October 12, 2021 Regular School Board Meeting

001[Music] uh [Music] good evening how are you doctor lake i was nervous as i fall down those stairs on my heels but i made it so good you meant it you made it before i forget totally about you're a professional [Laughter] that mic was a little hot so i've been just going around talking to people like okay this is how you pronounce it we'll just break it down oh okay now we're in a different place wi-fi my wi-fi yes there it says that's what it is what am i connecting last year strength good let's connect so okay wayne we're ready good evening the october 12 2021 regular school board meeting of isd 623 roseville area schools is hereby called to order clerk johnson could you please call the role yes um director anderson here oh

002sorry director chu here director xiao here chair bogashevsky here treasurer goggins here clerk johnson is here thank you do we have any adjustments to the agenda this evening with madam superintendent no no agenda adjustments thank you uh announcements i think we do have an announcement uh yes i'd like to start thank you i'd like to start by thanking our entire extended school community for their support during this extremely painful time in district 623 it's with a heavy heart that i share tragic news about the unexpected death of a member of our school community principal brian colend our hearts and thoughts go out to principal colin's family and all who knew and loved him principal colin had been a member of roseville area schools community for nearly 30 years most recently serving as edgerton principal principal

003principal colin's family has given us permission to share with you that he died of suicide and asked that we continue to address the importance of mental health supports social workers and counselors have been available and will be available to meet with all students and staff in the coming days and weeks at both edgerton and emma d williams principal colin was a warm and caring person his presence and leadership will be deeply missed and his memory will be celebrated by the entire roseville area schools community as an example of principal colin's leadership style i've collected some comments from some of his former students they finally recall all of his leadership during their active readathon activities at m d williams and edgerton they said principal colin kissed an alligator pig and a kangaroo at school he once

004ate 100 mealworms he shaved his head and his twin brother's head camped on top of the school roof and even put his desk on the school roof students had some words to share about mr coland and collectively they said he knew everyone's name in the school he was so very kind playful jolly always smiling and likable at this time i'd like to thank the edgerton and edw parents and families who created chalk art and supportive sign opportunities for students and staff as they arrive to school this morning i'd also like to thank all of our school mental health professionals who are on site this morning and will be throughout the coming days and week offering support to our students and staff finally the community and district have draft have drafted a plan to hold a

005vigil for principal coland this coming monday at 6 30 p.m at emmett d williams and we will have more information in the coming days thank you thank you superintendent like i think we have another announcement comment regarding apatuicha and with that i'd like to introduce karen schopp karen good evening that's kind of a hard presentation to follow i know ryan was appreciated by all of us and we will miss him a lot in honor of his caring about kids and caring about the school district i want to take a little story with me and michelle will you hit the first slide so way back in 1955 we had a fairview junior high school and when i look at that it brings back some memories from this past year of when the building was originally built

006the first time then over time it turned into fairview community center and this is really one of the really nice shots that we had of the building and as we moved on we started to see some changes in the building and then we saw really big changes in the building and then it was like this is real this is real this is what our school district and u.s school board members help helped us create and so we moved on from there and on one of the walls it says thanks for the memories that was in one of the walls before it came down and it's really true thanks for a lot of memories a lot of students went through fairview junior high a lot of students and adults went through fairview community center then we

007got to october 2021 and i look at this picture this was just taken outside our building and it almost looks like one of the architect pictures doesn't it and so now we have our grass there we have lots of beautiful things going on so then that starts out our celebration to welcome new building into the roseville area schools family and here is ashley who helped join us and our native drummers as we were preparing to celebrate the fact that we were opening a new building we believe that somewhere between probably 350 and 400 people joined us that night which was really exciting and frank shaw shared with us that we some of us who've been around for a while know about the roseville bald eagle and just as the presentation was starting he shared with

008me that the bald eagle through flew over our new building just makes me feel so good to think about things like that and so we had a lot of folks some folks joined us outside some join us inside and up until seven o'clock we still had people walking through so there were some people who said i came by looked like too many people i left and i came back but i wanted to see what was going on we had a variety of generations there we had folks coming in some of our older communities saying tell me more about what are you doing in pre-k what is pre-k all about what you know what changes are we having so that was really fun here we have our ribbon cutting if you've never seen a scissors and

009chair boguszewski can talk about how heavy that scissors was and we cut it and we opened it then we had an opportunity to have a friendship dance and our community members and some of our school board members and some of our staff joined in the friendship dance we had some more singing we had some wonderful native dancers we love the the children that joined us that day and here's just sort of a quick end of the night picture through that whole activity that evening we heard wonderful stories we heard stories about our next door neighbor who has been keeping an eye on this building and one night he said you know in the science lab or that that room way up in the corner the lights were on all night and i'm sure i saw

010somebody i saw something move in there i know i saw something moving there he went and he got his binoculars and looked in there and it is our skeleton that we have hanging there and he was i think joyful and i think he also had a few laughs about it because i think he was thinking now what do i do if somebody's really walking around that building but that talks a lot about our neighbors who care about the new building who have chosen to come visit us have chosen to to celebrate the fact that our old building went down and our new building came up and we are just as excited as we can be and many of you were there to join us and i know our staff really appreciated seeing each and every

011one of you that night it was an exciting night to be part of the roseville area community so thank you thank you for your hard work and thank you for your support to make life different in roseville for us great thank you karen and my understanding is that all of the programs and services that were in the old building are in this one most most of them are there a few of them have either moved on some of you may remember at one point in time probably about 65 of that building was all rentals and we had a child care we had a lot of county programs there by the time we closed fairview we only had like um one rental left and so right now we do not have any rentals in the building

012we have no space for any rentals so a lot of the programs either continued to stay there or we found a different home for them and the pool looked wonderful to me it's just as long as the old one was again i understand it's absolutely heated to like 86 degrees or something constantly which is great for those of us on the north side of our age and also my understanding was that's great for teaching kids because the cold is not a barrier you know in the senior store is that open yet a senior store is not open and the pool's not open we hope to be opening around uh november 1st we're going to try to have some activities in the pool to engage people to have a chance to come and um be part

013of the new swimming community wow well it's already mid october so november 1st is right around the corner right around the corner absolutely well in the senior store i had never availed myself of that even in the past so when it does open i'm going to head down there because that's where seniors make crafts dresses knit goods heart whatever and sell them in the store it's just a really neat thing to do and the public can come in right through the secure entrance and shop there and get a look at the inside when that opens up those baby blankets and those bath towels they fly off the shelves right away wonderful right away so we mark your calendars from november 1st yes head out over there and check it out so once again thank you

014for your tremendous support we appreciate it the staff appreciate it and we're excited about the new journey thank you thank you thank you yeah can i i just have one question um for for those who are not able to to get a tour of uh about the attachment they could call and get a tour scheduled still oh yeah we do have some groups here and there that have called i think our retired teachers are coming to visit us one night and so absolutely and just about anybody in the building if they're available can give it to her so absolutely thank you with that we'll move to the community input section of tonight's meeting where we invite members of our community to come and share their thoughts with us on whatever is on their mind we'll

015go in order that folks had signed in and just remind everyone there's a three minute limit to speaking and michelle how are we showing the folks what the timing is is that what's up on the screen so everyone can be aware of how much time they have left in the three minutes great thank you very much uh with that uh the first speaker is kathleen knightiger can you hear me like okay is that better okay all right thank you this speech has been written by alan holisick and me kathleen neitaker and my address is 1180 greenbrier little canada we have consistently heard from the school board that critical race theory is not being taught at the roseville schools after the last board meeting alan spoke to the director of the student achievement for roseville schools

016and inquired about the school district's equity program the director of student achievement recommended alan read an article titled white privilege unpacking the invisible knapsack by peggy mcintosh peggy mcintosh is the founder of seed which stands for seeking educational equity and diversity seed has been training teachers across the nation since 1987 and it continues to today this article is of the perfect embodiment of what crt is here are a few of the ways this article promotes crt it makes race the most important aspect of a person's identity it tells the reader to look at everything through a racial lens and assumes a racist motivation behind any disparity even to what what what color band-aids we use it divides people into privileged versus not privileged or oppressed versus oppressor it advocates collective guilt over individual responsibility and

017it claims that racism is so deeply embedded in the american society that only those who adhere to mcintosh's ideology can see it the fact that this article was recommended by the director of the student of achievement at roseville is proof that crt is being taught in our schools even though you don't use the letters crt or the name this school board must come to grips with this reality changing terminology does not change reality we say to the board stop with the word games and start focusing on academics not activism therefore as a school board you have a choice to make regarding this topic one do you really want children to be taught this material if so you can do nothing and let it continue to be taught or number two if you come to the

018conclusion you don't like this substance being taught to children you have the authority to stop it certainly by the start of the next semester i hope you take this choice seriously it is very important thank you thank you mr seidger [Applause] next up we have kathleen bart and as a reminder we do no longer require speakers to say their addresses as they speak i'm sorry mr editor i didn't remind people that we did change that to add a little bit of safety to people who felt unsafe broadcasting that out so thank you ms bart yeah so i'm speaking on behalf of a few other people and we would like answers to our questions as soon as possible equity alliance minnesota is an entity with the following mission statement on its website through collaborative learning and

019advocacy be the leading force for systematic educational integrity and integration equity alliance apparently partners with various school districts for this purpose roseville is listed as a member and even holds some of their teaching sessions at the roseville area middle school first when did roseville area schools become a member of equity alliance minnesota how much money is paid to this company to be a member or for other expenses and what is the source of this money two how can the public access the information that equity alliance minnesota acquired regarding roseville how has this company been used to improve the education of the students at roseville schools three has the roosevelt school system school board made any policies decisions or changes with regard to curriculum staff hires or anything else as a result of equity alliance minnesota

020efforts if so what specifically four given that equity alliance minnesota states in one of its educational programs that topics such as racism and white privilege which is an obviously racist percept perspective are taught what effect has this had on practices in the schools in interactions with students by staff members based on their race five if both levies pass how much of the money gained from the second levy will be used to pay for such consultants as equity alliance minnesota six given that the roseville board member mike bodachesky is also on the board of equity alliance minnesota and even resides over its meeting as chair how can the roseville school district do business with this company given the obvious conflict of interest number seven your test results over the past 10 years have been particularly poor

021for children of color it seems that efforts to eliminate the achievement gap has not worked have you noticed an increase or decrease in the academic outcomes of your students of color since spending money at equity alliance minnesota in conclusion if your affiliation with equity alliance minnesota has brought no benefit to the students most in need at our schools i and other residents of the school district are asking you to stop the roseville school district's affiliation with this company thank you and i have my questions written out and i would like it to be handed thank you miss bart next we have kathy ramont hello hi um as one of the founders of co-founders of do good roosevelt i know that i'm speaking for our community when i say i trust you to do what is

022right for our students that means teaching them a comprehensive history of our country as well as a full picture of the different kinds of people that make up our community today i know from years of programs that do good roosevelt has hosted that many of the people of my generation are very frustrated to learn decades after graduating that our education was incomplete and one-sided that means we have decades of beliefs that we need to challenge it would have been so much easier if we had a balanced education from the beginning unlearning is hard i encourage you to continue to broaden your curriculum to allow for the voices of everyone to be heard when i reflect on what i've learned sadly over just the last six years i know that learning more about the lives of

023people that are different from me has made me a kinder and more empathetic person and that's what i want for our children that's different from telling kids what to believe it's allowing them to become critical thinkers as is always the case when things are going well most people do not take the time to show up for meetings or send emails of support when i heard a group that has been coming out to multiple school board meetings to repetitively make a case against equity education i thought about rallying their community to come to support the work you are doing however the people i know are live very full lives raising their kids and doing things that have a positive impact on our community we trust you to do what is right and to not be unduly

024influenced by a small number of voices that want to sidetrack you from the very important work that you have to do if you are ever truly in doubt of the direction of our school district let me know i'll make sure you hear from an overwhelming number of people that support what you are doing thank you thank you miss roman next up is lynn huberty hello my name is lynn huberty i am also the i guess founder of roosevelt activist facebook group that i started after george floyd's death and also the march that occurred at central park that year i have three daughters that have gone through roseville i have gone through roseville my daughter is in a junior and i have one that's in eighth grade all of my children have stated that they feel

025they have been failed in the history of our country and they want to learn the truth i want to learn the truth i feel like i've been brainwashed into this great america it's not true the only way to break this racial divide down is to learn about one another our education needs to be equitable to all races that does not mean we're saying that white people are racist we just need to educate everybody on what has happened because people don't understand why certain races have struggled there's generational trauma people don't know about generational trauma and the causes of it they think that's in the past it's over and done with it's not it still affects our kids today i don't have to tell my kids that when they're pulled over by the police to put

026their hands up and behave because they're going to get shot i can't imagine that i'm already scared enough with my kids getting into accident much less having them fear the police it's not okay so i beg and plead the board to keep on that path of continuing equitable education to all of our students they deserve it they need it our community needs it and i can guarantee you there is a large community of roseville that is backing what i'm saying on the facebook group there's almost 500 people that have joined this voice and if we need to we will have all of those people come together and show you the support for following through with this thank you ms huberty next up is carensa fischer hi i'm carensa fisher i'm a parent community member i'm

027not an organizer but i am mostly here to say thank you for the hard work and the hard decisions you've had to make in the last 18 months and and before that i also very much hope to see you stand strong with your equity vision and not be daunted by negativity or criticism on that it's not enough but it is certainly more than than nothing and i think that we have to just keep allowing ourselves to say the words white privilege just because somebody refers someone to an article about unpacking white privilege it does not necessarily invoke this huge thing of critical race theory i don't that is such a buzzword and i think if we can just stay really focused on the fact that the kids deserve better they deserve the full history black

028history is white history the history of black people is the history of white people it's our history um and and of america and i i just i don't understand why there is so much fear around sharing the whole story with our kids they deserve the truth we deserved the truth and i'm so thankful for the steps that i have seen and i also really really urge you to keep going and take it farther thank you thank you miss fisher and then our final speaker this evening is angela byrne ms vern hi good evening angela byrne proud harambe parent i'm going to keep my comments really brief tonight i first want to extend my condolences for principal coland i did not know him personally but from what i'm hearing it's quite a loss in the district

029um and then i am grateful to his family for sharing his story i think it's really important that we talk about these things out loud that mental health mental illness and our struggles be shared in the light and we can all hold and support each other together through it and i'm very supportive of additional staff for social emotional growth for our students because i know our students are not immune to these kinds of feelings and overwhelming situations as well so thank you all for that and warmth and grace to his family on our behalf out here that didn't know him but know that he was part of this this community and then real quick i just want to share the definition of crt which was founded in the 1970s it is not a new concept

030but that it is a framework to examine the intersection of race and u.s law in law school courses not k through 12 curriculums a central tenet of crt is that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex changing and often subtle social and institutional dynamics rather than explicit and intentional prejudice of individuals so we have a lot of work to do as mentioned by a previous speaker there are vast racial disparities in testing outcomes for students and i think that needs to be continued to examined in depth because our students do deserve better we have a lot of work to do but it is towards seer it is towards racial equity and telling the whole story not cowering back behind our white privilege because we're afraid to hear the truth thank you very

031much thank you miss burn with that we'll move on to the next item in the agenda which is i'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved for a second thank you any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye aye opposed that passes we do have i think a retirement that clerk johnson will share with us this evening um yes tonight i move the retirement of finn c chang who's been a paraprofessional most recently at parkview center school has worked in the district for 21 years continuing a trend of teachers and staff that stay with roseville for a long time usually decades so with great appreciation i move this retirement thank you you have a second second todd begin a discussion other than again thank you 21 years of service thank

032you very much uh all in favor say aye aye opposed thank you retirement accepted uh again we have gifts and i think director chu was going to share this with us tonight yes great yes my pleasure and honor we are always so grateful every time to read this amazing list of contributions and gifts so we have an anonymous person uh who contributed to the ecse parent engagement at obeto tech education center and we have live point church uh contributed some backpacks and school supplies for students in need to the etching elementary school we have david schroeder contribute some monetary donation for instructional expenditures for parkview center school we have jeffrey holland also contributed to to parkview center school at principal's discretion we have steve luken also contributed to the weight room in roseville area high

033school karen lucan we thank you for also contributing to the weight room at roseville area high school and finally we have black bug given giving fund your course that also donated to the roseville middle school and to be used at principal's discretion we are very very appreciative and grateful for the community support thank you very much rose and yes as we keep saying as always we have such a generous community out there that we're so grateful for for our kids and our staff and our schools in general so thank you with that i think we go to the report and non-action items and first up it looks like is the covet health and safety update and doctor look who's sharing that tonight three leaders collins melissa sonic and jake vondalini thank you welcome uh yes

034sure who will go first uh good evening chair bogar boguszewski directors uh we're gonna give you an update on covid health and safety within our district and go over just a few things for you so i'm going to start by talking about information that is available on our website including our covet 19 dashboard this is a new year and as you're aware that some of the guide guidance from the state and from the feds has changed if families are interested in knowing what's going on in our schools right now with regard to health and safety measures they can go to isd623.org covid hyphen19 and that will bring you to a webpage that provides an overview of those of the plan for this school year you'll find there as michelle scrolls down a little bit you'll

035find a wealth of information there and links we also uh one of the most important pieces that family members can access there is the daily screening at home tool i while the while the pandemic continues it's very important that students not come to students and staff that is come to school sick and so we are we continue to have the safety mitigation factor of the masks we are having of course the start of flu season which means that we are having a lot of symptoms in school and so we appreciate families working with us as we're able to make sure students go home we have been excited to share with families that we now have tests that can actually be taken home that are rapid tests we have about one per student and those are

036available that families can request from their school so i'm going to ask michelle to go ahead and click on the frequently asked questions link and there you'll find uh this is new this year or it's much expanded from last year you'll find answers to the most common questions that folks have we update this as things go along for example we recently heard from families wondering uh about the air filtration facts within our buildings so we have updated information there for folks to take a look at and then michelle if you wouldn't mind clicking on the dashboard this will be familiar to you we did have this up last year one of the i'd like to go in just for a moment to explain in detail these numbers for you we are of course now all

037learning in person last year you'll recall there was another data point on this chart which uh let you know how many of our students were learning in person versus learning from home because of that uh split method that we were employing uh so we have all of our students and staff in person you'll see that we'll report the number of positive covet 19 cases within a building from a week so that week of september 25th through october 1st you'll see there that we had 23 students and seven staff members who were determined to be positive cases that were inside the school building next to that we have the cumulative number for the year which you'll see is 48 students and 14 staff members and the furthest to the right numbers this is the most complicated

038piece and it differs from what we reported last year so in uh previously we we didn't have as many students with symptoms so this number now includes people who are in quarantine and or isolation over the week prior it also includes anyone who has gone home sick with symptoms and they may have only been out of the building for several days but have gotten a negative covid test which allows them to come back into school we are not yet able to separate out the numbers of students who just had symptoms that might not be related at all to covid but because of precautionary measures we have sent them home to get that negative test to determine whether or not they have covet so it's it's whereas last year we could say this is the number

039529 in that case that's the number on that specific day that we know that number of students were out of the building be or they couldn't learn because of isolation or quarantine this doesn't quite adequately reflect that so we are looking at ways to improve both the language on this we've made some uh some small changes to the language so that it's not wrong but we still uh we want to provide information that is not just accurate but is also meaningful and will provide some utility to our families and we're still working on that we're also looking at other districts and what they report on their dashboards and what we will we'll be sure to share with you what we end up determining in that regard now if you'll scroll down michelle you'll also find

040several important data points uh the state of minnesota has changed the way that they calculate the case rate for school districts it's now based on 100 000 and the number of cases over seven days previously it was per ten thousand over a rolling uh 14-day period so we've changed that and we do have the latest numbers always there these are updated daily the numbers at the top are updated every week and then another important thing we know that some families are curious about what's going on at the building level and have been looking for data that might tell me a little bit closer to maybe that home school and what we are reporting right now as the state requires is the number of schools or not just the number but the name of the school

041that has five or more positive cases in the building during a 28-day period once you get on that list you have to go for 28 days without a case before you come off of that so we have two of our schools on that list presently that's roseville area high school and falcon heights elementary so we just wanted to share that update with you and make sure that viewers watching are aware of what we have publicly available for covid data and i'll turn over to my colleagues all right thanks jeff good evening so i would like to share an update on the process that we are using when we have to make a decision around quarantining a full class so first it's important to note that classroom closures are more likely in an early childhood or

042kindergarten through six setting than it would be in a 712 setting this is because our younger students are together most of the day and because they eat meals and snacks together in a 712 classroom individual quarantine of students may be the most appropriate step that said there's always an investigation of each situation and we use that to determine if there is a specific our need for a specific class to move into quarantine so earlier this month one of the things that we did was we met with the regional support team which is uh made up of medical professionals including um uh help me with the word i said i want to say it's epidemiologist and i practice it you guys i had it so thank you josh for sitting next to me during this consultation

043they helped us shape our process and it was also affirming to hear their feedback on many of our mitigation strategies like masking for all and vaccines or weekly testing to have those options so i'll share a brief overview of the process that we are using to make a decision to quarantine an entire class and then shift to distance learning when there are two positives in a class with a third pending what happens then is it triggers a conversation that could lead a classroom to transition into quarantine each stitch into distance learning is if we have half the class plus one in quarantine or isolation that could also cause a shift because a shift to the full class into distance learning and that's really for two reasons one is to prevent the spread of kovad but

044then also to ensure high quality instruction takes place for all students i think it's also important to note the process that takes place so when a full class is going to shift into distance learning the process that we use is health assistance first notify their building principal as well as dr lake and myself if this is the first time that a school has gone through this process or quarantined a full class we set up a zoom meeting which includes the building nurse the principal dr lake and myself and we walk through those next steps together if it's not their first time quarantined in a class then the zoo meeting is not required but the nurses can work with our corvette coordinator deb legan as a consultation or just for support when a decision is made

045to shift a full class into distance learning then communication is sent to families to put it into context currently we have two full elementary classes and one cid class who have been or are currently in a 10-day quarantine meaning they have shifted to that distance learning so three classes all together at this point in time with that i'll turn it over to jake to talk more about what instruction during quarantine would look like thank you and i do have the look at what it is for a whole class or a whole school in quarantine and so i think the bottom line that we talked about as a district is that if students are on isolation or quarantined that learning continues that's the main focus of what we should make sure that we're doing um exceptions

046if a student obviously is ill and has um you know negative symptoms with uh with or major symptoms with covid and showing those things obviously that would be a student that would be absent but again this is looking at the transition for for the whole school or a whole class quarantine we we know that our students in k5 won't have devices necessarily from the school so we work with the families and the school to figure out who needs a device that is going to be at home and in our 6th through 12th grade we do have one-to-one ipads so we know that that that's not a barrier to continuing their learning so we figure out who needs devices and potentially a hot spot at home to make sure that they have that internet connection typically

047we have included in there to to figure those things out a one-day transition for that class for that teacher that school to get those devices and um and needs to those families um during that time the teacher can provide some additional activities like we did last uh well two years ago now in when we transitioned over to distance learning some kind of paper pencil type of things that students can be working on in our k5 we work with seesaw to provide students the assignments and we work with schoology for our 6 through 12. so teachers are posting assignments through that and there is asynchronous as well as synchronous instruction throughout the day that's built in as we did with our distance learning and then there is also individual office hours that teachers provide for students

048to individually connect for questions for further instruction adaptation um i'm going to continue on and just talk a little bit about if a student does special education or an english language learner for our k-6 students they coordinate with the classroom teacher for with their special education teacher to pull those students during some time during that synchronous instruction so the student is live with that teacher as well for our 712 students um they the for special education um the teachers work with the home um a home base instruction so they provide that for our students if they are on um the quarantine our isolation and then el students will receive synchronous instruction with their teacher so that is a high level overview of of kind of the process of what we do when we figure out

049if a whole class or whole school would need to go into a quarantine isolation situation great thank you team fellow board members any questions or comments frank yeah i'm very relieved to know that that number of 529 out on quarantine or isolation is not or is effectively largely not members of classes but that brings up so that means that because i was worried when i saw that number on last friday that a lot of classes were out and that somehow the the the mass the masking which is supposed to protect us from whole class quarant quarantines was not working but um it does bring up the question then of oh i don't know if i'm being heard it does it does bring up the question of a teacher workload if a teacher has two or

050three kids out they obviously can't do synchronous instruction uh but then are they having to i guess they were having to do stuff before you know when kids were sick that's a that's part of the part of the workday he treated differently than he or she would have been treated two years ago when they had the flu and so i just would be interested to know to to what extent the teacher burden has changed in in this yes um so we we really had to explore that a lot with our teachers union as well so really trying to figure out what that looked like we had a group of staff including teachers administrators families as well to really figure out what our plan should be for for quarantine if a student goes out on quarantine

051or isolation and we wouldn't have done that two years ago because typically a student is out for three to five days right and then is is no longer but with covet it's it's typically like a seven or a ten day quarantine and so we had said that the parameter would be if a student is out more than three days then we would start providing them with home activities that they can be doing it is something that it is beyond what the teachers regularly scheduled lesson plans it is separate learning that they're doing so teachers are being compensated for for that work as well so that they're it's not just an expectation that they that they do that just out of their i mean most of them are doing that out of their own free will

052anyways but but are getting compensated for doing that extra work because it is an extra burden as you say um so for sure i want to acknowledge that um and uh what else i was going to say also that um that there is some lessons that that teachers have developed in the past so that they're pulling some of that like last year as they were out there distance learning really focused on especially at the elementary level making sure that they have their english language arts instruction as well as math instruction and that's um mostly through an asynchronous lesson that they would provide through seesaw but yeah i'll add on to that too i mean because i think in a perfect world they would they some teachers could have lessons that they've used in previous years

053in distance learning that they could share out and we also realize that we don't live in a perfect world and that's not always the case so that's why there is compensation for our k-6 teachers for 7 12 it looks a little bit differently because they are able to work in schoology which is more of a standard practice there are still some supports in place but it does look a little bit different when you compare elementary to secondary it just occurs to me is it thanks for that answer it's thorough and good um last year i volunteered as a member of the community helping with math at mr church's class in at central park i'm wondering if there's opportunities for volunteering when these kids are and it gives them you know a little bit more synchronous

054contact um i don't know whether whether that's because i know i know that as volunteers we're sort of discouraged from coming into the schools at this point or at least where we're discouraging ourselves about it but i'm just wondering if that's uh that's been at all discussed or so one of the things we have is a volunteer visitor checklist and so that that's one step to try to ensure that the same processes we're using with students right about checking for symptoms things like that we're considering and then the process for volunteers is ensuring that we're using essential volunteers which an academic volunteer would be more essential so that could be something that would be worked out in the building or with the principal thanks thank you other questions or comments yeah i appreciate the question

055about the teachers i was actually having the same question like what is what is the impact on our teacher so i appreciate the support and the additional consideration for our teachers in terms of navigating the changes so we talked about how this is there's a process to shift online so then what is the process to be going back that we return back to in person like what is the trigger like how do what are the conditions where we say yep uh enough right and then we go back to each person yeah typically it would just be at the 10-day okay it would it would just depend on what the what the cova team decided as their quarantine whether it's a 7 10 or however long that would be and then they would shift back and

056transition those those devices back and the learning would be back in the classroom okay great then my question is i do wonder i mean when you say there are three classes that have shifted i do wonder from a communication whether that might be of um that might be good information for the community to know right that yup i mean we are doing well and there are three classes that are in quarantine i mean i don't know whether we want to name any class or i mean we already named the school right some of the schools they have the five or more cases so i was just thinking about communication while that's i think that's a good data point to know that we are trying everything we can but there are times where one class needs

057to go into shifting and then with the 10 days or seven days they will shift back so just just wondering about that yeah what was interesting i'll let you see more about that josh and what was interesting um too is those two classrooms actually had a connection that like i cannot say enough about the quality and important work that our health offices our nurse our health aides our cova teams our principals are doing in collaboration but what they found in that situation there was a connection on the bus so they were actually related there so that was helpful in unpacking that a little bit and notifying families on the bus as well i i think that's useful for us as we especially since we are continuing to review that dashboard and what data points are

058we putting out there uh just like you said we want that data to be useful to people and meaningful yeah it's like one more final fun question um when so when we say that when it is five plus that you know we named the school so is that a composite number five plus between students and staff or well it's a five plus yes uh thank you chair boshevsky director chu that is a combined number so it could be five staff it could be five students it could be a combination okay thank you curtis you have a question or comment um yes okay so one thing just just confirming something i thought i heard if a student is out for whatever reason for three or more days then that's when they would essentially be doing school

059at home um correct yeah okay so can i add one more thing to that the one caveat would be if we're transitioning a whole class if the whole class is quarantined then it would be after one day yes that's what's tricky about some of these answers is it's just very contextual yeah it depends if it's an individual or if it's a whole class right right okay so if an individual okay is um is sick for whatever reason for for three days or more then the idea is that they would get they would do school from home so distance learning essentially so i guess my question is is there been any thought about doing this um as a process going forward two three years is is this would would this be the the new normal as

060it were if you know once we that's weird as it sounds gets passed get get you know kovit is out the back door if it's just if in general if a student is out three days that we have distance learning option for them all i heard you say is at some point cobra will be out the back door right no i don't mean to make light of it but that is a really interesting notion of how does it look in the future i haven't thought that yeah i was just going to say like we are really in the thick of it right now it's like but but it does make me reflect on some of the things that we changed after we had gone through distance learning and thinking about like how we're continuing to

061do some of the practices around um zoom with conferences and um different meetings and and things how how things have changed and as we had a chance to kind of reflect and look back we were able to implement some of those things that we've been trying to do differently so i would think that's probably something we will need to consider yeah wow good point yeah thank you anything else from my colleagues i have one question that it might not actually be for this team though it's related the end of this week on friday is the start of the vaccine or increased testing policy i'm just curious what the response has been from the staff to that and any expectations when that actually goes into effect of of the rollout sure thank you chair bogoszewski um

062in speaking with uh lisa our uh human resources director uh my understanding is that she's not received really any negative feedback from staff on this we are not requiring people to um to share their vaccine card but we are requiring them to notify us just acknowledge provide that acknowledgement of receiving the vaccine or of their intent to go through weekly testing so um it has it has gone over quite smoothly so far great it's good to know well i thank our staff and teachers out there for understanding and going along with the program because i think you know they obviously also see this is the way we can enable in-person learning so thanks thanks for that brief update well thank you all again good good report good numbers thank you we look forward to hearing

063more as we work our way through the uk thank you thank you with that the next non-action item is the first reading of some policy edits to policy 209 the school board operating procedures as we talked about things like not requiring a speaker to state their address and read through the policy i and michelle and dr lake noticed that there were some things that needed some updating some of it was just correcting of error some of it was some new thoughts that we put in so michelle i can walk through it or you can walk through whatever you want to do it can you do can you page through it yep great changes i should have warned you i might ask to do this all right question while waiting um it's a separate question i

064saw some of the great pictures from the grand opening are those pictures posted somewhere from the from the um oh it'll be great yeah okay great thank you thank you so scroll down a little bit i think on the first page the only change was we brought thursday into play from monday so this is a correction of the actual timeline requiring the three three full days to get something on the agenda on page two and continuing through the document that's a suggestion of uh ex-board member kang thou i think a good catch we did replace the word citizens with community members uh as we all know some of our students some of our families are maybe in the process of getting citizenship or are new americans and so we didn't want anything to even imply

065that they would be excluded or weren't included so we changed out the community members just clarified that if a community member contacts either the chair or board member to have something on the agenda then that would be brought to the full board by that board member that they contacted so just clarify that a little bit let's see next redwood again citizens community members citizens community members maybe go down so we can fully read 7.2 so as we know we've changed it so that we now have an electronic sign up sheet that's available online for community members community members to sign up that's what we've used now the past two meetings we have had and will continue to have a staff person at the in the hall outside the board room whether it's here or back

066at district center or whatever so that folks who arrive and wish to speak that staff member will go ahead and input that into the online form for them so we are not in any way requiring anybody to be computer literate or know how to go online or anything if you want to you can go online through a link on the website write my understanding is ahead of the meeting and get your name on even before coming that day but if someone comes and isn't aware of all this they still be allowed to speak from from someone there so we will have a i guess a virtual paper signing sheet because we'll have someone there for the future to do that maybe we could clarify that and add to 7.2 language that effect that staff will

067be provided at the board meeting to allow to enter speakers information into the sheet who who arrive that that would be a good thing and thanks to director goggins i think for suggesting that um keep going oh and then we went from five minutes to three minutes uh just changed the gender pronoun to there which is more consistent with what we're doing um added something that i don't think i added this michelle i think this might have been from you or someone or a recommendation just to make sure that if if it's a thing that has to happen by law or is fairly minor as as this this is a fairly minor revision that we could condense the first and second meetings into one session the theoretical process is three meanings there's a first meeting

068to discuss it then a second meeting that is the first reading and then a third meeting that is the the vote on approval so this allows those first to be compressed which frankly has been our practice for the last the years that i've been on the board so keep going uh then just clarifying in the third meeting or the second if the first two are condensed so that's what we're doing now this is the first two condensed into tonight's reading and so at our next meeting that'll be the third meeting or really the second meeting at which we can vote to approve it and then the last one was just clarifying and bringing the language up to date with the technology that it's within our area it includes television live streaming youtube or and or

069other media so that should be correct for a while you know until we get actual star trek like beaming into living rooms and things like that we won't need to change this very frequently and then the last line not non-broadcast work study sessions again uh i was remiss in not recognizing how non-informational that was and so i know director goggins you had some thoughts on a specific language to perhaps put in there i would propose that we have non-decision-making informational meetings for the board such as work study sessions and workshops will not be broadcast but a report on what was discussed will be provided at the next board meeting thank you so as a way to differentiate to make sure that if there any decisions are being made that is being broadcast to clarify that

070i think is very important thank you i think it's a great explication and that's what we do now during our study session later this evening even though it won't be broadcast the public in the community is of course welcome to come and attend and each of those study sessions one of us volunteers to take notes and then at our next meeting we will have a report out on what occurred during that during that study session of that work session so can you you'll give that text to michelle if we are there any other thoughts questions additions edits as we've gone through the first reading i'll open it up to everyone yeah thank you for bringing this uh up um i mean this whole policy to make some adjustments i did see there was something about

071the delegation like what constitutes a delegation right so let us say that um there was an organization let's say it was the bogoski neighborhood council and there were 27 of us that decided to come to a meeting and share what we would ask is that that delegation as a group be allowed 10 minutes however they want to apportion it they could have 27 people speak for 25 seconds or whatever it would be frank can correct my math or or one person for all ten or whatever but that that's what it means and if there's a delegation of a group of people just again to help with communication and give everyone a fair chance to to you know speak at the meetings and i guess the reason i brought it up is that i just want

072this to be clear right and i'm not worried about the the larger group because that's usually the case yes if you think about the smaller delegation how small is considered a delegation so that people have equitably able to speak i see so it could be i mean you think about the math right like if a delegation is three people then we say it's ten that's actually more than three each so that's actually so it may be that ten minutes or less depending on number in the delegation or something like that yeah something to clarify right a delegation of two should really still get only six minutes three each not ten minutes okay all right thank you so that's the thing that i thought about i guess the other thing i thought about too is the

073the fact that some of this we are also adhering to the open meeting law yes so i don't know whether we reference that somewhere because i i i do think that i mean me included right kind of when you're new to understanding how the board interacts with the community oftentimes you know we have to adhere to the open meeting law and and a reference to that become like you know what it is not because we decided not to do something it is part of the open leading role that we have to follow as elected officials so it could even be adding something at the very top of the policy that says you know this policy is in accordance with and guided by legislative statutes regarding open meeting law as they apply to school boards or

074something like something like that and i'd rather keep it that general not necessarily even put in the specific statute citation because that changes sometimes every year i'm wondering if on 7.0 where we say community input and participation at board meetings that we should restate that all board meetings workshops any type of gathering of the board is an open meeting and community is welcome to attend i think there are some exceptions per open meeting wrong right right assumptions but i mean just making it clear because i don't think that's quite inviting enough yeah or clear enough a lot of people don't know that right right so it could be even in 7.1 saying saying something like uh and and this you know community members are invited to all board meetings including study sessions and informational sessions

075unless uh otherwise prohibited by law or something like that because if it's a closed meeting or whatever that would allow it yeah that's are you getting that okay thank you our extraordinary person who we couldn't live without i know there was some confusion around you know why couldn't we do this online or in person and it's like those are not our decisions right they were really governed by the opening well and some some things are our decisions i learned today i happen to be able to be in a meeting with uh superintendent like and um kirk schneiderwin uh the the president of msba and apparently just given the heated nature of some of some board meetings across the state some boards have decided recently to not broadcast and not not show the community input session

076but i think you know we've felt we want to do that though we believe that's being transparent and showing the community everything so i think we do want to be as open as transparent and welcoming as possible regardless of the sense or mood or tone of of what's of what's told to us um but i think you're right right some things are definitely because of the statue that we uh comply with yes and then other things is how what is what is our approach in in interacting with the community so i think being clear on that might be really helpful for all of us i agree to remind ourselves right kind of uh there are some things that we get we decided on that we decided to have say community input or we decided to

077so i'm just kind of bringing this that's a great thought you know as an example you know i know some have questioned why don't we even respond to interact with speakers but it's really because we it's an adherence to open meeting law if a speaker were to come and say dear board i believe the earth is flat and i think you should teach that as an alternative in your science curriculum we have never discussed that issue as a ward and so we can't respond because we everything we do has to be as a board and so then that community member could ask a board member to put that on a future meeting we could discuss it and then have a board consensus and then we we could you know it would come out in that

078meeting and that discussion that again is open to the public but if we get into it that night there may be people who are watching on tv you know over in little canada or falcon heights and they say wow if i hadn't known they were going to talk about that tonight i would have wanted to have been there and so it has to be that three day in advance so it is very complicated and complex so thanks for the for the suggestions you know for for all of us too right sometimes the topic this is where we go into work steady because he's too able to learn and deliberate but not making any decision right and so knowing that those are also public you should say that we're all learning about xyz right a certain

079topic we have presentations we asked a district leadership to kind of tell us what is going on before we make any decision or deliberate on anything so i think i think that process of kind of like that decisions we make as a board and then there are things that we discuss more as a learning as a learning to help us understand how to make the decision if it comes to that point exactly good points thank you other thoughts additions improvements kitty i was just going to add that another thing that i've always been explained by the state organization is part of the reason boards don't respond is because we only have voice as an entire board not as individual board members right and so when we respond we have to respond as a board and

080that's a clarification that's not necessarily similar with other types of government that might be helpful for folks to understand okay got all that or we'll get you the text and then we'll look forward to the second reading and then moving into a potential approval of changes thank you with that we go to our first action item and i think this will be introduced if i'm not mistaken by sherry thompson our business director and i believe uh also a guest from ehlers who i'll allow sherry to introduce and i think we're going to hear some good news right that's right wonderful thank you um yes we do have some good news and i have with me shelby mcquaid from ellers who is a familiar face to all of you uh we did have a bond sale

081today boundary financing the board authorized that a month ago i will say just a couple of high points the boundary fundings or the bond sales um in the in the refundings if we have a savings that's passed directly to our taxpayers it reduces the levy that's the way it works with any kind of debt levy uh which is actually great news and we do have some good news to share and shelby will go through you all have the sale day day report and the other thing that i would say as part of this exercise every time we go through a bond sale we have a credit rating call with moody's and as the board knows we have been working very diligently the board and the administration for the last several years because our bond rating

082was downgraded because of our low fund balance so and i will just bring your attention to the fact that at the back of the sale day sale day report on the attachments on page six the reading outlook we have received a positive outlook we received that when we did the certificates of participation i think last march because it had been stable and we have been working very hard on this um and the um what moody's is saying is that the district secures passage of an upcoming operating levy renewal in increase then the rating is likely to move upward and we haven't had such a strong statement from moody's because that's not what they do right um so so i'm very hopeful about this uh and i'm hopeful that um yes we will uh get the

083resources that we need come november 2nd and when we uh sell bonds ltfm bonds will be doing that in 2022 that will be reflected as far as our credit rating goes so i will hand it off to shelby yeah that's a good introduction to this sale day report this is purely informational but your action item tonight is the resolution to award the sale you received four bids and the winning bid was bank in new york melon so just kind of overall these are just the refunding bonds there's just a few maturities left the summary of the sale results is listed on that second page you did receive a very significant premium and you'll see why in a later schedule but that allowed you to reduce the borrowing amount and kind of goes into that overall

084savings so we had anticipated that during the pre-sale about a month ago that you'd receive about a 1.1 1.09 as a true interest cost and we received a true interest cost of 0.56 today and what that did compared to pre-sale is save up about 174 000 versus versus the 143 000 that we are estimating and like sherry mentioned this is not going to go to your general fund there's 43 about 43 000 of savings each year and that will go to lower the tax levy now of course you um submitted your truth and taxation levy and so what is going to go on the tax statements is that higher amount that you had already levied for the bond payment but then incorporated in the final levy would be these savings and hopefully the passage of

085a um that up that operating referendum so just going through the bid tab shows the the bidder so national interest tonight or this this morning on your bonds bank of new york hilltop out of dallas baird kind of the midwest bidder and then fhn out of memphis and you'll see that we awarded on the true interest rate that's what competitive bids are most commonly awarded on that takes into account the overall purchase price and and the time value of money you'll see there that they offered five percent coupons so that is where your premium that you received that almost that over 300 000 is going to go to offset the interest cost from those five percent coupons so that's why it's all incorporated into the true interest rate so then the sources and the uses

086is shown on the next page there was 2.67 million dollars of bonds to be refunded and you'll see that we're only issuing 2.4 that's going into that you know lowering that premium or the premium lowering that that principal amount to so you're borrowing less to pay off that that previous issue the prior original debt schedule is on page three the new debt schedules paid on page four where you'll see those um those new uh um fiscal year totals and then the true interest cost is listed sort of in the center of the page at 0.56 on the last page is really that summary of the levy savings so um or the the principle and interest savings the levy is of course 105 percent of that um and and as a percent of debt service you're

087at about 5.9 we were anticipating 4.6 on the overall savings so you know across the board great news on the overall savings and you know as sherry mentioned that that positive outlook is really what we're kind of hoping for at that next go round this was a pretty relatively small issue for what you're accustomed to issuing lately and um and the facilities maintenance bonds will be larger so hopefully we'll see a an um that positive outlook acted on in the next rating and hopefully an upgrade at that time so happy to answer any questions on this summary and of course the action item as well questions kitty um because they apply the state rating which is obviously higher than our rating and that's typically what they're using to access it how much impact do you

088expect the local rating if in fact that would improve to really have on what kind of offers we're getting so it's really hard to tease out the effects because every issue has different term and of course the size of the block sizes matters too but we generally say that for every notch in the credit rating you're looking at about five basis points and so um and so that double a two rating of the state's credit enhancement would moderate that that five basis point notching down downward so it's really hard to kind of quantify the actual the number um and it also would depend on the underwriters purchasing the bond sometimes they are looking at just that that insurance rating that credit enhanced rating and sometimes they dig in a little bit more so we always

089think it matters we just can't ever exactly quantify just another question why is it desirable for the lenders to use the premium aspect versus a different um interest rate i mean why is that premium element in there yeah it's because if you look at the summary um they're really looking to provide the yield uh in the secondary market so what investors are looking for is yield on the bonds and so sometimes they need to pay more in order to resell them pay more than the face value so that they can have them and then they can resell them to other investors and so in order to generate yield you need to pay more than the face value and lots of other calculations but simple thinking thank you other questions uh so everyone said i just

090want to say thank you for all the work on this this is such great news you know and so thank you sherry thank you very much so the extent that this will have a positive effect on uh the levy right is what's order bank is it like you know it's like two cents three cents a buck yeah because it's front across you write the entire tax base that's right um and of course this has been one of our smaller refundings but any time ellers has been a great partner in looking at this when bonds come up when there's a call date to look at those savings again this is as shelby had mentioned this is one of our smaller ones but but we do look at that because uh we want to be very mindful

091of the taxpayer dollars sure so we've you've already certified the maximum uh levy so as far as the property tax statements that go out in november um again that that's based on september so that doesn't include the expiring levy authority operating levy um no new you know new authority because the obviously the election hasn't taken place right or it also doesn't reflect this but when you do your final levy certification in december what actually happens on properties tax statements will be reflected all of that will be reflected including this come march march yes yes and we really do appreciate working with you and um you know being able to fit all these pieces together and um like you were saying it's not a lot but i think the alternative is as you would say we

092didn't take the opportunity to save the taxpayer dollars and that's certainly not um not what we would want you to put them put in be in the position of the the point is to take advantage of the savings and pass it back when you can thank you other questions comments then i would ask for a motion to approve the recommended sale as worded so moved second and then any other discussion board members doesn't look like it uh clerk johnson it is recommended that we take a roll call vote on this very good then okay director anderson i vote aye treasurer goggins aye jerry brogaszewski aye director shaw aye director chu aye clerk johnson votes eye thank you thanks very much that passes yeah thanks for all your work on this it's greatly appreciated uh with

093that we move to the uh board reports um i've had a couple items i wanna mention i've had the um opportunity to attend over the past couple weeks just some wonderful fantastic events between the roseville police department and roseville area high school students and i have seen also some of my colleagues at those at well those events as well a couple of weeks ago there was a great event at flaherty's bowling alley everyone was having fun um you know and um i even got the bowl for officer aaron ruski and that was a thrill i think i improved her score i didn't wanna i'm gonna trigger and then uh again today i was at a fantastic wonderful kickball event i'm outside um a little bit of it was in the drizzle uh but um i

094just want to commend um these events are taking place it's about building relationships between the rosewood police department and our roseville area high school students it's about building trust i want to thank officer aaron rescue the roseville police department for partaking principal chris hester and the rosaria high school staff for partaking in these for planning these events and i know there will be some coming down the road but they've been wonderful they've been fantastic and everyone is enjoying themselves i think it's a good thing that these are happening thank you the second thing is earlier this evening we heard from director of community education karen schaab we did learn within this past week that she will be retiring and we do get her for the rest of this year which i am very thankful for

095that's fantastic i want to acknowledge her 44 years of educational leadership with this district and other districts she's been in she's worked with six different superintendents uh you know and i i just know personally your passion your dedication to community members all of our learners from pre-k to our seniors um it's just been phenomenal karen and i know we we still have a few months with you but i just want to kind of start the thank yous now um you know i've enjoyed working with you every minute thank you [Applause] kitty i just wanted to build on what todd was saying about the events that have been occurring is to put it in context with the school resource officer work we're do that's been doing and how the district has really been working to build

096that relationship and strengthen that relationship in some very non-traditional ways and it was wonderful to see not just the school resource officer there but other police officers and really building that community connection relationship with our students because there were like 35 students at that flaherty event it was really really wonderful to see i had a chance to attend the rams technology night and rose was there as well it was an opportunity for the families to learn about avid the dual language immersion english learner services special ed services how they can support their students um in terms of some of the technology elements um and how the various apps their students are using using and after school activities just a whole variety of things i was very impressed that the rams staff and leadership had put

097together such a comprehensive opportunity for parents to participate i hope that we can continue that and get more even more parents involved in taking advantage of that because there were some really fantastic resources there the other thing that i wanted to mention was the high school open house last night it was phenomenal to see and it was wonderful to see so many of our community members come out to see it the facilities the the there was the art the um music uh the career and technical the science i mean there was two whole wings that were kind of on display in terms of of what the generosity of our community in the 2017 referendum passage they would allow the district to do for our students and one of the things that i really love about

098that is how we spent that money on the students and really focused on where they're going to get some benefit and there's some wonderful additional opportunities for students because of that we certainly heard how many more students could take the woods class and that's always been a limiting thing or some of the other classes that are particularly popular that haven't been able we haven't been able to meet student demand or student desire in the past so that was really wonderful to see and thank you again to the generous community thank you anything else from this side of the other room just briefly the 916 ward meeting was last wednesday the joint powers agreement is inching its way toward toward completion and acceptance as it has been for a while and the other thing is we

099heard a long presentation and very interesting one about teacher retention and uh the whole program there is there's quite a well-developed program at 9 16 for teacher retention they seem to be having a good record of that and i thought it would be good i know we have mentorship and various things going on but it might be good to get a report on that sometime or a study session report on what's what's being done in roseville to not only to mentor the teachers as they first come in but to support them through their first few years thank you frank rosa curtis anything from you this evening i guess we're going down the line today i would um add a couple things um i think kitty you were there and i was there at the nine

100north uh celebration 30 year celebration so this is formerly known as ctv ctv right yeah so they have been in service for 30 years so it was really nice to be part of the celebration and um and and i have to say one of the best conversation i had was meeting someone who was asking about the the levy and so as the school board member was to explain the difference between lobby and you know bands and that so that was always helpful right anytime we have a chance to explain the difference she was very appreciative that that like oh that clarifies right that clarifies as to why we are asking for money again kind of thing so so that was uh was a really nice event and and i didn't know a lot of the

101history so i know it's a great community partner in in in roseville uh the i think is almost a reflection for me i you know in my second year um as a school board member i finally get to do a lot of in-person stuff and one of them was attending the park parkview center school um ptsa meeting in person and i have done it online and every so often but what a difference and i am so appreciative of parents who really their commitment to uh get together and really think about how to support the school right i just i mean i know that that's one of the many groups there are many groups across the district who do that and to listen to how they are planning and thinking about how do we acknowledge our

102teachers how do we support our teachers how do we fundraise i'm i'm just very grateful i'm just very grateful for uh the parents out there who are trying to support our schools and our staff our teachers and our students so i just wanted it's a little reflection for me to to be so real to be in the midst of that conversation so um and another thing i would say is that i represent um rosa area school on the ramsey county league of local government is a mouthful and the this the monthly meeting this time was about homelessness in ramsey county it was an amazing presentation about what ramsey county particularly particularly in st paul trying to understand how to serve and how to meet the needs of many of our homeless homeless families and youth

103and people in general so um that could be a whole like whole presentation itself to to debrief but it was really really made you think about how um the pandemic especially right even pre pandemic there were a lot of issues and the pandemic got people actually working together between county and city officials and and we talked a lot about as ramsey county how do we make sure that as a group that we are paying attention to what those resources are so there was a very helpful uh presentation that i went to and the final thing i will say is um i had a chance to attend a beautiful memorial service of one of my neighbors her name is glenda wilinski she and her husband tom were teachers in roseville for over 30 years and it

104was clear in how she was as a teacher as an educator and the room the the surface was full there was a lot of talk about her as the teacher the caring teacher that she was and the different roles that she played at roseville so i just wanted to acknowledge that and both of them gave like a combine of 60 years of service to roseville area schools so um wanted to acknowledge her and her life and really celebrate her accomplishments thank you curtis okay i'm going to echo a couple things that have already been said in particular the event at flaherty's really amazing um to see we had uh 12 roseville officers that um came out to bull with you know our kids and they were just enjoying it themselves and just for anyone who

105needs to know principal hester was almost bowled a almost got a turkey so if you if you ever have to bowl make sure you're on her team um i was also able to um attend the opening of um the grand opening of a bethu techa and that was absolutely amazing i just can't say enough about it and which which leads me to and we'll probably be doing this for the next couple of months uh karen child my god okay um karen karen and her team um do not get enough credit um for the work that they've done um during during this time um moving everybody over into the new building keeping everything keeping all the programs moving um while we were building this this this this other building and the um the the amenities are

106are tremendous and she worked very hard to get input from everybody that is in that building and and that's that's really important and and not enough not enough people do that so thank you karen for all of that work all the things that you've you've done just since i've been on the board it is is greatly appreciated and i uh i will definitely miss you but you're not going anywhere yet so um um that takes us to um our grand opening on ewing um i i and i do have um assurances that if you missed the chance to take a tour of our new facilities at the uh roseville area high school then you just need a call and schedule something it is really um incredible we talk a lot about preparing children for career

107and or college and and really the changes that are in that building and embody that so you know you just got you really just kind of have to see it and if you get principal hester to take you she actually gets the best tours um i had the opportunity to attend an msd board meeting and this one was very special we had um we had some very special guests we had some we had students from um minnetonka osseo saint paul and roseville area school district so i'm going to i want to specifically give a shout out to to jennifer from roseville high school who did a tremendous job we at msg we wanted to um really um hear student voice and it was great because um when you do that you're going to hear some

108things that that that you know you don't necessarily want to hear um but on the flip side there were things that were were stated where we could say yeah actually we're doing that yes we're fighting for that yeah look over here you know um so there there are things that um the the thing the great takeaway um for me is is that um you know at amsd we are moving in the right direction are there things that we need to keep greater focus to absolutely um and we shall do that um but uh i i hope we will always use this opportunity to get more student voice um this should not be a one once a year kind of thing um and then last but not least i was uh i was able to attend

109a very impromptu um uh gathering at uh amity williams last night um with some community community members that brought chalk and used that opportunity to write messages to support to principal colin same thing was done at edw i'm sorry at edgerton and so when the kids came in this morning they they saw all these messages of support i'm on the record of referring to the roseville area schools community as a family and i i stuck by that and i know that there are a number of people in our family who who are hurting right now and um and and are sad i'm sad i am and and that's okay and i need you to tell your kids it's okay and to our wonderful teachers and staff who were beyond exceptional today it's okay to be

110sad so that ends my uh thank you pleasure uh just briefly uh another appetita comment i think that i was there as we all were at the grand openings we saw me with us heavy those were like 10 pound scissors and as i noticed they they were sharp at the point too they were not like kids scissors with the rounded things so we definitely didn't want to run with those scissors but um yeah it just struck me when i was there and even tonight as we were looking through the the lovely pictures that karen shared with us earlier just how how long and massive of a project that was and it really did start over three years ago remember us on the tour of the old building with the engineering firm and it being pointed

111out to us with various structural you know flaws why we'd have to even do a new building versus try to repair the old one and in the process that uh dr aldo ciccoli superintendent at the time started with his leadership which continued so wonderfully under dr lake as she took over for him uh all the community involvement just thank you to the community it came to all those meetings remember all those meetings we had where people who live in the area would share their thoughts on things like how high the shrubbery should be and you know what side of the building the parking should be on so both big picture items and small picture items and i think all that's kind of listened to and reflected and what we got is just a wonderful facility

112wonderful site that that it's not just the district or the architects who did it it is the community who did it too it is the swim team that came and the swim club advocates for with their thoughts on how deep the pool should be and how long it should be and again i think in the end we got something that everyone who lives in the sister can be proud of particularly those who did show up and go to those planning sessions and share their input and make their thoughts known and and i think it's really it's really come out at least as well as everybody envisioned so and maybe a final word just a particular call it again to dr mike faber who's who has left us into curtis johnson who were our board rep

113and administrative rep on the american indian parent committee and as we know we had invited them to be really deeply involved in a process to come up with a recommended name and that's where the apatute chad new day comes from and so thank you curtis specifically for your helping shepherd that through the group i know it was not a short process because they took it extremely seriously and and had had prayer sessions and thought sessions about it and i think again what we ended up with was just perfect for for what we'd hoped for and what we need so thank you to the community for that it is really your facility too so that was it now we only have one item on the study session usually we take like a five minute break after

114we adjourn do you want to just power through or do we need to take a break let's just let's just say can we do two minutes for signatures and then do the study session okay we'll do a two minute break then so what will happen is i'm gonna just so everyone knows i adjourn the meeting and then uh the it's not broadcast and then we'll come back in two minutes for the informational study session which has one agenda item tenant it's a new course proposal that we're gonna hear about so we're adjourned thank you i think i gotta sign something [Music] uh [Music] you