001And as Amanda, oh, Amanda is with us via Zoom, but because of that, all votes tonight will be roll call just, you know, to add to the excitement. So seeking a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. All right. So if you'll, aye. Aye. Bergstrom. Aye. Hagan. Aye. Helzer. Breeden. Aye. Rosene. Aye. Wilson. Aye. Thank you. All right. So item B, well, notation of members and attendants, noting that Amanda, who, again, that picture was not of an ankle but of a wrist, but she is recuperating now, but she is joining us via Zoom. Will you please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
002for all. Move to item two, announcements, acknowledgements, correspondence, upcoming meetings. We've got the work sessions for February and the regular meetings also listed. You can find them on the agenda. Item 3, public comment. Do we have any public comment tonight? Doesn't appear that we do. So we'll move to item 4, seeking a motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting. So moved. Second. And we'll do another roll call vote. Wilson. Rosene. Aye. Kelser-Breeden. Aye. Hagen. Aye. Bergstrom. Aye. Arnita. Aye. Hammett. Aye. Thank you. All right, thank you. Moving to item 5, the consent agenda. All the board action is required. It is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items. In the event that a board member wishes to discuss an item, that item will be moved for separate consideration. Is there anything that
003anyone would like moved for separate consideration? Otherwise, Superintendent, are there any items of note? Yep, just thanks for two donations received. $192 donated by QDOBA for the high school link crew and $112 donated by UHG for Southview student activities. And thank you, as always, to our generous community. All right, thank you very much. Seeking a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. All right, Jess? Aye. Aye. Bergstrom? Aye. Hagen? Aye. Kelzer-Breeden? Aye. Williams? Aye. Wilson? Thank you, motion carries. I should be specifying at the outset, you know, all in favor, and I have not been saying that, so now you know. All right, so we'll move on to item six with our reports, and first up we have our student representative report. Well, we just started our new trimester right after winter break,
004so there's nothing really going on right now. For sports, I know girls basketball is doing really, really well. I don't know so much about hockey, but I know wrestling is doing well, and I heard dances also. And boy swimming is doing well. All right. Let me just interject real quickly. We had the opportunity to attend a school board conference, and one of the sessions that I sat in on was for the student reps. and I gave them an opportunity and said, you've got a room full of adults, you've got the floor, what do you have to say to us? And one of the comments that they made was, we are not accessories. So just want to recognize you as not being accessories to our board. So thank you for your presence. All right, so we'll
005move on to item 6B with the administrative presentation of enhancing the experience at Waconia Middle School. And welcome Principal Clausen and Vice Principal Jamie Heiss. All right, how close do I have to be? Is that good? Closer, closer, closer. Good. Hey, good evening, everybody. I'm Shane Klassen, the principal at Wakoni Middle School. And I'm Jamie Heiss, our assistant principal. So tonight we're going to go through a little bit of what some people view as extras at middle school, but we really look at them as ways to enhance learning, ways to also like... enhance our following of the strategic plan and some of our school improvement goals in line with you know just creating some milestones as we work through I think there's a slideshow that's supposed to show up let's see here there we go
006All right, so again, thank you for the opportunity. I'll go through a few slides and then I'll pass it over to Jamie and then I'll be able to wrap it up. My goal is to make sure and be under 10 minutes here tonight. But here on this slide, it just talks about the vision, fulfilling the IST 110 strategic plan by providing opportunities that are inclusive, academic, have leadership opportunities, some social experiences with a goal of moving beyond just like taking a trip. to really creating some shared milestones, which creates that sense of belonging as a Wakonia student. I'm sure that students over there are going to remember some of these things I talk about. And also, I know that some of you as parents were either a chaperones or know about the experiences your students
007had. So here. This talks, you know, you've seen this these are our measures of our strategic plan and one of the things you know as I was Preparing for this presentation our reading specialist, you know had shared as we look at the benefits of these of students is one of the key things is that she said You know There's a lot of research out there that shows the connections to taking experiences outside of the classroom walls Taking field trips and how it impacts overall student reading growth and I was interested and she said I'll put forward the research that shows and the things that came up is the ability to have content experience that's tangible. So when they read those experiences now that they've had more enhance that reading and the experiences they have encourage
008them to want to learn more and read more about what they go and see. So you have those. It's also Building those memories builds those mental frameworks. It encourages them to learn more and then understand more complex texts. And so again, it's not just about the belonging, the leadership opportunities, but it also is an enhancement of reading skills. Now, we're going to go through some grade level field trips here. I'm going to start with the first one because I've been going on this trip as a principal for a lot of years. It's often one of the most memorable trips of students in Waconia schools. at least in the middle school. But it's the long-legged conservation trip that starts right away in the fall in sixth grade. It's an overnight trip. It's three days, two nights.
009And some of the strategic pillar is building some of that independence and cohesion. That cohesion piece is bringing those social experiences into an environment that maybe is a little bit uncomfortable for all of them. to bond together and share some experiences and overcome maybe some challenges that they do when you know that they experience when they're there because we have multiple schools coming together in sixth grade. You know we have our three elementaries and we have other schools within the area and so there's just a lot of new faces. It's also an amazing outdoor learning space for environmental science when they're there and it's just it tends to be a very memorable trip that students you know talk about with a lot of A lot of joy, just a lot of good experiences when they're
010there. And I think some of you have chaperoned, am I correct? Yes So we do take parent chaperones You know and one of the things about that trip as well beyond just the parent involvement is also a lot of extra work that our teachers put into creating those experiences I think sometimes when outsiders say Oh field trips, you know, you're kind of like taking an easy day. It's definitely not an easy day All the planning that goes into it all the preparation that goes into it and then the actual delivery of it Is is a lot of extra work on our teachers And we do offer opportunities for our chaperones to join us as well. So other field trips in sixth grade, they take them to Orchestra Hall, which is a fine arts experience. And
011we look to create four different field trips in each grade as our goal. with one being a social one, one being academic, one being fine arts or athletic, and then one being a reward trip. And we'll talk a little bit about each of those in each grade level. But sixth grade has orchestra hall, and then at the end of the year in the spring, they go to the Minnesota History Center and go to the Capitol. And we'll talk about kind of the reward trip after. Can I ask a question before we move on? Sure. How long have we been back at Long Lake? I know one of my boys was not able to go to Long Lake because it disappeared during COVID for a little while. Yeah. In total, I know we have a plaque
012for being there 35 years, and that was like six years ago. So we've gone to Long Lake 41 years. But there was a year off for COVID when all of the environmental learning centers pretty much shut down. And then when we wanted to go back the next year, Long Lake, which is actually a county-owned facility, had shut down and didn't have any operations running. And so we went to a place called Eagle Bluff down in Lanesboro, Minnesota. I chaperoned that one, yeah. Yeah. And it's a bit of a different experience. Did we just do that one year? We just did that one year. I couldn't remember. Okay. We actually got kind of, you know. I started talking to the director after we got back from Eagle Bluff because the experience just wasn't, it wasn't great
013as far as like, especially the food. I think the experience for the kids was great, but some of the facilities and the food really didn't, you know. it wasn't as good as Long Lake. And then when they brought on a new director, Dave McMillan's his name, he said, come, you know, we're rebuilding, we're re-adding, you know, staff. And we started going back and it's been, you know, that continued tradition, that great experience. So there was a hiccup in it. All right. And then, you know, we try and hit an academic field trip for every grade level. In seventh grade, our students get to take a professional trip to a theater. And we always get rave reviews about how good our students are when they go to that. And it's something that not every kid gets
014a chance to do and see professional theater. And then this year, they're also going to immerse themselves in their social studies content by getting to go to Fort Snelling. So really bring it to life, which will be really exciting. And then as they move into eighth grade, they really get to expand on that cultural side of their geography standards by going to the newly named International Festival of Minnesota, which used to be the Festival of Nations. And then... Another trip that kids look forward to that doesn't have quite as long a history as our sixth grade trip as 40 years, but it's still going on over 25 years. Kids in eighth grade get a chance to conquer a seven mile stretch of the St. Croix River in a canoe together. And when I asked them
015at the end of the year, what do you remember about this year? This is a trip that they always mention. They love this trip. And it's again, Hats off to the teachers who year after year know that it's a lot of work, but they see that it's worth it because of how proud these kids are when they get off the river and get to celebrate at the end of that seven miles. It's pretty incredible. Can I just interject real quick? Yeah. I have never been grilled about my role as a board member as much as I was by an eighth grader on the trip back. She put my skills to the test. Yep, they're very inquisitive, middle school. And then our seventh graders have had the opportunity to do several different team building activities. Courage
016retreat in past years where they're practicing finding the courage to follow their heart as a middle schooler, which is pretty tough. And then base camp where they get to cheer each other on as individuals, like doing the rock wall and then help each other with some team challenges. Unfortunately, we've had to... Let go of a couple of those and we're searching for a new team building experience for our seventh graders because the previous ones have become too costly for us right now. So we're exploring other options. But we also have some unique experiences for our unique learners as well. We have our... Gifted and Talented program that is coordinated by Brittany Tonneson, and she has developed a curriculum that culminates with some really amazing hands-on experiences for our Gifted and Talented students. And you can
017see some of the variety of experiences they get to go and do throughout the three years of the Gifted and Talented program. And then we take our students outside. Got to enjoy the winter here in Minnesota, regardless of what it's like. And so one of them is our eighth grade ski and snowboarding trip to Powder Ridge and Kimball. They, again, that's another one that they bring up as a super memorable experience. And then seventh and eighth grade, our band students get a chance to go out and perform in public where we get to show off. the amazing talents of our students, but also the dedication and talents of our staff at those public performances. You know, part of middle school is figuring out who you are and finding your identity and getting to build connections.
018And regardless of our similarities and differences, we have really amazing unified programs here at Waconia Middle School in the district. And our middle school gets a chance to do that with our unified athletes and partners getting to participate in things like bowling and basketball. soccer. They get to do track and field in the spring and then throughout the year they get an opportunity to do choice time and during our wild time together to build those connections throughout the year each week, which is pretty incredible. We participate as a school in Polar Plunge as well as as a district. Our district is usually one of the top plunging fundraising districts in the state and so much so that they've moved plunge right to Waconia and so our students really get into that we're right in the
019midst of that campaign right now at Waconia middle school and then our center-based students get an opportunity to go on a variety of trips with their own program as well as being included in those additional field trips for their grade level specific programs And then we also bring our entire school over to the high school at least once a year. And there's a couple of reasons for doing that. We want to show them the facilities that they're moving into up at the high school. It's really an incredible performing arts center. And then show them the opportunities that they're going to have with our theater program and our show choir program. This year, we are going to be taking our students all to the show choir spectacular here this coming spring. So it's really a wonderful
020opportunity to. build belonging in our district. And then this is the one we probably get scrutinized the most, our incentive-based programs. But this is also one that our kids really, really love. They've made it all the way through the school year. They've worked really, really hard. They got through MCAs. And then this is one of those activities where they get an opportunity to really... work hard at the end of the year and this gives them something to work towards on that last day where they get to go and celebrate all of their accomplishments for the year together. Our sixth graders stay local when they're doing their activities and then our seventh and eighth graders go out on some adventures around some more area in the Twin Cities. Students are typically allowed to participate in the
021reward programs. I would say the vast majority of our students go Do you have an actual number? I don't have a number It varies from year to year. I mean all of sixth grade participates and then you know at Valley Fair I'd say we probably have 80 to 90 percent participation There are some you know groups that say we're gonna go off and do something else as a group that day But it's meant to be a culminating event that they go as a group, as an eighth grade group and celebrate kind of the end of middle school. You know, there's eighth grade staff members that are throughout the park that day. And so it's just, we do a send off, we do, you know, like a end of middle school celebration and then we send
022them off to Valley Fair together. So it's just, it's been a historical tradition. And actually when I first came here 16 years ago, they took the whole school. And so we stepped away from that and looked at it being more of a rite of passage that eighth graders have their own unique, because when the whole school went, the amount of eighth graders that went was really small because they felt, I've already done that for two years. It's not something I'm very interested in. And there's a lot of little kids there that I'm not interested in hanging out with. So they're ready to move on to be high school, but moving into eighth grade, large percent of them go. And then this year, Urban Air is new for seventh grade, and I imagine that'll be 99%
023to 100% participation. That place is pretty amazing. I'll take over here and talk a little bit about funding, logistics, access. You had asked about going, which leads right into this slide here. Our trips are supplemental, which means that they do have costs associated with them. And families pay for transportation and admission fees as needed. And so we are, you know, we do seek funds to cover that because it is, like I said, it's not the curriculum for the day, but it's supplemental. We do make sure that we're ensuring equity and that financial barriers aren't a deterrent to attendance. And we really promote ways to be discreet, to say, you know, our family doesn't have the resource for this. And our PTO and our families will often donate more than just their own fee. There's always
024a line to, you know, contribute more for families that are unable to have the resources. It would be very, you know, it would be highly uncommon for families to say we didn't go because we didn't have the resources to go. We have a very generous community, very well-funded PTO that covers, and they also help offset some of the transportation costs. As they continue to rise and missions continue to rise, there are field trips the PTO will say, well, we'll, you know, we'll pay a portion of transportation or we'll donate this amount to offset the costs. We use our school social worker to help coordinate that and make sure that if we do have families that are in need, that they also know of other resources. Because sometimes that's the first time we'll hear about financial
025needs. And so our social worker can then provide some, did you know about this? And then if students choose not to attend, this is a choice, it's supplemental. They typically have a modified type of schedule at school supervision throughout the day. And so just kind of like a summary here is this is all of them. And it seems like a lot. And I talked, you know, it's about the journey through the middle school. kind of builds that experience. It builds that when they get to high school to say, we've had these milestones that we've accomplished, these points in the year that are highly memorable. They're going to remember some of these more than they're going to remember some of their instruction in the walls. And it's again to enhance the experience, but also enhance the
026academics as well. Jamie touched on it, but there are a number of middle schools that can't do what we do. And that's because it's really hard to manage at times, or it's really hard to trust large groups of middle school students in public. We get calls and we get stopped by people randomly that just say, you know, what school are you from? And when we say Waconia and they say, your kids are so kind, respectful, they clean up after themselves. And they're just not used to that with middle school students where they've had experiences where that's not the case. It's very rare in my years here that I've ever had a complaint about taking our kids out. And so it makes it that much more possible and enjoyable to take them out on a lot
027of these adventures, a lot of these learning experiences. I also highlighted that it takes a lot of work out of our teachers as well. All of the teachers that contribute to a certain aspect of the field trip, even down to, you know, working in connect classes to share the information, collect, you know, forms and fees as needed. And so there's a lot of effort that goes into creating that. And a final thought. Like I said, they take effort to design, plan, and lead, but the outcomes have really positive impacts that we've discovered on the overall experience. I do think kids look forward to these things. And we just appreciate the opportunity to share them in a broad kind of overview for you tonight because, like I said, some of you experienced them just as you
028were going along, but looking at them as a whole, it's quite an experience as you go through Wakoni Middle School, all the different opportunities they have. What questions might you have? It was so well done. Colette, which one do you remember the most? I really liked the St. Croix River. Yeah. That was fun. The scenery's amazing, although the ride felt long, didn't it? So I get to travel around in a motorboat, and so they ask a lot, am I almost there? Yes, it's just around that corner. Well, which corner? The one up there. Just keep going. But they do learn to canoe at Long Lake, and so they get back in those canoes and try to remind themselves of how to do that. So, again, thank you for letting us present. Thank you. All right,
029we'll move to Item 6C with the Finance Report, and we'll welcome up Director Kerman. Okay, so I wanted to just bring back the strategic direction measures. So if you recall, when we did the strategic direction measures, a lot of this particular section with regard to some of the finance and the facilities we don't have in November of 2025 because the audit's not being done until December. So per the board's request, we kind of went back and just updated this. So you can see that the management of the fiscal resources with regard to the unassigned fund balance, we're at 6.11. Last year, we were at 0.63%. So we're there at that level four. We had one audit finding this year with regard to community, which is actually related to a previous audit finding the previous year,
030but we did have two last year. So that has been updated. And the facilities, we did provide that. That was a 3.83, so we're working on making that a little bit more robust this next spring. We did look at our net open enrollment, and we were at a minus 55 in the end of year for fiscal year 25. That's basically looking at all of our resident students that are going to other school districts and then other students that we're bringing in as well as charter. And so that was where we landed at the end of fiscal year 25, and then I think we did provide the preschool retention, and that was at 90%. So I just wanted to bring this back to the board to give them an opportunity. to see if they had any
031questions or anything that they wanted to discuss with regard to our updated strategic direction measures. That minus 55, that's still, as far as comparable districts, we're doing better than most others, if I understand. Yeah, and I mean, obviously there are some public schools that have a net positive, but we still are not. I mean, we're still doing very, very well on our net open enrollment, yes. For anybody we share borders with, they're all minus 300 or lower, and it's in a larger negative number. So, yes, that would be correct. And I can name three districts that have positive, two of which would even be in our general area. So it is a fairly small number as to those who have positives. Just the couple that are positives are very positive. Very positive, yes. report here
032is there a reason level four is highlighted for the facilities condition and not level three oh I think that's an error I think that okay I'm just making sure that that no it is a 3.83 we weren't interpreting it differently nope nope that's that's just an error so it should be in the the level three box unless it just copied over wrong because I didn't think I'd change that one but I must have so thank you yeah okay anything else Thank you for bringing those back. Okay, so then I'll go on to the finance report. So this is the finance report as of December 31st, and I just want to let individuals know I'm really starting to dig into the numbers now as we start to look at a revised budget. So I might not
033have answers to all of the questions you have because I'm really, really digging into the numbers now, but please ask them anyway because these would be good things for me to be paying attention to as I look at 8,000 lines of code. So basically revenue in totality, we're fairly aligned. However, if you do look at things like federal, you see we're a little bit higher in comparison. And that, again, comes back to the E-rate funding that we received for the switches. And so local fees and interest, that's coming back to some of our donations as well as some of the interest earnings that we're seeing. We are slightly down in interest earnings this year than where we were last year. but we're still positive in comparison to looking back in the previous years in 23
034and 22 because we have funds that are earning interest right now. With regard to expenses, so expenses, I'm sure you notice we're running a little bit high in some of the areas. I'm pulling all of the staffing information, looking in detail at salaries and benefits as we speak. So I hope to have some more information for you on that when we start looking into the revised budget numbers. With regard to some of the purchase services and supplies, I can tell you that I do know some of that has to do with the timing. So if you recall, when we were looking through our budget, we were aligning our revenue and our expense with some of our restricted funds, such as safe schools and the long-term facility maintenance. What would happen is not all of that
035ended up actually being able to get done. done and completed so that we could recognize the expense in fiscal year 25. So we have to recognize that expense in fiscal year 26. And so some of the expenses we have in fiscal year 26 was money we had originally assumed we were spending in 25. So again, I'll bring all of that. Forward and show you and some of it had to do with like some of the security cameras Some of the walkie-talkies and some of those types of line items that we were planning on getting done as well as some of the things like bathrooms and Walls and things that we were trying to change within some of the LTFM dollars and the health and safety dollars as it related to some of the Fire marshal
036information that we received so some of that isn't getting done until now So we're seeing a little bit higher expenses in fiscal year 26 in the general fund in some of those areas. Before I go on to the other funds, I guess I just would like to open it up and just see anything that stuck out for any of you, anything that you'd really want, questions you have that you want me to make sure I look into to get you answers when we start looking deeply into the revised budget. Okay. So then we get down to their other funds. So a lot of what you're seeing in the construction fund is just related to some of the IAQ project. So you'll see a lot of that detail when I start actually rolling that out and
037we start actually finalizing it. We are close to being done, but we still, it's ongoing. So I'm hoping that probably somewhere in the future, we'll actually kind of like close up and do a full construction update report when everything gets closed out. With regard to some of the other things with the benefits and salaries, I'm again looking in that in more detail just like I am in the general fund. I am seeing an overall increase in benefits across the board and so that's why I want to get some more answers to you on that so that you understand where that is coming from. Other than that, I really don't have any updates other than for the finance report. I do want to point out that there was an error in the formula. So this is
038the second version. So whoever found that error, thank you very much. And it was an error in the system that we used because I upload the system. And when they updated for fiscal year 26, there was an error in one of their formulas. So thank you. So any questions on the other funds? It looks like community ed is, at least by percentage, is outpacing. The expenditures are outpacing last year. Yep. Some of that, I don't know if you recall, some of the playground expenses that we actually were doing, some of that happened in fiscal year 26, so that is some of that, but I don't know what the rest of that is. Okay. And Stephen is looking at that too. And it looks like revenue is ahead too. Yes. More than last year as well
039against budget. I know that, I think it was last year, that they had a shift because they switched systems. That was the deferred revenue problem, which is the audit finding. That is correct. I didn't know if that got all cleaned up or not, but okay. Well, yes, it caught up. But if you're looking at the books at this point in time, it wouldn't have been recognized. If you have any questions or if anything pops up, just get them to Superintendent Gersuch, and he'll make sure I get them, and then we'll hopefully get into everything when I go through the revised budget. Thank you. Thank you, Pam. Thanks, Pam. Thank you. All right, so we'll move now to our action items. And just a reminder that all of our votes on these items will be roll
040call. Item 7A, the academic calendar, and we will welcome up Directors Nexfig and Super. So in the board packet, we just have the calendars that we had presented at the last meeting. There was a couple changes and just some updates to them about. Some things like I didn't have the Friday of Labor Day as a no school day. We usually have that. The Friday before Labor Day is a no school day when we start before Labor Day. So I added those things in. And that just changed winter break on one of them. And then after Labor Day, start for 27-28, there weren't any. I added the graduation date. There was a question about that. And then the before Labor Day one, too, I didn't have that Friday of Labor Day weekend often. that was just
041added into those so otherwise it's all the same um so moving forward because of the late labor day start labor day date on the 2728 we are recommending that we continue to go before labor day start for the 2728 but then after that um to following the state statute to changing back to after labor day start on the 28 29 based on the some of the Fair and feedback, you know, there was a split on whether to start before after day, after Labor Day, which I believe when we had done the survey before, there was a really strong feeling to do before Labor Day, and that was kind of shifting with this one. So that was where a recommendation is. Questions? All right. Seeking a motion to approve the calendars as presented. So moved. Second.
042All right. Does anybody have any question, any item for discussion? My first question would be, have we heard back from the state yet? Yep, we're good. I mean, it's an annual thing that they have to update the MARS system, but yes, we did hear back shortly before the winter break that we are okay as planned for next fall. Okay. Any other questions regarding the calendars? All right, then. All in favor? No. Well, I'm looking at Jess to say. Nelson? Rosene? Aye. Councillor Breeden? Aye. Hagen? Aye. Bergstrom? Aye. Beth? Aye. Aye. Thank you. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. And we'll now move on to Item 7B, Twin City Orthopedic Sponsorship Agreement. And welcome back, Director Carman. Well, you want just to talk through? Oh, there it is. Okay, so this is a sponsorship agreement that
043we wanted to get in front of the board for a couple of reasons. Number one, we wanted to get it into the board to have a discussion and an action item because of the fact that this is referencing Policy 905 as advertising. It's not actually a donation. And then the second reason was just to kind of get some visibility, you know, as we start looking at these type of arrangements. So I think that Waconia Public Schools is unique in that the youth recreation is handled through our Department of Community Education. And so this is something that we just kind of wanted to make sure that we got out there as being something that we can do and we can actually have some sponsorships agreement in place. And so you can see that what they're offering
044to do is they're proposing to give us $7,000 and it'll be for our baseball and softball programming. And so I just wanted to... Stephen and I just wanted to maybe get it in front of you just to make sure that there's something that the board is aware of and to actually just get your approval on to go ahead and accept this donation and move forward as we start to think about our advertising policy and also be thinking about ways to maybe get some visibilities to get other sponsorships within the district. All right. Seeking a motion to approve the Twin City Orthopedic Sponsorship Agreement. So moved. Second. Any questions? I just have a question a little bit about the timing. So does the Metro soft, the baseball, those seasons don't overlap with like the school sports
045seasons? I was just curious. I don't think so because I believe these are youth teams and it's our high school teams that would have the season actually for the school. So not overlap because it's the feeder youth programs that we don't have comparatively to the high school varsity, junior varsity, ninth grade teams. I'm just kind of curious. Thank you. Thank you. But I do think that's an important delineation that we are talking about community education, youth programs. And if you've ever gone to youth tournaments or otherwise, there are lots of teams that would have sponsors or otherwise with logos or even team names, depending on, you know, the community. So not uncommon to have these. And again, I think also just like Pam had said, somewhat that disability, because I don't know that we've done
046a lot of this before. To my knowledge, no. Is this our first one? I don't know the answer for that for sure. It's the first one that I'm aware of. Yeah, I don't know that we've done this since I've been here as far as this kind of advertising. Has there been a discussion about how the $7,000 will be designated within that budget for baseball and softball? Is it for contributing to, like, participation fees, registration or uniforms or ornaments? So my understanding is, to first answer your question, I don't think there's been a formal discussion. I can tell you that in conversations that I've had with Stephen, Stephen was planning on using it for a portable mound. So it will be able to be used for baseball and softball. So that was one thing that he
047had mentioned. And then the other item that he had mentioned, it will also maybe cover for some training for the team over at the TCO training house. So those are the two things that he's mentioned to me. But I can get some more information on that and have Stephen get it. back to us to see if there's any more formal discussions. I'm actually going to be at the advisory meeting tomorrow. Okay. Maybe I usually have a lot of time to discuss. I don't go outside of your bounds. I can ask him. Amanda. I know that Steven has a budget that he's working on, but I have not seen that because I don't know that it's finalized yet. I can speak as a player's parent that the jerseys get printed new every year because they have
048their last name on the back and the kids grow and change sizes. Any other questions? Discussion? Do we know if this is something that we are going to be doing more of, that we want to be doing more of, that this is a... As Pam could have indicated, like initially didn't figure there was going to be a lot of controversy behind the item and even considered putting in it as a consent agenda item, but said, no, let's bring this to the full board for a little bit of discussion because it might expand in some opportunities. And certainly that's also likely why board has some control within policy over advertising so that it doesn't get so out of control that, you know, we have advertising in places you might not want it or people advertising within
049the district don't necessarily follow policies or. otherwise. So I do think we would welcome additional opportunities to provide donations to our programs. I should say donations, but in exchange for some modest advertising or otherwise, which is a good time to remind people that we are also looking for scoreboard sponsors for our, for our school board as we kind of get to the end of those cycles that are looking for people to renew and potentially get some advertising on game day and give us a fund that we can continue to operate a nice scoreboard. Yeah. I could give other examples if you're interested. No, I was just saying, in general, I really like the idea of doing this, especially with community ed, because it's really a win for everyone. We're able to provide better services for
050the youth as well as... Like TCOs gets to have some exposure. I think that's really good. I think once we start getting into the schools, that's a, that it's very different, but I do like this for community ed very much. So I agree. I think it's a. Jess, will you call the roll? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right. Thank you very much.
051Thank you, Pam. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item 7C, second read board policies. Is there anything we need to be aware of? I think we really talked about all of the things on these last time when they were first read. So, I mean, unless anybody has questions on them again. All right. Well, seeking a motion to approve the second read board policies. So moved. Second. Any questions, concerns? Otherwise, Jess? Rosene? Aye. Kelser-Breeden? Aye. Hagen? Aye. Bergstrom? Aye. Arnita? Aye. Gamet? Aye. All right. Item 8 on the agenda, discussion items. I don't know that we have any items for discussion, so we'll move on. Board committee reports, and we'll lead off with Item 9A, self-governance and superintendent relations. And we had... opportunity to meet with Superintendent Gersuch in December and discuss his mid-year evaluation.
052Again, we have given him glowing remarks, much to his embarrassment. I just wanted to read a few, you know, from the summary. So at its December 14th mid-year evaluation, the school board reviewed Superintendent Brian Gersuch's progress toward the district's established goals for the school year. We express appreciation for his leadership and highlight several areas of strong performance and continued focus. Superintendent Gersuch is commended for his exceptional financial leadership, particularly in the planning and communication efforts that resulted in the successful passage of the fall referendum. His clear messaging and collaborative approach helped build community understanding and support, placing the district in its strongest financial position in recent years. In teaching and learning, student well-being, we recognize Dr. Gersuch's continued emphasis on academic achievement, staff engagement, and site-level collaboration. We are confident that coordinated planning with school
053leaders will lead to positive outcomes in this year's assessments. We also appreciate the administration's shared commitment to student and staff mental health. And with HR and inclusive leadership, we recognized the meaningful progress in labor management relations, particularly the collaborative work with the WEA that has resulted in positive survey feedback and a renewed sense of optimism heading into the future negotiations. We are hopeful that this approach will serve as a model for all bargaining units as the district continues to refine its negotiation processes. So just grateful for your service and look forward to continued engagement. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, everyone. Any reports from any of the other committees? For policy, we had our first policy committee meeting today. Went well, breaking in the newbies. At least I think it went well.
054Just really looking forward to another good year of policy. We didn't have anything big coming down the pike for this round, but it's good to kind of cut our teeth on some of the little simpler stuff. I just wanted to comment on our positive experience as a team where many of us were able to go to Minneapolis last weekend or last week for the state school board convention. And it was great for team building. It was a long day, but I think we all enjoyed the encouragement with the opening speaker. And I was able to attend different workshops. One highlight was a school. so that are phone-free from bell to bell through K through or pre through high school. That was great to hear how they do their planning and implementation. And also just to
055hear more about the new math standards that are going to be implemented. And it was just a good way to feel re-energized and keep our focus on students and achievement for the new year. Thank you. Any other observations? I get the opportunity myself to be with the Southwest Metro, Southwest, the intermediate district. And that's always been a learning opportunity because, I mean, I knew that they served a particular demographic for our students, but I didn't realize just how broad their services were. We had an opportunity to hear from a couple of their teams this past week on their continuous process improvement, and they did some reports on what they do with their students. And one of them, you know, one of the reports they... They went through basically a day with a student. There's the
056education part and then the physical engagement, the exercise, and then the craft. And I thought, you know what, I would like to do that because I find my life is not quite as balanced as a lot of the students. Basically just getting them ready to work on their own, be on their own. And it's an impressive program that they have down there. Good to be with and then just my couple of statements as I mentioned earlier the breakout sessions that I attended were You know they were both student focused one of was the student reps and then the other one was just basically a panel of you know young people and Their experiences in school and the one gal I just remember you know they were talking about PSEO and her statement You know I
057have an opinion about that She was just and I appreciated that you get kids young adults, you're not kids, you know, with a room full of adults, and they want to be heard, and they want to let us know. One of them, and I don't know, get your opinion on this, it was, you know, teach us mastery and not performance, was one of the comments that they made, you know, not just getting ready to take a test, but just, you know, teach us how to be masters of the skills that we're learning in high school. So anyway, great experience to listen to them. And then there's nothing else. All right, seeking a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. I don't know that we necessarily need votes, so meeting adjourned.