001information can be found on the district website. 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 their surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Heather, 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 when you're ready, can you please call roll? The following board members are present at the district administration office. Scott Andre >> here. >> Natalie Copeland >> here. >> Al Dalgrren >> here. >> Zack Dohalt >> here. >> Diana Fenton >> here. >> Shannon Hos here. >>
002Heather Williams here. The following cabinet members and staff are present at the district administration office. Superintendent Dr. Lorie Putnham. Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Jason Harris. Assistant Superintendent of E5 Learning Nikki Hansen. Executive Director of Community Education and Community Partnerships, Shannon Avenson. Executive Director of Finance and Business Services, Amy Scallarude. Executive Director of Innovation and Technology Services, Katie Herbalt, Executive Director of Operations, Ma Matthew Boucher. Executive Director of Special Education, Danny Mayor, Media Technicians, Paul Novc and Gordy Scott. Custodian on site is Emerson Beamer. >> Thank you. And can I get a motion to approve tonight's board of education meeting agenda? >> So move. >> Have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote? >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Shannon Hus, >> yes. >> Heather Williams, yes. >>
003Al Dogrren, >> yes. >> Zack Dohalt, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Scott Anderson, >> 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. On tonight's consent agenda, item A, approval of board minutes from November 5th, 2025, November 10th, 2025, November 19th, 2025, and November 24th, 2025. We've been busy. Item B, approval of bills and other financial transactions in the grand total amount of $7,43,963.33 cents. Item C, approval of personnel staff changes. Item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. Item E, approval of monthly financial report for October 2025. Item F, approval of monthly treasures
004report for October 2025. Item G, bid award, tech singleuse restaurant restroom, excuse me, restroom remodel. Item H, bid award, Apollo renovations and additions bid package one. Item I, call for bids, multi-purpose athletic facility bid package two. And item J, call for bids, Tahi parking lot. At this time, does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? Uh, Chair House, I'd like to remove D um because I'll need to abstain from that. >> Okay. And so looking for a motion to approve um A through J except for item D. >> So move a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote? >> Al Dalgrren, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Heather Williams, yes. Natalie Copeland or sorry Scott wait yes this [laughter] yes yes >> yes
005Natalie Copeland Scott and >> yes >> Zack door halt >> yes >> Shannon Hos >> yes >> sorry [laughter] okay then um uh Natalie is recusing herself from item D but we need to approve the item and so looking for a motion to approve item D acceptance of grant awards and donations. So move second. >> I have a motion by Scott, a second by Al. Heather, can you call vote except for Natalie? >> Zack Dorhalt. >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Scott Andre, >> yes. >> Al Dalgrren, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Heather Williams, yes. >> Thank you. Okay, we have two information items tonight. First up, we have the immunization policy compliance update. And um oh the so Kate uh Budcowski >> oh my gosh uh director of student services is
006presenting tonight. Thank you for all this work. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. Um it's really our um our nurses and our equity staff and our boots on the ground who have been definitely um working hard to make phone calls and work with families. Um we've had great partners in Centricare and Aslon Health working to bring clinics on site. Um, so it has definitely been a um I won't call it a labor of love, but it's definitely been a great partnership with a lot of people trying to um pull us back from where we started, which was at about 2600 kids um back in August, if you remember when we first talked. Um and so we're getting there. It's kind of like um a giant iceberg. And so it's one little chunk at a
007time. Um but you know, once it starts to melt, as you know, it starts slow and it it starts moving a little bit faster. So, um, this is our current status literally as of I had the most recent number sent to me at 4:00. So, um, and it's we are down 100 from yesterday. >> So, um, we sent out our final letters yesterday. So, these are our, um, current numbers. So, 948. This is the first time we have seen under a thousand since we started. So, that was super exciting to see. Um the numbers in the parentheses are the numbers of students who would be affected by exclusion on January 5th. Students who are in um transitional housing or homeless or in foster care would not be affected by exclusion. We have kids who have
008upcoming appointments that we have verified and we are allowing those students to stay as well as students on catchup schedules. So that's 179 students in that pile. Um, and as you can see, you know, I obviously our bigger buildings are are tend to be our ones with with more students out. Um, but they're coming slow but sure. Um, these are the things that we've done. Um, sorry for the small print, but it all had to all get on there, right? Um, so August and September was really about that communication plan. um updating outreach um making sure that we have alignment across our systems and access to staff or access for families. Um we started with a full district sky alert and email to all of our families so they were aware of the shift. Um
009September through November we started with our non-compliance letters in August. We sent a second one in around MEA. Um we had call centers in every building to call all families at the beginning of November. Um, we had ongoing follow-up calls out of our nurs's office. Um, we set up a notary with uh Laura Moreno at the district office from 8:00 to 4 every day, Monday through Friday. We also have notary access on site at Apollo and Discovery and Tawahi simply because we have access in those places. We now as of this week have a notary at um no it was Apo it was Tech Oakill and Discovery and now as of this week we also have one at Apollo. Um, and then weekly emails, Skylerts, and texts were sent to families starting at Thanksgiving along
010with pop-ups on the district website. Um, and we had tables set up at all of our fall conferences um staffed with nursing. Beginning of January, we had on-site clinics offered at our secondary schools, Tilahi, Oakill, and Discovery to um we had some opportunities with some gener generous donors um in our community that helped make those happen as well as um our community schools um money and some some title dollars that were able to assist with that. So, we were grateful for that. Um we continued with the weekly emails and texts. Um on our last PD day 125, we did another second round of full calls with nursing and equity staff. Um we sent our third non-compliant letter last week. Um we sent the final exclusion letter went out yesterday. Um and we had tables at
011Dukie last Saturday. Um, and we're working with uh Shannon and the welcome center on monitoring new enrollments because that's a little bit of a messier system because families have 30 days to submit records after enrollment and so we're having to kind of set up some monitoring and oversight for that. So, we've got our January 5th exclusion date coming up. Um, we've got nursing and equity staff working on December 30th and January 2nd. We're going to office here out of the district office um to update anything that we receive over break and we're also going to offer if for families will put out some communication the nights before to say, "Hey, we're here from 9 to 1. Um and then nurses will work after that doing data entry to say if you need help setting up
012an appointment, if you need a notary, if you need signed paperwork, um Centric Care is still going to work with us for doing some on-site clinics after break. Um we're here to help. Just come on in." Um, and super grateful for those staff who are willing to come in over their break to do that. Um, and then on January 5th, um, Jason and Nikki and I have been working with leads to have a plan for families coming in, >> um, if the kids happen to come off the bus, >> um, to say, "Hey, you got to come in, but if you come in and we haven't, you know, you can help you set up an appointment, we can get you a waiver if that's what you're asking for. Um, or we can sign you up
013for a centric care here. We have the paperwork right here and if you do that your kid can go right back to class. So, um that is kind of the state of the union when it comes to immunizations. Any questions? >> Anybody [clears throat] have any questions or Scott? It's nice to see this really going. Uh your people have worked very hard on it. um harder than I can remember in any past years. What happened in the past? >> Um I in regards to to the efforts to get us compliant, I just don't know. Um historically, [clears throat] we've not talked about the exclusion was not part of district practice. Um I'm not sure where how that started, but kind of once the board kind of made a decision to say we're going to ensure
014that we're following our policy, um I guess I'm a firm believer that what you allow you allow and we had kind of a responsibility really to make sure that we did everything possible knowing that this was a huge shift for families who have been aware that it's a policy like we sent out letters forever. Um but we haven't we haven't implemented it. We haven't required it. And so now that we're requiring it, we really wanted to make sure we did everything in our power to ensure families had access and support in becoming compliant so that we could have as few kids excluded by January 5th as possible. >> So basically, it's been state law for a long time. We just haven't enforced it. [clears throat] >> Correct. Yep. And and the good news is is
015I don't anticipate we'll ever end up back here again because we're going to work really hard to make sure that we we have things in place to prevent that. Scott, since you've been on the board for a long time, you know that we haven't been enforcing this. Um, and that's not uncommon in many districts. Um, so I I know that there are people who are paying attention and I just want to be very clear that um, we are not alone in that. Um, and um, and I just want to say thank you to our team who has done a a [clears throat] really good job um, to make it happen this year. >> Yep. Welcome. Thank you guys. Yeah, it's an impressive list of actions taken. So, thank you. >> Yeah, a work of many.
016So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks. >> Okay. Information item tonight. We have the presentation of final 2020 20 excuse me 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy certification. Uh presenting is Amy Scallarude, executive director of finance and business services. Okay. Good evening, Chair Hos, Superintendent Putnham, school board members. I don't know why it's not presenting. >> There we go. All right. [laughter] Okay. So, we are here tonight to do the final property tax uh levy certification. Um this is always a two-step process. We do the preliminary in September that the board approves. Um and then uh after any new referendums that are approved in November, um and final uh changes through the state system, um then it comes back to the board in December for that final approval. >> [clears throat] >> So, there's
017a few things that um by statute are required to be covered as part of um what's called the truth and taxation hearing. Uh we have to go over the levy and we also have to review the current year budget which we will do very briefly because we've all seen it before. Um, and then there's an opportunity after the presentation for public comment, which I don't suspect we have anyone who's going to walk in for, but we do, um, again in accordance with statute have, um, that opportunity if there was, uh, a need or a desire for somebody to come and do that. Uh, so, school district levies, there's three components, um, three funds that have, uh, levy components. The general fund, um, the community education fund, and the debt service fund. Uh the general fund
018is primarily based on enrollment. Um and community education fund levy is for the most part based on population. Um so each of the levy components are have statute calculations on how they're they're derived. Um but the majority of the levies um in those two funds are driven on those based on those two items. The third levy is the debt service fund levy. Um, and that's really just based on the debt service schedules and what we have to pay in any given year for principal and interest on any debt. Um, that can be voter approved debt, uh, like a referendum or that can be board authorized debt, um, like our long-term facilities maintenance bonds, um, is a good example of that. In terms of how our levy um, allocates out between the funds, the majority of
019the levy, uh, 54% is the general fund. Um and then the next largest is the debt service fund at just over 43% and community education is a relatively small uh percent of the amount we levy. These percents are pretty comparable to last year. We do see a little bit of an increase in the percentage for debt service just because of the um recently approved referendum um and that increase on the debt service levy. So in total uh the district levy increased by $1,658,929.14 which was a 4.7% increase. Um and this is probably I think the first time since I've been here that this is the exact same number that was presented in September. There were no changes. There were no corrections um anything um that MDE had to fix u from September to now. Um,
020and so this is tonight what we look at will be exactly what we went through in September. So we will uh we'll try to do a little bit of an abbreviated version because there's really no no new news. [snorts] Um, now we'll quickly just look at um an overview of the current year 2526 budget. Again, it's required as part of that truth and taxation presentation to go over it. We are not going to go over all of these numbers. Um, but what you see presented is the total revenues and expenditures for all of the district funds. Um, it's approximately $212 million in total with the majority of that about $180 million um being the general fund where the the majority of the district's operations um are accounted for. When we look at how that breaks
021out, um this shows the revenue by source. uh that largest piece of the pie is the revenue from uh state sources and so we are predominantly state funded. Uh 71.49% of our revenue is coming from state sources. Um and then uh really the property tax is a relatively small percent. Um the property tax is that um kind of black uh piece of the pie and that makes up about 16.7% of our total revenue. Um this is how it breaks down by fund. Again, the largest piece of the pie is the general fund. Um as we said before, that's where the majority of our operations uh take place. Um and then debt service and special revenue funds um are about equal and the special revenue funds uh in uh includes both food service and community education.
022[clears throat] Uh then when we look at um the next slide that's expenditure by fund. So, uh, pretty much an exact same distribution of what we just looked at, which makes sense. You would expect to see, uh, a similar allocation of revenues and expense expenses between the funds if you have a balanced budget, which we do. Um, and so no, uh, no really surprises there. And then if we focus on the general fund um, just for a second uh, because again that's where the majority of our activity takes place. Um, this then shows how that spending in the general fund breaks down um, by category. And so you can see uh the largest uh dollar amount and the largest share of our budget is in general um regular instruction about $69 million followed by special
023education at about 45 million. Um and then instructional support services and transportation are the next two largest after that at about 11.7 million each. And then visually um that is just how that breaks down. Um if we look at that kind of bottom twothirds of the chart, um those are what we would call the instructional categories. So regular instruction, special education instruction, and vocational or CTE instruction. Um and so that is really making up um the vast majority of our district spending at about 65% um of everything we spend is in those direct instructional areas. >> [snorts] >> Um, as far as how school district uh levies are determined, everything is um is uh set in one of two ways. It's either set by a state formula through the legislature. Um, so again, completely out
024of our control uh or it is voter approved. Um, and so those are the only two ways that school districts um can get a levy added or get levy authority. Um and most of those state formula levies are um based on a calculated dollar amount um not a certain percent tax rate. So we see other taxing jurisdictions like counties and cities set a tax rate. If they need to increase their revenue, they can increase their tax rate. Um we don't have that luxury. Uh we are bound by kind of those dollar amount calculations um that are set in statute. Uh so here is the actual levy information um broken down by fund. So we'll start with the general fund. Again uh nothing has changed from September. So we are not going to go line by
025line. Uh the one thing that I do always like to point out and recommend is that those first two lines are zero. Um those first two lines is where if we had a a voter approved operating referendum that revenue would show up. And we all know we don't have a voter-approved operating referendum. Um and so those lines are zero and have um have historically been zero. Um so I do always like to point that out. Um otherwise everything is pretty comparable um from year to year. A little bit of an increase in kind of the general enrollment driven uh revenue as we've seen enrollment start to trend up the last few years. Um and then a um intentional um shift on lines 10 and 11. uh we knew that we had a large lease levy
026adjustment that was going away and that levy was going to go up. And so that long-term facilities maintenance levy um was intentionally reduced a little bit um for this levy just to balance that out and keep that tax um impact between the two uh relatively neutral. Uh community education, again a very small uh percent of the overall levy um but very comparable year-over-year. Um and actually the community education levy had a slight decrease um from the prior year uh primarily coming um just from from changes in that that census information. And then debt service is the last component of the levy. Um this uh is does have an increase which was anticipated because of the voter approved um operating referendum. the increase is less than what we would have expected. Um and that's partially due
027to um some large debt service fund balance adjustments. And so uh particularly in years like we have had recently [snorts] where interest rates are high. When we generate a lot of interest revenue into the debt service fund, um the state looks at that and says, "Well, you have that interest revenue to help pay your principal and interest payments. You've essentially overlevied your taxpayers. Uh we're going to give them back their their money." um and they do a negative adjustment to to kind of take back that um fund balance that they consider excess and over a certain amount. So that's why we have um a large decrease there in that long-term facilities line um and our increase in our normal uh debt payments because of the the recently approved referendum was less than we expected. And
028we'll see how that impacts the tax impact compared to what was um presented during the referendum in just a little bit. So then again when we look at all three funds together um just under uh 1,659,000 for the increase which is 4.7%. Uh this just shows a uh multi-year comparison. Um as we can see we have had our levy increasing um kind of historically over the years presented. On the general fund side of that um there's two pieces driving that increase. Um one of those is uh enrollment. as we've seen enrollment starting to increase over the last few years. Um there's some enrollment related increases there. And then also um we've been intentionally increasing our annual long-term facilities maintenance levy um which is part of the general fund levy um over those years to make
029sure that we have adequate money to address all of our facility needs. And then the same thing on the debt service side. Um there's a few large bumps on the debt service. Um there were two rounds of uh LTFM bonds that the board approved and then in the most recent year that would be um the recent referendum for Apollo and the multi-purpose facility. Um we don't have anyone here for public input. Um but often if uh people do come uh for truth and taxation presentations at public input um their property valuation is a subject of discussion. Uh so I always just like to remind the public that we don't set those valuations. Um that's usually the main change in property tax increases and decreases is the change in market values. Um and again we we
030don't set those. Um outside of that uh pretty much everything um that can drive the a tax increase or decrease is out of our control with the exception of a voter approved referendum. Um if that's something that the board approves um asking taxpayers to uh to support. Um, so again, changes in market value, we don't set those. Those show up on your county statements. Um, and so those are not a a topic of discussion um that that we can have um at our truth and taxation hearing. Uh, in terms of tax base for our area, uh, we're we're kind of back to what I would say kind of more the average or the normal. Um if we look at 20 uh 22 23 we had that 15% B bump when the market um had significant
031uh valuation increases. Um and then last year was uh kind of abnormally low at only a 1.2% growth. um the tax capacity change uh just over 5% um for this uh tax payable year um is really kind of an average uh over the years and much more in line with what we would expect um to see. Uh so then when we look at the election in the referendum, so when we uh we use a $250,000 house um and the estimated tax impact was $39.96. uh based on everything that's happened with our levy um and the growth in our tax capacity um if if your valuation had had remained unchanged um you actually would have seen a $7.93 decrease. And so if you have a property tax statement at home and your valuation didn't change, your
032school portion of your taxes actually has gone down. Um that's not always realistic that your valuation hasn't changed. Um so if we apply the the market increase of 5.2% 2% um then you'd see about a $34 increase. But we also have to remember that that 5% increase in the our tax capacity isn't necessarily every individual homeowner's property going up 5%. That's also new growth, new taxpayers, new businesses. Um and so generally we're not seeing the average homeowner have a 5% um increase in their value. Um, if you look at your property tax statement, even if you did and you were on that high end, your tax impact is still less than what, um, would have been presented or what you would have been expecting, um, postreferendum. Um, and so, uh, we just wanted to, it's
033always good to report back to make sure that the public is aware that, um, we didn't say one thing and and do another. Um, we are actually, uh, looking at a lower tax impact than, um, what people would have been expecting. And so this just then shows that same kind of information um but at multiple and I know that it's small but it's in the um it's in the board packet. Um and so this again is if your valuation had a 0% change um what that would look like at various um tax cap or taxable values. Um but again it it really across the board um that would have been a decrease. So, if your property tax didn't change, it doesn't matter the valuation if your or it doesn't matter what your um home value
034is. If it stayed the same as last year, you're going to see a decrease in your school taxes. And then um this is that same presentation um with that 5.2 um% increase in our tax base. And then the last thing we always like to do is look at how we compare to everyone else. Um and so we are the fourth line down. Uh and so as you can see um we are and have been and continue to be um quite a bit lower than all of our neighboring districts. And then we also added the statewide average which we haven't shown um in the past but I think is also helpful to see. Um and so we are lower than the statewide average as well. Um so this is based on a $280,000 house which is
035actually our average now um as of um as of this tax cycle. That's gone up a little bit from where we were at for the referendum. Um but on that $280,000 house, our tax um liability is about $792 compared to a statewide average of about $1,043. Um and then Sartell um in this graph on the high end uh is at about 1,350. So quite a bit lower um than all of our our neighboring districts. So that is what I have. if there's questions. Anybody have any questions or comments? Okay. So, I'm formally going to um pause and announce that at this time, um the school board presents an opportunity for public input on the final 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy certification. Seeing we have nobody here for uh public input, we will move on
036to the action um part of this which we need to approve again the final 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy certification um recommended by administration. So looking for a motion to approve the in the certification amount of 36,956,515.79. Al >> just going to make a comment and then I'll a motion. But just based on the number of people that are here to comment on this tonight, I think it's to the district's credit. We said that we weren't going to raise property taxes by a lot this year and we didn't raise property taxes by a lot this year. And that's in a year when property taxes are going through the roof across the entire state. So the counties and the cities haven't done the same type of work that we did. And I think that we
037should be very proud that we were able to hold the line on taxes and and come back uh with uh increase actually lower than what we had promised. So that's that's a great job. And with that, I'll move that we approve the 2026 uh 20 final 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy certification. >> Second. I have a motion by Al, a second by Scott. Any further discussion? Thanks for the comment, Al. Heather, can you call vote? >> Zack Dhold, >> yes. [clears throat] >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Algrren, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Scott Anderson, >> yes. >> Heather Williams, >> yes. Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> All right. Thank you, Amy. Next up, we are all ready for this. the approval of the naming of the ISD742 multi-purpose athletic facility.
038Um, welcome back Justin Scallarude. Thank you for coming back. Apollo High School principal. We got this. [laughter] All right. Superintendent reported back part of so I'm going to start by reviewing a little bit of you've seen some of these slides before but I think it's important to start just with you know where this process started with our board policy 899 the naming of school facilities. Uh we have seen the slide before just remembering that superintendent appoints the naming committee of 10 members. That's better. Okay. Superintendent appoints a naming committee of up to 10 members. Um that committee proposes two to three names and we're prepared to show um bring two names uh to the board today. the superintendent reviews and makes recommendations to the school board and the school uh school board approves the final
039facility name. And that group that uh we met with and I'll share a little bit of background on that was um a group of [clears throat] parent and community members. Uh there was school administrators were part of that. Uh teachers and staff, city and business community representatives, residents with local or historical knowledge, and then we also had students that were part of the process. And then when we talk about the naming categories, some of the the background that are in our policies, distinguished individuals, um geographic uh areas served by the school and significant local, state or national events. So, a little bit of background on our facility as we're um you've seen this a few times, but as we're getting into the process and and actually quickly approaching breaking ground, um this will be an
040indoor turf facility that gives access to play soccer, softball, lacrosse, and practice baseball, football, and golf. It also houses batting cages and golf simulators. And construction on the facility will begin May of 26 with the tenative completion date of April of 2027. Um little reminder on and background on the naming process. The naming committee met twice in August and once in October. Three names were presented at the schoolboard meeting on November 5th and names were narrowed down to the final two. And at that time a request was made to see uh names with logos. And tonight I have the opportunity um to show what a sample logo uh could look like. And keeping in mind that the focus of tonight is going to be on the naming portion. but what um an example logo could
041be. Uh we're going to review those final two names. We're going to see that samp uh some sample logos with each name option. Uh just a reminder, these are not final images. They are examples per the request and finalize a name for the multi-purpose facility. And this vote is for the name only and the logo will be brought at a later date um when we have some options to show you. And a reminder of what those uh two names were that uh we left here on November 5th with and the first one was Apex Athletic Center. Uh the word Apex reflects both the physical height of the facility and the goal of reaching the peak of athletic training and achievement. The name inspires students to strive for their highest potential while positioning uh the facility
042as a premier location for sports and for training. And this uh is an example of a sample logo. um [clears throat] playing on the word apex with athletic center and I can certainly go back to these once we get in the discussion. And then here is what that would look like on our building. Um this would be standing in the current Apollo staff parking lot and again that uh the logo and the naming would be also on veterans on the other side of the building too and then within the facility. So this would be option one, Apex Athletics Center. In option two, um the the majority of this paragraph is exactly the same um with the addition of the last line and that includes 742 uh for school district representation. And here is a sample
043logo with the Apex 742 Athletics Center. And here is that logo on building. Same vantage point standing um in the Apollo teachers parking lot uh on the south side of the building. And again you would see a logo would be branded on both sides. So these they are identical on both sides. So, this would be the south side uh the north side of the building standing on the south side of campus and then the other side would be on Veterans Drive. So, that is what I have. Um if anyone has any questions on those or uh would like to see any of the other pictures and then I will turn it over to the board for discussion on the name um of the facility. >> Okay. Anybody have any? >> Would you like the logo
044or the building? Okay. Anybody um have any thoughts? Um >> I do. >> Okay. Oh, go ahead. >> So, I mean, I'll start. I I guess I I know which one I'm going to vote for. I'm going to vote for the one without 742 in it because I think that when you put that 742 into the name like that, you've lost it. And there's a real opportunity for some 742 branding on the building also separately from the logo. Um, as I've said before, maybe over by the door somewhere or something like that, but to put the 742 logo, which would draw attention and brand that building so much better. You don't you I can't read from here. I can't read athletics complex. I can read Apex, but I can't I mean, you wouldn't really need
045that name under underneath, but you do. Um, but the the only thing I see is Apex. And when you put it with the 742, it's exactly the same. I can't see the 742. I don't really know what's there. And it's not part of our 742 branding the way that it's in there. It's just there and for no apparent reason. So, I would I would vote the the very first one. >> Heather, did you have a comment or you just ready for voting? Because I appreciate that, too. [laughter] Um, I would just say I align with Al that um I I actually want to say I like the depiction that apex is the primary um mark and what you see and then the words below it give context but not nearly as important. So I like
046the representation even though this may not be what it looks like in the end. Um but again I I think it's simple. Um 742 if you're not from the district doesn't have meaning to you and could be seen as an address of some sort. So I would um and I agree the 742 logo can be elsewhere on windows um other places that sort of thing. So I would also vote for that but I I like the depiction just that the focus is on Apex. Any other comments or I'll Scott go ahead. It's basically our money this building that I think we should have 742 not displayed prominently but like it is up there. >> You like that one? >> Yeah, I'd like that one. >> Okay. Any of you guys want to make a motion
047to approve that one? >> Which one? The all three of you are saying Apex Athletics. >> I'll make a motion to approve Apex Athletic Center or Apexetics. >> Is that what it say? I can't read it. >> There. Apex Athletic Center. >> Okay. Do I have a second? Okay. Have a motion by Al and a second by Heather. Any further discussion? >> All right. Seeing no further discussion, Heather, can you call vote? >> Scott Andre. No. [snorts] >> Natalie Copeland. >> Yes. >> Al Dalgrren. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Zack Doorhalt. >> Yes. >> Diana Fenton. >> Yes. >> Shannon Hos. >> Yes. >> Heather Williams. Yes. >> Sorry. >> And I thought you were holding. >> That's okay. Yeah. >> Um, I think it wasn't until I saw it on the on the
048building that I was like, that's just too much. And you got me with the put the 742 logo somewhere else and that's actually going to get what I was going after, right, which was, you know, saying thank you to the taxpayers. So, I think it's great. [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> And I'll say 100% the 742 logo should be incorporated into the building so that it's very obvious that it's a 742 building. >> Yeah. But it just it's not part of the >> name name of the building. >> Yeah, putting it in the name actually diminishes it whereas having this somewhere and branding I think is really important too. So yeah, thanks everybody that worked on that for all of the hours. Appreciate you. All right, thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, moving along here.
049We next up we have the approval of the 2026 27 high school course catalog presented by Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of secondary education. [laughter] Good evening, Chair Haw Superintendent Putnham, board members. Uh we're going to look for approval for the 2627 high school course catalog. Right now, currently you have 9th, 10th, 11th graders preparing for the 2627 school year and what courses they're going to take. And I know a few board members have uh kids that are in this process. So you could do a little formative assessment to check and see where they are uh around registration. So tonight we're going to look at the uh class registration process. We're going to look at the course catalog and we're going to go through some of the highlights of the course catalog. So it's a
050five-step process. It started last week and it'll go all the way until February. And so students last week got a chance to in advisory look at where they currently are around their graduation requirements. They need 63 credits to graduate. Students kind of individually have a sheet and they look and see where they currently are right now. Uh the second step of the process, they'll get a chance to kind of go through uh the credit check. Uh what was December 15th? Monday. >> Yeah. Today. No, Monday. Monday. Yeah. So, Monday they were in advisory going into it and making sure specifically what I'm gonna where am I at, right? And so, talk to your kids uh the few members or folks out there in the public uh around registration. When they come back from break, they'll
051see the registration video and then at the end of the week, January 8th, they'll get the registration form. We have conferences coming up January 15th. Uh so it's a registration part of uh conferences, information sessions for families to help them make informed decisions and help their students identify courses for uh the 2627 school year. And then at the end of the month, January 26, students will be begin registering. They register this year in their social studies classes uh for their courses. Here are the counselors at Tech. Uh you have two counselors in 9th grade. The four remaining counselors are 10 through 12 and they uh are highlighted by alpha last name. You have the Apollo counselors, you have one 9th grade counselor and then you have four counselors 10 through 12 alpha and then we
052have a CMVA counselor full-time. Now our CMVA population has grown and so we put resources to our CMVA. All right. So how are we supporting students around registration? I think one of the most important things is helping students know the pathway, the guidance, making it good informed decisions, helping and informing parents uh around uh gra uh course registration. So the conferences on the 15th, we have a social media campaign. Counselors do individual planning meetings. Our pathway coord coordinators do advisement meetings. We do large group registration and then the school web pages. So we do multiple ways to make sure kids are making informed decisions as well as seeing where they are and finding their interest to make good choices and decisions on their course registration. Uh here's the c let's go into the course registration
053guide. Uh, one of the things the guide hasn't changed, but our current uh, learning and teaching team is looking at revamping specifically the course catalog for the upcoming years in the sense of we're planning for the new renovation at Apollo. We're looking at a learning design. Right now, we have a career uh, college design team looking at pathways, learning post-secary options, and so they're looking to revamp that. But current students could go in. I'll just pull it up. Uh let's go over here. If I wanted to kind of see specifically uh let's go down to let's go into I'll go into health sciences, right? In the sense of uh if I'm a student, I like [laughter] I'm in I like the health pathway, right? If I'm working with my counselor and I find like I
054have taken courses specifically around that, here's how it's mapped out for them. One of the highlights uh around that is you have the emergency medical response course. You have the uh CNA certified uh program. This pathway was currently certified from the Minnesota Department of uh labor and industry as a certified program where we can take 16 and 17 year old students and do job training paid through a community partners. So helping students find their interest. Here it is kind of laid out in a scope and sequence uh around that for the students to choose. I'll pull up let's just see. So our new courses that we just talked about recently where you see uh the b uh special programs, you see the basic grade construction. So students see it now in the registration book. These
055were all our new course proposals for special programs. you see the construction heavy equipment. Uh when director Will Height was here a couple of weeks ago talking through uh the new courses, you see them here now in the handbook um around uh career pathways and special programs. So students get a chance to go through this. It's interactive and uh with their families, with their parents, and then the counselors. And so I just wanted to kind of touch base on a few highlights uh within the handbook. And so then I kind of just hit on the special programs or the new courses. When you look at it, these are preparing your kids for the future, right? Hands-on learning. We even got into the college of schools of business. Uh all the things that when students find
056their interest, how do we give them exposure uh within the experience of high school? And uh I thank our folks, shout out to our counselors, our uh building leaders, uh principal scholar, principal Kinsey, and their teams for uh really putting a good solid program together and how our students register. Any questions? Go ahead, Scott. >> I was wondering what kind of impact the renovation at Apollo is going to have on the course offerings. >> Yeah. So, uh I think when you heard uh principal scholar come a couple of weekends uh a couple of months ago when we looked at learning design, right? And so how we uh designed the facility around what we learned from tech around you can see the uh the show on the stage which you see in the glass and uh
057how we look at learning around skills and knowledge for uh programming. This is why this is so important. And that's why our folks are really looking at how we look at pathways to to learning. Right now, Minnesota changed it career wheel and the national career will was changed. So, it only behooves us to kind of look at how we redesign how learning looks. And so, when we get to Apollo and we've been talking about it from our stakeholder groups uh of how the design looks and we learned a lot from uh tech. I was just thinking that there's no renovation going on at tech and you can approach it one way whereas at Apollo we've got lots of changes going on and you're going to approach it a different way. >> No, the same way
058in the program around the pathways just now when we're looking at Apollo what we learned from tech, right? You see all the the kind of the teacher on the stage type of how that looks. That was something that was brought up on how we look at the design. When you look at Apollo, right, how the facility looks and how we look at the pathways are all the same. It's just now we've learned a lot from what we learned around programming at tech. And so how we program for Apollo is how we enhance because we're thinking about the future even further. We learned just recently uh 85% of the jobs for elementary kids are aren't even created, right? And so we're real mindful how we're designing learning for our students within uh now as we renovate
059Apollo. >> Okay. I don't know if this really has to do with this, but I just wanted to say that I would really [clears throat] we're in a market that's both metro and rural and we're a metro market surrounded by a lot of farming. And when we when we saw that map last week with all the dots on it and where all the attendees of their schools are in the city and it seems like we we must lose a lot of students in the rural, it makes me wonder if some form of agricultural pathway wouldn't do something to help retain rural students or whereas right now they're looking and saying, "Hey, I'm going to enroll in holding holding ford. That's more my I I'd gel better with those students. But if we had a really
060strong program in agricultural sciences and they were able to come here and get educational credit for that, would that would that help to retain some of the rural farming students and bring them into our schools? And I say that as a graduate of the University of Minnesota in agricultural business. >> I'm going to turn this over shortly to Jason Harris. But Al, I just >> our launch our we dipped our toes in on Monday when I got to judge be a judge at the future farmers of America um competition. their winter their winter summit was here and so um that was kind of our first first foray and I got to meet um some key players right in in uh agriculture education um and we Jason Dr. Harrison, I just got an invitation from uh
061the commissioner of agriculture uh and um uh Senator Putnham who chairs uh the egg committee um and we are setting up a meeting in January um to start developing that pathway. They um want to give us a grant and um help us with that. But Dr. Harris, I turn it to you. Uh >> yeah, no, I smiled because Al, you hit it right. We we were in conversations and this is it just didn't start. Lori just got found the right folks. But we started this conversation a couple years ago with Senator Putnham around a and we we know to your point look out at St. Joe and Kennedy and you go to the other end look at those facilities. How are we really utilizing to set set ourselves away from everybody and then keeping our
062students right? I think that's another pathway that uh Superintendent Putnham just is setting up for us to really look at because I think you're you're dead on when you when you hit that. >> Yeah, it's just it's an it's just such a natural for the area >> and it's a really strong science background is is what it is. And I'll tell you what, I learned more in the egg classes than I learned in any of the other classes when I was in school. So, it was a really interesting pathway through the U. And I think it also will will tie really interestingly with uh robotics, right? Because we know that the future of agriculture, right, is is so tied to engineering, coding, robotics development. And so we know that that will be an advanced pathway
063at Apollo. Um so it'll be, I think, a really nice marriage of of that um those two efforts as well. >> Yeah. We had a representative from the state a uh in our changemaker hub working with students to I'll let I'll turn it over to you. Uh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just had uh uh one of the representatives from Minnesota A with our changemaker hub working with our students and really talking about just what you just shared. >> And I know I made that comment before on veterinary, but that's right down the same path because veterinary is really focused on agricultural too. Yeah, >> I think in the in our design of looking at multiple pathways with the change of the Minnesota uh career will and the state and the national will are hitting
064on some of the things that you just talked about and that's why we were looking at how we redesign the uh our course catalog book. >> So the course catalog for this year doesn't include all the egg but hopefully next year. >> Yeah. when we start to really design as we uh we promised the our uh stakeholders what programming we were going to offer in the pathways at Apollo County what superintendent Putinham look like. This book will currently stay the same but our what we're doing now is planning for that 2728 book and how that looks. So you'll get a chance to see it when I come back next time. It'll be a different book course catalog. Thank you. Anybody else? [clears throat] >> This is a action item. We need to approve the 2026
0652027 high school course catalog. Do I have a motion to approve? >> I would move the approval of the 2627 high school course catalog. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Al, a second by Scott. Heather, can you call vote? >> Heather Williams, yes. Zack Dhold, >> yes. [clears throat] Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Al Dalgrren, >> yes. >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Scott Anderson, >> yes. >> All right. Thank you very much. One more action item on our agenda tonight is the approval of the 2026 2027 elementary school boundary redesign. Uh Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E5 learning, as well as Lori Putnham, our superintendent, are presenting. Yeah. Good evening, Chair H Superintendent Putnham and members of the board. Tonight, administration recommends the approval of the elementary
066boundary redesign process. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I know we had a lengthy discussion last time. Um, uh, looking for any questions or comments or I'll take a motion to approve. >> Heather, more just a comment. Um and and from a process perspective, um when we began this conversation six or so months ago, um I appreciate and and I guess as a board member and as a community member and as a former or as an administrator in a different field, but even so, um what I really look at is on the front end, do we get understanding of what the process will be? Do we understand the tools that will be used to evaluate the process? Um, are there opportunities for community feedback? Are there times where based upon community
067feedback there is listening hearing and sometimes pivots um based upon what you learn and then using all of those things that the techn and and I don't want to um from the very beginning uh the district talked about the importance of the use of the technology that's not now available that is very different than what has historically been available uh in terms of understanding um locations and densities and all of those tiny little dots and everything like that uh along with understanding mileage and and those sorts of things. I am empathetic that in these sorts of situations you cannot please everybody um and that um the these are emotional decisions and and they're difficult and you know these are uh kids and families and um friend groups and all sorts of things. Um, I also
068know, as we all do, that change is constant and we've gone a long time without doing a a full deep dive into uh elementary um redistricting. And based upon what I saw, based upon the reports we we heard, based upon the communication plan, um, to me, it satisfies that we went through the process. Um, I I know that not everybody feels this way, but having a child who went through Spanish immersion um at Clear View, I'm actually really excited about, particularly excited about um Kennedy and what that can offer. And I do understand that just like I live in St. Cloud and my um kids were in Clear View and we drove back and forth, I understand that it's not as convenient as sometimes we would like. Um but I certainly appreciated what they offered.
069Um, what I also know is that when my student in Spanish immersion went from Clear View to South, there was a transition and an interesting transition. Um, as he pushed back a little bit about that, um, all of a sudden being in a cohort where his other friends uh, were doing other classes, we had multiple conversations about whether he should continue. And I actually think that um the opportunities at Kennedy to do a K through 8 in one location uh to have the upper grade seven and 8 mentoring or working with um the kindergarten first second graders where I know that they can be very it can be really frustrating and isolating a little bit because you're sitting in a in a classroom where they're talking a different language that you don't already know. I
070think there's a really great opportunity there. Um and I think that um I am confident that in time, you know, a couple years from now, people will see the benefit of having and building that collaborative environment in a school that based upon presentations I've sat through the last couple years uh has the ability to present and create a community uh that is unique and and special in its own way. So um with that said, I am fully supportive. I have great confidence. Nothing is ever perfect. I wouldn't expect it to be. Um, but I and while I empathize with with folks and how hard these sorts of things are, I also believe highly in the process that was used uh and how the involvement and communication that took place over over the multiple months. >>
071Thank you. That was really good. [laughter] >> [snorts] >> Uh, do you want to make a motion to approve the the 2026 2027 elementary school boundary redesign? >> Yes, I will u make the motion to approve the elementary boundary redesign for 202627. >> And Diana has a second. Any further discussion? Okay, Heather, can you call vote? >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Zack Dorhalt, yes. >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. Scott Andre, >> yes. >> Aldrren, >> yes. >> Dina Fenton, >> yes. >> Heather Williams, yes. >> Okay. Thank you for all the work that went into that as well. Uh, moving on to reports. We have the superintendence report. Dr. Lori Plutam, our superintendent. [clears throat] >> Thank you so much, Chair. Is this working? >> Yes. Thank you. Um, I just have a couple
072things this evening. Uh first I would like to um say congratulations to the many support staff who received the education support staff or ESS award um from uh the it's sponsored by resource training and solutions. Um each of our buildings was able to our sites and our schools were able to nominate a deserving um support staff member whose hard work um and commitment to the district makes a lasting impact for our students, our families and their colleagues. Um, and I also want to say a thank you. Um, we heard uh Kate Wakowski reference uh generous donors and so I do want to say a public thank you to the Weedom Foundation, the JA Weedum Foundation um along with Tom and Janet Groonis um who were uh willing um to uh give uh funds to make
073sure that any families who did choose the avenue of immunization were able to receive those um without uh even regardless of insurance status. And so very grateful once again for this community that um that steps up and supports our our students and our families. Um and finally, I want to um uh say a thank you to Al Delgrren who once again um is is serving his final meeting um and uh his his service to uh this community to this board and his u [snorts] his wisdom and and guidance for me has been uh deeply appreciated and uh Al you will be missed by me and by many others. Thank you. Yes, we will all miss you deeply. Do you want to make some comments? But it has to be shorter than last time. [laughter] [gasps]
074Okay. Um and maybe you'll be back. So, >> you're ready for this one? Okay. Uh board of education standing committee reports. I believe we have three. Uh, achievement integration equity board committee chair Diana Fenton. >> Thank you, Chair Hos, Superintendent Putnham, members of the board. The achievement integration and equity committee meeting met this morning. Um, we debriefed on the professional development day that was offered on December 5th and discussed the work that was facilitated by World Savvy and helping facilitate 742 future ready by design with the changemaker hub. Um, the second thing that was presented this morning and was discussed was the data from the fall climate and culture survey and the efforts to align the surveys and the data with the new strategic plan. Thank you. >> And then we have a board development
075policy and governance committee chair Zach Dorhold. Do you have one? Nope. Okay. Um, finance and audit board committee chair Heather Williams. We met on December 8th. Uh we had project updates and change orders for the referendum projects. Amy reviewed the upcoming bid dates for the referendum projects. Once construction starts, there will be a need to have the construction managers present present at board meetings on construction process. So um we had a discussion on how often those updates should occur. For the Apollo renovations, the construction will span over two years. So presenting updates every month is probably not realistic. uh particularly during the school year um as construction will be limited while school is in session. Uh it was suggested to do a monthly report during the summer and then quarterly during the school year. Uh
076committee members also indicated that updates should include before and after pictures. Um for the multi-purpose athletic facility, uh we asked the architects and construction managers at what points during construction there would be significant progress that we'd want to present. And then that likely wouldn't be um every month, but possibly every month or quarterly. Uh the committee also had a discussion on change orders for these projects. Amy would like to have clear parameters as to when change orders need to be brought to the board finance committee before going to the board for approval. In the past, we used $50,000 as a threshold. Uh but it was never formally set or discussed. The committee agreed that 50,000 would be a good threshold and that if the or change order is based on plan review, unforeseen conditions, or
077some other change out of our control, that an email to committee members is sufficient instead of waiting to discuss at the next meeting. The exception would be if the change order significantly changes some aspect of the project, what was in the what the project from what was in the original plan plans presented to the board. >> Thank you. Did I miss anybody? Help. I wanted to just since I this will be my only opportunity. I just want to talk about the uh delegate assembly for a couple of minutes here. Um I'm not going to go deeply into it. It was it was a long it was a long session. This is the assembly delegate guide book. These are all resolutions that we went through there. I think there was 34 36 36 resolutions. Um the
078three that we brought all three passed the uh extended time funding one passed unanimously. I don't I think I don't think I heard any nos. Maybe there was one no vote on that. Uh the bringing to the state into the process of uh vetting AI software and that resolution passed again unanimously. I didn't really see any opposition to that. The third one took a lot of work. There was a lot of opposition to that one and it was because of some of the wording in there and talking about changing the curriculum standards and people wanted to know what standards are going to be changed and it's like, hey, we're asking for them to bring together a committee so that they can look at this stuff and make recommendations for that. But they wanted to know
079specifically what was going to change and they didn't want to vote for it unless there was. But it did pass and it was it passed by like five it was a hand count cuz it was too close to yay or nay and it passed by like five votes. It it just squeak past but it's part of the it passed. So that doesn't matter if it was unanimous or not. Uh, but there was one that I wanted that I did want to talk about and I just want to bring to you guys' attention because it was brought forwards by the Minnesota School Boards Association and presented to the delegate assembly. And that means in in in my head that tells me that this is one of their priorities going forward that they are really going to
080push hard for. And it's a constitutional amendment in order for this to be put into place. and it has to do with the Minnesota's permanent school fund. Uh way back when there was 2 and a.5 million 2 and a half million acres total. I think that they she went into detail. We they gave us an hour or an hour and a half presentation on this particular amendment. But way back when I think they took one acre per section of land in Minnesota and set it aside for schools. And that land is to be used not for nothing. Set it aside into a trust. And the trust was for schools. And that land is to be used for nothing but schools and and funding schools. And [snorts] so right now there's 2 and a half million
081acres of land and another million acres of mineral rights set aside within the state of Minnesota. And those lands are used for logging, mining, uh lots of different purposes. And this and money is funneled funneled. The money goes from companies leasing rights on those properties for their mining or for their uh harvesting lumber products. And that money goes into the Minnesota school trust fund. And right now there is 2 billion28 million in the Minnesota school trust fund. The constitution says that at no such time can anyone touch the endowment. Nobody can touch that money. You can only use the interest and the dividends from that money for the schools. And so right now that amounts to $58 million annually goes from the uh Minnesota permanent school fund into the schools. And up until just a
082few years ago, they used to consider that in the fund when they would fund schools, they'd say, "Well, 58 million is coming from the school trust fund. So, we'll just reduce what the state puts in by the 58 million and you'll still get all your money." But that there was some legislation passed a few years ago where they said, "No, you can't do that. The 58 million is in addition to." So, we get in our district, and Amy, you might be able to help me a little bit, but it's it's $68 per student. So for our district, it's about $675,000. >> Yep. Just under. Y >> from the Minnesota per uh permanent school fund. The Minnesota School Boards Association would like to amend the constitution which says that you cannot touch the principal balance of
083that fund. Um which is growing every year because people are leasing mineral rights. they're they're leasing forestry. Uh they want to be able to they want to change the definition of how the fund can be used and go more into a the way you treat retirement funds where you have like the four the rule of 4% which says that when you go into retirement you can withdraw 4% of your funds balance. So, if you have a million dollars in your in your 401k, when you retire, if you if you take $40,000 a year, that should last for 30 years. And in years where there's the growth is greater than 4%, it's actually going to grow. In years where the growth is negative or under 4%, that fund is going to deplete. Um, but overall, if
084you go 4%, it should last at least 30 years. The school boards association would like to see the state law changed or the constitution changed to allow them to take up to 4.5% out of the principal balance of that fund annually, which would be about a 40% increase in payments to schools. So, our 68 or let's see, our $675,000 would likely go up to about a million dollar a year immediately. However, over time, that fund is either going to the the growth of that fund is going to slow by an equal and opposite amount. And so, over time, that fund isn't going to grow as much. So, you're going to have a a fund where I mean, leave it alone into the future, it's going to be worth a lot of money and it's it
085could get to a point where it would just fund education completely. Uh, if you start taking the principal out of that fund, who knows where it's going to go. And I just I thought it was a terrible, terrible idea. And I was the only person that voted no on that one. So, everyone else said, "Yeah, we'll vote for it. That's a great idea." So, I would look for the school boards association to push really hard because they want they were like, "We have to pass this at this meeting because that's the only way we can get it in front of the legislature for this upcoming next year election to have it on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. So, I'm going to stand strongly against doing it and I'm going to continue to stand strongly
086against doing it. But just to let you know, that was one of the things that they talked about and one of the things that passed at the school boards association and I think that'll be their full court press for the next year. >> Thank you. >> With that, over and out. Uh last up tonight we have future agenda items. The January 7th, 2026 board meeting work session topics will include cyber security update, central Minnesota virtual academy update, genai update, approval of any tentative agreements and policy readings. At this time, does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item? Okay. Um looking for um a motion to adjourn tonight's board of education meeting. >> So move. >> I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. All in favor say I. >> I
087opposed. Meeting is adjourned. It is 7:47 p.m. Have a good night and drive safely home. >> [clears throat] >> That's