Board of Education Meeting - March 18th, 2025

001the lights the camera lights not all right welcome everyone to the uh March 18th 2025 school board meeting for the Lakeville area schools uh please join me in sing the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right we're going to call this meeting to order and start with a roll call of the board members starting with my right Amber Cameron Brett Nicholson Paul Carbone I Matt Swanson Michael Balman Kim Baker kly Anderson Brian Thompson school board thank you uh are there any additions requested to the agenda if there are none um are there being none I will make a motion to approve the agenda as drafted is there

002a second all right a seconded by director Cameron being a first and a second all those in favor of approving the agenda as drafted say I I I all those opposed say nay all right it is approved unanimously and then we'll turn it over to superintendent Bowman for the good news thank you Mr chair and welcome everybody good news from Lakeville School District uh Lakeville South gymnasts Springs her way to the top at State uh congratulations to Piper Keith a sophomore from Lakeville South High School gymnastics team on her incredible performance at the 2025 State class ablea girls gymnastics meet Piper demonstrated excellence and consistency in all four events taking home third place in the all-around competition Piper also showed greatness on the uneven bars taking home a second place so congratulations Piper Lakeville South

003Boys Hockey wrapped up a successful season at State congratulations to our Lakeville South High School boys hockey team on a terrific season the Cougars boys hockey team took first place at their section tournament on February 27th and competed in the constellation bracket at the 2025 State class doublea boys hockey tournament on March 8th at the 3M Arena at maruchi way to go cougars we can applaud for that can't we okay if you want to read more about the amazing things happening in our district isd194.org newws and you can find it there uh next on my list of things I wanted to do is uh share with you um a gentleman who's one of our teachers at Lakeville North who's uh kind of a legend in his own mind just kidding Kevin no he's uh Mr

004Kevin bass is here this evening and I want to just uh highlight some of his work and uh what's been going on in our stem program at Lakeville North High School um before we bring Mr Bass up to uh address the board and and our uh audience um recently featured on fox9 news was a extraordinary project that our students are involved with uh both from Lakeville North and Lakeville South so uh both of our high schools they've been working uh to build a custom chopper uh for those you know don't know what a chopper is for an old military guy like me that's something that flies in uh but for everybody else it's something that goes down the road on two wheels uh maybe also known as an iron horse um they're going to build

005this custom chopper all the way through and they're going to auction it off at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this summer um so I want to share that Fox new fox9 news video with you so everybody can kind of share in that experience and uh then we'll have Mr Bass come up so I'm going to give my Tech Guy a minute to get that uh pulled up and then we'll watch that maybe many school districts across the Metro State and country are currently working with tight budgets a former fox9 top teacher we first met in Bloomington years ago has now taken what he's learned and applied it to a stem program in Lake Phil he's bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars into his program while teaching students how successful trade work can be fox signs leabo

006had a lesson on how he's making it possible almost immediately after stepping into this wing of Lakeville North High School this is where I want to be you know it's like the best class of the day it's clear this is not your average shop class you're looking at probably $330,000 in Parts yeah the motor alone is15 Grand how is that possible students from Lakeville North and South in this Chopper class are building a motorcycle from scratch that will be auctioned off at the Sturges motorcycle rally this summer cuz we want that pipe to be straight across at the same time School District budgets are tighter than a lug nut Kevin bass has figured out a way to use the roughly $88,000 budget allocated by his school district for his welding and various classes and turned

007it into hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tools and materials for his students from a water cutter that slices stone and granite I think we're the only high school right now that has one to six figure pieces of donated equipment filling the space BTD is a local company here in Lakeville big manufacturing company I reached out to him said hey I'm the new teacher here I'm going to be teaching kids out of weld manufacturer I need help and they said what do you need and I said I really would this we didn't have a nice plasma C of time I said I really would like a big 4x8 CNC plasma to do stuff with the president Paul came over from BTD looked through the shop and said shook my hand and said

008you pick one out we order it ordered it and bought it for us so it was like my first month here as a new teacher and I already got that so it was like okay we're on to something let's keep the ball ruin from there bass expanded with power coding equipment woodworking the list goes on and on and on with more students enrolling bass has contributed to the district adding another teaching position and even more manufacturing opportunities the 3D printer collection yet another example 16 you said 60 60 6 6 or 60 I thought you said 16 wow yeah that's impressive I found out back in the early days like when the money Runs Out you get so much money a year for your class to buy consumables welders fix things do whatever when that

009runs out you're out you're okay well figure something out without any money you can't buy any more material if you run out of Shield gas how do you weld you know if you run out of wire for your welders how do you weld so I decided okay this is how much money I'm going to get what can I do to make a little more to really make sure I got enough to sustain the whole year and do extra things instead of the bare minimum shift in the span of his life and career bass has handmade dozens of bikes he's constantly making connections and organizing sponsors for his program far and wide Stars ranging from Richard Petty to Jason Mamoa or Aquaman are fans of bass and his work these days he has more than 20,000

010followers on social media cheering on his support for the next generation of machinists hey how you doing welcome back the day we visited bass in class he was also conducting an interview for his part parip with a Dennis Kirk film crew the company is one of the leaders in the bike parts world and based out of Rush City years ago students used to build bikes and take them apart as part of their lessons but now Dennis Kirk is supplying the parts for the motorcycle project checking the progress and filming segments along the way leading up to auction day and serving as a dual purpose ensuring the bike is put together right from my freshman year I have looked in that motorcycle shop and it's like man I wish they had that program and Senior year

011it's like a dream coming true you know back in back at it bass says the dream come true is all his it's uh it makes my soul thing you know I I can't put in words almost without crying about how you know how hard the battle has been and now it's it's to a place where I'm really I'm on top of this little mountain looking down going awesome look at look at what we've accomplished leino Fox I Kevin sir this is the the gentleman who you just saw in the video uh I tease him a little bit but uh just wanted to give him an opportunity to share with the board a little bit more uh about what he's been up to and uh Kevin the floor is yours sir well thank you for having

012me tonight appreciate it appreciate all the support um you know it's just a lifelong journey to help kids do the best they can and uh you know I feel honored that I teach for a district that really cares about what we do and uh supports me and I've had you know a lot of students go on that have taken my classes that weren't your traditional for your college maybe maybe didn't fit in the mold and we found good career paths for him and I just uh you know I feel blessed and honored to be able help kids find their career path sorry I get a little choked up but means a lot to me and I just I'm very honored to be part of this district and have all the opportunities that you allow me

013to give our students can I say something real quick um so I know Mr Bass because he had my son in class um and and Shane is not one of those typical students and when he was diagnosed with autism when he was little they told us you know I don't even know Mrs Baker if he'll like ever be able to attend school like we just don't know if that's in the cards for him um and he met Mr Bass in the welding program um and Shane is enrolled in DCTC in the welding program and starts next fall and that's because of Mr Bass so he's not only teaching kids like how to weld and and is this wonderful enthusiastic teacher but he's also given Shane like a chance at a career and something that he

014can be independent as an adult so thank you so much for doing that that's all for you appreciate it thank [Applause] you all right uh we're going to move on to public comment uh the board will open up the floor for 30 minutes to allow the public to address the board with comments and concerns uh to participate in public comment individuals must have registered in advance using the form provided on our district website you have to register by noon on the Monday before the scheduled public comment section uh there will be no board response during the session public comments framed as complaints and or concerns about students and our staff are not appropriate in a public forum due to the data privacy laws these comments should be addressed to the administration outside of a public

015meeting likewise complaints about the school board members should be privately directed to the board chair and or the superintendent no formal action will be taken on a topic presented during public comment as necessary the administration will follow up with the appropriate personnel on any concerns that need to be individually addressed also if necessary the board will follow up during board Communications at the next regularly scheduled board meeting uh individual remarks are limited to 3 minutes and the board will provide a signal when the participant has 30 seconds remaining of their time there is your signal uh please try to keep audience noise to a minimum to allow everyone the opportunity to speak uninterrupted all right I think we have we have fewer than 10 so everyone will be able to speak if you signed up

016today uh we're going to start off with Lindsay I'm the only one hi everyone my name is Lindsay w I have a fourth and fifth grader at Eastview elementary I'm also a licensed CPA which means I spend my time interpreting a lot of data and planning for the future based on that data I'm also on the board at East viiew and on the PTO board at East viiew and this has been quite a rebuilding year for our school we've got the East principal right over there um half of our Eastview Community has changed this year as a result of the attendance area adjustments that were passed just a year ago that 50% of students also translated to four of our seven PT board members I should be at an east east viw PTO board meeting

017right now but instead I'm here and I'm here because every problem that these new attendance area adjustments are trying to solve was knowable and called out last year as part of that process I stood here a year ago along with a strategic planning executive and a CEO and president of Lakeville business and said that based on the data the models wouldn't be able to serve our community for more than 2 to 3 years and now here we are are a year in already contemplating additional changes I know this is a new board and a different superintendent so I hope you'll take the opportunity to do better this time unfortunately from what I see we're not off to a great start let me paint the picture of what the preliminary attendance area adjustment would mean for

018my neighborhood the home across the street for me would attend one Middle School well my kids would attend another you'd send one bus to bring our nextd door neighbor to sentury and another bus to bring my kids to Kenwood you would ignore the fact that our neighborhood has a walking path in a crosswalk to access sentury and instead send my kids across a four-lane highway to Kenwood you would literally draw a line down the middle of our street separating kids who throw a football between their yards my son's best friend would be at a different School than he is I don't think any of you could say that makes a lot of sense or is in the best interest of our community but most concerning is that these adjustments still fail to address the actual

019capacity issue that Maguire Middle School is significantly under capacity while Kenwood and centry are both at 90 Plus per. Moving kids between centry and Kenwood does not address that problem so here's my ask focus on changes that actually address the capacity issues consider proximity to schools and safety spend the time to thoughtfully solve the problem with minimal disruption for Lakeville students every time there is a change a PTO is forced to rebuild a student is moved to an unfamiliar environment a parent has to learn to get navigate a new school a Schoolboard has to listen more about attendance area adjustments 30 seconds residents need to scramble and rearrange their schedules to try to have their voes heard I understand it's not easy I know it's a hard process but I do expect a rational thoughtful

020solution that makes sure we aren't here again a year from now thank you thank you Lindy next up is Josiah Josiah moving on uh Kristen or Kristen sorry as a nurse who provides Public Health Services to the Lakeville Community I have come today with the intention of promoting accountability and transparency around health insurance decisions which impact not only staff of Lakeville area schools but subsequently our students and our neighbors to that end at the February 11th Schoolboard meeting an alarming comment was made by Vice chair Paul Carbone healthcare costs are egregiously and prohibitively high yet rather than being knowledgeable about how the district has been working to avoid major spikes in employee premiums or asking about strategies to improve outcomes and Achieve greater net savings through better preventative and Mental Health Coverage Vice chair Carbone

021practically did the opposite by interjecting the suggestion that there are insurance carriers which can quote Drive claims down to be clear we all know that the need for care stays the same so the outcome of that approach would be less reimbursement and or more claims being denied essentially suggesting to hoard more money staff already pay into their insurance premiums at the expense of worst cage of their medical bills meaning higher out of- pocket costs for teachers who are already underpaid in proportion to the return on investment to society causing custodial staff who Keep Kids Safe by sanitizing School spaces to be more worried about not being able to afford to seek care when feeling ill during that year's flu season claim denial is ultimately detrimental for everyone involved it's bad for staff and their families

022reaping fewer benefits from their benefits package bad for students and their academic excellence to have more stressed and less healthy teachers bad and costly for the district and taxpayers by decreasing potentially risking decreasing State funding if pupil counts are lower due to kids of Staff being out sick or needing to pay for critical albeit more substitute teachers for the same reasons in a time of expanding Division and polarization there has nonetheless been unified public disdain and denunciation of health insurance practices to deny delay and depose claims with growing Collective resentment which recently had grave implications for a company headquartered right here in Minnesota with this backdrop Vice chair Carbone's line of thinking was shockingly in congruent with shared public sentiment and also just so antithetical to the good of the district but after uncovering that

023Paul's career consisted of executive leadership roles in several health insurance companies including Blue Cross flu Shield compan is driven by profit over people is suddenly it suddenly made sense I implore you to think about your loved ones and your medical bills youed with I think the instructions were clear it's not a place to come and criticize board members I mean if you want to send us private messages via email you're more than welcome to do so okay it's holding publicly elected officials to account you you are more than welcome to your opinion um but I'm not going to let you sit up here and criticize a board member so you can take your seat please comment made at a board meeting thank you for your time all right moving on Jamie and Tisha dear members

024of the school board we appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight my name is Jamie kicker and my name is Tisha searing we are both Educators in this district and are here to express our strong support for the continued use of iPads in our Elementary classrooms continued use of iPads in excuse me in our Elementary classrooms and advocate for a dedicated digital media specialist in our buildings we are aware of the capital projects Levy which will be used for Renewal soon this Levy will provide funding for technology and digital tools which is why we feel this is the right time to emphasize the importance of these resources in our schools iPads are not just devices they are powerful tools for engagement creativity and Equitable access in our classrooms we see firsthand how technology integration

025enhances student learning iPads allow students to create collaborate and demonstrate understanding in ways that paper and pencils simply cannot through Interactive Learning apps multimedia projects and real-time feedback students become active participants in their education rather than passive consumers of information for our English language Learners iPads are a game Cher we with translation tools speech DET text features and visual supports these students can access content alongside with their peers building confidence and Independence instead of feeling left out behind less empowered additionally iPads strengthen family communication digital portfolios and classroom apps provide parents with a window into their child's learning fostering a stronger homeschool connection families can see their child's progress receive real-time updates and engage in meaningful conversations about their education most importantly iPads allow for individualized learning whether a student needs additional support or an

026extra challenge teachers can provide personalized learning experiences tailored to individual needs this ensures that every child is met where they are and can reach their full potential however technology is only as effective as the support behind it that is why we also need a dedicated digital media specialist in our buildings someone who can provide training troubleshooting guidance to both teachers and students this role is crucial in ensuring that technology is used intentionally and effectively to maximize learning outcomes 30 seconds we understand the concerns about screen time and responsible use and we share those concerns but technology is not going away our students are growing up in a digital world and it's our responsibility to prepare them to navigate it safely and effectively removing iPads or limiting their use would be a step backward taking away

027opportunities for engagement creativity and equity in our classrooms with the capital project lovey providing funding for technology we urge you to continue investing in our students future by supporting iPads in our schools and ensuring that Educators have the resources they need including a digital media specialist to implement technology in a meaningful and purposeful way thank you for your time and your commitment to our Student Success thank you uh Brian good evening uh I'm Brian Cohen I'm been a resident of Lakeville in the school district for about 12 years now I'd like to thank chair Swanson and superintendent Balman for responding to the emails that I've had over the last few days have been very fruitful and constructive conversations this evening I would like to talk a little bit about the new posters there'll be the

028subject of the board discussion later this evening The District staff I think should be commended for their quick work in developing a proposal based on the motion that was passed and the request from a few weeks ago I reviewed the proposal um and have some positive reactions some opportuni for improvements and some questions about the process first the good news I think the posters that are focused on inclusion are I think quite subjectively similar to the ones that we've had in the past and I think that they're doing a good job job of uh promoting the commitment that the district and the board has to ensure that all are welcome and now a little bit on opportunities as I was knocking doors last summer and running for office um I talked to a surprisingly large

029number of people of color who were concerned whether their children were in fact truly welcome here in our school district this included one family that felt that the environment uh was so hostile that they chose to open roll their student in another school I'm therefore concerned that we may need some posters and action in The District as director Baker had suggested in that to really demonstrate that we are supporting and want to include all of our uh communities of color here in ISD 194 and finally some open questions is obvious to me that the poster is centered on AC academic Excellence are trying to convey that message but I'm not sure that the message would necessarily be received that way now I hope that the poster creators have shown samples to students and gotten some

030reactions to the process and I think with some feedback we can make those posters even better than they are and as we all know all communication has two sides a sender and a receiver we need to take the time to ensure that the receivers are getting the message that is intended finally when the posters were discussed a few weeks ago concerns were raised about the process by which the previous setup posters were approved especially that not enough time was taken and that not enough stakeholder input was included I'm concerned that we may fall into that trap again and I understand the convenience and the desire to put up the new posters while over spring break we want to make sure that we are taking the time to have posters that truly convey what we want

031to convey to the students thank you thank you all right last speaker Amber hello superintendent Balman and members of the board for those of you do not know me my name is Amber I am the mother of two students in Lakeville schools I am a farmer special ed teacher a dedicated District volunteer an Engaged parent and a passionate advocate for students with disabilities I debated whether to speak tonight about the poster series given the many pressing issues affecting students with disabilities compared to the severe shortage of special education teachers and service providers the Nationwide challenges to 504 plans in 17 States the proposed dismantling of the Department of Education attempts to eliminate diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility efforts and the reduction in Medicaid funding all of which directly impacts our students the discussion about posters

032may seem minor however I am here because local action matters and our students matter over the past four years as my oldest child entered the school system I have attended numerous Schoolboard meetings one message has remained consistent from students Educators and much the community we value diversity and inclusion in our schools we want our classrooms our staff our leadership and even the posters in our hallways to reflect the diverse makeup of our community tonight I urge you to reconsider the complete removal of the poster series if two posters are in question why not address those specifically instead of replacing all of them while I appreciate the hard work completed by District staff at the direction of the board to create a new poster series the decision to start from scratch has has created confusion and

033frustration among students parents and staff once again Lakeville and its public schools have been pulled into negative media attention both traditional and social media it is disheartening that conversations about our community now come with warnings about a resistance to diversity and inclusion this perception does not reflect the views of most Lakeville residents and many of us are working hard to change that narrative the funds that would be used to replace these posters could be better spent on initiatives that promote awareness acceptance inclusion that money could support programs that make school activities more accessible for students with disabilities or fund initiatives that Foster kindness and friendship I firmly believe that the current posters contribute to a positive learning environment in our schools their messages matter I think it sends a community building message that we are

034stronger together I also feel that everyone is welcome everyone belongs while similar to make everybody feel like a somebody takes emphasis off an action needed by someone and turns it into something that is a part of our schools regardless I ask you to reconsider your vote and truly listen to the broader Community we encourage our students to be brave and take risk now is the time for this board to lead by example for the past decade Lakeville has been a leader in inclusion we are the first district to implement inclusive schools week each year we recognize students to sorry teachers students and staff who promote inclusivity we are one of the few if not the only special education pto's in the country which has Foster Community among families of students with disabilities while strengthening advocacy

035awareness and inclusion in our district while there is always room for growth we should be building Upon Our Legacy not retreating from it thank you ammer that was like right on time all right that concludes public comment uh we're going to move on in the agenda um to consideration of the approval of the consent agenda um I'm going to start off I I would like to remove the approval of the audit auditing comment or auditing contract for a discussion okay any interest in removing the board minutes or are we good just approving the board minutes okay I would make a motion to approve the board minutes from March 11 2025 and then move on to discussion of the auditing contract I'll second that that's seconded by director Carbone uh being a first and a second

036all those in favor of approval of the board minutes from March 11 2025 say I I I all those opposed say nay all right it is approved I guess who uh Mr holgren or who would be you have a question on the I do okay Bill you want to come [Applause] up uh first I just want to comment that I I appreciate you sending these out um and doing the rfps on this I understand it's a three-year cycle or something that we do it for yes that's pretty common in school districts where we go for three years at of time for an auditing um company to come in um by law we have to have an auditing firm come in each year and audit our books um of course this past year our our uh

037contract has expired um so we sent out an our RFP about I say about eight weeks ago um we received two so for the benefit of the audience RFP I I know most of you know what it is but a request for a proposal and uh it's a the the requirement on auditing is an independent auditor so not associated with the school district so I just want to make sure those points are clear anyway through through the process we received two um proposals we did get some information from a couple other auditing firms but they didn't feel they had the capacity to take on another school district at this time so we just had the two um one was our current auditor and the other was just our the the most previous auditor we've used

038in the past so we're familiar with both of these auditing firms um if you look at the Matrix we put together um they're very close and um we feel that the better value was with CLA with the business team that went through the proposals so we are presenting tonight to the board to offer a contract to CLA for the next three years to do auding for the school district and I guess on the cost wise that was my question it looks like Bergen from a maximum contra contract price might be less um but CLA then has the higher maximum contract price but their individual workers or their employees charge less per hour yeah there there's more hours involved with the CLA and the difference is only $400 between the two different proposals at the end

039of the day is that's what you're calc $400 okay director Thompson do you have a question yeah can can can you clarify that because when I was looking at it I think I saw the proposal one what that was for $51,000 for the first year in 66 so maybe I wasn't looking at the other stuff help me understand the um the Bergen the Bergen um proposal had a second set of numbers that has the single audits that we have to do on a yearly basis where CLA put it all into one number we had asked the proposal to come in all in one number so that's one reason they they got marked a little less Bergen did because they came in two different numbers but we put them all together there's only $400 difference between

040the two when you say put them all together is it the cost that they're charging per fund no it's no when when they audit us they they look at all our funds but um Federal um dollars that we receive from the federal government they have to pick at least one of our programs any program that's over $500,000 in a particular year they do a single audit separate just on the federal funds and because of the size of the district we are and the numbers of funds that we get we actually have to do two so most of the time our our our uh student nutrition fund is almost entirely um federal funds so that's usually done on a yearly basis and then we look at our special education um we get about $2.5 million do

041um for special education from the federal government so that's a second single audit that needs to be done on a yearly basis director Thompson yeah was was Bergen kdv not meeting any of the requirements in the past or were they meeting all the requirements this is strictly a like if there only a couple hundred dollar difference why we why would we want to make a shift to a new new entity uh there's a learning curve there's other components that come up that's associated with it just curious yeah I like to answer that so um and Bill obviously you can too um for the learning curve CLA doesn't have one uh they've been here before three years ago there might be some minor tweaks with regard to that um I think it's good to not get

042into a um iterative cycle too long with any one Auditor in order to maintain the efficacy of the reporting that we get and the and what gets looked at um because as you know they do the the whole prepare by client piece and um what they're looking at in terms of sampling changes and I think that's healthy for uh a district um and that's that's my why from my perspective director Thompson uh and again just to make sure again to clarify um Bergen wasn't not they weren't meeting they were meeting all the requirements you're just like you're changing lawn service companies it's like hey the cost is about the same they're mowing the lawn it's it's not that big of a deal right is that how is that my interpretation yeah I I guess I

043like to reiterate that CLA was here just 3 years ago and the and the team they're putting together to come back here are almost entirely the same team so it is is same group that we've worked with in the past okay and we're look you said there was a a couple $100 difference between yeah between one and the other okay yeah all right all right right thanks a lot Mr H I think that's we if there are no other questions I'd entertain a motion to approve uh the auditing contract for Clifton Larson Allen motion to approve all right there's a motion by director Cameron to approve is there a second second seconded by director Baker there being a motion to approve the auditing contract with Clifton Larsson Allen first by director Cameron and seconded by

044director Baker all those in favor say I I I all oppose say nay all right it's approved unanimously we'll move on to our reports and discussion starting with the area attendance update I Believe Miss brovold and Mr Nino are coming up so as they're getting ready I just would like to uh say a couple words about uh about this and acknowledge uh some of the comments uh that have that we've received so uh it's March and we know that we have uh student concentration issue at centry middle school and we have that also at High View Elementary um and the the challenge we're going to have um today is not significantly different than we had in the school district in the 90s when we were building schools along iava some people in the audience may

045remember that um one of the things that we are faced with strategically is um we have two middle schools that are not full and we have one that is full uh and that challenge in and of itself and I think uh uh we had a speaker here earlier today that that acknowledged all that the the other side of the coin that you have to look at I think as well um is what do you do when your geospatial relationship to your facilities are what they are and I know that's the issue is about the how not the what um and so hopefully we we'll go through the numbers as we uh have have put together here um and this is the first opportunity to talk about it with the board it is not up for

046approval we're not asking for any votes we are seeking input uh from the board with regard to what we uh could look at in terms of refinement ultimately the challenge is if we overfill Sentry middle school and uh underfill the other schools I don't think we're serving our community appropriately because the alternative is to build something and to build something in the current scenario that we exist in all our lease Levy dollars are lease Levy is an option to put additions on facilities uh and that doesn't necessarily directly burden taxpayers through any particular Levy uh bonding does and and uh I won't get into all the the nitty-gritty details of that but we are we have used our lease Levy until 2028 where we will have a little bit more opportunity there but not on

047scale uh for this school district and that was due to the uh process that we went through to absorb the growth of our elementaries and put High View Elementary online um so in 28 that will that will dissipate in terms of our lease Levy and give us some more options but I don't think any taxpayer well there may be a few but most taxpayers in Lakeville I don't think want to spend money on a building when we have empty buildings or not full buildings so I can't see that as a strategic um play for our school system so we do have to move students and if our if our community which I live in begins to grow at a accelerated Pace uh a we have to see it coming and B it means that we

048will have to do this again the school district will have to do this again I know that's an unpopular thing to say and back to the comments yes the how matters and we're trying to get that right so we do welcome the input and the criticism or however you want to couch it um but we want to start talking about it in March so we're not talking about it in July and August and trying to get a vote so that's the context of what we're we're speaking to here today if you look on the agenda just to help our our public understand and and again I'm I'm hope I'm not speaking out of turn here too much but the way our agendas work if you see a recommended action that's going to require a vote

049if you see something that's under reports and discussion that's not a vote and that's for St Staffing um and one of the challenges we have as a Administration is how do we bring that to the board in a in a staffing process which should be a process which this the administration should not bring something to the board and say give me a vote on on really anything there should be a process backing that up and we can um improve our processes of course and uh I just want to say that to put context to this so that we can have a good healthy discussion to today and into the future so that we can get as close to right as we possibly can so that's my two cents thank you for entertaining that okay well

050they tell me this microphone's going to work is that working sounds like it or no I hear not so good it doesn't sound like it no pulling this over we'll keep it in the middle okay um good evening and uh thank you for the opportunity to present to you today my name is Tracy brovold and I'm I get the privilege of being the director of technology and data services for our district and next to me is Douglas Nino who is our information systems and data supervisor today we are here to share with you our presentation on attendance area adjustments last year with the opening of High View Elementary we faced a difficult but necessary task of adjusting School attendance areas we knew from the start that this would be a very complex and deeply impactful

051process for many families change is never easy especially when it affects where our children learn and build connections that's why we partnered with Teamworks International they are an experienced firm specializing in School attendance area adjustments uh we partnered with them to help guide us through this process while no attendance area changes without challenges our goal was to ensure that our decisions were thoughtful datadriven and aligned with our District's long-term goals not made in reaction to pressure or emotion at the center of this process was a document called The Guiding change document this document was developed by District leadership administrators and ultimately approved by the school board this was a framework that provided clear principles that helped us to prioritized Equitable access to resources and opportunities maintain neighborhood uh School continuity when whenever possible efficiently allocate

052resources including class sizes Staffing and transportation we fully acknowledge that this uh transition was very difficult on some of our families every data point in this process represents a real child with real experiences and we kept that in the Forefront of our minds um balancing the individual impact with the needs of the district as a whole was not easy while we do believe that this process met its core objectives attendance area adjustments require ongoing refinement and that was part of our decision-making process while it's important to allow time for the changes to settle and then give ourselves a chance to assess the impact and then we need to make refinements more uh where needed so today I we'd like to take a closer look at this process and discuss next steps to ensure our attendance

053areas continue to best serve our students and our community that's okay um adjusting School attendance areas isn't just drawing lines on a map it really is an intensive complex process requiring months of careful analysis collaboration and problem solving The Guiding change document that I talked about had over 20 components that we needed to meet for example the document outlines wanting to keep neighborhoods together balanced demographic traffics keep students in appropriate appropriately sized uh learning environments minimize disruption for families and ensure efficient Transportation routes that are also coste effective uh one of the biggest challenges that we had was the close proximity of school buildings which uh superintendent Bowman just referenced um I remember when I first came to Lakeville I had asked for a map of all of our schools where they were located in

054one of my Tech Team members told me you don't need a map just drive down iava and you'll hit half of them so they are very close and with that level of closeness combined with the rapid growth that was concentrated in one area of Lakeville really made finding the right balance um even more challenging another challenge that we faced and it was one that both our team struggles with and Teamworks International struggles with is uh predicting student enrollment in newly developed single family housing are areas it's hard to tell how many kids are going to be coming in a house that was just built we also had some Financial considerations uh Transportation costs needed to be factored in to make sure that we um uh proposed uh sub Sustainable Solutions uh the process actually involved

055designing and evaluating 12 different models the design team developed several models and then brought them to the input team for feedback received feedback from the community and then the design team met again to create new models incorporating the feedback the process was repeated several times over each of the iterations or adjustments were scrutinized for feasibility and for fairness some of you I know had the opportunity to sit in on both the design and input team meetings um if you'll remember it was intensive work and uh it required a lot of data analysis input from interested parties and really really tough decisions every change seemed to have a ripple effect every decision required balancing competing needs the final plans that were presented to the school board weren't just a a compromise they were the result of

056months of dedicated effort to find the best possible solutions what you're seeing on this slide is a snapshot of just how much time went into to uh the an effort went into this process each of these meetings represents hours of discussion analysis and decision-making balancing priorities that were often in Conflict the design team consisted of over 20 people who were a cross-section of Lakeville area school's administrators principals directors and supervisors including our transportation provider this was the team that generated the different attendance area models the in team consisted of over 50 people including a separate group of Lakeville area schools administrators principes staff members and community members you can see how many times the design team met and then how many times the input team met here on this slide feedback was welcomed from our

057community through an online form which accepted responses on three different occasions that you see listed here you can see that we received a large number of responses which were all all reviewed by both the input and the design teams the design team went through each piece of feedback received from the input team and from the community and they tried to figure out how to address each piece of of that feedback they really took their job seriously and wanted to honor the feedback that we received from our community and our input team even with a structured framework guiding principles and expert support from Teamworks International this was very challenging work in this slide illustrates just how much time thought and feedback went into uh every step of the process we did spend a lot of time

058before we came to consensus about the two models that we brought forward to the school board for their decision and approval this slide shows the district's Elementary School boundaries before our recent adjustments um looking at this Patchwork of attendance areas it's clear that had a complex and fragmented system each color on here represents a different Elementary School area so you can see how scattered and intricate some of the areas uh had become um it's visually overwhelming and uh so you can imagine what this meant for families who were trying to navigate which school they were going to be going to um this is not what the map initially started to be um Douglas was here um way back when you've been here 20 years um um he was here and um was a part of

059seeing those original boundary Maps um we had clean lines um but growth happened in Lakeville and we were able to sustain this map for over 10 years without moving any students it became a patchwork um the map served us well but growth patterns have changed and it became less effective prior to the construction of High View we actually did try to mitigate the increased enrollment additions were built onto five of our eight elementary schools at the time to increased capacity but that wasn't enough over time the housing developments shifting enrollment patterns and those capacity issues created imbalances some schools were near capacity While others had room to grow Transportation routes became more complicated which impacted efficiency and costs I know that we had family that were placed in schools that were sometimes further away from

060their homes and students drove past one school to get to their school um where they were enrolled we tried to do everything we could to minimize student movement over the last 10 years um but these attendance area adjustments were designed to simplify this complex web of uh student boundaries while trying to balance uh student stability as we look and compare our our attendance areas from uh for this year we can see that this map not only provides clearer contiguous lines but also prioritizes efficient transportation we worked hard to ensure that the new attendance areas balance demographics ensuring fairness and accessibility for all this approach helps reduce our transportation costs while maintaining a diverse and equitable distribution of students we see the same thing for our Middle School attendance areas again for 10 years uh this

061map sustained us you'll see here uh yellow is our Sentry Middle School attendance areas uh blueish is our Kenwood Trail and I think we agreed that salmon is is is Maguire um these also have a little bit of a patchwork look but it was designed to accommodate new growth and new housing developments over time without moving any current students for the for 10 years prior um we have not had any additions on our middle schools to be able to create additional classroom space so with shifting enrollment Transportation challenges and we also have a little bit of a proximity issue between Sentry and Kenwood Trail um the old attendance areas just no longer met the needs of our communities here you will see our new attendance uh areas you'll see again Sentry is in yellow Kenwood

062in blue and uh Maguire is in uh salmon these uh this updated attendance map not only provides clear contiguous lines but uh also helped us to prioritize efficient Transportation the goal of these new adjustments were to simplify the system and uh create a more balanced structure that better aligns with our students needs um Douglas is going to jump in now and add some data yes so before we move on oh if you could go that's Sor right no no nope I can go back there there we go one of the things to highlight is it wasn't the map you see on the right was not just drawn up in one day it was drawn redrawn redrawn over a decade of growth of a thousand students that we were able to accommodate without having to move

063any existing enrolled students we did value minimal disruption as much as we possibly could until we could no longer sustain the patchwork quilt um with this next one and before I go farther and forget again thank you again for the opportunity to be here and presenting this information to you this chart here that we have capacity with predicted and actual accounts has the schools that were impacted by the changes uh the high schools were not changed last time nor uh is there a proposal to to change things this time so we're looking at the elementary and the middle schools you'll see that we have the capacity of the building with the actual 2025 fall enrollment numbers so the October numbers from this last year this current school year the predicted numbers from the model uh

064model D3 which we'll show here in a little bit and then the percent difference in the percent of capacity so we highlighted some things uh you'll notice that as far as different differences between predicted and actual enrollment uh all the uh numbers came within plus or minus 10% not great but not horrible either um there were two outliers to that you'll see that High View uh was 14.8% off coming in at 658 instead of 573 you also see that Orchard Lake came in above what we predicted uh 390 instead of 348 that was good news that we actually got more students into Orchard Lake than we were anticipating we did have some concerns about that and it was good news to have some more students there however not so good news on the High View

065side which is why we're here tonight uh along with the Sentry Middle School you'll see that I have those two numbers highlighted the 658 for High View and the 950 for Century to bring us to the next slide hey D when you share those percentages can you sh what what is considered a target number we want to hit from a percentage capacity what is considered too many kids I mean obviously can we get to 100 or is is 90 The Sweet Spot uh well I think about this weekend and traveling to visit my parents up north and they thought for sure that we were going to be swamped in a blizzard and go in the ditch and crash and everything else uh the predictions didn't pan out uh prediction is is a hard business what

066the actual number is we did not set a Target uh if if there was a Target that should have been set than let let me let me let me ask again Capac for capacity yeah yeah what what capacity percentages considered two full I think cuz last year you know we went through this process and and I think it was the number of like 80% is too many kids in a in a building um is is is it 90 is it like now we've got kids that are we're at 94% right now in High View and it seems like it's functional it's not great but it's functional right and so what which actually is a testament to yeah Testament to the design of the school that they were able to accommodate that uh fairly well but

067it has also been a challenge for the staff to be working under those uh conditions and so the target capacity and I'm working off of information that was given to me by um Vince uh or was it Vance from wal wal Architects where he he would say that 90% would feel full you feel like you can't put any more students into that building okay uh 80% yeah okay you're you're getting to that fullness but 90% is where you're like where are we going to put these kids 95% you're like there's no way I can put any more K kids but there is still a little bit of room 100% is obviously there is no more room yeah director carb can I weigh in on that too because there's another element here um and I have

068uh several principles here and um they might they might want to have the courage to come up and speak to this but I'm going to try to set the condition here so we've been receiving this year um you know feedback from from some parents about the time it takes and the time a student is allowed to eat lunch so um just that this is just illustrative of the other second and third order effects that you have to deal with and when you get in that 995 and well yes you can fit students in there but now you have your common area utilizations that become stressed um and one manifestation of that is how many kids can you get through the lunchroom and maintain the academic schedule and try to produce Excellence not even talking about

069the stress on the you know how many kids you have in a classroom um in and some of your specialty classes and and what a stress that is on our teaching staff our across a whole building so when you when you start talking about full then there's gradations of full that become uh competent driven issues and we're trying to focus on teaching and learning and academic progress so the Fuller you get the more stress is on that system without the supports you need to be able to do that at a high level so it's all these things and I I I firmly believe that when you're in that 90% Zone you are stressing that system uh pretty high if not maybe overstressed if you have other Ambitions which we should have we should have Ambitions

070to give our kids the very best academic experience possible very hard to do when you're bumping into you know your colleagues everywhere and you got six seven minutes to eat your eat your lunch and move on so and I'm not trying to be hyper about any of this it's it's just trying to feel it I don't know Mr baky if you want to come up and say anything about that I don't mean to put you on the spot but you're you're you're the principal at Sentry ladies and gentlemen oh wow than Jason baky principal senty Middle School well thank you very much appreciate the opportunity to to be here in front of so many familiar faces um it's a good problem to have I think that we should number one just recognize that we love

071the fact that people want to be in Lakeville schools uh we we're very proud of what we do um and we know that that sometimes presents a few challenges and to Mr Bowman's Point uh especially at the middle level we know that students are very self-conscious and they want to fit in and sometimes when you have all of the factors that are happening in the building if they need to worry about trying to get to class on time because of overcrowding in the hallways that adds to their stress level when they are um surrounded by so many kids at the locker Bay and I just had to put in an order for 40 more new lockers uh next year that adds uh to to the stress levels uh Mr Balman talked a little bit about

072uh cafeteria and getting through the lines quickly enough to to eat it adds to the stress level uh same with our locker rooms and the capacity there uh the hallways were were mentioned um just little things like using the bathroom and getting the drink of water at at the ble filling stations it's a lot of those things that seem uh to maybe not be a big deal but in the eyes of an 11 through a 14-year-old it is a big deal and then um we think about some of our wheel teachers uh with our current schedule they see every single student in the building and right now our wheel teachers at centry Middle School are seeing 958 students and next year that's predicted to go up to 988 students and we know we'll get movein

073throughout the summer so there's a strong likelihood that CMS will be at a thousand uh students next year and it just adds a lot of stress and we want to add that we want our students to be to feel safe and to feel comfortable and to have a great positive learning experience so we love kids we want them to come but there needs to be a balance uh within that as well thank you Mr baky director Carbone do you have a question yeah please um if we found a pot of gold tomorrow when we could build a new school I understand superintendent Bowman that it to still be about a three-year process something like that that's correct so so the time frame that we have to deal with we still have to do something like

074this even though it may not be the most favorable thing to do to the public and and some folks have mentioned that I know um I I would like to add that that's a potentially we we have some good news on that front right it all will depend on the market conditions and and lots of other things but okay as we progress through this you'll see that we do have a potential solution without having to uh build at this point unless of course we get lots more students because of good market conditions and then Tracy you were showing a slide that the process to to think through this took about a year maybe even a little longer than a year in the model is there a margin or a cushion so that you've got a

075a little bit of time before you have to repeat this again should it expand and it sounds like uh it will expand in in the near future so is there a margin in in the model so that it it gives us a little bit of time before we have to react again so we looked at capacities and whatnot and rewinding back to again market conditions at the time we were seeing some early signs of Market downturn on real estate but they weren't being realized at the time so we were proceeding forth if you might re rewind uh remember back to the enrollment presentation where we talked about we were anticipating 12,200 some students and we got 12,25 we we got you know nearly 200 less than we were expecting so we were entering into that

076knowing that with that kind of growth we were going to have to do something especially at the middle level and so therefore we proceeded the best we could with what we had in the time we had again balancing all the different priorities that we can't that we were trying to to fill director Nicholson um are we setting oursel up for I I think of the term setting ourselves up for failure when we're looking at a capacity number but we don't want to hit the capacity I mean I think it's confusing for a lot of people out in the community when I see 700 and it's like we're at 658 we got room but then everybody's saying now you know 90% is where we need to be so are we like is there a better way

077to demonstrate that so that we can say hey this is really where we want to be yeah if we go overboard we can you know we can absorb some some cushion but I when we put that up there again I I think to a lot of people and I understand you know what was just said about the you know the different uh common areas and get into the lunch line and that sort of stuff but I mean it it does add more question than it does answer when we don't provide the full goal is there a better can we do that in the future can we maybe show that I think you make a good a good comment because what we're showing here is actual building capacity not use capacity right which is different but

078that's what we want to go off of we don't want to go off of the building capacity corre so yes okay director Thompson I appreciate you providing the history of kind of how this came to be and all the people that were involved uh as sitting in a kind of board capacity last year going through this uh I will be candid like I felt that the process wasn't very uh as as optimal as it could be uh when I was presented two options and that was it uh the feedback that I was able to provide in my mind wasn't really involved but it's done it's there and so when I look at these numbers right now when I see Cherry View uh you know Christina Huddleston and East viiew at 61 % capacity when they

079could easily be at 80 85% capacity we should have been presented an option where those are because those that that area is landlocked like anyone who lives in this community would know that they're landlocked and there isn't going to be any further development and so when I look at Oak uh Oak Orchard Lake at 77% that can go to 88% so when you when so when we when we so my recommendation as you know you need to complete the rest of this presentation but we've got to um well I hate to do this but we need to put ourselves in a position where we are set to grow where we can scale for growth and without any impact or minimal impact to other students for like 3 four 5 years from now and and I

080get that that it might be a a big change but if we make these minor changes now right from what I'm seeing we're going to make minor changes next year and minor changes next year and so we've got like we can't we can't have kids playing football across the street and they go to different schools they just that doesn't make sense and so my recommendation again and and then I'll pause because you you've got more of the presentation to go through is that there are landlocked areas again like Orchard Lake Christino Hudson those guys should be easily at 80 to 85% capacity and and then we know that High View is going to grow that should have Maybe started at 40 or 50% maybe maybe it didn't need to be at full capacity I'm looking

081at Lake View right now and they're at 84% capacity when we've got Credit River Elco New Market those guys are growing growing so I am discouraged that that uh we went we went through this and and uh and and now we have to go through it again so that that's my two cents like we got to be more thoughtful around this instead of putting Band-Aids on so director Baker I would say 100% agree with that because some of these things were issues that we brought up last year I I have two points um first of all I want to just answer or speak to uh director Nicholson's uh point about the capacity of the buildings and then the percentage you also have to realize that our special programming like that takes up a classroom but

082maybe there's only 12 students in that instead of 24 to 30 and depending on each building and how much special programming it has that would change the capacity for those rooms right and then just also pointing out what um what the middle middle school principal said when we think about a building that's at 90% capacity or close close to 90% capacity how does that impact students and inclusive opportunities so that makes the lunchroom louder that makes the the hallway is more crowded for kids that struggle to get down the hallway anyway so just it impacts everything within the building and then um when I look at those numbers I have looking at the three middle schools like yeah even if we even it out we're still kind of getting close to that 87% capacity in

083each one like we could push some more kids to McGuire and push that up but then I'm looking out what's the point that we need to start discussing additions to the middle schools like we did for the elementary schools mhm absolutely so uh if you see me start twitching direct to Thompson it's because I'm flashing back because all those discussions you're you're you're going through the teams went through all those discussions and the back and the forth and the balancing of the priorities so then how did we land where we landed I mean cuz I only got two options we got tons of stakeholders feedback like if we knew High View was growing why would we even present an option where sure view is half full like like and so let's be candid like if

084Teamworks was the one that provided this guidance like like I would view that as they did a poor job they did cuz we're having this conversation right now okay and and so I voted no last time on this on this because we're going to be in this scenario and so I just I'm done Sharon but I understand your point of view if we can just be thoughtful so that we we set our district in a position where we can scale for growth and make sure that kids can stay connected neighborhoods are connected we know that High View is going to grow we know that K we know that you know uh Lake View and South is going to grow that that would be my my thoughts so AB director Cameron yeah and I would say

085that's um all part of that continuous learning process where we need to learn from what we did before and how we can make it better this coming round um another question with this um going going back to the enrollment presentation um and I'm keenly aware of this because I have a kid in this grade I think the third grade class is that bubble right how when they get to Middle School um I know it goes back down after third but what will those percent capaity is look like for the third grade class or is that coming up that's coming up perfect okay great so the 658 and the 950 what I'm highlighting here in the enrollment is that we actually did see these numbers we just saw them we were seeing them farther out than

086we thought H or that teamwork saw because this is teamwork projections and so if you look at these charts you'll see that the numbers 950 and 658 were in the model they were predicted they were predicted for 26 27 not for 2425 they showed up sooner than we expected okay so that's what you have on the on the left side is model D3 that's the model that was selected and then on the right side model E3 the model that was not selected in the top you have centy Middle School in the bottom you have high view as as a comparison you'll note that in the model that was selected the on the high side and even on the low side of the projections that was 954 for next year not even 2627 that was for

087next year but again it showed up one year earlier than anticipated so you'll see that with E3 if we had chosen to prioritize numbers over uh other priorities then we might have gone with E3 and we would see different story at High View but we would have seen potentially other issues at the other schools which is all of that balancing that we were talking about this here is now going into next year and so we're looking at actual enrollments that we have for next year plus kindergarten projections because we don't have all of the kindergartens we have roughly half of our kindergarteners enrolled for next year so for those of you who don't have your kindergarteners enrolled yet please get them enrolled so that we can better plan for these things uh with the what

088what we're highlighting here is the capacity um versus the act the enrollments that we're uh that are and that are being predicted on the kindergarten side you'll see that High View is at capacity that's a whole new ball game for us we've never gone above 95% in any of our buildings so again I want to give a shout out to all those who are struggling at High View to uh Fit Kids in and give them quality education with these challenges they're doing an amazing job uh Sentry as well with with the capacity for a long time they've been above the 90 90% or close to or above the 90% and they've done an amazing job of working through those issues and challenges okay uh so part of of the refinement process uh we pulled a

089team together to review and address the concerns of overcrowding that we have at High View and centry middle school this team was made up of a cross-section of Representatives including our superintendent we had administrators data Specialists members from transportation and finance as well um together the team thoroughly analyzed the data to assess the situation and determine the best course of action the utilized The Guiding change uh criteria to ensure that our decisions uh were informed and aligned with our district schools there were multiple options that were discussed at our meeting to address the overcrowding cour concerns that we had for next year and for years to come so some of those uh options that we considered was putting on additions uh to buildings and adding perhaps a mobile or modular classroom um with those two

090options um it was a time factor and also a funding Factor um fun it would take over a year um to complete and we wouldn't be able to address the issues for now and for for next year we also discussed magnet programming uh like a gifted program or stem or Spanish emersion programming um and what we discussed around that was that we have um uh studied those and there have been mixed results um in other districts in how well those work and and then we also had an issue with Transportation uh the funding for transportation because we would want to provide transportation for any of those students who elected into that programming and that's an expense as well and so the final um option that we considered was the pre preliminary I can't still can't

091say this preliminary area change process um we um decided that this would be the best way to refine our attendance areas um through a school board approved process it was approved back in uh 2014 and Douglas is going to talk about this um more um in detail um but before I turn it over um I do want to say that this team is going to meet on a more regular basis so that we stay ahead of uh enrollments and um any upcoming um concerns that we might see um this team hadn't met um uh for a while and so we're going to make sure that we meet regularly to stay on top of things director Nicholson so you mentioned 2014 2014 we're going to talk about that next that's the model that you're using or

092the the this is a it's a process that was put in place in 2014 Douglas will expand on that um you mentioned goals what were the goals for the team like what were the what did you guys have as like stated goals for dealing with this process for the refinement team um so we followed the guiding change document and really the goal was to um find um solutions to our overcrowding at both of those schools um with trying not to move current students from their buildings director Thompson yeah director Nicholson I think uh this this may be a good opportunity for the new board to review those guiding principles of 20 list of criteria uh by shortening it shortening it might give you give you guys more flexibility uh in regards to how you want

093to design this um I do see that there's four bullets of multiple options um what I do see all of them is they're Band-Aids and and it doesn't see a drastic change and let me rephrase I don't want to use the word drastic but a correction of where where if you go back to the previous slide we can't have three schools sitting at maybe the one before that if you oh I'm going the wrong way problem we can't we can't have three schools on the far left hand side at 63% from Cherry Hill uh cherry um Christina Hudson and and East VI like those we've got a school building that's at 924 uh student capacity and we're only at 67% and so when you go to the next page we're saying we're going to make

094these minor additions and changes that's not setting our district up to scale for growth and so what I would like if the other board members are in agreement that we've got to fundamentally look at this fairly quickly because if we're going to make any changes I'd rather do it now course correct an error that shouldn't have gotten done last year or shouldn't have been approved last year so that we can make sure that we can move forward together so I I would propose that we get through more of the presentation and and then you can bring that up again if you'd like I just want I mean I feel for where you guys are at right now because we're not very far through your presentation but I also want to just acknowledge that um you

095know it was a very tough process last year and even when I don't think that teamw works um really anticipated the public response to the model because I remember thinking um I don't remember about I remember being worried about High View and Lake View so it's good that Lake View didn't anticipate the crunch that uh we expected but um Century we saw that coming in terms of how people advocated for their neighborhoods and how things changed over time so there is a I think there was an original proposal that was probably most ideal numbers wise um compared to the other two and we did listen to community and in terms of advocacy and things like that so just I want I also want to just um give a little credit where credit's due in terms

096of how the the um public response was received and responded to so thank you thank you thank you okay next one oh the process yes so yes this uh preliminary area change process was something that was introduced in 2014 presented to the board and approved by the board at that time it was called the new develop vment assignment process uh we since uh adjusted that to preliminary area change it was utilized again repeating ourselves over a decade to manage that thousand students of growth over the 10 years uh with additions and with those adjustments the downside of that is we ended up with the patchwork quilt of of a map that we ended up with but we were able to do all that without moving students who were enrolled in the schools uh minimizing that

097disruption so the process is evaluating the predicted enrollment uh versus building capacities getting together with the team reviewing the data recommending and refining changes forwarding that recommendation of the superintendent in this particular process superintendent Balman was at every meeting so he knew all along what the different recommendations would be and what the final recommendation would be and then those changes uh would be brought before the school board as we are here tonight doing uh once that's um made public we then publish those changes out to the website and the maps and everything else so before we show you the maps um we want to take a moment to take you through the guidelines uh that the refinement team has recommended for students everybody um wants to know how um uh what's going to happen with

098their child and so we want to make sure we take you through that first and as I said one of the top priorities was making sure that we didn't move any current students just a note these changes will apply to any student who begins a new school after September 2nd 2025 so this that's the beginning of our new school year um first students who are currently currently enrolled at High View Elementary and Sentry Middle School will continue to attend these schools and transportation will be provided as eligible as we have um thus far incoming kindergarten students into uh hve if they are in the current hve attendance area they can still attend hve unless they choose to attend the new attendance area school again Transportation will be provided um if they're eligible if they attend

099either School sixth grade students any incoming sixth grade students into centry middle school if they're in the attendance area or the current attendance area they may still attend Sentry middle school and and what's coming next Transportation will be provided if they're eligible um students who are new to the district so if a student enrolls in the district after the start of the 2526 school year so starting September 2nd of 2025 they will attend the new attendance area schools and transportation will be provided if they're eligible um this last one was one that I'll be honest our team really struggled with um mean this is around um siblings of current High View or Century Middle School students who are not currently enrolled at High View or centry middle school will attend the new attendance area schools

100remember this is in in effect next year so siblings um will attend the new attendance area schools um just as as a note students who reside in the attendance areas that are impacted by The Adjustment are welcome to transfer to the newly assigned school if if they want to and eligible students will receive transportation and so if you're thinking what what does why would somebody want to do that um let me give you an example of a new kindergartener who is going to be planning to start at High View if I'm a parent of that kindergartener and I also have a four-year-old at home I might want to think about transferring to the new boundary school since siblings will not be grandfathered in and so I don't want to have one student at High View

101and another at East View or Cherry View so it might make sense to me to start uh my kindergartener incoming kindergarten at the new school yeah director Anderson I guess I'm a little I'm wondering about the kindergarten in sixth grade is that because you feel we've already committed if they've enrolled like correct yep our goal was not to move any students who are already enrolled and we've enrolled most of those students already for regist course registrations and for kindergarten enrollment so so what will the relief be from both century and Hi View under this uh proposed adjustment that's coming up director Nicholson what's the eligibility for transportation in these situations so eligibility refers to the whether you're within the8 miles of the Elementary School not in the safety zone you have the option to pay

102or to self transport and then likewise at the middle and high school it's 2 miles yep um again safety zones notwithstanding so it's going to be the normal busing situation yes so we may be having two buses correct okay that is correct hey and last year I believe I'm sorry director Town last year I believe it was uh it was one mile and then we extended it to 2 miles is that my understanding no during the budget oh that was two years ago yeah okay yes okay yeah yeah so we director Anders do we know anything about the difference in numbers like I and I might have to get this from you behind the scenes but Kindergarten and sixth grade versus siblings like I really don't like the idea of siblings going to different schools

103I understand um new enrollment is happening but I also feel like they're not yet at that new school um are what's do you know the comparison of those numbers I know you've been probably we did uh some comparison of those numbers we don't have those in the presentation available for tonight if that's something that you want to see after this presentation we can put that together okay uh next um open enrolled students if you'll remember um from a former presentation our open enrolled students are students who don't reside in our district and who have elected to come to our schools um High View and centry middle school will not accept any new open enrolled students and then uh beginning in 2627 current open- enrolled students entering sixth grade will follow the new school path and

104I'll show you that in just a a second intradistrict transfer students are students who reside in our district but are choosing to go to a school that's outside of their attendance area beginning in 2627 in District transfer students entering sixth grade will also follow the new school path or they can also attend their designated resident school so they can go back to their school um and as a note uh in District transfer will remain open for the 25 26 school year um the the school path here um you will see our elementary schools CH East View Oak Hills and Orchard Lake their school path if this is only if you're open enrolled or inter District transfer this is not for our resident students if you are in one of those schools you will um go

105on the school path to Kenwood Trail Middle School and then to Lakeville South and if you are in Cherry View High View JFK Lake Maran or Lakeville Lake View sorry uh you will go to Maguire middle school and then on to South and you see that we don't have any uh elementary schools feeding into um Sentry middle school and then Sentry will feed into North Nicholson so in terms of open enrolled students how many do we have that are currently sitting in what would it be 5 four3 of elementary schools that are planning to end up in Century Middle School as an open enrolled student with this proposal there would be none no no you're you're talking about new so like how many okay so how many let me ask you this sorry wrong way

106to say that centry Middle School how many open enrolled students do we currently have that are seventh and sixth graders that are already enrolled in that are already enrolled in the school they they will continue to I know they will but what's the number what the number of students is again that's not information that we prepared we can get that number if you need it okay I well I would be curious because we keep talking about moving Lakeville residence and I to my knowledge people who are on the board last year did any of the open enrolled kids where they shifted from my understanding they were always aligned and then they got to go right where they wanted to and we decided to well that's why I'm asking the question so did they move did

107they like how did that work so if they were already enrolled as open enrolled or interd District we treated them both the same then they got to stay in the school that they were in and that was a decision that was discussed at length uh through the process and that was the final determination that we made is that we would leave those where they were can I just clarify one thing on this um slide so students that are going into Century next year that might be currently open enrolled are they going to be allowed to go to Century for this current year going in so yeah the 2025 2026 there were uh I believe one or two students that were allowed to go into Century Middle School again that was something that was discussed through

108our process and and determine that that was okay director Cameron um a question here and this is maybe a broader conversation around like do we see open enrollment as like a competitive or financial benefit to our district I mean I think overall we do I think my only one of my questions here is for some of these elementaries like I I believe um like High View and oills um they their um K12 school is north and so do we see any repercussions in people being interested in doing open enrollment if they don't get to stay with the their their Elementary kind of cohort that they're going to be really mixed up every time I'm just curious we don't know but right any decision we make could trigger that uh where people decide you know I

109want to check out this other school district that's their right um we we're not out to try to stop them we encourage them to stay and and to work with us through through our challenges and and to make things work for the best I think it would help to know how many open world students we're dealing with in these different schools um because that would help make our decisions or rational behind a lot of these questions so yeah if you guys can provide that information that would be great okay a question director Anderson why are there no students going to North with this except for Century because I know the numbers at north and south are I mean not exactly equivalent I know that koodi likes to say how many more students she has but

110um why none going to North one of the marvels of the original boundary that we developed when South open back in 20056 was that we've been within plus or minus 100 of the two different schools and South has been on the positive side almost all those years until this year we anticipated much earlier than that that that flip would happen uh we were surprised it took this long because North encompasses most of the growth area with the exception of the Elco new market growth areas uh the credit River growth areas uh most of the growth areas in Lakeville are in the north uh area so we anticipate that eventually not not only is it now shifted on the positive side it's going to continue to increase that's why we we decided to just keep the

111Sentry flowing into the into the north but not the other two okay numbers charts so uh this is the point at which I dearly Miss uh Jason meski uh who is our technology director uh many years ago and then uh Andrew Baron who was our data analysis uh director uh prior to uh Tracy joining us and uh this was their wheelhouse this was something they lived and breathed and loved I am working off of the models uh that they built and doing my best to refine and adjust and improve and so on the left hand side well bottom line on front bluff if you've ever heard of that uh d uh superintendent Balman loves that concept Bluff okay if you want Bluff you look to the lower right corner that's the bottom line up front

112Okay bottom right corner new development recommend changes not grandfathering siblings that's the bottom line that's where we're going uh with with these discussions okay I put the rest of that up there not to overwhelm but to show that there was a lot of data analysis put into this we broke it down broke down the new housing counts by type single family apartment Town Homes attached Town Homes detached town homes so on and so forth we analyzed how many students that we get on average from those different uh types and also from the different areas for example um I I want to get this right Choke Cherry Hill I believe if I can remember right we averaged about7 students out of The Choke Cherry Hill which is very near the Summerland neighborhoods where we got 1.24

113students we got more than one student out of that so there are different Dynamic factors housing size uh price point uh lots of different factors go in there and we continue to try to incorporate more and more of that data into our analysis as we come up with these charts the chart on the left shows development as it would be if everything was built up all the families were moved in and all the children showed up at our school within a year or two that's what those numbers would be we know that's not going to happen we know that the houses take time to be built takes time to get sold takes time for the families to to move in and for the students to finally uh show up and attend our schools so that's

114where the chart on the Right comes in that's where we broke it down by 5 years you can see on the chart on the left the 120% uh concern uh for High View and the 94% concern for Lake Maran U you'll see that over the 5 years that all that is less of a concern when we analyze it differently that that is not as much of a concern uh that it never actually reaches 90% so we're not recommending any changes for Lake Maran at this point the next chart down on the on the left hand side shows then if we make these proposed changes for not counting siblings or anything else what would that look like and you can see that even there uh we're still at around 100% uh capacity concerned with High View

115so go moving on to the right uh we've got showing the iterations from this is cohort only not considering any new developments new students showing up the next one shows um adding in the new developments without any changes the next one shows okay let's make the changes but let's grandfather the students in and you can see uh lots of red still there still over 100% uh and then not grandfathering the students how that gradually over time will get us down to a more reasonable level at High View and that's why we're making the recommend recommended changes at this point all right these are the can you go back to that previous slide y so if all of the development was done and children moved in no kids are moving into Cherry View or Christino Huddleston

116mhm all right and the only two that's being impacted with all the development that's being done is East View and High View that's it uh High View and Lake Marion yes or High View and Lake Marion well Lake Mar is at 94% right from from the one above and below it's it's the same it's the same because we didn't recommend any changes correct okay yes so we're going to leave 5 to 10 schools at Fair capacity well let me rephrase that not bare capacity but the recommendation is leaving those at 637 6 77% capacity to fix High View and let that continue to run at 101% okay that that is one way to look at it the the other way to look at it is again prioritizing the minimizing of the disruptions to to look

117at a larger map and incorporate changes across the board would be a process of more of what we went through last year are you looking at this as a long-term f fix or how many years would you think this would um hold us off before we need to make major adjustments great question again we're working off of predictions what we think will be Market housing market conditions will drive how close or how far off we're going to be with this this with the information that we currently have is our best estimate uh while minimizing those disruptions so we do look at the permitting uh work with Justin Miller and uh Tom Terry Who's down in Alco New Market uh and we we gauge that uh I met with them last month um on this very

118matter because the one thing I don't want to have is permitting explode and we don't know about it um so that that's right now the both of them are telling me they're pretty much steady state around the 300 mark uh in in Lakeville uh they don't see that growing uh exponentially or rapidly but that's how we would stay plugged into that uh with regard to knowing what the housing is and then of course you need to know the type so there's there's those factors as well okay so on to the maps and while we're on the maps I do want to shout out to esri or ezri as it sometimes referred to they are a large GIS system provider uh to many corporations and other organizations they provide their products to us at no charge

119as a K12 instructional institution so we are able to minimize our cost on being able to generate these Maps I also want to give a shout out to uh former technology coordinator Greg Utch who trained me in on how to use this system and I appreciate the time he invested in me on that all right uh so what we have here is the current map and then if we pull in on the right side there the changes that um are being posed we have East View extending over uh on the North and the West End onto the east side of High View itself a little bit and then Cherry View pulling it down a little bit into the South uh from where it currently stands uh up in the what do I want to say

120the dod High View kind of corner and then down below uh extending into any potential development areas uh as has been pointed out it's a larger building it has much more capacity to handle any potential future growth that might come in there and the the odds are that's where the growth is going to come so for the middle it's the charts again uh I say they're tip of the iceberg there are many more uh different charts I did not want to uh e neither overwhelm nor bore you to death with all the different charts so I just wanted to again show you some of the process we went through the bluff the bottom line up front lower right corner where we do see over the five years we have a reasonable chance uh using this

121process to actually level out the buildings much better and actually flip Maguire and Sentry uh for the first time in a very long time where Sentry is in the green where they're less than 90% again all depend on housing market conditions and growth director Thompson so are you forecasting that there is there is a based on your for projections there is not a need for a fourth Middle School unless the market heats up so much that we're seeing lots and lots of houses going up again I that is what I am seeing yes can I ask a question about that what um what is the timeline with how houses the permits go and the houses get built versus the time that we need to build a school oh build a school let's say really the

122market did cook up and uh I I can answer on the side of you know from the permitting to the family moving in and entering our schools is roughly a four-year process some are a little bit quicker some are a little bit longer but roughly four three to four years Bill did you want to talk about 36 months to 48 uh middle school is going to be maybe a little longer than a uh a elementary school and we we know uh we know that but the more important thing is to see it coming and do you have your uh sensors out that are picking up and and knowing that along with these timelines um and and I I feel very strongly we have that in place and forcasting out to 2030 to to try to

123look at this um and again trying everything we can on God's green earth to be sensitive to our families but also steady state for our kids to the extent that we can with a growth challenge in front of us and trying to hit that balance exactly right sure we could do radical shift I've been in the community for 20 years I don't think our our community absorbs that very well and I just trying to beu sensitive to that maybe I'm too sensitive cuz I do live in the community but I also think our kids need to have that stability to the extent that we can we can offer it I I can tell you I grew up in a military family I went to Four elementary schools in three countries um and I got ruined

124no I'm kidding I I'm just saying it's it's a tough thing and and that's not that's not who we are in Lakeville Lakeville we try to be as as steady as we can it also I think is better for learning I I I don't think too many people will find research that tells you differently um and I think everybody here is very compassionate about that this is a very ugly problem to have so if if we're going to do a radical change and absorb that we we really have to you have to hit the mark where you're and feathered out of town and I'm trying to not get and feathered out of town so just because I want the as steady state as we can get for our kids and that's why we're looking at

125it five years out that's why we're trying to figure out the housing and stay tuned into that and um you know the the biggest issue I've heard and I really want to go back and look at this very closely was the issue of you know on this side of the street one thing is happening on the other side another thing is happening um you know we were trying to be real careful about not moving moving as few kids as possible but that's another scenario here's another thing I know you know we got this is one city Two Kitties and the Two Kitties they argue a lot and um you know at the at the peee level they're going through Sports and they're going through activities and stuff and they're doing that in the community and

126it's setting a culture that you know I go to this school and then I go go to this school and then I become a cougar and we're going to we're going to beat North at state or whatever I get that and we all should get that um so we don't want to do that kind of thing but in at the end of the day do we want to pay more taxes to build more buildings and we have empty space we can't do that either okay I just want to say that okay okay director Cameron I appreciate those comments um superintendent um looking at this um I think this addresses maybe my earlier question about the third grade bubble poent or part of it um so maybe this is a question to you Michael um when

127we see numbers like close to 98% at Century for a couple of years or even 90 over 95 almost 96 at um Kenwood I'm assuming that means higher class size it because the end of the day you can only fit so many kidss in a room and so you got to pack them all into the same size room is that is that a fair way to kind of look at these high numbers to say if we can distribute this better classes might be more even across the district distribution would necessarily uh relieve that particular problem but you know I always like to say it it it's not things that we're Distributing because that's an easy math problem right these are people and that's where the complexity comes in so everything you're saying is is right

128do we do we Rite how do we how do we navigate through that and minimize disruption because there's a whole social element to this too I know you know that and if you zero in on the bluff the bottom right you'll you'll see in 2006 they enter sixth grade and then you track them down through seventh and through eighth grade they are included in that okay can I follow up that really quick yeah thank you um I think so I was on the area attendance input team the 50 person team whatever that one was called um and so um I feel like I've um looked at a lot of this um for quite a while now and I think not I I don't want to um kind of Go off into like philosophy but I

129what I'm hearing to and I appreciate what Michael said earlier is that like at the end of the day we have to figure out some movement in the district and that is hard um but that's inevitable um and it will continue to be inevitable with a growing District I mean that's a blessing and a curse right I think something that our community should also um remember is that current students even before any attendance during the 10-year period that you mentioned we have many elementaries where kids are splitting middle schools we have many and then Kenwood splits high school so there are some schools where like a a child will follow with all their peers through the three levels but for many of our students that's not the current reality as it exists today and then

130also I think because of how our schools were built and there's I'm sure great reason at the time there are they are very geographically close as as you mentioned Tracy and so I think um like to use my family as example um the middle school that we will go to currently assigned is not the closest middle school and so proximity to school um I think is a goal but it's not necessarily how School assignments can ultimately be designed for every family and that's something I think to to know and that's how many families currently exist in our current model their Clos to school physically is not the one that they're assigned to okay um just to piggyback off of director Anderson's uh question we talked about the timeline for building new buildings but is the

131timeline similar for building additions look at Bill yes building an addition though it's smaller it still takes about the same amount of time to build same with when trying to get money put together to do it you still have the bond issue you have all the the specs put together to put that building together so yes it's about the same okay all right okay so on to the middle area adjustment Maps we have the current again on the right and then coming up on the left I'm sorry left now right are the uh recommended adjustments you'll see that there is a large expansion for the Maguire Middle School area uh again no changes recommended or proposed or being enacted for high school this is just for the middle school and then a very smaller portion

132for Kenwood Trail and that would lead us back to the numbers that you saw in the bottom right to the previous with the charts just is the purple is that Kenwood or is that Maguire okay the the purple is the salmon extending up into uh the the through the century and up into the the maps that we'll be putting out uh will be much clearer than that so the purple is Maguire yes that's our that's not our district that's finging that's yeah that's our our uh legislative mandated boundary that bumps in and out yes yeah director Thompson are so if you if you were so if you're at centry middle school and then you're going to Maguire uh you are still going to the same high school yes correct all right so no one's changing

133high schools correct so you can still vote you can still be your cougar Panther yes so we're good there so we're just impacting except for open or in District en except for in District got it following that path again emphasizing that intr District uh will continue to be an option as far as we know going into next year and the following year so this just impacting Elementary Middle School and and again hey I I I get it and and kids are resilient and you got to give them the little bit of benefit of the doubt I mean they're getting new teachers every year new classmates every year in my mind they don't they probably don't I'm sure they care which school they go to parents probably care more so than than the students as long

134as the students are going to school with their friends in their neighborhood that's what counts and so I'm looking at this right guys and it's like and I appreciate this option to look at uh but I would love to see another option and and and and I'm not sure when we have that conversation with the board but we I'll wait until you guys finish your presentation can I can I just ask about the sorry yeah can I ask about the uh preliminary area for Maguire that was that area would go to McGuire but then that's North isn't it that is the north Lakeville North Area yes north of County 50 mhm okay yes so it kind of be become Maguire would be similar to Kenwood where we're sping yes so one one of the things

135that I do want to highlight with the map is we tried to preserve we tried not to do the patchwork quilt that we did previously we tried to preserve more continuous lines in this proposal than we had in the past again continuously improving trying to learn from from the past director Nicholson do we do you have any sort of the numbers in terms of like how many people go to say and I know eastw was kind of in the the mix last time but it was like you know East viiew and then would' go to Kenwood and then would go back to North like how many of those scenarios I mean are there still a handful of those I mean how many kids are actually impacted by that where they end up going to you

136know kind of the you know the feeder school that would maybe go south and they've been you know with a elementary school that was you know kind of lined up going to North their middle school ends up going to you know 80% of them end up going to South but they're in that one little pocket that then shoots back over to North and I and I know that that's that was a big one for like my neighborhood like a lot of people were like wait a minute we you know you're going to bust us around and then we're back to North and like it it was this is my family right this is my family in terms of the pocket yeah um it's I think less and principal a here is here too but we're

137in the less than 10% I believe at Vu that goes to Kenwood and then goes to north um so that was a transition with the boundary changes last so how much of that happens because I I'd love to know those numbers and I know you probably don't have them off top of your head here but like I'm curious to know how much we do that because it okay I mean that it's just just it's just juggling and and you know I'm curious if some of those Pockets could be carved out back one way you know move a different pocket back the other way to balance it out I'm just curious to and we did have those numbers for the previous process for this process we haven't crunched those numbers but we can certainly put those

138together and get them appreciate it director Cameron um I don't I tried to pull up the guiding um framew document that you referenced um from the last iteration and I couldn't find it quickly but if I'm remembering correctly I feel like one of the items was to try to create Pathways as much as possible um realizing that currently Kenwood splits um and there's many elementaries that split my ours is also one um so I don't know I mean maybe to Brett's Point here is there a way and I'm cognizant of demographics and busing and everything but is there a way to create the I think splitting two middle schools into two high schools seems I I don't know if like splitting more kids is like the best model um even though I realize that onethird

139of our kids are split no matter what happens in the current model um it seems like if if you're going to do that to two all middle schools then should split into both high schools like let's make it an equitable experience in terms of social social um emotional um for our kids and with friends and I don't I don't I'm not proposing that necessarily but it does seem like we're preferencing one middle over the other two in terms of um of social structures sure so again that would be a more comprehensive process uh that would then be putting everything back on the table and re-evaluating uh and would be more of a process like what we did last year than what we're pushing uh recommending this time yes director Thompson hey um director Baker can

140you remind me I think this last year we were informed that uh previously it was the school board that did boundary changes not a third- party entity who didn't know our district and so last year was the first time we did this correct yeah first time that we used a a consultant correct yes last last year was the first time that we but but previously it was the school board's discre or authority to do these changes and well with with input from the administration and city council and various folks that were part of the part of the process so yes and no the the process wasn't really significantly different in the sense that we did have uh one or two board members in involved in the design team process it wasn't called that at the

141time but it was a very similar process and then feedback was garnered and and uh very similar to what we did last year uh so yes there were board representative board members involved at that level at that time but it wasn't where one model was brought before the board and then up or down and then brought back up or down brought back it it was where we reached the point where this is the model we think best meets the needs and then it was presented to the full board M for clarity board members were not involved in that kind of model last year in this in this last transaction my recollection is the board members that were able to did attend the input sessions but no they were not part of the design team aspect

142of it two two additional questions and you just want to um do we have did we save any money with Transportation with the new changes and then lastly for back to you how many kids is this going to impact overall in in this proposal and and just to clarify we attended the input sessions but we were not involved in the conversation we were observing only so I would say like involvement is very Loosely used there zero process zero yes yes there was some savings and busting because we weren't you know driving by a couple different buildings with kids from a different part of the um you know District so yes I believe there are two buses that we saved when we after we drew the line the new lines how would you what would how

143would you quantify that like are we looking at $50,000 in savings $500,000 in savings one one bus cost us 80,000 a year okay so0 and then how many kids are going to be impacted in elementary middle school with this okay so we did uh calculate that there would be 74 siblings that are not currently enrolled uh in in High View that would be future impacted uh and 154 siblings Elementary or younger siblings uh of century that would be future impacted for a total of 228 siblings again no current students enrolled would be moved unless they wanted to that's it we don't have anything more dare dare we ask more any other questions thank you for for sticking with us through that I really appreciate it I assume we'll have more discussion on this at a

144later time but once we gather some more information that's a great assumption and accurate um and and to director Thompson's question um or not question state um love an opportunity to talk to the board about direct interaction with this um in in order to get at the right solution I will turn every stone listen to every comment uh accept every criticism to get to the right place I just want to say that out loud director Thompson so what was the the the drop dead drop dead date where this has to be decided this year do was it end of June or is there a pro a request by like May or end of April well we we would need a i i I'll I'll uh assess a date um that's backwards planned based on communicating

145to our community uh you obviously don't want to go into the school year without that being notified and that enrollment processes can can um articulate so I I I will look at that and get you a precise answer all right we'll move on um it's not on the director's agenda but it is up on the board uh we're going to move on to the first readings of uh policy 606 or revisions there too and 613 Miss Alber good evening chair Swanson superintendent Balman and members of the school board you have before you this evening a first reading of policy 606 which is textbooks instructional materials and policy 613 which is graduation requirements changes throughout the policies are minor and have been reviewed by the policy committee this is a first reading and no action is

146necessary any questions or comments I had a question more just recalling for the the committee um on page 66-1 did we want to keep meet or exceed required standards under Section 3B 2 director Cameron um I believe at our meeting we discussed leaving it that that was fine leaving it cut cut out or leaving it in leave it as as is that how this reads that's what I have in my notes as well to like retain it right yes okay is that a better way to say yes so we just have to change that in the red line is it red line it is red line rightless there's a clean version He Man director Thompson so um I I am not as prepared on this particular one so I apologize the the curriculum the textbooks

147and instructional materials policy 606 uh the the state of Minnesota has given the Authority for the Board of Education or the school board to to make the final call on all curriculum and and so forth and while I am not a curriculum expert we have a um an advisory Council called the teaching and learning Council or group that that reviews and and stuff of that nature um I I'd love to be able to get further awareness of curriculum that is being tested how how the results are being done before it actually comes to the table saying hey we want to recommend this program and and so I'm using myself as as an example because when we approved the bridges curriculum fourth and fifth grade last year uh there was minimal discussion around what is it

148how effective is it how is it compared to like I don't know I'm just making it up is it Singapore math or some other math and and I'm not saying Bridges is a bad math program because I just don't know but I'd love to as a board and maybe I'll take some additional time to review this again and come back next week but I would like the board to be able to have a further awareness of we're going to kick this off here's what we're looking at so incremental checkpoints so that we're not waiting to the very end to say hey here's what we're choosing and then we have to approve it so director kbone yeah and and to your point uh d director Thompson one of the things we were talking about a meeting

149or two ago were data analytics metrics to try and understand if if there really was outcome Improvement on on uh curriculums and so forth and you know I I think we need to have that conversation further to understand what it is in the curriculum that's successful or not successful so that we can determine what's the best approach to uh what we're spending millions and millions of dollars on I I will say one thing I I believe a couple of our board members will be sitting on the teaching and learning committee as well so that might provide a little insight and then hopefully whenever proposal is made to the board we could also dig in at that time but director Cameron um I think this is a a great conversation I I don't feel like it's

150the policy though that needs to get updated regarding this conversation so I'm thinking like we bring teach and learning back to continue this dialogue but I don't think the policy will change as a result of what we're discussing correct well I believe I think you're right I mean I'm I'm I'm skimming through it right now because uh but it does say that the superintendent shall be responsible for keeping the bo the school board informed of progress on the part of the staff and others involved in the textbooks and other instructional materials and and I think with super intell with superintend intendent Bowman here I I Envision that that would be satisfactory to to the school board based on pre compared to previous years yeah and if I may just say to uh director Thompson to

151your point so that that requirement has already been levied to me uh and I think uh in our board coordination meetings we have slated uh that on on our um agendas our upcoming agenda so Roger tracking got thank you sir and I just want to point out we've had pretty pretty massive overhaul of curriculum for both math and well with math given how outdated things were but also with the reduct so it's something that I think we have to let kind of play out and see how it impacts our test scores and grades and things like that right yeah D kbone yeah and and um director Anderson back to the the comment you just made what was what's the time frame been since we made curriculum changes and and looking at outcomes is is it

1526 months a year two months I don't have that for you that is not under my purview but I can find out and bring that back for you it's It's tricky because we have them flipped too so like the K through three or whatever is working on I forget if it's redact and or K through 2 and 3 through five are working on Ma so then next year it will flip where they switch curriculum and so I think we just this is going to be a time thing where not everybody's having all the same or not all the grades are having all the same curriculum changes this year so it's just going to take some time any questions on the other policy 613 all right we'll stop asking you teaching and learning questions and uh

153and move on thank you uh any board reports Dr Cameron um thank you I have I have a bunch of things that I've been able to do in the last couple weeks and it's been really great um my family and I attended the Lakeville science show um which was just really awesome to see the AP um science students uh doing chemistry on stage and my kids already want to um try to create elephant toothpaste at home so we went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of um ingredients and so just really great um for kids to learn how to do like science translation I work at the University and that's a big big thing that we talk about so that's great um I also attended the speech tournament with with Brett and Carly

154um we divy up and went to different events I went to the storytelling um and it's just amazing what what how these kids can um get up and and present these stories they have 30 minutes to um write a story from scratch and um present it um and so um I went to the finals and saw one one Lakeville North student compete in the finals for that event and then that same weekend went to the guard competition show that was held at Lakeville north um never been to a um uh competition like that before that was uh great um I think what really showed is that Lakeville has um I think it's the largest someone can correct me thank you the largest guard um uh uh program in the state um and so it was

155really great to see at the end there was an exhibition of the elementary middle and high school teams and it was I grew up in dance and so I could at least appreciate um the performances in terms of technicality and it was just clear how much more advanced our programs are here are in Lakeville so um that was really great to to be there for um and then the other thing I was able to last week attend the Community Education advisory Council um and at that meeting we had a presentation By The River Valley Project Explorer um which is part of our community aded but also we a member of a five district Consortium that offers um adults with disabilities programming um age 18 and older um it's a very robust program um that's been

156operating since 1991 and I think the the main things coming out of this was that um since 1991 the program only received about 13,000 in state funding um and then local levies supplemented some of the programming um but last year with uh the legislature approved a per capita funding model and so having many many people participate in this program as part of our Consortium um the project to explore was very excited that they'll be getting much more funding to offer better programming for um residents in our community um and that as a result of that um local Levy won't be um needed any longer to support the program so um that was a great presentation and we have many people living in the 194 boundaries who participate in that program thank you yeah director Carbone

157uh yes I've recently attended a Tent Maker breakfast and uh superintendent Balman was the keynote speaker uh and despite him saying he was ruined as a child I I have to I have to say he did a very nice job and we got a lot of good Community Goodwill out of IT director Baker uh so we had our 9917 meeting for this month and one of the highlights of the board meeting was having uh the four of the teachers that they had um for international hiring this year um come and present to the board and just tell us about their EXP experience of coming from another country into our country to teach um it's been something that uh 9117 has been presenting Statewide um to several several other districts about how they have developed this

158program and they're bringing in international hires um it was amazing because they they were able to bring in their families as well um the support that the district has offered offered to them to to be able to bring them here and I think it's um it's something that when we think about the shortage of teachers in special education um this is an area in which we can also increase diversity within our districts but also you know fill High needs positions um I I have to give credit to former board member uh director Anderson because David Anderson sorry um because he was part of the uh program of bringing these uh teachers in and helped support it so it was kind of cool to see the fruition of that um original plan and bringing these teachers

159in and I do know that director or sorry director superintendent Bowman um has been talking to uh the superintendent in 917 too about that so thanks for looking out for that and trying to find uh creative ways to hire um and also to fulfill our needs in our district and make sure that our that our students of um different ethnicities and cultures also have teachers that look like them so I thought that was just kind of a cool bonus with it so it was a really neat meeting director Anderson I'll just jump and say I I went to the Arena's board meeting and that's a collaboration with us in the city and so it's was nice to see our city administrator Justin Miller and one of our um Council people U Michelle vog um and

160then some representation from the Arenas and they are doing very well um and one of the exciting things they hosted I believe it was their first peeeee Regional Tournament um unfortunately Lakeville South and North did not make it so that's unfortunate but good thing for our city to be bringing um teams in and have holding those kinds of events so they seem to be doing well director Thompson hi did not go anywhere um but but my son was in Deca and made it to State and a big shout out to Lakeville South Mr saan for doing a fantastic job at the de for the DECA program down there uh I do not have a board report but I do have a promotion for the upcoming home and Landscape Community Expo that is going to be

161at Lakeville North this weekend uh the school board will have a booth there so if you want to come say hi it we be there um but maybe more interesting will be the young entrepreneur entrepreneurs section uh which will be comprised of students from our schools they'll be in the auxiliary gym um so stop by buy some of the stuff that they've made uh and support students superintendent report just a brief one um so I think if everybody was tracking the weather Lakeville is out of the blizzard zone so um I consider that great news uh just because I wasn't going to go to bed tonight at all and I still might not go to bed tonight at all cuz we're not done yet um the the uh obviously if I wake up tomorrow and

162I can't push the door to get my dog out or Gary amoroso's dogs out um I don't know if people know about that joke but anyway uh then of course I'll have to deal with uh calling school and dealing with that U because it obviously the snow would be over 9 in so hopefully that's not going to happen and I just wanted to let everybody know you know we were trying to deal with that a little bit and I'm very grateful that uh whatever it is jet stream AI I don't know what but it moves further south and uh you know I know we do have some staff coming in from the south so we'll have to give them some quarter tomorrow so just wanted to share that and uh let's move along all right

163uh next up recommended action medical and dental renewal um Brenda elri and Aon Casper yes you have before you this evening the um recommended renewal for our medical and dental plans for the 24 uh excuse me 25 26 plan year the insurance committee met throughout the 2425 school year with representatives from National Insurance Services to review the self-funded medical insurance plan for performance the administration recommends a rate increase of 5% for the 2526 plan year it should be noted that given the cost sharing formula that is standard in the district district collective bargaining agreements and employment agreements the district's share of the increase will be 2 and a half% and the employees share will be 2 and a half% and Aaron Casper from NIS will present an overview of the plan performance and updates turn

164that over to you all right thank you very much Brenda uh Cher Swanson superintendent Balman members of the board thanks for having me this evening um I will just preface this before I go into the um kind of our market update and our specifics regarding Lakeville I wish every one of my clients was like this so just want to preface that um I'm just going to jump in and then I'll certainly take questions um as as I'm going um really just to give an overview of the market um obviously the medical insurance represents the second largest budget bucket here at the district outside of salaries um so it's important that we have a viable sustainable program for attraction and retention um and I would I would argue that we've certainly done that um in the

165four years that we've been self-insured um we've actually met some targets and I'll share those here in a second that um early so that's good uh in the market overall uh there has been um still a reset in the fully insured and the the pooled environment um there's still a lot of volatility in the marketplace and that primarily has to do with the fact that claims have been going up um pretty much across the board um so we're seeing that we're seeing continued utilization in the mental health H category we're seeing um a transition gradually into the virtual environment where um it's more efficient for individuals to go ahead and have access to that care at least um maybe even as a stop Gap uh to being able to get in front of a a

166physical practitioner um and that's certainly a cost savings mechanism um for for entities as well um and then finally um in the market update that the specialty drug class category is continuing to grow at quite a bit um quite a bit of a heavy Trend um so i' would say the you know I'm talking about like the gp1s that you've seen advertise the woves the Zep bounds the oics those types of things and we're no different here um here at Lakeville area schools um some positive notes Here uh our our healthiest U program which is our version of the uh uh virtual access for our employees and their dependence has has done extremely well we're going to be finishing up on 3 years of providing this uh service to our employees and so far through

167the 30 months so we're not quite end ended uh through June of 25 um we've saved real dollars in terms of cost taking away from our self-insured medical plan along with fees that we've been able to negotiate with um with our TPA Blue Cross Blue Shield um a little under $1.6 million so that is uh definitely a shining star um for Lakeville area schools uh additionally we have a program that is um that we deployed uh a little over uh two years ago now when it comes to the end of June um through Solarte Health it's called an amplify Network basically where individual employees can have um no cost access to certain providers for certain conditions it's a cash price type model um it doesn't hit our aware Network through Blue Cross Blue Shield so

168we're able to go ahead save uh the net savings and for that um the uh $952,000 there represents actually a calendar year so we look at these things all the time we still find typos so that should be January 2024 through December 2024 so that $952,000 is an annualized um figure um specifically for our medical plan uh 12 months of claims um were basically $25.5 million compared to 26.5 million the the prior year uh it's important because we look at 24 months of total claims to develop our renewals uh our medical spend represents um 69% as opposed to last year 76% and the pharmacy uh 31% this year versus 24% last year uh claims over $50,000 uh$ 15 million um claims under $50,000 represent 9.8 million and then um we received approximately $1.3 million in

169pH rebates we'd like to see that number actually small because that means we're using less specialty and brand drugs but be as at May 1.3 million has come back um $200,000 is our specific stop loss so we won't pay any more than $200,000 in our plan if someone has a claim that's over that so if you have a $500,000 claim we've got that stop-loss protection at 200 we pay it and then that 300,000 differential would be picked up by stop loss director Thompson yeah yeah so uh with that $200,000 does that mean that the $25 million in medical expenditures uh that we spent like that we capped it at 200 or it's a 25 way above and beyond and but we only paid 200 so then our spend is actually lot that's a great question

170director Thompson essentially we removed through stop-loss protection of that $200,000 amount approximately a million doll in our in our current plan year so so then our overall cost would have been 26.5 million is that what my understanding then yeah so let me let me I thought this question might come up so I'm ready for you so so our total claims in our most recent time frame uh 24.4 million or excuse me $25.4 million approximately our claims capture due to that $200,000 in stop loss is just slightly over a millionar a million 55,000 so when when we net it out our claims capture claims are 24.2 million or 20 20 4.4 million so we basically subtract that and then we are using that $24.4 million for our renewal calculation yeah so that the the percentage difference

171were where if if our school district our our our employees are spending or are utilizing $25 million worth of medical expenditures uh 30% is coming from Pharmacy is that what I'm reading this I mean we're spending let me rephrase that $7.6 million is being spent on Pharmacy and so how do we like how do we make sure like let me that is that normal and because that seems yeah you know when we approach a when we approach a 30% level or more that's I mean we kind of pay attention I mean we're paying attention to it all the time but when that goes over 30% um we focus in on that and we're doing that now I mean we've been doing really good work uh with the representative Insurance committee and the district Administration staff

172the by Brenda and Bill and um you know we're looking at that I would say uh what I was going to share here momentarily is that as a part of our renewal we're still continuing and we have done this previously continuing to evaluate like Pharmacy carots where we can go ahead and deploy uh programs or uh cost saving strategies that can actually lower our costs and try to provide some Cost Containment yeah so we're actively doing that director Carbone yeah I'm sure that Blue Cross and Blue Shield looks at the most frequent types of claims you know like maybe the the top five frequency of claims that that Strat is across the all the claims data um maybe they look at creating incentives to try and and negate some of that can you share some

173of that with us sure director Carone I what I would what I would how I'd answer that is the vast I mean I would reference the 8020 rule right um so 20 % of our population is driving 80 80% of our cost right so we need we need the good risk to to capture the the the folks that are are utilizing the program and who knows whenever one of us might be in that situation right so we need we need um solid Revenue consistent Revenue to be able to provide for that um when we take a look at detailed utilization reports at a group like Lakeville area schools and any other District the vast majority of our of our claims cost is going to come from high cost claimants that are typically going to be

174um benefited through stop-loss utilization right and pharmaceutical specifically that specialty drug category as well as some brand drugs um in particular for us and other districts um the gop1 category so it's it's pretty consistent um throughout and to to answer director Thompson's question again on the that mix it's we've seen the mix between medical spend and pharmaceutical spend you know 7525 up to 8020 kind of right in there um yeah 30 30's 30 is pushing high right director Thompson and what what another driving Factor towards that would be the uh the design of the plant itself uh could that be D driving wide that might that number might be high itself cuz I can tell I mean there is in a school board member that's part of the the health plan or health insurance benefit

175design committee like we don't sit on that and so you've got those that are part of the representative are making those decisions uh and and then you guys bring it forward and then we vote Yes or No to approve it or not and so does the health plan itself um have limitations so that there that Alternatives or generics are being suggested to help reduce some of those costs which then ultimately reduce the cost for these insurance plans for our employees yeah so that's a great question uh director Thompson um the plan designs themselves so the individual plans that employees have the option to select not so much and the and the reason is if you you've worked through an example with me um you know if I'm a high cost claimant and I come down

176with cancer and I'm a I'm a $400,000 claimant it really doesn't matter too much if I'm in the traditional $20 co-pay plan or if I'm in the $4,000 High deductible Health Plan now there's there's some incremental gain there because the employee is sharing on that deductible or they're out of pocket but at the end of the day the the the the plan itself is picking up the lon share of that expense so that's on the medical side if we shift over to the pharmaceutical side this is where we're we've consistently taken a look at different programs to try to go ahead and keep those costs down we're still evaluating those today but this is where we're looking at you know repatriation of of uh far Pharmaceuticals right so they they're manufactured here they leave the

177United States they're repatriated back and at a discount right now with tariffs kind of where it's at and in the news today I don't know where that's going to shake out um but we're continuing to take a look at that and we have looked at that um what we're doing now specifically on the pharmacy side is really evaluating which we've done in the past is evaluating a carve out where we would kind of move away from the Blue Cross Blue Shield provided model for Pharmaceutical and go into the open market for efficiency transparency and ultimately cost savings and uh to leverage programs that may not be available um under the our current TPA Blue Cross Blue Shields uh umbrella moving moving back a slide uh just looking at the amplify and healthiest U what's the

178growth that you're seeing those two programs yeah so I think uh right now for we we're seeing a amplify that utilization continue to take up we're seeing a a leveling off in the virtual care but really the leveling off for us on an annualized basis is you know we're we're approaching you know $800,000 or you know 400,000 per you know every six months so we're we've definitely done extremely well in that program uh we work with eight out of 10 school districts in Minnesota roughly a third on the medical insurance whatever the model may be self-insurance insed fully insured or in a pooled environment and I'd tell you Lakeville area uh schools is one of the the highest performing uh districts actually the vendor that provides this tedoc um has seen in their public sector

179book of business in the country so I would credit that to a couple things number one um there was early adoption in the representative uh Insurance committee and there's really been a collaborative approach with District ad Administration and the various uh Representatives within that committee that have really pushed that out um and really created opportunities to have one-on-one interactions and education for staff at the various buildings throughout the district if people don't know about it they're not going to use it um so we've really seen an uptick in that um and I would say that that's driven driven the utilization which is fantastic I mean think about it um we've had you know over a million dollars of claims redirection on our plan do you see any schools um incentivizing use of those programs just

180to drive up the use and participation yeah cheer Swanson I I really haven't um in the groups that we work with which is probably 15 to 20 um districts that have deployed this type of strategy uh with only two notable districts not having success with it and really I can speak to those why uh transition in in staff um and not really getting the word out uh so the other ones um have done very well with it uh we haven't needed to incentivize it and and the reason being is that it's zero cost for an employee to either pick up the phone or access a tablet or a smartphone to access a general practitioner for general medicine uh a mental health provider practitioner based on their need uh in that particular category a dermatologist um

181a nutritionist a dietitian um or second opinion in a specific ific um area of need basic based on a diagnosis Andor physical therapy so um we really haven't had to do it um just really educate people but but I guess my question to follow up on that would be what is the cost savings to the district if they're making that appointment via T Health versus going in and seeing the doctor like a nutritionist for example so great great question so really if you think about it this way general medicine is the largest category of utilization within our virtual offering um instead of of me going and seeing a uh a general practitioner right for let's say strp throat or just not feeling well that cost a give or take generally accepted depending on where we're

182at let's say that cost costs $250 right so that's $250 that by me not going there is not hitting our plan now if it's prior to the deductible the employee is saving that if it's after the deductible then certainly the plan is saving that but what we're really doing is we're creating and driving a consumerism mindset within those employees because a it's convenient for them and B it's saving them money either their own deductible or uh spilling over into our plan Plan cost so it's um just that alone has driven the utilization director Cameron um I just want to it's not a question but commend the district your effort I think the HR department and also um members of the insurance committee for making us a standout um District in this work I think it

183shows great partnership between um district office and our bargaining units like leaf and EML who are really trying to help our district save money so I appreciate um kind of this Collective effort on behalf of um on behalf of the district and ultimately um the Lakeville Community yeah thank you director Cameron director Thompson yeah I think two years ago when when when when I started I think you guys launched health health ASU and and there was a huge uptake in the utilization from our District staff and I think that's fantastic uh the more virtual options does ultimately make it a little bit less expensive for or reduces our overall claims cost like I said I think it was about 25 million that we spent uh if not for health ESU it could have been 26

18427 million so while we redirected a million dollar that's great but then why are we going up 5% like last year we went up 5% and so cuz that hit like that hits the pocketbooks and so I I mean I'm looking at a plan here so I believe last last year a co-pay plan for a family of four cost $36,000 if I think that's about right and so a 5% increase is going to be 37800 so we're looking at $2,000 more for for for this plan I mean let me let me validate is it is a is a copay plan family of four does that cost $36,000 so uh director Thompson I don't have the the specific plan rates in front of me but I can answer your question Okay so there is this thing

185called medical inflation medical Trend out there right so what I would tell you is Lakeville area schools at 5% is either at Trend or slightly below Trend right now so Trend depending on the geography that you're at in the state of Minnesota is anywhere from probably 4 and a half% to the low to mid teens depending on where you're at geographically uh especially if you take the state of Minnesota like you're looking at it from the top down you that bottom third going east to west west to east in that Mayo country well the the trend down there is in the easy um you know mid- teens um because because of the impact of Mayo Clinic right um so we know last year that um there were some Clinic systems uh out there that unilaterally

186put anywhere from 11 to 13% charge on their billable expenses well if Aaron Casper at NIS knows that certainly all the other Clinic systems know that and they may what we've seen is that you know they're they're following in line so just the cost of the same service year-over-year is going up at a minimum 4 and a half to 5% so for us to be at a 5% increase year over last year same right 5% last year we're we're doing well than we're doing better than probably 90% of the other um similarly situated school districts out there um the increases that I've seen over the last 18 to 24 months have been a rare single digit and usually in the teens 20s 30s and I had a 50% increase last year that represented $4 million

187so that's the kind of stuff that we're seeing so we're the management of the plan to your point director Cameron um there is there is definitely collaboration within that committee and certainly it's not just me I mean I've got a team of four that help help us um so we're looking at the data analytics and and Consulting District administration director Carbone yeah thank you um self-funding claims go up and down like the stock market it's it's very volatile I understand that do we have a reserve yes and to what degree to what amount is that yeah that's uh director well great great question so we've been s we're going to be finishing up our fourth year of Self Insurance here at the end of June 30th our our plan year um we're tracking right at

188about uh 25% uh Reserve to claims so about $7.4 million um that is a year earlier than what our Target was we were targeting 25% after 5 years um being in a self-insured environment really what that allows us to do is is actually go back to the committee and the District administration and kind of come up with a our our second phase plan right um we don't want to maintain at 25% we'd incrementally like to grow that I I'd prefer a comfortable spot around 35 40% on the high side and the reason that is is that it's not necessarily the Silver Bullet it's not going to save us but what it's able to do is kind of soften out some of those future renewals you know maybe our our claim and our costs would dictate

189in the future a 10% increase well maybe we're able to leverage into that reserve a couple points or something like that to soften that down so that's really what we're after so great question we're at we're at 25% fund 20 reserves uh currently okay and one more please yeah um we don't have an aggregate stoploss You could argue we do we do yes do and what's that claim cealing on the ACC yeah so we're we're at 115% of expected CLA clim so basically 15% over what our aggregate total would be um we're we're well under that thank you yep yeah D or Thompson I do want to know if we if we have those numbers like what is the cost of a health plan for our staff if if you've got that readily available I

190don't I don't have that right in front of me okay but I mean the number that you relatively close that's what they cost so so it's about $36,000 for a family or for for everything for for for everything and how much does so that sounds like a very I think last time you said it was a very rich plan but we have Rich components in the plan yeah it's a very it's very um favorable but how much of that does the employees are responsible for so this 5% increase what is the impact to them yeah so 2.5 yeah so director Thompson um the 5% represents the aggregate increase okay and that's approximately 1.5 million so not an insignificant uh amount of money the vast majority of the contracts if if not all I think there's

191one that's a slightly different um would basically indicate that that increase would be shared 50/50 so in the aggregate the district would be on the hook for 2.5 Mill or excuse me 2.5% or 750,000 approximately and then that remaining $750,000 would be allocated amongst the the remaining bargaining units so total cost to The District in this scenario $750,000 director Thompson we don't know so we don't have the numbers we don't have the numbers to say this is how much is going to impact an employee other than $750,000 divide that amongst all the employees so ballpark 100 bucks a paycheck I don't know I'm just yeah I guess what I'm trying to get to is that I want to understand the impact it's going to have on our staff so that uh I mean I I

192get that it's a 5% increase it's better than what everyone else is doing which is great but again it's still a 5% increase but let's go ahead tror camon um and this might be a question more for Brenda perhaps but I my understanding is that through contract negotiation process for any bargaining unit this is negotiated every two years so the increase isn't necessarily the same in every contract or the increase um so that's one thing and we're going to be going through that soon for like the bulk of our employees um but also does the um the representative Insurance committee want to get the right name includes representation that were elected by the staff um to to represent um the work of this committee correct so in a way like I appreciate the question about

193what is the impact on staff but I think staff is well represented in the conversation on these increases so I'll throw that out there okay great questions yeah so uh you've got uh on the bottom of page three some metrics uh in terms of our population our demographics uh just moving on to some additional talking points um we've been pretty consistent in terms of our um um growth on our fund 20 um and you you asked that question so you know we're at about 25% uh overall we're from our claims to revenue perspective we are kind of right in that Trend increase realm at about 85% um let's see here uh 98% of our of our high claims are are driving um basically just under $10 million of our of our total cost and again

194not unusual uh in this environment and then our Pharmacy costs have increased about 20% so um you know we talked about that a little earlier um utilizing the brand names and the specialty drugs so as I mentioned we are in the process of evaluating a car rad options um to figure out how we can try to best control those costs um and see what those um what so what those opportunities might be um and we're still in in the running for a potential 71 effective date so you know we don't we have time um we just need to connect with the uh District administration and then Circle back with the insurance committee uh mentioned that we're right in line on the on the uh medical Trend so before I shift over to dental is there

195any other questions on the medical side overall you guys phenomenal position we are really in a good position the plan's been managed very well over the last four years okay all right um just uh finally with denl uh right now our current claims are um projected well through October 31st we're at 1.6 6 million for our Plan Renewal we're projecting claims of about 1.7 so about $96,000 that represents just slightly under a 6% Trend increase um we're recommending um that the board approves an increase uh you can see moving from rates of $47 to $50 on the single and $134 to $142 on the family you'll notice there that um we haven't had a plan increase since 2017 so essentially we've been drawing down that reserve and now we're at a point where we really

196need to capture some additional Revenue uh overall um that's consistent with trying to maintain as little impact as possible for our employee groups over the past few years um because how the contracts are set up they are essentially picking up 100% of the existing cost based on the current contract language now that can certainly change um as the contracts are to negotiate um as we go into that season again but for the most part we're obviously mindful of that when we were dealing with medical um increases even at Trend um historically so uh the other thing is is that one uh U plan change we did um get a recommendation and we're we're bringing that forth on 71 of 25 on a renewal date we are uh changing our annual maximum bringing that down to

197$4,000 um that still extremely high uh in the marketplace but we're bringing that down so that now we actually have a cap um that should help protect us in the market um so uh we had some discussions about that in the committee and that was the recommendation so that's what I have for you tonight superintendent bman do we have a a proposal to approve on this so if I'm reading this correctly is it a proposal to increase for the renewal with an increase of 5% on medical and 6% on Dental all right I'll make the motion get it rolling uh I will move to approve the proposed renewals for medical at 5% increase and dental at 6% increase is there a second uh I'll second it seconded by director Carbone is there any discussion director

198Thompson and and just to confirm the benefits committee have exhausted all of their discussions they have reviewed these options they have voted on it they have approved it and that's why it's here today yes this is this has been presented to the committee I think Bren has a comment the committee is not a decisionmaking body so they don't vote on anything they give their input and then the administration takes that input into uh under advisement for our recommendation our our recommendation the insurance committee as well all uh agreed that a 5% increase would be recommended uh and the uh 6% increase for a dental um would be recommended okay any more discussion there being none I'll call the matter for a vote uh being first and seconded by director Carbone all those in favor of

199approving um the renewal on the medical at a 5% increase and the dental plan at a 6% increase say I I I'll oppose say nay all right it passes unanimously thank you very much Sher Swanson prend bman board thank you thank you on to the district poster series replacement can I actually say something I just I I would like to make a motion um that we maintain our current inclusive poster series um with the exception of the two that are currently part of an active lawsuit um as previously recommended by superintendent Bowman I'll second the motion right it I mean there may be procedural issues with it because it wasn't added to the agenda earlier but since there's a first and a second uh is there any discussion on it we'll just move forward on

200it yeah I just I first of all Grace I know You' prepared something and it's been uh work for both you and Mr bow and so I I do want to appreciate that um this uh basically comes from having spent some time reviewing the inclusive poster series that I think obviously went through a much more robust process and involved much more stakeholder input um you know I was at East viw last Friday they're up all over the schools it feels disruptive and to remove them and at the same time um I feel the posters that we are going to be presented to tonight um are very similar and so um just from a fiscally responsible perspective I don't think it's necess NE for us to remove the old when um they went through a very

201robust approval process Carly can I ask or Dr Anderson can I ask was it a uh were you asking to um leave all of the posters no six six as previously recommended by the superintendent any other comments I have one Dr Baker um so I've had a lot of time to to think about this and and process um conversations that we had last time and then this time and I think my concern um remains with the original uh premise of that lawsuit which was based on our policy uh District policy 535 which was the one in question um and to date the board has not discussed that policy or made any changes uh based on that that lawsuit so I guess I'm looking at it going that we're the policy makers like the board is

202supposed to look at the policy make any changes that are necessary and then hand it off to Administration where they implement the policy and I kind of feel like the board is a little bit too in the weeds with the posters and I'm wondering if we should just focus on the policy make any changes to it that we need to based on the legal ramifications that that we were under and making sure that we have the right guard rails for the district with the policy and then hand it off to Administration and they can determine whether the posters meet the policy so I kind of feel like we're doing the same thing and we're making the same mistakes but we haven't went back to fix what the mistake was in the first place so I

203mean that's just my opinion on it I guess my question is where do you sit on the on the issue of the motion then on the pending motion well thinking thinking about the motion like we're making a motion to approve posters when that's the district's I mean that's the administrative job to Det like the posters based on our policy and we haven't discussed the policy or made any changes to the policy that was mentioned in the lawsuit so I want to make sure that our policy's good before we determine what goes on our walls again otherwise we're could end up back in the same situation again and someone else finds it an issue with something else on our walls because our policy isn't good like that's where I'm at like I I feel like we're

204skipping to beat here but maybe it's just me that's just my thought process around IT director Cameron um I agree with you Kim um I think our decision at I forget what date the the decision happened um uh did not ask the question how do each of the designs or all of them as a collective um align or not align with District policy that is what a school board decides not where we whether or not we like graphic design or wording on posters but how how does um policy impact um impact the decision and so for me um I support the motion in the sense that I don't think we've had that discussion I think it's a waste of resources both staff time and financial um I realized that maybe it's only $10,000 we cut

205$10,000 um during the budget cuts listening to you know two years ago when the three board members across from me had to had to cut lamps in teachers rooms because we didn't have enough money and so to say $10,000 is not significant I think is um dangerous and not um a good sentiment to bring forward and to um budget conversations uh for the board um and and as a result I think we've not had the discussion do posters align or not align with policy and that is what the decision of the board should be about director Nicholson I have a question and I don't know how to ask it seeing as we have closed session situations and we have open session situations so we have certain things that were discussed in Clos session it's changing

206our course of action now change anything that happened in closed session I don't know how to answer that I don't know how we do that in public well I I think that um I think the Board needs to decide like our process and our procedure because that was also what was brought into question was our process and how we went through things and then were some of the ones that were decided upon initially violating our policy which has never been discussed or changed or you know even I I don't know like we haven't looked at that policy um I think that when we think about this in context of the legal situation and that current decision um just because we decide to take things down doesn't mean those things are going away yet like maybe

207it's just on hold like they come down and things are on hold until we determine what the policy is and what can actually go back because I mean we haven't even had a discussion of what violates policy so of the six are all of them okay or four of them okay are two of them okay you know I I mean I don't I don't know because the board hasn't had the discussion about the policy so so that's what was in question with the original lawsuit and I think that that I mean we haven't talked about it so I feel like we're getting ourselves in the same situation again or we could potentially so I'm just thinking about it from a legal ramification of like liability so what I'm thinking about then is do we remove

208them tell them just don't destroy them have the conversation and then you can make the determination of what you need to do after that then like I I possibly I mean if if that's the conversation the board wants to have like I I don't know like I we haven't we haven't talked about the policy yeah I guess question is Was the vote on policy or just hey we're heading in a new direction for the district um but even if we go in the new direction we're looking at these posters and they're similar to the ones we're taking down off the wall but we haven't discussed what violates policy and what doesn't well and I guess that's a question if we get to the vote on approving those posters right so now we have we have

209two issues I mean obviously I agree that we should look at our policy again in 535 um but the issue is but the issue really before us is whether or not we're going to uh approve Carly's motion to leave six of the eight posters up on the wall like reverse our prior decision from January 28th yeah director Anderson I um I guess I'm coming from a place of um I don't think there's anything wrong with the policy I think there's different interpretations of the policy based on the poster series um we have not talked about um this I just see it as six of these posters were not a Target and I don't believe they VI violate policy obviously the board would have to make that decision um and what I appreciate about what the

210administration is trying to do with a replacement is cause less disruption given how many of these posters are up in our schools um and at the same time they're very similar and so I just ask what what are we doing um I think think I think from a a Robert's Rules or a legal standpoint um your motion would be resending a previous board decision which would mean you would need a 2third vote to do that so it would you'd need five out of seven am I correct on the the procedure on that I'm not exactly sure I think so um I think so um so in thinking about doing that again I still feel like we're in the weeds because I I I'm not just I need to look at the policy like I do

211policy like as a board member we do policy and then the district implements the policy so it should be up to the superintendent and his team to determine here's the policy this is what the board's agreed on these posters meet that requirement you know what I mean like I still feel like us voting on posters is not but part of the problem is I mean part the issue with the litigation and when you read the case is that you know there was questions as to whether or not the board actually approved it or whether it was outside influ fluences that were putting their voices on the wall therefore making it you know a partially open or public forum you know and so that's why bringing it to the board while I don't know that any

212of these us board members want to be in the business of posters um putting the stamp on it the board putting it stamp on it removes that question of whether it's creating a a public form or not so yeah and again I I don't know that this motion is necessarily properly in front of the board because it's not on the agenda and it wasn't added to the agenda earlier but I want to have the discussion so well I think it meets the yeah I think it meets that it's related to the topic but director Thompson yeah uh I'm using chat gbt which high school students should have be using this um with a with a previous notice if the group was informed in advance uh that a motion to resend would be proposed it does

213require only a majority vote uh without previous notice no advanced notice was given it takes a two-thirds vote for uh for those present voting so sorry I was but the motion on the table is go ahead direct Cameron um thanks I I think as I've been thinking about um this particular lawsuit and the relation to the to the posters the district is sued often right because we're a large entity um as long as I've been on the board um we've heard about multiple cases this is the only one where the school board is getting um involved in the um followup to what happens to that lawsuit like we've had you know cases regarding special ed or other other um type of issues and for every other lawsuit we are asking the District staff to implement

214changes and um uh and best practices and policies based on their um expertise the board is not dictating action and so I just don't understand why this is different than other lawsuits can I just ask a clarifying question when you're saying dictating action do you mean in the removal of the posters or implementing a new series um both I I believe um the school board's role if at most in this case would be to accept a set of recommendation of posters from the district whatever if they're the six or new ones whatever it might be and our job is as a board would be to ask does this align with policy if yes we accept the recommendation we do not get into the business of Designing posters on and what makes best sense for educational

215outcomes for kids we don't have that expertise director Carbone yeah I I would suggest that it would be irresponsible for the board not to to do things that would keep us out of potential litigation and and when you look at the posters the first set of posters and then I I think director Anderson or director Baker mentioned that um a lot of them are similar uh that wasn't necessarily what what we talked about on the 28th what we talked about was Rising those posters into academic Focus because what we're trying to do is put the the district on an academic outcome pathway which it is on but the more we can direct that the better off we are so um I I'll stop there Dr Nicholson do you have a comment so I guess I'm

216I don't want to be disruptive with it I I understand that piece of it but I don't want to jeopardize any of the situations that we currently have and the opportunity to sort of take care of some of this now and if that means take them down and go find a storage locker for them until we sort out policy 535 and give you clear guard rails and then give it back to you to decide what we do with it I'd much rather do something like that as opposed to make a again make another misstep and jeopardize what could be a potential end to a four-year battle director Thompson well I I appreciate the the legal component and the dialogue behind it uh I think when these pollsters were presented to us this board this board

217then had an opportunity to review them and decide do we want them or do we not want them and the intent of that design was was supposed to be inclusivity posters and that that was the intent of the design and so I think the board made that decision then but uh it's you guys can decide how you want to vote after uh on on this motion uh I think I do believe that the next set of posters it's another conversation it's a SE conversation but let's resolve this particular motion first and decide how we want to proceed any other comments or discussion all right there being none uh the motion being made by director Anderson seconded by director Cameron I believe uh I will call it to a vote it is a motion to resend

218the board's decision to remove six of the eight inclusive series posters um let's do a roll call vote Kim if that's okay sry Mr chair could you say the motion again just so I yes uh it is a motion to resend the school board's prior vote the January 20th 2025 vote to remove um essentially the motion is to remove only two of the eight posters correct and I'm assuming we sending the vote be yeah um superintendent bman can I ask like from a district standpoint um just thinking about the consequences of this action right now what does that do for you and your team and and the process that you've already been going through like is this I I just want to know your your personal opinion on that well I don't have a personal

219opinion I have a superintendent's opinion that'll work um and I I feel like you are in the middle of a process that as an ex officio I am not a part of um and so I I have to defer um we We are continuing to attempt to resolve from the administration's perspective the last vote um that the board made and navigate our way through this but it that may all be about to change here so I I really got to let that okay let that stand as a point of clarification is this a two-thirds vote now or a majority vote be two3 two be two3 MH whenever you're ready I ask a question yeah well never mind no well now would be the time yeah that would be the time I feel like um we

220could benefit from more consideration and I also appreciate the time crunch so I guess what I'm saying is I didn't mean to create a situation of where people feel like they're not having time to think it through um but Mr bman do you feel like decisions have to be made at this point to make sure that we're able to make the moves during spring break that you would like to make I mean we already made the we already made the decision right I mean your motion is whether or not we're going to resend our prior decision so I think yes if we didn't yeah if people want to change their mind they can I just think there was a in our last meeting about this there was a lot of Confusion And I think it

221was all very in terms of people um thinking through the other six um it was all just very on the spot where people did not have time to consider it where I feel like I've taken more time um um and so it feels like a rash decision and potentially a big waste of funds um to do this if six of them are very similar to what might be going up on the walls um yeah and we might be jumping head on that one so if somebody wants to abstain or change their vote they can but uh well technically we can but are we still open for discussion here or where are we at right now we still discussing we CL we close discussion and called it for a vote okay noaker can I pass and

222think about it I'm I'm I'm still stuck like I'm gonna say noers yes Amber camon yes Brett Nicholson no ran Thompson noon no all right so five NOS two yeses and the motion fails I think we'll turn this back over to you superintendent Bowman thank you uh can I get the charts up for the current presentation please so before we get started and because uh you know we just went through through that discussion which I I do appreciate um where we stand today uh where we're at as I talk about um these this presentation um I think it would be helpful um I don't know Kim are you able can can you yeah I want to just if you look at the title is this chart it says academic excellence and inclusion poster series those

223words come from those come from the motion that was voted on um I'm trying to isolate the exact wording here it should be what's in blue as the final motion motion to vote on the amended motion which is to remove the inclusive post uh series posters and replace it with an academic Excellence theme and whatever additional variations we agree with as far as including inclusivity in that discussion that was the motion um and so I want to just be clear um while there were there's discussions about what that communication is um I having done this for a while I pay attention to the details because I want to be as close to that as I can possibly be so the title here is academic excellence and inclusion potion series because that was the motion that

224was voted on and accepted so so that's why you see uh what you see there and I'll talk a little bit more about context maybe you should run this button um and first of all just what are the key considerations one thing I did not assume is that we would have this conversation and I would just put something out there and then ask you what you thought about it later um I do think that there's a board obligation based on the history of all of this to vote so we will be removing the posters that are up and that will happen over spring break that information is gone to uh my subordinate leadership uh across the district and we are uh moving down that path and that is in accordance with the board vote and

225direction that I just read to you the the motion that was that was articulated so that's the that's part of the context and I I'll talk about uh the when I get to the process chart about the remaining context of of why I'm bringing it here other than to say I need your approval I don't assume anything with regard to this so um to that point these are the things and the considerations that we uh have had in this District um these are the things that were worked out um and I think approved uh after I left the district uh under under the under the uh last leadership and remain in place after my review and saying yes we need to stay on this path so next chart so the creation process um of what

226we're talking about right now the context to this and um what I am seeking to do and I think it was mentioned by uh uh director Anderson earlier is to try to manage the transitional solution in strategic and operational methodology transitions are your point of most risk and we are in a transition process and I am trying to do uh the best that we can uh with some limiting factors first limiting factor is we have been given guidance by the Board of Education or the school board on what what it is that uh that we want in terms of context of any future poster series and we're trying to be faithful to that another limiting factor is quite honestly we're not professional um poster makers either um and I'm sure this this process where we

227sit right now today uh falls short and and I've had a few uh really good people uh point that out to me from our community and that's fair um again the context being I'm trying to establish something transitional so another limiting factor is really literally a Time Factor um and we want to be true and faithful to the requirements that we have from the school board um and removing the existing posters which is I think our Direction um so a vote I think is is the only methodology I could use in the protocols that we have and the processes and procedures of board business so that's where we are doesn't mean we have to land here stop here or be done here we can do a more robust process more time more resources to get

228things like efficacy from uh whether the message is hitting or not hitting those kinds of things that takes I think more resources than is available so I try to keep it in inhouse with our staff which is the first comment up there um try to use and leverage what we know and what has landed in our community with regards to the current poster series get uh as much internal feedback as I could again because of the time line I've also learned some things talking to attorneys about proprietary nature of the poster series we've already created because there are things going on outside of the school district with regard to those posters and that's all fine and dandy but my my challenge with that is the proprietary nature of it and anything that we would create

229in the future being a proprietary nature as well so all these factors are I think in play um so we're we try to put together what what we have here uh as a bridge to whatever we want to do in the future and to buy us uh a little bit more of a a Runway to do maybe a more comprehensive poster design series if that's the will of of the community and the the board uh as represented by the school board so we're working through all of that uh and I'm going to have Grace share with you the um the nine total posters with seven different designs and we're trying to we're trying to deal with the academic Excellence mindset demonstrate care and respect for our students and our staff yes sir sorry I'm sorry

230Nicholson board chair so there was uh your previous slide had the mission or our vision statement and I'm curious as to why it cuts short of what the vision statement is on the website and what I mean by that is to provide a safe respectful engaging rigorous and collabor Collaborative Learning environment for all students family and staff where every person belongs is valued and can can can succeed yeah okay that's my fault because I didn't put the whole thing on there I'm curious because that's kind of an important thing for me right now I think the vision statement that we have embodies everything we want to try to be and I think that it's a perfect place to be in terms of what we would put on our walls every person belongs everybody's valued everybody

231can succeed three phrases if you argue with that I'd be shocked but I don't know why we I I'm I want to make sure that we don't forget those those I think are exactly what we're talking about in this entire thing here I I do want to point out that we had a poster that said everyone is welcome everyone belongs I understand that so this this is my original coming back to like this was why I struggled with these posters because we have some that are very similar and they look very nice um and granted I appreciate the sentiment to at least vote to keep six or some of them I'm still going back to the policy um and we haven't had that discussion so okay whatever continue may I ask sir yep okay um

232and again trying to be actually aligned not to the resolution because that's not a resolution that's a motion with a vote that's a directive as far as I assimilate it okay so um that's again not good language on my part on these charts so um if if you will uh we just want to walk through what we've put together together uh not withstanding that the process might need to be more holistic if we're going to go further with this and that the intent is to uh provide a bridge under the scenario that we that we exist under okay grace okay um I will just take a moment to introduce myself as I haven't stood before this board yet I'm Grace Olsen I'm the communications director for Lakeville area schools um so I will just briefly

233uh walk us through uh the proposed posters um so we can have some discussion here the first design um has both a secondary option geared towards older Learners and a younger option for our elementary Learners can I ask why um the person in the wheelchair was removed from the elementary version um there is a person in the wheelchair in the green um in the bottom right corner she does have a wheelchair I think just the placement right a little harder to see you can't see it though yeah okay I I just feel like it should be more prevalent and visible like it is in the secondary one because it is the only poster we have that represents disabilities okay just my opinion our second poster I think is pretty straightforward poster three also I think

234is pretty straightforward uh poster 4 was focused really around the growth mindset concept so No One's Gonna comment on that one oh I have lots of comments okay I I just feel like I'm the only one commenting because I I'm looking at it keep commenting yeah there's a lot of negatives on it I guess like when I like I feel like the top part's okay but like the bottom part I I just feel like it's doesn't align with PBIS which we kind of push a lot of different stuff say that there's I mean and I'm just thinking of a book I read with my kids like kids say this all the time in school like in elementary school I feel like where they're saying I can't do this and the the I feel like the

235message is right now in this moment but the idea is to persist so that you can learn well I I agree with the sentiment of perseverance I just I like the first part we're we're getting there right like frame it positive director Cameron ah you might know how I feel but that is um I have lots of ideas for the posters too um that is not in my opinion what a board is making should be making decisions about we are not designing posters we're not a design firm we don't have expertise in graphic design nor do we have expertise in child development and so again for me if posters align with policy that is the decision we make not in deciding which of which we like and if if we feel like these don't align

236with policy based on the recommended set that's been brought to us we can make a recommendation that these go back to the District staff for refinement but I don't want to sit I don't mean to to be so harsh but I I don't want to sit here and start talking about I like the word yet but not the word can't like that is to me we need to focus on the role of a school board and if we don't like this then we need it's not our job to fix it it's our job to direct work and can I ask you if yes that I mean that's where I've been like the entire time where I'm struggling to vote on posters or whether we remove them or keep them when we haven't discussed the policy

237like that's where I'm but the reality that that you're both going to have to deal with is we're not going to do a new poster series or have new poster series if we don't vote on it I mean that's the district is not going to do that again so then the question is are you okay without putting up new posters like are you want saying let's just get out of the poster business and leave that to the teachers to necessarily I'm not I mean I'm fine with having posters my sentiment is that just like the insurance proposal we asked a bunch of questions we took Insurance recommendation from the committee that developed it and we approved it this is the same thing to me we take recommendations we maybe ask some questions if if it's

238not ready for a vote it can go back to staff or under the direction of the superintendent but we are not like with insurance we did not start choosing which whiches we could use or which um Health Systems that's not the prview of the board and I'm just going to keep reiterating that um we do not this is not the level of work I believe that Lakeville School Schoolboard should be at we should be at a higher level thank you director Nicholson I actually agree with that and I love that comment and to that end I think that we should consider the marketing principles of branding maintaining consistency One Voice one color scheme if it's coming from the board if we are the on sitting here deciding that we want to do a poster series

239it should be a Lakeville branded type of thing there's eight messages here when any organization goes out and does a Rebrand or tries to create a brand image they stick with one thing they stick with just do it they stick with you know moving forward they stick with whatever it is I would argue that again our vision statement our mission statements our core values I'm staring at them if we're if we are going to authorize stuff to go up on our walls why don't we stick to that why don't we let the schools do the things that they do put up the kids artwork decide how they want their school communities to interact with everybody they're doing it today you go to any one of these schools and there are hundreds of examples of ways

240they are trying to get inclusion and participation from the kids in the building they do a fantastic job I think our principles are very aware of that they want the kids to be seen on the walls they want the kids to see themselves on the walls I think it's great I think from our vantage point to your point if we are going to talk about putting something on our walls I think it better 100% align with our mission our vision and our core values and we shouldn't be trying to do anything else nobody in the state of Minnesota is doing a poster series except us and we're the only ones in the news and getting sued over it and having this battle can't we exit the can't we just exit the trauma here and just

241be done with that and like again back to you you can take it Mr Balman please do what you guys do like I want to I I don't I would like to make a motion to step away from this right now I don't want to do this I don't want to vote Yes or No per poster I have no interest in that right so what's the motion for that because we haven't discussed the policy yes right I agree with you I want to back away and not you put this on hold or go back to the drawing board or whatever it means to do that we need to huh motion there's three motions in there um deciphering through your your intent here so I I make a motion not to proceed with this right now

242with this poster Series so like to table it yeah no no are you going to PO postpone the issue or just to vote no and approval of these posters we already voted to say that they can move forward with something if they want to move forward with something so did we vote that no we made a motion they were supposed to come back to us I think we'd have to resend our previous vote and remake a motion I'm not doing all that's what we voted on is this so yeah you'd have to have two th I let the discussion go I'm I'm Anderson I mean I'm I don't know if you if you were before me but um I feel very similarly to Amber and I think Brett um like I I think at this

243point we direct our superintendent and our Communications Department to or I don't know if this is what you're saying but to make a decision and to me there are tons of things up on the walls in our schools that a principal could could decide if a teacher is putting something up on the walls that doesn't align with policy and and someone could make a complaint that ends up coming before our board but otherwise I have no idea why we're voting on making any change so maybe the motion is that we take the two posters down immediately then the board we've already made the motion though for that know this is a new one that you would it would be a resending motion right so you're making motion to take those down immediately and then we

244work on the policy and then the district decides on the rest we've already gone down that one though Thompson that just a second guys director Thompson kind of so very patient but yes uh so thank you for sharing these poster designs um we are not professional poster makers uh but we are responsible for our schools and what they look like and how they feel and the culture within it and so when I look at these designs uh I do feel is my responsibility to provide feedback on how they make me feel and how I think it would make our community feel and puler one a be somebody who makes everybody feel like somebody while I like that line but like I'm not going to make a eighth grader you know make someone else feel better

245like that's they're eighth graders and so uh the intent of the entire inclusive series posters that we voted originally not to do was because they weren't inclusive enough cu no there's no way to draw the line on who makes it or who doesn't make it so in the picture on the right where you say you know director Baker where's a person with whe wheelchair that that is the entire reason why we decided not to do inclusive series posters uh we wanted I wanted academic Excellence posters every step counts success starts now learning is a superpower Excellence takes persistence growth requires effort knowledge empowers you those are the kind of words that I was expecting out of this design versus you know you know you matter everyone is welcome here believe in the power of yet

246wow I I appreciate the cursive like I don't think my daughter knows cursive and I don't know if we teach that and so uh it is a very negative approach uh the yet and I and I would have expect more positive can do attitude and so with that being said like I these these seem these seem like you said are similar to what we said no to and so if if there's a uh since the last motion we said uh come back and make academic Excellence posters and and and some inclusivity posters um and then we would vote on that that but obviously we've hit we've missed the mark and keep in mind this is the second time we already received it the first time so this is another revision and so I feel that

247the district probably needs more clear guidance on what to do next on on what on on these posters so I'll make a motion because I like your idea a about the uh the vision statements whatever everyone what is it everyone belongs everyone belongs everyone is valued everyone can succeed and that's on our website and that's academic focus and it's inclusive enough I would assume have three different versions of that and bring that back next week no kids no hands can I just I just want to ask a clarifying question based on on what you said um remembering the board discussion around the post posters like I said there were two issues there were two posters that were con were specifically named in a lawsuit and it was also our process so the board voted to

248take them all down but the discussion of the board members was that some of the other posters we felt were fine it was just we were trying to write the wrong based on how our policy was written and how it was interpreted that two of the posters didn't meet the policy which again we still haven't discussed so I'm going to beat a dead horse with this is my as I can so I don't think a majority of board members think that some of these other posters are not okay like we've already said everyone is welcome is fine and one of the posters says everyone is welcome and everyone belongs which is part of our mission statement so again that fits the mission statement of Lakeville schools sorry all right just so we're clear did you

249I just want to make sure we don't skip over Brett did you make a motion to postpone or no I didn't so then the motion right now so from director Thompson is can you clarify yes but before I do I want to go back to director Baker's comment and so I agree those words are um uh good but I think it's the design because they had uh people hands that when you look at it from an inclusiv inclusivity lens we had a gap and that was the lens that I was looking at it other board members could be looking at that decision with different perspectives but that was the lens that I was looking at it and so if the intent uh was inclusivity uh focus it didn't hit the mark for me as a

250board member and it was presented to me and that's why I voted no but the so but the motion that I think that I would like to make is that everyone survive everyone everyone survives surv everyone belongs everyone's valued and and everyone can succeed yeah hold on so but wait all right can I I making a specific motion to provide direction for the district on the on the on the poster series on the poster series everyone belongs everyone is valued everyone can succeed have all three no no kids no hands nice design three different versions bring something back next week simple is there a second I'll second that uh It Is seconded by director Nicholson um any discussion the conversation Amber I think you had your hand up earlier do you want to comment well

251now it doesn't apply to this motion okay um but I'll say it anyways um I was going to make a motion but this is not a motion um I don't think our board is going to have a productive conversation and and movement on this issue um I think we're wasting our staff resources in this conversation and and going forward I know I know a lot of time has already been put into this it has taken away from other AB our District's ability to communicate um in normal like what we would normally be doing um I'm I'm I'm sad I'm going to use the word sad for our kids when they come back from spring break that there there there won't be something on the walls um I'm not going to lie I was hoping that

252this would be a summer decision however what I what what my gut says right now is that we don't make any posters that we just move on we're never going to agree I I I like your sentiment I have I have no evidence if that results in anything good for kids these statements um and so I don't want to spend resources I don't want to spend staff time making products that we don't know has an outcome for kids so my motion would be to we're done like that we're not going to make posters we'd have to resend the other vote vote to take them all down and be done all right we have director Anderson Baker Carbone and then Nicholson in that order I have no idea why we would be being that directive about

253what the district should be doing um we have all agreed we are not poster makers we can certainly say um and I think they have we haven't even gotten through all of your posters yet um and so yet um we good job not yet not yet um I think there are multiple posters here that were aiming to meet the directive of the board and that was where our role was in that moment I still don't necessarily agree with it but that was our role in that moment and I don't think we get so specific about what exact like that's the administration's job in my opinion so I just I completely disagree with that movement forward um so yes director Baker I would like to amend the motion um to say that um the board will

254give the administration um auth to determine what posters past or present fall within the mission value of the district that fall within the capacity of what our district mission is and that the board have further discussion about policy 535 I think you completely gutted his motion though if you I can amend it that way I just need a second is there a second to amend well can you clarify what the motion is exactly the motion is okay we'll go with his his original poster but then this the motion is to amend that to also include past or present posters that fit within the district Mission and letting the administration have the authority to determine which ones fit with the school mission statement as you so stated in your original motion and the board will continue

255discussion of policy 535 yeah I I don't think we you'd have to revoke the prior motion because you're giving them authorization to essentially override our prior decision of the board and resuscitate signs or posters that we've already removed well they're the same statement so is it really I think the current motion would also require that what you're asking to put on posters is not is that academic Excellence it's not inclusion necessarily so either way it requires five VES stupid let's get out of the poster business I I sorry bud I I wanted to hear and I want to I will vote no on that and as soon as that goes around no I'm I will I will say the motion I hold on director Carbone yeah please after yeah if I may thank you thank

256you chair um director Cameron I agree with you 100% here we got into the poster business I understand by mistake get closer no it's on you just got to sit closer is it I'm sorry all right thank you um director Cameron I agree with you 100% we need to get out of the poster business we got into the poster business my understanding is by mistake why the administration why the board is in the poster business I don't understand via lawsuits via uh board disagreement via just go right down the list I don't understand why we need to be a board or an Administration that does posters and if I may I'm trying to find out what happens in schools I've been to multiple schools in the last three weeks let me Pat Uh is the

257principal here from Maguire middle school I know there were some principles here before okay if I may if I can Pat Maguire Middle School principal on the back or whoever does this I walk in as a third party Observer I go down the hall main hall right by the cafeteria where everybody comes every day I see a banner big banner road to graduation AB C and D perfect academic gives kids Direction perfect I go down the hall a little further main hall I see painted a mural on the wall 10 ft High 12T long you know United States flag on it we the people on it Washington Monument iima raising the flag Statue of Liberty that mural is a history lesson from the founding of our country to the Liberty that this country has given

258millions of people over time I think that's an academic poster I think that when you go around to the schools they're doing pretty well back to uh uh director Nicholson's comment I think the schools are doing very well with their walls and what they're doing and how they're teaching I'm going to go back again and say I agree with let's get out of the poster business I make a quick comment and then I think we yeah I mean the posters the poster series obviously we had our issues that kind of landed in our lap I I mean I do agree that I've heard a lot of people say um that there's value in seeing themselves represented on a poster uh the challenge we're facing is how do you put everybody on a poster how do

259you represent everyone so somebody doesn't feel left out um because we've heard that as well um yeah and I don't know I mean I I appreciate the comments of Brian con earlier today like you know we voted to remove this series and a lot of these signs look a lot like the old ones you know um so how are we moving the ball forward or addressing you know academics if that's going to be our push um but yeah I don't think we're the experts in in signs but if we are required to make this vote then we're required to make the vote I mean if we're going to approve these if we're going to have posters the School Board needs to approve these for the reasons we've discussed and as a superintendent is asking us

260to do so director Thompson yeah uh I am in alignment uh and the reason I made the motion was because I thought we had to have something and so from what I'm hearing is that we want to get out of the poster business and if that's the case uh per chat GPT uh I request permission to withdraw my motion so I can make a new one um I we might still be stuck on Kim's motion no there that wasn't stck on that one well was there a second we didn't give it we didn't give their give them time to have a second but I'll withdraw so that Brian can withraw Amber um this is not a motion so I'm not gonna ahead um I think we'll allow you to withdraw we a second on that

261right so we're clear the table's clean yeah I just want to make a comment because we had Brett's original motion that I made an amendment to you're withdrawing yours too I I withdrew right away okay I want to make a comment about um what Matt what you shared about representation um I I hear kind of the argument that if we can't represent all we shouldn't have any um I strongly disagree with that I think our district on a daily basis is profiling students throughout our community doing great work not every picture not every story highlights every child um in our community and it is okay to have representation that um highlights what is going on in our district and showing students I mean there's photos all over our buildings with you know two kids four

262kids not everyone is going to be in everything and I think it's a mistake um to limit um our celebration of the people in our district if we say if a picture doesn't include every single possible representation of a human we shouldn't celebrate anyone I don't think that's a good way to go and I don't that's not what I intended to say what I said is if we're pushing approving a certain set of posters um and they don't represent certain groups we're going to hear it from those groups right and so I don't think the policy prohibits you teachers from putting things up right now that celebrate certain groups um yeah I would just say we're not hearing that about anything else the district puts out and so um I think we have to stand

263up for that good communication is about highlighting different groups at different times yeah director Nicholson so I agree with you and I think the schools do a great job and I think we should again stop trying to be in the poster business so to that end I I I agree yeah oh sorry go gohe go ahead Carly I just want to clarify um because it sounds like everybody's wanting to move out of poster business but I do want to clarify um and this is probably more of a question for Mr Bowman um I think one of the reasons why you were wanting to do something was or to replace is just like we're talking about the disruption that maybe we don't see it in some schools that these signs are but I certainly see it

264in some schools that there's have have have a use of these signs um so is there concern that do have any concern if we were just to say take them down don't put anything up well we we don't really know where that's going to go um I I think clearly the challenges are we in the poster business or or not um I I'd just like to see that play out and I can figure it out from there the uh the challenge I think across the system is um how how do we in in action do the things that we need to do for all of our kids and I'm just focused on that is kind of the bottom line so Tom director Tom now that I have uh withdrawn my motion I'll make a new

265one I make a motion uh that we not replace the pollster series and keep the existing timeline in place I'll second second that motion all right there's a motion to not replace the existing oh wait can you say one more time not to make a replacement poster series and keep the existing timeline in place okay so continue with the timeline to remove the existing inclusive series posters and not replace those with anything correct all right uh is there a second I'll second it it's seconded by director Carbone um any discussion Amber my only question is procedural here I we haven't rescinded the vote that happened at whatever date it was where we said there would be a poster Series so I feel like given our earlier conversation that's the vote that needs to happen first

266is is amending that yeah this is maybe and that's maybe maybe it's an amendment to that motion I'm not sure how it works but because the direction was to do a poster Series so this is going back on a previous decision so we're going to amend or revoke partially revoke the prior vote Yes all right which would require again two3 five out of seven all right so the seconded still I'm assuming director Carbone all right discuss I have some questions on that so we're basically going back on our previous decision where we're taking all the posters down and putting gave the district direction to do something else yet all of our discussion has been about well the things in the building seem okay and every body's making good decisions about what's going on walls except

267for you know the poster series that we're voting to take down or have voted to take down so I guess like I don't understand why we're not um we're not giving the district authority to replace it with what they see fit based on our policy and I well they sort of so we're just not letting them put anything on the walls like I I think that really leaves it open I don't understand I don't think that's what we're saying we're not doing another District sponsored poster series as in this board is not going to sanction and say we want you to put these things on the walls and it's going to cost us money to do it like at this point in time we've had the turmoil we you know what the schools we have

268leadership at the schools we have leadership right here I'm fully confident that he will manage what we need to do and as as a district I don't I I'm I'm very comfortable with the idea of not necessarily directing that we should have this overarching set of posters right now like I I like that idea I I think it I understand that and then I yeah I get where that's coming from um are we going to have discussion on the policy at a later date so that we can like I said go back and fix all of the things that were in place prior to this yes situation okay yeah director Anderson can we Grant any funding for schools to do their own Replacements they they have they have a budget yeah do they have a

269budget for that school schools have an allocation uh not specifically for posters or no not specifically but they do have a allocation to each school you know with a potential to use it that way but I I'd rather not get into that because that's really getting into the weeds um just my two cents which I'm not supposed to give in those matters but um yeah I I would like to just be clear on what the direction is from the board with regard to district poster series and maybe we can figure what's next out there I can work with the leadership I can work with uh you know with Miss pop and try see if we can figure out a uh another path but again our we got to get stronger in our actions as a

270school system I'll say that okay thank you director carbon yeah uh chair point of clarification I I'm trying to understand is director Thompson's motion valid and on the table now to vote on uh yes we're just having discussion on it so okay I just wanted to make sure it was moving in a lot of directions go ahead sir what your question director Baker I believe you're thinking that do we need to resend the previous motion right and then we make a new motion because it was already a decision that that the board has decided and voted on correct okay does that require a 2/3 or a majority 2/3 2/3 so five out of two have to decide to resend the last motion to corate academic and inclusivity posters and then if it passes another motion

271can be made for this new Direction which is parliamentary procedure so I will make the motion to resend I will make the motion to resend the academic and inclusivity series posters there a second oh so the motion is just to resend that portion no I I have we have to do that first because it was already voted on resend the whole thing yes and then a new one can be made for the New Direction which would be just to remove the inclusivity posters correct no no no we' have already did that yeah resending the motion so oh the previous motion had to add academic excellence it was all in one got it all right got it so then all right so then so we apologize for those who are confused but the previous motion from

272last two weeks was to resend the decision was to remove the remove the inclusivity posters and replace it with academic Excellence posters okay inclusive I'm sorry and inclusive posters yep and so since half of that is already being done then I would assume that we'd want to make a new motion to say we do not want academic excellence and inclusivity posters we want no posters correct no I think the question is procedurally whether you can resend a part of the motion not the whole motion or if we have to resend the whole motion and then just vote to remove the inclu you know remove the inclusivity poster series and then be done MH because then there would be no academic Excellence yeah directive and then then no placement or anything like that M okay and

273then we're out of the poster business okay go ahead I so so we're back to our motion so there's two motions that need to be made one to resend and one to to uh remove the inclusivity series pollsters and then that's it correct that's how I see it that's put it okay I make a motion to resend I'm sorry Dr Nicholson you look like you're you realize this goes against like everything that I believe in like as an educator as a teacher like this is this is like me voting against my own kid like you know we're taking down posters that make him feel important that make all students feel important and then we're saying there's nothing that can replace it that there's no statements that everyone can believe in I mean my God like

274what we can't even say everyone is welcome like this I'm sorry but like if we can't even like support our kids like I don't even know what my kids are doing in this District like seriously like I I'm sorry like it's it's like you're telling me to vote against my family I'm not voting on this okay Dr Thompson What a Sad state of the world if we can't even say a statement that everyone is welcome What a Sad State I need to recess I seriously okay take you recess check yeah we're going to take a recess we're back um during our L recess I did check uh and you can partially resend a prior motion so it's an amendment of a prior motion um previously adopted it does require a two-thirds vote because no prior

275notice was given so um I can't remember where we left off last but uh and who made the motion I think you may have so that's fine would you like to amend your motion or just withdraw it and then make a new motion sure I withdraw it you are you okay with that I'm okay with that okay I'd like to make a motion to not replace the pollster series how about we the motion would be to amend the January 28 2025 vote to remove the requirement that we replace the inclusive series posters with a yeah yep all right is there a second I think it would be you're amending the motion to remove the requirement for a district issued poster series correct correct right yes yes second we'll piece meal it together here all right

276so there is a first and a second uh and just to clarify and we'll allow discussion here a second uh to amend the prior motion from January 28th to require a the replacement of a by a district series poster series District poster series is there any discussion yes uh director Nicholson so to be clear there's no directive that we're saying you can't say everyone is welcome that you can't have our vision statement our mission statement like we're not directing anything we're saying policy so follow policy 535 what we are doing is getting out of this poster series only not a removal of any of everything off the walls this is this poster series as a district as a district that's it nothing else is that clear for that's what we're saying any other discussion or

277comments all right do a roll call vote the motion one more time just to rec so the motion is to amend um the January 28 2025 motion to remove the approval or the the directive in that motion to require the school district to create a new poster series Baker yes yes Anderson yes yes yes nson yes yes ran Thon yes all right the motion passes unanimously uh there being no further business I move to adjourn second by director Cameron all those all those in favor to ajour and say I I all right we're adjourned e