Call to order the regular school board meeting for Forest Lake Area Schools for Thursday, October or August 21st. And please join us while we 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. >> Thank you. Member clerk, will you please take the roll call of attendance? >> Sure. All right. All right. Member Haggland >> here. >> Member Corkran >> here. >> Member Castle >> here. >> Member Tyson here. Member Christensen >> here. >> Member Rebeline >> here. >> And member Antonson is here. >> All right. Seems we have a quorum. I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting agenda. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> All right. Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed. >> Motion carries. Um, we'll move on to scheduled and unscheduled visitors. A quick just a note to the board. Um, some audience members have mentioned that uh it's been a little difficult to hear us in uh recent meetings. So, please just make sure you're you're speaking clearly into your mic. I know we're working with technology, but we're going to do our best. So, that will bring us to scheduled and unscheduled visitors. Um, as I continue to tune the preamble here, I've shortened it significantly. So, um, even though the board is not legally obligated to provide to offer public comment during a board meeting, we feel that it is an important aspect of our community interactions and have included that opportunity on our agenda this evening. We request that speakers keep their comments relevant to the agenda item that they would like to speak on, avoid making comments directed towards or about any individual board member, remain respectful, and refrain from disclosing private or sensitive information. Speakers should also keep in mind that this process is non-interactive. We request that everyone present be respectful of commenters and refrain from making their own comments or applauding to help keep things moving. Commenters are given three minutes to speak and the clerk will give notification to speakers as their time is expiring and the chair will strike the gavl once your time has expired. I have shuffled the deck of green cards and will call speakers by first name and last initial. Please be ready when it is your turn. And this evening I have five green cards. We will start with Laura S. And on deck will be Karen M. Good evening. My name is Laura Smith. I work in mental health with children, adolesccents, and adults. I'm here today to advocate for our school's administration to receive the tools, supports, and resources they need to protect our children. Firstly, I want to thank those of you who took the time last year to respond to the email that my husband and I sent about our concerns for our daughter's safety. You see, last year, while this board was wasting time and funds debating about adding more complicated school policies, my daughter was sexually assaulted multiple times by another student on school property. We were regularly informed by the school's administration that they did not have the tools, the resources, and the supports to properly protect my daughter. This resulted in a court case and that student has been found guilty of sexual assault. The judge stated there was a clear pattern of escalating behaviors from that student towards my daughter that were not properly addressed. On Tuesday, August 19th, we were informed that this student will be returning in person. Administration will do their best to prevent my daughter from having classes with them. The safety plan created for my daughter states if he assaults her again, she's to report it to staff. My daughter isn't afraid to return to school. No child should be afraid to return to school. As you as the board are focused, I feel on the wrong changes to keep our children safe. Our school administrators need more tools. They need more support to follow and improve upon the current district policies which could have prevented my daughter from being harmed and their son from being found guilty of sexual assault. Our school administration does not need to hear another ethics policy. We need to build on the policies that are currently there to protect our children. We need to give our administrators the tools that they need to follow these policies. Our children need to be better protected. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um Karen M and on deck is Kate L. >> Good evening superintendent here tonight on the issue of vendors. I'm listening to for a little bit as I was coming up here thinking what are we wasting our time on. It's kind of my reason to be here tonight. We have a very very wellrun, very competent finance committee. In all my years here, I've never once wanted to investigate all of the vendors that we have. And I think tonight we're probably going to hear that it's a good thing to do every once in a while to look them over and to be on top of things. It sounds good, but we all know from previous meetings that some businesses have been threatened. So when you look at that and you're trying to figure out is this a good one or not, you don't have any of the tools necessary to figure out what vendor is better than another vendor. That's why you're not the finance committee. And so as the previous speaker said, I'm just going to ask you tonight to concentrate on building a board of all of you, not four, three, trying to get everybody to really listen to one another and that means everybody and then to make some healing with this community because it's it's rough out there and you're not getting any price points for what's happening here and you've got a great administration, you've got a great HR, you've got a great finance, you've got a great everybody. So, I wish that you would all just relax and do the job that you're here to do and concentrate on the academics for our kids, the safety of our kids, the welfare of our community, and have maybe a chance to not have to have a policeman at our meeting. When I came in and saw him again, I thought, my tax collectors are paying to have a a policeman at a schoolboard meeting. I think we should all grow up, try to listen to the community a little bit more and try to make some peace. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Karen. >> Kate L. And on deck is Will S. Good afternoon. Like always, you show your values by what you spend your time doing. I am choosing to be here instead of my daughters for me because I value our schools. Tonight, days before school begins, sixth grade transition, dozens of new teachers, families looking for reassurance, the board is choosing to spend time reviewing vendor contracts or discussing six new or newly complicated policies. None of those agenda items address the concerns of safety, inclusion, or student well-beings. Concerns that students and parents have raised consistently, including today, for months. The one thing you feel that's not worth the time based on its relegation to the consent agenda is the reversal of the board resolution concerning individuals who have been directed to leave schoolboard meetings. The surprise resolution that dominated the July 17th meeting. I'm glad it's reversed, but by your choice to bury it instead of owning the error or offering an apology and without taking any accountability for the antagonistic policymaking that brought it forward, you show your values. Policies are introduced with little or no public input bundled together in overwhelming volume and timed to avoid scrutiny. The message community voice is not a priority for this board. I want to focus on something in the administrator code of ethics. Another new policy with curious timing just like the superintendent policies. What message are you trying to send here? I feel our administration is already ethical and already bound by Minnesota law and the board of school administrators that hold their license. This policy is MSBA model, but that doesn't make it perfect. Here's one line. Administrators must not knowingly join or support organizations that advocate directly or indirectly to the overthrow of the government. On its face, that might seem like a safeguard, but in practice, it's dangerous, vague, and right for misuse. We have already heard members of this board misrepresent certain political groups as terrorists or hate organizations and reject others based on personal beliefs and a hasty reverse policy is just on tonight's agenda. I don't know if it's prudent for any board to have this tool against administrators. This clause in the wrong hands can easily punish administrators for their values, affiliations, or advocacy. Let's be clear. The First Amendment protects freedom of association as well as speech and expression, even when that expression challenges. Educators have always been at the forefront of social progress, from desegregation to disability rights. To penalize them for aligning with movements that seek equity and reform is to silence the voices our students need most. Civic engagement is not insurrection. Advocacy is not subversion. that educators and administrators should never be punished for challenging injustice. If this board is serious about ethics and transparency and community engagement, prioritize student well-being, not political tests, not rushed policy dumps, and certainly not silencing disscent from parents, students, or business owners because again, you show your values by what you spend time on. And tonight, your priorities are loud and clear. >> Thank you, Kate. Whe S and on deck is Ashley B. All right. So, good evening. My name is William Smith. Uh, I'm coming today as a concerned parent and combat veteran to talk about recent policy proposals and their impacts on people's first amendment rights. So, I served eight and a half years as an airborne combat medic. I have two combat deployments with my last being searched for Baghdad in 2007. I have fought not only for ideas I agree with, not just the parts that are convenient, not just the parts that win elections, all of them. First, the first men. I did not fight so that elected officials could silence people who they serve. Those dissenting ideas and criticisms are more important to creating better policy than anything else. And without them, everything fails. And I've seen that firsthand. I did not risk my life so that school boards could threaten businesses, owners, teachers, and community members for speaking their mind when board policy is impacting not only children in school but also the quality of the community. You seem to love to introduce new policies, none of which seem to give tools to the educators. You call it governance and I call it control. I've seen what control looks like and when it's unchecked, it does not build trust. It builds fear. I've been working closely with superintendent, principal, dean. And while we might have our difference of opinions and we have definitely had some very contentious free speech moments, we were both able to resto respect each other's rights to have that opinion and still manage to talk through in how we address the issues. I see instead of empowering our administrator to solve problems, this board is taking away tools in one policy and complicating things in the next. We need they need their your support improvements on things like building cameras or just time to focus on problems without some new flavor of the month mandate. You're not supporting them. You are handcuffing. You are wasting their time and their time is supposed to be used to educate and protect our kids. You're wasting time on our tax dollars tonight with a revener review of you. That sounds dangerously like you are doubling down on suppressing speech from the community. Let me be crystal clear. Free speech is not a privilege granted by this board. It is a it is a guarantee by the current constitution. And when you suppress it, you don't just violate that right. You dishonor the sacrifices sent to protect it. Your responsibility is to provide policy that empowers your administrators to provide a safe environment for kids to learn both educational skills for adulthood, but also boundaries for students that have yet to fully learn what is proper and acceptable in society. And so far, your history has shown me that you would much rather waste time trying to create contentious policies that only waste precious time and resources and only serve to continue to put our kids at risk while at the same time trying to find any way to remove a whisper of dissent or criticism. Because if you're afraid of what we have to say, maybe it's not the speech that's the problem. Maybe it's you. >> Thank you. Well, >> thank you. >> Thank you, >> Ashley B. And that is the final green card that I have this evening. Thank you, Dr. In June, I stood here and spoke as a business owner in this community. In July, it was suggested that business owners who speak out are disruptive, that they shouldn't identify themselves as such. And after countless emails asking for clarification and acknowledgement, no one is owning up to those words. I know what it feels like to be attacked for what I say. When I ran for this board, I didn't just face disagreement. I got fake reviews on my business. I got mocked for how I looked. People said it was a shame your mom didn't have an abortion so you wouldn't contribute to the downfall of society. People twisted my words, but I showed up anyway. I attempted to own up to what I said. I kept talking with people. I kept going to public events and I keep showing up in this room because that's what leadership looks like. What I don't see enough of is that same willingness to stand in front of the public and own your words. Too often it feels like leaders hide behind titles or policies instead of showing up. And if I'm told here tonight that I can't identify myself as a business owner, fine. Then I'll speak as a parent. A parent of children in this district. a parent who's tired of watching tax dollars go toward debates about whether business owners are disruptive instead of focusing on how to support and protect students. I can stand here as a business owner, a parent, or a community member. It doesn't matter. All of those titles are part of who I am. And only one person gets to decide who I am at heart. No one else. Avoiding hard conversations isn't leadership. Listening, owning your words, and showing up, that's leadership. and I'll keep showing up to make sure that happens. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Ashley. >> All right, that brings us to our consent agenda. Is there any item that anybody would like to have pulled from the consent agenda? >> All right, seeing none, I would entertain a motion. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. >> All right, motion carries. brings us to action items 6.1 aware award high school serving line bid Dr. Massie. >> Uh, a bid announcement was published on July 24th and on July 31st. There were five proposals for this project. The bid opening occurred on August 8th, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in this boardroom here at the district office. The lowest bidder that met the bid requirements was CONINX in the amount of 339,22081 and administration would recommend your approval. I would add to that recommendation that these serving lines would go into place in December over winter break provided the production of these lines, the customization of these lines stays on timeline and on target. And the new lines will provide for greater flexibility, efficiency, and food options for kids, including regular salad bar, burger line for kids. um just greater menu options overall. So this is a great development for the high school and again administration would recommend your approval. >> Move to approve 6.1. >> Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? >> Question for you, Superintendent Massie. Have we used Colin X before for other serving lines? Um and if not, or I guess if we have, how has that gone as far as like timeline putting them in? how they've held up over time and if we haven't, do we have any contingency plan about getting them installed over winter break? >> I don't have the answer to whether or not we've used them in the past. Um, business director Ren Bghetti is not able to be here tonight. Um, I can get that answer for you. Um, we did have conversation with ColonX and there are contingencies built in in terms of meeting timelines and we'll show some flexibility if there's, you know, some challenges. We have the spring break window as well. Um, these are custom serving lines. So, um, that's their their conservative estimate on timeline and uh, we have no reason to believe that they can't meet that timeline. Thank you. >> All right. Any other discussion? >> All right. I'd just like to add then I'm I'm super excited. We had uh one, two, three. I'm seeing five bids here and four of them were extremely competitive, very close. Um it looks like we did really well here. And I know with a with a high schooler and having two kids recently graduated that this is going to be a huge benefit to the high school, especially with the new schedule and just the amount of time that that students are given for lunch. This is going to help move things along. So, uh I might be as excited as some of the students to see this get to completion and see it early next year. Um all right. If we have no other discussion, I'd ask the clerk to please take a roll call. Okay. Member Rebeline. >> I. >> Member Hagglund. >> I. >> Member Christensen. >> I. >> Member Corkran. >> I. Member Anton votes. I. Member Castle. >> I. >> And member Tyson. >> I. The eyes have it. >> All right. The motion carries, bringing us to item 6.2, substitute teacher policy 417, substitute rate adjustment. Dr. Massie. in an interest in staying competitive with near uh neighboring districts with respect to substitute rates of pay. We believe it's appropriate at this time to adjust our current rate. Um I did share with the board a study that was done showing sub rates compared to neighboring districts >> and you'll see in that report that we are amongst the lowest and even if we you approve this rate tonight, we'll still be on the lower end. Mhm. >> But I would say that a movement from $150 per day to $170 per day will put us in a much more competitive situation. Every time we leave uh a we're not able to find a substitute teacher, we're leaning on our classroom teachers to cover those uncovered classrooms. In those cases, classrooms are splitting kids. So, increasing class size at the elementary level. At the secondary level, teachers are giving up their prep time to cover for uncovered classrooms. And while that can be done in the short term, being done on a regular basis leads to burnout and stealing away prep time where teachers are preparing lessons and so on. So, I think this is um a an appropriate adjustment and one that will allow us to be competitive. So with that and the last time it was updated was 2023. >> With that administration recommends your approval. >> Okay. >> All right. I would entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this? >> I have a question. >> Member. Do we have any idea how often this happens when when you at the elementary level over the course of the year, at the middle school, high school level over the course of the year, how many times we end up not having a substitute teacher? >> There are stretches where that is daily. >> Yeah. Um and teachers are absent for all the reasons we can imagine, including professional development days, curriculum development time. even though we try to shift some of those to after school hours. Um there there's a shortage overall of subs and then our current sub rate makes it even more difficult. So it can happen on a fairly regular basis and if we're going to if we pay a teacher to cover a class on their prep time or double up with kids, they get their daily rate of pay. So it's more expensive um when teachers are covering those those classrooms. Again, on a short term, that's a good solution, but on an ongoing basis, it's expensive and it's a it's a burden on staff. >> Mhm. Definitely. Okay. >> Okay. I just would like to add that, you know, we've tried to catch our our rate up and we still are in that lower portion. So, this is what we have to stay on top of. Otherwise, we're going to be at the very bottom. And it's so important to have good subs and subs that want to come and want to answer that call and be there for our district. Districts that don't have that end of using teachers on call and that's that costs a fortune. So I'm so happy that we are going to approve this tonight because it's so needed. Yeah, I was just going to echo that and I know it's been I mean I've heard this for years that it's a real struggle to get substitute teachers and so I wish it could be a little bit more to even be more competitive but we have to do it in increments because we just don't >> can't do it anymore than than this at a time. So >> I think it's a start. >> Yeah. So >> and I would recognize that this is a fairly decent increment increase. >> Yeah, it is. >> It's not nominal and I think it will have an impact. >> Yeah, I hope so. All right. Any other discussion? >> Yeah, that reminds me of a a question I asked Dr. Massie when I first saw this was uh is this moving the needle enough? And uh the hope is that yes, it is. And that we'll have a we'll have a a wider net here. We're casting a little bit wider net. We'll have more applicants for uh substitutes. But I I think uh if if I'm hearing that the board tonight uh we'd like administration to monitor this and to let us know if obtaining substitutes continues to be a problem. If it is, we need to take another closer look at this policy and see if we need to uh um increase the rate yet again. Um, I don't think there's anybody at this table here that would disagree that uh compensation for staff is probably one of the most critical things that we can consider and it's one of the uh easiest ways that we can uh help ensure that we have quality educators for all of our students and that and that is of critical importance. So, um this is just one component of that. Um if there is no other discussion, right, all those in favor signify by saying I. Those opposed. All right. Motion carries. Brings us to 6.3 short-term classified substitutes policy 434 substitute rate adjustment. Dr. Mass. >> And in a similar fashion, we're recommending an increase in the substitute rate of pay for classified staff. They're paid on an hourly basis. Currently at $14 an hour. Uh this recommendation would be to move that to $15 per hour for those positions listed. Um it would increase the health office assistant LPN again $1 from $19 to $20. Otherwise, most of those rates would move by all those rates would move by $1 per hour. And administration would recommend your approval. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Mass. I would entertain a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Before we move to discussion, I just want to briefly mention since there was some uh public comment on policy and approval approving policy and how the uh the process of that works is typically our policies will uh go to a policy committee if they have more scope than just just the board level or governance. Um and then they'll move to the board for first reading. We're kind of uh piloting a program where we we have a second reading where we can offer uh amendments and those are the policies that are on this evening and then they would move to approval in the third and final meeting giving a um ample opportunity for the public to weigh in giving the board ample opportunity to uh consider it. This is one of those conditions where um that process is being circumvented and this is uh being circumvented per our policy 1208 section 4 item D where if a policy is modified with minor changes that don't affect the substance of the policy um or because of a legal change over which the school board has no control the modified policy may be approved at one meeting at discretion of the school board. So that's why we're moving right to approval this evening as it's not really a a substantative change. It's a it's a rate change for staff and it's timely uh so we can get this in place before the school year. So just a little clarification in case people were wondering why does this process look different. Um so with that explanation I I echo my statements on the previous policy um and open it up to the board for any other discussion. >> Member Christian. >> Well I would just like to say I think these positions um struggle with subs. I mean teachers struggle with subs but these positions I mean food service um paras noon duty all you know so this this is um a welcome change I mean it's you know it's incremental as we spoke about but um these positions are really hard to get um um subs for as well and as long as I'm speaking I I will we should have a roll call on this >> sure >> because I would I sub some of these positions >> so Thank you >> member Ty. >> Yes. So I just want to comment and ask the superintendent. We get a comparison with the classified as well. >> We have not received that from our various associations. >> Okay. >> So I don't have that data. >> So we don't know how we compare the surrounding districts with our >> in a similar way that we do with teachers. I'm sure. >> So it is. So this one I think we've really worked to bring up because this looks really low to me still. I mean, I feel like these are all important roles and these need to be paid more than this. While I'm glad for the raise, as member Christensen said, I just still think that this is astoundingly low to me. I think that I mean, you can work at Quick Trip and make just about the same as some of these dollar amounts. So, makes me kind of sad. I was a perahilah like member Christensen and I just think that this needs to move. So I hope as a board we can keep our eye on that and see how the school year goes because echoing member Christensen, these are critical parts to every thing that works at school and during the school day. So I hope we can be reinformed and let know how it goes and if we're not filling these positions, we might need to move this if we can. I mean, we don't have an checkbook we can open up and just write it out. So, it's it's all got to be part of the process. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Member Tyson. Uh, >> member Parker. >> So, your good point, Member Tyson, is about a comparison. Is there any way we could just for future reference comparison with neighboring districts? >> Yes, we could certainly do our own survey of neighboring districts. >> I think it'd be good for us just to know how much lower we are just for the future. Like I say, I mean that quick trip. I was actually thinking that when I looked at this earlier today, like Quick Trip, how much do they pay? How much does McDonald's pay? I mean, >> I know. And I think >> I know surrounding districts are higher. >> Yeah. And it'd be just good to keep because they are important. It's hard to fill these positions and they're critical for our district to run smoothly. So, um, yeah, it's just good to know and if we can just keep our eye on it and, uh, work and steadily increase them as they go and keep, yeah, just to make sure we we don't lose sight of this. Thank you. >> Um, Dr. Massie, do we know how these rates compare with uh, our current full-time staff, >> like for example, custodian, a substitute custodian here, we're we're suggesting $15 an hour. Um what what are our full-time custodians? Uh >> that was part of our analysis and I think that's a good question. When we look at our entry level custodial position, our beginning pair of positions, there's a point at which the sub rate exceeds the hourly rate >> or is comparable to. So we have to watch that as well. Yeah, that that's my biggest concern here because I'm I'm tempted to make a motion to increase this, but uh I I don't want to increase it so much that that that throws things out of balance with our full-time staff. That that's my biggest concern there. >> Yeah. >> Any other discussion here, member Antonson? >> Well, we've we've mentioned several times here in these discussions about following up on it. So could do we have a plan for that? Do we look at this again like say Decemberish to see how we're doing in this? Are we able to get people here more often and frequently fill those gaps when somebody's covering or we need substitutes or can like what's a good plan for following up? So >> I would offer a midyear update would be >> certainly appropriate. >> It's a reasonable Okay. Um, and and do you have a pool of people? Do they sort of cross over as member Christensen said or is that maybe just specific and to you because you're already in there and can do it? >> Well, I would I would just say a lot of these positions um there are openings anyway. If you go look on the district website, there are plenty of these jobs that are open. >> Um, you know, noon duties, I know they're hiring more at the middle school. I mean, that, you know, those positions are open a lot. pairs. There's a lot of pair positions open. So, I would to member chair's point, I mean, the starting salary for a full-time employee is lower than neighboring districts, um, >> as it is with teachers and other groups. So, um, that is a concern. Um, and yeah, I mean, I don't, >> you know, we budget with the money we have, not the money that we want to have, but I mean, in an ideal world, you would raise up all of these, >> right? full-time positions and then we would it would be easier to find subs. But the pool of subs I would argue is probably smaller than the teacher pool. I mean just >> the classified sub pool is much much leaner and we have many more openings there. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And and what happens um Dr. Dr. Massie, what happens in the situation for example here uh in LPN if you can't fill that are we going to contracted services then or >> those are for permanent positions. Um but I would say for the sub positions our district-wide nurses are often moving around filling the health offices. >> Okay, >> if if those folks are gone. >> So that puts added stress on our on our staff and and and that's a that's a >> major concern as well. Yeah. >> All right. Do we have any other discussion on this one? >> I just want to add one more comment. I have heard from other districts and I have heard this from people in our district that if we can get our subs kind of in the system in the fall and filling those positions and they're happy with their pay, they're happy with where they can go, what buildings work, they stay. So, if we need an update prior to December or midyear, I mean, I hope you'll bring it forward to us. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> If we're not getting those subs and we're not building up that lean classified group. >> Yeah. I I I'm really really tempted to make an amendment here this evening, but um I think we need to do further analysis before we do that. And uh >> I I think that the first couple of months of the school year will help us with that. So if I'm if I'm hearing the board here, I I think what I'd like to propose to Dr. Massie and administration is that they do a little bit more of this analysis that we asked for this evening, especially on the classified um help us understand how we compare, how this compares with our full-time staff and then uh bring it back to us maybe as early as October uh for reconsideration. And and I would echo that for policy 417 as well on the substitute teachers because we got to take some of the stress off of our of our staff and having a a good pool of substitutes is going to help do that in every way imaginable. Um so I think I think my feeling is that I would recommend that the board approve this change tonight and know that we're going to dig into it even more over the next few months and possibly uh look at it again very very soon. Does that seem reasonable? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> All right. In in that case, if there's no other discussion, >> seeing none, member clerk, will you please take the roll call? >> Okay. Member Tyson. >> I >> You abstain. >> Member Christensen. >> Abstain. >> Member Hagland. >> I. >> Member Rebeline. >> I. >> Member Castle. >> I. >> Member Corkran. >> I. >> Member Antonson. Votai. The eyes have it. >> All right. That brings us to item 7.1. back to school report. Dr. Massie. >> All right. Well, I'm actually excited to share some updates as we are now on the eve of the start of the school year. Next week, we will bring all staff back in for the back to school inservice week starting on Monday. And we will um we actually had all of our new educators in today and um beginning on Tuesday, Wednesday and and today we culminated today with the Chamber of Commerce lunchon for all of our new educators which is always a just an amazing and fantastic event. But before I get into the updates related to the school year, I want to acknowledge uh the passing of retired educator Mary Deford, 40-year educator, special education, finished her career in teaching uh at Columbus Elementary as an elementary educator. Gifted educator, compassionate, creative, uh dynamic. Um, we were sad to see her retire and are certainly sad to share the news of her passing. All right, I thought I would start with a couple of updates on the extensive work we did around the re-imagine 2025 plan. As we know, as a board, we did a great deal of study and analysis around moving our sixth graders from the elementary setting to the middle school. We held community meetings across the district in our different elementary communities. And on September 2nd, for the first time in our history in Forest Lake, uh, aside from the days where we were a one building school district, we now have sixth graders part of our our middle school. So, it's an exciting development for our middle school students from the standpoint of the classes they get to take. you remember all the gateway courses that now sixth graders have an option opportunity to experience expanded opportunities in the core classes as well with longer class periods. So really exciting and on top of that um I'm happy to share that the enrollment for sixth grade is projected to be up in this case 49 students that may grow between now and the start of the school year. That's 49 students above the number of fifth graders we had last year. >> So that's an increase for the sixth grade class. A similar size increase in seventh grade of an additional 41 students from the sixth grade group the year before and 16 students in eighth grade. So we are crowded >> at the middle school. And if Jason Miller were here, um you can see that he's not here because they have a soft open house for sixth and seventh graders going on as we speak. Uh he would say that yeah, it's going to be tight, but we're really excited for uh for the the beginning of the school year. You'll see in just a minute when I get to enrollment the class sizes, which have remained balanced as we projected at that time. So, I'll get to that in just a moment. As we get into then the openhouse experiences for sixth grade and seventh grade uh and eighth grade. Again, tonight the soft opening where sixth and seventh graders can come in, meet their counselors and the administrative staff, tour the school, get a sense of the layout of the school before all grades are there and it's game on with classes. And then next week, August 26, Tuesday the 26th, sixth graders only will have their open house between 3:30 and 700 p.m. All teachers will be on hand along with um opportunities to spin their locker combinations, uh their lunch accounts, they'll have food trucks on hand for families and and students as well. And then on August 27th, seventh and eighth graders will have the opportunity to come in for open house, get a lay of the land, find out where their classes are, meet their teachers, and so on. The first day of school is a bit in flex for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. As you know, with the web program, we bring in new students alone as a grade level. So the first day of school, uh, September 2nd will be just for sixth graders. They will have the run of the school on the first day of school. So it's a way for them to get a a feel of the school, where their classes are, how the flow works without the pressure of of the other two grade levels. And then on September 3rd, the second day of school, seventh graders, um re I I I point out are also starting the middle school as new students. They will be um experiencing the the web experience, the web orientation day. Sixth graders will continue to come that day and they'll attend classes as normal. And then on September 4th, all students will be in attendance. first day for eighth grade students. Some really exciting developments with the middle school. Again, all of the gateway courses, the different academic courses for students. Um, it's a really exciting place for kids. The other side of the re-imagined 2025 plan was the consolidation of Forest Lake Elementary with Forest View Elementary. We are after a great deal of planning and organization um including hiring and taking on new enrollment. Our staff are all in in place. We are fully hired with our teaching staff. We did add a counselorswork worker position to join the current counselor from Forest View. So they'll have twice the number of student support through the counselor social work combination. We are projected to start at about 491 students. I say about because we continue to take enrollment and this can be a fairly fluid time with families and student enrollment. Class sizes look great and I'll show you some of that here in just a little bit. And back to school openhouse will be on Wednesday, August 27th. Moving on from the re-imagine, uh I think um the board's aware and the public might be asking where's the strategic plan discussion. >> So I wanted to quickly touch on that. If if you'll recall the at the last board meeting, we had an extensive presentation on the current strategic plan, a review and an update over the last five years. There were a lot of questions, some asked, some still formulating in your minds with an interest in bringing directors together with the board to dig deeper into components of the strategic plan, answer questions that the board may have. And after a conversation with a couple of board members and the chair, we determined that it might be best to have one-on-one small groupoup conversations with board members where you have a chance to dig into the strategic plan, ask questions, have conversation about the work that we've done over the last five years. And then we would bring the discussion and decision making around next steps with development or revisions of the strategic plan to the September 18th board meeting. So that would give us the better part of several weeks to schedule these meetings, take a couple of hours to answer questions and allow you to dig into the strategic plan. That would be the concept moving forward. A lot of work was done with the revision of the year year three plan uh year three goals and objectives with the uh achievement and integration plan. Most notably in addition to other components was the addition of activity buses. So, I thought it was fitting to share with the board here tonight that in addition to the regular schedule of Thursday activity buses, the achievement integration plan will fund activity buses for on Tuesdays and Wednesdays beginning the second week of the school year. So, those are in place. They had bid uh bidding for those different routes here earlier this week. So, we will be scheduled the second week of the school year to begin activity buses. Students are eligible to ride the activity buses at the secondary level. We do not provide them at the elementary level. And middle school students will be able to attend targeted services, which will begin most likely in October as we use fast data and classroom assessments to determine academic need for students. uh targeted services would be in the area of literacy and math with an opportunity for kids to fill gaps in learning with that added time. Additionally, kids who stay after and get extra help from teachers would have an opportunity to ride the activity bus on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays and the same would be true for students attending the high school who get extra academic help from teachers after school. The activity bus would also be available for students participating in school activities. So, we're all set to have those buses start rolling the second week of the school year. Some really exciting news on enrollment. Current district enrollment is projected to be at 5612 students. I assure you that on September 2nd, that number will be a bit different. We're taking enrollment every day. There are students that are on in our system and on our roles today that are enrolled elsewhere. That happens every summer. Uh we get that information through records requests from other schools. Some of those have come in, some of those haven't come in yet. they'll come in next week, maybe even the first or second week of school as kids don't show up with us and they show up in a different school. So, that's part of that fluidity of the start of the school year. But again, right now we have 5612 students uh enrolled. That is 63 students over the number that we ended with last year. And we build the budget with an anticipated enrollment. We anticipate we have anticipated over the last many years the loss of 100 students due to declining birth rates. With the trends that we have seen with enrollment, we've built the budget with a projected loss of 70 students and currently 5612 students is 157 students over >> the number that we budget for the year. the number we use to calculate revenue for the school year that is similar to the number that we started last year. So last year we were about 1560 students over the projected number the budgeted number at the start of the year. We're an additional 157 students over that number. And keep in mind that every student is um is revenue is tied to everyu student through per pupil funding and it is our core source of funding and revenue for the district. Uh we are really excited to see the increase in enrollment. It's been well over a decade since we've been able to say enrollment is stabilizing and increasing in our district. And that is in light of declining birth rates. So where are the kids coming from? They're coming from charter schools. They're coming from home schools. And they're coming from neighboring districts. There is development, but de development alone is not counting for this increase. Then with that, we look at where we're projected for class sizes. So I'll show you across the grade levels where we're at. And this will vary. This is the a an average uh kindergarten actually is at I'm sorry I didn't list that there is at 19.5 grade one is at 20.6 in parentheses is the metro average. So we're below the metro average or right at about the metro average in first grade. 19.76 almost 20 students in second grade below the metro average. 22 and a half on average in third grade again below the metro average. Fourth grade right on the metro average at 24 and 3/4. and grade five 26.7 or 26.7 just slightly above or right on the metro average. So with increased enrollment and the staffing work that we did beginning last February through quite honestly this week we added a position with staffing that we had on reserved through our budget work to fourth grade at Lynwood. that staff member was hired yesterday and was in our new teacher orientation today. So that's is that's how fluid things can be. And when we add a position this late in the year, Gretchen Matson, our principal at Lynwood, was really nervous about having a candidate, much less the four that she interviewed >> and to land on the person of quality that she was able to find. We're really excited across the middle school. You'll recall the conversations we had during the re-imagine meetings with families. A lot of concern around what's going to happen to class size with our sixth graders. We shared then that class sizes would stay roughly similar to the sixth grade average that students saw uh the previous year. Um, while I don't have last year's sixth grade average, we're projected to be at between 26 and 28 across those core classes, which is very similar to the sixth grade average that we had last year in our schools. So, moving 470ome sixth graders to the middle school did not blow up class size. We planned accordingly and were able to hit the staffing number to keep class sizes uh relatively equivalent. >> And then at the high school core academic classes 26 to 28 that would include um English language arts, math, science, and social studies. You'll find some elective areas lower. Industrial technology is going to be lower. You'll find fed classes higher than that. So we look mainly at the core academic areas and we're below 30. In fact, we're between 26 and 28. You'll have a couple that end up based on how the schedule works and constraints with the schedule a section at 32 or 33 and you'll have sections at 24 25. It's just the way 16 14 16 sections across the school get loaded with students. And that concludes my report. So I'd certainly take any questions or comments. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Massie. >> Member Antonson, >> can you um speak a little bit more to the afterchool academic help? What does that look like for the the teachers in the middle school and the high school? We've offered targeted services at the middle school in the past. >> That's all dependent on the number of students who sign up. >> Okay. >> Sometimes that can be low. >> So, so the teachers, all teachers are doing this or Okay. >> No. So, let's say we have 40 students sign up. >> Okay. >> 100 students sign up. We'll hire staff to keep the ratios around 18ish. >> Okay. for those classes. And the after school targeted services is related to skill development, not homework help. >> Okay? >> So, it's not help me get my homework done. >> It's identifying skill deficit and working on skills. So, if it's a math need, >> we're leaning into our math staff to provide that service. >> ELA, writing, same. >> Okay. Okay. >> Member Christensen. >> Yeah. I would just like to take a minute to just kind of soak all that in and just realize what we have all just accomplished. Um, uh, Dr. Massie and all of our staff. I mean, I remember we all went to those meetings, uh, talking about putting the sixth grade in the middle school last fall and parents were concerned and rightly so. Um, and people were very passionate in those meetings and again, rightly so. And here we are on the other side of that. Um, I haven't, you know, gotten any emails for a long time about any concerns. Um, the class sizes have stayed about the same, which which, uh, Dr. Massie and and staff had, um, hoped for and alluded to. And not only that, but we are increasing um, enrollment. And I think we could take pride in just that right there. sixth grade going to the middle school. But then we also uh consolidated two elementary schools. Also very big deal and on its on its own face that would that would have been a major accomplishment um for a district to do during that time. Um and we did it and we hired additional staff uh that we needed. Very pleased to have another counselor there and a social uh counselor/social worker there. So again, that was really exciting, wonderful leadership from our superintendent and all of our administrators. But then not only that, and we also did uh some rebounding work with our elementary schools, which in past times people had said was very difficult and people were very upset and again not very much um there that people were upset. So again, you know, very exciting work. So, two things happened just this year, major things that I think any other district could have just focused on one of those things. We did two of them this past year. And then, uh, to have one that was accomplished during the year, but not implemented until the fall. And then, not only that, um, we're talking about some, you know, work to our strategic plan. So, I just really want to thank our superintendent, Dr. Massie and all of our um district administrators. Um just incredible work really to start on that end being in those meetings where people were upset and a lot of people came to those meetings which was great. I you know great to have that um participation and questions asked and Dr. Massie was at all those meetings. At least two of us I think were at those meetings. Administrators um Mr. Miller the principal at the middle school was there. I mean so much time uh went into those meetings and answering everybody's questions and I mean just so wonderful that we're on you know the other end of it through through uh to the other side and u wonderful success really I think we should take um a lot of pride in that >> I'm not going to miss the opportunity to acknowledge and you did uh Mr. Miller and his team and the work at the middle school. >> They they were at work before we even started the meetings and >> um just tireless work between then and now. >> The same with Mr. Ernest and his team. >> Um >> Mrs. Stmmire, >> Mrs. Stagmire at Force Lake Elementary last year. Many, many hours, creative work. our directors side by side with those teams doing doing their creative work and they've brought not just the system forward but brought families along in the process as well >> member Tyson >> so I do want to just say this is a prideful moment this is just I mean given the increase in enrollment um that's just a blessing but we know that we've done that excellent work at the middle school and at the high school with curriculum and building all that up and people are really excited. I saw a couple of sixth graders in my neighborhood on their bikes and they said starting school tomorrow, Gail and I was like you are. So they were talking about tonight being up there for the first time in their building and they're so excited and so are the parents and just so much proven leadership and good communication as member Christensen alluded to. You have to have that. Otherwise, we'd still be in those meetings with people not happy and and it there's just been no push back. People are ready. They're accepting of it. They want their students in the building that they're going to the sixth graders. So, I'm so excited for the merge. And I just had one question. So, 491 is the enrollment. How does that compare to like last year's for them? Is that like similar? I I want to say that it is, but I'm I'm not sure >> for Forest View and Forest Lake. >> Pardon me. >> Put some batteries in the budget. >> Yeah. Yeah. We We got a We got a lethargic. >> We don't have any >> clicker. Maybe it said 491 for the merge. The enrollment for the merge >> before they were merged. >> Yeah. >> Um >> Yeah. >> So, I'm just wondering what that comparison. >> Yeah. We were projecting just with the enrollment for K5, okay, >> between the two schools >> to be right at about that number. This is fairly consistent with what we anticipate. >> And so that's kind of consistent with what that building's used to then and what it's held in the past. >> It had uh we we had some data and evidence that they had upwards to 580 at one point. >> Okay, that's what I wanted to clarify. Good to know. Um, and then could we receive an update on the activity buses to make sure they're being utilized? I mean, I do have a good feeling since we added them that they're being fruitful, they're being used. I mean, historically, we have gotten complaints as board members that we see these activity buses with no kids on them. Buses are expensive. We hear about For Schools has a busing um issue with the cost. So >> absolutely. Yeah, we we always monitor those activity buses. When we had just the one on Thursdays and we had our different student activities on Thursdays, it was fairly consistently utilized. >> Okay. >> How that plays out across three days now, we'll we'll have to wait and see and we'll certainly monitor that. >> Okay. That'd be good to get feedback on that. Thank you. And then the small group meetings for the board members, which I'm excited to work on the strategic plan with my fellow board members. Those are going to take place here then prior to the meeting on the 18th. >> Look for an email from me trying to find times that work for board members and our directors. We'll have our directors there as well to work with you and to answer questions. And >> so we're not planning a workshop night to do that. I'm just clarifying that. It'll be a another time. >> Yeah. I my vision would be that we would have these one-on-one small groupoup conversations, meetings to dig into the strategic plan, bring the conversation back to the board table, okay, >> at the September 18th meeting and at that point workshop it around what do we do next? What's the next iterate? How do we get to the next iteration of the strategic plan? What process might we engage in to do that work? >> Yeah, the the small group. I I was kind of envisioning something similar to what we did with the uh reimagine. We come in, we can sit down with directors, ask really uh detailed questions, really dig into that deep. Um I believe it was two weeks ago when we had the board meeting. It was just a lot to digest. >> Um so it give us more of an opportunity to do that. We'll bring it back to the board on the 18th. either workshop it then or decide, you know, this is the next step we want to take as a board, whether that be facilitation or a subcommittee or something along those lines. So, we'll make that decision in about a month. >> That I like that whole plan, but I'm just wondering what the logistics were. So, there'll be separate small group meetings prior to workshop and then the meeting. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Member Castle. >> Um, is there kind of what regularly how we get the increase? You said that there was an increase from last year what we expected and what we ended up with and again this year we have more is is there somewhere that that's typically coming from or is it un kind of random >> where enrollment's coming from >> where we are picking these students up. >> Yeah, that's a really good question. Uh when we ask our principles where are the kids coming from? uh their narrative is charter schools, North Lakes, Leela homeschool families, especially at the secondary level. Kids that were homeschooled in the elementary level coming to the middle school or high school at the secondary level. Uh neighboring districts, especially in Wyoming, picking up kids from Chasu or North Branch, Lo from Centennial. So some indist enrollment um that supports that and there is some housing development and that accounts for some of it but not all of it >> but maybe a bunch >> pardon me >> the housing development is what how much impact is that? >> Oh that's that's hard to determine. I would say probably maybe 10% of that if that. There just isn't a lot of dense housing development that's feeding into our district at this time. >> So that'll pick up when these developments >> for sure >> get going. >> Yep. >> Remember corp? >> Oh um yeah I I don't have the I don't remember the numbers but did you did we get an increase in sixth grade? >> Yeah. 49 students coming >> because of the possible change coming to the middle school. >> We're doing great things at the middle school. People want to be a part of it. >> I was wondering if we got just because of that change and great opportunity for those kids. So, um no, I just think this presentation is just fabulous. It's just such a I just feel so pumped up and happy. Um, and I just want to express like Principal Miller just the whole his whole during all those meetings he was just so fabulous. I mean >> he you know he was inspirational and I think he was just so excited. I mean you could just see his excitement and every meeting I'm just like how are you his voice I'm like how do you even have a voice left? I mean he he was at he was just all excited. I mean, at the end, he just he looked a little tired at the end, but he made it through and he answered everyone's questions and he just had all that happiness and he was just jubilant. I would say that's a good word for him. And I'm just hoping we can get him here for maybe an update um maybe after maybe after three months or just kind of give us a little update how things are going um and how the staff's doing with all the changes and just to kind of give us a little maybe just a positive update how things are going. And I would encourage you to attend the open house. >> Yeah. >> Where you can >> interact with families and >> and if you're daring, come on the first day of school and see the buses and families and >> our work around logistics. >> Officer Coulter will be out there and you can got already has a smile on his face because >> there we go. Come on in. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Oh, member. Well, just to piggy back off what member Castle, member Corkran said, that for sixth and seventh grade, that's a 10% increase and a 5% increase in eighth grade. And as you alluded to, >> that's also including students that have left and moved out elsewhere. So that's actually >> if you think about it from that perspective, it's actually a greater influx than just the 10% is showing in an overall number. So that's pretty significant. >> Y >> definitely doing good things here. >> Remember Christian, >> I was just since you brought that up, Dr. Massie, I know that was a a point that a lot of parents had too with traffic and just dropping off and I know there was some conversation about maybe some different traffic patterns which is is difficult in that area anyway, but I don't know if any if you have any specific um update on that for families. >> Yeah, we do have a number of different traffic pattern changes in place where we're going to kind of zigzag people in especially at the um at the end of the day. That's the biggest congestion at the middle school. In the morning, parents drop and go >> and kids come in the school. At the end of the day, families get there before the end of the day and wait. >> So, we need to stage those cars in the lot to the extent that we can >> and have those families drive up and around the drop off corner of the front door. >> Um, maximizing that that roadway as well as parking lot opportunity to get cars in off of Good View. You know, Mr. Miller tells a very interesting story from his own child's school at middle school that when he picks his child up, it's a 25m minute wait. >> Yeah, I remember. >> And >> yeah, >> there will be most likely a longer wait for families, but in the grand scheme of things, if it's a 15minute wait, uh we're doing the best we can and we're going to keep kids safe in that process. And there's always the wonderful school bus if families want to utilize that, especially at the middle school if kids aren't involved in activities. >> Thank you. >> Oh, member. >> Speaking of buses, so the opting in, opting out is how is how is that going playing out with the bus move this year? >> That's always a challenge. Most families we're finding elect to opt in >> even though they're not planning to ride >> because they don't want to lose that seat. And we tell them, you call us the day you want to receipt and we'll put you on a bus. You don't need to >> tell us you're coming and then not come because then we got to load the bus assuming they're going to be there. >> Okay. >> So we we if we can have 65 55 I think is the number at the secondary level on a school bus. >> Okay. >> We load some of those routes up to 75 80 students knowing that not 80 students are going to ride. So that's part of the analysis that the team is doing at transportation. >> So number of buses is similar to last year the routes. Okay. Okay. >> Castle >> along with those logistics. Um do we have an update from the road construction? >> Oh yeah. >> The 97 road construction is midepptember. I've heard late September. And um I think they're beginning to put the final underllayment down. And the thing about that project, as I understand it, is it's such a swampy area >> that they had to get the the the load of fill to settle >> before they could put the final pavement down. So, it's a long project. They knew that. Um, our transportation system is fully aware and are routing buses accordingly, but we expect weather dependent mid to late September. >> That's better than what we heard last time. >> Yeah. Member Tyson, >> I have a quick question for the superintendent. Now, we created the campus effect with the high school and the middle school now. So, and I know when they cross at the end of the school day to come over for activities, we have FLPD out there and we have all those safety things in place. Will sixth graders be crossing to go to anything at the high school? They're not. >> No. In fact, middle school students, we we expect that they ride the bus >> over to the high school, >> okay? >> And then get off so they're not crossing Good View. >> Okay? That's like hurting cats because trying to get them to follow that is is a challenge as they sneak out the door and are zipping down the road to get to the high school. >> It's hard to differentiate the kids who are coming to the high school from those going home to the neighborhood. >> So, it's it's an ongoing challenge as our SRO's fully understand and trying to manage that. But we ask kids to ride the bus over because it's safer. >> Good to know. I I was asked that question so I want to clarify that. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. I' I'd like to thank Dr. Massie and his staff for for putting this report together for us. I think this was highly valuable and it it shows all the pieces in motion, not just with staff and administration, but with the board. We're doing a lot of things and um we're not myopic. We can focus on many different things at once. And um I think this report is just a good testament to that. U couple of notes that I had here as people were working through their comments uh that I wanted to to mention here is um I for one I'm I'm really excited about the activity buses which is why I was really happy to see it get moved into the ANI plan. I think it's going to bring forth a lot of academic support for students um not just the official academic support that Dr. Masky was talking about but the opportunity for students to stay after school and work one-on-one with their teachers when they have questions. Uh, one of the things that I heard from parents over and over and I hear it not only here but at 9:16 and at other districts when I talk to parents in other schools is transportation's a challenge and sometimes getting to school early or staying after school late to get that extra help. It's not an option because they they can't uh uh they can't work through that transportation challenge. And I I really hope that students take advantage of this and that once uh we send out a notification to families and the students recognize the fact that that means they can they will have the opportunity to stay after school and work with their teachers directly and and I think the potential that brings every one of our students academically is just it's uh it's not something that we can calculate here in the boardroom or determine you know the worth of a of an activity bus but I think at the end of the day there um seeing these students succeed and seeing them in improve in their academic pursuits that that makes the extra transportation worth it. Um and and giving students that opportunity. I just I hope they recognize that and that they utilize the opportunity. Um, as far as the uh enrollment piece, I um you know, we especially lately we've gotten lost and and if we look at, you know, read our local paper, uh we hear about a lot of the political activism that goes on around the school district and and divisive changes and uh um get the criticisms there. But one thing that I think is important to look at is that uh we've made a lot of really exciting and really positive changes here, especially over the last year. Um, admin's been working hard, the board's been working hard on that. We have a renewed focus on academics. The, uh, rewrite of the ANI plan, we really doubled down on academic support and academic achievement across the entire district for all of our students. And although I think it would be unfair to pat ourselves on the back and and say, look, this is this is driving enrollment, that is certainly a piece of the puzzle. Um, I've received a lot of input from parents who have had students in other um, solutions, be it homeschool or um, charter schools in the area that have have said, "Yeah, a renewed focus on academics, we're going to give Forest Lake another try." And I I think that's positive. And I think once they get here and they they have the opportunities and they see what we offer students, I think they're going to stay and I think they're going to tell their friends. And I think we're going to continue to see uh uh the academic performance increase across the district and I think we're going to see enrollment increase and I think at the end of the day that's our goal is the academic success of our students. So um a lot of really encouraging information in this report and uh really looking forward to seeing updates as we work through the school year here. Yeah, member Tyson, >> I am so remissed by not giving a shout out to our director of teaching and learning and his whole crew for all the gateway courses that our sixth graders and our middle schoolers are experiencing because I hear that all the time. >> So, shout out to that work because that's >> that's what started all this process and it's just an amazing all the gateway courses and how they correlate to what goes on at the high school and with the career pathways. So, want to thank them for all their hard work >> for sure. >> Well, member Corker, >> I'm also going to say it takes true visionaries to do what we did. We can't if we didn't have people, true leaders and visionaries to envision this whole plan, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish what we've accomplished. So, our leadership and administration and everybody that helped get this done is it's it's it's amazing. So, I'm very proud. >> Very proud. >> All right. Any further discussion on this topic? All right. Seeing none, we will move on to 7.2 vendor list review and discussion. Dr. Massie. >> All right. Uh the board asked to um for a copy of uh three years of vendor list that's been provided. It's in the board book. Um you've asked to bring it to the agenda for discussion tonight. And I would um tee up the conversation with an acknowledgement if I can that uh we identify vendors in the district based on quality of product and service. Uh their ability to deliver their product in a timely fashion. And certainly competitive pricing is a component as we select and work with our different vendors. We're grateful for the services that our vendors have provided. Many of our local vendors, as you well know, also support softball and baseball and wrestling. And I could rattle off 30 different student clubs and groups that they they sponsor and support. So, the partnership we all understand, between business and school is is super important. and um we're grateful for the relationship that we have with our vendors. Um and you've got the extensive list in front of you for the last three years. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Massie. And I think I would add to that uh one of the things I mentioned to a parent who reached out to me is I I think it's a good practice for any organization to review their vendors on an ongoing basis to uh understand who they work with. And in our situation being a political or not a political organization, but a public organization, sorry, spoke there, but being a public organization, I think it's even more important to to put that out in front of our uh public so they understand who we're paying, why we're paying, how much we're paying them, and that's tracking that through the board bills isn't always the easiest thing. So, um I think this report um gave not only the board an opportunity to review and and see where are our dollars being spent, but it gives us an opportunity for the the community to see that as well. Um I would also add that some of the funds you see there um although they're listed as expenses, they may uh be funneled through various student groups or through uh various clubs or activities. So, it's not all direct taxpayer uh money, but uh very very difficult to pull that type of a report out in aggregate. So, I I thank the staff for putting this together for us and and at least giving us something to look at. Um tonight, uh um I did add add this to my proposed agenda uh primarily for review and discussion and transparency with the public. Uh so, with that, I'll open it up to the the board for any discussion. Uh, member Hegler, >> I would like to first thank uh, Director Reberg, even though she's not here for pulling this together because I think this is a very uh, good list to review. As member or chair Revline already said, it's good to do this periodically for any business or public entity, and I think it's good for the public to be able to see the vendors that we do business with and at what amounts. With that being said, I did have uh somebody reach out to me with one question and I forgive me uh for not shooting this to you beforehand, but I didn't have time before the meeting. It's around insurance. So, and this is on the 2324 report. And if you can't answer tonight off the top of your head, that's fine. Just get back to me. Uh it's Liberty Liberty Mutual Insurance for is just shy of a million dollars. And the question was revolving around is this like building insurance? Is it insurance for the staff? Um, you know, what type of insurance is that? And is, if this isn't a local insure that's providing this coverage, can that be brought into a local insurance company, even though maybe it's mandated by a state or federal regulation to have whatever type of coverage Liberty is providing, is it still possible to go for a competitive bid and have it be brought into more of a local vendor? If you can answer it now, great. If not, I know it's kind of a lot to take in all at once, but >> I I can answer with the specificity you're probably looking for. I know that that is not related to our health benefit plan. It's not our health insurance. >> So, I would need to dig into exactly what that coverage is, liability coverage, building coverage. I'll have to dig into that and I'll get back to you. And as I look at it, there's other, you know, national carriers listed on here for pretty substantial amounts as well. So, kind of the same question, like if if it's on a national level, you know, is there an opportunity to bring that home and have it serviced locally? >> Yeah. And I would I would actually member Hegeland's question there, especially like if there's state contracts that we take advantage of if there are >> um local uh uh I want to say Forest Lake, but what I really mean is Forest Lake District. So uh you know, Forest Lake, Wyoming, Lynwood, uh Lionyl Lakes, if there's local businesses that can serve us and and are willing to meet or beat uh the state bids and we can do business with them, uh keeping the dollars in district would be uh preferable. I I think everybody in this room. >> Yeah, I just found the other one on the 2324 report was Madison National Life Insurance. So, you know, again, if that's >> something that's being serviced nationally or not locally, >> is that something we can bring >> closer to home? >> Member Castle. Um, these are largely all the same account, but if this was a if all of the files that came out were text readable PDFs, then we could search board bills in. So, every every time we do the consent agenda to approve the bills, you can't search So, it's hard to find out why we have these companies, what they do for us, >> because you'd have to look at picture after picture after picture. And I would like to make a motion that we direct the staff to make these PDF searchable. Um, I will second that motion just so we can have some discussion around it. Uh um and and with my second I' I'd like to offer an amendment to to to tweak your motion to to say we'd like to have staff uh explore whether or not they can because I don't want I don't want to handcuff them technically. >> I know technically they can. I've asked the IT people. >> Okay. Um in that case, I'll withdraw my motion since I don't have a second on that. Is there any other discussion on member Castle's uh motion? And and specifically uh let me let me see if I can summarize this. Um you're speaking of the board bills specifically. You want those to be text searchable versus the uh image scans that we have right now. >> Everything that we get should be searchable. >> Okay. Member Corker. >> So you would not have you could just ask Chrissy if you have a question. Do you do that now or do you not? >> No. whether there's a question and whether you can tie things together >> and what kind of questions I mean like what kind of expenses they are or what what it's what's being bought or I mean I >> what what would be your question? >> Yes, in some cases you can see what's being bought but you can't so this list here shows what the annual payment to these >> what the vendor is what the vendors are. >> You just want to know what kind of vendor they are. >> Yes. what do they do for us? >> What kind of >> And so you'd have to search through all these different documents, >> you know, and strain your eyes and everything to find them. If you could just do a control F >> find and then you could see, oh, here's and then go to the next one. Go to the next one and you could see what they >> So maybe they just provide provide additional information within the PDF itself to I mean I don't know if that's something a vendor name and a subcategory of some sort. Would that be helpful? >> Well, it would be helpful if you can search function. >> You just want a search function within the actual document. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Because I I think >> if it's if it's easy for them to do, if it's something they can do. >> Yeah. And I I think what member Castle's getting to, if I'm understanding this, when I when I look at the the vendor payment history right now, I'm looking at the the report for uh fiscal year 23. >> Yeah. I'm looking at >> and if I look at one here, it says uh >> it just says >> uh varsity athletic for example, just because I happen to be sitting on that page looking at it right now. If I click the magnifying glass and I do a search for varsity, it comes up with zero results. And my suspicion it having worked in IT a little bit here is it's because the way the PDF was generated rather than it being a um textbased PDF, it was something that was a printed and then scanned to an image but not necessarily through an OCR process. So the only way to really search this document is to kind of do the stare and compare. Um, and I believe our board bills are done in a similar fashion >> and and I think that's what member Castle's alluding to here. >> Would that be correct? >> That's Yes. And I've in the previous job I had Adobe Acrobat which does a pretty decent job of OCR so it can convert the pictures into text. >> Okay. Remember Tyson? >> Yeah, we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves. I mean, I would have liked the board to be able to weigh in on this. So, I just want to do it and you guys can continue on. >> I did not ask for this to be brought forward. I was shocked that 250ome pages was loaded into the board book by our admin assistant for this. It I've looked at bill runs for four terms. >> It includes mileage reimbursement. >> One's been on finance. >> Member Tyson, is this germanine to the the motion that's on the the table right now? You took a motion before you let any other board members talk. >> The mo motions come when they >> make your motion and then I'll >> motions come when they come. I I can't control that. >> Okay. >> But uh um >> just wanted stated for the record. I did not ask to see this bill run. I've been looking at them for four terms. >> Okay. >> They contain mileage reports. >> Okay. I' I'd like >> finance and ask your questions. You can pick up the phone and meet with Chrissy anytime. like one member that's >> I' I'd like to keep the discussion to >> wasting our time. I'd like to keep the discussion to this motion first, then we can come back the vendor list. >> Um, >> okay. >> Okay. Sorry, member Christensen was was on the motion as well. >> I I wanted to speak to the motion and I might um add or say, can we direct administration to look into rather than a motion like you said if um I don't know the technology side of it, maybe it's super easy to do. Our staff is already really lean. if this is a big deal. I don't I don't think it's worth um the staff time. So, instead of perhaps a motion, we could direct administration to look into if this is a feasible situation. I'm not ready to vote on a motion. >> We can certainly uh amend the motion to direct administration to to study the feasibility of that instead. I I I >> I find that to be reasonable. >> I agree. I agree. >> Okay. Okay. And in that case, I'll offer um an amendment that we direct administration to explore um the feasibility of delivering both board bills and any other reports where we're looking at financial data in a textbased searchable format. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second on the amendment to the motion. Do we have any discussion on that, >> Member Corker? >> Well, I would I would support anything that's going to save staff time. Y >> um if it would explain, okay, if you have a question about certain purchase, if it's going to say what it is without you having to reach out to staff and ask a question, and if it's explainable by just looking at it, then I would support that. And if it's easy for the staff not to have to take bunch of questions and provide a lots of documents and backup for you, then that sounds like a good idea. >> Yeah. And just just to to piggyback on that, I I think it would be an added benefit for the general public, too. Uh even before being elected to the board, >> I spent a lot of time digging through board bills and it was always frustrating to me that if I I wanted to identify certain expense or I wanted to identify a a certain vendor, I couldn't search for it. I had to just stare at the 300 pages. Now, I I will add to that that we we do do it better than other districts because I've seen other districts uh on the uh board bills for them, they just say uh checks number, you know, 653 through 922 in the amount of 14.4 million and you go, well, what what was that? So, I think we do a lot of good things here. And u >> I I I think anything that we can do to increase transparency, make it easier for the public to comprehend and understand and digest what we're doing would be a good thing. >> Member Castle, >> I will state that it takes less work to just make it a PDF immediately rather than print it and then scan it. >> I've done those things. That takes a long time. >> All right. Do we have any other discussion on the amendment to the motion? Uh seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed. Okay. The amendment passes. That brings us back to the the original motion now, which is now amended to read that we're going to direct administration to um explore the possibility of making this a text searchable like OCR type of a document. And um All right. >> I'm sorry if I don't have the wording exactly right, but uh Joy, I think you >> We're good. We got it. >> Okay. Administration understands our intent here. So, is there any other discussion on that amendment or or on that motion or should we move forward? >> All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed? >> No. >> Okay. The motion carries. Um, member Tyson, going back to your original comment, did you did you want to go back and speak on the >> I think I said what what I how I feel. I just feel like we have so much going on right now, the beginning of school. >> This just seems like a ridiculous thing to delve into. And I was really disgusted at the number of pages that got uploaded by our staff, the time it took in time on my board book. I I just don't I something seems really off when this is what we're doing at this time of year. So, I'm not going to engage, but you can go ahead and do what you're going to do. I feel like we have an excellent finance department. Member Corkran's an accountant and has been on finance many times over. I believe one of our members that got up and talked, she said, "This is a waste of time, but you're going to do it anyway. So, you just go ahead. This isn't my area of expertise, but yes, I look at them. When I was new, I came in and met with people. I came in and called. I walked in and said, "Can you help me figure out where this is going and who this is?" But go ahead, take it to the next level. It's important to you. >> Okay. Thank you, Member Tyson. Member Christensen. >> Yes. Um I just would like to um say that I think it is good um to review the board bills and of course to be good stewards of uh the district's finances, but I just want to remind us all that that was not the genesis of this discussion. Um the genesis of this discussion and the reason it is on our agenda tonight is not just to simply to merely review our vendors and look at the best possible way to be transparent and if it's a PDF or whatnot. Uh this conversation really goes back to our July 17th board meeting uh where member Hegeland uh said that business owners who quote unquote voice harsh disruptions and quote should be quote unquote looked at end quote in terms of whether they should continue to be vendors within the district. I would like to say that all business owners who spoke out that evening uh the June 26 meeting I believe it was they all spoke on an official green card. They were not out of order. They were not shouting. They were not yelling profanities. Um they they all three of the three I'm thinking of are also parents in the district. Uh community members, business owners, uh and they were critical, just to remind the board, they were critical of the policy that was being discussed. They were not critical of the district in and of itself. So, I think it's fine to have this kind of discussion, but I just want to remind us all what brought us here. We're not merely just talking about the vendors and this is really nice and um that's not how this started. That's all. >> Okay. Thank you. Um any other discussion on this one? >> Yes. >> Member Corker. >> Okay. So to to play on member Christensen's um how she what she had to say on the few things that I the few people that did speak on behalf of uh of business owners um for one Ashley wonderful Ashley over there um looking at the board bills just on her behalf here when I did accidentally ask Joy to print these for me not realizing they were so long and I do apologize for that joy. >> Um, looking at how much uh we actually spend annually at Big Apple Bagel, how minuscule that amount is and how much she does for our community on volunteering and giving to back to our community. I was actually in shock and I I couldn't believe how little we pay her as a vendor. So, I was like, "Wow." post. I started looking at others and so I realized how much vendors like her do for our community and how I was like saddened that that they were criticized um as community members and in local but they just do so much for us. The people that did speak on behalf of the way they feel about our our board right now and I just have to say that they deserve better and so I think so do we. We need to be better. So, I I don't know exactly what are we're trying to get to here on this vendor report. I I'm not sure what the agenda is on this and and like I say, I looked at it and I was I was surprised. So, I something came out of it because I was surprised how little we pay for them for her and her wonderful contributions. >> Yeah. >> I I I think you you you captured >> Yeah. Um I I hate to use the word agenda, but I think you you captured my intent here was that I I think any organization um is it's the responsible thing to do to to review the vendors they work with, make sure that the vendors meet uh >> um you know their high high quality standards and um in this case make sure that the public's aware of them. It's very difficult to follow board bills and see who are we paying, who are we doing engaging with. Um, I had a significant number of people that reach out to me and thank me for publishing this and putting this out in front of them. And I told them this this wasn't me. It was just a um, you know, the part of the proposed agenda. Um, this is something that the the board expressed interest in and the community has expressed interest in for years. And uh, um, I I thought it was timely being that we're not we're kind of right at the beginning of our fiscal year. So, it it makes sense to do it now and to look at and with the number of questions that I receive from community members. I I feel like we may have to bring it back um at some point over the next few months uh um to to readress some of the questions that I've had just over like, well, what is this line item? What is that line item? So, um a lot of good stuff to review here. U member Antinson. >> Okay. So, just want to make sure people can hear me. Um, I had a a a community member reach out with some questions, concerns around story arc, which is in here. um and its affiliation with the now I believe pass a or defunct or no longer in service Equity Alliance Minnesota which was under scrutiny back in 2021 fairly nationally publicly I believe for you know um the districts that they they partnered with several districts we were one of them uh but some surveys that they had handed out or had children take and I think it during COVID and then maybe parents saw it or I don't know exactly the uh chain of events there but there was it ended up that equity alliance is no longer but um that story arcs so I looked at story arcs page and um what I saw of it so far is that um basically story arc is sort of it had new programming or the Um, I'm sorry. I think it was Equity Alliance. No, I can't remember. Yeah, Equity Alliance Minnesota site says on there they were excited to share that their youth um some sort of youth groups that they do and some other programming will now cultivate to grow um programming with story arc. So, I'm just wondering does story arc give kids in our school? How does story arc play into our school curriculum or or activities if you can speak to that at all? >> Sure. Story arc is not part of Equity Alliance. I think some of the staff at one point worked with Equity Alliance, so there's that connection, but they're not a subsidiary of Equity Alliance, which is now dis um dissolved. Equity Alliance doesn't exist. uh story arc was provided the curriculum that we used for our fifth grade leadership program. >> They provided the curriculum. >> They provided the curriculum and the staff to lead kids through that project that was funded through ANI. >> The new plan of the revised plan does not include that component moving forward. >> Okay. So, does that mean moving forward we >> won't be utilizing story arc if it it was part of ANI before? So, >> that's correct. Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Member Tyson. >> So, I want to ask you, board chair, member chair, what exactly are you looking for in the vendor list? Fraudulence, legitimacy, and then I'm curious, do you find that this is your area of expertise? I mean, is it ours? Don't we engage with our business department on a regular basis at our meetings? Don't we see them all on committee night? Um I've never in 12 years had anybody ask me to see the bill run. So I you say you're having all kinds of people reach out to you to be asked for it. >> But could you answer those questions for me because I'm just so curious. >> Sure. Yeah. I mean as I I stated before it was all about uh transparency. >> Um a question of who who do we who do we work with on an annual basis? How much money do we spend with them on an annual basis? uh prior to looking at this report uh like uh member Corkran mentioned >> I thought we spent more with certain vendors. I s thought we spent significantly less with other vendors and I think the uh the aggregate report helps us um conceptualize the board bills that we look on look at on a a bi-weekly basis and and better understand where the money is going and I think it's an easier way for the public to digest that. Um that's my personal thought and based on the feedback that I received from community members it was uh appreciated. Um there were some community members that felt like it was a targeting of of certain organizations. That was not the case. Um or individuals that reached out to me. Uh I reiterated the fact that I felt it was just a responsible thing for any organization to do especially a public organization to be transparent with the members of the community of not only are are the these the people that we are engaging with are these the organizations that we're engaging with on a uh business standpoint but uh this is how much money we're spending with them and this is where the the dollars are going. So >> so but our vendors are vetted >> by our business department. So, do you not trust our business department? >> No. No, it's not that at all. It's that uh uh the public has the right to know and understand what vendors we work with and and where those dollars go and and this was just a way to convey that information to them without requiring they they do that individually on their own. And I think it's been a good discussion here at the board table tonight. Uh as member Hegel kicked the discussion off. Um he he pointed out, you know, we do a lot of business uh in the millions of dollars with potentially, you know, national organizations or statewide organizations. Maybe there's an opportunity to bring that money local. I think that'd be a great benefit. Uh the more local spending we can do, uh the better. Uh as member Corkran pointed out, um we work with a a local vendor on some of our catering. um maybe there's other catering opportunities that we can bring to a local vendor versus a um a chain or a a national type uh vendor. And I I think that's uh I I I think that's beneficial to everybody that schools and communities need to work together. And the more we can work with our communities and the more that we can work with our community vendors, I think that strengthens everybody because uh we get great value from that. >> And uh that that was that was my uh reasoning behind putting it on the proposed bill. >> The business department has looked into member Hagglin's question. >> You don't think there's any big picture behind why we use the company that you brought up, Liberty or whatever? So you you don't think that that that's been looked at or vetted? >> I I don't know. Um I I >> you asked >> I I do know that organizations do a lot um in the in the space of vendor management. It's something I'm involved with uh in my day job and have been for decades. But uh it's difficult especially for the people in this room to look at the board bills on a weekly basis and understand this is who we do business with and maybe this is why. So an aggregate report helps them do that. Um that that was the pure motivation behind putting this on the proposed agenda tonight. >> Okay. And I just want to comment on Story Arc. >> They do work with 916 and other districts that I've worked in. Carer Blue Education Center has Story Arc. They do excellent work. So we don't need to talk negatively about them. But she wanted that clarified that we don't have them, but Story Arc does exist and they do excellent work. >> Thank member Tyson. Member Antinson. >> Um I just feel like some of what's coming from member Tyson is this uh we're like we're wrong for asking questions and I don't agree with that way of thinking. That's all I want to say. >> All right. Thank you. Member Christensen. >> Um I just want to say excuse me. I think member chair said uh something along the lines of the board asked for this um review and I just want to be clear I did not ask for it and um I from the comments of member Tyson, member Corkran, I don't believe that they asked for it either. So I think it would be more um apt to say the majority of the board uh asked for this um sort of review. And um I also wanted to say that I think um it seems like we're trying uh the u member chair is trying to walk back this a little bit. Um but I think that the people that are here this evening and the people that are probably watching at home are a little bit um smarter than that. So that's >> would you care to extrapolate on that? >> I think I think >> I feel like there was an insinuation there or an accusation. I'd like to hear it. I think uh what I said before I think the reason um I've been on the board for two years as has um been uh member chair and member Higglin and in the two years and you were not the chair at the time but there was no discussion of a vendor review. I mean to me I feel like this is something that can be handled in the finance committee or you know behind the scenes. We're taking up so much time this evening talking about vendors um and those kinds of things. And I just think again, like I said, the reason this is on the agenda tonight, the reason we're even talking about this is remarks that date back to the July 17th meeting. If we did not have that July 17th meeting, if we did not have those remarks um about our business leaders here, I don't believe that we would have this vendor item on um the agenda because the major I mean the whole board certainly did not ask uh for this to be on the on the agenda. Okay. Um, any other discussion on member Antonson? >> I'll just say, and maybe it's because I'm new and I haven't been looking at these for 12 years when we're doing board bills, but I find them difficult to read. So, you know, backing up to member Castle's uh motion. I I like that idea and hopefully they can it does work and simply enough so that it makes things more readable. Um, this is an incredible amount of pages to to look at. But, you know, I can tell you when I was campaigning just this last fall, finances and where is the taxpayer money going? Like, what are we buying for our district? What are we helping support in our district is a big deal. A lot of people had questions. So, I think to insinuate that we're out of line by asking questions and just uh let's just see what these are is I feel like this is an attack on our business department. Well, you have plenty of opportunities to meet with them. >> Do I get to finish talking or go ahead? Okay. >> Because you can think that all you want, member Tyson, but that doesn't mean that's what it is. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Is there any other discussion on the uh the vendor review? >> All right. Seeing none, as I mentioned before, um my interest here is to be transparent with the public and I think this uh report certainly does that. It shows in a very clear and concise way what vendors we work with, how much money we spend with him on an annual basis and it did uh it it it brought up a ton of discussion. It brought up a ton of questions and it is possible that it will be back on the agenda again. I think it's uh it's the responsible thing to do to be transparent with the public and I think it's uh good to have these discussions and it's good to uh really understand where the dollars are going and that's not implying any ill will or um lack of capability by any of our departments be it finance or business departments. Uh, I think it's just a it's us being a conduit with the public and being responsible with their dollars and and I I don't see how that's not reasonable. Member Christensen, >> could you just expand a little bit more? Member Chair, when you say this might be brought up again, what are your thoughts or what what do you what are you thinking there brought up again or >> um there's a lot of questions as I worked through this report. A lot of organizations that I didn't recognize, a lot of things that uh um weren't clear to the public. people reached out to me and said, "Hey, what is this? I don't understand." Um, still trying to get more information on some of that. Need to continue digging in deeper. I don't know if it needs to happen at the board level, but if it does, um, I I will put it on a future proposed agenda. And, uh, um, despite concerns by some board members, that is not an attack on any specific vendors. Um, it's just a it's good to have these discussions out in the open. Yeah. Member Porker, >> just real quick. I know that the finance department is does a great job. Chrissy and her team. Um, a lot of these things are bid bid based that they take the lowest bidder. Um, they do they do their due diligence. Um, they they're they have perfect audits in their finance department. I mean, for years. They they're an incredible team. I will speak to that. I've been on finance for probably 15 16 years. Um, yeah. I mean, anything they can do to make things easily easil easier for the board to understand what the expenses are is great. I'm sure her door she's got an open door policy for questions. She's never been evasive. She's been upfront and honest and >> and she's full of integrity. She would be helpful anyway. I mean, insurance, I'm sure I'm sure it's a bid process. I'm sure about that. Anything that is anything large dollars has to be lowest bid >> and I'm sure there's reasons for that. So, I mean, I'm sure that a lot of the questions you have can be answered really easily with her. >> Oh, I agree. >> Yeah. >> Yep. I I don't doubt that. >> Just want to make sure that that's clear. >> Yep. I don't doubt that at all. >> All right. >> All right. Is there any other discussion? Member Tyson, >> so you brought up the word transparency, member chair, and do you feel like it was transparent to bring up a resolution and pass it in my absence >> when I had told you I was going to be absent? >> Germaine to the topic. >> Yeah, that that's not gerine to the topic. And we I' I've addressed that before. >> Member Hegel, >> I would just like to say that this discussion lasted over 30 minutes and a lot of it was just to badger it feels like and not actually ask questions and bring up they just wanted to try to get a gotcha moment and to member Corkin brings up a good point. Um but remember it's not just for us to be seeing this. It's for the public to be seeing the vendor list. So I mean you bring up a good point member corrin and the finance department does a great job and they provide us 300 pages of board bills every meeting. This I feel is more important for the public so they can see it in total by vendor for the year. That's it's just simple math. So >> and and I would argue that it would be irresponsible not to write this report to the uh the public on an annual basis. But uh um I've been chair for 8 months. I felt it was important. So I brought the report to the public and uh I think it should be a standard practice personally. But uh former chairs disagreed with that and they did not bring the report to the public. So um if there's no further discussion, we can move on. All right. Seeing none, we will move on to um items 7.3 uh through 7.8. 8 and this is the review and the discussion on the policies the 1300 Siri policies between 1301 and 1306 as stated uh two weeks ago. This is kind of a new process uh to help with the amendment process and and help board members understand how that works and help public digest what amendments are being made. Um so this evening u we would work through uh 7.3 through uh 7.8 eight to either discuss each individual policy or to um provide amendments to each additional policy. So I will leave it to the board here on their prerogative on how we can proceed. We can do this like when we workshopped the uh previous policies and I can just ask are there any comments or discussions on each item and then we'll just move on and there is no official action unless there's some amendments being made this evening. um if that is palatable to the board. Um we'll start with policy 1301. If there's any discussion or amendments for policy 1301, I would entertain those now. All right. Seeing none, I would ask the same question on proposed policy 1302. All right. No discussion on 1302. Um how about policy 1303? Any discussion or amendments for policy 1303? All right. Seeing none, that'll bring us to policy 1304. All right. Nothing on 1304. I'll ask the same question on policy 1305. All right. No discussion or amendments on 1305. Uh, finally, policy 1306. Member Christensen. Um I'm sorry. Point of order. Are we making motions or are we asking questions? I'm sorry. >> Um yes. Uh yeah, this is more of a workshop process. Uh if if we have discussions we'd like to make or uh amendments to make to the policy, either would be in order. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I am looking at um uh 1306 2B4 and I know we had a a community member ask about this too, but when I was reading it uh it just I mean I get it. This is verbatim from the MSBA, but indirectly or overthrow the government. I'm not >> I'm just not sure what that means or how I mean to me that seems like that would be pretty obvious. You know, if you're following along these other things, um you know, the other um honors all contracts, maintains standards, you know, blah blah blah. Uh pursues appropriate measure, those kinds of things. But then to say, you know, something about the overthrow of the government, I don't know. It just seems to me that that could be stricken or we could >> Yeah, it seems >> same thing with that. That seems a I don't know. >> So maybe we maybe I um or do you want to discuss whatever? >> Oh, yeah. We we can discuss it. Other members want to weigh in on that. Uh or if you want to offer a suggestion or an amendment. Uh >> either would be an order there. >> Strike that. >> I would say strike that last part. I think it's a little I don't know aggressive or a little over I don't know. Yeah, as member Christensen mentioned this this is a this is directly from SBA, but uh it does seem a bit extreme. A member, >> it might seem a little extreme. I mean, but you know, there's people at the legislative le level uh formulating curriculum for Minnesota schools that you openly say that they're a critical race theorist and like the primary thing of critical race theory is overthrow of the government. Like the US is I mean that's >> serious. I mean, it's on video online. It's >> openly saying that's what it's about. >> So, I I >> I don't know. It's not like it's >> it might seem maybe a little extreme, but it's >> Let me let me ask Dr. Massie if you don't mind. Um, >> do you have any concerns with the um, item number four here or any member of your administration seem to think that that might be a little extreme? >> I would I would concur that the language is rather extreme. Um, so >> I can't envision a scenario where our staff are engaged in that kind of activity. Um, so it seems perhaps unnecessary to be putting in policy. Um, member Hegler, it it obviously looks extreme, but then you also think, well, MSBA probably just didn't put it in there for fun either. So they must have had a precedence, a reason, a another organization that recommended that they have it in there in some shape, form or manner. So although I likely 99.999% of the time would never get used, it's probably there for a reason. >> Yeah. And I guess what I would add there is perhaps rather than speculating uh give us time to inquire with MSBA on the origin of that and what the purpose was. All these policies with MSBA go through a rigorous >> legal analysis >> before they land on their website as a model policy. So, it might make sense to ask their staff, Terry Marorrow, and others >> on the origin of that specific language, and we could certainly bring that back to the board. >> That that seems reasonable to me, and I see nods around the room indicating that it would be reasonable. We would have an opportunity to amend this on September 4th as well. This isn't our only opportunity to do that. So, does that seem reasonable, member? >> Yes, that's fine. I I um I just didn't know do we have to say do we direct administration to ask about that or they just ask about it otherwise I would make a motion depending on what we find out from MSBA but just obeys local state and national laws period because I'm pretty sure you know some of these other things would be against some sort of a law anyway. So it seems we could go obey local state and national law period. Do >> would you like to make that motion right now or would you like to wait for administration to come back with the answer from MSBA? Um um >> I anticipate you'd have that information by September 4th. Uh Dr. Massie, >> I would imagine. Yeah, >> I can I can wait. That's fine. >> Okay. So, no no motion being made. >> No, actually I take that back. I'm sorry. I would like to just make a motion. Uh 2B4 says obeys local, state, and national laws. Period. and I would like to strike and does not knowingly join or support organizations that advocate directly or indirectly the overthrow of the government. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the amendment being offered by member Christensen to strike um and does not knowingly join or support organizations that advocate directly or indirectly the overthrow of the government in 2B4? Member Hegler, >> as I stated previously, it's probably there for a reason. I don't I mean, I appreciate you offering the amendment, but I'm not going to support it until we hear back from Superintendent Massie and MSBA. >> Yeah, I um I'd like to agree with member Hegel on that point and I would move to table. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to table. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed? >> No. >> No. >> Okay. That amendment has been tabled. We'll have the option to take it from the table once we hear back from administration. Um, any other discussion on uh policy 1306? Member Tyson, >> I just want to add that have we had these policies before? >> These? >> Yeah. >> No, the 1300 series is new. This is part of the MSBA migration >> and uh >> to clarify you brought them forward. >> Correct. >> Yes. As part of the MSBA migration that we're working on. I did and these would replace the 200 series policies. >> Correct. >> So we know that MSBA has a plethora of model policies. Does every district have every model policy? No. >> No. >> So these policies have been brought forward by you. Yep. And we've never had them before. >> Yes. And >> seen that we've had a need. >> And as stated uh um two weeks ago, the the reason for the 1300 series policies to replace the 200 series is there's many in the 200 series that aren't uh relevant any longer. We have a junior high principal in there. We have a um job descriptions. Uh you know, looking at our director of teaching and learning, our director of special education. Those aren't really the board purview to set those job descriptions. that's something that we delegate to the superintendent. Um so having the the superintendent policies seems more reasonable to me. As you mentioned um there is a plethora of MSBA model policies and my practice earlier when we went through the 1200 series was to work on migrating those with with district policy as best I could eliminating some of them that I I felt were uh redundant or unnecessary. And the feedback that I received was that uh we wanted to adhere more closely to model policy. We wanted to have discussions based on model policy. Anything that was changed or tweaked from model policy was heavily criticized. So that the thought process moving forward is here's the model policy. How would you like to tweak it? How do you like to tune it? Um are there any of these that you find unnecessary? We can uh remove them from consideration. Um all of that is on the table uh this evening and we'll begin on the table on the the fourth as well. >> Yes. So I just find it interesting that these are all around the superintendent's work code of e ethics by administrators all policies that you brought forward that we've never had before. >> Yes. And and as I I've explained since January I'm I'm starting at the 100 series and working my way through it. >> I get that work. I understand that >> the 1300 series I had slated for May. And if you you remember correctly, um we were deep into community conversations about uh um the student groups and um over the summer June we had policy 515. Uh those necessitated more attention uh than initially anticipated. >> So it's fair to say so that is why they're here. >> You're working on them and you're bringing them forward yourself. Correct. That's fair to say then. Um, I have been taking, uh, as stated since January here, I've been taking the model policy and putting them into the the Forest Lake template that you see here. In this case, they're they're pure copy and paste from the model policy. >> These are, but some in the past are not cut and paste. So, >> precisely, which is why I changed that practice to be exactly what model policy is. I started that work with the uh the first proposal of policy 515 where um I it was a total copy and paste from the model policy that was only amended to read in the a similar manner to what we had in existence. Um that process is carried forward into 1300. I anticipate carrying that forward into the 1400 through the 1900 series uh as we work through this as we move through this work. Okay. >> Last question. >> How are you choosing which model policies you want to select >> that you're bringing to us? >> So, when I started this work, as I've explained before, when I started this work, I tried to base that off of policies that we currently had in existence or practices that we had in existence. um due to uh push back here at the board table about deviating from a model policy. What I'm doing moving forward and what I what you see reflected in the 1300 through306 series is I'm simply lifting MSBA model policy and dropping those proposals directly to the board without edits or changes fully inclusive their of their entire policy suite. >> Okay. But you do agree that not every district has every MSBA model policy. >> Yes. Which is why in the 1200 series I eliminated I think three or four of them. And as we move forward into the 400 and 1500 series the 4400 1500 series there are policies that we probably don't need and uh we can have >> you're making that determination. >> No no not now. I was initially now you're not. Yeah, I was initially but again due to push back uh um largely if you recall from uh directly from you member Tyson >> I have changed that practice to fit the feedback that you provided. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. >> All right. Any other discussion on policy uh 1306 or really any of the uh the 1301 to 1306 series? All right. Seeing none, um that moves us to um item eight, which is a closed session. So I would entertain a motion to close the meeting as permitted by Minnesota Statute Section 13D.05 subdivision 3D to discuss school safety and security protocols. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed. >> All right, we will move into close session. Uh we'll clear the room and we will reconvene in approximately 10 minutes. Um