May 19, 2026 at 6:30 PM - Regular School Board Meeting

001can't hear us. >> It's not super loud, but I can hear you. >> Okay, good. I just wanted to test it. And we can hear you, too. I don't know if you're able to adjust your volume on your computer if that will help you or not. No. Okay. >> No, it's more of a clarity thing. Good evening and welcome to the May regular school board meeting. Oh, I don't maybe welcome. Let me see if I know what's going on. Okay. Um, I would like to ask the clerk, the interim clerk loal to please do roll call. >> Member Banks >> here. Chair Eer here. Member Laughler Kemp >> here. >> Vice Chair Loeld is here. Um, clerk Mike Cell is excused. Treasurer Zidowski is Treasurer Zidowski >> here. >> Member Williams >> here. >> Superintendent

002Magus >> here. >> Assistant Superintendent Bonds >> present. >> Deputy Clerk Simone Zunich >> present. board secretary Patty Pquette >> here. >> Student representative from um East Kina Matala >> here. And our um student reps from Denfeld and ALC are excused tonight. >> Thank you. We will now if stand if you're willing and able to say the pledge of allegiance, please. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic of the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I am now looking for an approval of the agenda. >> Member Laughler Kemp has moved for an approval of the agenda. Do I have a second? >> Second. Member Loal has the second. We will do this through um

003a roll call as member Saddowski is um with us virtually. So, clerk, would you call the um vote, please? >> Jill, >> for the I got it. Okay. Um all those uh in favor of accepting the agenda. Um I don't I guess Member Banks. Yes. >> Chair Eer. >> Yep. >> Member Laughler Kemp. >> Yes. >> I vote yes. Um, member Zadowski. >> Yes. >> Member Williams. >> Yes. >> Our agenda passes. Thank you so much. We now have an agenda. Moving on. Next, I'll turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds for our school and community recognition for the month of May. >> Thank you and good evening board and community and guests. Um, I'm excited today. We have two opportunities to recognize not only individuals but groups. And so, uh, for the first one,

004I'm thrilled. I'm smiling because this group behind me or to the right and left of me, they put a smile on my face. Uh, something I know I needed tonight and I really appreciate them for doing that. And so, let's get to it. Who are these wonderful people? I am thrilled to recognize a truly remarkable group of individuals who have become an incredible blessing, an incredibly blessing to our community. The volunteers from the Asbury United Methodist Church. They embody kindness and generosity. They constantly go above and beyond to support our students, families, and staff at Laura MacArthur Elementary School. Their dedication impacts our school each and every week. Every Thursday they distribute food for our school backpack program. During the winter holidays they sit in our main office for three whole days to help parents

005collect gifts for their children. They also bring joy to our bimonthly peacemaker awards by serving cookies, lemonade, and several of them read in the classroom to our students. Furthermore, they support our educators by providing delicious meals during the parent teachers conferences. Every time these volunteers walk into the building, they spread friendly cheer up and down the halls, making our schools warmer and brighter places. Please join me in extending our deepest gratitude and a well welldeserved round of applause to the magnificent volunteers of Asbury United Methodist Church. >> I'm going to bring up our principal uh who has also has a few words uh that she would like to share as well. Yeah, I just I just want to share my gratitude um and to acknowledge all of the effort and time that these volunteers put

006into our building. Truly, we would not be able to function the way that we do without them. And they are a truly truly important part of our community and we just really look forward to having them here every week. So, thank you for helping me honor them here tonight. >> And of course, they want to introduce themselves. So, they have to pass. >> My name is Sue Baker. I was a teacher for 32 years. And let me When I moved to Duth, can you hear me? I thought, you know what? I'm ready to go back into the classroom when I started as a substitute teacher, and I immediately felt right at home. You have a wonderful, wonderful school district, especially Laura MacArthur Elementary. So, we are grateful to be able to help. We would love

007to do many more things if we could, but thank you to each of you in your school district, on this school board here, your administration. You are appreciated. You really are. >> My name is Paul Rickstead. >> I I also am a retired teacher teaching at Ordin for 13 years and then Denfeld for 22 years and retired quite a while ago. And I I find it uh enlightening and really fun to be among teachers and students again. >> I'm Sharon Piconado. >> Just leave it on. >> Just leave it the green. >> I have never been a school teacher, but I did graduate from high school and and that's back when we had Morgan Park had a high school. I'm Barb Briggstead and I'm a retired teacher. I'm Alice Breny. I'm a continuing Sunday school

008teacher over 40 years. Um, I got this ball going in 2022 and we've just grown and we've become so connected to Laura MacArthur and I thank you for letting us do that. I'm not a retired teacher, but I am a retired PTA president from Laura MacArthur. And my name is Pat Anscomm. I worked at the Valley Youth Center. Yes. And um we really enjoy working with the students. I'm Barb Cakotovich. And um I went to Laura MacArthur when I was that age, when it was the other building across the street. And I love going to the new Laura MacArthur. It's great to see in the classrooms the teachers working with the students so well. I feel like the kids really have a really good staff there. So, it's been a fun time. >> Of course,

009they asked for a picture. You will have a picture. Uh Adele Willis is going to uh monitor that. But until then, just hold tight. I'm sure the board is going to want to come around and shake your hand. So, just if you can just >> Thank you. >> Great experience. truly. >> Hi, how are you? >> I married your grandfather, right? >> Yeah. That's what I miss. >> You guys Thank you. >> Great job. Thank you. >> And I know she's going to take a pick out there. You want to grab yourself? >> Good. It's a lot of fun. >> Thank you. Oh, you're so welcome. Best of luck. >> Recognized We'll bring us all back to finish the school and community recognition. chair, I board, I I told you we had uh another exciting

010opportunity uh to to recognize uh some outstanding individuals >> who support these student athletes. So, today we are going to uh recognize and honor our student athletes. So, I'm really pleased and have the privilege to honoring these incredibly uh gifted students um for the things they do. To pull off what these students have accomplished takes an immense amount of dedication, late night practice, and resilience. Every student we are recognizing tonight qualified for the Minnesota High School League state tournament or meet. Whether they competed individually or push through as the entire team, they represented our district. I'm going to turn it over to the coaches who I have here. They're going to not only introduce themselves, but also then introduce their um students who either made it to the state or a meet. And let's start

011off with uh boys soccer boys soccer team. >> Uh good evening. I'm Scott Anderson, coach of the uh the Hunter boys soccer team. Uh gentlemen, you guys can stand up too and come on up here. Um I didn't know I was supposed to speak tonight. Uh but here we are. Um it's a team that, you know, we we started out kind of struggling a little bit. We lost some games early on and then things just started to gel and go at the right time uh you know to where we were competing for state uh and got there. You know uh it's a young team. It's a a team that's going to keep pushing themselves in the future too. You know, we we plan to be there the next few years actually. Um I'm going to

012have each of the boys just introduce themselves really quick. Tell you what grade they're in. Uh and we'll move on from there. Uh thanks for the opportunity. Uh, hi. My name is Aiden Daniel. I'm uh one of the senior captains. Uh, hi, my name is Leonard Jennings. I'm also senior captain, first team all state. >> My name is Keegan Eer and I am manager. My name is Daniel Fesey and I'm part of the starting 11 as a sophomore. >> My name is Jack Scowski and I'm a sophomore. My name is Marty Witherspoon and I'm a freshman. >> My name is Carson. I'm a sophomore. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Next up, uh Denfield again, fall of 2025 cross country. And then followed by that, we'll have the girls swim. Here it says Denfeld. Anyone else?

013All right. So then moving on, we have a a full list. Uh Denfield for winter sports. We have uh Nordic Ski Cadel Pole. >> She's at a track. She's at track meet. >> Uh for speech, we have our speech coach here. >> There's two of >> two. There you go. >> Thank you. I'm Brian Shing, the assistant speech coach for Denfeld. And we have a couple of our speakers here, but I'll turn it over to the head coach here. >> So, my name is Jill and I am the retiring head coach. and we had six of our five of our students represent us at the Minnesota State High School League speech um tournament >> and I'll let them introduce and then I'll just share with you who who couldn't make it tonight due to other

014conflicts. >> Oh, >> um my name is Paisley Kern and I'm a freshman. My name is Lorie Swenson and I'm a senior captain. >> And we also had senior captain Natalie Anderson who ended up taking um sixth place in her event. We had senior Nissa Johnson that couldn't make it tonight either and she took 11th in her event. Um Paisley Kern took 11th in the state in her event and um Laura Lee Swinson took 14th in her event. Um and we have also Jake Jacob um Jacob >> Waxter who also with Natalie took sixth place in their event at the state tournament receiving medals and it's pretty special that they achieved that high high result. So congratulations. Thank you. East fall sport we have girls soccer team. the girls soccer team for Easter. We move

015on to the debate. We have debate here. Debate coaches are here. Thank you. >> All right, back up again. So, I'm with the combined East and Denfeld debate program and I'm here to uh recognize two of our state qualifiers. Uh, one is here tonight in Lincoln Douglas and I'll invite them up. Alex, want to come on up and you can just introduce yourself, your grade, and your event. >> Uh, I'm Alex Singer. I'm a senior over at East and I do Lincoln Douglas. And so Alex um was a second place section qualifier in our section and got to go to state at the down and it was supposed to actually take place at the main U uh but we eventually moved over to Egan High School. And then uh Llaya Rockinan who could not be

016here tonight uh was an atlarge section qualifier for state debate and she both of them um placed respectfully at the tournament and represented our duth east greyhounds and our whole duth community real proudly. So, thank you for recognizing. >> Thank you. For winter, we have um East Dance Team. >> Good evening. Thank you for recognizing these student athletes this evening. My name is Kim Chick and I'm the head coach of the Duties dance team and I do have some athletes here with me tonight. Um, our sports specifically in the for the state high school league has three different categories, single A, double A, and AAA. And we are in the AAA category with all the larger schools in the state. And we compete two different styles being jazz and high kick. And since we moved

017up to AAA 15 years ago, this is the third time we've advanced in jazz and the first time we've advanced in high kick. So, we were able to represent our community in the top 12 for both of those categories. And I will have my athletes introduce themselves and say their grade. >> I'm Cadence Graver. I'm a junior and qualified for All State. >> I'm Analy Couch and I'm a sophomore. I'm Nora Cool and I'm a junior and I qualified for All State. >> I'm Alexa Gunderson and I'm a senior captain. So, we have a total of 43 kids in our program and so I'm happy that they were here to join us this evening. So, thank you again for recognizing. >> Next up, we have from East High School, we have Nordic Ski. So, I'll

018let the coaches come on up. Hello, my name is Bonnie Fuller Casque and I'm the head coach for the boys and the girls Nordic ski team at East High School. My husband Dave Caskque has been my assistant um since 2001 when I became head coach there. And I would like to thank you for honoring our students. I don't have any skiers here tonight. They're at a track meet. So many of our students are three um sport athletes. So they're I'm they're not able to make it. But thank you so much. We have students from 7th through 12th grade on our Nordic ski team, as does Denfeld. And um it's really fun coaching these kids. They come in, some of them are really good skiers that have skied with their families, others have never skied before,

019and we help them get um skis, boots, and poles, and teach them to ski. And you know, our skiers at East have been very successful over the years. um they make they have won or and made it to state for many many of the years that I've been coaching there and and they're also very very good students and like I said many of them are three sport athletes. So thank you for honoring and recognizing these kids. They're absolutely fantastic. And like I said, I've been coaching head coach since 2001 at East High School, and I certainly would not be doing this if these kids weren't so great. And year after year after year, they're just fantastic kids. Um, and that pretty much is through the whole state of Minnesota. All the skiers that I've met

020and Denfeld kids are all fantastic. So, it's really, really fun to work with these skiers and thank you for supporting them. >> Thank you. I guess I'll ask and provide the opportunity if there's another coach uh in the audience or adviser if you're here and you would like to have an opportunity to recognize your team. Seeing none. So, uh, board and community, uh, this is our first opportunity for such a recognition because we thought it was really important and we got that, uh, this advice through a lot of individuals saying, you know, is there a way for us to really recognize our student athletes, um, and students who participate and go to competition in state and so forth. And so, we said yes, we'll figure it out. So, I want to thank all of the

021coaches who came tonight, all of the players. Congratulations again on your accomplishments and achievements. and we're going to figure out a better cadence for this next time, but we are really pleased of all of the individuals who came out today um to represent their team and their school. So, thank you everyone. >> Can we have just a picture with the student athletes? Is that fair? >> Absolutely. >> Okay, Adele, I would like >> student athletes and the um students who participated in activities as well. >> Sorry about that. Didn't mean to not be inclusive. >> Where would you like to take it? Uh Adele. >> Okay. >> She's she's pointing to the hall. >> So we're gonna outside. >> Thank you. Congratulations. I think we can call everybody. Oh, Jill's getting Okay. And then we'll

022start. All right. Oh, did we lose the superintendent? Oh, here he comes. Welcome back, John. Alrighty, that was wonderful. Um, that was just great. So now let's move on to our report of the superintendent and I will turn it over to superintendent Maggus. Thank you. Yes, and really appreciate all the community recognition and recognition of our student athletes and student activities participants. And I will just uh cast here one moment. All right. So for my report today, uh first of all, we always start off with our mission, vision, and core values. Our mission is that every student every day will be empowered with learning opportunities for growth, creativity, and curiosity, and preparation for their future in a global community. and that duth our vision is that duth public schools provides an academically engaging safe and

023inclusive environment with high expectations and responsible use of resources. Our core values are learning, excellence, equity, collaboration and belonging. And for our topics tonight, we have our student representative reports uh and followed by a little bit about our budget um updates and then legislative update and then an update on our aerial learning center and then any other topics that the board would like to ask me about. Uh we have one of our student representatives today here today uh representative uh Mala from uh East High School and go ahead and share. >> Okay. Good afternoon everyone. Unfortunately, I don't have anything new from student forum since we haven't had a May meeting yet. However, I still have a couple different things that I wanted to discuss. I recently had the opportunity to engage with Stacy Elmas,

024I'm sorry if I butchered that, a youth council and we were talking about a youth council initiative that aims to bring together students from ALC, Denfeld, and East and I hopefully will have further details on that in June or even September. Additionally, I connected with the real talk group at ordin kind of like a student council and it was inspiring to witness their development of leadership skills and hear more about the tangible impact that they had on the school lunch changes so it's more efficient for everyone there. Seeing students take pride in their contributions to the school community was truly rewarding. Our recent tail tailgate event featured activities such as a hot dog eating contest, bean bag toss, and spikeball. These events serve as valuable opportunities for student engagement, fostering a sense of community and

025providing a relaxed atmosphere before athletic competitions. While the warm weather impacted attendance, we are optimistic about increased participation next year. Just recently, we also had our orchestra concert and it went very well where each of the seniors had the opportunity to perform a solo. Our spring athletic teams, including track, boys tennis, baseball, softball, and boys and girls lacrosse, are advancing to playoffs very shortly, and I look forward to sharing updates on their progress. Tomorrow is our final pause day of the year, and it will have yearbook distribution, cap and gown distribution, and ice cream social for Hound Pack, and time for homework completion. Students are still trying to balance academic responsibilities with extracurricular involvement. To address challenges with making up for missed assess missed assessments, we are trying to think of potential schedule adjustments for

026pause days to better support students needs in the upcoming academic year. As the school year concludes, there is heightened stress associated with final grades, assignments, and engaging in fun activities. However, I'm confident that we will finish these last couple of weeks strong. And that's all from me. As always, thank you for your opportunity for this opportunity and your time. >> Thank you. What a great report and we really always love hearing from our students. As far as a brief update on our budget, we've had a lot on budget recently, but just a just a really short uh note here. Uh that as discussed, our plans for our 27 26 27 budget include a total of um nearly $4.3 million in estimated reductions from the the general budget fund. Uh these are are reductions that we

027needed to make due to a variety of circumstances. uh one element is the um the increasing needs in special education and so thus there there are increasing costs and again I want to reiterate as I do every time that this is not about uh blaming special education or blaming special education students it's about the fact that the state doesn't um and the federal government don't don't fund special education fully and so that that becomes challenging for us as well as the rising costs of our health insurance and other insuranceances and uh the implementation of some of the um unfunded mandates from the state. Uh that is in addition to rising gasoline costs and and other other issues of inflation have caused our budget uh deficits. And again, we have budget deficits very similar to the

028other 50 stu school districts in our association metropolitan school districts. All of them have an average of about $4.5 million in reductions. Unfortunately, uh, as with most districts in Minnesota, uh, continued reductions will need to occur unless there's a change in state funding formula, which we did not see a significant change in state funding formula from the recent uh, omnibus bill that I'll talk about later in my report. Uh, we should consider the possibility of local operational referenda uh, to assist in u, mitigating some of these u reductions though. I think it's something that we need to I know we have a workshop coming up in the near future where we can hopefully discuss that. We're working on dates for that. But uh it's important for us to consider these budget impacts because to make

029multi-year uh multi-year, multi-million dollar reductions as a district is uh goes beyond painful. It goes beyond uh seeking efficiency. It goes into really having direct impact on on student programming. And we've heard a lot about that uh those impacts even yet tonight. As far as a legislative update, again, I'll share some information and some of the information that I share uh will be relatively uh brief and I would say that we're still digging into what are the impacts. So, so if I don't necessarily have um if you have specific very specific questions on impact, I'm not sure that I'll be able to answer all those questions today because we're just getting the information as of as of yesterday. Uh but for our K12 education, the final budget agreement totaled uh $31.7 million in one-time spending

030spread across several budget areas and bills. The legislature also passed a small omnibus education policy bill. So of that 37 $31.7 million total, uh there was compensatory revenue which allocated 11 million over two years to cushion funding transitions. So, as you know, we're making some changes in comped review, and that guarantees that districts will have at least 66% of the um financial year uh 2026 site revenue. Mental health received uh 12.25 million for school linked behavioral mental health and 3.8 million for youth crisis services. And we'll begin to explore our possibilities of increasing our funding there. Uh there was $4 million uh for anonymous threat reporting related to safety. Uh thinking about mandated district-wide implementation by July of 2028. So wanting to make sure that we have uh the ability to report safety issues anonymously

031so that we can look at them more deeply. Also, tax and operations allowed for operating capital to cover utilities and creates seasonal tax aid to uh to cut voter approved levies by up to 50% in resort cabin areas. And I think that's something you've heard a lot in the news here because we have a lot of uh seasonal properties and it's great to to see that um that the taxes for those seasonal properties will go in part to benefit our schools. As far as other legislative updates related to policy and operations, there was some work done around the read act which extend extended uh teacher training flexibility. Uh there was a 5.5 hour reduction in the mandated annual screeners for struggling students in grades uh four and above and it also integrates libraries into the

032literacy plans. So thinking about libraries and how they are impacted uh or how they impact literacy. There's work done around pensions with TRA uh basically requiring employee employer contributions for reemployed retirees and then uh lowers return to work a agreement age to 59.5. So I believe it was at 62 and so it's it's uh decreased by two and a half years. also student safety and governance. There were there was a bill that criminalized grooming uh basically triggering law enforcement to notify Pelsby, which is the licensing bureau and required broader polling places um in placement for multi-county special elections. So those were some things under governance and things under student safety. Some other things related to major ballot and infrastructure items. uh this fall we will see a constitutional amendment and that places a measure on

033November ballot for the the uh to reform permanent school fund distributions. Now there's uh basically a a permanent school fund. It has to do with forestry and some of the mineral um extraction and and basically there's a school fund that that um we were the state was only using some of the interest from it, but they're going to use some of the the um the um principal because because it's growing so much and so they they wanted us to be able to use that. But I think it's important to note, I know sometimes people might think as we go into the fall, oh, this permanent school fund that saves all all of our situation, but but not at all. It will it'll probably make a difference of maybe a couple hundred,000 $200 to $300,000 for

034our district. So, when you see permanent school fund as an increase, we certainly welcome it, but it's not a uh beall end all saver. It's something that will have um relatively minor impact, but it's important for us to vote for and it's important for us to continue to promote. And then uh infrastructure for a million dollars for safe routes to school programs uh via the bipartisan bonding bill. So, keeping those safe routes to school and I know that we've done work uh on those and I think it's important for us to continue that work. Also, I have a very brief update on our area learning center. Some good news that we're seeing. Uh we continue to work with the Minnesota Department of Education on addressing some of the concerns invited or outlined in their desk

035review findings. We're close to finalizing an agree and I can't go into detail about it yet because it's not public in the other district. Uh but we're very close to finalizing an agreement with another area school district which is very likely going to allow us to continue to offer targeted services such as our K8 summer programming. That was something that we were really concerned about might be in jeopardy, but we will know more next week and things are moving very positively in that direction. I feel cautiously uh very optimistic about that. And then we're also ready to move forward with alternative learning programming for the fall semester and finalizing those plans as well. So we won't be operating as a area learning center. We'll be operating as a alternative learning program much of which will

036be very similar to what we're doing. Um, well, I shouldn't say that much of the many of the structures of what we have in place can be similar, but there are certainly things that we're going to change as far as how we're uh tracking student work and working on attendance and things like that. And just like I reiterated about special education and and um the funding there, I want to reiterate that we are we are not blaming uh the the area learning center for for the current situation. We're all leaning into it together and thinking about how are we going to how are we going to improve this situation? how we're going to meet compliance and how are we going to move forward with reinvisioning and how we can best serve our atrisisk learners. And

037that concludes my update for tonight. >> Member Laughler Camp appreciate your update. Uh John, uh Superintendent Magus, um guess just a couple questions. Um, and and first of all, thank you everyone who uh went down to the capitol and lobbyed and I know our district uh we we spent a lot of time down there and uh we um uh in lots of different ways and so really appreciate that. And I know Saturday I was texting and emailing still uh because uh of the session uh not ending until over the weekend but on some issues. Um I have I guess a couple questions with the what what you might understand um with the mental health grants that uh have been approved. Um do we have a sense um how we may apply for that? How we

038are going to um what kind of impact? Um, so I have that question and then I I think just in relationship to um the speakers we heard tonight particularly around uh mental health um uh and uh our school social workers and you know speaking as a school social or as social worker myself I I'm very concerned about um the cuts um and and so can you share um also for the public um what cuts are being looked at in the areas of mental health and um and our school social workers. >> Sure. Uh and we may need some support from um perhaps on the on the reductions in some of the social work at the elementary level. Um but or or assistant superintendent bonds, but when it comes to the grant uh or the the

039funds that are coming available through the state, we're just learning about that. But we always very very actively pursue any any possible uh grant opportunities. We've had some recent gra grant opportunity through the county that we were able to increase for social emotional learning and uh we've also uh done quite a bit to make sure that we're reallocating uh significant portions of our money towards uh programs like uh check and connect. I know that's not uh directly with mental health professionals, but it is it is certainly a wraparound support for for students that are suffering from uh challenges and trauma. Uh but when it comes to the uh mental health report or mental health reductions and the things that we've had for reductions in uh some of the uh social work positions, uh Mr. Bonds,

040maybe you can address or do you want uh to call upon Director Sparts >> if she's ready um for um that specific question because I I wasn't prepared to have that specific question answered. Um but we do have that information located on our district website. we have a detailed account of the positions that have been reduced and so I don't have that up and and the quantity but we can pull that up quickly in a moment but maybe director parts have it uh at the ready. >> Um can I have you repeat the specific question so I make sure my answer addresses it? >> You know we had a lot of speakers speak towards um um the cuts uh that are being proposed for mental health and school social workers. I've had a number of

041school social workers reach out to me um uh as a social worker myself and and so I guess I just wanted us to clarify as much as we can today um what the proposed cuts are to help the public understand >> understand I don't have the spreadsheet in front of me but oh >> yeah they pulled it up so what I can tell you in my in the elementary world because I I don't know about secondary but the elementary we did have some reduction of general education funded portions of social workers. We still are maintaining the special education portion of social work because that's required by IEP or the the um the plans for special education students. And so um there there were a couple schools I think they're showing some of that right now.

042So we have a 0.5 uh social worker at Congden. Uh there was 0.5 special education funded and 0.5 general education funded and we're having to reduce the general ed.5 portion there. Uh then looking at um sorry I'm just skimming here to find there was a point4 40% reduction of Lester Park's uh social worker and those duties were reassigned and there was a point4 uh social worker at Stow uh duties reassigned >> and that means that the point4 general education portion of the STO social worker was reduced but the 6 special education portion of that social worker is maintained just for you to understand that it's not full reductions of these positions. It's the general education and then at some point uh human resources or um the student services department, they're going to take the special

043education portions of these social workers and they're going to quilt them together, if you will, across our schools. That's how that will work. >> So that that would be for social work. We also see here that there was a counselor reduced at Denfeld and so that was the elementary. Then at at uh high school there was a counselor reduced at uh Denfeld and a counselor reduced at East. Those were increases that we made in mental health during uh COVID. And so we've had to um as as the co pre prep preandemic uh levels that we had for staffing, we've had to return to those because of the de decrease in the funding that we have uh through through the the COVID relief funds and things of that nature. Uh looks like there's also a U

0441.0 mental health practitioner position at Denfeld that was reduced as well. That that would not be the same as a licensed position, but it's somebody that is working with and supporting our students. So those are real and meaningful reductions. Uh and I I think what we've tried to do as much as possible is when we looked at our guiding change, we we talked about um trying to make sure that making sure that we maintained our essential mental health supports. I think that that that becomes a gray area is what what's defined as essential and what is not defined as essential. But we still tried to do as much as possible to preserve mental health as one of the top priorities in addition to avoiding reductions in the classroom. >> You're going to also hear about

045and I heard them mention tonight about a reduction at LOL that actually is and you're going to hear about some of these types of reductions that have to do with our funding streams. So the achievement in integration grant that we get that we're writing right now um is overspending. So we had to reduce some of the um staff that we fund out of that. Uh LOL used to be a partner school with the racially identifiable school with Myers Wilkins. It is no longer a partner school in the ANI grant and so it naturally won't be funding as much at LOL. So there is some adjustments to grants and different funding streams that aren't a part of this but do have to do with right sizing like title one American Indian education achievement and integration. So

046that's that's a different subject but yet related to some reductions. the other if I could branch on to some some of the other conversation about staffing as well since we're on that topic. There was a lot of conversation about um different people in different positions one and I'm not going to go into individual circumstances but uh when a teacher does not have their required lensure in a particular subject area we have to follow the lensure law and the contract uh that we have in place and so if a teacher doesn't have the required lensure to be in their area they can submit for out of field placement which is nice because it offers flexibility but there is a stipulation that if there is somebody who is considered qualified and licensed that sometimes that person can

047bump that person out of out of a position. And so sometimes that occurs and even if somebody might be a very beloved staff member and have certain other uh skills and talents uh we have to make sure that we follow our lensure uh rules and that that it's also something that we're contractually bound on and when we when I've talked to u you know our our um teachers union president they they agree that you know despite the impact on certain individuals we have to follow policy and we have to follow statute on on that >> member lal. >> Oh, sorry. Sorry. Member. >> Yeah. So, you mentioned that about reassignment and I I guess I I kind of didn't quite hear who who were reassigned and where were they reassigned to when you talked about

048reassignment of our social workers? Um I'm I'm not quite sure that I'm allowed to speak about individuals right now. >> I'm not talking specific but kind of in a general way. If there were reassignments >> if a social worker or another position gets cut by a portion of their full-time equival equivalency then they can have a position that might cross two schools. Then they might take this 6 special educate. I'll just stick with social workers, a social work position here and then there might be a point. 4 at another school that becomes available and they take that point4 and become whole. Now, now they're full-time special education social worker, but they might be at two different sites. So that reassignment of their point4 not out of general education but out of special education things like

049that might happen which we're in the midst of right now actually >> and I would offer um Brenda uh director Spar did a great job of giving you a description of one but I know um our director for HR um is here as well he can also describe the process that's followed uh through the union and contractual uh rights in terms of bumping. So, he is here to um you know, he can speak to some of those in general because Director Sparts is correct. It's hard to really get to in the weeds and specifics about individuals >> and and I wasn't asking for that. I was just uh I want the public to understand when you talk about reassignment, what does that mean and what is the impact with it? Got >> thank you. >>

050We also have contractual obligations having to do with seniority. What that comes into play too. Member Laughler Camp, are you good? >> I have a few more questions, but I'll let somebody else. >> Member Loel, then member Williams. >> Yep. And I'm I'm interested in that legislative update and I realize the limitations we all have and we'll just continue to see, you know, you're good about sending emails that you get through our professional association, but you know that the mental health, you know, I think what what I'm interested in at the board table is there is some money coming in. I can see that in actuality the um mental health bill that passed, you know, will will give us something like $30 adjusted per pupil unit and I know that doesn't go far, but you

051know, but will it do something? Will will we be able to make a a will we use it to bring back a potential staff person or or does the money just kind of get lost in how small it is? It just kind of funnels. But, you know, just interested in those kinds of saving um opportunities we might have because of what just finished on Sunday um our legislative session. So, you know, I'll continue to dig in. There is opportunity for schoolboard members to listen to a a 9:00 a.m. MSBA um recap of the legislative session this Friday as they've done every Friday. And you can actually go in and listen to any of the updates. Like if you went in to look at the mental health bill from two weeks ago, you'll see them reflect

052a little bit about where that's moving and how that's going. So, you know, lots of lots of potential, but I guess um I don't know. We we've been in this for I've been here for nine years. I guess the legislative um sessions never just give us everything we need at all. and we're just scraping to to see if there's something we can do to apply it directly to something we haven't done. But um and I think that there's some potential for safety monies to be also kind of, you know, the way the bill landed, I think there's some opportunity for safety grants to come into mental health areas as well, maybe. Um just a a um I I think um I want to thank Superintendent Magus for kind of highlighting Senator Hoschild who's from our

053Northland area bill that passed about the the seasonal um property tax that will go back to the school district. Not sure how that impacts Duth. We um Senator Hoschild seems to have a lot of information about the Iron Range area, but I don't know if it impacts our area very much. um and just appreciate the updates on the other areas as well, but certainly still continue to dig into that legislative um session that ended. >> Thank you, Member Williams. Oh, sorry. >> Okay. >> Um I was going to say I appreciate uh member Laughler Kemp bringing up those um concerns about mental health and social workers. I guess I would like it if you could clarify or say straight out or if this is if I'm understanding correctly um the social workers are now limited

054to working with sped only and um we don't have social work services for gened. That's what I'm hearing. In some cases that is true. We still do have general education social workers in some of our schools. >> Okay. Thank you, >> member Laughler. So, so that thank you for for that um because I was trying to phrase that question around gen um general education students which is many of our students across the district and particularly the cuts that we're making with social workers at the elementary level uh where we need to be uh for kids with mental health needs at that level. And so I I'm really concerned um about uh our gened students as well and those cuts. And I hope we have a plan for writing grants uh that might be or might

055not be available at the state level. And I guess I as a board member will look forward to uh hearing what we're going to do and who's going to do it because those grants aren't going to come through unless we have a good plan because they're very going to be very competitive this year. um like they always are, but even more so because of all the cats. So, it's just extremely concerning to me. Um and just to be clear, in the elementary schools, we maintain I don't want to misspeak most if not all of the social emotional behavior specialist support in each of the schools. As a matter of fact, we're adding a 6 to Laura MacArthur if you remember. That was last year. The year before they made some choices and kept a social

056worker who they will still have actually a gened social worker over there. I think she's a point8 over there. And now we're adding a 6 SEB specialist to their team as well. And so now all of our elementaryaries will have social emotional behavior specialist on staff. and I appreciate that, but I don't believe the SCB uh staff are trained social workers, are they? >> Um, maybe half of them. >> And we have a we have a therapist as one. We have a school psychologist as another one. I think there's at least four of them are social workers. There's a varied skill set that sits within that SEB specialist position, which is kind of interesting. And they all come with varied skill sets, but most of them, if not all, don't quote me on that, are

057are some part of mental health support in their their real job. >> So, I would say that um social work is is extremely important to us as a school district, especially when we think about elementary age students. Uh I think about uh my own son who benefited significantly from a lot of intervention from his social worker as he was uh being raised. I think about my mom who was trained as a social worker. And I I just want to reiterate that we will uh really be digging into how can we how can we make sure that this has the least impact possible. But then even more importantly, how are we digging into those those new mental health grants and what can we do to to uh do our best to to fund those positions? I

058think we are and I've expressed this in in individual conversations with board members too that we are at a unfortunate financial crossroads where some of the situations where we've we've um we've tried to not make reduction and hold um hold certain positions safe that we are beginning to have to have impact on those positions and I'm I'm very concerned concern that next year when we have to look at cutting another $5 million or more if we're not pursuing a referendum uh that that those impacts will be even greater in in these areas. But but other areas that we've talked to the public and said we aren't going to reduce in these areas. But if we don't have the funding and the funding continues to be reduced and the state doesn't doesn't come through um it's

059it's becoming very difficult. And I don't mean to to any way minimize the pain of these reductions, the impact on students. U I think we have to be very creative in what we do to try and make sure that we're we're uh funding those positions as as fully as possible and knowing that the social emotional uh behavioral needs and the social work needs of our students are are growing. That's they're they're they're growing exponentially and we we want to make sure that we are providing what we can and uh that we're seeking creative solution to these these important challenges that we're facing. >> Um I I al just have a question as well. Um so I just want to start out by saying I always believe that everybody who works in this district works for

060in good faith for kids and we have really difficult decisions. Um and that doesn't stop the need from our kids. We have to continue to do more with less. But I think when we talk about mental health and social workers, especially um to member Laughler Kemp's point in the elementary schools, this is where our littles are learning to regulate themselves. And I appreciate that. Um we are we are protecting and maintaining that we can for our special education social workers, but we also have a lot of general education kids, especially I would say in our schools uh especially our elementary schools on the east side. it seems like there was a lot of um reductions in their general ed social workers. And so I'm just asking um the administrative team to have realistic conversations about

061where that workload goes and to be open and honest and transparent with the people that are going to have to pick that workload up. Um, and so that that would be my request of all of you is just to we all just acknowledge these elementary school kids are still going to need general education social workers, especially if we don't want to see problems continue to manifest in the, you know, very calm times of middle school, right? I mean, we know that things become turbulent in middle school and then in high school. And so I again I would ask um same as member Laughler camp, same as member Williams and the rest of the board that we are realistic about what happens to those kids in general education when they need access to social workers. And

062so I would um ask that maybe at a later time maybe we can have some idea of how this workload is going to be spread out and what's going to happen um for our gened kids in the elementary schools. I guess just a followup to what you're saying, Chair Eater, is not only um what it's going to look like, but who's going to be doing it and that they're the right professional trained staff to be uh meeting the needs of our kids. Um you can't just stick someone who has a certain degree. I mean, school social workers are professionally trained in many areas. Uh that um uh so it just can't be someone who might have a therapist degree. So I guess that would be my hope as well is that we're really being thoughtful

063of the background of who we're filling the gaps with. >> Doesn't look like we have any other questions. Thank you so much, Director Sparks, for coming up for your time with us. Okay, that appears to conclude the superintendence report. Next, we have a schedule of a meeting and events attached to the agenda. And now we'll go on to reports of our standing committee. I'm Assistant Superintendent Bonds. We'd be happy to hear your report on the monthly committee of the whole. >> Thank you, uh, board. The committee hall was held on May 5th of this year. Um, under events and equity, uh, there were a couple presentations provided. One of them by Ray Queener. He's the owner and principal consultant for Teamworks. He provided information related to the district analytics strategy discussion and presentation. It was

064related to our enrollment uh, capacity in the district. And so we really appreciate the information that he provided regarding uh the enrollment um opportunities that we have across our district and where students attend school. Also there was a presentation provided by Sarah Lalin who is our coordinator for our check and connect program. Uh she provided a verbal presentation. I appreciate uh Sarah for her presentation. As always, she always uh has stup uh students and uh families uh with her to provide uh stories uh regarding their experience with check and connect mentors. And so I really appreciate the information that they provided uh for the board and the community under supporting every students. There was a discussion related to our social studies curriculum review and adoption uh presentation provided by our curriculum team. Um again additional

065information that um you know was shared related to all of the resources that we are considering purchasing for our social studies adoption. the team provided information on how we go through the process and and the discussions that are held with uh teachers and administrators on the adoption of our um standards as it relates to uh social studies. And so just want to appreciate that team. Of course, it was director Sparts, Director Larva, um Susan Schmidt who was our secondary teacher and um London Goody uh who was also our elementary teacher for social studies. They all provided information that was extremely valuable and appreciated. So, thank them for all the information they've been um gathering and sharing with everyone. Also, Greg Kger is our director of technology. He and Director Larva presented information related to the

066artificial intelligence. It's the ongoing discussion on our district's um work and research behind uh the sharing of Gemini with students. And so I want to again uh thank the team and the community that has been working diligently on evaluating research and working with some of our community partners and educational leaders just to again help us inform ourselves as a district before we um before we are or when we decide to uh roll out Gemini uh to our students. So just want to thank that team for all of the hard work uh that they engaged in to uh educate us in the board and the community under improving systems. There was a presentation related to our AOC compliance report and next steps again by director Larva. Uh I want to thank her for all of the

067work uh that she has done and the team who also has helped her gather all the information as superintendent has shared earlier. We are actively making sure that we are um acknowledging the things that have been provided by MDS as things that we need to course correct and we are actively doing those things and we're making sure that we do everything we can to pro provide our students with the alternative educational experiences that they are desiring. So, I'm really pleased that we have a plan in place to ensure that our targeted services will be able to be provided this summer for those students who need that extra support. So, I want to thank that team um for all their work and director Larber specifically. And of course, uh Director Zunit, executive director Zunich provided information

068for the fiscal year 27 budget assumptions presentation. So, I want to thank her for all of that hard work. again uh superintendent has shared some information related to that and obviously we just had a little bit of more of information related to the impact of uh where we are budgetarily. So just want to thank everyone. It's it's it's been a um a a very challenging few months and again individuals as I think I heard board chair say uh a lot of individuals are working really hard trying to um figure out the best way to move forward under challenging times. So, I just want to thank all of our um teacher to learning and equity team, all of the finance team, and just everyone in the district who is working hard in this in this uh

069space here to behind the scenes um do everything they can to ensure staff receive the support and resources that they need out uh in the sites. And so, I just want to thank everyone there. Um and also want to thank all of our teachers. I know everyone's working really hard. It's uh challenging times and you probably hear to my voice because tonight has been also very um challenging and difficult to hear. Um but I understand where the passion comes from and I would be remiss not to acknowledge um that and and let individuals know that we hear them. Um and also that we are also and um have some really challenging and difficult decisions to make. I'll stop there board. Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. Oh, assistant Superintendent Bonds. Do we have any questions? I

070would encourage our community to go back and take a look at that um committee of the whole meeting. It it just has a lot of really good information um for the community as we sort of navigate what the next six months looks like for this district. Seeing no questions, I'll turn it over to the chair of HR business services, member Saddowski. >> Thank you, Chair. Can you all hear me? >> Yes. >> Great. Great. Well, we met for our HR business services committee meeting on Monday, May 11th. We did have some technical difficulties that day and so if you looked on YouTube for the meeting you may have seen that part of it um I don't think got recorded um but I think part of it did and um I'll going to go through um

071some of the highlights of our meeting um which went quite long that day. Um we started off with a guest presentation um with ICS and uh Brian Brown, our facilities manager and then Mark Edum from ICS joined us and they um went over a 2026 LTFM summer progress and I'll just kind of give a high level overview of those. Um, so in the winter winter of 2026, we have been working on our L elementary lighting replacement and our Lincoln Park lighting replacement. This summer, we're going to work on the Lakewood Elementary boiler replacement and the Snow Elementary replacement. And then next summer, um, at Denfeld, we're going to work on our HVAC and controls and Ley Park Middle School as well. And then in the summer of 2028, um, we'll work on the East High

072School HVAC controls and then your team, uh, HVAC controls. So, we really appreciated that they did this. Um, they also mentioned that we are good on our contingencies, meaning that we spent less than the 5% of contingency funds that we budgeted for. That was good to hear as well. Any questions on our special presentation that we had? >> I don't see any member Sidowski. >> Oh, >> no. >> Yep, we're good. >> Okay, perfect. I'll move on to our business services. So, report here. Hold on one second. or for to our HR report based um I mean so for our HR report um the our HR team continues to meet with the unions and employees regarding the displacements um and then two of the big jobs that we've posted recently are for the executive director

073of business finance and operations and then the American Indian coordinator. So th that's kind of my highle overview of our HR report of um we of course through all of it at the meeting and I encourage everyone to take a look at the um video in the packet and then we'll move on to item B which is our business services starting with our enrollment report. For our enrollment report we're still trending up compared to where we were last year. So that is really good to see. for our child nutrition department report. Um we submitted an application for the summer meals program um with the state and sites were approved for Laura Matt Denfeld Lincoln Park Myers Wilkins L and Pedmont and also some of our community partners which we really appreciate them hosting some of

074these meals. Um the girls club um some shelters and then a Then I'll move on to our facilities report. Um, in our facilities report, um, member banks asked about safety at our first street building and I really appreciated that question. One second. I'm just turning to that page. Got lots of pages in this packet. So, um, yeah, member banks asked that really good question and some of the responses were, you know, focus on lighting. We're going to have um you guys may remember that we have a contract with Permar for security with the ALC right now and I believe that that we're going to have Permar over at the First Street building and we've met that one security officer who seems to have a really good rapport with our students. So, that's good to hear.

075And then, um of course there'll be badges and keys and they're working on emergency management plans. Then let's see here. Um, oh, member Mikeell also asked about um on our facilities report and item 8, you'll see that proposals are being developed for a lot of initiatives which you can kind of see through there in A throughF from the Lincoln Park Middle School expansion and joint repairs all the way through to like districtwide pest treatment. And um member Michael asked about if these were LTFM approved activities and um I think that we were looking into that but either way they're activities that need to happen. So any questions so far? >> No questions member Sidowski. >> Okay great. Um on our safety report, which is item four, um under letter B, uh we had many regulatory

076requirements and tests such as lead and asbestous testing that we reviewed and um safety training such as lifeguards and then lockout and take out procedures. For our technology department report, we had a robust discussion about technology including AI um as well as student access to technology. Uh, and I know Superintendent Maggus mentioned that the district's working on um just some streamlining of procedures to guide the usage and ensure consistency and that technology is being used uh appropriately and um in the best ways for the academic success of students. Um, I also kind of highlighted just given our budget cuts and I know we've had some um a lot of emails about technology um and I just kind of shared some information about the cost of Chromebooks um for some of our curriculum needs versus um

077having textbooks for every student versus having a classroom set. So, we kind of highlighted some of that information as well. So then I'll move on to our transportation report. Um they are working on routing improvements and enhancements and uh transitioning to Google forms for driver reports and I'm happy to report that they have just enough drivers to keep routes running with minimal disruptions. We know that it's been hard to keep our bus drivers filled. So we really appreciate all that they do. Then I'll move on to our recommended resolutions. We have uh our acceptance for donations to DUTH public schools and we have our acceptance of grant awards to DUTH public schools. Moving on to item four, which is our consent agenda. We have our HR staffing report of course and then we have our

078financial report. I'm flipping two. So, for our financial report, um, we've been taking a look every month at, well, obviously the full report, but I always like to point out the general fund and kind of that percent that were spent down. And we see that we're 79% spent down and where we should really be is at about 72% at this time of the year. Um, obviously this is really related to a lot of the conversations that we've had throughout this meeting. um and from some of Superintendent Magus' uh updates about our financial situation. And then um we also our audit is complete and you all should have seen a copy of that mailed to us on May 11th. So I wanted to point that out. But I would um was wondering if director Zunich had

079anything else to add about our financial report. >> Thank you. Um you are correct. We are trending at 79% as of this report. We should be around 72%. It's in fund one. Um and this report I won't be presenting this report in June. Um because we're starting already our audit work with our new auditors in a couple of weeks and in June we start getting a lot of final invoices and purchase orders. Um so we don't we won't be presenting this report in June or July and we will present the new adopted budget summary uh come August. Um the we will be putting we're having the print shop make you an audit book. So it was emailed to everybody but we will also be getting a book for you so you have a hard copy.

080Um trying to think what else I need to say. I think um oh I know. So uh last month I did a revision in further revenue for our budget. Um and then this month I have it in a uh in a bolded square. I did increase the expenses for the general fund um expenditures to adjust for the cross subsidy aid that we received for special education. So, um, all I did was balance it to what the income was coming in and then our anticipated, um, numbers where that's supposed to come in. So, um, I did make a change this month. Um, I I revised the expenses in fund one >> and that's for the FY >> 26 26 >> This current year. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I can answer the question that

081was um asked by member Mike Cell about the projects. The the seven six seven projects that were on that report were not LTFM. >> Thank you Dr. Dish. That's what I was assuming but I appreciate you clarifying that for us. >> No other questions. Member Sidowski. Keep going. >> Okay, great. I will go on. Sorry about the delays. Um, so I will move on. Um, so we're on item four, which is our consent agenda. We went over um item B1, which is our financial report, and B2, we have some fundraisers that were listed. So, we really appreciate the work of students and staff that did those. Um, for item C, we do not have any bids, RFPs, and quotes. And then that brings us to item D, which is um contracts, change orders, and leases.

082So, I want to review those because we had request discussion about those. Um item one is a change order for the Lakewood Elementary boiler replacement from AG O'Brien um plumbing and heating and um the original R in the original RFP for this project, no one would bid on the fuel tank um because we we got a lot of um businesses that wanted us to um have a contract with them to use their tank. pool, kind of a contract basis. And so what we're going to be doing with this one is we're going to buy our own tank and then we'll be able to fill it um you know in off seasons when fuel is a little less costly. So it'll save the district money. So that is the deal with that change order. Any questions

083on that one? >> No questions. Okay, seeing none, I'll move on to the second one, which was um the contract with DUTH public schools 2025 LTFM phase one projects. This was just an amendment. Um so this is just doing a budget line item change. So it's just changing some where the money is recognized in a line item. There's no cost to the district. That will move us down to our um item five, which is our miscellaneous informationational items. We have uh the district properties update. So hopefully you're able to look through that. Um a lot of information about our first street buildout project. Everything is on time and in within budget. So we're still um shooting for an August move in for our expenditure contracts. Um, one that we saw in there that I wanted

084to point out was a contract with ICS for our comprehensive capacity study. So, we saw that in there. We also saw quite a few expenditure contracts for um vendors that we work with for different um different needs throughout the year. I didn't there wasn't anything too crazy in the expenditure contracts for no cost contracts um which Item C, there is about five of those. A lot of times they're no cost contracts as you know. We seeus, we saw data sharing agreements in this one. And then for our revenue contracts, there was one um with A and that was so that our district can provide educational screenings and programming to A. And then for grant applications, we had a couple for checking connect and MTSS. So, we really appreciate the work of staff who are working

085on those applications. And then for change orders signed, these were um for the first street buildout. Uh again, we're still within within our budget there. So, those were pretty normal change orders. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Member Saddowski. Do we have any questions for member Saddowski? >> I don't see any. Member Saddowski. All right, thank you for that report. Now, we'll move in to um chair of the policy committee, member Laughafler Kemp. >> Thank you. Uh we met on Tuesday, May 12th um for our policy meeting and we had a fairly short meeting because we mainly had policies for review. We did not have any policies for first or second reading. uh and the policies that are for review will be on the consent agenda and many of the changes are either

086due to um legislative changes, legal updates or uh one of the policies for annual review. So just a quick summary but uh as we always do I'll just read the uh purpose of each policy. I won't read the full policy. Uh so for review uh policy 306 administrative administrator code of ethics. The purpose of this policy is to establish the requirements of the school board that school administrators adhere to the standards of ethics and professional conduct in this policy and Minnesota law. And inserted was the Minnesota code of ethics. Um and uh we did uh last uh review that in uh and adopt it in 11 of 20125. The next policy for review uh is policy 413 harassment and violence. The p purpose of this policy is to maintain a learning and working environment free

087from harassment and violence on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, origin, uh sex, age, marital status, familiar status, status with regard to public assistance, sexual orientation or disability protected class. And this is a policy that we are required to annually review. And I think we all understand the importance of why. um with this policy. It's also in our student handbook. Uh so the last time we reviewed that was May of 2025. Um and uh I'll be talking later. We do have a regulation um form, a harassment complaint form uh that we reviewed as well. Uh the next policy uh policy 511 fundraising. Uh the purpose of this policy is to address fundraising efforts by students and employees of the DUTH public schools again in our handbook. Um uh and uh some of

088the changes that were made uh were minor changes but really reflect what we're doing uh right now. Um and um and then the next policy was policy 606 textbooks and instructional materials. Uh the purpose of this policy is to provide direction for selection of textbooks and instructional materials and last reviewed in January of 2025. Again, you can go see and see what um uh legal changes were added to that one. Uh policy 701, establishment and adoption of school district budget. The purpose of this policy is to establish lines of authority and procedures for the establishment of the school district's revenue and expenditure budgets. And um some of the revisions were recommended by our auditor. Uh and uh and again just reflecting our process. Uh and then 701.1 modification of school district budget. The purpose of

089this policy is to establish procedures for the modification of the school district adopted revenue and expenditure budgets. And then at the end were the two um under regulation and forms. This is alwaysformational for for board members, but uh it has our uh 413R harassment complaint form and 511R our fundraising. And again, there were some changes made to that to reflect what we're currently doing. So that was our our policy meeting. Did I miss anything? Uh, member uh Williams or member um Lo, >> I didn't notice any. I was just going to um just um express that you know it's really important to do these reviews. there was no new policies introduced. So no presentations by staff but due to just and if you looked almost all of these policies were were given to us in

0902025 or we looked at them some that the the 413 is every year needs to be reviewed but just updates by legal ease or you know just the need for that. So, thank you for, you know, going over that and thank Executive Secretary Pakquette for continuing to move policy to to the committee so we can continue to work on it. >> Thank you. I will just sorry I'll just point out uh what I said in that meeting just again for public record that definition of gender and sex. Um just so it's all everyone knows that everything's included. That's all. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh and uh our next policy meeting is June 11th. >> Thank you. >> And Chair Eer is going to that meeting. >> Yes, I am. >> Yeah, cuz she's going to

091be gone. I was just checking. I noticed that there was the harassment form and I just wanted to make sure that we had access to the harassment form in like an electronic so we're not asking people to print. And I do see that the form is um is available online for parents to or anybody to fill out. Yeah, I just so thank you for doing that. Any other questions for member Laughler Kemp. Okay, seeing no further questions this um do we have some time for some general board committee updates? I'll just keep entertaining everybody. Member Laughler camp. Oh, I think I heard me Saddowski. Is that correct? >> Yeah, I was just going to say that um I was able to attend the APE meeting virtually um this last month and I was um really

092impressed. they um invited a um someone in to kind of do a training for them on on running meetings, just best practices um procedures for that. They asked really good questions, were very inquisitive. Um and I just would give a shout out to APAC for setting that training up and for being proactive. I was really impressed. >> Thank you, Member Sidowski, member Loalt, Member Laughler, Kemp. >> Yep. Uh uh thanks for sharing that uh member Saddowski. Um I I also was able to attend the POW at LOL or at at Lincoln Park a couple Saturdays ago and uh Apac had a great table. The Duth school district uh helped put that on and had a lot of u uh opportunities for people to learn about many things with the DUTH school district there as well.

093But it was really a wonderful event. Um, I attended our Head Start uh governing uh committee meeting last week and I just wanted to mention that tomorrow night we all got invitations for the Head Start end of the year event which is at LOL Elementary uh from 5:30 to 7 and um there will be a dinner and dance party and if you want you can dress in costume uh uh and I encourage everyone uh to stop in if you can. I look forward to going. Uh it's always a great event and really um some wonderful Head Start governing parents um that are putting this on. So thank you member Loalt. >> Um thank you. Yeah, that I hope I can get to the um Head Start um celebration. Um, there's also the celebration. We we

094got the invite in an envelope that tonight or I I think I got mine a few days ago from the um inviting us to Denfeld's honor night which is this Thursday at 7 o'clock in the auditorium and that's where they recognize academic success and scholarships. It's really a nice night. um member Mike Cell and I were um our representatives and we go as listeners to that meeting, but it's the quality steering committee that's held four times a year. And so that's at 8:00 to a noon meeting for quality steering committee where we've got um administrators, principles, teachers, um schoolboard reps um from all levels where they go through their agenda and have conversation and you know going through all the different ideas and and issues that come before them. Um and I was able to

095be last week at the Denfeld Choir concert. It was on Friday night and it was really a great celebration of music, soloists and even some faculty members getting up on stage to sing um Keep Marching from the Broadway musical Suffs. It was really quite the spect spectacular thing. So um that's my report for this month. >> Member Laughler Camp. >> I just also wanted to promote another event coming up. I know many of us try and get out to many end of the year events. Um uh and so also on Thursday night, the history day project showcase. We all got an invitation to that uh from 6:00 to 8 at Duth East High School. And um I had a chance to hear from some of the students uh separately uh on some of the projects

096and I I know I'm planning on going to uh support them. Um and we've we've had them here before when we've recognized them, but just wanted to highlight that for the public. That's also Thursday night and it is open to the public. Member Loel, >> can I just add because I remember member Mike Cell asked me to just remind us too that we have an intergovernmental meeting tomorrow that is member Mike Cell, member Zadowski and myself and we sit with two county commissioners and two city councilors and you know have collaboration about events and ideas and solutions and um things that intersect with all three of these elected officials. So I'll see you tomorrow I think at two. And lastly, I just want to give a shout out to the Lincoln Park orchestra that I

097went to last week. Um they the teachers shared that after just a couple years ago after coming through co there were nine kids that were in their Lincoln Park orchestra and now they have well over 60. So it was incredible to see those sixth, seventh, and eighth graders all up there together. They did one big piece together and it's so much fun to see the sixth graders with the eighth graders because they don't even look like they should be in the same school together. They look so wildly different. So, um that was just great. It um it's wonderful to hear all these successes and all this hard work we're all doing. Okay, now moving on to the consent agenda and we will have to do a roll call vote for this consent agenda. But first,

098I will ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> If I before that, I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. >> And it's not a wasn't a committee piece, but I just wanted to recognize an event that we had last night, which was the uh >> Oh, yes. >> dedication of the uh FondeLac tribal flag at East High School. Really uh great event u put on by um variety of individuals that were supportive, but we had chairperson uh Bruce Savage was there. uh member banks attended as a school board member. We had um principal FLHog and and many other people there as well as u really great food. But it was it was a nice uh recognition of the uh culture of the FondeLac tribe and also uh its place within our community and I

099think it's important that we have those recognitions and and uh great to have that there at East. We also had uh drumming there was a drumming circle as part of that as well but it was a really really nice event. And then I guess before I forget, um, assistant superintendent Bonds, you attended, is it the gold fi fine teacher? Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. Maybe somebody could share about that for the public. >> Well, uh, yeah. Uh, member um, LoDold, member Michael, and myself attended and, uh, assistant superintendent uh, Anthony Bonds uh, facilitated it. And uh it's always a a wonderful it was the 28th year of this event. Uh I wish I would have brought my little book with here and please fill in the blanks on what I'm missing. But what's always so great

100and this was the year it was middle school and high school. Um uh they switch secondary and elementary uh each year and and so uh each school could um uh uh what's the word I'm thinking of? Nominate. Thank you. Uh a a a staff person uh and so uh and then each principal talked about that staff person that they nominated. And I really wish um everyone would attend that because you you just hear these heartwarming stories of the impact staff a variety of staff have on uh students lives. And so um I will give the honors to Mr. bonds to share who we um who was recognized as the the final award winner. But >> yeah, uh thank you, Member Lamp. And um yeah, >> it was a great night to just again hear the

101stories um like I shared with them. Most of the time I always think about um you know the stories I I talk to staff and teachers about the stories that kids would tell about them. But this night is about what staff and colleagues and peers share about another peer or colleague. And so it was just a really good night just to hear uh good things about educators who are doing amazing things. And at the end of the night, um, our integration specialist, uh, Marlon Grant, uh, won this year's, um, you know, Goldfine Star Teacher Award. And so it was just a really, uh, great night, uh, to, uh, see him be recognized, someone who's who's worked in the community, um, in a variety of ways, worked in the district for number of years, um, and

102just is doing amazing work. And so it was really um inspiring and encouraging to see Marlin, Miss Grant, receive this recognition. It was welld deserved. >> And want to thank uh the Boreal Foundation um and um uh Adele Wellins, our communications uh person for all the ways that they helped put that on as well as Patty Pquette. U so thank you all. Yep. >> Yay. That's wonderful. Thank you. Um, great. So, now we will move on to our consent agenda and we will vote by roll call. But first, I need a motion to >> I apologize. I have more thing. >> Going to throw it. No, >> it's great though. Uh, the national ambassador for young people's literature, Matt Barnett, is a very famous author, one of the most well-known uh children's authors in partnership

103with Duth Public Schools and the the Duth Library Foundation. tomorrow night at uh from 5 to 5:45 at the student center at College of St. Scholastica. They're having a welcome for him, but they're they're he's doing work with our schools, doing work with our district, but just wanted to put that out there for the public as well if they're able to attend. It's a it's going to be a great event. I'm I I hate to interrupt with one thing, but with when it's a nationally known author partnership, figured I'd throw it in there. >> That's totally fair. Okay. All right. Now we will do a roll call vote, but first we need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Member Williams has made the motion. Do I have a second? Member Banks has seconded it.

104Um I will ask our interim clerk when she is able to do the roll call vote. >> Member Banks, >> yes. >> Member Chair Eer, >> yes. Member Laughler Kemp, >> yes. >> Member Loeld says yes. U Mike is excused. Treasurer Zidowski, >> yes. >> And member Williams, >> yes. >> The the vote passes six six. >> Yeah, vote passes 6. All right. Now, we'll move on from resolutions from our committee reports and we'll start out with member Laughler Kemp with the first resolution. I move resolution B5264165, acceptance of donations to Duth Public Schools. Whereas Minnesota statute 46503 requires a school district to accept donations by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full. And whereas acceptance of the donations in accordance with the donor's terms is in the best interest of

105the Duth public schools. Now therefore be it resolved that the duth public schools does accept the below described donations from said organizations in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolve that the duth public schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to these various individuals and organizations and um there are just a huge number of them. I I think eight different schools have been represented with um donations uh from Denfeld to uh East to Lincoln Park to Ordine uh and then a number of elementary schools as well. And so we greatly thank uh the individuals um the foundations, the community groups um that um have uh supported uh the grants. And I don't know what the one book one day uh at East was, but they got a lot of donations. So

106at at Ordini, so I have to find that out. I missed that one. Uh so I move resolution B5264165 with great appreciation. >> Thank you. Member Laughleramp. Do we have a second? Second. Member Loeld seconds it. We do we have any discussion? I will ask for a roll call vote from our interim clerk. >> Member Banks. >> Yes. >> Member Chair Eer. >> Yep. >> Member Laughler Kemp. >> Yes. >> I say yes. Member Zidowski. >> Yes. >> And member Williams. >> Yes. >> The vote is 6. Thank you. The motion passes. Now we will move on member Loal for the acceptance of grant awards. I make a motion to move resolution B-5-26-4166. It's the resolution the acceptance of grant awards to the D public schools. Whereas Minnesota statute 465.03 requires a school district to

107accept grants by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full. And whereas acceptance of the grant in accordance with the donor's terms is in the best interest of the Duluth public schools. Now therefore be it resolved that the DU public schools does accept the belowescribed grant from said organization in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the doulof public schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to this organization. So, we have one grant from Education Minnesota Foundation um for early childhood and the author was Alyssa Rap for $2579 to attend the NHSA parent family engagement conference. So, I move resolution B-5-26-4166. Thank you, Member Loal. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member Laughler Camp. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we will call

108on interim clerk lo. >> Member Banks, >> yes. >> Member Eder. >> Yep. >> Member Laughler Kemp. >> Yes. >> I say yes. Member Zidowski. >> Yes. >> And member Williams. >> Yes. >> It passes 6. Thank you. We have approved the motion. Lastly, for our special resolutions and action items, we need to approve bid 1346 from the Stow Elementary Parking lot improvement. And I have this in front of me here. You can also find the bid located on board book. This is for Stow Elementary Parking lot improvement. This bid is 1346. This bid um after consideration has been awarded to Senate Contracting from Proctctor. So, I make a motion that we accept this bid from Senate Contract. Um, do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member Lo member Loal beat out member Saddowski

109for the second. Um, do we have any discussion? >> Seeing no discussion, we'll call for a um roll call vote from interim clerk. Loal, >> member banks. >> Yes. >> Member Eer. >> Yep. >> Member Laughler Kemp. >> Yes. >> I say yes. Member Isidski. >> Yes. Member Williams. >> Yes. >> Passes 6. >> Thank you. We have accepted the bid. Lastly, I'm looking for Am I Hold on. Let me see what I'm actually looking for. Okay. Um, do we have any questions or anything else we would like to discuss today? Oh, Superintendent Maggus. Here he goes. >> With love. Um, I know we're we're looking at some dates for our uh school board workshop for June. And I know uh we have some dates and thanks for those. We're we're reaching out and discussing

110those with uh uh Ray Queener from Teamworks because I know we wanted some followup with the uh full demographics report. So uh as soon as we get those, we will share those out and Patty is working diligently to put that together right now. >> Great. And then maybe I could ask um if we have the print shop print shop doing the audit that maybe we could also have the print shop do the um report that me that uh Mr. Queener prepared for us. Sometimes in those long reports it's easier for board members to be able to read them. Um so I guess I would make that request on behalf of the board. >> And then um seeing Oh, member Laughler Camp. >> No. >> Oh, okay. Seeing no other questions or any other information. Do

111we have a motion to adjourn the meeting? No. >> Member Williams. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member Laughler. Oh, member. We're gonna go Member Saddowski there. Um, we need to do a roll call vote. Um, interim clerk lod. Member Banks. >> Yes. >> Member Eer. >> Yep. >> Member Laughler Kemp. >> Yes. >> Member Loel, yes. Member um Saddowski, >> yes. >> And member Williams, >> yes. >> 6 vote to adjourn. >> We are adjourned.