2026_03_26 SFAS School Board Special Meeting

001Is the first one good? Yep. It is 7:00 p.m. I call this special meeting to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. [clears throat] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening, fellow school board members, community members, and St. Francis area staff. Thank you for being here tonight. We start all of our meetings off with our mission statement. So, we're going to do the same thing for tonight's special meeting. But, our mission here at St. Francis is to equip all students with the knowledge and skills to empower them to achieve their dreams and full potential while becoming responsible citizens in a dynamic world. Tonight, just so everyone knows, there

002are no consideration of visitors. Anyone that's part of the task force is allowed to speak tonight to us. We're going to have a discussion, go through that report, and there'll be no action items at tonight's meeting. This is information only. Our first order of business is the adoption of the agenda. Are there any questions on the agenda before you before we hear a motion? All right, seeing no questions, is there a motion to approve the agenda for today? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Orkin. Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Any discussion on that motion? >> [clears throat] >> Seeing no discussion. All in favor of the motion and for the agenda before you, signify by saying I and raising your hand. I. I. Motion prevails, 7-0. Thank you. Our next agenda item is

003the one and only for tonight, information report, the St. Francis area schools community engagement task force. Before we start with that, I just have a statement on behalf of the board to the task force that's here tonight. Thank you for the time and dedication and the effort you put into this. We know it was not an easy ask. It was not a small amount of meetings. I think we had an idea of four meetings, and I think it turned into a lot more based off of your guys' input and what you went through to help us. And we're all very excited to hear what you have to present to us. So, thank you for taking that time. And I'm sure you're going to hear some thank you's from us when we're done with this, as

004well. But, at this time, Darren, I'm going to hand it over to you to get us started. What I ask is each of you just please introduce yourself. I know he's probably going to go through all your names, but if you come up to speak, just introduce yourself for us. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Burr. Hi, my name's Darren Overton. I am with SeidLogic. I do community engagement. I had the privilege and the honor of working with your people and your community, your community members. I do want to say I it was not I do this a lot. I I it's all I do for SeidLogic, and I go around and help school boards try to make connections with community members, try to, you know, get an understanding of what maybe the community is

005looking for. It's an important task that uh that we pride ourselves in, and and I'm I'm happy to be here in St. Francis doing this work. Thank you, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Burr, and Mr. Lindquist, the three people I initially had the honor of talking to, and then now I get to be in front of your board. So, I'll just I guess be really quick part here. The agenda, so maybe this is what you're going to see tonight. You all have this um in a board packet, so you know what what the agenda looks like with the task force we're going to go through here and I don't know what this is. Okay, there we go. You got to click it harder. There we go. So, the the the task force really felt like they

006wanted to um you to know that they they work here, they live here, they have grandkids in St. Francis, they're they're graduates. We have students on this task force, and they're taxpayers. So, you have a lot of good representation from this task force, about 20 people. And here is the team. We had about 84% participation. Those are all of the people that were there that night when we we took the picture. We had a few people that were working or not able to attend that meeting. But, we had about 20 people attend pretty pretty regularly, 84% participation rate of those 20 people. And a thank you. First of all, again, this is what the task force they this is their presentation, it's not mine. I helped them put it together, but it was at their

007direction. They wanted to make sure the board knew how much they appreciated the the fact that you're reaching out to the community looking for some input from community group, and the transparency, the openness, and the depth of the information that they had available to them was was impressive. They made I've heard comments like that throughout the process. There are also a lot of people we, as Mr. Burr mentioned, it started out four or five meetings, and then people said, "Well, we need to see this. We need to see that. We want to do this. We want to do that." And I came back and to Mr. Anderson, Mr. Burr, Mr. Lindquist, to their credit, they're like, "Yeah, we should. If they want the information, they want to look at it, they want to explore and

008learn and do further investigation, we should let them do that." And in the in the course of this, those are all the people that that helped, that were instrumental, from people from the city, your PT MMA financial solutions advisor, Michael Hart, and Hazel Reinhardt, the demographer. We had a meeting with her online, Peggy Tesdahl. And I don't know if you've had a chance to go and look at the website. We've updated the website with a lot of different videos, everything that we've done as a group. And that's where I'm done. Thank you. No one wants to listen to me, anyway. But, I'm going to introduce the rest of the presentation is done by the group. Board, again, like all information items or reports, let's hold our questions till the end. Let's get them through the

009slides, and then we can go back and discuss things as needed at the end of the presentation. And I'm going to introduce Kate Blanchard. Is it As he said, I'm Kate Blanchard. Thank you to the board members for this opportunity to speak with you tonight, and thank you to the SeidLogic team, as well, for helping us get to where we are now. Our group began this process in the fall nearly 5 months ago, about all the way back in October, as you can see. As you see, we spent over 40 hours at our meetings. This task force will tell you that we often went past our meeting times. Not just because Darren wanted us to finish the task at hand, but because we were so devoted to the work that we're doing. We have an

010awesome group here today. As we did this work, we always kept these three questions in mind. Does this make sense for the kids? Is it fiscally responsible? Will it have community support? As we went through the process, we acknowledge the fact that our group's recommendations are not the only considerations. There are many factors to consider, including state requirements, building codes, financial budget, etc. As we move forward in this process, our goals were to learn, explore, and understand the current and future facility needs of the St. Francis public schools. We spent a lot of time discussing our policies, or excuse me, priorities and our recommendations. Ultimately, it is up to you, the school board, to decide the direction moving forward. Early on, I think it was during our first meeting, all the way back in October,

011that we did a brave, worry, wonder, bet activity. This allowed the SeidLogic team to learn more about the community facility task force members, who we are, and where we're coming from. This list is not all-inclusive, but here are a few of the takeaways from that evening. We braved that our district has a small town feel, where families support each other. A worry was the community support and class sizes. As a proud public school classroom teacher myself, working in a neighboring school district, I know the negative impacts of class sizes. Reduced student engagement, increased behavior issues, and less individual attention are just a few of those downsides to larger class sizes. We did have some wonders with our group about future enrollments, also about what the community would like in the future. A bet is that

012our community will grow, but our concern is that we are running out of space in our schools. We have looked over the facility requirements of our buildings and learned about the district's financial position. We also looked at the facilities and how they support students, teachers now and into the future. We also analyzed long-term, flexible, and fiscally responsible solutions. And we were factual communicators to the St. Francis school community, and are finally here today to present our recommendations to the board. Part of this process was to tour the district's buildings. If we did not get a tour of the building, a video was made in place of a walking tour. Um during these tours, the principals would lead the tour. Um during this time, we discussed positive aspects of the building and grounds, as well as

013sharing um about some important facility needs. At the end of each tour, we used what we called an Eisenhower matrix, which you might have heard about. Um this is a decision-making tool that helps prioritize needs based on urgency and impact. And you can see um a few of the examples um on the slide here. And I will let him take over the next part. And this is Harry Grams. I'll take this one. I'll take this one. We're getting practice at this, obviously. So, uh good evening, everyone. I'm Jerry Grams. Uh I just want to compliment the board. This was a good move on your part. I was on the school board member and started in 2006 to 2014 here at ISD 15. Quite long number. Kids were up through here. Now I have grandkids going

014through the school system, so it was a great opportunity for me to get involved and see what's been done since the ISD here passed referendum and passed. I wish that we would have something like this that we had did when I was on the board where we could see all the facilities, see the impacts, see the maintenance, just see the overall scheme. I learned more in those 40 hours that we were just talking about than I did probably and I I shouldn't short sell my board time, but there was a more of an eye-opening experience about how the district functions, the maintenance of the building, I mean, from a day-to-day operation. Uh but it was nice to see all the improvements that have been made over the last bond referendum. Beautiful. I mean, it's really

015really well done. So, that was nice to see. I'll quit rambling now. I know Jerry's going to yell at me and say I got 2 minutes right there. He's a He's a gram. I'll tell you what. So, anyway, so I got the data portion of this. So, um Michael Hart, I'm just going to kind of go over to this one. So, I can kind of go over the certain numbers with you guys. So, Michael Hart was one of the seven third readings that we went through. Um he works with you guys, I understand. So, I got it. So, anyway, Mr. Hart, you talked about school funding, uh about how money is distributed, so I think you guys have gone through this. One of the one thing that I like to say that has improved and

016I don't know where it originally was in my first school board, but you guys have done a nice job if you can see this. Your history rating for your uh Moody's rating, which you guys were getting your loans for bond ratings, uh it's improved from a EAA1 up to today, you guys are at A. I wrote it down. I got to find my notes. Oh, we're at A1 rating. So, you guys have done an awesome job over the last few years. So, then we had some information. Uh we wanted to talk to all the cities or that school district, just didn't have time. It didn't work out, but we were able to have the city of St. Francis come out, did some communications about growth from city St. Francis. One of the things that always

017comes up is the intersection of the middle school Bridge Street. Roundabout if you do that, you got to go straight through. I also work for Dakota County Highway Department, so I was here when we did the first roundabout, so I took a lot of That was not a good time in my life, >> [laughter] >> but it worked out really well, so I did it anyway. So, anyway, that was a topic of discussion, so it was nice to have the input from the cities. Like I said, it would have been nice to have more from all of them, but just time constraints, just couldn't get through it, but very informative and they all worked out very well. And moving on. I don't think it's going to work over there, but I got it right here.

018Good. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Oops, that one. So, anyway, you guys can know today's all about planning. There was Apparently, I was talking to Dave Anderson. He was a board member and served with me when I was on the board. He was actually on the first term before I started. Okay, yeah. He's talking to the district through various studies. Uh this was kind of a This was very interesting to me. Um when I was on the I had to call Dave Anderson to check on this. So, 2015, when I got done, our population was 4,621. You can see here 25 to 26, we're at 4,058. Mr. Anderson informed me that our population at that time was 5,775. But I remember in '08, '09, my current where my youngest started graduating, no waiting. That

019was one of the largest graduating classes at I think it's still is. I think that was at 450, 500, somewhere in that vicinity. We kind of expected it to continue to grow. It didn't happen that way. It seems really really odd, but the numbers are there. So, and Hazel kind of kind of uh continues with that thought and I'm showing our our future population maintaining to actually be somewhat smaller. Will that happen? This is something that the ISD has gone through year by year basis. I mean, you just can't take it for granted and and say, "Okay, let's build around it." Uh one thing Mr. Anderson brought up, he's going to be here for me in the seating chart. Um but the school district actually got 40 acres of land off of 221st Avenue, I

020think it was, for the purpose of building a new elementary school based on our current populations at that time. Well, thank goodness that didn't come to fruition because I think we would have I don't know if we would have kids there, but I don't think we would be able to fulfill the huge capacity. >> [laughter and cough] >> So, yeah. So, very interesting, but then like I said, this is something that's probably going to be done on a semi not semi-annual, but three, four year basis to see how we how the district's growing or not growing. So. Yeah. Thank you. This is a one of the one of the screens that caught my attention as a past board member. This is our three elementary schools. We have Cedar Creek, that's St. Francis, Cedar Creek, East

021Bethel. So, we're running at 100% SFP. We're at 107% capacity. Cedar Creek, we're at 105% capacity. East Bethel, we're at 103% capacity. And [clears throat] I I I would like to see this screen about 15 to 20 years when I was on the board. I don't know if you guys remember when we had the portables at SFP. Thank goodness those days are over. That was It was not a good time in the in the ISD 15, but these numbers would have been significantly higher from a from a usage standpoint, but this one is and our target rate for elementary schools, I mean, is 80 to 90%. That's where you'd like to run. I think that's the more I think that's impossible. We don't have the ability to control that ebb and flow of children coming

022in and going out. It's I mean, it's it's a not a better term, it's kind of a pipe dream, but it is a number you try to achieve. So, anyway, uh Yeah, I'll just kind of hit some of the So, if you go to the next one, these are some of the inputs from the principals for each one of the facilities. Uh kindergarten classrooms are undersized, pre-K and infant and infant spaces, utilized teaching spaces. Same playing no classroom space for expansion or increase in a growing up. No classroom space for expansion. So, kind of amongst our elementary schools. Okay. And you can go to the next one. That one kind of emphasizes the same thing. >> [clears throat] >> So, this is just kind of a color code of these one of the elementary schools

023again. So, just kind of think about this as a stoplight. Red, not good. Green, good to go. Three, kind of getting in that range of possible becoming a situation. So, with the SFE, everything's not bad from a population standpoint. Uh ideal, this is square foot per student. So, for kindergartners, we'd like to have 50 square feet per student, okay? We're currently at 39 feet, so we're running at about 80% capacity or below. 78%. So, the 50 represents or yeah, 50 square feet. So, that's about just a little over like a square of a 7 by 7. That's what we're going for each child, and we're running at about 6 and a quarter. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it starts to add up as we get more children in there. First grade, we're doing really

024good. We're we're on square footage 35, 37, so that's good. The third and fourth grade, same thing. We're a little bit tight, but still I think they're all in the allowable ranges. So, not bad at SFE. So, well, once again, very nice the improvements that were made there with last referendum, so go ahead and you can get that next one. Next one, Cedar Creek. Cedar Creek's kind of a tough one. So, kindergarten, once again, desirable 50 square feet per children, they're at 35. First, second, third grade, we want to be at that better. And same thing, fourth the fifth grade or in that red zone, where they exceed the 80% mark for the 1000 square feet per size or square footage of the earth. So, that's that. And then our more is East Bethel. East

025Bethel is probably the best of all three. And the only one that has 43, they're 25 square feet per child, but we're looking at 35 feet per square child, which we're only So, they're running at about the efficiency of a Wow. Oh, 82%. So, not bad, but overall, we're still uh It's it's still tight. But, teachers and the principals do a really great job of of working with their areas and whatnot. Like I said, it was nice for me as a past board member. I think you guys still read your Disney at schools, at least that part. Or you get your So, you don't know what it's good to see how all the other schools are functioning. This is a nice opportunity to see how all those schools work. >> [clears throat] >> So, but

026that's Like I said, we're kind of if if it holds true what Hazel says, this may not become an issue in the future, maybe. You know, that's yet to be seen. So, it's just something that's got to be It's good to have a starting point, which she provided for us, but like I said, just something to be monitored here as we go forward. And I think >> [cough] >> that's it. All right, next one will be Jenna Ford. All right, hi guys. I'm Jenna. I'm an 11th grader at Arm Strong High School. My mom went to our school since start to finish, and she now works in the district. So, I love it here, and I'm very excited to explain our priorities and our projects. So, uh we started off Well, we didn't start off.

027This was towards the end of our meetings. We broke up our group into smaller groups and looked at how we thought our community priorities um aligned with our own. And throw all of this up. So, we reached consensus on financial accountability and responsible stewardship, as well as like secure buildings, healthy facilities, and making sure they're safe for everyone who steps inside of them. And everything below that factors into those top two, so they're just as important. Now, we did go through a form um individually, um and we found that preparation of students for college and [clears throat] life is an overarching goal. Again, everything below that falls into that upper level, but we all, you know, had our own priorities, as well as the community priorities. And that factors into our projects. We had some

028activities towards the end that helped us narrow down what we thought was important. So, for each school, we put our um specific ideas onto a sheet of paper, and obviously that comes from our own um priorities and the community voice. And we voted on Okay, this one goes on top, but we voted on those projects to bring them into our recommendation stage. Um the green dots, if a project or an idea got 70% green dots, that was a consensus for the group. And obviously, you can see that some of those reached consensus, but they fall under different categories of funding and stuff, so we didn't put those on our recommendation, but they're just as important. And detailing our recommendation, we focused on clarity, confidence, and context. So, making sure that the students would benefit from

029it, the community would support it, and that it made financial respons- it made financial sense. And you know, those just really helped our recommendation come into light. Um those things are all going to go over to Keith, who will bring the recommendations home to you guys. Thank you. >> [clears throat] [clears throat] >> Well, good evening. First of all, I'm Keith Kersten. I've lived here in in um this school district for about the last 14 years. Uh I've been uh mostly in Minnesota my my adult life, and uh and I really um have have have learned a lot in this process. And I And I thank the board for uh taking the foresight of of doing these types of projects. They are I think they're really imperative. I'd also like to say that um I

030spent I've spent 50, 60 years in uh in business and done a lot of in in retail business and done a lot of focus groups, and Aaron and Site Logic and Michael, unbelievable compared to what I normally run into. In fact, I I live in Isanti County, and and I was involved with the Cambridge-Isanti school board referendum, and I think that if they would have had this group, I think that the outcome would have been different. I think that the whole process would have been different. So, you guys chose wisely, and I applaud you for that. Also, uh I had a chance I was at every single one of the meetings, and I went through every one of your buildings. And even [clears throat] the building that they did the fly-through, I I couldn't believe

031it. We were bus- and I had to get up the next morning and and go over and and beg to just walk through, cuz I couldn't believe how bad it was and uh and what they had to work with. So, I've been through all of your facilities, and I'm a facilities guy. I've had um very upscale uh grocery stores in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and I knew the importance of of keeping them well-maintained and and and very clean. And I go to a lot of schools uh in Minnesota because of my kids and then my grandkids in sports. And I I really have to to applaud Chris and and and his team of what they do. I think you have some of the most the best-maintained facilities for the age that they are that I

032I have ever seen. And not just cleanliness, which is really important, but how they how how everything's painted, and I know they didn't just for us, but uh it it really it really stands out. And the other thing, before I start, I I just want to say that um I was very impressed with the the the school staff people that you have. They're very engaged, they're very excited of what they're doing. And I also have to say that in in in in this whole process, that as we look at recommendations, um Chris really had to hold us back uh cuz we wanted to solve all the problems and give you the answers. And we know that, you know, we know that that's your job, but we wanted to do it instead. Uh and that And

033before I get into the recommendations, I would like to say that the the the group really felt that it was important that >> [clears throat] >> we hope that you guys continue this process and even tap into our group if you if you need some things in the future for us to take a look at. That this we don't we don't have to be over. So, with that, you want to go to the first slide? >> [clears throat] >> The second next one. Oh, here I got you. Here, right? I can Or I can do it for you. That's okay. There's a few things I can still do. There we go. Um >> [laughter] >> So, this is the first one with the recommendations of uh PK through five. And you'll see that that in

034in that uh and also the early childhood uh education, we we see that that the student drop-off uh and pick-up was really a big thing, and then water and sewer. And these are the consensus. Now, I think it's really important to point out that we looked at a whole bunch of other projects, but we didn't feel that they really rose to the level that that needed to be addressed on on a fairly, you know, fairly quickly. Uh it is also important to to point out that this is a consensus. It was not unanimous by any means. We We have a very diverse group, even though it was very small. Not Not because you guys didn't try to get more people in it, but um it it was very diverse, and people came with agendas. And

035that's And I think that to some extent, that's good. Uh but we we had a lot of different things that we looked at, and we really kind of zeroed in on the things that we felt had to be done. When we take a look, this is the K through five. I'm going to skip ahead real quick and and go to the uh uh six through 12, and you see there's a few other different things that are on there, and I'm not going to go through these because you guys are all capable of reading them yourselves. And but when we take a look at what we are looking at in this whole thing, it all comes down to what we felt is just some some immediate needs that um that are worth trying to figure out

036ways to to work with them, but not not actually >> [clears throat] >> taking each one individually and saying, "Okay, let's do this one and then that one and this one," but saying, "Okay, what makes sense from a overall standpoint and then help with you with understanding how much emphasis do we give to it. So, if I can go back this slide. It has This one here I think is the most important slide and that is to evaluate and optimize program space needs including building utilization, grade configuration, alignment of programs and offerings with available space. And this kind of goes through all of it. Now, when you take a look at at even the the shop classes at the high school or what um like like your principal for middle school. Uh Mr. Churchill. Uh

037Heidi Churchill. >> Heidi, yes. Heidi, I mean, so enthusiastic and I mean, I think I asked her that she brought to put 14 new programs in and I said, "Well, what programs did you take out?" And "Why would I take any out?" You know, and there's only so much space and there's only so much things. And when we take a look at at doing this evaluation and optimization of program space needs including the building utilization, we believe that it's really important that we tell you that we think the best thing for you to do in these recommendations is to look at every single possibility. I think you owe it to the taxpayers. I think you owe it to the kids. I think you owe it to the parents. And in today's environment to get anything

038passed to go out and build a new school, it's a little difficult. If almost impossible and I think you know that better than we do. So, in looking at this, is it right to have a K through five two K through five sitting next to each other? What are the implications that What does that do to to to take some of those hundreds and hundreds of sevens down to to, you know, in into the realm of not needing a new building? Are you doing programs that aren't mandatory? Should they be looked at? Should they be put on the table? If you eliminated some of those programs that aren't mandatory, you may get a lot more people on the community-based committee. Uh you may get a lot more involvement. You may get people to to really

039get behind doing the changes that you need. When you take a look at some of the alignment of program and offering, you know, what [clears throat] what are these things that that you're doing take up space and does it really uh contribute to the core principles of what you're trying to do? Uh you know, we we know that all the schools in Minnesota are struggling with math and and reading uh proficiencies and we know that even going to Minnesota uh MCA, I think it is called, that that that that we're at 50% or below on these things. What are the things that we are recommending here do to help with those areas? How important are those areas compared to the the space utilization that you're using for other things? So, these are the types of

040things, but if you go through and you look go back here to to each one of these, when you when you take a look at some of these, you really have to we we believe that we we that you have to the way that they ended up with other projects is because we were conscious of what will the community support. And I may differ. My opinion may be community support and taxpayer really is taxpayer support. That's kind of number one. To me, I wish it was security and safety of the kids and the the staff, but in reality at the end of the day because people don't get involved, we have to be very cognizant of what the community is. You guys know will support and then it comes down to, you know, what what

041the mission of the school district is and how each of these things under each of these projects improve that or or or don't. And as you see in the high school to that slide there, oops, oops, there. That we get a little bit more granular into things like the shop classes that continue to develop middle school explorer exploratory programs. How many of those can we do? Should we be doing all of them that we are? How much space do they take up? And what does it do to the space that's there? Um So, I think that the the the bottom line in all of this is that we we thought a lot of the schools um we think that there are some real important needs especially um in some of these drop-off uh things in

042the in the elementary schools. Um some of the things that are today like welding and shop classes and things like that that can really help the community and give kids a an alternative uh if they're not sure about their future education and post-secondary education. But um and then the last thing I want to mention is the transportation building, the very last one there. I think we have a slide on that. There we go. As I said at the very beginning, I yeah I I asked Peggy if I could go and walk through that. I think that that's something that you're really going to have to to address sooner than later. And um you know, one of the things that we discussed is do you have that completely away from all the other stuff? So, it

043doesn't drag anything down uh and and we and look for alternatives and maybe some of the suggestions did include and I've talked to a couple different developers myself trying to see if there's something that we could get the city the the a developer and the school district together on and maybe set up a separate task force to see if there's a way that we could be very creative and and work on that that particular problem to see if the, you know, we could get something through that. But those are the types of creative things that I think can come out of a committee like you guys formed and again, I thank you for doing that. Okay, I think with that we have questions and answers today. Yes, we now have Would you just raise your

044hand if you were on the task force? Could you just raise your hand? So, pretty much everyone here. Um and thank you everyone else who didn't present today, but they are here and we talked about how important it is that their voice is heard as well. If you have any questions, um we'll give some other people on the task force a chance to talk uh as well answer those questions and if there's anything else you want to add as a task force, um just you know, you can either uh come up and and say it or you can say it right stand up, say it from your seat, talk, whatever you think. And then also uh questions for the board for the task force as well. So, Darren, I am going to give them all

045a chance to talk. So, if you would just introduce yourself and tell us your role in the St. Francis. So, if you're a parent, if you're a student, uh just a real quick so we know for if you're on the engagement task force. Rick, we're going to start with you. All right. Hey, I'm Rick Bittner. Um I'm a parent in the district, former student um and lifelong uh community Uh I'm Scott Weiss. Uh I'm a parent and been in the district for about four years, I guess, now. Daughter right now is in eighth grade and is looking forward to high school next year. Hi, I'm Jenna as you already know, but uh I really enjoyed being a student viewpoint on the task force and able to just like portray how everybody like feels in the

046Um I'm Kate Blanchard. Um one of the presenters and I'm on the task force, too. Um I have lived in Oak Grove since 2017. Um I am a parent to a beautiful little girl, Ruby, who is a second grader at Cedar Creek right now. Hi, I'm Erin Weiss. I'm on the board on the task force. I am a parent of a 2023 graduate and a parent of a current ninth grader at the high school in special education. Hi, my name is Courtney Lanzino. I have three children in the district. I'm also part of the PTO at Cedar Creek. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Hi, I'm Dana >> [clears throat] >> Engel. Um I have lived in this community since 2001. Uh was a student from elementary school through um graduation, continue to live in this

047community and I now am the American Indian Education Coordinator for the district. Uh I'm Clayton. I'm a junior at the St. Francis High School and I am a part of the a lot of stuff. Uh Noah Cotton. I graduated 2001, lived in the community my whole life. Uh I have two kids in the district, seventh grader and a ninth grader and thank you for the opportunity to participate. Mike Stoppel. Uh lived in the community since 2004, my 22nd year in the district. Uh and I have three kids, a 20 year graduate and then a junior and a ninth grader. And here we got everybody got one more over here over in the middle. Everyone in the middle. I'm Richard Blasheck. I'm lived here since 2012 and I am a concerned citizen and the future of

048the country rests in our children. That's why I'm involved. Perfect. Thank you. So, before I let the board ask questions of the group, do any of you have any other comments you would like to share that weren't addressed in the presentation? Okay. Board members, questions. If you have any questions, you can direct it at an individual that presented or anyone on the board or on the task force. Carsten, do you have the first question? >> [clears throat] >> So, when you were looking at the grade and the projections with the red, yellow, and green, it just has the like this year's. Is there any projections on what future years look like? Uh so, I'll take that. The demographic study from Hazel Reinhardt would show that we're we should If we're fortunate, we'll be relatively flat

049in our enrollment projections. Where that enrollment is might shift in our district. So, for example, we heard from the city of St. Francis about the parcel that is, you know, basically just across 47 here. And there's 300 some houses, you know, there's multi-family housing that's in the East Bethel side of things. So, where the population is may shift over time, but basically we will be lucky according to Abel's number if we stay flat because despite the fact that our community is growing and the number of houses there isn't enough housing opportunities in our community. Um that's according to the city of St. Francis. They were saying Sorry, Siri. Um people aren't having as many children. The fertility rate has dropped drastically, and that accounts for kind of our flat uh well, student growth despite the

050population growth in St. I guess I can kind of add, but as far as like each location, like first [clears throat] grade, I can't remember which one was in the red, but is that does the projection say that they're going to stay in the red or So, basically, yes. One of the side effects of the kind of the remodel was there were some decisions made at previous sites that I would say constricted the size of the rooms even if they do have the necessary square footage. Decisions like putting lockers into the elementary school classrooms over East Bethel. They might have the necessary square footage, but it's not actually as usable as, you know, the teachers I think would probably like or the students would. It's one thing I know that stood out to Kate when

051she was an elementary teacher. She was like, "What? We'll be doing that now?" We got boots and coats and all kinds of things going on. So, some of those things are already kind of baked into the cake. But, they should stay relatively the same where population shifts even Abel couldn't tell us that. I'd like to add to that. >> [clears throat] >> If you we we we did a little just kind of a down and dirty on taking K-2 3-5 >> [clears throat] >> in the two schools that are next to each other and just kind of do a little bit of an estimate, and it does improve those numbers. I didn't really understand quite why. Mike kind of explained that to me in in when you have more kids, you you don't have as

052many classrooms that aren't to the you know, to the capacity that you want. So, I think an exercise in doing that might also really give you some information on that slide. I guess I'll go back to route. Okay. Jake, you got a question? Sure. >> [clears throat] >> Where it says water and the sewer, is that like preference or is there water and sewer to like the road and we just haven't hooked up yet or is this eventually we're going to hook up to water and sewer? I have that in East Bethel, Cedar Creek, and early childhood. Absolutely. Um we're on well and septic for all three low sites. And over the past several years, we've had some issues with well water over there. Are you aware of it? You can all walk over. Um

053additionally, our septic system at Cedar Creek is is we were extendedly given an extension by the state, but it's basically non-compliant and the drain fields need to be redone. Um we're reviewing that. We have a meeting scheduled Carsten, Don, and Chuck and I in next within the next week or so. Um the price tag is anywhere from 100,000 to a million dollars to fix that. And we obviously don't budget for that kind of money in in regular budgets. The city of East Bethel at the same time, Carsten and they have both met with city officials over there. Um they're pursuing They have been pursuing a bonding bill with the state to run city water and sewer up to 65 and then even over to Don Sims to where we are, which would allow us to

054then hook up to city water and sewer. But, our ability to do that is contingent on their ability to secure funding for the project, of course. So, we're kind of stuck in a little bit of a purgatory, if you will, about what to do. The septic is a is a interface issue that we have to deal with in the immediate future. Do they give you a timeline on when they anticipate that or is it still not known for sure? Um I have not probably made Carsten can speak better to that. I don't have a a timeline. You know, it would have been rushed to get it in, and as you look at state funding, I don't know if there's a capacity for that anyway. Sure. So, either Carsten can feel free to I'll uh jump

055in. I know that Matt Wolf, the city administrator for the city of East Bethel, is really active with uh pursuing state and federal funding sources. So, uh I believe the city has secured at least a placeholder in Tom Emmer's, you know, earmarks for, you know, federal allotment of $3 million, which is would be a small portion of a project there. And he's interested in trying to include some more funding in the state bonding bill. I um you know, either this time or more likely 2 years from now cuz it will take a lot of building up to that. Thank you. Thank you both. Yeah, so their initial planning was just over 10 million that they were looking for through state bonding. We don't anticipate it in this session bonding. It'll be the next one that

056they'll look at that. That does not include hookup to our facilities. It brings it right to it, but it doesn't include the hookup portion as well. Again, that's part of the discussion I know you all probably have. >> [clears throat] >> Cuz we got some feedback from East Bethel for that discussion as well. But, they uh we have as a school district provided a letter of support for their anticipated plan, but not funding. Thank you. Yeah, and that's I took that letter from a year or two ago, rewrote it for the federal allotment, and gave that to Mr. Wolf. Thank you. Yeah, and just like Mr. Wolf said, you know, the project does not include costs, you know, for the city. We'd have to bear that. Not only hooking up to the system, but also

057the yearly operational costs for water, storm, and sewer. Thanks. Sorry, I'll just add a little on to that as well. We were informed in school on our tour of the schools, and I think it speaks a lot to the building and how old they are. And just over time, we really wanted to emphasize to the board the building has so much history, but we need to maintain things before we have to get something back straight away. So, it really was important for us to mention. Mr. Schram, so the transportation building has been an issue for a year. I've been on the board for 10 years now, and it's been well past that. And I appreciate all of everybody's time. Was there a reason that more time wasn't devoted to trying to figure something out there

058or why we I mean, >> [clears throat] >> why we're pushing that aspect off? Or how do we come to that? I'll take that. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> I I think it's such a big problem that that um we know that [clears throat] you knew know that it's a big problem. So, I don't think that we really spent a lot of time because it would be getting more into what Darren kept pulling us back from of telling me the problem. Uh even I even when I talked to a couple of developers just cuz I that's some business that I do now. Uh Darren says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, that's not where you go." But, I think that there are I think that there's some possibilities, but it gets into the partnership that

059has to form. Um uh 7 years ago, uh I don't know if you are familiar with 50th in France. They they that area we there was a there was an old really well-built but poorly designed uh car ramp behind 50th to the north. And the city didn't know what to do with it, but they they couldn't tear it down. It was too good to tear down, but it wasn't designed right. So, uh we went in and we built them a brand new we bought the land right across the street to the north and built a brand new ramp and traded up. Didn't cost them a penny. And we took that old one, now there's shops in the bottom, offices on the next, and then it was structured up where we put condos above it. And

060I think that that is a valuable piece of land, especially if you could take Bridge Street all the way to 47 and and do something across from the middle school there where that land is and and like when I talked to Peggy it's taking Yeah, Peggy, you know, to go to a cornfield 3 miles north of here and get all that congestion out there where her drivers sit, you know, on overtime trying to get through those intersections and and cause that big problem starts to make sense. And there may be some creative ways to to to get around that, but again, I think that it was so bad that if we started the predator give you any more on it, it's more than the solving the problem versus letting you know there's a problem. Yeah,

061that makes sense. But so Rob, what you can't see on here is that the transportation building is actually a flashing light on the paper. >> [laughter] >> I'd like to make a recommendation that we keep looking at the solution. >> it did help Cambridge though. Because in Cambridge they were talking about a new garage for, you know, for all of their trucks and everything and and it really opened up our eyes. I I I advised some of the county commissioners in that we don't need to put all those trucks inside anymore cuz they Look at all your buses that sit out here. And if if they think their building's bad, I just I told them all, "Go look at this one." >> [laughter] >> So, thank you for that. >> [clears throat and cough] >>

062Uh the remaining infrastructure needs, is there a deeper dive document somewhere or what are They're all of this listed on every elementary school and ECFE. >> [laughter] >> I'm trying to get to where you're looking at. Uh the remaining infrastructure needs. Yeah. So, for example, SFB is a key building as is early childhood. Um the water lines and the sewer lines in there, and we have we've identified one or two already at SFB that we've put linings in because the pipe is corroded. Right? And at some point we're going to have to tear up the concrete floor. At some point we're going to have to replace those aged pipes from the '50s or '40s or whenever and replace them. And so, that's kind of I think what that's what we're targeting. Do we have a

063deep understanding of all of the pipes that are in the ground across the district? No, we don't. Unfortunately, those are more of a Yeah, they're going great right now until there's a problem, then there's a problem. So, the linings that we've done have been a patchwork quilt type stuff like we're just trying to get by. We're not It's in the middle of January, we're not tearing up the floor anytime soon, and the lining is good for several years, so we know that there there's a going to be an emergent need at some point. In the early childhood center, it's to be noted that they Well, some of their water is not drinkable. They have babies and young children there and they have to go to certain bathrooms because their water is not drinkable. Because of

064those things. It was other little things like the learning center, if you're on the east side, there's basically no drinking fountain to access, especially like right next to the gym. I think I'm sure Clay can speak to this as well. Having basketball So, you know, having basketball practices there, and your kids are like, "Oh, where's the drinking fountain?" It's like, "Well, there's no drinking fountain on that east side. You got to go over here and just bring your water bottle instead." So, there's just little items at each one of those that's like you know, you see something, say something about it and we could make a comprehensive list like we did years ago before the bond, but that's where, you know, we have to make that decision for the board has to make that decision.

065Did you tour Sandhill? I mean, it's not technically our space, but we used to have a lot of storage there, and storage is a big issue at a lot of locations. Is there anything talks of one location storage for multiple buildings or We did not tour Sandhill. Um It hasn't been used as an educational space for us you know, decades or whatnot. And we're on a 10-year lease with Tri-Valley Head Start. I just know we used to store a bunch of stuff there. Yep. Yep. And when we lost that building, we had to find alternative storage. So, right now we lease a building up by 65, right off of Simpson 65, the old Folk World is right there. We lease storage space there. That started I don't even know the history on that, but we

066also have an agreement with the city where they would use our board room for our city council meetings that we were allowed to use this store, you know, some of our mowing equipment and outdoor equipment in their heated shed. When they built City Hall, they had to invite departments that were already over there, so they booted us out. So, again, we had to find Yeah, storage is needed across the district. And and we did talk about that >> [clears throat] >> if on on the school bus thing that if if there was something built in a cornfield a few miles out of town, that that would be the ideal place when you're building something like that to to put enough square footage in there of fairly inexpensive square footage to to take all of that

067stuff and put it in one location because as you split it up all kinds of places, it is more expensive and you lose things. Just Mr. We have to follow up on that one. No. Okay, Mr. Howard. Uh the student drop-offs and pick-up, I mean, we hear that all the time. This is like I mean, I I think we're pretty much we could almost vote on that tonight cuz this is Yeah, if anyone is anywhere near school at any time before or after, it's just ridiculous. It's not safe for the kids, it's not safe for your car parked on the side of the road. >> [clears throat] >> Um it's definitely not efficient. So, that I really I mean, you hit all four of the elementary schools here, and I would imagine the other ones

068are I mean, there's more people driving cars and such, I guess, at the high school, of course, but man, the middle school, same thing. I mean, I I I see across the board that's something that's definitely priority one in my mind, at least as far as hearing back from the public and experiencing it myself in the morning and then in the afternoon at the French schools. Yeah, I think we all agree on that. I just have one more Um I think the big thing with transportation and drop-off and pick-up is we really I enjoy seeing my kids walk in and out of school. The big thing that everybody's talked about is how we can get the cities cuz that's the unique thing about our school district is we have so many cities that work together.

069So, we really hope that we can get a good communication with these cities so they can work well with us. And then just go back to the bus garage side. The city of Saint Francis and I think Paul Carpenter, you know, has some role there was talking about, you know, they're going to redo 47 possibly in 2027 depending on the bonding, and that will put in a series of roundabouts, and that's a great opportunity to potentially push 47 all the way through or Bridge Street all the way through to 47, but the side effect of that effect of that is it affects pick-up and drop-off at the middle school. You can't really have a bus garage if we're going to Bridge Street's going to push through 47. So, there's a whole series of if thens

070that require a really a great deal of coordination. And then the other thing that that Bill Apple Courtney was saying is our biggest concern with like the sewer was, and Chris articulated this really well, was we're going to spend a million dollars to redo the green field at Cedar Creek, and then 2 [clears throat] years later East Bethel's going to be like, "We can actually require you to hook up to city sewer and water." And the money that we just spent on that is now part of the fund flushed down the toilet. And that's where all of us had the recognition, you saw it on the slides, of the fiscal responsibility to make sure that we're spending that money wisely, which is why we do have to kind of patch things and wait to see,

071but without that, I would say commitment from the board to do that additional coordination between the county, the city of Saint Francis, the city of East Bethel, Oak Grove, et cetera, a lot of the things that we've tried to highlight aren't going to get done. Or they're going to get done in a way that someone's going to come back 5 years later and be like, "Why did you spend a million dollars on the green field when you East Bethel was coming up just a couple years later?" And that's the difficult job that you have, and I'm sure, as you know, hindsight's always 20/20 from the public perspective, but that's the task that we have now given you, and I would say, like he said, you have a group of at least 20 interested citizens here,

072and Darin has mentioned this, and I would agree with Keith, he is a fantastic facilitator. The next group that you guys hopefully empower to have additional community input needs to be twice as big. And I don't mean this to be a call session, but the vast majority of the people here are members of our community. We have two other people here, and we have to we have to involve more members of our community, and we have to do a better job of communicating about this recording, and getting it out there, because it's also a little frustrating to put 11 meetings in, 40 hours in, and we have two members of our public, and thank you Mr. Anderson, former chair, school board chair for being here, and thank you Mr. Anderson for being here as well,

073but we're preaching to the choir, and you're part of the choir, and so are we. Having put our time, energy, and effort into that, and that is there's a level of frustration, I would say, for me, at least on that, because this is really good work. I think we all felt that, and we want that to get out to the public as much as possible. I'll open up my microphone. You're absolutely right. Mr. Arford. Yeah, I number two, only two people are here that weren't on the committee. Breaks my heart. Mr. Sharma. Well, all the presenters did a great job tonight. I just wanted to shout out to Jenna. As a high school junior, to get in front of all these adults, and present his voice TO THE COMMUNITY. >> [applause] >> YOU DID AN

074AMAZING JOB. I I DO THIS quite a bit. Jenna is and and Clay two of the most responsible Jenna was at every meeting. Clay was in basketball, so he had to miss a couple here and there, but it was so fun to have those students a part of that. And I heard somebody said that they're just the average students. I want to meet some of your average kids. >> [laughter] >> Average students. I don't know if they're all stars, so but it was fun. But Jenna, you came on her birthday. Yes. And I think Courtney didn't bring cookies, or something. That was good. Are there questions from more members? Oh, wait, I've got one for you. What I get I I heard it loud and clear from multiple more city input, more city involvement, from

075the entire district, not just San Francis, but what else was missing from this initial look, before we get into what the future looks like? What else was missing for you, that you would like to see that Darren could not provide for us? Um, I would say um just our like sports facilities, like our tennis courts are they're very cracked. And our gym space, we do not have gym space. Um, probably our boys and girls basketball has to be like flipped every week to be early or late, and like freshmen, they don't have rides often, so like if they have early practice, then they can't ride the bus home, but if they have late practice, then they don't might not have a ride to practice. Um, but our tennis courts are very bad. Um, that I

076mean last year I rolled my ankle, didn't do anything bad, but like I tripped on a crack, and I mean, it could potentially be worse. I would say those two are probably our worst things. Um, but otherwise, our football stadium could be bigger, like our um away bleachers could be much bigger. Um, our home bleachers, especially like homecoming, we don't have enough seating for everybody. Um just our sports with the sports facilities need to be bigger, or the gyms. Good job. And to kind of I'm sorry, to piggyback off of that, we were informed also through our tours that we actually actually have had to turn away tournaments, and things to come to our city to which would not just benefit the schools, obviously, but the community, because we don't have enough gym space. The

077gym space at Cedar Creek is horrendous, and smells, and is very dis- dis- dis- dis- sorry. Cedar Creek so much. It's Cedar Creek Cedar Creek dis- dis- dis- horrible horrible gym space, and that's where they have to do their some business events. It stinks, and it's like a weird floor. It It's been that for years. It's been that um and I'm just a 10-year resident so far of the community, but um my son will have gone to pretty much every school in the district, except for Eastvale school. Interesting. You know, I I would like to say that um >> [clears throat] >> I I've been out of public education, and really following it much for 10 or 12 years in the gap between my kids getting out of public education, and and my grandkids being

078of that age. They don't participate in in in public education. Um but uh during that time, it's changed a lot. And uh one of the biggest disappointments that I see is the cost of athletics. And I this may be getting off the subject, but when when when I was in school 200 years ago, and my kids were in school 50 years ago, there's no cost to any type of of of athletics. And that cost, I know, is driving people out of participating in it. And I don't see any difference between that and other things that are elected that are done in school, but you we've had to do that, and I think a lot of it is because the parents aren't as involved to get these things passed. You guys can't do it yourselves, because

079there's a lot of taxpayers that don't want any part of it. My taxes went up $1,040 just in the school tax last year. But it was for the right reason, but I wasn't educated in it by by these gentlemen here, and so I understood that it was important what you guys did, but it still went up $1,040. I think right now to do things like build houses, and extra gyms, and all those kinds of things, it's just about impossible. I really do believe that. But the way that you do do it is to get people involved, and people have to be kind of rallied. You know, I I mean, we're talking about the elementary schools. If you said, "Okay, we're going to get rid of of um early childhood education, because it's not mandatory," I

080bet you'd have a whole bunch of more people coming to meetings, and giving on task forces. And if you said, "We're not going to do football anymore, because we can't do it right," or or tennis, you're going to get more involvement from the community, and maybe at some point, that's what you guys have to decide. And again, here we're solving problems, but I just you know, I think it's the product, but you know, I I think it's it's important, and that's what I mentioned earlier when we had that one slide, a little tiny thing. It is taking a look at every aspect, and every opportunity, or every different uh type of of thing that you can look at, and and make sure that you're bringing forward to the community what is needed. So, I'll open

081up my microphone. Perfect. Thank you. I I'm going to discuss that one thing before you you move forward. Great answers. I'm going to reframe my question just a a little bit, okay? So, you guys got a information presentations from other organizations, PTMA, you all are public education finance experts now, because you sat through that class, but are there any other inputs that you would need to make you more successful? So, I know we were fortunate enough to have staff members from across different roles in the district on the committee, did you talk to people from nutrition services, because [clears throat] we have a few things in here about nutrition services. Did you talk to bus drivers about pick up and drop off of buses. We talked about about parent pick up, and student drop off,

082but we didn't necessarily talk about the actual bus, and how that works. Is there other input that you guys would have really liked to see uh that we didn't have time to get to, that we if we continue moving this, would be beneficial in helping us solve problems? And Jenna, go ahead and say whatever you were going to say. >> anyone has more responses to that part of the question. Ideally, it would be nice to have an a voice from every department, or every from the students, not just the ones that here, but students um obviously special education kids are are a little different to talk to you, but past students, we have we have we've had some here, but recent just recent graduates and like more teachers, I mean, we have teachers on our

083committee, but teachers in different departments, gym teachers, science teachers, tech teachers. What what do they need? What can we give them? What what's going to make them the best teachers they can be? What what are we lacking? Um obviously community input, and we have our with the community, but we obviously we need to make people more active on our groups, too. And then Um I know that you guys just had the board meeting on Monday, where you discussed um our Indian Education Non-concurrence response, um and one of the non-concurrences this year is about spacing. Um and so, for me, one of the main reasons why I to be part of this committee was to understand the schools better. I mean, our program is going into these schools. We only have designated spaces at the high

084school and the middle school. All of our other programming at other sites is shared space. And it's become a really big issue for us. And so, I was hoping that by being part of this committee, [clears throat] I'd be able to understand a little bit better. And I definitely do. But I think it would be really great to hear from other pro polo programs, anybody that's using shared spaces. Um I feel like a lot of times those programs get overlooked. And because space spacing is such an issue, it'd be nice to hear what each of them are kind of requiring to be able to do their programming successfully before the school board and the district moves forward making um additional changes. >> [snorts] >> I guess I'll speak up. Getting a representative from each city

085would be super beneficial. Regardless of how our buses are affecting the roads and how this each city can be very supportive when it comes to taxes as well. How they can How do they do their newsletter but what we want to update and be in They can communicate as well for us for each city. We really relied Sorry. We really relied on the building principals and the program supervisors that have knowledge of those sites. So, like at East Bethel, Melissa Kennedy was great and she would highlight like, "Well, actually, we do have a problem in the kitchen, but you know, money's already been set aside, so we're addressing it in this way." So, we really relied on them and Darren was very adamant as he has mentioned multiple times on the route two. The reason

086that our scheduled two-hour meetings lasted 3 and 1/2 or 4 hours is because we we did not >> [laughter] >> We we did want to delve into all of those things. And it's like one of those things are once you know a little bit, you want to know more. And then you're like I think I might be an expert on this. And I've got some ideas of my own. And that was I think the most powerful part about this is somebody who's worked in the schools for 22 years is how much I was able to learn. I just know that we had 20 more citizens, I really firmly believe that we'd be 24 more apostles out there talking about like, "We have an air handler that was around when JFK was alive at SA Hill."

087That's going away, though. Multiple When I talked to one of my football players he he asked like, "Hey, what are you doing tonight?" I replied, [clears throat] "Not going to be at tennis practice. I'm actually here at the school district's password thing." I talked to him a little bit about it. He's like, "What?" I'm like, "Yeah, you know, those big giant things on top of your rooftop units or your RTUs as we call them back then." I It was around when JFK was alive. He's like, "No, that's not right." I'm like, "Yeah, we have they got like pictures of it. You can see and like we've got a jury-rigged things." And that was the other thing that our maintenance folks do a great job. We did not have the knowledge of what needed to be

088replaced when and what the life cycle of our rooftop units were. I think because of the work that Chris and Chuck and other maintenance and facilities teams have done along with site logic, like we should be in a much better spot moving forward so we don't have to worry about the boiler to break in the middle of January and replace it for $500,000. We can be proactive on those things and say you know, we've got to set aside money for those things or we have to actually levy for those things. And that was the the eye-opener for me especially with the school finance part of reason you're able to levy the high IQ dollars is because everyone acknowledges we don't get enough funding when it comes to long-term maintenance. And when our buildings are from

089the 1960s, 1970s, we're going to have bigger long-term maintenance needs. I would defer to Richard. I lost my train of thought. >> [laughter] >> And how are you doing today? I I was just going to say to answer your question a little more directly, um and some of us actually joked about this, too, like kind of wish we would have heard from the janitors. Not to discount Chris and everything that he provided us, which was fantastic. Um and I think he had another supervisor there, [clears throat] too, that was um who was great. He could answer some of those down and dirty questions that we were asking you on the side. Um but part of me wishes that we had cornered some of them when I saw them. Like T for example at Cedar Creek,

090just, you know, what's it like in the behind the scenes a little more because we, you know, we would look and see stuff and things were explained, but then we moved on. I feel like that would be a good Just from a somebody who doesn't live in your community and you can look at things very objectively. I am I'm not I'm I'm being very honest when I'm saying this. One of the most um inquisitive persistent groups I've worked with, right? And you combine that with a pretty big district with a lot of square footage. Right away, I I was thinking, "Oh, we don't have enough meetings." And then somebody in the group said, "We don't have enough meetings." >> [snorts] >> And I said, "Okay." I went back and and talked to the leadership team

091and we added those meetings. We could have met for another 6 months and and kept busy. They asked great questions. Um they did None of our time was was was screwing up or not doing what we had what we were supposed to do. But the the side boards that the board put out, the mandate, "This is what I want you to do." Look looking at all of the facilities made us I kept having to pull them back like, "Okay, you you're not going to solve this. So, you know, you're not going to see very specific recommendations on fix this, fix that. You should do this. You should have this grade level here." You know, those it's it's making the board aware that what what we're seeing as a community, it's a beginning. And I I've

092said this to this group, I'm like, "It would be awesome if the board would take this experience with community engagement, add people, keep the ones you have that are still interested in doing some of this work, add people, and just look at the elementary spaces or just look at the outdoor facilities for the high school for athletics or, you know, whatever it may be. Look at different alternative funding mechanisms that the board has and is capable of using to do some projects that that are coming up. But it it was overwhelming at times. And I know a lot there were some people I could see in their eyes they were thinking, "There are so many different directions we could go and dive into this and this and this." But we just we couldn't. And even

093though like we tried to provide that as much as we can, there's a limit as to what you can really do and do well. We do have kind of ideas Mr. Chairman >> [clears throat] >> I can. Um just on top of the like the maintenance crew, if we were to like specialized groups that look into like the outdoor facilities, um we've definitely been with them because we all just have a lot of opinions and ideas regarding that facility, but I don't really know how they feel about them and like how other people feel about them. And then we got a video tour. I know it would have been hard to meet with them because it was in the middle of winter. All the grass is dead and everything like that. But I mean, like

094as I travel and go with sports to other schools, like all my friends look like, "Oh my gosh, it's so pretty here." And it's like it's not always about like the looks of things. It's about how they function. I just want to know again how the maintenance the outdoor maintenance crew feels about that. So, school safety is on a lot of parents' minds. And then the last fall did a lot of work with school safety. I don't see it on the I hear it as well. So, is the consensus that it's good right now or what what would you say? >> and drop off would be Yeah, [clears throat] that's the school safety for pick up and drop off. But everything we heard from all the principals was the safety in the buildings. >> Secure

095entrances. What's good? What's good? And if the one thing that they all all mentioned was they would love to have more video cameras, but it was like that's not necessarily a capital item that needs to be set aside for. And I would just say as a teacher, those are more reactive things sometimes than proactive. But they all acknowledged, yes, we have safe secure entrances. And if we could improve one thing, we'd love to add more cameras in various spots throughout the their site. And don't forget the windows. The windows. And this is kind of along the same lines, but it's not dealing with buildings. SRO, is that any discussion there? School resource officers. Sorry. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> Thanks for clarifying. You had one You had one on the committee, good. >> [laughter] >> Richard,

096you had your hand up. When when we talk about pick up and drop off, I believe each school is unique except maybe Cedar Creek and East Bethel are so close. But they should be looked at separately because each situation is different. And I think pickup is a different animal than drop-off. Drop-off is come first come first serve. Pickup is helter-skelter. They're sitting there for a long time. Yeah, but where are the kids going? The kids run to their parents' cars. No, they don't. This system is amazing. It is amazing. It works. It's the road. It's the safety on the road. The system at Cedar Creek. Well, at Cedar Creek and East Bethel. Yeah. Ben [clears throat] brings it out in the open. But in addition to that, when you're doing each school, you need to

097have the parents there at the time of drop-off. You have school administrators and other people involved in the situation. So, every school should probably have their own task force for the pickup drop-off, in my opinion. And in regards to the SRO, not the bars but officers, we were told to just look at the building and not that that program. We have to look at programs a lot. That's our experience. Yes. Right. Mr. Olson. Um another the school we'll mention that in a minute. It's worth noting. Um I think at the next board meeting, you will receive a donation form. Um Keith is a part of the work that we did and based on the Annunciation school shooting that happened this fall, where the gun the perpetrator didn't enter the building, um we had some concerns

098at the middle school because of the windows of the cafeteria that face Bridge Street or face Ambassador. We had some concerns at SFP because of the cafeteria windows that face the visible highway. And so, um we secured a bid for um window film and tinting, as well as um being able to bond the windows to the frames. And um Keith donated the funds um through some of his charity work for us to be able to do that. So, you'll see that donation come through THE BANK BOARD. >> [applause] >> WHEN WE TALK ABOUT SAFETY AND SECURITY, I WANTED TO mention that because um you know, we've got we've got all kinds of windows all over the district, right? And and some of them provide higher risk to the general public than um I think any

099of us are comfortable with after this what happened this fall. So, we're addressing that systemically. Thanks Mr. Olson for that update. I know you had talked to me about that before and Keith, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge you saw an immediate need and something that you could affect, so we appreciate that. So, as a board, as a district, as a community, we thank you for that. Mr. Olson. Um you know, this this page with the data and the declining enrollments, I think there are things [clears throat] that are, you know, different avenues and creative avenues to fund things, but I I think the long story short is, you know, the main funding source is like butts in the seats. And I this group facility-wise kind of makes me think we should

100do something like this. I don't know how to say it, but like, hey, what would how do you envision like what can we do to improve, you know, the public uh education experience? Like I don't know I don't I don't know if it would need necessarily need to be the same group, but a similar group or something like this with good impact like this again. I mean, I don't know if you'd have to tour schools and maybe you would tour schools more on a like an observation of like classrooms or media centers or, you know, the sports programs or things like this, but I think that would be highly valuable because I think I think that's I think it it's always hard for me to believe what I see houses everywhere growing up that we

101don't have anything, but it makes sense, you know, actuarially, but I I I think a lot of the reason why our uh enrollment is dropping is because people have other options now in in in private schools and then also homeschooling is becoming more prevalent, but I think uh you know, it's not our choice necessarily to say that, you know, uh they should they should come to our schools and it's certainly their choice to go wherever they want, but I think that we should put our best foot forward to give them a best opportunity where they're not looking at other options. Like if you provide, you know, I I would imagine where you're in a school district that's having hardship or hard times or not doing their job or the the community is not happy with

102with the area, I'm not talking about this one, but then versus some area like, let's say, you know, Wayzata where everyone wants to go to those schools. I mean, you know, people are literally moving there because of the schools. Uh there's some sort of disconnect or culture thing going on there that uh that maybe either our area doesn't have or we don't agree with or, you know, I I don't want to become Wayzata at all. Um but but it's uh it's a thing I think we could utilize something like this for more of the I don't even know what the words I'm trying to say, like a soft review or something like that. So, the nice thing about this group is you guys set the standard for Saint Francis uh in our community engagement aspirations,

103right? You you set the standard for what we want to do and get to to cover areas like SROs, like uh enrollment numbers to get after that as a group. We hope that it's not the same group uh for every one of those engagement task force, but we understand uh that that's going to be a work on our level uh to fill that in and meet that need, but um really what you guys did is help us set that standard for the way ahead uh for the district to get after these things. So, thank you for that. Uh I'm going to cut the comments there before I hand it back to you. Uh if you have anything else to round up, I probably will cover what we have, but could I just make one comment?

104I think that what you were saying is extremely important in that um you guys do surveys, you guys reach out. I know my grandson [clears throat] is home-schooled who's in the district and my my daughter has to send in to Carson's office, I believe, every year that what he's that he's in home school. So, I think you have a base of of reaching out to those people and asking them why they don't send their kids to the school. Do you guys do that? >> [clears throat] >> Uh we have not. Uh we've done some surveys before, but not specifically like for home-school families or those who chose to go elsewhere. I think that's a good suggestion though. And I think also if you take a look at at being very specific about that. Uh I

105know that that uh school that we have a business in Nebraska, they really highlight how they have the highest math and reading scores scores in their area and they draw from a whole region. And I know you guys are working really hard on your math and reading scores and to to to to really work on that and and make that as a marketing tool to bring more of these people in, you know, just might be something that's worthwhile, but you may find out something in that survey but if if you're very specific, if we did this, if we had this, would that make a difference on why you did what you did. I think it was Michael Hart was our guy. He was the finance guy. We export 600 students. That's a lot of money.

106[clears throat] So, because of Twin Lakes Elementary or Rum River Elementary or whatever there is, you know, net, I think we're like 600 students to Wayzata. Despite the students who come in from Forest Lake or Cambridge or East Bethel, we export our net is like 600 students out. And that was probably an issue back when they area was around the block. It's just a great opportunity like Mr. Humphrey Keith has said there to find out why and, you know, try and claw some of those folks back. You know, the district cabinet has identified that as a top priority, too. We have to carve time, effort, and money out to make it happen. But we've I shouldn't say we because I wasn't here the time that the buildings were redone, but from what I've heard, they

107are so much better now than what they were before 2017. And you know, we believe that if we get people into our buildings as much as possible, they'll be impressed with what they see. Not just with the buildings, but with the programs and the people. And so, we need we need to use that small-town feel, you know, that the community has and make sure we reach out in that way to people moving into the district. So, it's not just a brochure that we send out or a nice website. We need those one-on-one interactions. And you couldn't be more right. Um after I went through um Ben Pratt's facility and saw that he wasn't just warehousing those kids that are are having problems, that he really had a a vision for it. Um I I happened

108to mention that to my daughter and they had a child at their co-op who is who is wasn't working in the co-op that really needed what Ben is doing and they have now left the the home-school co-op and and is in that program. And it's it's going very well. And to get that word out is is you know, that the marketing. Yeah, [clears throat] and that's a great example because there are great things happening, you know, right next door. Uh but there are Thank you. I'm your actually champion, so But you know, people don't know about it if they don't experience if they don't talk to people they're going to they're going to join us here. So, we have to use that small town feel. Um so, I can speak on behalf of being a

109parent. Um my daughter is in second grade at Cedar Creek and we love it there. We absolutely love it. But when she was ready to go into kindergarten, I do have to be very honest, I was going to put her in another school district. Um just because Rock River and Anoka Hennepin is just a few minutes down the road from my house in Oak Grove. And in addition to this, my daughter gets sick. She's um gets very sick after motion sickness after about 45 minutes. Her bus ride was over an hour each way and I knew I would have to give her Dramamine or do bracelets or do something every day. So, we tried to put her in the Kids Connection. We had a long wait. We were able to finally get her in last

110minute or else I was going to send her to another district. That's just my experience. But we stayed in here and we stayed in the district cuz she loves it and she absolutely loves being in the program. So. [clears throat] But some people don't. No. And for good reason they said and you know, we we think that if kids join us, if it's preschool, if it's Kids Connection, if it's in [clears throat] any of our buildings that we have a really good shot at keeping them. Uh but once a student goes to Anoka Hennepin, um you know, then they're more likely to stay there and then their siblings are going to stay there because there's one car right there. So, we have to start, you know, with the very youngest levels and that includes preschool.

111I'll just chime in real quick. Um I was in Anoka Hennepin and I was very adamant to not have my kids go to Anoka Hennepin. Um it was just so big and I think I wanted the small town community feeling, but I had so many friends that lived close by that sent their kids to Anoka Hennepin because one time they heard somebody say something bad or they had a bad experience and I think it's back in the day I didn't think the bridge this used to happen. I think it's informing the community about how it's changed so much would be just I don't I don't know how it would happen or just >> [clears throat] >> it's not I don't know how else to describe it. It's not that St. Francis anymore. I don't I

112I wasn't here. I can't speak to that, but it's so not like that. I we built the best community here and I from when you come you stay. So, I it's just a bad reputation that hopefully someday people will get that out of their heads. Yeah, when we moved here 14 years ago our realtor said this isn't St. Francis School District. And we said, well, yeah, we don't we don't we don't have kids that that are going to be participating in it, so we're good to go. And now that I've had such a good comparison between another school district on this border of St. Francis and this, it's it's completely different than all that I heard about it. So, how do you guys get the word out? >> [clears throat] >> Keith, I had the

113same experience. Our realtor when we moved here said the same thing. Yeah. That was one of her trying to help us figure out where we were going is that he is not as far away from the other district if you will. Maybe disempower some of the realtors. No, that that might be a good idea. >> [clears throat] >> But I'm proud to be part of this district. My kids go here and I absolutely love it because of what you guys all say and what you guys do. So, um we are you know, we're an hour and a half which is what we kind of planned on. So, this is absolutely awesome. We can continue this conversation, but I've got a couple just items to let you guys know what the future is going to look

114like. Oh, good because we I think I can speak for the group. If you add up all the hours that were put in and especially all the emails that Darren made us read, we we seriously we probably we could probably log in a thousand hours. So, I was hoping and I think I could speak for the group that you know, six months from now in September we'd like to hear what you guys have done with this. Yeah. So, uh the plan ahead is that So, how the board works, how we operate is we need a lot of input so we can make decisions, right? You guys just started that process for us. So, what we will be doing is having work sessions. I can't give you exact dates yet cuz we have to work on

115agendas and how that works with everything else that's But we will have work sessions that help pare down these recommendations that you guys gave cuz we can't everyone knows we can't just go like this and take care of every recommendation. So, we need to pare them down based off of input that you gave us, based off of other input and the board's priorities for the district going forward. Things that we like to look at are near term, short term, and long term areas that we can work at. So, we're going to look at everything that you guys presented and recommended, but we might not put everything in the same bucket. So, we're going to take a look at what that looks like. The next step that we would want is to continue the process. So,

116you guys put in one of your slides on what you did. You brainstormed, explored, evaluated, and you find potential long term flexible and fiscally responsible solutions including considering operational efficiencies. That's the information we need once we pare down what we want, right? That's the information that we want to unleash and let you guys just dig into and help us present that. So, I have a challenge for you as a engagement task force that invite a friend. Right? Mike, you said it. I want I want to fill this room tonight. Unfortunately, the one person I invited it sounds like three other people invited as well. Dave, thanks for being here. So, we got to get better at who we're inviting, right? But I I do this in all of the sports that I coach. I tell

117everyone of my athletes the first week of practice, bring a friend. Bring somebody new into the program. So, I want you guys to do that. I'm going to challenge you to do the same thing. You all know somebody in the community that has valuable input that can help us. When we start doing this, invite them. They don't have to sign the letter of agreement with Darren, but show up to a meeting and go, oh, wow, okay. I could provide some input on this. Or they can go, I want nothing to do with it and walk away. But bring someone else, okay? Uh students, big time, right? You guys have a perspective that none of us have. Even those that graduated from this school, they don't have the perspective that you have. Uh so, we need

118your input. So, I really appreciate that you were part of it and that you both were very committed to it. That was a concern that we had talked about is if we have students, would they have that commitment level? Well, you guys blew it out of the water. So, like I said, you set the standard. Thank you for that. Um but once we pare that down and we get into developing solutions, I heard you, okay? I heard that we want input from every area. So, it might not mean that you're going to have a member from each one of our departments at all meetings, but we might be able to send out a survey to those departments, what are your needs when it comes to this area? So, we can get input and then that

119allows us to steer the direction of where we're going with it or ask some questions, talk to the maintenance staff about field maintenance and how it works. Those kind of things we can do all of that. We have that capability internally and that's not a hard ask uh for our staff to provide some input. And then maybe with parents, right? Or with students and parents and getting that same input, we can do that. Um talked about the twice as big, right? To double it. So, we can double this size instantly if you need to bring someone. And then I'm putting the same challenge on board members. Okay? So, once we get into this, we didn't hardly want to have any influence on this engagement task force that we had started. We didn't want to influence.

120We wanted to see where you guys took it. That's why we allowed it to expand. Uh but we each should invite someone to come to one of those meetings to help uh cuz we all know people that have different perspectives and look at things differently as well. Um Okay, I'm going to go through a couple thank yous. First off, uh Mr. Lundquist, we did submit you for an Emmy for YOUR >> [applause] >> VIDEOS. SO, THANK THANK YOU FOR THE TIME AND EFFORT you put in. I know it was well above and beyond the required duties and responsibilities, so thank you for that. Darren, uh you and the psychologic teams, thank you so much uh for the dedication you put into our district. You have nothing to do with our district and you put the

121time and effort into it to help better us. So, we appreciate that and I know they all saw it because I can hear it in their voices when I talk to uh there's some passion in here tonight which is awesome. I love to see that. Um okay, Courtney, Aaron, Keith, Mike, Kate, Jenna, Haley, Clayton, Noah, Scott, Rick, Harry, and Richard, thank you. Thank you so much for being here and for doing this for us. It means so much to us. Right? Look at I'm getting a little emotional because it's nice to have community input outside of this. Right? We all put our sacrifices, our time into this district as as as everyone else that is involved, but you guys didn't come up with the answer. So, thank you for doing that. Uh we do appreciate

122it. I think we heard you across the board. So, thank you for that. Um we will continue to work with Darren to ensure you guys are notified of work sessions. We want you here. We want to have you part of the discussion. So, when we're talking something and Annette and I go, "Well, wait a minute. This is what they meant." And you're like, "That's not what we meant at all." You can help us with those conversations, okay? So, be aware of that. We're going to push that information out. We'll use Darren still to help that. Do you have the all their contact information? Um I think that is it. Uh district staff, thank you for your input as well and what you did to support uh this program. Carson, do you have anything? No, I

123thank you to the board too for letting the community lead this effort. Yeah. Many school [clears throat] boards would not do that. Yes. Yes. Darren. Uh I did want to say thank you and call out Chris. Uh he was at almost every meeting, did a phenomenal job. He was a wealth of information. It was It was a lot of fun to work with him and he did an excellent job. People that I was able to meet, I I am going to uh stay somewhat involved as as Nate said. And generally once the board does their work shopping, we generally bring that community group back and have a conversation about it. These are some of the the decisions that we made and this is why. Uh kind of just close that loop, right? So, again, thank

124you board uh with community group. I'll be in touch. I know you love my emails. So, I I won't I'm not going away. >> [laughter] >> But, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Nate. Oh, one last thing. I have a survey that we did last fall uh and it's a community survey. It really turned into two. You got a lot of input from the from the students as well. Love to come back and and share that. So, So, Darren mentioned that to me today. Um so, board, what I want to do is I'm going to talk to the superintendent. We're going to see where it fits on the agenda, but we'd like to have him come and just talk survey results that we sent out. Um not specific You know, there's a lot

125of questions that you guys used to help guide, but you did go over the results as a whole for us. Um give what that was cuz that's always good to go over for us. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. All right. Uh any questions or comments before a motion to adjourn? Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Madison, is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Any discussion on that motion? No discussion. All in favor, signify by saying "Aye." Any opposed, "Nay." Aye. Motion prevails. Thank you. The board meeting is complete at 8:42. >> [laughter]