001[Music] i'd like to call this meeting to order uh please join me in the pledge of allegiance we're gonna wait for quiet i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all hey thank you for joining us this evening tonight's roll call all members are present with the exception of enrique next up is the open forum section and the open forum section is accordance to our board policy 203 and it's a 15-minute time period set aside to receive citizen input through the open forum segment and as now we are transitioning back to live in-person board meetings i just wanted to reiterate a couple housekeeping items as it pertains to open forum this open forum
002sections during our business board meetings the ones that we have here on monday nights at six um they have the sign-up sheet right outside the room um where you can sign up and speak on an item not on tonight's agenda and your time limit is three minutes so we set up you know we set aside 15 minutes and so that's where you get the three minutes basically tonight we do have a few people that want to speak to the board and so i would um like to honor the fact that you all came out tonight and so we do have six speakers i do want to recognize mr tragiano um i did ask him because he has spoken to us on the board about his uh his issue and there are a couple other people
003here so he's going to stand behind and kind of give up his time to kind of keep us within that 15 to 18 minute time frame so thank you for doing that if there is any follow-up needed the superintendent or the designee that she one of her staff will get back to you if if that's needed if there's questions brought to the board this all and and i would encourage anyone that's interested in the open forum or how the board operates to really look at policy 203 it's our operating norms and it's something that as a board we hold very close to our hearts i guess i would say as to how we operate and it says a lot of really good information if you want to find out things about how the board runs
004and how things work so with that i do have i believe six speakers tonight um and i'll just call you up one at a time if you when you do come up if you please state your name and address just for the official record oh i forgot this part so in keeping with trying to keep us on track michael is going to hold up just a sign that they'll just tell you you have 15 seconds left and then just to kind of give you a warning and then she'll hold up a little red card to say when it's time to stop all right uh first up is sarah dirks yep and you can just come right on up to the microphone and good evening everyone um i'm actually somewhat new to the prior lake area
005i moved over here from lakeville last year sir can i just have your address oh sorry my address my address is actually um my permanent address which is 104 southwest 9th avenue in fairbow minnesota um so anyway um i'm actually here tonight just researching whether this is the school district that i want my children to grow up in we've been through a very interesting year and i have some questions i realize it's probably not the time where you can actually answer them um but i love the prior like area i don't i'm not super familiar with the school system because i chose to keep my kids where they were to not you know until i knew for sure where i wanted to bring my kids so the um the questions that i have and you
006know this is not just me and representing i'd say at least a couple of thousand parents that feel you know the same way kind of in our area um i personally don't believe that there's any room for political agendas in school so um i'd like to know whether um well first and foremost i come as a um as someone with a lot of background in the health field so i've been a health professional for 16 years i believe in medical freedom so i would want to know what the position is on medical choice and privacy for this fall considering everything that's going on vaccination policies whether children are going to be allowed to come to school if their parents believe that they don't need to have a vaccine because god gave us a 99.9 effective
007innate immune system against the virus anyways um so that would be my first question um does the prior lake savage school system intend to affiliate with any kind of curriculum having to do with critical race theory black lives matter or comprehensive sex education if if the answer is yes to any of those questions i personally wouldn't want to have my kids involved in the school system is there any teaching about any gender other than male or female i think this is creating a ton of confusion for kids i'm hearing about gender pronouns this is family these are family issues not not something that needs to be taught to kids certainly at the elementary school age and you know i guess and then on another note is really kind of what sets this district apart from
008others i had a great conversation with the principal at five hawks elementary and she talked about cares and you know social emotional learning which i thought was really great i think that's i'm definitely on board with that thank you um and and is there strong leadership in this community that's ready to unite and push back against some of the corrupt doctrination that's coming from our state and federal governments that's that's what i'm looking for so thank you very much appreciate it [Applause] all right uh next up um eden alum i'm sorry if i messed your name up please correct me when you come up um hi my name is eden alemu my address is 12933 second avenue south i would first like to thank the board of directors for having been given the opportunity to
009voice our concerns about rising issues in our community i understand that for some people it may be hard to view issues such as equity inclusion plans or for students and staff to have any positive impact on them because it may not necessarily be directed towards them but that also validates that there is no negative impact on them either although i would like to say that in order to define equity it doesn't necessarily dissociate a certain group of people from another rather it provides resources and opportunities for all groups of people despite racial background gender identity or financial status to all reach one common goal and destination i believe prior lake can start by providing equal opportunities through this new equity plan for a better future for all of our children our schools may be a
010safe space or a common ground that students can go to and feel heard by their teachers and peers as a student of prior lake high school and the community myself for the past two years my experiences have been far from normal due to covid and so many changes in our world change that is better for all of us should be accepted but with an open mind myself as well as many others in our community should accept this change for students to experience a better elementary middle or even high school career this new equity plan will put our community a step forward in order to walk hand in hand to find success together starting by eliminating microaggressions in our classrooms talking about the things that we think is uncomfortable but what is truly uncomfortable is not
011addressing modern day issues providing students of color with opportunities to speak about their experiences in our community and what we can do to help each other feel valued safe and comfortable simple things like this may be hard to rationalize as someone who is not a person of color but i assure you that there is absolutely no harm in practicing these daily peacemakers any negative impact that you think may lie beneath an equity an equity plan tells me that the issue is the fear of positive change this call for change doesn't take away from another group or one in fact in most ways it is meant to bring us all together as well as the concern of depriving our children with the focus of our education does not have any significance whatsoever educating ourselves about each
012other's cultures religious practices and who we choose to love should not be frowned upon let alone silence because whether we all take different paths the equal opportunities we are provided with starts today it starts in our classrooms it starts in our sports practices it starts in our homes and it starts in prior lake and there is no doubt in my mind that with the persevering board of directors and other leaders in our community that we can put aside our differences to meet our final destination success um next up is becky stark follow that my name is becky stark 150 east burnsville parkway in burnsville um greetings everyone i come to you as i prepare to go into my 21st year of teaching here at hidden oaks middle school and if my math is correct that
013means i've taught over 3 000 of your kids in my first year in 2001 i had one girl of color no boys i'm not excluding the boys but one student of color this year it was approximately 30 percent of my teaching load which i think if i do the math right was around 50. additionally for the first time in my career i had students approach me not something i taught them students approach me requesting that i use they them pronouns the reality is that the demographics here in prior lake are changing they've changed a lot already and so too are our needs to meet the needs of all of our students i'd like to as a teacher thank you for your cognizance of this um as a board and for your work to pass the
014equity and inclusion resolution and for hiring a director for equity and inclusion to help guide us through the work that's needed so we can better meet the needs of our changing student community i appreciate you cementing your uh your commitment to fulfilling this mission in plsc plsas in the resolution of committing ourselves to out educate all students and i also thank you for clarifying what all students means to you i think that's important and your transparency and your support in that is definitely appreciated reading through the resolution and hearing your support through our conversations gives me hope that will even better serve all of our students in the future in a way that they can all feel both safe and valued here at prior lake savage area schools i'd also like to briefly address those
015who are nervous about the passage of this resolution i think we need to validate that people are afraid of change my impression over the years is that parents overwhelmingly appreciate and trust the teachers here it comes up in our survey i think it was 94 this year and i have had very minimal negative interactions with parents as in my tenure here in the district that being said i'd like to ask people who are afraid to consider having conversations about their concerns with the teachers in the community ask them what actually happens in our classroom i teach in front of an audience of 28 to 36 every single day and it's really hard for me to hide what i'm doing i promise you that we'll be open and honest i guess i can't promise for everyone
016i promise you i would be open and honest the board can attest to the fact i think that i don't typically hold back um rather than having conversations amongst yourself about what you think is going on ask us please ask us thank you um hello i'm johnny l rucker i live on 5249 160 street southeast empire lake first i'd like to start off by saying as a student at prior lake high school i appreciate the efforts the board is making for minority students to feel more comfortable and safe to feel valued and have others understand that we are all different in some ways but similar in others no matter the circumstances race religion or sexuality we all deserve to feel safe free from intimidation verbal abuse or any conflicting acts because of something that is
017not understood between one another being valued for our contributions as student rather than being judged by our looks beliefs or preferences this movement is not to categorize students by dividing them into groups i believe this movement is to engage students parents families staff and community members to strengthen a culture of respect and inclusion which is the seventh cause on the resolution students wearing black lives matter t-shirts and adding their preferred pronouns to their name when introducing themselves does not hurt or negatively change the environment in the school the movement will provide pride lake the opportunity to have uncomfortable conversations which i believe growth you there's growth and discomfort i want to be clear the equity and inclusion movement does not equate to the learning of the critical race theory in its entirety as it has
018nothing to do with that in the resolution the movement is not taking away valuable academic material or time away from students it's providing the students with an understanding of others school is a place to learn and create relationships socializing is a big aspect when it comes to public schooling from elementary to high school we are all taught to be kind and respectful we are not taught to use derogatory terms when we feel upset however it still happens therefore the misunderstanding in hostile aggression may derive from home in lectures that aren't given to children because of what parents believe they shouldn't have to but the truth is we live in a generation where social injustice police brutality hate speech and microaggression and willful ignorance is broadcasted all throughout social media children as young as elementary school
019are using social media by the way why is it okay for children to see the reality we live in through their phones but not properly holding discussions in schools in the comforts of their home again as a student of prior lake i appreciate the efforts the board is making and i hope everyone will appreciate it as well [Applause] next up is tony heiser can i have paula speak oh sure yep okay i see that hi there i'm dr paula thompson i'm a retired physician from the ridges hospital in burnsville and also i used to practice at the ridge valley clinic just real close here and i'm here to talk to you tonight she her hers by the way i'm here with the climate majority project of the south metro members here can raise their hands
020we work for climate justice and the reason we are continuing to bring the issue of electric school buses before the board is because it is an issue that combines social justice and environmental justice the truth is that climate change and environmental pollution affect disadvantaged communities more than privileged communities disadvantaged children more frequently have no alternative but to use public busing and currently in our school district this means that they are exposed to the toxins and diesel fumes whether they like it or not researching the medical literature on the health effects of diesel exposure is quite disturbing ultramicroscopic particles and black carbon are not caught in the filter mechanism of the lungs but instead pass directly into our bloodstreams among these particles are carcinogens and other poisons that can cause cancer including childhood leukemia stroke and
021heart disease as well as significantly worsening asthma female teachers and staff of child bearing age are exposed also and they will have an increased risk of birth defects learning disabilities adhd and autism i know that we sent you some information where you could look at these studies directly i also wanted to just review very quickly the academic benefits a georgia study of over 700 000 students showed that reducing diesel fume exposure significantly improved test scores there was a michigan study that showed children on cleaner school buses had an eight percent uh lower rate and absenteeism and then you can see i put up here um a georgia study on that just kind of visually shows some of the areas the health areas that are a concern for us the transportation sector of minnesota creates the
022largest portion of greenhouse gases in our state so an obvious part of the solution to this pollution health and climate problem is to transition as quickly as possible to clean electric school buses for our school fleets and put our children first tony is going to talk a little bit about a lot of funding that is becoming available for this and i hope that each one of you will consider backing efforts to go after those funds for our community thank you okay thank you again for your attention today so um why am i advocating for electric bus tony can you just say your name oh yes tony heiser17327 wilderness circle so electric buses can be fiscally responsible decision in the long run yes upfront costs are more in charging infrastructures needed but a recent article in
023school bus fleet magazine about operator experiences in adopting electric school buses indicate that one fleet experienced eighty percent fuel savings and sixty percent savings and maintenance costs and another experienced ninety percent savings across both categories in recent reuters articles sites that the upfront costs can be recovered after around 3.5 years thanks to cheaper operating costs according to the national renewable energy laboratory and according to a report from the u.s public interest research group a vehicle to grid enabled electric bus will save about 170 to 240 thousand dollars in lifetime fuel and maintenance costs so how to get started as i'd indicated in the past was often cited across the literature on this topic is to engage the various stakeholders including fleet operator bus manufacturers and utilities as well as the public constituents manufacturers such as
024blue bus and thomas built have set up consultative sales structures for electric buses where they can provide feasibility studies finding apply for grants on your behalf engage electric utilities in regards to charging infrastructure and other service as an alternate approach there are other organizations available such as the climate mayor's electric vehicle collaboration the electrification coalition and the government organization source well minnesota which can provide resources such as connecting with bus manufacturers as well as cooperative purchasing financing and funding resources as well as infrastructure resources so why now there's free money on the table in terms of grants etc but will not be there indefinitely for example minnesota will will receive a total of 47 million dollars from the national volkswagen settlement over the net course of 10 years beginning in 2018 with 50 percent of
025these funds earmarked for earmarked for the current phase 2 through 2023 and the remaining 25 percent for phase 3 during 2024 to 2027 the phase 2 budget includes 4.7 million dollars explicitly earmarked for electric school buses or approximately 14 units other potential programs such as the 10 billion dollar clean commute for kids at co-sponsored by minnesota center senator tina smith would provide grants to replace existing buses with zero mission buses but the time frame also proposes proposed for this program as 10 years i also make mention these timelines because the initially mentioned article referring fleet operator experiences included the quote from an operator normally it takes six to nine to nine months before the utility even breaks ground so the process takes time and that's why i call to action to start the process in
026order to take advantage of the financial benefits which may be available so thank you for everybody's attention [Applause] okay um that concludes i believe all of our speakers um i just want to say a special shout out to our students that spoke um i know it's never easy to come in front of us i mean though we sit behind a desk is seven eyes staring at you in a room full of people but to speak from the heart um i know is uh it's difficult to do so thank you all right um next up is the approval of the agenda do i have a motion to approve the agenda so made by mary second second jonathan all those in favor say aye aye opposed that passes 6-0 next up is the consent agenda the consent
027agenda items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted in one motion there's no separate discussion on any of these items tonight the items are the financials um the bank reconciliation statement from may 2021 the building bond investment report approval of the school board minutes from june 14th 2021 regular meeting june 28 2021 professional development personnel items um candidates are for employment resignations terminations non-renewals district retirements which i don't think we have any um oh i'm sorry we do michelle newman and note that leaves of absence um approval of the 21 22 memberships um which include the 2021 msba policy services the 2021-22 amsd association of metropolitan school districts the metro ecsu 2021-22 2021-22 minnesota state high school league membership and last would be the schools for equity and education membership for
02820 21 22. um do i have a motion to accept the consent agenda as listed so moved by michael second second by amy all those in favor say i i oppose that passes 6-0 the resolution for the acceptance of yes [Music] as noted in your board packet the resolution for the acceptance of gifts are listed sorry i always try to find it because i like to look at it when i'm doing it um for some reason i don't have it here this oh sorry anyway okay those are listed in your board packet do i have a motion to accept the resolution of the gifts as listed so made by julie second second by mary this is uh any questions comments all right this is a roll call vote um julie hi mary aye jonathan aye
029michael aye amy aye aye that passes six zero next up leaker pride a lot of state champions exciting good evening everyone it is so great to see so many people here tonight and especially wonderful to see so many students here who we are honored to celebrate we welcome you to come back any time you want to any meeting that you want you help ground us and remind us that the question that always has to be on our mind is what's best for students as decisions are being made so tonight we celebrate prior lake high school state champions and as we celebrate the athletes who are here this evening the coaches the families who are here this evening we also are celebrating being state champions in an unprecedented year and tonight you're representing state champions but
030you're also representing every single one of your peers who also fought through a pandemic had schedules changed all the time had practices canceled had to quarantine had to do so many things in order for us to be able to compete to have the opportunity to compete and in order for you truly to be victorious in your state championship goals so congratulations to you all at this point i'm going to ask beth fuller who served as as our interim activities director for the year as along with uh jeff marshall who has been on the uh on the payroll for i think about 11 days now uh as our new activities director to come forward and they will be introducing coaches and students so that we can truly celebrate some amazing accomplishments so please come on up
031okay well thank you dr stallow i appreciate that and um my hope is that all the approvals go through tonight so that i still have a job come tomorrow it really is an honor to be here and uh and as a as a community member to be able to become a part of the staff here at uh at prior lake savage area schools and to be able to honor and recognize these individuals tonight there are very few schools in the state of minnesota who can say that they can recognize as many state champions as the prior lake high school students can do so this year and again as dr stahler mentioned what a year with with the pandemic and and again to be able to persevere and be able to represent your team and your
032school and to be so successful in doing so really is fantastic so um it is an honor and a pleasure for me to be able to be here to be able to recognize these individuals because as i said there are very few schools in the state who can do do such a such a piece so um miss fuller is going to hand out some certificates and as i call names please feel free to come on up here to get those certificates we're going to start with our girls lacrosse team uh we have one of our coaches here jessica gurovich jessica come on up the girls lacrosse team finished this past spring as state champs once again so congratulations [Applause] so most of the students are participating in lacrosse tonight as beth pointed out again with
033the being the summer there are a lot of our athletes who aren't able to attend tonight as well as coaches so we're very appreciative of those who could come out here tonight on our boys track and field team uh gabe smith gabe smith was a double state champion in two events uh this year as a distance runner uh gabe come on up as well as gabe's distance coaches john maresh and head coach ken clam [Music] you guys did an amazing job all spring and had quite the success like um like jeff said double champ and so it's pretty unheard of uh this guy just creams it he just goes and goes he picks a goal crushes it so keep that up all the way through life and you'll be at rockstar we'll be watching you
034everywhere [Applause] next up representing girls track and field samantha barrett samantha come on up samantha was a state champion this spring in one of our jumps events she was coached as a jump coach by blair rummel and head coach jenna o'brien so same thing here sam has been pretty much crushing her goals as well she started a little bit later in the sport and then just really excelled and i'm gonna let blair say all the specifics but it's just been reaching pr prpr so uh so sam and i were actually at the same meeting as a sophomore um sophomore year sam's sophomore year was her first year doing track um coming over from i guess like career in gymnastics prior to um had never done track before that same year i had never coached jumps
035before so we were both newbies the same year and sam came out and casually won state and broke our school record in the triple jump her first year ever as a sophomore last year her junior season obviously we weren't able to participate because of covid and having to miss out on all of that so we were super excited to be able to come back her senior year and really hopeful and excited for the things she was going to be able to do i will try and remember the stats at the top of my head i believe she won every single one of our meets in the triple jump um this year decided to try long jump just for fun um she was the conference champion and triple jump the conference champion runner up in long
036jump she won sections in triple jump um and then also qualified uh for the state meet in four events both jumps and then two relays um she won the state meet and triple jump was the runner up in long jump and broke her own school record not once or twice but three times this season all in the same two-week time frame um so sam's clearly a phenomenal athlete she plans on participating in track next year at uw lacrosse and continuing her education there as well so it's been super fun to see sam and all of her successes that she's had at prior lake [Applause] next up is the prior late skeet team and we do have a number of members of our ski team here tonight justin kingery tanner thompson john warthen ian wheatcraft west
037brainerd jeremiah caldwell and then paul kingery who is our head skeet coach come on up these guys were able to compete this past spring i was i was given some information ahead of time about the this is not the trap team this is the skeet team where they were state champs and a lot of these guys do participate in both of them but again this is a spring sport and something that these guys were just recently awarded the state championship so congratulations gentlemen [Applause] again um very exciting uh to follow everything we didn't get to be there in person though i know we hosted it this year at the minneapolis gun club so we got to hear all the updates from scott conrad in terms of how things went and your success and winning the
038state championship and ian being the top gun for a state in skeet so i don't know if that's exactly how they say it or not but i know that's the crown that he used when he talked to us so i'm also going to let paul just say a few words about this group because i know it's year after year just amazing volunteer coaches that we have and supporting this team and many of them are also on the trap team and they excel every year again the difference in the winner of that was like four points in terms of being fourth place or first place so just amazing yeah thank you we have uh five representatives here tonight that are on both our trap and our skeet shooting teams are both clay target teams that are
039represented by our school we have about 70 shooters young men and women on our team and these are five representatives that choose to shoot skeet each one of them did a great job we were as beth mentioned fourth place finishers in the state trap tournament there was four birds total that separated the all the teams that were there to compete that day 40 teams and then the skeet we did come out on top won the first ever state tournament for the prairie lake skeet team so very proud of these five shooters we're going to lose five of our shooters to graduation this year so we're going to be in a rebuilding year next year but we expect great things so thank you very much thank you so much next up uh representing our wrestling team
040uh head coach joe block i believe i saw joe here come on up and is alan here too yup alan kohler come on up allen was another i was a state champion this past year with with wrestling um i'm not sure in the weight class but i don't think he was in the heavyweight weight class so uh what weight class were you in alan 106. so state champion of the 106 weight class so congratulations excellent uh and we're going to let joe talk a little bit here because i know there's other events that have been captured by you i've been watching twitter and following along and i know there's some exciting international news as well so alan allen was the 106 pound state champion but this year he wrestled 106 113 120 and 126. very
041much a team player and pretty much went wherever we put him he also had the opportunity to travel to mexico here three weeks ago and participate in the pan ams where he won double gold in both freestyle and greco so that's super exciting for alan uh he is now preparing for the junior national tournament which is up in fargo north north dakota uh starting on saturday this week actually so we're heading up saturday morning and hopefully we'll bring back a couple titles so congratulations alan [Applause] and our last team to represent is our boys cross country team if they want to start heading up here um on this uh on the the team at that point was gabe smith magnus o'connor kyle nordling john maher hoodie haig mccoy ross blake vanderweedy john ridgely and zach
042johnson and they are coached by john maresh now as many of you do know and probably realize we didn't have official high school league state championships last fall but it is my understanding that when all was said and done it was there was no doubt when you could look at times and compare times that these gentlemen here were by far and away the the best team in the state of minnesota at that point and they are being recognized as state champions from last fall so congratulations gentlemen [Applause] pretty much that pretty much says it all in terms of what happened we just had an amazing season these guys have been running together for a very long time and they've really pushed each other and made things awesome in terms of supporting and cheering on each
043other and getting the best out of each other coach marish does a wonderful job in keeping the culture just supportive and maxing out how performances go and these guys put in the hours and miles and all kinds of hills and you probably see them running around town but they've just done an amazing job and our great kids and we love watching you guys so good luck in the future we've got a few returners and i'll see if marish wants to say any other words here plain and simple we had four all-state runners we've never had that before we had four in the top 17. when you do that it's pretty hard to get beat so needless to say we had we had a great year we were ranked in the top two all year and
044then at the end of the season what mattered we got the job done we had individuals ranked in the top ten during the year gabe was ranked in the top two pretty much the whole year um he finished uh finished second overall and then um our freshman hudi haig uh was seventh overall so we had two first-team all-state runners so and and all in general like we had a great great effort from these uh eight nine guys plus the rest of our team being just a strong team and competed through a lot of unknown with cobit we just did the best we could every day we just hoped to hope we had the next day to go and race and we got everything done so thank you very much for the opportunity to be able
045to do that and the opportunity to be here tonight to congratulate them and it's super nice but like they're from 2020 there's a fresh um next up is personnel items good evening board chair board members superintendent stalo as is our practice give it a minute as is our practice to introduce new administrators before the board but before we do that we should probably take action on their employment contracts thanks jeff for doing that voluntarily so i bring forward the initial employment of sam oak jeff marshall and emily rosengren okay do i have a motion to accept the approval of the new administrators so made by jonathan second second by michael any comments or questions seeing none um all those in favor say aye aye opposed that passes 6-0 all right so we'll introduce each of
046them i will introduce sam and dr music will introduce jeff and emily so i'm pleased to announce now the hiring of sam oak as the director of equity inclusion sam will be working with staff throughout the district as the director of equity and inclusion most recently he served as the equity and multilingual program coordinator for faribault public schools and contracts with minnesota state university mankato as an equity coach and trainer previously worked for rochester public schools as an english language coordinator and also as an english as a second language teacher in rochester sam's a graduate of hamline university with degrees in french education and english as a second language sam the opportunity to say something thanks jim for the introduction there i am so happy to be here it's been a great seven days so
047far i've got to meet so many amazing people and participate in so many amazing activities just last week dr stahlo took me to the rotary meeting here in terms of them preparing for the music festival i was a member of rotary in fairbill and right away i texted my fair boat team that they needed to step up their game i was a child of a refugee my parents survived the killing fields of cambodia we came to america and we experienced poverty we experienced not knowing the language we experienced a culture that was very very foreign to us so this work of diversity equity inclusion is very near and dear to my heart and i've just been so inspired by the student athletes that were here the courage of the students who spoke up today and
048i just can't wait to get down and do this work the work of equity is done together and it's only together that we will achieve our equity goals thank you well hello i get to uh introduce a couple people as well and you know it's always you know bittersweet you have people on your staff they've been here for a while and they they get new opportunities and take new positions but the good thing is you get to go out and find some of the best and the brightest out and interview a lot of people and we feel we've got a couple gems here uh the first person that i have you know i'll go with jeff marshall since jeff we've already you know kind of half half introduced yourself already uh jeff burnsville went to
049burnsville high school worked at burnsville for 20 years and was an a.d there for a number of years as well so uh when i was out uh when when russ uh left and i was going hey we need to go out and recruit jeff's name was always at top of the list when we were going who's available who's out there and he's got some instant credibility with the with the conference so uh that you know that's great for us and uh great for our student athletes so uh he lives in prayer lake has kids in the district and all that so i'm gonna let him say a couple words i already spoke so i don't need to say too much but i am very excited to be um taking over the reins with uh the
050athletics and activities department at prior lake high school and within the district um the the people that i've met so far hit the ground running and been working very closely with the team at the high school who are just fantastic um beth she's still here she's just amazing and i certainly want to give her a lot of accolades for everything that she's done over the last few months of handling the reins of that department at this time but um being able to work with such an excellent staff wonderful coaches and advisors and then first and foremost the athletes i mean those student athletes and those kids who are involved in activities are just absolutely amazing so i'm very excited to be able to start at this point as john said i have some experience of
051seven years of doing this over at burnsville uh last four years i've been at edina and i'm very proud to say that we do not have any um any local trademark issues here at prior lake right now so i'm very excited to be able to move forward with that so but thank you very much uh next we have emily rosengren and she's joining us for minnetonka she was a 20-year employee there and you know it's i've hired a lot of assistant principals and you look for somebody that's just kind of got that spark in that i do anyways that personality and look you know compliments the team and and she has that she's a great instructional leader she was an instructional coach there and when i called the principal uh you know you always wonder
052when you call somebody you know they get they give you little tells and he said you know when she called me so that was one of the toughest phone calls i've ever had to take and you okay you know you feel good about the decision you made because there's a lot of good people out there and and we're lucky to have her and i'm going to let her say a few words right now hi i'm emily rosengren and i'm really happy to be here thank you so much for the opportunity to serve prior lake savage area schools and to join the administrative team at prior lake high school i loved seeing students here tonight i haven't seen students in a few weeks so it feels really good and i'm happy to continue the work of
053supporting students and teachers and families and i know that's a vision that you share as well so i'm glad to collaborate with you on those things thank you very much i just say a couple words as well um i just want to also welcome our three new administrators um i have been in education for over 30 years uh over 20 of those years or almost 20 of those years in administration and i've hired a lot of people it's one of the most important things that we do especially hiring administrators it is absolutely one of the most important things that we do i would say that this arguably was the strongest candidate pool that i have ever been a part of and so that's a huge kudos to sam to emily and to jeff who are
054sitting here this evening tonight but it's also a huge kudos to the school board to the rest of our staff and administrators and parents and community and students because the cream of the crop wants to be in prior lake savage area schools so i want to thank all three of you for saying yes and for choosing us one of the questions i always ask in final interviews with administrators especially is that i believe strongly in surrounding myself with excellence how will you make us a better team and the attributes the talents the experience that the three of you bring i have no doubt you are going to make us a better school district so thanks for saying yes all right okay with that jim um like i got one more right yep next one 9b
055so again uh board chair board member superintendent stalo we bring forward an agreement with prior lake savage principals association basically all of these two pages said we're going to do what the contract says right so for dr edwards and for joe kabushik they are on assignment in different roles this basically says that they have a right to their jobs when this is done and that pay and benefits and all of that doesn't change so really that's that's what it is so okay um do i have a motion to accept the approval of the pls pa memorandum of understanding for 2021 oh made by mary second second by amy any comments or questions no i just said thank you for doing what you're doing i appreciate it um with that um all those in favor say
056aye aye opposed that passes 6-0 uh there's no unfinished business and then new business it's the annual milk and bread approval i always look forward to this every year i do i like it it's exciting i mean school's starting good evening everyone is he gonna load my presentation it should be in the end i should be here i saw her prepping it all right perfect oh i got it thank you thank you yeah okay sorry all right good evening board my name is emily malone director of child nutrition and i'm requesting that the board approve the following bid awards using escalated pricing it would be bev so for milk and dairy and bimbo bakeries for our bread contracts um can i ask a question yeah okay um just on the milk you're curious do we
057put more options out or do we always have that many options the people that we have people bid on that that you know like strawberry milk soy organic lactose do we always have that we always have that okay yeah we actually don't serve strawberry milk but yeah i know i noticed that i just find it ironic that some people don't even go there yeah so the dairy industries everybody's kind of buying out everybody right now so um we had a lot less we only had two bidders this time and the one prairie foods or prairie farms was actually the former dean foods bev so kind of bought out everybody else but weren't allowed to buy them because of it being in monopoly so there's not a whole lot of competition okay okay they've never really
058done no ghouls so they didn't have a lot of the things that we were asking for oh they've never done you mean the dean yeah this prairie farms is just kind of putting themselves out there they haven't actually served schools okay and surprise yes yeah okay okay um anyone else have any other questions um i did okay um so it's like you said everybody's buying each other out and you can see the changes in our our vendors uh over the past five or six years have been quite different so what does bev so or you know own now so devs so became bev cell halfway through last year yeah and they were agripper right right right we had a group before that yeah so we also had somebody else right we uh we used to
059have hastings okay we've seen creamery for a really long time and they don't they haven't been on our um they've been put in a bid for our business in probably four or five years so but they're still around they are still around as an independent not as part of the correct okay i think yep yeah they're a co-op okay um do you want to take these well i suppose we just take them individual okay um sorry i'm gonna pull up the letter it's hard for me to see that okay do we have a motion um to accept are we doing just the milk and alone or the bread can we do it together okay two together let's do it together um okay do we have the motion um to take the milk award to bev
060south saint paul beverages um and then the bread award to earth grains do i have a motion something by amy second by julie any comments or questions okay seeing none all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed that passes six zero what would happen if we said no to bread we have no bread this year if we only have one bender i know there's only one vendor every year okay then child nutrition update all right i'll just give you guys a quick update i think the theme everybody has kind of gone along with is that oops i didn't want to share it i want to present it it's been a year you'd remember so i'll just recap last year and kind of look a little bit ahead to next year last year we served
061almost 600 000 free breakfasts and almost 850 000 free lunches and that was a combination of meeting students in person and feeding them when they were learning from home if they were 100 learning from home you know it was a combination of in-person and curbside about halfway through the year we were able to add on saturdays and sundays so we were doing seven days worth of meals i think the last three quarters we're doing seven days worth of meals just to capture some more revenue so that middle picture there is kind of a fun one to me at least it's 120 gallons of homemade spaghetti sauce and we did that twice in a day browning all that meat and then making the spaghetti sauce twice in one day just for one of our pickups at
062the high school so it was a lot of food and we were trying to do you know as much homemade as we could we ran into a lot of issues with supply chain packaging plants were shutting down meat packers were shutting down trucking industry was having issues you know everybody was kind of feeling the same pain but we were still trying to keep it interesting and keep it fun for kids we started doing these meal kits so this is an example of our breakfast meal kit in one of our lunch meal kits and with the meal kit the kids were able you know the kids got the meal kit had some of our homemade items in it that they really like and then it told them how to um heat it up on their own
063so they had a little bit of autonomy something to do while they were at home so um then another the other fun thing that we did was um we got a couple of grants so we got a five thousand dollar grant it was called the rapid response grant from the minnesota department of agriculture and it was to get more farm to school produce into schools during the pandemics it was specifically covid related and then we got a scott county public health ship grant the statewide health improvement plan grant for 8 500 another farm to school grant and what we did with that money is we bought um a roll in cooler and we're going to use the old space at the old lake house cafe space at the high school for a farm drop so
064you know some of our little farms you know right around us don't have the distribution to drop off at all 10 of our sites so or they might only have 10 cases worth of green peppers so they can come to the high school just drop it all right there and then we will deliver it to each of the sites so it kind of opens up the doors to some of those little tiny farms that we have right around us in our community so that was exciting and then looking forward we will be doing free meals k-8 next school year using the seamless summer option it's a little bit different meal pattern and a little different program than what we did last year which was the summer food service program so summer food service opposed to
065seamless summer two different programs and then the prior lake high school will go off of the summer meals program for next year so that we will not be receiving funding for meals at the high school which is going back to what we did pre covered we're really looking forward to going back to our menu that we worked so hard to clean up you know using all of our clean labels a lot more variety we'll be able to bring back our a la carte program which was put on hold during covid and do some of those promotions that we like to do in the elementary schools and then of course get back to our scratch cooking so we're also this summer kind of starting to touch base with everybody who's involved in the garden programs across
066the district the one that we've focused on the most this summer has been with the high school garden paige benson who is a prior lake high school alum and she's right now going to the university of minnesota in the food science program she's the one who's kind of spearheading our high school garden she's working with students there her kids co kids there and she's also running the csa so we've got 12 shareholders for our csa it's a community supported agriculture program and 12 staff members have pay a stipend or pay a pay amount you know pay a membership basically to be part of the csa and then she harvests every week and puts their shares in the refrigerator for them so that money will then go right back into the garden and we did get
067some more awards for next school year more grants awarded for next school year we got this full trade grant from the minnesota department of agriculture for 235 dollars we're really excited about that that is mainly purely to purchase food so fresh food fresh fruits and vegetables and we can even do proteins with 18 235 dollars so that's pretty exciting and then we were accepted into this pilot program it's called the harvest of the month grant there's eight other districts that were accepted and it's a thousand dollars um to you know for like printing and stuff and then they give us all kinds of different marketing materials that we can print and use to promote our farm to school program so that's it you guys have any questions for me i do actually have one the
068seamless summer yes program so what's the difference between the one that we usually do yeah yeah so when kovitz started they just made that quick reaction and put everybody on the summer food service program summer food service program had a very it has a very lenient meal pattern it doesn't have any calorie restrictions you know it's just you you're just feeding kids and and so we ran that from march of 2020 through last school year they are not offering that anymore and we are only able to choose the seamless seamless summer option or the national school lunch program the seamless summer option is the same meal pattern as the national school lunch program but it has a different reimbursement rate that they've now waived and they're gonna you know give us the higher reimbursement rate
069um but it's it's very much like the national school lunch program okay meal patterns so calorie restrictions and leafy greens and legumes and all those kind of meal pattern requirements okay okay i was curious that was my question any other questions oh my god just make a comment thank you it was it was a year and um i've seen some of those lines people showing up to get those meals and in the beginning it was just something joyful to get out of the house but people really came to rely on it and i've been in some of the kitchen tours with dr stella and other board members and your staff worked incredibly hard so thank you for that you're welcome thank you i'd like to echo that thanks i i know that um emily the
070leadership that you provided and the work that your staff did your collaboration with operations and with every school building and principal through this pandemic has been absolutely unbelievable and no matter the challenge you always approached it both you and jamie with a smile and a can-do attitude and your staff felt that and the rest of the staff and most importantly the kids and the families felt that so in a time of really hard challenges you provided some calm and stability so thank you welcome thank you okay um next up is presentation of the american indian parent advisory committee vote of non-concurrence and i think i saw sarah oh yeah dan's going to come up and that's right dan's going to come up and yep yes uh chair chair well uh dr stalin our remaining board
071members uh want to present to the parent representative from the american indian parent advisory group sarah wheelock is going to come forward here to present a document