I'd like to call this meeting to order. Good evening. It's uh this is Independent School District 8:32. It is a regular meeting for the Modamei School District. It is Monday, April 28th, 2025, and it's 7 o'clock p.m. Uh, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call of attendance, please. Done. Thank you. Approval of the agenda. So moved. Moved by director Rean. Second. Seconded by Director Domen. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Approval of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? So moved. Moved by Director Donna. Second. Seconded by Director Rean. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I those opposed motion carries. All right. Presentations and recognition. We will have the community education staff recognition. Welcome. Good evening. Um I am Sammy Wallace um from Moda Community Education. Um, most of you know Alice um from her work as the director of comm communications for the Mamemidai public school district. I am also lucky to know her with another of her passions as Zephr cooking club instructor. Alice has been the Zephr cooking club instructor with Mameidi Community Education for four years now. She has offered over 50 programs for 153 middle school students. Alice is also a member of our community education advisory council. She goes above and beyond for her community and I'm honored to be recognizing her contributions today. Alice fosters relationship building, teamwork, and communication with her Zephr cooking club and high school mentorship program. During the 2425 school year, 26 Mamedai High School students participated in mentoring her cooking club students. Alice honors student interest, learning learner agency by adapting instruction to student suggestions, feedback, and current passions. She creates an inclusive environment open to all students who want to join. She teaches real life academic concepts such as measuring, reading aloud, food safety, and cooking skills. In her efforts to offer diverse opportunities, Alice has led cooking club field trips to the Indigenous Food Lab, Feed My Starving Children, and the Moda Area Food Shelf, and more. These are just some of the hundreds of positive comments from students and families about Alice. I'd like to highlight the one in the top right from a current 24-25 parent um of a cooking club student this year. Says, "Thank you, Alice, for making this club such a fabulous experience. These are skills for life and you've created a safe and fun environment to learn and grow in. This is just one example of the positive impact Alice has had through cooking club. On behalf of Mamedai Community Education and the Mamedai Public School District, I'd like to thank you for your commitment, dedication, and impact. Thank you. [Applause] There we are. Hi, I'm Stephanie Graph, athletics and facilities coordinator for community education. And it's a pleasure to introduce you to Dustin Schulty, a dedicated and passionate coach who loves to promote the sport of wrestling, which he has participated in since the age of five. Dustin has been an integral part of developing our middle school wrestling program, which completed their fourth season this year. He also leads our youth wrestling program. Dustin continues to increase his role in community education currently by teaching little ninjas program for 18-month-old to 5-year-olds. And this class focused on basic skills like jumping, rolling, and balancing through fun activities. The program he has developed is extremely popular popular and enrollment is always full. Why he does what he does? Dustin just loves seeing our students succeed and he focuses on positivity, giving students specific feedback to help them grow. And I'd just like to highlight the number of students that he has helped grow over the years. Uh the middle school wrestling team um has had 52 students over the last four years. The youth program has had 189 um as far as our computer went back since fall of 21. and um with a new little ninja's program just since last fall, a hundred students. Our families have amazing things to say about Dustin and his programs. There's a few on the screen if you want to check those out. We just want to say thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm that you show our athletes regularly. Our programs thrive only because of coaches like you. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Jamie O'Hara and I'm the MAC and um youth enrichment coordinator for Manmay Community Education. I'm honored to recognize Marshall Sankler for her 28 years of service in the Manmay District supporting our students, staff, and families. She has held many roles within our district and currently starts her day at Morning Mack before heading to the office as the OA school nurse. Marca is well respected by students, staff, and families. Her positive attitude, outstanding dedication, and commitment to caring for the young minds has created a wonderful environment for our Zephr community. The MAC students love having Marca at MAC, especially in the gym. A few of her best qualities include her kindness, patience, and sense of humor. Thank you, Marca, for all you've done and continue to do for 832. [Applause] One more. Yeah, I think before we take a photo, I think we would like to just um acknowledge each of you and if all of you could come back up because we're going to get your photo. Um, I I also I obviously I think um what each person has said about you really um sums it up, but we really appreciate the the um commitment and what you've given to our district. It's it's amazing to see that um how this program has really thrived and just want to say thank you so much. Does anyone else want to Yes. Director Eane? Um I just wanted to say yes and everything that's been said and having a couple kids that have already graduated from Advidai um schools and one soon to graduate and one in high school, you have impacted all of them, every one of you to some capacity. And so um from them being younger and needing to go to the health office to um all sorts of time at MAC because I'm a working mom. And so thank you for that to Alice introducing my son to um cooking club who he now said that that's what he wants to go into culinary post high school. So um so thank you even though I know that he probably was a pain at times to have in cooking club. So thank you. And Dustin, you even tried uh with one of my sons to get him involved I believe in in middle school wrestling. I could not get them to wrestle. I thought they wrestle at home all the time. They should be really good at it. Um, thank you so much all of you and all the different ways that you've uh impacted students across the district. All right. And I think [Applause] [Music] my guy. Hold on a second. [Music] I wish I could grow, but I can't. Okay. What are you doing? have a six-year-old. Thank you. Amen. [Music] Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we will continue on now with our student rep report. Max, no, I think we can go ahead. All right. Well, we'll make it a good one since it's the second to last report here. I know. on student council. Right now, what we're doing, well, I guess we just had our parents night out during the May Gayla, which was as fun as usual. And right now, we're planning for prom where the theme will be the golden age of Hollywood. It'll be on the boat again this year in Still Water. And also something student council is doing right now is every other week we're sending a couple high schoolers over to O Anderson. No, we're sending them to Wildwood to go play with the kids at recess. I even got sent over there. It was super fun. hung out for three recesses, played with the kindergarteners. I I did make the mistake of sitting on the ground. I got dogpiled by about 30 of them. That that wasn't too great, but uh it was fun alto together. We also had the celebration of excellence for the top 10% of the class where I got to see some of you at. So, thank you all for coming if you were there at Wildwood. Right now, the kindergarteners just successfully hatched eight Easter egg chicks where the eggs were actually from chicks that they hatched last year. Kind of keeping the cycle. At OA, the MAF pennies for Playgrounds fundraiser raised over $5,000 between them and Wildwood. Now, at the middle school, Daniel Baravski was named the MHS 2025 Rotary Academic Achiever for his high level classes and involvement in multiple clubs, which is really impressive. And actually at the middle school, the eighth graders just got back yesterday from their Washington DC trip where they left on Wednesday. So that's a fun thing to see them go to every year. And they're actually planning a trip next year to New York for 2026. And keeping kind on the same topic, other than my my new haircut, which some of you saw two weeks ago, I I also I committed to college at New York University. Hey. Hey. Was going to ask. I'm most likely major in business and technology at the engineering school, which is a fun major, and then probably minor in finance at Stern. Excellent. Congratulations. Thank you. Well, we only have one more uh meeting with Max. Next meeting is our last meeting. And Max, just let you know, in New York it's called finance. Correctly. It's finance. We'll keep that in mind. Great. All right. Thank you. All right. Now for our superintendent report. Okay. As always, just things around the district and some uh noteworthy news and upcoming events. So I have a few slides here about um some career oriented events that we have had for students. First, the middle school career day. I know a number of you have had a chance to stop by at one of these either last year or this year. It was another successful career day with alumni, family, and community members coming to talk about their careers with middle school students. And um it I'll it's always successful. Students are always engaged and they're um the counselors also do a very good job setting the speakers up for success to know how to talk to middle school students. So that um it's a really it's a a very well done event. Uh a number of you also attended the passages reverse job fair that happens every year where our passages students have an opportunity to talk about their um so they talk about their their career interests and their strengths and their needs in a in a um career area just their experiences. And so it's always great to to hear the students and I know a couple of us talked about just the progress from one year to the next of how students can t can talk to adults in this program. So it's a very impressive event. We also had our first career internship and volunteer fair and um a number of the community um coordinators who just walked out were responsible for getting this off the ground. So it was um it was great. students got a chance to get some feedback on um their resumes. They got to just interview te interview various people about their careers. Um and it was we had it looks like 25 volunteers that reviewed the resumeumés. We had 400 students just attend the event and there was just a lot of networking. Um I told the story a couple of times that I had some students walk up to me and say, "Do you know of any is there anyone here who has a law background?" And I said, "Well, it just so happens our board chair is coming in a little bit if you just hang around." So, they just kind of they did they hung around and watched until she walked in the door and then they made a beline to interview you about your career choice. Very fun. Yeah. So, it was a great event. So, this I'm excited about this this play and our director of uh this community theater musical. This is the first time that we've we've done this and uh Dennis Joselyn is our who's in the back there is going to be our um director and it's the 25th annual Putnham County Spelling Bee. Our high school students did this I think the first year I was here and it's just such a fun um it's just such a fun play and I a production and I hope that uh our community will join. So when we had our meetings on Thursday nights, I did not get to go to this event very often. I I missed it frequently. And it's our the White Bear Center for the Arts vision and verse exhibit. And they've combined their their awards ceremony for their writing competition with the visual arts competition. And we had quite a few award winners. And so you can see those award winners up there, including best of show for both the visual arts and the writing came from Madame. So congratulations to these students. And even if they weren't listed here as an award winner, it's still just an amazing event. And the show is still up. You can go you can go see the artwork, you can read the writing, you can listen to the writing, too. They have a they have one exhibit where you sit in a chair and you get to hear um the students reading their their writing. So, I would encourage you to stop over to the White Bear Center of the Arts to see our students work. We also had a number of student athletes who um had a recognition ceremony regarding their commitments to their quote their colleges for next year. And so, you can see those students there. Congratulations to all of those students. And we have talked quite a few times about our DECA program, our new DECA program, and the experiences our students are having. And so it may be no surprise to you that our adviser, Annie Doll, just won the outstanding DECA advisor award. So congratulations to Annie Doll. Kylie Malvi was named our Athena Award winner uh for the class of 2025 and she was able to be recognized at the at an award ceremony and dinner for the Athena Award. So congratulations to Kylie. We have a number of upcoming events. I will point out a couple to you. food truck Friday because we always love to talk about food truck Friday, but also we have two more nights for the Bright Star the musical and I would really encourage you to make it out. I heard great things about it. It it it uh opened this weekend and we have two more shows coming up uh at the end of the week and so that's what I have reading that right. It's just the play is just for high school high schoolers. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Um I forgot one other thing I wanted to highlight is um we did have a boardwalk. Our Wildwood boardwalk had been rescheduled and so we just had it recently and director Donna and Director Witson were able to attend um and visit Wildwood and look at kind of literacy and action across the grade. So, I don't know um if you have some comments from that boardwalk. Um yeah, Madam Chair. Um it was phenomenal. Um the takeaway for me for me was I mean we we visited a kindergarten, a first grade and a second grade classroom and uh observed the lesson taking place and essentially um we're creating a foundation for critical thinking starting at kindergarten. And it was incredible to watch how these kids uh what struck me was just the enormous engagement taking place throughout the lesson. Um from talking to their classmates or elbow partners, what they were called, um to asking questions. It was just it was tremendous. I I thought it was great. Yeah, I'd like to echo what what uh Paul said as well. um to see the um the the students and hear sort of hear from the principal talk about as these students have come from class to class as they move up they sort of begin to sort of integrate that process into um their thinking and into the questions and I forget the phrase it was it was something and wonder what was notice and wonder notice and wonder right they say we rolled this out it was it was even they started to do notice and wonder of things that just everywhere around them it wasn't just in their class lectures and so as the as the teachers and the students have been progressing in development of the content and the process. Um, it's been I think it's going to be wonderful to see the results of that sort of percolating up through the rest of the rest of the grades. Great. Great. All right. Good report. Thank you. Okay. Uh, board member calendar. Thank you. Does anyone have anything they'd like to call out? Yes, Director Peterson. Oh, yes. Oh, question please. Um, Passages graduation's been in the Shiitaka before. This year it's in Is it in their little room? Yes. I think they only have two students graduating this year, so it's a much smaller. Thank you. Yep. And you'll see it's not in the evening this time. So, um, let's see. Anything else? We've got our graduation. Got that marked, Max. Um, okay. I don't see anything else to call out. We're getting near the end of the year. Got one more Zephr learning showcase on the on May 2 sec May 12th, which I love those. Oh, and community lunch coming up and May 7th. Anything else anybody wants to follow up? Okay. All right. And now we'll have Kate Anderson come forward to talk about community education facility use fees. Good evening. Good evening. I am Kate Anderson, the community ed director, and I am here to propose uh in your board packet, there was a document to talk about the proposal for us to increase our facility fees. Um, as you know, we have lots of fields and athletic areas, uh, classrooms, all of those things that the community can rent. And so we are proposing to increase all class three, four, and five by a dollar. Um we are also within the um the facility use fee agreement, you'll see we did add a couple of different things. So I wanted to highlight those. Uh in the last several years, we've had requests to utilize the parking lots um sometimes for shuttling to wedding venues that are by. So we have added that. We also added um this last uh winter we did a little bit of a dig a deep dive into um tournament costs of like materials and amenities that we have. So like toilet paper, paper towels and things like that. And a typical tournament fee for an association is 450 for the weekend. But those amenities are actually more than what um we were charging. So, uh, we decided that we were going to do a $450 per building, uh, charge on that. Uh, this LA, I think it was last week, we did meet with the athletic council, which is which, uh, makes up a director from every single one of our associations and we did share with them that we were proposing this to the school board. Um, and unanimously they were like, "Yes, we this would be great." Um, they do have been really wonderful partners with us. They do um provide extra assistance for us when something needs to be done. Uh the soccer association will help with some of the soding and some aravating. Football has done some donating. Um the last time I came, I think was last year and I talked about how the baseball association had um helped with about over $65,000 worth of um money towards some of our renovations. So, um, overall, I just wanted you to take a look at this, uh, have an opportunity to ask me questions so that hopefully next time we can take a vote and see if this is something the board would agree to. Great. Any questions? Director Donna. Um, thanks for providing this, Kate. Um, two questions for you. So, for instance, the varsity baseball field, who does that get rented out to? doesn't, but we are working on that. And do we get requests for it? We do. And why haven't we ever have we rented it out before? We have never rented it out under my watch. Um, but we do have we have talked about this coming year that we are going to um talk with the association director and Adam Gmendon um who is our facility and grounds maintenance supervisor. uh manager and um for a tournament. So like if baseball had the association has a tournament, we would maybe have them do the championship game on there and type of thing. We have had another entity and I can't remember exactly who it was, but that wanted to come in and use that, but at the time um we were told no. So we are looking at at possibly doing that now. So, I I yeah, I I I think it's an asset that is underutilized and I think Yeah, I think it's great that we're going to be we're considering that. I appreciate you bringing that up because it is something I know when we did our facility um what was that called Barb that we did our facility and we had all the people thank you the task force um that question was brought up you know that are we not using that field there's a lot of um expensive things on that field so we just want to make sure that we're you know have the appropriate um setup of the field and and following up getting it ready for the next day if it needs to be used. Yeah. No, I think it's a great then just on the parking lot. So, does that cover like when someone's selling their boat and they put it in the parking lot? No, it does not. Are you wanting to use it for a boat selling? No, we're on a commission instead. It's we we have um we do have hockey teams that like to you know they don't rent it but they do have to permit the space to let us know and basically it's permitting it so that we know should we're doing should we be doing construction or plowing things like that that they have to be in a certain area but thank you. Yes, director Peterson. So, the fund fair coming up at Wildwood. So, then does the PTO pay for each classroom that has an event in it? Do they pay the cafeteria? That's where you sell tickets. And then do they pay for the gym because that's where the games are? The PTO is a separate entity that doesn't have charges based on that because you are a class two. And a class two is this is only for three, four, and fives. They're exempt. Okay. Would you like to contribute that Jenny the PTR? No, I was just trying to get examples of of No, they're not an association. Correct. Certain groups do not um they partner with us, right? And so we are exempt for things. MAFE does exempt things and yeah, good question. Any others? Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, now for our quarterly financial update from our financial director, Tim Ericson. Good evening. Good evening. So, this is our quarterly financial update that we uh that we provide you on a quarterly basis. Of course, that's I guess that makes sense, right? Um overall, we're right on track. you'll see some variances and I'll just cover really the variances here and not get into some of the other stuff that's pretty self-explanatory. So, I'm going to start with federal revenue under the revenue categories. So, you can see the actuals for 2023 2024 and then the revised budget. And of course, that's that uh the pandemic relief funding that drops off. So, our last year of that was in 2024. So, it drops down to that 778,000. And we're we've collected on federal revenues which includes special education, title funding, that type of thing. Uh we've collected about 43% at this point this year. But that is a there's a bit of a reimbursement lag. There's timing differences with that because everything we spend we have to put in an application and receive a reimbursement after we spend those dollars. So in this case, um we did have a reimbursement request that uh was going out for about 133,000. So that actually if we included that in here, that would bring us to about a 60% uh portion of the budget received on that. So um the next one is if we look at property taxes, we've got uh we're a little higher on our fiscal disparities than what we projected. And so that's good news. That helps offset our total property tax levy. And then under uh local fees and interest uh those are mainly investment earnings that are driving that. Uh at the end of the year that won't show quite as high though because at the end of the year we're going to require to do an accounting entry and spread that uh interest revenue to other funds such as debt service and that type of thing. Any questions on the on the revenue side of things? Okay. All right. I'll keep going on onto expenditures. Um, you know, of course, our big one, uh, salaries and wages. Uh, that's tracking right where it should be. Uh, really really the same with employee benefits. That's tracking well. Um, of course, some of our expense there is a state supported unemployment expense. So, uh, that drives some of that. Uh, moving down to purchase services. Um, that's a that that's really not higher than where it was last year. However, it pushes Uh the push we have there is just a timing of a invoice that we received from another district. Uh that was that usually falls that bill falls in the in comes in the fall and this time we didn't get it until uh the spring here until April. Uh we had some governmental accounting standards board changes uh for how we account for lease payments and uh we had to reclass some things. a department of education, Minnesota Department of Education uh usually has changes in their with what we call the UFARS code. That's the account account coding that uh all districts are required to use. So there's some uh natural changes that occur every year with that. And then we've got under the uh supplies. So uh some additional or tech equipment lease payments and a large textbook purchase for this year. Um, if you compare that to last year, uh, actually I'm going to jump down to the equipment and other expenses. Uh, if you compare that line to last year, what was driving that, uh, in 2024 was the long-term facility maintenance payment for, uh, the field turf. So this year, of course, we didn't have that. So those expenses those expenses are down a little bit. And then if you look at that very bottom bar underneath there, the revenue over or under expenditures, of course, we've got a deficit budget and that was planned. So that's 2,86 currently. So that's that's on track. Uh we'll we'll probably be in that range by the time we close out the year. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You okay, now on to action items. Can I get a motion for the approval of the donations and grants for March 2025 totaling $9,528.79? So moved by Director Domen. Second. Seconded by Director Donna. Any discussion? As always, all donations and grants are greatly appreciated. The use of these funds will be to further the mission of the school district and are used towards the wishes of the donor. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. All right. Now, the facilities project scope. Okay. Um so I have a presentation for you that is represents all things that we've talked about many times. Uh but for for the uh those who are watching from home I thought I should go through all of this. So um just as an overview we've been spent the past two years conducting research meeting with stakeholders reviewing options regarding a facilities bond and facilities projects. And so today we're asking you to take action on the scope of these facilities projects that we've been discussing. So just some background just as a reminder back in 2021 you might recall that we did do a comprehensive facilities audit through site logic to inform our long-term facilities maintenance plan and we we had um many of our mechanical systems beyond life expectancy. And so we use that as part of our long-term facilities maintenance, recognizing that we couldn't um we couldn't address all of those systems through our LTFM dollars, but trying to make a plan to be able to address all those issues. 2023, we engaged high facility users in a process to provide feedback on our facilities and then with an understanding of the tax impact of these projects, we asked them for some priorities. So they helped they helped us go through um over the course of a number of meetings helped us go through our our needs and um and really help us try and try and give us some feedback on priorities. You um also know that we've done a couple of different resident surveys to understand the community tax tolerance and support for facility improvement projects as well. We did those in 2024 and again in 2025. Also, um in the winter of 2025, the district performed a feasibility study to just get um the impunity the community interest and um in philanthropy around this and and could we do a public private partnership on some of these projects. So, we've looked into a number a number of different ways to get feedback to help inform the board's decision. So this proposal um the project scope proposal really um the package that we're putting forward to you honors the input of that facilities task force. You also went through a process of giving us a guiding change parameters in terms of what you wanted to see from this process and we looked at the resident survey about tax tolerance as well. And so this proposal includes facility improvements that benefit safety and security, academics, performing arts, and athletics. Um so tonight, this this board action um would authorize the district to proceed with preparations for a special election in November related to facilities improvement. And the amount that we're putting forward to you tonight is approximately 28 million. Just some details again about the components. Uh looking at Mildidai Middle School safety and security improvements including that front entrance, the vestibule, making that a secure entrance. Mamedi High School safety and security improvements including hallway circulation remodel looking at that um commons area and um in the cafeteria. Mameda High School critical mechanical system improvement in particular. talking about our HVAC system at the high school, addressing needs there. Safety and security improvements to all of our schools, including Wildwood, O Anderson, and the district education center. Based on what the needs are, there would be fac there would be security improvements throughout our district. Also looking at the we're calling it the innovation zone right now, but Mamedia High School innovation zone, that academic collaborative space where our underused locker bay exists. the Shiitaka Fine Arts Center improving the seating and also disability access to the stage. Mabidai High School choir and band classroom improvements in particular looking at the band those built-in risers that are not ADA compliant and also doing some uh acoustical improvements in there. Uh looking at athletic field one, putting in turf and lights that turf would be a multi-use turf. So, it would be different um a little bit different and wider than um our turf that we have in our um stadium because it would be able to be used by multiple sports in the way it would be um configured there. And then also the high school weight room addition um and remodel there as well. So those are the um the big picture items of this facilities improvement uh the project scope. I also want to just highlight that we've also talked um extensively about this being kind of the first part of a multi- multi-year plan. Uh we're we call the next one phase two for any fact lack of a better term and really looking at partnerships with local municipalities and private donors. Um so with those partnerships helping us to plan for that phase two. Um we would be looking at it in the future so we could consider timing of future bonds to minimize tax impact. Also address the educational facility needs at O Anderson. address the community and high school activity needs at the MMEI high school campus. That was something that came through loud and clear in our facilities task force just looking at improving those those facilities uh for community and high school activity needs and also we need to address our aging infrastructure over time. These are community assets, our buildings, our facilities and so we need to be considering considering what we can do um as we go. I've listed some of the things we've talked about. I put an asterisk next to them because um there has not been these are the the um I'd say the big ideas that have come forward as as we've talked about what phase two might look like but we have not that's that will be in the future and it really ba be based a lot on our partnerships and our our future uh look at what those needs are. Um, and so the next steps, uh, um, if you approve this scope tonight, then we'll submit this proposal to the Minnesota Department of Education for review and comment and start preparations for a special election. Um and and we will also be able to start informing the community um of this of this plan so that we can um again look for partnerships in this project and just be able to communicate with our community about what the plans are. And so again, none of this is a surprise to any of you here at the table given that we've been talking about this for as long as we have, but I just wanted to go through that once again. And so what we're looking for today is uh an approval of this facilities project scope as presented here. All right. Are there any questions for Barb or comments? I'd like to say thank you. I also want to thank everyone who contributed. I'm looking at our friends in the audience. Um I really appreciate all the work that's gone into this. I also want to thank all my fellow board members. We've put a lot of time in this, a lot of extra study sessions. I really appreciate um everyone's input. I think uh we had one meeting where uh there were two people absent and I I could feel the difference and what I came away with was knowing how every single one of you um has an important role in our board and um the lens that you bring to uh the way we look at these big decisions we have to make um really I think makes us a strong board. I think we have a really um great uh advantage in in having each of us as part of this team. And I really want to thank you, Barb, for all this um that you've put up with us and all of our back and forth and our questions. Um, I do plan to support this and um hope that it's the beginning of a very exciting um uh future of what's what's in store for Mameidi. Director Gilman. Yeah, I just like to make a comment because to your point Stacey, there's been a lot of back and forth and a lot of work put in not only by the board but by the community. the community has been very transparent with what what they would like to see and what direction they'd like us to move in from a leadership perspective. Um so I just want to share that I'm supportive of this because it's part of a bigger vision. I think if this was all we were focused on doing, I probably wouldn't feel the same way. But um we've really taken that community feedback and you know I can see how we can align that back to our strategic plan which is really the guiding document that I think all of us are are working from because we're you know obviously addressing safety and security which we all believe is extremely important. Um, I think we're being responsible stewards of the community's um, investment in the school district by addressing some of the aging mechanical systems that if we don't address them now could, you know, ultimately be far more costly down the line. Um, and we're really, you know, meeting the the the needs of our diverse student population by addressing a handful of different items. It's not just focused in one area, right? So, um, again, just want to share my support for this because of the fact that it's aligning with strategic plan, but it's also part of a bigger kind of bolder vision for our our school district. So, the last comment I would make is that I really urge the community, anybody that's out there paying attention uh tonight to um come to us with creative ideas, help us with ways to work on private partnerships to do some really innovative things for our um students and and help us come together with your, you know, individual civic leaders to figure out new and unique ways to uh partner with our communities that make up our district. Director D. I'll um well said um Ryan and just just to underscore I mean we've been working we the community the board and our partners here have been working on this since 2021 right so um and I think we've done I think the um the list of items that we're going to hopefully address is has been distilled from a very long list of of needs. And of course, we can't do it all, but I think we've done a really good job of distilling down to what we what's really needed today um versus what we can look at and maybe wait for a couple years and and build partnerships and tackle those down the road. I mean, even, you know, we some some folks we might look at, oh, there's turf for a field in there. Some could argue that that's a safety issue. Uh knowing all the kids who play on those fields when there's glass and everything else that that is on that field. Irrigation issues um that only make it worse. I mean, and even the uh the weight room fitness center um kind of remodel slightly little bit of an expansion that's woefully inadequate for the facilities and the activities that we have going on at this school. So, I think we've done a really good job distilling down that list, taking all that input from the community, making tough decisions, putting together that list, but also that list, if we look at it really hard, it I think it benefits a lot of people uh in the district, but also in the community as well. So, I will be supportive of the motion as well. Director Rean, um I just want to say many things that you said, all have said at this point. Um I agree with and um the part that has been so difficult in this whole process is that it's not easy because we have so many needs and so where we started in the conversation with seeing where um taking a snapshot of our facilities across the district we un maybe not uncover is the right word I think it was already known I think just really um brought it to light how many needs we have in our district and so getting started somewhere um I think is important. I have been from day one somebody who has felt like this should be something that impacts a lot of students and a lot of people in our community. And so I think that our community is going to be able to um see many of these improvements when they come to band concerts and to the shiitakqua for performances and to um the soccer games and things like that and also in the academic space that our students and our teachers are going to be able to use a space that's underutilized right now in a very different way. I look forward to pushing the envelope of what does innovation zone mean? what does that look like? Rethinking what teaching and learning maybe looked like when we went to school to what this could look like um in 2025 and beyond. So, um I've been, as you all know, if you've watched any of the meetings, incredibly passionate about this because um there's the needs are so great and it's been really difficult for us as a board and the task force and everyone else and from Wald and everyone who's worked on this to come to what this might be and also try to minimize the tax impact on the homeowners. And so that has been our internal struggle or mine speaking anyway because of the amount of uh great need across our district. So um those of you who are watching from home, I look forward to what your partnerships are. I I we are going to need some creative thinking to be able to figure out what does this look like to be able to meet the needs of our kids. Um because when you go into athletic and academic spaces in the Twin Cities, you'll see that we have a lot of needs. So um we want to provide a world-class education and academic experience and athletic experience for our kids and and so we have to get started. Um so I am in support of this and I look forward to the entire comprehensive plan of the phase one and phase two and those uh partnerships as well. Director Peterson. Um, so after years and years of work and hour on and hours on this, I still think it lacks the attention to youth sports and activities, but it does address other areas of wants in our district. And I hope in the future if an athletic association with sponsors and partnerships comes to us and they have ideas with their own money and improvements made to our facilities that then benefit the entire community. I hope we remember and want some athletic improvements to come next. I will support this first initiative as a foundation for exciting things to come to our school district in all areas and I hope we get moving and have some vision. I just want to say thank you to the the board here. it it was just um uh wonderful to be able to sort of step into this role and see how much thoughtful work had been done for so many years uh and just the rich conversations that we're able to have. So I know you go back from 2021 I mean some of you have been putting a lot of time on this to arrive to this day. Um, and so I what I really appreciated seeing uh in the list was just what a wonderful balance unit is. It feels felt like there was a a clear intentionality as as as Kelly mentioned to have this an opportunity impact the entire district from from the the seats at the Shitakqua theater uh to the athletics to some of the core foundational mechanical systems that we just need to literally keep the lights on and the heat on. And um so I just want I just want to say what a great work this was and um how fortunate I felt to sort of step into the this body of work so late and feel like it had been done with such um carefulness and and thoughtfulness. So thank you. Okay. Um any other comments? Okay. Uh can I get a motion for approval of the facilities project scope? So moved. Moved by Director Donna. Second. Seconded by Director Witson. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Unanimous. Okay. Thank you. Now for school board committee reports. AMSD. That's me. Um, I think the last time we met since a board meeting was April 11th, AMSD. Um, there was a legislative update by um, Representative Julie Green and Danny Naidal. Um, my takeaway was the Senate wants to um cut school funding and the House wants to increase school funding. That was April 11th. I don't I have no idea where it's at today. Um, and I don't think they do actually either. So, uh, and then the other takeaway from that meeting was a bit sobering. Um, and I think we'll be hearing more about it, but from what I understand, the uh the is it TARA teachers retirement TE RA um is 72% is only 72% funded. So I think if any teacher is looking at retirement, they might want to do it sooner than later. But we're not encouraging it. won't know, but it was yeah, it was sobering to see those numbers. Um, not necessarily surprising, but I think we'll be hearing much more about it coming forward. So, that's it. Thank you. Well, they're supposed to adjourn May 19th, so we'll see if they get anything done by then. Otherwise, there will be special session. Um, okay. May report, please. Um the last MAF meeting was April 21st and uh the meeting started with a mission moment presentation with a MAF funded student project and that was um one of the uh student clubs in action. This time was the MAPS team and the NASA hunch team. If you don't know what maps is, it's modeling a protein story and they came um and shared what after they presented their projects in Chicago. I probably am not going to be able to explain what they presented on because it's way over my head. any of the things that they were presenting on. Um they were the one of a few high school representatives at this event. Most of the the people presenting were um undergrads or even some graduates in college. So the fact that our high school was presenting there, I thought was pretty incredible. Um and then the NASA HUNCH team came and presented their cosmic dust collector um that they designed and that they could be used at the International Space Station for how to store dust without contaminating the air at the International Space Station. uh they presented this when they went to Houston um at the to a group of NASA engineers and the students got to talk about that experience and how incredible it was to be able to be next to some of the rockets and talk to some of those NASA engineers. So um two amazing experiences for our students that uh I'm just blown away every time that the students come and present a mission moment at MAFE and I think these two are pretty close to the top. It was unbelievably awesome the work that they did and to be able to present that to a group of adults and um and for them to think that Mameidi High School students are competing at a high level like that um is no surprise. So um a couple of other things on May uh obviously we all know that the gala just happened and so it was a very successful gala and spent some time reflecting on the on the gala um and couple of upcoming things. Thanks. A latte is May 1st through May 30th and that's where you can make a $20 donation uh and give a note of appreciation to a staff member and they get a Wild Bean gift card to choose a beverage of their choice. So, um this is not just available at a certain school. This is open for pre-K all the way up to passages. So, good time to thank a teacher during because teacher appreciation week is May 5th through 9th. Um so, that's Thanks a Latte. Couple uh last things here um just for kind of future planning or notes. Um they MAFE is searching for an executive director. I think I reported that last time and they are in the process of interviewing for that position. Um and they are proposing possibly moving their meeting dates to Tuesdays because of our board meetings on Monday nights because of holidays. There's a lot of conflict. So um that's it. Their last meeting for the year will be June 16th and um I think that will be a short meeting because they're tying sort of a social end of the year to that. So that's it for the May report. Yes, Director Peterson pennies for playground. Is that Are you on the facilities too? Is that a h like a happening? Got the money. Let's build. Um they have Okay. Um it's they haven't uh they so May has to release the money to the district and then we would go forward with it. Yeah. That's the idea. The funded need. The funded need that's a that's related to funded need. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think they they will come and present the they'll come and present the check to the district as part of the funded need. Remember they come with that big check, right? So we'll see that at some point. Hey, MSBA report. Okay, it's quite complicated. We do get all the emails. I just pulled out a few highlights that I thought were important to us or to me. Um the that summer unemployment that two years ago the government passed. The House wants it fully funded through 26 and but the Senate through 27. So there's a pretty big year of a lot of money there floating around to fund teachers for summer unemployment, not teachers, hourly staff. And then this seemed fitting for what we were talking about last time was the Senate is asking to repeal linking the formula, educational spending formula to inflation that would end forever in the 2829 school year. So that's what we talked about last time, correct? Weren't you trying to ask if we should be tied to inflation? Well, it might not even be a thing in three school years. Lots to watch for before they adjourn. Okay. Northeast Metro 916. That's mine. Uh I think I've sent Oh, I'll send the update to Leslie and she'll send that out. And I just want to note that there is one more round of tours. Um I want to thank Director Peterson for going on a tour. Andrew, we went Oh, and and Director Witson, thank you both for going on that tour. Um, I think it's important for us all to understand how much 916 does as a partner for us and um really value what they're doing. So, if you can go on one of the other tours, um I'll include that as well in the email that goes out. Um and I will I'm planning to be at all three of them. So, if you want to join me, I'd love to see you there. Any other board reports? I have one more. Okay. Director Donna, I have a community ed report. Um, and I had, you're going to, it's obvious I had help a lot of help with this. Um, so summer registration started March 19th. Uh, there was a record day of over 1,000 registrations. Uh on April 11th, community ed partnered with over 30 businesses and over 20 volunteers to host that career internship and volunteer fair. Um the students are able to come learn about specific jobs, investigate summer internships or volunteer opportunities, and meet with volunteers to help, you know, help preview their resumes. Uh I think there was over 400 students that were impacted with that event. So, a terrific event and this came out of um the community ed survey that was done in the spring of 2024. Uh community ed lunch as mentioned May 7th. Um Kirkwood barbecue will be there. Um so that is always helpful for the draw. And then food truck Friday was mentioned May 9th. Um a student band will be performing called Basic and Boring. Are you familiar with that? We'll we're gonna have to find out. I probably know. And then um reminder, community ed will be at O Anderson for the summer due to the uh shut the shutdown for con work being done here. So, thank you. Thanks, Kate. Great. Thank you, Director Peterson. Not a board report, but can I highlight something really neat that OH Anderson participated in last weekend? Max, I cannot believe this did not make your notes. Okay, ready? Um, it was the Twin Cities fifth grade math competition and oh Anderson cleaned up just they won 11 out of 15 individual medals and we took first, second, and third in the team event. So, we have some pretty smart fifth graders. Yeah, I do I do have one report. It's for um Bright Works. It was the delegate assembly and so I went um to to fill into for that one. Um and for those of you who don't know, Bright Works is our um service co-op. So, it's uh provides services to districts that things like cooperative purchasing is a a good example. So, we get discounted rates as being members. we get rates on on cooperative purchasing um because we're members. So they also though run um through Spark Path they also run some some student programming. So for example the uh spelling bee is through there young authors conference creativity festival future cities. There are a number of academic programs that we get to take advantage of because we're members of of uh bright works also. So this was their annual meeting where they just highlight a number of their programs and it's just an opportunity for board members to just learn more about Breitworks and what it is um what kind of services we get get through our memberships so that we just get to see all the great things that kids get to do as a result of being a member. So anyway, that's that's my highlight. It's it but it would be I can share with you some of some more of the documents but mostly that's it's just an opportunity to learn more about those about those programs. Well the uh the PTO has not met um since I've been here. I did want to highlight that the PTO did sponsor the bingo event at Wildwood a couple weeks ago and speaking with I went with my fourth grader who was very excited to attend. Uh and they had I think three times the size of the number of people they expected. Every seat was taken in the main lobby, not lobby but the cafeteria area. There's kids down the hallways. In fact, parents had to give up all their bingo cards because there wasn't enough for all the kids. So, it was a very popular event. Um, and just they did a did did a great job running it and had a great time. So, well done to the PTO for that. All right. Any other reports? All right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Moved by Director Rean. I'll second. All those in favor say I. I. We are journed. Thank you.