Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Good evening. It is Thursday, December 11th at 6 p.m. We are at the District Service Center in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the land of the Midawakatan Dakota people. Midawakan means dwellers of the Spirit Lake. Our first item on their agenda is roll call. Dana. >> Louise Hines >> here. >> Ryan Clark >> here. >> Sharon Vanier is absent. Eric Tesmer is absent. Melinda Dos >> here. >> Sydney Pnak >> here. >> Katie Schwarz >> here. 2.0. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. 3.0 is approval of our agenda. Can I get a motion to approve an amended agenda adding 8.3 tenative agreement with United Teachers of South Washington County and 8.4 the tenative agreement with Southw South Washington County Schools bus drivers and bus assistants. So move second. association. Sorry, that was motioned by Simmyi, seconded by Melinda. Any comments? >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion passes. Okay. 4.0 is our student highlight on Sophia. So, and that will be pres introduced by Julie Nielsen, superintendent. >> Good evening. Um, I am so excited. I had the opportunity a couple of months ago to um take a look at uh Sophia's artwork at Eastridge High School. Now, interesting on the day that I visited Eastridge High School, um what we what Sophia knew is that she had received one of the highest scores on her AP art exam of a five, which is absolutely outstanding. And what Sophia did not know is that she scored a perfect 100. Like never happens, rarely happens. and here she is a student in Southw Washington County schools. So, we had the operation or the opportunity at Eastridge High School to host a small ceremony um with her mom. And so, mom, thank you for being here um with her to celebrate the recognition. But after listening to her and how she put together her portfolio, we thought it would be really valuable for our board to hear about the work of a top art student in our district as well as the people in the audience and our community at large. So, Sophia, I'm going to invite you up to the mic. Okay. Um, so I was a part of the AP Art and Design class here at Easter, which is a um a course where throughout the year you're working on a portfolio. There are three types of portfolios that you submit. There's a 2D portfolio, a 3D portfolio, and then a drawing portfolio. I selected 2D portfolio to submit my portfolio, which is made up of two separate parts. The first is selected works. This is Jared based uh purely upon technical ability. So you can see the furthest art piece there of the pool scene. That was one of the pieces that I submitted for my selected works and that was judged based off of technical ability once again. Then the more important part of the portfolio was this part of a sustained investigation is what it's called. So, at the beginning of the year, you come up with an inquiry question, something that you want to discover and evolve in through your art pieces throughout the year. And for me, that question I chose was, "How do I reckon with my cultural identity?" As an Asian-American, I grew up in so uh in an American society. I was born in Fullerton, California, and very much immersed in um American culture, right? I spoke English and I only learned Chinese as a secondary language in elementary school and it was not connected with my family. My parents didn't speak it at home and because of that I felt this great alienation. So throughout my portfolio through my pieces I kind of explored my journey in accepting my own cultural identity as a Chinese American. In my in the second piece from me, the one with my head split open. Um that is one of the first pieces in my portfolio and it kind of represents a juxtaposition between my outside which uh visibly I am Chinese American. I am Chinese. I possess Chinese features. I look Chinese to other people. Whereas inside my brain and who I really am could really be anything. And because I grew up in an American culture, I am fully American and there's nothing that can separate that from my identity. Now in the corner there's a a bunch of chicken eggs and in one of them you can see a little chicken embryo and this represents the beginning of my portfolio where I will extend this metaphor of a chicken representing my Chinese identity but currently it is in its shell and it is in its embryotic phase which shows how there's endless opportunity to what I could develop into similar to how my brain while developing and taking in all the environment and the stuff um around me I become who I am. Um, the third piece from me, the one with my chest foot open, is one of the last pieces in my portfolio. And this kind of shows the end where I accept that that chicken representing my Chinese identity is fully a part of me and inseparable from my identity. That even though I don't I didn't speak Chinese at home, even though I didn't go to China, I didn't I wasn't born in China, I was still fully Chinese as I am fully American. >> [applause] [applause] >> So, is she not only an incredible artist, but an incredible speaker? And Sophie, why don't you go ahead and stay up at the mic? Um, this really is a display of the rigor um and the talent that we have in South Washington County schools. And almost every day, if not a couple of times a day, I'm sure leaders out there will say, "Oh, she says it m multiple times. We have the most amazing students and Sophia, thank you for coming to share. I'll just ask board members if you have any questions for Sophia. Sophia about her portfolio. >> I do. Um, is this on? Yes. Okay. Um, so my question really I'm terrible at art, right? Which like [laughter] I told you beforehand I don't, you know, like a smiley face would be outside of my capabilities. And so looking at this, which is all, you know, amazing. I guess my question is like what what is your process for doing this doing creating the art right and how did your you know what how did you work with your teacher to like support your journey as you're creating this >> for sure yeah it's actually a very interesting journey to how I got to this class I initially so I've classically trained in a bunch of mediums from painting to paperiermâché as you can see some of my pieces on the table over there are 3D And this was at a private art studio called Studio 7. However, during this private art studio, I was trained to replicate images, right? So, I took magazines, I tore out pictures and I would directly copy from that. That uh pool painting was a studio piece and it is direct replication of another image. Right? But during my art portfolio, you can't do that because it actually in a technical way, it complicates copyright and everything like that. So just to keep things simple, I often took my own images and not only that, but I had to draw from myself. When it came to my portfolio, obviously it's a very personal thing. So there's no image that I look up online that I can just copy from. And this was a huge change from what I thought the course was to what it actually ended up being. And I feel like it really developed me as an artist and as like a person who creates art. It's no longer a superficial like shallow thing that's purely like um cosmetic I guess what's I don't know the word exactly but now it's something that I can draw from myself my own issues and my own inspirations and so touching on the piece of how I develop my pieces from the beginning uh we go through a brainstorming u where we just go on a simple piece of paper and just draw out simple thumbnail sketches and trying to solidify these ideas and what I'm trying to portray in these pieces. Once I have something that's mostly finalized, an idea in mind, I usually have um an artistic vision for the piece. Now, during the artistic process, it's often really frustrating because I have a vision of what I want it to look like, but the thing on paper is not what I want it to look like. And so during that process, you're just working with different mediums and you're trying different techniques to really get it to what you want it to look like and how you want to portray your ideas. And so oftent times for me, a lot of my pieces are painting. So we'll start by blocking in colors and blocking in where I want areas to be and then really going in with the details and rendering out those details. [clears throat] >> Hi Sophia, I have a question. Actually, two questions. One of them is when you're submitting a portfolio art like that for an AP, um, are the pieces supposed to be all connected somehow or where they tell a story all together or could you have done like four separate things because I love how they're all connected somehow? And then I also this next question is what's your favorite piece and why? [laughter] >> That's a hard question. So I'll start with the first one. Um, so the AP portfolio that I submitted to, so there are 2D, 3D, and drawing. drawing is more of like a technical one whereas 3D and 2D each have that sustained investigation piece and the selected works piece. So for the selected works portion of the portfolio again it's purely like judged upon technical ability. So these can be completely separate pieces and so for example that pool piece and then if you look on the table over there I don't know if you can see it very well but there's a dog piece and those were some of the paintings that I created at the studio and I submitted for my selected works for my technical ability. However, the main like juice of the portfolio is the se uh sustained investigation which should um should be a developing story throughout my portfolio. [clears throat] And if you look from the beginning piece and all these other pieces that um come around, there's some pieces on the table that represent different areas of my journey through to self-acceptance in the end. And so I go through stages of where I feel undeserving of how I look and my Asian features. I feel that I'm not Chinese enough, that I don't deserve to be Chinese in a strange way because I was so American. But then near the end, I find that it's not mutually exclusive, and there's this accepting nature where Chinese is a part of my blood. It's a part of my body. It's a part of where I come from. And so yeah, it's all one story, but unfortunately I don't have like all the pieces here. But >> So when you're sending these in, do you send images or do you send like you box everything up and ship it out or how does that work? Like just mechanically? >> Yeah. Yeah. So um when I submit my portfolio, it is just images. And what makes it unique is actually the AP portfolio is 15 images for your sustained investigation. And I don't have 15 pieces, but a lot of these pieces I send um like process images, which is like a collage of all these images that show me going through the different motions of coming up with ideas. I have my thumbnail sketches, my sketchbook sketches, I have the early stages of rendering. I have images of me painting and everything like that. And actually those are are a majority not a majority I would say but a large portion of the images that I submit. And so yeah unfortunately I I mean maybe fortunately I didn't have to box things up. Uh, but it was I feel like it's a lot hold on a big part of how the portfolio is judged not just on the final product, but a lot of that rubric that they judge you on is also on your ability to revise to see your processes and see your ideas and finding new ways to portray them. And these revisions are actually a large part of your sustained investigation. So, I think Sophia, as you wrap up, this was a question I had for her, and that is Sophia, you received this as a junior. You are now a senior at Eastridge High School. We're all thinking perhaps you're going to go into the art business, and um can you tell us what your plans are for your future? >> Yeah. So, I I really enjoy art, so either way, whatever I go into, I'm probably going to end up doing art on the side anyways. But I think my biggest fear against going into art for my future, especially as a career, is a fear that when I take my art and my my ability to produce it and monetize it, that it'll take away from the comfort and from kind of this safe haven that I've created for myself. When it comes to art, oftentimes when my mom knows this, when I get bored of my schoolwork, when I get bored of algebra or calculus or whatever, I go and I draw for a little bit. And it's really that change of pace and it's really a place of refuge for me. Uh, and so if I were to have to study this, if I were to have to be constantly graded on this, I know sounds crazy since I submitted an art portfolio, but I feel like that would take away from kind of the art making process and where it takes its place in my life. Um, moving on to the question, I plan on going premed. I really enjoy the human body. I loved biology a lot. As you can see, I I love the human body. I love painting it. I love learning about it. So, thank you. After she told me that, I was like, "Okay, now I'm making the connection." She's very int. [laughter] But, uh, be reminded that Sophia represents one of our many amazing students in South Washington County Schools. And Sophia, thank you so much for coming and sharing. Congratulations to you. >> Yes. Thank you. [applause] >> That was wonderful. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to 5.0 and that is comments to the board. At this time, individuals may speak to the schoolboard on any item related to South Washington County Schools. The board will not respond to or discuss your comments. Vulgarity, character abuse, or specific complaints identifying staff, students, or task force members will not be permitted. The superintendent may be asked to pre prepare a response to your concerns. The comments to the board period will be held open for up to 30 minutes in total. Each speaker is permitted to speak for up to three minutes in total. The schoolboard will allow up to three speakers per topic. At the three minute mark, the microphone will be turned off and we will move on to the next speaker or the next agenda item. We do have two speakers tonight or two people signed up to speak tonight and that the first one is Jennifer Johansson. [clears throat] Good evening, Chair Schwarz, board members, and Superintendent Neielsen. My name is Jennifer Johansson, and I have worked for Swashkco schools for 20 years. 17 years as a health assistant in the elementary schools and three years as an office coordinator. Like many in our group, we are still currently working without a contract. This fall, our bargaining team came to the table with thoughtful, responsible proposals. Proposals that balanced the needs of the district with the needs of our own families. We approached negotiations with respect, collaboration, and a genuine desire to find solutions. Unfortunately, what we saw in return were unfair proposals, proposals that support some staff members of our group while leaving others behind. That approach does not reflect equity and it does not support the long-term stability of our school's needs. Our group in includes a wide range of employees part-time and full-time with schedules that span from 9 months to 12-month positions. Despite this variety, one thing is consistent. Our pay is among the lowest in the district. Our starting wages are only are only starting wages in all of Swashko that remain below $20 an hour. And our group includes the lowest paid 12-month employees in the entire district. These disparities make it even more important that every member of our bargaining unit moves forward together, not just some. All we wanted this year for Christmas was a fair contract and instead we will be heading into the new year in mediation because we had to seek support from the state to help move this process forward. That is not where we hope to be, but we could not accept proposals that divide our union or push employees backwards. We want a contract that reflects the essential work that we do, the increasing demands of our roles and the cost of living in our community. We want to move forward, not backward. And we want equitable support for all office professionals, not just a portion of us. We remain committed to reaching an agreement that honors the entire bargaining unit. And we asked you tonight to uphold the district's stated commitment to invest in employees and to ensure that investment includes us. Thank you. Thank you. Our next person signed up is Stephanie Olsen. Good evening, Chair Schwarz, board members, and Superintendent Neielsen. My name is Stephanie Olsen, and I'm a proud member of the Office Professionals Union here in SoCo. We are we are currently in negotiations. I'd like to share a little about my own story because it reflects what many in our group are experiencing. I currently work three jobs. I'm a prek substitute assistant teacher. I work weekends as the librarian at the Newport Public Library and Community Center. And I am a full-time media clerk at Greycloud Elementary. Year round, I substitute for Lake Area Discovery Center, a Christian-based preschool program. I take sub jobs on non-contracted days throughout the school year and I fill my summers completely with substitute teaching. On top of that, I work regular weekend shifts at the city library. I have worked in So Washco since 2018, and for all of those years, I have needed multiple jobs just to make ends meet. I haven't had a real vacation in years. Even my social time gets squeezed into errands. I'm going grocery shopping. Do you want to come? I'm running errands. Let's meet for coffee. That's what life looks like when one job isn't enough to provide a sustainable life. During the school year, I work every day as the media clerk at Greycloud. I support our media specialist with teaching, classroom management, maintaining a vibrant and organized library. I curate the collection. I research and help purchase new books. I am carefully removing outdated ones and I am processing and repairing books and making thoughtful recommendations for both students and staff. To my knowledge, I am the only media clerk in Swashko with a degree in library and information technology. I am a an ALA certified librarian and I bring that expertise to our students every single day. I love my school. I love the specialists I work with. We make a strong team and I care very deeply about our students. I'm a lifelong reader and I believe with all my heart that there is a book for every kid and I show up every day hoping that I can find that book for that one kid because those small moments really matter. I want to stay in this job for many years and many in our union feel the same way. We love our work and the families we serve, but it is simply not sustainable to expect staff to work two or three jobs just to get by. We work incredibly hard for so Washco, and one job should be enough. Right now, our negotiations do not reflect that reality. Last month, the district presented a financial package that offered some of our highest pay members a $5 per hour increase. While and while we absolutely support those employees, the same proposal offered less than 50 cents an hour to our lowest paid members. That disparity is not equitable and not acceptable. And last week, the management side of bargaining told us that they would hold that offer instead of continuing to work towards a fair agreement. >> Thank you. We will move on. We will move on to 6.0 and that is our consent items. All consent items are considered routine and non-controversial by the school board and will be approved by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items prior to this meeting. Board members have had the opportunity to review each of these items and may request for any item to be moved to the action items for individual consideration. That did not happen this evening. So, can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second >> motion by semi seconded by Eric. >> Eric. >> Eric. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. 7.0 is our information items and we do have one this evening and that is 7.1 the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness annual report and that will be introduced by Miss Kelly Jansen, assistant superintendent. You have to practice that just to read it out loud. [clears throat] >> You can even remove the artwork if you want. for me. Thank you. [laughter] >> All right. Good evening, board chair Schwarz, board members and superintendent Nielsen. On behalf of our team, Ma Jacobson, our director of program evaluation, research and assessment, and Mockinhopped, early childhood screening coordinator, Joel Mass, director of teaching and learning for elementary, and Mark Mclo, director of teaching learning for secondary. We want to thank you for this opportunity tonight to present our annual comprehensive achievement in civic readiness or CACR if you want to shorten it. Katie, [laughter] [clears throat] before we dive into the data, I want to briefly frame the board governance component of CACR. There are two distinct requirements. First, we are obligated to formally report on the progress we have made toward the goals set forth in the CACR. And second, we are responsible for reporting the strategies developed and implemented to achieve those goals. To satisfy the second requirement, we will be reviewing several key strategies tonight as we walk through each goal area. Additionally, this reporting is supported by the comprehensive curriculum reviews that you have seen us do annually. If you recall, in October, we did the literacy report. In January, we'll do the math. And in April, we will do the science. I would offer, as you saw tonight though, our district is so much more than just this. Um, and yet this is the annual report that we report our progress towards our goals on. So, I'm going to turn it over to the team and then we'll come back to answer any questions. >> Thanks, Kelly. So, what is the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness? It is accountability reporting that all Minnesota school districts are mandated to do. Um, all school districts are required to identify goals and measures in five different areas. These are the five areas. We've reported on them in the past. The one that is new is the fifth one. All students are prepared to be lifelong learners. Um, that was introduced last year and we'll report on those results for the first time tonight. One of the requirements of the CACR is that the measures and goals align with um our strategic plan. So this chart shows the measures across the top row and four of our strategic directions in that first lefth hand column. Most of the measures align with mastery of learning and expectations. Before I dig into the results, I do just want to provide some context and a little bit of history of the current goals and measures. They were um identified nine years ago and they were aligned um with the goals of the state. So, the Minnesota Department of Education. So, you're going to see some 90% um goals and 85% goals. Those um are the state states goals that we aligned um our measures to. So once those long-term goals were set, every year the um goal was just that we would meet um that same incremental change. Um there were some changes since then. So the first change was that we did have to change our school readiness measure and that was because we implemented a new elementary education curriculum and um it had a different assessment. Um, so we changed that a few years ago and then again last year we had the new goal all students prepared to be lifelong learners. Again like Kelly said um this doesn't um define our students and doesn't isn't it it's not a complete picture of the student experience in so schools. The data that you'll see tonight is one measure in time on one assessment or one data point. So the first goal is all children are ready for school. Here we have two measures. The first is the percentage of three-year-old um early childhood screenings that we do. The goal was that 45.3% of all earlyhood ch childhood screenings would be that of five of would be that of three-year-olds. Uh we exceeded that um where 58.6% 6% of our early childhood screenings were that of three-year-olds, which was higher than the Minnesota state percentage of 46.2. So, I will share an overview of early childhood screening in Minnesota, including what it is, why it matters, and what families can expect from the process. In Minnesota, every child has the right to receive a free early childhood screening starting at age three. Early childhood screening is required for all children before they start or before they enter kindergarten in a public school. Screenings are offered by all public school districts, Head Start, and some medical clinics. In our district, early childhood screening operates under the early learning umbrella within community education alongside our early childhood family education or ECF and preschool programs. This structure allows us to pro provide [clears throat] a coordinated family centered experience. [clears throat] The purpose of early childhood screening is three-fold. First, to promote healthy development for every child. Second, to identify any children who may need further evaluation. And third, to connect families with community resources. Screening does not diagnose. According to the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families website, screening seeks to answer the question, does this child need a closer look? Screening helps discover needs and potential concerns and connects families to address those concerns. What can families expect during a screening appointment? Children participate in a variety of brief assessments including checks of vision, hearing, height, and weight. They will also engage in play-based activities that allow us to observe large and small motor development, thinking and problem solving skills, and language and speaking skills. Parents and guardians share information about their child's social emotional development. And there's also a review of immunizations, healthcare coverage, as well as connecting to community resources. We partner with parents to have a positive, welcoming experience for both children and families. With our age three times to screen campaign, we encourage families to complete screening when their child is between the ages of three and four years old. Screening at age three provides the best opportunity for early intervention. Screening may link families to early learning programs and resources such as Head Start, early childhood family education, preschool programs, early childhood special education, early learning scholarships, and other resources. Intervention before kindergarten leads to meaningful academic, social, and economic benefits. Additionally, increased state funding reimbursement corresponds with early screening. To promote awareness, we launched the age three time to three campaign. This promotes an understanding of what screening is and what screening is not. A common misconception is that early childhood screening is a kindergarten screening. The campaign aims to build an understanding within the community about the importance of early screening. We work internally to increase awareness among staff, ensuring that everyone that interacts with families um understands how to support and encourage screening. Parent educators introduce screening to all families in their classes. Screening information is included in the ECF and preschool cataloges, family newsletters, as well as community education constant contact emails to name a few. We provide on-site screening to ECF participants and families learning together where transportation may be a barrier. Many of our community partnerships are established through ECF outreach. This includes public health nurses, childcare providers, and community preschool programs. [clears throat] We partner with community preschools to offer on-site screening for families. Early childhood screening is a part of our strategic plan, which ensures screening is a part of our commitment to supporting students as successful learners. So the second measure for this goal, all children are ready for school, we use um the percentage of kindergarten students reading at grade level by the end of the school year on the um independent reading level assessment um ERA or the anal which is the Spanish version. Um, our goal was that 80% of kindergarten students would be reading at grade level by the end of the school year. Um, in 2425, 65.5% of kindergarten students were reading um, at that proficient level. Um, we do have an additional 15% who have more than a year's worth of growth that can be achieved through accelerated intervention. And because this is a um uh an assessment that is tied to our um um elementary literacy curriculum, there isn't it's not a statewide assessment. We don't have a statewide comparison. So, I wanted to give you a sense of what kindergarten reading looks like today. This slide highlights the skills students are expected to master by the end of the year. These are the building blocks to support reading as they move forward. So, first students learn to read and spell one-cllable words, showing they can apply phonics, hearing sounds, and blending them. Second, they also learn irregular highfrequency words such as laugh and people. These are tricky words that don't often f find the typical rules, follow the typical rules. yet students learn to recognize them automatically so then they can read smoothly. The ultimate goal is for students to bring all of these skills together to read connected text. The passage on the right is an example of what an endofthe-year kindergarten reader is expected to read and comprehend. This is challenging work for a beginning reader and many of our students are rising to meet that challenge. So, yes, there's still lots of work to be done, but it's important to recognize how much our kindergarteners are achieving and how strong their foundation is moving into first grade. So, the second goal is closing racial and economic achievement gaps. For this, we also have two measures, the MCA math proficiency rate as well as the reading proficiency rate. I'm going to start with the math proficiency rate. Um, our goal was that 90% of all students and 85% of all students across groups um would be proficient on the MCA math. In the 2425 school year, 51.8% of all students uh were proficient and then the percentages across um different student groups varied. Um all of our percentages were higher than the states. This is uh a visual showing the uh math achievement levels uh by the different groups. So to be proficient um students have to score in the meet standards or exceed standards. But you'll also see that between 1/5if and one quarter of our students are partially meeting standards. For um reading proficiency, the goals were very were the same. So 90% of all students would be uh proficient on the MCA reading and 85% of students across groups. In the 2425 school year, 54.5% of students were proficient on the MCA reading and again the percentages across groups varied. All of the percentages were higher than the state. And then here again um about one to one quarter of um students were also partially meats. So after looking at our achievement gap numbers, I'd like to start by discussing how we're responding at the elementary level. We're making real progress in building a stronger system to support students. We're not finished yet, but the work is underway and moving us in the right direction. A key part of this work is making sure every student, no matter what school they attend, gets access to the same highquality instruction. That's what we mean by guaranteed and viable curriculum. All students learn the most essential skills and teachers have the time and tools to teach them well. We also use common assessments so teachers across the district can track progress in the same way and know exactly who needs the support. From there, students get help at three levels. Strong everyday instruction for for everyone, extra support for students who need a boost, and some intensive help for students who need additional time and practice. We've also built time into the school day for students to receive this support without missing key important core instruction. As we continue putting the system in place, it will help us to respond earlier, support students more effectively, and continue closing those achievement gaps. >> Good evening. Uh similarly, at the secondary level, uh our main focus is MTSS. This structure is designed, as my colleague mentioned, to systematically measure progress on what matters most for student learning. Here's what that means. Over the past year, our teachers and administrators have been working hard to identify priority benchmarks. We know that the state uh prescribes many standards. These benchmarks though form the foundation for our guaranteed and viable curriculum, ensuring that every student, regardless of school, has access to essential learning and is both challenged and supported to show proficiency. So as my colleague Jolene mentioned, we would consider tier one being about 80 to 85% of our students uh reaching proficiency on those priority benchmarks with strong core instruction. In tier two, then we are providing additional in-class supports strategically uh which could mean small group uh extra time and targeted interventions. And then we know that there are tier three supports that are really needed for about 5% of our students that are much more intense and that would be uh through specialists and interventionists and small uh group one-on-one uh time. We say that MTSS is systematic and we're excited about those students in the middle as well because it's strategic in the sense we have an MTSS leadership team at every site and our PLTS are professional learning teams that consist of teachers uh are studying the priority benchmarks and we'll be uh evaluating the uh results of the common summitives that they're making that will exist across our district. It's also worth noting that middle schools and high schools have uh opportunities for students to retake assessments to show mastery and proficiency and embedded intervention time uh during the school day to uh provide uh some relearning opportunities and also reassessments. Um, I would be remiss without mentioning uh the connection to college and career readiness. And so I'd like to highlight the opportunities that exist for our students uh to also uh help close the achievement gap. Um we have as you're pretty familiar with advancement via individual determination, our AVID program both at the middle school and high school. We have a an online platform that's utilized called Zello which provides opportunities for self-discovery uh career exploration and planning and of course our students all have access to rigorous uh core p course pathways through our API PSO concurrent enrollment and project lead the way uh course offerings. So the third goal area is all students are ready for career in college. Here we look at uh the percentage of students in a graduating cohort who meet or exceed the college readiness benchmark on the ACT reading. This means they score um 22 or higher. Um our goal was that 63% of students would meet this benchmark. For the graduating class of 2025, 48% of students met this benchmark, which was similar with the state uh percentage of 47%. [clears throat] >> So, Dr. Ma's analysis of of these scores, um they it really underscores the the need for continued focus on literacy and and that's an acknowledgement of that. Um, we're confident that the actions that were shared earlier this fall in terms of the high quality intense professional development that was uh uh offered in 2425 and then resurfacing that PD in November 4th uh of this past year. It's going to positively impact scores. Um that said, uh I also want to highlight additional secondary level efforts that support college and career readiness. This means uh you know in terms of our mission we educate students for success. This means that every student graduates prepared for college, career and life. Um in terms of academic readiness, this means providing a rich experience in a 4-year planning uh experience for every student. It means providing access to AP concurrent enrollment and honors courses. Uh we have an AVID program that is implemented at the middle and high school levels to support college career readiness. And then it means engaging in datadriven decisionmaking uh leveraging the preac, the ACT and the PAT results to improve our student experience as well. Uh for career readiness, we also support this goal through providing CTE courses, career exploration inventories. Uh later on this evening, you'll hear about our intent to reorganize and renovate our course guide to make sure that the courses are organized in career pathways so that our students can see the relevancy in the curriculum that they are. The teachers are already showing this day-to-day but just in the organization of the course guide to see that those courses are connected to uh life after high school. And then we also are exploring uh local partnerships with businesses and colleges for internships, job shadowing and uh looking at uh providing opportunities for students to have uh recognized certifications. So the fourth goal is all students graduate from high school. Here we use our four-year graduation rate. Um the goal for this year was that 40 94.6% of students would graduate within four years. Um the most recent data we have is for the graduating class of 2024 where 92.5% of students graduated within four years which is higher than the state percentage of 84.2. So this slide really uh reminds us of the rigorous course requirements that are part of graduating in Swashko. Um it can be seen on the left hand side here and we'll get into this conversation a little bit in our course guide conversation. But at the same time we know it's our responsibility to go beyond the content and to help students develop uh the skills outlined in our profile of a graduate. These skills include building resiliency, strong communication habits, a social consciousness, and critical thinking skills. Providing experiences that build these skills is just as essential as the content because they prepare our students for success when they walk across the stage at graduation. So, as I mentioned earlier, the fifth goal is new. all students are prepared to be lifelong learners. Um for this goal, we used our student survey results and I'm going to just report on the um data and then I'll provide more details. So here we had two measures um based on uh grade level. They are both annual um goals. This uh for 2425 it would be our baseline goal. Uh the first measure is that the percentage of students in grades 5 through 10 would be in the developing or higher level of having lifelong learner skills. Um for our baseline year, we are at 98%. Um and then for students in grades 11 and 12, they would be in the skilled or higher level of having lifelong learners uh learner skills and um the percentage of students who fell in those uh categories were at 86%. Uh the survey um is unique to SoCo so there isn't a state of comparison um but we actually used our profile of a graduate to measure um preparing students to be a lifelong learner. Um so after getting this as a new goal and collecting feedback um we landed back on our profile of a graduate because those four skill areas that Mark had talked about um defined what we saw as a lifelong learner. So you'll see that our survey questions measured those four skill areas and our theory was that those four skill areas um defined what it meant to be a lifelong learner. With our survey results and our scale um we identified four levels of lifelong learner skills. So the first is emerging. These are students who are starting to learn and acquire those skills and apply those skills. uh developing where students are actively building and using those skills with support and encouragement. Skilled where students are independently and consistently applying those uh lifelong learner skills. And then advanced where students are competent, they're confident um and they could very much help you know other students learn and gain those skills. These are the profile of a graduate survey results. Um so for students to receive um a level they have to have had they have to have answered all of the survey questions um for profile of a graduate. I did link in those survey questions if you are interested in taking a look at that. Um for students in grades 5 through 10 there were 25 total survey questions. We had a response rate about 57% where over 5,000 students um responded to all items. for students in grades 11 and 12. There were some additional questions in the being socially conscious area. Um and we had 32% response rate with about a thousand um students responding to all questions. So this is the process of building a scale. The first thing um to do is define and build and we did that um with building that profile of a graduate but also building our survey. Um with the survey I did do student thinkalouds which helped to provide some validity evidence um so that uh the survey questions are understandable and age appropriate um pilot testing and analysis. So we administered the survey in spring of last year and I did some psychometric analyses to look at the structure of our scale. So making sure that the survey items um were measuring those four skill areas and those four skill areas were measuring the trait of being a lifelong learner. Um another analysis that I did accounted for how difficult items were um to endorse as well as provided a reliability um indexed around um student responses as well as how the items were functioning. Um we also set criterion reference standards using the bookmark method with an expert panel and this is a method is commonly used in the education field um to set standards as well as cuto offs. So why did we do this? Um it levels up our survey results. Um it accounts for how difficult some items are um versus others. In other words, some skills are harder to learn than other skills. Um, it also places students on a continuum of having lifelong learner skills rather than just counting how many students responded true to all the questions. Um, and then we also used criterion reference interpretations of the scores uh to focus on what students know and can do rather than how they compare to their peers. Um so to do this um we set standards based on expertise and our expert panel consisted of teaching and learning staff as well as um teachers and a parent. And as we continue to use the scale we'll continue to look at how the scale functions over time as well as across groups. So this year um we did discuss the CACR results with the district data and assessment advisory that is our advisory committee um that is tied to this work. Um the report has been submitted. It is posted in our website. Um but going forward we'll have to u review and revise some of our long long-term goals because they ended last school year. Um so we'll have some new ones for next year. >> Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? >> I do. >> I will try, but I'm gonna guess I'm going to lean on these experts behind me, but >> perhaps. Yes. Um, so a couple of questions for um for the kindergarten reading at grade level. And I had asked Julie about this earlier, so she may have cont passed it along to you. Um, so you know, every time I read anything in the paper about education in other countries, you see like at some place like Finland or whatever, like they don't teach kids to read until they're seven and then everybody knows how to read, right? Um, and so even though we have now and and I remember when I was in kindergarten, um, there was, you know, you'd read during circle time when the teacher read to us, but we didn't we weren't really reading reading that passage that we saw, >> right? We were not reading. Yes. Right. There was none of that. And um and I know you know that different kids develop at different rates, right? And I don't I guess one of the things I think about is our when we when we put benchmarks for a 5-year-old, right, around something like reading if and if evolutionarily children aren't development developing their reading skills, you know, are we sort of setting kids up to fail or are we not thinking about like what happens for those kids who aren't developmentally ready to read like 40 years ago >> they would have been fine and they would be, you know, a doctor or whatever now. And now are we sort of >> Yeah. >> not accounting for the variability within children? >> Yeah, I'll take a stab, but I'm going to guess Delane might have something to add. That is why we were really purposeful with the gold language to say by end of kindergarten. So, it wasn't about kids, it was about schools being ready to teach kids where they are. And so, um, yes. And I would also agree with you, the rigor of reading has been pushed down significantly um into grade levels. So that's why we're like the school needs to be ready to receive the kids that come through our door and we need to teach them where they are. Um and I if you are the kindergarten classrooms are amazing places and kids and teachers do some amazing things. So meeting them where they are is going to be an important component of that. There is also those benchmarks along the way where those interventions are provided. Um we have lots of volunteer readers and things like that that happen in kindergarten. So it is more about the school and the teaching and the learning or the teaching and the pedigogy and the curriculum and everything being ready to make sure we meet the kids versus saying you need to be here. So that's why we did that end of year language versus you need to come into kindergarten reading at this level because we do do the anal in the winter or fall. Do we do it in the fall in kindergarten? >> Yeah. Yeah. So we do do it in the fall. So we also look at growth from fall to to spring too for kiddos. >> So anything you want to add to that, Julian? >> I I would just say I mean it's one of the reasons that the state talks about read well by third grade, right? So, we do not expect that every student is going to get to that passage by the end of the year. That's why we have the whole continuum and we expect that kids will come in with different skills. They'll leave with different skills and we're going to continue to work on it and there's not at any point that we're going to say, "Oh, well, you didn't get it, so we're moving on." So, reading is where a student starts and then we keep moving them forward in there. And so that's a lot why you see small group instruction, one-on-one conferring, um just getting kids where they need to get to for reading. And that's why really that third grade is the setting point because that at that point we really would want to see kids um at grade level. But I did do the passage purposefully just for you to see at what level we are expecting. So when we see 65% of our kindergarteners can read that passage and comprehend it, I mean that's an amazing number for me. Um, so that's really it was intentional to put that in there for you to be able to see really what are we talking about when we talk about kindergarten because if you're just thinking about my own education, you're talking about knowing your letters, >> right? >> Um, and that's not what we're expecting for students now. So I don't know if that answered it. >> No, it it does. It's it's just sort of remarkable to me and I think probably to a lot of other adults like how different school operates now than it did back in our day. You know, I was like super smart because I could write SIM on a piece of paper and two of those letters are the same. [laughter] So, [clears throat] um my other question was around um the partially meats on the MCAs versus the meats and >> the one above meats. exceeds meets and exceeds. Um with the um with for partially meets like what does that tell us about kids or about the cohort? Right? Because like meets and exceeds, you know, okay, this is the state benchmark. This is what the state says they should do. They've hit it. That's fine. Right? Mhm. >> With the partially meets data, is it like, oh, if they had gotten one more question right or five more questions or 100 more questions or whatever it is, like what is kind of what does that tell us about kids? And do we see sort of systemic ways that we are not that we are not hitting bench? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It means could be one question, could be five questions. I wouldn't say it's 100 questions, but you know, um I think it's a ninepoint range. Did you look that up? Like a 550 if a for a fifth grader, 550 would be a meats. >> Okay. >> Um a 650 for a sixth grader would be meets. Someone who scores a 549. However, they do all of their scoring on the back end um is a partially meats kid. >> Okay? >> That doesn't mean he's one question away, right? You know, it just depends on how they have done that scoring. Um, and I believe the last time I looked it up, it was like from 540 to 549 is partially meats. >> Okay. >> Or, you know, something similar to that. We can certainly get that. I think we I think we [clears throat] have that in our presentations for the math, reading, and science when we do those MCA. So, I'll look back at that. But, um, so yeah, I that's what that means. we do when we choose and look at those priority benchmarks, those guaranteed learnings, we look at MCA test specs and we look at where are, you know, where are the benchmarks that we need more practice at. Um, and making sure that we are emphasizing those in those priority benchmarks. That doesn't mean we're not teaching all benchmarks or other benchmarks. Um, it's just those benchmarks that we focus on where we're going to teach and we're going to retach and make sure that kids really understand it. So um so we certainly get the test specs after the fact that we examine and in terms of our curriculum where are the gaps in our curriculum um we're looking at for example morphology right now for elementary um things like that. So we get we get those results we can look at what what are those benchmarks and we do use that for lots of different reasons. >> Okay. And so like the teachers have the benchmarks for their like if I'm a fourth grade teacher, I have what the kids from third grade did on their MCAs that are in my classroom. Correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. You can see the longevity data of a student that is in your class. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um and then I did have one question about the ACT. >> Do we look at any of the other sections at all to assess anything else? Like because I know you said that we look at reading to determine whether or not our kids are ready. There's another like >> the career and college ready. >> College ready. Do we look at any of the other sections to help inform anything else that we might be doing? >> We do look at that at the high school levels in particular. Um our SIP teams, our school improvement teams along with many of our high school teachers look at that for their QC comp goal or their ATPPS goal. Um so we do look at that. our administrators look at all of that. They talk with the departments about the science and all of the other ones. Um I think that's the goal that we kind of are like why did we choose that as our measure? Um and so I think that's the goal that you know career and college ready making sure that we have that why did we select the reading portion only of the ACT versus a composite or Yeah. So um it's used a lot of ways similarly the MCA for our high school kids. We've heard our kids talk about MCAs versus ACT at the high school. But we know that that is a test that perhaps means a little bit more to them. So it might give us a little bit more data. >> Do we know or do you know offhand and I this is something I just thought of when we were [clears throat] when you were presenting is you know a lot of our kids go to the U or they go to um Mano or >> state schools >> state schools. Right. Do we know what what our benchmark is compared to the benchmark for what those schools are looking for? Like if >> Yep. you know, if if there's a school out there that you know, like if Mano is looking for a 20, for example, and I don't know what they're looking for because but >> you know, is 22 then the right benchmark for you know what I mean? >> We do do some analysis in terms of how many of our kids required to take what they would call remedial courses because of some scores. >> Okay? >> You know, so um and there I'm trying to think of the data the data source that MD has um that talks that that college the college data that they collect on kids who went to school in Minnesota that now go to Minnesota state schools. Okay. >> Um the other thing that we we try to tell kids and do if they are meets or exceeds on the MCAs, there's also a benefit in state schools for those in terms of course selection and things like that. So >> Oh, there is. >> Yep. That doesn't really get out there much. >> No, I had no idea. >> But uh because the ACT also comes into play too for kids. >> Okay. >> So, thank you. I just have one question. So, um I don't know if this is something new or not. I'm looking under career readiness. >> Um and I've had three kids graduate from the district and I haven't heard of this thing before. So, I don't know if it's new. Um students be being able to do internships and job shadowing. Is that something like just for seniors and is it during the day during school or do they have to go after hours or >> it it's it's [clears throat] been revitalized? I would offer um we've always had work experience as an option for some kids in particular um through our ALC and through some of our special ed programs kids could do work experiences and a few things have had internships here and there especially if there were connections right so we wanted to make sure we tried to expand that so Ashley Ruka the principal of the alternative high school along with Mark Macko director of secondary teaching learning have really tried to revive that career teched CTE opportunities for our kids so on our workshop days this year. We're doing partnerships with our CTE teachers and local businesses and kind of what are you looking for? What do you need? And looking at those um opportunities for us to develop that pathway into some of the more prominent [clears throat] especially CTE areas within our community. I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that, >> but Ashley has kind of revitalized that. >> Okay. So, is that offered to all high school students or just more the ALC and >> No, that's offered through all of our high schools. I and I wonder if you'll see that in the course guide presentation around the CTE pathways and and courses that can get you those types of opportunities. >> Any other questions? >> No. Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> Okay. Now, we will move on to 8.0 and that is our action items. We do have four of those this evening. The first one is 8.1 and that is our high school course catalog and that will be presented by Christine Schaefer, assistant superintendent. >> Good evening, school board chair Schwarz, school board members, superintendent Nielson. So before I start, while this is listed as an action item, it's actually an information item. So I no approval will be needed. The purpose of tonight's presentation is to review our high school course catalog and share the course editions that will be available for students for the 2627 school year. So to give some context as to why this work happened so early this week already our high school counselors started in our middle schools talking to students giving presentations on scheduling for next year already and they'll do that again next week. So with that u we need to update our course catalog early in the fall so that students have what they need to register for next year. So tonight we will we'll we'll talk about policy 613 and graduation requirements which you've seen. There's just one change on there that we'll talk through. We'll talk through the legislative requirements and updates. We'll talk through some changes in the course catalog. We'll show you the timeline for submitting and approving new courses. And then we'll show you the final list of courses that have been approved and then talk about some foreshadowing for the year after. Actually, we've started that work and Kelly kind of alluded to that related to CTE. All right. So, our graduation requirements and policy 613, these have not changed. Four years of language arts, three years of math, three years of science, and you can see how that trans translates to our trimester schedule, three and a half years of social studies, one trimester each, one credit each of health and fied, two trimester credits of fine arts, and then new this year for the class of 2028 and beyond is one trimester credit of personal finance. So that is a new legislative requirement and a minimum of 21 trimester credits. So just to clarify for personal finance. So the students in 2028 and beyond, so this year's 10th graders, which includes my son, which is why I know all about this, um students need to take have 66 credits to graduate. Students in 2028 and beyond will still only need 66 credits to graduate, but one of their elective credits will be personal finance. So they're not needing more credits. they just are using one of their elective credits for personal finance. So, if there's any confusion of that, that's what that will look like. All right. And then some changes legislatively, again, that personal finance course that we added for students in 10th grade, this year's 10th grade and beyond, and they'll take that in 11th or 12th grade. Also, high schools are required to offer an ethnic studies course, and that course right now is in the works. We are waiting for MDE to give us kind of the guideline and the framework for that. But that course is underway. But that will be in the in the course catalog for next year. And also school districts are required to offer an American Indian culture and language course for an elective credit. That course is also underway and will be added to the course guide for next year. Right. So those are the legislative changes. Now I'll welcome Mark Mackamoy back up so he can talk through some of the changes in the course guide. Thank you. Uh so tonight's purpose is to share the courses that are available in the 2627 course guide which I'll do shortly. Uh but as you know we need to always be thinking ahead and as uh Miss Jansen mentioned earlier uh we're already thinking about the 2728 course guide. Um and I want to share a goal that we have in teaching and learning along with our building principles um to renovate the course guide as I've shared earlier to be organized in a career pathway uh structure. Relevancy matters to adults and to students and so we want students to see clearly the connection between the coursework and life after high school. But that's it for 2728. um for the upcoming 2627 registration season. Uh we want to give you an overview of uh how we got here and we started the process earlier this year. First of all, our teachers know our students really well and so you might be wondering, well, how do these uh uh classes and course proposals even come to be? Our our student our teachers are really in tune with what our students um are asking for. And so last spring uh we started uh collecting those proposals. We came together as teaching and learning and uh district administrators uh to review those uh course applications and we made some decisions and then communicated those back to teachers uh last spring. Then we got to work on drafting the course guide for 2627 and we finalized registration materials uh course cards. Shout out to counselors, administrators, teachers. It's a lot of work to get ready for that registration season and it's a lot of excitement in the air in high schools at this time of the year. Um, as Miss Schaefer mentioned, high school counselor visits to middle schools and then we'll be back with family information and opportunity nights uh as we get into the new year and then registration season. So uh with that I'd like to share uh in an excited fashion the new courses that will be in the 2627 or that are in the 2627 guide if you have any curiosities around the course descriptions. This course guide is already live um and on the each school's website. So please do feel free to peruse the course descriptions. Uh but we have uh personal finance as was mentioned earlier on uh in the brickandmortar class. Uh we have AP Spanish language and culture. We have Spanish immersion people, cultures and language. We have the ethnic studies class. And then we also have some online course offerings. Uh writing your own music, uh AP music theory, uh the Ojiway language and culture and that's the earlier reference that we had to um American Indian and culture language class. We have lifetime movement, renewable energy 2 and three which builds off of the first level. uh we have agra business baking and pastry which is also offered uh in brick and mortar as well. So there's an online option and in person although I will give a shout out to our online uh teachers of design. They really do uh work hard to try and replicate the best they possibly can with kits whether it's in science or in this case uh baking and pastry u the best they can online and then personal finance will also be offered online as well. With that, we will open up to any questions you might have. >> Anyone have any questions? >> Uh, I do. So, um, first for personal finance, so if you I So, does the state require that it has to be taken during high school or does it require that it has to be taken in either 11th or 12th grade? >> 10th, 11th, or 12th grade? >> 10th, 11th, and 12th. Okay. So, um, because I'm thinking about how 11th grade is oftentimes like the worst year for high school students just because every, you know, like if you mess up, you're never going to do anything with your life kind of vibes that permeate everything. And so, um, so they can't So, can current 10th graders take personal finance and have it count or is or does the does the personal finance class that we currently offer not match what the state's requirements are? The current finance class does not match what the state needs. So all all students 11 through 12th grade will have to take it. >> Okay. And then um so and then AP Spanish I know is currently offered at Woodbury and so it'll be offered at the other two high schools as well. Is that how it is or is that >> that's currently just at Woodbury High School? >> Oh, that's just at Woodbury. Okay. Um and so it'll just stay at Wood. It's not going to expand to the other two high schools. Okay. um just because it says new courses and I I I mean I have a child who took AP Spanish so I know that it exists. So currently at Woodbury. >> Yeah. There was a a name change to that course I believe that's why it's on a new course. >> So that's more of an administrative that's how we reference new course that way. Yeah. >> Oh okay. And so I'm assuming the Spanish immersion class is the same thing. >> Correct. Yes. That's correct. What grade is that for? >> I feel like I should know this as a Spanish immersion parent, but I >> No, that is uh I believe AP Spanish culture I believe that's a 12th grade >> the Spanish immersion is 11th grade, but I would need to check to make sure on that. >> Okay. Um and so just then like a logistical question around like ethnic studies, right? So, you said the state has not given us what the benchmarks should be yet, >> correct? >> And it's something that we're going to start offering in September. >> We hope to. Right. We just got an email yesterday. I think Mark got an email yesterday saying it's still in the works. We're working on it. We'll get it to you soon. So, we're hoping as soon as we get that that we can get teachers creating the course so that it is ready by September or or it's a summer project. >> Okay. And so like how long does it take to create a course from whole cloth like this typically? >> Yeah, thank you. So we can I can share personal finance for example is a great example um through really great collaboration between our math teachers, our facts, our social studies and our business teachers. uh three release days and with a a a really good framework from MDE and we have that course scope and sequenced out uh in in probably less than three full days with a release. So that gives you a sense of the scope of the length >> also requires all of that people time for those three. >> Correct. And a very clear framework of what the outcomes should be. So then our teachers can really do the magical work of figuring out the scope and sequence and the order. Yep. >> Does that answer your question? >> It does. Yeah. No, that's great. >> Any other questions? >> No. Seeing none. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So now we will move on to 8.2. That is an actual action item. And then that will be our final levy for taxes payable in 2026. and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. >> So, I did ask Sean for walkup music because it's uh locally known as the TNT hearing, but he said no ACDC. So, I said fine. Um, so I'm here this evening that according to Minnesota statutes, um, school districts are required to hold a public hearing, the truth and taxation hearing, to present information related to taxes payable in 2026 and allow for public input. In November, Washington County mailed proposed property tax statements to district residents reflecting the property, excuse me, the proposed levy that was approved by the school board in September. The preliminary lever was approved at the maximum. The Minnesota Department of Education is responsible for calculating and releasing the soashko schools and all district levy reports. District staff have worked with the district financial consultants on tonight's presentation verifying the calculation of the final levy and final estimated tax impact on district residents. And again, you can contact me if any questions. As a note, after the presentation, a public hearing will be hit. You'll notice there's public comment as the last slide. And at that time if there is any um public comments they certainly welcome to um come to the microphone and speak please just state your name and then I would ask for action um from the board after to approve the levy. So with that I think Dana did say how many slides are there Chris? So um I said I talked real fast. Minnesota state law requirements then we do are required by state law to host a public meeting between November 25th and December 29th each year. We have to hold it at 6 PM or later and it must be part of a regularly scheduled meeting. And again, we have to allow for public comments and we can also approve the final levy at that meeting. It must consist the presentation of a com current year budget information as well as proposed property tax levy information. So, our hearing agenda, it seems funny to me to call it a hearing because I feel like I'm just up here a lot, but background information on school funding, the district's budget, district proposed tax levy for taxes payable 2026 [clears throat] calendar year, and public comments. So, the Minnesota legislature must set funding for Minnesota public schools. So, here's the constitution um that really just talks about, and I'll notice the bold, I'll highlight that um the legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise. So this is what provides the authority for a school district to tax our residents. The state of Minnesota then sets formulas which determine revenue. Most of the revenue, as we've discussed many times here, is based on the amounts per pupil. They also set tax policy for local school districts, including our um kind of maximum amounts. [clears throat] The maximum um we can levy less than those maximum um as allowed, but we are not allowed to levy more than we were authorized unless there is a vote. And so, for example, in 2021 when we successfully passed the operating um referendum with the wonderful support of our community that that then we can add that later. So, even though we'd approved at the maximum, we are allowed to add that because again, it was voter authorized. Other than that, we cannot raise our levy after that September um once we set the maximum. The state also authorizes again the submit referendums and operating capital needs. So there is statute that allows us to um request additional dollars to our voting uh residents. But as a result of all of these vote funding for school districts is highly regulated. So we the basic general education formula we do talk about that a lot because that's where we receive about 44% of our revenue in the general fund and since 2003 2002 2003 the state revenue formula has not kept paced with inflation for fiscal year 2425 an increase of 2%. We were very grateful to the state. We did receive $143 over per pupil over previous year. And again, now for this current year that we're in 2526, we received an increase of 2.74% on that funding or $200 over last year's. But again, as a reminder, the per pupil allowance for fiscal year 2526 is $7,481. But if we had kept pace with inflation, we would have received an additional $1,420 per pupil. So the allowance would have been 8,91. So this is just a graphical representation. And the reason that's important, that's about $27 million in FY25 roughly equivalent to. So that's a significant um gap in that. One of the alternatives they allowed for that is and that's somewhat why we've had to be reliant on our taxpayers for that pro local property tax levy. An additional item to discuss today is the underfunding of special education. And according to the Minnesota Department of Education for FY24, which was their most recent numbers available um or finalized numbers, the cost of providing programs were underfunded statewide by 503 million. And they do ant anticipate that even with the recent funding improvements, we know that the um cross subsidy aid particularly had risen recently and is projected to rise again or currently in statute to rise again in 27 will be underfunded by 524 million by statewide by FY28. What this doesn't account for [cough and clears throat] is that the state does have a blue ribbon commission on state special education to look at funding and the task of that commission is $250 million for the next bianium roughly equivalent in each of those years then it's 125 million statewide in each of those years. Our impact would be at roughly three million in each of those years reduction in aid. They're tasked with either reducing it somehow reducing the aid and they're it says if they're unable to find measures and that they have to what'll kick in is the cross subsidiate will revert back lower to accommodate that. So primary options to bridge these funding gaps are to um kind of adjust regular program budgets or increase referendum re revenue and a lot of districts have done both budget information. So again because approval of a district's budget leg certification of tax levy by six months Minnesota requires only the current year budget information present at this hearing. So again our cycle just being on that fiscal year of July to June doesn't quite align to the calendar year of property taxes. So the fiscal year 2627 budget as a reminder the coming year school year will be adopted um we'll bring that forth in June to the school board for approval. School district budgets are divided into separate funds based on purpose of revenue and as required by law. So the district funds that we maintain are the general fund which is by far and large our most significant in our general operation fund. Looking at office professionals and teachers in the audience and we have u bus drivers I believe too custodians that's all in general fund. We additionally have maintain a food service fund which is where the meals to our students that they provide. I'm lucky to sit next to them and occasionally get to sample as well. Community service fund um which again talking about the early learning the prek that was here this evening that would be in that fund. Building construction and as we you've driven around the district you've seen construction or tried to park at one of the high schools perhaps um experience that. We additionally have the debt service fund for our bond um and any debt service payments. our trust fund which is really primarily scholarships that um we kind [clears throat] of act as a fiscal intermediary um on those and then other post-employment benefits trust fund and that is for um post-employment health insurance um premiums. Here then is the summary of not only the 25 um preliminary actual results in the red columns along with the beginning fund balance and the projected fund balance for all funds just to summarize as well as in the blue is the 2526 budget amounts for revenues and expenditures as well as any transfers and at the far column then is the projected fund balance at the end of FY26. As you'll note, one item is that general fund is listed on two separate lines because they do this um is a mandated form from Department of Education and they do require that we separate out the restricted um revenues, expenditures and fund balance from the other revenue, expenditures and fund balance. So it's listed on the two lines and you'll see across all funds for 2526 we have a projected revenue of 556 94464 million and the expense total expenditures is 533503508 across all funds. So again here's that 556 over 556 million and again that 63% almost 62.9 is general fund alone. So again that general operations where we um provide all the the primary student content I'll say again the food service community building construction I'll note is a little bit higher than usual at that 24% and again um particularly reflective of the bond that we passed and the work being done. General fund revenue um for 2526 is at 350,561962. The state portion of that aid or that revenue, excuse me, is 70.5%. Of that about twothirds is that per pupil formula that we discussed earlier. So you'll see the local event that offsetting um to make up for that funding difference is that 28% of local revenue primarily made up of property taxes. There is some other um student fees and admissions and such in that as well. The general fund expenditures then for FY26 budget 2526 budget is $352,55 39 $5539 not quite sure how to say that um apparently this evening but it this is presents the expenditures by object code. So that really tells us what it is spent on. And so this slide illustrates again as we've talked before as well the salaries and wages [clears throat] plus benefits accounting for more than 78% or about 78% of the district budget. So again the primary response or um expenditure that we do is the staff that provide that direct service um direct or indirect service to our students. Second to that um category or those two categories the salaries and benefits is the purchase services and that will um about 11% and that really is inclusive of contracted substitutes contracted transportation particular special education routes. It also includes utilities and I now tell people that I no longer count snow in inches but in dollars because snow removal is in this number as well. General fund expenditures then by program. And so this tells us kind of what category of the expenditure falls in. And so again that expendure dollar amount doesn't change but just how it's presented. And a little hard to read on this slide but regular instruction at the bottom in that green color. vocation. If we kind of go um clockwise around vocational ed in that small little bit of red, special education instruction um and then we're going to skip over the little tan and go to um that other red of pupil support services. So those three categories make up about 77% of our budget and that is direct to students. So between the instructional, the pupil support includes our counselors, um our social workers, um healthc care is also in there and um as is transportation. So one of the things we do get asked is um well if you get more dollars does your budget go up? And the answer is no. It may not um determine the change in budget. So the budget is determined kind of separately from the levy. Certainly there's impact by that levy. So the tax levies based on the many state determined formulas and the voter approved referendum. So it does provide the here's what you have to spend. Um some increases in tax levies are revenue neutral. So we do know the state sometimes has um offsetting that they some are aid and levy mix and if you're um aid goes up your levy goes down and vice versa. So, it's kind of like a scale where it doesn't always you still get the same dollars, but how it's um approp allocated between levy and aid may vary, but it stays neutral. Expenditure budget is limited by our state set revenue formulas, our voter approved levies, and our fund available fund balance. And an increase in school taxes does not always correlate to an increase uh equally to budget. So, this I briefly uh mentioned earlier, the difference in levy cycles. So the school district again is our budget year begins on July 1st every year. The 26 um taxes collected here in calendar year 2026 will actually provide revenue for the district for 2627 fiscal year. And the budgets adopted in June of 2026 for fiscal year 2627. This compares to city and counties where they do have a budget year meeting on January 1st. So it does align to that property tax collections which are calendar year as well and that's for their budget year. This then is a sample of just a parcel specific notice. U and I know it's Spruce County, which doesn't exist in Minnesota, but uh every taxpayer in the district, I know I've received mine at home as well, that would receive a proposed taxes payable. Um it's mailed to every property owner between November 10th and November 25th, and that's in statewide. A little background is that um every owner, we pay taxes to a variety of entities, right? You'll pay your county tax, your city tax, your school district tax. I tell people frequently we're the only one that they can say no to. Um as we do have to go out to our voters to request either operating dollars or building dollars. There's also special districts, maybe Metro Mosquito, um Met Council might be another, a watershed district perhaps. Each taxing jurisdiction sets their own levy based on limits, oftentimes based on limits within state law. The county actually acts as the collecting entity then. So the county collects all property taxes and then they um from all property owners and then distributes out to those taxing jurisdictions. School district property taxes. So each school has limited authority to levy taxes. The MDE calculates the levy amounts for various categories set either by state law or get that voter approval as we've discussed. School district property tax process. So this is a lot. I'll tell you step one is sometimes where we get our questions on why did my property tax go up [clears throat] or why did the school district portion even go up and often I ask taxpayers well what did your um assessed value go up. So that first is the city or county assessor in uh most cases here determines the estimated market value. So they assess the value of that home that's outside of our jurisdiction. The legislature again sets the formulas um and the limits. The county auditor calc calculates the actual tax capacity for each parcel as well as the total tax capacity for the school district. The department Minnesota Department of Education calculates the detailed levy limits u based on formulas approved by the legislature. And then again we're here this evening. We set the preliminary levy in September and we're back for the final levy and this is our only step in the whole process of property taxes. The county auditor then takes that final levy divides by our total tax capacity to determine the kind of rate needed. I know I sometimes get had a number of calls here this week um regarding property taxes which always kind of fun. I might be a little bit of a nerd on that. Um but people that have moved from out of state sometimes there's mill rates in many states and that's in essence you have a percentage of your property value. So perhaps you have maybe the mill rate is 1% so you pay 1% of your property tax. Minnesota is not like that. And so that's oftentimes when people have moved in it's gets really challenging to try to figure out where is this coming from a property tax statement. And so I do try to describe to them um that ours is that and we'll get to the pi slides, right? But that we get a tax amount that it doesn't vary based on that value of the home. Approval of the district's tax levy in 25 which is again payable 2026. These are just the dates and again September 8th by statute the state has to release the um MDE is actually required by statute to prepare and distribute the first draft of the levy limit reporting um information. On September 18th the school board approved the proposed um preliminary tax levy and we did approve that at the maximum. In mid November again they mailed the statements. December 11th, we are here this evening for the presentation, the public hearing, and we will also following the hearing request um that the school board certify those final levy amounts. An overview of our district's proposed tax levy. So again, kind of the meat and potatoes here this evening of [cough] what the levy part is. So we'll transition from budget over to the levy itself. And the proposed payable 2026 tax levy for the district is an increase from 2025 of 5,667,951 or 4.4%. Changes by levy category and reasons are included in the following slides. So on this slide is really that submarine. It's a comparison of 2025 to 2026. And what I would point out is in general fund we're actually decreasing some at 2.6% 6% that two um a little over $2.3 million. Community service is increasing just slightly um above $122,000. And then debt service and we'll talk about the reasons for but that really is going up 7.9 just slightly above that. So the big reason for the $5.6 million increase is that debt service and as we know we passed that successful bond referendum. We continue to make bond payments on our existing debt as well. And so that really reflects that. By state statute, um we are required to levy 105% to account for any possible delinquencies or otherwise. [laughter] At the bottom, you'll note that voter approved versus other um and the voter approved is that again kind of reflective of that bond um that was approved. So total 4.4% up across all funds. Excuse me, [clears throat] should have brought water up with me category. Then in general fund we uh one of the main so in the next slides I'll just highlight some of those big reasons for the differences. In the general fund um the voter approved operating referendum this is just to highlight that again that was passed with inflation and so we do see an increase of $912,312 um that really is um open for use for general operate operating expenditures. The reason again is that that we passed that referendum question with an annual inflationary increase. It also though is impacted by pupils. So it's a pupil amount as well. So as our enrollment changes um that that will also so that was even though we likely would have seen a slightly higher increase with our projected enrollment. So again it's unprotected um we know that there's some declines that we're anticipating to see in the coming years. And so that does offset that. So in the general fund we also have long-term facility maintenance. So there's a bond portion and a general fund portion. And there we seeing a decrease in the um general fund portion of $5.5 million. As a reminder that long-term facility maintenance can only be used for deferred maintenance. We can't buy build new buildings. We can't um use it for any other type of operations. It can only be for that deferred maintenance. So perhaps we need HVAC. I felt a little chilly in the back road today. Um we can certainly utilize it for those type of things, indoor air quality um and such. So again, we're eligible due to our um size as it they used to call us old 1A districts um based on square footage as well across the district. And so we can the 10-year plan goes every July to the state and is approved by the board for the long-term facility maintenance plan. Revenue is based on that. Um and then the levies are coordinated with other capital and debt levies so that we try to really maintain a stable kind of level or declining tax rate for our taxpayers. Also in the general fund, the other significant item was the prior year adjustments. Um this was an increase of 1.8 million over the previous year. Um I will tell you that some of this is um really challenging to come. Their initial levies are often based on estimates. So as we get finalized numbers, we will see adjustments. And so as we think of the scope of what 1.8 across all of general fund, it's not a significant percentage wise, but dollars wise it certainly can be. So in later years as numbers are finalized then they do uh make those adjustments going back retroactively in the debt service fund. So again we talked about that one going up um kind of the most significant of all the funds. The voter approved and the long-term facility maintenance in this fund. Um the changes were an increase of 6.3 million for the voter approved and 1.5 million for long-term facility maintenance. You'll notice we went down in general fund on long-term facility maintenance. of a little bit of an increase in the bonded portion and it's the required payments on the bonds. So um in this case is strictly that but we do with LTFM we know that there's that little payo kind of the general fund piece and the bond piece again that requirement of 105% of our debt service to collect delinquent to cover delinquencies and again that coordination that we do to try to maintain that level or declining tax rate. So here's the famous pi slide. So what's happening with each slice? So again, that challenge that we don't operate in Minnesota with that mill rate. And so sometimes it can be challenging. And so this is something that we've uh find found useful to try to explain to people that that dollar amount the district levy is like a pie. It just doesn't get bigger. We get the same sized once we set that dollar amount, right? That's our slice of pie. That's our the total pie. Um so individual taxpayers then the higher market value increase, they might see a bigger slice of that pie. If their lower market value kind of increases at a lower rate, they'll get a smaller slice of that pie, but we don't get any more dollars. So each property owner pays a portion of the pie. [cough] The impact on property valuations then if there's two properties, so these are just a very basic scenario. Obviously, $500 is a total tax levy. Uh but both houses valued at $100,000. So you have the orange house and the blue house. They're each at 100 equal. If everything else remained the same, they would each pay $250 of our $500 levy. In the next slide, you'll notice that the orange house value increases by 10% and if the blue house would increase by 25%. So, we still receive the $500. We don't get any more even though values went up, but the orange house now pays a little less than the blue house. So, the school district again, we we generate the same dollars. It's just who's paying that just shifts some. So, a four-year school levy comparison um in the following examples and it's really intended just as illustrative purposes to try to see that tax impact. So, the first um are shown with no change um and then a 10 we also show slides with a 10% increase in property value for residential homes over the past four years because that's in Washington County. That's roughly what that has um property value has done. actual [clears throat] changes in value may be more or less for any parcel. So, it's not intended to illustrate a specific individual. It's just that broad um average and it's intended to provide a fair representation of what happened to the school district properties over these um years for typical properties. This examples in here are specific to city of Woodbury um for comparison purposes and for they are utilizing the 2026 is preliminary estimates as a reminder. So final could change slightly and these estimates were prepared by our uh municipal financial advisors Ellers. So on this slide this would say if it's based on no change to property value. So if all else stayed the same what would our taxes have done over 23 245 and then now into 2026. And so I'll note in the last slide kind of that last column in the gray is the year-to-year comparison just one year this year to last year 25 to 26. Um the one just to the left of that is actually the u three-year total. So you can see that over three years certainly properties have increased but in this current year they are uh if values did not change they would have gone down slightly. [clears throat] And again at the top is residential versus on the bottom um kind of half of it is commercial properties on these slides. Then again this is if there was no changes to property value which we realize does not happen but sometimes for a comparison it's helpful just to see like had that happened what would have occurred. And so in these two examples on screen, our $250,000 residential homestead property example as well as a $450,000 u valuation on a residential homestead property. As you can see on these slides, it really stays pretty flat. And so again, when we talk about trying to maintain that level or um kind of stable or declining, you can see across these slides that we've managed to do so except for that property valuation. These then are the uh a $600,000 residential commercial example as well as a million $600,000 residential as well as a million-doll commercial property example. And similarly again um you'll notice that the residential has stayed relatively flat and the commercial as well even though there's been a little bit of an increase um since that 2023 but it really has overall remained relatively stable in 23 26 and again this is kind of cumulative across those four years. This does in um incorporate that 10% um cumulative change to property value. So you'll see that with that value change as well, you will see that it's increasing um and not quite as flat. So it has been increasing across both this is ex this example is an estimated $250,000 residential and a $450,000 residential property. So state property tax refunds and deferrals. So there are several programs. We know property taxes are, you know, very real for many of our taxpayers. And so we certainly try to keep that mindful and be prudent stewards of their funds. And so we do recognize particularly on fixed incomes that people may have some challenges. So on the screen here is the um several programs that are available to our taxpayers including homestead credit refund and the special property tax refund. Both of those um in essence when you go file your tax return you'll talk to your tax preparer too and they'll say hey do you want to do the property tax refund? And these two items fall into that. Um again it is based on kind of their income levels as well as what um property taxes what their taxation did as well. The senior citizen property tax deferral the third item on screen. So that is really allowed for pe people aged 65 and older. And so sometimes it used to be referred to as kind of the green acres um with a household income of $96,000 or less. And so they can defer um the property taxes on their home during that time frame. And so when the home is sold or if the homeowner would pass away, that's when the property taxes plus interest do become due. So there is um some interest that is incurred by participating that program. And then income taxes. So if you itemize for federal income taxes, you may deduct a portion of your income taxes starting in um 2024. You can renters can also claim the renters's um refundable credit on a Minnesota income tax. So, next steps tonight, school board will accept public comments on the proposed levy and then we'll ask the board to certify the 2026 property tax levy. So, with that, I open it up for any public comment and would just ask if you do come up to please just state your name for the record as well. >> Not getting excited. I saw that young man get up and come [laughter] on. >> All right. >> Okay. Are there um so can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Sammy. Second. >> Second. >> Seconded by Ryan. Any comments? >> Um I just had a question for you, Chris. Well, actually two questions, but one of which is directly relevant to this. So on the back of my property tax statement, the county puts like tax increases by jurisdiction, right? And so for South Washington County schools, then what they have is the tax increase. That's the 4.4% that we have here. >> It would be the 4.4 and should also would likely reflect also valuation increases on your property as well, I believe. >> Yeah. No, this is like it's like st you know, it's like city of Woodbury, city of Codgrove, like it's all it okay in one. Secondly, um, and you just because you mentioned snow. Um, I remember Dan saying that every inch of snow was $11,000 for us to clear. Correct. >> I can get that number, but I said it definitely has gone up. >> It has gone up. Okay. >> And I would say they um, you know, certainly our vendors just in light of economy and things too. Um, we certainly try to work hard to minimize that where we can, but yeah, I'll I might have to go back and do math and ask Kyle how many inches we received last year and do that math for last year for you >> because I feel like a couple years ago we like were really good with because it didn't snow. Right. >> Right. >> And then it looks like this year all of >> Yeah. I think in my time here the range has been from I want to say we got very very close. We stayed just under a million dollars one year and I want to say one year we had less than $300,000. So in my 12 years here it's been a wide range of store removal cost and that it seems like this year is going to be like a >> and it's also ice so sometimes it's salting and sanding. So >> awesome. That was it. That was my question. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Seeing none. All those in favor? >> I >> I motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. We will move on [clears throat] to 8.3 and that is a tentative agreement with United Teachers of South Washington County and that will be presented by Abby Baker, executive director of human resources and operations. >> Good evening, Chair Schwarz, members of the school board, and Superintendent Nielsen. Um, negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement between South Washington County Schools and the United Teachers of South Washington County have resulted in a tentative agreement that's effective July 1, 2025 to June 30th, 2027. Members of the bargaining unit approved the tenative agreement yesterday. The economic costing of the ten tenative agreement is as follows. Um, an increase of 2.25% 25% effective July 1, 2025 and an increase of 2.5% effective July 1 of 2025. Um health insurance increase a 13% increase of district contribution um effective January 1, 2026 and then a 5% increase to the district contribution in 2027. Um increase the voucherly hourly rate to $37 per hour. Schedule C will be 147 per base point. And then adult basic education, credit recovery, and homebound teachers [clears throat] um will be $37 an hour for those positions. Um administration recommends approval of this contract. >> Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Louise, seconded by Eric. Any questions or comments? Okay. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion passes. >> And then we will go on to 8.4. And that is our tentative agreement with Sashwa South Washington County Schools Bus Drivers and Bus Assistance Association. That will be presented by Abby Baker, executive director of human resources and operations. Um negotiations negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement between South Washington County schools and South Washington County bus drivers and bus assistants um have resulted in a tenative agreement effective July 1, 2025 to June 30th, 2027. Members of the bargaining unit approved the tenative agreement late last night. Um the economic costing of the tenative agreement includes the following. An increase to $28 per hour effective July 1, 2025. an increase to $29 per hour effective July one for 2026. That's for bus drivers. Um for bus assistance, an increase to $21 per hour effective July 1, 2025. And then an increase to $22 per hour effective July 1, 2026. For health insurance, it would be a 9% increase um to the district contribution on high deductible plans. And then the same thing for the 20 27 plan year, a 9% increase to the district contribution for high deductible plans. Um, also we added Christmas Day and New Year's Day as paid holidays. Administration recommends approval of this contract. >> Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second. >> Louise and Ryan. Any questions or comments? Okay. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. >> Now, we will move on to 9.0 and that is our superintendent report. >> Thank you. Um just a couple of updates as I travel around the system and seeing what's going on. Um first of all to just highlight um I know that we talked a little bit about just music. Um but we had our fifth grade students at our high schools and I don't know if they were more amazed by the music of our high schoolers or the bells that went off periodically. uh they were in the auditorium and they heard the bells and I think they thought they had to vacate like it was a fire alarm. Um but it is always fun seeing our elementary students um at our high schools and this was really their opportunity as their fifth graders to think about do they want to select band orchestra or choir as part of their music selection. In addition to that, we hosted middle school um evenings for sixth graders. And this was the first time we did it. And we had about 300 parents along with their students come to sessions really to learn about what middle school was like. And so being the first time that we did it, we thought it was really beneficial. And we actually have a little survey out to the parents that attended to say, "What did you think? Did you like it? Would you like more of? Would you like less of?" Just so that we can gauge that moving forward. But we really want to make sure that we're engaging families um before that registration so that they're part of working with their fifth grader going into sixth grade. We will also be hosting similar evenings for elementary to retain and recruit elementary students into South Washington County schools. Um we will have three elementary um next week. One will be at Crestview, a second at Red Rockck, and then we'll also be holding a virtual option. Um tomorrow afternoon or excuse me evening the 12th we will be celebrating um Mung new year at Woodbury High School. Um it is a free family celebration. There are performances, food, fashion show, arts, crafts, education and artifacts. And it truly is just an amazing gathering. As I was over at Woodbury High School today for the concert, um the decorations were already up and simply beautiful. And so for the community and people in the audience, our board, um if you're able to attend, it is a night very worthwhile. um and getting to see the many talents um of our among students and families. Um as we think about um we talked about course catalog tonight as we head into winter break, we will be doing the enrollment or the enrollment rollover. Um and then of course we'll be doing class registrations and then that leads right into staffing. And so definitely a busy time of the year. uh looking forward to winter break which will begin here in South Washington County schools on December 22nd with the last day for students on December 19th. Um and one final thing, I don't want to embarrass [clears throat] Eric. I told him I wouldn't. Um but as we close uh the meeting this evening, we'd like to recognize and thank Director Eric Tesmer for his four years of serving on the school board. Uh serving on the school board is a significant commitment not just in meeting times but reviewing materials and information engaging in conversations about the future of the school district. This also includes the questions and input that you receive as you are perhaps traveling in the grocery store or out with your family. Uh we appreciate the hours you have invested in serving the students and families of South Washington County schools. On behalf of the executive cabinet and your schoolboard colleagues, we thank you and wish you the best. >> [applause] >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Eric. Would you like to say anything or [laughter] >> No, I just appreciate the opportunity. Um, I've learned a lot. >> I will be moving on with my life. [laughter] >> Thank you. Okay. Um, we will move on to 10.0 0 and that is our future meeting dates that we have one January 8th that will be a schoolboard business meeting for about 15 minutes and then we will have the workshop meeting immediately following and then on January 22nd we will have a schoolboard business meeting. Both are here at the district service center at 6 p.m. with that 11.0 and we are adjourned. >> [music] [music] >> I believe [music] I Heat. Heat. Baby, [music] moving.