1.2. So that's how we arrive at this year number and again this number um has trended overall downward over the last five years but more stable 2024 to 2025 and then here you can see the change in those amounts from the prior year. So from 2021 to 2024 is where the largest increases were seen and then as I mentioned more stable in 2025. So with that we'll move on to looking at revenue in the general fund. And as you can see revenue has overall increased over the last five years with about a 3.4% increase in 2025. That was increase was seen across taxes of about 2.2 2 million with an increase in the general fund's share of the levy and then also revenue from the state of about 4.6 million and that was primarily across special education aid and some in general education aid as well special education aid being up with increasing expenditures and then also the district did use $800,000 um of federal funds for towards tuition billing. So that impacted state special education Um and then of course general education aid um going up because of that 2% increase with student accounts being very stable. And then other revenue was down about 2 and a.5 million and that includes federal revenues. And as you may recall those pandemic related funds needed to be spent by September 30th of 2024. Um so most of those funds were spent in 2023 and 2024. Moving on to the budget to actual results for the general fund. Um the far right column is the variance column and you'll see total revenues came in over budget by about $5 million. Revenue from the state was over budget about $2.3 million. Um a couple things going on there. First of all, student counts exceeded expectations and then just overall conservative budgeting for general education and special education aid and some new aids that were received under the act were not budgeted. Other and lo other local and county revenues over budget almost $1.5 million. there was a positive change in the fair market value of the investments of the district and that exceeded the budget for interest earnings and then also just some of the various fees and and other items that come into that category can vary from year to year. So just being conservative with the budget for those. And then on the federal side over budget about a million dollars and again that has to do with the $800,000 of federal funding um applied towards special ed tuition billing. So that impacted federal revenue as well by $800,000. So the main reason for that over budget on the expenditure side over budget in total almost 1.4 million. That's a 1.1% variance. The biggest variance is in people support services. You'll see that was over budget almost 3.3 million and that was primarily due to the district changing the coding of dean salaries um to pupil support services in fiscal 2025 and it was budgeted in the administration line item. So that's the the big reason why you see administration under budget almost 2.5 million >> and when I came in so deans are really part of compensatory funding um and so where we had them didn't align with compensatory funding how far financial accounting standards that's what everybody uses they have a set permitted amount of codes of what codes can go together so we needed to move those counselors to student support personnel to make them of that compensatory which is that's what they're doing. That's what their jobs are. There was nothing in the log of how we were coding them just to make sure that they were put in that funding source. >> And that's how that'll be done. >> Yet shift budget variances. And then another reason why you see the pupil support services being further over budget than administration is under budget is transportation. is also in people support services and that was over budget as well. Um sites and buildings over budget about 1.2 2 million just the timing of projects over the summer, the amount of work completed by June 30th as opposed to after year end what was budgeted. And then another larger item um instructional support services under budget about 1.3 million and that was across equipment and computer hardware purchases. So looking at the bottom line um initially budgeted for fund balance to to decrease about 9 million the adjusted or amended budget anticipated fund balance would go down about 694,000. Uh fund balance actually increased about almost 3.5 million in total for the year and we'll see um in a few slides the components of fund balance in what that all about. Um so then we'll look at expenditures uh by program next. Um as I touched on earlier there was that shift um between administration and pupil support services. You can see that here with administration going down and people support services going up. Um you'll see some other increases in the largest spending categories. Regular instruction and special education instruction primarily due to salary and benefit increases related to contractual increases and lane movement and other inflationary cost increases. But total expenditures about 9 million from 2024 to 2025. Then we have the spending allocation over the the last two years. So as I mentioned um expenditures up about 7.9 million but when you look at that allocation it was spread out very evenly across the various programs of the district which is what we look to see is as spending goes up it should be spread out evenly across the different programs. Um so there was a two percentage point shift from um administration to people support again because of that dean coding change but otherwise very consistent. So here is a look a lot of numbers on this slide but a look at the general fund has been for the last five years. Um, so looking at 2025, as I mentioned earlier, fund balance in total was up almost $3 and a half million dollars. The components of fund balance are in the middle part of this table. And you'll see the majority of that increase are actually more than the $3.5 million increase landed in the assigned category. That ended at almost 9.4 million at the end of the year. the fifth number in the bottom if you're looking for it. Um, and that that serves as the district set aside um based on its long-term financial plan and the parameters that in the district's fund balance policy. >> Yeah. And I'd like to touch on this. So when I came in, if you look at 24, just to draw your attention that we had fund balances kind of mixed through all our restricted assigned fund balances. Um really a district spends those every year. Those should be drawn down. Those expenditures should have either lived in the general fund and should have been moved and then reconciled. I came in the balances into our assigned I looked at the expenditures the correct funding what is you know legal what you can move. Um I brought that into assigned fund balance. So that's where you have that 9.3 really next fiscal year this current fiscal year 25 26 we're projected at a $6.7 million deficit. So that 9.3 million the sign function forward. >> Um and then one other number I wanted to touch on is the unassigned fun balance. So that's what's available for spending on any purpose. Line from the bottom end almost $13 million and that number is equal to 10% of expenditures based on what was spent in 2025. And that number is important because that is what is addressed in the district's fund balance policy. Um that policy states that the district will strive to maintain a minimum unassigned general fund balance of 8 to 12% of annual budget. So the 10% being right in the middle of that range set in policy. And then here's another look at the unassigned fund balance in blue. So you can see how that's grown quite a bit over the last five years from that low point in 2021 um to come in compliance with policy. Um, and then the total cash and investment balance in green, that's going to mirror more closely to the total fund balance of the general fund, which has also gone up over the last five years. Um, and then we'll move on to the food service fund where revenues were very stable from 2024 to 2025 while expenditures increased a about $200,000 and that was primarily due to additional overhead costs to this fund in 2025 rather than um keeping them in the general fund because we can see this fund um a significant fund balance is able to cover costs in 2025. And then the community service fund uh revenues were up about 2% from 2024 to 2025 with increases in tuition and fees while expenditures were up about 0.4% primarily in salary and benefits increases but still second consecutive year of expenditures exceeding revenue. So fund balance did decrease to a negative uh position in total at the end of the year. And when you look at the components of fund balance on there are some significant deficits in community education and school readiness or preschool. So my understanding the district does have some plans in place for this fund to work on for future fiscal years to kind of turn the financial position around. I'll touch base on it. I mean, we've kind of known this is going to go negative as this fiscal year. Our plan is kind of right those programs along the school age care for the for the next fiscal year. So, we plan to rightize this and make sure that it's operating within a positive window as we move forward. And this will be a big question or expenses incorporated or that >> they have been moved into fund balance that those program And that was it for the prepared presentation. I'm happy to take any questions. >> I know this is the most excited I've seen you in like months time. Just the one this followup albeit like we've seen this film before having to do with the segregation of duties. your earlier point you have to bring in additional processes with that meet compant standard but are there compensating controls or other things that acceptable? >> Yeah, good question. Um and actually I had touched on this in the finance committee meeting but this um level of binding was actually reduced one level this year because of some of those compensating controls having um you know all members of the accounting staff being actual district staff and onsite for the full year under audit um and having um clear documentation of the segregation duties and the signups and the reviews and that type of thing. better documents if we were able to drop that down level >> it's all yours um the food service fund we talk about that committee I guess my confusion on that is isn't the state paying for this >> the state is so every school district is I mean I'm glad you brought this up because I was going to jump back to it if we didn't place on it The state is reimbursing us for every meal we serve. Every school district is in coloring this issue that their fund balance and food services expand. I mean, we saw it at my previous district. It was just exploding and you hire more staff when you really didn't need more staff. But what MDE did was they opened up food service to allow for other expenditures. Now you can purchase additional furniture within the lunchroom. You can replace equip construction projects that are to do with with service. So, they've opened it up that way to help districts spend it, but really I see where your argument they could have just >> Well, I guess my argument is are we overcharging the state? >> No, it's it's a flat rate. They give us a flat rate up. So, they're >> So, why are we not serving like Prime River? >> We could look into it for you. >> Well, I'm not sure. >> Um, and I think the big is is I started doing a chargeback this year. So, we did above and beyond what we had been doing. We were coding custodians into it. Actually had removed them and did an MT calculation which allowed for a $300,000 charge bracket which brought those funds over. Okay. We're not overcharging the state just giving us too much money. Stop. >> Don't say all that. Did I just do that? >> Okay. Fine. just it just seems like it should be much closer. Um my other question we go to slide 21 on >> 21. >> This is a slightly different >> the one with the bar graphs. Is that on this one or no? >> Oh >> the meal served. No, it's not >> because that in 2022 we ended up federal government gave money >> but we're actually serving 200,000 more meals in 25 than we did in 23. >> Wow. >> And so that you know even at a you know your cost only you're exceeding your cost. So that is I think partly why that's happened across the state is more meals slight margin of what do you call that you know where profit if you will >> is leading to that which then it's a subjective question then of >> you know maybe look at reimbursement rates which I think pretty much >> and and my other question is I ask this every year of of the uh auditor um how much do you audit the procedures versus how much do you audit the numbers >> y Yeah. So the procedures or the internal controls I would say around 20% you know we we are required to consider them as part of designing our auditing procedures and assessing the risk of the district. So we do that um and then also I talked earlier about the two federal audits the child nutrition and the title one those we are also required to look at the controls for those two programs too. So that's part of the the control process and testing and then 80% I would say is on the numbers because it ultimately comes down to the these numbers being correct >> in order to get that clean opinion on the auditor's report the last couple years of the legislature to try to get the bill of service because of the issue of the excess that districts have so many tables or new or stoves or what have you. So, um I think that'll continue because it's an opportunity for districts that are making significant cuts to have a little bit of revenue that's just sitting there doing nothing to help them out just with some expenses. The push has been there for >> this is an action item. So motion >> I'll make a motion to approve the 242. Second motion by second by >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. I have the full I'll send it out. >> Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? I motion carries. Thank you, Jackie. You're staying right. We're here for another one. Not >> you have another one in two two more. >> Well, welcome Ed, our director of uh facilities and what is your official titles? Grounds and facilities. >> Buildings and grounds. >> Buildings and grounds. Thank you. >> And the topic is uh elevator improvements for West Middle School. >> Yeah. Perfect. 701 policy. Policy 701 isn't approved yet. We're bringing this to the board because it hits that threshold where we're looking for board approval. It's a West Middle School project. Our West Middle School elevator is getting rather old. Um getting parts for it is getting harder and harder as it comes time. It's our only elevator at West Middle School, so it's used quite often by our special education services. Um so this project would start in June at the end of J. one school year is done and then it would be kind of a revamp that model had a little further in it. >> Yeah, we did something very similar or pretty much exact same thing at Sweeney this last Christmas break of 2024 25. Um we're just bringing they're the elevator itself is not changing. It's changing the controls, the pumps and all that stuff so that you know we're bringing everything up to more modern equipment. So that way something. If we do have breakdowns or something like that in the future, parts will be easier to get and less likely to have a long-term shutdown of an elevator, which we could have now something went down. Um, can't find a part. It may take us a couple weeks to get that part shipped in from somewhere else, made something like that. So, this is just going to help prevent breakdowns because we're getting motorized equipment. And then it's going to help out also with maintenance, having more parts easily accessible. And then we had a company Northstar Elevator Consulting do this RFP for us and to receive multiple quotes for this elevator. Um I think I might have touched on it but I don't recall it is was part of our LPFM longterm facility maintenance plan. So it's just kind of following up once we got the quote number to see you know for yourselves. Um the quote was the winning kind of quote was $119,450. what the project cost. >> Just a followup question if I may. So it seems if we're using LTF, but it has to replace call existing functionality that is you couldn't just go add a brand new elevator that didn't previous exist using part of my question. alternative to meeting comp services >> versus having a ramp or an alternative method to get to the classroom environment. It's it makes sense that we got to keep the elevator functioning. If it were to malfunction and be out of service at any time, are we at risk of meeting some state requirement to have an elevator at that building? >> Yeah. Um I don't know how that works. I mean, we're meeting state requirements by having an elevator. I don't know how that works if the elevator breaks down, >> right? >> But yes, I mean, we do we are required to have an elevator in that space for handicapped accessibility and stuff like that. Like I said, we are meeting that right now. we are code compliant. I don't know how that works if we have a breakdown. I don't know if that's a little bit different or not, but >> yeah. And I was thinking that in terms of redundancy, too. You need to at some point consider a second elevator, but that would require a different funding mechanism outside of LTFM. >> Okay. >> Just point out the policy 701 which we reviewed tonight that was in effect on this, right? >> Yes. >> It's just is too high for our current policy. >> How how long are the elevators and and where are we at with any other buildings on like you know how long they're coming up on all of our elevators in our buildings are original elevators. Um, we've done this. We did this modernization at East Middle School back in 2019, I believe it was. >> Yes. >> And then we did Sweeney um, and uh, like I said, last last winter break of last year. And then now West. And they're telling me those the the Sweeney and the West ones are the only two right now that we really have to focus on bringing up to modernization and all of our other ones. I mean, you can always upgrade them if you want, but they're saying there's no concerns at this time. our elevator company saying after we get this one upgraded that there's no other ones out there that a beacon saying, "Hey, we're next. We're next." So So here >> I'll make a motion to approve this present motion by Brophy, a second by Johnson. Any further discussion? See none. All those in favor I >> carries. >> Well, you're next. We have a budget adjustment with Dr. Rev. I don't know if you're contributing to that, but then you're immediately after that. >> I can stay up. >> Hard questions over. >> All right. >> So, next is item 15.6. This is another action item. Budget adjustments for fiscal year 27. Dr. Yeah, thank you. Um, I think the board's well aware, but just kind of that, you know, kind of a brief summary of, you know, how did we get here? This has been part of when we've been looking at our budget deficits for next school year and the year following. We've always laid out as part of the solution, uh, permanent budget cuts, 3 million for next school year, 500,000 for the year follows. Uh work has been you know has been happening uh on this topic for you know literally six to eight months now and lots of really good work. Um in terms of planning preparation uh nearly everything on this list I would take you know the schooly Mitchell. So yep we're saving costs and we're keeping the same product. So, you know, that that makes sense. Nearly everything else on this list that is a proposed budget cut is providing or would have, you know, we did some non-hiring before, you know, said, "Hey, we're going to have to make budget cuts fairly soon. Let's not hire just to lay somebody off." But, you know, the vast vast majority of things I do want to point out, they've been providing value and service, you know, and we're talking about people in these roles uh to our students and and to our school district and that is a really important thing uh to understand. So there's nothing easy about the process in any way, shape or form. Uh there's been analysis, you know, we have finite resources. How do we you know best spend those finite resources? We've looked within departments, within areas of spending, and then across departments, and across areas of spending. Understanding that, you know, there's a zero sum nature to this. You know, if you take something off the list, well, you have to replace it with something else. There's no way around the math. You know, we've laid out at least three million in budget cuts, you know. So, to get there, uh, you know, you have to uh have a list and you have to you know kind of measure that value and draw a line in different places and that analysis has been done. This analysis this uh you know along the way this is the final document. Uh this has been shared with principles um and it's been shared with our district leadership uh multiple times and I would say uh our our leadership across the district very very appreciative. uh I would say they've done high quality and very thoughtful work uh in terms of this effort and so u certainly would would recommend uh what's proposed here for board approval and also happy uh to attempt to answer any questions that that you may have. >> Yes, sir. That's really your job. Sorry. reduction in positions through enrollment increases $684,000. That would have happened anyway. Correct. >> Yeah. Anytime. Yeah. What we did, it's not the entire amount, but it's a part of funding that we get that we would automatically adjust. You know, we're not changing class size targets, but we would change that staff. >> Correct. >> But and that contributed to the to the $3 million It just to me it that was going to happen even if we would have had >> a large surplus. Correct. >> Because we're reducing students. >> Yes. But it's still you're cutting the expenditures. You're not hiring the expenditures for them which is part of the budget projection. So this way >> I know what you're saying. >> Yeah, I not exactly sure that should have been part of the million but >> or that's a good way to say this is really a revision of the budget projection to some degree how you're going to staff andor that being a part of it, right? I mean, it was clear that there's sophisticated intent to get to the $3 million number. >> Yep. And we could go back, I mean, even on I know on our financial presentations where we laid that out kind of that whole process that this has been, you know, we've had budget adjustments to enrollment and transportation student back. I'm really grateful that that the levy did pass because we'd probably be looking at like two or three pages of this had had it not passed. You know, this is obviously a very difficult thing to do. I don't envy you or anybody else that had to go into these decisions because we are truly losing some people that we need at our schools and literacy coaches. I mean, we're rolled out what, three, four different curriculums. That would be a really nice thing to have. Is there any other alternatives naming people of course or department or things that were considered that or what went into the thought process how we landed on these departments? >> There were I know I sent to the board at one time there were kind of the things that were in the margins that's probably about a month ago. Um you know and again I think at this point yeah I don't want to share that publicly. Um but there were you know what I will share is part of you know where we landed like with ML teachers um we did add you know 2 million from the district expenditure of condensatory revenue um in addition you know to our ML funding to get to that number we thought that was appropriate we had you know at one time looked at slightly about 200,000 more in cuts and decided that that changed the value trade off if you will. And then a lot of other pieces, you know, we looked across, you know, district office and the different things support there and other places and ended with this in terms of that tradeoff to be the best way to navigate forward. >> Dr. I do see reference to reduction in the transportation routes, but we didn't evaluate changing any of the walking distance. >> Correct. Yeah. And that again that said if you have fewer kids >> and I think that's the automatic part of you know what was would have been used no matter what to to Joe's point to tackle that part of that budget deficit but I don't get projections implementing some new curriculum that's state driven. I know it's not budgeted, but I'm hoping that reduction still covers to make sure that we are meeting that requirement as well as we also need to make sure of our staff as well. Ultimately, our student success is dependent on making sure that our teachers are what they need to successfully implement that. So that one stuck out to me. The other one that stuck out to me is this isn't the first time that so and it seems like there's a lot of similar traditions from previous cuts which is a little trouble but HP for example one that has Um, that was something that came out in the elementary structures presentation that we put more focus on HP and now I'm seeing that there's HP elements and I shared this previously. Um, this is a program that I think is really really important in our district K12 because when my son was in school, he qualified for those services but was told he couldn't have them because there weren't enough And now we're really I hope we're not students service by by reducing these positions and meaning that we will not have staff available that qualify for those services. That's to me that's really important program as a precursor especially in elementary to advance into those APCs. I think the better off we'll be with those numbers. Well, let me because you did share that one with me and I did confirm right before the meeting again just so I was 100% sure in the HP that is a coordinator part of that. So it's a leadership it's not the staff necessarily delivering services and again there's you know some of this we've got decreasing enrollment and so you know there there's nothing easy about any of this um you know folks at the kind of the center of it. I may talk a little bit, you talked about the literacy coaches, that was always an expected part. Uh I know that our leaders of our learning, teaching and equity department looked at repurposing is the word that pops in, but how do we have staff that are currently there? Uh our our comprehensive literacy framework is a huge priority, but that shows the difficult nature of these tradeoffs. Um I complete comments because I've asked them some of those same questions probably 20 times about those things. It's, you know, again, if somebody wanted to donate another $12 million to our school district, we would find really valuable things to to put in boards that would provide value and better service. We're trying to to maximize the resources that we have uh and continue with our services at a high level. And you know what you mentioned about That is absolutely a priority and um we're going to do the absolute best we can and believe that we have you know in light of all those tradeoffs like we said within and across departments that that was the best best way to do that. So we did that for the school year. I don't know if there's anything I don't want to put you on the spot, but if there's anything top of mind or that I'm missing with that, >> the word we use in this permanent budget cuts is curious to me because I mean we review and set budgets and every year come up multiple times a year monthly in some of our meetings. I mean this is all obviously still based on projections of student enrollment and the trend that's gone in the right direction lately. Um you know what obligation we have two years from now there is better than expected enrollment and some of these services are needed. >> Um I think Nick we're always going to look at doing things the work I'm going to go back a step and then I might miss the last part so bring that back. We use permanent budget cuts because one of the things when I first arrived in the district was I was told we had made budget cuts and the reality was I think that group thought they had made budget cuts and they didn't stick. They went through a lot of work and so we will do the accounting for these things and if something changes in terms of parame parameters enrollment growth that person when I just talked about this shows up with 12 million. We'll figure that out. But the expectation is to be really clear that we will make sure these things stick within our budgets and and folks that have been on the board or been around our district leadership. We went through this for the what would it have been the 2122 school year and we saw the math after that those cuts stuck. they were permanent and then we purposely brought some of them back and were really careful with that map and you could see that and you could see that the parts that were supposed to come back where they've come back places like regular instruction they just stayed there. It's exact we did exactly what we said we were going to do and the places where we said they wouldn't come back. So that's that's you know and maybe putting the word permanent is over overemphasizing. I think that's a fair criticism but it's the intent of this is serious business. We should be able to show you and I have complete confidence that you know if we take a look for these things and that you know moving forward we'll be able to show you the evidence that that budget cuts have been carried out. And also, you know, we're if we air, you know, we'll call some things up, but if we air, we're trying to air on being conservative and do it. It sounds really weird because it's totally unpleasant, but I think it's an important part of leadership that if you're doing this, you have to do it well and you have to be accountable for it. So, >> and and and really, we start going up by two 3000 two, 300 students every year, more than we expect. Not only would these come back, we'd have to hire more teachers just just for everything, >> you know, that would Wouldn't that be wouldn't that be great? So, uh, hey everybody, having three, four kids at once and have them like be five in a year. Well, I think I think we all know that question financially stable for years and years and years and years and we all know every school district not knowing what's going to happen the legislature. So, I have concerns forward this potentially so every school district but I I think moving forward in future cuts that we might have to make other areas outside of what's here because this was the last time we did cuts a lot of these are looking very very similar And there are other areas that need to get touched and they need to be touched. we can't continue to cut in some of the areas um where some of these are our students need and our staff support and there are cuts previously that probably >> that that's always the issue when you have budget cuts is what are you going cut because let's just say you do all this stuff in high potential. You're going to take your high potential students. they're going to go to a district that has more high potential teachers and all once we're starting to lose more students which means we're losing more revenue and you know but yeah every every school district is going to have the same issue we do when we have 2% of revenue from the state 3% increase in expenses and that match does not work without having permanent budget cuts on a yearly basis typically Would you scroll down just just a little bit and I'm trying to frame this because it's a both and it's not a it's not an either or. Um, we looked, you know, we purposely kept some things out of the mix with class size targets and busing distances which are huge like just in terms of the quantity or proportion of budget are are very large. We also kept programmatic things. Some of those, you know, like college and school we didn't put on here this time. some of those other pieces. And again, you know, there's partly what Joe said, there's some things you've got to be careful because and you know, and again, you know, I think it there's a difference if we were cutting sections of high potential and that is absolutely not what's happening. You know, we want to accommodate for each and every kid and do that efficiently. Um, we really looked and I actually I I meant to share this at the beginning, but you know, some parts of our our budget kind of adjust automatically and some don't. And we really did try to look at places, you know, where it it, you know, things didn't get adjusted, but yet we've got fewer students, we've got fewer employees to serve where we could. Um, and I'm going to say there's some places, and I'm going to look, you know, I'm kind of going to look at David in terms of finance department, whether we have 8,000 kids or 7,000 kids, 1,200 employees or 10,50, their workload doesn't change much. You know, there there's some parts that probably do. Um, and you run the risk of, you know, we could be saving x amount of dollars, but we can't provide some really, really important services. So we tried to look at things that were more driven by number of students being you know being less number of staff being less and again imperfect and we could you know and they try to you know bring bring it forward um you know knowing there's you know there's nothing easy on the list other than the school quite frank Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe at one point in time I heard those that are losing positions will have the ability to apply for other district. >> Yeah, I'm not going to I'm not going to say that's universally or guaranteed, but in certain situations and I'm okay talking about ML, right, Jim? Yeah, >> we you know, there have been conversations. there's four four teaching positions there and we've looked in terms of seniority. Um most of the folks who do that work and definitely the ones that you know near the you know in terms of seniority the least senior also have other licenses and they are doing some really good work and so there's a very high likelihood that other positions exist and also then over time you know certainly could be possible to come back if they really come back into that ML area. Not going to guarantee that everywhere, but we we've looked at that. We have enough, you know, annual turnover to do that unless you have and we looked at those particular licenses and I think it was two elementary and >> special education. >> Yeah. Special Oh, yeah. AD special education and then high school English or secondary English maybe. Yeah, we tend to have turnover there. they're doing a nice job. If that's something they were interested in, we would certainly give them every opportunity to apply and there's a high likelihood that they'd be retained. Now, if you had a second license and it was in an area where we don't have turnover, then maybe not. But, and I think that's kind of true throughout most of this. So to put it in perspective that we hired 45 teachers this year and obviously we weren't hiring new teachers because of ex you know wild growth. It was routine turnover um retirements those types of things. >> Yeah we've had presentations from Keith Green about trying to attract teachers to the district and things of challenges of that nature. realize it's needed. >> Just a quick comfort seed. At one point there was an incentive for early retirement if I recli But conceptually would that be another tool in the tool box? We looked at that and had discussions six months ago and if let's say levy questions one and two didn't pass yet we would have brought that forward because we would have been making substantially where in order to make that work you have to have I can't remember what our minimum number was >> it was a sign I thought it was more than that but I don't think >> yeah but we would have needed it really works better cuts and more. >> Yeah. And you know again this is just what other tools are in the box because you want to provide that quality structure to the extent these are the names behind the numbers and these are educators providing great services. Are there just other programming areas maybe spread out a little bit more this is figurative I hope this doesn't but at one point we had to cut some of those specials and then you don't want to get too deep into that conversation because that's part of what makes shock piece of great is to have these additional programs I just don't know what the trade is. I'll reiterate what it said. Don't envy the decisions that the district had to make. I know that this was done, but how do we continue to look for opportunities? Any further discussion? >> Motion by Second by Johnson uh to approve the budget adjustments for fiscal year 27. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Next is another action item. Item 15.7 the final levy tax payable in 2026 funding for 202627 school year and David is here turning on my brightness so I can see my screen u as we sat through the presentation previously. This is to bring the that 25 26 uh levy numbers available the board to approve um general fund at $37,479,488.38 education or community service fund $619,000 1953 and then service at 1289 19,787 for a total of 50,982 61. >> I have a question. >> Everybody should be able to say this one by >> So what exactly would happen if we vote no on this? If we voted no, we'd go into statuto operating debt by >> I would like to make a motion to approve the uh the pay 26 levy. >> I'll second motion by Alder and second by Brophy. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I >> motion carries. Thank you, David. Thank you. All right, >> Tiffany. >> Tiffany, can you please do the roll? >> Yes. >> Resolution passes. Next is Oh, David is still here. >> This is an information item 16.1 monthly budget update. >> It's never ending for you. >> This is your last your last item. >> This is my last item. >> So, this is the general fund um November 30th, 2025. This is actuals all the way through November. um this kind of give you a comparison where we're sitting financial year compared to adopted budget. So if you look at the 25 26 received year to date uh state aid for revenues were right on par with previous fiscal years at 19.94%. Um federal revenues we've received $1,846. If you remember last time I was here we were negative and Joe you asked how can we be negative? We receable we received that receable is uh Indian education federal aid. So now we are we're almost right on par with what we will have been previous fiscal years. Uh property taxes we did receive our October and November payments which puts us in right in line with previous fiscal years at 69.35%. Um and then also local revenues which is interest earned, donations, miscellaneous revenues. This is performing better than budget at a current right now and we will revise this and bring this back to the board in February which is fantastic. Um salary and wages uh we're right on par with previous fiscal year at 34.09% um which is fantastic. Employed benefits also right in line with previous fiscal years at 32.353%. Purchase services are slightly under previous fiscal years which is you know just time when things are being purchased when federal purchases are happening districtwide. Um supplies are seeing an uptick pre compared to previous fiscal years but also within line with donations and miscellaneous reference. As those donations come in it's very to budget that. So, it's very hard to budget the supply you're going to spend on those. Um, and then other expenditures, um, just right on par with previous fiscal years, uh, 25 was rather low, but uh, 24 was right on par with 34.47% compared to our 32.55%. Any questions on finance for November? >> What time What time of year? the month of the year. Do we get the rest of the federal dollars? >> Uh federal dollars, you can draw those down as expenditures average. Yeah, usually most districts do quarterly. I was talking to um Alison, we'll start making those draws within the next month. So, >> we'll get the revised budget in February. That's what I was planning on. >> Okay, sounds good. I mean this ties in our other topic like we approved the $7 million budget cut on here. So that's nice to see like more emphasis that those cuts need to be made as much as enjoy. >> Thank you David. >> No problem. >> Next another information item 16.2 District update year and review snapshot video. >> Well, I've been working hard on a video along with my colleagues in communications department uh who've done 99.99 maybe a little higher than that of the work. But now Tiffany and Amber uh we did something like this last year. I think it's just nice to reflect upon the year a little bit. So, uh, Tiffany and Amber did did just great work with this and lots of other things. So, please please share on my behalf. >> And a quick note, when, uh, Dr. Redmond created this, it was created in a vertical format because it'll go on social media, so it's intentional. It's a little different on how you're viewing it here. >> Yeah, that I was supposed to remember to say that, too. It failed. So, thank you, Inclusion means to work working together as a team. >> Inclusion is adding someone. Inclusion is more than everyone deserves to be able to live. >> For us, inclusion looks like being out with friends. >> It also means being made to feel important, being made to feel a part of this school, and that you were valued and welcome here. Heat. Heat. That's awesome. Okay, go. One more thing. I'm very soon. Run away. And then we stay on the edge. Tiffany, thank you. And I don't know if we got four minutes, but we were pretty close. You literally could do 4,44 minutes. Truly is a snapshot of just thousands of amazing things. Dr. >> That was excellent. Thank you. >> Next is committee reports and other information. Let's uh start with Nick. Today um we had the finance and facilities committee prior to this. That's a couple some of these presentations twice and greater detail on them. They're finance heavy agenda tonight. Um I don't have any other >> community engagement really different. Thank you Christie. >> Um it is a special board meeting and I am part of the achievement integration. >> Thank you. Um finance facilities committee tonight. Um, I was at the delegate assembly as well and uh, that was that was an experience. I had to I I had to present one that required an amendment and it was it was really an exercise in Robert's rules. Um, which was entertaining except that it was really doomed to fail from the start and it was just kind of an exercise leading to an ultimate no vote that everybody knew. It was uh, anyway, it was it was an experience. Um uh I will be uh calling each of you um individually uh between now and the end of the year to talk about your interest in committee assignments and potential officer positions. So just be forewarned. Hopefully everybody's got my phone number so I don't look like a strange stalker reaching out to me. But I'll text you first and >> only the stranger stalkers do that. Texas first. So, we know to avoid the call. >> Yes. Yes. Exactly. That's all I have. Thanks, Joe. >> Um, yeah, finance and facilities. We basically covered everything in the meeting today. We had a little bit more detail on the audit. Um, that's it. >> Yeah. Policy. The only thing is that 701 and community engagement. I don't think two words, legally blonde. >> That was excellent. That was excellent. >> You know, and it's hard to say which was your feel like to say your favorite. It's irresponsible, but I I can't say I laugh any harder than just exceptional jobs. And then as far as committee, we've got a district advisory uh coming up and then another sock and a back on the horizon. >> Jim, >> yeah, snowiest night of the year last week. We had a and we still had our best uh turnout for kindergarten roundup. It's the the first of many engagement nights, but a lot of work went into that by uh communications and our principles. And um yeah, it was amazing to have four or five inches of snow and still have over a hundred people show up. And um I think each year we get our kindergarteners registered earlier and give our parents um you know just some really good reasons why they want to want to be shocked families. >> I'll echo that Mr. Leonard do great dance too. He never disappoints. And then education for as you know our printed mail to home newsletter will be launching digitally tomorrow uh just to share some resources and things going on before winter break and then it'll hit home the week of January 6. You want to cut somewhere, don't you? I'm ready for budget. >> Uh, next up is uh item 18 upcoming meetings and important dates. Uh, anything you want to bring attention to? >> Uh, no. I think um most of these events will keep you updated and res now organizational meeting. >> Thank you. That I would entertain a motion. So >> second motion by Peterson and second by Brophy. Any discussion? See none. All those in favor.