School Board Meeting: Nov. 19, 2020

001I brought the you the one that me went on and my my friend in she she's [Music] a that's good evening and welcome to the regular school board meeting for Independent School District 8:33 it is Thursday November 19th at 6:30 we are in the district service center in Cottage Grove Minnesota 1.0 is roll call Nia W quali Melinda do is absent Louise Hines yes Simmy patne yes pedris pedris is absent Sharon vanleer here Katie Schwarz here Tracy brunette here and one more student uh Rebecca po here thank you 2.0 please stand and join me for pledge of allegiance to the plag 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 all right um 3.0 is the approval of our

002agenda agenda I'll entertain a motion to approve don't move move by Sharon and second by Katie all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 4.0 our district highlights 4.1 is um our bus mechanics presented by Director of Finance and operations Dan pen good evening chair brunette members of the school board superintendent neelson student members of the school board a lot of times when I'm out there out um golfing with people I just met and we get to talk and and they asked we talk about what do we do for a living and I tell them my title and they look qually at me and so well I'm in charge of the finance and the transportation the nutrition services and building grounds they go wow that's a lot of stuff I said well

003I have the same answer every time they say that I have a lot of good people that take care of things and tonight behind me are some good people that really good people that take care of things a lot I'm really proud of these people I'm really proud of the transportation department I'm going to introduce Andy Smith who is our assistant director of transportation for operations and he's going to tell you about some Great accomplishments from our bus mechanics right I think I bumped the button oh okay um so yeah thank you for in the introduction um again Andy Smith I'm an assistant director for transportation for operations um I just want to take a couple minutes and highlight a couple of our successes um over the past year couple years so originally I started

004with the school district in 2003 um a lot of things changed since then but a lot of things have stayed the same in in transportation um everyone needs to be flexible there's a lot of things changing um a perfect day is is always a chaotic day there's always little things that we have to switch and change um so we've always been flexible tremendous amount of teamwork um and dedication towards student safety um that dedication over the last couple years led to a lot of great um improvements with our technology we invested in uh new routing software that allows us to be efficient and as well as ensure all the students have the best transportation possible um a digital radio system which offers live GPS um call logging um bus surveillance so when I first started

005one of my first jobs was installing these little black boxes in the front of the buses and they had this little red blinking light on it and that was our camera system they're empty that's the secret they were empty but they looked like a camera we actually had a little camcorder that you could switch from bus to bus to bus anyways that was my first gig um and now our buses have um eight highdefinition cameras in each bus so there's not one student on that bus that is out of view um so they're always protected um and it's a great investment um and then let's see two years ago we made a huge investment towards um having all of our general education and special ed buses be equipped with lap shoulder belts so that's the

006same type of system that you'd have in your passenger car um so with that we're able to transport up to about 3,000 students a day while wearing a lap shoulder seat belt so that's a great great um strive for safety um we're always looking for ways to improve we we don't just look at what we need to do today we're always looking forward trying to think of what Transportation should look like um because student transportation's been around for 100 years almost um so there's always room for improvement with that um so we have about 145 Transportation vehicles on a typical year non-co year take that for granted um we travel about 2 million miles a year um and transport generally over 14,000 students every single day to and from school so our office staff members

007start their day at 5:00 a.m. or earlier to ensure that all of our students all the buses are ready all the drivers are there getting going um our bus drivers come in we have about 150 bus drivers um they come in every day and do a pre-trip inspection to the buses which includes checking over 250 different items on that bus to make sure it's safe for that day um yeah so specifically I wanted to highlight one tremendous accomplishment that we've we we had this before and this isn't anything new and that's a great thing um but it's the eighth year that our mechanics have received um Z Point cited on the state inspection so what the state inspection is is every every year every October the state patrol comes in and they have uh assigned

008different inspectors for each Fleet so we have two State Troopers that come in and they uh look at every single bus um and it's about 90 pages of the criteria that they check that bus for um so what that means is we had um over 3,000 bus seats not a single one of them had a single hole a single puncture rip tear anything like that I remember growing up riding the bus and it was kind of fun but there was always this little patch on the seat and you can't just look at it you have to sit there and pick at it a little bit and then every day I'd get on the bus and the patch would be fixed all nice and nice and neat again um so it takes a lot to keep

009up on those um 3,000 seats especially when it's fun to pick at them um anyways we have over 800 tires that had not a single no cuts no brakes um they weren't low on air pressure I'm sure many of you are familiar with your own car how often does that little low pressure uh light come on in your car so 800 tires that weren't even low on on air pressure um 600 emergency exits that all functioned alarm sounded um of the millions millions of screws bolts and other Fasteners and panels um there's nothing damaged loose or sharp missing um so this is all accomplished by our team of of six of the hardest working mechanics that I know personally um and I always say the hardest part about hiring one of these mechanics is trying

010to explain what they're getting into um they come from different backgrounds um and there's no set school to be a school bus mechanic so it's great to have that that broad range of experience um because on the the coldest days they're out there when it's 20 30 below jumping making sure every single bus is is going to be able to run well maybe not when it's 30 below um and then same thing in the summer making sure that they're not overeating that they're operating fine um but then it goes beyond that because they're they help they help the drivers with a lot the drivers might come across something that's unfamiliar and they have the the best customer service that I've ever seen um the dedication towards making sure that those drivers are comfortable um and

011ready to take on the day and get the kids to school and back home safely um and then the last thing is they also if we need if something comes up they are more than willing just to jump on a on a bus route and get those kids back home or or to school so um they willing to jump in and help with just about anything that we ask them so I'll just take a make a quick introduction of them all um there's two that are absent here today it's Dalton Johnson and Austin lro otherwise we have Dale schmidtz Eric Omi Cory Eon he's our head mechanic and Tyler amont so i' like to welcome you and just thank you them for the that's all I have thank you congratulations on an eighth year that's

012amazing very cool you should I do something to try to fix this thank you guys thank you um 4.2 uh fall activities update and we have Phil kemel and Jody Ling Lin leer and Sarah padak good evening superintendent neelon board chair renette board members cabinet members thank you for this opportunity to share with you some of the exciting things that have been happening in our school Community since school has started as you know it has been somewhat challenging with the restrictions but all in all I think uh our students have done a fantastic job with it uh I'm Sarah platuk and I am the athletic activities director at Eastridge High School why we play is an initiative that we uh engage in within our schools and our coaches and our players of why we play

013and our purpose statement at Eastridge High School is we choose to lead students to be people of empathy who serve others while developing skills as a student teammate and person of character our core values or activity values are selflessness service growth and our why is to follow our passion have fun build relationships and develop a sense of belonging this fall season has been unique to say the least and one we will never forget from creating covid preparedness plans sanitizing protocols tracking Spectators on Google fors live streaming wearing masks social distancing markers in the stands virtual parent player meetings air high fives virtual Banquets limited facilities and no state tournaments all in all East Rich high school has had a successful fall with students participating in their passion areas involved in Virtual clubs staying safe and

014having the opportunity to enhance their sense of belonging within our school Community with their peers last week November 11th was the nli event National letter of intent science signing this uh at Easter high school we were pleased to announce the intention of six athletes in the class of 2021 who plan to play various Sports at the Collegiate level these students have worked extremely hard to receive the opportunity to continue their academic and athletic careers at various colleges throughout the country we are extremely proud of these student athletes for their hard work and dedication as Raptors and look forward to their successes in and out of the classroom as they pursue their passion at the Collegian level we believe that each of these talented student athletes will make as much of a positive difference in their

015prospective campuses as they have at Eastridge and in District 833 these students at Eastridge were Drew Adams basketball wiona State University Julie and I Al merer Ben North baseball kraton University Isabelle KY St Cloud State University Lauren Galvin volleyball at St Thomas Lauren galin volleyball at Marquette and Faith seaart volleyball at South Dakota State we are closing out our fall season this Friday with the governor's New Order of pausing Athletics uh East Ridge football team plays Friday night for the section championship at 6 o'clock we are hosting Ros Mount volleyball will also close out their season on Friday as they host the section Championship uh with miew I want to do a huge shout out to our girls volleyball team they have been undefeated and have not lost one set all year long so in

016volleyball you play a a match is five sets and they've swept every single match so far this year that's a huge accomplishment so congratulations to those ladies cross country our girls were section Champs also um we had a runner who was the section Champion Lillian marworth and then we also had um Mary Kenny John fer Sean MC Niche and Sam Jordan qualify for State congratulations to our boy soccer coach coach Bidwell he was selected as coach of the year for the SEC girl soccer made it to the section Championship as well and lost to Still Water congratulations to Maddie poor who made all State uh honors with that our girl swim and dive was also an area that we had a lot of success this year they finished second but we had um some championships

017our 100 fly was uh finished first and our 400 free uh relay finished first our the Hun fly swimmer was uh Robbie whito and then we had other many other races that the students did grade in girls tennis we had uh 69 participants so with all the covid restrictions and guidelines it was rather tricky to make sure that they were all safe and staggered start and end times but our enrollment with that was fantastic so a shout out to that program it just kind of goes to show you how um the importance of just being involved in wanting to be part of our school community and then over the weekend our fall play uh concluded and they were uh fortunate to to get it in and we followed the guidelines where each uh participant within

018the production was able to invite two spectator Spectators uh the play was called a trio of thrilling Tales if you had an opportunity to live stream and it was offered L stream the set was just is so creative because it was um in the format of like a radio show so they had six different stages that you would walk through a door and then you were in your own plexiglass like radio station as um they went through the the play it was very well done and continued to be absolutely Amazed by our students uh a shout out to our music department as they continue daily to meet virtually with with their students honor programs and ensembl to provide lessons and opportunities for their students and lastly I so proud of our students and our teacher

019advisers with their continuation of clubs and activities virtually the clubs that we have been actively um engaging in this fall have been National Honor Society Key Club student council diversity Club gay stade Alliance math league medical Club Rin bees French Club business Professionals of America fantasy football league M American Club trial student ambassadors yearbook and many more uh that was these are just multiple ways students can be involved uh within the community I know it's virtual and they're still very committed to doing that so thank you and go Raptors good evening I'm Phil Kim the activities director at Park High School we do greatly appreciate the time to share some of our achievements and accomplishments from this fall season uh Sarah did a great job describing all the many uh nuances that were involved in

020our fall season she did a much better job than I would I've just my word for The Fall season has been weird it's just been a very weird school year uh to see half of our hallways empty uh to see the kids in their desks in the cafeteria all facing single file um school day ends at 1 at 1:30 when we were had kids in class um and usually the hallways are bustling with kids staying after school running around all those things at 1:35 the hallways were empty it's just it's been very surreal very weird um but I think a huge positive for me and for all three of our schools is is the the things that kids have been able to do activities wise to stay involved so it's been great uh we'll share

021a few of our accomplishments Sarah mentioned the why we play and again we really try to make everything we do is very purpose-- driven um collectively what our purpose is and individually what our purpose is so I do want to share our um activities mission statement uh mission of the Park High School Activities department is to create learning opportunities for students to develop character become well-rounded citizens and Achieve excellence in their activities school and Community one of the goals and challenges that I've given our coaches for this school year is um I've asked them to memorize their own individual purpose statement and as part of the the work that the high school league does with all of our coaches in the state each coach has to create a transformational purpose statement for their coaching so

022we've been working on that and they have to do that but I I instead of just putting it down on a piece of paper computer I've really challenged them to memorize theirs so I did want to share mine also I lead with Integrity commitment and compassion to provide growth opportunities for caring adults so that students can have a positive experience and learn lifelong lessons and educationally based activities I have that posted on my door when I walk into my office kind of as a reminder every day when I walk in kind of everything I do is driven in that so um a lot of the things that we do are really try to be Purpose Driven especially in a year like this one where there's been so many challenges for kids a few of the

023accomplishments I just want to share um one of them very similar to what uh mentioned I saw their set on the picture on social media and it was incredible just the the way they had it set up was great our fall play also I thought very very interesting was completely virtual um the title of the play very appropriate uh 10 ways to survive life in quarantine um and and I mean in essence it was a movie because the kids all filmed their parts individually at home and then the directors worked with student directors and putting it together into you know more or less a um a video type of movie so so again we stream that you know there's been so many ways that our district has been very very supportive throughout all this to

024make sure that kids can participate one of those was um our finance department saying you know what we're going to stream these plays and not charge people to watch them and just adding that element of charging people to watch them would complicate things with the rights and the royalties for the plays and that kind of thing so hearing that from our finance department of you know what don't worry about charging for the streaming just stream it so it can get out there was one of the huge ways that we've really been supported um a few other individual an team accomplishments I just want to mention um you know we talk about kids being student athletes and whether it's a hybrid or virtual how important that is to make sure they're taking their grades taking care

025of their grades first so I always like to recognize kids that get the honor of academic all state which means they're athletes but they're besides being athletes they're one of the smartest students in those Sports in the stat so academic State um honors for us in girls soccer was Megan corth and Megan Maloney uh girls tennis was Lexi Brooks Mary Beth Collins Haley Lewis Karina lusik uh we did have an allate athlete this year uh Emma osin and girls soccer was second Team all state which is a great accomplishment um we had some teams do a lot of good things basically the state coaches association has team awards for teams that have high GPA if you have a um a GPA of 3.75 and above you get a gold award 3.5 to 3.74 is a

026silver award so academic team Awards this year went to boys and girls cross country and girls tennis and um a silver award went to our girls soccer as well too uh we also had a national letter of intent signing ceremony we had three student athletes that signed uh Tucker nne is going to be playing baseball at Minnesota Karina lusik uh who I mentioned also as a as a um All State uh academic All State in tennis is going to be playing softball at Winona States and Dylan perington is be swimming we don't have a lot of swimmers that earn um scholarship money to to compete in in in college but Dylan buron is going to be swimming at South Dakota University so um three great representatives from Park High School and uh Great accomplishments for

027them the last thing I want to leave you with is I try to come up with kind of what I call why we play moments which means kind of the feel-good stories these are not necessarily the things that we'd see on the scoreboard or in the newspaper but just you know kind of summarize why we play and I have a couple of them from this fall the very first one honestly is just the fall season itself when we've started the fall season and sat down with our fall coaches it was very refreshing that they were just SOC excited that they got to play and participate from the coaches and the athletes and you know a lot of times we tend focusing maybe a little bit more on the competition side of things and we want

028to win we want to get to sections and win the conference which are all really great accomplishments but this year it was just very refreshing to me to see really coaches and kids saying we really don't care about that stuff we just get to play our Sports we get to have fun with our friends and those kinds of things so um from from when we started uh cross country and soccer and swimming and tennis and those Sports even to the end when you know we had to give up the end of our football season um because of Co we were shut down by the Department of Health for two for two weeks which basically ended our football season and the best thing I saw was just gratitude not kids like so sad like why don't

029we get to play more why can't we do this just we got to play five games this year and we weren't sure we were going to be able to play any five games so there was so much more of that feeling this year that was very very refreshing to me two other um moments I just want to share quickly both from our boy soccer program um our boy soccer program had a tough season they only won two games throughout the regular season as most people know when you know they were able to have a section tournament we were seated eight out of eight teams so with two wins you know you play the number one seed first and and you know a lot of times people think you know what why even play that game

030maybe not everybody should make the playoffs cuz those one seed or those eight seeds are so low that kind of thing well W you know it we got a little hot got a little lucky um Easter happened to be the number one seed and and we beat them in a really really close oneg goal game so eight seed beats a one seed kids are so happy um it was great we go on and play the semi-final game again as a eight seed and we end up playing the number five seed beat them in an overtime shootout and those again who know soccer know you play overtime and still tied you go to shootout it's very very nerve-wracking we win an overtime shootout we make it to the second championship game as an eight seed we

031did lose one- nothing to the number two Stillwater team um but just you know the pure joy of those kids again of just being able to play but seeing the success of probably nobody thought they'd win any games after winning just two in the regular season they wouldn't win any in the section they end up winning and going to the championship game so that was pretty neat my last um why we play moment goes back to boy soccer our goalkeeper name is Jacob Leonard's one of the best goalkeepers in the conference um he ended up breaking his thumb in the section actually in the warm-ups of the section semi-final game so he played that whole game against Wier Lake and overtime shoot out with a broken thumb in between that game and the section final

032game well we better have the trainer look at it maybe just tape it up for you know for practice and they find out that it's broken and you just can't play on that um obviously heartbreaking to a senior he's a senior he will be going on to play um college soccer as well too but you know missing out on this championship game and just from the from the Wednesday night game to the Saturday game seeing that kid and his family do everything they could they went to doctor after doctor after specialist to see what kind of um cast he could wear with a glove over it to still play it ended up he couldn't play but just you know that's the epitome of what we want in our Sports it's just these kids that like

033they will do anything to play and and I saw that in that kid and then the second part of it was how great his teammates red around him the backup goalie came in for the second championship game and played a great game they're good friends it was just it was just a great story to see um someone caring that much about their Sport and their teammates that they would do anything to to compete so um overall uh great fall season um I say this all the time but you know all these things that we're sharing with these accomplishments they couldn't happen without the support that we reive throughout the district and I mentioned you know Finance supporting us with the with the play another huge one that we have to talk about is our billions

034and grounds uh Department um you know uh pretty big snowstorm in I don't remember at what point but in October when we usually don't have 8 inches of snow and we've got football games to play in our stadiums and our billions and grounds Department coming through like that and saying you know what you guys have football games we'll make sure you can play them so the support that we receive so that we can have all these type of accomplishments it's incredible it's up the building level with our principal um at the assistant uh assistant superintendent I know uh Miss Schaefer is kind of new to the to that role of managing activities but you know all the support that we receive from her all the way up to the superintendent as well too so we

035appreciate all the support and again thanks for the time to share some of our accomplishments tonight and I will turn it over to brand new to um Woodbury not new to the conference because Jody's been around but uh the new activities director at Woodbury Jodie L blind leer good evening every everyone uh superintendent neelson uh chairperson Bernett and board members and cabinet members my name is jod l blind leer and uh this is my 20th year in education so uh why not start it off with the bang in 2020 uh I've spent of that time five years teaching uh 10 years as a athletic director and then also some time in community ed uh it has been a joy to be at Woodbury High School and in South Washington County Schools the strong leadership that

036I've had both at the high school and the district level has been fabulous and very supportive uh this past fall uh Co has brought many of our coaches advisers and directors uh to think outside the box and really reassess what they do and why they do uh what it is that they're doing the purpose of the season was really to compete perform and showcase uh the best versions of our students despite the adversity and the many challenges uh and changes that they had to experience uh Woodbury High School students were amazing in every way of understanding the uncertainty and responsibility placed upon themselves to keep their activity activities going at Woodbury High School uh our mission is committed into using extracurricular activities to embrace all students and provide a positive experience that is nurturing and

037impactful um as I'm new to the school looking at those different goals as coaches we will be um making sure all of our coaches do has have purpose State statements which many of them do and using them in a manner that it uh reflects that upon their program and with their lower level coaches my purpose is to De develop competitive itive and inclusive leaders that teach successful teamwork and life skills through activities this past fall uh we had nine athletic teams participate in Fall Sports Woodburry high school did not have a fall performance team uh adapted soccer had eight practices and overall 528 student athletes participated 266 females and 262 males that was nine less students than last year excluding our dance team um so I thought that that was a a pretty strong accomplishment

038given the fact that we were minus 9 and the times that we're dealing with of those teams we had 26 all-conference student athletes uh we had a first team allate Junior Sophia baresa and girl sacer we had a first team allate senior Devin padelford and soccer uh junior Maggie McCarthy would have qualified for the state meet and cross country our ninth grader Gabby mder won the section 3A diving meat uh she also uh was named diver of the meat as well as our Junior Caitlyn gr Greenwald she would have uh finished second and also Advanced to the state meet her diving Coach Rick light was named diving Coach of the Year our girls swim dive team was awarded a silver academic section award and our girls tennis team lost uh three to four in our

039section finals versus Henry sibl from an activity standpoint our link crew welcomed new nth graders with covid protocol uh they brought in all of our nth graders put them into pods showed them how to get around the school showed them all the different areas in many new ways that uh they haven't been able uh you know to experience with with many of the different activities that they would have done previously with link crew our choir and our band both completed in Virtual performances our marching band had uh participated and performed in three football games with 64 participants uh during that during those games our W our excuse me our fall play almost M moved outside to the ajibu Band Shell it was a amazing experience um it was outside the weather happened to be perfect

040considering we had just had 8 Ines of snow the week and a half before and it was 50° they had four shows and had several different vignettes they had a CO fairy that brought in different words to help along uh with the audience understand some of the plot they had a large screen where they had a kissing scene and and and and they kissed and my 5-year-old daughter was like so excited to see that that part of the show um and it was just a really fabulous experience of uh bringing all the things that theater can do together in a very creative manner um this weekend we'll have our comp cheer uh we'll be submitting online videos and we'll have judges um identifying their scores virtually we'll also have speech competing in a virtual meet

041and with that um another program that we share as a district is mountain biking and that uh program grew in popularity as well because it is an individual Sport and they were able to certainly maintain main different covid protocol uh sharing along with the national letter intent at Woodbury High School we had four student athletes that signed uh along for their respective universities Quincy kleene signed for women's swim and dive at Southwest State Sophia vitella signed with the University of South Dakota for swimming Sam mik will play baseball at the University of Minnesota and Josh haxford will play at Winona State and I think all of us had some un unique circumstances with that National letter of intent signing date where some of our folks were virtual and um you know it certainly has kept

042us to to move outside of the box and figure out how we can be creative in what it is that we do um so with that I just want to share one of the things that my basketball coach I always used as a comparison is he said when you're a little kid it's really fun to jump in puddles so think back to your own kids when they jumped in puddles and they did or did not have rain boots on what I thought was really neat this year was to see our kids compete and have an opportunity to play and that experience that those young kids have jumping and puddles was exactly what our high school students had when they had the opportunity to play uh when they had the opportunity to see their friends and

043uh it was a special moment so I also want to say thank you to all of our coaches who did a fabulous job um our advisers and our directors who are continuing to make adjustments through all the changes that we are going through and thank you for giving us the opportunity to play and participate thank you much we always just want to make sure we don't duck out before if there any questions for the group questions okay thanks again for the time tonight thank you all right um 5.0 public comment at this time individuals may speak to the board on any item that is not on tonight's agenda the board will not respond to or discuss your comments character abuse or specific complaints identifying staff students or task force members will not be permitted the

044superintendent may be asked to prepare a response to your concerns and our policy allows 3 minutes per person so if there's anyone who wanted to approach the board this evening see none we will move on to 6.0 our consent items all consent items are considered routine and non-controversial by the board and will be approved by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of these items but prior to the meeting board members did have the opportunity to review the items and could have moved one to an an action item for individual consideration since that didn't happen this evening I will entertain a motion to approve our consent agenda move second moved by Katie and second by Sharon all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7.0 our Workshop items they will

045be on our January 7 2021 agenda 8.0 information item 8.1 is um our district mental health support and our director of special services good evening chair Bernett school board members superintendent neelson and the student School Board Representatives I'm Anna Brown and I'm the director of special services here in South Washington County and I'm here tonight to introduce Joe Park she's one of our super ADV visors um for special services that work with of all the elementary schools and she is here today to update you on our mental health in our district and the support and connections we provide to students and staff thank you good evening chair brunette superintendent neelson the rest of the chair board or the rest of the board and all the other staff members that are here tonight um and thanks

046Anna for introducing me me so tonight we're going to talk a little bit about mental health and what that looks like in our district and so I wanted to start with just a few um kind of Statistics so that you have a sense of how we're functioning um in our state and then also in our district so in terms of our state we have one in 10 youth that have serious mental health um problems that impair their functioning one in four children attending school have been exposed to a traumatic event a traumatic event can be something um that we always think about like sexual or physical abuse it can also be a car accident a death of a Family Youth in high school with mental health problems are more likely to fail or drop out

047of school and finally when you have when you're struggling with a mental health need that impacts your learning your social relationships and your overall functioning as we take a look at the mental health needs and so watch in Washington County um in our district we have from the um Minnesota um State High School survey or state survey excuse me you can see the students with long-term mental health behavioral or emotional needs and this is based on their self-report um you can see kind of that girls tend to have more issues than boys in 8th grade 29% of girls have concerns around mental health behavior or emotional and then in boys it's only 15% and you see that Trend all the way through with our little children who took the health survey um our fifth graders

048worry a lot so we have 16% of our fifth grade girls worry with 11% of our boys and moving on to the fifth graders who feel um sometimes sad without really knowing why we have 15% I'm sorry 21% of girls and 11% of our fifth grade boys in general all students experience some anxiety worry or feeling down as you're getting ready for that test as you're worried about your friend who isn't spending time with you or they've texted someone else to get together and not you that is all typical but during Co we are seeing increases in anxiety we're seeing increases in sadness or depression um obviously we're having isolation from peers you heard from our athletic directors how important it was to be in athletics so that they could be together we also see

049an increase in family conflicts because as we spend more time even though we love each other and I'm sure you can all think of it in your own Families how sometimes we get into conflicts more because we're just together too much we also see an increase in suicide attempts so what should we watch for we should be watching for lots of changes really anything that's changing so if the behavior is changing the mood um if sleep is changing if there's an increase in moodiness or inappropriate or frequent anger anger can often be masked for depression um we might see prolonged feelings of sadness sudden drops in grades kids just not wanting to to participate in the things that they normally did they also will have a withdrawal or isolation from peers there might be a

050weight loss or a weight gain and also many of our kids who are experiencing um anxiety or depression will have um somatic symptoms like stomach aches and headaches when should we worry we should worry when you see lots of those symptoms come in clusters so that there's more than one or there's two or three when the symptoms last a long time or interfere with their normal functioning so that child doesn't want to go to school even though they really want to see their friends but they just can't go to school for example most important is when your parent if you are a parent your parent gut um feels like there's something wrong and you're just not sure what it is that's when we should reach out and worry and get support how can students get

051help so students it's as easy as contacting their school social worker psychologist or counselor um we have 32 counselors in the middle school and high schools we have 26 social workers in the elementary and some of the um secondary schools we have 33 psychologists in all the schools and they primarily support our special education students um and we also added three counselors this year and six social workers for our highest need special education students again students can contact their counselor social worker School Psych Coles principal or assistant principal or anyone in the front office or a teacher students can get support through individual conversations or sessions with those people groups happen in all of our schools um we also support students with General classroom instruction on social emotional learning topics we can also do individual

052interventions for students with specific needs and we can also as a team develop strategies for for that child to be more connected to others one of the most um important aspects in working with children who are experiencing stress or depression is to make sure that they're in relationship with others so that they're connected to people that's a very protective Factor we also have Community providers in our schools so sometimes kids have greater needs than what a school social worker or counselor can address through the school supports that I just went over um um so we have family Innovations and La family services that have therapists in our schools for mental health so they do the traditional therapy in the school we also have youth Service Bureau who provides chemical health prevention and support and youth

053Service Bureau also has a therapist at swash so how can families request help if that parent gut kind of goes off and you're concerned how do families request help um they also connect with their counselor or social worker by email or phone and it's literally that easy picking up the phone or sending an email then the social worker or counselor will support by listening to the parents concerns and problem solved with the parent to determine what we can do in school or if we also need to think about some community supports and again community supports can involve a referral to the in school um Community providers or to out of school and other kinds of supports such as food housing and clothing in our elementary schools for example we spend a lot of time with

054the building mental health staff who are those social workers and psychologists um in the elementary working just to help kids get boots coats mittens whatever they need for the winter and how can staff support students so this summer we had a planning uh group that was working uh really hard to um support our students and our staff as we um began to think about coming back to school in the middle of a pandemic and so we this group that had a bunch of talented people psychologists social workers counselors um principal uh met and worked and we developed a hub site we call it our mental health hub and it is for teachers and right now it's also for our building mental health staff and our building mental health staff are the social workers the counselors

055the psychologists and then also our nurses on this Hub teachers can go and they can find a bunch of classroom um supports they can look under relationship building and they can get ideas on things that they can do with their students in their classrooms if they wanting to find out some information on regulation and how do we support kids in being calm in the classroom they can click on there and there's lots of activities for them to do with their students same with mindfulness if you um go under mindfulness sorry my mouse is a little slow you can see that there's all kinds of different things that they can do both Elementary and secondary for our building mental health support um we have resources for them that they can go if they need to refer

056a student to an outside resource we have all kinds of Our Community Partners and if you click on there you can easily go to their web page and fill out the referral and help our students get support we also have a section called screeners and tools and it it's really about some of the mandating reporting we also have a section on there that is for risk assessment and if so if a child uh makes a statement or if we think that they may possibly be thinking about suicide have suicidal ideation um we can then go in here and fill out a risk assessment on them this site will also eventually have information for families and parents um and so there is a section that is just basic information um about different things there's stuff on

057trauma on social media things that can give parents information and support okay so I'm supposed to just click on this we might need to have our tech people help me oh there we go um new this year is a mental health screener for anxiety and depression um and that's for schools that choose to implement it and really our goal here is for early identification so that we can intervene um due to CO as I said before more of our kids are likely to struggle we also have a wide variety of Grants um we have a grant called growing through grief with Park nicholet that provides a grief counselor in our school district and that person works and does support groups and individual with kids that have experienced a a loss in their own immediate family

058we also have the Washington County um ship Grant and that Grant has been um to provide some um sensory Pathways in some of our schools so that kids can walk down the hall and they can do different things and it'll help them get regulated Prairie care has been wonderfully generous with our school district um we're in currently working on a teens technology and mental health from last year because of covid we couldn't quite get everything done so we're working on a student video that will be pushed out to the high school and the middle schools and during advisory and and on um technology and mental health we also have a prairie Grant PR Prairie care Grant excuse me on ADHD and last night we had our first ADHD parent session that I think it was

059about 80 um parents joined and then we have the 3M emergency grant that we got this this year that provided um every school to to request things for mental health they wanted we also have we also received a city of Woodberry Community Development block which we're deeply grateful for that provides um co-pays or actual full payment for kids that need mental health service that can't afford to get it in the city of Woodburry also we are working with a shape Health assessment and performance evaluation system it's our second year because of our work with mde in that grant that is why we decided that we needed to do a mental health screener and we have other things going on as well but that's just a brief overview does anyone have any questions I am if

060if I'm aent and concern my child health happens winter or be easy what what place shall that so Washington County has a mobile crisis and if you just Google Washington County mobile crisis every County in the Metro has a mobile crisis and you can literally Google that I'm sorry I don't have that on me but I can certainly provide it if you want to um maybe let Anna know and then I'll get your information but um we any parent or any Community member who's in a crisis can call the mobile crisis team and they will you know during Co they don't come out to the home as much but they do when it's non-co time they will actually go to the house and help stabilize and assess what what kind of support your family member

061might need um and during Co they Prov that support usually over the phone and then they'll help you with next steps thank you so that's always the first thing I say when we don't have school in session any other questions that was a great question um I had one in presentation you mentioned kids needed to be connected um a great um insulator from mental health issues so if you're a parent and say your kid is in one of those thanks sorry um if you're a parent and your kid is in one of those transition years sixth grade or nth grade where your kid hasn't had an opportunity to really build out a network at school and then now they're they've gone to distance learning how do how should parents be facilitating that or how can

062parents facilitate those kinds of connections for kids and just you know if you don't know anybody to text them how do you right how do you stay in touch yeah this is this is the year where that is really a concern you know all of our schools have activities for kids and a lot of them are virtual and I couldn't tell you all the different ones that are happening um but I would reach out to that counselor or social worker and talk about that um a lot of them are doing groups where they're doing I know in elementary a lot of them are just doing lunch bunches right where during the day even when students are remote they invite students in so that we can help that connection our secondary um we're going to meet

063in teams as well and try to provide opportunities either through the teachers or through the counselors or social workers so that kids could connect so I would again I would pick up the phone and I would say my son or daughter is struggling um to build relationships during covid especially as those transition years it's really hard um but I would pick up the phone because it's it's their they will find Opportunities to help your child connect we have a wonderful mental health Team um thank you the the other question I had was about staff support so I see a lot for students and one of the concerns I have is that this has also probably been a particularly stressful year for teachers and other staff members and what do we have to help support them

064because I one of the things I worry about is they're so focused on helping the students that they don't help themselves right uh it's it's one of the things that we talk about frequently is how do we support our staff um and and an example that's really silly is when we had a professional development day and rather than asking our staff to read outside of that professional development day recently we actually gave them time to read right which lowers their anxiety uh principales are starting all of their meetings um with a welcoming and inclusion activ ity and that's one of the the things around social emotional that's super important and so we started that this year as a way to help staff build those relationships get the support that they needed to really share um

065so that people knew each other again being in relationship is the most Pro the biggest protective Factor um so yes we're always talking about that we're always thinking about that um we start all of our meetings with check-ins uh when I I work individually with staff we always start by how are you doing what do you need and that happens across our district at every level but it's it's a concern because we're feeling pressure you know I have a psychologist uh that I checked in with recently who has children at home she's at school she's trying to manage them and call and check on them and as we move into distance learning some of our teachers will be at home while they have two or three four kids kids that they're trying to guide is

066extremely stressful so and we also have our um employee assistants that we really encouraging our staff to reach out to It's a Wonderful resource and then of course our building mental health don't just work for kids they work for their colleagues as well and they reach out in support but it I I would say it's a very tough time for everyone and thank you Joe I was going to mention our employee assistance program many times that's the first stop it's confidential U and our employees as part of the insurance have access to that program thanks thank you yeah thank you very much thank you to program of study assistant superintendent count all right good evening board chair brunette board members student reps and superintendent neelson um every year we have a process by which staff

067can submit to offer new courses at our high schools and the program of studies outlines what we offer throughout our district and notes classes that are specific to a school for example throughout if it's only offered at Park it'll say um just only offered at Park but in general we um a few years ago made the commitment to have one District program of study for all of our high schools the program of study can be found online at each school's website in the counseling and career center um and they're in various places but it's usually pretty prominent especially as we move into registration timelines which will start next month already so uh the timeline for the program of study and registration is it usually starts in the fall um and it always starts at the

068school level in which teachers have conversations with their colleagues their departments and then they submit to the principal any uh proposal that includes a name change for a course a creation of a new course or um as you know we're venturing down the um Road of offering online courses and so um all of those conversations take place at the school level with departments and principles and then the principles come together with the program of study committee which includes all of our principals assistant superintendent Schaefer um and Dr Lawrence our our secondary curriculum coordinator and then the TLs director and so this year I was playing that role um but next year you'll be hearing from the secondary TLS director in this process so uh so we met on November 6 to review the proposals and

069I'm here tonight to give you a summary of what happened um if there were to give you some foreshadowing if there were any recommendations to grad changes or anything like that that would be a different approval process and so tonight this is really information and a chance for you to see what's coming uh for students at our high schools we also then finalized uh that so November 6th we met with that initial review and then our principles took the decisions back to their departments had conversation with staff who had submitted proposals and then we came back together on the 16th for a final meeting um to make sure that we were were we were all solid in the off and the courses that we were going to be offering to students next year the new

070courses excuse me that we were going to be offering to students next year one thing that has been really great and it's not on the slide but was part of the process this year is that Communications has turned over the program of study to TLS and so TLS uh in the meetings is able to we we were able this time to really go through the program study and clean up any language or anything that was in there um in real time sometimes it got lost in translation when it went from one meeting to another so um that was a really great part of the process this time some of the next steps is as far as the registration timeline um in December we will start to finalize those materials which includes the program of study

071along with the what we call the course card and the course card is what students get to know what their choices are and it gives them a little bit more Direction in terms of what they need to take and then what they want to take because we know there's a difference there um and then we will start with our 8th into 9th grade and having parent information sessions um High School Orient ient ation type of sessions with those parents and those students I imagine they will all be virtual that's what everybody is planning for at this point um with February our goal for registration so that we can make Staffing decisions at our high school because as you know our high schools are driven by our student requests and so this is um for parents

072and students this is why course selection is extremely important um and I know life changes and I know we're teenagers and we really want to accommodate all those change requests uh but but please note that we do make Staffing decisions based on what kinds of courses students want to take um so sometimes we're not able to offer those courses and and we have to make other decisions so so here is a list of the proposals that came to the committee um you can see on the left which department they were from and then the name of the course along with if it was a new course or or if it was a proposed to be an existing course that was going to be online you'll also note there was a few that were new and

073online this year um the business courses um as you can see those were all new the English courses there was a proposal to move the online or the English 11 to an online offering we currently offer English 12 as an online offering um and so next year we will also be offering English 11 and then a few electives in the English Department women in fiction broadcast journalism English film a few in our fax which is family and consumer science baking and pastry which is a new course and then an online intro to education which be which would be new and online our Spanish Immersion program at Woodbury High School um in a few slides later we'll talk about um these bringing in these AP courses so so we do have a teacher that did go

074to training and we are able to offer AP Spanish Immersion composition for our 10th grade students at wbury high school um there was a proposal to do an intermediate algebra part two for um kind of a remedial course for students in math and then an online Physics course which we had lots of great conversations about and amazing Tech resources that are out there for that course thanks to Bob and his team and um two social studies courses moving to online along with a technology which you'll see later in A change is um trade and Industry now so the technology department is moving to trade and Industry as its name so that's a comprehensive list of everything that was proposed and we had a lot of conversations about all of those uh when we went to

075review the courses that you see highlighted in green are the courses that the program of study committee um wants to approve for or is going to approve for next year in terms of offering to students couple reasons that I want to go through with you um business and English are both up for curriculum review this year and so the TLs department will bring both of those dep departments to the table including representatives from across the district and so we felt it was premature to introduce anything new and we wanted them to have a comprehensive conversation about their Department as a whole and so that was the conversation we had around the the business and the English regarding the new courses um and we also were very uh leery I guess is the only word that's

076coming to mind right now uh regarding new courses that we uh would make more singl ens or a single section of a course knowing we are going through a budget adjustment process that you're going to hear about um knowing the unknown what does next year look like in this pandemic um coming out of the pandemic what do we need to offer for for our students and so making sure that we have flexibility with our FTE so we were nervous to bring anything new to the table this year the conversations that the principes had with the teachers when they went back were exactly that it you're there was nothing wrong with your proposal we appreciate you thinking out of the box we just aren't ready to dive in with both feet right now to offer this

077for our students but we really invite you to send this back to us next year and when things maybe are a little bit more normal so the courses we did approve as you can see the online English 11 the AP Spanish Immersion and then the the last four all online but existing courses for our students and the other thing we looked at were name changes and I know this looks like a lot um so I'll just kind of give you a big picture that these are all of our CTE department or these are our CTE departments our Career and Technical education departments and in order to be in alignment with the Department of Ed's Career and Technical education department they often times throw name changes at us and it doesn't seem like a big deal

078but it is because we have to create new courses new course codes and um there's a lot of backend to it but it's really important for us to be consistent with all the CTE names that the department has so that when we have our career Pathways and we start having those conversations um they align with what the the department expects regarding that uh you can see by each department is color so agriculture food and natural resources there was one name change uh business had quite a few name changes that's that orangish color family and consumer science or facts is in the red and then the trade and Industry which was formerly known as technology and again those are same courses just new names for them I mentioned the Spanish Immersion approval um and that was

079part of a long-term conversation regarding our Spanish Immersion program program at woodb high school last year we began the process of phasing out weighted grades um because we passed policy 620 that included we would wait grades for courses that are normed by an outside agency so AP IB CIS those types of courses um and so our Spanish Immersion courses were grade level content taught in Spanish and so those didn't qualify for that but we did have a teacher in the program that was very interested in getting her license and she did so this summer so we are able to offer a 10th grade English option that will be waited for our Spanish emerence students um and then then with that phasing out so last year we didn't wait the ninth grade courses with the phasing

080out next year the 10th grade courses and so on so we didn't pull the rug out from a student who had started nth grade and we are just phasing this out as students come through the high school with the passing of that policy that is a summary and information for you regarding the program of study changes are there any questions questions Kelly I just had a couple questions so for the new class or the classes that are going online like English um there's that's both will be offered both in school and online correct okay and then for the students who take these online classes that displaces one of their six classes during the day or is this an opportunity to take additional classes so there is an opportunity for zero hour that could be an

081online course um but that but this could replace one of the six during the day as well okay and then for Spanish imersion just a point of clarification there'll be both AP composition and nonap composition correct so there'll be two sections of immersion and that was one thing um principal soron Wagner was excited about that the program had grown to the point that there would be two sections and so that offering of AP wasn't that people were forced to take it but it would be a choice will that continue as those kids get older that's what she's working on with the teachers so yeah we're hopeful that that will be an option in the English portion um there isn't an AP Spanish Immersion like human geography for example that that's nor you know so but

082the AP compositions and things that that's that's um principal s Wagner's hope as she goes okay and then are these online classes are they across all three schools so it's like you take it from South Washington County not necessarily from your home high school that's correct these are open to all students across the the district and our teachers come from all threee schools as well I just had a question really quick so for the online classes the teachers are from the district or is it from an outside Source like NSO they are from our district okay yep and these classes are only open to South Washington County students right now so that's also a little bit different than going outside to a provider for them all right thank you for your time thank you all

083right 8.3 budget adjustment process and timeline and we will have our Director of Finance and operations Dan payen and Kelly Jansen back uh good evening again and um I do say Kelly I think there should be a lot more accounting classes on that list we'll put you in uh every month I give you a financial update um generally revolving around um what's happening this time of year we will will'll have our um truth and Taxation um hearing next next board meeting as it'll be time to approve the the final Levy um tonight we were going to talk about our budget adjustment process and what we included in the um packet was the handbook that was um prepared for and given to all the members of the budget adjustment committee there's also a budget steering committee

084which also has the handbook and tonight um Kell and I um are going to go through the handbook to give you an update and it will also help to explain the process so with that I think Kelly will start and I get to some of the numbers that'll come back in all thank you Dan um yeah uh superintendent neelon asked that I facilitate the pro this process with Dan so and we just got underway few weeks ago um um and as part of that process we wanted to make sure we grounded the committee in having all the information they needed to make the decision so a lot of this information will look familiar to you because it was brought to you in different ways shapes or forms and we put it together um in this

085budget this budget handbook and tonight we're going to walk through it so what you'll see on the slides are screenshots of the handbook and we really recommend that you just follow us follow along with us in the handbook versus trying to to see them on the slides uh quick overview of the handbook in that there we we begin with big picture kind of timeline where are we going why are we doing this and then I'll turn it back over to Dan to to give you the details around the funding um and then if you're still awake I'll come back and talk about the adjustment process so um on page four this the purpose of this document was created as our staff or as our as our leaders went out and started having initial conversations with

086folks around what was happening when they heard budget cuts and budget reduction and what is that mean um everything on this page is a summary of The Guiding change document that you approved along with um pieces from Financial presentations that Dan has presented to you over the last few months and so we wanted to make sure they knew our the why or the introduction which is our overarching goal um why we're entering into this process we wanted to make sure that were clear bullets that people saw why we were doing this um how did we get here what what has happened it's it's no one person or one Department's fault um we are all in this together and then as you can see the the bottom is those commitments and that's what we review every

087time our committees meet in that we vow to to be in this together um keep all students each student the best interest at at heart when we're there um be sensitive we know that the majority of our budget is salaries and benefits and so with that is real people and so just making sure we practice compassion and empathy um thinking outside the box you know the pandemic has definitely forced us to do that but it's been really great to start having these conversations with our leaders who have brought forward some ideas um regarding things we could maybe do differently and so we're excited to dig into those and see if they're possible um and then be transparent we are hopeful that we will continue to provide the community and our staff and you uh with

088information throughout this process on page five is an overview of the timeline and as you can see we are moving at a really brisk Pace um we do need to do that in order to meet some staffing timelines as we mentioned we may be looking at shifting or changing some staff and so in order to make sure we give people ample notice in accordance with contracts we need to make sure we try to get get this process wrapped up by the end of January um so right now we are in that November 20th to December third window we met with the budget committee today the adjustment committee which includes many of our leaders and this is their window to be going to their staff for feedback so they'll be meeting with their staff so teachers

089um all their employees and having conversations about what ideas do you have you know we're going through this process and here's our goal what ideas do you have um our next step is then to take all of these ideas and Dan and Chris Blackburn will work their magic and we will put together kind of a costing sheet and an explanation that includes an impact what will this do for the services for kids and students in South Wasington County um and the budget adjustment committee will review that on December 10th and that's directors and principles as I mentioned and they'll think they'll look at a ranking process Julie plays the if you were the superintendent game along lot so they'll be playing if I'm the superintendent and I make a decision here's where I would get

090to the the goal that we've established um we'll give them one final opportunity for input on the 17th and then we'll be reaching out to our community advisory groups curriculum advisory achievement and integration um to get their feedback on on the on the recommendations that are in draft form at that point and then over winter break Dan and I will work on making sure sure that this is in a in a way shape and form that we feel comfortable presenting to you on January 7th that first read of those recommendations and I I know we'll keep you apprized throughout the process but that will be the first official time that we'll bring that list to you uh we do plan to have information sessions between the 7th and the 21st so we can hear what

091staff and Community think about the the ideas as you weigh on your on your minds and hearts I'm sure because this is not an easy process to go through um on January 21st when you make that final decision regarding the recommendations not you can't lick your fingers when you have a mask on um the next two pages actually show committee membership so page six where it starts you'll see the budget adjustment steering committee we meet weekly with superintendent neelson and have conversations around what's happening costing ideas um the impact of ideas throughout the system and um and that will be the group that will make that final recommendation to you then we have our budget adjustment committee that starts on six and goes to seven and you can see this includes many of our principles

092U many of our directors that uh ranging from Transportation buildings and grounds teaching and learning um and so these are the leaders that will be carrying the message out in the next few weeks and having conversations with staff around the district and then on page seven again you also see those commitments that we um reviewed and listed on that one pager when we started on page eight is that guiding change document we wanted the group to see this in full so this is the guiding change document that the board approved um two weeks ago and then we get into the finance of it and so for this part I'm going to turn it over to Dan so in the handbook we wanted to include some background information it's always a a struggle between having a

093lot of detail not enough detail um you want people don't understand it but if you get too much into the weeds then they kind of lose interest and and and quite frankly don't understand it after a while so we we kind of what I wanted to point out tonight was if you look through the book booket that we know we we summarize the topics with key points um things that you know if you're talking to your neighbor you can kind of explain you know why we're at what we're doing but as far as um page nine we talk about education funding in general um and the general fund because that's what we're going to be dealing with is the general fund um School nutrition fund that you're familiar with and Community Education fund those are

094self- sustaining funds um they have their own separate revenue streams they do not get revenue from the general fund um there's a caveat that if they do not have a positive fund balance then then we would have to transfer money from the general fund but so we got to make sure they have they have dollars we don't have to transfer to but you know adjustments in those funds would not help out in this budget reduction process there's also another point about about the the general fund that you probably remember is that there are restricted funds in the general fund so it's one big fund and we're concentrating on What's called the unassigned portion and then the stuff that's assigned we get separate we get revenues that are that you can only spend on certain things

095um sometimes you can save in those restricted funds and will help out in the in the long run but in general we have to reserve and restrict for long-term facility maintenance construction type things operating Capital which is more construction capital projects Levy which is all for technology staff development safe schools achievement integration Q comp things like that so really what you want to remember about the general fund is that this is a fund that we're working on we're working on the unassigned portion some other funds are restricted and um skent nutrition fund and the Community Education fund cannot contribute money to the general fund however if they go into the negative then general fund would have to transfer money page 10 we talk about the fund balance and that's ultimately what we're judged on mean

096that's our barometer and the state has guidelines and actually has a term called statutory operating debt which means that your general fund balance is less than negative 2.5% of your general fund expenditures so we we look at that percentage as our barometer and our board has a policy that the fund balance should be between five and %. and and in this page you can see a chart of a history of our fund balance and this is this is our unassigned fund balance and this is one that we're judged on by the missile Department of Education and you can see probably 10 years ago we were about 12% and then we dropped down to seven to five and to four and then we dropped down pretty low and then we started working our way back up

097again and we we believe the audit is completed now there shouldn't be much more to put into it we'll be coming in at a little bit over 5% at the end of this year which is good but this year we're in now is is a kind of a we know we're dropping our fund balance and one reason is because of the rising cost of some of our expenses that we can't control um that we don't have control over um that we were budget for a deficit of about $6.8 million and then of course with Co Al our enrollment is running below way behind budget um to be expected but we didn't know this was going to happen back when we did the budget so that will be that will be adjusted but the main things

098remember about fund balance board policy five between 5 and [Music] 9% right now we're projecting about 1.8% at the end of this fiscal year and to put that in perspective that's about six days of operation and to get back up to a five in this year alone we'd have to accumulate somehow another $6.5 million when people say where does money come from and we talk about our Revenue in the general fund most of the most of the dollars in the general fund come from state aid the second largest piece of the pie is local local operating Levy there's a few small slivers for um um local revenues fees emissions interest things like that and then Federal AIDS the state aid portion of our revenue is derived mainly by multiplying the number of students we have

099by a state approved legislative approved formula amount the formula amount at one point was to reflect what it cost to educate a child in Minnesota it's obviously it no longer does um so the form amount right now is $656 per pupil what's important about that number is what's it going to be the next time they approve their budget which is this next session uh right now I look saw today that they're projecting to$ 4.3 billion doll deficit at the state level so we are not expecting that's that we're not expecting um an increase in that formula and that's the political part of it that we um pay attention to and of course if we don't have an increase in that our general fund Revenue will not go up so the key points remember about the

100general fund revenue is that most of the dollars come from state aid which is based on enrollment and the basic formula that we're not expecting any increase in that formula and we have to plan that way because we can't just wish that they're going to increase it they usually increase it about 2% a year um enrollment is important enrollment is down this year we are projecting it we will project it to go up about next year um mainly because of the Court survival mainly because we feel that the kindergarten students may have just waited another year and so kindergarten were down about 80 so if they come in1 100 students equals about $1.1 million in our Revenue stream and that's mainly you're saying well 100 time 6567 doesn't equal that but that's because we also

101have operating levies attached to that um special education revenue is a large piece of our Revenue also that's we're projecting about $30 million this year that is calculated based on um the amount we spend on special education it's generally about they reimburse about 62% of the salaries of our teachers in Paris so and then they reimburse they're supposed to urse 100% of our transportation dollars and that usually comes in about 95% um so the more you spend special than we're getting Revenue but it's always a two-year lag so what we're spending now it's going to take a while for that money to come in we are projecting a little bit of increase there they also have put in together in in special education AC cross subsidy Aid which was put in and it was helpful

102was intended to to make up for What's called the cross subsidy and the cross subsidy in special ed is basically the amount of money you spend on special education minus the amount of special education Aid you get and our cross subsidy is about $17 million that Aid that was put into place two years ago is is intended to to stop that from rising but it's not cutting into it but at least it's keeping the increase at some keeping it flat Federal AIDS the main things to remember about that is that we don't get a lot of it um gets a lot of news nationally but we really our our title dollars aren't really large basically based on our economic profile we get about $3.2 million in special education federal aid um but the district our

103size as you can remember that was the smallest part of the sliver was our federal AIDS they're still important but um um one main reason we don't get a lot of Federal Aid and every District doesn't is because the federal government has not kept up to its promise when it passed idea the idea act um in which they were supposed to fund 40% of the cross subses that districts face from their states and they've never risen above 15% Pages 15 and 16 we talk about local Revenue and our local revenue is mostly most of local local Revenue we get is from our operating Levy and our operating Levy was determined because we went out for elections and asked our taxpayers if they could fund a certain amount per per student and right now we get

104$2,260 per student that's comprised of $1,536 in operating Levy and $724 in local optional Revenue the chart on here I hope you can read it better in your books um does indicate the amounts we get per year and it indicates the fiscal year the taxes payable year and the and the um election year so by looking at this chart put together by our financial advisors you can see that um I guess to look at my sheet because I can't read it either don't my glasses on but our our voter approved referendum drops from $1,500 to about $1,100 between fiscal years 20 6 and 27 that would be election year 2024 meaning that at least by then we would have to at least go out and renew that little portion otherwise we'd lose a pretty big

105chunk of money and generally would recommend you go out a year before just in case it doesn't pass and you can make new plans so we know for sure we would have to go out for a renewal in 2023 the fall of 2023 the other thing to note on this chart is that on the far right there's two columns and one of them is What's called the voter the cap on voter approved referendums and that's set by the state legislature step by Statute that increases by inflation every year that's why you see the number changing so that's the that's the most we could ask in voter approved Levy in South Washington County and you can see how much we do ask we do get 1536 so the next election year of 21 we would have

106a gap of $330 per pupil so there is opportunity to increase the voter approved referendum I won't go through all the other other earnings you can read about those but the main points to remember that the second largest revenue in our district is operating Levy there's potential to increase that Levy by law with voter approval it would have to be election and we can also influence some of the other revenues by raising fees just a quick note about designated funds so people understand and they make there's a couple things that they may drive around the district and see us do construction projects and as you can imagine in our district those are quite large and expensive because we have many buildings um I like to say we have the best buildings in the state and

107I I dare anyone to overall compare our buildings to anyone we keep them very clean we keep them up we have a robust deferred maintenance plan the funds that we use to do those things like maintain parking lots put roofs in change out HVAC systems those come from long-term facility maintenance and those are designated funds a reduction in those expenses would not increase our unassigned fund balance and then The Debt Service fund that exists to pay our debt obviously that's a straight Levy to the taxpayers that's not part of the general fund Levy however however you probably the veterans all know it and we come around here about every other year and say hey it's a good time to refinance we all know what refinancing is if you refinance your mortgage then you're you do

108that so you get a lower payment and we refinance things on a much higher level we refinance a $20 million Bond those produce tremendous savings when they work when it's when it's first of all when it's legal and when the interest rates are right any of those savings cannot help the general fund though those dollars go directly back to the tax payers in the form of lower levies and then as we talk about where does the money get spent Pages 18 through 20 the the chart on here has to do with programs if we look at what our object codes are really what the the function of the money is we break them down to salaries and benefits of salaries then we break down the benefits Services supplies equipment and other and these are the

109general ones that all school districts go into most of our money goes to salaries and benefits as you can imagine and services would be the next biggest bucket and then supplies and then equipment kind of goes up and down based on what the needs are if you look a little deeper into these into these Pages you'll see that um if you look at a history of the last four years you'll see that our expenses have increased about 46.3 million over those last four years that's an average about 5.2% a year and you can kind of see where they've increased the most and a lot of it was in services and that has to do with people Transportation you look at the chart in here where a dollar or revenue is spent you can see that

110regular classroom instruction and special education construction make up about 62% 62 cents on every dollar and then pupil support is 11 cents of every dollar people support is mostly transportation and then some supports um in the schools like counselors and social workers and such and then facility maintenance which is basically to keep the classrooms heated cooled clean that's about 12 cents so all those categories are money that's directly influencing the classroom it's teaching the children it's making sure they're warm making sure they're safe and it's getting them to school and back and then you can see that um instructional support is 6 cents on the dollar and District support is 6 cents and administration is three cents on the dollar and then if you look at expenditures by program area once again obviously in total

111you're going to see the increase of $46 million over the last four years but you can kind of see where the the largest increases are and um the two largest increases percent wise are special education which has gone up 32% over the last four years and pupil support which has gone up 35% over the last four years and the pupil support is mainly the special education Transportation expenditures um so what to remember about the expenditures our expenses have risen about $46 million over the last four years but 5.28% special education has increased about $12 million about 32% Although our special education child count is increased with the numbers over a three-year period I don't have the final year yet in here because we haven't got that yet but it's almost 500 students and then the

112P support has increased mainly because of the transportation of the special education students and then on page 21 we get to what we're projecting to happen in the fiscal year 2122 now we know we're starting out with a with a pretty low fund balance after this um fiscal year now and we're we're hoping that with different relief funds and different things although you couldn't supplant expenses with those that we can somehow come out better than we're anticipating but we know the revenue is going to be down but as we look at the next year we have to just basically look at the assumptions and we're assuming on the revenue side there's no increase in the basic education formula we're we're expecting a total new to go up about 2.6 million basically one and a half

113from special ed which is a delay in re reimbursing those expenses and then enrollment increase of about 100 students with another 1.1 million and then as we look at wage and benefit increases um overall we need to keep those down at about 2 and a half% even at 2 and a half% that's another 5.3 million increase in expenses and then just inflationary on services supplies and other is about $800,000 so when you add the new revenue and add the new expenses you'll see that we have revenues expenses of $10 million more than we have in revenues and that is the main reason that we have to look at um reducing our budget at least by $12 million in the first year so the main things to remember on the projection side is that you know

114over the last four years we've been running an increase in Revenue about 4.5% but an increase in expenses about 5.2% well that's that's a gap of almost $2 million right there per year we don't see an increase in state aid we will certainly watch legislation when they start we also know we're also watching very closely if they will they've introduced a bill every special session so far obviously special session so hasn't gotten that far yet in which we could use this year's last year's pupil counts instead of this year's because every district is finding the same issue with a drop in enrollment and our point to them is that when you did your allocations you were basing on these higher student counts so you've you've budgeted that money but now you're going to save a

115lot of money because there's a lot less students going to school and you can afford to at least go back to our old enrollment counts that would help us a lot because right now we're about 18,500 students and last year we ended up at 18,7 52 students enrollment has not many expectations for many reasons obviously special education special transportation is rising and finally with Co so far with the general fund we've we we've had a loss of about $800,000 mainly because of having to transfer some money over to the Community Education fund and charge less charge backs to school nutrition fund there isn't much they could do about that they try we tried to move as quickly as it could to um stem the tide with that we'll turn it back over to Kelly to

116talk about the process all right and as we mentioned in the guiding change process this is a three-year process and a goal um and and we established 18 million over three years when we sat down to give people kind of you know you don't if you don't know where you're going how do you know when you're going to get there type of things so what is our year one goal what are we looking at for this year and in conversations with the steering committee we wanted to put a number out there for a goal that would get us to really think about programs and things and and things that if we get get rid of them this year you know it's easy to bring that thing or that one person or this or that then

117back the next year which which we saw through the process in 2015 quite honestly so we wanted to put a number out there of 12 million in the first year to get people to really be thinking we need to change the way we're doing things in South Washington County and so we wanted to I don't want to use the word sticker shock because that implies that it's a bad thing I think it's a good thing to set our sights on um knowing that there's lots of things that'll happen along the way um have lots of conversations you will see the list you will have you know you are you will be making the decisions around those lists and and listening to the community so we wanted to to have a number that we would bring

118to you um that you could work with I think for lack of a better for a better way to put it um and but we do have some some flexibility I guess is what I would say um depending upon that then as you can see the years two and years three goal uh to get us to that where we wanted to be in 18 million in three years on the bottom or in the middle of page 22 you'll see this cost estimate information was given to the committee so that when they were thinking of ideas they were talking with each other they had some some numbers to put it Forward some estimated costs in their opinion um and so these will be the numbers that we'll work to to cost out ideas that come forward

119to us and then on the bottom of 22 and continuing on to 23 is again that timeline um that we saw in the beginning and just that that key window that we're in right now of gathering feedback from staff and the budget adjustment committee members then submitting some ideas so we can finalize a list that we start having some ranking conversations about when they submit ideas on the bottom of the page you can see the form that that lays out what they do it's not a ton of information that we asked from them but just the the level that this would impact um is it a budget reduction or or a budget enhancement we've had some great ideas come through regarding budget enhancements um a title for it an explanation an estimated budget impact and

120additional information and all of these are they could leave blank if they wanted to um but we just wanted to have a process for people to submit ideas that we could make sure we're getting everyone and keeping track and then to round out the handbook is um an appendix and just some general information and a lot of questions we get asked when We compare ourselves to other districts because that's really popular to do in education so um Dan put together the the 40 largest districts in Minnesota and it's sorted three different ways so it's the same districts same information it's just sorted three different ways um and so the information you see on these is the fund balance the fund balance percentage their class size um this then some demographic information sped percentage free reduced

121lunch and eel and then their total expenditures their expenditures per student their special ed expenditures their estimated special ed count and then expenditures per student and percent sped of total and then the difference um so we thought this information would be interesting as as people were looking at our district and making those um coming up with those ideas and so that's what those three pages of the appendix are as far as next steps we mentioned the committee met today um and had some great conversation in each level we provided them a lot of time to talk about some of the big ideas that we have been talking about for the last few weeks um some that you saw in 2015 as well and um they are in that process of the the critical process of

122feedback from our stakeholders our staff um their staff and then they will be submitting new ideas and on December 10th they will review those recommendations for the first time cost it out um and then we'll make some adjustments based on their feedback and then December 17th will be that budget adjustment committee's last opportunity to give the steering committee feedback as we go into advisory groups and then preparing it to come to you so we are moving fast um but I think it's it's a I think it's a manageable pace and um I think that we're having good coners ation so far so any questions a lot of information I'm learning a lot yeah no this is really nice to have everything in one spot yeah it was helpful for sure no yeah you're correct because

123if we run down to the 1.8 and if we cut 12 we would have like a $2 million surplus so it'll keep us around there and then the goal would be to get back up there the next two years right and and you'll see during the process that when we look at our items and with our impacts we'll do year One impact year two impact year three impact because some of them are one-time deals and some would would carry on so you got got to work all that into it okay and then um so the the timeline that you've given the idea is that on the 7th of January you would present kind of an initial cut and um but there would just the idea is that we would just have kind of this is

124what everyone has chosen or this is what everyone is recommending there's not like yeah this generally this is what we did last time too was since the first board meeting of January is a is a workshop but that's generally when we we will present formally our recommendations during committee's recommendations to the board so it's a public document and the public knows and then we spend the time between having Community conversations that you know and you could have time to think and ask questions and things like that and then we would hope to approve the final um budget adjustments at the last board meeting in January okay all right thank you very much thank you 9.0 are discussion items we don't have any this evening 10.0 action items 10.1 is the approval of our bus mechanics

125agreement and we'll have D again forgot about this you're like the utility player what's that you're utility player yeah I'm not Kevin Witherspoon [Laughter] he could only aspire for that to be um you got to meet our bus mechanics tonight um and ironically it wasn't planned but we are asking for approval of their wage and benefit agreement with the bus mechanics it's uh Local 70 um negotiations towards a collective bargain agreement between the South Washington County Schools International Union of operating engineers local 70 bus mechanics that resulted in a tentative two-year agreement to be effective July 1 2020 through June 30 2022 members of the bargaining approved the tenative agreement now there's only there's only those guys here plus two that are in this Union so um and they they only have two wage classifications

126and they have no steps so we kept within the parameters that we talked about tonight in our but in our budget talk um actually under the 2 and a 12% total package it includes a wages increase of 2.2 in the first year and 2.3% in the second year because they have no steps and because their health insurance increase was was lower than um normal they were able to stay with under 5% for two years um includes increases to their health insurance as listed it's about a 4% increase should be noted that health insurance has gone up about 7% um it also includes an increase of their 401 403b match from $1,750 per year to $2,000 per year so $250 increase otherwise there's no change in dental insurance no change in life insurance no change in

127long-term disability and no change in the Viva contribution so Kevin and I would recommend that you approve approve this agreement thank you all right so we'll entertain a motion to approve first second move by Katie and second by Sharon any questions on this um contract all right um all in favor say I I any opposed motion carries thank you and I hope Kevin you're watching this yes yeah thank you p.2 approval of support for our minate Minnesota State High School Le Foundation Grant Christine Schaefer assistant good evening Schoolboard chair Bernette superintendent Nelson board members and R Jette I would like to seek approval of the support of the Minnesota State High School league Foundation Grant this Foundation is a nonprofit Association serving public and private schools in Minnesota and it complements the Minnesota State High

128School league the purpose of this Foundation is to provide support for Minnesota high school students in need to participate in athletics and Fine Arts this Foundation provides financial support to school districts based on the number of pru lunge students in grades 9 through 12 the funds received by this Foundation are to offset activity fees or other items for students to participate in these Athletics and activities district 833 has received funding from this foundation for the past several years and our students have benefited at all three three of our high schools tonight we are asking you to once again approve the resolution of support from this Foundation to allow the foundation to provide funds to our high schools once again for this school year and I believe Tracy you have the document the resolution I have

129a copy here okay thank you oh yeah I'm sorry it isn't it's in here okay got it all right so do we need to read it okay um resolution of school board supporting form a application to Minnesota State High School league Foundation whereas the Minnesota State High School league Foundation was formed to provide support for Minnesota's High School youth to participate in athletics and Fine Arts whereas the district 833 School Board recognizes the value of students participation in extracurricular activities and whereas the Minnesota State High School league Foundation is offering grants and funding to assist School District in recognizing promoting and funding extracurricular participation by high school students in athletic and fine art programs therefore be it resolved that the Independent School District 833 School Board supports the district's application to the Minnesota State High

130School league foundation for a form a grant to offset Student Activity fees so I'll entertain a motion to approve so move second all right moved by Louise and second by simy so any questions comments All right so we need a roll call vote melen dols is absent Louise Hines yes s Pat nck yes Pat Drisco is absent Sharon vanleer yes Katie Schwarz yes Tracy brunett yes thank you very much awesome 10.3 approval of racial Equity resolution and our superintendent Julie neelson will present this resolution and give us um a summary of what we're looking at tonight sure thank you as part of our District's commitment to equity we are asking the board to adopt a racial Equity resolution that includes taking a stance on the education of our black indigenous and students of color this

131resolution was drafted to support the racial Equity work that has been in progress throughout the district for a number of years the resolution includes our core beliefs and specific action steps that the superintendent myself and Ora design will take in order to promote a welcome and inclusive environment for Learning and success as shared two weeks ago by James McGee our coordinator of professional development and Wayne Felton our director of achievement integration the district now already has a racial Equity vision statement that includes promises we are making to our students this resolution will serve as a foundation to moving forward and a commitment from our Board of Education in making sure that we are part of creating a better educational environment for our black indigenous and students of color and so with that um I do

132feel like it's important that I read um our belief statements and then I will just highlight some of the action areas for the board so the resolution supporting racial equity and that black lives matter whereas South Washington County School's racial Equity mission is to provide each student with a welcoming respectful and inclusive environment for Learning and success whereas the ongoing social justice issues across our country including the killing of George Floyd have had a profound impact on our students staff administrators school board and families of South Washington County Schools as leaders in South Washington County Schools we choose to speak out in response to the recent national and local events that have called attention to racist attitudes racist actions societal race-based disparities and other forms of systemic and institutional racism that have persisted for centuries

133whereas this unique and historic moment in our country's Evolution presents an opportunity and a challenge for all of to be part of creating a better educational Community for black indigenous and students of color whereas student staff members and families of South Washington County Schools have shared specific instances of racial discrimination bias and unequal treatment in our schools and have also shared the profound impact that these instances have had on their lives whereas we have personally witnessed varying attitudes about race in our own Community whereas we are respons responsible for nurturing anti-racist learning environments where all students staff administrators school board members and families are respected and valued for who they are regardless of culture race or ethnicity whereas we stand and will speak out against all hate bias racism and crimes of violence whereas the

134school board and the administration are committed to ensuring that each student is supported encouraged and academically challenged by the staff at school regardless of culture race or ethnicity and whereas the school board and administration are committed to ensuring that the school a student attends will not be the predictor of their school Success next the school board and administration are committed to constantly Examining The District's policies and practices in order to remove obstacles and barriers that may contribute to systemic race systemic inequalities and whereas the intent of this resolution is first to declare that the lives of our black indigenous and student staff and community members of color matter secondly to publicly commit to accelerate our efforts around diversity inclusion and racial equity and finally to adopt government speech in furtherance of these objectives and so

135with that those are the belief statements um of the district and the action steps that are also included as part of the resolution and just to summarize those condemning bullying discrimination hate speech racism and creating environments that promote respect for different cultures to teaching the history of our black and Indigenous people creating a racial Equity plan focused on student achievement um continuing to provide professional learning development for all of our staff adopting we believe black lives matter as official government speech um amplifying student voice in all of our work and finally the annual review of policy 102.1 diversity equity and inclusion thank you all right so first we will get a motion to approve second moov by Katie second by Sharon any comments or I guess there's no questions um I know we all had

136um time to review and um uh I think it's a great statement that we have moving forward in support of our our students Administration our community um regarding this um really important issue right now in racial equity and the predictable outcomes that we talk about all the time appreciate the work on this to bring It Forward all right so since this is a resolution we need a roll call vote M dos is absent Louise Hines yes Simmy patn yes patris's absent Sharon van Le yes Katie Schwarz yes Tracy brunette yes thank you all right 11.0 reports and comments 11.1 is our superintendent's report fabulous thank you um today Pepe and I met with students who serve on either the superintendent advisory committee or um a school board rep and I know Rebecca got to participate

137so she this will be familiar to her uh the purpose of our virtual meeting this afternoon was to gather information from our students related to South Washington County Schools this included talking about what a highquality education meant to them what racial Equity meant to them and what it looked like words they would use to describe our district and a number of other questions including how they reference our school district whether it was by district 833 South Washington County so washco and many of them share that they like the number but they really never used it or they really never talked about the school district like that I think they mostly talked about their school um I would like to just point out in a short period of time a short breakout time that we had

138with them students were able to articulate the needs around racial equity and the importance of making it a priority in our work and we were literally in a breakout group Rebecca maybe 15 20 minutes maybe not that long um along with answering a whole host of other questions in my particular breakout group they discussed our resources and making sure that history was not just taught through the lens of white authors and that our curriculum recognized and celebrated people of color for their positive contributions they talked about the need for staff of color in our schools and they also talked about the insensitive things they have heard and experienced related to race in our school the most important point from these students was their understanding that talking about race is uncomfortable but that in order to

139grow and change that we must have these conversations together and so just in that short time and again our focus wasn't just on racial Equity but they had a lot to say about our school district um the next thing I think um is pull up our fancy dashboard look at everybody's familiar notice we didn't give you this ahead of time um but you will see our numbers and just to share um this was updated again today so you will see a drastic increase I mean it's just straight up from last week and so just to highlight without going through every number um our increases uh 74 student cases increased uh or yeah 74 students increased and 19 more positive staff cases Elementary was up by 43 students um and that was really a big jump

140and we noticed it early in the week there were a lot of elementary kids coming through with our situation reports so Elementary was up 43 Middle School was up just eight students and our high school was up 23 three our total students in quarantine um went up 245 and our staff they were up five um but please keep in mind while five may seem like a new number some probably dropped off from quarantine and more were added so it may not tell the accurate picture of like you know how many because what we know is we've increased over time and so our incident command team will meet tomorrow I know some uh community members and family members probably don't look forward to my announcement on Friday so for the next couple of weeks we won't

141be doing any Outreach um as far as communicating because we know that right now we're just sliding into distance learning and so our instant command team is still going to continue to meet weekly um just to get the updated data and keep the group um having the conversations we also are going to begin to talk about what does the return to school look like um we feel like we know that our numbers are going to be high for a number of weeks but what does the return look like like and is it going to be at the same point as when we left school or what does that look like and what things should we be considering um as Elementary Educators prepare now to deliver instruction in the dial um or our distance learning model

142they will use the transition days as I shared they will have November 20th and December 4th which were originally flex days and then the two days before the workshop before Thanksgiving the 23rd and 24th to ensure that students experience um experiences in this model are um improved from last spring uh many families have asked just about the planning days and just a reminder that those are days set aside in the governor's executive order to make those transitions in learning model um they will spend time collaborating with colleagues who are currently teaching the virtual Learning Academy to gain insight and perspective based on the VA teachers experiences and so they're going to have a panel where our existing hybrid teachers will get to hear from our vaa teachers um they they will attend professional development opportunities

143for a minimum of 6 hours on those days they will be meeting with PLC teams they will have the opportunity to observe virtual lessons as well as reviewing the benchmarks and learning targets that teaching and learning has identified for the trimester our ultimate goal of course after those four days is to make sure that our dial model or hybrid teachers are prepared for November 30th when they will begin delivering distance learning instruction um lastly Elementary students will be trans transitioning to the new trimester beginning after Thanksgiving so while we don't have hex mesters in the elementary school we have a brand new trimester starting and if you recall we had a number of students that were moving back and forth between virtual to hybrid hybrid to Virtual and so as shared by Dr brookens we

144have about 80% of those students that wanted to make that switch um or excuse me 100% of the students or the students that wanted to make that switch of those 80% are going to continue with that transition so so that's actually a higher number than I expected at this time but 80% are going to continue with that transition and then as part of that in terms of onboarding new students to a class at kind of a difficult tricky time um individual classroom teachers will be reaching out to students and families to set up a time to connect virtually they will also be leveraging morning meeting time to introduce new students and help make connections as well as checking in individually with students and families to make sure that the transition is going okay and so

145that's all part of try to for our elementary friends all right 11.2 School Board member reports want to start with Katie students students students oh students oh my goodness yeah nope I read right through that sorry how about [Laughter] Rebecca this Monday the 16th and every day we meet with zoom calls starting at 9:00 a.m. and there are every so we only have three classes right now and each of them are an hour and then we have 15 minute breaks between each of them so we have learning from 99 till 12:30 and then all of our teachers are required to have office hours for 75 minutes every day where students can go on and join and then on Fridays we have advisory at 8:35 8:55 for just like a 20 minute check-in this Friday teachers

146were given the opportunity to like decide what they want to do with their students so we'll see tomorrow what my teacher does I don't know yet and then we the end of our hex semester is going to be next Tuesday is the last day of learning but it's also the end of our trimester so we're done with all six classes now for our trimester which will start back up with try to after Thanksgiving break and then students now also have the opportunity to switch to pass fail classes if they would like to they can get like pass or no credit grading system if that's what they choose it's based off of an individual student's Choice otherwise they can keep the regular grading scale as Miss patuk said we did have a trio of thrilling Tales

147which is our school play which was performed this past weekend which the performers were able to have two Spectators if they wished and then it was viewed online as well our boys football team did lose to still water but we are doing for our sections this Friday our EAS volleyball plays Still Water tonight and they are like Miss plotek said undefeated at this point have not lost a set yet six athletes signed last week along with the marching band was able to perform at all of our home football games which was really good because at the beginning of the year they weren't able to practice cuz they didn't have the correct PPE because they have to get things to like cover all of their instruments but then they were able to perform which was exciting

148for a lot of students our student council began planning our senior shirts which is something new that we're doing this year which is giving the opportunity for student to design a shirt which then the entire student class will be able the purchase if they would like our homecoming week was the first week of November which is now over but our senior homecoming Court was Maddie couch and Jacob meek for the two winners and then NHS held a blood drive earlier this month and student council has one coming up in the middle of December which is a little undecided right now because we can't host it at school so they're looking for a different location and the date might change as well along with NHS is selling nirra covid-19 kits for people to be able to

149get a better idea about it and it gives students ways to get hour since there aren't a lot of volunteer opportunities right now and we do not have really any sports coming up because of the new transition but maybe after the four weeks we'll see thank you NAA the AAL having every other day going into school performes and then supp was super successful and we got a lot of donations thank you we got a lot of donations and then another event for uh NHS that we're holding is our mapathon um the mapathon is an open collaborative project in which you can help to map areas where humanitarian organizations are working to meet the needs of V vulnerable people this information is used to provide medical assistance and supplies to R rural communities all over the

150world and that event is happening from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. on November November 22nd and that's all I have thank you thank you um 12.0 our future meeting dates 12.1 December 10th of 2020 and then January 7 of 2021 are our next regular board meetings and with that 13.0 we're adjourned