001this meeting to order would you please all rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all hey thank you all for coming this evening everyone is present we have two remote i have no letters for open forum is that correct martha they're having the letters for open forum before we go on to approve the agenda i would like to make a change under new business letter i um 2021-24 superintendent contract i would like to remove that from the agenda this evening um we were waiting for some legal language that we did not receive coming forward for tonight's meeting and i want to make sure
002we have that all correct before bringing it to the board so that will come back at a later meeting however this doesn't mean that we're not going to offer dr sallo um another contract another three-year contract we're looking forward to having her spend her next three years with us um but due to a legal technicality we're going to hold off so sorry thank you but we'll take care of that technicality and and bring it back so with that change i'll take a motion to approve the agenda by stacy second second uh mary did you say it okay um any comments or questions being none all those in favor uh roll call mary aye aye jason i that motion carries 7-0 um now we'll move into the truth and taxation portion of our meeting um with
003julie sink good evening tonight we'll be talking about our truth and taxation hearing and our we will be certifying at the end the levy certification on this agenda is our tax levy calendar our basic school funding factors contributing to the change in the levy our certification for 2021 some graphical analysis and our revised budget we've talked about this several times but four school districts we certify our levy in 2022 which is now it gets paid throughout the calendar year of 20 2021 but the district doesn't recognize those funds until the 2122 school year and so um we're actually doing things a little ahead of what other anti-governmental entities do and so most of the time they're approving the levy certification and their budget is based on that for next year we're actually doing a year
004a year ahead so authority for school levies the school levy tax levy must be either set by state formula or voter approved on the basic formula for calculating state aid is taking the authorized total revenue minus our local property taxes and the remainder is mainly state aid so some factors impacting our tax change for the district some things that could drive our local decisions a change in levies determined by state formula change in state ratio sales ratio and the laws maintaining mandating code compliance and then issues determined by district voters so if we were to bring a bond referendum or an excess levy referendum or a capital projects or tech levy forward those would impact the levy certification and some local factors that affect how those are applied inflationary pressures on real estate market abatements
005property improvements not yet previously taxed which in a growing district that happens changing individual assessed market value and sometimes there's changes in classification such as a homestead to a rental and it changes the tax impact for that property what is included in our levy certification we do have our voter approved referendums our levy step by state formula so you can see the list there are equity our operating capital transition community service our ltf long-term facility maintenance and then those authorized by state based on local need so re-employment safe schools achievement and integration career and technical facility leases integration q-comp and opeb factors contributing to the levy change this year we did have an increase in our adjusted net tax capacity by 7.2 percent and an increase in the referendum market value of 7.1 percent we
006also have decreasing pupil units and when we originally had the preliminary levy for this that was based on what we thought our october one numbers were going to be i think it's even less than that we'll see adjustments in future years that will lower our levy certification because of that so they'll make adjustments in future years so you can see our adjusted net task capacity and when that dip was during our last recession and it's come back up and exceeded that the last year that we have data for is of course last year of and the same is holds true for our referendum market value analysis and you see that dip and then last year we saw that increase of that 6.1 percent here is our enrollment history trend you can see our this year
007we see that small dip that we have for our current year we've been a growing district for many years and you can see that increase over the last several years our 20 pay 21 levy certification it has changed very slightly from the preliminary levy in september you can see our those those things that are adjusting our levee certification our local optional has increased our equity levy and the transition levy operating capital levy they're pretty stable long-term facility maintenance is pretty stable as well we did see a reduction in our levy referendum and that is because our pupil counts have gone down q comp is pretty stable as well um a re-employment we did see an increase in that one simply because we will have some of re-employment insurance to be repaid safe schools levy career
008and technical lease facilities those have gone up simply because of our space at min caps we did see an increase in achievement in integration because the board approved an increase to the maximum for our achievement integration levy post employment benefits we aren't levying for those at this time because we have reached our maximum liability we have not reached our maximum implicit rate liability for opeb but we have for our actual liability facility and equipment bond adjustment and prior year adjustments so you can see that our general fund levy certification is going up to 4.27 percent if we look at how it affects community education you can see that is increasing and that's mainly because of our extended day disabled program dollar wise it's very small but because that's a small program comparatively to the general
009fund that increases higher and then our debt service is going up to 2.59 and that debt service is to repay the bonds that we have for the buildings that the community voted on so overall you can see each of these our total general fund our total community service fund and our total debt service the three together are 3.64 percent increase you can see how that would that gets split up majority of it is voter approved a small percentage of it is state determined and when we say state determined that's the legislature determines how much the district can levy really the district doesn't have much of a choice on what they can levy those local items you do have an opportunity to levy such as the achievement in integration and those types of things otherwise the
010legislature pretty much tells school districts how they can levy and it's really is based a lot on enrollment and so that is how our school district levies are determined we do show our 10-year levee history and you can see we did have one year that it went up significantly and that was the year that the community voted on the additional buildings in the district in the operating referendum and you can see since then it's been fairly small we've kept it over the last 10 years under 5 percent i think that's a pretty good record for the school district over the life of that outside the one year that there was a vote i added this slide estimated tax and these are estimated tax impacts it really just depends on what happens individually for your home
011and your property or your business in the district but you can see i've given us some examples really there's not a lot of change and even though that we are increasing the levy certification by 3.64 percent our net tax capacity adjusted tax capacity and the referendum market value rates are increasing higher than that so most of the time people are are not seeing a change in the school district's levy on their individual levy property tax i should say also i've included what we're anticipating the school board to approve later in the meeting for our revised budget because as part of our truth and taxation we have to present a budget that the just as a reminder that what you're voting on tonight for the truth and taxation affects next year's budget we still have to
012present a budget so we always present our current year budget but the impact isn't to our current year budget because we have not developed our budget for next year yet we always use our current year budget so you can see our revised budget both for the general fund and all other funds any questions i went through that fairly quickly any questions from the board okay normally we would have public able to attend our meeting but this year being the year of covet we are being it is being held virtually so if there's any resident out there that wishes to submit comments regarding the presentation this evening they're welcome to do that tonight up until we begin the new business portion of our meeting and you can send those emails to mwa lz prior lake savage.k12.mn.us
013if you're submitting a question please remember to put in your full name and home address if those things are missing we will not be able to read them at the meeting if we do get any emails i will read them before the vote so you have until the beginning part of the new business section of our agenda this evening so having said that um also the meeting link is on our website and the the email address i just quoted is on the website as well so if you didn't get it check our website okay thank you move on to the consent agenda these are items that are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion with no separate discussion under under financials we have the check wire transfer dispersement summary wire transfer
014eft and ach banking activity bank reconciliation statement for the month of october 2020 building bond investment reports monthly wire detail monthly health dental wire detail monthly check detail monthly ach detail the approval of the school board minutes for the regular meeting on november 9th special board meeting for canvassing on november 13th and the study session on november 23rd personnel items uh candidates for employment resignations terminations and non-renewals is listed um and that's it do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda homemade by jonathan second second by mary um roll call mary hi hi hi melissa hi enrique hi that motion carries 7-0 thank you um we have no resolution for acceptance of gifts this evening so we'll move into laker pride with um terry did you have something to say first um i
015do actually i'm going to invite principal glenn to come forward um learning within the dial has certainly forced prior like savage area schools teachers and staff to reshape their instruction and services at jeffers pond the location for instruction has also been reshaped so what principal glenn is going to share with us tonight is some of the highlights of outdoor learning as well as now as we have transitioned into distance learning um and the the jeffers pond staff and patrick glenn is the principal there um certainly are telling a story that is happening at jeffers pond and we celebrate that staff as well as staff across the district who are doing similar things so with that i'll hand it over to patrick thank you thank you dr stahl yes i think i represent the elementaries wholeheartedly
016here today thank you school board members lee shimik melissa anger thank you very much for your service we appreciate that so from outdoor learning to distance learning the constant is learning that was our goal every classroom outside every day was our ultimate goal at jeffers pond this year i would normally be here with sherry steinsticker kindergarten teacher and ann nelson they would have been a part of this presentation if not the presentation because they are the driving force behind our outdoor committee at jeffers pond i met with sheri in june in preparation for this committee to launch how do we make sure that we get outside every day and i'm like my colleagues did the same thing so i'm just going to share with you a few things of kind of how we evolved this
017year of course most schools if not all the schools have a picnic area on site that allows them to be outside jp especially has the park next door in the shelter it is used wildly every day if if not every other day it is accessible by the bridge so quickly the boulder garden is a hop skip and a jump just from the corner of the building out back it's a perfect spot for social distancing but how do you get 22 classrooms in spaces outside to do it every day well we created things like this then this year so this is kind of our sit spot that was created this is mrs tyndquist's classroom and if you were to drive by jeffers pond you would see these this array of stumps that have been placed in
018different spots around the building we even came up with a map and identified by grade level where outdoor learning was going to happen this year so important for people to be outside and and the opportunity to be unmasked at that time as well so the uh i wanna i can kind of point out the blue x's there at the top of the pond or where the the fifth grade held their outdoor classrooms the farthest away from the building this year and so each classroom had their area and had an opportunity to go to that area every day with nobody interrupting them in that spot we did some professional development at the beginning of this year by our outdoor committee on what is safe to be outside safe behavior for our kids and everything to do
019with the wildlife that's there studying most probably more importantly that the poisonous plants that are around on occasion let's keep kids away from them safe climbing habits when we're in the woods things like that it was a wonderful some pd for us here's a little bit of what presentation looks like outside we have mrs hagman the fifth grade teacher up there on the left and ms tinquist they have their their white chart paper that's out there they hauled it outside and there's a wagon and i'll talk about that in a minute so they have an opportunity to present no matter where they're at here is mrs dickey fifth grade teacher with a science lesson with fifth graders this is mrs hohenstein fifth grade teacher and she's got her kids in her area they're doing a
020language arts lesson that day that i was out there and of course here's ann nelson with a globe in the middle of the woods right talk about hauling your materials outside to do a social studies lesson here is miss dickey doing read aloud right south writes out of my outside of my office actually i could see her on daily come out with the kids and do the read aloud we were so fortunate the ptc this year we had planned on some more flexible seating options inside the building but in june when this committee got launched we made a a plea to them can we please redirect those funds and every every classroom was granted the opportunity to have one of those carts wagons up in the upper right hand corner is a lanyard that we
021attached to all of the the masts so if they took them off and they stayed with them and they didn't lose them if they were outside and then we had a first k first aid kit that went along with with those supplies here's some of our seating options of course the young gal that's sitting on the stump that was popular some of the plastic items that could be brought outside the foam mats that allowed you to put some comfort or a barrier between a wet ground that we have ptc helped us with that and christy weigle even took one of her old bathroom towels put it in a ziploc bag and is reusing that as a as a as a total option just for some of her kids in her classroom of course students could
022bring chairs from home and this young gentleman he brought his when he came he's a fifth grader out out in their spot the kids love to sit on the ground or you can see them in the trees partner work happens on stumps or it happens in the tree on the log here's kindergarten now they even got involved in this too and here's miss seiden sticker with her kindergartners they've got clipboards school boxes paper she's doing a lesson with them and about a month later here she is again this is the day that we got eight or nine inches of snow it was just starting to come down that morning and that is a cookie sheet with magnets and she is doing a ten frame and learning and teaching about groups of ten the students are
023using their stumps as their desks as they're on their knees of course they're dealing with their mittens and it's a challenge but they can bring the manipulatives outside learning is happening outside she did the same math lesson outside that she would do inside the building on that particular day and then we all had to help push the cars up the hill at the end of the day at jp when the snow had hit by the end of the day here's the october meeting somebody took a moment one of the parents that was there and took a picture of the mrs tyndquist sit spot facing the sun as it was going down in october and it was a beautiful sight so we've been able to use those places for just more than outdoor learning opportunities it's
024been a wildly courageous year to be able to do that i don't think we're going to turn back i just don't see it we're so fortunate some of our teachers actually participate in what's called the outdoor learning challenge excuse me exchange and teachers are just participate on a monthly online meeting with teachers from across the country texas new york dc illinois indiana they do google meets and learn about how do i bring curriculum outside because it's a tricky thing you have to work through this it's not something that you can do real quickly i think you kind of learn in stages of how to do it sherry and ann are two teachers that do it exceptionally well how to stay warm outside how to engage learners in hybrid and distance learning some of the topics
025that they've been engaging across the country so that's a little uh description about outdoor learning but now we've pivoted to distance learning and so here's miss krauser and mr strait and they are teaching and i came and i took a picture of them while they were interacting with kids this is what distance learning looks like and you'll notice they have a doc cam miss krauser's you can see kind of that neck kind of tilted and mr strait has has that that has been a a very important tool that we have we have utilized purchased and utilized into our distance learning just recently the dla teachers have been using that since the beginning and kind of mentored us into that and but has become a very important tool so thankful to the district our buildings and
026our ptc's who helped come up with the funds so that all the teachers could get those here's another example i think that's important distance learning sometimes requires two screens so they've got their laptops on their desks with their computers they're able to use the doc cam to demonstrate what they're doing while they're interacting with the kids on their laptops so there's a way for them to see everything very clearly they've kind of figured it out in about a week of course here's read aloud mrs weigl and mrs sandow's getting into it she couldn't help but to smile as i was taking a picture as she's showing the students the picture in the book that she's reading out loud now the students are also engaged we've got about 75 students on site right now with kids
027company and this is a typical picture of a student engaged during their school day and we use the cafeteria as well as their social distance we've also gotten a little creative too here's a picture of a first grader he is doing squats for his phy ed class mr von fischer is on the screen down there playing a game with them and he had to do squats as part of his job and then we have a first grader here who's created a little fort under his desk and his ipad is there he's got his headphones and his microphone on and he's doing his lessons in the afternoon with the creative way we've uh we've been open we've been working with our kids company people to provide the best opportunity that we can for our students that
028are on site there's been a few challenges along the way but we're there trying to solve them all the time you know if you can build a fort as a kid i think you're pretty happy so i want to thank you for the opportunity just to share a little bit about outdoor learning and distance learning at the same time thank you thank you thanks for all you're doing again patrick uh chair shimak would you join me please and melissa as your home i want you to know that this uh laker pride thank you is extended to you as well you know the role of the school board members is to set the vision for the school district and as patrick was just sharing a glimpse of this year both with outdoor learning and e-stem as
029well as putting the district in a position especially with technology and instructional excellence to support that pivot that we just took place it's because of the role of board members and the vision that they set to make us to move forward to ensure equitable student achievement and high levels of learning for all students so patrick that couldn't have been a better introduction tonight as lee schimack and melissa enger have their last board meeting i want to be sure that we have an opportunity to recognize to celebrate and to pay some tribute to the two of you for the years of service that you've provided melissa anger was initially elected to fulfill a two-year vacancy on the board and she began her tenure in january of 2015. melissa was re-elected to a four-year term and has
030served on the board since that time thank you melissa for your six years of service to our school district lee schimack was elected to a four-year term beginning in 2002. lee remained on the board until december of 2014 and she took a two-year break until i was done oh you were done well it was a break is what we all saw um and then you returned to the board uh after the break in 2017. um you were first appointed chair in 2004 served in that role or the role of vice chair clerk throughout your tenure lee served on the prior lake prior lake savage area schools board for 18 years thank you for all you've done for our students and staff and community serving on the board is never an easy task but it's especially
031difficult during referendums boundary changes and global pandemics and i want to thank you for everything that you've done to guide us to guide me to support me on the journey of leading the district through this time i also want to extend appreciation to those in your life that you love because i know that the long meetings i know that the phone calls the email responses all take time away from the people and the things that you love to do and your commitment and service to our school district has taken time away from them so please be sure that you're also thanking your families for lending us you and your talents and your love for kids um for a little while and know that the impact that you have is going to be long lasting the
032two of you have served during a time of a lot of change in our district and you're always going to be able to drive around town and see some amazing learning spaces that were created uh because of you and your leadership so i want to thank you for your service to the school district i want to thank you for your support of me and uh i appreciate you very much and um before i also have a bill for each of you i think this is your second bill all right so we've got a belt for you melissa we are going to get yours to you as well and then uh before before we close this i want to be sure to hand it off to a couple other board members but before we do that
033um thank you thank you jerry and i think you're going to speak later you wanted to speak later okay and melissa i don't know if you wanted to say anything or if you want others to speak first okay no okay okay okay i'm gonna sit down okay yeah go ahead i just i wanted to thank um both of you just for you know serving um it's been a pleasure to serve the last numerous years with you um i do want to throw it a little extra thank you to lee just in the sense of coming back on the board when i think you know we were kind of faced with a lot of challenges coming up and had unexpected challenges as well and i think your leadership and knowledge of the district through so many
034years of of experience has really been invaluable to all of us and i just want to thank you [Music] because you're someone i kind of lean on and look to um and i you know since i was a newbie on the board board in 2011 um you're always kind of you're the person i kind of look to so i'm going to miss that i'm wish you and steve the best and i know you're going to relish you're and you're going to be around in your role now as a laker grandparent because you got a lot of grandkids in the district so which that'll be really fun for you so thank you thank you thank you i'll just take a minute too to thank both of you um someone who's only two years into her term
035i've looked up to both of you to help me learn the ropes and you've both shown me what passion and commitment can do when you're serving your committee um are serving the board and the school district and melissa i'll always remember you as my partner next to me around the table pre-covered times and i'd like to thank you for the extra passion and energy you always bring i've never heard you sound tired at a meeting you've just taught me you stand up you use your voice and you believe in what you're doing and and lea i want to thank you first of all i would like to just make a note lisa she is done and if i translate that correctly that means we'll see her in two years [Laughter] i also want to thank
036you because you were tireless in your mentoring i could call you at any time with questions and there were several times with big issues where you said i'm going into the district office why don't you join me and we'll work with the admin team and we would pour ours into reviewing boundary maps or curriculum issues or what have you um you never made me feel like i was wanting for anything and you always supported me when i needed it and i have often said to you and i will repeat publicly that the amount of time and energy you have put into the board not only inspires me but actually just blows me away because there are so many times i don't know how you have found the energy to keep putting in engaging our community
037keeping us up to speed and working with the administrative teams so i'm grateful to both of you um i wish you both the best going forward and um i'm sure that we will may stay in touch in the years to come and we'll see you in two years late i know but thank you are we done now i'll chime in and add again appreciate and respect the contributions that both of you have made melissa from the time that i became involved with things dealing with the school from the first referendum to whatever um you were a face that whenever you would see me whether it was at a football game or it was uh at bonfire or another establishment in town or somewhere you would always make a point to come and say hello um
038and that's appreciated and that's that made me it just makes people feel like getting involved when the folks who are involved take the time to to say hello um and greet you and i appreciate the fact that in our meetings um you have always felt comfortable expressing your opinions um and the viewpoints that may or may not have been shared by a lot of others all need to be heard and so you you have brought value to this board in your time here and appreciate that um lee excuse me uh your leadership has been appreciated over the course of the past two years um the i think my biggest takeaway from having seen you lead this board is that it's just about it's it has never for a moment been about you it's the reason
039you came back when you were called upon um it has been about the district it has been about our students and while at times i think you have a persona of being the heavy and being the tough person underneath that underneath that chair there is a heart that is as big as anyone's and it beats as strongly for our students as anyone and so i i appreciate that that's always been your in the end that's the foundation of why you are here um and and i appreciate your leadership thank you okay are we done [Laughter] um we'll move on to personnel thank you everybody i i do have a few parting comments but i'm quite not quite ready to say them yet so we'll move on to personnel with jim corham the educational support staff
040approval well my friends would be disappointed if i didn't say something they've already told me that but i'm not ready yet chair shimmick board members dr stahlo tonight i bring a couple personnel items to you the first one is additional staffing for 21 2021 and this is relation to last month's approval we were a little hasty in hr when it came to the new east african cultural liaison we thought it was going to be five hours a day just like the el liaison is and come to find out from teaching and learning that that's not the case there was the need and the money from the achievement integration grant to bump both of those positions up to eight hours so since it's a additional expenditure uh we bring those forward for your approval hey do
041i have a motion to uh approve the educational support staffing requests so made by michael second second stacy any comments or questions one of you have one i don't have anything i was just gonna just clarify that again this even between either three five or eight hours a day that uh that this is fully as stated here uh funded by the grant from the mde correct okay and um and also are we voting on both of these or just one at a time both okay both together right and and same thing with the english language learner cultural liaison so um there is no change uh whatsoever in our and our in our budget expenditures or anything like that it is exactly as stated yep great thank you any other questions comments okay seeing none uh
042roll call mary that motion carries 7-0 next the second personnel items are the 2022 terms and conditions of employment and agreements a fairly extensive list several pages long and this is just about all of them we have a few left but this is the majority of them they were all within the board parameters when it came to terms and so it's my recommendation that the proposed terms and conditions and agreements between the school board and the employees below are approved do i have a motion to approve the 2022 agreements and terms and conditions of employment as described by jim and the list that's in our packet homemade i marry second second by stacey any comments or questions hey um roll call mary hi michael hi stacy aye aye jonathan aye melissa aye enrique hi that
043motion carries 7-0 thank you jim now move on to unfinished business this is the prior lake savagery commitment to equity and inclusion this resolution was presented to the board at the november study session by i believe a good part of your committee came forward um so there were people from the community as well as board members that were here for that um i'm going to turn it over to the committee members from the board that are here now for any other comments before we um take a vote great thank you um as you mentioned the resolution was brought forward on november 23rd at the board study session and we had with us four people in attendance represented the stakeholder groups that we've been working with the last several months and they took the opportunity to
044introduce themselves their connection to the district and why they chose to collaborate in the creation of this resolution and then in their voices they read the resolution to the board and those listening online we are not going to repeat that multi-step process for going to the vote tonight however for the benefit of those watching or those who did not hear i would like to just do an abbreviated presentation of what i presented on november 23rd so that people understand before the resolution is read the work and steps that went into creating it and i'm just going to share with you the proverb i used on the at the study session if you want to go fast go alone but if you want to go far go together and what we're bringing forward tonight is the
045work of many who have traveled far together it's not the work of stacey enrique dr stahlo and myself it is the work of several people who represent various stakeholder groups in our district and our community it is the work of teachers students staff parents administrators and community members the district has both strategic directions and priority work committed to equity and inclusion this is not something new for our district and we will be hearing more about that work later tonight in this meeting as the public engagement committee one of our priorities was working on finding ways to increase engagement with stakeholders who might help us take a closer look at district equity and inclusion work especially our work as a board then school was shut down in march with coven 19 which slowed our progress as
046the district had to focus its attention on dealing with the need for planning to switch to distance learning however as the pandemic timeline extended one of the results was the highlighting of disparities in the world both for schools and communities and then the murder of george floyd took place on may 25th in our own backyard after that school districts in our area started issuing resolutions speaking out against racism and supporting equity and inclusion efforts and while our district under dr stella's leadership did reach out to our community as a board we did not issue any public statements at that time so as the committee charged with community engagement the four of us realized that we could not put off our commitment to engaging stakeholders to address these issues we reached out to nine stakeholders with
047a connection to the district and invited them to attend what we call the listening session on june 10th we simply opened the floor to them and we listened they shared both personal stories about how the events unfolding impacted them as individuals and their ideas for what the district might do to better address equity inclusion and racism one of the clearest messages that came from the group that night was a direct ask that the plsas board make a public statement about where it stands on these issues and the direction of the work that the board would commit to doing the administration teachers and staff were doing this work but the board itself had not made a clear statement we began collecting and reading the work being done by other districts in the work in the area
048of equity and inclusion and rather than just edit a resolution or public statement from another district we decided to pull ideas together that seems specific to our prior lakes savage community after that initial research and drafting we decided that it was imperative that we reach out to a larger stakeholder group for input in assembling this resolution we ended up with a group of approximately 25 stakeholders and remember these were students teachers staff administrators parents and community members we held virtual input sessions we started at a more general overview of what the resolution should include and how it would be certain that it would reflect the voices of those participating in the process we also received feedback from participants who could not join us for editing sessions we held several of these sessions via zoom and
049so we incorporated their feedback as well as time went on after several meetings we asked volunteers from each individual stakeholder group to meet in a smaller group to work on editing the resolution line by line the small group represented all of the stakeholder groups at times in our small editing group we spent a great deal of time discussing discussing and questioning an individual line in the resolution and i'm not exaggerating when i see there were times that we spent just as much time on a single word in this resolution we wanted to make sure that all the words coming forth represented the intent of this group after all the details were agreed upon sarah wheelock brought her editing and legal expertise to the document and spent a great deal of time checking proper phrasing punctuation
050and grammar with the finished document in hand we invited all of the original stakeholders involved to join us together and come full circle to ensure that the work done by the smaller editing committee fully captured the intent of every single person involved a few important notes for those listening we did consult with paula lachlan at msba our state school board association to gain clarity on the role of a board resolution as this is not something that we frequently bring forth on our own in our district she was very helpful and gave us the guidelines we needed we clarified with stakeholders and for those who are listening tonight for your benefit the role of a school board is to govern the role of the superintendent and her staff is to manage and implement a resolution is
051a formal document that makes a statement about an issue so important that the board wants a record of it it also stands as a public record in case compliance with the resolution becomes an issue down the road if a school board drafts a resolution it should be supported with action steps and concrete guidelines in later steps this can be through specific board policies or through implementation plans established by administration staff and teachers throughout the process stakeholder input will be essential a resolution is a firm but governing type of statement it is not a list of specific actions so tonight with this resolution we are building upon our commitments in our strategic plan and priority work that have always already been underway we have been updating the entire board as we go along and getting direction
052to move forward we've received guidance from the minnesota school board association and since meeting with you on november 23rd we've taken all of your feedback back to the editing committee and discussed it among ourselves as a committee so all concerns and suggestions were reviewed the document we will vote on this evening is the same as the one presented on november 23rd with the exception of a small edit in the second to last therefore statement based on board feedback on the 23rd i would like to thank the committee enrique stacy and dr sallo they committed to moving this work forward not only in spite of what is happening in the world but because of what is happening in the world this work was challenging time consuming and intense and it was also an opportunity to learn
053how to lean into conversations that can be uncomfortable but i think i speak for the committee when i say that learning to stay with the work even if at times uncomfortable is the key for us to move forward we thank our stakeholders who gave so much time to this process we hope some of them are watching this evening thank you for taking time off and away from work school family and more to assist us we are grateful to us to you you helped us understand at a deeper level what meaningful and intentional community engagement and collaboration looks like not only were the results beyond what we could have initially imagined we benefited from the rich relationships developed throughout the process we thank you for the gift of your time energy wisdom vulnerability and commitment to
054the process and we look forward to continuing the work called upon to do in this resolution thank you and i'll pass it to stacy okay i get to follow that which was an excellent one and she was yes yeah that was why michael took the summary and she did an excellent job um i would encourage anyone in the public to um listen back on the study session we did have um extension extensive conversation on this um and i'll just summarize some of my comments um since being on the board since 2011 i can honestly say that this is probably the work that is i'm most proud of it was truly an honor and a privilege to be able to work with our subgroup they trusted us with their stories many which had pain involved their
055hopes and their dreams i know they wanted to be here tonight um which obviously because of kovid they can't but i do feel their presence here i do feel that this document is a true representation of their words um and that's why we've so carefully have managed those words and kind of i want to say caressed and kind of and like michael said we've spent many times being careful not to change the intent of of the wording um due to how much we know people put into this so um i do really i'm very thankful for the committee um and like i said this isn't a one-stop shop for me this is for me a living document that will go forward in every decision that we we look at forward for the district and what
056this does is really for me creates a pathway forward of how i'm going to look at things very differently than i have in the last 10 years so thank you and i'll hand it over to enrique all right thank you yeah a couple of tough facts to follow let me start by saying how incredibly proud i am of this committee proud of the collective work and energy and of the stakeholders who gave so much of their time their energy and their talents to partner with us in shaping this extremely important document more than a document this is a vehicle that will propel us as a board and as a district to continue challenging assumptions continue to confront the biases that we possess and continue embodying the change that we want to see reflected as a
057community so that all learners can continue and continue to thrive and achieve to their absolute fullest potential this is how important this document is to me and to many others within the community and it's an absolute honor to have been a part of this process with every single interview thank you okay i just want to i'm sorry but i just want to add no worries i want to ask you the thanks of of the board members and um um the our district theme this year is we are plsas voices and it was the voices of our community members sharing their lived experiences um that really brought forward the importance of this board resolution setting the direction and vision of the work that we will continue to do to be a welcoming inclusive and just district
058our mission calls us to ensure that we educate all learners and while we work toward this mission every day we know that as evidenced by our achievement scores as well as the lived experiences of some of the students in our district we're not there yet this resolution will help keep equity inclusion and ensuring that all means all at the center of our table i've never been part of a more inclusive and authentic process and i am so proud of the school board for leaning into this really difficult work and for showing up for all of our students and all of our families it will take strong and bold leadership moving forward to ensure that the words on this paper are turned into action to truly ensure that that mission comes to life for all of
059our students so thank you all once again we placed it on the screen so everyone can see it i'm going to read it um i don't know that we can put it on the screen i'm not sure no i'm going to read the resolution um i am going to repeat though that i'm still envious anxious to be part of a future group looking forward the resolution is as such prior like savage area schools commitment to equity and inclusion whereas the learning and safety of the students of prior lake savage area schools is our top priority and is our responsibility to create a safe secure and inclusive environment for all learners which requires that we promote equity and inclusion for all people notwithstanding race ethnicity gender religion national origin sexual orientation gender identity linguistic diversity socioeconomic
060status or membership in any other protected class and whereas providing a safe and inclusive school environment that ensures the physical and emotional safety of students and staff creates the conditions necessary to foster academic achievement and whereas minnesota including prior lake savage area schools consist has one of the largest opportunity gaps in the country and whereas the minnesota department of education states educational equity is a condition of justice fairness and inclusion in our systems of education so that all students have access to the opportunities to learn and develop to their fullest potentials and whereas the concept of educational equity goes beyond formal equality where all learners are treated the same providing a barrier-free environment where all students have the resources and opportunities to succeed notwithstanding their race race ethnicity gender religion national origin sexual orientation gender
061identity linguistic diversity socioeconomic status or membership in any other protected class and whereas the district strategic plan commits us to increase measurable student learning and reduce opportunity gaps as we provide equitable student opportunities through personalized learning and student engagement and whereas district policy 413 dictates that the district maintain a learning and working environment that is free from harassment and violence on the basis of race color creed religion national origin sex age marital status familial status status with regard to public assistance sexual orientation or disability and whereas racism and implicit bias manifest in murad ways including but not limited to hate speech open hostility and bigotry systematic and institutionalized practices and policies microaggressions colorblind ideology willful ignorance and unconscious bias in decision making each of which has the effect of negatively impacting black indigenous and people
062of color and members of other marginalized groups and whereas discrimination hate bias and racist incidents against black indigenous and people of color and members of other marginalized groups harm them mentally physically emotionally and academically whereas the district strategic plan commits us to engage students parents family staff and community members to strengthen a culture of respect and inclusion and whereas students parents families staff and community members have raised concerns about racism equity inclusion and social justice and expect board and district leadership to address these issues with intention and whereas the leaders in prior lakes savagery schools we are compelled to embrace an anti-racist stance and speak out in response to all forms of racism discrimination and bias that impact our students parents families staff and community now therefore be it resolved the board of education of
063prior lake savagery schools is fully committed to developing sustaining an inclusive and anti-racist school community where all students parents families staff and community members are safe welcomed and valued notwithstanding their race ethnicity gender religion national origin sexual orientation gender identity linguistic diversity socioeconomic status or membership in any other protected class commits to its own work as a board and as individuals and to the training necessary to strengthen our collective ability and competence to oversee the district in becoming equitable inclusive and anti-racist in policies beliefs and actions affirms his commitment to support the superintendent in continuing to lead district priorities to advance equity and inclusion efforts including but not limited to professional development opportunities increasing equity access to a diverse workforce and establishing a safe and secure environment that is free of implicit bias and is
064anti-racist for all people notwithstanding race ethnicity gender religion national origin sexual orientation gender identity linguistic diversity socioeconomic status or membership in any other protected class encourages and supports our educators and staff as they seek to adapt instructional practices incorporate restorative justice practices expand their own understanding of anti-racism and implicit bias and develop their skill sets and mindsets to respond more effectively to the needs and aspirations of all the learners they serve and demonstrate their belief in the value of each student commits as a board and as individuals to viewing and analyzing all of our work on behalf of the district through both a racial and cultural equity lens and a social justice lens lens and reforming current policies should they not be aligned with the vision presented in this resolution we'll create more opportunities to
065elevate and listen to the voices of students parents families staff and community members who are black indigenous and people of color and members of other marginalized groups and partner with them to identify and eliminate barriers that can interfere with opportunities to excel and will commit to being accountable to achieving the vision established in this resolution do i have a motion to approve this resolution i stacy second second by mary uh are there any other future uh future any other comments yes i'd like to comment go ahead um so we've got a few different things i know that earlier tonight michael you mentioned it's not about passion or you said that it was about passion and i would i would say it's not about passion it's about doing the right thing doing what's right some observations
066that we see here through the community with this statement as becomes uh in front of the community i guess they ask is this the role of the board uh we're getting we're into social justice here and we're redefining our district policies it's stating and these things many times there's three different paragraphs those things are all covered in federal both federal and state law our parents and our community they need to feel confident i guess that academic excellence is not being threatened by a political ideology um this is really putting people in boxes it's identity to politics and it's a socio-political experiment if you will it's asking of our teaching staff a major shift in their teaching approach to active social justice work consequently the teachers you know are asked to come up with social become
067social activists dedicated to changing their schools from uh the top from the ground up i mean they're they're asked to view each student in each situation even misbehavior through the through the cultural lens and we're going to be allowing this into our policies frankly it's an indoctrination in the public school and our students and our teachers are going to be part of this and it's really reprehensible it's very divisive it's very polarizing uh and it's in its attempt and it includes training and there's no evidence we've had some of this training already through dr schrakihali there's been no evidence to say that that has provided any closing of any racial gap we need to be uplifting everyone all people and you know that life doesn't require us to move up at the expense of others
068um you know some of this training that we've had and this is going to elaborate on it it talks about white privilege and we have american privilege and it's a privilege to live in america uh privileged to be an american citizen frankly and one that we fought for every day so that's the passion staying clear of social justice because that's really not the role of our board i think we have really a few members of the of the board that are clearly pushing an agenda here a social justice agenda frankly um i have never noticed anyone else on our board as board director ever pushed their own personal agendas and um it can't be allowed you know it's an attempt to indoctrinate our kids into the social ideology it's not in the best interest of
069educating our kids frankly and we need to we need to take another look at that don't know what the end game is frankly would you like a response to that or to some are there more questions first well uh yeah i mean we've we've got a few folks that are they're placing this on on a committee that was i guess it's been redefined this committee that we've had for many many years into social justice committee it our community engagement committee it was a way to help the community understand what the board does and uh and that we're overseeing in our governance and then we focus on policy we focus on academics and we supervise the superintendent and now we've got gotten into the social justice realm here and it's very concerning i'm hearing from the
070community and and they're shocked melissa did you have a chance to listen to the november 23rd session i did and i talked with other board members okay um and i saw i saw the policy previously sure no i appreciate that um so you're saying the community is shocked um the larger why we went out and got the large number of stakeholders we did is because we did get the message that a number of families and students in our community are not getting what they need and we aren't best serving them there's nothing about this that is an indoctrination or a political statement or a personal agenda in fact to make sure it wasn't that's why we went out to such a large stakeholder group because it started out as a small group of committees members
071and then we invited other people in who are most directly impacted and shared very honestly so we had students of color teachers of color people from other marginalized group invited sharing their experiences and where they struggled and so if i know we couldn't all listen to those stories but if you had you would see where we're failing i i understand what you're saying there's this fear over using terms like white privilege which is not in our document but we have to be careful because if we assume that we're going to treat everybody the same what we're doing is putting our experience as white people onto the experience of other people um who have not had the same benefits or privileges that we have had over time i don't know how much opportunity you've had to
072read some of the scholarship or research on this but we did do that prior to this work as well to better understand what that terminology means how it's used and how we need to be aware of that to best serve all of our students this is not a social justice sort of asking our teachers to become activists in the schools by by any means it's a way of this work is already being done for our teachers and through our administrative staff it's a way for the board to say that we will not stand for this sort of treatment of our students that we will look for ways to serve all of our students and that we will do a better job listening to our stakeholders in this area and elevate their voices where they have
073not been elevated before and we know from hours of meetings with these people what those stories are these were not fabricated by a small committee on the board to bring forward our work has always been to find ways to engage the community this has been on our agenda for a long time it was slowed by the pandemic and we updated the board every step of the way and we're always given direction by the board to proceed with our work so i don't know if that answers some of your questions or if my other committee members would also like to speak to that i guess i'd like to first caution everyone that we went through this presentation with members of the community and had a fairly long discussion and heard their stories heard their their concerns
074their experiences which i think was very honorable that they were willing to share with the with the board in a public setting if we could have had them all here tonight i think melissa you would have heard that i think we all would have heard from them again rather than from the board members but i hate to use the excuse the pandemic but that's the reality why they're not here and why our board members have had to take a larger role in presenting this resolution i don't see this as political i see it as trying to educate all learners whatever background they come from whatever color anything and i don't mean to sound anti-racist right now but everybody deserves a good education and i think that this is a major step in doing that um
075and we did discuss it at link at the work session earlier that you weren't able to attend you might have gotten a better feel for what their purpose is and where they're really coming from so um does anyone else excuse me melissa does anyone else have any other comments before i ask before melissa speaks again um i do um i'll just i'll just end by saying uh melissa melissa we have melissa dirty around our differences melissa is someone else's turn to speak you're not you're not being recognized right now to speak i was just very safe glad that we have clarity around our differences that's all thank you mary well i just want to say that nothing in this is an indoctrination if anything it's long overdue and i think the key words in here
076are not just about the students themselves or their how how we categorize them the key word for me was barrier-free and that's the word that i actually asked to be i uh italicized and that's what this is about because our we have traditionally created barriers unknowingly and sometimes knowingly in the history but this statement here and this this particular commitment is something that should have been done years ago and i personally am very very proud of the fact that it's written out and that we are doing this now and i'm and again if it is read thoroughly there's nothing in here that is any way shape or whatever actually making our teachers do anything they shouldn't have already done with all of our statements and our actual vision and mission of this district stacey did
077you have something you want to add no i mean i think um you know this is just really um the board affirming its commitment i think you know um administration has already gone down this you know is is working on this and doing thing i don't expect this to really um you know change the direction of where they're going this is just to affirm what they're doing and to affirm our commitment um to our community to our full community um that everyone has value um and we need to serve everyone and the stories we heard we weren't serving everyone or haven't been and some you know not intentfully obviously but we we need to change things and i think this gives that voice and direction to move forward jonathan uh short and sweet thank you
078to the participants especially the folks from the community and board members for the time and the effort that was put into this i will enthusiastically support this in my view it is a starting point and the way that we honor your work is to keep this resolution at the forefront of our decision-making going forward enrique did you have anything to add he did he's looking i think too or maybe he's frozen gross he freeze he might be friendly enrique oh no i saw him move he blinked yeah there you go okay okay you were frozen did you have anything to add enrique oh sorry last thing i heard was jonathan speaking and then it just went down okay um we went dead no i i try to take an academic point of view of this
079and try and separate my own personal experiences and my own uh passion here and just want to underscore that we have a mission and a responsibility to educate all learners in a barrier-free environment so those are kind of the two big concepts we have here we can look at it academically and see from standardized standardized testing and other elements that we use to measure performance and measure success there is a population within our community that they're not hitting those milestones so we need to adapt we need to adapt our practices we need to explore other ways to educate all of those learners so that we can reach them in a responsible in a meaningful way to that helps them get to where they need to be so that they can be their very best okay
080um as i said before this was did you have anything else to add okay as i said before this was discussed at our work session tonight we're looking for approval i would ask the board to respect the work of the school board committee that we have agreed to have go forward with this resolution and i would agree that just as our mission statement and strategic plan is a living document this should be part of that same living document as we go forward in the district it's not meant to be something we put on a shelf in order for it to be effective it needs to be front and center just like our mission um with that i have a motion and a second so i will take a roll call vote mary hi michael hi
081stacy i i thank you thank you so much for your work um at this point if there are any public comments coming from the community for the truth and taxation and i'm hearing there are none so we will move on to new business with a construction update this is a report only marines coming forward dr stahlo cheers members of the board i'm standing in for jim delwo tonight with a construction update um as we approach the opening of the last editions of the high school and the end of the vast majority of the bond work i just like to start with an overview of the physical changes to our district since 2018 we opened two new buildings bridges alc and hamilton ridge elementary so the district now owns and manages 13 buildings and for 48
082outbuildings 10 of our existing buildings have had major additions remodels interior and or exterior repairs and or mechanical projects completed we've re acquired 12 acres of lands that puts us at a total of 323.6 acres of land that we manage since 2018 we've added a total of 336 806 square feet to our district that is larger than one of the districts i worked at for a current total i know for a current total of 1.68 million square feet of conditioned space that is just an amazing number our current construction work continues greenwood the contractors are wrapping up a small number of items throughout the building the hvac digital controls are scheduled for completion on the 22nd and architectural and mechanical punch list work is ongoing there at the high school the final editions tower d
083and the commons editions will be online soon our district custodians are doing the construction cleaning of the new spaces this week and next we expect to save 15 to 18 thousand dollars by having our teams do it and we do a better job december 17th we have the occupancy inspection for tower d in the commons edition that'll be a big day a big milestone a remaining furniture delivery and installation begins on the 21st uh contractors are wrapping up a number of projects throughout the building the punchler punch list work there is and will be ongoing for quite a while yet at hamilton ridge on the architectural mechanical punch list work is just about complete um at bill pearson field formerly ss9 we found some issues with how the field was prepped and before seeding and
084it wouldn't need to be redone in the spring at glendale the hv ac digital controls project is 98 complete right on schedule we have ongoing punch list work at and follow-up at both middle schools at bridges and at the other elementary schools that we've worked on since 2018 and that punchlist work and follow-up will go on for a while yet so it's a lot of accomplishment in the last years and many thanks to our community for supporting that work any questions anybody have any questions very good question i've noticed from the the funding that we are just about at zero break-even point with the rest of the funds so by i think by february the graph that was presented in the financials is that we will have used up the remainder of the referendum funds
085is that a true statement and i would have to either defer that question to either jim or two julie you think i'm sorry i don't have the answer for that murray all right and the reason why i was asking for that is i assume that the traditional construction punch lists are are part of the service agreement to make sure things are done appropriately absolutely okay absolutely yes um and um we are we are diligent in our punch list it is there the ones that we um come up with are a little bit more expensive than one the contractors made but for that i appreciate it thank you i'm just making sure that we are not responsible for any redos or anything like that financially okay so even though they may continue their punch list we
086are not going to be yeah there are some um there are some ongoing issues that as uh we pursue every avenue for responsibility if it is a contractor related issue okay thank you anything else oh i just wanted to give my thanks um it's i know it's been a long process and it's great to see that it's culminating and finishing up and um i just appreciate everyone's efforts i know you and jim were at the forefront of getting a lot of this pushed through and done and on time and doing crazy things so thank you it's been a big team of people involved so thank you i just want to add my thanks the the last piece that you talked about about over winter break that your crews will be doing much of the construction
087cleanup at a cost containment and savings of the district to i think you said 18 thousand dollars i recognize that that is over winter break which is not going to be a break for you and your team just as i don't know how much of a break any of you have had since may 16th because of all of the extra covet related needs that your staff has undertaken as well as all of the construction projects so i just want to again express my gratitude to you jim and your teams for really unbelievable work thank you thank you that credit definitely goes to the operations team there we have we have great staff thanks thank thank you we'll move on to the 2020 payable 2021 final levy that presentation took place earlier this evening um do
088i have a motion to approve that levy soulmate stacy second but jonathan any comments or questions or julie did you have anything else to add okay that's a roll call vote uh mary hi michael hi hi melissa hi enrique hi that motion carries 7-0 thank you um then we'll move into the 2021 final budget approval this presentation took place earlier this evening as well do i have a motion to approve the final budget homemade jonathan second second michael any questions comments i just want to confirm because i was a little confused about what we're actually approving we're approving the 2021 totals that she presented that would be presented earlier okay just yeah okay i think yep 20 20 21 20 yeah thank you okay if there are no questions that's a roll call vote mary
089hi hi stacy hi melissa hi enrique hi that motion carries 7-0 thank you julie now we'll move on to new course proposals just in time you walked in you you must have been listening of course good evening everyone uh good evening dr stella uh chair shimmy board members we have uh just a couple new course proposals for the 21 22 school year as per the process these are brought first to the building level where teachers or other staff can bring them to the site administrator for review they then go to the district curriculum advisory committee for review discussion and input and then they are presented to the school board the school board takes action and if they are approved they are included in the registration guide for the next school year they don't start curriculum
090development or resource purchasing or anything like that until we have enough students who've registered so the biggest one we have this year is min caps is adding a new pathway mean we're really excited about this it's been something uh eric sell mr homburg and the team has been working on for quite a few years to try to get this off the ground and it's a trades pathway um and so this is a pathway that's focused on construction it in will be housed at prairie lake high school using some of the fab lab equipment and space there instead of at uh the mencap site and it's focused on these courses you'll see there as always in min caps it's not just individual course standing standing in isolation the students learn the skills in actual practice doing
091actual things and applying the skills with professionals from the field so the mencap's trades pathway fee it's a construction pathway and it features woods for pre-college algebra and interpersonal communication in the first semester and that interpersonal communication is articulated for college credit as well semester two has advanced manufacturing college algebra and composition and that's all those last two are articulated as well so like mencap's one of the features of a lot of courses there is students can earn college credits while learning and earning high school credits as well at hidden oaks and twin oaks we just have one minor revision to a course that came before the dcac and it's really a revision from photoshop art being purely named photoshop to be focused more on graphic design so that students have the ability and the
092can have the opportunity to learn other graphic design tools as well in other updates we are as dr stella mentioned in the study session we are planning expanded online and hybrid course offerings for next year we have applied and will be applying to be an online course provider at both the elementary middle and high school level more details to come on that for sure in the future but that is something we are planning to expand um and another brief update on the dakota language program several of you have been involved in that and we've been working with the smsc on a collaborative project for the past uh couple months karina lyons and i just recently have been meeting with two reps from the smsc quite a bit to try to work out some hr issues
093about where the teacher is is housed how they're paid things like that we were at the point of creating a course description to be included in the registration guide when very unfortunately an elder in the smsc passed away and that elder was also one of the leaders in dakota language revitalization both in the state and the region and so for that and some other reasons smsc wants to take just a brief pause and take a year to kind of figure some things out to get some other things worked out we are still very positive on the project as is smsc but we are looking to start in the 22-23 school year rather than next year but we will spend the time working with smsc on curriculum development resource development and hammering us out some last
094details but still a project we're really really excited about any questions go ahead um stacy um just on the trades okay so you said it's going to be housed at the high school yes so then like english electives that'll just be at the high school in the classroom like normal classroom it's not going to be they're not going back and forth they're not going to be there it's really those construction classes that are going to be using those materials i believe the other ones may be at min caps or they may be just in a more flexible space in that kind of um area down here shop here yep in the shop area right okay i was just curious as to how it's going to be set up yeah i mean basically it's so we
095don't have to set up another fab lab or construction lab somewhere else right makes sense did we did we try this one last year no this is new actually the education pathway came up last year and that's running now which is really great too uh so they're they're doing great expanding and kids love the experience with the education you're saying with the education with all the people i know that took that took a couple times it did it did so before it actually hit um i'm just wondering has there been initial interest with trades i mean i know people have been talking about it for a while i would hope that that's something that we could get off the first year but i'm hoping so too my feeling and my guess is that there's some
096pent up interest in this one with the education pathway and some others there's kind of social interest that develops you know once three or four kids tell their friends and tell their friends then it takes off but my my guess and my hope is that there's some pent up interest is this gonna be around 20 that we're going to need 20 kids or maybe not a little flexible about hopefully a little more than that but okay but for a minute guys i'm talking for a minimum yeah okay very good i'm excited to see that happen and we are requesting uh board action on this okay are there any other questions two-part question uh the first one is if uh we don't get as many students in there would it be possible to continue the pathway
097but just integrate the current woods class et cetera with the other existing students who don't want to be on the pathway and still get it off the ground is that is that an opportunity or is that something that's not allowed because it's the pathway uh i would have to talk and i really defer to eriksel for that um usually the courses the teachers work together in a little different ways and the courses are a little bit more flexible in some in terms of how they're scheduled how their time is used assignments things like that so i would have to defer to eric if that were to be the case but it's it's perhaps possible well assuming we do get a enough uh kids to sign up for the program will they get the same type
098of experience that the kids do at mncaps where they are in their own group then for all three classes or just for the the um the actual tech ed classes i believe that's definitely the intention in that the courses will be scheduled kind of in that block format that mencaps uses which gives them a little more flexibility to integrate local experts and experts from the field and and have more and get or extended time for projects so i believe they will be kind of operating on that mencap schedule okay and then with regards to the dakota language program um first of all i i'm very sad to hear that the uh cultural liaison and the language teacher that i think they used at the um at the cultural learning center there as the one that
099passed away and um that was you know one of the things that i had talked to them about was was the the what the bodote school does also and kind of borrowing from that curriculum did that ever come in or is that something that's useful um we are working with will crawford and andrew big from the smsc they have some ideas and some plans around actually publishing their own resources okay um and making them available both across the strait and perhaps across the state and perhaps regionally as well so i think i think we'll build from there okay um and kind of put our heads together thank you yeah absolutely are there any other questions jonathan um excited about the the trades path at the a couple of years ago at the community review of
100the strategic plan i had a gentleman uh enthusiastically ask me what are we doing to prepare kids to go into the traits and and talking about it i know i was able to introduce him to jeff at the time who kind of took the conversation from there that was good so i just i feel as though this is responsive uh two things we're being asked to do for the community and i think that's always a good thing are you mike my question is do you have adequate participation from employers are you still are you looking for those folks to the people to come in to be involved jeff's gotta sounds like comment that's a great question because as you know that's essential for caps program and certainly something we want to embed into more traditional
101high school courses while the mentorships and the partnerships last year we we had a taste of the trades event where we invited employers in construction just talking about what we're trying to create and then more importantly what are the types of experiences and classes we should be uh offering to students to help them prepare for a career in trades or to pursue a career in trades since that time we've had a lot of interest in employers reaching out willing to mentor you know some of the some material basement things you may recall earlier this year as a board you accepted a donation from a cabinetry company for uh cubicle spaces and so that is something that you know partners are looking to to help us in more ways in addition to helping students and so
102we do have uh with a lot of interest in partnerships and um i think that again to to dr shuttinger's point we do have i think kids that are that are ready to do this are ready to pursue this we've got instructors that are really committed uh to this type of experience and and really do a great job working with students in that setting so we have every indication to believe that it's going that we're going to have interest there and we're going to move forward with it next year but you know sometimes that can happen with trades yeah that can happen with trades or can happen with min caps and so um you have to build that energy around it perfect thank you are there any other questions hey i don't believe i have
103emotion yet