001[Music] Good evening. I would like to call to order this Inoca Henipin School Board meeting for today, September 22nd, 2025. Please join the board in pledging our 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. >> Our first order of business today is to approve the board agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> We have a motion from Director Langenfeld. Is there a second? Uh thank you Director uh Adet. Any discussion? Hearing none. Would all those in favor say I? >> I. Any oppose say no. With six in favor and zero opposed. The agenda is approved. Members, our next order of business is recognitions. With item 4A,
002the school bus safety poster contest winners. We welcome BJ, the director of transportation, and Jeff Mueller, transportation safety coordinator. >> Welcome. Thank you. >> Good evening, Chair Duchain, Superintendent McIntyre, members of the board. Uh we are here tonight, as you said, to recognize our state uh or excuse me, our district, our state and even national contestants in our school bus poster award. And to do that, I'm going to turn it over to our transportation safety coordinator, Jeff Mueller. >> Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and to recognize our students. Um, this is our 30th annual bus safety uh poster contest and I've been able to be a part of 27 of those. So, I'm pretty proud about uh being able to see so many of these great posters over the years.
003But, uh, this year our theme was safety first, safety always. And uh I would like to welcome we have one of our contestants uh Amina Muhammad Mo. Now, Amina comes from um McKinley Elementary and your poster won our district competition and won the state competition. You and I went to the Twins game, right? Yeah, that was fun. We got uh to go on the field and see our posters on a jumbotron. Wasn't that cool? >> Yeah. Yeah. Annamina was able to do a wonderful cable TV story from channel 15 and she did just a marvelous job with that. She talked about how important school bus safety was to her and to others and I believe in that you mentioned that you like to help others. Is that correct? >> Yes. Wonderful. Well, we appreciate your
004poster very, very much and we're thankful to be here this evening. >> All right, >> congratulations. >> Should we get our picture >> board members? As they're transitioning to I just want to acknowledge Jeff Mueller who is going to be retiring soon and uh the legacy Jeff you've left in the district with the focus on safety for all those years you mentioned earlier. You will be dearly missed. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Once the district has finished taking their picture, I would invite parents or principals or anybody else that's here to celebrate uh this student to come up and take their own pictures. Thank you so much. >> Congratulations again. Thank you so much. All right, members. The next item uh on our agenda is the consent agenda. As normal, members can remove items
005for separate consideration and discussion if that is their desire. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented? >> Thank you, Director Adet. Is there a second? Second. >> Uh thank you, Director Simon. Any discussion? Hearing none. Uh would all those in favor say I. I. I. >> Any opposed say no. With six in favor and zero opposed. Our consent agenda is approved. >> Members, our next agenda item is communications, delegations, and petitions. Uh this is time for our community members to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within the school board's authority. We plan this agenda item for about 15 minutes and our policy allows for community members to speak for up to five minutes. If there are several people that want to speak, the chair can reduce
006the time in order to hear from all and keep the meeting on schedule. We do only have four um four yellow cards. So, we'll do um four minutes each. Uh if you'll help me keep a timer, Cocher Arco, thank you. And if anyone else has a yellow card they want to complete, you can provide it to Miss Ball and then we can provide a written follow-up to you. Just a few quick procedural reminders. The meeting participation procedures are in place to ensure open and orderly discussion in our public comments as well as to protect the due privacy, excuse me, the due process and privacy rights of individuals under the law. If speakers use specific names of students, staff or board members, I will need to interrupt and stop the speaker. Please remember direct your comments
007to the school board chair and members of the audience. Please listen respectfully so that the board can hear our speakers. If we cannot hear, we may have to reset the timer uh and allow them to continue their remarks. Any audience members that are disruptive may be asked to leave for the remainder of the meeting. So with that, we will go ahead and get started. Our first speaker tonight is John Woolhopter. [Applause] >> Welcome members of the board. Superintendent McIntyre. My name is John Wall Hopter and I am the president of Anoka Henipin Education Minnesota. We have been negotiating with your designated team throughout the summer. I will be blunt. The parameters you have provided the team your team remain insufficient to meet the needs of the educators of Anoka Henipin. While we have made progress
008on a variety of contract language items we believe will benefit both the district and teachers. The insurance costs and financial terms proposed to date are unaffordable for our members. Every offer we have received would have the educators of Anoka Hannenipin fall behind peers in nearby districts while spending the next two years treading water financially. This risks turning in noipin into a farm team from which other districts will draw away highly qualified educators that our students need and deserve. At your June 23rd meeting, the board approved terms and conditions for various administrative and senior leadership employees. The contributions you approved for those groups fully cover the cost of single insurance. You also approved a 20% increase in the family contribution for these groups on top of what was already a higher benefit than most other employee
009groups. Individuals in that admin group receive payraises between 3 and 19%. At the same time, a noanipan teachers are seeing paychecks that are hundreds of dollars less than three months ago. If a no canopen can provide affordable health insurance and raises to some employees, it can provide affordable health insurance and raises to all employees. Just two weeks ago, the board received an update that the fund balance has now increased to approximately 12%. This is up from 9.8% in June of 2024. We understand your dedication to maintaining the financial stability of the district. We need you to show the same dedication to maintaining the financial stability of your district of the district employees. Thank you. Our next speaker is Matt Benz. Welcome Good evening, members of the school board and Dr. McIntyre. My name is Matt
010Vanzy and I teach 8th grade ELA at Roosevelt Middle School. I love my job. I've always considered it my calling. It's an honor to serve the students and families of our community. I'm in my 21st year in our district, and I always believed I would spend my whole career here. Unfortunately, since 2020, our health insurance premiums have skyrocketed. My individual premiums are up 157% during that time. This is a far greater rate than the overall market. I'm a father of four, and insurance strains my family's finances. We live a simple lifestyle with a careful budget. We drive high mileage vehicles. We buy most of our clothing and all of our furniture secondhand. Yet, due to increases in our health insurance, I've needed to donate plasma to pay for groceries. I have spoken to district leadership
011about the rising cost of insurance. Yet, the consistent message is this is the best we can do. I talked to six neighboring districts about their insurance plans, and the difference is shocking. Anoka Henipin teachers on my lowest cost family plan pay an average of $6,500 more per year for worse insurance compared to neighboring districts. This gap can't be the best we can do. If our insurance isn't fixed, teachers will ask, "No matter how much we love this district, how can we stay here when our take-home pay would be so much higher in a neighboring district?" This spring, when I saw that my insurance would cut almost $5,000 from my take-home pay, I almost applied in two of these districts. Fortunately, I was offered an overload teaching assignment, and that allowed me to stay at Roosevelt
012Middle School and make up for the pay cut. But what about next year when my overload is gone? For the good of my family, I have to strongly consider neighboring districts. And it breaks my heart to say that. I'm one of many teachers facing these awful questions due to our insurance. Please fix this. Empower your negotiators to make our insurance right at the negotiating table by moving to a percentage-based model instead of a flat contribution model. Examine our insurance plans very closely. Something has to be terribly wrong to create a $6,500 gap with other districts. The district often loss our self-insured status, but being self-insured isn't working anymore. I believe these problems can be solved, and our public has elected you to solve them so our students can keep learning from this amazing group of
013teachers behind me. We want to stay. Please help us. Thank you for your time tonight. >> Thank you. I I do I do have the the numbers from other districts and >> yeah, you can leave that with Miss Ball right here for us. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Rebecca Defoe. Kind of nervous. >> Got some visual aids here. >> Welcome Thank you school board members and superintendent McIntyre for allowing me to speak today. As seen on our district web page, it is the vision of Anoka Henipin schools to be a public school system of excellence with high quality staff and programs and successful graduates. It is also stated on our 2526 strategic priorities to improve employ uh improve employee retention uh recruitment and retention here but I don't think you really mean
014retain the high quality teachers. My name is Rebecca Defo and this is my 30th year teaching math. This year I took a $6,300 pay cut. Let me say that a different way. My paycheck is $6,300 less than it was last year due to our insurance costs. That is a 69% increase. On average, the state of Minnesota has increased health insurance costs by 16.2%. As far as the state of Minnesota is concerned, I have approximately nine more years of teaching to get my full retirement package. There is no way with a 1 to2% cost of living raise, even though cost of living is much higher than 1 to 2% right now, that I would ever recoup that $6,300. As I finish my beloved career, I would actually be going backwards. That does not feel like anyone
015out there is fighting to retain my job. Think about all the other careers out there. Would it be okay to pay them less as they get more experience? That just doesn't feel right to me. Please, I ask that you give the go-ahead to your negotiating team to make this right. Otherwise, I'm concerned for our district and I'm concerned for the state of our teachers. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Shannon Fox. Shannon Fox. Welcome. Hello all. My name is Shannon Fox and I'm an ELA teacher at Anoka Middle School for the Arts. In January of this year, my husband passed away. He suffered a cardiac arrest due to an unknown bout of pneumonia. I gave him CPR for 10 minutes before the paramedics gave him CPR for another 14. They were able
016to reestablish a strong pulse, but it wasn't enough. He had already suffered catastrophic brain damage due to lack of oxygen. My children and I made the decision to let him go. I became a single mom overnight. Whereas the details of my situation are unique to me, my actual situation is a common lifestyle shared by many, many of this district's teachers, single parents trying to get by. Here, I ask you to have empathy. Put yourself in my shoes and the shoes of other employees like me. Since January, I have picked up a thirdpaying job in order to support my children and I through the everinccreasing financial demands of our society's growing inflation. Right now, you are asking us to take a pay cut, pay higher insurance premiums, and live life less. According to the Bureau of
017Labor Statistics, inflation rose from 2.7% in July to 2.9% in August. That is not going down. That's almost 3% on goods plus higher insurance premium through service. In order to live now, I may need a fourth paying job. Do you work during the day, the night, and the weekends? Are you present with your children? This isn't about a bottom line on a piece of paper. This is about empathy. This is about knowing you can and you should provide for your teachers as you would want to be provided for and you need to do it now before the holiday season, before the next big inflation increase. Preferably before I have to go back to work this weekend. put yourself in my situation and those employees like me. As a passionate teacher, I want what others want.
018A strong no phone policy, safety in the classrooms, etc. What I don't want is to be burnt out working outside of my passion in order to survive because my district doesn't have enough empathy to take care of its teachers. Do you know every religion has a version of the golden rule? to do to others as you would want done to you. I ask you to do to your employees like you would want done to you in your job. Would you sit idle for pay cut and higher insurance premiums? Would this be okay with you? >> Thank you. That was our last yellow card. So board, our next agenda item is item seven, board calendar and district updates. I'll turn it to Superintendent McIntyre. >> All right. Thank you, co-chair Dashaine. And maybe I'll just give
019it a moment. I want to thank all our teachers who came out this evening. [Applause] All right, board members. I'll I'll jump right in here. So, you heard a little bit about recruitment and retention this evening, and I'm looking to our our my friends over here, Jim and Heather, with our presentation. Um first of all we we welcomed about 280 new teachers for our new teacher orientation this year and um that in in added a group of teachers to our nearly 8,000 uh staff is a sign of our um efforts in our hiring efforts here this this fall. One of the things we wanted to bring back to the board was the fact that our um ability to fill positions across the district in all areas, all departments has improved. Uh and we are um
020yet we're continuing to try to uh fill those remaining positions. And we have another hiring effort coming up on October 7th at Rapids High School. This event runs from 3:30 to 5:30 for anyone in the public who wants a little more details on that. It's in the atrium area right at door one. And uh we still have positions to fill working as a pareducator to prepare and serve meals, maintain our school facilities in our student transportation department and many more areas. So all that information is available on our website at ahschools. us backjob and if you are able to fill out an application ahead of time, you can come prepared to interview uh for positions right on the spot there at at the um event. Also, uh, people in our community can call six, excuse
021me, 763506 jobs. So, again, 763506 jobs for more information. I did want to take a moment to recognize a couple operational areas now that we're a few weeks into the school year. Anoka Henipin continues the largest system for student transportation in the state of Minnesota with nine transportation partners. and uh BJ is here earlier tonight provided me with some highlights from the beginning of the school year. So um every day we safely transport approximately 32,000 students to and from school using nearly 300 yellow buses and an additional 100 passenger vehicles. We have 8,000 bus stops to pick up and deliver students. Our uh nine partners are also still actively recruiting uh for drivers, although our situation with staffing and service delivery has vastly improved from past years. So, I just want to give a moment
022or take a moment to thank our entire transportation department team. Also want to take a moment to recognize our child nutrition team. So, the district serves over 27,000 lunches daily and nearly 10,000 breakfasts again every day. Both of those numbers continue to show strong participation in our program. Now, I will say what I'm hearing is the most popular school lunch continues to be orange chicken. The busiest day of our high schools uh so far has been the hot honey pepperoni pizza. And what I hear also is that our elementary schools that the the beef barbecue smokies with whole grain pretzel bites is a contender though to take over that top spot. Uh, so I just want to take a moment to thank our nutrition director, Noah Atlas, and the entire child nutrition team for really
023stepping up and doing all they can to uh uh feed our students breakfast and lunch. Now, to transition to our North Metro career fair that is coming up in October, um October is the month, it's manufacturers month across Minnesota, and high school students from throughout the district will explore realworld pathways in manufacturing and the trades. right in our area at the maid and North Metro career fair. The North Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Ina County Job Training Center are partnering partnering to promote the event which is set for Wednesday, October 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the National Sports Center in Blaine. The school district is an active partner with the North Metro Chamber and their members and working hard to match student interests in the trades and manufacturing with the options
024available in our all of our communities. So we plan to uh actually looking ahead to next month take um an opportunity to share more highlights of our career and technical education programs with the board. And then finally I want to take a moment to acknowledge that this month is uh Septe in September is schoolboard member recognition month in the state of Minnesota. This is a time to recognize the dedicated service to our schools and our communities from our our own ana henipin schoolboard members. I have the opportunity to work closely with all of you. So, I get to see and have an upclose look at your dedication to serving our communities and for improving outcomes for our students. We don't always get the chance to say thank you for stepping up and serving. So, let
025me say that now. Thank you all for all you do to make our schools the best they can be. Even through the the challenges that we face, your service is deeply appreciated. So, in recognition of your service tonight over kind of over there by Theo, you're receiving a small token of our appreciation. Those are flower arrangements made by our students through the river blooms program at Two Rivers Transition Program at Thank. So, thank you to the staff and students at Two Rivers Transition Program at Franklin. Uh, this is a new program that reuses donated floral arrangements. So again, they reuse donated floral arrangements which gives them a work-based educational uh option and career options for our students. So if you get a moment, send them a thank you. Um appreciate their efforts. Cocher Duchain, that
026concludes my superintendent's report this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. Board members, any questions? Uh, Director Langenfeld, >> which do you have to be in a CTE program to attend that event? >> No, I don't believe so. >> Okay. >> Um, but I can follow up with more details. >> Yeah, I I would appreciate that. I don't believe that's the case >> because often there are people, young women in particular, who don't always attend those kinds of events and then if they do have that opportunity, they find themselves in a space and place they didn't know existed and they fall in love. So >> sparking interest. Yeah. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. >> All right, members. Our next agenda item is finance item 8A, the preliminary tax certification for taxes payable 2026. We
027welcome Michelle Vargas, our chief financial officer. Welcome. >> Good evening, Chair Desine, Superintendent McIntyre, members of the board. Um, tonight I have our presentation of our preliminary tax certification for taxes collected in fiscal year, our calendar year 2026 to support our 2627 school year. The timeline for a proposed tax levy um is based on the Minnesota Department of Education preparing the first draft of the levy limits in early September. The um next is tonight where we set the proposed levy. So you set an initial tax levy um for the tax rates that will come out in the November mailing. The traditional way to approve this is the maximum amount so that if there are any corrections that are made um they they're able to do that without having to come back every time there's a
028two cent or $12 change. Um November 4th, as you know, there's election day. This election day does not affect the tax levy. We do not have any um referendums or bonds on this um election. And then in mid November, the county mails out the proposed tax statements to all property owners. And then we will be back again December 8th for the public hearing, the truth and taxation required hearing. Um that will be held within the meeting that starts at 6:30 here at the education center. Um can be watched online and then the board will certify the final at that regular meeting after um the truth and taxation and the public is allowed to speak. So, our proposed tax levy um has many different categories. We have referendum, the local optional levy, lease levy, operating capital
029levy. Um, many of our funding sources have a levy and a state aid component to them in the funding formulas. Achievement integration, career and technical levy, long-term facilities, our safe schools, alternative teacher compensation, al other otherwise known as QMP, um, community education levies, and then our debt levies, which are voter approved and OPED levies. Each one of those levy limits are set by state law or voter approval. Our current proposed tax levy um for payable 2026 fiscal year 27 is $135.5 million levy. As you can see, it is a reduction of 2.7 million or minus 1.97%. Again, this is set based on all of the calculations um that are set either voter approved or in state statute. This next slide shows our categories and the changes between them. Um, as you can see, it's by
030fund. You have the general fund, community service fund, and then the two debt funds. The pinks and the blues represent our taxes are spread either by referendum market value, which is a straight value versus adjusted net tax capacity, which is based on rates, um, depending on the type of property that it is. Um, so our referendum, local option, equity, and transition levy are all based on referendum market value. Um, overall you can see we have some changes up and down, but what you're going to see the majority of our changes tonight have to do has to do with our reduction in pupil units. So when we were doing this a couple years ago, we were projecting that we were growing. That catches up to you when it doesn't happen. So they have to make the
031changes later. So, um the majority of our changes tonight that you'll see are due to reduced um pupil units as um from previous years. Um so, overall on the general fund, we're going down 2.5 million. The largest area is going to be in prior year adjustments. Um the next slides have some of those uh larger changes on it. Um community service, the school age care is the one that tends to go up. That's based on um services for our special um education students in our afterare programs. The services that are provided um debt service are always based on what our principal and interest payments are due for the bonded debt and then adjust it up or down based on the fund balance if they can pull it back because you levy at 105% of the
032expected amount. So that builds up and then they pull it back. Um, so overall, again, we're looking at a $2.7 million decrease are 1.97%. Some of the items that affect some of the calculations have to do with our adjusted net tax capacity and the referendum market value. The formulas, the equalizations are based on these calculations of the dollar amounts that we have in adjusted net tax capacity per our adjusted pupil units. Um as you can see overall we are the adjusted net tax capacity went down but because of our pupil units went down per adjusted pupil unit it's still increased slightly. what we are seeing in um values our commercial industrial and our apartments were dropping um in some property values of what we could see on the reports that I have access to our
033referendum market values that's straight value of every um parcel in our in the no henipin area went up 2.2% 2%. So that would include any additional tax capacity, any new buildings, um, and just values. So as you can see, values, um, have kind of leveled off at, um, a large at a a smaller where we are seeing doubledigit increases the last few years. Um, again, you can see our our referendum market value per adjusted pupil unit went up from 763,000 to 781,000. Uh we still that calculation we still don't get any aid on the first um on any of our our levy the referendum because we we have too much per adjusted pupil unit to obtain that. That's one of those items that when we go to the legislature we're always trying to get it
034changed so we actually get some aid on that portion. Um this is the calculation um that that amount affects that. So as you can see um our adjusted pupil units that were estimated for fiscal year 26 were our estimate for 27 is 4702. So you can see there is a a decline there that affects the calculations. So, some of the the major adjustments, although 81,000 isn't a major adjustment, our referendum um and the local option, the referendum is based on the voter approved amount. The voter approved amount increases with um inflation. The inflation factor that is set based on the CPI is 2.37% that they expect it to be. Um so, that increased by $33. Our current referendum is $1,187.93 per adjusted pupil unit for fiscal year 27. The cap is $2,340.76. So we often
035talk about what is the cap where is a noa henipin. So we're about $1,152 under the cap at this time. Um the change then although we have an increase which generates revenue by getting that additional $33, the offset of the reduction of about 893 pupil units between the two fiscal years ends up in a net revenue reduction of 314,000. The next area again is in our our prior year adjustments. So when we levied for fiscal year 26, the current year, the amount we projected to have for our pupil units is higher than we actually have. So as we update those numbers with the Minnesota Department of Education, they adjust the levy. So our adjustments in here um are a negative 2.45 million versus a negative 612,000 or 612 that should be,000 adjustment last year. Um
036so that change in it is that 1.8 8 million. Um, and the adjustment for the prior year is that 1.4 million due to the reduction in estimated pupil units in the L um, and the referendum. The other adjustments are abatements, 351,000. They pretty much go down the line on every one of the calculations. So, there'd be a small amount for operating capital, small amount for LTFM based on that 893,000. I am just 893 pupil units. I'm just bringing out the larger ones that are in there. The next item, our long-term facilities maintenance. Again, this is due to the reduction in 893. It's based on a dollar amount per student that our maximum amount is. Uh we mentioned school age care based on our estimated costs. um actual cost is then adjusted. So when we report
037our EUARS data um they're adjusted the prior year um what we actually spent on that and then it will go back and levy that amount. So there was an increase um of 400,000 based on what we project our future costs to be. This one just shows that um there are a couple of them that have aid and levy in part of the the calculation. So our referendum overall a net adjustment of 314,000. A portion of it is a reduction in aid of 233,000. We do still get some aid on the local optional revenue um but none on the the referendum portion. Our prior year adjustments are all 100% just based on levy. anything that's done in aid is all done um based during the the fiscal year. They can adjust that that's done on our
038ideas reports that we get monthly. And then the long-term facilities maintenance also has an aid component. So overall the revenue went down total revenue 339,000 but our aid went up 173,000 and the levy went down 513,000. they still have adjustments that are being make made to the equalization factor for LTFM. And then the school age care is 100% levy. So you can see that full adjustment um is an increase of revenue of 400,000 and an increase in the levy. Looking at a history of our our levy, you can see that we went up for several years and now we've went down as a reduction um the last two years from 138.2 2 million down to 135.5 million. So that just shows a history the last 10 years of our total levy. And then the last
039slide is the page in the report that we get from the Minnesota Department of Education that shows our total proposed levy. Um, and what I ask we open up for questions is for you to approve the maximum and then that way that allows them to make any county adjustments without having to come back again and make any um small adjustments to it. And then again, it will be back the final um once tax rates and all of that are calculated and we'll have um tax impact. At this point in time, as you look at a 1.97 decrease, anybody whose value stays the same would be looking at a decrease in their taxes. Um, but we know that everybody's parcel is different and based on assessments and um that it can change. So, I will open
040it up to questions and then seek your approval. >> Thank you so much for the presentation. Members, any questions for Miss Vargas? >> Director Adet, >> thank you. Um, just a couple. I think they're easy. Uh the first under your category of referendum and local option levy that 2.37% increase for inflation. Is that that statutory amount that they've they've put on um for our increase or where is that based off of? >> It's um it's based on the same the same formula the CPI that they use for the general ed formula. So then they that's about the same amount they would be estimating for the general ed formula for 27 they use then for the um increase on the levy. >> Good. And then my other question just looking at the school levy history chart
041um in this case you're saying the the main driver of the decrease is APU and yes >> was was it true that in all those years if it was going up the main driver was also APU and then it has just fallen the last few or is that generally true? >> I would say it's generally true. We did have an election back in um 2017 that you can see hit and pay 2018. That would have been um the election uh that was fit for the future. >> Y >> so yes, it's a combination combination of growth um I'd have to go back to see if there are any changes in any of the formulas. I don't know. But um some it is growth but that the 2018 the 2017 election fit for the future was
042the driver of some of that. >> Okay good. Thank you >> members. Any other questions? Director Lingenfeld >> thank you for the presentation. Um just a reiteration of the statement that you talked about um the $1,187 per student. Um and that's that's the per pupil unit that we're at. And yet there will there potentially are school districts out there that are getting $2,340 per unit. Is that accurate? And I think our public doesn't always recognize that that potentially there there are significant more dollars in some school districts than others. So I just wanted to point that out. And no comment on it, but just the reality I think out there that people sometimes miss that understanding that the neighbor could have $1,000 more per student and they might see things in their school that maybe
043we're not seeing in ours. Members, any other questions? Um, could could you talk just briefly about how a decrease in levy impacts our budget discussions or how levy and budget interplay with each other >> for the most part. Um, as we look at building the fiscal year 27 budget, um, the once these are certified, we'll update all of our projections from that. Um, at this point in time, I'm not seeing a change in the projections, but we have other areas where we're seeing increases um um some of our special ed revenue and some of the other items. But at this point in time, u this generates the revenue. So what we've been using for the two years and the estimates are still fairly close. I'm not seeing this change from that standpoint at this time.
044>> So is it fair to say that this information is one of the inputs used to the budget discussions as the revenue side of the discussion? >> Absolutely. This this is the the levy portion of the revenue that when approved in December is then hard and sealed for a fiscal year 27 revenue for the levy portion. Yes. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Members, anything else? All right. Our next Thank you so much for the presentation. >> I'm looking for an approval to certify to the maximum tonight. >> Yes. All right. Uh members, before us is the approval of the preliminary tax certification for taxes payable 2026 as presented in appendix K. We have discussed and hearing no further request for discussion, I would entertain a motion to approve the preliminary tax certification for taxes payable
0452026 as presented. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Director Langenfeld. Any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none, would all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed say no. With six in favor and zero opposed, that motion is approved. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we'll go to our next agenda item board. This is also finance item 8B, phase three, budget reduction and reallocation process. We will keep uh Superintendent McIntyre, Michelle Vargas, our chief financial officer, and add Tanya Constantine the deputy superintendent, Dr. Dr. Ginger Gustiffson, the interim assistant superintendent for elementary schools, and Dr. Annette Ziggler, the assistant superintendent for secondary schools. Thank you all for being here. >> All right. Thank you, Court Deshaine and board members. Again, good evening.
046Um, as our team gets settled in, you know, this is one of those additional challenges. I guess I'd say we're all here with a little bit of a heavy heart here having to be in a space where we um have to come forward with um additional budget reduction conversation. No one wants to be in that space, but I appreciate the board members leaning into that and and um I'll start with saying we, you know, highly value all the services and supports and programs and all of our employees in the district when we have to get into making some really hard decisions. So over the past two phases, if Jim, you want to move on here, we'll talk about um tonight we'll talk about phase one and just a review of phase one and two of
047those reductions and realignments. Many times we have people hearing this for the first time. We'll uh review our overview of the of the 2627 budget and again with phase three reductions in that target that we discussed at our last work session and then we'll get into the phase three reduction considerations and options. So again over the past two years we've worked hard to make 14 million in reductions and we really did this with one guiding principle to do our best to protect our schools and classrooms from the deepest cuts possible. So again, thank you to the board for working through that process. So that is why we focus those first two phases of reductions exclusively really on the central office operations and minimizing that impact at our sites. Um we we now find ourselves in
048that difficult position again to have to identify that third phase of cuts totaling an additional $8 million. So the simple choices are just simp, you know, no longer available and it gets it gets harder and what remains are are really tough ones from from choices that none of us like. It will not be easy. Um our commitment though tonight is to work through with the board and really start the process. Tonight's an information session just beginning this process which we'll talk about later in the timeline and really uh some options around incredibly difficult uh choices. Uh it's a shared challenge, but I I believe our collective understanding and expertise together will will rise to that that tough challenge. Uh just to step back in time a bit, at the schoolboard meeting on August 25th, the
049timeline for phase three reductions was uh shared and then at the schoolboard work session on September 8th, we had an initial budget reduction discussion around considerations which were reviewed and discussed. So tonight, the board's not being asked to take any action on any recommendations. Uh that's not required and at least at this point scheduled um to be on the agenda for December 8th. So there will be opportunities for public review and input over the coming weeks with again that um board decision on on December 8th. We'll cover more of the details on the timeline a little bit later. So, thanks in advance for your patience and understanding and we look forward to our community engagement process um and the input and feedback that we'll get over the next few months. Okay, so moving on to
050the next slide here. Just a quick review of really the the factors that have kind of been present throughout phase one, phase two, and now phase three. Um Michelle covered a few of those things as we looked at the tax levy. We're continuing to watch our enrollment. we've had really limited or stable enrollment. Now, we've seen some signs of some increases here. We'll have to wait and see till the begin do we get deeper into October to see uh if that holds up with um the different ads and drops in our enrollment across the district. But up to this point really um pretty flat enrollment and knowing that we we are funded on our enrollment when those numbers are neither going up or down. Neither is our revenue. In addition, our federal pandemic relief funds
051are now expired and that is also uh having an impact and we've we've already begun to discuss um those positions that were brought on with those additional funds. Now, how to make some decisions about those short-term positions that were added. In addition, we've have we have 18 employee groups and the those previous contract settlements were higher than the available budget. We've talked about the the revenue side from the state, federal, and even just tonight again on the local um the local property taxes that we get here. We are halfway to that cap as director Langenfeld brought up and and you're right, we have districts, neighboring districts that are fully at that cap. So that that third prong is is a challenge for us um here locally. Looking forward, the state funding firm list tied to
052that consumer price index and cannot be higher than 3% and the cost um to really settle our contracts along the way has has been higher than that here more recently. While our inflationary costs for transportation and other district operations have really been between 5 and 10%. So that's the challenge when we compare that to the revenue side of under 3%. the district's uh the district doesn't anticipate any new revenue from federal sources or any new increases at least at this time from the state. We keep hearing about a projected uh deficit budget into the next bianium. It's just another you know reality of what we know right now. Um so we're we're actually grateful that we have the consumer price index um ability to have a slight increase to help offset some of those increased
053costs. But we'll continue to monitor that. And like all districts across the state, we continue to be required to implement underfunded or unfunded mandates. So because of all those factors, we've gone through two phases of budget reductions. And now in this third one, as we plan ahead for this process for the 2627 school year, some additional considerations as we um move on the presentation. Uh things we take in um into account when we're planning. So, our district strategic priorities, our enrollment, as mentioned before, our range of programs and services, how we've taken a phase or staggered approach to those reductions, really taking a piece at a time. Um, up to this point, phase one and two have been uh primarily at the central office. The impact of previous reductions, if you go back in time,
054you know, we we've been through a process where we've had to close schools or repurpose schools, those have lasting impacts. We've covered a number of times the restricted and unrestricted funding areas. And there's an um document in your materials as a background supporting document that really goes through in about 80 slides a breakdown a detailed breakdown of those restricted versus unrestricted funding areas and the cost centers that go with that. The board has wrestled with and talked about how to use fund balance over time. We closely watch our staffing allocations. We look at operational efficiencies. We look at existing schedules at each level, elementary, middle, and high school, and the instructional time and uh teacher collaboration time within those schedules. And then, as Michelle brought up earlier too, we we have a full range of
055legal and financial compliance requirements that we monitor closely for the impact on our overall budget. So, phase one was uh the board acted on those reductions um really in the February through April window of the 2425 school year. And that goal of phase one is to try to reduce and realign central office and district administration to minimize the impact on our school operations for the following uh year. So that was a $5.1 million reduction about 40 positions were reduced and another nearly 10 realigned uh so affecting nearly 50 positions and then an an additional 1.1 million in non-personnel reductions in the areas of transportation and district technology. At that time, we were wrestling with a a target at, you know, based on our knowledge of our revenues and expenditures of about 30 million. We were
056able to reduce that down to 26 million as we moved through that school year and we we really took the time at that point to share out with our public um that phase one work. Then the board took on the process of phase two cuts which resulted in an additional 9 million of reductions primarily at central office and district administration uh in a number of areas. They're listed on the slide here ranging from senior leadership to buildings and grounds, finance, technology, transportation, HR, communications, our R department, special education and student services and also in community education. So those reductions went into effect July 1st this past summer and again we um had a robust process for getting our communications out about those items um throughout that process. So that kind of sets the table for
057our work that we've began to cover last work session. Um we're going to cover again just the highle uh 2627 budget overview in the next three sides slides and I'll have Michelle Vargas walk you through those. >> Thank you. Superintendent McIntyre. So for our 26 budget that's adopted that we're currently in, we have a $780 million budget. Of that budget, the amount that we're looking at for our reductions is the shortage in our general fund. Our general fund is 700 million or 90% of our budget. We have other operating funds, our food service fund, our community service fund, the debt service fund, and the trust fund. those funds um are not available to close the deficit in the general fund, you cannot transfer from those funds into the general fund. Um to the contrary, if
058the food service fund or the community service fund were to go into a deficit, the general fund is required to help bail them out. So, we just want when we talk about restricted in the general fund, we wanted to look at an overall of our total budget for the 780 million. The next slide breaks down our fiscal year 26 budget. There are restricted budgets that are based on statute and reserves and then there are restrictions within the type of funding. So trying to break it down in that 80page document and giving you for anybody to see all the different components and how staff are allocated in those components, supply budgets and all that. That's what it makes up. So you can see within this area um of the 700 million we're looking really in the
059areas of the unassigned and we broke that down by your prek12 programs which are basically your school sites. Those are are that area the largest area at 39%. Um operations that's your transportation and your buildings and grounds. So the operations of buildings and that um central services that's going to be within the areas of finance and some curriculum and HR and legal all of our areas that are considered district support services. And then we have another area which are those expenses that aren't assigned yet at this point in time because they're substitutes. You don't know exactly where they're going to land. They're severance. they're those type of payments and they end up um in that other unassigned other and the breakdown of those are all in that larger page. So the area that we're looking
060really in, although there are some flexibilities within some of the restricted accounts, how what expenses that are in the NSIN can backfill, you still um you don't have the flexibility to just allocate those out without the restrictions. And that's just kind of what we wanted to do with the statutes referenced and everything in that other document. So, moving on to the projection for the 27. As we roll 26 into 27, um, and as we filled out, you know, all of the budget in the 26 budget, um, we reduced the target from the 15.5 million to 8 million. Um, what we've noticed, uh, we've had increased investment earnings. We've talked about that. They are starting to move the the interest rate down, so we're hoping that will still hold. Um but what we are seeing is
061that we have reduced insurance premium cost due to the fact that we're getting a higher reimbursement from our OPED because our retirees are costing more. So what happens with that? That's that reimbursement that we get from the OPED debt. Um and then we're also seeing that um our employees are less are taking family, less are taking insurance to begin with. That's about half of that. So about half of the 1% reduction in our that we have in that um portion that we're seeing. The other part is we're seeing that our estimated cost on our labor costs are slightly lower. Um so as staff move through that you project them to move through the contracts hiring retention all of that retirees. Um so about um half of that is that so about a half a percent
062is based a good portion on what we're seeing in insurance costs um which has to do with retirey reimbursement and overall um contributions based on what our employees are taking and then just overall labor costs which is 70% of our budget. So um a large area to look at. So the the adjusted target at this point in time is 8 million that we've been looking at. Director Simon, thanks Michelle. On that slide right there, just a quick question. Um there's a on the bottom it talks about unassigned fund balance uh at 5.5%. Is that without cutting 8 million or is that after cutting 8 million? >> That is without cutting 8 million. Okay. So if we cut 8 million, what would our fund balance be? If everything remains the same, obviously there will be a
063little adjustments, but if we cut if we do cut the target of 8 million, what would our fund balance be percent wise? with our updated target and the updated projection in the fiscal year 26. We haven't amended the budget yet where we're finishing fiscal year 25 um at about 11.5% and the projected spend down to 26 now not being the full 15 million but more of um the 8 million um if we make the cuts will be just under 10%. >> Okay, got it. >> The projected amount if everything is exactly as Yep. Thank you. >> Okay, board members, I'll move on here. The next slide is just a reminder of our timeline. Uh this is the phase three budget reductions process for this fall. Uh again, we started this past summer with um setting
064the target and timeline final, you know, finalizing that work in August and early September um with again final approval set for that December 8th schoolboard meeting. So they'll, like I mentioned earlier, ample opportunity for staff and community feedback through our community forums and online survey. Starting tomorrow, we're going to be at an OKA Middle School for the Arts, Fredmore campus. And um just like in previous uh phases, the top of this document really kind of reflects the schoolboard related areas. And the section below the timeline is are the actions taken by the staff to support um the timeline. But you can really see just a subtle adjustment here between the October and December months. And uh we will bring back any revisions from those community meetings to the October 27th board meeting. Um and then
065there'll be another opportunity for additional feedback after that regular board meeting in October with those final recommendations presented for board approval to be expected to happen on December 8th. That still puts us, it's a it's a tight tighter squeeze, but it still puts us in line to begin our staffing process with the timeline that we need um for staffing right after the winter break um to make sure we are ahead of is the has the process for recruitment and retention efforts for our staffing of our all of our schools. So moving on, this slide was one we covered out at the work session and there was really good questions from board members about um some details around the strategic investments. If you remember um back through those conversations, the strategic investments were directed by by
066a previous school board and were done with one-time limited term funds using funds that were over the district's 10% fund balance guideline at the time. Those funds were meant to be a short-term investment for additional supports to address the impact of the pandemic. And and as the district worked to get back to the stability we we desired under those um under the previous administration and board, those strategic investments, those onetime funds were provided to each level. So there was money provided to elementary, middle, and high schools and and those levels were given uh flexibility on how best to use those resources based on the needs of their levels. uh was clear at the front end of that commitment that these were one-time funds. They were never intended to be long-term um unless you know there
067was different funds available um should those come. But uh it was really meant to be an infusion of of money to continue to address the current needs that were there at the time. So these strategic investment funds based on the board decision last November are in their final year. They're separate from the ongoing budget shortfall the district's facing in phase three. And one of the questions, actually a few of the questions at the last work session was just to get some additional information about what does that mean? What what are the get some clarification and detail on on these funds, what they pay for, and what's the impact when they do end at the end of this year. So, I'm going to have Annette just kind of quickly walk through the next slide. if our
068team can move the slide deck forward um with some some additional detail here um what specifically is in those $4.8 million of strategic investments. >> Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. Um so you can see what we did is we provided the grade level the FTE and maybe just a little bit more of clarification of what those positions entail. So the teacher support academic coach, you can see that for the 14.5 FTE, there's 4.5 that are at the middle level and 10 that are at the high school. So the 4.5 are instructional coaches that support um at that level and the 10 um there are five that support math and five that support literacy at the high school. Uh the teacher academic support um do things that work directly with students. There's eight FTE at the middle
069school level and one FTE at the high school. So in essence, what that will do um at the middle school level is that will eliminate intervention teachers at the middle school level along with what you'll see in a future slide with ESSER funds. Um intervention classes are maintained though. So these are you know the reading classes and different things that you see that are put into this, you know, the registration guides. So I just wanted to make sure that's a clear distinction. um teacher math intervention that is at the elementary level that's 4.3 FTEES that does not take away all of the math intervention at the elementary level. Uh counselor that is a middle school position um that does obviously not take away all of those positions as well. Student support is again another academic
070support position at the high school level. literacy intervention. You're familiar with those, the literacy intervention teachers, uh, teacher science, and then a principal, assistant principal at the high school level. So, that just gives you a little bit more detail about those positions. >> Director Simon, I think I'm on. Um, thanks, Annette. A question on this. So, I I believe I'm correct in that these strategic investments uh were utilized at high schools for um for really uh kind of student disruption, if you will, right? Like reset rooms and things like that. I think a few of us um toured Blaine High School's very successful program. I know that uh those folks presented at a board um work session previously a few years ago. Um, and I'm very familiar with um, what's happening at Rapids High School
071with that. Am I right that I just like looking at the positions that you just detailed, it doesn't make sense in my head that there was only one FTE at high school potentially that did that because I think we gave we gave um, FTE at every high school. So, tell me where I'm wrong and why I'm not understanding from your detail here about where those folks would be. >> Yeah, thank you for your question, Dr. uh, Simon. There's going to be another slide I think Superintendent McIntyre is going to get to in just probably the next slide or two. Um those are combination with the ESSER funds. So you will see that coupled with the strategic investments and with the esser funds um those things are um in total those are the pieces that unfortunately
072are uh slated for um those are going to be uh future cuts. >> So thanks. I I just my memor and how these funds get spent could be different. It could get switched here or there, but I remember a past board >> did not use esser funds for this. This was out of our fund balance strategic investments for those high schools. So, um maybe it got switched into esser as a Michelle's nodding. So, those investments went into some of the esser funds. It sounds like Okay, thank you. >> Director Simon, I think you're reading my mind. So we'll move on to the next slide here just to give it some added context. At our work work session on September 8th. Uh we came forward with what we called considerations. We weren't recommending options or making
073recommendations but just an initial set of considerations for board discussion um on the initial front end of this process. So, um, what you see in the left side of this slide are the positions that were initially initially funded with pandemic relief funds totaling 8.6 million. So, there was a consideration at least u to eliminate these positions originally funded with those temporary pandemic relief funds we knew would end. And that was clear to all districts when those were allocated um during the pandemic. What in that initial list here what you can see is um and I won't go through them all in detail because we did that last time but you you see literacy intervention teachers at the elementary high school academic support staff middle school instructional coaches and para educators and then some u staff
074in the student support areas with social workers counselors and uh really uh some additions to assistant principles um from from 10 to 12 months. So the discussion uh well just to kind of back up here just for a moment on the right side of that slide what you see is some additional considerations we we brought forward through the some of the initial conversations with our school principles. So that ranges on that right side from the middle school model schedule change staffing adjustments to um reducing FTE or staffing allocations at the middle or elementary, middle, and high school levels. Um potential uh K12 coaching and intervention model restructure and additional administrative positions at the at the school level. Um which really means our administrative support model that was put in place. um boy probably back in
0752017 or 18 looking at Michelle probably right around that window of time that took into consideration administration and u administrators administrative interns social workers and counselors. So we we put some estimates there around what um what was you know possible or could be considered as either additions or options that could be uh interchangeable with some of the things on the left. And really what came out of that discussion for our team based on your discussions with each other was some clear themes. So those key themes were from the board a real focus to minimize impact on literacy to minimize impact on class size to do our best to minimize our impact on student behavior and academic intervention roles. Excuse me. and if we can provide some provide our schools with some flexibility in in their
076staffing wherever wherever we can. So from that discussion really what we see on the next slide is just an option that tried to take those themes into consideration. Um an additional option which we'll get to in a moment was created option number two. We went back to work with our our principles to create option two. Option one just takes some of those things that the board prioritized at the last work session off the table. So this is an option. It keeps the remaining ers positions at the top on kind of item one there and then slides in uh some of those options from or considerations from the second column we just looked at meaning the the coaching model restructure the administrative positions at the site level. And then what we've added here is an additional
077$400,000 at the central office around professional development and supplies and m material reductions to be able to get to that $8 million target. So again, that's one way to get to uh that $8 million uh target. Um so again, I just want to stress we took off the noniteracy intervention and academic supports. So that that top line there of 4.6 was 8.6, six, but taking away the elementary literacy support is about a $4 million. Um, took that that piece off of this particular option. >> Moving on to um >> we have a quick question. Yeah, go ahead, >> Director Simon. >> Thanks, Cory. I thought it'd be good to ask as you go through it if that's okay. Um, >> so the the number one there with the ESER positions non literacy and academic support.
078So, this would be able to I won't say maintain asis but maintain flexibilities for high schools on those uh programs that they've found so successful to help with um stu I'll say student disruption but just students in general to um create a better environment is that better uh safer and learning environment in schools is that fair >> yeah what the high schools would do is what their the staffing allocation that they would get and I'm looking to Annette to verify for me here they would, you know, use the FTE allocation and make those decisions on. You know, you've heard efforts they want to maintain those supports where they can. And so they would carve that out of the the allocations that they would have knowing that across our high schools, for example, there's 14 fewer
079in this option, 14 fewer employees uh when it comes to uh support roles. So, I'll kind of look to Annette to see if you want to add anything to that through the conversations with our high school uh principles. Yeah, I think we would um within that restructure of the K12 coaching model, that would be our our goal would be to look at that and look at K12, how we can make um the structures better for all of our learners across the entire system. So, it would be a collaborative effort between Dr. Gustosson, myself, and our principles at all the levels. >> All right. So, I'm not sure if I understood all of that. So, I'm just going to put in kind of my highlevel thing. So this does maintain at least some flexibilities for high
080schools to continue things they found successful. Maybe not at the current level but at least gives them some flexibility. Is that fair? >> That's fair. Okay. Thank you. >> And maybe to take that a step further if you move on team to the next uh slide. This just provides a little more detail what if if those um remaining if you take the elementary literacy intervention teachers off as the board wanted that theme to to happen. Then here's the remaining pieces. Um and that I'll just give you a chance to highlight anything that you wanted to point out here. >> Yeah, I think that this answers the question that director Simon brought forward about um the pieces that he had brought forward about um the Blaine, you know, reroute center, things that you saw at Rapids
081Middle and High School. Um so that's that first part about academic support. Those are the intervention teachers that you saw at the high school while maintaining intervention classes like you see that we have for readings and math support. Um the middle school instructional coaches, those um are eliminating those coaching intervention supports at the middle level. The PAR educators, those are the safe space behavioral support rooms that we have at all of the middle school um sites. And then um the last part you can see is within that K12 social workers and student support. That's how that total um support piece is lost with the coaching and support. So it's kind of in little buckets here and there when you add it all up. That's where all of that FT is found. >> So really what
082this option does is it's it's an option. and it's not our recommended recommended option right now, but because of um the nature of those SSER positions, it's an option because those were meant to be short-term and we knew those dollars would would not continue and um it eliminates the remainder while keeping those elementary literacy positions. It does uh as you saw in the strategic investments, it adds additional cuts to the high school and middle school level on top of those strategic investments. So, um I think it was well stated before we'd have to rework those support models within the remaining FTE. So, there's a there's a a different kind of impact there when you um lay this on top of the the strategic investments that were already decided on. So, I see a question here
083and pause. >> Director Langfeld. So just to be clear were when were the strategic investment supported support when did they come in to the district? Do you know? >> This is year three. >> Yep. This is year three. And it was a five-year plan. >> A four-year plan. Okay. So that was that piece. And that was prior to the pandemic. Correct. >> It was after >> after the pandemic. And so all of these positions and dollars, just for clarity for me and for anybody else that isn't clear, um these positions did not exist prior >> to March of 2020 or and after >> they came after. >> Okay. >> And I think it's an important question. So maybe add to that. Um the board at the time took money that was in the general fund
084and and in in our um fund balance said we're going to set that aside and use it for that timebound purpose for basically a bridge through those challenges that come in post pandemic knowing that they would end. Right? That was the intent at the time knowing that we go through that annual budget process. But that was the in the intent like other strategic investments have happened over the years probably over the decades looking at Michelle over time we've had different ones from time to time. So, I'm coming back to the key themes of um really staying focused on literacy, class size, um academic behavior support, and then that flexibility wherever we we can. And and we um I'll have Ginger talk about the process that we after that those themes really rose to the top
085from our work session, we went back with our school principles to continue um to do some realignment to those themes. Go ahead. Uh thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. Uh so as as we continue our as we continue our work uh with our K12 leaders um our focus continues to be on our vision, our mission, our core values and our strategic priorities as well as being proactive and also responsive. And so as we continued to work with our leaders, um one of the things that we had done uh as we're continuing this process is we pulled in our K12 leaders after the last uh school board work session and we walked through what the themes were and then we began to uh really drill in and dial in on what our K12 recommendation uh would be to
086bring forward. Um you'll see that we still our focus is on literacy. Uh that is a pillar. Um uh minimizing uh class size. Uh that is a pillar of ours. Uh also uh restructuring our K12 coaching and intervention model. Uh really using a continuous improvement model. uh in looking at that um addressing the reductions at the secondary level as you just heard and really looking at defining our roles of coaching and intervention and what do those mean? Uh because as we found over the years uh things as things evolve. Uh so this is going to give us a great opportunity uh as leaders uh to really define those, review those and refine those supports by level as well. Also as uh uh we are also looking at preparing uh potentially uh for uh reviewing the
087middle school model as well. Uh and then also clarifying current roles and responsibilities. Uh again um this is a phased it's a continuous improvement approach uh that we will continue to take uh again being responsive and also proactive at the same time and again uh keeping in mind our strategic priorities of safe welcoming environment increased student achievement and effective organizational support and board members what I would add to that so four extensive sessions and follow-up sessions leading up to this meeting tonight. And that collaborative approach um with our building leaders, the goal is to really ensure that we're any reductions we're looking at. We're we're looking at those with a with their help with a deep understanding of the impact on students and staff. And um we're really moving through this process on these difficult
088decisions together. Um also trying to be you know as fair as we can with a large district. It's a challenge when you look at the needs of different levels and what feels like that's fair to each level and um how can we with their help bring information to the board to to help you be as informed as possible. The other piece I would me you know just mention that with the principles having a stronger hand in the budget reduction plan and their depth of knowledge on the rationale behind whatever happens in the final decision is you know really important to um help communicate and implement in their own unique school communities at their sites. So their um ability to be stronger allies in the process and helping us manage expectations and ensure that the focus
089remains on that collective mission that was um reviewed again really is the important elements of of of this process at this point. So, what I'm going to get into is again question. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Director Aette. >> Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. I just had a question on the scope of what they were when when our principles looked at this. What was the scope of what they were able to um look at for cuts? And and what I mean was it the whole 420 of the the whole 420 million in the unassigned balance or was it a subset of that? >> You know basically we asked them to look at their their roles and their levels and what would they bring forward? It was >> so for them to bring forward. >> That's a
090275 million roughly from the P PK-12. So they their scope was limited to that is >> um we have to talk through the rest we've done it many times with the board you know if there's a restricted area we got to look at what are the rules around that so we unpacked if there was like special education for example we all know you get 25 cents on the dollar right >> yeah and making sure we're in compliance so if certain things were discussed we had to like bring in those added >> considerations >> no that's >> we simply asked them what where would you start >> where would you begin what what's most valuable to you and where where would you see opportunities for reductions >> although inside the PK-12 umbrella >> yes >> okay
091thanks >> I'm looking at my team to verify that for me right because we've had lots of conversations yeah >> okay so um what you see here uh moving on to uh the next slide is really a summary of that collective work and our effort to get to that 8 million million dollar target. So, uh you'll see different elements of this um starting, you know, there's no particular order here. It's just kind of how we organize it for the board. It's not a necessary prioritized order, but the opportunity for us to rethink our technology support redesign model, our ability to um rethink our engagement coaches at the elementary level. You can see those top two items there are in the descriptions. The uh high school staffing piece. So this is taking into consideration flexibility in
092our staffing allocation when we know we have students who we do count towards our staffing ratio or our allocation ratio but may leave our campus for PSO or maybe u participating in a different program and how can we maintain those those staffing allocations and um those have been included in the past so that would take these out and our team can talk more about that keeping us within those with those within that same allocation and finding some um savings. Then this next piece here is you know it's a kind of an extension of that esser's discussion we had earlier but this is really looking at our administrative interns model and those other supports and finding um some reductions within that staffing administrative staffing model that was I was referring to earlier that was put in
093motion in 2017. If you go on to the the following page, um what you see here is on top of the 14 million that we've already done centrally finding another $700,000 here to work through what additional services and staffing um that we would need to flush out and we're not at a point to to share ex exact details similar to last year. last year at this time in September. We have a lot of work to drill this in and and then eventually have an opportunity to talk to those employees that would be affected by it. So, we think we can have some uh additional savings here uh that we'll be able to give you more detail on by the next board meeting. Um also looking at our special education workload model, that's a really our
094staffing model. with the the fluid child count numbers that we see in different areas of the program, we believe we can find some savings there that will realign our our staffing models to where the needs are are showing up within the different disability categories. What you also see here then is $300,000 of reductions in professional development and supplies and materials. And then finally, um, the middle school model that we've talked about, um, previously, which again is a model that would maintain class size, and you can see the the the key themes here. Increase instructional minutes in a sixth period day, reduces those student transitions. It actually aligns the amount of instructional time with the elementary and high school schedules. And we would go through a process um of doing our best to maintain as many
095elective offerings as we can because we know we had some new challenges with requirements around FIED and um and art. So we would have more work to do in this area. But it's these this list gets us to 8.2 2 million and really is intended to um meet the themes that the board talked about at the last work session around maintain as much class size, minimize any impact that we can there um maintain our literacy um supports to the highest level we can um and then also give some flexibility within the staffing allocations to the buildings. So the option two really tries to hit those themes themes at a in a stronger way than option one does. Uh we still have work to do around you know the the issue of electives but it it
096kind of looks at that in relation to the core academic areas that this board has talked about keeping front and center with students. So um if you move on to the next slide, Jim, please. That's just kind of the the summary of everything here. And I just want to kind of wrap up with a with some reflections on um what we're trying to do here. So, you know, I talked about trying to avoid those deep cuts to literacy in those academic supports and also um honor the board's desire to to minimize that impact on class size. We looked at this takes away fewer staff from this the many of those behavior and academic intervention positions that are in those er areas. It does do some restructuring in the special special education area and it really
097looks at um how can we move forward with um navigating a budget that um tries to keep those key themes that the board talked about last time at at the center. We're going to get feedback on that throughout our community meetings and through board members through you as well starting tonight. And you know, as we move through the next the coming weeks, we'll still have opportunities to to make adjustments here. So, I I think that the challenge and we went through it last time with with a large system um to find reductions that make the most sense um with with 8,000 employees and you know, we we saw representatives of our 3500 teachers. You know, that's a large challenge. We understand that a lot of times every member of our community from our staff, teachers,
098um, and all of our staff, our students, and their families, there's strong opinions about what's most valuable and what should be protected. And you're you're I'm sure hearing already just like you did through phase two, a range of of desired outcomes. That's that's a you know a natural human response as as people advocate for the programs and positions that maybe directly impact their their lives or their work or their experience. So that's an incredible challenge, right? Um it's a big responsibility to look and listen to those individual perspectives and at the same time find our and do our best to find what's in the best interest of the entire district. So we this board has always been strong at showing your gratitude and how much you value the input of our community and there's so
099many things that people do value and hold close u in high regard in our district and our roles require us to analyze that broader financial landscape and make the decisions that ensure our long-term financial health and the integrity of those core operational areas. So we listen closely to those um specific examples and remain focused on the bigger picture with those difficult choices that we we must make that are we don't take lightly about prioritizing and making sure we're you know not trying to prioritize one group's needs over another. Right? That's really the challenge that we go through. We felt that through phase two. But this does require us to prioritize our core academic services. protect class size where possible and strategically reallocate resources to support the fundamental mission of the of the district. Um hopefully
100throughout this early phases of the process, you've seen our team work hard, our extended team with our building principles guided by the data that we have available, our strategic plan and how do we stay focused on those core fundamental areas that um the board has really really felt needs to be the priority as as they show up in our three strategic priorities. So with that, co-chair Dashane, I'll turn it back over to you to facilitate kind of discussion. >> Thank you so much for the presentation and all the information. Board members, uh what conversation uh topics do you have to raise questions or comments for the presenters? Director Hulman. Yeah, I have a question about in um option two. It says high school staffing, reallocation of staffing based on student choice. That's 1.8 million. Um
101looking at option one, um there is high school staffing 14.2 FTE is 1.13 million. And so we're saying just by looking at efficiencies, we can reduce something more than 15 teachers from high schools without affecting class sizes. >> Yeah. So I'll start with and and that you can jump right in. So this is the effect of how do we count our PSO enrollments, right? those have been counted in the staffing allocations knowing that those the students that take advantage of those offerings outside of our schools aren't in class but they've been counted in the past as part of those staffing allocations. So if you take a look at students who and we we Michelle and Annette can talk more about the analysis maybe I'll just pause there and let you explain that a little bit
102further. This is a very good question and I'm glad you raised it. >> I don't know who wants to start. >> I can start. All right. Um for this goes back to a comment that direct draw debt made about the PSCO adjustment and looking at that. Um we do direct contracts with North Henipin and an Oka Ramsey. So those ones are a little easier to look at. Um those ones we I can tell based on credits that are taken and that. So I did an analysis based on the credits that we have. So we did um last year over 18,000 credits between an Oka Ramsey and North Henipin. Um calculating that out into average daily membership that's about 674 average days. So students that would be full-time students. So we're over staffing for 674 students
103on average. Um that divided by 29. Our 29 to1 staffing model is 23.25 FTE. So if you were to just adjust for that portion of the PSO um at this we also have students that are going to other colleges and th those are direct pay by Minnesota Department of Education to the colleges. We don't have contracts with those. So those are a little for me to see to to break that down quickly um how many are going there. So, it's a conservative estimate technically of the kids taking um PSO just using our two heavy contracts that we have with our two community school colleges within our boundaries. So, that was the calculation that was done. >> That's correct. >> Okay. And that doesn't have much to add to that. So, >> she's got that. >>
104Yeah. Uh, coachco, >> um, do you think it's likely that that number of PSO students is about the same every year or because this was just for one year. It sounds like >> it's been continuously growing. >> Continuously growing. Okay. >> It has been and like I said, um, it doesn't include University of Minnesota, Bethl, Northwestern, some other schools that are are heavily used also. Not to the extent that are the ones that are right in our backyard. But again, to say that it's a conservative estimate because we're not counting. I wasn't able to do that in the data that I have right now >> from that standpoint. >> Thank you, >> Director Simon. >> Thanks, Casey. Um, thanks for the presentation. I've got a few, so I'm going to jump around a little bit.
105Um, and this is just I guess correct me if I'm wrong, but just for all of us. Um, so if the target is now $8 million, um, Michelle confirmed that that would put our fund balance just under 10%. Depending, >> we'll see what happens. That's the estimate. >> Um, and that 8 million is based upon right now we're in contract negotiations. This isn't a negotiation discussion, but we're in contract negotiations and we have a um a budgeted amount for those contract negotiations. So that is with us settling those contracts at the budgeted amount, right? So any amount over the current budget that the board has set would potentially it wouldn't potentially it would increase the the t the cut target, right? I mean unless we want >> increases the deficit. So >> increases the deficit.
106That's a better way. Yes. Yeah. >> And utilizing fund balance is it's a one-time thing. I mean, we don't get that money over again. So, if you use that negotiations, it goes away and creates a deficit going forward. Is that fair? >> Yep. Unless it's used for one time payments. Right. >> So, just something to think about as we think about budget cuts in the midst of negotiations too and what that means. Um, and then I want to go to I'm not expecting answers to this tonight, but I think it'd be important as we talk to the public about um what these options are and what they mean. So the middle school schedule change going from seven period to a sixth period day means a lot of things, right? So at least Anoka Henipin has
107always been um very heavy elective, right? So our students get the opportunity to follow their passions and many opportunities to do that. This would impact that. So I just think bringing that forward to the community to let them know what the actual details are like you know how what does that mean for music and art and these other electives especially since the state has increased the required electives like in fed for example that middle schoolers have to take. So, it um I think it would be important to really detail that out in those community meetings and let our let our community know what that means for our middle schools if this board and the district goes with that option. Um beyond students taking electives, it means other things too. It means the the teacher prep
108model. Right now they teach five out of seven. Would they teach six out of seven? What what would those minutes go in that that um one of those hours that they don't teach? they uh cover a duty like lunch duty or things like that, a hall duty or or maybe um we talked about um uh helping students, right? So intervention teachers, that's a duty also. Um so it would mean different things for our middle schools. So I think it's important to know that. Um also um and then at least for me I I have heard and I have seen the um the impact the positive impacts it makes in our schools to have that flexibility for the schools to do what they feel they need to do um for students right for student safety student
109redirects um and things like that. not only for those students specifically serving them better, it serves the classroom better, too, because the classroom is a place um that isn't as disrupted, right? So, that's at least important um for me. I think that's it. So, thank you very much, >> uh Director Aette, and then Director Lingfeld. >> Thank you. I'll probably move around a little bit as well. Um I think the first is just an observation for myself which is after we went from thinking we had to cut 16 million down to eight. What I noticed is that um the majority of the majority of the cuts that we're considering have now moved into the realm of of the K12. So that I'm going to refer to that as the $275 million bucket that we have
110listed under the 26 general fund for unassigned prek12 programs. So it's like we we move to that's where the cuts are going to come from um kind of fast. I think it if we what I'm saying is if we were if we were cutting $16 million I think we'd certainly be looking in there but we would be looking across the bigger pool. So the whole 420 million and the unassigned um which would include the the other unassigned categories which if I calculate it right is 100 it's roughly $145 million. So the sum the 275 and the 145 they come together to be 420. So the the options we're presented with basically say, well, you can choose option one or option two. We recommend option two. But um in my opinion, those still have not we
111still have not done an adequate review of what I'm going to call the 145, which is that unassigned coming out of operations central services and what we've termed unassigned other. And I'm going back to uh what I've discussed a half a dozen times I think in the past year which was it's a concept that I don't really know why we've rejected it. I heard at some point we reject it's not possible to do it zerobased budget. I'm just going to explain that a little more. Whether it's zerobased budget or not, I'm not necessarily sure I care. But the concept is we take things from these other buckets and we explain them in enough detail so that a person such as myself who's a director on the school board can clearly understand what it is we're
112getting from the position and how we assess its value and how we know that it's it's worthwhile. And I say that because um we're talking about making cuts inside of that PK12 umbrella, which is, you know, it's it's clear since we're school, it's clearly a highly valuable area. So I I would like to be in a position as a board member where I could say to anybody who asked me, "Oh, yes. Um I know what's in that $145 million bucket." Um, we've had an opportunity to review it in great detail and I'm certain there's nothing there that can be cut. That's that's why it makes sense to take 8 million out of schools because I know for a fact because I've seen it and I I've been satisfied for my own interest that it has
113happened. And the reality is because we haven't done that. Um, there's no way that I could make that statement. And I've I've been asked this a number of times by people. H how do we know that there's not more to be cut? And my answer has to be I don't know. I don't I can't say for sure that there's not. I've been told there's not. I would like to see it in that details. I would like to go through those details before we make these super important decisions so that we could we could say so that I could be in a position to say, "Yep, um I'm satisfied for my own interest that it could be done." So why is that important? If we look at just our most recent levy that we reauthorized, which
114I think was about a $31 million issue, we definitely advertised in there that maintaining instruction among other things was a rationale for its passage. Um, so we committed to the community, the reason we want to do this levy, we want to renew it, is so that we can maintain programs in the classroom. And meanwhile, while all that was going on, as the budget was growing, uh there were there were also increases in the what I'm calling the other category, the $145 million area. We didn't get the chance to review them all individually as it happened, but they definitely happened. And I do not think that we can um we can't raise admin central services and other costs, not explain how those expenditures are justifies and then use the fact that they've gone up to come
115in and steal out of effectively out of our classrooms, out of the other area. after we made that promise that we raised that we did that levy in order to maintain those classrooms and that's what I feel without being able to see it and understand it uh I feel that's at risk and it's a serious concern in addition to that the middle school model change uh I have a lot of concerns with it we talked about this at length I think about a little over a year ago my recollection of It was the board rejected it and in fact at the end of the last meeting we we it was up on the board and and we even went over it and said that had been considered off limits. So I was pretty surprised last
116Friday to see that back in here as an option. Um like Mr. Simon, I would like for us to detail exactly what we should expect we're going to lose as a result of those cut of of that change. Uh last time I know uh we talked about sixth grade ELA instruction which was currently two periods u that would be reduced to one. So that's a pretty serious one. Um and then the the part about electives which I think will have a devastating impact to um our arts and music programs because it'll seriously reduce the number of options kids have to choose. So whereas today a student can choose both to do some of the arts and to do um some of the other electives in the future they'll have to choose one or the other.
117And the impact of that will have a long tail because if we have less kids coming through um our music programs in middle school that'll just uh really have a serious impact um on our high school programs. And we've got a super long history in our district of surround programs there. And um so in my mind that's not a good option. It wasn't a good option when we looked at it before, but I definitely think we owe it to people to go back in and um dust those discussions off and make sure they know uh what's on the table. So thank you, >> Director Lingfeld. I too appreciate all of this important conversation. As we look forward uh from the middle school perspective, having served in that level, I think it's really important that we
118understand what the latest statute changes were. So I know we added art and physical education which really changed the model that we had actually looked at last year. So or whenever we looked at that. So that's why I think it's really important um that we all have clarity around that um so that we can understand because it did reduce elective options at that time if I'm not mistaken but I don't know that we ever saw what that looked like as an end result as a board. I'm I'm quite sure we didn't. Um the other piece is what's important again I go back to the priorities um and always looking for efficiencies wherever they can be found. Um so as as we look to the priorities around literacy and we have been working that as a
119really shared priority among all of us and a top priority along with behavior. really looking to see that we have a full comprehensive approach and I think that's really important um that whole K12 piece. So as we look to what these positions are, I think it's vitally important that our principles have those conversations and really help divi define what they are. And I want to if we can have the impact and I think those impacts matter and I know that some principles have shared with me not only the the the anecdotal impact but the hard data uh the qualitative and quantitative story. So if there are any things like that that we could have to support uh the impact of of the work that would be really important. Again as we look forward I also
120want to be sure that we afford principles as much flexibility as possible. I know that we have positions in some schools that that um are used differently and when I say that they may have more of X and fewer of Y because that works best for their schools. And I would also offer that if there's any innovative programs and I I think of director Simon if there are some things that people are are looking at to pilot or are currently piloting that we make sure that they can you know if they've collected the data and I know that um the the pilot at uh Rapids Middle Director Simon supported and brought into the group um to us has really been a very success successful model. So again, the reroute rooms and all of those important
121things. And um you know, when you have a principal share with you that their coach um has really elevated the teaching ranks of their schools and their ability to deliver high quality instruction and has been just a a gamecher for the school and you can see it in their school data. That's important for us too because these are very hard decisions. But I would also offer if there are things in those uh areas that have not been looked at to take another look through those to see if there's anything in in there because I I the more we can keep um in our schools and in front of our kids and support of our children is is I think a shared priority that we all want and expect the best we can and to make
122sure that we have the voices of the leaders in our schools. Director Adette, >> thanks. I forgot I had one other question that I think is just going to require somebody to do a little research, but with respect to Q comp, I'm interested in understanding the contractual responsibilities or obligations of that program because I believe there are some and um and so I would I would like to understand that better too. I think there's something like I think I saw roughly 20 positions in there that go to administer that program and so I'm curious about that. >> Probably can provide you some of that right now. So those that's funding from the state and that is also that program has to be agreed to by the the union. So those are those are restricted funds.
123>> Well, I would say Dr. Lingfeld actually wrote our plan before she left for Green Bay and intimately knows it. But yes, it is required um uh when we applied for it. It is agreement between the teachers union and administration um for the job embedded professional development. So the number of of um Q comp evaluators is part of that plan. Um and that I think there about 26 like you said 26 FTE that are basically going out and evaluating um all of our teachers as part of that plan. >> We we can provide the whole board the the details behind all that but I think that's the >> it's additional funding that we get that if we didn't have the plan we wouldn't get the funding. It's not something you can move somewhere else. um
124there was only so much funding available at the state level that once it reached that level for districts, other districts don't get that money. So, we are one of the UC comp districts that allows us um to have that additional funding to have those evaluators and then there's the performance increments that go to teachers and it was a big part of negotiations several years ago um settling a contract to be honest. Thanks. Director Hookman, thank you. uh so much here to look at and make certain that we are giving um our students the best opportunities, make certain that academics is the priority. And um some of the things brought forth here are really we're getting closer to that to putting the priority as you mentioned. Um you you heard that we were talking about minimizing
125effects on literacy, making certain that that is a priority, minimizing um classroom changes, that that's a priority, keeping the staffing constant and giving those opportunities for teachers to interact with their students and then of course making certain that safety. So, I'm glad that those things came through and that we are keeping those at the forefront so that we can ensure our kids get those opportunities because we know sadly test scores are trending down and we need to find ways to work through the system to make certain um that our programming is um finding ways to increase those learning outcomes. Um so just as we look through this um you we also mentioned we want to get the input from the public and make certain that we're hearing from um everyone at those upcoming meetings. So
126it is good for people to um make their voices heard. I also want to remember that we are the representatives of the public and so um working well together to make certain that we prioritize that student learning is really important. And so I'm grateful um that that our messages are being heard, that we are that we are prioritizing those student interactions. And um this the process really is short. So I don't know how much the public knows. Um we really only started as a board looking at these numbers a month ago. And there's been a lot of information you put forward um superintendent that there were like 80 slides on the presentation that we had a month ago. We all separately had a meeting where we were given 80 slides of information which is quite
127overwhelming and um it's positive to see things like oh we found out some efficiencies that we could have in our high schools um because of the those PSO counting numbers. so grateful that we're digging into it because I think that when we work together and that the board has the opportunity to see some of these things that things get better, that we can find some efficiencies and that's really what this is about, keeping the cuts away from the classroom, prioritizing those students and finding some of these things. So, I agree. Um, we don't want to probably start by looking um at any rash changes um to perhaps our middle school program and just saying this would be a great efficiency. It it makes it simple. Let's make certain that the decisions that we're making um
128do start from the bottom. I like the idea of starting if we could have done some zerobased, you know, start with those priorities. um we're not doing that unfortunately, but I think we're getting closer to finding some things with that. I just want to make certain that um some things that we say about being fair and having flexibility, let's make certain that those things also continue to prioritize our students that across the board if if people in one building are finding something that is particularly useful, it probably should be used in all of our buildings. So, um, we don't want to just silo things too much to say, "Oh, let's just let everyone be flexible and rather look at the system, make certain that we're putting students above those systems and making wise choices with
129these decisions. >> Thank you, co-chair. >> Um, just I appreciate all the comments and input from board members. I just want to agree with a couple of the sentiments. Um I think one of Anoka Henipin's strengths is the kind of electives and the the choices that we offer. So I'm not in favor of doing the middle school schedule change. And then I would like to see kind of as director was saying um just an option that as much as is possible doesn't touch the classrooms the classroom teachers and kind of justifies how that's possible. Okay, thank you. Um, just a couple things that I wanted to add into the conversation as we're having it here today. I think um there's been several mentions of the the large uh appendix information that has all of kind
130of that detailed information and it does go sort of uh section by section of the budget. Some of the unrestricted spaces like the operations, the central office and the other buckets start on page 26 I believe of that uh appendix L. So if anybody wants to take a look at that in detail, but it talks about like exactly what type of transportation, you know, is it special ed transportation, charter transportation, you know, it gives us some very specific um categories and details that we can look at and use as board members to help us understand what is in each of those spaces and kind of how much it makes up of the total amount that's uh available for consideration in these discussions. I think with that, another point that's that really stood out to me
131that I don't think has been uh acknowledged yet is that um the central office and the districtwide teams took the first $14 million of cuts. Um, and through this process and through the investigation and the discussions that you all have been having, you're putting another I think it's 700 um,000 dollars into that uh, in into cuts from from the spaces that have already taken uh, a huge majority of the cuts. And I think, if I'm if I'm correct on this, they, you know, that area of our of our district makes up less than 10% of the total uh, total budget overall. um which um it's a it's a bit imbalanced, but I think that demonstrates the commitment that the team has to prioritizing what is happening in our classrooms, what's happening in our buildings for
132students and trying every chance we get um to do that. Uh that's another reason for this phased approach, right? We wanted to have the opportunity to have more time and more input at each stage. Instead of the out the gate phase one 30 million that we thought we had to do, we decided that it was more sound and strategic to take bite-sized chunks of these cuts. And while that feels painful because we keep coming back to these discussions, it has allowed us to kind of narrow the focus, have all of the information available to us and see what happens, right? the inputs of what is our enrollment at? Um the the sad truth is that we're sort of having a double whammy of inflation hitting our staff and teachers and and the difficult position that
133that puts all of us as individuals in in our own lives, plus the inflationary costs to run a district, the increase in transportation costs, the increase in supplies, just all all around the increased costs um coupled with flat enrollment. And we we know from the tax levy presentation that we had that that enrollment drives the revenue piece of this discussion. And if it stays flat while all the other costs are rising, we get this imbalance that's happening right now. Um I think that there are some excellent questions being raised and excellent discussions happening uh around the board table. I think that um the frequent conversations that we're having, the preliminary discussions, the additional information, the opportunity for all of us as board members to talk to each of you uh as we have questions and
134further educate ourselves and learn more is um contributing to a really healthy discussion and process. And I really hope to see that continued and that collaborative um that collaborative discussion back and forth so that we can keep learning from one another and from the experts in our space. You all did that without us, right? By including building leaders. Uh I'm certain that that was difficult for everybody involved. That this this is hard for us. It's very hard for all of you that are going to be living with the choices that are made as a part of these budget discussions. So, thank you for leaning into that work and working with one another and, you know, seeing it as an opportunity maybe to learn across the K12 system how things are working. uh where maybe we
135didn't have the chance or the opportunity to do that in the past. Um I think the the last piece that I just want to hit on and and Director Hookman um prioritized this as well in her comments are the importance of those community discussions. I know as a board we have all prioritized having those available to the public in spaces that are close to where um people live and also on multiple different evenings so that other scheduling um impacts can be taken into consideration. So find the scheduled event that works best for you. You don't have to go to the one that's in your community. You can go to any of these that work in your schedule. We really value hearing from you and um getting input from you. I know the district will have
136a survey option. And I don't know if that was mentioned yet that people who are unable to attend the meeting will still be able to raise their voice and their perspectives via survey. Um I know last time the board took that very seriously. We got all the comments and information aggregated for us from our communications department. So I look forward to seeing that again. Thank you so much for the presentation. Superintendent McIntyre. >> Yeah. And thank you. Just before we move on, I just I'd like to clarify a couple things. I've heard a couple times tonight about something about additional costs for administration. And I can be crystal clear with with our all of our audience. We cut $14 million. We hit a million and 1.2 million at the central office in the administration team
137restructure. That is all that nothing was added. I don't know where that's coming from. Um that the what was remaining was done in a budgetneutral approach. Okay. So we hit our $14 million target and then from there re reworked the the process in the different positions. So happy to share that information with anybody who wants it because I don't I don't think that's a fair narrative. And then you know I didn't come forward with additional central office cuts because I don't believe we can withstand it. 250 positions were were impacted by that for for to bring any more at this point in time. It just fall back falls back in the schools. So we looked at that closely. We did find another $700,000 which was very very painful and that's why I don't have it
138in my recommendations. Now, if the board directs me to do that, we will we will go deeper and and um it won't be my recommendation, but we'll bring it to you. Um so, because the board last time asked me for my recommendation, right? And you have a a number of options and considerations here to to kind of lean on. Uh lastly, the we didn't take the the thought of the middle school schedule lightly. That was a way to protect class size and stay focused on core academic areas. Otherwise, without the middle school schedule, we're we're looking at and our principles told us, keep our coaches, keep our intervention specialist, especially in literacy and math. They were crystal clear on that. So, that was another reason why we lean towards the middle school schedule change. Otherwise,
139it's an FTE staffing allocation challenge. Um because our and you asked about the central office percentage. I think you saw earlier in the slides, it's 3.4%. Not 10. >> Way less. >> Yeah. Um, so we're running really really lean and we would do more if we could because we are with you on protecting the the direct services to the classrooms. We know our every school district, the magic's in the classroom, but we have we were lean before we started phase phase one and two. So, um, continue to bring raise those questions so we can answer them. So we like I love how director Hulin said it, we can continue to dial in where there might be agreement and consensus as we move through the coming weeks. So I I appreciate all that and we'll take
140the feedback from tonight back to our team to our principles and and continue to try to, you know, narrow that funnel down to what is ultimately some tough, you know, choices to make, right, for for everyone involved. So thank you board members for the feedback tonight. >> Yeah, thank you so much for the presentation. All right, board. Our next agenda item is a labor relations update item 9A. We would welcome Dr. Cherry, human res, chief human resources officer. >> Thank you. >> Good evening board. Uh this evening I have a labor relations update. Um as I have for I think every business meeting for about the last couple of years as we are active in uh open contract negotiations. Uh we do this in alignment with our policy 209 uh negotiation code of ethics. This
141is where we review the status of negotiations at our public school board meetings. Uh this is for your information as well as the community uh so you understand uh where we're at in the process. Consistent with open meeting law and our public employee labor relations act, we do reserve detailed negotiation discussions where we talk about negotiation strategy in close session with the school board. So this evening um I do have a little bit of uh additional information um for you to uh uh really understand our goals in bargaining when we are negotiating employment contracts. Uh we focus strongly on a collaborative bargaining process. We focus on finding mutual gains between the district and our employee groups. Uh work very hard on a uh solving shared problems. So when we come to the the table in
142our negotiation meetings, uh we start with what are the issues that we're trying to solve and come to a collaborative uh decision or a collaborative uh bargaining process. Uh when we focus on our bargaining, we do ensure that uh our agreement is legally sound and operational operationally manageable with clear and concise language. Uh we find that clear and concise language is helpful uh in carrying out those contracts so that our employees understand uh what we um have agreed to. Uh we focus on recruitment and retention of highquality staff in all of our bargaining goals whether that is uh language items that um uh can help understand the working conditions uh the terms of agreement as well as the financial factors. Uh and finally, we always are um attentive to being fiscally responsible stewards of our
143taxpayer money. Uh we do operate within a fixed budget and any uh contract agreement uh we need to ensure that we are um uh meeting our budget expectations. Uh and so uh with uh budget proposal, I'm sorry, uh negotiation proposals, uh we not only pay attention to the um term of the contract and what that costs uh in the given year of the contract, but any of those agreements that may have tales, meaning that they are um continue to increase in perpetuity. Information about our employee groups and background information. We do have five unaffiliated groups. We call these policy groups um that are not uh bargaining groups. And then we have 13 collective bargaining groups. One of those uh has a two-year contract that has already been settled. That's our community school uh coordinators for
144the uh uh contract agreement period. Four of those uh groups are um have two-year contracts and are currently in the second year of their two-year contracts. and eight of those groups are currently open and I will provide an update on these eight groups next. Uh before we get into that, do want to provide some information about our budget. We talked about that a lot tonight and so this is just a highlevel overview. Uh about 82% of our salaries and benefits are um uh make up uh the general fund budget. So when we really look at what's in the general fund, uh we are um mostly uh funding our employees. About 1% of increase on salaries and benefits is equal to about $5.3 million. Um and a 1% increase on the basic general ed formula is
145equal to 3 million. That's important to note because as we look at increases to our our general end formula, um they're not proportional to uh what it costs us to play to pay our same employees that same percentage amount. Uh when we look at FY26, our current year's budget includes a 2 and a.5% increase in salaries and a 5% increase in benefits. And then uh as you heard recently uh we are still building the FY27 budget. Looking at our groups with open contracts. Uh we have our building service employees who are represented by SEIU Local 284. Uh this group includes um approximately 200 employees, custodial warehouse and maintenance and grounds employees. Uh we have met several times with this group and um after our last meeting we uh did file for mediation uh with this
146group. Uh we have worked through most of our language items and are um very far apart in our financials. We do start mediation. Um we have a mediator assigned to us from the Bureau of Mediation Services. Um and we meet for the first time in mediation on September 25th, this this Thursday. Our other group uh with very active negotiations is our teachers. This includes our K12 teachers as well as our EBE teachers, our ECF teachers, and our preschool teachers. Those are our teachers um that are in community ed programs. Uh our teachers are represented by In Noah Hannipan Education Minnesota. There are uh approximately 3200 almost 3,300 employees in this group. We um have met several times and and we have um come to several tenative agreements on the language items and at this time
147uh our big sticking point again is the financials. Uh we are going to mediation and are currently actively um uh working on scheduling our first mediation date. Looking at our next group uh with open contracts, here are three groups of employees that we have met with for the first time and um have um begun to discuss open issues. This includes our child nutrition assistants, our principles, and our technical specialists. We will meet for the uh second time with our child nutrition assistants on October 7th. Uh continuing to meet with our principles. Next meeting is scheduled on October 7th. And our technical specialists uh we had uh October 16th is the second date and um we just had to reschedu that. So that is a little bit further out but um in the very near future.
148And then we also have uh three additional groups with open contracts that we have yet to schedule our first meetings with. Our community school programmers and early childhood screeners have just um uh switched the name of their exclusive representative and are now represented by an NOA Henipin uh education Minnesota. There are nine employees in this group. We typically wait to um begin meeting with this group until after the teachers have settled because they are also represented by Education Minnesota. Uh our school office supervisors uh about 42 employees here. We have yet to schedule our first meeting and our special education administrators. There are 15 employees in this group. Uh these uh two groups, our uh school office supervisors and our special education administrators will begin to get them scheduled as soon as we have time
149available. And with that, the next steps that we have is we will continue to provide regular updates at schoolboard meetings. The information that you'll uh receive about um uh the groups that are in mediation will be limited until we arrive at a place of a a ratified agreement by those groups. Um when we are in mediation, those meeting uh those meetings are closed to the public and all proposals that are exchanged in mediation are confidential. We will however continue to update the information that we have available on our negotiations web page. And with that, I'm open to any comments or questions the board may have. >> Thank you for the presentation. Members, any questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right, board. We're nearing our last agenda item for this
150session. Uh item 10, board correspondence and communications. Members, this is your opportunity to share happenings in your community, report on committee assignments, or any other items of interest. Does anyone have anything to share? Director Langenfeld. just um as we look forward uh the um AMSD is already scheduling day at the cap and it's it's not until April but I think it's really important as we have a shared priority and platform to to certainly it's our responsibility collectively obviously and we've all taken steps to reach out to legislators and communicate with our our respective communities but it is a it is an opportunity to to come together as a team which makes our voice and advocacy work perhaps a little stronger. So um I'll share that date with everyone as well and um that was just
151announced recently. Um, the other thing is as we celebrate school board recognition month, you've been getting probably quite a bit of information from the Minnesota School Board Association, really focusing on the primary issue of public education advocacy. And I know that that's a priority for the strategic uh a strategic priority for the Minnesota School Board Association this year. Um, I am going to be going to a three-day workshop in that area and hopefully we'll come back and be able to share uh some of the work that's underway to ensure that we have voices heard in lifting up public education at this time. And then I have two two shoutouts. One of the things as I review our board packet, every time we have a meeting, I see the extraordinary gifts that our kids and our
152families are donating or donating to our programs. So when I look at all the donations that this district receives for various schools and programming that um generous individuals provide and also booster clubs and communities and I'm sure work partners of you know organizations, I just think that's really extraordinary and and it isn't always I know it's appreciated by um individuals who are the recipients but I think um when you start to look at the the overwhelming numbers Sometimes it just is a really a really important gift as we struggle with resources to make sure that every child has exceptional opportunities as we talk about. So wanted to thank them. I also had the opportunity to head over to Adam's FAM Jam the other night and uh the teachers did an extraordinary job of supporting parents
153in how to to they can uh support their kids at home. And I know all of our schools are having parent nights kind of thing, but to see that in action and the amount of commitment uh from our staff and our teachers and principal um all out there and it's raining outside and everything got moved in and but children were happy and and the event was very well attended and I know that that's happening across. So, just a note of gratitude for all the overtime we don't always recognize for our staff that they put in to make sure that our families feel well supported and welcome in the schools. That's it. Thank you. Anyone else have an update? I'll just add um I had the opportunity to attend the school information night at Champlain Brooklyn
154Park Academy and um just a brief uh introduction. Some of the elementary schools in our districts, I think 17 of them in total are what are considered title schools, title one schools and one of the requirements of that funding is that you hold school information nights, parent engagement activities. And so this was one of those that that Dr. Langenfeld just mentioned and the staff did such an incredible job of getting a large group of parents there, answering questions, talking about everything the school offers, how the new CKLA curriculum is working and bridge to read in the classrooms and what they can do to partner with parents at home uh in supporting that push towards increased literacy. Uh it was just a great a great presentation and super informative. So I would encourage uh anyone in
155the community, any parents, family members, and any board members that get the chance to attend one of those nights. It's a very uh a very impactful discussion. That is all for me. Anybody else? All right. So with that, our next item is going to be conducted in a closed session. So this executive session will be closed to discuss labor negotiations pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.03, discussing matters with all open groups. The closed session will be in the Michael Sullivan room. I would entertain a motion to move to closed session. >> So move. >> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? Uh, thank you, Director Adet. Any discussion? >> Hearing none, would all those in favor say, "I." >> I. >> Any opposed say no. >> With six in favor and zero opposed, we will
156move to executive session in the Michael Sullivan room. Uh, after a fivem minute break, we are recessed. [Music]