001We'll now call to order the July regular school board meeting for district 518. Uh 1.1 roll call. Five of seven members are present tonight with Ann and Aaron being absent. Uh 1.2 recognition of visitors and guests. Thank you to everyone that's here who's watching. 1.3 Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge of 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. Okay. 1.4 correspondence and recognition. Um, we've had no public participation. Uh, 1.4.2 recognition of students, staff, and community. We have nothing there um other than welcome Joel to the table. Uh 2.0 approval of agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the consent in main agenda? So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Lori, seconded
002by Matt. All those in favor of the agenda say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Uh 3.0 approval of minutes, the approval of the June regular school board meeting minutes, and then the committee meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Motion by Matt. >> Seconded by Eric. All those in favor of the approval of the minutes on 3.1 3.2 say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 4.0. We've got quite a consent agenda. Hopefully everybody's kind of aware what's under there. Uh look for a motion to approve what's on the consent agenda as listed. >> I move approval of the items under the consent agenda. >> Motion by Lori. >> Seconded by Darla. All those in favor of the items under
003the consent agenda say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. On to the main agenda. 5.1 monthly financial overview. Carmen. >> Um so you guys have in front of you um the revenues and expenditures for the period ending June 30th of 2025. Um, I just want to make sure you guys understand this is a very preliminary um, year-end report. Um, as you're aware, our our fiscal year runs July 1st through June 30th. Um, at the end of June, our fiscal books close. Um, but it takes months to finalize everything. Um, so it's just important to remember that not all our expenses are in and there's also so revenue adjustments that we have to make. So what you see in front of you is basically the close of the books. That's
004the report we ran based on the data that has been entered in our our system that we use which is smart finance. Um just to kind of give you an idea of some things that maybe will affect our final audit which will be um usually November is when we have the final audited statement that will be presented um by um Mr. Swanson and also our auditor firm. Um so some things that can affect this just so you guys kind of can be aware of it as you look at these numbers. Um on the revenue side, um the revenues that we use in our budget are based on estimates that we have based on data from MDE, our tax levy dollars. Um a lot of our state aid is based on student enrollment. Um that's the
005ADM reporting in the MARS. Those final numbers aren't um due to the state until October. So that's when some of those adjustments may come in on the revenue side. Okay, just so you're aware of that. Um, and how the state aid works is the state takes 90% of that projected amount and they pay that over the school year and then that other 10% they kind of hold on to and that's where those adjustments can come in and they can be positive or negative. Um, so that's kind of where those adjustments can be. On the expense side, um, there's a little more adjustments coming in on that mostly due to the fact that not all of our invoices are are due. We haven't received them all. So work that has been done in June, we haven't
006received all those invoices yet. So some of those things are going to come and then that's where Ryan has to make a lot of um journal entries and audit entries to get things put back into the the current year. So it's very preliminary. So as you guys review it and look at I just want you kind of be aware of of where that's at. Um as that you will see that changed in the final audit that we do. Um so Ryan has completed this um year-end estimate based on like I said the data that has been entered in our system as of June 30th. Um obviously there's a lot of additional invoices, some audit adjustments, um approvals, some payroll things that need to be um finalized in in the expense side. Um so currently on
007this um year in re report it's showing our revenue is at um 75,968,3886. um and our expenses um at the end of June 30th at the close of our books um was 71,000 um 71,349,17. So that's kind of a very preliminary um part of that and like I said our final audit would be in November. So as um Ryan will be working on this honestly for the next several months trying to finalize it and get all the information in the right spot. Some of it has to be um some of the journal entries also include moving it from funds based on the the information that we received. That's kind of his final year end work that he has to complete. >> Carmen, has the auditors started at all at this point? >> No. >> Okay.
008>> No, I think we maybe have dates that they might be coming for preliminary or not yet. >> September. >> Okay. So, September. >> September. Okay. Okay. >> Any more questions for Carmen? Okay, moving on. 5.2, approve language instruction education program handbook. Uh Josh, can you explain this? >> Yeah, so Sue Hagen presented this to the instructional committee. This is an annual updated handbook that we need to present to the state. Um if there are questions, Sue is not available tonight, but I can do my best. Uh the instructional committee did recommend approval. Okay. Anyone from instruction got anything to add? >> Um, I would just add that Sue did share a little pamphlet in two different languages that I hadn't seen before. Very brief. It's just an overview of the entire document which looks
009this thick. So, um, happy to see that in all our buildings so people really kind of know what the language instruction education program leap is all about. So, thanks for Sue to get that out. All right. Need a motion to approve the language instruction education program. >> So moved. >> Motion by Lori. >> Seconded by Eric. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion to approve the language instruction education program say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 5.3 discussion on the softball field with Chris Zamer from ICS Consulting. Um Chris, would you come up to the stand? Questions or anything for him? Everybody got this in front of them? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Kind of give us a rundown, Chris, of the two different >>
010Um, so we've had numerous iterations. Uh, last meeting we had, I think was last Tuesday. Um, with the city president as well and operations committee to basically review the final concept you see in front of you. Uh so as of right now uh the school's scope would be building the varsity softball field with dugouts and a batting cage uh press box uh with bleachers. Uh configuration of bleachers can be whatever they choose to end up being. We're just showing them as a placeholder. And then uh the city would be looking that's the d the dashed area. Everything's in there. uh concessions, toilets, and storage building with parking on either side off of Clary Street and 11th Avenue. Um to be exactly determined how much parking they build, but it was just to show a placeholder
011because we originally showing that as part of this the school scope. >> Okay. And the one on the left is the grass, right? And then the one on the right is the one with turf. >> Correct. The two budgets. Yes. the the light blue is the natural turf field and the other uh darker blue is art with artificial turf. >> Okay. And I had a little discussion with Joel today and we kind of talked. Um we don't have to decide turf or grass tonight. We're going to go out for bids in January. Is that correct? >> We can do that as an alternate and then you can make the decision when we get bids back whether or not that's something you want to take advantage of based on bid day or preference. Okay. So, I
012think the biggest thing tonight is is we would want to be looking at approval of the site map if you guys are happy with the layout. And I mean, Joel, do you got some stuff to add? You talked to the city or had some adjustments and >> Yeah, I'll give a little bit of background. the the movement of the city facility um into the middle of of the street uh really does clean up the the site plan in that it puts all of the city's uh physical property on their land property and it keeps our property on our on our land property. It also puts parking on either side of it which closes down that street, stops all traffic. Uh but it does allow for parking for a potential future softball field as well as
013the pickleball courts and the hockey rink that's on that uh north side and then parking again down to the south to the main varsity field as well as the fields on the other side of the road. Um the other piece that just for board awareness is that in the last conversation we did discuss the bleachers that are right behind home plate. Um those are going to have a press area or a a boxed area elevated for uh viewing or for um streaming of events. There are two sets of bleachers on either side on first and sec first baseline and third baseline. Um it would be our recommendation that we maybe eliminate those for now. It's a $40,000 cost we could save in that budget given that we've got uh bleachers right behind home plate. Very
014similar setup to what's at the current baseball field over on the middle school site. Okay, we we are looking for at least some approval of the site plan. Uh that would allow the city um the confidence to go out and bid their part of the project. Um and I believe um Steve Robinson is looking for for that from us. >> And from what I understand, Matt, can you help me at operations? Was it kind of agreed to table the decision and turf and grass right now or >> Well, I I think >> that's involved. >> There's discussion over getting bids on it and then uh proceeding with making that selection when bids return >> and I guess I support the idea of doing three bids with a turf in field, a complete turf field and
015a uh grass field. So, we have all three options to consider. >> Yeah. >> And we've learned a lot from uh Mr. Robinson from the city that uh it's an awesome project to be a part of that they have a a vision that uh would really changes the complex that includes the the pickle ball court and the uh basketball court and really becomes quite a venue from uh Clary Street all the way to Centennial Park when you look at it from a a bigger prospect that we're uh can be a part of. You know, there was a discussion over at least from my perspective of uh of having the vision of being sure that we can prepare the next area as much as we can to be positive about the future field that goes there.
016In the meantime, potentially a a soccer uh used field. And we had did talk a bit about is there any advantage of doing any extra grading now since we're doing you know you're mobilizing dirt work but that obviously just means more expense to the whole project. So and and the city plans to invest a substantial amount of money. They also plan to improve the current softball fields, cement the parking lot that's there, and um build a similar, you know, the c the concession area will be very similar to the the beachnook building that uh is in Centennial Park now. So, >> and what is the city's commitment? >> 1.5 >> from a financial I mean their estimate was one and a half million. >> Okay. and they're happy with this site. >> Yeah, they very
017much uh like the idea of moving that building and and putting parking on both sides to accommodate all the different activities that happen on that on that site. >> So, I guess if everybody's okay and if you have more questions for Chris, but then biggest thing is let's get the motion for the site approval tonight and then go to bids and at that point we can decide what turf, grass, whatever. Um, Adam, could I ask uh Chris the timing? So, if we, you know, approve this tonight, what would be the earliest we could go out for bids? >> So, our if we approve tonight, we're on schedule with where we need to be. Um, we need to get soil borings of the site. We need to coordinate that with the city as well because it'll
018probably be one effort, but looking at splitting the bill obviously. Um, survey needs to be redone while we have some survey information. Obviously, there was a building there that we demolished, so we just want to make sure we got correct information for contractors to bid off of. Um, but that would probably happen in August, uh, for the most part, and then drawings would start in September, looking to bid it in probably January, mainly because the feedback we're getting recently in the industry is that a lot of the dirt work contractors aren't looking at anything until they come back after the new year, and that's when we've seen the best bids. as of late, the last couple years have been consistent and the city actually confirmed that with their bids as well. >> Okay. >> And
019then obviously the playground is gone from that site. >> Correct. >> Because it would take that corner. Okay. >> Correct. That was the the discussion and feedback we got. >> Just for a point of clarification, do we need to decide between natural grass and turf before we go out to bids in January? That was my understanding. Or we'll bid it multiple ways. >> We'll bid it both ways. be an alternate base bid would be grass and then the alternate would be >> whether we have one or two that's fairly easy to do infield outfield or both >> um as an alternate and again it gives you the option to have more discussion in the meantime we get the numbers you can weigh the benefit at that point >> and the design does not change the
020design is the same regardless >> it looks the same I mean it's all we're talking about is subgrade difference with turf for drainage versus natural grass >> Mr. Chairman, a question of Chris. Is there any u projections on that you could include over long-term maintenance and care for a grass field? >> Yeah, we could provide that. We've got some of that data as we continue to do these projects. >> I think that's valuable when we're considering the longevity of turf compared to the grass cost from a long-term maintenance irrigation standpoint that is going to have cost. >> A sidebyside as well, turf needs to be replaced. Artificial does at some point. >> Yeah. we come up with that projected number >> because that has maintenance as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, typically on
021a a softball or baseball field that's turf really the areas that you see the most wear and tear is the batters box catchers area pitching and then maybe third base and first base just because of you know how many times people are on there or how they're trying to steal. Um those are easily replaced over time as spot replacements. Um, but the turf as a whole, we're talking probably now about 12 years is the average we're seeing before a whole turf field is replaced. It really depends on one just ongoing maintenance. Just making sure it's not getting silted in and weeds are growing in it. Um, but as a whole, you know, the systems are just getting better with time to just last longer. >> Well, that should give us time because are you going
022to look into that? What is it? soybased material, Matt, that we could maybe apply for grants >> potentially. >> Um Josh and I have that information. We will we'll definitely That's right. do that research. >> So, basically tonight, we just need to approve how this site is laid out so the city can move forward with their plans as well. Correct. >> Looking for Yes. >> move to approve proposed softball site plan. >> Okay. Motion by Matt. >> Second. Seconded by Lori. Is there any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of the current site plan laid out say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> I. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Chris. Okay, moving on. Okay, next we've got 5.4. Discuss, approve the special education assessment contract. And I'll
023kind of have Joel help fill in or Josh as well. Um, no, I'll start us off here. In front of you, you should have a proposed contract with uh Carol Potter. Carol Potter is currently the executive director of student services in Lakeville schools. Uh a contact that I had had from some past work that I had done. Um coming from previous meetings, obviously it was the desire of the board to uh look at uh special education specifically uh our agreement with the co-op, the services we were being provided. And so Carmen uh has been in contact with Carol a number of times over the last two or three weeks and uh has come to the uh to the board tonight with the proposed contract in front of you. Uh the agreement with Carol um does
024put a cap on the hours just so that there is kind of a limit before we discuss going further into the review. Um the contract includes an hourly rate. That hourly rate does include all of her lodging when she comes down. Um, so the cost of the contract is her time and her mileage coming from uh where she lives in the I believe she lives in the St. Cloud area. The uh the overall program review again is looking at all all specialized programming uh the staffing that we currently have um the financial pieces that go along with that and then looking at IEP review and due process procedures making sure that we're in compliance and in line with all regulations. um for that. It did come out of the operational committee that there was a
025desire to have maybe a little bit more uh of a personal conversation to gather some data versus just um survey data. Um and in knowing that that may take a little bit of time, a little bit more time. And so um that's why we did want to put a time cap on it and we would review with Carol as well as the board if there was a need to go over uh the proposed 65 to 75 hours to complete the review. Uh Carol's timeline for the review is um starting right away the end of July. Um working through the rest of the calendar year and then she would be prepared uh for a full presentation to the board in January to share her findings. >> So based on her rate with a cap, we're looking
026at an expense of 125 to $15,000 roughly. >> Right. And that was a number we believe we had heard at a previous board meeting which is what we were working off of. Anyone else got anything about the contract? >> Are there certain areas that you would prioritize over others or do you think they're all equal or uh I think in individual conversations I've had with many board members, I think one of the main priority areas is going to be around staffing. um looking at reasons why we're losing staff or why there's a perception of of turnover of staff and and I believe that that was a good recommendation to try to gather some of that individual uh personal feedback rather than just completing that survey data. So that would be an area of priority for
027me knowing that that's our highest area of staffing concern right now going into a school year. >> I need a motion to approve the special education assessment contract. >> Mr. Chairman, I I'd just like to reiterate that from my opinion, the priority needs to be the services we're providing to our students and our staff, our students and our parents. I mean, I understand the the desire to look at the staff part of it, but our ultimate goal is are we utilizing all the services available to meet the needs of our students. Obviously staff follow out and uh do those items, but are are we using I think we're looking at from the service cooperative standpoint. Are we using all the tools that are available there? Can we better use what what's being offered? Are there
028things that we shouldn't use or that we should? To me, that part is more important necessarily than the the people that deliver those products. >> You're talking about all areas that were using the co-op, right? >> Not no eventually. Yes. But just in this case, >> item one is where you're kind of >> special ed programming. Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. And I'm sure as the review goes on, that stuff will be involved with it. >> Okay. Point of clarification. Um the second to the last page under compensation it says the hourly rate plus mileage or is it so you said >> no hourly hourly hourly excuse me hourly rate plus mileage. The hourly rate includes her lodging when she's here. Yes. >> Okay. Yep. >> Yep. >> Okay. Hey, do I have a motion to
029approve the contract? >> So moved. >> A motion by Eric. >> Seconded by Darla. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the special education assessment contract with Carol Potter say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 5.5 approve the long-term facilities maintenance plan. Let's see. We got that in front of us. Was there any questions or concerns from anybody on on that? That was operations, right? >> That was operations. Yeah. I'll turn that over to Ryan and Carmen if you would just want to kind of briefly give the outline of what what they're looking at tonight, please. >> All right. This is a 10-year um long-term facility maintenance plan. This is a formality for MD that we require the board to um approve every year. You should
030have four four pages in front of you. I'm going to try to make it as simple as I can. Um so they they calculate the revenue by taking our APUs times our average building age times 380 um dollars per APU. They come up with calculation of oh about two $2 million 500,000 of it goes to debt service the rest of it goes to the general fund. on the fourth page. Um it's not easy to read, but there's a running total of um our expenses and our revenues. So, we updated our expenses in the first column for this year's expenses and they they want us to have a plan for the next two or three years. So we've identified a couple projects that are the highest needs we feel and one of them would be the
031high school gym asbesus removal, the high school elevator, the uh three gym floors, and the prairie roof. So we entered all of our numbers in there. If you look at the bottom of page four, there's a running total. So, our prairie roof is obviously our biggest biggest expense. And if we do the next two phases, it's going to be around $3 million. So, over the next three years, it al you can see it decreases pretty significantly. um add the one thing with these they're just um it's an estimated of projects obviously through conversations that the board has had over the last um several years um you know John had presented I believe in November and then again in April some projects that um had been identified in the past um but as a board you
032guys still have the um you guys will still review and and decide what projects we're going to move forward with Um obviously um Joel and Josh and I will work with our custodial staff and try to identify um maybe get a better priority of projects. Um when we talk about the high school project, there's obviously a bigger conversation going on there. So like that gym area maybe can be combined with a project if we move forward at some point with that. Um obviously something else. So long-term facility maintenance. Um there used to be a separate health and safety fund. So, anything that's health and safety, like we had a fire marshall walk through um this year. So, all of those updates and stuff that he had identified came out of this money. So, that might
033not have been something that was maybe budgeted for. Um we usually just have a level health and safety based on our our annual expenditures. Obviously, this year there was a little bit more in there due to that fire marshall walk through and some things he identified that needed to be um updated to bring up to code. So, if we were to do 100% of the projects, and I did talk to Joel a little bit about this, at the end of 28, we'd only have $10,000 in the LTFM account, correct? Is that doing 100% of the projects? The the prairie the prairie roof is was taking down your balance. So, if you spend all your money on the prairie roof, yes, >> that's a little skimpy, but >> and just to clarify, the prairie roof right
034now we're done about 30% of it is my in my head >> 1.72 was budgeted for the first >> two fa it was the next two phases was about between 2.2 and 2.4 million after the 1.7. >> Right. Okay. That would complete the whole roof. >> Correct. >> So, another thing, and Joel can touch on it more in our discussion, was something we're probably going to have to consider in the future because it's a super expensive project, roofing of anything, is that's a nasty word, but we can look at using lease levy after 2025. Is that correct, Joel? Yeah, it's available now, but the we've already budgeted for the work we're doing now. So, it would be future portions of the roof if the board chose to do that as a funding source. Any project
035over $100,000 now qualifies for that with a new new state statute. >> So, we might have to consider that looking at our LTFM account at this point. I I think it's just important to know that what we're providing you today is a is a picture. Uh anything that we put out there is is a rough estimate with a rough plan. We have to show the state we have a a a method to how to use those funds. You have every authority to adjust those plans moving forward. Nothing that you're approving today is is set in stone. It just allows vision for the state to know that we would have a plan to utilize those funds if allocated. So, when do we decide on phase two and three of the prairie? Is that next winter? >>
036Yep, most likely. Yep. >> Okay. Is there anything else on the LTFM budget? Any questions, concerns from anybody? So once again, this is just something we're providing to the state and yeah, we can change it, but gives us an outlook. So do I have a motion to approve the long-term facilities maintenance plan. >> So moved. >> Motion by Lori. >> Seconded by Matt. Is there any further discussion? >> Mr. Chairman, just this is a yearly submitted plan >> every July. every July and so does this I mean compare I haven't didn't look back to how you know we have compared I guess you do have some historical charting but I mean are we able to obviously look at any trends >> yeah and I'll speak and you can speak more but we did look at
037that this afternoon and when we looked back at last year's plan the the roofing budget was was about half but it was out for much longer And we believe that part of the plan was to use general fund money, right, to to offset some of that cost. I think it's important to note that with LTFM, there's such narrow ways that we can use that money, whereas general fund money we can use in really any way that you all uh deem deem important. And so we'd really like to focus on LTFM money for LTFM projects, freeing up general fund money for other things that are needed. >> Okay. >> LTFM is one of the most restricted. Um, so we'll never get it exact, but we're trying to get it as close as possible if it does
038fit LTFM. We're going to use those most restrictive dollars specifically what they're designed rather than have to dip into the general fund. So you would have seen similar projects in years past where they made a generalized what the cost would be, but prairie risk roof still would have been 1.6 and about 800 might have come out of LTFM and the 800 would have had to come out of general fund. So, we're trying to get closer to uh true projects that fit those restrictions. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, we got a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? >> All those in favor of the long-term facilities maintenance plan say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. 5.6. Approve to declare surplus property. Joel. >> Yeah. The surplus
039property we have right now is a large um contingent of old technology, iPads, student devices, and then I believe a t-shirt screen printer from the high school that hasn't been used in a number of years. And so we're looking to uh sell those off and free up some space and some capital. >> Okay. Have a motion to declare surplus property. >> So moved. >> Motion by Eric. >> Second. Seconded by Darla. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor to declare surplus property say I. >> I. >> All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. 5.7 approve salary and benefits increase for our EL coordinator. >> I can do that. >> Who's got the data? >> Hold on. I got to find the data. Sorry. Um, so we this is one of our final um
040individual contracts that we um had finished negotiating. Um, we didn't quite get it finished before Mr. Langard left, but um, we did finalize it. Um, let me Sorry. 37. >> Okay. Um, so the total um cost is um 3.92 um%. What we're doing with this, there's a couple individuals that we talked about last time, too. We're getting them to a one-year contract, and that is to get them in the right um rotation with other um jobs similar to theirs, so then we're not constantly trying to play that catch-up game. Um so, there was a couple of those that we did that this year. Um this is the final one. And then the only negoti negotiations that we have left is with the teacher group. >> Okay. You said what? 3.92 >> 3.92 3.92%. >> Okay.
041Do I have a motion to approve the salary and benefits increase for the EL coordinator? >> So moved. >> Motion by Lori. >> Seconded by Darla. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the salary and benefits for the EL coordinator say I. I. >> All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 6.0 reports. Superintendent report. >> All right. Mr. Chairman, as this is my first board meeting in the role, I felt it was fitting to share um again tonight, what was shared on social media on my first day. And so with that, I'd like to share my introductory message of who I am, where I came from, and what will ground the work that I um plan to complete with the great team we have here. As a former student and proud
0421999 graduate of Warthingington schools, I understand firsthand the impact that community can have and has had on young people. The investments that were made for me, the support of community, and the opportunities provided to me by past and current educators has shaped my future in significant ways. And it's that same investment that I promised to make each and every one of our students as we strive to ensure they have the same future opportunities that were so generously provided to me and many others. On a personal note, uh a little bit about my family. Uh my wife and two wonderful children are here with me. Uh daughter currently attending college and a son who will be a sophomore at the high school. Like many of our uh families watching at home and those here tonight, uh
043I too experience day-to-day joys and challenges of raising a family. And that perspective directly informs my commitment to this community and its children. My professional journey has been dedicated entirely to education, spanning 21 years, all in St. Cloud. For 13 of those years, I had the priv privilege of serving as a teacher and activities director and a coach, engaging with students in the classroom, on the field, and through extracurricular activities. Following that, I spent seven years in building leadership as both a middle school uh principal and assistant principal. Most recently, I was lucky enough to be the executive director of operations at the district level, uh providing me the understanding of the organizational structures that support our schools. The tenure within a single district reflects one of my core values of loyalty. My intention now
044is to bring these experiences with that sense of loyalty back to Worthington and contribute to the outstanding work that's already underway. I have four pillars or beliefs uh in regard to education and they are here. Uh at the core of everything we will do will be the pursuit of creating positive outcomes for all students. This means recognizing the unique needs and strengths of every learner, providing them with rich educational experiences and equipping them with the skills, the knowledge and the confidence to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Whether through academic excellence, artistic expression, athletic achievement, or vocational training, we will strive to ensure that each student sees their full potential. My vision is built upon a foundation of clear communication and transparent decision-making. I'm hopeful already that the teams that I've been working with have
045seen that come through in some of the conversations we've had. I'm committed to providing an environment where dialogue is open, honest, and respectful, and allows for clarity on how and why decisions are made. It's my belief that lasting success isn't done in isolation. It demands collaboration. We must work together as students, parents, teachers, administrators, board members, and community partners. And through collaboration, we'll utilize the collective wisdom and strength of our entire community. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we'll be comm created, excuse me, committed to creating a safe and secure school. This commitment extends beyond the physical and uh well-being, beyond the physical safety and well-being within our buildings. It also encompasses the emotional well-being of everyone. We'll foster environments where every student feels valued, respected, supported, and empowered to learn. And this holistic approach to
046safety ensures our schools are true places for learning and growth. The district is a vital part of our community makeup. Our mission statement calls us out with a commitment to educational excellence. While challenges may arise and will arise, we'll address them together with perseverance and a shared vision. I'm incredibly excited to embark on the journey with everyone and to build upon the strong foundation that already exists and continue to be and make Warthingington schools continue to be a place of excellence and opportunity. So that's my report tonight. >> Thanks Joel. Okay, moving on. Instructional committee, has everything been covered? >> Um everything's been covered. There is one thing uh policy 620 credit for learning. um we discussed that it was going to be on the board agenda tonight for first approval, but we're going to
047bring it back to the instructional committee next month and uh tweak that a little bit. So, um policy 620 credit for learning will be something that we're discussing a little bit in depth. >> Okay. Operations Committee. >> Mr. Chairman, I think it'd be worth sharing that Mr. High Camp gave us an update on uh some safety adjustments at the high school. If you could elaborate on those if you choose. Absolutely. Um the plan right now that is in the works is a staffed secure entrance. And so uh when I say staffed, we're talking about a physical staff person um that we're looking to find within the system already. We're not looking to hire anyone new uh but to find somebody that um fits the the characteristics we think we need to um be placed at
048the north entrance of the high school. That would be the student parking lot. And the idea would be that that person would be the the in between before anyone would enter the building. Once the instructional day starts, that layer of security will also include a system. Um, we're looking into a variety of different options, but essentially what it would do is, uh, anyone that would look to enter our building would scan with an ID or provide a name with a little bit of personal information. It searches a database for specific crimes that we look to. My past experience is we look to crimes against children since they're coming into a school. And once that gets passed, each individual would have a small badge printed on a um on a sticky um print out that they
049could then wear. It would have their name, um their picture if they used an ID. It would have the date that they were there as well as the time that they entered. Uh and then once they were in the building, that would allow everybody to know um that that person has gone through some sort of security check prior to entering. We know already that it'll take a lot of communication on the other side of the building knowing that that that south entrance is one that does get used. Most likely removing the intercom system and the buzzer system that's currently there with clear signage and clear communication early on in the summer to direct everybody to that north entrance to come through where that staff member will be. So, we've got things in motion. Uh Principal
050Hastings is already looking at um staff that he has currently that could possibly be there. We're working with some local um local folks on how to adjust one of the windows to provide a slider so that we can communicate and pass items through without opening doors until we've verified that that person can enter our spaces. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> That's all, Mr. Chairman. >> Okay. Thanks. Anyone else have any other reports? Other business? Future business? If not meeting is adjourned.