thank you very very much for being here this evening uh we're going to share with you information on the capital projects Levy which is on the general election ballot November 5th and first of all just want to say welcome and today like every day is a great day to be a saber and it's a great day to learn more about the capital projects Levy um little description of this evening's event uh as you notice it's being video recorded uh which will be on YouTube uh in a day or so and then at the end There's an opportunity for written questions should you like to do so I won't read The District's compelling Vision to you but uh that's kind of the boiled down very short very condensed version of why we get up every day and do the work that we do to serve our students and their families and our community if I had a hundred people and I said all right Shak Public Schools is running a capital projects Levy just like a lot of things in Minnesota school Finance um capital projects Levy if I ask a 100 people what it is probably get a hundred different answers and in our case we typically refer to it as a technology Levy or a tech Levy or a safety and Technology Levy because that is how we spend the revenue that we receive from our capital projects Levy that revenue is is used to support Technology and Safety and the folks who do that work across our district back in 2015 the voters in our community approved our current capital projects Levy which was our first capital projects Levy in Shak Public Schools they approved it for a period of 10 years which was and still is the maximum allowed by state law in terms of length of a capital projects Levy this school year is the ninth year of that 10-year Levy next school year would be the 10th school year and so the board this summer voted unanimously to put a capital projects levy on the general election ballot in its simplest most direct terms it's a renewal what is on the ballot is the same ballot language the same same tax rate the same terms as the current Levy and the ask is for voters to determine whether we want to extend that Levy for another 10 years in our school district I've already kind of alluded to the the core function of the current Levy lots of aspects of safety critical support technology uh is is really everywhere in our district and I think we we you know we all have different perspectives and levels of awareness sometimes we take a lot of the technology in our our schools for granted but it's at the it's at the core of student learning there's individual devices a lot of our software our learning platforms how we share information i' I've shared a couple times I'm old enough uh to have made copies you know and the you know the purple ink and doing that way back when we don't do that anymore it it's you know Student Records lots of data important data we store we keep we share we communicate with families via technology a lot some of the safety things we see you know we get video cameras we get some of that others are are harder to see you know kind of out of side out of mind a lot of the communication support uh and things of that nature this is the answer to the question that typically somebody wants answered in every every audience every time we talk about a capital projects Levy but sometimes they don't ask and it's the what if what if the the capital projects Levy is not renewed uh by the voters and it's allowed to expire after next school year well the very direct answer is uh we are we expecting or projected to have $6.2 million in the first year of the new capital projects Levy and we would not have that Revenue so we would in essence have about a $6.2 million hole in our Budget moving forward and then to kind of wrap things up this evening we have a video which I think uh our Communications team has done a tremendous job putting this together that encapsulates and demonstrates uh a lot of the things I've been talking about previously and then in that picture you're going to send that picture to notability right take a picture of it thanks to the Shaka Community our schools have been able to provide a safe environment and quality instruction for all students since a capital projects Levy also known as a safety and Technology Levy was approved in 2015 this Levy provides revenue for School Safety and Security Tech technology devices and essential learning tools across the district on the November 5th ballot the Shaka Community will be asked to renew the existing safety and Technology Levy that is set to expire the renewal request would continue the same Levy at the same tax rate and terms for another 10 years allowing Shaka to continue providing critical safety and support for all students learn more about Shaka safety and Technology Levy by visiting Shaka Tech renew .org early voting starts September 20th