6-18-2025 Board of Education Meeting

001is now called to order. It is June 18th, 2025 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 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. And then when you're ready, can you please call roll? The following board members are president of the district administration office. Scott Andre here. Natalie Copeland here. Al Dalgrren here. Zack Dorhalt here. Shannon Haw here. Heather Williams. The F here. Good. The following board

002members are not present. Diana Fenton. The following cabinet members and staff are present at the district administration office. Assistant superintendent of secondary education Dr. Jason Harris. Assistant superintendent of E5 learning Nikki Hansen. Assistant Superintendent of E12 Educational Services, Shannon Ason. Executive Director of Finance and Business Services, Amy Scallarude. Media Technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott, and custodian on site is Austin Goodwater. Thank you. Then I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's board of meeting board meeting agenda. So move. Have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote? Vote. Yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Al Dawren, yes. Thank you. Then we have the consent agenda. Uh the consent agenda consists of non-controversial items the board adopts routinely without debate. Any single member

003may remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption. Uh on tonight's consent agenda, item A, approval of minutes from May 7th, 2025 and May 21st, 2025. Item B, approval of bills and other financial transactions in the grand total amount of 4,90,95242. Item C, approval of personnel staff changes. Item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. Item E, approval of resolution to update the population base for community education funding. Item F, approval of proposed revised board policy 704, development and maintenance of inventory of fixed assets and fixed asset accounting system. Third reading. Item G, approval of proposed revised board policy 721, uniform grant guidance policy regarding federal revenue sources. Third reading. And lastly, but not least here, item H, approval of resolution of the

004school board of independent school district number 742, S St. Cloud Area Schools, Minnesota, approving the sale of the district's general obligation capital appreciations bond series 2025A to the purchaser thereof. Determining the form and details of such bonds, authorizing the execution, delivery and registration of such bonds, providing for the payment of and the security of such bonds, and authorizing and ratifying certain other documents and actions in connection therewith. At this time, does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? I I One more item. Oh, and I Oh, I apologize. Uh, a little space down there. Uh, I designate depository. So, thank you, Scott. So, does any board member wish to remove an item? Natalie D. Okay. So, looking for a motion to approve items A through I except for D. So,

005second. I have a motion by Al, a second by Scott. Uh, Heather, can you call vote? Natalie Copeland, yes. Zack Dorhold, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Aldrren, yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Are you recusing yourself from Okay. From item D. So then I'm looking for a motion to approve item D. So move. Second. Again, a motion by Al, a second by Scott. Heather, can you call vote for item D? Shannon Hos, yes. Zack Dorhalt, Al Dalgrren, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Thank you. Okay. Um, we have one information item for tonight. We have our early childhood update. Um, we have Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E5 Learning, Kate Flynn, director of early childhood, and Bara Davis, early childhood administrative dean. Welcome. Glad to have you guys joining us tonight. test one too.

006Thank you. Good evening, Chair Haw and district leaders, board members. We are thrilled to be here. I'm Kate Flynn, as Shannon said, the early inter I call myself the interim early childhood director. Uh, some of you may have recognized me. I was a former Tilah and Madison principal. I was retired for just a short bit when I got a wonderful call um from a very wellrespected superintendent. You may know her. Uh, said, "Can you come out and support the important work?" and I am feel honored to contribute once again. Um I hold 742 near and dear. Um we have a great highlights of what our journey has been for this year. We're excited to share it, but I'm going to let my colleague introduce herself before we begin. Hi, my name is Davis, early childhood

007administrative dean. Um, I'm so fortunate to be under Kate's leadership and growing and learning. This past year has been amazing. Um, I have a deep passion for early childhood. It was 13 years ago when my now 16-year-old um went through the um early childhood screening and your amazing early childhood staff at that time who were still in our district wrapped around our family and provided those early intervention and support that we really needed. And now I can say as a mom of a 16-year-old um she is in advanced placement classes. She's excelling and thriving. And I think that was due to the great foundation that was laid with our amazing early educators. Um I thought I wanted to be a dentist and that opportunity right there really shifted my path and now I'm in early

008childhood and the biggest advocate for our young learners. Um so I just want to say thank you. So let's begin. Um, I'm going to let you be our navigator. We'll go to the next one. Um, as a newcomer to early childhood, um, I really want to emphasize tonight, if you hear nothing else from me, is the incredible work that's happening from birth to five. Um, I'm just going to quickly go through my programming up here. Um but really this is um a unique place where we you and I and our an incredible staff are doing a holistic approach for families and children birth to five. I've never been in that situation as an elementary principal. Uh but to watch if you hear nothing more from me tonight it's this holistic comprehensive approach that we are

009doing with birth to five children and families. So here's our programs. If you come over to Cory View Education, you can do early childhood screening, which we do for our threes and fours. Um, we have birth to three home visitors, um, teachers, and we'll talk a little bit about them because I feel they're unique. Um, we have, uh, early childhood family education, ECF classes. Um, I think it's robust. I think it's a premier program. Um, none like it in central Minnesota. Uh, we'll talk just a little bit about that. Certainly our preschool of threes and fours. Um we have a huge evaluation team at Corview Education that wraps around birth to five and then um a unique group of early childhood special educators. Um again offing offering services to birth to five children and families.

010Let's go to the next slide. So we have our birth to three team, our evaluation team and our special education team. Right now we currently staff 11 birth to three teachers and those are teachers that go into the home of our young learners. So our families we receive referrals from hospitals, childcare providers, neighbors, aunts, uncles um of any concerns that they may have for their young little learners. I always for parts I always call them our little crawlers. Um, so if they see something, maybe a kid is 2 years old and they're not yet talking, right, and they are concerned, what they would do is they would put in what we call a help me grow referral and then that goes into our evaluation team and then that if those um students qualify then they

011would get a birth to three teacher who comes and walks alongside that family really providing that early intervention support. Next, if we look at our early childhood family education, you know, Minnesota was the leading national for ECF and actually your St. Cloud schools ECF was the first uh in early childhood education. I think that's pretty impressive. Uh there they are and they are servicing day and night uh any kind of classes for um infants all the way up to age five. Next, we have preschool. Right now, we currently served in our 24-25 school year 853 students. 338 of those students were three-year-olds and 520 were four year old students. Um I will say our we have um preschool for success. We have voluntary pre kindergarten which is free for those families that attend those schools.

012And then we have our pay and sliding fee for those families. And it is one of the best programs I have ever seen. I'm not tooting our horn, but I have been been privileged to be able to be in many different areas of early childhood, federally funded, private, um, sovereign nations, and I would say ours is one of the best. We use a play-based model that really help move students from that foundation of exploring and learning. As we know, our young learners are born with 200 million neurons. And it's through those kinesthetic opportunities, the singing, the talking that they grow and develop those synapses. And so our program really does provide those students with an opportunity to walk handinhand with our educators and learn from one another. some of our year-end highlights. We'll go to

013the next slide, but all of our early childhood, our preschool teachers, and our birth to three educators have all gone through the unique letters, science of reading training. Our focus this year coming up in the 25 26 year will be looking at integrating what we learn and implementation. So that was an exciting uh for all of us to have that learning as well as administration. And through that learning we started just briefly um dipping our feet in the water of how do we change some of our practices right so in the fall we assess all of our students by October and as you can see from the data 66% of our students are below expectations right so that I'm thinking of our four-year-old students and some of that may be just not having that child

014care experience not having opportunities outside of the home maybe not going to that public library, not engaging in some of the things that we know may be some foundational to their learning, talking, reading, writing, cuz we don't know what we don't know cuz our little learners when they're born don't come with a manual unfortunately. Um, and then we had of those students 2% exceeding expectations and then about 34% meeting that expectation of that benchmark that we would have in the fall. as we started to implement some of those um science of reading practices, what we noticed is by the end in spring when we reassess and and that would be in May, 74% of those young learners met expectation with about 10% exceeding expectation. Um and 17% are below expectation. But I want to give

015the caveat that um some of our students come in and we are co-taught classrooms, right? So if I have a four-year-old who is chronologically four years old but developmentally 2 and a half, right? There's a big gap. So those students still are making progress. And I want to say out of all of our preschool students, we are about 20% of our students are neurode divergent. So I even think about if 20% of our students are neurode divergent and maybe in two and a half at that toddler range we still were able to push it push that development up so that 17% maybe they didn't grow as widely but they did have some growth which I think is so beautiful at the young um stage because you can see that progress immediately right language starts to

016develop whether that's through pictos or touching and pointing and some of that beautiful growth that we get to I just think you know as well as I do just think of those over 800 children that are getting those readiness skills um to really be those scholars um and college ready. Um we're super excited to pilot um preschool families this year called Ready Set School. Uh have you heard of it? I assume you've heard of it. It's one of Dr. Putnham's vision uh to take the weight of school supplies off of parents and teachers. Um, so all of our 742 preschoolers will have ready set school. Um, what that may look like is each classroom will be be provided with a teacher tote with those school supplies that parents or even some of my teachers would

017be providing their classes and have that for that classroom set for the year. Um, so right now that pilot is going to 23 classrooms this upcoming school year. So very excited for our school district. I'm proud of our school district. uh people in my community, our community are talking about it. Um so thanks for all the work that this group and Dr. Putnham has done to put that uh but it's been a big it's been a big um honor and people coming up and talking about so thank you. Next we have our preschool for success and that is a collaboration with the Rotary. um as I think about our young learners, we think about going into libraries or going to stores or um even with parents, right? That language, talking, singing, writing, and play. And

018Rotary um decided to collaborate with us, which is amazing and beautiful to give our young learners that solid foundation cuz we know it starts there. And so they currently pay 50% of three classrooms that are at Madison, Oakill, and Tilah/ Lincoln, that boundary area. Um, and through that we pay the remaining 50% plus transportation. But that gives students who are who haven't yet had that opportunity, as you'll see, we have a large number of students who are on our weight list an opportunity to get exposure and get that talking, reading, writing, playing some of that intentional foundational work that we know is pivotal to our young learners. And then we won't spend long here because a lot of schools do family engagement. And I know that being a K5, preK5 uh principal, but what makes

019early childhood so unique is that our families are engaged also on weekends, also in home visiting. So, not only are we doing the family nights, not only are we doing family event during the school day, but our family nights, I hope you'll come out to our fall festival or spring flings because you'll see over 500 to 600 people gathering and and doing some amazing developmentally appropriate from infants. We have an infant all the way up to age five that uh these crowds of families come out and support and build trust and learning and growing together. So, it's pretty phenomenal to be part of that. And for the 25 26 school year, we're going to be doing something remarkable, which is a ECF 742 ECF expo, which will be happening September 6th. As Kate mentioned, we

020do have one of the first early childhood family education programs that was started in the state. And as a parent who has been in many different other ECFs, I will say, not being biased, but we have the best. She's an ECF parent. Um, like I said, those young learners do not come with a manual. And so the ECF, you have in your classrooms, you have a parent educator and then a youth educator. And what they do is they walk alongside those parents learning and growing cuz sometimes it's struggle, right? When your kid is crying and they're not sleeping and you just want to talk to somebody who has that expertise, they really provide those practices and that guidance and um, support alongside you. Um, through that they also have a triage person. So if families

021are really struggling, that really walks alongside them. And so what we would like to do at our ECF expo is highlight that power of early childhood family education. How early support um really has an impact from that infancy to long life. Um as I said, like even with my 16-year-old, I think it was really that early childhood family education that really helped her on the trajectory of success. There'll be parenting um panel talks in early childhood again again about some of maybe some of those topics that I talked about crying eating um we know toddlers can be picky eaters sometimes they choose to eat whatever like junk food and then other times they pivot and say all I want is broccoli that's my toddler I don't know how it happened but that's all she wants

022and so um we'll get have giveaways live children's concert ECF classroom experiences so people will be able to come in and see that wonderful work that we do. And then this doesn't happen in silo cuz we know it's with that collaboration with community um that this amazing work is able to take place. And so there'll be community resource boosts as well. And something brand new that we're piloting at Westwood and at Quarry View Education Center is a partnership with let me get this correct Avon Hills Folk School. Uh there was a grant that was written. And my teachers um they're doing it in PK um 3es all the way up to grade five. And I have just some really resourceful teachers that I take no credit. They are the ones that uh reached out. Um

023nature-based programming is becoming very important in preschool and early childhood. Um so we're part of that um new kind of research and wave. So I'm super excited. I'll show you a little clip. Um but they're innovative and they believe in building So what we've done is um you team just kind of Avon Hill bases teach and there's It's another cute picture of everything they're learning and doing. And we're growing. Um we just added two special education spaces and as you know um our welcome center is moving back to the district office because we are growing in early childhood. So thank you Shannon Ason for helping with that decision and um we're excited to um really grow in early childhood. So for our enrollment for 2425, we service 326 um parents and children within early childhood

024family education. We received over 555 referrals for our part C crawlers, which are our infants all the way up until 2 years 11 months. And of those referrals, 287 of those students ended up qualifying for services. So our birth to three teachers that go in the home, right? So I said we started with 11 and the 25 26 school year we'll have 13 just because our newer divergent population is expanding and we know that early intervention services really do create an impact. In our preK3s we service 94 students. Um and then our preK4s 474 students and for our evaluation team we receive 874 referrals. That's typically about 25 to 30 referrals in a month from our birth to three which is um 0 to three and then our um part B which is 3 to

0255. And to give you a um next door neighbors to the north they receive about two referrals a month. So we're receiving 25 to 30 and they're receiving about two for the 2526 school year. We just have started rolling through our new ECF catalog. Um and we have a exciting nature-based um program that we're launching based on Timbernook. And then of those birth to three students, so starting with July 1, um 239 will be service. So that means some of those students have either graduated out, they no longer qualify for services, they've either moved districts or parents have have chosen at this point because it is a choice not to continue services or they've transitioned over to our threes program. So they're not in that 2 years 11 months. For our threes preschool, as of

026right now, we have 142 students um slated to join our great amazing program. And then our prek4s, we have 305 students. And then as of July n June 1, so from June 1 of 2526 and then to the end of May, um we have evaluations. So again, that's from our part C and our part B evaluations. I thought this was interesting. And um the weight list numbers and solutions. So, if you look at our PK3s and fours, we have a weight list. If you look at the PK3s in September, it stayed pretty consistent. We had 60 families who wanted a preschool experience and could not get one. Um, if you see at the end of May, it was about five left, you know, because we probably had an opportunity to put five more children off

027the wait list because somebody left or decided it wasn't the right fit. But if you take a look at our PK4s, that grew. So in September when you know those buses start to roll out and parents go, "Oh, school started." So now they start signing up. But 116 of our children did not get a preschool experience. Um working with Nikki Hansen and Bara this year. Um we're trying to get creative about that. Um because it's complex. I mean some of it is space issue. Um but one of the things we're going to do is we have six um grandfathered in teachers um preschool prek teachers uh who work a Monday through Thursday schedule. And so over the years um their Friday has been going out to do different opportunities in the district, but this year

028um we're bringing those six people back to do a prek experience on Fridays. So, every Friday we will be doing a prek to try to get 60 more children off the weight list. But my goal, our goal is to see these children and these families saying we want to be in those schools. We want to have them in our schools. And so, we're going to continue to look at that complexity of how do we close that gap of not allowing our parents to have a preschool experience who want it. And then I think thank you and we'll just end with this quote by you know our great Maria Monasuri but I believe this uh early child education is the key to the betterment of society. So thanks for listening. Thanks for having the privilege of

029being here and letting us share our journey. Thanks for inviting us Nikki. Thank you. Anybody have any questions or comments? Heather, thank you. This was really really good and insightful. Um I do have a a couple of different questions. the school readiness um let and letters training and the the significant improvement that you saw from fall to spring um do you have comparison information from previous years um I know letters wasn't necessarily around but in terms of um meeting the the expectations for school readiness do you have any comparators to how it previously worked we do TS gold Heather every year um I certainly look at the data of when I was here last year and this year. Um it looks similar because you have very veteran incredible teachers. Um this year we I probably

030can count that we have um one new teacher mean one new teacher. When I started my career in Talahi I probably had 25 new teachers. That makes a difference. Um so these are highly skilled, talented, passionate people. Um, so I think the data looks really strong as we get from fall to spring because they are experts in their craft and their teaching and learning. The difference will be is that our ahas in letters training is that it opened up some eyes of the science of reading that we have missed or didn't even know we didn't know. And now that we know that richness, I'm super excited to right now um we're working on some of that curriculum and how do we embed some of that science of reading. We have a great consultant. I'll do

031a shout out. She's probably not watching. Her name is Jennifer Johnson from Resource and Solutions who is my letter coach. Um, and we'll be doing some work hands-on with the teacher. So, I'm super excited to take that science of reading and actually do some implementation with it. So, I think you're going to see those scores even be better. And then we have maybe heard this before, but you would have to remind me. Do we follow our students? So, those who have gone through our preschool programs, do we follow them? And what does that tell us um about their performance as they age into elementary and middle school and so on and so forth? I hope someday we just uh the Rotary for PK for success wanted that data because we're working at that legislation. They're

032working really closely with legislation for that preschool act. Um so they put together I don't know if you've seen it. Did you see it? But they we started Heather following those children. Um but I'm going to let Nikki talk a little bit about that work that we want to also follow those children for u throughout our whole system. Yeah. And we do look at some of those cohorts. Um I believe the number was 586 potentially of four-year-olds. Uh just to give you a little bit of context, this year we ended up with 706 kindergarteners. So that kind of gives you a who missed an experience. Some of that data that we started to decipher through was those who had an experience and those who did not and how they performed either social emotionally along with

033their literacy and math skills. And we do see discrepancy in their data. And now the assessments do change from preschool to kindergarten because you have fast bridge starting in kindergarten and TS Gold in preK. But certainly taking a look at those cohorts of learners is something that we do with our kindergarten teachers to assess skills early to say how do we close that gap as soon as possible. And then just a couple of comments. I love that you're doing work with Avon Hills. Um that nature piece of it I think is so critically important just to exploration and probably well in my estimation for their future lives and respecting the earth that we live on and how you engage with nature and all of those sorts of things. Um and just your comment about all

034the neurons and synapses that are happening. We know tons of research about the growth that happens pre five um and how important it is. So to put those things together and to let them explore and give them an opportunity um just very impressive work and thank you for your time. I hope you'll you're all invited. I hope you'll take me up on uh coming out and calling up and saying Kate I would love to just walk through core view education and just come see some of the pieces that we're doing. So please you're invited. You're all you're all welcome to the party. Anybody else? Natalie and then Scott. Yes. Thank you both. both giants in this district, both of you. I really appreciate you um affording preschool. Like I just can remember like yesterday the

035fact that I took a job at a church in order to afford preschool for my kids, you know, and that was a privilege that I had and um not everybody has that that sort of privilege or that kind of workaround. And so, um, hearing about Ready Set School is really exciting because there's already the barrier of cost, but then also the barrier of what mom and dad's pocketbook looks like in August and September, which I know very well. But, um, yeah, that one 16 keeps me up at night because I know what you're talking about, BA, as well. Um, my child, my child who's 19 couldn't hear. We didn't know that because he would pass all the hearing tests and then the doctor made made a referral um and we ended up getting some deeper

036screening and he couldn't hear anything. Um he since he was born which is why he didn't sleep which is why I am who I am today. But um you know because we had that wraparound services then uh they came out to the house and they did I think three or four sessions after he could actually hear you know of um of speech therapy and just in those three four sessions he tested out but like what if we weren't in this country right what if I didn't have this privilege what if this birth to three you know person didn't come and work with him like would he still be you know who he is today at the U of M. And so it's just so important. Um I want to shout out for your teacher retention

037and I know that that's you know similar actually across our community but like one new teacher. Yeah. Wow. And for families to have that you know I know my some of my kids have the same preschool teachers and then you get comfortable and you get you know you have better rapport and stuff like that. So that's wonderful. And when I saw the Westwood outdoor space and just you know we do boring stuff here in the board like say you know yes we'll accept that's not boring it's wonderful we'll accept this land but then it's like what is actually going to happen with that and then when you see little bodies doing what they want to do and that we have experts coming and teaching us. It's just um it really is that partnership. Um so

038thank you for all your teachers. Kudos to our teachers to do that work. I mean, that was all them. That wasn't me. Yeah, that was all them. These are incredible uh human beings that are passionate about the work that they do. So, I'm really every day I I try to tell them. I hope they're watching. Every day I say I'm so honored and privileged to get to work alongside you. They're just masterful people. My mom was a preschool teacher and so and that's just it. Like she'll see people kids out in the community now and they're like, "Miss Copeland, oh my gosh." and they're, you know, 35 or whatever. But, right, magic. Magic is happening right now. Thank you guys. It sounds like things start with a referral. What about the referral process? Can you

039tell me a little more about that? So, the referral process can start from anywhere. So the Minnesota Department of Education has a help me grow website. So on that website that can be again like I said a neighbor, a parent, um a doctor. Typically what we see is a large percentage of our referrals come from healthcare providers, right? Or other families who may be in child care systems um where that child care provider then knows what that development trend should look like or a concerned friend or um neighbor, right? And so we get those referrals in through help me grow and then immediately once they put that in immediately goes to that homechool district. Um and then that homeschool district we have um three birth to three evaluators and then in our second cohort three

040birth three to five evaluators. Okay. So then once they get in those referrals, the team looks at it, then it reaches out to parents. Um, and then they go through and say, "We received a referral." Typically has some information about an area of developmental delay that or concern that the healthcare provider or person filling out the referral will highlight that may be in social emotional, gross motor, fine motor. And then that referral then um once that vibrator goes through it, they complete what we have what we call an intake. And that's about 45 minutes to an hour of really having that conversation with that parent, right? Understanding the background, giving it a little bit more birth history, what was birth like, um what have you noticed in development? And then if there's concerns that comes

041back to our evaluation team, which are amazing individuals, um Jill Murphy is the special education supervisor. She sits on that team along with her evalu evaluators. There is an occupational therapist, a speech therapist. again um licensed early childhood special educ special educators and then they talk about that information that was shared during that 45 minutes to an hour visit. Um from there the team decides based on that development trajectory of where that kid is um that student is and decides okay should we move forward and then if they move forward they utilize criterion reference norm reference assessments and that parent input and then from there they make a decision um on whether that student qualifies based on norm reference measures. Does that make sense? Wow. You actually got to my second part of evaluation. Um,

042we have kind of an intake then this evaluation team that uh goes over all the data and it sound like you might do a little bit of testing at that point. Correct. Correct. Yep. So they use they utilize two of them um like a norm reference which will go off that standard state of what we see in development and then criterion reference right that gives a little bit more input and a little bit more of that parent oh this is what I'm noticing at home because we know sometimes we can only see a child when they come in for assessment for about an hour but you have been with your kid for 24 hours of the day for 365 days so you really know them so then we help guide them in um in that

043conversation. Then we utilize that data to make informed decisions similar to what you would see in our um K12 process, right? Where they utilize that data to make informed decisions on whether a student would then be passed from that community connecting to that special education process. Same similar to it. Um, is there any competition in the private sector to what you're doing as far as evaluations prek in general, I guess? Well, I will say that we have a very um lofty weight list and so when we are unable to service our students, we do collaborate with community partners, right? because we want to make sure all of our students are able to get an experience whether that's from us or others. So I don't think it's necessarily competition. We all collaborate with one another because

044we understand that importance of those early foundational experiences. And so Kate is on um a committee and myself are on this CAN which is that child care um provider. It's an action network through the United Way and we all sit with um those homebased child care providers, those um center-based child care providers and other agencies to really work together because we are seeing a shortage of childcare providers in that 0 to5 range. Okay, that was that was my concern with competition 0 to five collaboration. Yeah. Okay. Um when we bought or got the Westwood land donated, we it was wonderful. We didn't know what to do with it. And now it's looks like you're doing something with it. How did this develop? So beautiful. And I think it started through a conversation. From what I

045remember, your director of equity was approached from someone at Avon Folkill's school. I think her kiddo was somehow and then she started that conversation then reached out and said we had that they said we had this amazing opportunity and program do you think it would be available and our amazing district executive staff put it in that um community notebook that all of our staff get and said who would be interested and of course our young um our educators who are amazing like Kate said this would be a great opportunity for our young learners right to get outside to play explore we know that um and through that those conversations started and those teachers really led that work and we just came alongside to really help facilitate that space um to get it within our our

046region instead of going all the way out to Avon Hills because we only have a 2-hour and 40minut program. We know it would take an hour at least there and back for that transportation and that takes away from that opportunity. So utilizing the space that we had at Westwood, I will say the teacher who has been teaching there for over 10 to 14 years said, "Out of all of my years of teaching, the first day they went out there, that was the most joy I have ever seen." And you have parents who are sending their kiddos, right? Cuz you don't know what to expect in rain boots and some of those sweatpants and you say, "You are going to get a little dirty." Then you come home and you see the pictures and you're like,

047"Yeah, you really did get dirty." So um just really providing that outdoor opportunity for them to learn and grow. Yeah, and I would just say a big shout out to Avon Hills as well. Um, they reached out with that Minnesota grant that was No Child Left Inside, which gave us that opportunity. Um, and so they were great partners as we worked to get the right fit and then even collaborated to come on site with us to keep our littles close to home. So that was wonderful. And then Westwood also has a committee who is working not only with these unique field experience opportunities of learning with purposeful play in our district, but also looking at how do we create that nature playground for students at all periods throughout the school year. So they are doing

048lots of good work over there at Westwood. I'm so glad that we're getting good use out of that donation. For a while we just what are we going to do with this? But now it's it's working. It's excellent. Uh transportation, how are we doing for transportation for our preschoolers? Yeah. Yep. We are doing great. Um transportation has been great partners. Um one of the things we had many sessions with our teacher leaders as well as our teaching union with those collaborative solutions to come up with the Friday force pilot that we have this this year coming up which is that one-day program on Fridays. Um and transportation was a huge piece of that. Um, we knew as we planned early that we didn't want to create a program that said you have to transport because

049that only creates more barriers within our community. Um, and so they came in and and figured out out a way to route for that one-day program and were great collaborators with us. So, we're super appreciative of their work, too. Glad it's working. Uh, do you run part-time teachers out there also or is it are these all full-time people or All yeah, all our teachers are full-time. Um they the they typically work Monday through Thursday. That's when our preschoolers go. And then they do not work Fridays, most of them, except for the grandfather, the sixth one teachers that were grandfathered in as a 1.0. So that's why we're utilizing them in this new pilot that's coming up this school year. Okay. Because I had heard that there was some that were doing uh 10 hours a

050week or something like that or 10 hours a month. Maybe I'm wrong. Uh probably more of our our support staff could be doing that. Okay. Yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good job, Natalie. I think this is the first time hearing about the Friday Forest thing. So, can you That's so great. Is that part of Preschool for Success? How much is it? What are the barriers there? I'm going to have you take it. For sure. It is not part of Preschool for Success. um strategically during staffing and we actually started this conversation in October um with teachers and um with the union uh executive to just talk through what are some collaborative solutions that we can do to support that weight list and being fiscally responsible utilize the resources that we have

051in house. Um so we knew we had uh these six teachers on that 1.0 no contract. And so we really tried to listen deeply to what some of their needs and creative solutions were and then together came up with this opportunity to refine a pilot um since it's went through multiple versions because we need our teachers at the table. Uh they are the experts and so really trying to use their voice and expertise to make it the best it can possibly be. Like any pilot, we don't know exactly what it's going to look like when you put tiny humans in the schedule we build. Um, so we will be refining it as the year goes on to make it the best it can be, but are excited to have the opportunity to have 60 students

052at least get an access and opportunity to be within our schools. Okay, thank you guys very much. Okay, then moving on to discussion and action items. Um, it's going to be the Amy Scallard show for a while here. Uh, first up, she has the approval of the 2024 2025 revised budget. Again, this is Amy Scallard, executive director of finance and business services. Okay. Good evening, Chair Haw, members of the board. This uh will be the abbreviated version of the budget. We went through it uh in great detail at the last meeting. Um so we'll just go through a quick recap uh and it's really sorted into two different approvals. The first is the approval of the um revised budget for 2425, the school year that we just completed. Um and so what you're seeing on

053the screen uh is we'll look at revenues first, then expenditures, and then ending fund balances um as projected. And so our revenue uh three columns shown here. The first is what was approved a year ago um or so on the original budget. Um what that looks like in terms of budget adjustments and then the revised budget. Uh so for revenues um general fund we did have uh an increase in revenues compared to the original budget which is uh not uncommon. Uh we often have grants and other funding sources that come in after the budget's done. Um and so the majority of that increase is related to additional grants um or increases in entitlements for things like title or special education. Um we know we budget conservatively when we start the year. Um and so the

054majority of that is grant funded revenue um which will have a corresponding um increase in the expenses for those programs. Uh and then there is also uh an increase in the uh revenue budget for uh interest revenue given that rates are uh were higher than uh projected. um some minor uh budget adjustments in transportation and operating capital. Nothing significant. Uh as we move into the other funds, um a large adjustment in fund two for food service. Um some of that is the federal fresh fruit and vegetable grant program. Um and then also to account for the increase in reimbursement rates. Um we always budget conservatively. Those increased uh and what those rates are are never released at the time we're doing budget. uh and so there was an increase in the revenue and again there

055will be a corresponding increase in the expense um for those rates. Uh looking at community education um there's an increase in the revenue related to our uh entitlement for adult basic education. Uh in the building construction fund and the debt service fund both of those um revenue adjustments are tied to interest revenue. Um and so again, as we have money uh sitting in accounts um in the construction fund, that would be bond proceeds for construction related projects. In the debt service fund, we have a large amount of u money sitting in an escrow for um the tech bond that was refunded that isn't callable yet. Um so there's about $70 million sitting there. As you can see, $70 million earns a lot of interest in a year uh when rates are higher than expected. Um

056so that's why we see the large adjustment in debt service where we we wouldn't normally see that. Uh and then the last um fund there that has an adjustment is the OPED trust fund. Um as we discussed at the uh meeting last time, that fund has now been closed. Um however, that decision to close the that fund and transfer any remaining money was done after the budget last year was done. Um and so the majority of that budget was um zeroed out with the exception of a small amount remaining in interest um revenue and offsetting expense. As we look at expenses, um you see a large increase in the general fund. Um again, part of that is uh the offset to those revenue increases. Uh but the majority of that is those one-time costs that

057are spending down the assigned fund balance. Um with the largest of those two being the Apollo Theater improvements and the McKinley edition. Um and so you'll um you'll see that when we look at the fund balance page that uh we know that we had assigned those money because of the the difference in timing and crossing fiscal years. Um and so that is a large adjustment. Um but it's not coming from unreserved fund balance. It's coming from that assigned. Again, small adjustments in transportation and operating capital. Nothing significant. Um our adjustment in food service is the exact same dollar amount as um we saw on the revenue side to account for um that fresh fruit and veggie grant and then some one-time equipment costs to offset those increased rates. Um community education, there's a a couple

058things uh offsetting each other here. And I do want to point this one out because it actually ties in nicely um to the presentation that we just heard. Um there is an increase in expenditures in community education um for adult basic education because our entitlement came in um higher than expected. But then there's actually a decrease in our school readiness expenditures offsetting that. Um, we were fortunate, the original budget that had been approved had a a fairly large deficit in community education to cover our half of the Rotary um, PreK for Excess PreK for success program. We were fortunate that we were uh, awarded additional VPK seats. Um, and so you see that reflected in this budget adjustment to move those expendit expenditures over to fund one um, with that new revenue and then not

059have to spend down that fund balance. And so that's why um it's a little misleading because it looks like we are spending just a little bit less, but we're actually spending more in AB um and a a fair amount less in in school readiness, which is great because now we have um a more sust sustainable plan uh to continue those sections that we had added. uh looking at building construction. Um as we try to estimate how much work is going to get done before and after June 30th, that's you know pretty much a shot in the dark. Um and so we ended up with a little bit more of that LTFM spending um actually in 2324. Uh and so that budget has been reduced to reflect what was actually spent this year. Um and then

060that same adjustment that we talked about on the revenue side for the OPED fund. Uh and then the last fund there that you see an adjustment for is the health insurance fund. Um we have seen and and the board will get more information on this in August as we talk about um insurance uh rates and and plans and renewal. Um but we have seen significant increase in insurance costs um for the district both just because of the healthcare trend um but also because of our individual claim activity. And so this budget um was revised to reflect that. Um you'll see on the next slide that there's there's still a fund balance, but it it has eaten into um that really nice healthy reserve that we that we had. And those rates um and that plan

061moving forward will come to the board in August. Uh so then this last um slide on 2425 um just shows where everything uh will be ending. Um again, you can see um that third line down is where we had that assigned for future projects last year at about 4.5 million. Um and so the majority of of that budget um expenditure revision is coming off of spending those funds. There is about a half a million dollars left in there. Um the majority of that is money assigned for playgrounds and and a few other things that just haven't um been completed yet or won't be completed yet as of June 30th. Um but really the board's intention, you know, was not to sit that money to sit there for a long time. It's all been allocated. Uh

062and we should see the rest of that get spent um here hopefully in 2526. Um, but really all of our our funds sitting with healthy fund balances. So that is what I have for the revision for 2425. Are there any questions? Okay. So this one is um an action item. Um couple of them here. So we're looking for administration recommends that the board of education approve the 202425 revised budget. Looking for a motion to approve that. So move second. I have a motion by Scott and second by Al. Heather, can you call vote on that one? Al Dogrren, yes. Zack Dohalt, yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Okay. And then we have uh we need to approve the 2025 2026 budget. Yes. So again, we will re uh

063I will recap that um quickly. Um the first uh we'll look at the general fund. And so this is looking at all three of those um components of the general fund together. In total about $180 million in revenue. Um just over that in expenditures. Uh and we do have about a 320 um or 311,000 uh deficit uh budgeted for next year when you combine those three funds. Um just a reminder that is coming from two one-time costs. Uh there are city special assessments for water s water sewer street improvements um as well as the costs for the special election for the uh vacant board seat. Um so that is the general fund. Uh looking at special revenue funds um food service fund continues to be um uh have uh be able to operate um well

064within their allocated allocated revenue. Um, as with most years or with all years, um, this assumes no increase in reimbursement rates. Um, and so this is conservative since those rates haven't been um, released yet. But even if there aren't increases, uh, we still have a balanced budget in food service. And then community education uh, does have a deficit and that's um, for a school age care levy adjustment um, coming through from the 22 23 school year um, because the way the levy system works. um some of those where we levy estimated cost and we don't have actuals for a few years and then it takes a two-year delay on the levy. Um but those funds are sitting in fund balance that's part of that large fund balance that we have at the start of the

065year. Um and so that's really just recovering those funds that were essentially overlevied. Uh capital projects funds for next year. Um we uh don't have in the original budget any of the um the revenue or the spending for the new issuance. That will close on July 1st for the uh recently approved referendum projects and that will be a budget adjustment um for next year. What you see here uh is some um remaining spending from the Apollo LTFM bond um as well as some debt service spending um related to the core view excess proceeds that um have been hanging out there for a few years. And then the debt service fund is pretty straightforward. Um that fund is just set at uh what is needed to cover the principal and interest payments on our on our

066debt. Um, and there's a little bit of a deficit there. Um, just because of the the overlap with the refunding issuance. Um, but that's again, you can see a over $74 million fund balance. That issuance will be callable here, I believe, um, in the next year in fiscal year 27. And then that large balance will finally go away. And then lastly, we have those two internal service funds for dental and health. Uh, the dental fund continues to um, operate. We haven't had to do a premium increase in um a over 10 years um for there and the unlike health the dental um cost in the marketplace has not seen significant increases in provider costs like we've seen on the healthcare side. Uh we are showing a a balanced budget here for next year. um just

067knowing that the amount um in terms of dollars that that projected fund balance is landing at um is starting to get to kind of that that bottom um that bottom range of what we would want in a minimum um balance. Um and so we're not anticipating that we would be um bringing forward a recommendation that would continue to spend down reserves. Um and so we're showing uh that balance budget here. And that is the very brief recap of the 2526 budget. And again, this is another action item. Administration recommends that the board of education approve the 2025 2026 budget. I have a motion by Scott. Do I have a second? And a second by Zach. Any discussion? Okay. Heather, can you call vote? Zor Holton, yes. Al Dalgrren, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Scott Andre, yes.

068Heather Williams, yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Okay. Another action item presented by Amy is the resolution calling for special election to fill school board vacancy. Yes. And so, um, there isn't anything to project here. I'll just get disconnected quick. Um, so there is a a lengthy resolution included in the board uh packet um which really is is just outlining all of our legal obligations when you hold a special election. Um it's acknowledging that the district will appoint an absentee ballot board and approve election judges and all the things that we just got done doing for the referendum. Um we are starting round two with our next special election. So we're experts now. Um so we've got everything ready to go. Um but the first step in the process is to actually call for the special election

069uh which is what the resolution that we have tonight um is doing. So the election date will be November 5th uh 2025 or sorry um oh where did it go? I don't have November 4th 2025. Yes, thank you. Um I was looking at the background sheet which was the date of the last election. Um, so yes, it'll be November 4th, 2025. The filing period will uh begin on uh July 29th. And so filing does take place here at the district office. The filing period runs from July 29th through August 12th. Um so anyone who's interested in um filing uh would complete that. Uh we are not um doing a primary related to this. The board had uh made that decision and approved that resolution previously. um clearly when we're running an election on our own

070and we're burying the cost um to hold a primary and and and double up on that expense um would not have been the most fiscally sound decision. So um it won't matter how many people file all the names will be on the ballot and it'll just be the one election. Um so again we uh first step in the process is to approve the resolution calling for the election. Yeah. Are there any other uh any other governments that are going to be holding elections about the same time we can share at least some of the cost with? Uh yes. So Sterns County um does have to hold an election for an open commissioner seat. Um that is only 13 of our precincts and so they will be responsible for um the 13 precincts. So, they will

071handle um the costs and the um hiring of the judges and all the logistics for those 13 precincts. Um we are still waiting to get information from the Secretary of States given that we're both holding special elections, how that works for absentee voting. Um so, we don't have answers on what that looks like yet, whether both entities have to have absentee voting at their location. Um we're also still waiting. Um, we haven't gotten final confirmation from Benton County that they aren't doing anything. They had inquired at the Secretary of State's office. Um, I believe they were supposed to have a meeting last night or tonight. Um, but we haven't heard anything definitively um that they that they are or aren't. Um, the other two counties, Wright and Sherburn, have told us um that they are

072not, and none of our cities are are doing anything. Um so as of right now it is us um as a school district and then the 13 precincts for Sterns County Commissioner. How many district or precincts do we have? 59. So yes Al I would move that we approve the resolution calling special election to fill school board vacancy. Okay. Do do I have a second? Second. Have a motion by L. Uh second by Zack. Any discussion? Heather, can you call vote? Heather Williams, yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Zack Dorhold, yes. Al Dren, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Scott Andre, yes. I know you're not going too far here, but we're going to bounce over a little bit here. Um, so we are That was it for our action items. Thank you. Um, we have, uh, first up,

073uh, now moving on to discussion items. We have Shannon Averson, assistant superintendent of E12 Educational Services, presenting a second reading for proposed revised board policy 699, closing of district facilities due to inclement weather or other emergency conditions. Good evening everyone. Um, as a reminder, this was presented by Joel Height Camp um last time we met and there were just uh very few changes to the policy um that was recommended um and that and you'll see um I'll make this a little bit bigger. That's kind of small. Sorry. There we go. Better. Better. How's that? There we go. All right. Um you'll see that the uh recommendations are to uh include some language around the opinion of the bus contractor concerning driving conditions, number of drivers and driver safety um in addition to those other conditions.

074And those were a recommendation from Joel due to the conversations he was having with transportation um on those mornings. And then the only other uh recommended language change was that when we have an emergency closing occur, staff and faculty members will observe the terms of their respective contracts, we uh remove that language and said uh we'll have the work requirements detailed in their specific contracts or follow the direction of the superintendent or designate because that has also occurred. And just a reminder, this is not an MSBA modeled policy. It is a policy that many districts have, but um it is uh uh those are just a few changes that are being recommended. Thank you. Any questions at all? Okay, thanks Shannon. Uh bouncing back to Amy again, we have an um another second reading proposed

075revised board policy 802 um which is disposition of obsolete equipment and material. [Applause] Okay. Uh there were no changes from the first reading. Um and the only changes to this policy uh were to change the uh threshold for disposals requiring a bid from 100,000 to 175,000. Um, and then there was a slight change um to remove uh to remove the uh the excess computer um disposal exemption um to eliminate the option for us to give it to a or to sell it to a family since that's not um something as a district we do. Uh and then also to add a charitable organization as an allowable um entity to uh transfer ownership to. Um, so those are those were the the changes in the policy and again nothing has changed since reading number one. Any

076questions at all? Okay. Then we have the 10ear longterm facilities maintenance plan again presented by Amy Scallard, executive director of finance and business services. All right. Uh so I'll just really briefly do a quick recap on what the long-term facilities maintenance program is. Um this is a program that's set by the legislature. Uh it comes from funding from two sources uh state aid and levy. Uh with the majority of it coming from a local levy. Uh this program did replace um two different programs a number of years ago. There used to be separate statutes for health and safety and alternative facilities and then they were combined into um this one LTFM program. Uh it is very prescribed in statute what the allowable uses are. Uh it can be used for um ADA related improvements um

077approved health and safety expenditures that align with kind of that original health and safety um statute which are very specific um to a number of categories including um asbestous removal indoor air quality um hazardous uh materials. So very prescribed um specific list of allowable uses under the health and safety statute. Um and then kind of the catchall, which is where the majority of the money gets used, um for our district, is in this next category, uh which is eligible projects necessary to prevent further erosion of facilities, which is very vague and open to interpretation. Um but MDE has a lot of guidance about what's what's allowable and what's not. Um and there are certain things that are explicitly not allowed, including remodeling, um adding square footage, um spending money on facilities that aren't district-owned. So,

078if you rent a facility, you cannot use LTFM money um to make improvements if it's not district-owned property. Um and again, no new construction or or using it to increase square footage. The only exception um that is uh relatively new is an exception to the remodeling um prohibition uh which is specific to remodeling or construction to create the single-user restrooms, which we know we've had um at a number of our sites uh as part of this um funding in recent years. Um so this approval is actually um it it seems early right we just talked about the 2526 budget and now here we are talking about 2627 uh the reason for that is because uh this dollar amount needs to be set and determined to get put into the levy uh which the board will

079uh approve in September. And so this is uh this plan has to be submitted to MDE by the end of July so that they have time to get everything into the levy system um in time. So that's why it feels like we're really really far out ahead of this and that's how we are every year um because of the levy the levy dates and deadlines. As we look for 2627 um there are two components of our LTFM budget. There's the annual project expenditures for that year um which is proposed to be set at $7,750,000. And then there is um additional amount that is levied um and part of the program to cover the debt service payments on any long-term facilities um bonds that have been issued. And so our district has issued three bonds. Um

080one in 2015 that did HVAC projects at a number of buildings. Um one in 2022 which finished all of the HVAC projects at the buildings that hadn't been done. Um and then the most recent one in in 2023 um which were the LTFM bonds for the improvements at Apollo. So in total um the total LTFM revenue for 2627 uh is proposed to be set at 12,869,41. And then when we look at the annual projects um and again this is preliminary because we're still um over a year out from uh from when these projects will take place. Generally most of this work uh will occur summer of 27. Um so in or sorry summer of 26 so at the beginning of fiscal year 27 um we always have a set aside for health and safety. Um

081and then kind of our salaries professional services overhead um and then uh we have identified some some large projects and you'll see um Talahi is on here a lot for next year. Um, and really, uh, that's being driven by the fact that, um, the roof, there's a small portion of the roof. Um, but then the largest need is the parking lot. So, um, the Tahi parking lot is in need of of, uh, an overhaul or reconfiguration. Um, and so just like we've we've done with North and South this year, uh, if we know that we have to shut a building down and not be able to do summer programming because we have a parking lot and we have a roof project and all of the things, um, then we go through that 10-year plan and

082identify what all can we do if we're going to take the building offline. Let's get as much done as possible. And so that's where you see um we have identified a window and skylight replacements, the electrical panel board, an air handling unit um and then also the cafeteria partition. Um on the next slide, there's a a set aside for district-wide flooring. A lot of that will end up being at Talahi as well um so that we can kind of get in um while that building is is closed for the summer. We also have uh the clear view roof um project identified. Um that is a much larger portion. Um that's the majority of the roof on that building. Um and there again um there weren't a lot of big large ticket items in the 10-year

083plan for Clear View. Um that were in the immediate needs. Um but certainly that flooring painting um we'll be looking at going uh having um when Matthew starts having him go through with the engineers um and and identify what else we can do in that building. Um but there weren't any other largecale items. Uh the last one on this list is um which is the same thing as at TA Tahi is the cafeteria partition at Discovery. Uh the south track is also scheduled to be replaced. That hasn't You have a question? Do you want me to go back? Oh, okay. Um the South Track is scheduled to be replaced. Um the next one uh is on here as a holding place. Um, Superintendent Pnham has identified a desire to look at adding some single-user restrooms

084at Tech. Um, for the safety and security, um, we've been getting feedback from, um, from Apollo and McKinley at at how well that's that's working in terms of, um, the students feeling like that's a a much more um, safe and controlled environment. Um, we haven't had the time to have an architect come out and look at is that even feasible at this point for summer of 26. Um, but we've put it on here and set aside the money as a holding place. Um, and they'll be starting to go out and and do some of that initial um, inquiry here in the next month or so. Uh, so that we can identify, you know, I is there a layout that works? Um, is that in the learning communities? Is that in the common areas? What does

085that look like? Um, so that's been added to the list here. That changed since the finance u meeting, but did am I correct on that? That wasn't No, that was on there. We talked about that. Was on there then? Yeah. Yeah, it was on there. Was I there? Yeah. And I think we said we haven't had them come out and look at where that would be. We don't know how firm of a of a cost number this is, right? Like we're we're very preliminary in the what does that look like? What does that that cost? Um but we we didn't have a lot of other large projects in this 10-year plan. um that when we looked at the 10-year plan, so there was available money to to just kind of do a holding place for

086it. Um but it definitely needs further investigation and we would likely bring that back to finance committee before we would move forward with it. I I remember discussing it. I don't remember there being a dollar amount in our holding place, but I promise it was. But again, I I I do want to give the disclaimer that that dollar amount is not a firm dollar amount. it has not been provided by an architect or a construction manager. Um we really kind of use the number at McKinley like if we were to do one bank of restrooms and this is how much it costs there. This is roughly what we would think it would cost. It's by no means um replacing every restroom in that building. Um the intention is is maybe to do one set uh

087somewhere and and where that is would still yet to be um determined. Um the next two items are things that uh are um they're on here as districtwide. Um there's there's specific buildings that have um needs identified. The canopy and foundation repairs. Um a lot of that is at Apollo and then um Discovery Oak Hill. Um Tilah, anywhere where we have kind of those canopy, those concrete canopies um that overhang. A lot of those have been in need of repair. Um we've tried to do some of the smaller ones uh this summer and there just isn't contractors available. um there's just a shortage of of um both for tuck pointing uh which is the next one on the list and the the uh canopy and concrete work. And so uh what we're planning to do

088then for next year is to put all of that work districtwide into an actual bid um where we can get a better draw um a company. We don't have a lot of local contractors for those um and when we do they're they're few and far between. Um and so having a a bigger scale of work across multiple buildings um would hopefully get us to get somebody who's who's willing to come to town um to do that larger scale of work. So that's why um we see those as districtwide um and those will be official those will be formal sealed bids that will come to the board. And then the rest of the items are are really just um allocations for things that come up. We know we have paving and concrete repairs in the buildings

089that come up. HVAC and plumbing um roofing repairs um issues with building envelopes. windows, doors, hardware, things like that. Um, inevitably knowing that this is over a year from now, um, there are going to be things that we can't predict. And so, the rest of these items are really holding places. And then there's still $800,000 unallocated um, based on on what was identified now. Um but again, we have a process that we go through with engineers every year as it gets closer um to kind of identify those things that maybe weren't on our radar today um but will be a priority um as we get closer to the actual start um of this year. So that is what I have. There's questions. El did you have more? Go ahead. um looking at the this is

090um I didn't ask this at the finance because I wasn't thinking about it then but we we've talked before when we've gone through this about seal coating and developing some kind of a seal coating plan number one getting some sort of strategy for what type of seal coating we're going to do but number two we've been putting down a lot of pave a lot of pavement around the district. I mean, we've done a lot of parking lots and if we don't seal coat them, we're going to be right back where we are in a few years. It's just part of the maintenance of of tar of asphalt. Uh you got to get those cracks sealed so that they don't take on water and then expand with ice and contract and crack more and then just

091break up. They just crumble. So I'm just wondering there's no I don't now this is out two years this is out two years from now. So that would fall into that districtwide paving and concrete repairs. That's not enough though for is it for I mean I I almost feel like it should be like our um just it should be on a schedule where it's like just rotate through the school through the schools in the district and it's like every third year at the very least they would get hit. And if that's every third year, we're looking at doing how many schools per year? Um about it doesn't cost as much as unless it's something other than what what we've been doing. Yeah. And see, I think that's where we're going to when we've talked about

092it in the past, we talked about looking at the type of steel coating that we do cuz based on what we've been doing, this is generally because we do sort of do those in a rotation. and a lot of our parking lots are still relatively new, you know, so we're not necessarily needing to do every lot yet. Um, but in terms of what we've been spending to do the annual seal coating. Um, but I don't know um where that ever landed if if Joel and and Marcus have um done any of you know looking into that. So, we'll want to have I haven't heard anything back on that, but I just I get a little concerned because again, this is out a couple years now. We I don't know. Do we have any seal coating

093planned for this year? Probably not. I don't know because I am not the one that scheduled the project. So I could not I'm going to guess that we don't and then so that puts it out another year and then it pretty it isn't too long before you're at the point where it's been I do know we just did the pavers at tech. So we just did the ceiling of the pavers. So that one I I do know cuz that one we um we just completed the contract and and that one just came through for payment. Um but certainly there is $800,000 unallocated in this budget that you know so if we look into what does that look like right is there a more expensive um option for ceiling that gives us better long-term maintenance and

094durability um I certainly feel like that expensive right but you know I just I just look at it's like we're really good at allocating so I want to make sure that there's enough there to allocate so that we don't just allow that to go by the wayside and our lots started falling apart that we just put down new new uh asphalt in. Yeah. Well, I'll make a note for um and tech would be one that's it's been I mean, how old is tech now? It's really never been seal coated, but asphalt part the asphalt part. Yeah. Yeah. And it needs to be and or we're going to have broken up parking lots and we're going to be looking at replacing them. So, yep. I I just I I get a little bit concerned and I'm

095still a little bit concerned. This is down again. These dollars were down a little bit um from what we have had and I'm just a little concerned that we're not going to be allocating enough to really maintain our buildings the way that we should. So, okay. Um this is a discussion item tonight, but do we formally uh have an action item? Yes. So it comes um back for approval in July. And really what comes for approval is the the dollar amount that we're levying um those revenue and expenditure uh spreadsheets for the the formal LTFM program. The state does not require um kind of this project list is more supplemental. So, um what's approved are in the board attachment the revenue and expenditure um 10-year plan spreadsheets as required by MDE and that typically goes

096on the consent agenda in um July. Okay. Any other questions at all? All right. Thank you very Oh, Natalie, sorry. I'm interested in what Al is talking about. I'm wondering if it makes sense when you come back in July if you can share with us what you learned about that or about the steel coating. Nobody around. I don't know if Matthew will have I will say I don't Matthew is I think not starting until the mid July. So I'm not sure that we will be able to have an answer for that before this needs to be approved by the board. Um but again what's being approved by the board isn't this this list of projects. It's the dollar amount. Um, and so, you know, certainly that 800,000 that's unallocated could be moved to paving and

097concrete, you know, for us internally as an allocation so that we know that's kind of where we want to hold it now cuz this is really an internal um document that's used for planning purposes. Um, but we could we could absolutely shift that 800,000 over and just say, you know, maybe we don't need 1.2 million for paving or ceiling. Um, but then we have an ample budget there to cover what what we might need to do for that summer. I'll give you a real good example on that seal coating. If you go over to uh McKinley and look at the lower lot Mhm. it's cracking. There's weeds growing in it and those weeds grow and it creates more cracking. It's just it's and it's not that old. That lot was done not too terribly long

098ago. I mean, it's it's been several years and I think that we have seal coated it once, but that's where it has to just be on a regular schedule and we got to look at the quality of the seal coating that we're using. So, it's a concern. Yeah, I think that'll take some time to do that analysis, right? Put together what are the options, what are the costs. Um, you know, certainly we'll need to have somebody go do that that tour of every building, right? Where are our highest priorities? Lay out that schedule. Um, but like I said, we we certainly could move that $800,000 over. I I agree with you on that, but we talked about it last year, too. And it was kind of the same thing be because I talked about it

099last year and we talked about the quality of the steel coating. And I said we should have someone go out and talk to like talk to Aztec and see what they do because they do a lot of highway projects where they go and they put down the real thick oil and then they lay gravel on top of it and it gets driven on for about a month and then they go sweep it up and it looks and I can't say definitively that we didn't look into that. Right. Joel may have. He's unfortunately he's not here cuz that wasn't a task I personally was charged with doing. um that you know falls under the operations um department, but certainly I'll make sure to convey when when Matthew starts that that should be a priority so that

100um we know that that we can make sure that that gets in the plan for next summer. And there is still unallocated money in 2022 because we have projects that are coming in under budget. Um and so certainly there might be an opportunity for there to be um some significant money left where some of that work could even be done in June um out of the current well not current but the 2526 budget. Um so we can look at that uh and certainly see what the feasibility of that would be um because it's highly likely like I said that there would be money that we could do that um in the coming fiscal year too. Could we possibly um have that discussion happen at the finance committee and then you guys bring back what happens?

101I know it's not like tomorrow or even July, but just like because we've had this conversation before just so we can get caught up on what's Yeah, I'll make a note to put that on a future finance committee agenda after the new year. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. The new fiscal year after July. Yeah. Not not the calendar year in January. Sorry, I my brain it's been we're coming off a budget time. I don't think of anything other than a fiscal year. So like I just I'm always in fiscal year mode. All right. Thank you. Uh then we have the board of education standing committee reports. I believe we have two. Um Natalie, are you reporting? Okay. So we have achievement integration and equity uh committee and Natalie Copeland is reporting that.

102Uh yes, we met on the 11th and um Kate Bicowski shared discipline data for 2425 school year. Um the district measures continue to show a reduction in out of school and inschool suspensions. We have made gains in our disproportionality in some areas. um and Skyward and documentation of more significant infractions has also decreased. So basically it was a really great hour to hear all the great work that's being done in our schools. Um and we will meet again um on the 20th of August because we don't meet in July. Thank you. And then we have board finance and audit committee chair Heather Weeps. Um the board finance committee met on June 9th. Uh we talked about the transportation study. Gary shared information from a transportation study that we recently completed which included current usability costs,

103assets, routing, and our bus contracts. He also shared information about the district services building property. Um, we discussed naming of new of a new building. Lori provided the committee an update that the process for naming the new outdoor athletic facility at Apollo will begin soon. Staff, parents, and students will be involved in the process. And then finally, as we just talked about with the LTFM plan, um Amy reviewed the preliminary 2026 27 LTFM plan and the majority of the projects would be done in the summer of 2026. This will be discussed today and again um voted on July 23rd. Thank you. And then we have future agenda items. July 23rd, 2025 board meeting topics will include activities update and the Minnesota State High School League membership video. Approval of the 2025 2026 Minnesota State High

104School League membership renewal 20 approval of the 2025 2026 Minnesota School Board Association membership renewal. I got a theme going on here. Approval of the 2025 2026 Association of Metropolitan School District membership renewal. Then we have approval of boys swim co-op. We have summary evaluation of the superintendent and graduation ceremonies for the 2025 2026 school year. At this time, does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item? L and then maybe Scott. Um I'm not really suggesting one here. I'm just going to bring up some dates uh for the Minnesota School Boards Association delegate conference. the resolutions. Each year we've done a couple of resolutions and sent them. So, they sent out some dates just recently. Uh the the resolutions are due to them no later than September 24th to be included this

105year. Okay. Uh it's already on our meeting agendas for a discussion on August 6th, August 20th, and uh September 3rd. So, I'm going to assume that the August 6th would be like a work session, kind of a a general discussion of the from the board on what we want to do with resolutions. The August 20th would be a first reading of the resolution and then the September 3rd would be a second reading of the resolution and and passage by the board. Um neither Scott or I are necessarily on at the delegate conference this year. There's a new election this year. So I'm I'll throw my name in the hat to run for it and but I haven't heard from Minnesota School Boards Association when that takes place. So as far as uh nominating and electing

106directors, is that possible that that nomination happen? I mean, is that happening then sometime between now and this September 24th or how? Yeah, I comes first. It happens. I can't tell you when it happens. It's some sometime over the summer here. Okay. Okay. There will be I mean it's just it's it's a real complicated process. You pretty much nominate yourself and and then your name goes on the ballot. Um there isn't a whole lot of campaigning or anything like that involved. I think I sent an email last time to all of the member districts or all of them the district six members boards members board members from all of the districts in district are we are we six I don't know what we are um asking them to vote so I was able to win

107with that one but um like I said I can't nobody can guarantee okay so it was me and Scott and it was Emily and um I forgot her name. Two from two from Sartell. There you go. No, a guy another person did run and was elected, but then he dropped out. So, Scott got appointed. Okay. It was the first alternate because it's strictly board members in that district or whatever that are voting for you. That's who votes and that's how you are elected is from highest vote. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. I wrote those dates down too to follow that. Okay. Okay. And uh nope, not tonight. must be on the other it's every other week. Okay. Um any other uh agenda items suggesting one more thing? Sure. Um we did we did sponsor a um

108gathering over the past two days where uh we talked about uh [Music] what AI AI yes AI and there's artificial intelligence and it it was quite good we had uh the author of Uh the book from last year showed up and Donna Roer did a wonderful job of uh running the thing and um it was good. Yes, that's some media coverage on it, too. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I'm looking for a motion to adjourn tonight's board meeting. I have a motion by Sack and a second by Heather. All in favor say I. Opposed. Meeting is adjourned. 8:01 p.m. Have a good night. Thanks for watching. We'll be back July 23rd.