001is now called to order. It is May 20th, 2026, and the time is 6:31 p.m. Our mission is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage, inspire, educate, prepare, and empower all learners in partnership with our surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Scott, can you please lead 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. >> Thank you. And then, Scott, when you're ready, can you please call the roll? >> Okay. Uh Gina uh Osavendo? >> Here. >> Uh Scott Andreasen's here. Uh Natalie Copeland? >> Here. >> Uh Zach Dorholt? Here. Uh Diana Fett? >> Here. >>
002Shannon Haas? >> Here. >> Uh the following board members are not present. Uh Heather Weems. Uh the following cabinet members and staff are present at the district administration office. Uh Superintendent Dr. Lori Putnam. Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Jason Harris. Uh Executive Director of Finance and Business Services Amy Skoglund. Executive Director of Human Resources and General Counsel Tracy Flynn Blow. Executive Director of Operations Matthew Boucher. Executive Director Special Education, Diana Mayor, uh media technicians, Paul Novak and Cordy Scott. The custodian on site is Emerson Beamer. >> Thank you, Scott. And next I'm looking for a a motion to approve tonight's Board of Education meeting agenda. >> So move. >> I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Scott, can you call vote on that? >> Uh do you know how to spell
003it? How do you spell it? Acevedo, okay. >> Yes. >> [laughter] >> Scott Andresen, yes. Natalie Copeland? >> Yes. >> Zack Dorholt? >> Yes. >> Diane Fenton? >> Yes. >> Shannon Lozada? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items the board adopts routinely without debate. Any single member may remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption. I have one request uh from Natalie to remove item D. Did anybody else want to remove an item? Okay, so I'm looking Oh, I have to read it. Never mind. Um on tonight's consent agenda, item A, approval of board minutes for April 1st, 2026 and April 15th, 2026. Item B, approval of bills and other financial transactions
004in the grand total amount of $7,319,599.55. Item C, approval of personnel staff changes. Item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. Item E, Tech single-use restroom remodel change order totaling $565. Item F, bid award Apollo renovations and addition additions bid package two. Item G, joint purchasing contract award, Apollo Renovations locker replacement. So, I have one request to remove item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. So, I'm looking for a motion to approve ABC EFG. I have a motion by Natalie, a second by Zach. Scott, can you call vote for all of us on this one? >> Gina Acevedo >> You said Acevedo? >> Acevedo, okay. Gina Acevedo, Scott Andreassen, Natalie Copeland, oh Nadja >> Yes. >> She said yes. >> Yes, okay. I'm yes. Uh Natalie Copeland >> Yes. >> Zach Doral Diana Fenton
005>> Yes. >> Shannon Hoes >> Yes. I've done that job, Scott. It is way harder than it than it seems. [laughter] >> I just got all tongue-tied. >> Okay, so now Natalie Copeland is going to recuse herself from item D. So, I'm looking for a motion to approve just item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. >> So moved. >> And do I have a second? I have a motion by Diana. Do I have a second to approve item D? Um and a second by Gina. And so, Scott, one more time, can we vote on just item D without calling Natalie? >> Uh Shannon Hoes >> Yes. >> Diana Fenton >> Yes. >> Zach Doral >> Yes. >> Natalie Copeland Kit Camp, recused, yeah. Um Scott Andreassen, yes. And Gina >> Acevedo, yes. >> And
006Acevedo, okay. >> All right, thank you. Okay, moving along. Thanks for getting through that. Um we're moving on to our information items. And first up is a warm welcome to our retirees. So many smiling faces out there. Thank you for joining us. >> [applause] >> As board chair of education, I want to thank you for your extraordinary dedication and service to our students, staff, and community. Your combined 1,024 years of service represent a remarkable legacy of commitment, care, and impact. 1,024 years. That is an incredible number. Thank you. On behalf of the board, I am honored to congratulate you on your well-deserved retirement and wish you the very best on your journey. And don't forget we do love our retired volunteers. So, if you miss us >> [laughter] >> come on back. We'd love to
007see you. Uh also, please note you received a gold card tonight with your thanks. Um that will allow you to continue your support of activities by getting in free of admission. So, thank you for that. That's in your card. Again, we are greatly uh grateful for all you have given to St. Cloud Area Schools and wish you joy and fulfillment in your next act, uh retirement. So, let's now enjoy this video highlighting your accomplishments. >> [music] [music] >> Woo! >> Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. [music] Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >> Ooh. Ooh. >> [music] >>
008Ooh. >> Eagle cam. >> [laughter] >> There we go. >> [laughter] >> And I get the pleasure of closing out this portion of our evening. And I did have to write it down cuz otherwise I would probably start crying. And no guarantees that I won't yet. Um but tonight is one of my favorite nights of the year, which might seem strange because we're also saying goodbye. But it gives us an opportunity to pause and honor people whose work has shaped generations of students, families, colleagues, and this community. When we look across this room alone, not to mention all of the many who were not able to join us tonight, the stories are extraordinary. Some of you in this very room gave 46 and 50 years. Right? It's amazing of service, 50 years. And if you
009think about that for a moment, entire generations of students moved through our schools during your careers. The world changed, education changed, technology changed, expectation changed. See. And through it all, you stayed rooted in your service to children. >> [snorts] >> Some of you spent 34 years in the same classroom. Uh which is something extraordinary, right? Given how much of it sometimes when people get moved around um to meet student needs. Like I'll be honest about that. But it's also really beautiful, that kind of consistency and commitment. Thousands of students walked through your doors knowing they'd be welcomed, known, challenged, and cared for >> [snorts] >> in that space because of each of you. And some of us, you joined us for the final few years of your career. And maybe only 3 years in our
010district, but what matters most is not the length of time, it's the impact. You chose to spend this important chapter with us and our students and staff are big better because of what you did. What strikes me most tonight is that no two careers here look the same. Different schools, different jobs, different journeys, different personalities and gifts. Yet all of you share something important. You gave part, a huge part of your life to public education and to the young people of this community. Schools are built on people like you. Not headlines, not programs, not buildings, but people. Those of you, those of us who show up every day, the ones who stay late, the ones who comfort children, mentor colleagues, solve problems quietly, and make schools feel safe and welcoming. And the truth is, there
011is no way to fully measure what you leave behind. You leave behind traditions, relationships, opportunities, confidence in students who may never realize how much you shaped their lives. And you leave your fingerprints on this district. On behalf of our Board of Education, our students, family, staff, and this entire community, thank you. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your patience and wisdom. Thank you for believing in young people. Thank you for choosing public education, and most importantly, thank you for choosing us. >> [applause] [applause] >> Wow. You made me cry, too. >> [laughter] >> Well, it's [clears throat] official and you probably don't want to celebrate tonight by staying here for the board meeting, but you still >> [laughter] >> You certainly are welcome. Um but by all means, feel free to sneak out
012right now. >> [laughter] >> Next up, we have the graduation and end-of-year celebrations information item. Um, presenting this is Dr. Jason Harris, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education, Lori Freeze, Apollo High School Assistant Principal, and Caroline Lindene, Tech High School Assistant Principal. Thank you for joining us tonight. Um, and we're excited to hear about this. >> Uh, good evening, Chair Haas, Superintendent Putnam, board members. Uh, Superintendent Putnam, you already in the in the sense of the season, celebrations, all the things that are taking place when you come to a culmination of a school year, when you set out at the beginning to set goals, and at the end we have celebrations for all the good things that happened. And Superintendent just started about the adults. We're going to talk about all the students and what's taking
013place in all the celebrations for our kids as we wind down the school year to a a culmination event, a graduation, and that next stage for those future uh, ready students. And uh, I'll let our two uh, Assistant Principals here take over from here. >> Sounds good. Good evening, everyone. I'm Caroline Lindene, I'm an Assistant Principal at Tech. >> I'm Lori Freeze, and I'm the assistant principal at Apollo and admin at CMB A. So, we are here to share with you our goal to partner with students, families, and staff to create celebrations that meet their hopes and dreams. We will Let's see. Technology. Oh, there. I just had to hit it twice. Sorry about that. Okay. >> And you said that? >> I did. >> All right, here we go. >> So, we're going to
014begin with our elementary celebrations. I won't read all of them to you, but they are many and they are they've been celebrating all month and they continue to finish the year strong focusing on successes and celebrations. Here's a few more. There are many ways Oh, I'm going to go back to this. Sorry. There are many ways that they are celebrating including concerts, assemblies, family events, and fifth grade graduations. So, yay to our elementary buildings. We also have some middle level celebrations happening. Both of our junior high buildings have a celebration coming up next week. And next, Laura will speak about some of the ways our older students are celebrating. >> Hello. Uh for our alternative programs, we have our CO2 graduation happening um tomorrow, actually. And in step will be later next week. And then
015adult basic education is later next week for our for our alternative programs. We had our indigenous graduation honoring ceremony May 1st. Here are some pictures from that celebration on St. Cloud State campus. And then now we'll get into um the high schools, Apollo, McKinley, and Tech. McKinley will have their graduation celebration this Friday from 10:00 to 11:00. We will have our senior last day is May 22nd. We will celebrate our Apollo seniors. We throw a a grilling type picnic um for them to come outside and enjoy um visiting with their friends. We have bags out there that they play and um music and it's a nice way for them to um celebrate with their peers right before graduation. >> And Tech has a similar day coming up on Friday. We have our activity day on
016Friday, which is a fun and experiential day for all students to celebrate one another and their individual success this year. We have our seniors last senior last day on May 22nd, which is coming up really fast. Last day for seniors. On that day or this week, we will collect all devices from our seniors. They will collect their uh cap and gowns. They will also pick up their eight senior uh sorry, eight graduation tickets and any honor cords that they may have earned this year. We do have a graduation rehearsal coming up uh a week from Friday on May 29th at the convention center. Apollo will be in them uh 9:30 and we'll be at 11:30. And May 30th is the big day, the big celebration day for all of our learners at River's Edge Convention
017Center. This year Apollo is the morning ceremony that will begin promptly at 11:00. Doors open at 9:30 so that we can ensure enough time for all of our family, friends, and guests to get in, get settled. Tech will be in the afternoon at 3:30 and we will open our doors to all of our fans at 2:00 p.m. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Um the ceremony will last approximately an hour and 15 minutes. Um there is live music showcasing our orchestra this year and choir. In both schools the orchestras will be playing. Speeches featuring the senior speakers, the principals, the lead principals, and the superintendent. We'll be awarding obviously the individual diplomas and then the presentation of the class of 2026. A few adjustments this year um since we're opening the doors and families will be
018there uh earlier than what we have in the past, we are having Dan Barth play music and have kind of a uh lighter, inviting, celebratory type atmosphere as families are waiting. And then um another thing that we're adding this year is we're working with Dan Barth to have the students' names come up on the screen when they are announced. Their name will be announced. They have a QR code um that they will scan and then they'll walk across the stage. Their name will come up on the screen as um as families cheer. So it won't be their senior picture, it'll be them. It'll be like a live It'll still be the live live version. Um the processional will follow the same past the same path as in past years, but the recessional we are going
019to and I tried tried to create a little map here so hopefully you can read it. Um, what will happen is rather than have our seniors stand up and go all the way back down this long hallway, they are the aisle they're going to stand up and then just go out the side doors. So, the one side door will open up over here right in front of the orchestra and um, they'll just turn to go into the staging room and on the other side they'll go right past Dan Bartel's sound table and then they'll be in that back hall back to the staging room. Um, just for family information, we've been communicating since January about changes in protocols. Um, families will still meet their graduate in parking lot A. This year we decided to have
020um, two photo opportunities to um, A just celebrate to make the the time that families are standing in line um, more entertaining cuz we'll have those photo opportunities along the road where um, families will line up to go indoors C and then afterwards they'll come we're hoping they'll come right around from parking lot A with their graduate and take advantage of those two stations and take photos. Both Tech and Apollo are having their mascot there, so I'm hoping that um, the eagle can, you know, razzle-dazzle people out of parking lot A and get them um, to take pictures and I know the tiger will if you have the same gentleman do it that did it before. Um, and then like last year the live stream is available for families that can't attend and that information
021has been sent out already this week. >> [clears throat] >> That's it. Any questions? Love it though. >> Thank you. >> Exciting. >> Scott, did you have a question? >> Yeah, um are there going to be uh signs allowed? Um I think last year there was a little dispute about regarding signs. >> You mean signs that families bring in? >> Right. >> No. No. >> Thank you. >> No. Yeah. All right, we're looking forward to it. We'll see you there. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. We're looking forward to it, too. It'll be awesome. >> Okay, uh next item we have transitional services update presented by Krista Potter, director of title programs and multilingual student services, and Nancy Dyson, or transitional services coordinator. Welcome. >> [clears throat] >> All right, so I'm Krista Potter, and
022um one of the many hats I wear is overseeing transitional services, and I Nancy Dyson is here. Um she's actually new to our transitional services department. Um a fresh 5 months, um but we've been [laughter] able to accomplish a lot, and so I'm actually going to kind of turn it over to her cuz um she's the the brilliance behind a lot of this. >> I am so happy to be with you all, and I'm excuse me going [clears throat] to quickly run through this. Um and And course if you have any questions after, or if you want to contact us after this meeting, we're happy to answer any of those longer questions, too. So, what is transitional services? Transitional services is District 742's response to the McKinney-Vento Act, which is a federal law that ensures
023students can enroll in and attend school regardless of their living situation. Our goal in transitional services pretty simple, to support students in attending school, continuing their learning, and fully experiencing all that school has to offer. I think of it as the magic. If we get them in the classroom, that's where the magic happens. So, having them there and ready to learn is the key. So, a student is considered homeless by the federal government if they lack fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. And what is homelessness? We'll start at the bottom. We think of homelessness as people living in cars, parks, empty buildings, in hotels, of course, in homeless shelters, but also uh many kids are considered homeless if they're doubled up with others in the community. So, transitional services provides the biggest one is transportation.
024School supplies, clothing, personal care items, and resources for housing, jobs, dental, doctor, and eye care, transportation being the biggest one, getting kids to wherever they're living in those places to their school of origin. So, a few interesting numbers. I'll start at the bottom. Approximately 20,000 students in Minnesota are rolled in their own version of transitional uh services under the McKinney-Vento Act. Um enrolled 5 days of school on average. The majority of our students are in that doubled up um category. And a year ago we had 810 district 742 students enrolled in transitional services and as of today it's probably a little bit higher cuz we're continually enrolling students, but we have 360 this year. So we're looking to next year over the summer we've got some pretty exciting things happening. One of the challenges is
025finding those students and that is my job under the law is to seek out those students. So it's not good enough people just come to us, we have to find them. So the challenge is getting the word out to all of our schools. So we've got some pretty creative ways of doing that over the summer. We're going to pilot our first attendance support program. I won't reveal all the details because it's still underway, but I'm very excited about how we can look at attendance and and all the strategies we can put in place to see if that impacts students attendance. We're opera operationalizing the distribution of resources. We've got phenomenal resources in our district and we're kind of categorizing them, figuring out what schools need, where those resources and how can we get those to
026the kids who need it and the families who need it in the best way possible. And then we're implementing a new documentation of communication plan, which means we're keeping track of all of those phone calls and emails and texts and stop buys what kids need. We haven't kept track in in the way that we would really like to in the past and we're going to do that now. So questions. >> Well, welcome. Happy 5 months. >> 50 years. That may [laughter] be that will be you. >> Well, I don't know if I'll make it that long. Thank you. >> Um thanks for all you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Um you mentioned um that your job was to find students, not just wait for them to come to you and report. >> Right. >> Um
027their current situation, how do you find students? >> Oh, that's an awesome question and I think the biggest way is to um to make sure that every employee of the district knows that they can let us know if they think that something's happening with a family, whether it's custodians or school lunch folks, um certainly teachers and counselors and social workers, um but just to give us a call. We say, "You know, there's a family that we think could use your help." And then we'll take it from there. So, thank you for that. >> Um I recently completed a um St. Cloud Police Academy. And apparently they do a lot of partnering with you folks. Uh can you tell me what uh how that works? >> Well, we have a lot of community partners that we
028um we reach out to for resources. So, depending on a family or a student's situation, um Nancy is very in tune with, you know, um county workers, um the local shelters, um as well as some of those programs that different um police department and other other community members run. Um and so, having those to be able to um source students to um is really vital so that they get the services that they need because sometimes situations are very unique. And um how do we plug them into the resources? And our community is flushed with resources. So, how do we also just make those referrals and those nice hand-offs to make sure that students can get into those programs that are already running and doing great things. >> Yeah. Um how do you deal with uh,
029truancy? >> That that's another really good question. I had the privilege of meeting with some of our truancy folks at the upper level schools and with some of our attendance groups at some of the lower grade schools and and um, I think the interface between the knowledge that they have about attendance and getting that information to us so we can intervene sooner kind of goes back to that attendance plan that we're looking at for the fall. So we're working really closely with them. >> Uh, what responsibility do parents have to get their kids to school? >> That's another good question. Um, of course there is a there's the legal responsibility when you get to those days off, you know, they get to be cumulative over time, but our our role in transitional services isn't that
030part of it. Our role is to walk alongside families and try to get them to school and knock down whatever barriers that they have that are preventing them from getting to school. >> Uh, do you make legal referrals? >> Um, in in truancy? >> Yes. >> Those are the our school board policies and procedures for attendance. Yeah. So each school has a a policy that they follow when a student gets to a certain certain number of truancies, then schools are required to report those. So that's done in each school per school board policy. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you for the question. >> I think you said some the the 300 number and the 800 number is it you say cuz is that cuz we don't have the full numbers for this year? And
031what is I mean the difficulty of getting people enrolled? Is that getting more difficult, less difficult, or >> I I came 5 months ago and so I cannot speak to last year. So I'm going to turn that over to Krista. >> Yeah, I have a couple thoughts on it cuz I also asked that question. Um some of it is in our data keeping. We were also flagging students um as like foster care students cuz technically transitional services serve students that are in the foster care as well as like safe at home families. And so there's kind of this beautiful umbrella that Nancy holds in her job that's not just specific to homeless students. Um and so we've done some review of our data systems and realized that we can report those foster care students differently
032and safe at home students. So some of that difference does come just in the actual reporting. So we're getting more real numbers of who actually is homeless. Um in addition to that, you know, when we have turnover in the position, whoever leaves brings a network of relationships with them. Um and so I think that that has impacted too. And Nancy's done a beautiful job at building relationships and we're continuing to strengthen and deepen that network. And so I think that's going to help. And I also think just some of the events in the community, right, that happened over this last year has really impacted families and um we deal with a highly mobile population. Um and it also is directly related to how much housing we have in St. Cloud. So we would expect that
033sometimes if there if the housing get continues to be full that we may not have as many transitional families or vice versa we may have more because there's just not housing for them. But sometimes our mobile populations will seek communities that do have housing. So then what who we're serving would go down as well. So it we expect it to fluctuate, but I think most of it was just our data keeping and we're cleaning it up a little bit and then building those new relationships. >> Thank you. >> Um the police had indicated that there was a certain population that want to to homeless. That do not want for housing provided that they rather camp outside because there's more freedom. And generally the freedom has to do with drug use. Um how do how do
034we work with kids of parents like that? >> I I can speak to that a little bit. Um typically the people who are camping outside are not camping out with children. That's pretty rare in this area. So um that's another whole topic that I would love to talk to talk about cuz it's a passion of mine. Now is probably not the time to talk about it, but um we don't have too many kids who are tenting outside. We have a few that are are in cars and that sort of thing under different circumstances. But that's typically not the the folks that we're seeing at the school district. >> I think you indicated there's 742 uh enrolled uh homeless kids. Well, what percentage of that of our population? >> Um the I think the 742 is
035the district. I think that No, that's okay. Um so it was kind of that 800 versus um 360 right around there. So what was your question of of those numbers who are >> Yeah, what percentage of our total enrollment is 800? >> Somebody would have to do the math. >> Uh we'd have to how many how many students we have versus >> First of all, 3% of our total students are currently enrolled and the last year it would have been right around that same >> Mhm. >> Okay, thank you. >> Mhm. >> I get the privilege of closing this out again. Um and I just want to say thank you so much. This is crucial work often um unseen, right? Um by a broader uh district or broader St. Cloud community. And so, um that
036you were you are doing this work every day and that you brought it for us to to be aware of and to um to support. We're super grateful and um one of the um I think one of the jobs of any leader um is to build a great team. And so, Christa, I want to say kudos to you for hiring this uh beautiful human who's sitting here beside you. Um many of us know Nancy and if you don't know her, you know that she has been um tied to uh working with transitional and homeless and um student underserved students um in this community for decades. And so, that you would come choose us um and be part of Christa's team and this 742 team uh just means so much to the students and families and
037and staff here. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh we're grateful for you. >> Thank you so much. Happy to be here. Thank you. And then, Christa Potter, director of technical programs and multilingual student services will stay for one more uh information item tonight is the 2026 summer programming review. >> There we go. Okay, a little better. All right. So, we've got some exciting summer things. Again, a nice fun hat I get to wear um to organize all our summer programs. Um so, here's just kind of a highlight. These are the ones that we run pretty much every year. Um they seem to work. Uh kids like them, families like them, and they meet the needs that we have um for our students in the summer. So, we have extended school year, which is um I'll
038get into that in a minute, but K-5 targeted services, 6-7 targeted services, some secondary credit-bearing opportunities, and then we also offer credit recovery. So, ESY programs. So, these programs are specific and they serve students who require that special education service in the summer, and it's based on their IEP. And so, we have programs for absolutely all ages, and um that includes our our journey students, as well. Elementary targeted services, these are for our elementary friends, K through 5. There's two different sessions. Um we bundle them based on what side of town they live in, um based on transportation. And so, we're excited this year to partner with the Great Theater. They're going to come in and do like a play in the week. Um so, one thing we love about summer, and I hear it
039from the teachers and the students, is that they begin to love teaching again, and they love school again. It's just a fun environment where they get reading and math. Um we do some LEGO kits enrichment. The kids really love that. Um and then with this Great Theater partnership, that ability to partner with our community, um to provide that enrichment is is really great for our elementary friends. Middle school this year, we're going to have a couple different sessions for the north side and the south side. Those are happening both at North Junior High. Um and for this one, we've got some really cool enrichment. Somebody's coming in to do some 3D printing and comic books. So, the students will get to design their own comic character and either comic strip or book, and then create
040and print 3D print their character. Um they're going to have an art class with a local artist. And then, we also have somebody doing some strength strength training and sports movement. Um it's kind of like a sports sampler, but they're going to focus a lot on just that supporting confidence and teamwork. Um and so, getting the students up and moving and just highly engaged. Again, really small class sizes. Um just highly engaging and a really great place for those sixth and seventh graders to be in the summer when they kind of want to sleep in and play video games all day. >> [laughter] >> Um ninth grade, we've got an opportunity for eighth graders going into ninth grade, um to kind of help that transition. And it's kind of a two-for-one cuz they get a
041credit. So, already starting to look at graduation as they go into ninth grade, they could start out day one already having [laughter] a credit toward graduation. But really it bridges that gap between eighth grade, ninth grade. I get to see my new high school. I get to build some relationships. See, you know, some social connections with my peers. And just kind of gives them a preview for what high school is like. It can be a little anxiety-inducing. And so the more familiar you are, sometimes you just can show up with better confidence. So. We also are going to offer a newcomer health class again. So this is specific to students who have recently arrived to the United States. And they are receiving English instruction, intensive English instruction. It's often difficult for them to get that
042intensive English instruction and fit all the credits in they need to graduate. So this eases the pressure just a little by allowing them to take that health required credit for graduation in the summer. So we have a class of 30 that will be able to get that health credit. And then we offer the full range for credit recovery of students who are needing to recover credits, whether they're ninth through 12th grade. And they'll access those directly at the ALC. And then I already mentioned that ninth grade opportunity, which is also credit bearing. We'll have obviously the free meals and free transportation. We use our district transportation as well as this year a nutritional services, our own nutritional services will be providing free meals. And those meals that are served at the sites, they have to
043be what are called open sites, which is a great thing because that means that other students in the community can come and get those free meals at the schools during the time that it is served. So there will be postings on each of the doors of during the days of summer school. And if students need to come and or want to come and get a free meal, they can do that. Any questions about the summer? Does anybody have any questions or comments? Scott? >> Yeah, right at the beginning you used the acronym ESY. What is that? >> Yes, it stands for extended school year. And it is specific for those students um who are in special education and their IEP or their individualized plan says that they need to utilize summer break for some of
044their education. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> This is wonderful to see and it's so nice to see the transportation cuz that would just be a deal breaker for people to be able to get there. So, and the meals are wonderful. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to our action items. Uh first up we have Amy Skalicky, Executive Director of Finance and Business Services presenting the multi-purpose athletic change order totaling $161,612. Thanks Amy for coming and uh explaining this to us. >> Okay, good evening Chair Hall, Superintendent Putnam, school board members. Um normally we see change orders on consent agenda, um but we normally don't see change orders this large. And so uh we want to make sure that um we are explaining why we have a large change order um
045and and not just, you know, trying to to look like we're trying to sneak something through cuz we're not. Um so, a little bit of background and context, um what the change order is related to. Uh this is for the Apex multi-purpose athletic facility. Um originally, uh the um the mezzanine, so the kind of the second level of the building, um in the original bid was scheduled to have a metal railing system. Um the the reasoning for that was was budget driven. Uh we went to tour the Rogers facility um over the summer. Uh they had a glass um railing system that everyone saw and said, "Ooh, we really like that." Uh and the architects said, "Yes, so do we, but we probably can't afford that." Uh so, um our base uh bid that we
046had uh included the metal rail system. Um we're at a point now where uh fortunately bids came in favorably, and so we'd like to proceed with changing to the glass system. Um so, I do have some photos here um just to it kind of show what we're what we're talking about. Um so, this is the Rogers facility. Um this is their uh railing system. Um so, this first picture is um the view from the mezzanine looking down. Uh and then field uh looking up at the mezzanine. So, a much cleaner look um than what a metal system would would um be. And safer, right? Any sort of metal system, um there's that ability to to climb it, and so we don't want that. Um um has a a little bit more of an industrial uh
047look with um kind of large mounting brackets. Uh our system is a little bit different. Um ours will will look more like this where it's um uh a kind of a little bit sleeker panel in between. Not It will not be a There will not be an ocean. We will not have this kind of view, unfortunately. Sorry. Uh we don't have that within our budget, [laughter] so. Uh, so picture of turf field on the other side of this glass railing. And not quite as high cuz this is a little little high. Um, but yes, our railing will look uh, our system will look much more similar to this with um, a little bit of a more sleek streamlined bracket in between. Um, so really there's two change orders that we're approving. There's a change order
048um, that's about $206,000 um, to add the glass with the glass contractor uh, and then that's offset by a credit um, to the steel company to remove the metal railing. So, uh, and that's out to about a $160,000 increase um, which is clearly within the scope of um, and budget uh, or we wouldn't be here. >> [laughter] >> Are there any questions? >> Okay. Scott, this is an action item. Uh, oh, I need a motion first. Motion. >> [laughter] >> Just moving this meeting along here. Um, looking for a motion to approve the multi-purpose athletic facility change order totaling $161,612. >> So moved. >> I have a motion by Diana, a second by Natalie. Now, Scott, can you call vote? >> [clears throat] >> All right. Gina Acevedo. >> Good job, Scott. >> [laughter] >>
049Yes. >> Uh, Scott Andreasen, yes. Natalie Copeland. >> Yes. >> Dr. Houle. Diana Fenton. >> Yes. >> Shannon Haas. >> Yes. All right, thank you. Uh, we have one more action item tonight. We have um, very exciting approval of the list of graduates for Apollo and Tech High School. And this is being presented by Dr. Jason Harris, Assistant Superintendent [snorts] of Secondary Education. >> Good evening, Chair Haas, Superintendent Putnam, and board members. Uh, you have in front of you uh Apollo graduate list for the class of 2026. I think uh we have around about 280 students that on this list uh that are going to walk across the stage and finish out their career with us uh in K-12 education or E-12 education. And then you have a second list of uh Tech High School
050graduates and there's about 393 students on this list that are going to walk across the stage for uh Tech High School on uh was May 30th? Uh and a combination about 675 students that are going to walk across the stage for both graduations. So, administration's looking for approval for the list of Apollo High School and Tech High School graduation list. >> Okay. So, looking for a motion to approve the list of graduates for both Apollo and Tech High School. >> So, moved. >> Uh again, I have a motion by Diana Diana and a second by Natalie. Scott, last time to call vote, I believe. Please. >> Shannon Haas. >> Yes. >> Diana Thetford. >> Yes. >> Zach Dorholt. >> Yes. >> Natalie Copeland. >> Yes. >> Scott Andreasen Jazz. Gina Acevedo. >> Yes. >> All
051right. Thank you. Uh moving on to a discussion item. We have the second reading for proposed revised board policy 2 204 and this is being presented by Superintendent Dr. Laurie Putnam. >> Thank you, Chair Haas. Um tonight I'm bringing you the second read of board policy 204, which is school board meeting minutes. Um this was the one where we were just noting uh to be to bring it up to date that we would publish our meeting minutes both in the local newspaper, which is required by statute, along with on our website. Otherwise, there were no questions uh from last meeting. Um and that was just a reminder of what's changing. >> Okay. And then we're rolling into another second reading is proposed revised board policy 205 open closed and special and emergency meetings again being
052presented by Superintendent Dr. Lori Putnam. >> Thank you so much, Chair Hayes. Again, this is the second read. Um there were no questions or concerns last time, but we're bring bringing it forward. Um and this was simply formatting changes uh related that again aligned us to MSBA uh model policy. >> Okay. Looking good. Then those will be on the consent agenda next time. Moving on to reports. First up we have superintendent's report. Again, our superintendent Dr. Lori Putnam. >> Perfect. Thank you so very much. I'm just going to >> [clears throat] >> transition here. Um good evening again. I am very excited to um share a few exciting updates. Um first and foremost um is a celebration um of the work of Dr. Harris and uh and uh Willhite and Sarah Ware and um they
053uh recently uh earned us uh a partnership with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry for a youth skills training program. Um it comes with a $100,000 of funding um to develop youth skills um and uh in partnership with manufacturing in this community. So, thank you to Dr. Harris and team. That's life-changing for our kids. So, great [snorts] work there. Um we want to also uh celebrate um uh again you I think you saw it last time, but I just had to call it again that Justin Schaller and Sasha Hanson represented on the North Side for the Central Division Principals of the Year um by MASP MA SS P for uh Central Minnesota. Um and then just a few other um, shout outs, so um, congratulations to um, the Tech Morning Show for students who
054earned 13 nominations and brought home four awards, continuing their domination, which is feels like an aggressive word, and yeah, I think it's appropriate, um, their domination of the awards, uh, um, uh, the Midwest, I'm going to say it, the Upper Midwest Foundation Student Production Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which is very serious, so congratulations to them and uh, their thank you to them for their hard work. >> Um, then we have the Board of Education Standing Committee reports. I believe we have three, um, so Achievement Integration Equity Board Committee Chair Diana Fenton. >> Thank you, Chair Haas, Superintendent Putnam, and members of the board. The Achievement Integration and Equity Committee met this morning. Kate Bychowski, um, prepared and shared the attendance, behavior, and achievement data. Um, this was a comparison
055to the mid review she did in January, um, where we compared the data from fall and winter, and overall comparisons from last year at this point. The spring data will be analyzed at the completion of the school year. Um, and second, uh, Krista Potter, she prepared a report on the summer programming that was presented here at the board meeting tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. And then we have Personnel Negotiations Board Committee Chair Natalie Copeland. >> Thank you, Chair Haas. We met yesterday, um, and talked about four things. So, the administration outlined the need for 10 additional paid days in 2026-2027 school year for Business Services, Technology Services, and Human Resources departments to support the preparation and implementation of the Skyward system conversion, which we've been hearing about. Um, in addition, five extra days were
056approved for Katie Herbold and Amy Skalicky in recognition of the significant time commitment and leadership required for this work. Administration also informed us the committee about the internal search for principal position at Kennedy Community School. The superintendent also pretended presented her 25-26 goal summary and the committee provided feedback. We're going to be preparing a draft evaluation the summary of the superintendent's 25-26 performance for board review. On June 3rd, we'll be in a closed meeting before our regular school board meeting for the evaluation of the superintendent followed by a public report during the board meeting and hint hint it's going to be good. So, >> [laughter] >> I'm looking forward to that. >> Thank you. And then we have Gina Acevedo filling in for Heather Weems to report the finance and audit board committee. >> Thank
057you, Chair Haas. I will shorten this a little bit since Amy just shared all of this detailed information a few minutes ago. Board Finance Committee met on May 11th, 2026. Amy shared information on a large proposed change order for the Apex project. The district included a steel rail system in the original bid. Bids for the project came in favorably and now there's room in the budget to make a change. There will be an increased change order for a net increase of about 160,000. The committee recommended we proceed with the change which will be on the May 20th board meeting. There's also a a need to schedule an additional board finance committee meeting in June to discuss the 27-28 LTFM budget that has to be submitted to MDE in July. The committee members agreed on Wednesday,
058June 10th at 1:00. >> Thank you. Last we have future agenda items. The June 3rd, 2026 board meeting topics will include system-wide literacy progress and next steps, summary evaluation of superintendent, policy readings, preliminary 2026-2027 budget presentation. At this time, does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item? Okay, wonderful. Looking for a motion to adjourn tonight's board meeting. I have a motion by Diana, a second by Natalie. All in favor, say I. Opposed? Okay, meeting is adjourned at 7:29. Thanks for watching. Have a good night.