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Mahtomedi Public Schools School Board Meeting July 8, 2024
Mahtomedi Public SchoolsTuesday, July 9, 2024
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Transcript
I'd like to call this meeting to order this is Independent School District 8:32 a regular meeting of the mamei school board on Monday July 8th 2024 7 o'clock pm. please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to the FL flag the United States of America to the repu for which it stands one nation under indivisible liy and justice for all roll call of attendance please done approval of the agenda can I get a motion to approve the agenda so moveed by director Peterson second by director Donna any discussion so I would like to make an amendment to the to the agenda and I'll just discuss why um we need to add superintendent report uh there's been a few things that have come up that uh we didn't know about and then obviously we'll have to add our closed session on after number nine and and and then I'm asking um sorry to interrupt but I asked you um I'd like to move I had asked for the approval of sorry yeah so action item C I'd like to change that to a discussion item instead of asking for your approval I'm just going to share with you where we are with that cost share and access agreement with St Andrews but I'm going to wait on approval until um there a couple little changes so I want to just wait a little bit longer before that approval will that go uh 7B yes and I'll just uh make a motion to amend the agenda mov and then seconded by how about seconded well no now I'm amending it second okay man I feel like I'm out of practice um all right can I any discussion director P I'd like to move I'd like to vote against this am Amendment because I think the superintendent evaluation should happen immediately because it was part of an agenda that just ended and it's not fair to push that off to late into the evening we've always done it earlier um in order to be fair and Equitable in our evaluation not be into the meeting where we're super tired so I'd like to see that earlier in the agenda and not just tacked on to the end as an afterthought because it's important work that we do and so I would vote this amendment down and make a new Amendment if this is voted down to all of that except put that earlier any other discussion okay well we will vote on this as of now on the amended Amendment to the agenda all those in favor please say I I I those opposed uh motion carries uh now we'll vote on the underlying agenda all those in favor please say I I that was opposed motion carries the agenda is adopted as amended okay approval of the consent agenda do I have a motion they moved by director Peterson second second by director doen any discussion all those in favor please say I I I those opposed motion carries okay number seven now sub superintendent report yeah so I'm sorry Dennis am I I did not share with this with you until just now are you operating from back there or I'm very sorry thank you and I can just stand is it easiest if I just stand up here and bring my mic with me how if I do that all right there we go thanks so as you know there's even with school out there are still things happening around the district so this is an opportunity to share a few of those things um I share with you some of the facility updates that are going on um particularly at OA it's hard to think that there are other things possibly going on given what's going on um on the roads outside of the middle school and high school um some things that are happening around the district and then some upcoming events so OHA um is getting we're replacing the carpet and window and rooms are being repainted so it's uh if you if you can picture the that brown carpet of OHA it is going away and being replaced by this nice blue carpet the you might also notice the big pile of wood chips and mulch outside the playground is also having a new Surface and all new mulch so OHA is uh well on its way to to having some really nice updates and um you may also know we've talked about this that for next year we're working on the planning for the indoor air quality updates at the district office for next summer I love this picture oh my goodness so um Community Education had a community a community concert recently at the dec with the uh basilians and coming up on July 23rd we have a NE our next Community concert with Todd and Tina but just look at that little guy having a great time so thanks to community ed for keeping things going during the summer also Community Ed classes um we have here our basketball camps and wildwood wonders class what I always love every year every summer is the babysitting class that goes on here and how many kids come to participate it's always a full house so that also happened recently through Community Education did you hear about this is this something Evan Maguire um High School class of 2025 just um won gold at the in U7 at the PanAm championships and he is going to participate in the world championships in August so pretty big deal uh an amazing accomplishment I know a number of us were there at this game for the State Championship uh state competition where we finished uh Second and we've already discussed the foul call um around the district we also have um our summer academic programming at the high school we had summer school that just wrapped up and you'll notice that 110 courses were completed by 68 students during that time and then we have our um All Stars Wildwood and O just started this week as well as summer school for the for the middle school just a few upcoming events again community educa that Community concert at the D EC on July 23rd um I know a lot of people are wondering about their teachers in the elementary but you need to wait until August 15th and then we have some back to school events no did you know it leaked last week what's that did you know it leaked last week yes I do but they are not okay but I want you to know that that they weren't complete so what you saw might not be done and so that's the unfortunate thing about that buzz around oh I know I know we've we've discussed it so anyway um so just a few things going on and again I want to thank community ed for all the all the programming that's happening throughout the summer okay do I just close that out then from you've got it from there okay thanks right thank you now board MERS falling out director pay uh amsd is having its summer meeting first meeting for the Academic Year actually in August August 2nd and the presentation is on mental health and we'll highlight our district and the work we've been doing and you'll be presenting great anybody else okay and now we will have letter B which will be a a discussion of cost share and access agreement thank you um so this is something I've T I talked to you about quite some time ago because it's been a conversation we've had for um a while now so through the um the road construction that's happening out on Stillwater Road one of the areas that um that is being worked on is that entrance on Hilton into St an lot and as you know we use that entrance as a school district perhaps more than St Andrews does to get into our um into our lot we do have an easement agreement with uh St Andrews and we have since 2001 that allows us access through St Andrews to get into our lot um previously it had been named to be up at the top of the hill between that top lot and down into the blue lot and when their big construction project happened they they blocked that off for safety reasons and then we decided together that it made more sense to be down closer to that entrance down below um and so that's been paved now St Andrews paved that and so um this agreement now we are taking the opportunity to kind of update what was in that easement in 2001 um in terms of naming that that roadway is our entrance at the same time there is a cost um the the Washington County for their road project and uh through the city of Monami is assessing St Andrews for the road improvements and so they came to us and said you know we're being assessed for this entrance and you use this entrance as much as we do if not more can we talk about a partnership so that's what this cost share agreement is so it's a cost share and an access agreement updating the access and then also identifying the shared cost or the shared responsibility to to maintain that um in in our easement we also have some shared responsibility for maintenance so that's also included in there just kind of highlighting that um that shared responsibility of but you know snow plowing and and uh just uh seal coding that entrance as well so I just wanted to give you that high kind of just highlight what it is we're asking um you to approve and um we did budget for this because we've known about it coming for a while um we are thankful for the partnership with St Andrews we are very fortunate to have them as our neighbors and we want to um you maintain that relationship and that agreement and so when I come back to you with it in August hopefully we'll have everything finalized by then again there were just a few small changes that came in today so I just wanted to make sure all those small changes were done before I brought it back to you so do you have questions about that at all so it's been a 23-year agreement does it end are we renewing can we in our wording can it be another 20 years it is it goes the agreement the easement itself that we are allowed to have access to our um to our campus through their property it's in perpetuity so that will it's we're changing the access point but it it continues on so it doesn't end it doesn't say this no no no no that would be that would be stressful we had it years no it it go goes on but it's we're we're updating some the way it's where what we're naming and and just recognizing our commitment and Our obligation to to participate in the cair I just have one question about that and just because I saw it on the agenda so um I mean obviously I think we use utilize that a lot and I think that it's just amazing that we have a great partnership with St Andrews um my wondering though is what you were talking about originally the part that is with the big cement barricade is that a temporary solution because I just is that St Andrew's responsibility is that ours I'm just that's more of a wondering because I think that's a really big eyesore and just feels like it just is like I see so many people pull in there who don't know our campus pull in there and have to turn around because it's not clear that that goes to nothing till they turn in there yeah I um what I will say is one of the conversations we've been having with St Andrews is maybe looking at how traffic flows through their campus to get to our campus we have a lot of sa we have safety concerns about people flying through that lot um and they do too and so what would be the best way um to try and manage that people don't follow signs all the time um and if we don't have a person out there which of course is costly it is difficult to get people to always follow directions and so um I would suggest that that's probably part of a bigger conversation with regard to traffic flow yeah it wasn't again but I saw this on the agenda I thought might be a time to what's the long-term plan for that and I didn't know if that was St Andrews or us or well it's on the St Andrews property that part is they put and they put that there and again they put it there during their construction so ell on the safe routes to school committee they had talked about putting an arm and you had to have a St Andrews badge to turn off of East Avenue as one solution of people not cutting through St Andrews to get to the lower lot um just because no one reads the sign that says please don't cut through here during these hours one option was an arm there thank you I just that was more of an update at this point yeah thank you all right we'll have it on the agenda next month great okay now on to action items approval of donations and grants totaling 8620 I have a motion moved by director doen any discussion I will just uh share 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 donors all those in favor please say I I I those opposed motion carries approval of the 2425 resolution for membership in the Minnesota State High School league I'll just start by saying this was on our agenda for our last meeting and it got tabled because there were board members who had some questions they wanted to ask of the State High School league prior to to voting um today we did have a call with uh executive director of State High School league Eric Martins and um Ryan and Paul and Stacy all attended that call and so um I don't know if any of you have things you want to comment on before talking about this resolution um I I can start I guess um I thought it was the call is very helpful um my questions mainly surrounded about surrounded um governance how they operated and um really how how mamei schools or how any individual school district is heard through this what I've come to learn is a pretty complicated structure of a governance system um to put it politely maybe um um so that was helpful so to get a better understanding of that um I if anyone else has any comments related to that yeah I do um I I was disappointed with the call quite frankly um it was it was good to learn the different layers and how we interact with them um but you know specific to the incident that I think we're all aware from a year or two ago um there just doesn't seem to be a degree of transparency with the organization and I guess that's where my disappointment stems from and so um you know one thought that I have is I'm obviously supportive of uh approving our membership in the Minnesota State High School league I think it'd be very shortsighted not to approve that however I would like us to consider pushing a resolution through around a more transparent uh process for these disciplinary actions I I think it's unacceptable to be told that we can submit essentially an email with data point with our point of view I think if if there's a situation where they're going to overrule uh the punishments enacted by our leadership then they at minimum have to take a conversation that's just my point of view so I'm not sure if anybody else agrees or disagrees or ask questions but that was kind of my take on the call this morning yeah I would disagree but I I thought it was great to learn how to how we will go about doing that so just like any of our other organizations they have a process so I I think it's great if um we want to move forward with submitting something yeah I completely agree Barb I don't know like what the process would be if Aaron has to submit the resolution through our sub chapter committee region yeah it yeah I'm not really sure I I um so your your question was a good one was to try and be forward thinking and ask you asked um you know what would a district do in order to make changes for the future essentially and I didn't feel like we got a super clear answer about it but it does seem like it would start with um potentially our region and having Regional support for something to be proposed at the board level but it wasn't super clear but I think that's how we would do it that's what I took from I'm sorry everyone on the region committee right now we do not we that's a goal yeah we asked I served on it yeah I know that was that was exactly that was one of Stacy's question is when is when is there an opportunity for us to get representation and so Aaron does have that for us um to help us figure out where that could be from coaches and and things within the region so one of our coaches would need to step up or Aaron is athletic director yeah there were a number of different like so there are a number of different positions when we looked at it so there are some districts there are a few districts that have multiple representatives for example so how might we have one of ours Ryan isn't what do you do with your appointment an email once month once every two months okay they don't meet there's one annual meeting oh okay board meets and the board as soon as they meet within the next 24 hours or so they have their minutes out so I follow all their minutes I'm not sure if you are right as well but you can follow them on their website um a lot of them go out through social media Outlets as well to say here are minutes and things like that so board members can follow them as close as they want but the makeup of the high school league part of its statutory because I know certain group gr have appointing authority and the governor has a certain number of seats he appoints yeah that he and he went through all I don't have my Nots in front of me he went through all of that with us and how those positions um are either appointed by um different organizations or or the governor um I think the the main question that was asked or kind of that our the board members at on the call were really trying to get at is how how can our voice how can we have a voice either at the board level for decision making or at the region level um and so so we got some we have a rep we have one or two I think we have two representatives from msba on the board um Christy Peterson Shaka is one of ours and so I mean you can easily reach out to her as a fellow board member and talk with her and and share this information with her and ask her to push it forward you can also work through the professional organizations msba and their seats I mean obviously Chrissy's one and she's the Metro person I don't know who the Greater Minnesota person is if it's still Gina from acgc or if it's someone else at this point but I mean we have seats and representation to school board members on the high school league this is this is the frustration because my take away from the call was the board and the executive director sits here and they're very insulated we we have no access to these people who were a member of their organization we have to go through and navigate a chain of or committees and representatives in order to have a voice and that's what's that's what's frustrating and see we collectively we do not know how to even get that representation we're all sitting here talking about it that's that's the essence of the issue that we're trying to get at and so it's helpful to have your knowledge right and all this but that's that's the big picture and the frustration from this call it was the takeaway was this is a very bureaucratic operation and we were essentially told well regarding a certain incident that well of course you you you had a voice all you had to do was submit an email with the information that's not how to run we're a member of your organization without us you don't operate so to be told that was kind of you know it just set the tone so to speak for so um yeah we'll have to kind of think about how to best Advance some change or at least a a suggestion for some change so with that um I am recommending approval of the um 2425 resolution for membership in the Minnesota State High School league motion no I have a motion move by director Doan second second by director Donna any other discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed motion carries okay approval policies so we have um we have policies uh changes due to legislative changes and then um annual review of policies and I have not heard from any of you regarding um 509 or 516 or 534 however 722 uh director Donna had a recommendation um to add a little something that is not a substan uh substantive uh change so I I think the the change he's recommending we could continue um with the approval so but he will share that with you there's your intro um Madam chair members of the board so policy 509 enrollment of non-resident students oh I'm sorry I said 722 I'm sorry it's 509 yep I'm sorry so my suggestion and and just I don't want to hold up approval um but if if if people are amenable to this under 4B standards that may not be used for re rejection of application I thought it'd be helpful to clarify it talks about out it reads the school district may not use the following may not use the following standards in determining whether to accept or reject an application for enrollment and it lists those below it's my understanding that that list is per Minnesota statute so I thought it' be helpful to just add a clarifying clause in there per Minesota statute 124d .03 um these standards um are being used so that was my recommendation just to add a clarifying Clause so people know that these standards are coming directly from statute so that change um is in section four basis for decision Part B um and it would uh we would just add the per um statute and then call the statute for that that is direct lifted okay so then I so I'm I'm um again recommending approval of these policies this is a final reading um asking for approval of all those policies and with 509 with the change that we just discussed which is just naming the statute everything else the same as that we've as we've discussed the past few meetings moved second question are we including all of these number one and two okay includes numbers one and two okay all those in favor say I those now approval of resolution relating to the election of school board members and calling the school district general election this is a last time it was uh we had a a similar resolution related to the election it was just talking about when um affidavits of cacey could be submitted this one is call is uh calling the election um in November and again in an election year this is just standard there's second director Peterson any discussion all those in favor say I I okay now for committee reports MSD so um due to uh obligations of the pby board uh at our last meeting I was not here to give this report so I'm giving reports for May but um the last meeting was actually held May 24th at which point the mde representatives um came and gave a long and detailed overview of the legislative session so if you're still having questions and things about session that would be a good session to watch and the next meeting as we talked about earlier is August 2nd um May did not have a meeting this month and the next meeting will be in August 916 we last met on June 5th um the talking points were sent out to you all on June 10th uh we talked about the teacher Residency program that 916 is taking part of um Q comp presentation we review the annual impact report we approved contracts for the superintendent instructional assist and 11 more groups and people um we reviewed the budget we approve fees for member districts and since then I have also been notified that their approval from the pby board has come through um or they have their site visit for their teacher prep program and it was very successful and should be approved the next board meeting I would just like to do a community event on Friday the PTO is having popsicles in the park it is if you want to show up with your Schoolboard name tag on at 10:00 Friday morning at Wildwood it is Elementary School it was also sent to incoming kindergarteners including and then also including current kindergarteners just to meet and greet and meet other parents and kids okay so now uh we need to go into Clos me meeting this is discussion of personnel matter pursuant to Minnesota statute 13d 05 subsection 3A um we will come back into Open Session but uh it'll just be to adjourn so for all of you attending want to leave now you won't miss anything so um so can I get a motion to go into close session mooved by director doen second by all those in favor say I I