building um to review our uh standard response protocols and also uh the run renhide fight uh protocol. Um so and the other thing that we're doing is we are implementing uh lock doors throughout the district which um we're reinforcing that that procedure which uh um people say that the experts who study um school tragedies if your door is locked there's a much greater chance that you nobody will ever come into your room because they'll bypass it and go someplace where they can get into. So, um, we've been working through the implementation process of that and, uh, I want just want to thank the teachers for their flexibility as, uh, as we, uh, adjust our posture to make sure that we're safe as we can be, um, in case of a tragic event. And the other thing I'd like to say with that is, you know, we're never going to be able to, you know, put metal detectors in every building and have bulletproof glass everywhere. U, but we can prepare our staff. um to uh to react to a situation to keep them and our students safe. And that's really what our focus is at this point in addition to some other security measures we're doing with the bond. The other thing I'd like to talk about is I did have an opportunity couple weeks ago to spend my week. Uh so as your reminder, I'm doing a residence program where I'm a week in every elementary building this year. And so I spent the la the couple weeks ago at Anderson Elementary and it was great. I got to visit every classroom. I got to see the implementation of our new literacy curriculum. And the cool part was I would go from room to room, maybe the same grade level. And I would see the same curriculum being adopted but in a different manner. And again, we were consistent with the curriculum, but we really got to see the teachers flex and kind of do what what they do um based upon their their interpretation of things. So, that was that was pretty cool to see. Um got to participate in some some of their swim meetings in which they review data and uh I thought they some really hard honest questions about uh what's going on um within the classrooms and within the building. So, so that was great. I the week I was there happened to be in the school play and no I was not in the school play. I was asked to be in it but I figured no we just keep the focus on the kids. So I but I did get to watch it. So that was that was a a wonderful experience. The other thing I want to say is uh I like to get out on the playgrounds and you know throw the ball around with the kids or play kickball or whatever. And boy are we space challenged on that playground. And so it'll be a great uh move when we make it. um you know this upcoming fall um to the new building. Um and then the other thing I was not part of it but uh Mark took the teachers on a tour of the new Bayport school last last week and teachers are going to have the opportunity to see the new Lake Elmo school later this week as they are putting it together here. So um and I just had a I ran into uh u our our construction manager from W overseeing all the projects. uh the other day and he says, you know, we are on time on budget. So, that's great news. Great. Thank you for that. Any questions for Superintendent Funk? Okay, seeing none, um I do not have any update that I need to share. Um I did I I guess I will say one thing that I did hear from a a few people who were interested in the MSBA delegate assembly. So, um I sent out an email just kind of letting you know that opportunity. So, um, Chris, I think, is going to register for that, um, as well as Katie, and if they need a third person, I can do that, too. So, thank you for for that response. Um, and then we'll move on to the consent agenda. We have items A through H tonight. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent? I'll move to approve. Great. Director Hawker with the motion. Is there a second? Second. Great. Director Lowour with the second. Thank you. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, raise your hand and say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Now we're going to move on to strategic direction A, which is ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs. And we're going to have a brief gifted program review and next steps presentation. Hi Dr. A, come on up. You can join the join the crowd here. You can sit next to me. I won't bite. I promise. [Laughter] Well, first of all, thank you. Um, welcome. And I'm grateful to be here um to be able to talk a little bit about our gift and program review and our next steps. So, as we think about our gifted programming and next steps, we're really wanting to look at for this school year to plan and design a new program model. We want to look at how we want to change our changes can be phased in over the next several years. And then I think a really important one is continuing our focus on equity, access, and rigor for all of our students. And then aligning our services to best meet the needs of all of our kids. And then thinking specifically about the elementary cluster programming. We want to look at how we can expand cluster programming in all of our seven elementary schools. How we can look at strengthening our curriculum and instructional supports. And then much needed providing some professional development for our cluster teachers as well as looking and exploring our current um identification process for gifted programming. and then reviewing and refining our service model for consistency and then how those models are impacting our students most importantly. And then as you all know our current gate program which is fourth fifth grade program is housed at Stillwater Middle School and we are looking to move that to an elementary setting and thinking about some of those benefits. Um it's going to be more developmentally appropriate environment for those young learners. They'll have stronger peer connections with age appropriate peers. Looking at how we can enhance that collaboration with elementary teachers for both enrichment and also their core instruction. And then also really importantly looking at that smoother transition into middle school with enrichment and acceleration op options. I'm very excited to announce that the gate program will be moving to one of our new elementary schools. is going to go to Bayport Elementary and some of those reasonings behind are that it's more centrally located and then just thinking of the bricks and mortar there's going to be a much more variety of collaborative learning spaces. So I think it's going to be a exciting move for that program. And then thinking specifically in and around middle school programming kind of shifting the model right now moving away from a cluster placement just at a single middle school and really looking at how we can implement enrichment acceleration learning opportunities both at Stillwater and Oakland middle schools. looking at how we can also increase our access and equity for all of our advanced learners across the district and then aligning those best practices to support them in that middle school level and then thinking about what's happening now. So I will be looking at establishing an internal working group that will be consist consisting of cluster teachers within those cluster programming some our two gate teachers elementary principles as well as some district leadership really looking how we can finalize that program model and right now I've been really specifically focused in and around the cluster programming and then my next step will be looking at gate so I sent a survey out to all of our four or five cluster teachers and then I'm finishing up this week Thursday meeting with those individual teams and I've been learning a lot of really good information from them and I think it's going to be very helpful as we look at next steps and how we might want to implement some things. And then after MEA, um, I've connected with Stephanie and Heather, who are the gifted, um, uh, gate teachers, and we're going to be meeting to kind of walk through the survey that I put together for them and really learning about the strengths of the program and where are there some opportunities for growth and and um, advancement. And then thinking about specifically around the middle school program, um, Dr. FA is working also with a small internal group that looking at building out enrichment and accelerated course and uh scope and sequence as well as transi transitioning to that new model. Very short and sweet. What questions do you have for us? Yes, Dr. Funk. So, Dr. A, just you based upon your experience in you know, St. Paul with the school there and you were part of the really kind of led the the charge with the committee uh this past spring. Um just thoughts on our adjustment here and what you know moving forward. I think what I'm please pardon me my voice fluctuates when it's in the mood and so um I think what Heather just presented it's is important and um it's basically where the committee met where they want to move to and where they need to and um just you know out of habit I stopped by the middle school today and spoke to one of the teachers was out on vacation and the other one was there kind of exciting about going to a bigger environment, but nostalgia about living what they've been used to. I said, "Take a look at them. These kids deserve bigger, better space to run around." And so, I like where we're going as a district. I think it's the right place to go. And if we strengthen the elementary, then the middle school is going to come in and focus solely on English language arts and um and um mathematics as a way of strengthening them. We haven't quite spoken to the high school, but I think the high school is well prepared to receive them because they've been working very hard in building some of these courses, college and the schools, AP classes and all of that. So students who go through this and end up at the at the high school have a platter of experiences to choose from. Right? I see you nodding. You know that. And so I don't know if I answered your question. My brain is on over Yeah. overload mode right now. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for this overview. I'm imagining um there's a lot of detailed work that isn't fleshed out yet that will be coming back to the board. Absolutely. Um but I'm grateful to have the it out there that this is going to move to Bayport. So I'm assuming that's the big reason to come right now is that that's the big update. Is there are there any other communication plans going on with There'll be communication going on after the either now or after the board meeting. Okay. Um the the other piece is we know the boundary committee is going to start meeting here in about a week and so we wanted that factor taken into consideration before the boundary committ committee met that there's going to be an additional 60 kids at that school. So so that's kind of the reason the why it came today as opposed to you know a little bit down the road. Okay. Um yes sure. So when a child is given the opportunity to go into the gifted program at currently at Stillwater Middle, they have a big choice to make. I mean, it's great to go into the gifted program, but you're also giving up your environment, your your friends and whatnot. Is there anything cons being considered for those kids that want to stay, but still get some gifted um programming type benefit? I would say yes to that. Yes, they will. um or or is this something we're doing already? That's the cluster. Yeah. So, that's the cluster programming. So, for students who are identified as gifted, they and um there there's some different um entry criterion like for gifted the sitebased program at Stillwater Middle. But for students that are identified as gifted, whether or not they choose to go to the gate program, there is cluster enrichment and extension opportunities available. And that, as Heather mentioned, is some of the work she's doing in working with the teachers at each of the seven elementaryaries to better understand what it is they are currently doing and what they need support and professional development and resources to be able to do that better. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Oh, thanks. Um, I had a question about kind of that middle school transition piece. Um, currently the uh offerings are really mostly focused at Stillwater Middle uh for our gate students as they move into middle school. So, it sounds like by moving it to an elementary, the expectation will be more to go back to your home middle school and then we'll continue to be supported like having accelerated classes in those individual middle schools. He actually had a meeting scheduled with both of the middle school principles um to discuss the now what and so particularly with um Oakland um middle school and so um that discussion is happening she actually I don't want to put here say out here in the space but as soon as we've scoped it out and we know where we're going to go particularly with Oakland we would u make it transparent so they know we're just going to discuss us and say now they're going to be going to two schools. What does Oakland need to have in place in preparation for So then will that open up these um more advanced classes to say cluster kids coming in or other kids. So it will no longer be just a gate no through middle school. Okay. No, it's not. It's going to be more as many kids once kids get to middle school. As many kids as one too. And that's what a lot of districts do as much as they can. they stay away from clustering at the middle school but creating accelerated opportunities for students to access. Okay, great. Thank you. I think there could be a little a bit of that too when you think about the cluster programming that there are kids that may not have qualified for a, you know, gifted and talented clustering, but they're advanced learners. So, they're going to also benefit from some of this too at their local school that they attend. Yeah. So, it's going to be open-ended as much as but again understanding we had a kid at um Oak Park Middle School that took um high level mathematics at the high school and was done in one week and then went into calculus and was done in about a month. He's a very unique young man and now he's taking classes at the U and he's barely in ninth grade. So, there's room for those exceptionality. However, oh yeah, you need to meet him. is really adorable but pretty sharp. So, but however, there's room for every kid to challenge themselves and when we have kids that are exceptional, they can always move to the high school and if they able to do high school early, PSC and other options are available. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. So, thank you all for being here. I really appreciate the work. This is an important program for our district. The I'm curious. We we did a a we saw some issues with the program or saw some updates from the program 18 months ago, 20 months ago. We saw an update this summer with a survey. What is the next survey hoping to learn that we haven't learned in the last two surveys or learning processes? You see that? Yeah. So my task specifically is to look at clustering program. I mean the gate program already exists. So, I need to learn a bit more about that because I know that there's great things that are already happening. But thus far, what I'm learning at the elementary for clustering is that it's a hit or miss. So, depending upon what a teacher might have a strength in or a desire in, that might that's what maybe is being offered. And so, we want to really look at at this stage like kind of gleaning some of that, but then how how can we make it consistent? And then also understanding that professional development is a really big part of this. and I've been in the district 24 years and it's been a really long time since we've had like a systematic approach to professional development in and around this really important topic and we want to we don't want to underve our high-end kids and I feel like we're doing some of that and our teachers are working super hard and so I just want to be able to support them and learn what what's going well and where are some of those pockets of things that are already happening and how can we make it systematic for all kids so that it's not just, oh, I go here and I get this, but if I go here, I don't get that. So, um, our teachers are working super hard and I'm learning a lot from them. So, it's been very, thus far, I've only been doing it for three weeks. It's been very exciting to to learn, you know, from I knew what was happening at Rutherford, but to learn from all of our really gifted teachers. So, um, that's like my vision to be able to kind of create based on the information that you guys had from last year. So, not to negate that, to learn from that and then incorporate it what I'm learning thus far and look at how we can make some steps towards that. I'm working with Sky um to better learn about benchmark advance. What are some of those advanced um options for our advanced learners within that core curriculum that we don't have to get something different? And then what might that look like? And then also um again learning from all the other teachers that are doing some in some work in and around math too. So, those are going to be I'm I joined a a networking group, so I'm learning from some other districts, too. Like, what are they doing there that we can potentially try to do here, too? Um, I had uh sent a couple questions and it kind of a segue maybe, but just are we communicating transportation changes that may be taking place with the move to Anderson and what would that look like? I'm assuming there'll be like a hub system similar to what we do for Lake Elmo for Amigos Unito. So, transportation and then also I know you've captured the themes really well here and I know that there's work that's going to be ongoing. Do we have any budget implications that you can share at this point or when and that's maybe a Dr. Funk question. Is there is there anything the board should be aware of that would change our budget priorities or how there's no it will not be a negative impact on the budget. That's what I can tell you at this point. Um, you know, and I think we're getting ahead of ourselves on the transportation discussion. It will be a hub. We don't know what it's I mean, yes, it will be a hub. Similar to the to the uh amigos union, we have a hub hub program there as well. Um, so so those families will have that expectation. We're not going to have families are not going to be able to ask tonight, okay, whether or not where's my bus, etc., etc. This is why we have stated we'll be providing updates to the board and to the community over the next few months. Perfect. Great. Any other questions? Thank you for that update. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I want to thank both of you. You were act you were part of the brain section. Yeah. No, it was really fun for us to be able to sit in and watch the work. So leave it up there. All right, our next uh report. We're going to look It looks like we're having some policy here. Welcome, Paul. All right, so um item A is a report for first reading for policy 620, credit for learning. Yes. Good evening, Chair Sherman and members of the board. Um, happy to be here uh to present the first reading of policy uh 620. And it's unusual for me to be here this early in a meeting. I know. I know, right? I had to double check my agenda. Yeah, I think that uh was a little bit different, but but I happy to happy to be here with this one. Um so, uh so policy 620, credit for learning, is a this is going to be a revision of our current policy. Um it's a mandatory policy um and uh and the policy committee uh reviewed it at its last meeting. So the main thing to know about this policy change is that it really reflects the legislative changes that happened as far as the transition from the world's best workforce legislation to the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness legislation which is kind of the newer update of the world's best workforce. So, there's some just wording changes in here. Um, and it's all updated to that newer statute and those requirements. Um, so that's really the main focus of this. Um, and it was, you know, one of the things we did is we had it's it's kind of technical when I read through it because I'm not a, you know, a credit person or a person that has to review those, but Rob Bach looked at the policy and provided his input and review of it as well. Um I'll I'll just highlight a couple of the changes um that were a little bit um bigger than just uh language changes, but one is in the section three subp part B um it really just defines concurrent enrollment um for for what that means and how that is in statute. And then in section four subp part B um one of the things that you know Rob really looked at was under uh sub in transfer of credits and requirements for their schools. Um so this is where um a district would indicate how many credits a student would have to have earned within the district to then pull over credit from another out ofstate institution or a non or a credited non-public institution. Um and in there the language that Rob suggested which is in the policy is that um that uh commenorary credits and grades awarded from an accredited non-public school or public school in another state will be used to compute GPA and desile rank if a student has earned credit from the school district. So as long as they've earned a credit from the school district then that uh credits earned and awarded at other district would be used to compute GPA. Um then I would bring your attention to uh section six. Um and this is just a brand new uh section to this policy. Um and probably the biggest change to the policy. Um and it's kind of an interesting and it was in that that new legislation we talked about. But really what it is about credit for employment with healthcare providers. So, in that legislation, it has, you know, with the career pathways programming that was kind of discussed earlier uh this evening, it just indicates that if a if a student um is in a career pathways, typically in the medical field or in the nursing field or healthc care field, if they um if they work in a health care as 11th or 12th grader, if they work in a health care long-term facility or any type of a healthcare institution, they can earn up to two credits um of um of credit for that experience as an elective um through the state of Minnesota. So, kind of a neat um little comp piece there for students who are looking at um that pathway within the healthc care field and probably helps support the state in meeting some of those employment needs that we have in healthcare. Um and the last uh piece is in section um eight um on the last page there and it is a section on weighted grades. Um and it's just uh kind of clearly um stated that as of the fall of 2025, the school district does not offer weighted grades uh moving forward. and Rob was very clear about that that kids that have earned weighted grades prior to the fall of 2025 that'll still be reflected on their transcripts but moving forward um the district will not be um providing weighted grades for u GPA. So that I think is the highlights for this reading. Thank you very much. Um are there any immediate questions for Paul on this policy? Sure. Are we mostly uh is this being written just to get us to follow in line with state regulations or is how much autonomy do we have in something like this um that would play here? Yeah, that's a good question. I think I think there is some within the legislation like if we were to you if we were to choose to do weighted grades that would be a district decision um to do that or not. And if we if we were to do weighted grades, there's a whole kind of detailed section that we would need to like address on exactly how that looks and be very specific on that piece. Um I think for example, another section would be on how do we as a district um accept you know transfer credits as mentioned here um and the district's position and I think that's consistent with what it has been. So it's not a change but it's that we do once a student earns credit that we would accept that piece. Um, so I think there's a little bit of that, but a lot of the specific changes to our current policy are really related to the kind of changes in language and and usage um, from that new statute. Okay. And I also would imagine there's just a lot of formulas because anybody coming from other schools, they just do things differently or their time frames are differently, schedules. Um, so is there somebody at the high school then that ultimately makes a judgment on here's what you get for credit coming in? That's a very good question. My my thinking is that that's the the our school counselors review those transcripts when they come in and they apply credit, you know, appropriately. I'm sure they do that right with Yep. And in, you know, if there's concerns or questions, they would be in consultation with the with the uh assistant principal probably. And then ultimately Rob would probably look at that and make decision along with FA. Yeah. Okay. As far as that. Yeah. But the but the counselors do the heavy lifting on that and it's a Yeah, it's a big job. Right. Any other questions for this first rate. So this is where you're invited to email Paul with your feedback and comments. Uh copy mic and we can continue to discuss any future comments that you have at our next policy meeting before we have it back on the agenda. So, thank you. Yes. Thank you. All right. Our next update is a pony only plan update and we're going to welcome Cararissa and I'm bringing a friend today. Oh, I'm the phone friend. Friend. Good evening, Chair um Sherman, Superintendent Funkan, members of the board. Tonight we're here to give an update on our pony plan, which is the strategic plan for the school district. And I did invite Caitlyn to help because she's been working very closely with our schools on the work that they are doing in alignment with our plan. So, we'll start out by just refreshing your memory. Um, the plan should not look brand new to you. This is a plan that's been in place now for three years. Um, what's great about a strategic plan is we are trying to have a long-term plan that we can build on each year. So we don't have different goals and different targets every year. We are really trying to be consistent in where we're trying to go as a district. So this overview, we have the same beliefs. We are who we are as a school district. Our strategic directions are kind of the goals that are in place for us. And um even our key initiatives have not changed during those three years. And that's really important because you know change does not happen overnight. It's something that we have to build towards. And it really is providing that stability for us as a district where we don't have to constantly chase new things. We're really trying to build upon what we know is um the right work. An overview of our strategic directions. You probably don't need this. You hear it at every single board meeting. I just heard you read that strategic direction A is ensuring the learning process and B is about safe and welcoming environments. Um C is the resources and making sure we're using them efficiently and D comes down to partnerships with our community. This is um just kind of a visual example of all the things that we are doing in the school district. And in year one and two, we were really focused on putting together systems to help us as a district build that um framework so that we could do the work we needed to do. And so you've heard things all our acronyms that we're so famous for. We got the swim teams and the DWIM teams and we have built teams and bolt teams. We have MTSS, all of these different things. And sometimes when you have all these different things, it feels like, especially for our teachers, there's just all these balls in the air and we don't really know what's going to drop on us and what we need to try to um keep up in the air. So, what we've tried to do in year three is really connect the dots, put everything in alignment, and help us um understand how all of these things fit together to get us to where we need to go as a district. So, I would say this this year especially is about aligning our work and having that bullseye that we're trying to aim for. And what that is um for 2526 is high quality instruction. You will hear more about that at the school level, but they are really focused on making sure that all of our kids have access to high quality instruction. Tier one on our MTSS um model that you've seen before. And we're continuing to focus on literacy. We know that kids need to be able to read in order to learn. So that continues to be our main focus. Equity and inclusion and social, emotional, and mental health. Same things we've been talking about um year after year. As part of our strategic plan, we have action cards. We have these at the district level and we have them at the school level. And what's nice about the action cards is they that's where each year we can identify our goals and what we're going to do to reach that that target that we were looking at. Um on an action card, we go through a process of identifying what our goals are, what are those actual steps we're going to take, who's responsible for what, what's the timeline to get the work done. It's kind of the recipe card or the um the plan of action, the to-do list that we have to follow again at both the district level. Each of our departments kind of work on action cards and then at the school level. And the most important thing is the progress monitoring along the way. So we have targets, we have um measurements that we're going to be looking at for all of the different action cards that are in place at the district level. This year we've been intentional about trying to align our action cards with specific um strategic directions. Literacy continues to be our focus under action card A which is about learning and our multi-tered system of support and intervention program is key. So at the district level we've kind of set that work up and then that's really what's driving the work of our schools as they're looking at their own action cards. Action card B is about um kind of a culture and creating welcoming environments. And for us, part of that is the welcome center work. And you've probably heard about that in the past. We're trying to create um a really welcoming a really warm welcome for people as they come into the district. So any new family now comes to central services and we are trying to build a system where we are we can provide them with all that they need in one stop that they don't have to like oh call this person or oh we can't help you you need to go over here or you need to do this. and also to just for people who are new to the system, make it easy to understand and navigate, be as friendly and welcoming as we can be. So, we've done some things over the summer to have staff in place that normally would have the summer off. We've brought them in so that they can have a counselor or they can meet with a nurse if they need to. Special ed is available to help answer questions. Our community engagement specialists are there to help families navigate if there's a language barrier or a cultural barrier. We are also working on creating a welcoming environment for a new staff. Um, our iron boarding processes have been kind of dependent on your position. You might have a really good experience. Others, it's been here you go, here's the keys, go do your thing. So, we're trying to create more consistency in how we are bringing people into our system, thinking that once they've had a good experience and they're prepared for what they need to do, then hopefully they will stay with us so that we can have some consistency in staffing. And we're also looking at just performance evaluations. You've heard about some of the teacher work that's been happening with the rubrics and the evaluation of teachers. We haven't had a very consistent process for all of our other employees. So, we want to make sure that we are also providing them with opportunities to grow and learn and um feedback along the way. Action card C is focused on the resources that we need. Um you know about the boundary chain process that's happening. We'll be sharing more with that as we look at adjusting boundaries. We're having conversations about AI. not only for our student use but even for us as staff. How can we use AI in responsible ways that can help make our um jobs a little easier and help us to be more efficient in our work? And um much like we have P school for our student information system, we also have um Skyward which is an antiquated getting old and about to expire system that we need to look at for our human resources and finance side of the house. So, we need to explore what's out there and that we could we could be using to um move all of those systems over. And action card D. Um I'm going to say this is the most important because it's one that I'm working really hard on but with a lot of help from others. But we also know that um one of the keys to our financial challenges is to bring students into the district. Um, so we are working really intentionally on some strategies to try to grow enrollment in the district to make sure that um, kids who are here stay here, that they're having positive experiences, and that more kids are wanting to come in. So, that's been a real area of focus for us um, this this coming year. With that, I'll turn it over to Caitlyn to talk a little bit about our school action cards. Okay, Carissa kind of teed this up, but as part of that um progress monitoring process, uh all of our schools have school improvement plans and that's not new. Um maybe the language of calling them action cards is a little new and um maybe more of a call to action. And so we have over the course of the last couple years really streamlined uh where there's choice and where there is not choice around goal setting for your school level. uh goals. And so for all of our buildings and programs, their action card A is around literacy. Specifically, now that we use FastBridge as a K12 uh screener and progress monitoring tool, all of our schools are using FastBridge data to progress monitor their literacy growth. And from there they have data conversations quarterly to talk about what is working and what needs to be tweaked so that more students can continue to access high rigor in um literacy and math. But specifically the goal and the focus right now is around literacy action card A. They have a very tight goal around culturally responsive instruction. This is aligned also with our new teacher evaluation rubric. So there's some new indicators for teacher evaluation around uh how we instruct to be more inclusive and culturally responsive. And so within this is uh what are we looking what are markers and things that we're looking to see in the classroom so that as administrators or instructional coaches or support staff come in we can say yes these are the things that we see that's aligned with what we know works for all kids and is in our evaluation rubric. And then the other there was some choice. Oh. Oh, you gave me driving. Look, I can drive now. Now for action card C and D, there was a little choice because this is where our buildings are kind of all in different places. So, um, in this past summer, I think there was some new guidance put out in the read Act for secondary schools, well, fourth grade and above, um, around screening to intervention and tier 2 intervention, meaning interventions that are happening in the classroom with that core content teacher, not a pull out, leave the class to get a support from someone else. So a lot of our secondary schools are really focused on that because that is a new thing for them to really have that expectation of if my student isn't hitting the mark on this screening tool, what is my responsibility as that core teacher in the classroom. So that's their goal. And then um within D, it's more about building those family partnerships and that they have a lot of choice there. It could be the conference model, the cell phone policy or our language access plan. Just to recap, the reason why we're doing all this work, it's it's our purpose is to inspire curiosity and a love of learning in every child. You see this face all over. He's probably a third grader now, I think. Uh the first year when we took this, he was back in kindergarten just kind of learning his ABCs and hopefully now he's a strong reader. Um but I think it it is important for us to always remember what our purpose is and why we are doing this work. So I wanted to end with that slide. With that, we will stand for any questions. Any questions from the board? I had just um a couple here with the measurement goals and I think I had sent this to you in an email, Chrissa, and you said you I you were good to speak on this, but are there specific goal like I know and there were two measurement questions I had. one there was no mention of MCA there was fast brbridge so I'm sure there's a reason behind that that if you could share and then also are there goals like um related to I think I had like inc you know the language access plan tool for example like we want x% of teachers using it or is there anything that's kind of maybe are they measurable yes in the details okay so you do have like actual we gave you broad strokes yes at if you were to look at each individual ual buildings action card in each of those areas you will see measurable um and so for I'll use a for example everybody is using fastbridge data but maybe the percentage of growth they're looking for over the course of the year is different from building to building because everybody has got a different starting line. Okay, the intent is that we all have the same finish line. So if you were to look at that goal, you're going to see two parts of the goal, which is that 80% of students are able to access grade level content proficiently or beyond proficiently. Uh which we know lines up with what we would expect to see for an MTSS process, right? Is we we want to make sure that our tier one instruction works for at least 80% of our kids. So that's our end target, but where each building is maybe is at a different starting place. And so their their goal reflects perfect. That was and I figured this was broad, but and then this is just my own I didn't know the terminology. I think it's under action um under school action cards. I didn't know what classroom room walkthrough data was. Yes. And then contact data. I didn't know if that was like parent contact. So most of our elementaryaries uh if not all have a goal around conferences. So they have some baseline data from year one last year and it's about increasing that parent contact and collaboration in the conference model. And then um walkthrough data is exactly what it sounds like meaning if you were to take a team of educators whether that's peer educators whether it's administrators and you were to walk into a classroom what do you see? So how much student talk do you see? how much collaborative how many collaborative structures are you seeing within a lesson um as opposed to how much teacher talk, you know, sit and get type of stuff. So, there's very specific kind of measurable things that you can visibly see if you spend a good enough amount of time in a classroom. And so, that's what that's designed to do. Many people's action card B goal uses both fastbridge and walkthrough data and the teacher eval rubric because those things are all aligned. Yeah. What we're looking for you're going to see in an achievement data on fastbridge. You're going to see in walkthrough data around student experience of that class and you're going to see teacher growth um and pedigogy embedded in that eval rubric. So we are doing walkthroughs this year and then we also do that at the principal level for that interrator reliability. So as a teacher as a principal is evaluating a teacher what are they looking to see so that if I'm a teacher at one elementary and this and Chris is a teacher at another elementary we're being evaluated similar similar similarly on that rubric. Okay. Thank you for that. Yep. Thank you. Um, not a question for you guys, just a general comment. Um, the more you talk about this, the more impressed I am with how much work is going on behind the scenes that we don't see at the board level. Um, and how very clearly aligned it is to our strategic plan. Uh, we have come such a long way in three years and it is super impressive. So, I know it's a lot of work on individual teachers to make sure that they're learning the data, learning about their kids, um, and implementing new strategies, um, in addition to the lesson planning and the classroom management and the parent contact. I mean, it's it's more on their plates, but I'm seeing improvements. And we just had our MCA um, update, and even though that's not necessarily something that they're looking at from the inside, it's an outside measure of how our systems are working. And we're either leveled off or we're starting to climb. So, um, we are starting to see the, uh, impact of all of this work. It's slow and steady, but, um, still really impressive. So, thank you for you guys and at all levels for all this hard work. I thank the board for your support, too. I think this is what's been different about this particular process is the fact that we've had the time to build it out and to do this work. I've not seen that in the past. It's kind of we do this for a year and then, oh, we're going to change a horse and go this way instead. But that consistency is key. Every year we're learning more. We're making adjustments. We're getting more aligned. And I think um as a community of learners, our teachers are starting to understand and see the the work behind this too and and getting um excited about it. Um I didn't totally answer your question about why why not MCAs. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um because as we're talking about this, we want to be able to progress monitor on those goals as we go, right? And so an MCA is a one dip one time once a year. So, it's helpful from like a longitudinal standpoint, but to be able to be adaptive um on a more frequent basis, we need that uh kind of more formative screening data to adjust our instruction. The other thing we know about FastBridge is the more students we can get at the 60th percentile or higher, the more likely they are to meet or exceed on the MCA. So we're able to make that correlation between this the FastBridge screener and the MCA performance data. And FastBridge is the one that's done twice. So you can measure growth three times. Oh, three times. Three times. Winter and spring. Um, and then just anecdotally, I was at the department at Fed this morning with a a handful of teachers and we were talking about data and a couple of the teachers said, "There's so much data at my disposal now that I never had access to before and it's making my job easier." So I did tell her I was going to say that at the board table as just a piece of evidence of these are this is a lot of work but the outcome of that work is over time going to um improve the teacher experience and give them the information they need in that moment to make those adjustments. Great. Any other questions? Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Okay, our next item is an action item. We're going to have Marie come and talk to us about the um adopting a preliminary proposed property tax levy. And this is the 2025 payable 2026. Good evening. Um, Chair Shurmer, Sherman, members of the board, Superintendent Funk. Uh, so this evening um we have a couple um uh items to um formally um do for um the process in our levy. Um but first, I'd like to just provide an overview um of what's taken place um in the levy so far. Um again this is our preliminary levy. This is not the final levy that um is an action by the board in December. So this is again the preliminary um proposed levy um that will kind of set the the wheels rolling the next few months. Um and again uh we'll be certifying um the proposed uh today is the deadline for the county. Um and then MDE also as well. And then we also set the uh December truth and taxation uh meeting date and time um for these statements. So um some of the key messages um and again this is just some highlights. Um our certification is part of an overall levy process. Um again it's due uh some of our deadlines are due today. Um it's based on calculations that are provided by the Minnesota Department of Education in September. Um that started on September 8th. Um adjustments to the levy are likely. Um and they may still change yet. I am hopeful they will not. Um but um it is sometimes likely they will change and that's why recommending certifying the maximum at this phase allows the district greater flexibility. Um if I thought that it would change significantly. I wouldn't recommend that necessarily because um we we want transparency. Um levy can only move downward after October 1st. So tomorrow um after uh certifying we can only move um downward and then the school board uh we are scheduled um on the calendar to certify the final um 26 property tax levy on December 16th. So some of the basics uh with the levy uh the authority established in law um budgets are combination of state, federal and local funding including uh the voter approved operating bond and technology levies. Uh unlike cities and counties um our levy is for the following school year. So 202627. Uh so this is actually starting our budget process for next year. Um cities and counties are on a calendar year. Uh levy revenue uh is right now approximately 24% of our district's total budget. So some of the factors impacting school levies changes in tax base. um that increase often results in like less state aid. There's a formula there and that sometimes changes uh with legislative changes to our our formulas uh changes in enrollment and I think a few months back we did a huge presentation on enrollment and pupil units and residential pupil units which drive the referendum. Um there's also an inflationary factor with our referendum and that is 2.37% this year. And then there's also employment changes that could drive your severance unemployment levies. Um we have capital bonds, bond refundings that currently we don't see any right now. um but abatements, uh long-term facility maintenance, uh health and safety projects or lease costs. So, all of that is part of uh levies. So, this is a lot of information on a slide, but I'm just going to kind of talk through uh some of these numbers that go into building this levy, which um I'm just going to hold up the report. So what we get like on a daily basis is a 39page levy limitation report and that's been running at the state level since um September 8th and the first uh week or so these are pretty pretty messy. Um you have to kind of go through and reconcile those for all the things that you're anticipating. Um, but I'm happy to say at 4:57 uh this afternoon, uh, the state's report exactly matches what we've been projecting as a district. So, I'm glad that I'm going to you right now and we exactly match. Um, we haven't been um due to a couple adjustments. um uh Northeast Metro uh school district, they're a a flowth through with our district um because they don't have levy authority. Their lease levy rolls through our district and so their lease approvals uh were at the state level pending and so those were finished today along with some of our other adjustments for long-term facility maintenance. So, with that, um, those were all completed the last, uh, day or so. And so, um, happy to just report that that matches. I'm sure that wasn't stressful. It was very stressful. Um, but, um, just kind of looking at this overall, these are the general fund levies, and all of this here is again just rollups of all of these pages that we go through. Just to highlight a couple things. At the top is our uh referendum and some of the adjustments to the referendum. You're seeing a little bit of a negative there because of some of the um residential um adjustments that were made um not only our our district but the overall residential pupil units um were adjusted. So some of that is a factor um and also it plays into some of the uh referendum market values. So those combinations of what the projections are. So we did adjust some of our numbers um for 2026 27 and 2728. So, some of those adjustments there, um, we're seeing just a net effect of about, um, $124,000. Um, other areas that we're seeing just some, um, larger adjustments is our annual other postemployment benefits. Uh, there's about a $900,000 uh, decrease uh, from last year to our current year. that's based on our uh 2425 uh eligible benefit payments. So our benefit payments are less and um for the retirees that uh do qualify for OPED. So again, that uh causes our levy to be less. There's nothing else we can levy for in that category. So, um that said, um our levy in our general fund, um is going to be about 1.7 million less than last year. Um we levy, um according to all of the uh formulas, the laws um at the state level and statute. So, um everything else we uh did maximize um as appropriate. Mhm. So, okay. Because that's always the number I go to first. Correct. Was that something that surprised you when you got this? Was that expected? Was that It was expected. Okay. Yes. Yes. So, it's accounted for in our um like in in the budget. Correct. Correct. Yeah. These are accounted for. And then our community service fund leveies again um these are are minor but again they are accounted for um at the program level. Um some of the uh larger adjustments are the early child um family education levy. Um that's a 90 $1,000 adjustment. And then some of the other prior years, um the school age care levy, uh they did adjust that a little higher by $75,000 due to the costs. So you're seeing just a net decrease of about $35,000 um overall, but that program's uh strong and uh the levies um just a little over 1.3 million um in itself. And then our debt service fund. This is where we um issue bonds. And as you uh do recall, we do have the other um part of our um school building bonds uh to issue. And so what you'll see on the second line here um is that second uh part of our our bond levy. And that's uh $3.5 million. um that that equates to that we issued the first hundred million. Now we're going to do that remainder. Um that's 74, uh845,000. So that $3.5 million there is that result of um that second uh bond issue that we'll be doing in uh early 2026 uh for this levy. And then we also have kind of on the second half of this um uh chart here is our uh facility maintenance bonds. And so you'll see the interest there about 7 uh 31,000. So we are going to issue some of the facility maintenance bonds um and we'll bring that again to the board. Why? Um because we also issued a bond refunding. Um our debt service was a little bit higher last year. And so you'll see the net effect here of about $2.2 million overall in our debt service. Um it was a little bit higher last year. So, the bottom line here for all funds, our total levy change is uh $426,000, which I think for a district this size, um that's a really good levy this year, I haven't in my my years seen a a levy this low in a long time. And so, I'll just highlight that here. um for all uh three funds. Um the blue shaded column there shows just highlights what the total of the levies will be for our uh 25 pay 26 which is next year. And then those percent changes um which will be uh 0.64% which is less than a percent increase on the overall levy for next year. So, I'll just pause there before um going on to have Joan pull up the property tax impact, but I'll just pause if there's any questions or comments. Just a comment. So, once again, there are three entities at the local level that can tax your county, your city, and your school district. And so I don't know what the county is is going up in in taxes. I don't know what the city is, but we are as as Marie stated 64%. So we are about as flat as we can be as far as uh increases, which is uh a good thing for our taxpayers. Um you know, I I personally think this is like right on. You don't want to be You don't want to be negative, you know, you don't want to be because then next year if we go real low on our our levy and next year levy goes up at all, it goes up. It's it's a significant bump. So, I just want to commend Marie. Um the reason we're meeting today, September 30th, is to give her as much time as possible because MDE is having some challenges right now with uh running their their levy system. And so that's why we pushed the meeting back to today. Um, but Marie has just spent countless hours and hours and hours making sure we get this right, working with MDE, working with with uh our people within our facilities department, working with others to make sure that uh um the bonding pieces of this is is accurate. And so um but I I just we are very fortunate to have Marie and her experience um as we work through this at at the state level. So thank you and I think um I feel confidently speaking for the board that we echo Dr. Funk's comments. Thank you for all your hard work and just the patience that you have in waiting for all this information to come together. So thank you. Thank you. So good news for taxpayers that they have a flat experience and maybe in contrast to some of what's going on in the county and the cities that people live in. So thank you. So just to show this is from um Aaylor's our financial advisors. um they did run the 64 um estimated change and what you'll see there with the residential homestead um and I believe the $550,000 number was the baseline um average um home. you'll just you'll see the um overall um property tax impact um you know on that home is you know $59 uh decrease. Um and just to highlight that minus2.7% that's because um the residential market value and the net tax capacity are estimated to go up by three and a half%. So with that decrease that we're showing that net impact is really um 2.7% overall and there's you know other narrative there that's assuming no other change um you know in the values of property or parcels you know sometimes the value of a parcel change or property um but you'll see that that overall um changes there to also commercial and the apartments. Um but you'll see there is a negative um there's a decrease to all properties um based on the values um which I think is a great thing right now um just with where everyone um is. So just wanted to highlight that and these will be posted on our website along with the presentation as well. Thank you. Are there any other We'll continue. Yeah. Any questions before we move on? Okay. So the timeline before us uh this evening uh we'll be recommending um the certification of the property tax uh levy the proposed and then um while you're in close session I'll be preparing a couple documents. Um, we have to submit this over to the county this evening. Um, and then, uh, I'll also on our last slide, um, be recommending the date for our truth and taxation hearing. And then, um, from the 30th, uh, November 10th through the 24th, uh, the county will be ma mailing property tax statements, um, reflecting that estimated, uh, pay 26 property taxes. Um and then December 2nd uh will be the proposed meeting date for our uh meeting. Uh at that uh meeting we'll be discussing the budget and also the levy. And then uh the 16th is the um school board meeting to adopt the final uh property tax levy. And then the 29th is the final uh date for us to submit to the home county auditor. So this evening there are two actions uh before you. Uh first uh the recommended action is to certify the maximum proposed uh 25 pay 26 property tax levy and then also another action to set the truth and taxation meeting for December 2nd uh 2025 at 6 pm at Oak Park Learning Center. And that concludes the Thank you for leaving that up presentation. Great. Um before we move into our action items, any final questions for Maria as she is presenting all these numbers. Can Thank you for this. This is really helpful. Uh can you just clarify your meaning of maximum there? Like is this do you mean I can see it meaning two different things. One is this is the maximum that we could have asked for. The second is this is setting the maximum that we are asking for and it can only go down from here. Correct. The second statement that's the maximum and we can only go down from here. So this is a pretty typical action item just to certify to the maximum allow for flexibility for what we don't know that might be changing and then we can make adjustments if necessary. But if the numbers stay on course there would really be no need. So correct. Um I will make a motion to certify to the maximum. Is there a second? Second. Great. Dr. Theander, any questions on the first action item, which is to certify to the maximum. Okay. All those in favor raise your hand say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. That passes. And now we have um we're setting the truth in taxation for December 2nd. Uh is there a motion to approve that? I'll move to approve. Great. And I saw out of the corner of my eye, we'll have Chris second. And all those in favor of uh the truth and taxation date being December 2nd, raise your hand and say, "I." I. Opposed. Thank you, Mary. Thank you. All right. The next item on our agenda is a resolution. Oh, these Okay. Sorry. wrong thing. Okay. So, tonight we're here to um introduce a resolution. It's really nothing that the board would necessarily have to vote on. Um but I thought and I think the board thought in the spirit of full transparency for our community. Um sorry, the background noise for in the full transparency for the community. Um we just thought we would put together this resolution. So um as the board some of the people on this board were approaching four or five years and I think that's something we've observed for those who have been on the board and then for those who come in and are new. Uh same for staff who are new and um starting to observe and experience some of our processes. We have patterns of um feedback on the negotiation process. um things that we could do as a board because it's a process that we own um to improve the process to be more transparent in the process. I think as a board we've tried to kind of incrementally adopt our processes like doing something slightly varied from year to year in hopes that we kind of offer some improvement. But I think as a board um when we looked at the negotiation process, it's just a reoccurring theme of how can we be doing this better? What are the best practices that are out there? How can we be communicating to the public better about what we do and how we do it? because our contract negotiations, salary and benefits make up 75% of this district's general funding, community education budget. So, it's in the spirit of transparency for taxpayers, it's um it's an important thing to do. And just as the board sees patterns um that kind of keep resurrecting themselves every time we go through a cycle, thinking to ourselves, okay, we need to do something better for the for the people that are both in the bargaining units, for the people ex um for our staff that are at the negotiating table, for our board members who are responsible for this process, and for our taxpayers um and engaging them. So, we have a resolution to engage with a professional negotiator um to consult with us on it really it's two parts to consult with us on how we can build a better process um that allows for more transparency and um and then the second part is to engage this same consultant in any capacity that we may need for upcoming um and ongoing contract negotiations. Um, and there are several contract negotiations in process. So, I thought I would go ahead make a motion to approve this resolution because this is a roll call vote. Um, and if I can get a second. I'll second. Great. Director Hawker with the second and then I thought we would could just maybe share um some of the feedback and experiences from the board and um and then we'll do a roll call vote. So, I don't know if anyone has any comments. Sure. I can I can kick it off. Yeah. Um, so I'm I am in support of this resolution and um I have had some experience working uh in the room of negotiations as an observer. Um this will now be my fourth contract since I was elected to this board. Um we came in right at the tail end of our very first contract. So, I've had um a little bit of experience in the room and outside of the room um in kind of going through this process. And we definitely have noticed some themes um as chair Sherman just um alluded to and one of the biggest themes for me is the amount of time that it takes to move through this particular contract. Um and I know that this is for all of our negotiations um processes going forward, but kind of this is our biggest um lift I would say in terms of contracts. Um, and one of the things that I noticed as serving on the 916 board, um, is listening to other districts and how they are settling their contracts and how quickly they're settling their contracts, um, either over the summer or by fall. Um, they've already got them their contracts settled and how the attitude at that board table was, it is the most respectful way to honor our employees by moving through this as quickly as possible. um in that we want to get things settled, get any adjustments made, and then we can pay our employees um and get that money in their pockets as soon as possible. So, that is not the pattern that I've been noticing here in Still Water. Um and it's something that I am interested and really would like to see. Um especially what is also weighing on my mind is our recent decision about our insurance that we had to make a very tough decision a couple months ago um about sharing our insurance um premium increases with our employees which means they're feeling the impact of that right now. So for me it is um becoming more urgent to get these settlements done in a timely manner. Um and the pattern here has really been by the end of the first year, potentially the second year or the end of the second year um in the contract cycle. So for me, my priority is really to move forward um get some fresh eyes on the process and hopefully we can get some new um some new ideas on how to move things forward so that we can get a um quicker resolution in this process. Great. Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, Director Thielander. Yeah, I was a sheriff. Um, from my perspective, I think, you know, this is a best practice that's used in a lot of other industries. Um, especially when you're negotiating, um, you know, financial impacts that are such a large portion of a organizational budget like, you know, contracts are. So, you know, and I look at the board as a whole. I mean, at the end of the day, we're just renting a seat uh here on this board. And uh we've had the privilege of being elected to serve. Uh but nothing's ever set in stone. And so, it's something that for future boards is just provides a more sustainable um process that can be utilized so that future boards don't have to be recreating the wheel each and every cycle. Um, and so I just think it's it's a great way of just to your point uh, um, Director Hawkard and Chair Sherman, you know, just providing that transparency, finding better ways to do things. And I think that's what this board has done is, you know, there's a lot of great things that are going on. There's really great relationships in place, but there's always, you know, let's be kind of future ready to find new ways to do things better. I think this is another example of us looking at new ways um, to bring about meaningful change. I think that uh will be beneficial to all involved. You know, yes, it'll be different. It'll be um you know, a change I think in how normal processes are followed. Uh but I do think it's going to be uh a better way to do that. So, uh I also will be in support of this resolution. Any other comments? Yes. Um, thank you very much and I agree that this this, you know, I'm new to the board here, so I don't have much of the background on themes or whatnot. Um, but the reasons that I would like to support this is one on the transparency side, creating a new process that we can create transparency is u a very big draw for me. Um, I have some concerns about uh using a lawyer. you know, I recognize that that could have a benefit to the to the group of having some cost savings or having some efficiencies. Um I can also see that creating um consternation on uh at the negotiating table. So I have some concerns there, but um I generally support this. I think it is a normal thing to do outside of it's in every organization that I've worked with in the past that has um labor negotiations, this this would be something that's discussed and brought up. So, um I'm supporting it. Um I do have some concernation about the uh use of a lawyer, but other than that, any other comments? Um I'm going to vote no. Um I hear the concerns at the table, but I don't think that this is the answer to what hils us. So that would be my any other comment. That's it. Um I'll just go ahead and make a statement. I am going to support this. I think if you read through the resolution itself, it's really truly just about creating a process. Um I I too like Director Hawker have an opportunity in some of the other areas that I serve on to through AMSD and also through MSBA just to see what other districts do. And I think our practice could just be more transparent and I think that benefits the uh membership in our bargaining units as well as taxpayers many of whom have both roles in our community. Uh I think it's best for the board and for students and families just to kind of know a little bit more about the process. So providing that transparency is really important to me. Um having I I totally appreciate what um uh Parker is saying about having a lawyer present, but I think how we can we have a lawyer involved already um to a certain extent and it may look or feel different um but it may not. I mean, we're just bringing in a um someone to consult with the board to say what are the best practices um what can work as you look to build a better process. So, um it may be something that gets used. Some of our contracts, I know we're going to get an update here next, are already ongoing. So, it may or may not be that someone's involved um uh in those talks. um it might be maintain a behind-the-scenes involvement, but I do think it's really important as we as a board look at a process that like you said um for future boards. Um and I really do I care about our um our staff members and it bothers me that we're always so late to settle. it doesn't sit well with me because our employees deserve the respect of timely contracts and I think that we can be a part of building a process that better ensures that happens. So I will also be in support of this um and I look forward to getting um getting everyone on board. I think that the community as we look to future um community members I know when we all run we run on transparency and there isn't this is a significant part of the budget. It's the majority of our budget. We're in a service um business. And so for me, when you have 75% of your budget and we can be um sharing more information with taxpayers, it's prudent for us to open up that process and provide that transparency. So, all right. Anyone else? Mhm. I apologize for asking a second before everybody had a a chance to go, but um can we just I just want to make sure we get feedback and uh consent effectively from the current uh people that are running the process and they are for this as well. We we included people in this discussion that were currently running the process and they are supportive of this approach going forward. Thank Yes. Thank you for sharing that. Great. All right. Um, having seen no other comments, Joan, roll call. Director Hackard, yes. I'm sorry. Director Gersich, yes. Director Hawker, yes. Dr. Kisonenberg, no. Director Lowour, yes. Dr. Parker, yes. Director Theelander, yes. Chair Sherman, yes. Resolution passes 60. Resolution passes 61. Thank you. All right. And um now we are going to have Chris come up for a broad kind of negotiations update. Good evening. Hi. Um thank you for having me. Um so I am just going to just talk through a little bit about uh you know some of the board members are new to the process and some of the um community members not might not be as aware of um what the negotiation negotiations process includes. Um so I've kind of outlined the process for us. Um so to start us off um we get an intent um an intent to bargain from the union. Um and then the union um negotiators and the district negotiators, we look at our calendars, figure out uh when we're going to have our first meeting. Um and then um there can be norm settings. Um uh depends on the group. Some groups, you know, want to do norm setting and some of them are, you know, less inclined to that. Um and then we bring forward lists of interests. Um uh district has interests, uh the union has interests. Um and so we talk about all of those in subsequent meetings. um and discuss them until they are either tenatively agreed to, withdrawn, or tabled for further discussion. Um once an agreement is reached, um a summary is prepared and the union will present the tenative agreement to the members for a vote. Um if members ratify the agreement, then the board is informed and recommendation is made to approve the agreement on behalf of the district. Um, and just really quick, I wanted to make sure, is there anyone that has any questions on that process? Can I just ask really the same question? Oh, you do too. I was just going to ask um in terms of the intent to bargain, when can when when that can that be sent? Is there something in state statute that reflects like it has to be you know it can be as early as it can be as late as or when do we typically get those in the process or is it vary what's the window yeah kind of that window and so the statute is um within 60 days of the contract expiring um I will note though that in most of our CBAs there is a little bit more flexibility than that um so for example um in the agreement um it's between March and June um and the contracts expire the end of June. So, um that kind of it falls within that, but it does give them a little bit more time. Um and then the custodians and the nutrition services and some of the other groups, it says um it says they can't start more than 90 days in advance. Okay. So, it varies depending on the That's a little bit based on our CBAs. Okay. Yeah. And that's collective bargaining agreement. Yes. Collective bargaining agreement. Yes. CBA. Um and I think this year um this year I you know I made a I took a different approach to it because the first timeline I was here um you know we were when I arrived Dr. Funk was in the midst of negotiating with thece and all of the other groups had stacked up behind um which has been um the tradition here at Stillwater I think for a while that everybody waits to see what happens with the um I took a different approach this spring and I really started I reached out I reached out to the custodial group first to say are you are you interested in negotiating over the summer you know you don't have to wait we can we can go first if you'd like um and then um I received the intent to bargain from the principles in April. Um and we were able to get started with them in July. So um we have have been moving them all forward as as much as possible. Um and so the schedule has changed a little bit in order to get people through the process um a little bit faster and get them their their raises and steps and things um a little bit sooner. Okay. Any other questions I can answer about that? Um so these are the this is the status of our contracts at the moment. So these are strictly union contracts. Um so the expired June 30th and we are in process. We have met four times. Uh the custodians expired June 30th. Um and we have met seven times. And the principal also June 30th and we've met six times. And nutrition services um we have not started with them. They were not interested in negotiating over the summer which is um their option. Um and then the pairs are on the off cycle. So we settled with them kind of in the middle of um in the middle of last year um because they their cycle is on the off year that everybody else's is. Any questions about about that? Um and then these are terms and conditions. So these are not union groups. Um and so um while I seek input from these groups to figure out what you know what we want to put into these agreements um or not um they're not a bargaining unit. So we're not required to meet and confer um with the folks in these on these schedules. And so these are all with the exception of the first one who was off cycle um we we finished that that one already. Um, and the other ones, um, I brought forward and kind of moved them through very quickly before I wanted to get them ahead, get them all settled before we started actually negotiating with teachers and custodians and principles. We're done. So, these are not collective bing units. So, are they at will? Yes. Okay. So we are in the midst of uh negotiations with uh three contracts with one more to go after that. Yes. So even though you said these are at will, it's still a similar contract amongst all of them. You don't just have individual contracts depending on Okay. No, they all have very similar um you know paragraphs and benefits and options and things like that in them as as the union ones. Okay. Do you offer do we um because it says you said you reached out to C at least the custodian group to see if they want to negotiate in the summer. Um do we sense that there are units interested in speeding up the process? Um, I think that, you know, it's a little nerve-wracking for them because, you know, they are used to waiting to see what the teachers get, you know, so there's there's some risk to that, you know, if the teachers, you know, if someone that goes, you know, after them could get a get a bigger settlement, there's a little bit of a risk. Um, but yeah, I think they appreciate the fact that they can they can settle their agreement, you know, quicker and we can um they can get their their pay adjustments sooner, right? Otherwise, it really does wait until, you know, perhaps next spring. Okay, great. Well, thank you for this update. Um, it just gives us a broad overview of how the process works and where we're at everywhere. So, thank you very much for that. Absolutely. Great. Okay. Tonight we are um before close session we are taking action on our boundary change guiding doc guiding change document. Does that work? Good evening chair Sherman, Superintendent Funk, members of the board. Um tonight I'm here to discuss the um boundary change guiding document. If you recall at the last meeting we went through this guiding change document kind of bullet for bullet um talked through each one of those answered questions. I have not um gotten any feedback from anybody in the last two weeks. Um I do want to note though um there is one small minor change. If you look under desired result, you take a look at that second bullet point um changed slightly and so it just says ensure schools in the southern part of the district have the capacity to meet the current and future needs. In the past, we talked about just looking at um Anderson, Afton, and Brookview, but just to give the committee some flexibility is to to include Lake Elmo in that as well. So our meetings will kick off next week. So, we took off the schools. So, we'll really be focusing just on that southern boundary um part as we head into that. So, I just wanted to highlight that one change. Other than that, that stayed the same. And I will open up to any questions or comments or thoughts that you've had since the last meeting. Great. This is an action item. So, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Great. Director Theelander. Questions for Mark? Um alluding to a question I asked last time. So you'd have people wanting to be on this committee, some maybe for selfish purposes. Is there an application process to get on that committee? No, it it's like I said before, so we look at previous boundaries. So people have been on it before, they understand the process. So if they still have a kid at that level, they kind of have the opportunity to stay if they so choose. If there's not and somebody moved on to the middle school or their son or daughter had graduated and they're out of our system, then we worked with that elementary school principal to say, "Hey, who would be a good rep for your building?" And then so we get the representation from all the buildings. And then if you look at desired result number one, you know, when you talk about decisions based interest on all district students. So yes, you may be representing school A or school B or school C and you could look at it from that frame of reference, but as we come to the table, we have to look at it from what's best district and all, not just I want to look out for our kids or our neighborhood or those sorts of things. We really need to take a whole district approach to it. No matter what area you're representing, right, thanks. Okay. So, we're focusing on um the guiding change document here and this will lead the work process that starts next week. Um if there are no questions regarding the document, I think we can vote. All those in favor of approving the guiding change boundary adjustment 2025 document, raise your hand and say I. I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you very much and we look forward to hearing all the recommendations. Okay, we are going to move into close session. I have a notice to read. The next item on the agenda is a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.05, 05 subdivision 3C 3, which allows the board to go into a closed session to develop or consider an offer to purchase or sell real property. I will entertain a motion that the meeting now be closed for the purposes stated. Great. Director Theander and a second. Second. Great. Director Hawkert with the second. All those in favor of moving to close session, raise your hand and say I. I. Opposed? We will move into close session. Thank you.