[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] 2025 at 6 PM we are at the District Service Center in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. We would like to acknowledge that the land in which we gather is the land of the Midwakatan Dakota people. Mawakington means dwellers of the spirit lake. >> First item on the agenda is our roll call. Dana >> Louise Hines >> here. >> Ryan Clark >> here. >> Sharon >> here >> here. >> Melinda Dolnik is absent. Katie Schwarz >> here. 2.0 pledge of allegiance. Please stand als one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> 3.0 is approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve an amended agenda adding 7.6 the 202526 school calendar? >> So move. >> Second. Moved by Sharon, second by Luis. Any comments? All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. 4.0 would be comments to the board. We did not have any this evening. >> We do. >> I don't have it. 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 that any item be moved to an action item for individual consideration. That did not happen this evening. So, can I get a motion to approve? >> Move. Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by Eric. All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. 6.0 information items. We do have one this evening and that is 6.1 and that is a financial update and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. I thought about walking slow because you're going to see a lot of me this evening, but here I am. So, good evening, Chair Schwarz, members of the board, and Superintendent Neielsen. Each month, the board is presented with updates concerning the school district's financial condition, and tonight's presentation will center on the 2025 legislative session and federal funds we receive like I'm peeking just making sure if the slides were coming. Um, to start with, I'll start with the state legislative session. So the regular session ended on May 19th and there was no action taken on a number of bills including the K12 education um funding and policy bill. Special session was convened on June 9th at which time they did pass um a significant amount of legislation including that K a combined policy and funding bill for K12 education. The highlights on tonight then is really the key funding outcomes that have impact to our district. So the first one that I'll discuss is the basic formula. Um, and we receive a significant amount of our funding as you know that that's the unrestricted per pupil aid that we receive. There's no change in the inflationary factor though it was discussed significantly. Oh, Sean pointed out that I have the clicker. This seems dangerous perhaps. All right, now I'm rolling. But there was no change. So on this slide is the basic formula is that first bullet and again there was no change in the inflationary factor that was passed a number of years ago as you would recall and the increase is set the increase basically on the per pupil at a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 3% each year. The reason the importance of not changing that does provide stability for us as we budget and project out for future years so that we're able to plan for those increases as opposed to being that uncertainty in the funding years to know if it's 0%, is it 2%, is it 4% or somewhere in between. A compensatory revenue was another um funding source that was impacted and that's restricted in uses by statute and we receive about $6 million roughly and that does fluctuate year-to-year. It is currently based on free and reduced lunches. Um, and they had a change to the funding formula that would have impacted that, but they did delay that transition to the new compensatory formula until school year 2627. Again, that's important, but does provide us some relief a little bit in these next two years. It allows school districts as well to allocate up to 40% for district-wide initiatives for both schools years 2526 and 2627. And the last thing it did is create a compensatory revenue task force which is tasked with examining the program and reporting recommendations to the legislature no later than October 15th of 2026. Again, they're talking both formula, what is the best formula for those dollars and also the uses that should be allowable under that. And so again, as we look forward, we will have some impact um on those. Unemployment insurance was also impacted. We would have um there was state aid you recall um in the last funding bianium for between terms or summer unemployment and that is for our hourly employees that otherwise are off in the summer such as lunchroom pair professionals, bus drivers for example. And so the funding that was originally allocated wasn't sufficient to get us as far as they thought. And so they did approve a 100 million in one-time funding to reimburse school districts for the summer unemployment insurance. And again, that's anticipated to fund eligible um claims during summer of 2025, this current summer, as well as next summer, summer of 2026. Special education was another hot topic at the state um this year and they did reduce um kind of negatively impacted all districts. Um for us it did re special education transportation aid was the biggest and that will be reduced to 95% for school year 2526 that we actually had budgeted for already in our approved budget for 2526. The other thing they did though is they reduced that further to 90%. So as you look to school year 2627 we'll see another reduction in that. for the 2526. That reduction was expected kind of estimated at just over $750,000 was the impact on our budget that we otherwise um would have received in funds. It also established a blue ribbon commission on special education which is tasked with developing an action plan by October 1st of 2026 to reduce state appropriations by $250 million total over 2728 and 2829 bianium. So the real world impact for us is that we will receive a loss in special ed dollars. The reason there's also a stop gap. So if the commission is unable to find re, you know, sufficient um reductions that would result in that savings, the default is that then they will reduce our special education cross subsidy aid. You might recall that we were anticipated to receive in 27 um school year 26 27 an increase to 50% for that cross subsidy aid. Again, they were trying to reduce that amount that the general fund has to otherwise offset. And so, we know that one way or another, we will have a fairly significant loss in special ed aid. When I do the kind of I call it my rough math, it's about $3 million each year just with that because it's about 125 million each bianium is their target. And so, that's a significant loss for us anticipated as we look forward for that challenge. Two other areas that were impacted was student personnel aid, which was new. Both of these and school library aid were new a couple years ago. And they're both per pupil amounts. And so in both cases, they were reduced by about onethird. And so for student personnel aid, it's going to go down was projected to go to 48 and we'll only receive um a little over $30 per pupil. And then that'll go up just a little bit the year following. But for our 2526 school year, that was a reduction of 38 just over $384,000. School library aid again is a per pupil again reduced by about onethird um from 16 down to 1027 and then down to 911. And so for our 2526 school year, that was a reduction of $120,000. Seeing a trend right now. Achievement integration revenue was another category. And what happened there is that the um beginning in this current year so u fiscal year or school year 2526 the amount that the Minnesota Department of Education retains so they retain a certain amount for administrative costs on their end that used to be.3% so fairly low dollar amount about $10,000 now they're going to increase that to 1.3% so real world dollars that resulted in a loss of just shy of $34,000 to that program for school lunch aid and again this one doesn't take effect until school year 2728 as you'll note, but it does cut in half the additional state funding for school lunch. Um so it went from 12.5 cents to 6 and a4 cents. And in talking to Wendy Peterson, our director of nutrition services, that would in today's um based on the meals served today, that would be about $125,000 loss to the school nutrition fund. So, now we'll shift to federal funds. Um, I know it's been in the news a lot, but there was on June 30th of 2025, the Department of Education informed state education agencies that nearly $6.8 million in federal K12 funding would be not be released. The reason that was such a shock to us is on July 1st, those funds were scheduled to be released. So, really, we had one day noticed um to somehow go, "Oh my goodness, what does what do we do now?" And we've been talking about that here at the board meetings um for quite some time. Just what would happen if the impacted um programs are listed here. The title programs um most significantly adult education and literacy education, English literacy and civics education. funds that were not impacted. Title 1A which is one that we receive, individuals with disabilities education act funds or idea funds largely the special education funding and also national school lunch program was not impacted. I thought it might be helpful to just see um kind of by fund where we receive our federal funds. And so this um slide shows just the general fund. And so it's our I used FY26 budget dollars. So, our 2526 school year budget that was approved at last board meeting. And so, we have 5.1 million um a little over in federal funds. Those in red are the items um the programs that are impacted currently by those that funding um withheld or under review. And so, it's in title 2 A, title 3A, and title 4 A for a total of about $453,000 or about 9% of our federal funds in general fund one. The next slide then is food service and community service fund. Again, our operating funds are those three. And so food service as noted on that initial slide that the national school lunch program was not impacted. So they don't receive they receive about $5.2 million in federal aid and that's not anticipated to be impacted. Below that, however, is community education and 100% of the federal funds they received were impacted. And so of the $119,000 they won't receive any currently. So the local impact of the funding delays um again in general fund just a little how do we use these dollars? So title 2A the $220,000 is used for teacher development. Title 3A $23,000 used to pay for support staff and resources for our English learner program. Title 4A is a very a much smaller amount. Um but again these are budgeted numbers 29,000 and that's used for student support and academic enrichment at our alternative high school. In community service again where their 100% of their federal aid is impacted. It is largely the federal adult uh consists of federal adult education which is about just shy of 37,000 and that supplements our state um adult education funds to meet the diverse needs of our adult learners in those programs as well as our adult education integrated English literacy and civics education. They call it LCE. So when we talk about it we get to use a much shorter acronym. Um but the $83,000 is provides supplementary training and experience for participating learners. So kind of a unique program that they've um developed with these dollars in community education that again right now is currently the funding is not there. So again the impact if we do not receive these funds we would likely need to absorb most costs for school year 2526. And we did discuss this at an earlier board meeting. Um we've talked about trying to not be you know super reactive and the sky is falling but also to be mindfully planning but we at that point knew that because of our um these items listed here that we wouldn't be able to adjust likely for this coming school year. So staffing allocations are made in January through March and so those are set contractually we have very little flexibility to make any changes subsequent to that. The annual budget must be approved by June 30th and much of the work is done in April and May. So again, makes it much harder to be flexible with that um when we were notified on June 30th about those funds. Programming decisions must be made prior um to knowing the actual amounts. And so again, as we're setting the budget and the program staff are trying to say, what should we spend these dollars and how best to utilize those? Again, it does have to supplement um existing programming, it can't take the place of, but most commonly that we have to make those program decisions much earlier than the wards have been known. And that's been consistent yeartoear. What changed this year is the first year that we've ever had any awareness that perhaps those funds might be at risk or in question. So, as we look to school year 26 27, adjustments will need to be considered. Um, and again, depending on federal funding decisions, we know a lot can change between now and even the earliest date here next this coming January, we know we have, you know, six months prior to that that we might have more information at that point too on these funds. And with that, any questions? Does anyone have any questions? Okay, seeing none, thank you. We'll move on to 7.0 and that's action items. We do have quite a few this evening. Our first one is 7.1 and that's our Northeast Metro 916 fiscal year 27 long-term facilities maintenance program budget and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. >> Good evening again. So, the school board of North East Metro 916 Intermediate School District has approved a LTFM program or long-term facility maintenance program budget of 597,600 for fiscal year 2027. Member districts pay a proportionate share determined by using a blended rate based on net tax capacity and a ratio of ADM utilization by the district. South Washington County Schools proportionate share is 118,183 and53 cents which will be levied with taxes payable 2026. The attached resolution approves Northeast Metro's 9 Northeast Metro 916's LTFM program budget and authorizes the inclusion of a proportionate share of those projects in the district's fiscal year 27 LTFM revenue application. Administration recommends approval of the attached resolution. >> Does anyone have any questions? Okay. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Second. >> Motion by Sharon, seconded by Eric. Any comments? >> Dana. >> Louise Hines. >> Yes. >> Ryan Clark. >> Yep. >> Sharon Faner. >> Yes. >> Eric Tesler. >> Yes. >> Melinda Dos. Katie Schwarz. >> Yes. Motion passes. Now we'll move on to 7.2 and that's fiscical year 27 long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan and that will be presented again by Chris Burn, director of business services. >> I know I kind of feel like I should walk away and come back. Uh thank you again. The long-term facility maintenance program is established by state statute and administered by the Minnesota Department of Education. And so what's before you tonight is our plan for the next 10 years. Revenue is generated through a combination of state aid and levy. State statute authorizes issuing bonds and pay as you go levy to finance LTFM plan projects. LTFM revenue may be used for health and safety capital projects and deferred capital expenditures and maintenance projects on districtowned facilities. It may not be used for remodeling or new construction. Allowable uses of LTFM revenue include roofs, parking lots, heating and ventilation systems, as well as repair and maintenance of classrooms, auditoriums, and other facilities. MDE requires the school board to annually approve a 10-year LTFM plan. South Washington County Schools LTF LTF plan, apparently I've been talking too much. LTFM plan for the next 10 years comprised of the expenditure application and the revenue projection is attached. Administration recommends approval of the FY27 LTFM 10-year plan. >> Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. >> Motion by Louise, second by Melinda. Any comments or questions? Okay, hearing none. This is another roll call. >> Ryan Clark, >> yes. >> Sharon Baner, >> yes. >> Eric Tesler, >> yes. Melinda DS, >> yes. >> Luis Hines, >> yes. >> Katie Schwarz, >> yes. >> Motion passes. We'll move on to 7.3 and that is our sale of general obligation school building and facilities maintenance bonds series 2026A presented by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. And again, thank you. So on November 7th, 2023, voters approved two ballot questions authorizing South Washington County Schools to construct $200 million in school expansions and renovations. Two separate bond issues were planned to minimize interest costs, and the first bonds were sold in January of 2024. The second bond sale for the remaining approved authority of approximately 101,000 101,225,000 will occur in early 2026. That sale will also include selling bonds of approximately $30,595,000 to fund various long-term facility maintenance projects in fiscal years 26 and 27 per the board approved 10-year LTFM plan. Attached is a draft resolution relating to general obligation school building and facilities maintenance bonds series 2026A approximate principal amount of 131,820,000 stating official intent to proceed with and authorizing the issuance and sale thereof and providing for credit enhancement and establishing compliance and reimbursement bond regulations under the Internal Revenue Code. The board has asked to adopt the resolution for the sale of general obligation school building and facility maintenance bonds series 2026A. >> Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Louise. Seconded by Ryan. >> Any comments? Okay. Dana, roll call. >> Sharon Vaner. >> Yes. >> Eric Tesler. >> Yes. >> Melinda DS. >> Yes. >> Luis Hines. >> Yes. >> Ryan Clark. >> Yes. >> Katie Schwarz. >> Yes. Motion passes. on to 7.4 and that's general election of school board members and calling school district elect elections and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. I think this is my last one this evening. So, and I will say on the last if you really want to have some fun just drive around and look at all the construction going on because there's a lot of fences and a lot of dirt and a lot of buildings in mid construction. It's pretty exciting time. So, this particular is a resolution relating to the general election of school board members and calling the school district election. The attached resolution calls for the school district to hold a general election for the purpose of electing four school board members to serve four-year terms. The general election will be held on Tuesday, November 4th, 2025 between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. The ballot will include the names of those individuals who filed affidavit of candidacy during the legal filing period. Administration recommends approval of the attached resolution. >> Can I get a motion to approve? >> Moved. >> Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by Louise. Any comments? >> Roll call. >> Eric Tessar. >> Yes. >> Melinda DS. >> Yes. >> Luis Hines. >> Yes. >> Ryan Clark. >> Yes. >> Sharon Vanair. >> Yes. >> Katie Schwarz. >> Yes. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Now I'll pass it off to my next K board. >> 7.5 is um to dissolve Woodbury High School Hockey Co-op and that will be presented by Christine Schaeer, assistant superintendent. Good evening, school board chair Schwarz, members of the schoolboard superintendent Nielsson. Tonight, I'm here to request your approval for the disillusion of the girls hockey cooperative team currently hosted by Woodbury High School. As members of the Minnesota State High School League, we're required to follow all bylaws related to athletic cooperative agreements. A cooperative exists when one or more schools do not have enough players to field the team independently and join together to offer the opportunity through a host school. For the past several years, Woodbury High School has partnered with the following schools in a cooperative girls hockey program. New Life Academy, St. Croy Prep, Twin Cities Academy, Great River School, St. Croy Lutheran, and Math and Science Academy. At this time, Woodbury High School has enough student athletes to sustain its own girls hockey program moving forward, making a co-op no longer necessary. This is a positive reflection of the growing interest and participation among Woodbury High School students. Per Minnesota State High School League guidelines, we must now formally dissolve the cooperative, which requires signed approval from each participating school. Once this step is complete, Woodbury High School will move forward as an independent program. In your package, you'll find a letter from Jod Loblind Leer, activities director at Woodbury High School, outlining participation numbers from each of the schools. You'll also see the signed disillusion agreement, which the activities directors have already approved from all the participating schools. While participating schools have agreed to the dissolusion, I want to note that if St. Croy Prep is not able to find a new co-op partner, I'll come back to the school board to request approval to reestablish the co-op with St. Croy Prep. So, at this time, I'd like to request your approval for the disillusion of the current girls hockey cooperative team at Woodbury High School. I get a motion to approve. So, move >> motion by Melinda, seconded by Sharon. Any comments or questions? >> Okay. All those in favor? I >> oppos. Motion passes. >> Then on to our last action item 7.6 and that is 202526 calendar adjustment and that will be presented by Christine Schaefer, assistant superintendent. >> All right. Tonight I'm here to request your support for a modification to the 2526 school year regarding March 31st, 2026. Currently, the state is designated as an MCA testing day for grades 10 in reading and 11 in math. also the seal of biiteracy testing for 11 and 12 and an asynchronous learning day for grades nine and 12. To improve student participation in these assessments and to maintain learning opportunities for all, we are proposing that March 31st be changed to an in-person instructional day for all students grades 9 through 12. Moving to an in-person format allows high schools to administer the MCA and seal bay literacy during the school day, which will support student engagement. Each school will use an adaptive bell schedule to ensure students have adequate time to complete the assessments without disrupting the rest of the school day. For example, likely 10th graders will take their reading MCA during their English language arts class because all 10th graders take that course and 11th graders will likely take math during US history because all 11th graders take US history. This will encourage these are all required courses. So this will be consistency amongst all students for testing. So, at this time, we'd like to request your approval for the change in calendar for March 31st, 2026. >> Can I get a motion to approve? >> So, moved. Second. >> Motion by Ryan, seconded by Eric. Any comments? I have one comment. What about online students? Do they go into what would be their home school if their district? They um principal Faldi has them come to a specific location. So he'll rent out a space and he'll bring them all together. So now that we'll have a new nice space at Central Park, they'll probably go there. >> Yep. >> Do we Good question. >> Get the kids there then. >> They get themselves there. If they can't get there, we will figure out how to get them there. >> Okay. Yes. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. >> Thank you. On to 8.0. And that is our superintendent report. Thank you. Um I was sharing with a board member in phone calls today that while it's summertime and there may be a perception of slowness and schedules that aren't packed, um in talking with the leaders in the back and even staff here in the space, um for whatever reason this year, I don't know if it's the construction or maybe the programming, but it presents calendars that are filled up. And I know the board is aware of some of this information, but I wanted to share with um the community as well. We have targeted services going on for students. We have 700 elementary um students enrolled, 300 middle school students enrolled, and that uh programming is across Bailey Elementary School, Cottage Grove Elementary School, and Cottage Grove Middle School. In addition to that, we have uh four kids club sites with 900 students enrolled. Um and that those four sites are Greycloud, Liberty, Red Rock, and Woodbury Elementary School. And for the schools that aren't being used for targeted services, kids club or what we call our extended school year, they are packed full with programming. We have camps, clinics, theater. I think we have every single program going on possible this summer. Um, our schools are so full. Um, also just as a reminder, um, three nights a week we have schoolie events and I know that we have a number of community members that are attending those. Um, and coming up we have parades. One parent was very impressed um that we were out doing the Strawberry Days parade when it was I'm going to say it was 120, but it was probably closer to 100. Um but it was real hot, Sharon. And you should have been there. I know how much you like hot parades. Um but we have three parades where the school district will be represented. Um St. Paul Park, Newport, and Woodbury. Um and then finally, just to reiterate uh what was shared by Chris, a lot of construction going on um throughout the district every day, every week. It's amazing the progress that we're making. And I think for the most part we are on track and on schedule um and within budget. So those are three good things. Thank you. >> Thank you. On to 9.0. And that is our future meeting dates. August 7th, 2025 is our schoolboard workshop meeting here at the district service center at 6 p.m. Then August 21st, 2025 is our schoolboard business meeting that is also here at the district service center at 6 p.m. With that 10.0 and we are adjourned. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] I love you. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music]