But if there was charge >> the county would crack down because I always told my people >> is it Thursday rental insurance >> I had I was in garage I was backing off my parking lots of metal coming down fingers or something there didn't even watched We didn't >> I tried to log on during the meeting to watch it and there was a delay in the video or wasn't push or something so I couldn't watch it and then I watched a little bit later. That was literally a 10-minute meeting. He's gonna >> Everyone's going to expect that from now on. >> He was efficient. He was through it. First, second, no boom. your head off kind of. >> It was over in like 12 minutes. >> It does. I think it's just as long as the procedure [cough and clears throat] the updated notes where it says updated as a date. It's just >> I don't see >> we talked about that because all they had is >> I just we probably need to know whether or not we need to Today is Monday, August 10th, 2026. This is a regular meeting of the ISD 728 school board and I hereby call the meeting to order. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Some protocol reminders um for the board members and audience. Just a reminder of the audience, please keep side conversations um outside of the chamber here so that people sitting next to you can hear phone calls, whatnot. All the materials for the meeting are available in the back in a binder. Um, and then you can see our core values listed as well. I need a motion to approve the agenda. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> No discussion on it. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed say sign. Agenda is approved. The first item on the agenda is public comment. We did not have any speakers sign up tonight to speak or to address the board. So, we'll move past that to general reports faster than normal. Are you ready? >> I'm ready. >> Okay, Andy, I give it to you. >> All right. Uh, uh, good evening, board members and members of our community. Um, my report is linked there. I'll just run through some of the information that's available. Um, the first one is the permanent school fund and the constitutional amendment. I want to make sure this information circulates as widely as we can. on the ballot this November will will be this constitutional amendment to provide more funding to Minnesota school districts. This is not a tax increase or an increase in tax in any way. The permanent school fund goes back to like when Minnesota became a state. There's a there's a pool of of funds that that come from logging or when the state sells land or things like that that create this fund and the distributions from those those funds actually go to Minnesota school districts. Well, that fund has grown to well over$2 billion dollars. And so now the constitutional amendment is to say, let's distribute more of those earnings out to Minnesota school districts. So the money's already been collected. It's sitting in the fund. And the vote is to say, yes, let's give it to school districts. So that equates to about $360,000 more per year for us. So, it's a really big deal and we want our folks to know that no new taxation, but it is going to be on the ballot and something that the the uh the uh constituents are going to be asked to vote on. So, that's a big one. The link there uh in my report has more information for those that want to dive a little deeper and understand it even further. The next one on my report is the family calendar. Um, we've gotten some feedback over the last few years that our the separation our calendars from the elementary calendar and the secondary calendar sometimes can be confusing because if you have a kid in each in the secondary schools and the elementary, you got to go look at both and try to understand when is their school and when is there not. We've tried to standardize as many days as possible so that when the kids are off of school, there isn't as many days where elementary is different than secondary. But we've we've combined the calendars now. We've removed the things that aren't specific to families to say here's what you actually have to know about when school is and when it isn't. Um, and that's now linked on our website. So, it's uh linked in my report here as well for folks if folks want to check that out. Uh, really last but not least on my report, Schooly family resources. There's been some questions I know uh uh Director Fryberg has asked about Schooly resources. Our team has talked a lot about that as I've mentioned before and we are pushing out uh more uh schooly family resources updated videos from what we've had in the past will be sent out so folks can understand how to engage in schooly and where to find that information for those that want to again dive deeper and be more engaged uh in that regard. So tons of information there. This was also shared in the weekly update with board members a little a while ago. So you've had access to that for a little while. It's important to clarify that schooly is not a curriculum. Schooly is a place where assignments are housed by teachers. So, this is not a place where you're going to find an entire curriculum where we're able to go unpack all the assignments. This is a place where if they post an assignment that can be done on the computer, that's where it goes. But classroom discussions and those things that happen in our classrooms every day aren't going to show up there, but it is a place that assignments are posted and assignments are turned in for for students. So, lots to come on there as we start the school year. And then last but not least on the on the on on on my report, the referendum 2006 resources will live there for up until November 3rd. So one more touch point for folks for folks to go uh check out what's on the website and FAQ information and to submit those let's chat updates as needed. With that, I'll stand for questions. I just had uh one comment or a couple of comments on the land trust too. The majority of the state land in the state of Minnesota is owned through the land trust. So it's all part of the school trust fund. And then that trust fund, the distribution of funds is not going to erode the principle of that fund, right? So it's still going to be going up. But the thing is is it's been sitting money has been sitting there for years and it hasn't been distributed to the schools which essentially what it was for. Now some money has been expelled to the schools but it's going to increase the amount of revenue that goes to the school. So >> I think it's a very positive [snorts] thing to gain a little bit more funding. I think it's 30 some dollars 30 and some change I think per student. >> Y it is. >> Yeah. Um, [clears throat] also on schooly, I know I when I subbed a few years ago, you substitutes didn't have access to schooly. That would probably be something as that would be interesting to see if that could Yeah, it's something we can talk about and make, you know, if it's something we can put into our training or things like that. It is it is hard, as you know, for substitutes to come in there and be able to unpack everything that's in schooly to know. So, we'd have to talk about what that looks like. >> Yeah. I mean, I I get it. >> Yeah, >> I get it. But >> those are my two things. Thank you. >> Y >> I wanted to say thank you for getting that taken care of before the start of school. >> Um it sounds like we're at a good start. Maybe a little bit more to do. Um but thank you. >> Y welcome. >> Agreed. Thanks you and your staff for working on that. And I, as John said, you know, there there are limitations of schooly and other things moving forward, but I think what the board will have to do at a retreat is talk about where we're heading in the future and what we have the capacity to change now and not what should be in a fivey year to 10 year strategic plan. You know, I mean, even if these are the best systems to use, where we're going with them, there's a lot to talk about. So, >> and I was just going to mention that's not just an ISD 728. When I subbed up in ISD 477, they had the same problem with schooly. So, it's not unique to the district. It's but but usually the subnotes would say, "Oh, just the students will tell you what they need to be doing." So, had to trust the students there. Also, thank you and your staff for getting those calendars aligned. It seems simple. It wasn't right. It's a big a big lift to do that. It seems like, oh, you just come. No. So, we appreciate the work you did. I think uh the community will see that that it's easier. Um, also just for the board members know to know so everyone has all the information. When we're discussing some of what happened with the school calendars, some of our neighboring districts will actually print a calendar, right? But they have one high school. We have four. So each high school sets their own calendars. So it makes coordinating that not in a non- electronic manner very challenging. It's been done in the past and had some hiccups such as if a school changes an event, it's on the printed calendar, people show up to the event that was moved, right? So, it's with today's technology, it works better with having so much to juggle for a district our size and having four high schools that are all in charge of their own calendars to have the calendar online like that so that it's continually updated when each one does it. So, is that correct? >> That's very correct. Thanks. >> Just so you guys have the history on how we move forward to improve it and why we didn't go a different direction or why we didn't. So, all right. Thanks, Andy. That brings us to school board member reports and our committee reports. And first up is facilities committee and we have director Weiss. >> Uh thank you, Chair Nordos. Um the facilities committee did not actually meet in August. We don't really have any new information to share at this point. Um our next meeting will be on September 14th um here in the district office at 11 a.m. I believe is the time for that. Um we will continue as a board to have some discussion uh this week at our our retreat on uh things related to the referendum. So we look forward to that discussion um and really looking forward to a lot of community meetings as there'll be opportunities for us to get out into the different communities to share information about the referendum as well. So a lot more to come. Um a little light coming into August, but we're going to be moving uh in a pretty fast direction here in the next few months. So >> thank you. Any questions? Thank you, Director Weiss. Next up is our policy committee and director Anderson is going to give the report on that. Sure. Um, we had some protocol changes that we implemented. You know, all the committees remain open for public uh observation. If you recall, we didn't have committees until 2025 is when we opened up two committees to the public, the facilities and policy committee. So, um, what we're working on is trying to limit sometimes we got comments from the audience during our meetings and the meetings have the the comments have to be within the committee members appointed by the board to be on that. And so what we've asked for is just recording of committee meetings is done in the public seating area. So, uh, other recording devices are not allowed on our workspace during those meetings. So, we talked about that. came into agreement with that. Um so anyways, we're keeping those uh meetings the uh the policy committee and the facilities committee both meetings are open to the public so they can anybody can come at any time and and observe the conversations that go on. Also, um, one of the things we talked about is there's a lot of policies coming up with notation changes where in the policy it says MN for the abbreviation Minnesota and that changes sometimes to MN and we're wondering, you know, should we really bring this to the full board on just a grammatical change? because um the MSBA directs on policy 208, we could say that any grammatical changes or statutory references, you know, because sometimes the references the titles change or something like that. Um we don't necessarily have to bring that to the full board. The committee could just handle it and just move it along. So that would be up to the board on how to deal with. Now also when you have statutory changes that are required by law those policies it's in policy 208 can be um voted on in a single meeting because we have no choice. We have to implement those. So that's something to consider and I appreciate commentary on that. Um, also let's see, we had uh we discussed policy 412 about standardizing on the federal reimbursement rates. I email went out on that actually um suggesting the IRS change the rates, but just trying to standardize that. But that should be reserved for the organizational meeting in January if we're to look at any changes with that. Also in policy 903, we just added definitions um you know where it says any person entering a district facility during the school day who is not one an enrolled student attending school or school sponsored activity, a district employee and authorized volunteer central administrator. And we just add for clarification elected school board member with the idea that if a school board member were to go into a school during working hours when the students are there, the first place they need to go the office and check in and let everybody know that you're there so you don't surprise people. So, it's just out of courtesy that that we know that's just a protocol that even the administrators do. First place they go is to the the office and check in. So, anyways, just to avoid unannounced visits would be helpful, you know, during the school day. Um, also policy 722 that was deals with data requests and um, we're looking at some changes on that policy just to include board members um, if they're the subject of data requests, they get a copy of that when it's distributed. So, we're going to be sorry, we're going to be uh, uh, just changing some language on that and uh, submitting that for the board to look at. So we'll have that ready at the next policy committee and then bring it up to the board at the next meeting in September. Uh we did, you know, uh director Weiss did mention about policy 412 on uh this came through an email here just recently on u on expense reimbursements, but we're going to discuss that more with Superintendent Elmo on how that's handled because there's a lot of paperwork that goes into that. >> Slightly a procedural thing and not it's not actually a policy thing. um just a suggestion to simplify that procedure. >> Yep. >> But >> the city can look into that and uh determine if that's an option. >> Right. So I appreciate input on to those. So that gives us something to talk about and whether or not we need to make changes that will actually improve efficiency within the administrative functions, but we have to find out why it's there in the first place before we make changes. John, are you thinking we need to take 412 off the first reading from today? Then >> I I don't think we we need to take it off right now. Um that could be a change down the road. >> It didn't look like there was anything specific in the policy content related to my suggestion. >> Believe it is procedural, but it is something that has come up. So it just kind of initiated the question related to it. So I don't think it should hold up the policy at all. Um, next policy committee meeting is August 17th. It uh will review 709 student transportation safety. Uh, 713 student activity accounting. 720 vending machines. 801 equal access to school facilities. 802 disposition of obsolete equipment and material. 806 crisis management. One thing I forgot to mention too is comments came in about minutes and I read I do a more comprehensive review of the minutes at the board table than we would if it was just strictly on paper. So, it's recorded, it's live, it's accessible, everybody has access to it. Any questions? >> Quick question. Um, were there a number of policies that were updated due to legislature change? I feel like the last few years we've had like 40 come in in August and like a large amount, but I haven't seen those come come through unless they're just the reference things you you mentioned, which is which is fine. Um, but usually we see that and I was just curious if there was again that big list of >> Yeah, what I've seen mainly is is just reference notations. So it doesn't it's not the meat of the policy. It's just more notational. I think all of those are either set to come or have come already through the process. >> Sounds good. >> It just I know it's been overwhelming for board members in the past when you get a list of 40 to review all at one time because they were uh >> and MSBA will send out the model policy updates, you know, which which is important and then we have the yearly policies that have to be reviewed every year. I think it I think it was the recommendation of the committee if it was just a citation change or some you know grammatical change that we would not bring it in front of the board unless the board felt differently about that. Right. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Or at least just one reading done. We don't have to do the two readings for it. So >> So any any comments on that? There have been a few director Weiss that have come through with state changes that were in the lineup because we have a three-year schedule going down that we just put through with without any comments because it was all like that and they did come before us but >> Perfect. >> Sounds good. >> Jody keeps us on track with that. Jody, I can recognize you if you want to comment. You don't have to, but I >> I just know that there are legislative ones coming. I I have it in the next two meetings. Perfect. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Hey, thank you. And so and John, so what you just said was the minutes and they'll be linked >> to this. Perfect. Next up is superintendent evaluation and director Steinreer was going to give the report for that, but he was unable to be here today for joyous reasons. Um so I will give the report in hisstead, which is fine. So, as you know, we the superintendent evaluation, everyone received um an opportunity to do that. We did receive feedback from all board members on his evaluation. Um director Steinreer took and compiled all those and um put a report together. So, I'll give you and the community the um the summary of what what we can tell you about that. So, on behalf of the school board, we want to thank Superintendent Andy Elmo for his leadership during the 2025 2026 school year. So, thank you. The board completed its annual superintendent evaluation using our established evaluation process and overall the evaluation reflects a very positive assessment of the superintendent's performance. Board members consistently rated his performance as meeting or exceeding expectations across all leadership standards with strengths noted in strategic leadership, district operations, community engagement, governance, communication, and instructional leadership. Board members recognized Superintendent Elmos for providing clear direction for the district during a year that included significant work in facilities planning, budget development, implementation of center-based programming for our setting for planning, the readact implementation, labor negotiations, and continued district growth. The board also acknowledged his visibility throughout the district's uh professionalism, collaborative leadership style, responsiveness, and commitment to students, staff, and the community. There were several themes that emerged as particular strengths. Providing clear strategic leadership while keeping the district focused on long-term priorities. Building and growing a strong administrative team and effective leadership dis for district operations. Maintaining sound financial stewardship while navigating budget challenges. developing meaningful relationships with community partners and representing ISD 728 professionally throughout the community and the state of Minnesota and leading several major district initiatives while maintaining day-to-day operational excellence. So overall, the board does not have concerns regarding Superintendent Elmos's performance as superintendent of ISD 728. As part of the evaluation process, individual board members did raise specific questions and there were some areas for continued focus. Those items have been discussed directly with superintendent and board leadership as part of the evaluation process and will continue to inform ongoing leadership development. The board appreciates Superintendent Elmos's leadership, professionalism, and commitment to the students, staff, families, and communities of ISD 728. And the evaluation reflects confidence in the superintendent's leadership and in the continued direction of the district. So basically, you're doing a great job and we appreciate your leadership. Thank you. Looking forward to another year. >> [clears throat] >> Next, we move on to appointments and we have the Northwest Suburban Integration School District with Director Hamlin. >> Yep. We are still on summer break, so there's no update. Our next meeting will be September 16th. >> In the Minnesota State High School League, we have Director Weiss and Director Friber. >> Thank you. Um, I wanted to bring something forward tonight that I think we should consider at our next uh September meeting. There is an effort called Make It Fair Minnesota involving a proposed Minnesota State High School League amendment for equal protection and fair competition. Their website make it fair Minnesota.com has the proposed amendment and explains the process. Specifically, the proposed amendment deals with Minnesota High School League bylaw 300, which governs student eligibility and would address eligibility for sexed athletic competition based on biological sex. What I think is really important is how the process works. It takes five member schools to bring a proposed bylaw amendment forward. If we choose to participate, our district would send a letter supporting the amendment to the league by October 15th. If at least five member schools participate, it then moves through Minnesota High School League's own process and ultimately to the representative assembly for consideration and a vote. So, our vote would not change it itself. It would not change the bylaw 300. we would simply be saying that ISD 728 wants this amendment to move forward through the league's process. I also think the timing is important. The US Supreme Court issued a major ruling on June 30th involving sex-based eligibility in girls athletics. So, the legal landscape around this issue has changed. We are also seeing this conversation come to a head nationally with former NBA players including Minnesota's Royce White publicly announcing plans to enter the WNBA draft as a way of challenging where women's athletic eligibility rules are headed. Between the recent Supreme Court ruling and what we are seeing nationally, I think it is a very very timely opportunity for Minnesota member schools to use the process that already exists. I would presume my fellow board members would absolutely want to take some time to look over this, understand the process, and consider it. That is why I'm bringing it up tonight, and why I would like it placed on our September agenda for discussion and a vote. The deadline is October 15th, so September gives us time to do that. This is not ISD 728 creating its own policy for sports. This is simply us operating within the Minnesota State High School League and using the voice we already have as a member school. Um I've said for a long time that girls deserve fairness in sports when member schools have an opportunity to actually have a voice and potentially make the change. I think we should use it. It only takes five member schools to move this forward. And I am very confident we will not be standing alone. I have already heard of other districts that have sent letters. So I believe there is real momentum behind this. I would like ISD 728 to take the time to consider it, have the public discussion in September, and decide whether we want to be one of the districts helping move forward this amendment. >> You have updates? >> I do. Uh I actually I do have some uh updates from the high school again within our district. Um my only uh comment to uh what director Fryberg has shared is that I have also reviewed the information. Um I do believe that some of the um proposed language would actually create different limitations for girls. So I do I would look for legal consultation um on the language that's being proposed to ensure that we're not creating a new limitation by proposing you know protecting or whatever a certain legis. process that the high school league has in place for reviewing u bylaws and policies that you went through is is is a good polic is a good pro process support the process for any bylaw that needs to be reviewed. So that's great. I would just say before as a board we'd want to understand if there's any legal implications to that and really understanding what the proposed language would mean because there are new limitations that could be um that could come from that. Anyways, as it relates to uh current news from the high school league, uh the high school league did release uh their some participation report numbers today, um there was 289,522 student participation participants in the 2526 season. Um this was up 4.2% versus last year and 13.2% since the 21-22 school year, which of course was coming out of of COVID. So continued to see uh growing participation across the high school league activities across the state, which is amazing. Um the board of directors did meet earlier this month. It was um at an off-site location as part of their two-day retreat. Um but they are making a number of preparations for the school year. Um including getting their various committees set up um agenda set up um and have met uh last week with student advisory leadership team otherwise referred to as salt um as they look for conferences and things to further engage students um within the high school. They can get their get their feedback as well. Um they did make an approval of the 2627 strategic uh directions um that will guide decisions in the next coming upcoming year. Um great news from um their finance department and their auditors. Uh they will be issuing membership credits credits again this year. Um the the revenues came in from various tournaments and stuff that they host. So the revenues were higher than anticipated. So those member credits will actually u go back to reductions into fees um going forward. So there'll be a reduction to the activity fee and the and the individual student fees um for that. So that is great news as well. And I believe they've done that for the last few years. So continue to see uh good fiscal management on their part and that does come back directly to the schools. Uh one big change um that will affect um girls and boys basketball um is that those tournament dates will both uh respectively move back one week due to a conflict at Williams Arena um where the University of Minnesota expects to be hosting an NCAA tournament that particular weekend. So that will be a a calendar change for many and is those that may have a spring and fall sport overlapping. Um it could add a little bit of additional time overlap there, but that decision was made as well. And the next board of directors meeting will be on October 8th. Um and exciting within the district, next Monday, the 17th, marks the first day of all fall activities. So our fields and our gyms and our courts will be um will be very busy again, which is exciting. Um homecoming dates have all been announced. Rogers homecoming will be the week of September 14th and Elk River and Zimmerman homecoming weeks will be that of September 21st and the full um activity of schedule of activities can be found on the high school websites. Any questions? I was just going to mention Director Fryberg, if I I was looking through some of the information that was given, the MHSL changed that policy back in 2014, but they did not let the member schools vote on it. It was strictly a board initiative. Is that correct? >> Yes. And it was kind of it was just done back in 2014. So, >> so what this >> how many people had a say into it either? >> So, this will put it back into the member schools to decide. >> It'll go to that committee, the um >> representative assembly. >> It'll go to them. So if we were to vote on it, then two of our high school league members would sign off, send the letter to them, and then depending on what they have for turnout of results, then it would maybe go through the process, their process. I would also note that um even if there were to be a policy change um reviewed by the by the high school league, it does not in fact change the state law. Uh that is a legislative change. Um, so we would still have to adhere to state law um on those issues as well. So, uh, more to come on this. Again, it's been something that we've been talking about and been reporting on for probably a year and a half now. So, we'll we'll continue to watch this very closely. >> Thank you, Directors Weiss and Director Fryber. Next up is our Association of Metropolitan School Districts. We have directors Hamlin and Madson. >> I attended the AMSD meeting held on Friday, August 7th. The beginning of the meeting was electing new officers and committee members for the upcoming school year. Then we heard from two speakers from Vote Yes for Minnesota students, which is the advocacy campaign for the permanent school fund um that uh superintendent almost talked about. Uh that'll be on our ballots on November 3rd. The important takeaways of voting yes for that is that it will benefit every student at every public school. It has bipartisan support and again it does not raise anyone's taxes. It's money that's already existing. Please help educate your friends and family and encourage them to vote yes for this amendment to support our students. Then we heard from Superintendent Dow from District 287 and Superintendent Stanley from St. Paul public schools as they shared an update on the work from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Special Education. They were tasked with cutting $250 million in special education spending while maintaining a free and appropriate education for students with disabilities. The commission was made up of a variety of stakeholders including lawmakers, Pacer Center, Education Minnesota, and several school district administrators across the state. They had a lot of great recommendations and ideas including changing tuition billing to charter schools and eliminating the hold harmless provision in special education. They would also like to legislators to support Pelby's efforts to appro improve special education teacher recruitment and reduce barriers to lensure. They also want to take a hard look at ways to reduce paperwork expectations on special education staff. And finally, we heard from Superintendent Stenbeck from Columbia Heights with an own overview of the work of the compensatory revenue task force. They looked at variables such as which students currently generate compensatory revenue and the best uses of that money. They also broke down the effectiveness of the program. They really focused on students who are underprepared to learn. They noted while those students are the primary target of the compensatory funds, all students benefit. For example, if the compensatory funds are used to add additional staff to a classroom, that will benefit all the students in the class. They also suggested the formula for determining need would um benefit from an update um and hoping they're hoping legislators leg the legis Oh my gosh, you know, the lawmakers that they'll take care of that. [laughter] Um our next meeting is Friday, September 11th. Thank you, Director Madson. Anything to add? Any questions or comments? Thanks for the report. That brings us to governance and with policies. There's no actions needed tonight. This is the first reading of three policies. As you all know, it takes two readings before we pass. So these are the three policies which John already gave us an update on during the committee report that um we will be voting on at the next meeting in September. So if you read those policies and have any changes, please submit them to John so that we can discuss before that meeting. Brings us to item B, which is a resolution relating to the elections of school board members. This is um a legal thing that the district needs to do each year in order to hold our elections. So, I need a motion and the motion is to recommend the school board approve the resolution relating to the election of school board members and calling the school district general election as is attached in the meeting uh meeting agenda and approve the notice of the general election which is also attached in the meeting agenda. >> So moved. Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. >> That was it. Now we're to the consent agenda. Is there any We'll pass it by uh unanimous consent as we have been doing. Is there any um items on the consent agenda that a board member would like to have extracted for discussion? Anything you want removed? Hearing? None. We've passed the consent agenda via unanimous consent. That brings us to ourformational uh section on the agenda. There's lots of um dates coming up. We have our schoolboard retreat August 14th at the Ziman fire station which um same location as last year. It will be open to the public for viewing. And of course, first day of school coming up September 1st. Exciting. So, everyone's very busy. Um everything else is listed. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. >> We got a motion. Motion by Director Anderson. Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed same sign. We'rejourned.