October 9, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

001I'd like to call this meeting to order and welcome everyone tonight to our regular meeting of the board of education for pray Lake Savage area schools um please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay um all board members are in attendance tonight and we will begin as we normally do with our open Forum so in accordance to board policy 203 a 15minute time period is set aside to receive citizen input through this open Forum segment of the board agenda signup sheets are available 10 minutes prior to the meet to the meeting at the door I will read the open and public form rules

002input from students staff parents and community members and major decisions can be a valuable form of assistance to the board open forum is an opportunity to address the board 10 minutes prior to each meeting a signup sheet is available at the meeting site for individuals to sign up to address the board only those whose names appear on the signup sheet at the time the meeting is called to order shall be permitted to address the board up to five speakers shall be provided a maximum of 3 minutes 15 minutes total to address the board unless an exception is granted by the board chair speakers will not be allowed to verbally attack disparage or potentially defame individual board members employees or students nor May speakers use vulgar or profane language also speakers may be precluded from disclosing

003personally identifiable private data regarding employees or students speakers unwilling to conform to the rules or time constraints may be told that his or her privilege of speaking has has ended if you have any handouts or materials for the board please submit those items to the executive assistant Martha Waltz members of the public should not approach the dis the board will not review handouts during the public comment period board member members shall listen carefully sorry shall listen respectfully to issues brought to them by the community but not engage the in individuals during their time the board shall not deliberate or take action during the open Forum regarding an issue presented if followup by Administration is necessary the chair shall request that the superintendent follow up on the matter when the board chair proceeds with the meeting

004audience comments are no longer in order however the board members retain the right to call on District administrators for information to assist the board in its deliberations we just want to reiterate tonight that the open forum is a safe space for our community members to share their experiences concerns and feedback in this space space we strive to protect First Amendment rights while showing respect for everyone we would like to ask the community to be respectful not only in speaking at open Forum but also in listening we as a community have an opportunity to elevate the conversation and create healthy spaces for dialogue and opposing views demonstrating this for and in our community shows how we can all collectively do better so thank you for respectfully sharing listening and being engaged in our plsas community tonight

005we have one speaker and that is Katie Gabriel and she is um speaking to us on the topic of parental rights good evening chair Crosby Dr Thomas and board directors my name is Katie Gabriel I use she her pronouns I live in Savage and I have two students in the district I want to Express gratitude for your commitment to listen to All voices in our community as a board when presented with a parental rights resolution you chose to use established methods to gather broad feedback from voices throughout our community many of us support you in that approach I would like to share some concerns that I have about the proposed resolution while several items in The Proposal are already covered by our school policies State statutes and federal laws other items introduced in The Proposal

006seem to Target and remove supports for students who either identify as lgbtq Plus or who may be question ing their gender identity and or sexual orientation this proposed removal of supports is concerning lgbtq plus people exist in our community and in our schools this is irrefutable a research brief recently released by The Trevor Project looked at the positive impact on lgbtq youth when they are accepted and supported by at least one adult in their life whether that's a parent or caregiver another family member or a teacher or School member School staff member transgender and non-binary youth who reported sharing their gender identity and were accepted by at least one adult had 30% lower odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the past year compared to transgender and non-binary youth who were out to at least

007one adult and were not accepted 30% for students who do not find that acceptance at home this proposed resolution would Rob them of the opportunity to find that acceptance and support from trusted adults at school if one of my children did not feel they could talk to me about using different pronouns and instead found a trusted adult at school who they could share this with would I feel hurt yes I would probably feel hurt but could I work through that hurt if it meant increasing the odds that they were coming home to me alive every day You're darn right I would showing acceptance of people identifying AS lgbtq Plus looks a lot like showing acceptance for all human beings signs on the walls stating that all are welcome books on the shelves where they see

008themselves represented and respecting preferred pronouns in names are just a few examples that don't take much at all on our part but can have an immeasurable positive impact on students lives making our schools a safe secure and inclusive environment where they know they belong which is the future that we are all working towards thank you thank you that's our only speaker tonight so we'll move on to approval of agenda can I get a motion to approve by director Olstead can I get a second second Basquez all in favor I I opposed that passes 70 next on our agenda is the consent agenda and we have um items on the consent agenda agenda that are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these

009it items unless a board member or citizen so requests in which event the item will be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed um tonight these include our financials purchase order orders that are above 25,000 monthly financial report approval of Schoolboard minutes from September 11th and September 25th Personnel items yep that's all of them and do would anyone like to remove anything from the consent agenda um chair Crosby I'd like to remove the monthly financial report for further discussion please there's three reports included in this attachment okay so we will be removing item C from the consent agenda and let's place that [Music] under a new business first okay so that will be the new a under new business monthly financial report um have to make a note so we don't skip over it

010um so the consent agenda are all the items I mentioned with the exception of the monthly financial report can I get a motion to approve no made by director Olstead can I get a second second by director bernick all in favor I I oppose that pass is [Applause] 70 um we have no sorry ler nope I'm moving too fast ahead here um we are now in the resolution for acceptance of gifts and this is a roll call vote and tonight's acceptance of gifts bear with me I know we have the Lions Club I remember that Prayer Lake Lions Club um yes so I will list them the Prior Lake Lions Club and AED for Community ad also school supplies house source of Prior Lake uh school supplies and Naran $3,000 for the house Services Department

011um can I get a motion to approve so me and a second okay director bernick and director bullan and then roll call vote uh director olad I director bullan I director bernick I director France I director Vasquez I and director Atkinson I I that passes 70 and thank you uh Laker Pride I'll hand this off to Dr Thomas thank you chair Crosby board directors uh several months ago we shared a video from our human resources department um as our uh means of putting together a comprehensive recruitment strategy and um and it Fe we featured uh some of our students uh as the main actors of this video and uh I will say that not only did this video win some uh national awards and recognition but it also has helped us in our recruitment uh

012I think believe maybe our last business meeting um Emily Herman talked a little bit about our vacancies and we're probably sitting at about half of where we were last year at this time maybe even even in a better spot so um it's hard to say no to kids when they're asking you hey come work for us um but I also wanted to take this opportunity um to uh share some appreciation for other folks that were in this video okay um I will say just in terms of hits this video um caught the attention of both teachers and um support staff applicants it has been viewed over 4,500 times and it has won that Award of Excellence from the national school public relations Association um and uh last year we talked about our student actors and

013tonight we're going to show the video again but I want you to focus on some Dynamic uh actors that we have inous the adults the big kids and uh we are recognizing our prac uh Savage Area School District staff um who also had roles in the video and so a big thank you to Brandon Weidman Rachel M Dan Edwards Dana Reitz Katie Jackson Patty Kane Angie session sessions Carrie bur uh Cindy lanus uh Karina eert takuma Padilla Heather Pearson and Maggie D Silva these are all um I think worthy of oscars in and of them own in of their own selves and just want to say thank you for all that you do in helping recruit uh Dynamic and talented staff to our district and also have recognition uh certificates that we'll get to each

014and every one of you as well so we'll play the video and put a focus on the adults that are working for the [Music] kids oh oh there we go that's good that's good fixed it hi I'm Ethan and I'm a Laker as you can see I work in maintenance I love to fix things so this is the perfect job oh and I work here parttime which gives me plenty of time to work on my other passions oh yeah like uh like what um I recently just picked up dancing not to brag but like I'm really good told you I was good hi I'm a car and I'm a Laker golden grams or chess golden grams thank you apple or Plum apples for sure perfect salad or carrot do I have to eat a vegetable

015yes you do okay I guess I have a little bit of salad you need more [Music] more okay thanks Mr Rari little bit oh my God thanks Mr Rari there you go a kid just peeped in the hallway I'll send somebody these drawings are going so well right now now thanks Miss thank you hi I'm neia and I'm a Laker hi I love spending time with students before and after school oh that's very pretty it's so rewarding to make a positive impact on their lives they teach me something new every day Mrs neia do you like my drawing oh I love it it's a lovely picture of your family it's a unicorn Dragon I didn't see one at the zoo though oh it's it's really pretty thank you what is that three key is one

016of my favorite books when I was a kid hi I'm Devon and I'm a Laker ever since I was a little kid that I wanted to become a teacher now that I'm in my mid 40s now that I'm in my mid 30s I couldn't be happier I chose this job I love my students they're awesome can you cut out my age completely like you don't want me to mention it at all yes thanks can I get back to work thank you very much what' you do this weekend I drove all in my kids baseball practice I worked on moving my house sounds very uh fun hi I'm Mitchell and I'm proud to be a like her what seven time 5 my favorite thing about being a PA professional is working with kids what's your second

017favorite then working with such a great team we have so much fun [Laughter] [Music] together can never find out what we do during our lunch breaks ever at prob Lake Savage schools we don't take ourselves too serious but we do take meeting the needs of our staff and students seriously each R has a big impact on our students trust us we know if you're interested in being a lier visit our website that's when you can learn about our competitive pay benefits and job openings can we go to the park I want to go to the park are We Done Yet yeah I want to go take my lunch break if you're interested in becoming a Laker visit our website to learn about our competitive pay benefits and job openings [Applause] if you all would like

018to step forward for um your uh photo opportunity of being such great Stars we're going to definitely do that cute Oscars today [Applause] say thank you and thanks for coming tonight don't leave us for your thriving acting careers no um tonight for personnel items we do not have anything and we have no unfinished business so that puts us at new business which is we will begin with our new a monthly financial report um so they were the monthly financials from June July and August and director ainson requested them to remove be removed from the consent agenda are there yep go ahead well should I make a motion to approve then we can open it up for discussion sorry about that okay can I get a motion by director bullan and a second second by director

019olad okay we can go ahead we can open it up for discussion thanks thank you um I just given the fact that um three of these were added to our um to our board meeting um I had some questions about the June report that um I would just like to get clarification on from um Tammy Frederickson um so going into and looking at the June report um looking at the expenditures um I see that our expenditures are 22 um 22 million and you have the breakdowns of salary and benefits at 19 million and Etc can you just elaborate on why cuz I'm looking back and I'm seeing expenditures run about $7 8 million a month and can you just um elaborate on why the expenditures are 22 million for this month in particular sure thank

020you um we had at the end of the month um the way that school Finance works is that anything related to the 2223 school year needs to be included in your 2223 financial statements so June is going to include all of the summer um employment that we had because it's related to the 2223 school year um and that is the biggest majority of what those um additional expenses are and if you look um year-over-year it's going to show the same pattern year-over-year we'll always have additional expenses at the end of June um we also will clean up all of our financial statements so anything that we haven't acred will get included in there um any adjustments that we have to make will get included in there so it's um kind of as we work through

021the audit it's going to get all of the June cleanup work in there so it includes all of the employment for June and July for the summer is that what you're saying so in July the first July payroll is related to June so you're always going to include that payroll okay and you're saying it's comp compared to last year um thank you for that and then for the year-to date general fund expenditures as of June 30th um they were 114 million compared to 107 um which is a 7.2 increase over last year can you elaborate on that as well 114 compared to which um it says compared to 107 million the previous fiscal year can you tell us what page you're on I'm sorry I'm on follow so the June 23 Financial board packet and

022it will be oh right underneath thank you yeah I'm sorry page one under expenditures yep got it well as you look at the revenue when you build your expense budget you're going to build it according to what your uh revenue is going to look like and we had an increase in the revenue so um our Revenue we were projecting if you look at the budget 111 million and the expenditures 111 million we actually came in over um in revenue and we came over in the expenditures um to compare it to the previous year um again it's based on the revenue that we're going to receive not necessarily year-over-year what um is comparable it's going to be what our revenue is generating according to adms and the new um funding formula which also increased um I'm

023sorry so I was referring to the expenditures though so I can see that the revenue um looks like the revenue was flat compared to the previous year 112 million compared to 112 million 879 um referring to the expenditures as of June 30th were 114 million compared to 107 million the previous fiscal year correct what what was the change of I mean if you look at they're pretty comparable on every category except for sites and buildings and as we discussed previously we had to um increase our long-term facilities maintenance because as the fish Point Road construction was done we looked at the pool which wasn't in our long-term facilities maintenance plan for this year um so we ended up having to use some of our long-term facilities maintenance which you're allowed to do so if you

024look at comparable um year-over-year the big change is going to be in the sites and buildings which is mostly the pool and so that will shift out of it was planned for yep because you have to adjust for those long-term facilities maintenance in the future so when you look at next year's financial statements those um expenditures will be down because we've already expended them in this how much and how much was that total do know um it was I'm I'd have to double check okay I think over spent like 2 million um but just to note we also had if you look at the previous year's financial statement we had um $1.1 million in restricted Capital money and I think it was 800,000 in um restricted um long-term facilities maintenance so the money that we

025ended up overspending we actually had in restricted fund balances okay thank you any other questions regarding these reports from board members okay all in favor I I opposed okay that passes 70 and we'll move on to the 2223 final audit Dr Thomas thank you chair Crosby board of directors um this evening uh we will be sharing with you all um our U final audit from this previous year I will turn it over to executive director Frederickson who will tee up the conversation thank you superintendent Thomas board of directors um we have um Jim Ikon here from mmkr who is our audit firm um they have completed our audit for the last few years and he is here to present their findings all right thank you superintendent chairman members of the bo my name is Jim

026mikon of mmkr CPAs I'm here to provide an update on the audit for the year ended June 30th uh 2023 um I uhe before I open up my comments I I wanted to U just be clear that the audit reports that were provided uh to you which include multiple documents including the annual compreh of financial report and the um management report as well as other special purpose reports have been distributed to you uh they're currently uh in in draft form and I can kind of go over where we are with the status of the audit as we as I go through my presentation um um first of all I wanted to to share this in terms of the presentation this evening um this is my first presentation for this particular season my firm audits about

02750 school districts and um um to be here this evening to provide this presentation does give you some sort of context in terms of the timing of your financial reports uh you are well ahead of the curve in terms of getting this audit information prepared and getting it in front of you uh so first of all I wanted to share kudos to that this is a extensive process that the district goes through to get ready for an audit of this nature and and to be ahead of the curve and be a head of you know most other organizations is a Kudos is kudos to you and your organization uh I just as I mentioned uh the audit reports are in draft form uh for purposes of my presentation this evening I don't anticipate any other

028changes to those documents they do uh are required to go through an extensive Quality quality review process on my end uh which hasn't been completed they also need to be reviewed completely by individuals like yourself and staff members here and uh once that process is complete we will be issuing final reports uh and will certainly alert you if there's anything um of anything that changes in these documents in a further note uh it also you know allows for you to opportunity to provide any sort of questions that you have um on these documents so if you do uh read them and are interested in getting more information feel free to reach out to uh uh members of Staff or certainly myself with any questions of that nature um so I did put together a PowerPoint

029for first of all so the first thing to understand is the role of the audit it is a requirement in state law that the district prepare a financial statement an annual financial statement the district does go above and beyond normal financial statement uh requirements and prepares what's called an annual comprehensive financial report which they then submit to the association of school business officials for achievement in financial reporting um the the district uh financial report the AER we call it is required to be audited by an independent certified public accountant which is my role uh in the process um as part of the process I issue opinions on the compliance of that report with a governmental Accounting Standards you're also required as part of that process to have us audit your internal controls specifically related to

030financial reporting uh we also audit your compliance with various laws and regulations that relate to those financial activities probably the best example is compliance with the state requ requirements uh for Grants any federal grants that you have they come with a lot of compliance requirements and we audit all of those requirements uh you noce that there we also audit your compliance with Minnesota specific laws and regulations the office of the state auditor provides with us with us a list of Minnesota statutes that we audit we don't audit every statute just the ones on their list and then last you bless you uh uh the last item is the single audit of federal Awards you are required to have a single audit of federal Awards if you were to receive more than $750,000 of federal uh

031Aid and you do uh exceed that level um and as a result we issue opinions on your schedule of awards uh your internal control specifically to those Federal programs your compliance with again laws and regulations that relate to the funding in those particular Federal Awards and then lastly any major programs um which is defined by rule we also audit your compliance with those uh requirements so as part of my audit I do issue what's called a management report is the uh smaller document in that uh particular set of data points that I gave you and so I'm going to cover the highlights of that particular document and I'll give you some page references along the way if you will if you're interested um as I go through the particular documents but first and foremost um

032I mentioned the timing of the it we start this audit in June um we come out here in in August and and uh complete what we Define as field work and then we complete the audit reports and issue them as for this meeting tonight um it is a requirement that you submit them by December 31st so certainly you're well ahead of the required time frame for those particular reports uh as I mentioned um in my management report we we are going to be issuing what's called an unmodified opinion it is a clean opinion on that financial report it is the opinion you're looking for as part of this particular process uh in that opinion you'll notice an emphasis of a matter um this particular year uh the governmental Accounting Standards Board um issued a standard

033on I'll say saas that's an acronym for uh subscription-based it Arrangements which is in essence um an arrangement for for a district that were might be financing it uh um it arrangements and that definition can pretty wide but um uh gby is interested in school districts governments really uh entering into financing Arrangements around big IT projects and they changed the accounting specifically related to that and and as such we um changed your financial report specifically for those areas as well as audited that you were doing that as well um that particular bullet point didn't change the opinion I'm still issuing a clean opinion with but it is just an emphasis of oh by the way there's a pretty significant change here uh in government accounting standard um I mentioned the internal controls over the in

034the compliance report there were no findings to report um I mentioned the Minnesota legal compliance audit we did not have any findings to report and then I mentioned the single audit of federal Awards which we were able to issue a clean opinion on that schedule as well as had no findings so all in all my audit report is going to come out with no findings at all which is tremendous U ex exceptional results I believe Tammy referenced I don't know how many years it's been maybe the third fourth year I've been doing this but we haven't had we've had findings in in all previous Audits and I've stood up here and said um uh this I said the importance of the audit isn't so much the findings it's the corrective action that the district takes

035to correct them so they don't continue ongoing and uh we have a a a note in my report about the prior year findings and that they weren't issued again this year so um in all my years which is very short at this particular moment but uh you've done an excellent job of of of taking my recommendations and really correcting them going forward which is exactly what we look for in an audit process so that's exceptional uh I'll move on then to the uh um other part of my presentation which is really the um um Financial results my management report does provide uh um um first first of all some benchmarking information some Trend information on financial results uh the first several graphs uh first of which is um let me get your page reference on

036page shoot page six um of that document starts with some Trend information on Statewide fund balances um this particular graph is using percentages uh um um well widely used in school accounting which is the Statewide fund balance as a percentage of operations expend percentage of expenditures the the uh yellow bar is really the Statewide percentage and the blue line is the district's percentage now this percentage is not the internal percentage that you're using this is the state's percentage so please make sure you're clear or I'm clear that this is a Statewide percentage you use your own percentage and I'll show you that later um but what we're seeing here Statewide is very consistent fund balances um over the last 10 years you can see from 2015 to roughly 2019 fund balances were roughly 20% of

037operations that was a very consistent number uh once the pandemic came into play in 2020 you saw fund balances actually increase the change in the way operations impact the school district uh actually impacted financially I guess you can say from a fund balance perspective uh a positive trend u in in operating costs really costs were less even though you're were being funded to educate those students costs were down um now that we''re kind of post pandemic it's going backward the other way as as costs are increasing as federal dollars are becoming less available to school districts you're seeing fund balances go back down you're also seeing some Trends in in student population less students available to the school district um for whatever reason is causing that to happen um I'll get to the district's percentage

038but you can see there that the district's percentage has been pretty consistent over that time frame you can see you know really anywhere from 14 to 16% there was a blip in 2022 and that is has gone down which I I'll show you those results here in a little bit of the in the individual funds my report then on page um seven shows um graphical again presentation a comparative tool um showing the uh governmental funds which is all funds of the district the revenues on a per student basis um this shows both Statewide and metro area averages as well as the district's U averages um first and foremost what you stand what stands out to me on this particular graph is overall revenues of the district are below Statewide averages as well as metro area

039averages you can see both in the property tax revenue area as well State AIDS you're you're below averages your um what that means to the district is are operating with less available dollars um to you you know on on an annual basis it's not right it's not wrong it just that's what it is when we look at the data points um I look at the particular general fund there um you can see that it's $1,783 per resident or excuse me per student in the metro area averag is anywhere is about 50 ,900 so it's pretty significant when you look at at the general fund Alone um the death service fund is also a fund that we look at closely certainly it shows Debt Service management uh the district has had a recent de debt issue

040which when that happens you typically go above average and as time goes on and you and you that particular debt issuance and and the amount of debt issuance you typically see that balance out and go closer to normal so really it's not really concerning to me it's just that's the reason for that particular trend line um this particular graph then we also take and do this from the on the governmental fund expenditure side so here you're you're seeing um this particular presentation which is on page eight um it's the expenditures per student and as you might expect less revenues means less expenditures you don't have the available dollars to spend so in 2023 the district spents about 13,00 243 in the general fund compared to a metro area average in 2022 of 15,682 um so

041that's almost well 2,24 300 per student so it's very significant certainly in the general fund um and there you can see The Debt Service fund the amount per resident is is equivalent to that Revenue category um here we're seeing you know one of the things you might look at this particular graph in 2023 you can see that the overall uh expenditures per student did increase um from um what's that about 1,200 $1,100 per student most of that is in various instructional categories you can see special education instruction is higher um um Elementary and secondary regular instruction is higher um most of that was in salaries and benefits as well as you'll see sites and buildings is also higher which was already referenced earlier um in the in the conversation you're also seeing in the special

042Revenue fund categories both the food service and the community service funds do have increased expenditures but most of that relates to going back to I'll call it post pandemic operations things are kind of back to normal if you will um and you can see that those particular operations are getting closer to consistent numbers that were that were're used of seeing so this is a a graph um moving on to the General funds financial position again this is starting page nine which is really the the district specific information um uh this is a graph showing General funds financial position over the last five years um trying to give give you some sort of trend information on on Equity uh cash balances and fund balances are a um indicator of your Equity position how are you doing

043from an equity perspective and then expenditures just giving you some sort of idea on how you're how you're growing or you're um uh increasing overall as a district so this particular graph the general funds fund balance did did decrease in 2023 by about2 uh3 million um the district did uh pass a budget that projected a decline of about 300 about 300,000 388,000 um so you're um higher than that um by by about $2 million um revenues were um higher than projections by about $400,000 and expenditures were higher than budget by about 2.8 million and I'm going to show you those particular graphs here in a second um but overall um you can see really there that particular graph does show very consistent results from an equity perspective the district has been very consistent in its

044Equity position you're financially solid when it comes to the last 5 years which is certainly a credit again to the overall financial management of the district this particular graph is actually on the next page page 10 which gets that that same information from an equity perspective broken down in more number orientated format uh the total fund balance at the end of 2023 was1 million um you can see the various categorical uh areas restricted uh balances went down slightly uh you have uh significantly less assigned dollars and then undersigned um uh actually went up when you look at that particular U presentation to 13.6 million even though last year was 11.3 um the district does have a um fund balance policy that you follow it's a board adopted policy um that particular policy states the district

045will strive to maintain a minimum um U unrestricted fund balance um of 8 to 12% of your budget of of your expenditures at the end of the year your fund balance percentage is 14% so even though you have a decline in overall fund balance uh you are still above the range within your adopted policy um which is a good place to be um and certainly uh credit again to the financial management of the district to be above those particular fund balance policies areas moving to the next graph um I mentioned this the general fund Revenue graph which is on page 12 there's various categorical areas here the general fund revenues um um this particular graph shows your actual results compared to budget and it also shows it compared to Prior year um I mentioned this

046earlier the revenues were about um 400,000 over the final budget for the year most of that was in other revenues um various other Revenue categories were quite a bit above expectations most of that uh is in car categories that I would Define as um generally U budgeted conservatively um things like donations and and athletic programs and things like that you tend to tend to be conservative with your revenues so that isn't surprising at all that that would be the case State sources were under budget by about 1.1 million which most of that related to the student count the number of students that you had generating those dollars were below uh budgeted expectations um um you also seeing um in this particular graph some anomalies are interesting uh Trends in both state sources and federal sources

047um the state sources were lower than last year um mainly due to the decline in the enrollment you're seeing a slight decline in overall enrollment which impacts State sources but also federal dollars are lower than last year and most of that relates to um um the last few years were um significant dollars from the federal government specifically related to pandemic related Aid which is expiring and something that all districts have had to adjust to when it comes to those particular categories this is this is a p this is on page 13 of the report showing the general fund expenditures and as I mentioned um the general fund expenditures were about $2 million over the the budget for the Year this is probably the largest category that stands out in terms of financial results um salaries

048and benefits were um the majority of that salaries were over budget by about two two million um employee benefits were about 800,000 um most of that was in instructional areas um um Elementary and secondary regular instruction special education instruction so when you look at those particular categories that were over budget almost all of that was classroom related uh teachers or various and salaries and benefits going to the classroom um the district did fill um more positions open positions than than they would have I guess you can say budgeted maybe it was the video that caused that but I love the video that was good um um but you're also seeing some other areas um uh things purchase Services were more than budget mostly related to again the structal areas supplies and materials were actually below

049budget about 700,000 uh probably in that category showing overall control over that those particular categories um overall the the district did uh see expenditures increased by about $8 million and again most of that was in um salaries and benefits s maybe not most 2.9 Million in salaries 900,000 um in in benefits uh you're seeing in those particular categories a combination of again employee contract improvements which which are are typical uh of any particular year and just increase Staffing levels um um which um maybe you're blessed in that case I'm I'm as I experiened my audits from District to District not every district is experiencing that um certainly has some Financial impact but certainly good for the kids to have increased Staffing levels uh uh sites and buildings that was mentioned is a was a over

050budget um and you also had some Capital related items there was a capital lease issued for um technology some um computers that were also part of this increased um over a board budgeted amount so continuing on um the district does have two other funds that stand out to me when it comes to the food service and and and community service funds um the Food Service special Revenue fund competed the year with a um a decline in overall fund balance um most of that had to do with the the the uh Food Service fund served less meals than they had uh previously um overall you can see that revenues or excuse me expenditures were down um as a result of that specifically you don't serve meals you didn't use them the cost of the meals but

051um overall the ending fund balance you see there of 2.2 million represents about 37% of operations which is a very solid place to be when it comes to overall Equity uh community service fund you can see there that the fund balance increased to 2.8 million in 2023 um that was a very positive environment when it cames to the community service fund exceeded budget expectations by about 500,000 so certainly that particular fund had positive results at the end of the year that fund Balan is about 46% of operations which is again a very healthy position when it comes to your financial uh fund balance and I don't have a graph on this one and I wanted to touch on this particular fund as well um the district does have a self-insurance fund um that self-insurers the

052district district is self-insured for medical and dental insurance programs uh that particular fund increased about 1.5 million and ended the year with a position Equity about 7.5 million um the reason I bring that one up is that can go up and down significantly um depending on claims and and information on claims and it's really been all over the board I guess you can say when look when you look from District to District to District um solely based on just makeup of individuals and and health conditions and so the district this your District having positive results is certainly a plus um you're at 45% fund balance as a percentage in this case it's net phys as a percentage your operations self-insured funds typically shoot for 50% fund balance so you're just a little bit below that

053expectations been awfully close to um where you want to be in that particular fund so I think that's the end of my presentation and I'm certainly going to open up for questions but I will summarize um the district was or will be I will be issuing a clean opinion on that basic financial statements I mentioned the emphasis of a matter on those subidas the district does issue an annual comprehensive financial report it's probably 150 pages long uh great report no findings to report exceptional results um you have a decreasing overall general fund balance but most of that was in assigned or or restricted balances the actual unassigned went went went up and the district's financial department did an excellent job of completing the audit process and getting all the information to us on a very

054timely and thorough process so uh the audit was very smooth from my perspective so with that I'm going to open it up to questions for me thank you um thank you for all that information um you you stated that you had no um findings but I'm wondering if there was anything that you could share um as far as advice for improvement if if there was anything that you did share or anything that you would share yeah um the the probably the biggest challenge we have um you know with this particular audit was the changing environment when it comes to salaries and benefits um you you know I can look at the at the the data that you even seen and you can look at the data as you um saw it tonight and you can

055see there's some variables there that's not the same it's not consistent um so that's an area that um we spent and your staff or their staff spent a tremendous amount of time digging into and making sure that those results are accurate and and and appropriate and um they did a great job of getting getting there to get us that information so that was one of the challenges that you can say um but overall that you know we we probably provide a lot of um recommendations but nothing stands out as significant okay thank you I just wanted to clarify one number you said sure um on the community service special Revenue I was listening but I was watching and I thought I heard you say $500,000 Improvement but is it a$ and A5 million do Improvement

056that been looking at the wrong number on the side it goes from 1 Point [Applause] 7.5 to 2.8 so the community service fund revenues exceeded expenditure by 1.4 million yes I did say the wrong number so you that exceeded budget by about 500,000 so you were expecting you were expecting that in the budget but it was more than budget by 500,000 thank you for clarifying I was um I had two questions um and maybe uh director uh Frederickson can also help with with this the drop in the general fund balance although we're still ahead from the 17 down to the 12% and the uh how much of that was directly attributable to us realigning our open positions and filling those open positions well we we certainly were able to fill more positions this year and

057um we did make some decisions this year around some special ed positions that we added um you know the board approved um some PA professionals and a couple more teachers and I think we added a couple sections um at some of our schools so um we had set aside a a reserve um or a signed fund balance for that knowing that if we did in fact have to add positions that we had it covered in there so that was a significant well I guess not sign significant there was a drop in in the assigned fund balance but we knew that it was there to be used for those purposes that's I kind of remember that I wanted to make sure I was looking at that number and it wasn't um wasn't over elevated basically um

058but thank you very much um my next question had to do with the property taxes um you know we're significantly lower in taxes than I and I assume first of all the property tax tax we're dealing with are um only schooled they're not the total uh tax um now we are currently not taxing at our total capacity and furthermore are we is that also a direct comparison against other uh districts that have a tech Levy or something like that um because I'm trying to compare apples to apples here as far as where the money is going and and the actual significant drop per ADM on those on those taxes so first and foremost this is this is a presentation of revenues specifically for your District um so it is just your property taxes it doesn't

059include the city and the the county or any other special taxing districts um uh this these particular property tax revenue numbers do include all the the 100% all the levies categories the referendum levies the tech levies all of those levies um to get into comparables you would have to pull and and pull more data is the best way to put it to determine why that is or what the category categories are because there is a balance here between State AIDS and and taxes as well there's formulas that balance them out so when you look at this particular number it's really hard to look at just the property tax line and and get any sort of comparable you really have to look at the total of the two but even then it's still below averages um

060without even looking at it typically the answer is referendum it's usually a referendum the superintendent's agreeing with me um but I don't know that for sure but that would be my anticipation if you were to to look at it it's typically the voter approval referendums um from District to District are driving these the variables here thank you y um I have thank you for putting this together in such an um easy to understand format and easy to follow um just I understand that when a district um ends the year with their budget a lot of different factors determine whether you're going to end on budget or off budget um can you may just give me an overall general idea of do districts typically end on budget or is there a variance of 1% 2% like

061what is typical of what you see sure it's a great question um so so um I would suggest um there's two two answers to the question relate specifically to each individual area um School District revenues um you finished about I don't even know what it is your you're $112 million organization okay that's a big number and you were within $500,000 that is really close um that is exceptional in terms of calculating those revenues and even you have some variable revenues in there like interest and other revenues that can cause some challenges but you know we anticipate or at least most districts and business managers anticipate um those numbers to be pretty close um on the expenditure side it gets to be very significantly more challenging um you you uh you're again expenditures $16 million and

062$2 million over um that's not very far off to be honest um that's very close um to expectations um you said on the was that 2% was the that's pretty close um anything less than 2% or within that range is considered acceptable at least from an audit perspective when you start getting categories swinging one way or the other then that as you anticipating like I should be closer than that I I don't see that to be the case here um I also look for this um when I do these audits when I ask the question you know just like you asked the question when I ask question like hey why is that and I get blank stairs that's not make that doesn't make me very comfortable I don't get blank stairs um at this District

063I get I know what that is but let me look it up and I get an email within you know a few minutes or days or I better ask somebody else that question um but we're getting very constant um responses and good information it's not real vague it's always very detailed and that makes me more comfortable as an auditor that that you can answer those questions and they know the answer to it yeah you're welcome any other questions from directors go ahead you had uh there was one comment in here about the uh technology spend could you explain that a little bit and it wasn't a finding it was simply more or less a an observation almost and the yeah there's two there was one particular um I don't know if it was on technology

064but there is a technology lease that was issued maybe it's not even a lease maybe it was s but they're equally the same um anyway uh on on for I think it was for computers and so that particular um category in expenditures caused the expenditures to be above expectations mainly because there's also a revenue category that comes into play when you when you record a lease that was also would would be outside of that particular Revenue was it was recorded as an other financing source so almost a million dollars of your Capital spend was related to a um the amount over budget was related to that lease um and really that particular category there's a revenue category that would offset it if you were to you know play with the numbers or look at the

065numbers closer so that's I think what I'm what you're talking about yeah I was you mentioned it it wasn't a finding there wasn't anything wrong with it it was just a mention okay thank you for that MH any other comments or questions all right thank you you can I get a motion to approve so made by director bullan and a second second by director Vasquez all in favor I I oppose that passes 70 thank you Mr Ikon we appreciate your time your team spent in our district um now we have a strategic planning update with Dr Thomas yeah thank you chair Crosby board of directors I wasn't too sure if I should just put this as a soup report um I just have it as a stand alone there there's not like a big presentation

066or anything but at um one of our work sessions we were discussing the possibility of uh updating our strategic plan and the conversation was around the possibility of working with student education group and want to find out um from the board what's the feasibility of this becoming a cost neutral and so I just wanted to update the board that I've had a conversation with student education group and um based upon the coaching that's built into our current contract um that is typically received from our learning leaders group um we actually have the ability to make this pretty cost neutral um for them to swap po out those coaching sessions um to flip that to supporting strategic development work um their strategic planning Arc is very similar to what you typically find with like msba or

067other organizations they're about a three-month window of time that it takes for them to do a strategic plan uh engagement process and that also would require us to um take on some of the committee work particularly some of our focus group work which I know we've done so in the past as ad administrative team as as well as our um building principles so um I just wanted to let you all know that my initial conversations sound very promising for us um to be able to leverage kind of the work that we've already engaged with um this particular um Consultant Group um and I think they have access to data sets that we would otherwise have to um pull through an external provider because they are leading a lot of our state stakeholder feedback so we

068have data sets already kind of PR pre-made just in this past year so I think there's some efficiencies in us doing that and so if it is um the will of the board what I would like to do is perhaps um call uh make a request for the executive committee of the board to come together to meet with sudor and just talk a little bit more in depth about what that could potentially entail and then come back to the board with a more full um proposal um for the board to consider I have a question MH um is it okay yeah um you mentioned swapping out coaching sessions is can you tell me a pro and a con to that impact yeah so um we we meet uh we have a regular Cadence with our

069learning leaders which is our principles and our executive directors um that meet every several months every couple two to three months with um student education group and it's all around um leadership profiles so um what we would look at doing is swapping two or three of those sessions that we have banked for our learning leaders and when we would use those sessions for um Casey for example to go out um with the core planning team and doing um in partnership with Jenny zush and perhaps senior leaders and some principles bringing focus group data back to the court planning team and she would work with the court planning team to synthesize a lot of the data to come back with recommendations for the board to ultimately consider in terms of priority areas of focus goals Mission

070all that and again a lot of what we have currently um particularly some of the uh the mission work bless you Mission work and things of that nature may or may not change but that's something that we would learn more from our community so those would be the sessions um I do believe that we have have established a really good Cadence with student education group as an administrative leadership team um I I don't believe nor does um Casey believe that if we were to swap some of those sessions out that um The Learning leader group would actually fall short um because it is also work that many of us on senior leaders continue to carry particularly uh Dr Edwards and myself um that we would Contin engage with our learning leaders because it it's not

071a dependent relationship it truly has become a train the trainer so we own that proprietary knowledge if you will so that uh Dr Edwards and I could also fill in some of those spots um with our our learning Le group um briefly had conversations with uh Jenny zush um to uh understand you know given her um strong history and continuous Improvement as well as engaging in strategic planning processes with um different organizations as well as her connections into the research search field um similar to what we've done already this year um we could even um time card a consultant to help with some of these focus groups if we found that to be a need um based upon some of the relationships that she already carries throughout our community um as well so I think

072we have the bandwidth internally um to leverage this um to be a cost neutral Endeavor to not bring on an additional cost for strategic planning um so hope that answerers your question did thank you I have a followup um I know we we have a membership into bright Works formerly metro metro XU it's hard to say um is there something where I hate taking PD from from people in our district who serve our kids and so is there something where there's alternatively maybe something that bright Works can offer if we kind of take some scope from what we currently have away from learning leaders sure sure so yeah I mean we we can look to a bright Works um and this is not to um say anything negative about bright works I don't I I'm

073I'd be a little bit hesitant um to interject another entity into that learning space of leadership that we've already engaged in um certainly would support the framework that we've launched I feel more comfortable because we as senior leaders have embraced the the studor framework to be able to lead this among our own teams I would say that we have the internal capacity certainly principles um and executive directors can continue to look at bright works as something to augment that's certainly on the table I wouldn't look at it as a one to one replacement I think that would be Dr Edwards and myself yes and I I don't apologies I didn't mean it to replace I meant to augment I think it could definitely be a supplemental Resource as it stands today they could still be

074engaging with Bri works today if we change nothing sure MH both are important y y thank you so I just have a question for you had mentioned meeting with the executive committee team um would there be in as an alternative option could you bring this to we could could we bring this to a study session so that all board directors could engage in that format we we certainly given the importance of the the Strategic plan absolutely um as in so my my thought was just as a next step to make sure that we are bringing the proper presentation to the work session that I would do a quick huddle with that but if if the will of the board is just take it raw uncut to the whole work session and kind of uh muddle

075through certainly do that as well and and again um what I appreciate uh and she walked me through their Arc of of strategic planning and it's it's really solid and I know I had mentioned to a couple of you that when we uh went to the msba training about a year or so ago in January um you know that I went to one of their sessions and and again it's almost parallel to the arc that msba does uh and it would be something that's already built into a current contract and I I think msba is fairly competitive in terms of their pricing because it's a local State Association but it's still going to be an additional cost you know into the several thousands so um so yeah so I'm I'm open could do either I

076think it makes sense to go down this path that you're recommending the um question for the board is how to proceed if we want to do a huddle with exec to bring something um to the board uh for a study session or if we skip that step and go directly to study session so I'll leave that to the wer board I guess my question is our October study session is dedicated to kind of one topic so we're looking at potentially talking about this end of November correct is that too long can we do a quick huddle with or we the exact team do a quick huddle so that by the time it gets to November we're a little bit farther along maybe or does that matter so that was that was my intent is to

077kind of preframe if you will some of the conversation and what that can look like for the whole board um and and I know um the EXA the current exec team um has some crossover history with the Strategic the current strategic plan so it can draw on some of that to say yeah we did this in the past we don't want to go that direction this time from a not from a um a Content wise but from a maybe procedural standpoint so I thought we could iron through some of that um so that we have a more robust conversation come the work session with the whole board I would just say that if we go to the whole board approach which is totally fine as well um we'll all just be digesting some of this

078you know initially all simultaneously with sudor whereas we might be able to get a little more traction on the front side if we pre-frame some of this so I I I think we'll get the same result um just trying to be efficient with time uh considering where we're at in in the school year I guess that's my where I sorry Leisa it's okay is there typically a time frame of doing a strategic plan that is more ideal to getting Community feedback like not over the holidays versus the the spring versus like I mean I've seen a lot of different um boards do um strategic work so I'm just trying to understand that in my mind I think it's six on one half a dozen on the other director ainson it it really um I think

079it's about uh the authenticity of Engagement um I I don't believe timing clearly we know that there will be points of time where travel Etc or family coming in with various holidays um I I would say that if we had this conversation and we um kind of frame this up so that by second semester we're fully ready to engage we will finish by Springtime and that gives us ample time as a staff to get ready for a roll out so that come July 1 and really when we open up and welcome folks back in August we have a big release of the new Strat plan and if there's any kind of branding you know marketing all that that's that's often associ iated with that um as well as we kick off a new multi-year cycle

080so I think timing wise for us and just watching our natural Arc of a progression of a school year I think we got a nice sweet spot of time working to our advantage um because we do have a lot of data already which had would have typically been a lot of Engagement with an external facilitator but we literally have thousands of data points that we can easily access that's a lot of that front-end work um because we partnered with stter already they have a lot of our um achievement data they have a lot we'll be working with them on our academic scorecard so a lot of that work is going to already start happening whether we do a new strap plan or not that frontload curve is really going to be reduced which is why

081I think we can be really efficient you know with them so I think we'll be okay is where I'm trying to go direct thank you I mean I think if you if the executive committee meets I think as long as it's open to the public and it's on the calendar and then I think that that I would be fine um but it sounds like from a timing standpoint we could do either either or is what it sounds like so yeah I think several of us that were at the msba conference I think it was right around January is or or so last year and we were saying I mean we could have I mean that was kind of a sweet spot of time we're going to be really pretty much right there anyway so I

082think we're going to be sitting really well okay and that's my update thank you um so are we have we decided how we want to move forward any other input from board members we want to move forward we want yes we do yes so if I if I may just clarify yeah if I may just clarify um because I didn't bring something here for a formal vote for the board um but uh and and perhaps this can be just a a thumb of directional support um if we did move forward with the executive committee just to clarify director Atkinson's Point um and to our public those meetings are noticed those meetings are public anyone can attend um and again the the rationale behind that is to I mean think about building a house we can

083have prefabbed walls made offsite or we can make everything onsite my suggestion is that we get some of these walls pre-made so that when we come to the whole body of the board we have a good frame for what we can do and then erecting these walls will go much smoother and much quicker so that would be my ask of the board if I can get the board support for direction um directional support um to work with some of the executive committee members to uh help frame the conversation for a work St uh a study session to come in November that's I guess that's my directional ask of support thank you yeah I support that that direction of work thumbs up here or anyone opposed to that can we get a verbal the thumbs is

084hard to see for any is there any directional opposition to me moving in this uh way of of engaging I guess that's an easier way of asking it no no no thank you and then hearing none that's the direction that I'll go thank you all thank you thanks for that update um we have no nothing under policy tonight that leads us to administrative reports we are excited to have our student council rep here here tonight Dan Bergen welcome um do you have any updates for us this being your first meeting uh yes ma'am just first off I'm really happy to be here and work with you all over the course of year and any chance I can I'm more than willing to give Insight on soon body as you know uh at the high school

085we just finished homecoming which amongst other things frees up a little time to work in their standing committees um among some of those is going to be Community Service events fundraising and development for the school uh additionally we can start working towards a goal that myself and exec have is being more unified this year just because that's something we could be more so than previous years and what that's going to look like is trying to reach out to other uh clubs around school such as our cultural diversity clubs NHS J and doing events with them because we you know we do great things by ourselves we can do even better together so that's just something we're going to be trying to do this coming year so that's kind of my first uh words yeah your

086first update thank you thanks for being here thanks for updating us we like to know what's going on so it's fun for us to hear um and superintendent report yeah I just want to build off uh Dan's words we're better together and I he couldn't be more accurate in that statement um so whether it's our students or our adults throughout our community um that is something that I think we all strive for so thank you for helping lead that effort and had a great first meeting with all the student leads and look forward to partnering more with you all as we go down this journey together um just a couple of quick reports here we had our first um early release uh last two last Wednesday um and this was um we we extended professional

087development opportunities to all of our staff um uh by increasing those early release times to once a month as you all recall so thank you so much for that know that we are actually measuring the efficacy of these release times um by way of some brief exit uh ticket type survey data we will also have a culmination report that we'll share back with the board um just so that our community um and and board knows that these aren't just free days for for staff to hang around these are diving in deep um and there's a unique picture of me eating my glasses uh floating around out there somewhere as I was engaged with our loal staff on unpacking the units of instruction with our new uh math curriculum uh but I'll tell you it it

088was great to listen to our staff um in the vertical articulation uh after unpacking a singular grade level unit of study for math and then they all huddle up as their as their grade level team to really see what it means to them so um I just want to thank our families and the board again I know there are some inconveniences to to that but um our community is giving our staff the gift of time which there's just not enough of um that ultimately will lead to a more personalized learning approach which we all heard from Morris Leatherman is key um so that we understand our students on uh individual basis and can really match our instructional practices as adults to their needs um we reviewed student data um again h hyperfocus on the new

089math curcum at the elementary um and then we also had additional staff that were um here at the service center uh doing their first aid and CPR recertification so it's not just school-based staff it's folks coming up here also for um support um several of you were at our board scholar E Event um so I want to congratulate um the 507 Schoolboard Scholars who were recognized last week for their amazing accomplishments and just to reiterate to be a Schoolboard scholar um prior like high school student must have a cumulative GPA of 3.8 or higher so that's not an easy feat given everything that our students are involved in so whether you're sitting up here at the board Das as a student uh council rep uh president all the activities and jobs and things that they're

090doing and to pull up a 3.8 that's pretty impressive so congratulations to those 500 uh plus students um just a couple of our quick sites uh red tail Ridge uh had an amazing East stem day just recently we had naturalist from The Three Rivers Park District district and this is just a great event that happens each year um they visited to share their knowledge about various topics and held um events throughout the day to incorporate e stem um so again banners look great practice is even better so we want to make sure that we are bolstering the science components throughout our district and so this is something that we are really going to begin leaning heavily into K12 um so just some of the topics uh were looking at various weather patterns predicting weather plants

091reptiles amphibians bird naturalists were there tree identification and an earthworm study if you're into worms um so in Hamilton Ridge also hosted na naturalists as well so again great great opportunity um and then also another way that we are just bringing uh I think Nostalgia of how strong we are from Decades of of folks leaning into this District resurrecting in partnership with the Laker educational found Foundation resurrecting our our Laker Hall of Fame um after a 12-year Hiatus the Laker Hall of Fame is back uh and we just held an induction ceremony two Saturdays ago I think it was if I have my times right um it was over homecoming weekend that Saturday homecoming weekend um and the the LEF uh sponsored and and hosted that event uh and down at the Legends and I

092just want to congratulate this year's inductees we have Dr Megan uh brandolin Tamara Brun petel Dorothy Nichols Nicholas Carol oton John F Schmidt Dave Thomas Terry Thomas Ben Wartman and the 2003 girls State basketball team who took it all the way to the top many of them were there and uh I think the funniest comment I heard that night was was listening to some of the women reminiscing over their Glory Days on the basketball team about you know who made the most blocks and two of the women were taller than me wow that was Prive I literally looked up to them so that was I so they were talking about how they were just shot blocking all night long so um so kudos to them um it was a great event and I mean I'm

093meeting you know folks uh that I've never met before but they are clearly Legacy leaders throughout our district and in our community so it was it was a great opportunity to make some strong connections and um I can only see that event continuing to grow and just last two things um state of the district tomorrow night um I think from 6:00 to 7: um that's going to be right here in this room and similar to last year and similar to the president of the United States it's kind of like the State of the Union it's it's my way to um kind of share what's happening in our district and kind of the direction that we're going and our priorities and some of the data that supports that and uh Jeff so our community is um

094kind of going along this journey with us um so that will happen tomorrow night and then lastly um we'll hold our town hall um on finance Monday November 6th and that's going to be at Prior Lake High School again in the old lecture hall just a couple of doors down from the main office from 7 to 8 and that is my report thank you um any administrative reports director Herman yes thank you um chair Crosby members of the board Dr Thomas I do want to call out um as part of the consent agenda today um we approved Deb boy's retirement and I just wanted to call that out because she has served the district for over 30 years giving um unwavering dedication to the district supporting all of our teachers principals directors um and she's

095just been an amazing um addition to this to the department and to the district for a very long period of time and we're going to really really miss her and a part of her dedication she's giving giving us at least 3 months to plan for it so um appreciate that she's being up not only um giving us that time but she's working very very hard to document all of her processes and her knowledge in her head over the last 30 years so we can successfully um onboard somebody to try to fill in for her shoes we'll never replace her but hopefully we'll find somebody to to fill in her shoes so I just wanted to call that out and um thank Deb for all of her service to the district for the last 30 years

096thank you thank you chair Crosby directors superintendent Thomas I just want to um honor my ancestors and acknowledge that today is indigenous people's day so thank you thank you for sharing that any other updates from administrators okay uh board reports from the table I have a few okay sure um we uh Sam Oak and I the director of um inclusion uh we're finalizing our list for the equity advisory committee we had um several applicants so I want to thank everybody who submitted a name and application um it was great um and so we'll be um finalizing that very soon um and then also uh very honored um to serve with Enrique uh director Vasquez excuse me um as uh a legislative Delegate for um area 17 um which basically means we go to some meetings

097and uh go to some more meetings um in December um and basically Advocate um at the legislative level for what we want to talk about in this next year um and so really really excited to do that um and along with you as well and um really really excited to to do that and and meet people from other districts all over the state to um Advocate um for our kids um and our staff so um at the state level so really excited about that thank you thanks for your service thank you way yeah I have a couple things that I wanted to share I attended the Early Learning advisory Council last week and um they are growing and it's always fun going there they shared with me um the future uh Laker little baby bag

098that they put together and I wrote notes so if it's a they're free with um they have a free welcome baby class um anyway and I think there's might even be a special note from Dr Thomas and some of them I'm not sure um but they're just super cute and I wanted to share share them um my first uh committee meeting with them they said REM they said to me and I said this is something that'll always stick that remember that we are e through 12 so don't forget them so we we appreciate them and all that they do for our for our little um our little future Lakers uh the last thing I wanted to share was that I attended a legal seminar um for educators on Friday um with some of the um

099staff members um director Chuka um and some other staff members um and I will just say um that I was amazed at all of the things that have to be reported and kept straight and I just really appreciate the work um of our team members and keeping all that straight because it's a lot that's thank you great thank you any updates here okay um Community Ed uh our first uh committee meeting was um two weeks ago and um they have by the way maxed out on kids company they currently have a weight list of about 90 students um and that's fantastic um they have 734 school age students enrolled and 46 preschool age students um their Community Ed classes that we all receive on those booklets uh those are actually doing incredibly well total enrollment

100so far this year is 1,196 Youth and 537 adults um Fall Fest did occur on September 18th I know we had some board reps there too um but for those people who don't know fallfest is uh co-sponsored by both Community Ed as well as the Chamber of Commerce and they uh honored 130 businesses and nonprofit vendors this year uh for upcoming events we have the famous Community Halloween party being held at Twin Oaks on octob Saturday October 28th um please uh come and have fun with every everyone dressed in costume admission is $5 for kids age 1- 12 and then infants and adults are free so that's the first time you're going to see adults are free and not kids uh free so that's pretty good um they're currently and I can tell you that

101we are desperately uh asking for community members to become part of the community ed policy committee uh we really would like them on I'm not the policy The Advisory council members uh we would look for um any anybody who is interested who is taking a class or is interested in becoming more involved with the schools in our community it really is one of those um engagement committees that covers just about every aspect of our school district just because they they partner so well with other areas uh and then um I also wanted to talk about the fact that uh several of us went to the board scholar and had the honor of handing out at least um half or more of the kids that showed up during lunch for their board scholar pins and um

102many uh many many students especially seniors are experiencing third year in a row of being a board scholar with that GPA and that is quite impressive and quite an accomplishment so for those of you are first or second years uh you got one more year to go and it's a great way to combine those pins and get a really really good Kudo so thank you very much for your hard work thank you any other updates yeah a couple of different updates we have uh our second policy advisory committee meeting committee meeting coming up this Thursday I miss our inaugural one uh was out of state uh so I look forward to connecting with that entire group um and just seeing how all this evolves and continues to move forward uh very excited for that opportunity

103along with uh Vice chair France uh the second update Southwest Metro uh so we've met and we've had discussions about Staffing staffing has been a significant subject within Southwest Metro specifically relating to special education within the tier four setting which is um very challenging to fill and keep filled uh so Southwest Metro taking the lead from a different district has initiated a pilot project Ure from outside of the country uh so we have our first cohort of four individuals who um were sponsoring to to come over and who will be participating as a cohort embedded and have additional support so that they feel engaged that they realize that they belong so that they wish to stay here but then also fill in um you know for these very essential uh areas where we have gaps

104because the policy at Southwest Metro is we drive to yes we do not leave any of our Learners on the waiting list so we do whatever is possible to make sure that we can reach every single one of the Learners that have those different needs and who need that type of a setting I'm uh eager to see what happens next and how this program rolls forward um I'll keep on updating you as it evolves thank you um I have a couple updates um first of all I attended homecoming game and I just want to say kudos to our staff that night because it was a little crazy we had our first evacuation so thank you to to everyone who kept our students and guests and parents and everybody there safe it was kind of crazy

105so thank you um also we had our first teaching and learning advisory committee um meeting today and we had a robust group of aana counted like 35 if that was correct 35 attendees of community members parents um teachers admins so we had some great robust conversations around the new math imp implementation um mark your calendar on November November 9th if you are in the elementary um if you have have an elementary student you want to learn more about this new math program there's going to be a family night where you can come in and learn more about um the implementation of this new math program um some other highlights are we're going to be um having a further conversation about Ai and how that looks in the learning environment as well as the read Act

106um and then we had a conversation around gifted and talented and how that's been implemented in our district as well as the Spanish Immersion program um we talked about it how it's been um successfully rolled out in the high school as well as the middle school and then we had a robust conversation around the elementary Specialists um and a brief conversation in on our mcacs program review so that was great so thank you to Dan and um director olad for orchestrating that and we have our next meeting in November I think it was the 13th I believe is that correct yeah so and those are all open to the public and they're located over in the Hidden Oaks um Hidden Oaks building um last but not least um mea is right around the corner and

107so for anyone traveling um or have a little time off with their family I know we won't have another meeting until after mea so enjoy your time thank you um I'll briefly add that um Dr Thomas and I I attend via Zoom he was in person at amstd earlier or late last week um and we did have a it was a student panel and we had a parake Savage um student high schooler say her name an an f and she was a panel one of four students that was on the panel um asked a plethora of questions a lot around technology learning style kind of outcomes of Co learning in the future of Education like what do they need M and that was probably the most jaw-dropping conversation to listen to as an adult they

108know what they need clear that's that was the biggest takeaway right they know what they need and so we just need to to um remove obstacles for them to achieve what they need um that was my takeaway um but very fun to have a student on that panel for sure um and lastly a quick thank you to Mary France as I was gone at the last study session and she were in the meeting so thank you for that um important dates that were not mentioned earlier uh there's a Heritage and cultural Festival October 14th at Twin Oaks from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and then our next study session is not until October 30th it was originally the 23rd and got rescheduled so that's the date change um that brings us to um adjourning our

109meeting can I get a motion to adjourn and transition to a closed meeting so bye director Atkinson can I get a second second by director Vasquez all in favor I I oose passes 70 we can take a quick break and then come back to Clos thank you