May 11, 2026 Regular Board Meeting

001Here. Director Brekken? Here. Did you get the email? Did you get the email? Here. Did you get the email? Yeah. Did you get the email? Uh, here. Director Spear? Here. Director Ward? Here. Thank you. Um, just uh a note to those coming in the back. We have started the meeting and we um can't have signs in the room while the meeting is taking place. Thank you. All right, we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. 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. Sorry, I forgot to signal you. I even wrote it down. All right. Uh, this meeting of the Brainerd School Board is being conducted in accordance with Minnesota Statutes

00213D.02. This meeting is being recorded. Access to the recording is available on the school district's YouTube channel. We'll look for a motion to approve the agenda. I'll make a motion we approve the agenda. Second. We've got a motion by Director Brekken, a second by Director Ward. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor of approving the agenda, say I. I. I. Opposed the same? Motion carries. We have a number of celebrations and recognitions tonight that I would like to kick off. We sincerely thank our amazing volunteers and community members for the time, energy, and care you share with our schools. Your commitment creates a meaningful difference in the lives of our students, staff, and families. Because of your support, our district is more than just a place to learn. It is a strong and connected

003community. This week is staff appreciation week. We are so proud to celebrate every incredible person who makes ISD 181 run. We know this work is challenging and demanding and deeply important. You show up for it every single day. The heart of our district is its people and we are grateful beyond words for the passion and commitment you bring to our schools. Congratulations to the following students on being honored as Sourcewell's 2025 Students of Character. Colin Peterson at the BLC, Simon Carter at the LEC, Grace Engie at BHS, and Caleb Rademacher at BHS. Sourcewell recognizes high recognizes high school juniors and seniors for their quiet leadership within their communities and schools. And a thank you to our student board members, Eli Borg, Lily DeRosier, Grace Engie, Cameron Kramer, Preston Miller, Austin Nichols, Haley Petrie, Caleb Rademacher,

004Leah Sukup, and Rebecca Sukup for their time, perspective, and dedication. They've made meaningful meaningful difference in representing their peers and strengthening our school community as representatives on our school board committees and we'll be honoring them in person on Thursday. on Thursday. Congratulations to the following Brainerd High School Fine Arts and Activities Award of Excellence recipients and Layperson of the Year. For Theater, Caleb Obert and Vincent Johnson Ding. Game Design, Wesley McKee. Speech, Haley Petrie and Abigail Smith. Creative Writing, Cecilia Henke. Orchestra, Paul Sandberg. Yearbook, Olivia Blacklance, Lily DeRosier, Addison Herges, Eliana Turcott, and Miley Ike. Video production, Angelina Thomas. Concert band, Helen Kerbel. Choir, Haley Nash. Pottery, Easton Dirks, Giada Lundgren, and Olivia Hyatt. And Layperson of the Year, Dave Pritchett. Congratulations to all the to the following annual All-Sports Recognition Awards winners for the

0052025-26 school year. Bud Schmidt Award, the assistant coach of the year went to Brenda Sanis. Irwin TC Service Award went to Paul Ruff. The Female Warrior Athlete of the Year, Cora Klaudt. The Male Warrior Athlete of the Year, Owen Robertson. The Warrior Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2026 inductees were Kyle Berg, Mike Boran, Steve Coles, Carl Schirmer, and Ali or Allison Smith. And congratulations to the following Brainerd School District staff for being recognized at Sourcewell's Educators of Excellence program held in April. Teachers of Excellence, Sarah Baker at Nisswa, Brian Bordwell at BHS, Adam Ekstrand at the BLC, Jenny Hall at Garfield, Alex Hersh at Baxter, Shannon Moran at Riverside, Katie Reynolds at the LEC-Atlas, and Michelle Tollefson at Forestview. Four Pillars of Excellence, recognizing Jenny Barnhart at BLC, Trisha Hughes at Baxter, Hilda Johnson

006at Nisswa, Lana Rezinka at Forestview, Sarah Schaefer at Riverside, Cheryl Schmidt at Garfield, and Sam Wicklund at the LEC and Atlas. And I'm going to invite Dr. Stellmack up to share some of the Forestview celebrations. All right, thank you. I have four different celebrations to speak to regarding Forestview Middle School students. The first is a huge congratulations to our Forest View eighth grader, Jonathan Steinmetz. He was recently um performed in the honors band at Wayzata High School as a part of the Minnesota state level honors band on April 12th. That's quite an achievement. He was selected as one of the top 80 student musicians in the state of Minnesota. So um we've got a long-standing tradition of sending students to the honor band and he joins um those. Um the Brandon Dispatch, we have a

007uh community connections tradition highlighting the creativity of our students with their design and ad um feature in the Dispatch and three of our Forest View fifth grade students um were selected. First place on team 5B, Tenley Rutman. Second place from Whoops, excuse me. First place was Annabelle Holbrook on 5B and Tenley Rutman is on 5C, second place. And then the third place, 5B, Adeline um Goslin. Shout out to our teachers for promoting that activity when it comes through. Then congratulations to Forest View Middle School for hosting the first ever Region 5 Civics Bee on April 27th. We had 17 students that qualified after an essay round um that our teacher Michelle Bjorklund worked with them on in their Time to Thrive class. 14 of those 17 students chose to compete in the regional bee that

008was hosted by us at Forest View. >> [clears throat] >> Participants were Aiden B, Bennett I, um Maylee I, Riley K, Samuel K, William K, Allison K, Isaac M, William S, Henry S, and Wren Z. And then the top three places um were Forest View students. Maddie Pram took third place. She gets to go on to compete at the State Civic Bee. Fern Schmidt took second place. She goes on to compete at the State Civic Bee. And placing in first place was Justice Anderson. He scored 100% on the two computerized quiz rounds. And he took first place to compete in the state competition that is held in June. And then our final award to speak about is Math Masters fifth grade. A while back I spoke about the sixth grade Mrs. Hansky. Led our students

009and worked with them to help them prepare and be ready for the Math Masters over at Sourcewell. Team Alpha took first out of 17 teams. Milo Kaiser, Lily Morgan, Seth Solgerstand, Lexi Miller, and Jameson Zeemers. Team Beta second out of 17. Connor Keepers, Chase Lord, Brady Herman, Annie Holbrook, and Abby Freehammer. Team Delta took fifth out of 17. Zeb Klein, Alex Ringan, Caleb Gillen, Miles Zimmerman, and Lucas Timm. Team Omega took eighth out of 17. Annabelle Dunphy, Adeline Goslin, Sydney Knutson, Bernita Morsch, and Elsie Fassett. Team Pi took 11 out of 17. Isabel Otola, Jordan Oldakowski Gunner Rorig Gunner Garcia and Ryker Daphne. And then in the fact drill for individual awards out of 70 students. Milo Kaiser took first place. Connor Keepers second. Zeb Klein third. Chase Lord sixth. Brady Herman and Alex Ringan

010eighth place. And then I'd like to mention the alternates who did a lot of work preparing. Izzy Bjorkavitz, Grayson Swenson um and Nicole Borgstrom. So just a shout out to the wonderful staff at Forestview because all of the extras like this happened because of our amazing staff and teachers. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stumme. >> [applause] >> Madam Chair. Yes. Um, could I recognize one more that we kind of left off? Madam Chair. Mhm. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Amy Hou was reappointed. We used to call this personal privilege in the state legislature, so um, Amy was reappointed to the PELSB committee, which is the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board. It's a big accomplishment and especially to have a our local district represented at the state level and she was appointed as

011the vice chair. So just want to congratulate her as well. >> [applause] [applause] >> ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU. PUBLIC INPUT. UH, A member of the public can address the board during this time. Comments will be limited to 3 minutes. Complaints or allegations against students or employees may not be discussed due to data privacy. Complaints or allegations must be submitted in writing to Superintendent Grant. The Board of Education and or the superintendent will not converse with guests to address the topics discussed at that time. No visuals or props will be allowed. All right. We'll kick it off with Rebecca Adidy, please. Welcome. Thank you. My name is Rebecca Adidy and I work at Forestview Middle School. My husband, Donovan Adidy, teaches math at Brainerd High School. Contrary to many of the speakers before me and even

012before tonight, our story did not begin in Brainerd. We did not always bleed Brainerd blue. We were both born and raised in rural North Dakota with graduating classes of five and 20. We both taught in Iowa before moving to Minnesota. We were hired within a year of each other and worked at Franklin Junior High and the high school. We were even lucky enough to work alongside director John Ward. We have lived and worked in the Brainerd school district for 22 and 23 years. Even though we are not from here originally, we have made the Brainerd Lakes area our new home. Together, we bleed Brainerd blue. We have two children. Our son graduated from Brainerd and our daughter, currently in the ninth grade, will graduate from Brainerd as well. Both are and were involved in tennis

013as well as band and choir. They bleed Brainerd blue, too. I currently work as a special education teacher and case manager in a level three classroom with students on the autism spectrum. Level three means that the students are in my room for the majority of their school day due to behaviors or low academic levels. I teach social skills, social studies, science, math, and reading. Our days can be hard. Not harder than any other teacher, it's a different kind of hard. We're not physically tired at the end of the school day as much as we are mentally tired. I would love to have you visit my room sometime and meet the cherubs I work with every day. They are my why. We have put our time and effort into this community and for the most part,

014we have felt supported by our community in return. I got into teaching to work with kids, not to watch the politics behind education unfold without putting our kids' education first. Unfortunately, this is a direct This is directly affecting all of us. Our gumption is dwindling. Our batteries need recharging. And summer's around the corner. It would be nice to have all of this resolved before school lets out. So, we don't have to worry about this any longer. In closing, I challenge you to reflect on your why. I encourage courage you to invest our financial resources in the people who have the most direct impact on our students. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Up next, we have Suzanne Lokken, please. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Suzanne Lokken. I'm finishing up my 11th

015year as a speech language pathologist at Riverside Elementary School and completing my 29th year as an SLP in the public school system in Minnesota. Prior to moving to Brainerd, I worked in the Osseo School District for 18 years. And as I reflect on nearly 30 years of working in the public schools, I wonder if I can maintain my work in this setting until I retire. Certainly, as an SLP, I have many opportunities to work in various settings from hospitals to private practices or care facilities. I have the training to work with people from infancy until death. Why have I chosen to work in the school setting? The primary reason in the past, most certainly, was being on the school schedule as my husband Jay and I raised our three children. Now that our children have

016grown and moved away, my work as a school-based SLP continues to be my passion. I love helping children learn to communicate and succeed in school and in life. The kids make me happy. Because speech-language pathologists have amazing opportunities to work across many settings, it can be quite challenging to hire SLPs in the school setting. In order to draw quality candidates to our profession in the public school setting, we must offer fair and competitive pay and a workload that is manageable. This most certainly does not come only down to how many kids are on our caseload at any given time. Ask any SLP and she will tell you that her caseloads fluctuate from month to month and year to year. We have a revolving door of students coming and going, qualifying for services and being dismissed

017from services. All of this includes an overwhelming amount of paperwork. This year I've had up to 61 students on my caseload at one time and by the end of the year we will have conducted 73 evaluations. This is the highest number of students on my caseload at one time and the highest number of communication evaluations in one year since I started at Riverside 11 years ago. This is not sustainable over time. I am exhausted. At Riverside we service students with some of the most profound communication disabilities. Their needs are great and the work is challenging. At the same time, it is very rewarding. I truly believe that I make an impact on the lives of my students and their families. I do my best to support my teachers and their students. Because as we all

018know, teaching is a tough job. But why do we do it? We do it for the kids. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we have Tim Ettinger, please. Members of the school board and Superintendent Grant, my name is Tim Ettinger and I live in Nisswa. I am pleased we finally saw the audit report for the previous fiscal year and that there were no major adverse findings. Marcy does an accurate job. You and I will always differ on the unreserved fund balance policy and how that fund has been built, but that's a difference in ethics and I'll get back to that later. The thing that has bothered me since your last meeting is the far-fetched hypotheticals posed by a board member during your financial discussions. First, the state of Minnesota never has, nor has it ever

019discussed sending no funding in a given year to schools. Some years they've provided no increase in funding, but never withholding all funds. Second, banking and lending laws prevent a lender from demanding all debts be repaid immediately by a borrower. So, never has or would a school district's debt be called due at any given moment other than stated in the terms of the loan. So, why even mention those things as part of a budget discussion if they have never happened and or can't happen? The only thing I can come up with is an attempt to divert attention from real issues or rile up support for non-existent issues. Of course, Brainerd Public Schools has debt. So would almost every school district that renovated or built about a dozen buildings in a short window of time. 78% of

020Minnesota school districts have bonds, levies, or both. Back to the audit and financials. Let's talk facts, not hypotheticals. The budget deficit for this fiscal year was projected to be $3 million and is now reported to be 600,000. The unreserved fund balance the district's checkbook if you will is at a balance of over 14 million. As I've stated before I ethically struggle with an unreserved fund balance of that level while we're making cuts that will adversely affect students and staff. As the school board considers and enacts cuts to reduce and eliminate projected shortfalls in the future the strategy of some school board members and upper administrators is to blame employees for the shortfalls while suggesting reducing employee health benefits causing more out-of-pocket spending and suggesting their pay not be increased at an amount to counteract the

0213.3% annual inflation rate announced last week. I'm at a loss to explain how expecting less than a thousand school employees to shoulder a double loss while refusing to ask 17,000 plus taxpayers residing in our school district what they would envision for our public schools could even seem fair to any rational thinking person. Quality schools benefit every member of the community in many ways. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up we have Danielle Addison please. Welcome. Good evening. I'm Danielle Addison and my children attend Brainerd public schools. I want to start with something that really hasn't been said enough. Our education staff have been working this entire school year without a contract. Negotiations are at a standstill and while that may sound like an administrative matter that ripple that ripple effects reaches every classroom and

022every family in the district. When classroom budgets are cut, staff don't simply go without. They reach into their own pockets. They ask us families for donations. They quietly fall fund what falls short because they refuse to let our kids go without. Board members previously expressed concern um about whether our community could afford the financial impact of an operating levy. Well, I'd ask you this, consider the fact that families and staff are already funding it themselves. While while those same staff members are working second and third jobs just to pay their own bills at home. A levy doesn't add a new burden, it distributes the burden that already exists. Right now, it falls almost entirely on the staff and families. Putting a levy on the ballot gives the broader community the chance to vote to share

023that weight, to support the staff and students. That is what a community does. Public schools cannot charge tuition. They cannot raise fees when the cost increase and when supplies run short. A levy is the mechanism that allows everyone, not just the most stretched, to pitch in. I worked in healthcare during COVID. I watched talented, dedicated professionals show up every single day, stretched thin, facing budget cuts, and eventually handed pizza parties as a thank you. What I'm seeing in our district today mirrors that exact trajectory. Staff morale erodes quietly, and then suddenly it doesn't. It shows up as vacancies, shortages, in classrooms without adequate support. Families are not leaving this district because of curriculum. They're leaving because students don't feel supported, because bullying goes unaddressed, and because they don't feel heard. These are not problems that

024improve with budget cuts and unresolved contracts. They worsen. Larger class sizes, fewer support staff, more unsupervised time, and more families forced to seek alternatives. That is where you're leading our district. Staff are not asking for millions of dollars. They're simply asking to be able to survive. A fair contract is the clearest way this board can communicate that it understands their value and intends to retain them. This board's decision about whether to place an operating levy on the ballot this fall will speak speak louder than any statement made at this table. It will tell this community whether the goal is to build this district or run it to the ground. Our children deserve better, our staff deserve better, and the community is watching. To say I'm disappointed doesn't say enough. Thank you. Up next we have

025Kayla Benzick, please. Welcome. Thank you. Hello. My name is Kayla Benzick. This is my 18th year as an early childhood special education teacher, or as my doctor recently joked, I'm a professional cat herder for the Brainerd district. I live in Breezy Point with my family, and I commute 30 miles each way every day to a job that I truly love. I've often been asked why I don't teach in the same district where my children attend school. Wouldn't that be easier on my family? My answer has always been simple. I love my job. I love my colleagues. I love my students. Our district provides strong opportunities for our youngest learners, and historically Brainerd has offered benefits and health care that made this commitment worthwhile for my family. But lately, that answer hasn't came as easily. I

026have listened to every school board meeting this year. I've heard comments suggesting that our benefits are out of control, or statements that are not only inaccurate, they're hurtful. I've also heard ongoing concern about declin- declining teacher retention. I'd like to offer some perspective on why that might be happening. Let me tell you what my job actually looks like. I co-teach in a fully inclusive school readiness classroom with 28 four and five-year-olds, 14 of those students having IEPs. In preschool, we don't have specialists. I am the PE teacher, I'm the music teacher, the art teacher, and the recess supervisor. I teach children how to open their milk, how to use the bathroom independently, how to organize their belongings and put their winter gear on. I am a bathroom aid that changes diapers daily, a nurse holding

027a trash can for a sick student, and a social worker finding essential supplies for low-income families. I am responsible for delivering specialized instruction to students with disabilities in an inclusive setting. Preschool is where this all begins, where children learn how to sit, follow directions, make friends, regulate their emotions, and prepare for kindergarten. All of this happens while implementing a rigorous curriculum, collecting data, communicating daily with families, and attending meetings and committees before and after school. And that's just the general ed side. As a special [snorts] education teacher, I also develop and implement accommodations and modifications, write legally binding IEPs, track progress, lead meetings, and meet strict compliance deadlines. I'm licensed to serve a wide range of needs: autism, developmental delays, emotional behavioral disorders, Down syndrome, support speech and language needs, vision and hearing impairments, physical

028disabilities, and mental health challenges. I have been physically hurt by students. I have been verbally attacked by parents in meetings, and still, I show up every day. But the reality is this, I am exhausted, I'm overstimulated, and my gas tank is running empty. And when I go home at night, I don't always have the energy to give my own family the best version of myself. So now, when I'm asked why I don't teach in my home district, I pause. Now I find myself asking, can I do this for another 20 to 25 years? Are the benefits that once made this job sustainable enough anymore? I'm not sure they are. I do know this. I know my worth and so do my colleagues. We're not asking for anything unreasonable. We are asking to be respected, supported,

029and valued for the work that we do every day. Thank you. Thank you. Right, we've got Lori Anderson up next, please. Welcome. I know my mom's watching this at home, so hi, Mom. Promise I'm not getting into trouble. All right. >> [laughter] >> My name is Lori Anderson, and I am a proud graduate of Brainerd High School class of 1985, and I've been an English teacher since 1991 and I've been teaching at Brainerd High School for the past 25 years. I serve the students of this district, our community, our administrators, and you as board members. I also serve the state of Minnesota by ensuring that the curriculum I teach aligns with state standards. In my classroom, my role is not to promote my personal, political, or religious views. My responsibility is to help students think

030critically, read with understanding, write clearly, and articulate their ideas effectively. I strive to create a classroom where students feel respected, supported, and valued regardless of their background or beliefs. Each day I show up with the belief that all students can learn and succeed, and I work to ensure that my personal views do not interfere with that responsibility. I also serve my colleagues and administrators by acting professionally, contributing positively to our school community, and helping maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all students. As a public school teacher, I serve the broader community by helping educate and support its young people. I believe strongly that public education is a shared responsibility, and that when we invest in our students, we strengthen our entire community. As elected officials, you serve all members of this community and most

031importantly, the students of Brainerd High School and Brainerd Public Schools. Our district is a public institution, not a private organization or a business. Our purpose is to educate, support, and prepare all students to become thoughtful, capable, and contributing members of society. Some of our students require more support than others, but each one deserves access to strong, equitable education. I respectfully ask that you keep the full scope of your responsibility in mind as you make decisions. Those decisions should reflect the needs of the entire school community. Please continue to support public education through thoughtful, responsible funding and by trusting professionals who work with students every day. More importantly, I ask that you remain focused on serving all students and families in this district. Our responsibility is to the whole community in our decisions, your decisions, should

032reflect that commitment. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we have Amber Endress, please. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, members of the school board and Superintendent Grant. Today, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Amber Endress and I'm a special education teacher in the EBD program at Forestview Middle School. Teaching is actually my second career. I spent 7 years as a mental health therapist at Forestview in the Northern Pines program. I understand I chose to go back to school and become a teacher to support students grow both academically and emotionally. I value this work deeply and I recognize the struggles that come with it. However, the challenges are too often overwhelming. Every day teachers face disrespectful and disruptive students, including students who refuse to arrive to class on time, refuse to

033bring classroom materials, refuse to complete assignments, refuse to display appropriate classroom conduct, and worst of all, refuse to engage in learning. The argumenting the arguing the disrespect towards teachers, students walk away when teachers are talking. They don't care. There's no These behaviors happen across classrooms even though teachers have invested multiple hours planning thoughtful lessons and building rapport to foster relationships with students. Basic respect and compliance expectations are core to success learning environments, yet are fragile at this moment in time. Teachers often lack administrative support. Disciplinary for discipline referrals in Skyward lack a response or too little of a response. Students just get to move on with their day. It's sad to think that at the end of most of my days I've dealt with derogatory comments, been sworn at, disrespected, called names, and I think

034at least I'm not in the elementary school where my colleagues are getting hit, kicked, spit at every day. Every day teachers like myself walk into their classroom ready and motivated to teach only to end the day exhausted and defeated. Despite these challenges, I want to emphasize ongoing dedication of our staff. Teachers across the district constantly devote devote time outside of school day to prepare instruction and create engaging learning environments. Our our commitment to student success remains strong and is still our top priority. Brainerd has a long-standing tradition of valuing public education. Achieving this goal requires a culture that respects or reflects collaboration, communication, and collective respect at respect at all levels. Sustain that tradition depends on our ability to attract and retain skilled educators. Board members, you have the opportunity to demonstrate that with this

035district values its educators, not just in words, but in action. A fair contract sends a clear message that teachers matter and that their work is respected and that this board is committed to a strong public education. Last Friday, May 8th, in the Brainerd Dispatch, quoted incoming Superintendent Rankin, "Don't come after me about math and reading when you have class sizes of 33." Remember [snorts] that when you think about the teachers as well. Thank you. Next up, we have Brian Stark, please. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Brian Stark. I'm a 1991 graduate of BHS. My wife is a BHS grad and both my sons have attended Brainerd public schools. I'm nearing the completion of my 31st 31st year as a teacher and coach, all of those in Brainerd. My first year in Brainerd

036was working as a substitute substitute teacher and coach. It was my hope to be hired to teach and coach here. I wanted to continue to live in the Brainerd Lakes area and give back to my community. Brainerd was a highly respected district in Minnesota. There were always hundreds of applications for positions back then. A person was lucky to get an interview and be hired. I was fortunate to be hired the next year to teach third grade at Riverside. I spent 20 years teaching third grade. The last 10 years I've spent teaching fifth grade science at Forest View. During those years, I have been a coach or advisor for multiple sports and activities. I have held various leadership positions in the district and EMB. I've worked with multiple principals, superintendents, multiple assistant superintendents, directors of curriculum,

037athletic directors, and many school board members. Although we've had some great leaders in this district, numerous leadership changes have caused inconsistencies and lack of direction. What has been consistent is the amazing and dedicated staff who hold positions in the school buildings, teaching and supporting students. I've worked with incredible teachers, EAs, cooks, counselors, custodians, interpreters, media specialists, secretaries, nurses, coaches, and volunteers. While some of these district employees have only worked here a few years, many have worked here for 10, 20, 30, and 40 plus years. When district and building leader leadership changes, these are the people that have shown up for many years and continue to show up every day to support students and each other. We are the glue that holds the district and buildings together during times of change and uncertainty. I currently teach

038on a team of five teachers that has combined 106 years of uh teaching experience and teaching students here in ISD 181. Last week was teacher appreciation week. Thank you, Dr. Stellmach, for the treats she provided and the FMS parent group for providing lunch on Monday. It was nice to be noticed for a continued dedication. It is time to come together and settle a contract that is fair and provides high-quality benefits for employees and their families. Teachers wear many hats and are always asked to do more and more. The lack of apprecia- with a lack of appreciation from the district, it's getting harder to say yes to one more thing. Thank you for your time and for what you guys do for ISD 181. Have a good evening. Thank you. Up next we have Helene Danielson,

039please. Welcome. Good evening. I'm Helene Danielson. This is my 30th year teaching for the Brainerd Public Schools. Currently, I'm a seventh grade teacher at Forestview. When I'm not at work, you might find me attending a seventh grade ball game, a local play, or a concert to support both past and present students. Or I might be volunteering my time to build a summer reading program for middle schoolers. I truly value the opportunity to connect with my students and make sure that they feel seen. I'd like to offer a sincere thank you to the community members, parents, and fellow staff members who recognize the value of education and the impact made by teachers and support staff every day. I'm a truth-teller and my job is hard. For each opportunity that I spend celebrating my students, there are

040sleepless nights worrying about others. I earned every one of these gray hairs. I have too much that I'd like to share with you about my experiences. I'm going to settle on two things that have made this year particularly challenging. As a core teacher at Forest View, I started the year with 34 to 35 students in my classes. While time with those students was reduced to 45 minutes. The minutes lost each period adds up to 17 lost days of instruction. That means less time in class for the extension activities that allow kids to think critically. Less time for differentiating for individual needs. Less time for students to independently practice or complete their work in class. Less time for making connections with students. Less time to give them feedback. Less time working with students who have been

041absent. Less time to make an anxious student feel safe and supported. Compound that with 34 students in those 45 minutes, it means that I might not even have the chance to hear each student's voice on a given day. It's incredibly frustrating when systems have been implemented that keep me from being the teacher that I want to be. Another concern is our attendance rate. While the large number of student absences make class sizes more manageable, students cannot learn if they're not in school. The students with chronic attendance concerns are doing little to no class work outside of the building. They're getting further and further behind, causing them anxiety about returning to the building. 17 of my students have missed 15 to 20 days. That's 3 to 4 weeks of the school year. 19 of my students

042have missed double that amount of time with a few of them missing over 50 days. That's not something that I can solve in my classroom. We desperately need additional supports in place to follow up with families to find ways to help them get their kids into school. My purpose in speaking tonight is to remind you that we teachers are people. Teachers are passionate, concerned, and invested in our students. We're taxpayers, we're parents, we're problem solvers, constantly trying to find ways to improve our craft and do the most that we can with the constraints we're given. Teachers are not a simple line item on a budget report. Thank you. Next step >> We've got Anna Walu, please. And I don't know if I said your last name right. Is it Walu? Walu. Thank you. Welcome. >>

043[clears throat] >> Good evening. My name is Dr. Anna Walu. I'm an early childhood special education teacher here in the district, and I teach part-time as an adjunct professor at a university. I've also served as a captain in the Auxiliary Air Force Civil Air Patrol and earned my pilot's license. I work with phenomenal team members at the Warrior Early Learning Center and the Paul Bunyan Education Cooperative. Our early intervention program is not as visible in our district because we serve children with special needs in families' homes and child cares. Our roles are quite unique, and I invite each of you at the table to join me on a home visit this summer to learn more about our role. I have more than 20 years of experience teaching in schools across Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 2019,

044I chose to move to the Brainerd Lakes area because the Brainerd contract was set apart from other contracts in the region. We lived in a camper without running water during part of a winter because of the challenges of purchasing a home during the pandemic. I was willing to experience hardships and make sacrifices to work for the Brainerd public schools. All educators and educational staff across our state deserve access to quality, affordable, and comprehensive health care coverage. During my teaching career, we received the devastating news that my husband had a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. We received this news at during the day at our son's preschool graduation, and we were uncertain if my husband would see our son's kindergarten graduation the next year. We are so thankful that my husband won the battle against cancer because he

045had access to quality, affordable, and comprehensive health care. I was also able to focus my energy on our family and my teaching role because we could still afford the basics like housing and food. Each of us has a story to share in our district, and we will gain more ground together by taking time to hear the stories of others. The educators in our district are highly skilled at problem-solving and finding solutions to complex issues. Invite us to the table to discuss ideas for increasing the enrollment of students and recruiting and retaining highly qualified educators and staff. Invite us to the table to learn more about the positive impact that the Paul Bunyan Education Cooperative team has on our students and families. Invite us to the table to learn more about how educators experience trauma in

046their roles and what educators need to prevent burnout. As educators and educational staff, we are ISD 181, and we have value in our district. We stand together for fair contracts, respectful pay, and the support our students deserve. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Up next we have Jessica Webber, please. Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Jessie Webber. I'm a registered nurse and I work for Brainerd Public Schools. I am a building nurse for Harrison Elementary. The kindergarteners call me the doctor and I don't correct them. >> [laughter] >> Like all building nurses, I am on the EA contract. Building nurses are there for all students. Some kids will remember us only for band-aids and hugs, but if you are the parent of a student with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, life-threatening allergies, and many

047other life-threatening conditions, you definitely know and work with your nurse every day to keep your child safe and thriving academically at school. We have cried with families, we have celebrated with families, and we love our jobs. We are all licensed professionals who have had to pass rigorous board exams in order to legally practice our profession. The education assistants I share a contract with and partner with closely are invaluable to us. They know their students' favorite colors and animals. They know what they ate for breakfast and how they slept the night before school. They know all their precious hopes and dreams. Most importantly for me, they know if something is not quite right. They can see that a child is struggling physically. They have brought students to me who might look dowelly or grumpy or goofy

048to anyone else. Then it turns out that the student is experiencing a seizure, an asthma attack, or extreme low blood sugar. It means the world to me to have these eyes and ears and passionate workers who, among so many other duties, keep children safe. Working as a team, we have saved lives, and that is not an exaggeration. No one on the EA contract is there to get rich. I chose to work at Harrison 12 years ago because it was a workplace that shared my values. They put students and families first. We get to do meaningful work and feel the impact of our work every single day. We are lucky. If we could, we would do this job for free. But we do need to support our families, too. We are coming to a point where

049EAs can no longer continue to work here unless they subsidize their jobs somehow. They come back fall after fall with completely depleted bank accounts and debt up to their eyeballs. Yet they are full of energy and joy to share with the kids. This should illustrate how loyal they are to the kids, how dedicated they are to their profession, and how critical they are to the school. I know how the world works. The further you are from direct service, the more you get paid. Those who have control over financial decisions pay themselves first. But we are a school, and we need to put the kids first. If we fairly compensate those who are closest to our students, it will have enormous impact. A little goes a long way. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we have

050Ruby Shaw, please. Welcome. Thank you. A while ago my mom asked me how many kids were in my classes and I counted and found out that most of my classes have upwards of 30 kids. My teachers need a lower workload and in my school the lack of teachers has made higher workloads because teachers aren't being supported. We need to support our teachers. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we have Ed Shaw, please. >> [clears throat] >> Uh thank you. Evening. Ed Shaw, parent of two Forest View sixth graders, one of whom you just heard from. And it's been kind of a recurring theme, but it's an important one that there's a lot of serious funding issues in the district and even our our new superintendent, who the the board who you as the board selected,

051said we need a levy or we're going to be in big trouble or words to that effect. So, bottom line, the people need to decide. The people need to vote. The people out here and in the community need to decide on funding. I don't think most people want to see class sizes upwards of 30 or huge pay and benefit cuts and treating teachers like dirt. I don't think most people want to see that, but they need to decide. They should be the ones to decide. Let the people vote. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we have Connie Licio, please. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you. Um I am Connie Licio. I'm a retired teacher of over 30 decades in the district and since retiring I've gone on to do different types of positions and I have

052to say there's no tired like an educator tired. >> [clears throat] >> I had an idea of what I was going to say until I arrived this evening and I looked at the faces of some friends and colleagues and I was just overwhelmed. They're sad, they're tired, they're exhausted. And my fear is that if something isn't decided as far as this contract that they may decide at the last minute that they cannot come back in the fall. And that scares me and it concerns me. They deserve to have a summer of recharging. Um I also want to focus a bit on on hope. I I'm I'm hopeful now that we have a leader who is committed and seems to be um in support of the fact that a referendum for a levy should be put

053forth. I'm hopeful that he sees the value of the educators, not just the licensed teachers, but the paraprofessionals, the cooks, the specialists, the anyone who is in front of the children deserves a decent contract. Um I'm not a board member, I'm not a superintendent, so I'm out of line to suggest this, but I will anyway. If cuts need to be made, I implore you not to make cuts to those that are in front of the classroom with our children every single day. They're the boots on the ground people. They're the ones who are called mom and dad by the kids. They're the ones who cry at the end of the school year because you're going to miss their children. Um I hope that you look at that when you have to make decisions with cuts.

054Um as far as the referendum, I'm hopeful that the amount on an average priced home per month for the levy to be passed would be about what I spent on this cup of coffee. I think that's real clear perspective and I'm hopeful. I went to Southwest State College graduation this last Saturday. I recognize names of colleagues who use money from their own pockets to go out and get a master's degree. I have a very dear daughter-in-law who graduated with a teaching degree along with many others. I'm hopeful for them. I hope that they get to experience the kind of career that I experienced in Brainerd Public Schools. Thank you. Up next we have Maxwell Krueger, please. Welcome. Hi there. My name is Maxwell Krueger and I'm an eighth grade math teacher at Forestview. This is

055my fifth year teaching and my fifth year in the district. I have always said since day one that I'm the luckiest guy in the world that some district admin in Brainerd was silly enough to hire me as the next eighth grade math teacher. I love my job and I love coming to work every single day to laugh and learn alongside my students and my colleagues as I get to shape the hearts and minds of the next generation as they go through perhaps some of the toughest toughest years of their growing up lives. I want to share a personal story about some events that have occurred to me occurred since I started teaching. In my first year teaching in February, I learned that a heart defect that I was born with had gotten severe enough that

056I needed surgery to fix it. That June, 5 days after my first year teaching had concluded, I went to the Mayo Clinic and had open heart surgery to have my aorta replaced. Since then, because of the surgery, I take blood thinners every single day. Bi-weekly I check my blood to make sure it's not too thick and that it clots and not too thin that I have a brain bleed. I have a reg- I have to have regular dentist appointments to ensure that I don't have an infection in my mouth that spreads to my heart and wrecks my valve. I also need to have annual visits to my cardiologist to get scans and tests to ensure my heart is still functioning and working properly. I am so grateful for the benefits offered by the district that

057I can still have a good quality of life even though I require more medical care than the average 27-year-old. And I'm thankful every single day for the past district leaders and union leadership who invested in the personnel and the benefits that they offer us. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't afford my health insurance or medical bills. And I don't know what I do if I had to choose between a quality life or a life with debt. I know I may be an extreme example, but there are people like me all over the district who rely on the health insurance and benefits like I do. What makes this district great is the people that make it up, not the budget or the money it has. As we work towards a fair contract

058settlement among all of bargaining groups, I urge the district and union leadership to look at the people behind the numbers. Before proposing some agreements that cuts our compensation and benefits when prices are going up in every other aspect of our lives, think about the people behind the numbers and what those proposals might do to someone who relies on the quality benefits package. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. Up next, we have Susanna on the loose mic, please. Welcome. Hello. Hi, members of the board and Superintendent Grant. Um I believe so I'm a parent of two and an advocate and a community member and a volunteer in the district. Uh I believe you as individual board members are absolutely entitled to your own personal beliefs. However, when you are sitting here representing

059our district, your responsibility is to make decisions that truly are in the best interest of our students, teachers, and community as a whole. Those decisions cannot be made looking solely through your own political or religious lenses. Effective leadership requires the ability to look through many lenses. Different experiences, different perspectives, and the realities that students, families, and educators face every single day. Part of serving in this role means being willing to step outside of your own viewpoint and come together for the greater good of the district. As a parent, volunteer, advocate, and community member, I'm deeply concerned about the continued cuts happening within our schools and the growing number of resources being taken away from both students and teachers. We are asking educators to carry more responsibility with fewer supports, and at some point that becomes

060unsustainable. As a mother of a fifth grader and a third grader, it is becoming increasingly difficult to feel confident about sending our soon-to-be sixth grader into the middle school while we continue to see to see resources, staffing, and supports reduced year after year. I fully support getting to the root of the challenges within our district. However, I am asking this board to seriously consider coming together in unity to place the levy on the ballot and allow the community the opportunity to have a voice in the future of our schools. I also want to express how deeply disappointing it is that our teachers have gone an entire school year without a contract. Our teachers deserves deserves stability, respect, and the ability to plan for their families and futures without carrying the additional stress and uncertainty that

061they have faced this year. They should not feel forced to repeatedly show up at board meetings to simply be heard. Please do what needs to be done to get this resolved. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Melissa Schmeck, please. Welcome. All right, I'm Melissa Schmeck. Um this is my 13th year in the district and my 23rd year teaching. Um when I began teaching, I understood that this profession would require sacrifice. I knew I would need to give my students support, give my work energy and dedication, and give many years before reaching a professional wage. I accepted that responsibility willingly because I love this work and believe deeply in what teachers do for children every day. Over the years, the needs of child of students have changed. Teaching now requires more emotional support, more

062individualized guidance, more behavioral redirection, and constant positive reinforcement. Educators have adapted because our students need us to, and because we care deeply about their success and well-being. I am not here tonight complaining about my job. I still love teaching. What concerns me is whether the people doing this work are being supported in a way that allows them to continue doing it well and sustainably. We are now more than 300 days without a settled teaching contract. During that time, teachers have continued showing up for students every single day. We continue planning lessons, supporting families, managing increasingly complex classrooms, and giving our best to children because that is what educators do. But dedication should not be mistaken for unlimited capacity. I am in the middle of my career, and I am thinking not only about myself, but

063about the future of this profession. I think about newer teachers deciding whether they can afford to stay, and experienced teachers deciding how much longer they can continue carrying these increasing demands without stronger support from district leadership. If the board and district leadership truly want to attract and and retain quality educators, then support for teachers must be reflected not only in words, but in actions, priorities, and negotiations. Tonight I brought six copies of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. I hope each board member will take one to an elementary school, read it to students, and then donate it to a classroom library. One interpretation of the book is about what happens when one side of a relationship is expected to continue giving without enough care in return. Eventually, even the strongest giver is depleted. Teachers will continue

064giving to students because we love this profession. The question before the board is whether district leadership will show that it values the people doing this work. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, we have Doug Kern, please. Yep. Good afternoon. You know, everybody here, you see how hard these people work, you know, and and we all see that. We see that, but one thing that, you know, I heard it said that it's more than a line item on a budget. You know, you only have so many dollars to work with, and listening to Peter Grant last last time around talking about what's coming down the road, not just this year, but the year after and the year after. We have all kinds of issues that'll be coming. Um the students do equal dollars. You know, the

065more students you have, you know, one of the things that I remember is back when we had kind of off the off the subject in a way, they had the turf that they were putting in that they didn't have enough money for. You had students that thought outside the box on how to preserve the the quality of that that area down there by the grandstand. Um you know, some thinking outside the box, you know, all the all the complaining and all the worrying and all that, you know, if anybody has ideas, bring it to the board. Because if the only option is a levy, that's kind of sad. Um to get more students back here. So, the thing that I was going to talk about is is we have um you know, I heard something

066said about money being taken away from the state. The only time that I heard that money was going to be taken away by the state was if the tampon dispensers were not put in the boys restrooms, locker rooms, whatever. The just recently we had the Title nine, there was $6 million that was going to be withheld from Brainerd ISD 181 if they didn't comply with Title nine to protect women in sports. Um I just I just know that students somehow, some way we need to get students back in into the loop here in the school. We need to bring them back. And I don't have the answers for it and I don't think anybody behind me has all the answers, either. Uh but I know that the social studies standard that you'll be talking about

067tonight, that was voted on at the state level four years ago. Right now they're talking about the health studies standards that will be curriculum for next year, the Minnesota Department of Education. When you look at the standards that they're implementing, I hate to say it, but I think all schools in Minnesota going to be hemorrhaging students next year if that passes, the new standard. Um and it'll be worth everybody looking into that standard because we need to speak out. There's public comment right now that's happening for that Minnesota the health curriculum that they're going to be passing for next year. Uh but like I say, these people they they're hard workers. Everybody here on the board, everybody in this room knows how hard they work. But again, students equal dollars. And what point do you

068do you have to cut? And cut might be deep in the next few years, not just now, but the next few years. Uh thank you. Thank you. Up next we have Alexis Marcello, please. Welcome. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> My name is Alexis Marcello. My family and I moved here 9 years ago from Texas. When we were looking for a community, we were looking for the whole package, specifically supporting our children, including strong schools, activities for our kids, and strong community ties. And we found all of these things here in Brainerd, and it has been a perfect place to raise our family. My son is currently a junior in college, and my daughter is a junior at the high school. I will be heading into my 20th year of teaching next year, heading into

069my 10th year at Brainerd High School. As it stands, the direction of the district and education in general is concerning to me. You can say that you support kids, but that means supporting teachers. You are not enticing strong educators to come and stay in our district, and that is a huge problem. There will be a practice This will be a practice that leaves you without quality educators, and therefore lacking quality education. Instead of the board pushing um addressing some of the things that were just spoken about, we can push for things at the board or from the board at the state level. There are absolutely conversations that need to be had about encouraging the attendance and how it looks for PSEO or what it looks like for online funding. There's a lot of different things

070that plenty of teachers have opinions on if people are willing to listen. I feel that teachers are being villainized for for performing within the program set in place for us, and overall asking educators to take the hit. Teachers aren't the ones misspending, nor choosing the standards that we are required to teach, implementing practices that can change yearly due to the people in charge or initiatives in place, causing student behaviors and or attendance, nor are they pushing kids to alternative opportunities that are more enticing because the it is an easier route, require less days, or save costs in future debt. The reality is that teachers are soon to be priced out of this community. Teachers with fresh perspectives, the teachers you want to grow at this amazing community. As many know, the cost of living has

071gone up for most people. What used to be a time where people could build savings is getting harder to do. When I carefully thought out my large purchases, I could afford them and still put money into savings. This is no longer the case, and so an offer that covers anything less than the cost of living increase is an insult. It is not something that you as a board are willing to cover at a local level, ask the community to vote on it, that and ask the community to vote on it, then please advocate at the state level for better funding. I'm always intrigued when the district recognizes a need for a higher salary offer for certain individual job titles at the district level. We do this because we recognize the competitive market and wanting to

072keep and get and keep quality employees, all while not applying the same thought process to people on the ground working with our students, which are the teachers. You will not entice teachers to stay or new teachers to come if they aren't going to be properly funded to live in or around the community. With the current path that we are on, I would expect student experiences expect what the student experience will continue to decline, and you can continue to expect a trend of student exodus and potentially at a faster rate when the decisions or lack thereof continue to be made here. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, we have Lisa Dritz, please. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Lisa Dritz. As someone who has spent 34 years teaching in this district and who also

073graduated from public school Brainerd public schools, I speak tonight with both pride and concern. Brainerd is more than the place where I work. It is my home. It shaped me as a student, gave me opportunities as a young adult, and has allowed me the privilege of spending my career serving generations of students and families in this community. Over the years, I have watched our evolve. I have seen new programs introduced, technology transform classrooms, and educational expectations grow more complex. But one thing has remained constant, the incredible dedication of the people who work in our schools every single day. The staff in our school communities show up because they care deeply about kids. I teach eighth graders at Forestview. Middle school can be a difficult time for many students, but the staff at Forestview works tirelessly

074to make students feel seen, valued, and supported. We consistently go above and beyond to meet students where they are academically, socially, and emotionally. Our dedication is not something that can be measured only by test scores. It is reflected in the relationships we build and the positive impact we have on students every single day. My grandfather, my father, my siblings, and my own two children are Brainerd graduates. I have taught students whose parents once sat in the same classrooms. That kind of connection says something special about this district. Brainerd schools are woven into the fabric of our community. What happens in our classroom impacts not only students today, but the future of Brainerd itself. After more than three decades in the classroom, I can honestly say that teaching has changed. The academic demands are higher, student

075needs are greater, mental health concerns, social pressures, and learning gaps require more from educators than ever before. Yet, despite these challenges, our staff continues to give their hearts to this work. I recently heard a prominent member of this community describe teachers as low-hanging fruit. I find that statement deeply troubling because of the message and attitude it conveys. I think it is important that our community and our board continue to recognize that strong schools depend on strong relationships and trust. Teachers want to feel heard, respected, and supported. When educators feel valued, students benefit. When schools are supported, communities thrive. I am grateful for the opportunities this district has given me over the years. I care deeply about the direction we continue to move. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we have Terry Ebinger, please. Welcome. Thank

076you. Hi there. My name is Terry Ebinger. I am a 1988 Brainerd graduate. Um and I have taught in the Brainerd district for 33 years. I teach fifth grade at Forestview, and I'm also a Brainerd Warrior Dance Team Coach. I'm here tonight asking all sides to come together to work toward a contract that is fair for teachers. At the heart of every successful school district are educators who dedicate far more than the hours listed in their contract. Teachers arrive early, stay late, answer emails at night, plan lessons on the weekends, attend activities, coach teams, sponsor clubs, and spend countless hours making sure students feel safe, supported, and successful. They do this not because they have to, but because they care deeply about the children in this community. Teaching is not simply a job. It is

077a commitment to the future of our students and our town. Teachers celebrate victories with families, support children through challenges, and there's more and more of those every day and every year, and provide encouragement that students carry with them for the rest of their lives. But, teachers are also members of this community. They buy homes here, shop at local businesses, and eat at local restaurants, support community events, and contribute to the local economy every single day. When we invest in teachers, we invest directly back into our community. A fair contract is not about choosing sides. It's about recognizing value, showing respect, and creating a district where talented educators want to stay and future educators want to come. And this will help kids want to come to our schools. We all want the same thing: strong schools,

078successful students, and a thriving community. That can only happen when we work together with mutual respect and a shared commitment to finding solutions. I urge the board and all parties involved to continue to work together for a fair agreement that honors the dedication, professionalism, and impact of our teachers. I appreciate all that you do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Up next, we have Risha Grosch. And you're going to have to correct me. I know I got that wrong. It's Risha Grosch. Thank you. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Risha. I'm both a parent in this district and a para who works in our schools. A few years ago, I made the decision to open enroll my children into this district because I believed in our schools, our teachers, and the education being offered here.

079I wanted my children to be a part of a district that valued students and supported the people working directly with them every day. Today, I am standing here to say I no longer feel confident in that decision. I am preparing to pull my children from the district because I have watched class sizes continue to increase while teachers and support staff continue to lose the resources and support they need to effectively educate students. As someone who works inside these classrooms everyday, I see the strain firsthand. I see teachers stretched beyond capacity. I see behavioral and academic needs growing while staffing and support fail to keep pace. I see exhausted staff members doing everything they can to hold things together for students because they care deeply about these kids. But caring deeply doesn't replace adequate staffing, reasonable

080class size, or fair compensation. Our teachers have now gone over 300 days without a contract because the district has refused to settle in mediation. That sends a message to staff that their work, sacrifices, and concerns are no longer being prioritized. As a para my health insurance deductible through the district plan is $8,000. That is over 34% of my annual gross income before taxes. That means one major medical issue could financially devastate someone working full-time in your schools. Now add vision, dental, and what para takes, that is 48.86% of my annual income. I work a second job just to make ends meet. Many school employees do, and yet we continue to show up everyday because we care about students and believe they deserve stability, support, and safe learning environments. But at some point, dedication alone can't

081carry a district. When experienced teachers and support staff feel unheard, underpaid, and unsupported, students ultimately pay the price. Families notice. I noticed as both an employee and a parent. I am asking this board to seriously consider what message is being sent to families and staff right now. If the district wants to retain students, recruit recruit quality educators, and rebuild trust, then meaningful support for teachers and educational staff cannot continue to be delayed or minimized. Our students deserve better, our teachers deserve better, and the people supporting classrooms every day deserve better, too. Thank you. Up next, we have Misty Job, please. Welcome. Thank you. Greetings, Board and Superintendent Grant. Uh my name is Misty Job, and I'm a veteran teacher of 22 years in this district, which I know is probably shocking because of my youthful

082appearance, but uh but it's true. Um I have worked with thousands of our community's children and currently serve our students in the Brainerd Learning Center, where I'm an English teacher. I also serve as president of Education Minnesota Brainerd, uh our local teachers union. I'm incredibly proud to be part of the hundreds of colleagues who showed up tonight to advocate for themselves and the students of our community. As you know, our certified staff contract expired in June, and we have been working toward settling a new contract with the district since then. This is always a frustrating process for both sides, but this cycle has been unusually challenging, um in my opinion, for two main reasons. Number one, uh many comments have been made by members of our board and our superintendent, both publicly and privately, that

083have crossed the line long ago established about bargaining practices here. Our union has no issue with facts being shared. We understand public information, but when opinions are presented as facts and our bargaining groups are not offered a forum or opportunity to share our perspective with community members, it simply isn't fair to both sides. We might get 3 minutes during open comment at a board meeting, but we don't have articles in the Brainerd Dispatch or several hours in front of the community every month to pontificate on our opinions. No matter whose side you are aligned with, and it pains me to talk about sides cuz I wish it wasn't that way. Um it's hard to argue that one side has a major advantage over the other in shaping and informing opinions about this process. The second

084reason is that this last summer uh several members of our board chose to deny our community an opportunity to vote on an operating level operating levy so that we would have potentially an opportunity to join the 78% of districts across the state who enjoyed one. Uh I know you're probably tired of hearing about it. I get it. I'm tired of dealing with the fallout from it. Public schools provide a service to the children of our community without discriminating based on their needs. Everyone has a right to access those services regardless of financial security or the need for special services. Despite the fact that we serve all members of our community, because of that lack of a levy vote, only a narrow subset of our community population is expected to pay for the district's budget shortfall.

085That includes school custodians, school secretaries, school food service workers, paraprofessionals, teachers and other certified staff. Do you know who isn't expected or required to contribute additionally to the health and stability of our schools? Engineers, accountants, doctors, lawyers, nurses, financial advisors, electricians, IT technicians, heating and plumbing heating and plumbing specialists, and many, many other professionals, including millionaire business owners who are currently represented on our board. I may be crazy and I may be naive and I may only be speaking for myself, but I believe that we should always, always, always put schools before millionaires every single time. Thank you. Thank you. All right. [applause] Let's move on to the approval of the minutes. Look for a motion. Motion. I'll second. We've got a motion from Director Donninger, a second from Director Brekken. Any discussion? If not,

086all those in favor signify by saying I, please. I. I. I. Opposed the same. We have approved the minutes. We'll move on to the consent calendar. Look for a motion to approve. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> Motion. I will second it. Got a motion by Director Donninger, a second by Director Brekken. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed the same. Motion carries. Up for new business tonight, we'll move on to the 5 through 12 social studies curriculum presentation by Dr. Melissa Cornea, Adam Langen, and Jesse Shepherd, please. Welcome. Thanks for joining us tonight. >> [laughter] >> Ooh, I love those. Thank you. All right, good evening all. Um and again, as always, just thank you for what you do for our warriors um and all those in

087the room that the commitment we make to the warriors, the students we serve, the community we serve. So, we are here on behalf of 512 social studies um and I'll I'll introduce or have our team introduce ourselves. Um I'm Melissa Cornea, K-12 literacy and humanities coordinator. Good evening. I'm Jessie Shepherd, Brainerd High School social studies teacher and CCC leader. Good evening. I'm Adam Lingon. I'm the fifth grade social studies teacher at Forestview. Hi, I'm Brandy Haglin. I'm the Brainerd Online School coordinator and then curriculum specialist. And I also want to introduce we have Greg Swenson here with us. He's also a middle school CCC leader uh seventh grade US studies. And then also on behalf of our team and our teacher leaders, Dylan Knippel. Um he is PLC leader at the high school level and

088um our economics teacher. So. All right. Well, we're going to introduce to you guys the TCI curriculum for social studies that we've been able to pilot um halfway through the school year. Um the big focus right now for social studies what they say uh inquiry-based. And that basically means keeping their curiosity when it comes to history. It's kind of hard to when you're with 11-year-olds with history and you know, trying to make it grabbing for them. So, the whole idea is to make it cool. So, they want to learn more and more about it. Um there's also what they call the interdisciplinary approach and that basically means rather than teaching first economics, then geography, and then history, kind of combining it all. Uh but this curriculum we've been using in time form and that's been

089really, really neat. You can see where civilizations have been um starting to develop based off the resources there. Um it also adds a lot of multiple perspectives. Uh for example, the revolutionary American Revolution, you'll get the loyalist views, the patriots views, Native American views. Uh it's been really interesting. Again, for 11-year-olds, pretty impressed that they were very interested in it. And lastly, it says emphasizes disciplinary literacy. That basically means that they want to learn more. They want to dig deeper. Um we've had students that want to check out history books, learn more about uh the American Revolution, for example. Um and that was a whole goal, and they really liked it. And with the TCI curriculum, it's been a lot of fun. So, I am going to explain our process of how we got from

090uh the shifts in the Minnesota social studies standards that Adam just described. So, how we got from the MDE, um here's the Minnesota social studies standards for 2021, to this TCI resource that we are bringing to you for your approval, um that you heard Adam speak of. We've had uh fifth grade do a unit almost, um 10th grade do a unit. We've had teachers across the grade levels trying lessons throughout it. So, our journey was we started more than a year and a half ago. So, back in fall 2024, um for a year and a half, we spent time learning, learning about those standards, um and learning about those instructional practices that uphold those standards. So, winter 2025, just this past winter, based on Minnesota social studies standards and what we know as best instruction,

091so MDE adopted best instruction as defined by the National Council of Social Studies. So, it's the C3 inquiry framework and the idea of, like you heard Adam describe, it's about inquiry. It's about students engaging in the questions, um the documents, the perspectives, so that they can become citizens who can be community members right next right beside us. Um so, winter, what we did is we were able to say, "Here's what we recommend." We brought that to the district advisory committee to say, "We recommend these learning experiences. This is what what Adam described. This is what this would look like." Then what we did is we used that to vet the list from EdReports, the um all the different social studies curricula resources. With that list, we narrowed it down to three and actually got three

092different resources in hand, held that up closely to our instructional framework and to the Minnesota standards. From there, being able to see that TCI clearly was what upheld the instructional framework and just rich in content that we want to engage our students with. Our teachers now are trying units. We've been talking to other districts and we're building for implementation with the hope of from your approval, we would be able to implement next fall. So, teacher or TCI Teacher Curriculum Institute. There we go. Um So, this is what it would look like. That fifth grade early American studies, like you've heard Adam speak to. Seventh grade US studies and eighth grade global studies. Um for sixth grade, we would continue with Minnesota studies Northern Lights. What you'll notice across the top four is that shift that

093Adam described to interdisciplinary. It's no longer history, but it really is, for example, like he said, "How do you look at geography and economy to see really um how the United States came into being the country it is." Um ninth grade geography, we are still exploring because of the shift those standards took on. Um but 10th, 11th, 12th grade econ, 12th grade gov, they all would adopt the TCI resource. Um the exciting part about this would it would truly be the first time we've had a 5-12 resource. So, you have that vertical alignment. Yes, the standards are vertically aligned, but to have your instructional framework aligned and upheld by a resource um that you've heard I'm describe engages students is really exciting for our district. So, what we're looking at now is our instructional framework.

094Uh this happened early this fall uh into the winter and we really looked at what were the key shifts in the standards paired with some of our professional development uh aligned with the C3 framework. And to just to clarify, the C3 framework is really about being college ready, career ready, and then of course civic ready. And so, at the high school, we are able to kind of come up with what do we want our instruction to look like in our social studies classes again considering some of those things. And so, uh we came up with a list, then we worked together with Forest View, and we were able to design our instructional framework. So, we have connection and relevance making sure it's meaningful for those students. I haven't talked about it as the 11th graders,

095it's hard to with high schoolers. So, making sure we're providing that relevance. Um comprehensive and critical thinking. I think this is key and now um now more than ever maybe can students think critically? Moving on to collaboration, working together in groups with partnerships, um working with adults as well. That inquiry and investigation, so keeping kids curious, uh sparking their interests in different topics, and then multiple perspectives and civic engagement. So, as you can see, these are a lot of skill-based things that we are teaching. We are helping students model. We are helping them learn and grow. And then on the right, you can see some of the shifts in our assessment. And so, how will we measure success? How will we measure whether students have met the standards and benchmarks? And so we're really looking

096at assessing differently, using higher order thinking, of course. Um having a multi-format design. Uh one of the things that I've been playing with is hexagonal thinking. So you give them these developments that have occurred. How do they make the connections? Can they show me they're connected by mapping that out almost? Um using evidence of understanding. So being able to use data, being able to use primary sources, being able to analyze a map or a graph to prove their understanding. And then that interdisciplinary connection as well. So Jesse just talked about the instructional framework, and I cannot stress enough how important it was that we came to an agreement from grades 5 through 12, and everyone was working together, and everyone decided this is what we see as important in those shifts, and what we want

097our students to know. So not only does TCI meet that instructional framework, but it's also all of the bullet points that you see up there, it went above and beyond. So it takes into account backwards design, spiral spiraling curriculum, cooperative group work, non-linguistic and multimodal learning. So when you go into TCI, it's simply not just reading a textbook. From the resources that you see up there, you're going to see that there's graphs, there's maps, there are political cartoons, there are There's more, it's going beyond just that reading. Teacher and student digital access to all courses was something that was very important to us as well, because if you're looking at eighth grade, and eighth grade is global studies, we're going to be using the geography textbook that most closely aligns to the benchmarks with that.

098However, there still are some gaps within it. TCI then allows us, because with approval we'd be purchasing it, We can then dip into the civics textbook. We can dip into the economics textbook. And so we're not we're not locked in just to that one textbook for eighth grade. So that was something that was very appealing to to what we needed as a group. It has multiple levels of text along with translation options. So if you have a learner that needs a lower Lexile score or percentile, you're able to put that in there and you can meet the needs of that learner. In addition, if you have a learner who their their first language is Vietnamese, you can automatically switch it to Vietnamese. You can do Spanish. You can do I don't even know how many

099languages they had for options. And then within it, they provide slide decks that are like the 508 compliant, which is like fantastic. But within those slide decks, we can edit those and we can share it with with our students and we can share it with the other teachers that that we are working directly with. And so that cooperation was that was another big factor in saying yes, is TCI the right one for us. It has middle school interactive student notebooks, which I believe a couple of you may have the options up there of seeing as well as different teacher lesson options. I believe and Jesse and Adam may be able to speak to this more. I believe there are three different lesson options for every single lesson built within TCI. Yeah, there's additional stories, primary

100sources that you can see. Um Kids really like that. Yeah, it's right there. The textbooks themselves that Director Ward is looking at, our fifth graders love. I mean it's there's text and there's activities. Text, activities, lots of discussion points. It's nice I want to say old school, but going back to a little old school instead of a computer, so kids like having that right in front of them. And in front of Director Edelman, there's another um to your uh right. There we go. Um the one There you go. Oh, this one? Yep. That would be another example of being able to see the the student facing side of it. Um in front of Superintendent Grant, those are going to be primary sources and documents that um and I believe how it works it's almost like

101students rotate and hands-on uh notice and wonder, what do you notice and wonder with this primary source? Um so getting students truly they're in doing the work. I think what you'll notice too as you are looking at different things um as we've talked about the shift to inquiry-based the content um and it was uh high 10th grade US uh no, world studies world history that that uh teacher who is trying a unit said, "Oh my gosh, the content is amazing." So, you have amazing content alongside this instructional approach where students are asking questions, looking at primary sources, able to look across perspectives, and do that higher-level thinking of, "What do I think about this? How how would I act um civically based on what I'm learning, be it across economics, geography, history, or combined?" So,

102with that uh we ask for your approval of the adoption of this resource [clears throat] TCI for 5-12 social studies um and invite you to ask us questions to better understand our our recommendation. The the teacher lesson options I'm assuming then that tell us how that works, the teacher lesson options. So, they can shorten the instruction down, for example, I I this is meant for a 60-minute class period, you can shorten it down to a 30-minute if you want to. Uh they come with different texts that basically paraphrase what's already in the the bigger textbook itself. So, we have those if like we want to teach something briefly or if, you know, we got something else going on that day. It's like, "Oh well, let's see what's in here instead." So, that way we can,

103you know, use something that's shorter compared to what's in the book next to you. Mhm. Yeah. I think the our 10th grade colleague described what she really appreciated was I can do my traditional lecture and notes and conversation that way. I can do textbook reading to prepare students for that demand, but then I can also do this inquiry approach and I'm still going to meet the same learning goals, but I can take different avenues and it could be based on time or it could be what are my students' needs so I can best engage them. So, it allows for flexibility rather than Yes. Yes. Sure. Awesome. Don't you? Mhm. Uh shifts and assessments and success criteria, English, please. Yeah, so the idea of if our Love it. [laughter] If our standards change, right? So, the

104Minnesota standards change. If the standards change, what we're really saying is the learning goals are changing, right? So, the learning goals are changing. Well, if the learning goals are changing, then you have to change how you assess for those learning goals. So, what used to be and I think we many of us have experienced it of I know for myself, I took notes and I had a multiple-choice test that I had to memorize and be able to, you know, true, false, that sort of thing. The shift in the standards is that higher-order thinking where are students able to be critical? Are they able to look across multiple perspectives, take their own stance? Well, if that's the case, you can't assess with a multiple-choice test anymore. You really have to and really what they say is

105can students make arguments? Can they contribute contribute as a civic-minded community members? So that's what that represents is over on the right that assessment has to look different and can't be a multiple choice test anymore. Now we don't MCAs don't apply to social studies. Okay. So how do we know if kids are learning? Who are we going to compare who are we comparing it to? Are we going to compare it to other school districts? Is it just something internally that you guys who work with the students all the time are going to say hey this dude or you know whatever they're doing well. I mean how how how do we I mean how do we know that they're So there there is no cross district comparison that nothing exists like that. But what you're describing

106is the work that our teachers have been invested in since of am I making an impact so we do common assessments. We have different PLC structures that here's the impact we want to make. What sort of assessments can we look at together to see if we are making that making that impact. Okay, cool. I mean I was just I was just curious cuz there's no MCAs for social studies and And actually one of the most the powerful things like I mentioned before is the fact that we're working 5 through 12. So we don't have just one mind working on an assessment for world history. We have I mean it is all coming together to decide what should assessments look like so we can understand how our students learning this information. So we're not we're not

107talking about K through 4. Not at this point. Not at this point. Nope. Okay. We've been here with literacy. We were going to have the teachers just take on the literacy lift next year and not social studies on top of that. It'll it'll be coming. Okay. Cool. Thank you. So was was this program then piloted a little bit this year with the two of you and and you found it to be really user-friendly and Yeah, back in February is when we first got the textbooks and got to play around with them on the computer, got to look at everything. The content was great. Um we were learning about the American Revolution at the time, um right before the Revolutionary War. And I couldn't tell you exactly what pages they're on, but the stories in there

108were really really interesting and the kids really enjoyed it and really wanted to dig deeper. Um a lot of short answer responses for rather than multiple choice, you know, you they actually have to write out, "Hey, what did you learn?" or "What stood out to you?" So, that it was really good. And maybe an example is um so for fifth grade, we know we have a section of fifth grade up at Nisswa. So, we pulled um 5 12 teachers together, but that Nisswa teacher, she were pulled out for every content area, you know, so uh but then we looped her in and I mean, for her to be able to take it on when she couldn't be part of the entire journey. Um I met with her for less than one prep period and she

109was raving about it within a few weeks of Yeah, this is teacher-friendly, but more so student engaging. It's so fun to see you know, relevant curriculum that teachers are excited about. And this really asks >> And kids. And well, then and kids, yeah. Yeah. And this instructional framework really asks students to be active learners. They have to be part of the process. They have to do the learning with us um and guide us too. Yeah. Lots of discussions, which has been a big thing. The kids have really want to voice their opinion and do it in a respectful manner. Um working with each other, it's it's been laid out very well for for things like that. And the cool thing I'll brag about is starting in fifth grade, um if I remember right, Adam, parent-teacher

110conferences, you all had the most visitors, but like in the most positive way. Like what are you doing? My students are coming home and asking the coolest questions about history. [laughter] So, get back to So, that's starting in fifth grade that that's what it means to be in a social studies class is that level of engagement, inquiry, and being able to the idea of relevance. I want to talk about this beyond the classroom. Does this tie in with online tool ready? It does. TCI directly integrates into D2L which is which is our learning management system. And myself and Justin Barnhart, we actually got a little tutorial of what does that look like and it is it's pretty phenomenal the way that it does integrate. Yeah. Ready chair, are we taking these one at a time

111for approval or Yeah. Yep. I'll move social studies 5-12 curriculum. Second. All right, we've got a motion by Director Ward, a second by Director Dondlinger. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor please signify by saying I. I. Opposed the same. Motion passed. Thank you for the rigorous work. And Dr. Corney, in case we don't get a chance to say it. Dr. Dr. Corney. In case we don't get a chance to say it, thank you. Okay. >> [laughter] >> So, we will get to see you again. Thank you. Yes. All right, up next we've got our 5-12 health curriculum presentation by Sandy Tauges and >> me. I just Just me today. Welcome. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. See, is that high school, middle school? Yeah. More books. That's high school. That's middle school. Yeah, well,

112look at that. What's in here? Okay, um I'm here to present on the um health curriculum. And Christina handed out a couple books there. One's uh there's two that are middle school. I think she did a middle school and high school on each side for you to take a look at. >> [clears throat] >> Um the shifts in the Minnesota health standards. This is the first time that the state of Minnesota is adopting health standards. Um we've always followed the national health standards. So, they are in the process of adopting their own. Um with the following strands that are part of the standards. Um with the food nutrition, mental emotional health is a big one. Um they're listed there, but there are eight standards. Um and they have um developed the standards with the benchmarks

113by grade level for K through 5. National standards were always done on a band of like K2 and 35. So, somewhere in there something had to be taught K2 or 35 and who knows who was teaching what. Where the recommendation at the Minnesota state level was to have specific kindergarten standards, specific first grade for the anyway, K through 5. So, each one of those grade levels will have their own standards. Um in the 6 8. And now the reason for that was families moving have at least had the standard already, not missed all of the health. If health was taught in first grade and they came in second grade and now they didn't get it. Um and then the grade bands for 6 8 and 9 12. Those eight standards um standard one is all

114about content and standards two through eight are all about skill development. Okay? Um in the spring of 2024 and then last fall, um we did a looked through a lot of different resources um and came to the recommendation to pilot two of them um last fall and winter. We started to pilot two of them. They met the Minnesota health standards. They met the um the other health statutes that are out there, the CPR, the um mental emotional health, the violence prevention, those statutes that are there. So, both of them met that um and the team has really liked the resources. Um some of the big things that really stood out from both of them was student reflections and the work they're doing. So, it was more um critically thinking like Melissa was saying, it's not

115the memorization memorization so you can take a multiple-choice test. Um it's more about the whole process, learning the skills that are necessary in health, and um and then reflecting on their learning. Um more about their process of learning than me pushing like information into them and trying to um get them to learn something by lecturing to them. It was more about projects and pulling the information out of them and then them reflecting on the work. So, they've tried um different units. They've been piloting the two different programs um this year. Um and so, statewide implementation would be we'd like to implement in 26-27. So, we are recommending that to adopt the Goodheart um Wilcox textbooks and online platform for our teachers. And this would be for grades 5 through 12. Okay? The nice thing about

116that is to like social study was saying, it's the same curriculum um 5 through 12. We don't have different textbook at one level company and another publisher at another level. Um it's all from the same company. And it And it has a progression through it. Um we would like print textbooks in the classrooms for the students to be able to have. We like the books. Um the color, the short reads makes it easier for kids to comprehend. Um reduce fatigue on the kids. The Just the infographics, all of that was kind of stood out. Uh one of the main things that the teachers are some of the main things they liked, the translation. Um social studies talked about that. That if you have a Vietnamese student, you can go ahead and select it in Vietnamese

117and then it comes up that way for them. So that was a standout for the teachers with this Goodheart-Willcox. Um then they have the slide decks also where we can edit the slides um and meet the needs of our of our learners here. Um so a lot of skills-based options, which is most of the standards in health. All 2 through 8 are all skills-based, so there was a lot of skills-based options within the texts um between units. So. Thank you. Any questions? >> questions from you guys? Is this textbook based or is this Chromebook? It would be both. We want textbooks in the classroom, but we'll also have a digital platform. So when you purchase a book, you get both Okay. at the same time. So there would be some use of it, but there

118would be textbooks in the classroom. But if a student needed to read out, we wouldn't have to worry about checking a book out. They have it access to it at home, too. Through their clever. Ms. Sandy, this may be a dumb question, but how old do what what how do teachers know what units they will teach? Is that all broken down ahead of time? Yeah, well we've been building a a um pacing guide with the units and all of that. So and that was one thing that this curriculum had a 9-week plan, it had a 12-week plan, it has a 18-week plan. So there was a nice progression for us already. Um and it does meet the Minnesota standards and those statutes so that we're making sure we meet all of those things. So we're

119kind of starting with that as our framework and building from there. Okay. So the books will just be in the classroom. Correct. So they don't they don't get their own book. It's just Correct. We just want a set for each classroom. We get them. Um so that they have that in their hands, the textbook, but then if they're absent or if they want to do more outside, they can log into that reading um in their through Clever. It we can access it through Clever, so. And it downloads with our classroom platform that we use. So yeah. Well, I make a motion we approve the health curriculum 5-12. I will second that. All right, we've got a motion by Director Brekken and a second by Director Heitman. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor

120signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed the same. Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Up next, we have the Arts CIPP and curriculum presentation by Christina Lundgren and Mr. Jensen. Welcome. Hello. Okay, last one. Uh so uh thank you for having us here this evening. Um I'm going to start us off by uh doing a a quick overview about our uh participation in the CAP program, uh the Comprehensive Arts Planning Program through the Perpich Center, and a little bit about our journey through that process. And then I'm going to uh transfer it over to Rick Jensen. Um he'll be talking about the recommended resource uh as a tool for our art educators. So, uh last February, we applied um to be a participant in this CAP program through the Perpich Center. Um

121and the reason why we uh submitted an application is that we were looking at how to provide art access to our students K-12, specifically in the areas of visual arts and media arts. So, the requirement for students uh K-8 is that they have um access to three art area choices, and then that they have opportunity to access or meet the the learning in two of those areas. So, our three art areas are music, uh visual arts, and media arts. Uh at our high school 9-12, it's very similar. Uh students should have access to three art choices, and then they have the opportunity to earn credit in in one of those uh art areas. So, we recognize that um our media arts and our visual arts um learning progression or scope and sequence K-12 um had

122some opportunities to be further developed. And so, uh that was our impetus for applying to be a part of this program. So, we were selected um of the schools listed, we were selected to be a part of this program. And what we do is we work with the Purpose Center to help develop a three-year strategic plan around an arts goal. And so this first year, part of our process was we did comprehensive needs assessment with our art educators, so all of our elementary teachers who currently do art learning with their students, and then our 5-12 art education educators to look at what are the needs. And then our Purpose Center support person helped us work through that information to identify what our goals would be for the year, and then we move into developing a

123strategic plan. So based on that work, our team identified three strategic, they call them strategic directions as part of their language for for your strategic plan. So we have three strategic directions that were identified. One was again just looking at that K-12 scope and sequence or learning progression for our students, and that the teachers have the the tools and the resources that they need to implement that learning for students. The second area was providing professional learning to our art educators with a focus on our elementary teachers because this isn't a a specialty, a content specialty, they're generalists and they they have the opportunity to teach all subject areas. So to help develop that professional learning for elementary educators. And then the whoops, and then the What's the line? Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Oh,

124thanks. Technical glitch. Okay, and then our third strategic direction is community connection. So, working with our community partners to really showcase the amazing art that our students are are doing in in the classroom. At the at the top is linked the larger plan. So, from those three strategic directions, we identified focus areas. We broke that down into focus areas. And then we had to outline action steps or an action plan over the next 3 years. So, next school year is really year one of our strategic plan and then we'll move on to years two and three beyond that. So, going back to that strategic direction number one, looking at that learning progression for our students and developing that scope and sequence for visual and media arts, it was identified that our teachers need a resource

125or a tool to help with that implementation. And so, the the committee looked at some different options and settled on a resource called the Art of Education. This is designed specifically for teachers. It's a teacher-facing platform only and it is developed specifically for art educators. And so, I'm going to turn it over to Rick Jensen to talk more about this particular resource. Thank you, Christine. Thank you all for this time to to discuss this. I do teach art at the high school. I'm also adjunct teacher at Central Lakes College as well as about 25 years in the industry. I just say that because from that vantage, I have this to say about this awesome program. As part of our visual and media arts team, we took a close look at our K-12 curriculum. What we

126found was a clear opportunity, especially at the elementary level, to provide stronger structure, consistency, and support for our teachers and students. Right now, many K through 5 classroom teachers are doing their best to teach art without dedicated resources or time to consistent consistently align with Minnesota art standards. This proposal helps close that gap in a meaningful, supportive way. The Art of Education curriculum aligns directly with Minnesota standards, creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. Ensuring students aren't just making art, but thinking critically and making connections. It provides ready-to-use, high-quality lessons that reduce planning time while improving instructional consistency. And that was kind of key with this, just that consistent element. It also includes ongoing, art-specific professional development, helping teachers feel confident and supported. This site is very robust. We're excited for what we've already been seeing in

127it. Um, it's wonderful. Most importantly, it creates a sequential K through 5 experience, so students build skills year after year instead of maybe starting over each time, every year. That foundation carries forward into middle school and high school, strengthening our entire K through 12 program in the arts. On this next slide, I'll just talk about our piloting and some of the outcomes we're already seeing. During the 2025-2026 school year, our student our teachers piloted this curriculum in real classrooms. What we saw was very impactful. We confirmed strong alignment with Minnesota standards across all four of our strands. We saw increased consistency across grade levels with students building on prior learning. Teachers spent less time planning and more time engaging with students, especially at the K through 5 segment. We've strengthened both the vertical and horizontal

128alignment across our schools, creating a more connected, cohesive experience for our students. And just in closing, to wrap this up, uh at its core, this proposal is about giving every student access to high-quality arts education, and giving every teacher the tools to deliver it well. Because when we strengthen arts education, we're not just teaching students how to create, we're giving them the skills to think, solve, communicate, and see the world in ways that shape who they become. Thank you. I make a motion. I'll second. All right, we've got a motion by Director Donnellan, and a second by Director Brekken. Any discussion? This is fabulous, you guys. I'll stick around for some questions, but >> [laughter] >> I think Brandy and I both had the opportunity Did Were you there the night that the art You

129know, that might have been the only DAC meeting I haven't made in 3 years, 4 years. It was something phenomenal to see all these various art teachers and at the different levels talk about their experience with piloting that program. If I could just add, at the high school, middle school level, what it's doing for those teachers is adding to an already strong program, and our our teachers at those levels were seeing these great lessons that they could build into what they're already injecting. It's wonderful. Yeah, yeah, the enthusiasm of those teachers, it was really fun to see that. And I love the consistent build over time. Right. It's like learning a language. Yeah. Start from K all the way through when you're senior, you know, yeah. It's great. So, you feel like it's going to

130build up to, say, the college where you teach at, too, right? >> Exactly that. We can see that continuum into even our college level, yeah. Yes. I know the art classes I saw at Forest View, the kids are really engaged, too. Mhm. I think so. I mean, they're just buzzing around, having, you know, doing their stuff, but if they're engaged and that's that's kind of >> add, it does keep a student in the building. Oh, I believe >> Hands-on activity, creating something with their hands. It's wonderful to see. Wonderful. Thank you both. All right, we've got a motion on the table. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed the same? Motion carries. Thank you both. Thank you very much. Thank you. Up next, we have Superintendent elect, is that what

131the title would be? Mr. Rankin, thanks for joining us to talk about authorizing administration to begin the planning and community engagement process for an operating levy referendum for the November 3rd, 2026 election and to return to the board with a recommended levy question um for final approval. So, thank you for joining us. This is um something that we learned about last week in our work session. And so, this is a review of um what we got to see and got a preview of. So, just bringing that back for review and action. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the board, uh community Just want to walk through this uh if I can. Uh I provide a copy just of an executive summary and I just want to start by saying, you know, this project True North,

132this is all draft, but as I come in I just want to make sure it's really clear that you know, as Peter I mean, I looked at calendars today. Peter's probably looked at his calendar. And my my daughter tells me who's an eighth grader, she's got it down to 13 days. Um and so, you know, I [snorts] mean, we we have purchased a house south of Nisqually. My three kids will be run rolling in Brainerd public schools here in the next two weeks. Um And we're making the full transition and and Peter I will shake hands. He's down to one more board board meeting. Uh This is the longest board meeting I've been in like 9 years. So, to be honest with you, but I'd also just share with you I I've been at my

133current district 9 years. You've had three superintendents in that time period. I I settled our contracts in three meetings. Every contract's been settled uh in my district. And I'm turning over a 12 and 1/2% fund balance to my replacement. And so, I'm just saying where we're at and where we need to go um is kind of what Project True North is is truly a draft. But, it's just taking your strategic road map that you invest a lot of time in in your community and people in in 2023 and putting this in action. So, as Peter um passes the you know, the torch off to myself uh I want to make sure we're providing the best opportunity for kids. So, really what this is is uh I took your 26 pages of the strategic road map

134and boiled it down to really four major components. And you know, one I'd say one, two, and four all depend on three. And so, you really got to make sure we're physically stable. I think everything you're hearing tonight is you know, unfortunately over that time um with three superintendents, declining enrollment, every school district if you go on MSBA news clippings, which I'm sure some of you do there's article upon article. We are in a we're not in a we're not in a we're not in a foreign place to compared to a lot of school districts. Just be thankful we're not in one metro school district where they had a $25 million accounting error. You know, that that would be an issue. What we're facing is we we got to get out of the business of

135the board right now being month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter and semester-to-semester and year-to-year to getting a 3-year outlook. And so, as we look at this first of all, student achievement kind of what got you into this is, you know, you've cut cut cut. And so, to cut and that's what we're going to have to keep doing. And I've talked to Peter. Um Peter and the the whole admin team knows that we're going to have to continue to make make cuts and that's just because we're going to have the less students. That just makes sense, right? Um but as you want to have higher achievement and I'm proud from my current district where the triple crown in math, reading, and science. We did that by having very stable finances, stable staff, and investing in curriculum and then making

136sure we could do these things. Staff and student safety is the number one thing we do here. Um I always highlight that when it's 4:45 in the morning and my kids are already lobbying to have a snow day um and we have flex learning days. So, we take advantage of e-learning. Uh we just we don't call it e-learning, we call it flex learning because that's the world we're in. Um the wind blows a little more down in Southwest Minnesota West Central Minnesota. And then four our staff and student well-being. You know, right now we need to reinvest. We got a team behind my back that doesn't feel like they're real valued right now. We're going to and we got to make sure they're being, you know, taken care of along with all of our students.

137And all of that underpins uh physical stability. So, the next slide honestly just talks about when we talk about strategic um stability is right-size operations. You you've been doing that. You've been aligning footprint, staffing, programs, and and enrollment reality. And you what's going to happen your next board meeting by statute, you're going to pass a budget for next year that I'm going to inherit. Peter's going to build it and I'm the one that's going to inherit it. And so, the reason I'm in here tonight is hey, as we stabilize revenue um you know, I we pay very attention. I was on webinar today with the MREA just talking about seasonal rack is advanced. That's a huge deal in the Brainerd Lakes area. Um cuz if you do uh go out for a levy at some

138point uh the the tax impact is crossed all taxes. Then optimize efficiency. You know, DJ, you're you you've mentioned this many times in our our conversations that we need to make sure we're being efficient. The things we're doing, that's why you're a you know, you're a very successful businessman. And then ultimately we need to just restore confidence across our entire community. I think that you need to understand for all of you on the board including Peter, you inherit a set of problems and the number one job or responsibility of a board member is making sure you prevent problems from future boards. So, that's the work we're talking about tonight. And at the bottom of this you have to understand cuts alone won't solve this. You know, a levy alone won't solve this. You know, efficiencies

139won't solve this. There's two pathways before the board that I think are both are going to happen. And it emphasizes the same integrated framework. And those two pathways, you know, just on the fiscal stability is based on this. You know, you're going to lose some students. 192 conservatively over the next 3 years. You're going to have nine about 10% cost increase with special education. That leads to a 16 million just dollar structural issue that we're going to have to tackle over the next 3 years. And then, you know, we just need to make sure that by the end of FY30 we've secured at least a 10% fund balance to reach our board goals. And so these projections drive the timing of tonight's conversation. That's the only reason I'm here. Because, you know, when you go

140to the next slide there's two ways to look at this. You know, first building consolidation to get create efficiency. You know, so today I sent a spreadsheet to the board. I sent to Marcy. And you know, um and and I've talked to Peter off and on about this, but let's just say we consolidate some buildings and we close two elementaries. Um you know, I think we could save between 1.8, you know, Marcy thinks it's probably closer to two. But we need to have real analysis. What I'm asking you tonight is at the work session on June 4th, allow Peter before he leaves, you have you have 40 years of experience there. He's been in the seat for 2 years. Let's truly understand what consolidating of programs looks like. What is it? What would we get

141if we moved a program or you know, transformed a program or did whatever we might want to do? So, building consolidation, what does that look like? And then we need to understand, do we have the capacity if we close two buildings to to cross all kids into the four remaining elementaries if that's what we chose to do because you can't have a plan that's not feasible. Okay? And the thing on the bottom there is that work starts later. Um decisions is fully with your board um decisions. There's no ballots. You can decide this right here at this room. But we want to have a clear analysis. On the right-hand side, you know, pillar two emphasized stabilized revenue. And so, you you've had others come present to you. And you know, 78% of districts take advantage

142of this. My current district, I mean, maybe I have it easy. We have a referendum at the lowest level, but it has the maximum equalization. And we have a capital projects levy that I increased by $500,000. My district gets $2 million more a year than Brainerd Public Schools does. You would take that and run. And we have a fourth of the kids you have. And so, we're there's a reason why we're leading in math and science and reading because we invest. Um we also don't have huge turnover. Um and so, that really rests with the voters. And so, the reason why you look at this, both pathways um will advance physical stability. Both require you know, they're going to require work. And you know, the other three are all strategic goals that this number of

143number three will drive the other three. Um so, the next slide, um really what I'm looking at is what a two-building consolidation looks like. And you know, I said, you know, on the base case, it's $1.2 million dollars savings in 5 years, maybe a 6 million bucks. But, I think at some point you're going to have to get creative cuz the reason you haven't settled contracts is cuz they're you know, you're running lean. Uh and so, you have to be very, very efficient on what you offer because long-term stability. True, Peter? Otherwise, you would have settled back in October like everybody else. And so, you know, in my 9 years, I always make sure that there's enough in what I built the budget last June to make sure we can get a settlement. It's why

144we settled in two and a half meetings. And you know, if I can afford a dollar, I'm going to pay a dollar. Because that's what I want to pluck staff out of Alexandria. So, I've stolen six of their best teachers. I've stolen two of their principals. Um I think that's what I want to be competitive. And you know what really ticked me off in my days at Pequot is when Brainerd had a better contract and you stole some Brainerd, you know, some Pequot teachers to come to Brainerd that I fought hard to get there. We That's when you were the shining beacon of the North Country, and we need to get back to that. And then you can just see the thing with the right-hand side though, it's it's sensitive. You start closing buildings, look

145what happened across the state of Minnesota. You think you have a lot of people here tonight, and you have a lot of people outside. Wait till you decide to do something like that. The meeting won't be in here, it'll be a gymnasium cuz you're going to have two to 300 people are going to have to want to talk to you about it. And so, you know, this is where we need to have this conversation. So, the next one is if you're going to have a referendum, you just need to direct administration and you know, cuz uh over your shoulder, Kelly needs to contact Ehlers and get the exact ballot language. You need to contact uh Peter at Ehlers who's going to tell you exactly what or MSBA to get the exact information that goes on

146the ballot. Ehlers are going to run financial runs for you, then you got to pick a number. We artificially just picked 5 million. Okay? What does that do over Yeah, obviously 5 * 5 gives you 25 million. What's the cost monthly? 16 bucks. Well, maybe that's not where you want to be right now. You know, driving up here, at least Brainerd's 30 cents cheaper for gas, but you know, down my neck of the woods, 35% of our taxpayers are farmers. When you're paying 5 and 1/2 bucks a gallon for diesel that they didn't pre-purchase, it's pretty hard to put an affordable crop in not knowing what you're going to get in the fall. So, this is another conversation we need to have. Why now? Because we have the same destination. It's called physical stability. Uh

147just different timelines. So, the reason I'm here is if you're even going to entertain a levy, I start work July 1st. Our board meeting is July 12th. This is four or five conversations, and even the six of you are divided on this, or you would have done it 2 years ago. Um but if you're going to do it, you got to start having those conversations now. This top one, obviously, if you're going to do building consolidation, yes, the same thing. You need to start having engagement as early as October, and start having conversations October, November, December with a decision in January, and then implementation the following school year. At some point, you have to generate additional revenue. Either you're going to take it from internal, or you're going to get a little help from the

148voters. My recommendation is both. Because I think you're going to need both, cuz neither, like I told you before, cutting's not going to get you there. Levy's not going to cut it there. You're going to have to do a combination of things. And I would think if you would have had the same superintendent 9 years, if Peter had been here 9 years, you would have probably already been starting to implement this 3 years ago. So, as I come in, and I'm worried about the next 3 to 5 years, I want to get us to a better place. That's my job as a leader. And the reason I'm here tonight is I can see some rocky roads up ahead. And if we don't pick a smart route, we're going to have some issues. So, my my

149request tonight is just authorize superintendent to fully develop two pathways to physical stability. A two-building elementary consolidation and a November 26 operating levy. We're going to you know, Peter will and I will work on this work together with Marcy and Jason and Carrie and the principals. And on June 4th bring both these to you. Tonight you're not authorizing a levy. What you're authorizing is say you've told me time and time again Randy there's not a plan. We need to get the core elements of a plan and bring it to you. Stephanie I know you don't feel comfortable this yet, but you told me too you want a plan. I want to bring that plan to you on June 4th. Because then in the June board meeting you either can decide to move forward with the

150fall or or we do it right in in July when I get to you. But it takes too much work now to pull us off on July 12th. Would you agree Peter? Sure. And that's why I'm here tonight. >> [snorts] >> So this is where we're heading. I just need to go to tell the truth about what we face. I think we needed to be decide on transparent criteria. And then we need to rebuild our trust and and through visible stewardship about what we're about to do. And tonight honestly the board's focus on the future brainerd public schools. It really begins with the permission to study Adam chair. Not to the commitment to a single destination. So that's why I'm here tonight. Thank you Mr. Aiken. Any questions? I'll entertain a motion. I would like

151to make a motion that we authorize administration to begin the planning on for this for an operating levy referendum and to return with an another recommended plan or an additional plan to look at fiscal stability. Second. All right, we've got a motion by Director Breckenridge. Uh second by Director Ward. Any discussion? Well, the only option's going to be to get rid of two elementary schools, Chip. Uh no, I just to get to the money you're going to save in the next 3 years is probably the most e- e- equal. With declining enrollment, it's not in the high school. Your high school's full. I mean, you got senior class of over four 425 430. I think you got 435 seniors graduating. I saw my daughter's class next year's right around 440. You're You're talking about 338

152kindergartners. So, when we did some analysis, you know, you realistically, you know, you would set some gaps on I sent you a spreadsheet, but and I Hey, this is all provisional, so do not just say we set kindergarten at 21 max. And you said, you know, say second through fourth grade a max of 26. Y- Y- It is a reduction of 11 FTEs. That's just, you know, sharing. And then building costs, Marci just shared with me at 650 a per building. So, right there, that's $1.3 million you saved. And so, you know, between those two, you're probably staring around 2 million bucks. Marci, am I off by much? She's shaking her head, no. And so, you know, that creates $2 million in real revenue. So, really, when you're short right now, um just balancing the

153books long term, we need to stay at that 10%. So, you're at 14 now, and it's not like we have to do this tonight, tomorrow, um but as you start building budgets for this next year, a year from now, we're going to have to take some steps because you're just going to eat fund balance. True, Peter? And so, we just we can do that for another year or two to get efficiencies, but I think at some point, if you want to get to a better place and you want all the parts of the strategic road map, >> [snorts] >> you're going to need both at some point. Now, you could let's face it. We need to have the reality is that even if you have a levy this fall, schools don't do well on general

154elections. It definitely doesn't help when inflationary costs are what? 3.3% I heard tonight. Uh you know, fuel is that high, but you know, I just saw your new bus contract. You know, we have the It's worse in my district. We pay a surcharge on a diesel that's over $1.65. When's the last time you got diesel for $1.65? And you pay anything over uh was it Marcy $3? You pay 100% of it. Um and so it's going to be tough to pass. And so no matter what, we're going to have to both both plans have to be brought forward to the board. Madam Chair. Yes. Um you know, board at board members I'm going to speak. Um at our board work session that we just went through, retreat, whatever you want to call it. I don't

155care what we call it. Um and we've we've heard um both Peter and Chip both talked to us about future plans and future district and how what the district looks like and we heard a lot about that tonight too from from a lot lot of uh folks, staff. Um but at our last work session as it was presented to us uh this plan, um you know, at least five of us said, "This is a good solid plan." Matter of fact, it was reported in the dispatch that uh this is a good solid plan. It said it's it's more than just looking at a levy. It's looking at uh efficiencies, it's looking at cuts, it's looking at, you know, all possibilities to come up with um moving our district forward, period. The other thing I want

156to say is um a referendum is nothing more than an election. An election uh to win an election, um you know, usually people are out um campaigning at least 2 years in advance. You know, we're pretty short on time here. We've got to make some tough decisions, obviously. Even even no matter what we decide here tonight, we're still we we've got to make some tough decisions over the next couple years. >> it's really important to point out though tonight, all you're doing is allowing me and Peter and your administrative team to bring two detailed plans together. One, what would a levy look like? Two, what would consolidation look like? And DJ, kind of what I kind of hear through to the lines, what else could we do? And that's like listen, when we have a

157work session next time, we're not going to do a lot of how are you? How are you? Honestly, if number three is fiscal stability, what are the options on the table? What would Peter be doing the next three years if he was staying on? What would you do as board members? And then I like I said, I think the engagement is the same. Just like you said, having election, I just came off one last year. Drank more coffee last year than I've ever drank in my life. Okay? Um went to a lot of different meetings. Um and you know, ultimately they failed. Um that doesn't mean we didn't work hard. Um but then you know, you come up with alternative plans. And what I would want is just the motion to say, let's spend the

158next three and a half weeks, come back on June 4th with real hard numbers. I think you tried having that conversation about the co-op and it got stalled out because the numbers moved around. What I want is Marcy just say, hey, if we're going to do this consolidation, maybe we're going to change the ALP, maybe we're going to do something, but what is our three-year fiscal stability plan? Then bring that back to the board. You don't have to vote on anything tonight that's going to make a levy 100%, but if you close the books on it night, then guess what? The levy's off the table. Then it's going to be strictly cuts. Well, that that's what I wanted to what I wanted to get to when I was when I was talking to >> want

159to make sure you clarify on what you're what you're talking about tonight. But it's time. Yes. It's time to decide. It's time to either move forward or backward. And I just want to state that. You know, if we're going to move forward, we got to go. We got to go, board members. And um so I'm I'm hoping that, you know, we authorize a plan for our administration to come back to us with a specific kind of plan. Um and that's all we're doing. Um but it's time to do that. It's really time to do that. And I think you heard a number of people tonight say that same thing. So. I'm sure. Yep. Chip, you keep referring to the a three-year plan. I'm looking here and it's all five-year. Am I Am I missing something

160or Well, I have a five-year plan laid out, but I'm just talking right now getting to fiscal year 30. And so between now and 30, it's we know exactly um based on what you know, you got a demographer report. Um DJ, you told me many times if we can find efficiencies and make some corrections, you're all on board. And so I'm not asking, "Hey, let's just go get more money." We're going to have to do both. Um and so, you know, what's what's available? And I'd just say just like before I leave Minneola, I'm doing this with my replacement. How would I help my replacement Scott out? You know, um so And I Go ahead. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Uh we you've been snooping around and meeting with people and you know, I've talked

161to you quite a bit. So, do you have any ideas why we're losing all these kids? Cuz I did the math today, we're down 119 for the year. Um our grand total now is up to 1159. [clears throat] They're outsourced in our that live here. They didn't die. Um so, where are they going? Do you have any ideas on how you can slow that down? I mean, anything that can make people feel a little better? >> the good thing about being your uh your competitor to the north in Pequot, and I welcomed them 64 new you know, Pequot Lakes Patriots my last year as a principal there. I can tell you cuz I just worked with a realtor and I didn't he's probably mad at me cuz I didn't buy a house with them but

162you move from the Brainerd public schools open and roll his kids to Pequot and this is his exact words. He's like yeah, we went there for sports. But you know the academics of Brainerd don't hail at any in comparison to Pequot. I'm sorry if I'm Pequot acquaintances or watching this. Those are his exact words not my words. People don't migrate for sports. And you know the thing is is I'm honestly migrating to Brainerd High School because of your academics. You you every year have merit scholars. You know, your average ACT cuz my daughter just took it and you know, she got a 31 and you're right around 29. You don't tell that story well enough. My son just graduated on Saturday at Magna Laude with in pharmacy. From our South Dakota State. Those are the

163graduates you're making. Yeah, sports they might win off and on depending on what you got going. And that's great and there's great people up there. But let me tell you why it works in Pequot because they're going to do the exact same thing you are. They're going to set a budget. So Marcy, what's her number? 5400? What's her number for next year? 5400. October 1st, we're hopefully going to count 5450, right Peter? Right? >> [laughter] >> At least. Okay, and we hope that number stalls true. Marcy's like 5600. This is what Pequot does. 2000. Guess who shows up October 1st? 2200. 200 more kids than they ever anticipated but they're built their budget on 2000. Now they've got $2 million sitting there they've never allocated out. So then guess what? They don't worry about hiring

164extra teachers, extra EAs, extra this, extra that because they don't have to worry about it. They've been doing that for the last 15 years. Now they're full full. Guess what Pequot can't do? They can't offer a full online high school, a full online middle school. We can. They can't offer all the college level courses with AP. We can. And I think we have to just get better at telling our story. And you know, I just think it comes back to um tell your story. It's hard. I don't We just don't do a good job of that. You have a lot of caring compassion people here that tell you all about the history of Brainerd, but you have to come here and listen to it. You know, I I honestly should be able to look at

165YouTube because I go there and watch some walleye fishing in the morning on Saturdays drinking coffee, and I should get bombarded about Brainerd Public Schools about the great things that are happening. I just think we need to get better at telling our story. Academics, that's what's really going to matter. And I do think that at some point we have to go back and survey every one of those families and ask them why. DJ, you told me you really read into the psychology of why people do something. We need to get inside that decision cycle and turn it around. I don't think we've ever lost this many as we have this year, at least as long as I've been on the board. It's always been about 50, 60. >> Yeah. It seems something's wrong. And we

166can't blame the parents. You know, the crazy thing is, Chip, as you keep talking about Pequot, I don't blame you because you have my experience there, but I don't Pillager just got almost like for sure have half again as many kids from Brainerd as Pequot does. Like Yeah, but I also think like Pequot families, a lot of them like from Staples. You know, I'm not going to lie, coming here for my kids are in a class of 107. My daughter is the would be on the NHS president, the student council president, number one singles. Now she's like her and her daughter her and my sister her my other daughter played tennis yesterday cuz they're going to be playing Brainerd tennis, and she wants to make sure she's ready. Cuz they're going up to 3A tennis.

167And so, when you go down a little Minnewaska, you know, it's it's a lot smaller pool, not as competitive. But if you're really preparing our kids truly to be college ready, running a public school is going to do that. Cuz my kids are going to go off to the U of M, SDSU, wherever it might be, and I want to make sure they get the best preparation. I think it does start with stability, though. And I think that you know, I will say this, if I have a dollar to spend, I want the best paid staff the best contract because continuity and good things, look at any sports team, continuity with good leadership builds long-term performers. We just haven't had that, and I think we just got to get back. That's why I'm here. So,

168Madam Chair, I just recommend that you direct the administration and we come back with a plan on June 4th. I I do think you're going to need to do both. I realize you're not all there tonight, but I think as you start going down this, what I don't want to happen in January when we start going down this path and you have 400 people telling you you're you're not doing this, you're not doing this, you explored every option. You know, I've spent a little bit of time in Forestville this spring, >> [snorts] >> and um being every day I witness firsthand how great that staff is and how they go above and beyond to make sure they're not only providing um meaningful lessons for their students, but they're also um nurturing good humans. And um

169there's systems in place to deal with harassment, there's systems in place to deal >> [clears throat] >> with the most vulnerable students. And I think at the end of the day you leave that building and you think we need to make sure our teachers have [clears throat] a fair and equitable contract that communicates we value them. And we need to take advantage of every possible resource to continue to support our students, to encourage their success, their success, their achievement, and our teachers' success, our staff's success. And I also allude to I completely agree and I would allude to I've had some of your staff visit my school and we're you know I'm going to intense mental health care and treatment facility, you know, our Win Academy that we have. So we we've had Amy Jordan

170down, we've had Jennifer Johnson down, we've had some other people down and say, "Okay, if we reprogram we could potentially bring over 125 kids and that would bring positive revenue and we bill for $650,000 of medical assistance. That's real money. I think you already did this with you know Marcy and John you got Paul Bunyan coming up. We're we are going to take in $250,000 in revenue that we did not have last year. That was sharpening your pencil and there's space releasing services we're providing. That's an example of efficiency you're going to gain. That's not just one year, that's enduring. That's my concern. Is that how many years did we not get the 250 that we should have? And that's me. We didn't. This is next year is our first year so it's like >>

171That's why I feel so bad about this decision because I don't feel as though we're razor sharp, you Yeah, but guess what? We wanted to get winning. We got one win. That's good. Celebrate. >> [applause] >> Clap your hands cuz you know we'll take it. We're taking it. >> Better than losing 250. So let's just take that. Yeah. Is that care facility that you have I mean you're you're saving kids from leaving your school this is number one. Yeah, but we're also taking honestly we're taking Do you do you also can you also um third party bill for them those kids? >> John, we only service there's only four kids from Minnewaska attending. There's 49 that we're getting we're charging our districts full the full price. >> So what what that so what he's what

172I what I just asked was our SLP folks third party bill that you're billing for services the medical insurance companies for services which we recover and we get money for and it's and it's significant. It's a it's a significant It's also you're getting at the core of what those kids need. They need intensive mental health. So some of the kids maybe you're seeing right now Michelle they they would need to get more intensive services. You can't spread that peanut butter across seven sites. So you try to concentrate it to make it cost effective, right? So any other questions? Not a question but a comment and I know we've talked a little bit about this but I do appreciate that you brought the framework for our plan and it gives us a vision of the future.

173It pulls us out of the weeds a little bit and out of the month to month and I think that's important for this board and I think we can rally around that. And the other thing I would say is bringing you in as superintendent I think was an important decision for us and in doing that we put our trust in you and we put our future in your hands to make a professional recommendation and I think what you've brought to us has exceeded my expectation on that and I'm anxious to support it because supporting this plan means supporting your success and your success is our success as a district. Well, I appreciate it and I just remember the smartest person in the room is the room. So you them, us us if you want to

174get this back to where it was when you were going to school here, it's going to take all of us. We'll get this contract settled and just say in 3 years I want to be celebrating. I don't want to wait 3 years but I do think that we're not going to let Peter escape with years of experience and I just think the next 3 weeks let's put a little more meat on the bones here, bring it back to the work session and let's bring this forward and then you guys can make a decision at that point what you want to do. But, let's get real hard numbers. And so, if you have ideas, even if you're behind me, if I have ideas for savings, let's talk about them. Um and let's get them on the

175table. Let's get some real numbers. Um because I My goal is in 3 years, we're not talking about this anymore. Right? We're We're talking about how we're going to you know, I'm going to use DJ's win you know, winning. I like winning. Winning's a good thing. I do, too. All right, we've got a motion on the table and a second. Any further discussion? >> Are we going to gas Are we going to skip the motion? The I made a motion. >> I know, but Chip's recommending that we go back and get the information that motion >> No. What all you're recommending tonight is that you're going to direct leadership just go put these two plans together and bring it back to the work session. You're not voting any levy thing until June or July. You're

176not voting for a levy tonight. What you're voting for is two well-developed plans to talk about a levy. What would that look like? What would you know, what would consolidation look like? What What gets us to a long-term stability? The only reason I'm coming tonight is if you're going to go do a levy this fall, then you got to get You really got to make decisions sooner than later cuz you're going to need to start going. Yeah. So, this is the authorization to start down that path to understand what that would look like. The authorization to investigate. >> those pieces if we're going to have all that other stuff that's going to have a levy, what does that look like? And we can all put that together cuz that's a Peter, that's an expertise he

177has. All right, good clarifications, good questions. Um any other discussion? Otherwise, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed, the same. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rankin. All right, we've got committee meeting updates. We'll start with the long-range planning and facilities committee, but um Director Higgins. Hm, boy, we got a lot on here. You know, it's what, 8:32. Wilder up one nothing. No, they're not. >> [laughter] >> Are they down? No, they're Hold on. Okay, uh Well, I haven't looked at it. Just real quickly, the accomplishments of lower site uh for softball, new dugouts, new stadium, press box for baseball, scoreboard frequency was fixed by our IT director. That was That was a nice thing. And then, a lot of updates. Uh when we've

178talked about this uh recently, Riverside uh renovations for voluntary pre-kindergarten, uh bathroom renovations at Riverside and Garfield, etc., etc., water uh replacement and boiler replacement. All of this money comes out of the long-term F&M. maintenance fund. It is not coming out of the general fund. So, a lot of things going on. Uh Jeff and his staff are uh busy. So, end of report. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to the BPS F, Brainerd Public Schools Foundation. Okay, the Brainerd Public Schools Foundation is excited to be hosting scholarship recognition night on May 20th at the Gichi Center for the Arts. They are going to be rewarding nearly $250,000 this year in scholarship awards up from last year. Hm. Up from Oh, it says it's up from up $226,000 from last year. They do a really

179good job fundraising. Um Brainerd Public School Foundation is collecting gently used Warrior theme gear at each district building through May 15th, and at Washington Educational building through June 30th. They'll be holding a warrior one sale in late August and September. And if you do donate it, we ask that no names are on it, just a general warrior gear. And um that is it. Thank you. All right, Safe and Welcoming Schools Committee. Okay, so we met on May 7th, um basically to just recap this year's effort at providing ongoing interruptor training that was given to principals to be shared with their staff. We also had a send-off to one of our faithful students who had supported our efforts and gave meaningful input while in high school. And I'll just go on to the wellness task force.

180Uh we had received a $2,000 grant and decided to split that amount um between the four buildings that house 5th through 12th students. Um members of our committee will now meet with Superintendent Superintendent Ranken when he comes on board to talk about the mission and vision of this committee going forward. Great, thank you. And APAC, Director Ward. So um [snorts] I'll just cover some of the things that we talked about at the meeting. Um we talked about the start of the talk about the budget overview and funding updates, and one of the problems is kind of like the free and reduced lunch kind of deal where people don't fill out the forms anymore um because they they get APAC gets um funding federal funding based on forms that are filled out. So there's a move

181to try to find a better way to um get more more uh uh indigenous people to um fill out the forms so that the the funding can occur for for them. Uh Let's see. Federal hearing and community input. Our families and students desire more empathy and understanding from a wider community. Um the graduation culture policy and there there was a talk about the um talk um talking to the about graduation having like you know the military the display the military robes or you know they say navy or army. Oh is he gone? I was going to say Chip help me with that. They have those ropes on their necks there. Right. Right. So there's there's the there was a discussion about that as well um with the indigenous community. Um also I'll just close by

182saying that the discussion about school board and APAC collaboration um without going into everything um you know there needs to be better data sharing between district and APAC for grant reporting and program improvement and um you know we we just haven't gotten to that in any of our meetings cuz we've run out of time but we still could need to continue to dialogue about the collaboration um and the non-concurrence um that comes from the district comes from the uh school board and not the district. So that's my report. [snorts] Thank you. What do you mean it comes from the comes from the district not us? They saying we're non-compliant. And Business Services report. The response has to come from the school the school board. Push kids. Okay. Uh in your packet is the financial report.

183There's nothing new to note there. Um and I know that you guys wanted an update on the next year's budget every month. We're sitting at about a projected 3.4 million deficit and that's with the uh transportation contract that is incorporated in that. Um otherwise no new changes. We'll talk more about that at the um upcoming retreat or work session, whichever whatever it's called. The enrollment report, DJ you did speak to this. We are down 146 K through 12 since beginning of the year. I did run some analytics on that and that is the highest it's ever been in the last 5 years. We're down 2.6% and looking at the last 5 years the average was about 1.6. So it's a it's a 1% difference compared to the average. And again, I know we talk about

184this why if they don't fill out the forms, we don't know the why. There's a there is a form but not everybody fills out the form. So When they leave the district? Yes. But we don't call them? It's not a part of the process, no. So we don't know. Not if they don't fill out the form. But we don't know them. How many fill out the form? I don't know the percentage. I'm I'm I'm wondering if we could set up some kind of volunteer people that might be willing to contact families when students leave just to start to gather some analytics on Yeah. I think there's probably a lot of retired people that would be happy to make some phone calls and follow up. Let's see. Really wouldn't take that long. No, it shouldn't. I

185know. Well, I don't think we need volunteers. I think the school should mean we're only talking about if you lost 145 people in 8 months. So what is that? That's 17 a month. So it's one a day. Task somebody in the building to It's just one a day. It's not like you're going to talk to them for 2 hours. Right. It's going to be a five you know, if you had a little feel like five questions. >> Yeah, create a form and then Then if there's something they'd like to talk to them about maybe give it to somebody else. Yeah, I think that would be information. But if but if we can find some solutions it's dollars in. That's kind of stuff we do. Yeah, my world. Maybe we have to ask them some questions.

186Yeah. That's kind of stuff we do. >> [clears throat] >> What? That's kind of stuff we do. It's easy stuff. Okay. Yeah. Like you can do three questions and then if they answer one of them wrong, then we pass it up to somebody higher up. >> Yep. They can get back to you and make you happy. >> find out where they are leaving. Yeah. If you don't know, you don't know, you know. >> to ask. We've been wondering that now for since I've been on the board. What? Why this why we're losing students. >> I know. We all have our ideas. Yep. Do we have to give them something I mean is are do they expect something from us when they leave? What do you mean? The transcripts. What do you mean? Really, the only

187time we know if they're left is when there's a request for a transcript. That's when you They just don't show up for school. >> Okay. They just don't show up anymore. Okay. >> so. Okay. So we're looking we're looking to find out why they left, right? But sometimes we don't know. Don't give them their transcripts until they fill out the form. Why not? [laughter] It's state law. You can't. State law? Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I mean I'm just you know I mean we're trying to find out. That's all. It's like you not wanting to pay your state tax and they come and knock on your door. Now they ain't going to knock on my door. They're going to [laughter] handcuff me and put me in jail. Didn't some of your

188kids pledge to college they had to get their transcripts so you have to get They didn't leave school. Well, I think I told them uh my your colleagues here that I talked to a nurse recently on one of my special visits. Um who who who's a two daughters she got three children two of the children that graduated from Brainerd High School. You probably remember this but third one needed a little bit more support and smaller class sizes. So she went to Pillager. Right. So she went to Pillager. So I mean there there's one example of why >> a good example. So now we know. Yep. But that's only one out of 117. >> Yep, exactly. Thank you, Marcy. Madam Chair Madam Chair before Marcy leaves I got I got a question. Marci. So I'm I

189emailed Marci today in the news today I'm I'm going to talk about that. >> [laughter] >> In the news today the Minneapolis school district found a way to I don't know how I don't know how to word this Marci so you can help me. Found a way to recover to 10.8 million dollars. >> That's because they were not doing the state's criteria of tracking special education students. It's because they screwed up. Once they figured out they had a third-party come in and help them figure out why they were losing so much money. They were not doing the paperwork correctly. So now they're going to catch up. That's how that work. But well how are they going to how are they They're going to start doing the paperwork next year and they'll collect 10.2 or whatever

190it was. So they're not actually recovering 10.8 million dollars. They call it surprise money. >> Right. It'll be for next year. Oh. Okay. I told Marci please find out how to surprise get that surprise money over here. >> [laughter] >> That's what you call a clerical error. And I responded with what are you asking? Cuz we are I don't think we're doing that. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Marci. Thank you. All right. Superintendent's report. Okay. So I have a little bit of humor to share. Um I went on a bus ride today with LC. >> [laughter] >> And if you ever don't want to ride on a bus, don't. Uh it was a rough first road. Anyway, we were trying to figure out why we're having problems picking up one student who is on a

191road that's under construction. And there's a road blocking that said road closed. Well, it's pretty tough for a bus to get through there but so we came to the idea that as long as the road is dry, the bus can get there. But if it's [snorts] wet, the bus is not coming because it's just going to be a mud pit. But the whole point was it was a most miserable ride I've had >> [laughter] >> in a long time and I can understand why kids probably get a little bit rambunctious on a bus. It was crazy. Um next second thing is that over the next 10 days or so there's going to be a lots of end-of-the-year celebrations. Kindergarten, walk, fourth grade, eighth grade, May 29th is uh senior graduation. We've [snorts] got tournament starting

192and so forth. So over the next 10 12 days it's going to be chaos. But if you want to have some fun, uh I think tomorrow Riverside is doing their mile run. Um it's kind of amazing how those kids don't get lost in the traffic. But um so anyways, it's a lot of fun. But now I do want to add something a little bit serious and it's a little bit of what some speaking was done tonight. But since the first day of school, there's been a lot of anxiety in the buildings about budget cuts. We've had to talk about it every single week. And it starts out with we don't know to we think we know to we're starting making plans and it gets on everybody's nerves. And it becomes a burden of do we

193have to talk about it again? And every time we have a administrative meeting with the principals, we're talking about budget cuts. So as I walk into the buildings, I can feel the anxiety that has started from the first day of school. And then we start talking about people losing their jobs when we get to that point where we know who's going to stay and who isn't, that adds more pressure to it. And as it came up quite a few of the discussions, we've been in one year in negotiating four contracts, we've only settled one. That's another piece of anxiety. People want to get that settled, I get that. Easier said than done. And the tough part is going to be with what um Chip brought forward this evening. That's just the tip of the iceberg

194if better decision-making doesn't happen. You cannot hope for something to be better. Hope is a lousy Hope is not a strategy. >> And um I'm just hoping that good decisions are going to be made in the next 30 days or so that does have a strategic plan that you can use to move forward. But if you hope something's going to change, it's not going to happen because you've been hoping for 5 years and nothing's changed except things have gotten worse. So, as we work on this over the next 30 days, it is going to be strategically planned. Doesn't mean you're going to agree with it all. But it's not going to be grabbing, you know, blue ones out of the sky and hoping they stay afloat. Um but I can feel the anxiety in the

195buildings. I can feel it in Westby. I can feel it when principals talk to me. I can feel it when I see teachers in the hallway. And it's burdensome. And I think probably the best thing can happen is June 4th cuz then at least there's a little bit of anxiety that can release itself because school's over. But it doesn't mean that the problems are solved. But it gets the the uh air pressure in the building keeps getting higher and higher and tighter. And it's not fun. And this time of the year it should be fun. We're going to celebrate a lot of great success with the kids. We got the MCs out MCA's out of the way. FastBridge just about done or is done. You know, those are all things we've been building for, but

196we got to get some of this crap off our back because it's you know, I always when I was got here at the beginning I I "If you keep carrying all those bricks in your backpack, how are you ever going to feel better? You got to get rid of the bricks." Well, these These last few bricks aren't easy to get rid of. So, we got a lot of work to do, and we got to get it done, but it's got to be something that is strategically planned. It cannot be a wish and a hope. Otherwise, we're going to fail. And that would be it. Thank you, Superintendent Grant. All right, we've got um all kinds of future meetings and important dates [snorts] and events on there, including all the graduations and upcoming things. Exciting. Exciting

197time. We'll look for a motion, Treasurer. I'll make it. Second. We've got a motion and a second. Assuming no discussion, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, the same. We