I now call the regular school board meeting for Forest Lake Area Schools, Thursday, July 16th, to order. Please join us. We'll recite 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. All right, member clerk, if you please take the roll call of attendance. Okay. I'm trying to make sure this mic is on. >> Oh, lights are on. >> Well, it's no it is. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Member Corkran >> here. Member Tyson >> here. >> Member Castle >> here. >> Member Rebeline >> here. >> Member Christensen >> here. >> And member Antonson is here. Everybody's here. >> Wonderful. Before entertaining a motion to approve the meeting agenda, I'd just like to welcome Superintendent Jacobson to his first board meeting as superintendent and uh express how excited I am to have you sitting beside me >> as we move forward here. >> Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you for that. >> Well, with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting agenda for this evening. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Motion a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. All right. Motion carries. uh scheduled and unscheduled visitors. I don't see any green cards this evening, so I believe we can proceed from that. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda unless anybody has any item they would like to pull from it. >> Yes, I'd like to pull 5.2, please. >> 5.2. All right. What about a motion to approve 5.1 and 5.3? >> So moved. Second. >> All right. A motion and a second to approve 5.1 and 5.3. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? That motion carries. Brings us back to um item 5.2. I would entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Member Tyson. >> Yes. I would like to publicly thank Joy Mooch for her 20 years of service to our district. I met Joy when we worked at Linal Lakes Elementary many years ago. Joy did everything with professionalism and grace. Her position as administrative assistant to the superintendent brought many ups and downs and extreme challenges. Joy was here through the stressful COVID times where nothing was linear and every day was a different set of challenges and mandates. Recently she weathered through with calm and a smile long meetings, three to five hour meetings, one eight-hour meeting that went viral and onto Reddit. Prior to meetings, Joy was uploading last minute attachments, new agendas, one to two time revised agendas, being asked to look up details on the spot in minutes during a long extended meeting. Oh, I'm sure she was exhausted. I was tired, but I wasn't there at 8:00 in the morning, and I didn't have to be back the next morning at 8:00 a.m. Always sending reminders, which are thought so thoughtful and helpful to the board, coordinating multiple interviews for the board vacancy, coordinating interviews for the superintendency vacancy, never a complaint, just to continue to fulfill the workload. Joy went above and beyond what was expected in her job description. For this, I publicly want to thank her for her outstanding role she performed as administrative assistant to the superintendent, Steve Massie. I know she will be very successful in her new position at a neighboring district and they are lucky to have her. Thank you. >> That was well said, member Tyson. >> Absolutely. Joy will be missed. Uh we're fortunate to have Becky here taking over in her place, but uh Joy was definitely the commmerant professional and I always enjoyed working with her. >> Yes. >> Um >> any other discussion on this item? >> All right, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Those opposed. All right, that motion carries. We have no action items on the agenda tonight. So that will bring us to 7.1 new business first reading 2027 2028 academic calendar. Superintendent Jacobson. >> Yes. Thank you member chair. This is as you said a first reading on our calendar. Uh the district tries to make the a district calendar uh academic calendar available at least 12 months in advance. Uh to accomplish this feat uh the district organizes a committee that involves um uh teachers, administrators, feedback from others uh that and this committee organizes and considers many factors to develop and recommend a calendar for this board's consideration. Uh the calendar uh establishes the start and end times of the school year as well as major holidays uh quarter and semester uh breaks um and other key dates. The calendar committee attempts to meet the challenging needs placed on the overall academic calendar while also drawing on uh past patterns that our school district is used to in our school district calendars. Uh the committee has met several times and put forth the draft of the 2027 2028 academic calendar for your board approval. I draw your attention to a couple of key features. Uh similar to this fall, uh Labor Day is incredibly late. This fall in 2026, it is as late as it actually can sit on the calendar. In 2027, it is one day earlier. So, in order to prevent us from going well into June, uh this calendar, the one and for you for consideration and a first reading for 2027 and 2028 has a starting school on August 30th, uh and then having four school days that week with a 4-day week weekend for Labor Day and then uh picking back up after Labor Day uh on uh se September 7th. Uh, and the end of the school year would be on Friday, I'm sorry, Thursday, June 1st. Last day for staff on Friday, June 2nd. So again, starting before Labor Day gets us through the calendar in a way that we don't have school going late into June. >> And again, this is a first reading. >> All right. With it being a first reading, there is no action this evening, but uh I would open up to discussion if anybody has any comments. Member Corkran. Uh I know that I've in the past I've been really very insistent on starting after Labor Day just due due to a lot of reasons um state fair um family vacations but I do understand this and I think a good compromise was to give that Friday off and I think that hopefully that'll go I think with the parents I know that we're still let them let them letting them have that last weekend away before school starts and give them extra time. So, I do appreciate administration looking at that and giving both calendars the same. I think keeps it consistent, but also helps getting them out of school early June because I know once June rolls around, they're kind of done. So, >> Yep. >> Yeah. But thank you for that. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Yeah. I was going to say this something similar. I >> just feedback so far from a couple of um kids actually is oh my god we're going to start in August but then also oh we're going to get out really quickly in June instead of going into the month in this like second week. So >> it's a it's tough give and take but yeah >> so and is there any talk within the administration then of where you go from here? Are we going to kind of see how these next two years go with this kind of setup or you know what I mean? Or are we going to kind of maybe stick with this? We're just seeing how this goes first before you make any kind of >> Yeah. >> I think it's a really good question. Uh so each of this next two years we would then if the board were to approve this at our uh August 6th meeting, then each of the next two years we would have it before Labor Day start. And we'd want to lead into feedback that we're getting from families on what do they think of that? Yeah, >> we could potentially survey families to say, "What do you tell us what you think of the before Labor Day starts?" >> Yeah. The other piece that I would offer is this is also creates an advantage for our high school students who take college level courses in our high school. So, it gives them one more week of preparation on AP tests that determine whether they can carry college credit into credit from that course into college. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So there's an advantage there as well. We have a lot of students back for activities, >> right? And well, and that's another thing, too. It's, you know, if they're in activities over the summer, they're here, >> you know, >> baseball. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Yep. But it what's not to be lost is, as member corp said, families do like to go to the state fair. They would have to go to the state fair during one of those earlier weeks uh in order to take advantage of that or over that 4-day weekend. >> Yeah. Yep. >> Member Tyson. >> Yes. So, I would like the superintendent to refresh our memory or my memory on the survey that was taken. And was that in 2024? >> So, we took a survey of families when we were considering building the calendar that we're about to step into here for 2026, 2027. That survey was done in the spring of 2025. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. And the survey was pretty split on what the community felt uh having never even experienced a calendar recently that started before Labor Day. Um some people were really concerned with the loss of end of summer family trips while others really embraced or liked the notion >> of getting out of school earlier in the summer. And it was about split halfway down the middle. >> Wow. >> So like 50/50 split. >> Yep. Very interesting. So, one more question. I mean, I always like when we get out earlier. I used to work in the buildings. It gets hot, kids are done, behaviors can ramp up. Um, does it is there any issue with summer school when the school calendar goes later? >> Well, summer school can't start until after we're done with school. and uh go if if we go earlier, get out earlier as this calendar would allow, then summer school can start earlier, get done in July earlier. >> Yep. >> Right. Which I know parents like that as well, >> as do some of the students in summer school. >> Yeah. Perfect. Well, thank you for that. And I maybe propose a suggestion that uh after families experience it that the start since we have to approve these about a year early, maybe we repeat that survey sometime next spring, get an idea about how families feel about it because we'll be looking at the 28 to 29 calendar before we even know it. And that will at least give us a little bit of data to go on because if we wait until the 27 28 we won't have as much time >> to to make that consideration to get that feedback. But uh some early feedback could be beneficial. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> So something to keep in the back of our minds. Member Castle. Uh once this all gets vetted out then perhaps we could make it a standard so that when the days fall where they are in this situation that they can expect for that to be the case >> so consistency. is so to have some consist expectations. So once we get this ironed out and everyone seems to be well everyone half and half when it when it looks like it's something that we should be doing then it it'd be nice to make it a not necessarily a policy but that's possible also but to have it be something that's standard >> so people know what to expect in the coming years. >> Yep. Yep. We always try to produce the calendar at least 12 months in advance for family trips and other commitments, but we've already created some standards like you're just describing spring break happening in early the first two weeks of March and when does the start of school happen in cases like this? >> I would hesitate to call it spring because it's not call it late winter break. >> Right. That part. Well, and I would add to the discussion too that uh traditionally we recruit calendars on two-year cycles. Um this is my first experience in doing a one-year cycle, and we did that primarily because of the uh late Labor Day, and we didn't know exactly how it was going to come together. And I I know I'm a fan of starting a little earlier, getting out earlier. I when I first saw this calendar, I must have stared at it for 20 minutes trying to find a way to make graduation happen right before uh Memorial Day. and without going a week earlier, I I just couldn't find it. But uh um we did that when we had some construction where we were able to end first quarter on MEA, second quarter at Christmas break, third quarter at spring break, and then end of year on Memorial Day. And that something about that feels wonderful to me. But uh to some families there' be some objection to it too, which is why I would encourage us to look and you know get some feedback and see what what fits for families and what works. So, um that must be a dreadful committee to be part of because you can make nobody happy. >> But any other discussion on this? If not, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed. We