001to order. It is May 21st, 2025, and the time is 6:30 p.m. Our mission is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage, inspire, educate, and empower all learners in partnership with our surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Heather, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? [Music] 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? Scott Andre here. Natie Cop Natalie Copeland here. Al Dalgrren here. Zack Dorhalt here. Shannon Hos here. Heather Williams here. The following board members are not present. Diana Fenton. The following cabinet members and staff are
002present at the district administration office. Superintendent Dr. Lorie Putnham. Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Jason Harris. Assistant Superintendent of E5 Learning Nikki Hansen. Assistant Superintendent of E12 Educational Services Shannon Shannon Avenson. Executive Director of Community Education Adam Holm. Executive Director of Business Finance and Business Services Amy Scallarude. Executive Director of Operations Joel Highamp. Executive Director of Special Projects Gary Gangi. Director of Community Engagement and Communications Tammy Dand. Media Technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott. And the custodian on site is Austin Goodwater. Thank you. Then next, I need a motion to approve tonight's board of education meeting agenda. So, a move. I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote again? Heather Williams? Yes. Shannon Hos? Yes. Zack Doorhold? Yes. Al Dalgrren? Yes. Natalie Copeland? Yes. Scott Andre? Yes.
003Thank you. Then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items the board adopts routinely without debate. Any 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 minutes from April 16, 2025. Item B, approval of bills and other financial transactions in the grand total amount of 5,450,27856. Item C, approval of personnel staff changes. Item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. Item E, South long-term facilities maintenance improvements change order totaling $70,537. Item F, North long-term facilities maintenance improvements, change orders totaling $55,97429. And last, but certainly not least, item G, resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of the district's general obligation capital appreciation school buildings bonds, Minnesota school district credit enhancement program,
004authorizing the negotiation for the sale of such bonds, covenanting and obligating the district to be bound by and use the provisions of of Minnesota statutes uh section 126 55 to guarantee the payment of the principal and interest on such bonds and declaring the official intent of the district to reimburse certain expenditures from the proceeds of bonds to be issued by the district. At this time, does any member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda? Natalie, if I could please remove item D. Item D. Okay. Looking for a motion to approve. Um A through G with the exception of item D. So move. I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Uh Heather, can you call vote? Zack Halt, yes. Al Dalgrren, yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Heather Williams, yes.
005Scott Anderson, yes. And are you uh recusing yourself? Okay. Um, so I'm looking for a motion to approve um item D on the consent agenda. So move second. I have a motion by Scott, a second by Al. Uh, Heather, can you call vote without Natalie? Scott Andre, yes. Zack Doorhold, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Al Dugran, yes. Shannon Hos, yes. Thank you. Moving on to information and the items and the most exciting um up for tonight is the district retiree recognition. So, welcome everyone for being here tonight. On behalf of the superintendent and board of education, I want to extend a special welcome to our 2025 district retirees. It was wonderful to be able to socialize with many of you prior to the meeting. And for those who could not attend this evening and may be
006watching on our live stream, just know that we celebrate you too. This year we are recognizing 44 retirees throughout the district who in total have dedicated 882 years of combined service to St. Cloud area schools which is so impressive and for which we are incredibly grateful. We are thankful for your efforts to ensure our students were educated, fed, transported, cared for every single day. We know our students and our schools are better because of you. As board chair, I am honored to congratulate you on your welldeserved retirement and wish you the very best on your journey ahead. And now, let's enjoy a blast from the past, a video highlighting our retirees accomplishments. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat
007up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] That made me feel a little bit old because I had hair like that and recognized every one of those pictures. So, Um now a few remarks from our superintendent. I am grateful for this chance to get to um say thank you to those of you who are sitting here and to those of you who are at home. Um some of you I have the opportunity to have known for u many many years. Uh and some of you I I have only gotten to know or or greet as I am out in schools. And some of you um you know taught
008my kids and um every single one of you um no matter the the years or the kinds of interactions we've had have uh made a huge impact um not only on my life, my family's life, but also that of the folks who are sitting um here and uh the the thousands and thousands of students and families whose lives you've touched. Um and I I just want to say a a deep appreciation. I um if you um you know I sent out a a reflection that I had done about public education um a couple weeks ago cuz um I was in a mood. That's how I say is I was in a mood um because there's um often uh and it seems increasingly lately um an inclination a willingness to um make education, public education um
009the punching bag of of society's il right whatever whatever is going wrong people like to blame us. uh the chief justice of the uh US Supreme Court just blamed uh public education for um the lack of um of uh of uh separation of powers. I'm like really like that's that's our fault too. Okay. Um and and what I what I I wish so desperately people could see are the folks like you, right? the people who have given so much um certainly between the hours of 7 and 3 or 8 and 5 or um if you're working B shifts or weekends, right? Certainly during those times, but the countless things that you have done on the weekends, grading papers, finding something uh over the weekend to decorate your classroom, right? To knowing that on the bus
010or in the morning when you greet a kid, they aren't going to have enough food, right? So, you went and you got something so they would you could slide them a granola bar, right? There are things that u I will never know that your families will never even know um that you have done for our kids, our our community um and your colleagues. And so, um from the bottom of my heart um and um this this team sitting here tonight, I I extend my uh deep appreciation and know that um you will be uh deeply deeply missed. And thank you. And I'd like to ask uh the folks who are here to celebrate the retirees if you'd please stand up and join me in a round of [Applause] applause. Thank you again for being here.
011I'm guessing that you don't want your next step to be celebrated with us at the board meeting. So, I'll pause for a minute if you would like to to sneak out of here, but you're certainly welcome to stay. I have that hair though. Hairspray. Oh yes. I love that. Couple people hadn't used their ears. Okay, thank you for joining us here. Um, next up we have a transitional services update. Um, Adam Holm, executive director of community education is with, and I apologize I'm gonna pronounce your name wrong. Uh, Kalia Binham, TRA traditional services coordinator. Adam, maybe I need to just stop talking and you can introduce your team. Uh, good evening. We're very excited to have um, we call her Coco Hartung with us and, uh, Kim Braxton. This is our transitional team and they're
012going to present a wonderful display of how we help kids every day. Good evening. Um Madame Chair, Mrs. Putnham, board members, and assistant soups. Um thank you for having us. Um I'm here to talk about our recent progress with transitional services. This is Kim Braxton. This is her first year um here with uh transitional services. She is a family advocate and she also does the intake for our families. The district homeless liaison plays a critical role in ensuring equitable access for all students, including those experiencing homelessness by providing multiple points of contact throughout their educational journey. The liaison fosters strong connections between students, families, and the school district while collaborating with community partners to secure essential educational resources and support services. Through this coordination, the liaison advocate advocates for the holistic needs of homeless students
013to be addressed in a timely and effective manner. Um during our intake process and discussion, we talk about school placement, transportation arrangement, food, physical needs, academic needs, and Mars. The intake I'm sorry, the intake process with the community ensures the educational fully address the following intake coordinated planning tailored to support measures and also implemented to promote smooth school integration and also sustain academic progress despite housing instability or transitional circumstances. Um, I had the data team run numbers for me today just to get an accurate number. Um as of today we have 1,073 uh identified homeless students. Um of that as you see 18 plus 32 males and 51 females. Um prek through 12th grade 576 and also with our uh males 497 and our uh community calls for district communitys county and city 20. And
014then our number of resources and supports as the current date of the district um negotiable from McKini Vento is eligible for students who are identified as homeless but also get to have the same opportunity in learning and their education to be um successful. Our students benefit greatly from clothing and essential items provided by the key partners listed above, helping ensure a confident and comfortable comfortable start to the school day. In addition, the district is supported by 16 community agencies that contribute valuable resources and services. We deeply appreciate the ongoing collaboration and commitment these partners bring to meeting the the the diverse needs of our students. Thank you. And are there any questions? Scott, you mentioned Mars. M A R SS. What's that? If we do, did you have the Mars? Mars. He said Mars with
015Mars. That's the academic planning and our how we count our students and our MARS data that we give to the state. Okay. So MARS is a data that you that all the schools use. It's the every student has a MARS number and then we have data that we use that MARS data for. Then we Donna can utilize or the whole district but then the the team can look at pull our MARS data to find the students. Okay. So each student has one of these accounts and every student in the whole district has a Mars ID number. Okay. Thank you. Uh you mentioned 1,73 homeless kids, correct? Wow, that's a lot. It is a lot. and we're about 9,500 in our district. That's that's a lot. Thank you. Uh you you spoke on one of the
016slides. If you could back up to the slide that list the services that you provide. Oh, started with I think transportation. Yeah. School. Okay. school placement, transportation, transportation arrangements and stuff. Um, first of all, when when we talk about homeless students, when we say 17673 homeless students uh within the district, those are students that we've worked with so far this year. Correct. And how long how long I I don't I we don't have,73 students today in our district who are home who are not have no home, right? Um, so it's a categorized um if they're a hotel, motel, doubled up, but this is it's transitional in the sense that they're moving through a period of homelessness, but they aren't necessarily if we worked with them back in uh September, they aren't necessarily homeless today in
017our district. But I so I guess I'm kind of wondering when we say 1,073 students what what does that look like and how long is a student who comes to transitional services and uses the services how long are they typically homeless before they find stable housing? Um under no Mckin Vento there's no limit as far as like statute of um length of homelessness. I mean, and so we have to do our um follow-through in criteria every July 1st of the year to ask students and their guardians um their their living arrangement. Um some live arrangements change and some do not. our unaccompanied youth. They could be couch shopping, they could be at 180, it could be at the youth shelter um which we um had a lot of this year, but mainly um during our
018intake process, we want to make um the student feel comfortable and we want to build a trusting relationship with them to be best serve them. And when we talk about the living arrangement, that is a tricky one because they think of am I going to get my parents in trouble and you know where am I living? But um every year we have to we have ident um questions that we have to ask in order to um categorize them as homeless. Um okay. that how how far and so I would I would imagine when we're working with students some of them if they're if they're if they're homeless they're not in stable housing so I would imagine there's a lot of moving around how far and we provide transportation to the homeless students correct and how
019far does that reach how far do we reach with that there is how far outside of our district would people or home homeless students be living that we're transporting in maybe is the question. Um under Mckenny Vento we do district uh like borderline district lines. Um in some cases some kids are living out of state and it's our job to make sure that um that kid that student sorry has no interruption. So we have to partner with different schools. we have to um well me personally I will contact their foster care uh Chrissa Potter and she will work on that end of things um to uh make sure that student has the same access and transportation. For me if a student is housed in Long Perry and needs to be able to get to Discovery
020School, I need to contact Long Perry's um homeless leazison there and we both come up with um an agreement. Sometimes the district just pays the whole bill and then on the other back side they do their splitting. The goal would be to keep them in a stable school setting. Correct. Correct. So you don't want them moving from school to school to school. So how far So again my question was kind of how far does that reach for? Like how far are we transporting students from outside our district to our district on a daily basis? I'm not looking for specifics. Just last year we had a student that wanted to graduate from tech and he picked got picked up every day in Glenwood. So we worked with a provider to Glenwood. This year it was Minneapolis
021for a while till we could make arrangements so it was easier for them to transition to their new school. But it's whatever is in the best interest of the student and as far away as they live. But I know it's been Minneapolis this year, Glennwood last year were our farthest. And then we work very closely with Amy uh to work on the finance piece. And then we have to justify how is this in the best interest of the student? Why did we choose the vendor we did? Is it possible to get them on district buses? And in those two cases, it wasn't. So then we work with a third party vendor. So it's significant. Yeah. Significant distance. Uh let's see. Don't I I think you know Lori, you made some comments about education kind of
022being the I don't know being blamed for so much. And I someone sent me an email just yesterday that I responded to. It was a John Staceil video in which he was blaming public. He was blaming public. He was blaming education and and it was a piece aimed at uh open enrollment and I'd even go as far as saying vouchers and how if we could just get students out of these bad schools and into good schools then we'd we'd solve the education problem or the the education challenges within America. And it's just so simple. All we have to do is get the kids into the right schools. And and Staceil went so far as to say if you if we could get them out of these schools in these poor neighborhoods that are the decrepit
023schools that are falling apart in poor neighborhoods that have such poor results and put them into better schools, we would solve the problems that exist in those schools. And to me and I when I answered this person, it was a friend of mine so I wasn't like but I I go back to,073 students are homeless within our school within our school district. That's 10% of our school district. That's that's more than 10% of our school district is students who don't have a stable home. And I always, you know this, I always go back to Maslo's pyramid or hierarchy of needs. And the first thing you got to have is you got to have place to live. You got to feel safe. You have first you have to have your basic needs met. You have to
024have food and shelter. And then you have to feel safe, right? If you don't have one of those, if you don't have those things covered, you're not going to learn. You're not you're you're in survival mode. Your instinct is to survive. Your instinct is not to learn. And it's only when you move past those two, then you get to the feeling of belonging. Well, now if I have a place to live and I I know that I'm going to get food and I feel fairly safe, now I can feel when I go to a school, I can feel as though I may belong in that school. That opens the door to maybe I can learn. Maybe I can turn on that learning thing. But it's not until I get up into the top two levels
025of the pyramid where I have that sense of love and belonging and then you get into the self-actualization phase at the top. But those are the kids who come to school ready to learn. Those are the kids in the wealthy areas. They they they're at home. They feel safe. They have food. They have parents that care and are there for them. They they do travel with their families. They see the world. they they have experiences. They are ready to learn and they come prepared to put the work in to learn. They're not in survival mode. Survival is taken care of for them. And when we have a group of 10 10% of our school district is in the home is homeless, doesn't have a place to live, that's that's not even taking care of level
026one. And then we have a whole lot of students who are living in poverty uh in really bad family situations. They may be in level one or level two. But I would venture to say and I what I said to this person is that if you go to one of the districts that Staceil was talking about as a good district, it's probably 90% of those kids have all of their basic needs met and they're going to school to learn. When you come to a quote poor school district, it may be 50% of the students who are either homeless or living in poverty or very near poverty or are special education students or they're new to country and have language barriers that that makes um learning at a proficient level very difficult. And it isn't the
027schools. It's not the teachers. It's not It's not bad teachers here and good teachers there. It's society. It's it's the family structures. It's it's so many pieces of the puzzle that are broken. And it's just really frustrating to me that yes, they turn around and they kick the school and they say the school's not doing enough. Kids are in school six to seven hours a day, 5 days a week. They're at home 15 hours, 16 hours. I have 17 hours a day and they're home seven days a week. The the problem isn't the schools. The schools are doing everything they can. And it's really difficult to take a kid who doesn't have a home and in 7 hours 5 days a week, bring them from the very bottom of the pyramid where their basic needs
028haven't been met up to where they're they're they're in a in a position in life where they feel confident and can go in and learn. So that is it's a really frustrating piece to me, but the work that you guys do is amazing. It's needed. Uh it's overwhelming. It's probably really frustrating at times, but it I I commend you for everything that you do. It's it's a really tough difficult problem and a and a real challenge. And it's not just a challenge for the schools. It's a challenge for the schools, the cities, the counties, the states, and the federal government and families. Families themselves. That's it. Yeah, I echo what Al said that we're so thankful for both of you, Koko and Kim. Um, I know it's more than a job for you. I know
029it's a calling and um I feel that and I can't only I can only imagine what our families feel. when we say we're a we want a safe and caring climate in our district, this is what it's about. Um it shouldn't necessarily be our job, but that's not how we run things at 742, right? We are going to help. We're going to have a safe and caring climate, whatever that means for kids. And hearing that we have over a thousand students, which isn't surprising because that's where we were last year as well. Um, and then also reading yesterday, uh, that 60% of Americans, um, cannot afford a minimal quality of life. That same 59% don't can't make it through a $1,000 emergency. And, um, I feel that, you know, I I felt that in my
030own life. And so for our district to be able to have both of you um and everybody else, right, that funnels folks to you. Um it I wish it wasn't this way. And yet um I'm so glad that there is somebody that like you guys that people can reach out to. And what I really admire so much about um the role that you guys play is that it's not a a one-off meeting and then you're hands off, right? It's like what do you need? Let's wrap around wrap around wrap around as much as they need. Um and it's those partnerships that you have with our community, with the counties, with Catholic Charities, with whoever it is. um getting all the resources we can for our families, not so they can um so we can not
031talk to them anymore, but so we can um see the success not only in the students, but also in the parents. And there's a lot of tough things in this job, I'm sure. But there's also um for me I just see um the individual I think of the individual wins that happen when a mom is able to you know get shelter in a hotel for the 6 days before they can get into um into uh Anamarie's you know that's instead of being on the street that's not what public schools are made to do and yet that's what we're doing and we'll continue to do it with all of the resources that Coco and Kim can muster Um, and so every day I'm thankful for you. So, thank you so much. Thank you. I've been really
032looking at those that list of items up there on the screen. We talked about transportation arrangements. How do you make a school placement decision? How do you choose what school you put the kids in? Um, thank you for the question. Um when a family comes in, if they were prior uh students, we'll um see if they're still living at the same address. We'll ask them like, "Are you still living here at this address?" Or if they moved, we will see um where what school the boundaries that they're living in. And if some families choose to have school of origin, we have to make that happen if their living arrangement has not changed. So best now we do we had some um prekage kiddos that was maybe two hours three hours that they would have been
033on the bus and so I would dispute that because you know of the time they have to get up and then they're sleeping and eating. So we factor in a lot of that. Um and I think Shannon I talked to you about a couple of high school kids. So the best interest is their well-being, their eating, their sleeping, everything that um has the student be school ready for the day. But it also bases off their um address because we can't say no without just to say hey we can't do this. We have to make something work to keep the kid to keep those barriers off the student and we have to make sure that the parent also is involved. So Scott to really to make it clear we partner with the parent to have the
034parent choose what's in the best interest of their child. We don't choose. We partner with the parent. Do they want to go back to their home school? Do they want to go to their new school? But the parent would always decide except in extreme cases. And then we would partner with one of the assistant superintendent to help us work with the family to say this isn't in the best interest to ride 3 hours each way to school. Okay. So if say a kid lived over by Tilah and at one time went to Westwood, he would still have the option of going back to Westwood. Then that's their school of origin. Correct. Okay. Uh food services. How do we go about feeding these kids that don't have a home? Um so we have a couple of
035options. Um we partnered with uh Ruby's Pantry was a great one. We also um had Sterns County Bank donate to the school district $16,000 that we used for Aldi's which was huge and I was so happy about that. Um what we do, we have our list, we go down the list and we invite the students to um this the grocery store and we talk to the um their guardian and we ask them are they in need of that way if we have to do a sec second cycle we know who we serve so everybody has a chance. Um, so Ruby's Pantry, we do uh it's a gift certificate. We have their name and ID number that's on the certificate. So they can't redeem it for cash. It has to be for um the pantry. Um
036and then they can if they need a ride there, we take them. And then most of the times we pick them up um and we deliver the food to wherever they're living. Um and that took place on uh Thanksgiving holiday was our first one. We were here on the weekends. We stayed for about five to six hours on Saturday and Sunday and then it was very important for Christmas. Um we came back right before uh our leave and we stayed the weekend to best serve the our students too and this would be shelters or wherever they're living. Okay. During CO we had food delivered by by school buses. Is that apply anymore or not? No. Now, we have a a van. So, we partnered with the district and they uh wrote part of the grant.
037So, we have money. We have a district van that these two can drive around if needed to bring the food to the families or to bring the student to an appointment. Otherwise, we have to use a third party vendor to get the families to and from school or to and from the grocery store or Kohl's. That sort of explains physical needs too, which I think was the next one on the list. You actually use the school van to make sure that they get where they have to be for for medical or whatever. Okay, thank you. Heather, can you talk a little bit I mean obviously we're getting to the end of the school year. what happens during the summer and what sort of services are available to students? Um, now that we have a 12-month
038um 12-month employee that's that year round after uh I think it would be May 30th is the last day. Um I will continue to serve. It's not as vast through the school year, but there are some um that still need services. if it's um hotel, motel, clothing, food, I still will continue to um and we document and we just take it from there. And then we also utilize our community partners which is huge. Um and we also have a coordinated entry. They put them on the housing list and they work from the top to the bottom and do like lowincome housing, section 8, HRA to get them um in housing and be supported. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have the graduation and end of year celebrations. We have Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent
039of secondary education, and Molly Kenzie, Tech High School principal. Good evening, Chair Hos, Superintendent Putnham, board members. Uh, you heard all the things that were going on, right? We heard our retirees that put in years of service to our community and public education. You just heard specifically transition or housing, uh, over a thousand students that we service every day. uh and all the things that show up for our students and our families and the to your point basic needs like food, clothing and shelter. We have a high need and so through all that we get to celebrate this right we c we have found ways to celebrate around achievement. Graduation is a big thing for our students in all the things that they overcome, not just in the sense of academics, their social emotional, learning
040how to work with one another, learning how to be on time, how to work with folks. And so we get the fun thing of specifically celebrating the end of the year because when we set out in July to what the end of the year looks like, graduation is one of the biggest things for us, right? to show our kids are achieving at high levels or not high levels of how people look at it and what they measure in that. And I think this year we really found some ways to do that. And so in everything we do, we got a chance this weekend, this past weekend to say thank you to our community because of everything you talked about, it can't be done alone in education. our community has to be there with us. And
041they showed up last Saturday. You all saw it. You all felt it from all programming. It was a great celebration. Passing of a new referendum, uh, superintendent of the year, but to give back to the community and we know it takes a collective effort. I got a chance and I should have been I I think I should have been doing some work. Uh, I like actually um I had a task, but I was so amazed. I went through every station, everything, every booth, all the folks that were there. It was amazing. Uh, just to see for our community. So, shout out to all the folks that planned that. Uh, I sat in a few meetings and I was like, this is a lot going on. But, but to see the final product for your kids,
042they sang a song to the superintendent. tell me they can't we can't build our music programs if you didn't see the group of students that sang that song and how it was a wide range of how the world should look in our classrooms and it was the teacher was powerful so shout out to our uh our yes Miss Cruz what you doing that's amazing and so it starts there and now do we continue this we've had this conversation because this is a good way right and so just uh Tonight we're just going to partner and talk about with the students and families how they celebrate the accomplishments. And it a part of it is now a community celebration to graduation and all the things from all the levels. And I'll kind of talk about that
043starting um is that Friday. Uh South's going to have their eighth grade celebration from 11:30 to 12:30. North does a a eighth grade celebration uh May 30th along with Kennedy uh at 8 am. So students that are finishing out that prek8, right, that's a transition and getting ready to go to to the next step of high school. And so those will be great celebrations for our folks. And then uh we got a chance to celebrate our alternative programs. uh superintendent and I and uh uh assistant superintendent Ason uh all got a chance to see our uh 18 to 22 year old students of CO2 uh with disabilities that still work through uh IEP. I knew a lot of the students. One student said, "I've had you since middle school." And so just talking to the
044kids and the celebrations. Uh next week we're going to have adult basic ed and we know uh just for folks to go back and get their education that those are non-traditional pathways and so how do we celebrate them? Yeah. All right. Good evening everybody. Thanks for having me. Um I'm going to share our high school celebrations. Um it feels like they've already kicked off May 1st and it has been busy ever since. So I'm excited to share with you. Um, going back to May 7th, our class of 2025 was able to partner and share a great experience um, at St. Cloud State University honoring our indigenous graduates. And so, as you can see, um, we had, I believe, eight students um, from all secondary schools that were able to participate in this event. Um, and
045similar to past experiences, there were the drummers and the quilts um, and the eagle feathers. And so it was really nice to just be able to um sit in that moment with them and share um their and their that student and their family's success. McKinley's graduation kicks off our graduation ceremonies and that'll be this Friday at 10:00 a.m. And so um someone said it in one of our principal meetings. If you have not been to McKinley's graduation yet, um where sometimes we ask audiences to be really quiet and get in that space. Uh, McKinley's is the opposite and they really do celebrate and cheer um and just generate that excitement of um of the great accomplishments for our students. On Friday, Apollo has a senior picnic coming up. Um, and so this is where staff
046get to spend that period with them where they are grilling and we'll just keep hoping for nice weather as the week ends here since we've had plenty of rain. Um, but they really get to just spend that time together as a class um, and celebrate their success there. And so really just giving back to their community. I don't know that yet, but I will find out for you. Do you have that? I believe it's during the lunch period. I just don't know if it's A, B, or C. Okay. I think also everybody has a calendar invite for all these events. I think Jan sent it out and so Scott will make sure we get the time for the barbecue cuz I think I saw you there last year and we had a hot dog together
047and enjoy enjoyed some fun. Right. It was it was hot. Yes. Um at Tech we host our annual activity day and so we run a 2-hour early out schedule. So from 1:20 to 3:20 we have outdoor activities. So we close down most of the indoor of tech and we um really get our group outside. And so, um, we've got outdoor games, partnerships with, um, law enforcement, the SWAT team shows up, um, some, uh, military rock wall and, uh, and bikes. And so, it's really fun to see our kids out there on, um, tandem bikes, just trying new things, planting with the gardening club. There's karaoke and henna. And so, feel free to stop by on on Friday. But, as I said, May seems to be really busy, so you'll be bouncing from event to event.
048seniors last day is also the 23rd and so um this is the day where we will uh collect all of their devices. We will hand out caps and gowns and their tickets. Um and so it came very very quickly but their last day wraps up in two days. Um the following Friday is when we kick off um that rehearsal for the next day. And so at River's Edge Convention Center, we will ask that all students transport themselves to the convention center and we will do the walkth through of the commencement ceremony. So Tech has the early ceremony this year and so our rehearsal is at 9:00 a.m. and Apollo's is at 11:30. The following day, May 31st, will be the day of both commencements. Tex starts at 11:00 with the doors opening at 10:00 a.m.
049Apollos is at 3:30 and the doors will open at 2:30. Um, we've been working diligently with our senior class in both buildings um to go through um how we just support getting all families and students there and in in hopes that we've had that conversation early for a very successful event. Um just a little bit about the ceremonies. Um it should last about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. There will be live uh music during the uh ceremony. So it'll be the band and the choir this year. There will be student featured speakers as well as principal selected student or sorry selected faculty member by our senior class and then Dr. Putnham will speak as well. Um and then there's the awarding of the individual diplomas and finally the presentation of the class
050of 2025. some family information. Students are given eight tickets per graduate and like I said, those are distributed with their caps and gowns. Um, our ask is that immediately following that ceremony, we have um lots of ushers and lots of adult support um to get our families and students to meet outside of door A um because we have a bit of a quick turnaround to get the next ceremony ready and going. Um, but the ceremony as always will be livereamed and we will share that out um through communications. Um, in the past we've done that through our Facebook pages and things like that as well. Um, additionally to our tickets, we've added some language this year to just try to help support the event. And so to limit disruptions during the ceremony, families should plan
051to stay for the entire ceremony. So, we've added that to the ticket. Um, as well as letting families know, um, once the event starts, if they choose to leave the building, they will not be allowed back in the building. And so, that helps us with that line of guests that are waiting to just not um not create a little bit of chaos. We're going to try to really keep it organized and who's in the space. Um, and so it's similar to all of our athletic events, right? Once you leave an event, um, you're not welcome back in. And so we will do our best to um really communicate that as people are making those choices throughout the ceremony. And that is it. Any questions around graduation? Okay, Scott, we have a um 11:00 to 12:45
052is the senior picnic on Friday. There you go. Hosa has rip your ear floats, so you just got to pick your pick your event. Last year at one point, we had talked about combining for for music. Um combining bands for and having the sophomore, freshman, sophomores, and juniors that are in the bands play for both so that we could have a little larger assembly. Uh is there anything happening with that or [Music] um there is not at this time and so I think both bands um based on spacing are fairly large with equipment and so at this time we are not combining [Music] Okay, one more information item tonight. We have the 2025 summer school review um presented by Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E5 learning and Christa Potter, director of title programs and multilingual
053student services. Welcome. There we go. All right. All the exciting things and it's going to be summer in just a few weeks, right? Um so I'm just going to fill you in on what our plans are for the summer. We have several programs running. um and we'll kind of just over oversee what they are and then you'll get some of those details. So here we go. Um so these are kind of the different categories and the language that we use when we talk about our programs. There's a lot happening all over our district. We have what's called extended school year and that happens at all ages. Um we also have what's called K5 targeted services. It includes our newcomer students. We have 67 targeted services which also includes newcomer students. And then we also offer
054some secondary credit bearing opportunities as well as credit recovery. So extended school year, that is a program specifically designed for our students that have IEPs or individualized education programs. Um and they um in their IEP, it it it tells us that we that they need some additional summer programming. So we we offer that. So these are the sites that they're going to be working at. PreK will be at Cory View. Elementary is going to be at Discovery. The middle and high school students for ESY will be at Apollo. And then we also offer some programming for our journey students at Roosevelt. Um targeted services. We offer at both K5 and 67. And it's called targeted services because the way that we determine whether a student qualifies for this program is based on a targeted range.
055So, if students need additional support or extra um extra work toward working towards standards, they could qualify to come to these summer programs. And this year, we're going to offer three different programs. And you can see the schools that will be clustered together for those different sessions. For our sixth and seventh graders, um we are also offering two different sessions. And again, South Junior High students will be at one and then North and Kennedy will combine during that session, too. Credit recovery is happening at the ALC, which is wonderful. Um, we have a lot of students that access this to not only work toward graduation, but also um recover some lost credits. Here's our master plan of all the programs. You can see the colors on the right hand side. Those are the programs I
056just talked about. And the colors go on the dates according to the calendar. So most of our programs will be running right away on June 9th and we will be finishing several of them by the end of June with some extension into July for some of the other programs. These are the times that we'll be running the programs. Elementary um will be early just as they are now and secondary a little bit later. This is to help accommodate the transportation which is a a very large feat I'm finding St. clouds big. Our goals um this year we're focusing on just continued increasing participation and opportunity. Um for elementary in particular, we adjusted our model. We had a mega site last year with multiple schools coming all at once. And we're trying to do um more
057two-week bursts that are kind of fun summer camps, but keeping them in the local schools. We got feedback from families that they they feel more comfortable having their student attend a school that's a little bit closer to home. Um we'll continue to gather feedback from our staff, parents, and students from year to year so we can make those adjustments. Um and of course prioritizing attendance and engagement um and intentional connection points with families. We've really upped the amount of communication we've had with families already and we will continue to do that so that they have the information that they need uh which supports attendance and engagement. Um and then of course we have great plans for including some social emotional learning as well as focuses in reading and math. Some of our partners are listed
058here. The United Way has been great. We're partnering with them to also partner with other organizations in town that offer enrichment opportunities, which is really unique for our students. Um, a lot of the opportunities were able to provide are things that they wouldn't normally get in the school year, which is engaging and exciting for them. Um, we've got some art, we've got some great theater, we've got um taekwond do, several different things that kids get really excited about, students get excited about. Um the YES network is a great partner as well and they help provide all of the meals for our summer programs which is huge. Um we also have our own grow your own student which are future um educators. They're high schoolers that we have currently that are interested in being teachers and
059so they get to go to SCSU and have a great week of learning and kind of learning the ropes of education. And then we also invite them into our summer classroom so that they can practice and um be with students and and be in the classroom as well. Um and then we do get some volunteers from reading core that help support in our classrooms as well. And that is all I have. Are there any questions? Scott, um, you mentioned target programs. How do you get eligible for that? What's involved in being involved? That's a great question. So, the state outlines 11 different criteria that a student can qualify for that additional support. Um it could be many things from you know students who are homeless to students who have a reading proficiency and they need
060some work with reading. Um maybe they need some support in math different things like that. So we look at all sorts of different kind of data points. Um and basically if a student needs some extra support we can fit them in. Okay. And these are state requirements. Yes. And how many do they have to meet of them? Just one. One out of 11. Yes. That should be doable. Yes. Um, you mentioned social emotional learning. I hear that term all the time, but what is involved? What do you do when you're teaching social emotional stuff? That's a great question. Um, so particularly with young people and even, you know, I would say middle schoolers as well, it's talking about kind of those character traits that make good interactions. How do you make friends? like a kindergartener,
061we would teach them how do you ask another another friend to play with you? What's appropriate? Um you could do um character traits of like what does it mean to be kind? What does it mean to be generous? Um different things like that. So we teach those social skills of interacting with your peers, what's appropriate, how to do that. We practice it. Um we also teach those skills of empathy and understanding and different things like that. Um, they're not really a textbook thing, but they kind of are because we need to teach students how to interact with one another and be successful, not only with their peers and their classmates, but out in the world. Okay. Um, you mentioned volunteers uh in a reading program. Uh, is RSVP involved? Retired senior volunteer program? We don't
062currently have them serving in our summer program, but we would love to have them if they are interested in volunteering. U there's a girl named Tana down at the senior center that would be happy to provide you with lots of volunteers. I will get her contact information. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Um a special thank you for all the extra effort it takes to get the transportation figured out. So that's a huge barrier. It It's a deal breaker for people if they don't have that. So thank you. Yeah. Shout out to our transportation department. They're great. Yeah, it's complex and and I I get how difficult it is, but oh so important. Thank you for joining us tonight. Okay. Then we have um our only action item tonight. We have the approval of lists of
063graduates for Apollo and Tech High School. Dr. Jason Harris presenting as our assistant superintendent of secondary education. Good evening again, Cher Superintendent Putnham. Board members, you all have a list of uh the 2425 graduates. You have Apollo's list. That list consists of 308 students. you have text list that consists of 384 students that will met all the requirements for uh graduation through the state uh the department of education. And so administration is going to look for approval to approve both of those lists for our students graduating uh May 31st. And so you just got a chance to hear Principal Kinsey just kind of talk about all the plans around that. And so our students and you know we talk about graduation and uh in the sense of that's a a big achievement for some of
064our students and we now start to have the conversation that that's just the minimum for our students and how do we prepare them for the world right and so uh just happened to listen to a podcast around uh we need to rethink how we look at education and So uh just this year and superintendent superintendent Putnham got a chance to lead uh the work around a future 100 right and the students and having a plan when they walk across the stage just not that piece of paper but what are you going to do and it's in an actionable item and I think this year more than than any any other year we had some celebrations uh last Thursday I talked to uh director Omar and students could really articulate my plan, right? Where what I'm
065doing, where I'm going, and it all wasn't just going to a 4-year university. It had a range from a 4-year university, 2-year certification, uh students that wanted to take a gap year, students that wanted to go abroad and have an experience. And so when we look at this and just the list, that's just the minimum technical pieces, but we're preparing students for the world, right? And so, uh, I've been talking to the folks just recently and students specifically, all the things that we just talked about around basic need, they show up every day. And some of the things because of they feel a sense of belonging. Somebody cares, somebody asked, and our our folks do a wonderful job to the point again that we celebrate them today. So, I think we've now start to move
066the needle uh not just with I'm walking across the stage, but what I'm going to do with my life and how I'm going to do it and have I found interest or not and then just doing it in that way. So, we're looking for approval for the list. But I just had to say that I've been talking to kids just in this time and just seeing it in amazement of our educators, our folks to show up and it's all a testament to what you all do and approve and to making sure that this happens. But this is a culminating event for four years or prek12 and it's big and we're going to send over 700 students across the stage with futures and doing something that they want to find. So I would move that we
067approve the list of graduates for Apollo High School and for Tech High School as presented. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion by Al and a second by Zach Scott. Are the McKinley kids on these two lists? Yeah, the students specifically that have a home school on uh Tech and Apollo. Uh but we have students that didn't go to either one of those schools and just showed up and that number is 57 cuz I asked and I talked to Bill, right? So, it's over 700 students. And I think we're getting into a systematic approach of of number now, who is it and how we're helping. And so, yes, it was 57 cuz I thought somebody asked. And thank you. Well, I'm glad I asked. Thank you, Heather. Can you call vote? Natalie
068Copeland, yes. Zack Dhold, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Scott Andreas, yes. Alrren, yes. Shannon Hos. Yes. Thank you. Then we have some policy readings. First, we have the proposed revised board policy 701, establishment and adoption of school district budget. This is the second reading and Amy Scallarude, executive director of finance and business services is presenting. [Music] Okay. Good evening, Chair Haw, Superintendent Putnham, members of the board. Um, I will put the uh policy up on the screen. There are no changes um since the first read from uh for this policy. This is the policy that outlines um the requirements to establish a school district budget. Um and as we reviewed it um a few meetings ago, the only change um was to reward uh some language that was a little bit um wordy before and then
069to add language uh about the authority to use uh fund balance to um spend if projected uh expenditures exceed revenues um on a limited uh temporary basis. Are there any questions on this policy? Okay, we'll go with no on that one. So, it's the Amy has all three policy readings tonight. Um, next we have the proposed revised board policy 721, uniform grant guidance policy regarding federal revenue sources. And this is a first reading. Yes. And so this one does have um a number of changes. Uh most of them uh are really um or almost all of them coming directly from a change in the federal uniform grant guidance. Um that is guidance that is issued by um the federal government that outlines uh procedures that we have to follow uh and rules around our uh
070funding spending of any federal funds. Um, so the first uh change and probably the only um change that will really impact anything um we do is changing the dollar amounts um in the procurement section. The first change uh won't impact how we do business. It's really just aligning with Minnesota statute. Um the federal limit to require a sealed bid is $250,000. However, in Minnesota, we have state statutes that are more restrictive than that. And so the the threshold in Minnesota is 175,000. And so MSBA has recommended in their sample policy um to lower that threshold in this policy so that districts aren't um confused that um that you can use the federal limit um because it would violate state statute and and wouldn't be allowed. So that's the reason for that change. Um and then
071in that same section, uh the one that will impact the way we um uh do business and have a a small impact on our governmentwide statements when we get to audit time is the change in increasing the uh threshold to define equipment, which is currently set at $5,000. We use that that same equipment threshold to determine um when we add something as a fixed asset for audit purposes, which will um be the next policy that we get to uh to flow that change through to that policy. And so the federal guidance has changed that from 5 to 10,000. Um and so um that one uh we will be updating as well. Um there's a small um just wording uh cleanup in the conflicts of interest section. um it used to say policy uh but you
072could have more than one policy regarding conflicts of interest. So they've changed that to the plural version. Um and then uh this is the only change that um we'll I'll talk a little bit about that doesn't align with the MSBA policy. Um this section G as it relates to uh procurement and selection of vendors is outlined um and included in the MSBA policy. It's also in the federal guidance. Um however, as we discussed at uh finance committee in light of some of the new um federal executive orders, uh there was some concern that um that this could potentially be contradictory to that. And it's not something we do in practice anyway because of of budgets being restrictive. Um we are always in the position to either take the low price or the best value. um
073you know, if it's a professional service where it's not always priced, but there's um you know, some sort of evaluation of of what's the best value for your money. Um we aren't doing this in in all um practicality. We're we're not um awarding businesses based on who owns that business. Um and so the recommendation was just to remove that since it it really doesn't align with with how we're um selecting vendors and awarding contracts. Anyway, um the next purchase uh or sorry, the next change in addition to the uh federal guidance around cyber security um to add kind of some minimum um minimum thresholds and safeguards that districts have to um provide asurances that they're covering as it relates to cyber security. uh we meet all of these um uh uh and more we are
074um probably more prepared and have better um protections and controls and um insurance than than a lot of um school districts both in the state and nationally. Um but that is a requirement now in the uniform guidance and so that has been added to the policy as well. Um uh this and the next change in the internal control section is is just some um some cleanup. Uh the policy previously said be in compliance with um but it's guidance not um any sort of regulatory authoritative. So that's been changed to say align instead of comply. Um they've added the uh the requirement to comply with the US constitution which I um was never called out um explicitly before but has been added to the guidance. Um, and then in those last two paragraphs, just some uh
075language cleanup in the MSBA policy. And then the um the last change other than um just some uh reference changes at the end uh was another addition in the policy regarding uh mandatory disclosures. Um these are uh mandatory disclosures that every time we uh apply for a grant or do reporting or accept federal funds in our grant systems um that we're attesting to and and um certifying that we're um meeting these uh required disclosures. Um but they've just added this into um the actual policy um as well. So those are the only changes. Um again very at the very end in the legal references is just some cleanup um of statute uh numbering um and naming um just to uh get that accurate uh based on the MSBA policy. Are there any questions? It's a
076lot of changes but really not a lot. Right. There's really it's very little that's going to change um anything in terms of of how we apply or do anything from a day-to-day basis. Scott, uh, you went through just federal disclosures really quick. Could you Yeah, I can go back up to that. Review that just a little bit so I understand it. Um, so it's basically just putting in the policy that the school district has to um um disclose anytime they have um evidence of a violation of fraud or conflicts of interest. This is one of the mandatory disclosures um that we attest to. Um there's also a requirement within that federal disclosure to um post publicly how you can um if you're a member of the public who wants to report some sort of um
077fraud or violation. And so um if you've ever come in the front door here, there is actually a poster that has the number about who you report that to um posted on the board with our meeting uh minutes. And so that posting um really is directly coming from this mandatory um disclosure and requirement. they're just officially adding it into the uniform grant guidance. Um, it was added to the uh disclosures in terms of what we sign off on and attest to in our grant applications a few years ago. Um, so it's really not new. It's just taken um the the federal um the federal government a while to get that updated on their end and then for MSBA to get that um updated in their policy. Okay. Then we have uh last one. We have
078proposed revised board policy 704 development and maintenance of an inventory of fixed assets and a fixed asset accounting system. Uh first read. Uh and so uh this change is directly driven from the changes in the uniform grant guidance policy that we just went through. Uh, and really that only change is to to update that equipment threshold from 5,000 to 10,000 that we'll use um to identify whether something is capitalized for um audit purposes, for financial statements. You will see in this policy that there's an effective date um on that change as it relates to this policy. And the reason for that is so that we don't have to go back into our system and dispose of everything that has been added up to this point that's between5 and $10,000. um that would be um a
079time-consuming task. It would uh require a change or a prior period adjustment on our financial statements. Just a whole lot of things we don't want to do. Um and so it will keep within our uh accounting and auditing reporting anything that we've added in the past that was under 10,000. Um but we'll use that 10,000 going forward starting with this fiscal year. Um so that is the only change to that policy. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Next up, we have the superintendence report. Uh Dr. Lori Putnham. Thank you, Chair H, members of the board uh team here and uh folks listening from home. Um tonight, I'm going to use the same framework as our assistant superintendent when they present uh their schools updates. So, I'm going to start off with safety, our our core,
080uh the core things that we focus on here in the district. Um so, uh we are really excited to share that Matt Sherry um who currently serves as a school resource officer at Apollo High School, has been named as the district safety coordinator, uh for us. Um this new role is funded through our Department of Justice uh safety, school safety grant, and it is part of our broader strategy to enhance district-wide safety practices. Matt, as you likely know, brings extensive law enforcement experience, a strong background in criminal justice and a deep familiarity with our schools to this position, and we are thrilled to have his expertise uh guiding and strengthening our school safety systems across all buildings. His leadership will expand our capacity to prevent, respond to, and recover from safety related situations while continuing
081to build positive relationships with students, families, and staff. For belonging, I'm going to continue with the St. Cloud Police Department and um share that uh we're glad to welcome Laker um he is a 2-year-old golden lab who is the SCPD therapy dog um who comes to work now with S uh SRO Janelle Haw and they are uh located at Katherine Johnson and I was out visiting schools and fortunate enough to be at Katherine Johnson uh this weekend to got to spend some good time with Laker and students have already they've already had to put in some really good structures and boundaries because um our our students are very very eager to visit with Laker and um it's it's a um not only is it a a calming opportunity but it's also a rewarding opportunity and
082so um the the students there have just been uh delighted to have him. Um in terms of collaboration we are grateful for the opportunity to be at uh we're at the Granite Partners trade show today. Dr. Harris, principles Kenzie and Scholarroot, and students from both DECA Hosa Hosa, I think I'm saying that right. Um, and uh, uh, the culinary arts programs uh, joined us. And so it was really fun um, to be at that. We, this was our first year. Um, it is an invitationonly trade show. And so I'm really uh, grateful to uh, Brian Martner Meyers who's been a great partner to us uh, through the referendum. Um, along with Rick and Shelley Bowerley who own uh, Granite Partners for including us. Um, and it was a great opportunity to be able to connect
083um and um continue making inroads uh with our with our business community um because we are an essential and what you know the third I think we're still the third largest employer right in this area and so um you know really grateful that we get to to be in that. Uh and then I also in terms of excellence um we get to appreciate our retirees. Um, but I also want to recognize our cabinet colleagues. Um, Adam Holm who, uh, who is leaving us to go be superintendent in McCrae. Um, and Gary Ganji, who is retiring? This is their last board meeting. Uh, so we will not see either of them. And, uh, I I Gary, have you counted up the number of board meetings? You you you haven't? I really thought you would know for
084us. Uh they both have been um incredible assets to this district and this community. Um and I won't say much more because I will cry. Um but I will I will miss them both uh dearly and appreciate everything that you have done for us over the years. So thank you. Okay. Um last up we have a few Oh no, we have two more things. We have the board of education standing committee reports. I believe we only have one tonight. Uh board finance and audit committee chair Heather Williams. Are you doing achievement? Okay. So, we'll have two. Go ahead. All right. Um we the board finance committee met on May 12th, 2025. Uh we reviewed board policy number 802. Uh Amy reviewed this policy which relates to the disposition of obsolete equipment and material. The main
085change is to increase the threshold where bids are required to $175,000 in accordance with state statute statute. There was also a change in the MSBA policy regarding exceptions for surplus computers. A suggestion was made to remove one of the exceptions and committee members agreed those these revisions will go to the board development committee at their next meeting and then to the school board in June. Uh we also had a city special assessments update. Amy reported that the special assessments from the city of St. cloud that we thought would be in next year's budget will actually be in this year's budget because we received the invoices already. The cost is approximately $150,000 and will be included in the revised budget. There will also be additional city of St. Cloud special assessments that will be paid out
086of the 202526 budget of about 200,000 which will be included in the budget as as a spend down of fund balance. And that's the report. Thank you. And then Natalie Copeland will be presenting achievement integration and equity committee report. Yes, thank you cheer. We met last week. Um Donna Roer shared information on the 2024 graduation data. Increasing trends can be seen and as you heard Dr. Harris talk about it, many new efforts were started in the 24 uh 25 school year and then next month we are uh talking about discipline data. Thank you. And then last up tonight, we have future agenda items. The June 4th, 2025 uh board meeting topics will include approval of executive contracts, the preliminary 2025 2026 budget presentation, and some policy readings. At this time, does any board member uh
087wish to suggest a future agenda item? Okay. Thank you. So, looking for a motion to adjourn tonight's board meeting. I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. All in favor say I. Meeting is adjourned at 7:57 p.m. Thank you for watching. Have a good night. We'll be back June 4th.