001- I now call this meeting of the school Board of Independent School District 624 to order. Will the clerk please call the role - Skaar? - Here. - Streiff Oji? - Here. - Thompson. - Here. - Arcand. - Here. - Beloyed. - Here. - Daniels. - Here. - Ellison. - Here. - Okay. I'm gonna ask that we stand and remove your hats. The Pledge of Allegiance. - [Members] I pledge Allegiance to the flag of The United States of America. - And to the Republic for which stands. One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - We have before us an agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? - So moved. - By Thompson. Second? - Second. - Second by Ellison. Any discussion? This will be a voice vote. All
002in favor of approving the agenda, say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, Same sign. Motion carries. We also have before us a consent agenda. This contains a variety of business items that come to us monthly. This concludes donations. We are so truly grateful to the members of our community that support us through these donations for our students and staff. So at this point, I want to thank those that have made those donations. We totally really appreciate it. Now, if we have this consent agenda, can I get a motion to approve? - I move. - By Daniels. Is there Second? - Second. - Second by Thompson. Is is there any discussion? - Me? - Yes. Mr. Skaar. - Just one item. Can we state that the staff or the superintendent is recommending that we approve the
003consent agenda? There's nowhere that it states that, or maybe the motion to approve the consent agenda\ can state that the, that the superintendent and staff recommend approval of it. As opposed to just having it sit there. - Okay, so you'd like to amend this to say that the staff approve. - Yeah. Or you can just say in the motion. A motion to approve the consent agenda as recommended by school board staff, that would be fine. - Point of order, I think we do need to make an amendment to the motion because it's already been first and seconded. - Yeah. So that would be amendment to that, that's what I was asking, do we have a- - I would recommend that amendment. - Do we have a second? - Second. - Second. Okay. So before us
004then we'll open this for discussion. To move, to put that this, it's been recommended by the staff, right? Is that the correct language you're saying? The superintendent and staff. Okay. So is there any discussion on that? - Say again with the extra additional information. - That the information in the consent agenda is recommended for approval by the superintendent and staff. - Yes. - Currently the recommended action is be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 624. That consent agenda items A5a through A5e be approved as written. And a copy of the agenda items is attached to the minutes. How would you like that changed? Is that's what you're asking. - You wanted to say that it's the superintendent or staff also approve these items? Is that- - Yeah, basically just say
005that the superintendent and the staff recommend approval by the board of the consent agenda - Recommend is probably the- - Sure that's fine. - Recommend. - Yeah, just to tie the action back to staff recommending that this to be approved, would that be added to the bottom of that statement? - The key, say that again Matt. - Was that to me? - No, Matt. - So I would just suggest that it would be that we recommend approval. Sorry, I wasn't looking at the exact language. - Yeah, no, that's fine. I'm gonna suggest that the recommended action as I read it, and then if we're comfortable moving forward, I'll add the superintendent piece and the recommended approval piece after the fact, if we're okay moving forward so we don't bog the meeting down with that. -
006Yep. Okay. So we have that agenda. We had that motion of in front of us. I'm gonna go ahead and make this a voice vote. 'Cause there's no money involved at this point. - Yeah, I think we have to approve the amendment. - That's what we're gonna go on right now. - Maybe you do want the actual wording. - So do you wanna read it to us one more time before we vote? - Just gimme a second. - Be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 624, that consent agenda items A5a through A5e be approved as written. And a copy of the agenda items is attached to the minutes. - As recommended by the superintendent. - As recommended by, yeah. As recommended for approval by the superintendent. How's that sound? -
007Perfect. - So that is the motion to amend that what it's saying. You know what I'm, go ahead and make this a roll call vote because of the financial stuff. So I'm gonna ask... This is where voting on making that change on the consent agenda. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - Skaar. - Yay. Yes. - Streiff Oji. - Yes. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - Daniels. - Aye. - Ellison. - Aye. - Alright. So that passes. We've made that amendment. So for in front of us. Now we're gonna approve the consent agenda. Is there any further discussion? I'm gonna ask the clerk to ca call the role. - Skaar. - Yes. - Streiff Oji. - Yes. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. -
008Beloyed. - Aye. - Daniels. - Aye. - Ellison. - Aye. - Alright. We may now have a consent agenda. Moving forward, we have this public forum. It's now time for public forum portion of the meeting. Public forum allows up to three minutes per speaker. We have one request tonight to speak. The one student recognition. - Dr. Kazmierczak. - [Wayne] Marissa, do you have the lead in? - [Marissa] Yes, In the (Indistinct). - [Wayne] Okay. Can you share that with me? Okay. I got it. All right, tonight we proudly celebrate the achievements of the girls gymnastics team, middle school and elementary cheerleading teams, the DECA team and members of the Boys Swim and Dive team, boys and girls wrestling team, boys and girls Alpine Ski Team, girls hockey, and Minnesota's Classic Art award winners who represented
009the district at their respective state competitions, along with the varsity cheer team who competed at state and national level tournaments. Congratulations to each of you for state level recognition. We also like to extend our sincere gratitude to the dedicated staff and supportive family members who played a vital role in these successes in recognition of their accomplishments students have received a certificate, bear pin and letter acknowledging their achievements. Now please join us in watching a video highlighting their accomplishments. Go bears. (bright music) Impressive list this month, yeah. Yeah, great job. - All right, well, we're gonna move on to information item C2 Superintendent Report. Dr. Kazmierczak. - Thank you. Chair Arcand, members of the board. Keep an eye on your mailboxes. The summer 2026 community education catalog will be arriving soon. Feels strange saying that at
010this point, but the catalog highlights enrichment and recreation opportunities available for all ages. It also includes Bears Bulletin, which covers district news and updates. Our students are also staying busy on stage. We have a variety of elementary, middle, and high school performances happening throughout the district this spring. You can find the full schedule of shows and ticket information in a recent news post on our district website. Last week, the White Bear Lake area educators announced the nominees for the 2026 Teacher of The Year. Want to extend a huge congratulations to these dedicated educators as they move forward in the selection process. Later this spring, six finalists will be chosen to interview with a committee of community members, administrators, and fellow teachers. We look forward to announcing the Teacher of the year in late April. And
011finally, as I wrap up my update this evening, I wanna wish all of our students, staff, and families a wonderful spring break next week. I hope everyone finds some time to relax and recharge as we prepare for the final third of the school year. And keep an eye out for a special Spring break video coming later this week. This video is a powerful compilation of hopes and dreams we've been collecting from students, parents, staff, and community members throughout the year. It serves as a reflection of our shared vision, and you are invited to join the conversation by responding with your own hopes and dreams for the future. I truly look forward to hearing your responses. That's it. - Thank you. Alright, we're gonna move right along to the discussion item D1, the immersion program update.
012Dr. Gillespie, you wanna introduce your guests? - [Alison] Yeah. Chair Arcand. I'm gonna introduce them from here 'cause we have three guests. I'd like to introduce Ayan Ibrahim, Ange Nelson, and John Leininger. They'll provide an update on the immersion programming at Otter Lake Elementary and Matoska International. - Welcome. - You want me to start? - Yeah. - I promise We did rehearse this. Yeah, we did. - Chair Arcand and Dr. Gillespie, thank you so much for having us here. We have a quite a bit to cover here tonight, but we just wanted to start out with expressing our gratitude, allowing us to come here and share with all of you some of the great things that have been happening at Otter Lake and Matoska. With all of the support of our district partners who've really
013helped us launch into a really great start. - Thank you. So we're just gonna do an overview. We're gonna talk about a brief recap of our prior board presentation, our current program status for year one implementation. Curriculum and staffing update, and then our family and community engagement. Early indicators of success. And then year two planning. So previously shared with the board last year, March, 2025, we shared with the board regarding our research and our community input. The board approved to launch kindergarten emergent back in October, 2024. We worked with our program design team to really go over like what would curriculum look like, professional development, enrollment, outreach, and all that good stuff. And then our program successfully launched this year, August, 2025 at Otter Lake and Matoska. And then this is our immersion vision, both
014in English and Spanish. Which aligns beautifully with our district mission, which also is right there. Give you guys a minute too. - [John] Okay, so now we're gonna move on to where we are currently with our year one implementation. Some of our highlights, we went off to a really great start. You know, I think one of the things that we thought a lot about with staffing, and I think, you know, what I'd like to share is Wiper Lake is a desirable place. And as we know, you know, staffing is always a challenge. And as we staff for immersion, you know, Ang and I and Ayan, had heard about how difficult that might be. But what we discovered was actually a lot of people wanna come and work in White River Lake. They love our community,
015our students, and really wanted to be part of what we were doing here. So we were able to staff that as well. And, you know, as it's noted in the slides here, you know, we launched this, you know, aside from our startup costs, you know, al of our ratios and everything that we were doing, you know, land aligned with what we want to do fiscally here in White Bear Lake. So we have strong interest. Such a great foundation to start with. Our teams are highly collaborative. We'll talk more about that in a minute. And a lot of very positive responses from our families who've been participating here. (presenters speaking faintly) It's your turn. - Yeah. All right. So if you came into either one of our schools, what you would find in the classrooms is
016really truly remarkable. You know, when families were first signing up for the dual language immersion program, I think that there was some thoughts that maybe a teacher would say it in Spanish and then repeat it in English. And so when people find out like, no, it's truly in Spanish all day long, and students are completely following along, they can ask questions in English to their teachers, their teacher can answer in Spanish, and they understand what they're saying. A lot of it has to do with all the routines and structures that they have in place. It's a very visual way of learning. So lots of big animations. The teachers are so tired at the end of the day, all teachers are, but they're literally dancing around and like doing lots of hand motions and lots of
017visuals. They use a lot of songs, a lot of games. Students are really excited all the time to be participating and to be learning a new language. And they're really excited to share that when they see me and I'm grading them as they're coming in and out. I'm sure the same is for you, John, to practice their Spanish and what they're learning. So strong foundation of these biliteracy skills. Obviously, again, as a reminder, it really is kindergarten in Spanish, so students are getting all of that foundational content in another language and they're doing a great job. So, do you wanna add anything to that? - Okay, well we'll get to the Matoska slide. - Yeah, there you go. - [John] Which happens to be right now. So I think some of the things that, you
018know, we see at Matoska as well as I'm sure as outer language, you know, again, as Ange was mentioning, that the dedicated teachers and staff really have made a commitment to providing an excellent program, committed to that solid academic foundation and the emotional growth that all of our five year olds deserve. I think some of the things that, you know, we see that I'm really proud of is how our kindergarten teams are functioning together. It's not a separate siloed program. We see our English and the Spanish teachers collaborating together regularly on a weekly basis. They work on their communities of practice, what we would call our CLPs. They work together during those professional development days to bring great kindergarten programming to everyone. So I think that strong connection, that strong collaboration has been a really
019wonderful highlight across the schools. - [Ange] Yeah, so here's some fun pictures from Otter Lake. So just some of the things that you can see, puppets and games, it's really active. All kindergarten classes are really active, but it's especially important in the Spanish when there is, you know, being delivered in Spanish. I think another key component just to highlight is that students get 30 minutes of English phonics instruction every day, and then their specialists are in English, but the rest of their day is in Spanish. So they, yeah, you can see up front, they do lots of big motions, lots of big colored pictures. And I wish I could just sneak you all in. It would be kind of weird. They'd be like, who are all these grownups? But so that you could see their
020brains working. And I know that I can say that and hopefully you understand what I'm saying. But you really can see them thinking and taking it all in, even if they're not able to produce as much of the oral language, that's very natural to come a little bit later. But they are very much understanding that Spanish language. I can talk about this if you want. Yep. So staffing for the immersion program, we're fully staffed this year as John had mentioned, there was some concern early on, like, are we gonna have teachers? It was really important to families that we talk to, that teachers were obviously fluent in Spanish, and if they were native Spanish speakers, that would be ideal. We're so lucky. All of our teachers actually are native Spanish speakers, licensed educators. We have
021wonderful paraeducators that are also assisting in the classrooms. When it comes to training. There is certain pedagogical practices and things that they do differently in a dual language Spanish immersion program in how they teach the language. So we had some specialized training upfront, otherwise they participate in all of the professional development that we give all of our staff, and we have interpreters come in so that they're able to fully participate in those things. - [John] So our family community engagement has been exciting, right from the beginning. right from right from the beginning. and volunteer in our classrooms, in our school. So it was really exciting as we launched this program too see that all that energy, that exciting energy around a new program. We continue with ongoing communication. We have an Izzy and intentional social
022interaction that was planned, but it was snowed out. So then we're actually rescheduling that for shortly after spring break. So where we are planning to connect with our families, hear more about their experiences and how we're moving forward. But it's been really great to see all of the people in involved. In fact, I know at Matoska, they jumped right onto our PTO right away, like right from day day one. They wanna be involved in our community, involved in our schools, and know what's happening with everything that's going on. - And I'll just add, you know, to stress that this is a program within a school, so it's not treated as a separate school within a school model. So we have a lot of community events at Otter Lake, so all families attend those. And it's
023pretty cute because in some instances we say, okay, three, two, one, and students count in Spanish, all of a sudden you can hear their teeny little voices yelling in Spanish, which is just amazing. But the other thing is that we have a monthly newsletter that goes out specifically to the dual language program parents that has tons of resources that they can utilize at home. That was kind of the major question is, well, how can I help my student read Spanish if I don't read Spanish? And so lots of resources for them to utilize there. And you know, obviously encouraging them to still read in English. Students are learning both currently. So, and I think just maybe to end this slide with, you know, the whole reason why we developed this Spanish language dual language immersion
024program was the community really asked for it. They really wanted it. And what we're seeing is that they're so happy that we have it and people were excited to look into next year. I think that's the next slide. But there's a lot of interest. Students are staying in the immersion program, they're going to be transferring up into first grade, and parents are just... They couldn't be happier with how it's going. Their students are loving to learn at school. And I don't know about John, but I was like, oh, they're gonna be so tired. Like, I wonder what their stamina's gonna look like. You know, I wonder they're gonna be able to hang in there all day, because I know personally if I was sitting for six hours and interacting in a different language, that is
025really mentally taxing. But the kids, their brains are just soaking it right in and they're doing such a great job. I just can't even stress that enough. Yeah. - So some of our early indicators of success, it's just what we see down a daily basis. You know, when you can walk into any classrooms, we see them, you know, you know, running on all cylinders, students engaged, you know, doing, you know, all of that work there. Their Spanish work, their phonics work. We're also, you know, getting some great feedback with some of our assessments showing that our students are actually growing. That they're learning really quickly as we would hope to hope to see. We are hearing positive things from our families. And, you know, as we talk with our colleagues around the metro area, you
026know, we're certainly hearing, you know, the rumor mill out there. It's not really rumor mill actually is, you Know, white Bear Lake does it, right? Like the, you know, we know how to do things. We do it right. We put our best effort forward. We learn when we take a misstep and then we adjust and we make sure that we put everything in place. So we have a really strong foundation as we move into, into next year. - [Ange] Alright. So we're obviously gonna be transitioning this kindergarten group up to first grade. So in both schools we each have two sections next year going into this kindergarten enrollment time period, just like all kindergarten, it's coming in, it's just a rolling enrollment and it's right where we would expect it to be. And so we'll
027continue, obviously we'll both have kindergarten next year. Families are really excited about that too. And then everything that we have done in kindergarten will roll up, you know, so there's gonna be curriculum that will be meant for the first grade, and we'll continue the practices that we have in place, not only in the program, but also how we embed that program within our schools. - Thank you. Do we have any questions, Ms. Beloyed? - Do you have like a budget within a budget for the immersion program? Is it tracked separately or is it just your overall budget for Otter and Matoska? - Yeah, our overall budget, you know, there are as we talked about when we presented last year when we were starting up, there are some sort of initial startup costs, you know, who's
028buying the curriculum. But really we fall in line with everybody else. All other classrooms. - [Deborah] Okay, so are the assessments given in both English and Spanish or - They're not. No. So all students had an English assessment to kick off kindergarten, and that is required by law. After that, students need to be progress monitored in the language in which they're learning. So that's Spanish, although they have a slice of English a day, it's not enough instruction to really benchmark like that. So when we look at students who may need intervention, we are using Spanish progress monitoring, and then their intervention is also in Spanish. - Have you seen a lot of interventions necessary for this group? Like as opposed to a regular kindergarten classroom or not? I shouldn't say regular. - I can speak
029to Otter. I would say it's completely... It's really average. I mean, it's very similar to what we would see in English speaking classrooms where, you know, they come in at a certain level. A lot of the students who came into immersion came in at a fairly high level actually. And what we're seeing is their growth in this midyear break. And then I assume we'll see a lot of great growth in spring. And that is a track that we see for all of our kindergartners. - I would echo that from Matoska as well. And you know, one of the contexts as well is they're 5-year-olds, this is their first experience. And you know, you know, like, you know, in all of our programs that, you know, it's about figuring out who they are, where they're at,
030and then how we build those supports around them. - [Deborah] Do we have an indication of how many of these students are gonna continue on in first grade? - I think a 100% of them. - Nearly. Yeah, a 100%. - So all of them. - [Deborah] Nice. I think it'd be really interesting over the next couple years if the same group is going through just to see how that cohort goes through. Because if they're doing the English and Spanish, they're obviously engaged in their education. Usually families are probably more engaged than say some, so I'll be really interested to see overall how they progress. Thank you. Oh, I was gonna ask you what happened to your leg? - [John] I have a new ACL. - Oh, sorry. - [John] Pretty awesome actually. - [Ange] Yeah,
031good as now. - [Scott] All right. Ms. Daniels, - Can students who wanna join in first grade, who haven't been in the kindergarten program enroll? - [Anne] Yeah, great question. Yes, they can. It's still a good onramp for students to join the program because it's still very foundational. The language is still very foundational. As it continues up in grades, you know, that would be a much larger discussion. Someone with no Spanish background really wouldn't be able to enter in fourth grade. That would be very difficult. But first grade yes. - Is the kindergarten class size about the same as a regular class size that is not immersion. - Yeah, we fall within the ratios. And plan that we had put forward, yeah. - [Kathleen] Yeah. Okay. Great, I think that was it. - [Scott] Ms.
032Ellison? - Yeah, thank you. This was really exciting. I think we've talked about this for a long time in the district, so how to have to see this play out is wonderful. My question is, you know, the intention is that we're gonna continue to add a grade every year. Assuming that everything continues to grow as it is. So what does that mean for staffing at Otter Matoska I mean, if we've got two classes of Spanish speaking first grade, what happens as we're staffing those grade levels? - That's a great question. Staffing is always an interesting process. And one of the things that we do as principals, you know, first and foremost is look at our schools as like one big place. Like we're all bearers, we're all qualified, you know, to teach elementary school and
033we have our Spanish there as well. And then when we get into, like for example, at Matoska specifically, you know what we had a couple years ago, we had a small cohort of kindergartners come through. And so that sort of is the adjustment that we're having to make at Matoska with some of our other classrooms. It's not replacing at Matoska, you know, teachers at all. - It does shift staff though, If that's what you're saying, like right now at Otter, we have three sections of first grade. Next year we'll have two sections of English speaking and two sections of Spanish speaking. So what that looks... It can look a lot of different ways, honestly, it does shift staff around. And obviously this is a specialty area. When we're looking to teach the Spanish immersion program
034every year, there's so many changes in staff, people retire, people take leaves, people move on. And so as of right now, there's not at least at Otter, there's not gonna be big swings happening, but you know, over time there is gonna be this kind of shift where all of a sudden it will be a little more 50/50, right? Of Spanish immersion and English speaking. And that is really by design. - [Jessica] Okay, thank you. - [Scott] Other questions, Ms. Streiff Oji? - So I just wanted to thank you. My question was around early literacy assessment, you answered that question. I also just love hearing how the program has come about and watching it in the last year. And to hear that your families are getting involved, that's great. It speaks to the culture that you
035have for people that are new to the district or new to your school. So thank you both. - [Scott] Okay, Mr. Skaar. - Thank you, I wanted to ask a question, in terms of enrollment. Has this program helped grow enrollment? And you can just give me your opinion on that. - I know that in our program right now, I think it's about 50% in district, 50% open enrolled. So I would say, in my opinion, yes. It brought in new families, interested that like would've gone someplace else. And that was one of the things family had shared with us. Like if we don't have this option, like we really are going to go someplace else. And there are other programs very near us, so we do have a number of open enrolled families. If you drive
036past Otter, at the end of the day, it's very evident in that we have a lot of drivers. Parent pickup is very busy. And so that's the kind of evidence of that. - I would also, you know, two other thoughts I would add to that is the open enrollment. And sometimes we think about, you know, the programs that we can offer at White Bear Lake. not only attract families, but they keep families, and Anne's mentioned there's a lot of programs in surrounding districts and that we can provide for those families is really wonderful. As far as like total enrollment, if we were to extrapolate, you know, our eighties or some kids forward, you know, five or six years, it will be one of our larger programs in White Bear Lake. - [Scott] Okay, thank you.
037Other questions? - Other questions? Ms. Beloyed. - Sorry, I just had one follow up. So Matoska, as a designated IB school International Baccalaureate, is the Spanish immersion program, is that treated any differently within the IB structure? - No, and I appreciate the question. That was one of the things we, you know, we talked about, you know, not only from Matoska, but at Otter as well. We really wanted to make sure that, you know, our immersion program was part of our school. Not a separate siloed out, but a part of the community as a whole. And so all of our programming aligns very nicely together. - [Deborah] Thank you. - Thank you. - [Scott] Well, on behalf of the entire board, I want to wish you continued success and we look forward to coming back and
038sharing how things are going. Thank you. - Thank you. - We are gonna move on to discussion item D2. Presentation of Presale report related to upcoming issuance of facility maintenance and refunding bonds series 2026A. Mr. Wald. - Sorry. Okay, good evening. Dr. Arcand, members of the board. Before you tonight is the presale report for the upcoming issuance of facilities maintenance bonds to provide some context of maintenance in the school district. The school district maintains 20 buildings throughout our district that vary in age. We have a few newer buildings, but we also have 14 of our 20 buildings that are 60 years old or older. A couple, one that's over 100 and one that's the Hippodrome that's just turning a 100 now. So we have some old buildings that we're maintaining and there will always be
039maintenance needs related to our buildings. And so we have on every other, typically on an every other year basis, the district issues bonds for facilities maintenance. Today we're joined by Shelby Mcquain. She's Senior Municipal Advisor with Alders Incorporated. And she's gonna walk us through the bond issuance process and the presale report for the series 2026A bonds. - Mr. Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Kazmierczak, thanks for having me. The presale report just gives an overview of where we think the market conditions are. Going into the sale on April 13th. So this presale report represents a little bit more than just the facilities maintenance bonds because we are incorporating also the refunding of some of the 2018 facilities maintenance bonds that were issued at that time and refinancing those for savings now. So the pre-sale report
040just goes through a few boxes, but they're broken into primarily three sections. The authority to issue those, the issuance itself, and then the post issuance requirements that you as a board are obligated to as part of having tax exempt debt on the market. So 17.7 million is approximately the facilities maintenance portion and about 14 million for the refunding portion. You as a board have the authority granted to you by the legislature to issue facilities maintenance bonds and refunding of bonds. The term combined is nine years for the overall. And then the issuance itself on April 13th will be a competitive issue. You're a well rated district with AA- stable outlook rating from S&P, but we'll undertake a full rating again for this issuance. The post issuance compliance policies are what you are obligated to do
041because you do have debt out on the market. So none of that will change as a result of this issuance. Some of the major high points as part of the issuance itself are in the attachments beginning on page six, just the sources and uses. Each of the debt schedules combined and then broken up into the two different issuances for the new money and the refunding portion. We overall anticipate the true interest cost to come in at about a little over 3%, and that's on page seven. And then the savings on the refunding portion, after we have about a month to invest those proceeds, we'll net approximately 156,000 over the remaining term of that refunded bond. So just refunding for savings here, not looking to extend or restructure the debt at all. And what that fits
042into all in terms of your overall picture is on the back of that pre-sale report, really looking at a stable capital and levy plan as part of the overall facilities program, as well as the existing debt on the district has outstanding and existing lease payments and your general fund portion of your LTFM. So the action item tonight is the resolution that you have in front of you to authorize the issuance and then to participate in the credit enhancement program as part of that. And you do have a separate line item for this as well is just updating the LTFM plan to incorporate the debt schedule there for what we estimate for debt payments. So I'm happy to answer any questions on the issuance or the authorization. - [Scott] So first I just wanna clarify, this
043will come back during the operational items, so we will see it there. We won't be approving it at this point. It's gonna come into operational items, right? - Correct. - [Scott] Any questions, Mr. Skaar? - [Daniel] So should we just hold off until? - [Scott] We can have the discussion now. That's fine for this if you'd like. - Okay, so one of the things in our bond rating you said it was AA-? When they look at the bond rating, do they look at the... I imagine that they look at the school district and they look at enrollment trends, things like that. Is that true? - [Shelby] They look at things like economy enrollment and the district finances. - Okay, so enrollment could come back as a factor in terms of future revenues that we would
044be receiving that could have an adverse impact on the bond rating, potentially? - They look holistically at all the factors between each of the rating agencies. They factor it differently, They also look at the underlying financial policies and management. So as enrollment goes up and down and over all across the state, there's declining enrollment. They make sure to sort of correlate that into how the district is managing the finances. - Okay. I could save the rest of the questions to when we discuss it and approve it or not approve it. - [Scott] Okay. Other questions? Ms. Beloyed? - So it's this refunding that's bringing the bond rating back up to the AAA? - The district benefits from the credit enhancement program. So as part of getting a rating on the bonds, you'll get your underlying
045rating, which currently is a AA-. And then the credit enhanced rating, which is playing off the state's credit rating. So the credit enhancement program is essentially an insurance program to the bond holders ensuring that they'll get paid in the case that the district doesn't make the payment. Now it's never been exercised, but what it looks like to investors who don't know White River Lake Minnesota is that there's an insurance program on that. So the bonds itself will carry the AAA rating from the state through the credit enhancement program. And then the underlying rating of the district. - So I remember when it the last issuance where the bond rating went to the AA-? Or was it the previous? - [Shelby] I think it was the previous. - [Tim] Yeah, I think so. - And what
046was the reasoning for that, if you remember. - The rationale, I think they cited at that time was again, a combination of everything but the draws on fund balance. - [Deborah] Do we remember, was that pre COVID or post COVID? - That would've been post COVID. - Shelby, it was post COVID. - Yeah. - Okay. - It would've been 2022 I think. - [Deborah] Okay, so it's 14 million that's for the refunding. And that saved by doing this, getting the rate that we're getting and reissuing this, it saves us 150,000 on the life of this. - Yes, and we'll get the underlying rating on the entire bond issue. So the refunding itself does not factor into the rating. - [Deborah] Okay. - It, yeah. - 'Cause 2018 bonds are eligible for refunding. and it makes
047sense to do it based on the market conditions and the likely bond or interest rate that we get. - Correct. - [Board Member] Refunding just means refinancing - Do we see with the changes in the markets that I've been seeing, reading about, do we think the bonds are going to be harder to sell down the road or do we think they're gonna become easier? - Overall, if you were a magician and could magically tell me what the real answer is. Overall, very municipal bond out there has a call date on it. And so at the time that bonds are callable, they're usually those investors have then cash to invest again into new money. So there's a number of factors that go in. I mean, first off, whether or not they can sort of earn interest
048at a tax exempt rate. And then also supply and demand. So sometimes as we've seen rates creep up, especially in the last two years, there's still been incredible demand for high quality municipal debt. Even lower quality municipal debt because of the tax, really the tax exemption that investors want, they need to put their cash somewhere. - [Deborah] Okay. By the way, thank you. I saw your daughter up there. (Shelby laughs) That's all I had. Thank you. - [Scott] Mr. Skaar? - [Daniel] Is there a time of the essence or anything like that with regard to these two bonds or with this offering? - So you generate cost of issuance effect savings by issuing the two bonds together instead of individually. So there is a little sensitivity on time in terms of the refunding because you
049would be holding the debt paying the higher interest cost essentially on the debt that is eligible to be refinanced. So we wanna start saving on that to the extent possible. And then in terms of the LTFM portion, that's really driven by the projects that have been approved previously by the board and now we've just sort of come to the time that funds need to be available to continue with those projects. So it's timed alongside administration to make sure that we're not issuing too early and incurring interest sooner than we have to, but not issuing too late so as to not have money available to the pay the invoices on the projects that you previously approved. - On the refunding bonds, when's the current term? When is the term up on that? - So the existing
050bonds on the 2018A were issued through 2032, 2/1/2032 is the final payment. And this would be the same. That portion of the issuance would have the same schedule and we'd issue through the maturities would be the same. - So if we did nothing on the refunding of bonds on this bond that... What is it, 15 million in some change would just go through 2032? - [Shelby] Correct. - Okay. Are the bonds subject to any kind of a prepayment penalty or anything like that? - No, they're not subject to a prepayment penalty. They cannot be called or refinanced prior to the call date. And the call date was 2/1/26. And so now if you... According to our current estimates, if you were to just leave those in place, you'd be paying approximately or the district would
051be paying about 150,000 more in interest than we're currently estimating. - [Daniel] Through 2032? - Correct. - [Daniel] Is that discounted for the time value of money or is that just total dollars? - The present value? - [Daniel] What's the present value of that? - Present value savings is 134,000. - Okay, so let's just say if these bonds, the refunding one keep separate, maybe just the LTFM bond, if that wouldn't get approved, what happens? - Well, we'd have a few projects we'd have to reschedule, I guess push back and ultimately have to bring another bond series to the board at some point because work needs to get done. - So, with the LTFM bonds, did we used quite a bit of LTFM money in the construction project? We had a bond of what, 326 million?
052And then we had another what, a 100 million of LTFM funding that went in there? - [Tim] A little less, I think. - A little less than that? - [Tim] 90, yeah. Yeah, so I guess what I'm getting at is, those LTFM funds used in the project, I mean, how do we know, you know, are the 17 million that we are asking for, how do we know it's not duplicative or I don't know, just kind of a sense of we use all these funds in the construction project now we got another and LTFM bond. Did we steal from Peter to pay Paul? You know what I mean on that? - You know, I think the responsible move that we made in the entire process was pairing LTFM projects where we had crews in our buildings
053working that it was most efficient to tackle some of the deferred maintenance projects that existed at the same time that we were in working on our buildings. So you referenced the LTFM projects. Well we bond for LTFM projects because we have a lot of old buildings to maintain. To do that during the time that we were doing our bond work on our buildings was a really responsible way to do it, get the most bang for our buck out of it. - [Daniel] On the LTFM bond, how did you come up with 17,680,000? Where does that come from? - Well, so the related projects that need to get done over the years require, you know, require tens of millions of dollars to complete over time. And so we look at the tax rate to try to
054not increase our tax rate over time and how much we feel we can responsibly take on during the next several years. So that's the kind of process we use. - So what I'm getting at is that, is the 17,680,000, is that broken down into specific projects that we're going to going to do? - [Tim] Yeah, we have a list of projects that- - So who came up with that list? Did you have somebody look at deferred maintenance across the school district and come up with that list and then prioritize it? - Yeah, yes. And we have our building operations department who knows our buildings well and then can look at what the last study we had done of all of our buildings, which is comprehensive engineering study, identified a significant amount of projects to be
055completed. Our operations department looks at that, looks at current conditions of buildings and then prioritizes based on what needs to happen. - So on this $17,680,000, how much of that is fixing stuff, you know, stuff that you can touch, versus fees, professional fees, engineering fees, things like that? Well, I couldn't tell you that percentage off the top of my head. - Okay, I think it'd be kind of nice to know where the money's going, what facilities, just from a big picture standpoint. And then how long is that gonna be? How long do we have to pay that? I know it rolls over, but how long is the LTFM bond? Is it 10 years? 20 years? - [Shelby] Nine years. - Nine years? Nine years. Okay. Is this going to impact the, you know, we just
056had that truth in taxation meeting on December. Is this gonna be seen as an increase in our debt service, this 17 million, 680? Or is it just continuing what we already have? Because some of those things are maturing out. - Yeah, it should remain flat generally. - Yeah. We look at the entire capital plan to make sure that we're evening out the tax impact even though the projects may change from year to year. So the last page demonstrates that the tax rate will stay level and the debt service is incorporated there as well, so. - [Daniel] So is all of the $17 million, is that gonna be capitalized or is some of it expensed? - Some of it would be expensed. - Yeah, there'd be a little bit of it expensed. - [Daniel] Okay. Alright.
057But more than 90% would be on the balance sheet. You say that's accurate? - [Shelby] I would've to look more closely at the list of the projects that are going on. It would depend. Yeah. I don't know. Off the top of my head, I don't know. - Alright, thank you. - [Scott] Other questions. Ms. Beloyed? - I know we've a list previously when we did an evaluation of each of the buildings and I think we did it maybe a couple years before or maybe during the bond referendum, I can't remember, but we got a list of the deferred maintenance that was going to be in each building. I should have gone back and looked at. Is it possible to get, I guess I can defer to Wayne on this, but is it possible to get
058something like that again for ongoing? I know we're having the... We're gonna go over the bond information. - Was that brought in July? Was that brought in July every year? So it's in the July board packet. - [Deborah] The July. Okay. - [Scott] Other questions? Thank you very much. We'll see you soon. - [Tim] Thank you. - Now we have discussion item D2. the first reading of school policies, board policy 211, 212 and 809. These policies will be on the April 13th or subsequent agenda for the second reading. If there's any questions, please refer to the policy number and the page of the package you're looking at. Any discussion? Mr. Skaar? - It's on the consent agenda item. which is some, trying to find it. Trying to find it here. - [Board Member] That's the
059one that we're appended to the second reading. So I can't read. This is first reading. - Oh this is the first reading. Sorry. Thank you for correcting that. Yep. Just hang on to your hat for that one. Okay, thanks. - Any other questions? Okay, we're gonna move on. Now we're gonna go on operational item E1, action on the 2026 of 2029 Achievement and Integration plan. Dr. Gillespie and Mr. Shavers - Chair Arcand, members of the board. at our last work study session, me and Mr. Shavers, presented on our Achievement and Integration Plan for the 2026 through 2029 school year. Tonight we're asking for action and approval of the plan and we included the changes that Ms. Thompson asked for, where we inadvertently left out our APAC members on the racially identifiable school part. So we're
060asking your approval this evening. - [Scott] Okay, so can I get a motion to approve the integration plan? - [Angela] So moved. - Okay, I'm gonna go with Thompson. Second? Second. Ms. Streiff Oji, any discussion? Okay, hearing none, this will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. Opposed? Same sign. Okay, motion passes. Thank you very much. We're gonna go on to E2, action on the 10 year long-term facility maintenance. - Thank you Dr. Arcand, members of the board. Every time that we issue bonds, we have to re-approve the 10 year long-term facilities maintenance plan. So each year the board approves that in July. And then if there's any change in funding, then we bring it back to the board for approval. And so you heard summary of the bond
061offering just a few minutes ago, and now you're asked to approve the 10 year facilities maintenance plan, but is part of a requirement by the Minnesota Department of Education. - [Scott] So the recommended action is to approve the 10 year long term facility maintenance plan as presented. Can I get a motion to approve? - [Kathleen] So moved. - [Scott] Moved by Daniel, second? - [Jessica] Second. - [Scott] By Ellison. Any discussion? Okay. This will be a, yes sir? - Well, you know what, I get the refunding one. I mean that one makes sense. It saves money over the long term by refinancing. Te LTFM bond, you know, I guess from my standpoint, I don't have, you know, you have a spreadsheet, it summarizes everything, but it doesn't have things like, you know, by facility, that
062kind of a thing. And that would be helpful to have because I'm not sure where that. I see it in general, but I don't see what facilities it's going to in that summary. Unless I'm misreading that Tim. - Well it's the district staff's responsibility to determine what projects need to get done. And so our building operations department works hard on that, making sure they are making good decisions about use of district funds. We have a lot of buildings to maintain. And so that will continue over year after year. - [Daniel] Yeah, I guess I've never seen that list that I can remember, I don't think it's ever been shared. I'm not part, you know, the finance committee's not subject to open meeting laws, so I don't see that. - That detailed list was brought last
063July. This is really just a slight update to the numbers. If there's anything that has changed as far as budgets for this year. And then the detailed list we brought forward again in July when we haven't updated plan to be brought forward. But there's really no significant changes to this plan from what was brought in July. It's just that by the law we have to bring it forward again for re-approval because the revenue has changed based on the numbers in the pre-sale report. - So every July is when we do. - [Member] Yep. - [Tim] We're required, every school district is required to bring that plan to the board and that's where it's approved and it's broken down by site. - So, we're on the cycle where July we will have a list of where
064the LTFM money's going. Is that right? - [Member] Yes. Correct. - By facility? - [Tim] Yeah, it'll come in July for the '26/'27 school year and beyond, yeah. - And again, this just- - [Tim] And it's a bit fluid because emergencies come up in facilities maintenance and so things get moved around pretty frequently that's no unusual. - [Board Member] It's an internal document, so it doesn't quite look like the Department of Education spreadsheet. It's a lot easier to read. So you could reference that the July meeting and that would break it down. So we'll have an updated one in July every year? That's gonna be by facility and by major. - [Board Member] Yep. - And then this is kind of a placeholder approval. - [Tim] This is the funding mechanism that we use. It's
065either through bond issue or pay as you go levy. There's a mix. - And this will not have really any impact on our debt service. Which is what you said. - [Tim] Right. - Okay, Thank you. - [Scott] Other questions? Hearing none. This will be a roll call vote. - Oh hey Scott. Just one last thing. You know, with our enrollment being where it's at, again, you know, we passed the bond referendum based on having close to 11,000 students. Should we look at, you know, retiring more debt so we have less debt to carry in the future, you know, given our demographics 'cause that has a impact on our financials, is that something that we're doing? Is that something we could get a review of? By the board at some point? - Well you saw
066the debt plan and that's what we have lined up and so you can see it drops off significantly down the road and there'll be, you know, opportunities for decisions at that point on how much debt is the board willing to carry or interested in. - [Daniel] Okay, thank you. Yeah. - [Scott] Anything else? Okay, this would be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - Skaar. - Yes. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - Daniels. - Aye. - Ellison. - Aye. - Motion carries. Alright, we're gonna go to operational item E3. Action on the resolution of the intent to issue the general obligation facility maintenance and every refunding bond series 2026A, Mr. Wald - Thank you Dr. Arcand. So
067finally we're seeking approval for the resolution stating the district's intent to issue general obligation facilities maintenance and refunding bonds series 2026A. The total maximum principle amount is 31,750,000. 14,070,000 of which is a refunding or refinancing of 2018 bonds, which will result in about $155,000 savings. 17,680,000 is issuing of long-term facilities maintenance bonds. It's recommended that the board approve the resolution as presented earlier this evening. - Okay, thank you. So once again, the recommendation is to approve the resolution stating that the intention of the school district to issue general obligation facility maintenance and refunding bonds series 2026A. And the maximum amount aggregate principal amount of approximately 31,750,000, and taking other actions with respect thereto. May I get a motion? - [Deborah] So moved. - Who is it? Ms. Beloyed. Second? - [Jessica] Second. - Second by
068Ellison. Any other further discussion? Yes, Ms. Beloyed? - I just wanna say last July, it's page 165 for anybody who wants to go back and look at that by facility in year. - [Board Member] Thank you. - Further discussion? Okay, this will also be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the role. - Skaar. - Yes. - Streiff Oji. - Yes. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - Daniels. - Aye. - Ellison. - Aye. - Motion carries. - Thank you. - Alright, we're gonna get on to operational item E4. Action on school board policies. 101, 101,1, 103 and 203.6. Can I get a motion to approve? - [Jessica] So moved. - [Scott] Okay, Ellison. A second? - Second. - [Scott] Second by Streiff Oji. Now we're
069open for discussion. Mr. Skaar, I'm assuming? - Well, if somebody else wants to talk about it, you can call on them too. - Okay, somebody else then. Okay, Ms. Thompson, - Just to remind that this is the second reading. So they've already come before us for discussion and this is usually where we've already discussed all of the policies and anything that we maybe had questioned on it. And then it comes the second time and that's when we vote to approve the policies that we've already discussed. - [Scott] Thank you. - Mr. Skaar? - [Daniel] thank you. Well, I just want to say, you know, we're deviating on this policy from Robert Rules. Robert Rules are designed to ensure orderly meetings- - [Angela] Point of clarification. - Fairness and respect for minority views and the district's
070own policy tool. - [Jessica] Point of clarification. - [Scott] Yes. - [Angela] What policy and what page are we talking about? There's several of them here. Sorry. - Oh, I'm sorry. It's policy 203, So it is 203.6, it's on page 125. - [Jessica] Thank you. - So anyways, Robert rules are designed to ensure orderly meetings, fairness and respect for minority views, the district's own policy 203 includes the following of Robert rules. So this would be a deviation from it. And I'll read you this. T his is from policy 203. "Rules of Order for School Board meetings shall be as follows, Minnesota statutes where specified specific rules of order as provided by the school board consistent with Minnesota statutes. And then C, Robert Rules of Order latest edition were not inconsistent with A and B." So
071we're committed to following them. This is a deviation. I'm not saying that the, you know, I don't know if the board... I'm sure you guys looked at this, that this doesn't violate a state statute or anything. I don't know if it does, but I do think that the revision to bypass Robert rules with our own rules is, you know, it's just another way for the board and the superintendent to limit free speech on those who seek accountability by asking questions about spending. So, and I think board governance without accountability is really not governance, it's pretty useless. So I think it's just kind of a, you know, it's kind of small minded and it's prevents public accountability. And, you know, I stand by questioning of the invoices as well as the financials given that we have
072had some mishaps, inadequate financial oversight for the last, since 2019. So I think it's just, it's unnecessary. And it, you know, I'm certainly not gonna vote for it. - [Scott] Okay. So I hear you. You're against this. I heard that. - Yeah, I would. - [Scott] Okay. Ms. Streiff Oji? - Yeah, so I just wanna make a comment on this policy change specifically as it relates to the consent agenda. As stated in the school board agenda, the purpose of the consent agenda is to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous official business of the school board. That consists of check register entries, the acceptance of gifts, field trip requests, and human resource items. The language in the current policy states that by request of an individual board member, an item can be removed from the
073consent agenda and placed upon the regular agenda for consideration and action. The recommended changes shift the individual focus to one that requires the board to agree that items being pulled from the consent agenda are worthy of our time. I've been on this board for almost five years and the board receives the board packet ahead of time and we're encouraged to reach out with any questions so that we can get answers, which I do frequently if I feel it's necessary to bring my answers to the public. I do so with an inquiry focus to allow the district to share how they're addressing the concerns or questions I or our community may want further clarification on. Here's why I feel the policy change is needed and why I support this change. I think the role of the
074school board is that we are governing. The school board serves as an elected governing body responsible for the care and management and control. That means accountability as well. Which is why the board packet is shared ahead of time for us to be able to ask our questions. We operate as one board. One should not consistently pull random items off the consent agenda. From my perspective, the agenda items being asked to be pulled from the consent agenda are not important enough or relevant enough to be pulled from the consent agenda and do not need to be discussed separately. Instead, it appears that items being pulled from the agenda are being meant to put people on the spot, catch people off guard, and are being used in an attempt to discredit our organization and those in it.
075With regards to our financial wellbeing. A board member can inquire about any check on the registry and is encouraged to do so. But I see our finance department being open and transparent about our finances. Every budget and audit presentation for the last 10 years is on our website for anyone to see. The district has received awards and high credit ratings. We have our audits posted. Material facts that have been identified in audits have been identified and addressed. As a district, we strive for continuous improvement and excellence on a daily basis. I see the work of our school district as being very challenging and complex. I believe our staff are well trained and supported to do their best every day. And I work with lots of school districts around the metro. I see what functional and
076dysfunctional leadership looks like, and I feel that we should be very proud to have the district leaders that we have here supporting our students, our families, and our kids. And our mission here states that we're here to ensure our students are successful. It also states that we have a culture that respects people and ideas and that we're here to care for our leaders, our district leaders, and make sure that we are taking care of them in a way that allows them to do their best work for our students every day. So I support this because I feel like it's out of efficiency and providing people the time if there are questions ahead of time to be able to prepare for those questions and have adequate answers. - [Scott] Thank you. You have another question, Mr.
077Skaar? Can I just ask while we wait? I wanna make sure everybody else has an opportunity. - Sure. - [Scott] I promise I'll come back to you. Anybody else? Ms. Daniels? - Just a comment. I agree with Chris, and I also wanna say there is opportunity to remove items from the consent agenda with a second. So that would mean that other board members, or at least one other would feel that it would be a good point of discussion so that it doesn't remove the opportunity from removing it. It just has to have a second. - Okay. Thank you. Other discussion? Okay, Mr. Skaar. - Well, let's be realistic. I mean, I've had how many motions seconded here? Two out of probably what, 25 or 30? - [Board Member] Point of order. This does not have
078to do with the policy. - Yes, it does. It doe. It does because that's... The way that it works now is I can take things off of the consent agenda to discuss. Now, you may not agree with that method, but I'm trying to find out what the financial accountability is and what the controls are over this district. We've had 15 deficiencies in findings. Do you want me to go through them? The last one was a double payment. - [Board member] point of order. - So by questioning the- - [Board Member] I object, I object. I think he seeks to obstruct the- - [Scott] Okay, wait. Let's let him finish please. - [Board Member] That's not how... He doesn't need to finish. I just think he's seeking to obstruct support the will of the board by
079continuing the same comments over and over again at every board meeting. - Well, can I make a motion that staff would present the mitigation efforts that they have done the corrective actions that they have done to prevent a- - Chair, point of order. - This time we have- - Mr. Skaar needs to be recognized first. - Yeah, at this time we we're looking at this motion and that'd be something we can bring later. Unless you're asking to make an amendment to this motion. - Yeah, I think that would be a good amendment. - Okay, pl what your amendment would be to? - Have staff review the corrective action on how we prevent a double payment. - How does this have point of order? - Do we have a second on that? Is there a second
080on adding that as an amendment? Is there a second? Okay. That motion fails. - Mr. Chair, I ask that we call a question. - Call a question. Do we get a second to call the question? - Second. - Okay. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Opposed? All right, call the question means they've ended discussion. So what we're gonna do now is I'm gonna call a roll call vote or ask for a roll call vote. Will you please call the roll? - Skaar? - Point of order. Is this on all of the policies or just 203.6? - Right now, the amendment is for all of them, - So no. - Yes, it'd be a no. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye.
081- Daniels. - Aye. - Ellison. - Aye. - Okay. The motion carries six to one. All right, now we're at the time for the board forum, it's an opportunity for board members to update the school board, and the public on the committee work, which they have engaged in their official capacity and create awareness of upcoming district and partnership events. Is there anybody who'd like to share? Ms. Ellison? - Just a couple of incredible music events that have happened in the district the last couple of weeks. The band and the choir were supposed to participate in a competition that was canceled. And so they moved mountains to get the competition at the PACA couple of weeks ago. And it was a tremendous performance by our young people, so I'm so proud of them. And then there
082was also a jazz nightclub that happened a couple weeks ago. Apparently it was something the district has been doing for 30 some years. And again, the students were incredible. There was swing dancing. I mean, it was really joyful. And it also showed how our student union can be a wonderful location for these types of events. So just kudos to the music departments in this district. They just do really wonderful work. And then one last thing, Chris and Kathleen and I were able to attend the White Lake area Education Foundation breakfast, that was also held in the student union to showcase the great work of the foundation. And we are so fortunate in this community to have folks looking out for our kids in so many ways and staff. - Thank you, Ms. Daniels? - I
083was able to attend the play that Lincoln put on, it was Willy Wonka Jr. A musical. And I just wanna commend the staff and the parent volunteers and the hours and hours and hours of practice the kids and set was phenomenal and there were so many kids involved. I mean it seemed like the whole school was somehow involved either in some part of that production. So it was fabulous. So thank you Lincoln. - [Scott] Others, Mr. Skaar? - Well I was just gonna suggest for our next working session. - [Scott] Do we have something that you've attended? - I'm using this to talk about, I'd like to put on agenda- - [Scott] That is not appropriate piece of that time. - Yeah, it's appropriate it, because I never get a chance to discuss anything. So
084I'd like the board to consider the correction action of the double payment on what is staff- - [Board Member] Point of order this is not the time, it's not the purpose of- - No, because it's accountability. - This is the time for board members to update the school board and public on committee work engaged in official capacity as a board member to create awareness of upcoming district and partnership events. So it doesn't seem to fit there at this point. Okay? - [Daniel] I think it fits. - Other discussion? You know, I'm gonna... Oh, you wanna go ahead. I'm sorry, it's a little distracting from, I just would like to, I guess, nevermind. - Okay, well, I'm just gonna say that last week was really busy and a great opportunity. On Wednesday I had the opportunity
085to go to the girls basketball game and it was an exciting back and forth match and you know, I just wanna let that girls basketball team how proud we are on how we could see how hard they worked. And it was a lot of fun. Thursday night I had a chance to go to Mariner Middle School. I almost said high school, Mariner Middle School and they had their Black Union Student Showcase. Oh my gosh, it was so awesome to see those kids step up on the stage and perform. I think, I mean it means a lot, but you wanna put yourself out there in front of your peers and they did a great job and the energy level was very high. So I want to thank the Mariner Middle school for inviting me and let
086me do that. And I just loved the show. It was great. And then Friday night I had the opportunity to attend the boys section final hockey game. I know the boys maybe do not realize this, but it really brought community together when we went there and we cheered and it was exciting and it wasn't the outcome we wanted, but if you were sitting in those stands and how it brought the community together, it's great. And those young men also with like with the basketball, the hours they put into training and practicing and the parents who know where every hockey arena is in the State of Minnesota. So that was amazing. So I want to thank them for going out there and putting The Bears on the line on that ice and doing their very best
087they can. We are proud of them also. So there's a lot of things going on and I know coming up boys basketball are heading in and so we'll have another opportunity to cheer on our boys and basketball. So, you know, get out there. But it was nice to go out there and see the community and see all the hard work that's gone through with the coaches and the players and the performers. So it was a great week. I enjoyed it. Thank you. Anything else? - [Board Member] Happy spring break. That's what I have. - Happy spring break. - [Board Member] I was gonna, I'm sorry, go for it. - [Jessica] Happy spring break. - Okay, well now we've gotten to the point in the agenda. Can I get a motion to adjourn? - [Jessica] Mr.
088Chair? I move to adjourn. - Ellison, do we have a second? - [Angela] Second. - Ms Thompson, All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Opposed? Same sign. We have now adjourned. (gravel bangs) Thank you very much.