Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance 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. >> Before we start the meeting, you'll see under item 1B there are some protocol reminders for board members as well as our statement of core values. Just a reminder to the audience as well to please uh don't have side conversations that may interrupt or affect the ability for others to hear the board or to distract anyone in the boardroom here. If you have something like that, please take it outside. We don't have any recognitions tonight. So, we'll go directly into public comment. And the purpose of public comment period is to give the community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within the school board's authority. So, to fulfill that purpose, comments must be directed to the schoolboard. The schoolboard does not reply to comments during this portion of the meeting or answer questions. The board will set a timer. Each Each um speaker will be limited to 3 minutes. And there will be an announcement when there is 1 minute remaining. After that, I will promptly remind or ask you to please submit any remaining comments to the board in writing. We do this to keep the meeting flowing and to provide equal opportunity to everyone. I don't know how much time you have left when you get to that 3-minute mark, so 3 minutes we're going to stop you and ask you to submit those comments. Um and again, another reminder that while people are addressing the board, please have audience members remain quiet, respectful, listen so that the board and and everyone can hear what the person has to say. Uh The board must protect legal rights to both privacy and to our students and employees. So, as a result, speakers must refrain from using specific names of any students or employees. Tonight, we have one person who has signed up to speak, and it's Sally Anton. >> Greetings, Superintendent Almos, and schoolboard directors. My name is Sally Anton, and I am a parent of a student at RHS. I think reading through your core values regularly is an important thing for anyone involved in an organization. I was reading the district's this weekend, and I wanted to take a moment to draw special attention to core values 1, 2, 3, and 5. They read as follows. One, all people have value. Two, valuing and respecting differences strengthens the individual and the community. Three, people thrive when they feel connected, supported, and affirmed. Five, hope inspires and empowers. Last June, four members of this board spoke against students in the LGBTQ community. Since then, you have made the decision to make discriminatory rhetoric part of the district's platform in flagrant disregard to the district's core values. The unfortunate fact is that our school district is now promoting that at-risk youth be discriminated against. All of our students need your support, not your intolerance. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 60% of LGBTQ youth report being teased, bullied, or treated badly at school. More than 2/3 report feeling unsafe at school due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT youth who experience discrimination based on their orientation and or identity are significantly more likely to attempt suicide compared to those who do not experience this type of discrimination. I've shared with you before that research research from childtrends.org shows that supportive staff and comprehensive anti-bullying policies create positive school climates for these youth. These students feel more connected, less unsafe, and critically are less likely to consider suicide when schools actively support them. I have not seen attempts from the board majority since 2024 in making all of our students feel that they have value, that they are valued and respected for their differences. I have not seen an environment fostered for all students to feel connected, supported, or affirmed. I have seen no hope given to inspire and power these students. This June, I'm asking that you do the following: publicly affirm your support for LGBTQ and other minority youth, including their right to dignity, belonging, and protection under Minnesota law. Remove the discriminatory language from the district's platform. Attend or speak at local events that celebrate and affirm LGBTQ+ students. Let them see you stand beside them. For those running, do not campaign against children this election cycle. Reject any politicians that do so. Our students deserve more. These are leaders who demonstrate through words and actions that they are valued members of our school community. Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda, we're in our student reports and I'll turn it over to Superintendent Superintendent Elmore for his report. >> Yes, uh good evening board members and members of our community. My report is linked there for you, so I'll just run through it quickly. Um superintendent goals, this is the time of year where my goals come to a to a conclusion at the end of June. And so, I'm looking forward to a conversation with the board ahead about what next year's goals will be. I have some ideas to to share and to go through with you in the in the months ahead. Uh linked in that report is a just a reflection on my goals and some and some possible next steps. Uh I also put a check box in there cuz you know, it's nice to check the box when you feel like you got something done. So, we put a we put a check box in there to say, do we feel like we've accomplished these goals and are they things that we should continue? So, that's linked in there for the board to look at in the creation of our next set of goals. And so, you can see kind of what what I feel has been accomplished and maybe what the next steps are with those big things. Obviously, facilities is a really big one that's ongoing in those goals and so, we'll continue to talk more about that one for sure. Uh on the referendum topic, um I just again want to encourage uh through this platform folks to use the let's chat feature if there's questions or things they're wondering about or things that we can provide clarity on, that let's chat feature is the best place to go so that we can uh pull those themes out and make sure our FAQ page is updated and we can use even board meetings to talk about some of those questions. So, that's a big one. The annual district uh school perception survey has concluded. That concluded in the middle of May. Um I'm excited to see the results. We don't have it com- completed just yet. We've started to see just a little bit of a preview, but I want to tell you that we had uh 996 staff responses. We had 5,170 student responses, and we had 1,504 parent responses. All of those groups are a little bit down from last year, but we think it's probably a little bit related to our survey fatigue uh with the uh facility one happening at at about the same time. And so, I really it's a great response, not quite obviously where you always hope surveys would be, but still um uh statistically significant when we start looking at data. And as you know, we'll have more than one data point uh uh to look at when we set board goals coming up here uh in July and August uh and for my goals coming up, too. So, excited to to talk more about that. The last thing I want to just point your attention to is the keychains that are on the table in front of you. Uh Corey Franzen uh uh Director Franzen, you've seen him many times in front of you. He ac- actually 3D printed these himself. So, there's an NFC tag in these, as well. So, throw them on your uh school board backpack or whatever you have, because if you actually touch your phone to it, it'll actually bring you right to the planning website with all the information related to facilities. So, if you're out and about and you get a question about facilities or you're not quite sure what the answer is, you can scan that or you can even have somebody else scan it, and it'll bring them right to that website, and they can look at some of the information. They can fill out the let's chat if they want to put their question in right when you're standing in front of them. Uh this is a really really cool way to make that happen. So, take a look at that. And uh Director Franzen also provided you with just a quick written report about um the survey or the um referendum launch in August that's coming up. You can That's just a quick preview of some important dates uh happening there. With that, I'll stand for questions. Questions? All right. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Brings us to school board member reports and the first item is under our committees. We have our facilities committee, Director Weiss. >> I'll just add on to what Superintendent Almost uh mentioned. Um at the committee itself met on June 1st following uh the approved direction from the board from the meeting on the 26th to move forward. So, our discussion was around kind of the plan for supporting that getting the information out. As you can see, we're already full force ahead with the flyers, uh the tag the tag chains, um and a variety of things. More will continue to come. Um the resolution to authorize will need to be done by August 11th, so uh look for that to come. Um more on the communication plan, FAQs, all the information, that website that's on the tag will continue to be updated as more information is available. And there'll be some opportunities for the board to attend community and district events as we kind of move into the back-to-school season and and head towards the November 3rd election. So, um the back So, look for that um to come over the course of the summer and as we head back to school, which we're not ready to talk about yet. So, we're going to just put that out there a little bit. Enjoy summer in the meantime. Um we also briefly discussed long-term facility maintenance plan, which will be reviewed tonight as part of our agenda. Um and so, we don't need to go into much there. That will be reviewed tonight for any discussion and questions at that time, but that is part of um the ongoing annual process and we did discuss that at that committee meeting as well. The next uh committee meeting will be on July 13th, Monday the 13th. Any questions? >> Thank you for the report. Next item is our policy committee and Director Anderson will give that report. >> We have not met this month, but we're meeting July 20th. And the only change is you'll see policy 903 on the visitor policy was pulled off. went back to the policy committee and I think you saw the change in policy 903. That was discussed. So the once the policy committee reviews that it will go back to the board. That's it. Questions? >> Thanks for your report. >> Uh there is no report right now for the superintendent evaluation committee. We're close to having that worked out with those so should know by the first which is helpful for you because we start on the first. So Uh brings us to appointments. We have the Northwest Suburban Integration School District. We have Director Hamlin. >> Yes. We met June 17th virtually. At the end of May we hired a new superintendent who comes to us with a lot of diverse experience and skills. We believe will will move the equity work of Northwest Suburban forward nicely. The end of the year and everything with our interim superintendent went well. 38 students from ISD 728 and Anoka-Hennepin participated in a summer summit camp at St. Thomas University to work on skill building and our next meeting is a work session August 19th. >> Any questions? Thanks for your report. Next we have the Minnesota State High School League and we have reports from both Director Freiberg and Weiss. >> Um I think Sure, go ahead. >> Thank you. So on June 2nd the Board of Directors met for their final meeting of the school year. The board approved eSports as a presenting partnership activity. More than 100 member schools currently participate in eSports in the 26-27 school year will serve as a transition year as the league prepares the future championship competition competition. The board also approved girls dual wrestling and for emergent emerging status. This is the next step toward potential full sanctioning and will allow the league to continue evaluating participation, scheduling, and implementation. One of the most discussed items of the meeting was girls flag football. The room was packed and numerous speakers addressed the board in support of the activity. Speakers highlighted the rapid growth of the sport, its low cost compared to many other activities, opportunities for student participation, and positive impacts on student engagement and academics. After discussion, the board voted to table the proposal until October of 2026 to allow additional feedback from member schools and further work on scheduling, playing rules, and implementation. There was a strong support expressed for continuing to move the process forward and finding a path to successful implementation. The growth of girls flag football continues to demonstrate strong student interest across Minnesota, and I look forward to listening to those discussions this fall. The board also approved a girls hockey classification proposal that would create an even split between class A and class double A beginning of the 27-28 school year. The board approved the final draft establishing a bylaw and policy review committee. The committee will be tasked with reviewing league bylaws and policies and making recommendations for updates when needed. The next step will be recruiting the board members and establishing the committee structure. >> Nice. >> Yeah, in in addition to Board of Directors meetings, there's a lot going on in our local district as it relates to the high school league. Um so, we had a very strong showing um from a lot of our spring sports into the into the section finals, uh some state finalists in in track. We still have some um participants in clay target shooting going on this week um with that state tournament being on June 26th. So, we still have some competitions going on to close out the spring season. Um summer camps are in full swing um and then uh there's a little bit of a break, but not really a break, but a little bit of a break before fall sports kick off again in August. So, a lot of exciting things still continuing to happen on all of our facilities across the district. So, >> Any questions from board members? I had a quick one quick question. We um about four or five meetings ago, one of you reported on a new Minnesota high school s- um league rule about schools large with large sizes like ours not allowing the combining of sports anymore. Is that affecting our district at all? >> It's not. Uh it's not necessarily about not allowing the combination of sports. Um that happens all the time. There's there's a variety of co-ops that happen for very various different reasons. Even in our district, sometimes we have inter-district co-ops. Um like Zimmerman and Elk River co-op in certain sports together. Um there's also uh in the world of girls hockey, many high schools that are co-opping. >> Okay. >> We don't have that with any out district things, but you do see that North Wright County is a combination of, you know, St. Michael-Albertville, Monticello, and variety in those areas. You see a lot of co-ops continuing to happen. So, you can continue to do co-ops, um but they will look at them, you know, closely based on enrollment and participation and and what those things are. So, uh I don't know if there was a specific rule or something, Minnie, that you recall from a different meeting. >> Uh it really had to do with private schools and that they would have to go where they're residents of address, they have to play for that school. >> Yeah. >> So like let's say we're on the Rogers dance team, you couldn't dance for Elk River if there was two if there was two words. >> Okay. >> So >> Yeah, so private private schools and online schools get a little that's where there's a lot of conversation. Right? So private schools that aren't offering their own sports need to have a host school of sorts. Right? So those charter private schools, they need to have a host or a sponsor district that's in the high school league if they don't have enough to support it on their own. So that is some conversation. Online school continues to be a big conversation. Some districts like we do offer online high school options. Some do not. Some have what they call superintendent agreements which allow um students from other schools to take online in a different district. Now where it comes a little bit interesting is when it comes into activities. So you need to you play for the team for the for the community or the school that you are registered with. And that does get a little confusing. Might need a little bit more explanation for those who are more interested. Um but you know, you can't a kid can't just you know, open enroll into say one of our into our online school and then participate in just in in in our activities for the sake of that. Like you just it the the tax dollars, all of those things follow. Academics does need to come first. Where they're registered as a student, that is where they participate in their activities. So but for some of those smaller districts that don't have online, it is becoming a little bit of a interesting gray area that will have a lot of conversation. It is one of the it is one of the topics um that has come forward um for further discussion um from the committee within the high school league um to review that and and then influence and transfers and all those types of things. So. >> It'll be fun. Thank you. >> It is fun for sure. >> Thank you. And the reason I asked it is I just wanted to make sure we're set and thinking about that so we don't lose any opportunities for our students unexpectedly. >> Yes, we don't have any we don't we don't have a lot of those. >> Okay. >> Um, partnership school situations. We do Our administration does deal with transfers. >> All the time. We do. Thanks. Any other questions? Thank you for your report. Good to you. Next we have the Association of Metropolitan School Districts and we have Directors Madison and Hamlin. >> Good evening everybody tonight. AMSD met on May 29th. Um, some of the highlights include some legislative updates from the session. The Minnesota legislature approved bipartisan legislation placing a question on the ballot for November to amend the state constitution around school funding. This will allow an increase to be paid from the permanent school trust funds to schools, districts, and charter schools increasing the statutory distribution amount up to 4.5% which is a notable increase. Capital operating revenue has been expanded to pay utility service costs. By June of 2027 all districts must have an anonymous reporting system in place and of course we already have that um, and it's been going really well. Uh, and there was a presentation on the educator group insurance program because the cost of health insurance is outpacing salary increases which is something we need to be aware of and our next meeting is August 7th. >> Questions? That's the land trust question is a constitutional amendment that's on the ballot this November. And if I recall if if there's not a vote But counted as a no vote It's blank. So we have some educating to do on that as a district. So that might be something we need to discuss because it's basically free money that doesn't affect taxes one iota. It's just accumulation of capital that's sitting in a fund that's um very few people know about. >> And the fund will stay very healthy even if they go to that four 4 4 and 1/2% distribution. It'll stay very healthy. So it it is money that directly will impact every school district in the state of Minnesota. >> I think it's goes from 30 to 68 something like that. per pupil >> Did Did everyone get an email from AMSD about that? >> MSBA has communicated about that too. >> as well. Okay. Just wondering if everyone else saw it. >> It's your report. >> Our last report is the District Advisory Committee on Curriculum and we have Directors Madson and Fryberg. >> With um summer we still haven't held a meeting but there will be one this coming fall and then Mindy wanted to share something. >> Yes, so lots of talk um about Schoology and I I've been asked by many people, I want to see my students' assignments versus just using a parent portal. So your student can see their assignments and I guess uh Superintendent almost was saying that we do have access to that. I have not been able to figure it out for my own child um but before school starts there might be some educating on our website or if you want >> Yeah, we spent a lot of time talking about that internally and we think there is a there is the ability for us to communicate that better too to say how do you How do you be have that partnership with your kids in within Schoology, right? You would only be able to see your kids' assignments, right? That'd be the access that you'd have as a parent. Yep. >> So, by the time school starts, we're working on communicating how to how to do that. >> Yeah, absolutely. That That's the conversation that's happened. I can't sit here today and promise we can have it right when that happens, but we're working on it. >> Sounds great. Thank you. >> Sounds like a potential goal. >> That'd be cool. >> As long as there's a check box by it. >> Yeah. >> Maybe we'll have to have a demonstration when we all get together for our work session and do that with us. >> Yep. >> Any questions? >> No, thank you both. >> That wraps that up. So, next we're into We're in the governance already, and we have our policies. So, we're at the second reading for approval for a slew of policies here. So, this is our meeting where we have to vote on these cuz they've been through the first one. So, is there a motion for the school board to approve the following policies as part of our three re- three-year review cycle as are listed on the agenda. >> I moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, I'll call for a a vote. All those in favor, say I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Brings us to operations. We have two items here under operations. Our first is our long-term facilities maintenance plan. This is our 10-year plan. So, is there a motion to approve the district's 10-year long-term facilities maintenance plan as is attached in the agenda? >> I moved. >> Second. >> We have Who Who did the motion? >> Sarah. Other Sarah. >> Second over here. Thank you. All right, is there any discussion? And I I'd like to recognize John Reagan as well. You don't have to come up, just be prepared to answer questions if if we're here he's available in the back of the room, so. Any discussions or questions for Mr. Reagan? No? All right, hearing none we'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Next item is our general obligations facilities maintenance bond sale. So, is there a motion to approve the resolution stating the intention of the school board to issue general obligation facilities maintenance bonds series 2027A in the maximum aggregate principal amount as listed and taking other actions with respect thereto as is attached in the agenda. >> I'll move. >> I'll second and a second. >> Again, John is here to answer any questions. I'd recognize him if he needs to be. Any discussion? Discussion? Hearing no discussion, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Brings us to the consent agenda already. Is there any board member that wishes to extract any of the items from the consent agenda? Any board members who wish to extract any of these items for discussion? All right. Hearing none, and we will pass the consent agenda via unanimous consent. Brings us to our information, just some upcoming dates on our facilities committee meetings. Next regular school board meeting is July 13th. And that's all we have. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> I'll move. >> We have a motion, is there a second? >> I second. >> Motion is second. All those in favor, say aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries, we're adjourned.