001The Monday, June 23rd, 2025 Inver Grove Heights Community Schools Board of Education's regular meeting is called to order at 5 30 p.m. at the district office. As a reminder, all public comment during regular school board meetings must be related to an information or action item on that night's agenda. The district holds public listening sessions prior to all regular board meetings to allow participants to speak on topics that are not on the agenda. More information on public comment and public listening sessions could be found on the district's website. This meeting is being recorded and access to the recording will be made available on the school district's website as quickly as possible. Our school district's mission is to inspire, innovate, excel. A community commitment. Board Clerk Larson, will you please take roll call? Of course. Member Klinger?
002Present. Member Warwick? Here. Member Lounsbury? Here. Member Larson? Here. Member Pearson? Here. Member Dukes? Here. Member Nehemiah? Here. All right. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I 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. All right. Do I have a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda items? So moved, Member Nehemiah. Second by Member Warwick. All right, motion by Member Nehemiah and second by Member Warwick. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. opposed the motion is carried uh we'll begin with district highlights and superintendent bernardson will introduce the highlight thank you yes as a reminder this is probably the last official business meeting or any aspect that's related to the
003last school year and one of the things we'd really like to highlight is our retirees from this past school year Our school district had nine people that retired from service with our school district and their service ranges were from three years to 30 years. The retirees are Shelly Austin from Hilltop Elementary with 21 years of service. Sheila Dromdahl-Mario, Pine Bend Elementary with 35 years of service. I guess I missed that 35 compared to the 30. Linda Geist, Salem Hills Elementary School, 20 years. Laura Lambert, Inver Grove Heights Early Learning Center, 12 years. Teresa Leonard in Transportation with nine years. Our peers, our district director of community education, eight years. Kathy Unra from Salem Hills Elementary, 10 years. Susan Vandale from Pine Bend Elementary with three. and Jody Wendell, our Invergrove Heights Middle School principal with
00430 years of service. We want to really thank those retirees for the service that they provided to our students, the colleagues that they worked with and their commitment to our community and wish them all the best as they begin their new adventure, whatever that may be and congratulate them on their retirement. Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda items? So moved by member Pearson. Second by member motion by member Pearson second by member Dukes any discussion all those in favor aye opposed the motion is carried now our donations and thank you to everyone who has donated to our district we greatly appreciate the partnership with helping our students succeed they do make a difference Moving on to information items, we'll begin with committee reports. Liz, will you
005please update us on the facilities committee? The facilities committee has not met this month. All right. Sherry, the finance committee? As well, the finance committee has not met this month. Okay. Personnel, Jake? The personnel committee met on June 9th, and the agenda included updates on negotiations and staffing positions. Great. Shana, policy committee? Yes, the policy committee met prior to tonight's meeting that included updates from the current policy cycle. Thank you. Now membership reports. Dave, will you please give an update on AMSD? Sure. AMSD met on May 23 in advance of the special session. They went provided an overview of the proposed omnibus education bills and education related legislation. Thank you. Shana, will you give an update on the Invergrove Heights BEST Foundation? Yes, the BEST Foundation executive team met on June the 16th and included
006a financial report, executive director's report, and an action team update. Thank you. Sherry, will you give an update on MSBA? Yeah, visit the MSBA website to review a recap of the legislative session. Thank you. and finally dave will you please give an update on intermediate school district 917. sure they met on june 10th and their agenda included 917 and 199 agreement for early childhood thank you all right moving on to action items i'd like to welcome director of community education barb pierce to introduce the recommendation to approve the 2025 26 and 2026 27 facility use fees thank you so we're here tonight to ask for the board to approve these fees as you know every couple years we take a look adjust our fees as necessary to reflect increasing costs and maintenance and upkeep of
007our buildings to keep up with other districts similar to other districts so this is our fee schedule that we're proposing for 25 26 and 26 27 so we can start getting those people in place who have requests and let them know what it's going to cost thank you Do I have an emotion in a second to approve the facility use fees? member Larson Second by member cleaner motion by member Larson second by member Clingner any discussion Just want to note that we spent a great deal of time in our last work session walking all the fees and all the different All of you've had a lot of updates and regards to this in advance it mm-hmm. Yes. Thank you for taking a closer look and Ruth and like keeping my understanding is keeping the main
008gym for our students and youth organizations that are typically connected to our students absolutely our first obligation is to our community and you can see that within the fee and that's all the classes that we have those classes again are put in place to make sure again that it's local use is a priority and i can honestly say that that is probably the highest percentage of our uses based on the local community and their at access to our gyms and other facilities great any more discussion all those in favor aye opposed the motion is carried thank you All right, now we would like to have excuse me, Director of Business Services Heather on it will introduce the recommendation to approve the ISD 199 long term facilities maintenance plan. Thank you. So this is an annual
00910 year report that is required by Minnesota Department of Education for board approval. And we keep a schedule in-house for a 10-year plan a little bit more in-depth that also includes things beyond long-term facility maintenance such as vehicle replacement and those types of things but this is a spreadsheet from Minnesota Department of Education so I apologize in advance it's not the best to put on a presentation but the first one is a 10-year revenue projection and this is something projected by Minnesota Department of Ed and just shared with you for approval which takes our estimated enrollment our building age and square footage to give us our allocation of revenue And then the second report is something that myself and our directors of facility and safety work on together where we try to project out as
010best we can for 10 years. It's a long time. The health and safety, such as physical hazards, hazardous materials, environmental, asbestos, fire safety, and indoor air quality. at the top part of the report and then items that are more related to the facilities and their maintenance at the bottom such as electrical plumbing interior services roofing plumbing and then as part of this it feeds into the fund balance so that we're able to make sure we are We have enough funds for bigger projects. So the revenue and expenditures don't always equal one another for this budget because we save, so to speak, some of the funds in fund balance to use for larger projects like the roofing that we had in this past year. And this information was shared at the board work session a couple
011weeks ago. And tonight I'd like to ask for the board's approval of the 10-year long-term facility maintenance plan. Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the sorry, when the 199 long term facilities maintenance plan? Motion by member Pearson. Second by member work. All right. Motion by member Pearson second by member work. Any discussion? I always like looking at this to know what's coming. I think the detailed plan behind it really gives a good roadmap and I think we have beautiful facilities and I'm proud of what we have and so I just I'm always interested and grateful for the clarity and I appreciate how it's shared with us. Thank you. Thanks to you very appreciative of all that goes into funding a school district. You know when you think about it
012it's a lot of things and so thank you for the time that it takes to compile this. Thank you. And, and I think we're able to expand a little on this as well with roofing improvements, I think with new legislation. Yep. So and that's a couple years out, I believe, but projects that are larger, we should be able to levy for so I think if we, you know, unfortunately, we just did a couple of roofing projects. But if we have some more, we might we'll have to take that into consideration. And do we want to push them out? Just nice. We got it. Yeah. All right, any more discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. Now we get to learn about the 917 Long-Term Facilities Maintenance Plan. So just as exciting,
013the Intermediate School District 917, they do the same long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan, and it was brought to their school board last month and approved. It's estimated at $421,000 total overall, but split between the member districts, and it's divided up based on the net tax capacity of each district and the enrollment. So our portion at ISD 199 is $27,204. And then we can look at the 10-year expenditure plan for them. It's not as in-depth, and there's not really health and safety in there at all. Most of their facilities, I believe, are all leased, and so that's probably taken out of, you know, from the management of the building owner. looking for words there um so the long-term facility maintenance for instance in 2025 this current year 65 000 but then goes up to 225 000
014next year just based on the projects that they are planning and then of course they also consider the fund balance as well as they project those out through the years and save for those bigger projects so tonight I would like to ask for the board's approval of the intermediate district 917 long-term facility maintenance plan thank you do I have a motion and a second to approve the ISD 917 long-term facilities maintenance plan second by member Lounsbury all those in favor or sorry any discussion all those in favor aye opposed the motion is carried All right, finally, Heather's final action item for tonight is the 2025-26 budget adoption. Thank you. As we've shared out this information bit by bit as we've gone along the process, I kind of wanted to start with where we were the
015last time this was shared. We had the previous projection over budget of $580,000 and then we had right sizing of $170,000 additions and then right sizing reductions of $187,000. along with some district-level reductions at $405,415, and that left us with $157,585. And that might not necessarily mean budget reductions when we have those right-size, or sorry, when we have that deficit that we need to cover. Sometimes it is the, if we can have an increase in revenue, a decrease in... expenses or using fund balance to accommodate those. So then when we were at that 157, 585, we got unfortunate news that our federal funds for Title I were reduced by 222,000. We had a state reduction in student support of 52,000 and library aid of 6,500. So that updated deficit is 439,232. And again, offsetting that
016budget deficit could mean increased revenue, reduced expenditures, or using fund balance. And so we chose to use some fund balance. We had assigned fund balance for our Hilltop Playground, which was covered partially by a grant. We have a grant for $100,000. And we also had assigned some fund balance for school bus replacement cycle. And our buses are in good condition, and we confer a goal replacing this year. And the restricted fund balance of Comp Ed had just a little bit left in it, 19,340. And the restricted fund balance of learning and development of 107,510 we're able to use as well, which just goes towards class size reduction in kindergarten through third grade. And then we had some additional safe school levy funds, which is very restricted to certain items that keep our buildings safe. During
017the pandemic, we were given a little bit more funding, so we had been chipping away at this restricted fund balance, and we have $82,282. With the additional SRO, we're able to spend that in this year. And so the remainder left to identify is zero. So this is the overall budget with all of the funds, and in the following slides, I'll break them down a little bit more, looking at the general fund first. can go to that slide. So the general fund revenue is 60 million 436,000 and the expenditures are 61 million and 25,000. So it shows that deficit of 589,232. We previously discussed using the third party billing restricted funds of 150,000. and that left it with us with that updated deficit of 439 which we just talked about and then using the fund balance
018from those various funds to bring us to that zero balance so when we look at the budget overall it looks like that 589 000 but just to know that we're using very specific fund balance to cover that deficit and then our food service budget our projections are based on our 24 25 participation it includes increased food and staffing costs We ended the prior year with $1.15 million in fund balance, and what we are supposed to have in fund balance is three months of operation, which is about $750,000, according to Minnesota Department of Education. And we've been conservative. Now it's time to, you know, maybe replace some equipment and do some of those things. So we're going to have revenues of $2.839 million and expenditures of $3.175 million. So a deficit of $335,564, which should help
019us get in line with where we should be at with fund balance for food service. Community ed is pretty straightforward, just projections on participation and includes the increases in staffing expenditures as well. So revenue of $2.18 million and expenditures $2.18 million for a surplus of $132. So you don't get that close usually. and then our next one our capital projects we have those abatement bond funds and so we will be using the remainder of those for the pine bend parking lot and we'll also be using some long-term facility maintenance for that project as well and some funds from the sale of the south grove property The revenue is just estimate of interest from those funds while they sit in investments until we spend them. So revenue of $25,000 and expenditures of the $524,000 that we
020expect to be remaining. And then OPEB and debt service. OPEB is other post-employee benefits. This one's really hard to predict. So we usually start the year with $500,000 revenue budget and $500,000 expenditure budget. It's just going to be based on the investments and how those perform in the year and then how many retirements we have in the spring. So those will be adjusted a little bit in the spring. And our dental self insurance fluctuates each month, but we predict to end in a surplus and we have the last four years of having this fund and any remaining balance always stays within this restricted fund for future dental insurance claims. So we'll reject revenue at 540,000 expenditures at 490,000 for a surplus of 50,000. So tonight, I'd like to ask for the board to approve the
0212025-2026 adopted budget. Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the 2025-2026 budget adoption? Motion by Member Warwick. Second by Member Nehemiah. Okay, motion by Member Warwick, second by Member Nehemiah. Any discussion? I applaud you so much for working with moving targets constantly. I mean, it's just really hard with so many moving targets. So, wow. I was going to say the same thing. It's exciting to be here. It's just a reminder to everybody that this all starts in January. And it's every two weeks or every board meeting, there's an update, whether it's a work session or regular session. And again, I want to thank Heather for the work that she's done to keep us right on track. But also at the same time, monitoring what's happening within the legislature because there
022are different pivots that can take place that can impact this. And this was a funding year. you all know that special session just happened a short time ago so we really didn't have the complete picture but our forecasting as you can see was pretty darn close and that's something we're very appreciative of because we do not want to make reductions or change the way that we service our kids based on presuming something we want to make sure we have something actual is happening and we we trust and really work with our legislatures who really provide some great insight into this as well And it appears that fund balance that having restricted fund balances is beneficial. Yeah, right. I mean, it's just it is saving for a rainy day. Right. And so I think just for
023our community to see the diligence put into using our funding well, and why we might save some and not use everything every year because you just don't know. It's also good to share within that that it's not a habit that we want to get into of dipping into their restricted funds because those cycles of purchase are set up for a reason to make sure we have the best equipment and vehicles as an example or other aspects to best serve our community but it happened to be a year where that could be possible yes absolutely all right any other discussion all those in favor aye opposed the motion is carried thank you moving on to the 26-27 academic calendar superintendent bernardson walk us through this. Thank you. Yes, just want to remind everybody that the 25-26
024calendar is on our website. That's the next school year. This is the school year after. One of the reasons that we're bringing it to you tonight is that our goal is typically to have calendars done two years in advance and use a collaborative process to determine the calendar. But there were some Latitudes granted within the legislative session for this year the 26-27 school year and the 27-28 school year due to the lateness of Labor Day. With that then within legislation they provided the opportunity for school districts to start before Labor Day. So the earliest we could start school would be September 1st which we are putting into place in this calendar. So as you see school or community family connections would start on September 1st. We'd have that typical start to the school year with
025a staggered start with two days of family connections at elementary, one day of family connections at the middle and high school. That second day then is a middle school day with sixth graders only. And at the high school it's with ninth graders only. Then all students start on Thursday the third, excuse me, the fourth. you can see how that excuse me the third so it all works into play our kindergartners then do start after labor day because they have assessments that week before so it is a little bit of a different twist because we do have those days before labor day otherwise as we move forward we have a flex learning day on september 28th which is very similar to what we had this last school year we've got teacher convention coming up in october
026which is also a time pre-teacher convention where we do our first set of parent-teacher conferences. And then as we move forward, you can see the end of our first quarter on November 5th. And then we have a day, a staff development day on the 6th with a second quarter starting on November 9th. Thanksgiving on the 26th and 27th of November. And as you move forward, you can see the second Flex Learning Day on December 7th. And as you remind you, those Flex Learning Days are... remote learning days per se or flex learning days for middle school and high school. They are non-school days for elementary kids. Then we start with winter break on Wednesday the 23rd of December and school then resumes on January 4th since New Year's Day is on a Friday. Then as
027we move forward you can see also then we've got our Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on the 18th and also then 22nd would be the end of, is that the end of quarter two? And then Monday the 25th is the start of quarter three. Moving forward, then we have President's Day on February 16th, and then our third and final flex learning of the day of the year is on the 16th of February. And then moving forward, you can see then as we get into March, spring break being the last week of March or first few days of April. So March 29th through April 2nd. That also coincides with the end of a quarter, start of a new quarter on April 5th. And then that takes us through all the way until the weekend. with school
028then still being dismissed or dismissed, I should say for the school year on Thursday the 3rd. Our goal was to start before Labor Day so we would not have to go into that second week of June, which we heard from our community and from our staff. That was something they sure hoped that we would not have to do. So the calendar looks very traditional in regards to what it looks like. And it looks like this school year with the exception of starting before Labor Day, but also this year due to REDAC, we had four flex learning days. Now we're back to our traditional three. And just want to remind people that... flex learning days this school replaced our early release days that we had prior to that and i know there's some parents that sometimes
029still got that confused when we have our last day which is actually a um early release day and i heard some comments man i don't like those uh early release days well it's just the last day of school now and it'll continue to be the last day of school right so this evening we're asking for the board to approve our 26 27 school year calendar and this is one that we've been talking about for a number of months but we're waiting for legislative action to be able to start before Labor Day thank you do I have a motion and a second to approve the 26-27 academic calendar motion by member Larson second by member Lounsbury any discussion I would just say that prior to ever being involved in this process I was the parent at
030home. I was going why do they have this staff? Or why can't they start here? How come this break landed this way? And what you know? There's so much coordination and figuring that goes into this and I would just call it to anybody that was watching at home. The document you're seeing right now won't get posted this way. But in the month, the title of the month, you'll see these parentheses that say STA and a number and STU and a number and it's showing you the number of days that staff are in school and a number of days or students are in school and I just want to thank Tracy so much for all the work that in the math that you do in that and there's so much calculation that goes into this between
031state statutes of what we're required to do. And so this legislative change and being able to start before Labor Day really, really matters. This gives the district the ability to schedule what we need to do within our own parameters. And so I'm really excited to see this. Thank you to all the work and the input from the the union leaders and gathering the input from the staff on where these breaks land. This has been as Dave said a work in progress for many months and we appreciate it. So cool to see it all put together here. Thank you. I just want to remind people that the state or the legislative action provides the opportunity to start before Labor Day for this school year and the next one. But then after that, it's back to regular
032business as usual as far as when you can start school. Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. All right, now we are have reached close to the end of the meeting and we'll start with Superintendent Bernardson's comments. Thank you. Yes, first of all, just based on having conversation or a little bit of conversation about the legislative session. I want to thank our two state representatives, Mary Frances Clardy and Rick Hansen and our state Senator Matt Klein for their legislative advocacy and their connection to us. They are constantly communicating with us. But also along with that, I want to thank our board for all the work that you have done in regards to advocating as well with the legislature. One of the things that we heard during our referendum
033campaign was, are you busy advocating for your school district? And that is an overwhelming yes. All of you are working towards that. Plus, we work hand-in-hand with our two state representatives and our state senator. Also then along with that, I want to congratulate our class, semi-class of 2025. I think on Wednesday, it'll be three weeks. It seems like it was not that long ago, but it was almost three weeks ago that we had a beautiful evening for graduation and a wonderful celebration for our class of 2025. With that, Summer Academy for our students started today. So that summer learning opportunity started for some kids as well today. And then with that, I want to of course thank all of our students, all of our families, and all of our staff. for a great school year,
034but with that, I want to put a special thanks out to our community because back in November, they passed a levy referendum and we all have been very thankful for that referendum as we've gone through this budgeting cycle because without that, things would have looked a lot different. So thank you to our community. And I'm going to do something a little different. So I'm going to ask a couple people to come and sit at the table. There's only one chair there, but they're going to make two. So Barb and Michelle, can you come up to that table for just a moment, please? So behind the scenes of all the work that we do, we have a district leadership team. In our district, we call that a cabinet. And our cabinet is a very focused group
035of leaders and their focus is on being a service center to our schools and creating the conditions for our schools to do the best that they can with their kids. And two of our cabinet members are experiencing their last board meeting this evening. and both of them came to us eight years ago. Michelle Carroll is our Director of Human Resources and Barb Pierce is our Director of Community Education. And when you hear those titles, you may think that's what they do, but they do more than that and they have done more than that. In our district, we work hard to be very, very involved in everybody's business. What I mean by that is, is that we don't have a large leadership team because we want to make sure we're spending our funds in the schools.
036So we do a lot of work outside of our general roles to make sure everything is the best that it can be. Barb started with community education, but she took on a different role during that time. You may remember we had something called COVID. And during that time, Barb took on health and safety and guided us through what I would say as... the best scenario possible during a very difficult time and we will forever be grateful to barb for that time but yet again along with that she carried on the community ed duties and for those of you that were here before barb's time there was one community director that worked with three school districts and we then opted that each of our own director and barb has set community education for success for long-term
037success and one of the aspects that we also have to remember with community education is is that we generally talk pre-k or e through 12. but community education serves our families no matter what they would no matter what age they are so basically birth for as long as you want to be involved and that is really that community aspect that really brings about that cohesiveness with our school district but provides significant opportunities so barb thank you for all that you have done to put community education where it needs to be in our school district, but also those other duties that came along the way. Barb has trained people on CPR and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. It goes on and on and on and on during her time with our school district. Barb is retiring
038at the end of the school year, but I'm confident that we will see her around every once in a while. I will be back. And I really appreciate the opportunity to work here for these last eight years. It has been really a fun time and a challenging time. And I hope I did set my department up for success that they can carry on. Michelle is our Director of Human Resources. And for those of you that don't know, prior to, well, 12 years ago, there was no human resources in ISD 199. Those duties were split amongst people. And when I started, I was fortunate enough that the board before that time had put in place human resources and Julie Coffey, our first director of human resources, created a foundation. Our vision, our collective vision for human
039resources was for it to be a service to our employees. And sometimes if you watch a movie or a TV show and people go, oh, it's HR, they kind of go, oh, boy. Oh, boy. And we didn't want human resources to be that way. We want human resources and ISD 199 to be where people go to get support and guidance for what they need to be successful. related to their job and other aspects with it because as much as kids may not know this, employees do get paid. They do have lives. They have other aspects that go into place. And Michelle has brought that vision forward. Our employees, when they're looking for something, they go to Michelle. When we're trying to figure out what's happening in school or what we can do to help with
040the culture, Michelle jumps in and talks to those employees and develops those relationships. And we talk about the 199 way of belonging and relationships. Michelle set that in rhythm, I should say, for employees and has gone above and beyond with that as well, just like Barb. But the other part that Michelle has done is she negotiates contracts. And when you negotiate contracts, sometimes people think that that's like this. And as you all know, our contracts have gone very smooth because of the relationship that exists with those employees that are negotiating with Michelle and Heather. And again, set us for success and put that culture in place because the people that are coming to replace them, they want to come here because they understand and have heard about the culture of the school district. And that
041goes back to these guys. and it goes back to you so thank you michelle for your eight years i think it's important for people to know one little thing they both drive over an hour one way to get here every day and it is well worth the drive and that's not typical and they're not taking the easy drive but they have uh they want to be here and michelle's had some things in life that have changed that so she's going to work a little closer to home and we can't argue with that But she has set us to success just like Barb has. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for welcoming me into this district for the last eight years. It has been a fun ride. And so people that don't know, these cabinet members
042are here at every meeting. And they're behind the scenes setting things for success. And we're all very close. And live our professional lives together. So thank you. Thank you. thank you are we excused thank you very much yes oh it's always hard to say goodbye member larson not sure how to follow that um i guess clearly there's been a lot of curveballs thrown lately with legislation budget staffing changes and everyone in this room in this district always seems to handle things with grace and and it seems like it's just we'll figure it out and it all comes together somehow so thank you to everyone um especially those who are moving on um but for for doing your job and for doing a phenomenal job at your job to to make things run as smoothly as
043you can um i work in special events and i always joke but not really that behind the scenes it's like super chaotic and maybe like an absolute zoo, but you do a good job of making it look like everything's under control. So I feel like it's a similar situation. So thank you. Member Warwick? Yes, I just want to say something to our directors that are leaving, as did at the work session last time, too. Sarah, ditto to what Sarah said and how Dave said it so eloquently. Just a huge thank you to Michelle Carroll, the director of HR, just for your, for establishing the good, positive relationships that you did with our staff and many other duties that you have done for us here. Thank you. We will miss you and we wish you well.
044And thank you to Barb Pierce too. I'm Director of Community Education. For your relational skills, we really appreciate that. Bringing our community together. We wish you good luck in your retirement. Oh boy, there's a lot to say. I, at some point... Maybe another meeting. We're going to have Director Short here, right, to talk about baseball and softball and all these wonderful things, right? Yeah. Because I can't say enough congratulations to some of those folks who went to state. It's just huge. And 2025 grads. It's so awesome. I'm so excited to see what you do next. I have two fun stories. Barb was so... full of creative problem solving during COVID, where we came up with an outdoor carnival in like 19 degree weather that Barb approved with certain masks and certain space. And we just
045had an amazing event because Barb was willing to work and we were all safe. And that was at Salem Hills. That was just a little example, just fun. creative problem solving barb and that was one of you've been a cheerleader of plays you've worked with early there's so many things it's really thank you for all of that stuff really creative problem solving and michelle thank you for taking so many of my emails and so many of my questions i know i've pestered you um and i and i do want to kind of tie this in to the legislature because I don't know. I wrote maybe to 25 or 30 representatives and senators this session. And the middle of the session was bad. Like, I don't know if people understand. We're in a much better situation
046than we were in the middle of the session. Because we were, Dave was pushing, we were pushing, big groups were pushing, but we had stories that I got from Michelle and Heather. I think even Abel asked about iPads at one point. There were times when we could say, here's really what this means if you don't help us on this. I understand all your good ideas, but this one is going to hurt our district. And we had really specific stories we were telling. And really, what happened at the end is much better than it was. and it's not perfect so anybody watching at home thinking they have no problem that's not true we do the legislature still has to improve but I also want people to think because what happened at the legislature this week was
047so tragic both sides of the aisle have worked to help this district and so many people work to help this state they do listen to what we have to say. They are trying to make our lives better. So I just think, and that's happening here at a smaller level, is that we're working on problems all the time. We're always trying to make them better. And so I just appreciate kind of asking questions and working together to better things. Member Dukes? Yeah, everyone has said such great things. um and i i agree with all of them i feel like i've gotten a chance to um learn things like i had an hr question because i do a lot hr at my job and i was like michelle only asked you this question it was so quick
048to give me answer and i did my presentation very well i didn't have too many questions all because michelle helped me out um and so that was great and then i didn't even know the whole community education space until i got here and then you know All the things from early learning. At first it's like okay, it's the plays right? And then Barbara come and say something else. Okay, so it's the plays and this. And then she come talk about something else. Like okay, wait a minute. This is actually a lot bigger of a job than my brain was understanding. So I'm so grateful to have learned about Community Aid from you and all the things that you've been able to report. And so hope you have some fun. Do a little less work, you
049know, as you enjoy retirement. And then everyone else, whether it's okay, you know, try to enjoy it while it's all right. And yeah, look forward to when we're back all together again. Thank you number Pearson. Yes. Well, I want to share my first memory of Barb I actually met Barb prior to being on the school board. She certified my son and I in CPR. And because we enrolled in community ed, the CPR first aid class. And when we tootled into the middle school one night for that class, there was Barb. And what a gift she has for instructing that class. But I will never forget when it was my turn to be on the dummy, because this is the hands-on class where you have to give the compressions. She had to stop and she goes,
050no, no, no, not that hard. You're going to break a rib. And then when I come to the school, I'm like, that's my CPR instructor. She told me I was going to break a rib. I remember that. But you had such a talent and such a kind way of re-instructing me and getting me to let up. But it stuck with me how all-encompassing community ed has been in this district. And that is because of you and the approach that you have taken. And so thank you so much. It is not taken for granted what you have created here and the tone you have set. And to Michelle, because you are in human resources and that is my outside profession, you were the one place where I knew for sure it is a thankless job or
051can be a thankless job. And my eye was immediately on that department because it was the only one that I knew anything about. And you have so impressed me with the relationship building that you have done with the staff. and i have just watched that and so admired that in the way that you have approached negotiations and just the way that this whole cabinet supports the district um this as liz was saying this legislative session was curveball after curveball after curveball and this entire cabinet i just want you to know it is not taken for granted how you had plan a and plan b and plan c and plan c a and plan cv and we know that those things Even though we didn't have to use them, they were all in the background. You
052were working on them. And so we're very, very grateful for that. I think I lump my comments under the theme of perspective and so I'll just three different things but I think when Dave mentioned the behind the scenes so if you're from the perspective of those watching from home you don't see what's going on in the back of the boardroom and I'll just say it's laptops open and I don't think they're shopping online I mean, it's 615pm. And I will say that, like this, these twice monthly meetings push into 12 hour nights for these people. And just, I just think that's important to recognize for everybody who did this talking about. And also, congratulations to the to Barb and to Michelle as they move on. So I think that's, that's one thing there's a lot
053of work behind the scenes. And then I think, you know, in a closed session, we as a board are going to reflect on our roles as members of this board and then on the effectiveness of our board overall. And I think I'm just always in awe of the people on this board. We don't. speak day to day. We're not necessarily close, tight friends with each other, but I do welcome the chance to come and work with our board when we have a chance to because there's so much that I can learn and grow from, especially as it relates to advocacy, communication, outreach, being seen, seeing the people who we serve. So I think that's an important perspective. And then I guess I'll just switch to sports, kind of micro level. My daughter's a lacrosse player.
054They had their banquet this last weekend, but As a teacher, it's always academics first. And I didn't really think about my athletes lives. And now as a parent of two young students who are in sports, it's a lot that they're doing. And so I bring that back into focus with lacrosse. Our girls lacrosse team was honored by the state. I don't know the title of the exact award, but the girls, Simley girls lacrosse team has a grade point average of 3.9 as a team. And I think that that's maybe one of five teams in the state. And so I'd be curious to know what our other teams are. I know that there's a minimum athletes have to have but I just it's recognition to all of those that participate in activities and sports and multiple
055of the the real work that goes in as students and then to the caregivers that bring those kids there. So yeah, absolutely. That's very impressive. Well, I just want to wrap up. I feel like what I what I heard and what I have experienced in my time on this board is the importance of being a team player and I I really don't think that it just feels like everybody who is at the district level wants to help and I haven't heard in a in an arrogant way that's not my job it's I'm not sure about this. Why don't you talk to this person? And I just think, as as a cabinet and as a superintendent, you all lead by example. And I think when our buildings operate, like they're on a team, it's so much
056better, right? And, and I think bringing it down to the classroom, like we are all on the same team. If if we've got a problem, let's figure out how to work through this problem. But we are not in opposition to each other. And I think I mean, I obviously we want to educate insightful, robust individuals. But if we can if if 199 can be marked by wow their graduates are team players I think that would be such a gift to our community and to this world So I I want to give one final assignment if anyone's watching You may have seen this already, but Steve Carell was invited to do the commencement address for Northwestern University It is worth your time to watch it. He does not use the words team player. So I'm not
057plagiarizing here, but it is about kindness and an empathy and, and whatnot. So to our to our cabinet leaving us, thank you for being a team player. And we look forward to welcoming the new members to team 199. All right there is no work session in July. The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday July 14th at 5 30 p.m. here in the district office. Do I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting and move into two closed sessions? The first for the purpose of an attorney-client privileged discussion and the second for the school board self-appraisal. All right. All those in favor? Aye. Oh, sorry. Per statute, requirements of the official closed session meeting minutes will be included in next month's consent agenda. Okay. The motion is carried at 621
058p.m.