School Board Meeting - November 18, 2025

001Testing. One, two, three. >> [cough and clears throat] >> All right. The special session public meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 in room 137 of the Edison building. Present at this meeting are school board members, superintendent Kent Pel, a non- voting exeicio member, and assistant school board clerk, Miss Anne Kramer. Miss Kramer, will you please call the role? here. >> Here >> she >> the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples. At this time, we offer the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America

002and to the republic for it stands nation indivisibley and justice for all. >> Item two is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Move approval. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The agenda has been approved. >> Oh, sorry. Roll call. >> Thank you, Jean. I >> director. >> Say I. >> She's turning herself on. >> She looks positive. >> Oh, I She's Yeah. Okay. Our first item of the agenda is a focused topic comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report. Districts are required to hold an annual public stakeholder meeting on the progress made toward comprehensive achievement and civic readiness goals. We'll begin with presentation on the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report. Superintendent Macau. >> Thank

003you chair Nathan and board members. Uh we have our I'll let our colleagues come up and take a seat here and then give them all a chance to introduce themselves. As board members are aware, this is the agenda item formerly known as World's Best Workforce. Now, uh, as the chair just noted, the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report. It's a state requirement that every year we need to provide an overview. >> Sorry, >> must be super delayed. >> Oh, because she's super delayed. She said I again. >> Okay, >> I think high-tech uh system here. Um the uh state of Minnesota requires every year that all school districts um present um to their boards and the community an overview of how they've done on a series of goals that they have put in their comprehensive

004achievement and civic readiness plans. All of these data are data that this board has seen in previous instances um uh because we're a very data driven district. But of course we are pleased to meet this requirement to put it all in one place. This is the last year that we'll be operating under our current plan uh as we are developing our new strategic plan and our new school improvement process this year. We anticipate that in the spring uh we will bring you a new CACR set of goals and strategies uh that we'll ask you to approve that will guide the work tied to our strategy for the next four years. This time, however, we are reporting to you on what has happened over the one-year period preceding uh this year. As we know, uh we're

005committed to long-term improvement. And so, year-to-year improvement is really an inadequate snapshot. And so, I know our chief academic officer will be sharing somewhat longer trend data, not because it's required for this report, but because the uh two data points does not a trend make. One of the paradoxes of this state requirement is that we need to include kindergarten readiness as one of the measures. Now, we certainly are very concerned about kindergarten readiness, but with the exception of the relatively small number of students who are in our early childhood programming, we don't influence kindergarten readiness as students come into our district. Um, and yet this is one of the measures that school districts are asked to uh report on and hold themselves accountable for. So, we thought that tonight because this board has heard updates

006on the other indicators that are in the report, but it's been quite a while since you've heard an update on early childhood, we would ask uh our leaders and practitioners who are doing this incredible work on early childhood to give the board an overview of the work that we are doing to ensure that the students who we have the privilege of serving in our early childhood programs are enrolling in our schools better prepared for kindergarten. So with that, let me um ask you all just to introduce yourselves and then our chief academic officer, Mona Perkins, will do the front end part of this presentation, which is the dashboard of our CACR outcomes. >> I'm Mona Perkins, chief academic officer. >> Hi, I'm Erica Shimacher. I'm the director of early learning and enrollment. >> I'm Candace

007Bcher and I teach and also preschool classes at >> I'm Jackie Schwitzer and I teach general education prek at Thank you all for being here. >> Thanks for having us. Um, as Dr. Pel said, I'm going to kick us off with um, going over just our the goals and the outcomes and then we will turn it over to Eric and her team here to talk about the early childhood pieces that we're working on. Um, as we look at uh, as Dr. Pel said, we do have the we report on these goals annually. However, you really do want to look at things longer term. We want to see because from year to year numbers can go up and down, but you want to see the overall trend over time always going in the positive direction. So,

008this is just just going to start us off with our three-year trend in both math and reading. And this is our Northstar data. So, this is once the the Northstar calculation once MDE works their magic and um applies all their rules for which kids count in the calculation and which kids don't. Um so we were at this year we were at 46.6 for reading and 39.6 for math but both are um on an upward trend over the three years. So the first goal was um get is the number of kids that are ready for kindergarten. And so this is all based on the fall scores when kids enter. So they haven't they're just walking into our kindergarten rooms. And we use FastBridge which we assess within the first six weeks of school and most of

009them are done well before that. Like it's really pretty early on in the year. Um we have to set a goal. So the goal is like a three and a half point increase from one year to the next. But we're not actually like these are just when they come to us. So we did not meet the goal in in in reading. We're um down 3% and um up one in math. Um this one is this goal was all students in third grade achieving grade level literacy. Um so you look at the third grade MCA results. Uh being down 0.9% is really just being flat. Um and then the bottom one is we're looking at fastbridge typical or aggressive growth for K through three. Those are we're looking at the growth in two different assessments because

010on FastBridge K1 does what's called early literacy. So you're really assessing just their foundational um reading skills and ability to decode. And then once they get into second grade, we're using the A reading, which is more of a comprehensive reading assessment. But it's the combination of of those two. We did see a little dip in in um the kids that showed aggressive or typical growth from last year to or from 24 to 25. Um then there's the closing the achievement gap goals and this is in reading and this I think it's important to look at. This is another indicator where if you look at just one year to one year, um you don't see as much growth as you do see over time over the three-year trend. And then we we added the state data

011in here. You guys saw this when we reported it on the MCA. Um but when you look at like the RPS three-year trends, uh we're moving in the right direction for sure for our subgroups in reading. And then this is in math. And you've got um even greater gains in there. Like the three-year trends are are pretty big there. Um the next one is all students college and career ready. And so we're looking at ACT scores. So the cut scores to be um college and career ready on the ACT. That means that about 70% of uh you have about a 70% chance of getting a C or higher in a college class. You need a 22 in reading. You need a 22 in math. Um and we dipped a little bit. Um and those uh

012those I was trying to think I was going to say what they were against the state, but I can't remember them off the top of my head. And then the proportion earning post-secary credit before graduation, we wanted it to be above 50% and we're at about 42.6% right now. All students graduate. So this is the the next goal and this is also broken down by subgroup and we met the goal in um uh we wanted their their 2023 2024 grad rates to exceed the 2019 and we met it in seven of the nine subgroups. So we have two subgroups that we're still need to um increase on but otherwise we met the goal in seven. And then this is a brand new goal for this year. It's the first year we've had it. Um and

013it's all students are prepared to be lifelong learners. Um and the districts can choose what they want to make up this school. And so we opted to have that over a three-year period, we're looking for a statistically significant increase in the number of our kids who enroll in an institute of higher ed within 16 months. and from 22 to 23 because that's the last year we have the data for um we've already met that we met that goal. So we're we're not going to stop there. We want more than 62% of our kids to um to enroll in secondary ed within 16 months. So we'll keep working on it. But this goal will have to change for next year. We'll bump it up. So as Dr. PEL said for next year we want we really

014want to align our goals with our strategic plan and our skip performance measures so that when we're reporting everything is aligned. So all the work from top down any everything that we're measuring and all that is all aligned with the work that we're doing. and we'll be sharing some of this um stuff to get feedback at our um CCIAC meeting in the spring and then we'll submit the the revised um goals in April. All right, I'm up. Um so uh just a little bit about the research around early childhood education which I know we've engaged you all in before but I'll just um touch briefly um is that we know that when children engage in early learning they are building the foundational skills they need not only for academics but also um to be uh

015really ready to be engaged in a civic way as adults. Um and so the work we do is vitally important. We see that um when we recognize um gaps in kindergarten when students have had less opportunity to practice skills. Um and so what we work on in early childhood is ways to meet families where they're at, engage families in different ways that meet their needs um and make sure that we're touching as many students as we can um to prepare them for for kindergarten and beyond. Um a brief overview of the programs that we have within the district. Um we have early childhood family education. We serve zero to five year olds and their adults. Um we have a program at uh Hawthorne called Rochester Family Literacy which we serve zero to 5year-olds and their

016adults. So it's two gen programming. Um we have early childhood screening which serves zero or three to five year olds um which is a snapshot of their development so we can guide them towards additional supports if needed. Um we have our Rochester public preschool um Rochester public schools preschool program which um is in four locations across the district serving three to five year olds. Um we also serve their adults. We incorporate parent education within that because a parent is their first teacher and so we want to make sure that they know the skills the child needs. Um and within that we also have early childhood special education services that serve birth through um kindergarten entry as well um supporting them and their adults. Um, so we serve a wide range of families in our community.

017Um, tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the literacy work we've been doing in early childhood. Um, uh, when the ReadAct came out a couple years ago, all of our early childhood staff were trained um, in letters, early childhood um, and have since been embedding the work that they've learned, which aligned really well with our curriculum and assessment tools we already had in place. So, we were able to really enhance the skills we already had. um working in our classrooms. Um and today our two teachers are going to share a couple of examples of what that looks like in play in their spaces. So we'll start with Jackie first. In the top picture, um, it says don't walk. If you can't read that from where you are, but we were doing a road

018study, how roads are built, why we need roads, and we started looking at all the different signage that you would see on roads and pointing out the letters and things like that. Uh, one day during play, a child came over to me and said, "Oh, I really need people to not be walking here. um things are getting knocked over. I don't want anyone to get into an accident and just talking about the traffic and things like this. And I said, "Why don't we make a sign?" And she said, "Okay." And uh so we went over to the table. So instead of me just saying, "Okay, here's a sign. Go put this up." I said, "What should our sign say?" And this student had really great oral language skills and just really went off on like,

019"Oh, well tell them if they come over here, then this is going to happen and that's going to happen." and I said, "Wow, we can't put all that on a sign." So, long story short, she decided on the shape, the color, and we narrowed down the sign to don't walk. She just didn't want anyone in there. Um, the best part of this story is that that student before this time wasn't really engaging in writing her letters. Um, she, like I said, had great oral language skills. um every day we do name writing and she wasn't writing her name at all and uh the next day she came into school and said you know I think I want to make a sign with my name can you show me and so we went and since that

020time she's been really working hard to write so I was really um privileged to see that connection being made where she was like oh so you're talking and we can put that on a sign and other people can understand Um, so that was really great. [snorts and clears throat] >> Um, I'm gonna speak next about the um picture on the uh lower right corner. Um, so at Northrup Community Education, we have the opportunity to utilize the community garden space. And so our my students in the spring will plant and then I help kind of tend it over the summer and then my incoming students in the fall are able to go and help pick some of the things that the class previously had planted. Um so we were talking a lot about things that grow

021in gardens and um we had started doing a song um that particular week all about watermelon. We were using rhythm sticks to tap out the beat. And um as we were wrapping up that song and getting ready to move on to the next thing, um we started talking about well can we eat watermelon and do we have any watermelon? And we decided as a group that it would be a great idea to have watermelon for snack the next day. Um and I would need to then run to the store. And as we were having this conversation as a group, two of my students who like to visit with each other when there's opportunity started chatting and we're not engaged in that conversation. And I pulled out my sticky notes because I always have sticky notes

022and a pen in my pocket to take notes. I pulled them out and I said to the little girl, Paisley, you can see her name on the top of that sticky note because I used it for data entry. Um, and I said, "Paisley, I really need your help. could you write a grocery list for me? Could you write me a reminder to get watermelon at the store? And it just within that moment was able to pull her back into the conversation. Um, I just think it's so true as we continue to do this work together that play um, and meaningful work are some of the best opportunities for our students to learn and um, to discover and to grow into how capable they are. And so she took the paper and said, "I I don't

023know how to write that note." And I was like, "Well, um, you could use letters or, um, you could use scribbles or you could draw a picture." And I said, "Your friend Helen can help you." And so the two of them turned and with this pen were talking about what they were going to write for the note. And a few moments later handed this one to me and said, "Miss Candace, it says, "Don't forget the watermelon." And I was delighted that they um really took a hold of um those materials and were able to work together to figure out how to write that note. And I took it and I brought it with me to the grocery store. And the next day I came back with a note and I said that was so helpful

024that you wrote this note for me. I remember to get watermelon and now we can all have watermelon for snack. And so those earliest learners um I think it just really helps to give them those opportun that say what you do is meaningful um because I think it's really motivating and encouraging for them to discover what they can do. >> Thank you. Um additionally, I'll just share really quickly since we've just got a little bit of time left. Here's some additional pictures of what um some of our early literacy work looks like in our classrooms. Um how they're exp exploring numbers, early writing, um using their ideas to make meanings. uh in in stories um in their space and how they share stories through books. Um a few last points um that I'll share is

025that uh our work extends outside of the classroom uh as a community-based program. Um we have a broader scope than what just happens in there. And so um we have a few things happening. One, um we do communitywide information sharing. So, we often share newsletters with families um and share tips and tricks they can do to be engaging in early literacy at home um from birth all the way through kindergarten entry. Um we want even our babies to be exposed um and to start building skills um and have access to that. And so we do a lot of connecting to also the library or other community spaces where you might not think of or something as simple as when you're in the grocery store, find all the letters, look for have your child help make

026a list. Um use those skills beyond just talking about the books that are in front of you. Um, additionally, we um just began an early childhood um through kindergarten community of practice where we have 20 educators of both early childhood and um kindergarten coming together to talk about how we create smoother transitions. What do we do to support children and families in that gap and what's our role within there? [laughter] >> Okay. Um the last couple of things I'll just touch on really briefly. Um we know uh that the state shared uh within the last couple of years what does readiness mean? Um and really what the state stance on that is is that it means to be five years old to enter kindergarten. And it's really about access. Um we know that no matter

027what point a child enters there will be a wide variety of skills and abilities that they present. Um and that coming to school offers them a lot of opportunity to in to re access resources such as school meals, um access to social workers, access to interventions that we're putting in place to make sure that they're building upon um the foundation they've already began. Um in addition to that, they have created the successful learner equation, which is what we focus on a lot, which is how do we support families to be ready for our school systems? um by providing information, making connections, um helping them see the opportunities they can support their child in. Um how are our programs when they come to us supporting that? Um and in the last two years between um 23

028and 24 and 24 and 25, we've had about as um Dr. McCuel mentioned, not all of the students, but we serve about 34 to 36% of the children who enter K each year. Um we know that grows. um we're seeing some of our programs grow, which is exciting. So that way we have more opportunity to engage them with great teachers like this who are excited about um showing them all of the possibilities of learning, but um that's still impactful. Um and we know that that makes a difference and that we're constantly working on our programs is important. Um in addition to that, we support community programs or committees that are looking at ways to support families. We provide them with our knowledge and information because we have access to training. And then we use that

029information to also inform the state. So the systems they ask us to put into place really reflect our community. So um while it seems like we don't want the child to be ready, we're actually looking at what are all of the people and all of the ways we can support a child to have access so they are ready um to enter school and ready to learn. So that is all of our information for tonight. >> Wonderful. >> Yeah. Board members, this is the time for us for questions and comments. Director Workman. >> So, I have two questions. Um, from slide 10, Miss Perkins, um, the statistically seeking an increase in the number of RPS high school graduates who enroll in any institution of higher education within 16 months. Does that take into consideration any students

030who might enter like an electrical or plumber apprentice that's not >> two and four year? Okay. And um my other question is how old were those children? >> Um Paisley, the one who wrote the note with her friend Helen um just turned four at the end of the summer before entering the school. >> That was a wonderful story. Director, >> this is a question for a future I know you're going to be coming back and just for a future meeting, but it it occurs to me that what you're describing that goes on in preschool is amazing. And it seems to me that that used to be kindergarten when we up until 10 or so years ago, we had half day kindergarten. And that was sort of the kindergarten experience. And now for good reason, kindergarten

031programs that we've seen at least as we've gone to elementary schools are are more structured um and you know with a real focus on numeracy and literacy. And I guess my question for the future is [clears throat] how about the kids who are five years old and just aren't ready for that yet, for that kind of structure, for that kind of focus, for that kind of attention span and especially the littlest ones. Do we frustrate them because they're with other kids and they're doing great, but with so much focus on that really early learning? Um, how I can't imagine how you do it and I know that you do so that um all there's a place for all kids. There's room for play and there's room for kids with short attention spans so that they

032don't begin to believe early on that they're already behind and if that kind of is a stigma that's stays with them. Again, no answer just now. Just a concern. >> Go ahead, please. Absolutely. >> Oh, okay. Um I was just going to say play. I feel like so much of the work that we do in early childhood um does cover a large range of topics um what you would maybe consider academics. You were mentioning literacy and numeracy. And also um I think that we're afforded the opportunity still in early childhood to do it through play. And that is when people learn the even grown-ups, I think, when we're able to be playful and have the opportunity to make mistakes and to try things out and to not be um scolded or or reprimanded or um

033kind of held up as someone who's not doing the right thing. I think when we can play, we can learn. And that's how we're able, I think, to cover so many different things and encourage early learners. And I hope for that in all of our learning spaces regardless of the age and grade level of our >> even after preschool. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Sure. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. Um if you had to identify and this is for any anywhere all for you a for lack of a better way to put it a competency that a kindergartenner will have because they were in our early childhood programming play also developmentally attuned. What comes to mind? What is um we're talking about such little kids. I'm hesit hesitating to say competency or skill, disposition,

034habit that we see in kindergarteners that the students that one-third of students who we've had the privilege of teaching in early childhood demonstrate in kindergarten that some of their peers don't bring with us. What's different as a result of that by the time they get to kindergarten? >> I'll share I'll let them share. I'll share what we often hear as feedback from our K partners is that when um our students enter, they can tell that they've been to one of our programs and that um that's a the biggest piece of it is is their social emotional skills that their social learning and their ability to work with peers to engage with peers in a productive way um and to manage the emotions that happen when you go through so many routines in a day. Right?

035We do a lot of time or we spend a lot of time focusing on um how you transition from routine to routine and and it's really hard to stop playing and go do something that you don't prefer. Um so um they have a lot of opportunity to practice that um because we we have a schedule much like um an elementary would. And so oftentimes what that's what we hear is that that opportunity to practice those social skills and routines um is beneficial. Yeah, I those are the big two that I hear, self-regulation and social skills. And not to take a deficit approach to kids, but this is not unique to Rochester public schools. This year's cohort of kindergarteners all over the country. If you talk to teachers, elementary educators, administrators, they are struggling. These were

036infants at the height of the pandemic. >> And we have them in preschool last year. So, we know, >> you know, [laughter] and our kindergarten teachers know now, too. And of course, we're we're going to stick with them. But there's a sense that this cohort will be with us for 13 years and we're now, you know, seeing that. And when you think about the ability to regulate and to learn which are precursors to the academic work that Dr. Marvin was just asking about these these this is not just play as of course you said and you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. And there I think um the thing that I will highlight too in addition to what Candace shared is is that's actually a little bit of what we started talking about um in our early

037childhood and kindergarten community of practice um there are different types of play and oftentimes what people think of when they think of play is free play. They can just go and explore and do whatever they would like in the space that's provided which is really vitally important that they have the opportunity to do that. But there are also other types of play that are facilitated by teachers and that are supported um even though the child may be making the choice into what play then the teacher enters and joins them um and supports what that looks like and builds the skill within that. And so um we started that discussion of what does that what does play look like because we often only have one picture of what play is and what it means in education.

038Um, and so that's a little bit about what we'll grapple with is how do we do that? Because when we have missing skills, um, we do need to keep moving, but we also need to make sure that we're building them, right? Um, and if we don't make sure that that foundation is strong, it's always going to be missing. Um, and so I think that's the that's a key piece of what we tried to grapple with last year when we had our our pandemic kiddos in preschool with us is trying to build as many of those skills in as we could. Um, and that's what our K teachers are currently trying to do. and it just looks different than it has. Um, and it's making us pause and reflect on our practice. And so, we're going

039to try and figure out how to support that. So, we make sure all kiddos have access to what they need to get their foundational skills. >> Dr. Barley, >> just one brief comment. It's not necessarily your issue, but I'm sure one that we as a district will undertake to try to engage the um 65 to well 60 to 65% of the uh children that we're not currently uh reaching. And so I look forward to hearing what those strategies might look like and how we as a board can be fully supportive of that and then even individually how we can undergard that. Please. >> Uh, thank you, Director Barlo. One step you've already taken is approving the move into the Pinewood building for our Mighty Oaks Early Learning Center, which will allow us to serve more

040students over time um and to serve them in different ways. Uh, it's not sufficient, but it's a it's an important beginning. And can you speak at all to the um we do so much good uh curriculum development and professional development of our early childhood teachers. Can you share a little bit about how you might interact with other providers of preschool in the community so that you know they may benefit from what we're learning and what we know? >> I think um the way this looks currently scheduling PD with providers who serve from six to six is really challenging, right? And getting time to pull them out when we already know that there's a shortage of staffing in in child care is really hard. Um, so the way that it currently looks is is that we

041are involved in a lot of community committees where we can talk to the leaders of those programs and share ideas um make connections um and come up with some collaborative goals that are um ways that we can help support the whole community um and and think about the work that can be done that doesn't just have to be owned by the district or just another program. what is it? What does it look like? And how can we um think about what communitywide training and what good time of year is that? Or how can your pro uh child care provide resources that we're also providing so every family has access to those? Um is what it looks like right now. There is a dream world where we have more time to cross collaborate. Um unfortunately, it's

042we're just not there yet. >> That's great that the foundations are being laid and the connections are being made. >> Yeah. And we have um to speak a little bit about what director Barlo asked, we um we have really great partnerships with Head Start and Letos and some of our other community programs. Um so we are connected and we are sharing similar [clears throat] curriculums and goals and um assessment tools that help us be a little bit better aligned. So we know that even more students than the ones that attend with us are receiving some of that really high quality work. Um, there's still work to be done and there's different approaches and it's not to say that our approach is the best approach. There's lots of different ways to approach it, but we know

043that we have some really solid practice in place. So, just so board members know, the live stream is about 30 seconds behind what is happening here live. So, whatever I say, Director White Horn will not hear for a short period of time. But I don't see that she has her hand up. Okay. So, um, unless there's any other questions or comments from board members, >> I just had one. I keep looking at the slide and I don't think I've seen this before even though I've been on the board for a bit now, but I think this really I mean, great presentation, but I think this really summarizes it. It's not just the district, it's not just the families, but it's the whole community. And I think that's really good [clears throat] visual for us to

044show to others. I think that's all from the board. Thank you. >> So, the next item on the agenda is comments from the public. The public meeting also requires that stakeholders be provided an opportunity to pro to provide feedback on the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report. Um, members of the public who would like to provide feedback uh can raise their hand to be recognized by the board chair. Um, if you're recognized, you will come and be seated here at the front of the boardroom. When you provide your feedback, you're asked to first state your name and your connection to Rochester Public Schools. And feedback or questions should be directed to the board and be about the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report. And you'll have three minutes to speak. Would anyone like to provide

045feedback this evening? Would anybody like to provide feedback this evening? and our final call for feedback this evening. Seeing no requests for comments, this meeting is adjourned at 6:07 p.m. This regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 6:07 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 in room 137 of the Edison building. Present at this meeting are school board members, Superintendent Kent Pel, a non- voting exeicio member, and assistant school board clerk, Miss Anne Kramer. Miss Kramer, will you please call the role? >> Director >> here. >> Treasurer >> Here >> and director is writing that she's here. Okay. The board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota nations and the sacred land of

046all indigenous peoples. At this time, we offer the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The next item on the agenda are the Rochester Public Schools mission, vision, and values. During this agenda item, at every regular board meeting, a board member will read either our mission, our vision, or one of our six values to emphasize their importance in our work as a district and our decisions as a board. >> That's Stephanie here. >> Director, thank you. Um, tonight we focused on the RPS vision. Our vision is that every student thrives in school and in life. >> Thank you, Dr. Marvin. The next item is approval of the agenda.

047Are there any changes to the agenda? >> Move approval. >> Second. It has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. And we'll have to do a roll call. here. Um I [clears throat] >> I will wait until watching. Sorry. Yeah, she's still coming. Yep. All right. Our next item is comments to the board. It is important for the school board to hear from our stakeholders regarding issues that impact our students, staff, families, and schools. We welcome communication via email, phone call, at our community engagement listening sessions, and here during comments to the board. There she is. The purpose of comments to the board is to give community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within our authority. The board and superintendent do not respond directly to

048the speaker's comments during the meeting, but may follow up with the speaker if requested and appropriate. Persons who want to make comments to the board must fill out the online form by 5:00 pm on the Monday before the school board meeting. >> Waiting for me to say I. We gotcha. The form is available on the RPS website and the assembly main page. By participating in the public comment period, each speaker agrees >> to it for the school board to hear from our stakeholders issues that impact our students. >> Oh, she has to mute. Stephanie, you need to mute yourself. There we go. By participating in the public comment period, each speaker agrees to abide by the public comment policy 206 and procedure 206A. Speakers, when your name is called, please come to this table. If

049you have written materials for the board, please provide them to the assistant school board clerk prior to your remarks and she will distribute them to board members. Choose a microphone to speak into and be seated. Please direct your remarks to the school board. You will have three minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed in front of me. Please begin your remarks by stating your name. Our first speaker tonight is Linda Nelson. on our agenda is item 4.1, information and outreach recognitions. Uh, director Workman, >> this week, November 11th through 15, is National School Psychology Week. Our RPS school psychologists support our students from birth to age 21 in the evaluation process for disabilities that may impact their educational progress and performance at school. Their expertise and support help our students obtain the special

050education and mental health services they need to succeed in every aspect of their educational journey. To our school psychologists, we are very thankful for your hard work and dedication to our students. November 21st is substitute educator day. Substitute teachers are important educational bridges when regular classroom teachers are absent. RPS is fortunate to have so many highly qualified substitute teachers in our community. Our substitute teachers come from all backgrounds and aren't afraid to help out when they're needed. We thank them for their reliability and dedication to our students and staff, especially when we need them the most. >> Thank you. >> The next item on our agenda are board member updates. Does any board member have updates from their committees? Director Mvin, >> I'd like to invite our members uh representing the student school board to

051come forward, please, and sit at the table here. Um, our Laura and Elizabeth, when you come up here to introduce yourselves, please. Our student school board involves students from all three uh general high schools. Uh, they meet once a month and in between they are busy doing uh work both for their schools. But the focus of student school board is on district issues. and they're going to tell you uh what we've been doing so far this school year. >> Hi, I'm Laura. I'm president of the Mayo Student School Board. >> And I'm Elizabeth Bader. I'm the vice president of the Mayo chapter. >> At the start of the year, our student school board reviewed several district-wide priorities and discussed where student perspectives could make the biggest impact. Two topics stood out to us immediately. The

052first is the registration process we have within the school system or our student school board reviewed several districtwide priorities. Sorry. The first is the registration process. Um whether it's unclear course pathways, limited planning tools, or difficulty assessing accurate information. We also want to take a closer look at the classes currently being offered. Which ones feel meaningful? Where there might be gaps in how course options prepare students for life after high school? Improving both the process and the clarity of the offerings could make a noticeable difference for our students. The second area is chronic absenteeism. Students see firsthand the challenges that affect attendance and we want to help identify supports or strategies that feel realistic and relevant from a student's point of view. And then in addition to these priorities, we've recently started a new project

053which is going to be a listening a listening panel for the fifth and seventh grade students. So, they're like making a transition from elementary school to middle school and middle school to high school. And we think that these listening sessions are going to be like really valuable to have um high schoolers come into their schools and talk with them about these transitions and any um worries that they have, concerns. and we're trying to do like a survey or some type of way to understand like the things that they're really worried about so that we can help them as we've gone through these changes, these processes to kind of have them have a clearer understanding of things that we wish we'd had a better understanding of was as we went through these. Um, kind of adding

054on to what Elizabeth said, the past few student schoolboard meetings, students from JM, students from Century, we've all kind of had this idea of how effective it would be to have discussions with seventh graders, eighth graders, kids that are coming into this big transition in their life. and being able to kind of give them firsthand advice and feedback on kind of like how they're doing, how things might change when they go into high school, how grades do really matter, and how it like you need to show up to class. You know, it's easy to kind of get into a slope and not go to class and then you kind of slide. And that's how we see chronic absenteeism. That's kind of a big problem. And so yeah, just like Elizabeth said, we want to create

055a survey that we would send out to them to get questions that they might have that they would like to ask us. And we would go and meet with kids at Willow, kids at John Adams, all the other schools in the district just to get a better idea of where their concerns are and how we can help them with that transition. >> To close, we just want to thank the school board for listening to us. We have we put a lot of work into our student school board at Mayo and also coming to the building and it's been a really valuable experience for us and we're excited to help the future generations. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you board members. Any other committee reports or other community activities anyone would like to share?

056>> Director McLaclin. Um I attended the cradle to career event in the last few weeks and I would encourage my uh fellow schoolboard members to attend next year that it's always a really enlightening event. I think it gives a really good mix of an update on what is going on in RPS and other organizations. It gives us an insight into some that some of the innovative type things that are going on in education and also a great place to network with other people in the community who share our values of having a strong public school district. I think it's just a great event every year. I always leave um feeling very uplifted by the communication and the discussion at that event. >> Director Wickley. So this is a report on a future event. Um on

057December 5th and 6th, Director Mclofflin and I will be attending the delegate assembly um which meets once a year up in office. I gave you a fairly extensive description of what that was when we introduced our um resolutions to pres be presented to the delegate assembly. So, we look forward to presenting those and we'll give you a not too detailed report since the book is like 350 pages long this year, but we will give you a report on how things went. Director Barley. >> Uh, yes. On the 11th, I had the opportunity to attend the family engagement meeting at Overland Elementary School. Uh, there was a wonderful presentation made by Miguel Benjamin, who's the coordinator of interpretation services regarding the language access plan, which we as a board recently approved. Uh key for that is

058it's outlining the procedures and practices that RPS will implement to provide meaningful communication with parents and guardians and a language that they understand enabling full participation in their child's education. And I think that goal relates directly with uh what was presented uh earlier this evening uh where we saw and director Mclofflin commented on the Minnesota Department of Education uh model for successful learner uh equation. uh that first u circle was uh ready families and and I see the language uh access plan uh feeding directly into that and uh as a result of uh uh this effort uh while it's not mine to announce uh tomorrow uh the uh in this uh conference room there will there There will be an opportunity to hear the results of the World Cafe uh uh event which uh brought

059together native, Hispanic, Somali uh families to provide solicit input in terms of how those families uh can uh how we can better serve their children and how those families can better access uh our system. Uh so I'm encouraging my fellow board members and members of the community community to attend tomorrow's session. I don't recall the uh time exactly. Perhaps it's six o'clock here in this boardroom. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Robert. >> Um I was able to uh stop into the construct tomorrow event that was uh put together by our southeast service cooperative. Um and this is an annual event where um representatives of the trades have um boos and tables um where they uh give students and we've we had a number of students uh go over from RPS on on a field

060trip. Um and the trades share uh what they do. Um, you have some hands-on activities um with uh wiring a light bulb and um um doing masonry with uh bricks and um doing some hammering of nails into wood. I did not break my finger this time. Um, but I think what's so exciting there is that um, you know, we're really hoping with our post-secary pathways to help students identify what their interests are, what their skills are, and we also need to open up the opportunities for students uh, after high school uh, to the wide range of what's available out there. And in talking to these representatives of the trades, uh, 2011, they all said, "I wish I had had this when I was in high school because I would have known earlier that this was

061the path that I wanted to take." Um and in addition, um every year they and I have copies of the board members who like to see them, they have the uh lists of um the the uh money that they can start making while they're in their apprenticeships after high school and how quickly they can get to a very uh favorable uh income. Um and the trades uh representatives say that students are always very surprised when they see that. one of the things that they that they recommended um and they're looking into doing this next year is figuring out a way to bring parents with because sometimes the kids have this knowledge but the parents don't and sometimes it's that conversation that really helps to support the kids to pick um this pathway if this is

062what's right for them. So thanks to the Southeast Service Cooperative for organizing and for all the trade organizations for for setting this up for for the day. Um board members have a souvenir that uh the members of the unified uh Spartans club asked me to give you. Um I went to visit. They invited us when they were here doing their presentation to go and visit. And I encourage you all to go. It was the best Thursday morning I've had in a long time. Every board game I think on the planet was there. They had uh um video games. They had breakfast. and it really did just embody every great thing that we've heard about what's happening there. And I know that it's also developing at JM and at um Century as well. So, uh Thursdays

0638:15 a.m. They're they're happy to have um all of your board members there. And then my last is uh it's fall musical season and uh was able to enjoy Cinderella at Century uh last week and it was funny and it was the the kids were so talented. But don't miss the opportunity. There's two more musicals happening this week. Um John Marshall's Lightning Thief and uh Mayo The Christmas Carol and the tickets are available on the Goof Fan app. Um these are these are just great demonstrations of our students talent and their commitment and and all the adults that work with them. So uh limited limited run limited time only. Director Mvin, >> three things very briefly. Uh Director Mclofflin talked about the cradle to career event. Uh Dr. PEL uh chair Nathan and Dr. Ruck

064also did a presentation there. It was completely um engaging. It was a very hands-on group uh sort of an well a hands-on uh activity that showed how the balanced budget model can work and how when schools can decide how they're going to choose their uh the funding or how they're going to spend some of their funding to get the best results for the students at that building, um really good things happen. A few of us were also able to go to the skip visit at Elton Hills Elementary School uh where uh Principal Wilman showed us his amazing school with great programs and fantastic staff. We loved that. And then a few of us were also able to attend at Hoover Elementary School the Ruby Bridges event that they had there. Um there was music. Uh

065there were high school speakers who were helping to educate the students there about this incredibly brave little girl, Ruby Bridges, and her amazing family and how because she showed up every day to attend kindergarten by herself in a school that had previously been all white, she was the only black child. schools changed and um I am so proud of our schools and the work that they continue to do. J. Okay. All right. Stephanie, if you unmute yourself, we can hear you. Nope. Can't hear you yet. >> Yep. >> Did you have any uh updates? Board member updates. >> So, I'm so far behind. I don't know what's it, but they did announce that they are going to having some scholarship for education and I just thought that that was a really good supportive thing showing

066uh that the community is very much in alignment with uh the importance of education not only for our students but also in creating future educators. Um so that is uh it was a good thing to see out in the community if that had already been mentioned. >> Thank you. This is a good system. We will move on unless there's any other comments to our consent agenda. Items 5.1 through 512 are [clears throat] on our consent agenda this evening. Would any board member like any item removed from the consent agenda for separate consideration? Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. By roll call. >> Director. >> I. I. >> And now we wait. About 10 seconds. Go ahead, Stephanie. >> There

067she is. Okay. Thank you. Our next item is a monitoring item, the annual inventory of fixed assets report. This is an information item. Superintendent Fuel. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. I'd like to ask Andy Crogstead, our director of finance, to come up um and give board an update on this um annual overview of our fixed assets. Thanks, Andy. Thank you, Chair Nathan, members of the board. Dr. Pel, I know this is the one presentation you've been waiting for all evening and so uh I will do my very best to I I probably can't make it exciting. So, let's just let's just move forward. Obviously, this is again by board policy something that we bring to each and every year. Uh what are fixed assets? Here obviously is an explanation of those fixed assets, but some

068examples. So items that cost $10,000 or more that are not what we would normally consider as an asset like a building or a piece of property. Some things would be playground equipment would be an example. uh irrigation systems, things like that that have multiple years of useful life but cost more than $10,000. Uh one thing that I know this board has really taken a liking to though the automated floor scrubbers. Uh those are actually part of the or considered a fixed asset and something that we have in here as well. Um then we have group assets. So these are things think of um this next category as a group they're $25,000 or more. things like, which is a threshold we establish, things like iPads, things like uh most of these things are going to be

069devices, small use items such as a laptop, but when we buy them in bulk, and we buy lots of them, they're greater than $25,000. So, we put them in as a group asset, and we track uh those uh track that through their useful life. And then obviously those things that you again particularly think of when you think of an asset um buildings, our remodeling projects, our IAQ projects, um parking lot improvements, things of that nature. So the finance department along with technology uh we work together to track these assets. uh each and every year we are following uh our purchasing process and so we're usually using our purchase order entries as a means to track those things that are added to the inventory and then obviously we do in some cases have the opportunity to

070go out and do some physical inventory and counts things that um that are a little bit more difficult to track through a purchase order but then also um our removals things of of things that are once they're depreciated we obviously We track that. Our uh manager of purchasing is responsible for the dis disposition of our assets and then he reports those back to our manager of accounting. We track that all. Then depreciation is applied uh each and every year. Depreciation is a basically a year's worth of the use of an asset. So we expense it then on an annual basis. Things that um that we know again have a very long useful life. We don't expense all of that when it's put into service. We expense it over a portion of its useful life. How

071do we dispose of our equipment? There's a very defined process because this is again publicly purchased equipment. Um we can offer it for use around this district for so if one building is disposing of something, another building might pick it up. We do that a lot with furniture for example. Um we can auction it so public surplus anyone has the ability then to bid on it. So it's fair and and equitable and open to the public and makes it um again a fair process. Um if if we're not able to get rid of it at that point in time through those processes then we are able to just dispose of it as scrap metal in those instances if it's something that has value like that. Otherwise it is just disposed of at the waste energy

072center if there's no value left in it and we have no other takers. last year. It's not a lot of money, but we were able to gain about $95,000 in disposition revenue uh for sale of some of our equipment. I'm not going to read through all of these, but I we just wanted to identify our large categories and how they changed from the beginning of the year through the the course of the year in terms of their ending balances and what they look like at the end. So, here again are uh land and land improvements. Obviously, buildings are our biggest asset. You can see how uh that obviously grew. It grew primarily because we had projects completed. So IQ projects once they come online and we've completed that project, they now become a fixed asset

073on our books as opposed to construction in progress or work in pro progress uh instead. And then we do have to also um calculate certain lease agreements um both physical structure leases and also software leases um that uh we have a useful life of greater than one particular year. And so here you can see where we stand at the end of the fiscal year. Uh this information is also included in our audit which you'll hear more about in in a little while this evening. And just so you understand how much of our fixed assets did we actually depreciate. So about $23.6 million was the expense that we recognized in FY25 uh for the use of those assets essentially over the year. Board members, any questions? Director Workman. >> Um, so the $95,000 from the disposed

074equipment, what kind of fund does that go into and what might it be used for? >> That just goes into our general funded, general revenue. So we do budget a certain amount of revenue that we anticipate receiving each and every year. So it just goes to our bottom line. >> Okay. Thank you. Well, this is a required report um to the board, but the board does not have to take action. So, thank you very much. Our next item is a prep for action item. These are policy committee recommendations from our October 9th, 2025 meeting. The policy committee proposes the following recommendations to the school board and this is the second time um these policies have been briefed and the policies will be on the consent agenda for approval on December 2nd. Are there any questions

075or comments on these policies or procedures? Hearing none, we will move on. Our first action item is a recognition of John Carlson and the chief administrative officer search update. So, uh, we are going to take this time to celebrate John Carlson and his accomplishments during his time at Rochester Public Schools. Uh, what I'm going to read to you is contained in the whereas statements of the resolution. Um, but I'll read them in a more reader friendly way. Uh John Carlson began his 15-year career in Rochester public schools and has served as treasurer and controller before joining the superintendent's cabinet. First as the director of business services, then executive director of finance, executive director of finance and technology, and most recently chief administrative officer. There is no way to quantify how valuable John's ex expertise in

076school finance has been to the district. Because of his willingness to make complicated finance topics understandable, we would not have been able to pass three referendums. Without his integrity and oversight of our budgets, we would not have had six years of clean audits. We weathered multiple rounds of budget reductions and the development of our new budget model, fully supported by his commitment to transparency and accuracy in sharing information that the superintendent and board needed to make difficult decisions. When John took the role of chief administrative officer in 2022, his leadership helped improve the work of key departments our students, staff, and families cannot function without every day, including facilities, finance, policy, and innovation, student nutrition services, technology, and transportation, as well as for other strategic priorities outlined in our strategic plan. He was integral in

077the redesign of our transportation system to achieve earlier start times. John has also served the Minnesota School Finance Committee outside RPS on the board of the directors of Minnesota Association of School Business Officers, the Minnesota Trust, and our district's insurance pool. He also served on the school funding task force for the state of Minnesota and currently serves on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Special Education. So, I have a resolution to read. Be it resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 expresses its profound gratitude for John Carlson's outstanding service and commitment to Rochester public schools and we acknowledge that Mr. Carlson will be greatly missed. We wish Mr. Carlson and his family the very best. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any discussion or comments? Board members.

078Director McLaclin. Um, I would echo what you said in the resolution, but want to focus on a couple things where you talked about um, Mr. Carlson's ability to explain complex financial topics understandably and benefiting the referendum. I think it benefits the board. I think it benefits the community. Anyone listening to our meetings, I think, would be lost without his expertise of explaining those complex topics. So, thank you. and also the transportation project that that seems like a it was a lifetime ago now, but it was so important and it's so important to our students and our staff. >> Dr. Marvin, >> um I wish that the board would change our protocol so that he had to get a permission slip before he could leave. Um because John, we are going to miss you as as

079a professional, as a leader, as a friend. Um, and you are one of the few people I have ever known with your level of expertise and your level of responsibility and every time you've been asked a question and when it's coming from me, usually it's not particularly intelligent, I have never once seen you roll your eyes. Um I'm sure after you did, but your level of patience and ability to communicate with people and make them feel um respected and help them understand is unparalleled and um we really are going to miss you. So stick you're sticking around Rochester. Well, good because for sure you can't leave the city. >> Director Barlo, >> um just one or two thoughts. one uh the first one being um John, I will probably remember you most by uh popularizing

080the term buckets of money. And uh then your approachability uh you know you you never uh were pretentious. You were always approachable, always willing to answer questions, be responsive to um what others didn't know and and so thank you for that. Dr. Workman, >> I I think after a while, John knew exactly what the question was that I was going to ask because a lot of times it was not necessarily for my information specifically or the board, but just to reiterate something that was really important financially like a budget um that we were doing just to, you know, where do our property taxes go? How does that work? Um just another opportunity to convey that to the community. and he's always very gracious in his response and I echo everything that others have said already.

081You will be missed, >> but we will find you, >> director cut. >> Well, and to to take a forward-looking view of this, I I'm um I I've shared with you that I I respect your role uh in our community and and for the district uh for lots of reasons. Um, but I am also grateful that you have set a high standard for this role because it is very important and you're leaving big shoes to fill and we're surely going to do that. But, um, they're going to be measuring up to you and I I think that's good for the district and, uh, a way that your contributions will continue to live on. So, um, thank you. And I don't know if uh Director Whitehorn has um any comments, but uh John has had to

082um deal with my questions when I was just a parent even before I was on the board. And I have to say uh maybe you were happy that I shared your love of school finance. So we sort of bonded on that. But um I I agree with what Director Cook says. you have set a standard not only here but also in your service uh to the school finance committee in Minnesota um for uh how important for how important school finance is to a district. You have helped integrate it into our work so that it is more visible and that we as board members can really have an impact on making the right decisions um on finance issues to the benefit of our students and our staff and schools. So, thank you. >> Anything else, Superintendent?

083>> Yes. Thank you, Chair Nathan. Well, of course, the the first I want to note this is torture for John. He's hating this >> as intended. >> This was more about us than about you. Um uh there is a search underway for John's successor. If anyone out there walks on water, um we have retained the uh requirement of school finance expertise, but as we just heard from Andy, we have a great finance team. And um if uh we find that we don't quite get the um right person with that unique technical expertise and the broader leadership capacities, uh we may uh think in some different ways. And so this will be um an evolving effort and I'm grateful to Andy and the team who are going to keep our finance work moving forward. Um the

084position will continue to have responsibility for all of those operational priorities that matter so much to our schools. Facilities, finance, policy and innovation, student nutrition services, technology, transportation. Uh that's why um even though John's title is chief of administration, uh his colleagues sometimes call him chief of quite a lot. Um you are a person of incredible integrity, John. um and uh just good humor to use a very old school kind of term for it. Um even though since I came to Rochester I broadened and the board approved and you accepted a gigantic expansion of responsibility I will always associate uh your leadership here with the superb financial stewardship that we are about to hear about in the sixth completely clean audit in a row. That's an extraordinary accomplishment in a $400 million organization. So finance

085is at the core of what you do. It's at the core of what you're going to do in your next job. And um that got me thinking about um an economics professor when I was um in college. Uh his name was Robert Schiller. He went on to win the Nobel Prize actually. Um and he had a quote that I really loved and it's this. Finance is not merely about making money. It's about achieving our deep goals and protecting the fruits of our labor. It's about stewardship and therefore about achieving the good society. And John, within Rochester public schools, I know it sounds uh maybe overblown, but you have helped us become a better society through your careful stewardship of our financial resources. And so that's a great legacy uh for us to build upon. And

086we know you're going to continue to be an RPS parent. um uh which will uh keep us connected in uh non-professional ways, but we couldn't wish you uh better for the future or thank you more for what you've done in the past. >> So, board members, we will take your roll call vote on the resolution. All those in favor >> I Hi. >> Hi. Wait for Director White Horn's vote. >> I'm guessing I know what it is. We will let her get on the record. I might note, Madam Chair, for the good of the board and others here, we had thought we would be able to do this synchronously tonight. So, I apologize for the delay. >> She said I >> All right. Thank you. >> And I think [applause] [applause] >> [applause] >> And

087speaking of finance, the next item on our agenda is um our second action item, approval of audit report for fiscal year 2024 2025. Superintendent Patel. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. You can see uh Andy Croxett, our director of finance coming and Nancy Schultzberg, uh our lead auditor from our external um firm. Before they begin, I think it's important for me to share a point that I believe it would have been inappropriate for me to share publicly before the board receives this audit, and it's one that we'll be coming back to in December. Um but it uh has to do with the projected deficit and the budget cuts that you've already directed me to bring you a proposal for in June. Um, as you will hear in a moment, for the previous fiscal year, our revenues

088exceeded expenditures. And in most cases, those additional revenues were for um purposes that have been clearly categorized and restricted like purchasing devices, computer devices in the future. Thanks to the difficult reality largely of unfilled positions, however, there is about two million of those uh dollars that I believe will be available for other purposes. And so I want you to know as you hear this that I plan to recommend to you when you begin work on the budget in December to dedic to commit that amount to reducing the deficit further for the 2627 school year. As you know, we projected a 13.4 4 million deficit and thanks to improved enrollment uh we've reduced that to somewhat more than 10 million. Um if you approve committing that additional two million it would take our deficit to about

0898.4 million that we'll need to close. Now for me to share this before you receive the audit might seem flipping it backwards but I wanted as board members are hearing the audit to know that that is something that I plan to propose. It's not a subject for decision tonight. tonight your only purpose is um approving the audit, but I think that given that the results point to the fact that there are somewhat better outcomes at the end of the last year, I I'm excited that that will um somewhat reduce the difficult decisions that um we will need to make in the board meeting in June. So, with that um uh sort of preamble, let me turn it over to Andy and Nancy. >> Thank you. Uh, Chair Nathan, welcome back. Or I should say welcome

090back to me, I guess. Uh, [laughter] >> I um before we get started, I want to just have a point of privilege. I do want to say thank you to John Carlson for being a superb leader and mentor to me these last three years in my role. Um, his his guidance and his support has been um has been unwavering and phenomenal and I I appreciate that very much. I also want to just take an opportunity before we get started and and Dr. Mel mentioned this is the the sixth clean audit. I do want to mention that that doesn't happen without uh a very committed staff uh of accountants and our our manager of accounting Andrew Hoffbeck who's been with this district for a very long time. He himself is a CPA. I I take no

091credit for any of the work that they do. they really they really keep us going and keep us uh moving in the right direction in terms of compliance especially related to the many state and federal regulations. So, uh I didn't want to forget to make those comments because they are really uh the glue that um that keeps it running. At this point, I will turn it over to Nancy and she'll run through the audit. >> All right. Thank you, Andy. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for giving me some time to go over the results of the audit. Um, I do want to start out tonight by talking about >> There we go. There we go. >> There we go. Technology. >> All right. So, start out by talking about the communications that we issue as

092part of the audit. And there are several formal letters and then we have the communication letter which houses most of what we'll talk about tonight. But the independent auditor's report is our most important communication. You'll find it in its entirety in the front of the financial statement document if you want to read all three pages. But in summary, we are issuing an unmodified opinion on your financial statements and that's included in that independent auditor's report. That is an indication that based on the results of our audit, um the financial statements are fairly stated in all material response. So clean opinion is another term that we use. And then moving on to the other communications, the first one is going to be our report related to government auditing standards. You'll find this one and the uh

093legal compliance report in the back of your financial statements. So this is where uh we discuss the work that we do related to internal control and also the testing that we do related to compliance. So first of all internal control we're gaining an understanding of the internal control that is in place at the district. We we understand it enough to plan our audit to assess risk. Um and if we had any findings, this is where you'd see them. Happy that we don't have any written findings here. You've already heard that. Um but I do want to let you know how unusual that is. Staff that you have in place, the number of people, the their responsibilities, the segregation of duties is there. Um below that the significant deficiency level. So congratulations on that. And then

094as far as compliance goes, we test compliance with laws, regulations, contracts, grants, and based on our work there, we did note any non-compliance related to these standards. So that is good. Um the next report I want to talk about, we haven't issued yet, and that is the report related to the uniform guidance or the [clears throat] federal funding that you receive as a district. We don't have a compliance supplement from the federal government for 2025. So, we did the test work based on the draft that they issued in October and we tested uh your title one program this year. So, currently we have um an unmodified opinion that we're anticipating to issue and also no um internal control findings as it relates to the compliance. So, again, not in final format yet and when we

095get that compliance supplement, we'll take a look through it and we'll make sure that we did all the testing that's required and then issue the reports at that time. So those are in preliminary format. And then our last official letter is going to be that Minnesota legal compliance report. And this covers the work that we do related to Minnesota state statutes and how those statutes relate to accounting matters. And again, no instances of non-compliance, no written findings for the year. And then we have the communication letter and we have financial analysis in there. We have required communication which um are all the things that our standards say we need to put in writing to you as the governing body. school district would be our tool if we had any difficulties with uh the audit, anything

096significant we uncovered, any disagreements, happy to report nothing strays from our standard language. And then in the back there's some light reading uh the latest from MDE and also the latest government accounting standards board statements that are coming out in the next couple years. So lots going on with Gazsby as always. Any questions on those letters? Right, then we'll keep moving. Um, and take a look at the financial information because this is the exciting stuff, at least for me and probably Andy, maybe John, maybe not all of you, but starting out with the general education aid formula allowance. This is your largest funding source as a school district in Minnesota. So, we've given you 10 years of history and then looking forward one year. If you look at 2025, you were back to the traditional

0972% that has been um historically the increase that you receive year-over-year. Last year you did have 4% and um we're anticipating 2.7 for 2026. So a little bit more next year. And then the other part of the calculation of your general education aid is going to be your student count. So what you see here are the waiting factors. So all students with the exception of secondary at 1.0 secondary students receiving an extra 20%. Um and then we factor in open enrollment effects. So when you look at the chart on the bottom of this slide, you can see um pretty stable overall with an overall uh trending down. And when we look at 24 versus 2025, you'll see about 108 students less than you had in 2024. That's driven by your residents. If you look at

098your open enrollment, that net loss didn't change. Well, it changed by one student. Um so pretty stable there. And again, looking back, um stable with where you were at in 2021. So really the residents uh your population what's driving that change. And you can see that again in graphical format here. You had a little bit of an uptick in 2022 and then decreases each year since then. So overall down about 240 students. And when you're looking at, you know, 18,000, that's not a significant change. We'll get into actual dollar amounts. And this is the chart that shows your revenues. Uh so overall an upward trend over the five years that we're looking at. And when we compare 24 to 25, up about 5.2%. 2% or 14.9 million and that came across all your categories. So

099first of all in the middle the blue portion that's your state sources makes up 72% of the total. So again that heavy reliance on general education aid and other aids from the state that was up about 6.7 million. The formula allowance contributed to that with the 4% and then also special education increased for the year. On the top is your other revenue category. That's going to be your local sources and so things like donation investment income and then also federal. So that did increase for the year about 4.3 million which is not what we're seeing across the state but you had some interesting things going on there. So the large donation donation that you receive from the mayo is included in that category. Uh you had increased investment income. The medical assistance revenues were up

100for the year. So those increases were offset by a decrease in federal with that using up of those ESER funds ending in 2024. And then finally on the bottom is your levy that increased about 3.8 million related to the increase. So nothing surprising there. Budget to actual results. So we kind of alluded to this already and we'll look at the details of fund balance in a couple of slides which will give us the whole picture. But when we're looking at this I think the important column is going to be the variance colum. So if we look at your revenues 4% over budget or 1.2 2 million. So really close to being spot on in total when you're looking at a $300 million budget. Couple of categories that showed some variances. First of all, that other

101local and county increased MA funds. Um investment income was more than what you had anticipated driving that variance. Revenues from f federal sources was under budget related to anticipating more of those co funds that didn't come in 2025. And then on the expenditure side of things, those were under budget about 4.3 million. Um the largest variance there is going to be that regular instruction category and that's a conservative budget for things like instructional supplies and materials. Um vacant positions drove that under budget in the special education area. And then if you look at your sites and buildings is a conservative utility budget over year. This chart shows us your expenditures u for the last five years and expenditures were up a little bit more than your revenues. So about 5.7 or 15.7 million 5.7% excuse

102me or 15.7 million. And you can look at um the totals for each of the years. They're increasing across the board and you're going to have that in a school district. Salaries and benefits are your largest expenditure. So um those have annual increases. So that's what you're going to be seeing without cuts in programming the increases. And then we have um some information on your expenditures per ADM served and then some comparisons on the bottom there. So on the top that first portion of the chart shows you Rochester. So for 2025 you did have um an increase on that expenditure per student and that's due to the decline the minimal decline in enrollment and the increase in expenditures that you saw. So, pretty much just a formula there. And you have had increases each year

103since uh 2023. If you compare that to the overall statewide average um for the last two years, 23 and 24, you're pretty close, but a little bit below where the state averages are for the general fund. And this is just the general fund that we're talking about here. And then on the bottom, we have some information that compares three years for Rochester and then a peer group and um the statewide average by category. So I mean you can take this for for what you will. Uh it's hard to know what is in all those numbers, the details behind them. Um but we just presented for for your information. So when we look at Rochester, you can see that those categories for 2024 did increase just like the overall expenditures per student increase. Larger variances from

104year-over-year in the regular instruction category. If you look back to 2022, that was $5,76 per student up to $6,14. And I think that's the largest variance um in these numbers. And then, you know, I don't know if you have more to say about the comparison to others, but I think, you know, that is what it is. All right. One more chart that takes a look at those expenditures in a pie chart format. Um showing you a visual of where you're spending your money. So, the green being the largest portion, that's your direct instruction. So that does include regular instruction, special education, and also vocational instruction. And that has been 62% for each of the years. So well over half of your money is going directly to students. The other categories are very consistent. You look

105at 24 versus 25, only a 1% variance in some of them and most of them the same. So very consistent spending uh which allows for consistent budgeting. And here [clears throat] is that fund balance analysis that I promised. So really high level snapshot of the general fund looking at the five years showing you total revenues, total expenditures. And is my time up? >> No. Okay, good. Um, we're almost done, but so total revenues, total expenditures, and then your changes in fund balance. And the bottom portion shows you all of the categories. So for 2025, you did have an increase of about 16.3 million um based on those increases in revenues and expenditures. And then you look at the categories on the bottom. So non-spendable, those are items that have already been prepaid for next year.

106The biggest change there is the way that the insurance money was paid. So it was prepaid in June for 2026. Um it's not available for future spending. And then you have all of the statemandated restricted reserved amounts. So those are outlined in statute. And there are some fluctuations in each category. Um overall an increase in uh those and they all have a tag to them. So you can only spend them for specific things. And then you have a committed. So that's for future facility and technology needs that 6 million. So again set aside for a very specific purpose based on needs of the district. Below that you have an assigned number and that did increase as well for the year and that has various things involved. There are some um building carryovers, some budget carryovers,

107some specific separation and severance amounts set aside there. What else is in there? There's about 10 different categories of assignments that you've decided should be spent first. cops. Yep, that's all in there. So, a lot of different things. So, that leaves you with the unassigned. So, that's the number that's available for the future and that did increase about two million this year. Um, overall represents about 17.2% of your percentages. So, you are in compliance with the policy that you have set for yourself. Um, that is not less than 8%. And then we have one more look at the um fund balance. And this is entirely different than the 17.2% because it includes assigned, committed, unassigned, and non-spendable. And we show you this because it gives us the ability to compare. The state calculates this for

108us and they take all of those unrestricted fund balance numbers and compare them to the unrestricted expenditures. So that was 33% up from 26.6% last year. and you have been since 2022 above that state average which is hovered right around that 22 23%. So that is the general fund. The next slide takes a look at your long-term liabilities. So we've included all of it here. So your bonds, your certificates of participation, some notes, um lease liabilities and subscription liabilities. uh some of those things that Andy was talking about that we more newly record as um this type of debt. And then we have compensated absences which includes the new look uh for including all things that may be used in the future rather than just what we know will be paid. So that number did

109increase. Your oped liability became an asset this year. So for the first time the amounts that you have set aside in your trust outweigh what they're anticipating the liability to become. And then your pension liability which fluctuates based on the actuary that we're given each year. So overall a decrease of about 26 million. If you look at just the debt that did go up about 19 million related to new bonds and new cops that were issued in the other categories based on All right, we have two more slides taking a look at your special revenue funds. First of all, food service. Not really a lot to talk about here. revenues were down a little bit. Salaries, I mean, excuse me, expenditures were up with salaries and benefits, but you did have excess revenues again this

110year and ended with a 73% fund balance. So, this is something you're going to want to keep an eye on. I'm sure Andy is well aware and probably has a plan, but the state of Minnesota does limit that to a six-month net cash balance, um, net operating cash balance. And, um, >> and we do have, >> right, and we do have a plan. We we've worked with MD uh much of this or much of these reserves will be used in our IAU project at Mayo for example in the kitchen remodeling that will be going on there. So they've approved that use of these funds. So we will be drawing down these in the future. >> And then finally your community service fund. So increased participation overall in this fund. So revenues were up, expenditures were

111up. You did have deficit spending for the first time since 2021. But when you look at that fund balance, those are all in different buckets as John would say. Um, segregated by the state and all of those were positive at your end. So appears all programs are covering costs. That is what I have, but happy to take any questions. Board members, anybody want to dig in? While hearing none, I'm going to give try to give Stephanie a 30 second warning that we're about to ask for your vote on the audit. But first, I'll read the resolution. Be it resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 does hereby accept the 2025 fiscal year audit report of the school district financial records as of June 30th, 2025 as submitted by Bergen KDV. We have

112mo motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any other discussion or questions? >> Roll call vote, please. I >> I >> we're there. I think she's waiting to come off mute when she hears it on the broadcast. Give her a warning. Oh, there she is. You see me? That was Steph's eye. Okay. >> Well, thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. >> Our next item is the 2026 27 course registration guide. Stephanie, I'm going to give you another 30 second warning that we're about to ask for your vote. The board discussed this item at the October 21st meeting. The resolution is, be it resolved that the school board of independent school district 535 approved the 2026 27 course registration guide for grades

1139 through 12. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments, board members? Hearing none. Roll call vote. >> Director White. She hasn't seen it on the video yet. I >> I >> ask for your vote. Hi. >> I think she's looking at me and she's looking at this. She thinks she said I >> Stephanie, do I have your vote? I >> There we go. Thank you. Right. The next item on um our agenda is also an action item. Um naming of the John Marshall Gymnasium. Superintendent Pel. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. As board members will remember, you recently approved a new policy for um naming facilities in Rochester after people who have served the district. You established a set of criteria for the things that merit that.

114And we have um I think our second after Jeff Whitney at Whitney Stadium at Mayo High School um nomination that came from the John Marshall High School community. It is to name the John Marshall basketball court after Kerwin Engelhart as is outlined in the board materials. He was a longtime rock Rochester public schools activities director. Um he was head basketball coach uh at JM for six years. In 1964, the team earned the title district of champions, a region of champion state runner up in the Minnesota state high school basketball tournament under Mr. Englehart's leadership. He was activities director, athletic director rather, it's the term we used in those days for 22 years. Um 1977 he was named athletic director for the entire school district and he held that position for 10 years until 1987. Um

115during his tenure, we had a lot of teams that went to uh the state tournament, became state champions and individual champions. More importantly, he is beloved in the John Marshall community. Um and they would like to um name the court after him uh early in the basketball season this year. And so you have my uh enthusiastic endorsement of recognizing him. The more I heard about him, the more I wish I had uh had the chance to serve along with him. I think it was a total of 52 years um working Give Stephanie another warning that we're taking another roll call vote while I read the resolution. Be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the naming of the John Marshall basketball court after Mr. Kerwin Angelhart in recognition

116of his many contributions to John Marshall and to the Rochester community. Move approval. Second. It has been moved and seconded. Roll call vote. >> I >> wait till the video catches up. Stephanie, do we have your vote? You see me? We got it. All right. Thank you. Motion has been approved. >> I really approved. Really approved. The next item on our agenda is the approval of our annual board calendar draft through August 1st, 2026. The school board created the ABCD to document and track the schedule of schoolboard agenda items over a year. It also helps the superintendent and cabinet plan their meeting preparation and documents for the board and is a transparent source for the community to track subjects that are coming before the board for discussion or action. Tonight, we're reviewing agenda items through

117August 1st, 2026. Um and it will be updated again prior to August 1st, 2026 to address agenda items during the 202627 school year. Although um board members are reminded that the ABCD is a draft as the schoolboard agendas are no longer in draft format only after the agenda is approved by the board at each meeting. You have a copy of the ABCD. You also have a summary document by major topic areas. Any questions or discussion? We have an exciting year of topics ahead of us and a very busy schedule. >> Director question. This one goes through July. >> That's the end of July. >> Right. Right. >> Okay. To August. >> Two August 1. Right. Thank you. >> Y Dr. Cook. >> I I just wanted to note, Chair Nathan, that uh that I I

118I think this is a really valuable resource, not just to the board and and to the um superintendent and his team, but to our community to let people know what it is that the school board is going to be discussing and when and um really provides a level of transparency that I think is quite admirable and I'm glad we're that we do it. So, credit to you for uh um making this part of our practice. So, thanks. >> Else board members, I'm giving another advanced warning to Stephanie that we will be asking for her vote after I read the resolution. Be it resolved that the school board of I independent school district 535 approve the annual board calendar draft ABCD through August 1st, 2026. Move approval. >> Second. It has been moved and seconded. Roll

119call vote. >> I >> then director. >> Last time we have to do this tonight, guys. Because we're tiny. You need a TARDIS. There she goes. There we go. Thank you. Our next item is the ABCD. Um the current version of the ABCD is available in this agenda item for reference and upcoming agenda items for our December 2nd meeting at 5:30. We have a focus topic on our 2022 2025 strategic plan and review part one. Our monitoring item is our achievement and integration aid report. And three prep for action items are balance budget bud balance budget model enhancements, our policy committee recommendations from November 14th and our legislative priorities for 2026. On December 16th, it is our truth in taxation special session that begins at six o'clock, followed by a regular meeting with a focus

120topic of our 2022 2025 strategic plan and review part two. Our prep for action on the policy committee recommendations second briefing of November 14th and action items on our approval of school district property taxes payable 2026, legislative priorities 2026, and balance budget balance budget model enhancements. And these are all draft um and items can be added up through the meeting. Given that we've just reviewed the ABCD, I hope nobody has anything additional to add. Um as I mentioned, the upcoming board meeting dates um all the meetings start at 5:30 on the 2nd and then on January 6, but remember that our December 16th meeting by statute must start at 6:00 p.m. And that is our special special section on truth and taxation. And hearing no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 7:25 p.m. >>

121Budget budget bottle model enhancement.