Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is Independent School District 832, the regular meeting for the Mamemidai School Board. It is Monday, November 10th, 2025, 7:00 p.m. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stand nation. No. Um, Nick, will you take down that presentation for now and just wait until it's time because otherwise our Thank you. Roll call of attendance, please. >> Approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion? Move >> by Director Domen. Second by director Petus. Mr. Peters. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. Approval of the consent agenda. Moved by Director Peterson. >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Witson. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. >> Okay. Presentations, recognition, and discussion of our Zephr learning showcase. This is always your opportunity. Right before our board meeting, we had um a a number of students here to present their learning. We had students from uh community ed talk about community theater. We had our high school sharing some AP art students were here. We had our advanced academics, our math masters came. And we also learned a little bit more about the current Zephyr service project that's happening. And so this is our opportunity to just comment on what we heard and what we learned. >> I'll go um obviously all the um groups presenting tonight were awesome and it's cool to see so many of our uh fellow zephers out um doing extracurricular activities and things that they certainly aren't required to do. Um you know the math masters is incredible. We always see the um the accolades they receive for how successful they are at their events, but it was really cool to meet the kids that make up that team. And it's not surprising, of course, but they're incredibly smart. So, like that's really cool to see. Um, the other thing I wanted to comment on was the uh service project group. Um, two things from that. Number one, like they were talking about the donations that have been made to this point. Um the service project as far as I understand it is something around collecting unused hats, gloves, mittens, that sort of thing for families that need them. Um but you know the outpouring from the community already and the amount that they've already been able to collect and distribute within the community is pretty amazing. And then uh the two girls there representing the group tonight were incredibly well spoken and incident like they've got a very bright future ahead of themselves. So uh pretty impressive stuff all around. I'll comment. Um, I'll echo a lot what Ryan said, but what stood out for me was the artwork. Um so there's photography drawing medium and potter but maybe I mostly because I don't have that brain what they can they can dream up and imagine and put together certainly the teachers that give me direction Um every every kid that you talk to that are in there those classes I can't say enough about um the art teachers that we have give them the direction and feedback. Great to see. And I'll add to the service project. There was one thing that stood out to me was um the business collaboration they're coordinating. They're they're picking up the phone. They're making phone calls. They're having the interaction with these people and asking for donations set things up in their business. And something we haven't 2020 it's been hard to get impacted by that kids are off their electronics and picking up a phone talking so it's really >> I'll echo what both of you have said and for me it was special to see one of the artists tonight is somebody I knew when he was younger and um you know when he was younger he didn't show any interest to see how he's a real talent and is now I think on his second AP class for this and I just love how um these kids you know they we provide we can't be we can't provide every single avenue within a school but we provide a lot and it's uh it's just so rewarding when you see somebody get to follow what their their talents really are are are are innate and they get to um follow what what they've been really gifted to do. And so that I just love seeing that. The tables were really impressive. >> The theater group, there was a mom over there just saying my kid would never go on stage, but there's so many opportunities to build the set, paint the set, be in the back, pull the curtain, ding a bell or something. So I think the theater program here and that that play was for adults too community. So it wasn't just the students in the school. They got community members in to play the older adult characters. >> Uh I [clears throat] enjoyed speaking with some of the the art students had the different art pictures over there because I'm like Paul I'm I'm not sort of inclined to that. And uh just the the methods of creativity that they can use to execute some of those forms are really amazing. the Evan on the the end here had functional and non-functional teapotss. Won some that he won an award for and how he even how he began to think about that. Um and this is this was not a student who wants to be an artist. In fact, he wants to be an accountant, right? Uh but we can still have students that have um those sorts of professional aspirations, still be engaged and have the opportunity to be part of these artistic and uh um these other sort of different clay mediums. I thought that was a really fun way to sort of see um the sort of the holistic experience that students can have. >> All right. Um middle school recognition. Welcome These are like the highlight. Um, and 21 in there. I cannot see enough. Wait. Yeah. So, we're going to take a picture in a minute, but I I want to echo I know James, I hear um I remember getting feedback about a volleyball tournament from a volleyball parent and how much work you had done and she said, "How can he possibly get everything done?" We were asking him to do everything for us. He was running around all over the building. And so, she ca went out of her way to tell me um how much she appreciated you and and what you do. So, um and which sounds very consistent with all the other accolades that you've had. So, so thank you, James. You you're super supportive our of our community and you make us look really good with all the work you do, all the hard work. Yeah, we appreciate that. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I think we all want to say thank you so much because it is such an important piece and I think as um Stephanie already said it a lot of what you're doing happens when no one's around and yet it is a key piece of our success. So, thank you so much. >> [applause] >> All right. So, we're going to come over and take a picture with you, J. Now, Kate Anderson, please share your community education update. >> Okay, good evening everyone. And I'm Kate Anderson, the community ed director here, and I am going to give you a quick update on last school year, so July of 24 through June of 25. Um, as always, I always do this um little graphic to visually show you all the programs that encompass community ed. Um, some of them are just things that you probably don't see all the time, our AB program, um, the facilities, uh, communications, and those types of things. So, I always want to share that. Um, sorry. I wanted to highlight um the last two years we've been in some transition with our staff. Um, and so the spring of 2023, I had some resignations. I had some retirements. Um, so I'm glad to say that as of February this year of 25, um, we have a full staff and, um, have everybody in place, have new faces, lots of, um, uh, staff that are really, um, assertive and excited to do things for our community. So, there's a group photo of most of them. You probably recognize some of them. Um, okay. So, here's the highlights we're going to go over. I'm going to go over some programming um increases. Our communication uh coordinator that we hired, that was our last one. She does coord communication and analytics. Um we're going to do a little update on early childhood, our facility improvements, and give you a sneak peek of what's coming up um next for this coming school year. Um, we continue to provide quality enriching programs and we continue to refer to that community need survey that we had our community um, fill out and that is a guiding tool for us to use as well as um, community members that share new ideas or um, activities that they'd like us to do. So, the first thing here is our secondary program which is our grades 6 through 12. Um, our survey highlighted the need for real life experiences, um, opportunities for our secondary students to explore their passions, learn new skills, and more. Um, you'll you've probably heard a lot about our career internship and volunteer fair. We had over 400 students and approximately 60 adult volunteers that came for um, being vendors or businesses, as well as um, volunteers to look at resumes and things. Last year um we expanded our competitive opportun our excuse me our non-competitive opportunities. That was one thing we heard um throughout the survey also is that families were really looking for opportunities for kids just to investigate different things, not have to be on an athletic team and commit to to that. So um one of the things was our our intro to esports. Stephanie who was just here oversees that and we've had a um a big growth in that a lot of interest in that especially it's interesting to see our new students coming in in the middle school really like jazzed up for that. So um and we also partnered um with business vendors. Uh the picture there is a car care class that we offered and we had about 11 people participate in that. We partnered with 916 and we went to their um school and we did um showed the students, you know, how to change your oil, check your tires. Again, really honing in on that um life skill, right, for students. So, that was pretty impressive and we were happy to do that. We are looking at some future partnerships with 916 coming up. uh some of our new family and community events. Um in 2024 was our community garage sale. We had over a hundred families um donate and over 200 people that came to shop. We did raise $900 over $900 for scholarships. Um so that was really exciting for us to be able to do um and offer that for our community members that need that. Uh you did see tonight at the showcase we had our community theater this last year. Um we had 330 people that attended. There were 11 um adults and young adults that participated not just on the um in the play itself but our crew members and things like that. So that was nice. We started uh fishing in your neighborhood. Um it doesn't look like the video is going to will it work? Okay. Okay, let's see if we can get that here. >> I'm with the Minnesota DNR's fishing in the neighborhood program and today we have a family fishing night at Lost. These sessions are [music] very simple. We just meet our group at a local fishing pier and we come prepared with all the equipment anyone could possibly need. We really just teach everyone the basics. So, they'll come here, grab a pole, we'll show them exactly how [music] to use it, and then let them fish for 2 hours. I feel like one of the biggest barriers for kids fishing is they have no one to take them to the lake. So if we're able to teach the parents, a lot of times they're having as [music] much fun or even more fun than the kids at our event, kind of reignite their love for fishing if they did it as a child, especially with our equipment donation. They should be, you know, all set to continue doing it in the future. So that was an example of it was actually an individual that reached out to us that was part of the DNR and suggested and wanted to offer a class like this and we thought hey great we'll we'll jump on that opportunity especially in a community where you know there's a lake right that's a big draw. So we had about 30 people that attended that event. Um we started our puzzle competition this year. Director Yep. Director Jenny was able to participate. She Oh, and Stacy, I'm sorry. Yes, the duo. They came in third place, everybody. It was wonderful. Um, we had seven teams. The first place team was did do the puzzle within 28 minutes. It was a little crazy. >> I can't believe that. That was a 500 piece puzzle. >> Yeah, >> they had four members. >> Yes, you only had three and they still came in third place. Um, so we are doing that again. That's a sneak peek. We're doing that again. Um, we had family orientering and then we in early childhood did beyond the box box city. So, people brought in these big um old uh cardboard boxes and kids were creating different things with them with their adults. So, that was super fun and that was also another suggestion that we had from a family. So, um we love to hear those suggestions and if we can make it happen, we'll do it. Question. >> Yes. Fishing in your neighborhood. [clears throat] >> Winters ago, you also had ice fishing. That was very well attended and I've had that come up again and I talked to Sammy and she said the guy who did it doesn't want to do it again. >> He doesn't >> that be could it's an extension. It doesn't mean that we wouldn't reach out like but I mean now that we've made this partnership with the DNR possibly we could find someone through them that in that particular individual is was a parent in our program. He was a clam um advertising representative. I know that's not the right word. I apologize, but um and he he volunteered to do that with us. Um again, it was during kind of after the pandemic when we were trying to do things outside and um have space and stuff, but it is something that we'd love to bring back. So, yes, >> sounds like Jenny just volunteered. >> I think she did. I think she did. >> My augur. >> She does like outdoor things, doesn't she? [snorts] Um okay. Um I did want to take time to introduce uh this is our most recent coordinator. Um her name is Nory Ness. She started in February. She's our communications coordinator. Um, in the summer of 24, we had an opportunity to hire an intern to help build our social platforms. We really saw some momentum and a lot of engagement in our enews. Because of this, we realized the value of this position and the importance behind being present in the social media and the benefits that it has. So because of that and uh Alice Soyford's help with that because she was um did a lot of helping with our intern and has also been a good adviser for Nory. Um so we invested in this full-time communications coordinator. This is a rare position for a community ed to have because it is not a uh it's a cost- centered position, right? It's not generating revenue for us. But when you look at it, the promotional um piece behind the scenes and the advertising and the getting out, that's really driving our families to choose programming and things. So, we have seen the benefit of it. Um every month, um Nory meets with me and we go over our analytic data. Um this was her sixth month. You know, we've gained 95 Facebook followers in um that six-month time period, 96 with our Instagram. Um, we've had uh 124% increase in our views on Instagram. Um, our reach on Instagram is and that's correct me if I'm wrong, Alice. I believe the reach is when people share it and um it goes out to like if Paul shares it with his friends, then all those people it's reaching a different population. So, we've seen a 75% increase in that and also our interactions on Instagram. Um, so we really see the benefits of it and we're super encouraged. Nory and Alice just did a presentation the end of October at the Minnesota Community Education Association and I can't tell you how many people came up to me afterwards and they're like, "Oh my god, she's so great. We would love and I just kept saying you may not take her. She is Monomidi specific." So um, it's been a really great addition for us and we're seeing the benefits of it. Can you talk more about how the number of views and reach translates to engagement with signing up or attendance or like how do you how do you connect those two? >> So Nori can probably give you a little bit better um explanation than I'm going to Drew, but um I think there was a I'm trying to think of a specific class. I know that we have so when we have low enrollment then Nori will make some type of a post and it could be a reals it could be um pictures it's just not a graphic a graphic was something that was not helping us people it was just like here's a graphic and please register we were asking them to see what was actually happening in the class what the benefits were um telling a story about the class and then I think we did something and I I apologize I don't know the specific but the very next day we had six more enrollments for that class. So, it really helps us when we have something with a low enrollment to really push it out to families to say, "Hey, look at here's this class. Here's the benefits, you know, it's right in your neighborhood. It's the cost, you know, and then um we'll see the increase." Right now, we're we're really util utilizing Instagram hopefully to increase our youth night, which is coming this um Friday. Um families sometimes wait till kind of the last minute, so it's just that extra push. Same thing with Monterey. We do that too to try to give the extra push of people to enroll. So, good question. Thank you. >> Um, okay. An early childhood update is next. Um, every year when we build our early childhood program, we consider our census data on our students, um, who's coming of age, the dates and times that we offered based on, um, elementary school times. There's lots of different pieces when we decide how to build the next school year. The thing that's difficult is um we have already built everything for next fall. We start that in September and October. So we're we have to do you know a little bit of guessing but a little bit of um some data information. So here's what we did for this past school year. Um in early childhood this last year we added a second section of Monday, Wednesday, Friday full day. And that was basically because it was parent driven. our Tuesday, Thursday full day class, we had like three enrollments, but we had a weight list of 20 people. So, we did a switch and said, "Okay, we're going to get those families off the wait list." Um, we moved that meant we had to move our mixtage. So, we moved a mixed stage over here at the DEC. Um, that was kind of hard for our families because they really do like to be at Wildwood because that's where their students are going. Um I I know one of the things I say on here is if we could have the ability to have another classroom, we would be able to fill it. It's a space issue for us, right? Um we did have to change the time of our baby's classes. Um tried to we used to have it in the morning, now we tried it in the late afternoon. Um this year now we changed it again because we're trying to navigate where's the best time. And the other big thing last year was we hired an early childhood um family educator teacher. We had that position open for two years. It's a really hard hard one to find. So, um we were happy about that. Uh last year we served 139 students in our preschool both in full day and our half day. And we served 63 children um in our ECF where the the caregiver comes with them. Um and those classes again are based and developed on the a we do based on their ages and stages. So we'll have a ones class, a tw's class, and then we have a class where they're just turning three, first time away from a parent. So, um the one thing that we are going to or that we changed last year that was a hit was we did a tiered registration. Um the year before we just opened it up and said anybody can register. Um and that might have backfired a little bit on us because there might have been some Monomidi families that didn't get in. So this last year um last January we did a tiered registration. Current families got to enroll first then it was any manamed family and then it went to our um out of district. So that really helped us. We had a lot of um Monomidi families that were able to get in. Um it doesn't mean that we don't have some out of district families but less than we have in the past. The other thing that was in early childhood is we um worked on letters last year. Our teachers went through the letters training because we wanted to be a part of the district's initiative on that. Our teachers spent 40 over 40 hours in that professional development. They collaborated with each other to look for the best hands-on ways to implement. And then now we're implementing that this year. And we also have the ability to have Judy Livingston do some coaching with our with our um staff and they're really enjoying that part, too. Thank you. Okay. And now we're going to go over uh facility improvements. I know that's something that sometimes people don't know that um community ed overseas. Um, one of our coordinators, Stephanie, who was just here, is design assigned to manage all those facility needs in partnership with Adam Gmenden. She oversees what needs maintenance, shuffles all the spaces around to maximize the use by school and associations, and she interfaces with all our coaches, um, our athletic director and those players. Uh, like you like you can read here, we partner with over 10 associations. We work collaboratively with 20 other additional groups such as, you know, HOA groups, cities, nonprofits. There's a bunch of logistics in there. Um, and what we do is along with the district, we um because we oversee facilities, we have the ability to do some costsaving with the expenses. So last year, excuse me, we helped um provide the outdoor lights at the at the rinks outside. We installed a gate in the storage room at the middle school so that we could have more space for our wrestling. We um provided two portable AEDs because we realized our associations don't have access to that. We installed new slats over the summer in our tennis courts like through the windscreens. We updated some um uh fax equipment for our classroom use also because we do a lot of cooking classes and things. And then we um just recently installed um oh new locks on doors at the in at the middle school in the conference room because it was a way for kids to get through to the main office and we had to kind of shut that down. Um so last but not least um community ed received an award at our conference in October. um Sammy Wallace, our secondary enrichment coordinator. I nominated her for um organizing and implementing that career internship and volunteer fair. And um we were chosen, sorry, [clears throat] I'm getting over a cold. I apologize. So Sammy was awarded that. Um it was a great um it was a great incentive for her. She was super, you know, happy and we were too just being recognized by our colleagues. Okay. And lastly, I'm going to let you chuck a peek at the sneak peek here. >> Can I just say and Sammy is a MameMidi grad. People didn't know that. So, it's great that she's now working in our district. >> Sammy is a Monidi grad and then Sammy worked for Mac for a number of years. So, um, she's been a great addition to our staff, too. She's been here just over a little bit over a year. So, she's a real go-getter and tries new things. So, we're excited. Um, so we here's some sneak peeks of some things coming up this year. Some of you already know we again this Friday we're having our um youth night. We've now going to do two a year instead of one. Um, we hired an uh early childhood outreach worker who can go out and find some of our atrisisk families and do some outreach um and assist them. We've obviously added more partner hosted events. We're going out into the community to provide things at different places um and and and work with those different entities. We've offered those more non-competitive um opportunities. Stephanie just recently was going to offer an open gym at the middle school. We didn't have great attendance um but we thought that maybe because the fall is so busy with so many other things, but we're going to continue to offer them to see if we can get people in. And then um some of the community um suggested events that we're going to be trying. We're doing a cornhole tournament this winter, another puzzle competition. Here's an exciting thing, a pet parade with a resource fair. We're going to do that this summer. And then um this spring, we'll do anything you guys suggest. Um we're going to do a bike rodeo for our younger riders to learn about bike safety. Um we're hoping to do that in May. We are also um Sammy is going to implement it's called um the page turner challenge. It's a summer middle school reading um experience um to encourage reading and comprehension. We're going to bring authors in to do visits and talk about their books. Um we also just recently did a VR field um trade class. It was a big semi that was out here teaching kids about um woodworking, a variety of different things. And then um the other thing we're going to try is we're going to offer a babysitting class um free of charge to families that live at Lincoln Place. Um so we want to try that. There's a lot of kids out there. So um you [clears throat] know, we're going to go out to the community and try to offer things instead of asking people to come to us. So that is all of our highlights from this coming um from this last school year and a little sneak peek. If you have any questions, I'd love to hear them or comments. Um, I'd just like to comment like all this is great. I think you're doing a fantastic job, but um, specifically with the preschool and the integration of the letters training preschool teachers. I [clears throat] don't I was trying to think of the right adjective to explain it, but I just think it's amazing that we're implementing our literacy philosophy to our three-year-olds that are hopefully going to be with us all the way until they graduate high school. I can't imagine there's many districts doing that. Um, and I don't expect anybody to know, but I just think that's amazing and awesome and um, like kudos to you and the team. That's really cool. >> Thank you, Ryan. I do think we have a really great partnership with our K team, too. They're really good about helping with that and the support of the district. I mean, we also implemented last year handwriting without tears, which Kay had done the year before. So if we can help jumpst start our students, we we want to be able to do that, right? So thank you. [clears throat] >> Handwriting. >> Handwriting without tears. So really for little kids, our three-year-olds, it's just trying to teach them the grasp instead of, you know, holding it like this or like this. And then as they get older, they're learning of where to start at the top of the page on down and then jump to the top to make an F. Yeah. So, lots of little key phrases and games that we do, but it's it's, you know, practicing what they're going to be doing when they move on to kindergarten. >> Another uh life skills is that pretty popular that >> Yes. Um I think one of my notes on here I I said um finance was a big thing for our secondary students, right? And so Sammy has really been working on um looking at different things. I know there's like a dollar and cents. There was a budgeting class. Um we Alice offered a class last year um about how to use a phone and call people cold call people and diff I mean just simple things but you know things maybe some of our students don't have experience with because they have an electronic device where they can text right. So we're working on doing some of that. That's one of the things, one of our goals this year is to see how we can maybe do some stuff in flex time. We haven't been able to do a lot of that, but um we we want to continue to do more. So, yeah. >> I was at a getting new tires this morning and someone walked in and said, "My low pressure my low tire pressure light is on." >> What do I do? >> I do. >> They should have been at our car care class. I mean, we'll do it again probably. >> Well, you know, I always think everything is great. I just we I we are very very lucky to have all the offerings that um make sure happen here. So, thank you. Thanks. Yeah, the team does a really great job. I'm very lucky. I really am. So, thank you all. Have a great night. >> Stacey. >> Yes. >> One quick thing before we move out of the recognition session. Um, obviously Veterans Day tomorrow. >> Yeah. >> Um, I just want to take a moment to share some appreciation, recognition u for all the veterans in our community and specifically those that are um, graduates and alumni of very much appreciated. It certainly doesn't go unnoticed. >> You was going to say it later um, in the board calendar, but tomorrow at 9:30 at O is the veterans program. Okay, now we'll get hear from our student representative, Matt Stenski. >> All right. Um, I'd just like to start with I've gone to many things with Sammy. Um, specifically with the referendum and that she's organized and we've come back and forth over phone and email and she's awesome and she always really connects with the kids whenever we're there volunteering. So, she makes it fun no matter what. So, she's awesome. Shout out to Sam. Um, speaking of the referendum, congratulations. >> Hey. Yeah. >> Um, but back into the community of Monamidi, I just find it awesome. There's been lots of community efforts and um, specifically with donations like the Zephr uh, service project and I'm a part of that. Um, come December, SLC will be at this building and we'll get wraps. So, it's awesome to see people bring all those gifts in because I know they support dozens of families, over 100 kids. That's a really good opportunity the emergency food drive um with benefits dwindling and other other things that are out of people's control and I think it's good to see that modern and all their team right in the word um so people find out about this and if you are able to help you can send in food donations and the less for appreciate that um a little more on the fun side the high school is turkey bingo and that's another event where um donations are super helpful kids have a great time that day So, we play bingo at the high school and winners are able to go down to the office and collect prizes. Um, I was also part of a National Honor Society um event called Tricker Can and we dropped off bags in the community. Um, not everyone got one, but we dropped off paper bags that were donated and they had little slips and it suggested um food items to put in the bag and you could deliver it to um St. Jude's or um we would come pick it up. So, we spent today picking those bags up and we'll get a we got a good amount of bags and St. J is very grateful for and the recognizing veterans. I saw that when I read the e-news there's multiple schools within the district that are doing things to recognize veterans. Um I know we have events in veterans park too where the band and stuff play and I think it's awesome because sometimes those people have forgotten um sports biggest one girls soccer state title congratulations. There's a lot of people at the games and it's um always fun to see classmates outside of school at the opportunity. I think the fan both days too that was really useful and it actually is attended and used so appreciate. Um school plays that are coming up. I'll be writing a Zephr Press article on Into the Woods. So I will be there. Um and I suggest other people go to I know Hercules as well at a lower level. Uh an SLC event coming up for parents is winter and you can drop off kids at as young as three years old. Um, and it goes all the way up to much older ages and we'll take care of your kids. >> That stands for parents night out. >> Parents night out. >> Okay. ENO. >> Okay. >> And I we have multiple a year. Um, one thing I was reading through the news and this is just a personal I thought it was cool is uh the hearing and vision screenings. I don't know if anyone knows more about it, but I just personally I was like this seems like that I wouldn't have ever expected or it's um could go easily forgotten. The hearing and vision if you're not a family, you don't have parents that maybe take you in for these medical screenings that it's awesome that Mai public schools could help you with your health um beyond just education. That's kind of I know I'll comment on the calendar come because that's still coming up on that but otherwise >> so thanks you pull up mine. Yeah. >> And are you can I drive? Is that okay if I It's just easier otherwise. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Maybe it's easier work. Oh, okay. So, if I try now. Ah, terrific. Thank you. Okay. Um, so just an overview around we're going to do uh some highlights around the district. Some of them you've already heard about. Um, but I'll I'll touch on them anyway. um some awards and noteworthy news and then upcoming events. So the big one a big thank you to our community uh for the approval of our two questions. Oops. Um question one uh for our for operating living question two. We very much appreciate at this um we had some so our our numbers um show show uh strong support from our community and so that that feels good and uh we very much appreciate the support and the support of community members who are out there um supporting us as well. So that's great news. Um, we I I will starting in December, I will give you start giving some updates at every board meeting in terms of where we are and what we're going to be doing next, kind of timelines and such. But at this point, um, just thank you and know we're already we've already started meeting and planning, but um, since it's just been a few days, my update would be very would be very uh, light. So, let's just wait till December. you heard about the Zephr service project. So, I'll just um I'll continue on, but know that this is going on throughout our schools. Every school has a part in this uh Zephr service project and and DECA is um really leading this and you got to hear a little bit about this tonight. And so, once again, um you heard about this from Matt just a minute ago. Um but the I'll I'll highlight the video there. You see our new Zephyr mascot costume there. And we um so it it uh I won't say who's in it, but the mascot got around to a few things uh this past week. And so there's a nice little video just highlighting the things that that we're collecting uh for donations for this emergency food drive. Um, so tomorrow, I don't know if anyone's able to make it to the AMSD RightWorks conference, but I did want to highlight that uh Dr. Riel and Lindsy Scandlin are going to represent MMEI schools at the conference um sharing um their the literacy work that's been happening here in the district. I'm also going to highlight uh in community ed that um Alice Soyford, our director of communications and Nory Ness, who you just heard about um did get the chance to present at the community ed um conference about the work that uh they're doing together here on behalf of our district. So, we have a couple different ways that our staff is getting out and talking about the work that MMI is doing. Yeah. So, here we go. So, yeah, Matt Matt hit a lot of these. So, we've got some state champions. Um there's a nice video on social media of the champions walk through the schools. always a highlight for both the students who are on the team and then the younger students get um our our volleyball team also made state and they ended up finishing sixth and um it was it was fun to that I know that they're a young team and it was fun that they made it to the state um competition uh and fun to watch them there. We also are still in the swim and dives uh season. The state meets coming up and we had a number of individuals who qualified for for state um this past weekend at the section tournament or section meet I should say. Upcoming events I did want to I was uh planning to point out Veterans Day across the district. Again, there are there are number every building has something going on, some kind of Veterans Day uh recognition and um and it's always like at Wildwood, if you haven't seen it, the veterans wall um which is really fun to see the students connections to someone in their family on the wall. Um as one example, um and then Into the Woods. I'm looking forward to this uh fall musical coming up and and seeing uh Matt Studinsk's uh review of it as apparently as well. So, uh those were the things in my update on to the board member calendar. Does anyone have anything they would like to call out from the calendar? It's a little bit shorter than normal because it's November and December which um you all know months are filled with holidays. So fewer weeks I don't see anything really >> November and December. Did you say Janu? >> November and December. >> November December Hey, I'll just ask the question if um I don't know if Leslie if everyone's told you whether or not they're going to attend uh the MSBA conference that comes up in January. Okay. So, if you're interested, make sure you connect with Leslie about um the conference. I think there are looks like doing that now. So, if you're interested in MSBA conference, please connect with Leslie. Okay, now we can move to action items. Approval of donations and grants be reported. Oh, no, we don't have that tonight. Those will be reported. Okay, we're moving on. Approval of resolutions canvasing return of votes of the school district special election and authorizing issuance of certificates of election and directing school district clerk to perform other election duties. A motion for the approval of the resolution. by director Donna, >> seconded by Director Domen. Any discussion? I think as uh Barb's already shared, we're very grateful to our district and our community for supporting us. Um we make the most of every dollar. We're very cognizant of um the fact that all of this money comes from our our residents for the most part because we don't have a lot of business base and um very appreciative that they agreed to um support us moving forward. Um this has to be a roll call I think because it's director. >> Hi. Hi. Stone. >> Hi, >> Dr. Peterson. >> I >> Okay. Now for approval of the 2026 2027 academic calendar. Uh do you want to give a brief description? >> Um sure. This we have >> we have Okay. So I'm going to just pull something open so I can remember dates. So, you have um heard about this calendar a couple of different times. Now, I'm uh August 25th and again on September 8th, we had conversation about it. Um we had community members who emailed you some feedback um based on the discussion you had at those meetings and um you asked the calendar committee to consider um some of those things as well in um and then come back with the proposal that is in front of you. Um uh I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about the conversations that so well let me just tell you so the the um calendar that you have in front of you does have an earlier start time or start date. Um the date uh if you remember when we first discussed the com the conversation was based on um it was about se starting on September 1st that was what was allowed in um through the legislature for this year this coming year this 26 27th school year. Um, we had the new one has it starting on uh August 31st and going through Thursday. So, it'll be up instead of starting on September 1st and going Tuesday through Friday, the first week. The new version starts us on August 31st and goes Monday through Thursday, leaving a long weekend for Labor Day. Um, one of the reasons that is able to happen now is because with the passage of the referendum, we will be doing construction projects that u would benefit from having that slightly earlier start time and it does allow us to have a little more flexibility because of the legislation is because of having enough um over $400,000 in construction projects. it does allow you to be more flexible with your schedule um your calendar. Um that's what other districts do. So, we did change it to just one day earlier in the proposal and that allows the um it doesn't change the end of the school year, but it does allow the long weekend. So, that's the one change since last time we talked. >> You want to talk a little bit about why the early start time was also talked about in terms of academics? Did you want that? >> Yes. So, I think the calendar committee, Ryan and I both served on that and um representation from every building was there as well as um in from administration and also from uh teachers and I think some of the biggest discussions centered around the academic calendar um because of where Labor Day falls and I've always said this in all the years that we've had a really late start for Labor Day. Um it just throws everything off and it throws it off in that following summer. Um but more importantly, it's um the academic calendar in terms of when when your semester hits and then when you start taking those um nationwide exams, we are much later than everyone across the country. And so you you start to see that as your kids get older, you you realize it. Um, I think our teachers feel the pressure because they know AP tests are coming up. They have, you know, it it's just that window of time is it it gets uh crunched really tight. I think one other thing to point out is that when you when you count up the weeks of summer, it actually keeps the number the same. So, I think people were worried that we were shortening the summer, but because Labor Day starts so late, it's actually keeping it the same as what the previous summer was. So, um, we're actually being more consistent with our calendar by doing this. I, um, do think it's important to note that it is just for this year and then, you know, the board can decide next year if they, if they like it or not. And, um, and then I don't think it would even be an option the years after that because and Labor Day goes back to being earlier in the month. So the things I wanted to kind of highlight with with the summer, so 2026 um with this with this earlier start, we would have the summer of 2026 would be the same number of weeks as the standard summer. That doesn't change. Um because we are ending our school year this school year a little bit earlier. um it ends up being about it ends up being the same number of weeks. The other thing to consider is the summer of 2027. So, we have some big construction projects um some of which will be in that summer of 2027. um we won't be able to summer of 2026 won't see the big the big construction starting because of the lead time that require that's required of that but summer of 2027 we will see some of the bigger projects the more disruptive projects I'll call them um and so there is the possibility with this plan with ending on June 4th 2027 ending the school year or June 3rd Sorry, let me just look. Nope. June 4th, 2027. Um, if in 2027, keep we kept uh Labor Day, we kept the start after Labor Day, we actually make our summer of 2027 longer, which might facilitate some of the projects. I just don't know yet. It gives us that flexibility to potentially facilitate a longer summer for project. So those are all the updates that we have since the last time we talked about this. So the calendar committee was just hyperfocused on the few hundred AP kids but not the >> I would say the majority of our >> So it was high school focus >> the thousand >> that was one topic that came up >> okay that keeps coming up is >> yeah that's probably because I have high school kids and so I recognize it but I do want to point out the majority of I don't that. >> Yeah, the elementary I mean the elementary teachers also agreed um that uh the end of the school year um it can yeah it it's just it when it's long when we go longer they have they also have end of the year tests there are a lot of end of the year exams that happened at the elementary as well. So that was part of the conversation for elementary and it was also um yeah it was the end of the school year having it go until what would it go until the 10th I think if we did not do it this way >> or 10th or the 12th or the 11th >> that's a Saturday. Well, regardless if it was if it went an extra week, um that would also be a challenge in terms of how long how how school is at the end of the school year. >> And I apologize because I just have a general comment. Um I I think and I hope I've been pretty transparent that I could see an argument made either direction on this. Um I get the merits of both sides. I would like to call out that the majority the overwhelming majority of people in the community that I've heard from um have really advised against voting for the calendar change. And the main reason is it's disruptive to their family activities. That could be a myriad of things. It could be a vacation. It could be activities. It could be a job. Um and um I I guess I just want to call out the fact that the overwhelming majority that I have heard from which is not representative of the community, it's a very small portion of the community, um has asked the calendar to remain the same. Um and so personally I'll be voting you know the student perspective there's one thing that I don't think has been mentioned it could be on your radar or couldn't but the state fair is a huge employment thing for high schoolers um I know lots of friends lots of other members of the high school that work so um I know the labor weekend is still long but a lot of times they take fair gigs if you don't work 10 to 12 they don't want to. So it is something that >> before you were on we did talk about that. So thanks for bringing it up again. A lot of money lost. I will say >> evening is still because they are openly >> yes especially those first few days. Okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the 2026 2027 calendar? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. Oh, I'm sorry. Any other discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Those opposed? >> No. >> Okay. >> Roll call, please. >> Uh, Director Dan. >> Dr. Donna. Hi. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. School board committee reports. >> Um, unfortunately I was not able to attend the MSD board meeting last Friday. I think Superintendent was. >> I was there. Uh, we did have two guest speakers, Representative Nathan Coulter and Representative Andrew Meyers to give their take on the upcoming session. Um, I don't know that I have anything uh to report necessarily there, but I would recommend taking a look at um the packet they did have. We also heard um from Chris Ammonson and Lori Griven who talked about uh legislative advocacy. They did a legislative advocacy presentation, how it could how we um can make the most impact. So it's it's worthwhile and it'll be something that maybe we want to look at at some point um depending on what kind of things we want to talk about as board. So that I'd say that those are the highlights. >> And then do we have a report? >> Oh, I did I did not remember that I would be doing my report. So give me a second and I will >> if you could come back to me, I'll look up that part. Um, MSBA would like, if you keep getting in your inbox, try not to keep deleting it, um, survey that ends in December, they want school board members to please answer how they can help with unfunded mandates, how they can help repeal a bunch of mandates. So, just be very honest. It's short, but it's very specific. Um, they rank how important it is to your district um what's financially killing you. And so you can answer one through five, but then there's also a place to add in your own comments. So again, I ignored it for a couple weeks and I finally did it and it would I think if they take what they get from us, pass that. >> Maybe if you have a voice there, a uh comment would be if they didn't send so many emails, maybe they wouldn't all be ignored. >> I will see that is perfect. And that segus into Thank you. Next Tuesday at noon is the statewide Zoom. And I will bring that up, but they send too many emails. And what else did I have? Um on the Zoom last Tuesday, people it was just um how's your cell phone policy working two months into school? And um people a lot of schools are getting quarterly reports and oh um I wanted to bring this up. Have we ever met with when the student council meets ever had a board rep? I thought that was interesting. A lot of schools have a board member sit in on a student council meeting once in a while. >> Sounds interesting. >> For schools on Wednesday for school >> once a month, once a week. uh usually weekly, but sometimes if there's not a lot of events happening, they won't have it. Um it would be usually 710 7. [laughter] >> Depends where you sit. Sit right next to my two daughters that are part of it. >> Drew question. >> I think it I think you can show up. I don't think it would be a problem. uh Miss Duffren who works in the office of high school. >> It's that uh they both are >> DEC Thank you. >> Um you'd um just off the cuff, I think you'd want to think about your purpose um and how you might want to have maybe a little more conversation about what what you want to do. Um, and that way, uh, Miss Decker could talk to the student council about what that could look like so that she could. So, if you want to think about what it is you'd want to do by stopping by, I'm sure she could >> you could talk it over with everybody as there's a lot of times when we have like around homecoming when we're doing a lot more productive meetings and they're actually um interesting topics that are significant for the school and sometimes like we plan for >> Yeah. So Matt, I think you said that you're doing your report to the student council this week, right? >> So we had our meeting last Wednesday before school and presidents came to me and said, "Would you mind start giving um just short little presentations to the council?" >> Okay. So when's the next council? >> Okay. So maybe you could just bring it up as part of your presentation that this idea was kicked around and what people ask people what they think or what would make most sense. >> Okay. >> Ask our support there's support of the school. >> Here's the direct quote from another school district. It says we've started to meet with our student council to check in and get feedback. >> Do the other schools have something similar. Does the middle school have a council or >> They do. They do. So, I Yeah. Um I wonder if I'm going to offer a different idea. Um so, I have that uh that student cabinet would it maybe make that uh Matt is a part of and I just wonder if that might be a group that you could naturally um come and talk to. I don't know you. What would you >> I agree that that's maybe a better idea just because SLC works on like um what color should the ribbon be at the dance more [laughter] than the cabinet works on >> it might be and then we could do it or we could do it that way. So cabinet meets this week and is going to be talking about um just they've come up with the ideas of ways they want to affect you know some change or what they want to impact. they're going to narrow their ideas down. Um, and then that would be a natural place for based on based on the topics or you could that's true too, but we could have we could maybe we could talk about it offline, but the idea of you being able to meet with students is kind of where you're going with this. So, but if you ask student council to take that idea Okay. And then I shared the Northeast Metro board notes back to you. >> Yes. I think the um we have not May has not met since our la your last report um because this meeting >> the fall fund drive is happening but yeah you know Kelly gave her report just a couple weeks ago. So >> are there any other reports? Yeah, the next um occurrence of the Minnesota State High School League uh subcommittee check, but anyway um is tomorrow. So, I'm I'm hopeful, although not optimistic that we'll get an update on some of the policy updates that we've requested in the past. But, uh I was just going to say that if anybody here has any questions or anything that you want me to address in the meeting tomorrow, please let me know ahead of it at 10:30 tomorrow. >> I ask a question. I know at one point we had talked about should we um when we had that meeting is there something we want to some part of the bylaws that we want to influence um I don't know if that's still a conversation we want to have just because we felt like there were some things that maybe were unclear right I mean in terms of what is the the >> what is the state >> the state high school league's responsibility is the school district responsibility on some things that happened for us that spell but that was a while ago we talked about that >> um maybe we can have a discussion about it develop a point of view I don't feel the any other summarizing the advanced academics meeting last week um with Dr. Michael and Marget that they really started the meeting with a good point for the whole school district to understand that yes we have a group of kids identified needing extra curriculum and more but we are always offering a rigor rigorous curriculum here. And just at I mean there's accelerated math from fourth 12th grade. There's math enrichments before you're identified as gifted and talented. They're already doing math um at Wildwood K2. They're pulling those kids out for higher math. Um literary extensions for the strong readers and that's not even in the gifted and talented program. That's taking kids who need more and we're giving it to them. And then all the stuff Kate talked about too and Sammy is stuff we're offering after school. If that just sparks an interest in in math or science and then that just jump starts your academic career right there and you just all of a sudden are interested in something new. The theme of the night was called failure. Um and I had never heard this phrase before and I think it's brilliant. Offering kids low stakes failure when they're younger. Um let them fail. Don't fix every math problem. Don't tell them the science how to make their science project. let them fail little things now before they get to the science fair and the whole thing collapsed and failed but failed along the way and I use that where I work too but I had never heard the phrase you failure and that's really resonating and that's the theme of the second >> by director. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> We are. >> There's something you all have to sign, right?