often people are curious. Um, and so what these 12th grade scores mean, just as a reminder, it is the highest score that a student uh receives on the ACT across multiple times. So they might take it one time, they might take it three or four times. It's that highest score. And so you can see that uh over this last several years, we've just uh edged out the state average um on the 12th grade ACT average. >> Okay. So since we got a chance to see a little data, we're going to talk about what we are now doing about it. So uh how are we responding? And you are going to see both from Laura and Ian about our focus on solid tier one support. So that is the instruction that all students get. So that would be uh in the elementary their home room teacher what all students are going to receive for mathematics. Uh part of that tier one includes uh our data plan on what we're going to do about it when we collect data on students. uh unit planning. So, making sure that we have a clear uh scope and sequence for when we're going to teach it and how we're going to teach it and then having uh amazing resources in order for that to get accomplished. We are also looking at those new Minnesota math standards and uh last year I hear that you got to see if you were here uh this stool. Uh, so I'm going to just explain it uh very quickly, but this is talking about mathematical rigor. So the Minnesota math standards is asking for uh three different areas and having equal intensity just like you would a stool. So we need to have all the legs at the same level in order for that to work. So conceptual understanding is one, real world application and procedural skills and fluency. And uh we've talked a little bit about maybe when I was uh in math and I'm going to venture some of the others around this table. Uh the focus would have been a a lot on procedural skills and fluency. Um and that is still one of our legs but is not all of them. So we are also looking at how are we balancing that out and you will see that later in this presentation when Ian and Laura are talking. >> All right. And then just to give you a little glimpse at >> okay our elementary implementation timeline uh looks as follows. So we've got sort of this three-year roll out um uh to give us time to get to these new standards which uh will be fully implemented in the school year 2728. So this year we'll be pulling together a team of teachers, a cross representation of our district, north side, southside, um multiple grade levels all coming together to have that initial conversation and looking at those standards. Uh that will continue into next year. Um and then you can see that final full implementation while our resource uh will not change and I'll talk to that a little bit later. We will be switching to a newer version of our resource. So along with looking at these new standards uh we'll be infusing uh that new resource and the the things that it brings. All right. Good afternoon. Uh similar in secondary world uh we are actually adopting a new curriculum and so this year we're doing an initial implementation of that curriculum sort of getting our feet wet uh as we try on that new curriculum as well as our new standards for Minnesota. we'll jump in to the deep end of the pool, so to speak, next year with full implementation of that uh with all of our teams getting together to work on how we implement that well in our classrooms. And that sets us up to be working on continuous improvement. So, we're there for 2728 just like MDE wants us to be having those new math curriculum uh standards put in place by 2028. All right, so now we're going to jump in. We're just going to do a little snapshot of secondary. So, I'll talk about 6 through 12, uh, what our math students are doing. We're going to kick it off. Uh, if we jump to the next slide, we're going to do a snapshot of what our teachers are doing in terms of reflecting and preparing for our new math standards and our new, uh, curriculum that we've adopted. So, as we watch this video with our teachers, uh, listen for when they talk about the new math standards, they've done a lot of work with di diving in understanding what those new math standards are talking about. Uh, Jolene talked about the three legs to that stool. uh they're looking at, hey, are we not just sticking with procedural skills and fluency, but we're also doing uh real world examples as well as that that content piece. You'll also hear them talk about CIRC, which are standards instruction review cycle. That's that's the teachers getting together and saying, "What do the standards say? How do they want us to implement new math learning in our classrooms? And and what do we believe about instructional practices?" So, when you hear the teacher say CIRC, that's what they're talking about. They'll also talk about scope and sequence planning, which is when we get together to decide when and where and how we actually teach each uh content piece of that new math standard. So, enjoy the video. So excited about the new math standards. There are so many new ones that have >> there are a lot of changes in those standards. Um, but I think it will be a lot more applicable to real life situations. There's a lot of like probability and statistics >> and there's a strong emphasis on critical thinking skills and collaboration and some of those deeper higher order thinking that's that's necessary for success. >> To add financial literacy is a great thing. Um, I think that's something that our kids can really relate to. Problem solving and conceptual development, the three-legged stool is essential. I love the fact that they've increased the amount of data science that's in the standards because I think that's going to be really important for the future. >> A strong emphasis on statistics. A lot of our mathematics nowadays deals around, you know, large groups of data. >> Thinking through things instead of just getting the answer and really analyzing data, which I think will be helpful for students. >> New focus more on real world application and life skills for students, which I'm excited about working with students who receive special education services. part of the CIRC team has been uh really nice because then I got a heads up of what uh what's coming. >> I've really enjoyed working in the CIRC process. It's been nice to collaborate with other teachers around the district. >> But it's really good to have conversations with colleagues about why do we teach it this way? Is it more or less important to do different things? trying to find a curriculum that best matches the new standards where there's a lot of thinking, problem solving, analyzing, >> clarify as a district where we stand and and unify all the buildings together to have the same standards so that we can all follow the same scope and sequence. >> It's it's nice to see these kids have those aha moments which again I think the new standards are going to help with that. My students are amazing here at Lake Middle School and I really enjoy working with them every day. >> We have been blessed in this district to have some really amazing kids and colleagues to work with. >> So, thanks for joining me and watching that. Uh it's just so fun. Hopefully, you're hearing those teachers talk about how they're reflecting on what they're doing in the classroom. They're not just walking in and following something spelled out for them in a textbook. They're thinking about how do we reach our students? How do we provide that opportunity for them? And that I just get excited watching that. Hopefully you caught a little bit a little glimpse of that. Um we'll pause for just a minute. >> Save my video. >> No, we're going should go back to the presentation, I think. >> There we go. Fun. There we are. Thanks. All right. So, just so that we're aware as we think about implementing our new math standards, new math standards for Minnesota take us through algebra 2. So the normal sequence here is math 6, pre-alggebra and that I have the grade levels there for us as well. Uh middle school algebra and eighth grade. We move to intermediate algebra as ninth graders, geometry in 10th grade and algebra 2. That's not necessarily the pathway that all students take, but this is the pathway for MDE. Uh and so some of our students might want to jump in and say, "Hey, this is what we took." Which is fun to look at. Um you want to do it now? Yeah, go ahead and jump in. tell us what your pathway was because we do take classes past algebra 2 in our high school. >> I think this one represented Andrew, but Andrew, you go ahead and speak. Kind of nodded. >> This was the exact path I took going through middle school and high school. Right now, I'm actually currently in algebra, too. And truly, um, this pathway hasn't really affected me much because I'm still learning the same exact stuff that everyone has learned at some point and still in the some of the same classes as some of my other colleagues in school. But um it doesn't really matter about what pathway you take. It really matters about if you're actually learning stuff from it. And also as you get to the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade mark, you start to focus more on what or put more attention on what you're going to do in college and what you're going to do past college. In which I have decided that I want to go into something that doesn't really involve as much math. I want to major in political science or communications in which I've realized that doesn't need as much math. So I people are like you should take pre-calc, you should take AP pre-calc, but it really doesn't it doesn't affect you in certain ways if you're being forc if you're being influenced to take one class. It matters on what you want to do. In fact, I'm actually doing CIS algebra next year to stay more in the algebra range and also get college credit for it. And honestly, I think for people if they want to go that route, that's probably the best route to go. >> He's now being a salesman too for our CIS classes. U Matilda or Tea Ta, do you want to talk about yours? TA has just a high school math pathway, not the elementary and middle school with us. >> Yeah. Um I came to the district my freshman year. Um I tried to push myself in math. I personally really enjoy math, but I like how the district allows us to be very flexible with how we approach our math pathway in high school. Um, my freshman year I took IB algebra 2 and then my sophomore year I took pre-calc and now I'm currently in AP Calc and I've been pretty successful my entire pathway. Um, I really like my teachers. Um, overall it's just been a really great experience. I have a lot of options. I still have options for my 12th grade year. Whether I don't want to do math, there's options if I do. Um there's simpler options, harder options, and my teachers guide me through it. Um so yeah, it's been a very positive experience for me. >> Uh my pathway, I went pretty much on this route until 8th grade. I took intermediate algebra and then it was just like hopped from that and then geometry algebra 2 and last year I took statistics through PSO at Century College and this year I'm not taking any math simply because I'm kind of going down like the same social science kind of pathway where I don't think that other versions of math are super important to me currently but um yeah so I've had a good experience on the pathway. I think it's um it's helped me a lot. I feel like um I think maybe students aren't or at least personally I wasn't too sure about how you really get up in math and I didn't know that I was even advanced until like I showed somebody that I had intermediate algebra and they're like oh that's not what I have. Okay. So I think that like maybe if it could be more clear to students or something about how necessarily you go up in math I think that'd be great. I think it is clear to some students based off like how much their parents know about things, but my parents aren't super duper involved in things related to the district. So, um I was unaware of it, but I still think that either way that the pathway is good and it's a good basis. >> All right. Well, thanks for sharing. That's like perfect. You had different routes each one and couldn't have planned that better. That's uh beautiful. Um and so uh if as you think about teachers then as they look at their scope and sequence planning they are planning for that progression of knowledge for each level that students go through and ensuring that they feel confident at that next step. Um also just a note as we talked about the ACT the ACT uh that college pathway going through algebra 2 prepares students well for the ACT. Sometimes we have that misperception that students have to get to AP calc BC in order to do well in the ACT and that really is not if they go through that normal progression. We have prepared our students well to do well in the ACT as they move through. So just put that in uh you know another piece to think about um as we think about uh the teachers putting together that scope and see can we go back one slide? Sorry. Um really is that scope and sequence which uh the teachers think thoughtfully about where and when we have that progression of learning. They develop specific learning targets which really create a pathway for our students to ensure that they are learning what they need to learn. Those learning targets are based on the Minnesota standards. So that's how we do that. And we really have a great opportunity in our district where we pull together teachers across uh the district. So, we'll pull all five high schools together to build that scope and sequence or we'll pull all four of our middle schools together to build that scope and sequence so that we're providing the same opportunity for our students independent of which school they go to. And so as our teachers went through that CIRC project where they looked at the standards uh and instructional practice they selected a resource and this is this resource that our teachers picked for our middle schools which is big ideas and you can see that uh takes them through sixth, seventh and eighth grade. That's just a picture of of the resource uh that we have used for or we are going to be implementing to use for our middle school math. On the next slide here, we have we went with Envision Math and the the process there is the teachers look at a whole bunch of different resources and evaluate does this match what the Minnesota standards ask us to teach? Uh does it match what we believe as educators should be in front of our students? And so that's why they picked that. On the next slide, I just picked a couple highlights of what that CIR team believed each resource would achieve in that uh in that selection. So the first was they really wanted to make sure that it works seamlessly with schooly which is what our students use for learning. Um the next thing they were looking for is does the resource have digital access to all of Minnesota. Not every resource out there does. A lot of resources are made for the the whole nation. They don't necessarily have our Minnesota benchmarks and standards put in place. And is the resource welllaid out for students and teachers? We want to make sure it's accessible for our students. uh and then they wanted to make sure that there was that connection to real life uh opportunities, right? That's going back to that three-legged stool. We did not want to pick a resource that was just based on fluency. I say this is what they aspired to. The actual implementation is sometimes a little tricky. And so, uh has it been perfect on all of these levels? Not yet. And that's that opportunity for us to as teachers look at it. So, we had a few little glitches about how does it work with schooly? How does it learn? And that's our teachers really diving in and using the resource and seeing how it works. and we've been able to overcome a lot of those hurdles as we've gone along. >> Okay, >> now I'm gonna introduce uh Laura Larson who's going to talk about elementary >> and I'm going to shift us even further back. So, think way back to elementary. Um if you go to the next slide, uh like I referred to earlier, we don't necessarily have a new resource that we're bringing into the elementary. We have had bridges in mathematics since 2018. Um and our teachers are still using that resource today. So, just to for anyone who's not familiar with this resource, what this looks like, there's some components there for you on the screen, what it looks like in practice is there's a typical math block that's about 60 minutes in length. You can see that makes up uh problems and investigations and workplaces. And what I like to tell people what this looks like is uh definitely teacher uh introducing concepts, but it's very collaborative in nature. So students are using uh math tools uh working together having conversations and questioning one another and playing games uh to sort of reinforce those concepts. Then we have this second other part of the day that's about 20 15 to 20 minutes in length. That's a number quarter. This looks like a calendar. It's an anchor for the classroom for students to uh have concepts reinforced. And so it's pattern recognition. It's uh sequencing. It's keeping track. And really there's a lot of data and probability that is involved in that number corner and we have that all the way from kindergarten through fifth grade this year. What we are doing with uh bridges and mathematics that's new is concept quests and that's what I'll focus on tonight. This is a new piece. It's a supplemental piece but it's a part of our curriculum. So it directly connects with the units that the teachers are teaching and using with the students. Um you can head to the next slide. It'll tell a little bit more about this. So, Concept Quest really is taking problem-solving tasks and infusing them for all students. The beauty of this is that all students deserve to have a rich, rigorous math classroom. Just like that mathematical stool referred to, it's enrichment for all. So, this is not for only some students or uh some students that might be faster or um have kind of that that intuitive nature for mathematics. It's really for all. And so what it's doing is it's taking those grade level concepts and it's reinforcing them and asking students to think deeper uh and more complex. So it's really building critical thinking and problem solving. So that horizontal enrichment is all that means is it's across the grade level. We're not going outside of the grade level necessarily. We're just going deeper and more complex. Um, these tasks really do reinforce that idea of what our standards are asking us to do, which that idea of mathematical rigor is that every every one of us is a mathematical being whether we see it or not. And at the elementary level, what we really like to do is build that math math identity from a very early age. Anyone can access any problem if they're given the right tools and guidance. And so this concept quest edition really um opens up possibilities for kids that maybe don't see themselves as a math student. strategies, any strategies open to you. Um, and students have the ability to compare and contrast how they approached um, different problems. So, on the next slide in front of you, you have a task example because I thought, what better way for me to to help you understand what this looks like than to give you an example. And so just like I would launch in the classroom and just as you'll see in our video, our teachers have um many t Yeah, I saw some of you working on it maybe ahead of time. So this can look many ways. Um many of our teachers are doing sort of a whole class launch with students to get them um into the routine of of um of attacking a problem in a different way. So there's no frontloading, there's no teaching necessarily ahead of the task. It's simply just a task just like we face um in everyday life. So, I'll read it aloud to you. You can follow along if you don't know what you're looking for. It's the thing with the squares. You can start working on it, but I'm going to ask you maybe to pause because it'll be better if you can talk with somebody next to you. So, this this problem really is uh the largest square in this image has a total area of 14 44 square units. It contains two shaded squares. The larger shaded square has an area that is four times uh that of the smaller shaded square. So you can see at the bottom the only directions are without measuring determine the total area of the shaded region. Give you this is third grade. It's later in third grade. And I will say this is one of those like ones that really extends um there's sort of two tracks. There's excursions and there's adventures. This is an adventure. So I leveled it up for all of you. So this is a trickier one. Um, but it does align with their geometry unit. So, we'll just give you a couple minutes, but I would encourage you somebody next to you just problem solve how you might start. We'll check in in like a minute or two. Hallelujah. She's ready. Go see it. All right. No matter where you're at, we'll have you wrap up and we'll we'll do a quick check in. Is this on? Yeah. All right. We'll do a quick check-in. And I'm not necessarily looking for an answer. >> All right. without is there is there a prize? Is there a prize? >> No pri I have no prizes. I'm sorry. I don't um just asking. That's right. It's just the process >> asking for a friend. >> Um this would not be timed um in the in the essence of the the meeting. Yeah. Go ahead. >> So question. So when you're doing this with the third graders, >> yes, >> like I assume that this is to scale for them, correct? or would you not or does that not >> they get exactly what you have in front of you? >> Okay. >> I also when you get to the video I want you and Laura's going to set up the video too, but it's students doing these types of problems. So really notice what the students are doing uh up on the whiteboards uh working together through it. It is exactly these problems that they're up on those whiteboards trying to figure out. So it's very interesting to see the students in action too. >> Yes. And there's there's not one way to approach this problem. Does anyone want to share how they approached it? I saw some folding. >> Yeah, maybe maybe just one share. Yeah. Nice. >> I think and I wanted to make sure my lines were straight. That's why you saw me folding down here early. But there were nine squares. nine squares divided by 144 gave you each square times five because there are a total of five squares >> completely different solution. >> Thank TA and I because I was actually doing the whole area and she's like it's just the shaded area. Oh yeah. >> So if you flip over that page on the back side if you want to take a look at it at another time it really does look you can see those targeted con there's no answers on the back. um the targeted concepts. So that one that uh task you just did really does uh rely on students needing to know a little bit about area and then multiplicative reasoning. So it's it's getting at kind of a lot in conjunction with a geometry unit. On the next slide, uh I just want to point out in the video that you're about to see, uh we've got amazing teachers at our elementary schools doing amazing things. And one of the ways that they're taking these tasks is by knowing what we know what's best for for all students really is that movement is so important. Uh talking with one another, collaborating, sharing, thinking, challenging each other, justifying answers. It's all things that you're going to see uh our our youngest learners doing um in a variety of different ways. So enjoy. 42. >> Not that. >> How would I solve this? >> They took that multiplication equation and they split it into two that were a little easier to manage. That was a strategy I didn't notice anywhere else. We use the five. >> Okay. Then we have to pick the next. >> No. >> If we use the five and something there right here. >> Yeah. >> And then we have to put four * 4ide. Four is 8 - 1. >> Oh, we can't really I've got it. Four cuz you know how this 4 * 4 is 16, right? >> 4 is 4. Divide four by four is one. >> Yes. Doesn't use four. Okay. >> 24 plus. >> No, let's do the parentheses. So, just a little sneak peek at what's going on in our elementary school's high engagement uh different way of looking at at doing mathematics. So, any any questions for any of us on the team? >> Does anyone have any questions? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it's math night. So funny. Um, I was so excited to see the things from building thinking math classrooms is is how I recognize it and so so much research behind that and it fantastic. I' I've had an opportunity to sub and see in being in the midst of children doing that. It's fantastic. Um, can't compliment the number corner enough either in terms of math talk and how important that is. Um I do have a question about um back on slide six more like a a noticing maybe. So that's the one that shows our uh high school kids and there's that that dip down to in 22. I think you got to go back another one. There we go. that dip in in 22 I think that aligns with the new set of standards and I'm wondering you know especially at our high school level when standards get a new standards come in and they've got to be sorted among specific classes and kids pathways if you how much of an effect do you think that has >> um I would say that so the 2022 standards we purposely and correct me if I'm wrong team wanted to make sure we did uh reference 2022 standards because they don't go into full implementation and aren't tested as we know until 2028. And so I um the inference maybe that the 2022 score dip connected to the standards um and please uh feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but probably wouldn't be connected to a shift in standards directly because those we are still in the midst of implementing those and they won't be fully implemented in 2728 school year but they are it's confusing because they're called the 2022 math standards. I don't know if you'd add anything to that. No, >> I think that's that's correct. The only thing I would add is MD is actually really good at saying we're going to put into statute the standards and then they provide us districts the opportunity to adjust to those new standards before the MCA changes. So, we're on the MCA 3es now. So, even this year, we will test with MCA 3 and then the MCA 4s will go into effect like March just said in 2028. And so that's if you go back to the our implementation, that's part of what's driving our implementation is we're backwards mapping from the implementation of when that MCA4 will happen so that we are prepared and we are giving our students enough time to be exposed to the new benchmarks and standards prior to being assessed on those standards on the MCA4. The only thing I I might add as well um some of the inferences in terms of when uh districts look at the variability at the 11th grade uh as we learn through our students the curriculum pathways are so different. So sometimes students may take an 11th grade MCA um while we are always after enduring learning that sticks right but sometimes it's a year and a half or two years prior that they've taken that content. So even our accelerated students that do very well in in classroom on other standardized tests might not do so well on an MCA. The other piece that I would highlight is and I think Andrew maybe pointed this out a little bit um is just the shift in focus. So at 11th grade uh we find our students and this is anecdotal but have a little bit more agency. They start to think uh look forward think about college readiness at two-year, four year or another placement. they start thinking it through a lens that way versus the relevancy they may see in an MCA math. But I could we have students here that could speak to that better than I could. >> Um I do agree with that. Um sorry you are talking about the MCA for the math proficiency correct? Sorry. Um so for MCA basis or basis um I stated previously in I think was it the first uh board meeting that um in MCA's there are very there's kind of a misconception between students of this is this matters a lot and this doesn't matter at all which is why I sometimes feel like we can see a either a very constant line of very consistent um data or We can see a very fluctuate um uh data table which obviously um I don't know much about this and I think one of y'all said that the something was implemented new in 2022. Is that right? >> Okay. Um but mostly they are pretty um stable overall. But there are a lot of kids, especially at Eastridge, I noticed that um take the MCAs just they know the stuff already or they don't know the stuff and they just fly through it and they don't try as much and they try to focus more on their classes or more on um like studying for certain things. But truly, I do agree with you. As we get older, we get more independent and we realize that we need the certain stuff to get um to realize what we need to do for college. So, yes, I do agree with you on that. >> And I think Andrew points out the fact that when we think about our students and the amount of tests that they take, um you know, uh the endurance and the ability to stick with it and what uh what benefit might a test like this have for students and I think that's something also that the legislature is taking a look at. the state is taking a look at is what is the impact of the MCAs and is it giving us good information about student learning. I think if we recall, Laura, I want to say it was you when we talked about literacy. Um, no, Leah. Um, Leah talked about just when we even look at reading, how many of the standards are actually being tested on the MCAs? And so, I think there's just right now some conversations about the validity of the fidelity of MCAs and then how that information is being used. Another thing for me is um I feel like if students knew what the MCAs were truly used for because truly before we take the MCAs, we don't really know what they are used for. So I feel like if we're given that information that maybe there would be an increase in stats. Obviously that's just a prediction, but I just feel like if we knew that it would just be better for students in general as well. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah, quick question. Uh so we don't offer trigonometry anymore as a class, right? So is that included in the geometry course or algebra 2? >> Yeah, thanks for that question. So we will do trigonometry but those courses are not part of the MDE required courses that Minnesota has has stated we believe that all students need to make it through algebra 2, but students have the option of taking trigonometry once they go past algebra 2. >> So there is a course available to them. >> Yes, there's a Yeah. >> And if they don't take that, are they introduced to some of those angle concepts in geometry and algebra 2? So they have a basic understanding of s cosine tangent. >> Yes. Those are all part of the the standards that we would cover in geometry. That's correct. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Yeah, >> Melinda. >> I just have a a twofold question. So, I'm looking at the um MCA math proficiency rates um in elementary compared to middle school as far as 60% and then dropping down to 46%. Wondering what that's about as far as like is how did do you have any answer for why the numbers go down so low? And then also are there any stats for before 2020 as far as like before kids were virtual learning and you know the pandemic and everything and what the rates were at then? I >> think it's probably more complex than what I'm going to say, but one thing that I can point out is that we did shift to a new resource in 2018 and with that new resource was a shift in um pedigogy and and how we approach mathematics. And so, uh, to see the numbers slightly more consistent or a little bit higher at the elementary level, we've had a a pretty consistent resource that all of our teachers have had for a number of years. So, we're past that implementation timeline. Um, that might be part of why um it looks a little bit different between elementary and and middle who has not had a new resource until now. So, we had sort of a in the middle of the two standards um shifting. We actually had a resource in the middle of the of those two at the elementary level. >> I I was going to add something when I was looking at that too, Melinda. Um that I noticed in elementary school there's 80 minutes for math. >> Correct. >> Which is just more time, which to me would allow also more consistency. >> Smi, um thank you for this. So, uh, one of the questions I had was that when you look at the pre-ac, no, sorry, you look at the ACT benchmark for 12th grade students, right? So, you look at the 12th grade students from 2025 and they're at 42%. And you look then at the 11th grade ACT benchmark um, is a little bit higher the previous school year, right? Because that's the same cohort of kids, right? the 11th graders from 23 24 are the 12th graders from 24 25. So what is and it's consistently lower when you move from the 11th graders to the 12th graders. So what is that difference attributable to? Do you see what I'm saying? I don't know what slides these are because I can't I can't tell. that if you go to the percent of 11th grade students meeting or exceeding and then the next slide the percentage of 12th grade students >> I don't know that we can confidently say that's the same cohort. I think we say 11th grade 12th grade and it goes by year which would make sense that we would say it's the same cohort but when we report the ACT I think um Dr. Ma was going through this with us that that 12th grade one could be everyone that took it in that year. >> Oh okay. So any 11th graders or 10th graders or whatever who took it in that year. >> Yes. But we we can certainly dive into our system and do some cohort ACT data for >> because I I don't know that we can confidently say in these two slides that it's the 45 to 42. >> Okay. >> We could run that >> and then Yeah. And then same for the preac because the preac is 10th graders correct only because what do they take on that first day of ma as 11th graders? They take a practice ACT which is different from the preACT but I know that a lot of preACT kids opt out to take like >> PAT >> the PAT right >> and I don't want to stereotype but I feel like it's a lot of the high scores are the ones who are opting out to take the PSAT right so do we have a feel for like how that impacts these scores at all or not really I know that's kind of a complex question I >> I think we have the same kind of conversation around MCA for 11th grade too with the optouts and who's taking the test and um you know so I don't know that we can confidently say how I don't know that I can make a correlation between PT test versus pret >> can can I just contextualize that as well the variability that um Kelly just talked about is 30% less on average are participating in the 11th grade MCA for example than the 98% from third through 8th grade. So that variability plays in to what Kelly just mentioned as well. I know we're talking about ACT. >> Yeah. And like and so for the kids who do opt out, is there there's not like a statistically identifiable like demographic of kids who decide to opt out, right? It's just sort of like a catchall of >> kids who choose. It's not all like Yeah. >> low achievers, high achievers, >> middle achievers. Okay. No, I I would offer anecdotally that high achievers take the PS PT, right? Because they're going for the honors and all the things that come. Yeah. So, um many kids still take both. >> So, I think that's where we would find that it's hard to determine, but yeah, I don't I think high kids high kids opt into PAT and take preac. I mean, I think they might be taking both. >> Okay. Um one other question I had. So, it's been a long time since my children were in elementary school, but I remember between my two kids, how we taught math in elementary Oh, you know what? It might have been the I realize I had a fifth grader in 2018. >> I'm feeling very super sharp. Uh so um but one of the questions I had was I remember when one of my kids was in or maybe both of them at the end of fifth grade they took a test to see what math class they would go into for middle school and um depending on how you did you could test into pre-alggebra or algebra 1 or math 6. Do we still do that? And then secondly, has the percentage of kids testing into algebra 1 and pre-alggebra and math 6 remained basically the same across all of our all these years? And I real that was a question that just I I totally thought of so I didn't ask I didn't send it in in advance. So I'm sorry. >> Take it. I I would say we we don't call it the test took place in sixth grade math but we look at many three I think it's three different data points. um map score uh classroom performance >> MCAS thank you >> and they look over several >> and we look over several years what we do then is recommend where we would place them in sixth grade and now we have implemented a process where parents can like challenge that to say I really want my child in this intermediate algebra and so then we would give them a place best so we don't we we look at all of the data make a recommendation And at that point, parents can say, "I think they should be in the higher level math class." >> Okay. So, it's not anything proactive. We do like I remember one of my kids proactively received some test in fifth grade that I didn't know about. And then the other one did not. Um >> Oh, no. It's not an additional test. We we we use data that we currently have unless a parent says, "I don't agree with this math placement or or you know, whatever it may be." And then we have a test that the district administers. Is there a lot of do a lot of parents do you guys know how many challenge every year? >> So so just a little more clarity we look at like three years of MCA and MAP data map data usually and we want to ensure that it's not a student that just did poor on one test or did exceedingly high on just one test. We want to look at a little broader perspective. That's where we get a recommendation. after the recommendation. Then we have um Ben Lacina does this in the summer and that's for the parents who say I actually have a question. I really want to see if my child could get into that sort of next level up math and I don't know the percentage. We could get you that percentage but it's actually a fairly low percentage of students that we have missed in our normal identification of students who need that extra additional support at a high end of math. And so a couple kids here and there will because their parents advocate and for some reason that kid didn't score as well as they had hoped to earlier. Um but but generally we're really close on that. And and I would say we had last summer because I helped Ben we had about like I think two classrooms full of kids for the whole district. So that's a very small percentage if you think of you know whatever it is almost 1500 students in fifth grade. And so like the number of kids who are recommended to do math six basically remained consistent year-over-year for me multiple years >> I would say. So I would say and I'm going by the number of sections we offer of each and I would say our principles would say they consistently offer the same amount of sections of each. >> Okay. Um and then my last question was around um high school math. So the state stops at algebra 2. The state standards stop at algebra 2. Um and so I know now in our schools we have so if you want to take calculus in our schools you have to take AP calculus right there's no non-AP calculus available or is that is that accurate >> we have we have non uh so we we will have AP stats and also stats that's one pathway students can go we also have pre-calc that's not AP >> right but I'm like if you but if you >> I think that's correct I'd have to look I think it is only AP >> only AP calculus >> actually our students students might know that. >> Yeah. Only AP. >> Only AP. So for pre-calc then like if you take do we plan to still offer AP pre-calc versus a and regular pre-calc or is there a plan in the future to consolidate those to be more similar to calc AP calculus. I have not been in any discussion that looks at changing those upper level high school math courses at least at this point. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> I had a couple of questions. Um the first one was for the elementary group. Um you know looking at all this it's thank you for putting it together. It's really interesting and it's all aggregate data but if you like dig into the MDE sites you can like look at individual schools and there's a lot of variability between our elementary schools. And so I just was hoping to um have you all comment on what are you learning from these different buildings who are maybe having really really wide success with their initiatives versus those that are maybe um you know or how they're going back and forth over the years. Just kind of curious about some of the more specifics. >> So I I know you had that question earlier so that gave Laura and I kind of a chance to talk about it as well. So, uh, you know, we we definitely want to lean into where we see successes in our schools and we always stay curious about why did that happen and what can we learn about that particular school? Um, and those changes. Um, but it's hard to I mean when we're responding to that question, uh, the different schools, we could talk specifically about each school and what those are, but they are different things that the schools have put into place. I would say my very general response is I think we are getting much better at intervening at a quicker pace. So when we see students starting to fall behind uh or even need a little acceleration, we are responding at a quicker time period which is allowing students to grow. Um and we're seeing better results at the elementary and the schools that you are seeing kind of the big bumps. Um that is really what's happening there. So they are providing when they're seeing students that do not understand that they're not waiting until next year to answer that question. It could be a student takes a test on Friday, they don't do very well on maybe that just exit ticket and the student finds help on Monday for it. And that's the kind of turnaround that we want to get really good at in our schools. and the ones especially the ones that you uh specifically pointed out that is exactly what was happening in those particular schools. So >> thanks appreciate that. I just had one other question for the secondary folks um which was about students electing to take online courses versus uh inerson courses and like if you're seeing any major differences in performance there or you know kind of how that looks. >> It's a really good question and I'll go back to the complexity. There's a lot of complexity there. And so I think that's going to take us doing a deeper dive into which students are selecting to do online and which students are finding success in online versus not finding success. Uh and then I think there's a lot of questions about what's driving students to take an online course versus an in in-person course. And one of the things I'm really proud of is uh and if you have a chance to go back and look at that video, we we have teachers that teach online and that are in our brick-andmortar schools. And they are collaboratively working together to ensure that the level of instruction, the level of rigor in those math classes is the same independent of which modality you take that class. And so that's where we really are putting our energy right now to ensure that students are are getting the same instruction independent of of where they're at. Can I just add one more thing to that? Um, excuse me. I would also add I think we're into year four of SwashSco online. Is that correct? Year four. I'm Um, and there's been a lot of work done uh since the beginning of uh the online delivery to continue to chart out what the expectations are for the online learning environment as our teachers are incredibly talented and harnessing them to cast a vision of what does effective learning look like in online. um so that any new teacher that's coming in understands what the expectations in the framework. Um the other thing I would say is we've discussed actually since receiving some of your questions as well is what what is the value of maybe taking some of our standardized um testing AP something that's external as a measurement to compare online and I think and again without looking at it deeply yet I would um predict that there's a lot of success on our online students um and partially in part because of who is attracted to those classes in the first place the independent >> and then my my other like just comment was that and you can correct me if I'm wrong some of the students are taking the sokco online courses and then some are electing to go elsewhere right and so that would be interesting to learn if that is also impacting right because the quality of the instruction is obviously monitored much more closely in house thank you okay we will move on to 6.0 and that is our information items. We do have two this evening. The first one is 6.1 and that is audit audit results and that will be introduced by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. >> Well, good evening everybody. So, I know that this is one of my couple exciting. We get revised budget or original budget revised budget uh levy preliminary and final. And drum roll please, we get the annual audit report. So, um I'm excited to have uh Erin Nielson who's principal with uh LB Carlson. So, that may look I believe Simei had commented. She said uh I had to Google it. So, you may recall last January we had mentioned they had just been um merged with LB Carlson. They used to be called MMKR was our audit firm. So, they completed our um audit here and have issued our reports and we've sent them off. There is one um the single audit they the guidance came out very late um I believe in November. I'll look at Aaron and so um I believe it was in November itself that the guidance from the uh federal government came out for that specific so that's our federal funds so we'll um do that by uh March I believe right now we're just having a usually I would click backwards so now we'll see if Aaron can click backwards or not u that's why I let Kelly do it um >> to that end I said I'm really excited to have him here but I just really like to first of all thank very much the finance team as well. So Nikki Kasler, our accounting manager especially who is the kind of primary contact for the audit and does a significant amount of work. Um it's kind of our life. I think sometimes we joke that we have budget and audit season and so this kind of starts in July and wraps up in December and um but also our the rest of our finance team as well. Um Amy Tarman, our new Patty Marks and Shay Odin um as well as Dina Moreno and Mary Beth Collins as well. So without them and along with a lot of support from the staff um in our buildings that help make us be successful each year. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Aaron. Um and then just a note that we are we'll just look for approval at next board meeting and that we will be applying for the certificate of excellence again. We did receive it for 19th year um for our last year and we anticipate hopefully receiving number 20 this year. So with that, I'll turn it over to Erin. >> Great. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening. Um, I'm sure the only person more excited is Chris to put another year behind her and get to work in two instead of three. Um, I'll I'll try to remember and share with the group that I'm looking backwards. So, we're actually talking about June 30th, 2025. Um, okay. Thank you. So, uh, looking backwards to June 30th, 2025, which is good to reflect on how did the budget compare to the results and and do adjustments need to be made moving forward? But with that, I'll move through the information pretty quickly because I know you're well into the next year and already planning the following year with budget and levy and all that information. So, we start with our role as independent auditors uh to provide an opinion on those financial statements. We also issue our reports as required for internal controls and compliance under government auditing standards and as required by the office of the state auditor for the legal compliance manual. And getting right to it with the audit results. So the district financial audit, you may have noticed we've issued what is known as an unmodified or a clean opinion on the basic financial statements. So exactly what you're looking for uh with that opinion on the financial statements. So meaning they're fairly stated as of June 30th, 2025 and for the year then ended. Uh you'll note that we did have an emphasis of a matter paragraph again this year. So they keep adding Gazsby standards. I've probably commented in the past. I think when I started my career, we were on Gazsby 32 or 33 and now we're uh technically there's been 104 issued. We've implemented through 101 now. Um with regard to the internal controls and compliance for the financial statement audit, um that's the report of government auditing standards. So you're actually required of it because of two reasons. uh the state of Minnesota requires it under government auditing standards and then because your federal awards are in excess of $750,000 you are also required to have that audit completed for the single audit which requires it to be under government auditing standards as well. So as you can see we're pleased to report we had no material weaknesses or instances of non-compliance with our testing completed in that area. uh the Minnesota legal compliance audit. There's seven broad categories uh bid laws, cash and investments, public indebtedness, just a couple of areas. And then if they don't fit into some broad categories, they have a miscellaneous category. So if there's a statute that specifically needs attention or they want uh special look at it, they can add the question into that area. And we're pleased to report that we had no instances of non-compliance to report with regard to that. And as Miss Blackburn pointed out, u we put a slide in here just to mention that federal single audit. Um the guidance I believe was issued about the weekend of Thanksgiving. Uh so uh we weren't able to issue that at the same time the financial audit was completed and we'll be getting that completed and the deadline for that is actually March 31st. So we will absolutely be able to complete that before the deadline for that audit is required. Our next slide is the adjusted ADM or I'd say average daily membership for acronym uh representing simply the students that you're serving or an average of the students that you're serving over throughout the year. Uh this past year that amounted to 19,220 students uh representing an increase of about 211 students over the prior year. The key to that graph that we share with you is simply that the primary funding or the largest funding sources uh following the number of students you're serving. So the importance of having good kid counts in the estimates is you know critical in order to make sure your budgets are accurate when it gets to the end of the year in that reporting the financial fund financial trends. So it's and I should point out the general fund. So the next several slides are the general funds slides that we've included. It is your primary operating fund. Uh the financial trends, the position we've included here, the key couple of key indicators, cash and investments, unrestricted fund balance. Uh as you can see both of those components on increase this past year, which I would say is consistent within the growth of the size of the organization. So, we like to see that kind of steady relationship. Uh, as the size of the organization is growing, you're going to need more uh capital or equity to be able to operate and from a day-to-day basis as well as having the liquidity to meet the demands and pal salaries and payables that operate the district from a day-to-day basis. The next slide, we break down the components of the equity or known as fund balance for a governmental fund and the general fund. So as you can see here really the percentages worked out pretty pretty consistent with the prior year. So unrestricted fund balance a slight decrease from the prior year uh that unassigned fund balance seeing a slight increase from the prior year. So unrestricted capturing all three components of that uh committed fund balance, assigned fund balance and then unassigned fund balance. uh for your district. You can see that assigned fund balancing a decrease from five million to two million. And it's pretty straightforward for your district because the only assignment you have is for that subsequent year budget deficit. So for the year ended June 30th 25, we know you've adopted your budget for 26 already. And in the fiscal year 24, you'd anticipated a larger deficit spending than you have projected for 26 at the time we're closing your books for 25. So when you're deficit spending, we're we're kind of calling out those dollars as they're set aside because they won't be available already. You've accounted for them or called for them to in essence balance your budget in in a different format. uh you've again met your fund balance policy even this year I think last year was the first year you met the new fund balance policy that was adopted and the goal was by 26 if I'm not mistaken so um the importance of that you met that goal which I know was challenging and cost sacrifices to get there um but you met it two years early and cons consistently have met that now for two years uh hitting that target A couple more slides for the general fund as you can see here. So, uh the looking at the major sources of revenue for the general fund operation. Uh similar to the prior year that we presented, total revenue for the general fund to really share with the public, the size of the operation of the general fund for 2025 was $346.5 million. uh as that's reflecting as you can see compared to the prior year in the graph an increase over the prior year and then compared to the budget it was within about 1.7% or 1.7% and over budget so as conservative auditors we like to see our revenues coming in over budget um and and that was the case for you uh the other comment I generally make and continue to share with you is that you can see the state sources and the reliance of our schools Innesota uh to finance general fund operations coming from state sources then followed by property taxes uh similar to what I've been presenting at other districts and will be for the rest of the month. Uh property taxes in your case making up 70% and followed by or state sources at 70.5 70.2% and property taxes at 25.5%. So 95% of your sources in those two components. uh and that seems to be pretty consistent from district to district. The mix between the two might be slightly different based on uh tax base but uh between the two it generally is right at that level. When we look at your expenditures a similar graph uh when you look in your annual comprehensive financial report you'll see the focus is on the programs administration elementary and secondary regular instruction. So we give you a little different angle on that presentation in the management report which is where all these slides have been pulled from. Uh we look at it by the object category, salaries, benefits, purchase services as you can capital expenditures. Uh this past year spending in the general fund was about $346 million. Uh expenditures did come in over budget uh by 1.8% 8% but I'll sidebar that a little bit with the fact you can see it's in your capital expenditures here and those dollars that you're over spent there was largely due to other financing sources. So when you enter lease that's rel that's reported below revenues below expenditures and that offset exactly the amount of those lease amount in capital expenditures. So, uh, if you'd met those other financing sources that offset that budgeting capital, you would have been within the expenditures allotted by the board to be spent by the budget managers of the district. Uh, the other comment I the last probably of the this slide I'll share tonight, you can see uh the importance of tight budgets with salaries and benefits as in having a good handle on that as your district's had for many years. Uh you can see the salaries com and benefits making up a majority of the spending this past year making up almost 75% uh of the expenditures within the general fund to educate the students of the district. Shifting gears to a couple of the other operating funds that you have. uh we talk about the food service fund, the community service fund and I've grouped them on one slide really uh because of the scale of the operations of each of them. Uh I would consider your district one of the larger ones in the state and uh even the activity in these funds really I it is significant. There's a lot of activity within each of these funds and active funds. Um but in relationship to the over 300 million you have in the general fund, it's much less than that. Uh looking at that year-end fund balance for the food service, uh you can see that fund balance has built up in the last couple of years and um really in a healthy financial position. Uh the fund balance grew this past year as you can see better than anticipated and largely due to some timing with capital expenditures. it was a capital uh spending was the biggest variance from the budget to actual components when you compare that on the financial statements looking deeper in there. Um one comment I always share is making sure you're managing those budgets as well within the realm of what's allowed and the percentages. uh they generally look at the food service fund because there's federal funds more directly involved with this fund with a cap or a limit of 3 months operations using a 9month season because of the school year. Um so I generally start talking about it when you're at 33% and you are above that at this time but the MDE works with you. they'll reach out and notify you and and there are are specific reasons you districts will run into that and a lot of it is typically capital needs and building funds and resources because you're only able to purchase those capital uh needs out of those funds if you have positive fund balance. So, um and and with the delay in capital spending, that's one of the reasons you have a larger fund balance this year than what was anticipated. A little different story with the community service fund as you can see. And uh as a conservative auditor, we always talk about the importance of fund balance. As you can see, this fund has now fallen to a deficit financial position. Um I've had to tailor my comments and learn from your district as well from the other side, not just being a auditor and conservative per individual with the finances. Uh I realize there are many reasons why you would run into that situation with programming getting students into the schools and and that investment into the kids into their education when they're young. Um but the importance for you to realize is some of the components uh have have created larger deficit amounts and just making sure you're aware of that with the budget process. uh you are allowed to have these deficits at times, but as to how long you can do that is really based on the MDE looking at that and will they recover from the from the community service fund on their own or does that become part of the plan and budgeting even with the general fund. So we always say we like to see them operate self-sufficiently but you may have goals that make that difficult with that. So it just becomes part of a broader plan and I don't want to focus just on one fund because it might be a bigger picture on that. And then my last slide. So to this point we've been talking about the governmental funds. So I'm stressing that because there's a different uh viewpoint. So we've got a dual perspective view in the current reporting standards. So when we talk about the governmental funds, it's a short-term perspective with the focus getting to fund balance, current financial resources, what's available to uh the management and the board to uh be able to run the programs that you want and invest into the education, the buildings, and all the needs that go along with educating students and running a district. Um, so there's a that component is not capturing long-term assets, long-term liabilities when you look at just that snapshot of those funds. So you can see there aren't any capital assets when you look at the general fund balance sheet. You get that long-term perspective with the entitywide financial statements. So we capture the activity of the capital assets in the ongoing year and then also incorporating the long-term uh debt debt the liabilities of the organizations. So what we've done is on the top half is a reconciliation from those governmental funds. uh you can and there's if you look in the financial statements the first financial statements actually is the last slide starting with that entitywide presentation and then transitioning to the fundbased financial statements and there's reconciliations that show you those differences. So we've summarized that with the slide before you this evening and then the lower half really focuses on that equity or net position when we're talking long term. Uh, as you can see, the net investment in capital assets increased significantly this past year. You're right in the middle of a large bonding project and a lot of construction ongoing. That would be your capital fund. Uh, you can see that really correlates closely with the total capital assets and added depreciation this past year. Um, but what also is captured there is how fast you're paying down the related debt on those uh assets that support it. So, we like to see the increase there. It means you're paying your debt down faster and investing in capital at a faster pace than the depreciation on the buildings. Um, but it's important to note that that doesn't provide additional resources that can be injected directly into programming of the district because it's tied up in your infrastructure, the buildings of the organization. the restricted. We're capturing the dollars that you receive largely from state sources and with specific requirements and how those dollars are utilized. Long-term facilities maintenance, operating capital is a couple examples. There's basic skills funding and a number of other categories. Debt service would be there uh that we talked about some of that increase. And then the unrestricted category captures everything else. So this year as I almost maybe my first slide talked about that change in accounting principle with Gazsby 101. It was for compensated absences. So the Gazsby governmental accounting standards board changed how we account for capital or for uh compensated absences, vacation, sick leave, those types of liabilities of the district. uh in the past that history or the requirement to acrue for that was based on what would be the dollars the district would have to pay if you shut your doors in essence really to simplify it it'd be and and what we find is most places don't pay out their sick leave um teacher groups for instance is your driving group then in that category there isn't a there's some but a lot of that's been limited and grandfathered in where some people don't get that benefit any longer Um the current standard now that we had to implement this year is to look at the focus of how many outstanding balances are there out there that could be utilized in the future and you're making an estimate of how many of those sick days will be used in the future by those existing teachers and carry over. Um so really more of a full acrruel private industry look like a vacation day. So vacation day we would acrue that liability because we know you were going to pay it in the past anyway or the person would use it. A sick day um the in we'll acrue it now where we wouldn't because the district would budget for that because they know they're going to pay a teacher their full salary the next year. And so it didn't matter if they took a sick day or they um or they were there teaching because it didn't cost them any more than that budget one year salary amount. And then they would have to also budget for an estimate of how many substitutes and so on that would fill those needs when that individual was off on a sick day. So I'm I know it gets a little difficult trying to get to the detail of it, but I wanted to point it out because of that is the driving factor to that unrestricted where you see a a decrease in the unrestricted debt position. So it may have raised alarms for you and you didn't negotiate anything differently to your union employees or any of your uh you know uh employee groups. It was simply how the accounting had to be changed to capture the new reporting requirements of sick leave. So with that I know I went through a lot of information. I know your acter is over 150 pages long, but I I didn't want to dwell on the past, so I know you're moving forward and save some time for questions and I'm happy to stay as long as you want and cover any areas. >> Does anybody have any questions? Um, thank you. This was super interesting. Um, I'm not going to lie, I love the audit day. So, um, so my my question for you Okay, I'm I'm still a little bit confused about the new standard and how that has negative negatively impacted our unrestricted like so is the old standard. So the old standard you were saying that we took the if we were closing our doors we took basically the current cash value like the net present value of all of those acred days >> if you would pay them out. So had to pay them out today. >> So the biggest one is sick days and uh majority of those if at the end of their career if they didn't use their sick days uh I can't remember you have a group of teachers that do get them but not everybody gets them paid out. >> There's a very small group left. So for context typically that you would say what's due next year like what are we going to pay out in cash next year for those compensated absences. Um, so when we maybe pay out vacation at the end if somebody terminates or um for some groups that there's vacation payout after a certain amount of time, that's what used to be reflected, right? Just kind of that one year, here's what's due next year. Um, now what shows is as if everybody there's an actual I'll say a dollar value beyond just that salary piece, right? So even though they're not Oh, don't get me started. Gazsby 101, Erin and I might retire by Gazsby 110. Um, just kidding. But I said it's some of those crazy things. So we don't spend a lot of time when I used to audit too, we don't spend a lot of time typically on the district-wide statements because that's not how we operate. We operate daytoday on the fund based financials. And so while certainly still important and it's important for this group to be aware of that to know that these have all of our possible debt um in there, it's kind of there's items in here that they call deferred inflows and deferred outflows that I call the madeup assets and liabilities. um it's it's just a very different perspective and it was their attempt to try to make it a business-like concept. And so um it doesn't always align with governmental accounting, right? That's not how we operate. And so the challenge in that happy to have a conversation about that um later on because it's there's a lot of nuance to it and I could show you how to look up Gazby's if you really want. Um but it is it just reflects then that they're um so do you remember implicit rate subsidy? We've talked about that maybe on the OPED >> similar to that where there's a kind of inherent cost to that but we're already covering the cost right >> okay >> maybe might be the best >> and I'll try to say and maybe in a different manner so vacation days right um your district always acrewed those entitywide only and it wouldn't be a fund base because it's long-term you would acrue those we would set up a liability for those because either the individual would use them or if they retired or quit they would get paid them. Sick days are different for a majority of your individuals that if they once they retire or quit, they don't they're not compensated for unused balances. The new standard now says, are they more likely than not to be used for the remainder of their career? So, you really might just be paying them as days off for the rest of their career when they get sick and take a day off. And now we have to acrew it acrew it as a liability today because they earned that sick day previously. And so it's matching up the year they acrewed and earned the sick day in the year they did that versus when they used it. In the past we'd only record that expense when they used it. >> Okay. >> So >> So we're we have to acrew it now. >> Yes. Because it's available to them. It carries over to the future >> and then whatever however many sick days carry over. We have to carry that liability over >> if you more likely than not that they'll use it. So if I was an employee, I had sick days of 100 days, then Chris would be analyzing that to say, okay, how many years does Aaron have left to utilize a 100 days? How many does he typically use in a given year? So there's lots of assumptions. So you'll notice that's one of the big assumptions we put in there is estimates. It's probably one of the biggest estimates in that NAD wide financial statements because you know there's going to be a group of people that utilize all of them for all the wrong reasons, right? They get sick at the end and are at later in their career and have to use many of the days. You'll have the group of people that have the fortunate health and never take a day. And so all these assumptions come into play is that more likely than not how many of those sick days that are available to use will ultimately either be used or paid upon retirement. In the past, we'd only pick up the ones that were paid upon retirement. And we wouldn't have to pick up the ones that simply would be used in the future because they would be expensed and budgeted and planned out every year with the annual budget process. >> Okay? And so we have to carry then all of that liability as like 100% of the value. We can't like discount that because we think okay they're really going to use it in five years so it's worth less today than it is five years from now. >> For the dollars for days that you say okay we'll pay you know some contracts will read we'll pay you this amount that doesn't match their daily rate of pay. It might be a dollar amount you pay per day. You use that dollar amount. Um, if I had 200 days, but I you thought I'd only use a 100red for the rest of my career. You'd only acrew a 100. You're making an estimate of even how many. But we got to use your current rate of pay at the date of the closing of the books. >> Okay? >> Because I haven't made more with a bigger salary in the future till the next day. That gets captured next year when we do the estimate again. And then what happens with the reconciliation of what is actually used versus what we recruit or that just happens like in a future year. >> It in essence happens naturally because you you it you pay the people as you go through the year of what they actually use, right? Either the sick day or their salary and then you estimate the liability again at the next year and it's the difference that change that runs through the adjustment entitywide. >> Okay. So >> um and then same my other question was around like our long-term liabilities for pension. So I was reading that that's a prorated amount for TRA and parah correct. So is that like the the global TRA and then because we are X percentage of Well, maybe you could just describe it. >> Yeah, I was gonna leave you to it because that's a very very accurate description. So it really is it's the statewide they basically say and what's our percentage thereof and so again kind of to Aaron with this one where it's if we would you know TRA is not in PR are not paid that way right at the end they don't send us a bill and we pay it right we collect as we go and we pay that in and so but it makes the assumption that if the statewide program would just close its doors to use Aaron's term what would our potential liability be to that so again it's that percentage thereof that we are of that whole >> okay and so what this this is again another bill that's never really going to come through. >> Correct. 100%. >> And then my last and this is so dumb, but my last one was when I was reading through the one of the reports and I would see that there's like a difference between the audit and the gaz and the eupars of like $2 or whatever. Are those rounding errors? Like what is the >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, our financial statements use whole dollars and the pennies and then you've got >> 80,000 accounts or how many accounts? I don't >> not quite 80. >> Close. 20 >> 20,000 accounts. >> How is there a $1 difference between these? Okay. >> Yes. >> I won't tell you. >> Is there a point? Erin, is there a point when we're going to stop using the penny in school districts? >> We don't use them. >> I would say we don't use them on budget either. So, um I would just like to thanks to Erin as well and I'll make sure if there's any other questions too, but I did realize as I was very kindly thanking my team that poor Amber Shower is out on maternity leave and so I just totally overlooked saying her name. So, I would also like just to thank her and I hope she's having a beauty and maybe not actually watching this meeting, but I still want to thank her. So, I'm enjoying her beautiful little girl. So, any other questions? >> This was awesome. Thank you. Okay. And thank you, Erin, very much again for the time. >> Thanks to your staff. >> One more question. Perfect. Um, in reading the reports, there's a lot of restricted fund balances that get kind of accumulated over time and I was just curious, you know, if they are set aside for specific reasons why they start to acrue over time in some of these different areas. >> Yeah, that's a great question. So, I would say most I would for most commonly it's timing. So, often that maybe what the state gives us in aid that maybe there's some timing in that expenditure. Some years it's um in some will kind of predate probably even me that maybe there was a collection of funds at some point that maybe there was uncertainty of exactly how we wanted to spend those dollars at some point or a decision got made differently to leverage a different dollar um different source right for an expenditure. Sometimes um some of the experience will fall into multiple buckets but most commonly it's timing Elizabeth and so for example student activity and they're each one of them is very different in the kind of why and sometimes we need to save up a little money for um I'll look at Kelly we were talking curriculum tonight right with the um TLS team and so sometimes we know that we have a coming spend for something and so sometimes we'll retain purposefully a little bit of those dollars like hey we need to carry a little fund balance or in a rainy day sort of way. So um operating capital might be one that if we have a special assessment we could utilize those dollars. So we want to make sure like hey do we have anything coming there student activity accounts um are of the students by the students for the students under the advisement of an um adult and so they really oftentimes are um collecting an example would be maybe collecting money for um a trip that's coming right and so they might collect some funds or for multiple years and then have that big expenditure when they have maybe a trip to Florida or such um and so for a variety of reasons but most commonly I would say it's timing um and then the state requires that they we do set them aside and not spend them on other re so we can say oh well there's kind of in this collection that maybe we had some challenge in spending or timing we are not allowed to take it and spend it on anything else other than the statutory allowed purposes >> thanks for the explanation I think one of the things that as I was reading it I just wanted to ensure that like sort of the public knew that if there was money set aside for special education and resources for like those kinds of things we are spending those down because we're servicing these students right as their needs are coming up but there are these other things that you maybe don't see as clearly and why we would hold that. Thanks. >> Absolutely. Well, thanks again everybody. So, we'll see you in well for revised budget next, I guess. So, but thanks Erin again for um and they're always a pleasure to work with. So, at next board meeting again just that we'll look for acceptance. So, thank you >> and thank you Chris for all your work on this audit. Thank you. >> Okay, we will move on to 6.2 and that is our proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie Nielsen, superintendent. Good evening and thank you. Um this evening I am bringing forward six policies. There is one policy policy 104 um just one in the 100 series and that is 104 school district mission statement. Um after being reviewed with the board committee there are no proposed changes. Um 716 uh employee recognition there is just a a proposed change regarding the uh monetary and statutory updates. 718 the district credit card program. Um, there is just a staff title change and that is Chris's title to director of business services policy 17 and 721. I'm always amazed sometimes when I look back at some of our policies policies like what does that policy really say? And they're already state statute. So for both um 719 authorization to solicit bids, there is a state statute. Um so the recommendation is to delete that policy. And then 721 is very routine and regular nutrition services practices. There is currently no MSBA policy. So the recommendation from the group was to delete. And then finally, policy 7:30, postissuance debt compliance, um section, there was an update to section three, um which dealt with the requirements of that particular policy. Um so this evening, uh we are open for conversation from board members. >> Does anybody have any comments or questions regarding any of those policies? Okay, Dana, did anyone sign up? >> No. >> Okay. then this will come forward as our ne at our next meeting to vote on. Okay, with that we will move on to 7.0 reports and comments. Uh superintendent, thank you again. Um while we started back the school year and it was a lot of happy new year. Um the kids were excited to be back in school and teachers shared with me that they gave students the opportunity to talk because if they didn't give them the opportunity to talk and to engage, they were going to do it while the math lesson was being taught or the writing lesson was being taught. And so um I talked to one teacher at the grocery store and he told me he said a high school teacher he said I just gave in 20 minutes just talk to each other, catch up, connect. Um, but it's so exciting to have the kids back in school. Um, and with that happy new year, um, I do want the board to know and our community know that today and this week we have spent an enormous amount of time u making sure that our kids are safe. Um, and so I have a statement to read. Um, this afternoon all of our families should have received an email letter from me with the subject keeping all students safe. Um, as we're aware, the immigration enforcement activity in Minnesota has visibly increased. This increase in immigration enforcement activity while school is in session has caused families and students to question whether everyday routines, getting on the school bus, coming to school before and after school athletics and activities, field trips, or even going out to recess are truly safe. Unfortunately, we cannot control or guarantee what happens outside of our schools. But we can promise that safety in our schools is the top priority. We will continue to implement our visitor and volunteer procedures in all schools and have taken the time with all of our leaders um our from our school principles to our office staff to review that protocol. In addition, we are grateful to our community for the secured entryways that uh do not allow access into any of our learning spaces. Um, and when I talk about that procedure, um, this means that any adults entering our buildings will not be allowed into student learning spaces unless they have a valid educational reason. And that does not change from our existing um visitor and volunteer procedure. Uh, we we have worked hard every day to build trust with our students and their families. And I want everyone to know our job as educators is to care for each and every one of our students and ensure their safety. And that could not be more in the forefront um as we navigate this week. As I have shared with our own staff, every interaction we have with others matters. All of our students belong here and I want our students, our staff, and our families to know that they are valued members of our school community and we welcome them in every single day and we will do whatever it takes to make sure that while they're under our watch that they are safe and well cared for. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any board members have any events to report? >> Okay, we'll move on to 8.0 and that is our future meeting dates. We have a meeting here on January 22nd. It is a business meeting at 6 PM and then on February 5th we have a workshop meeting here at the district service center also at 6 pm and that with that 9.0 and we are adjourned.