March 24, 2026 at 6:30 PM - Regular School Board Meeting

001doing back there, technology? Okay, got it. Okay. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the March School Board meeting. We will begin this evening at 6:33 with a um roll call by our clerk. Member Banks. Here. Chair Deruyter. Here. Member LaFontaine. Here. Vice Chair Lufholm. Here. I'm Clerk Mixell, I am here. Treasurer Sedowsky. Here. Member Williams. Here. Superintendent Megis. Here. Assistant Superintendent Burns. Present. Deputy Clerk Sinich. Here. Board Secretary Piquette. Here. Our ALC student representative is excused. Uh Timia Bowles. Here. Student rep Colina Madela. Here. Got it right. Roll call's complete. Uh March 5th through the 7th, um Thursday at the Deck for Lake Superior Lake Superior Regional. Um and then Sorry. Um and then I wanted to also talk about Denfeld is hosting the third of our four-month desired daily experience for Denfeld students

002to help plan for next year. Um we've been doing that for We had This is our third one. Um if you can, I would recommend it. It is really good. Um talk about a lot of hard conversations and stuff and what needs to be worked on. Um and we're hoping to get a lot of just to gain a lot of um insight on how families feel about the Denfeld experience. Um and then another thing, opportunity day um isn't really working for most Denfeld students. Um we don't have enough time. Well, some students say that we might not have enough time um for clubs and activities cuz it's kind of like um trying to choose between going and getting missing work done or getting your grade up higher or going to do your club, especially if

003it's at the same time. Um it just might not be the right thing. I can't speak for all the rest of the schools. I know East has a different um type of scheduling that they do. Um but just for trying We're trying to figure out maybe if there's something that we can do like instead of that or maybe if we can find a different type of scheduling for those type types of days. Um and yeah, that's really it. Thank you. That was an excellent report. And let's hear from East now. Hi, good evening everyone once again. I know many of us, including myself, are very excited for spring break. It has been a very stressful past month for many students, so I know it'll be very great. I would love to start off my report

004by talking about activities at East. Just two weeks ago, we had our red and gray spirit week, which was Stranger Things themed, and students seemed to enjoy it. We were very excited to see the best turnout student government has had in a very long time at our decorating party. Students came together to make posters and eat pizza. StuGo has also held various activities throughout that week, such as ice cream, a cake walk for cookies, March Madness basketball tournament, and two assemblies. The e-learning day, unfortunately, caused us to reschedule our Friday assembly to Monday. Thankfully, we were still able to have a successful and engaging assembly where we played musical chairs, washed our cheer team, also congratulated our boys swim team for winning state. Shout out to Joey Zelen, Will Will Zelen, and Lucas Warren. And

005most importantly, we were able to see the crowning of our three top dogs. As I previously said at our last meeting, 10 students were nominated by the senior class for demonstrating positive qualities and school spirit, also known as top dogs. I highly recommend checking out the Duluth East Facebook page to see some pictures from the assemblies. We also had an amazing turnout at our Re-East recycled event. Last year, student government started this, and I was thrilled to hear that we were doing it once again this year. Students were encouraged to bring in their old East clothing, formal wear, and other gently used clothing items. Then, students could come on PAWS Day or opportunity days like Denfeld has to grab any clothes that they wanted as they were all free. Then, on our last PAWS Day,

006we held it during both the PAWS blocks, lunches, and third hour. We handed out cookies and lemonade for people who came. Because of how successful it was, I'm very excited to share that we were going to do this again in April. Lacrosse, golf, softball, baseball, and boys tennis have recently started their season with captains' practices. Track had their first meet this past Saturday, and I heard very good reports from it, and that is amazing since it is still one of our biggest teams at East. Members of Key Club are trying to get their 50 volunteer hours before the year is over so they can get their activity letter. I'm also excited to announce that the spring play, The Little Prince, will be held on May 8th, 9th, and 10th. I will have more information at

007the next meeting about that for times. We've been trying to relax a bit after the hectic red and gray week in student government, but we will be working very hard soon to plan our spring events, such as yearbook signings, kiss a senior goodbye, sports assemblies, senior sunset, senior shirts, tailgates, and our annual powderpuff tournament. I know I said I'm excited a lot, but I'm also very excited to announce that our community service event, Swing into Spring Festival, will be held on April 19th from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Peace Church. This community-centered event will offer family-friendly activities, such as live music, swing dancing, face painting, bracelet making, yard games, and free lemonade and cookies. Attendees will have the opportunity to bid on baskets donated by local businesses. All proceeds will go directly to nonprofits

008present at this event, such as the Duluth Foundation, the League of Women Voters Duluth, and more. We will also be collecting canned food items and gently used clothing items to be distributed in our community. All are welcome, and I highly recommend looking at the student government Instagram page to hear more updates when we get closer to the time. And tell your family and friends to come because it will be a very big event. Unfortunately, we were unable to have Denfeld's gold gold group at our last POV meeting that I talked about at our last school board report, but we do plan on going there for our next PAWS Day. On a different note, I was able to have a larger turnout for student forum. I did have to incentivize people to come by bringing cookies,

009but it did help. Not many students actually stayed longer than 10 minutes. However, they still shared a couple pieces of feedback. The majority of the feedback, again, was about PAWS days. Many students and some faculty are still struggling with this implementation. It is very difficult to make up for missed tests, and many clubs have died out since. I reached out to a couple teachers to hear their feedback on PAWS days. They all agreed that having dedicated time during the school day for students to attend clubs and get homework done is important. They also agreed that it is nice for flexibility. Some negative feedback I heard, however, was that it is very hard for students to nail down two options for clubs. They have also shared that this time is not enough. I understand the reasons

010as why we don't have WIN anymore, but we have lost so much catch-up time. From my understanding, both WIN and PAWS days are solely for catch-up times. During these catch-up times, we can either attend clubs, work on homework, or just hang out with others. One of my classmates calculated how much of that catch-up time we have lost. Essentially, with WIN, we were given 30 to 45 minutes every day for about 28 days. With the new PAWS schedule, we get 7 to 8 hours every 28 days. If you calculate that further, it is only about 17 minutes every day. We have lost so much time now that WIN is gone. Students have lost club opportunities, and this is an issue that will keep being brought up until it is changed. In the 2025-2026 student handbook, one

011of the core values is belonging. I believe that one huge part about belonging has to do with clubs and opportunities for students. At the moment, there are only two in-school opportunities a month for students to be a part of clubs. I know that not all students are involved in more than two clubs, but there's still a large group of students that are missing out on club opportunities because of this PAWS implementation. I [snorts] know the reasons as to why we changed PAWS and how it looks this year, but we are losing involvement from students. We used to have seven opportunities, and now there are only two. Furthermore, students are noticing that there are still teachers teaching on those PAWS days, and that makes them struggle even more. There was also the Construct Tomorrow required field

012trip for sophomores on our latest PAWS Day. Many students were confused [music] as to why we were doing this on what was supposed to be our catch-up day. It has also come to my attention that teachers were very vague about this, and sophomores did not understand when they were supposed to leave. I'm hoping that next year we schedule this not on a PAWS Day or opportunity day so that students don't miss this catch-up time. Next, I would like to bring up the library. With budget cuts, I understand we are struggling with having a librarian. Unfortunately, this cut has brought many challenges in various ways. Students this year have lost a study space, lost a resource, and have lost opportunities to check out books. The library is not open throughout the whole school day, and that

013includes mornings. I know this space has been very helpful for students in high school and in middle school so that they have a quiet space to meet with clubs, study groups, or just hang out by themselves. We have the cafeteria and mezzanine, I know, but these spaces are very loud throughout the day. I want to try to work on ways we can keep the library open for the whole day and including mornings. Those were the two issues that were brought up during student forum that I want to bring up again to you guys. I understand that these are recurring issues that continuously are being brought up, but it is very difficult for students to stay involved, get homework done, study, and more because of our limited catch-up times and our limited library access, and it

014continues to be the students' number one concern collectively. To wrap it up, but I would love to share a bit about what I have been doing in this role. Like I said before, I had the opportunity to speak to more teachers and faculty, which has been helpful to understand both the positives and negatives of the pause implementation. I've also reached out to the Real Talk advisor at Odine to see ways I can connect with them and share feedback from them. I have been encouraging others to share their feedback on issues they believe should be discussed more. I've been doing that by talking to them face-to-face, putting up QR codes around the school for how they can reach me, and stopping others in the hallway to have them join in on student forum conversations. I believe

015student voices are important, like I said before, and I will keep trying to gain as much input as I can from my peers. Lastly, to quote my last report, "Many students have unique insights and perspectives that can significantly enhance the effectiveness of our school. When students feel heard and valued, it creates a more engaging and positive learning environment. I urge you all to continue to actively seek out, listen to, and thoughtfully consider student feedback. It is important to not only hear it, but to embrace it. Thank you all once again for this opportunity and your time." Thank you for the excellent report. Very very well shared. Uh and Mr. Bonds and Director Larva, I know you've been working for quite a while on on some updates related to the Inter City Student Council, and I

016was hoping that we could have an update at our our uh maybe our April Committee of the Whole meeting because I think I I I agree with you. We need to make sure that we have a forum for uh voice, and we've been waiting a while for that. So, I think it'd be really excellent if we had that moving forward. Um so, we'll look forward to that because it really we are here to serve you, and we're thinking about the high school schedule, and these are these are valuable and valid questions and concerns, and we've committed to doing that, and I want to make sure that we honor that commitment that we've made. Um the next items that we have are the budget reductions and reallocations. >> Can I jump in with a question for

017the students, though? Pardon? Can I just had a question for a student rep. >> Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. No, go ahead. Um Rep Bowles, can you repeat the time of tomorrow's um conversation? Um it's at 5:00 5:00 to 7:00. 5:00 to 7:00 at Dunfeld? Yeah. Thank you. >> That'll be great. Thank you so much. Um so, we'll be talking about our budget reduction and reallocation, a little a little bit of uh legislative update, and then a little bit on uh just the litigation that we're part of. Um Our budget update is is pretty detailed, though, and so and I know that there are a lot of people uh waiting on that, so I want to make sure that that uh we're we're clear and we have time for questions. Um Again, when we think about

018why do we have a $4 million gap? Most uh places in the uh state have a very similar reduction, and uh we need to make sure that we have our our um our financial house in order, so to speak. When we think about the 50 AMSD districts, all all 50 have an average of about $4.5 million. Some some more, like Minneapolis with 50 million, some less with even some that don't have any budget deficit, but the average is about what we're seeking. So, this is a issue of numbers, and the biggest number that is that is impacted is the special education number. When we think about our funding for special education, the state only funds 60 cents on the dollar. And so, that's that's one of our biggest costs. That's costing us about $2 million

019as a school district. We also have rising health insurance, and I want to commend um Executive Director uh Zunich when she forecasted that it was that it would be a 15% increase in our health insurance premiums. Not good news, but it was accurate news. It that's actu- actually exactly what it came in at. So, the estimate of 15% was there right, and that's about $2 million. And then we also have some increased costs for transportation that I've addressed uh previously, as well some of the costs of some of the unfunded mandates. When we think about unemployment insurance, when we think about some of the other things that are not fully funded by the state, those are things that we need to to focus on. So, really our bottom line is that for our fiscal health,

020we we have to make sure that we optimize resource allocation, and that we reduce spending for the upcoming school year by approximately $4 million. How did we make our decisions? I think uh we've we've shared a lot with our guiding change document. We talked about how we want to make sure that we have a very transparent and inclusive conversation uh in the areas that we've looked looked at. Uh we we wanted to make sure that we had a wide range of data and feedback channels, and some of those included uh ThoughtExchange. We worked in a very very extensive uh piece with ThoughtExchange and had nearly 2,000 respondents, which is far more than we normally get in a survey. And of those 2,000 respondents, about 45,000 people or 45 interaction 45,000 interactions with various people's ideas.

021We also met many times with our principals, and we're meeting again tomorrow uh for our principal plus meeting, and we've also had labor management feedback from our various unions. Uh we also look at our registration and enrollment data. Those are are very impactful, and I I actually would say some of the good news about our district, a lot of districts are also facing declining enrollment, which means every student that comes in, they don't don't get the uh ADM or the funding for those students. We actually have the opposite uh cha- it's a challenge, but it's a good challenge. We have more students coming to to us than than ev- ever in our recent history. We had over 200 new students enroll this year. And then also uh we took a lot of feedback from board

022members just on on uh where we are with things and what the the information was, and actually the board helped guide us in putting together that guiding change document, and that guiding change document was really our rudder, so to speak, in our decision-making as we move forward. And then also another commendation for uh Executive Director Zunich that we've been using uh for the past few years Frontline budget forecasting tool. So, it's not just guessing what our budgets are going to be from year to year or taking an educated guess, it's using sophisticated software to really look at those budgets. So, uh as you know, I mentioned the ThoughtExchange that we did, and uh some of the key priorities that were identified uh were really around class size and teacher support. That was the top thing.

023People people noted that that uh there there was a need for for us to emphasize maintaining small class sizes or at least reasonable class sizes where we could, and that we were supporting our teachers. And also thinking about special education and mental health. Those are those are drastic needs for our district, and we want to make sure that we're prioritizing that as well as our core academic programs. There was also support, and I think this is based partly on some of the recent reductions we've had in previous years, to make sure that we're supporting the arts and our music programs because we we reduced quite a bit by in our music programs, and they said, "Please, no more uh in those areas." And then thinking about people who are directly supporting our students, not just

024our teachers, uh but also thinking about staff, our our paraprofessionals, our interventionists, and others. So, those were some of the key priorities that came through the ThoughtExchange. And then uh thinking about where were some of the potential areas for reduction. One of the top areas that they talked about was administrative costs. Thinking about where can we reduce with district office expenditures and and thinking about the administrative costs. Um thinking about sal- salaries and uh non-student facing roles, and I'll address that in just a minute. There was also um talk conversations about being more thoughtful with our use of technology funding. Thinking about one-to-one devices. We've had one-to-one devices, but maybe limiting that to the higher grades. Those were some of the feedback pieces we heard. And also um thinking about different ways that we could

025fund extracurricular activities. They talked about even sports and things like that, that those were were areas that that maybe we need to find other ways of seeking funding for those areas. Uh a number of A number of people felt that they didn't really like our professional development days and thought maybe that would save money by getting rid of those, but we also know that we're asking for a lot of uh change in the way that people teach and the way that people are are functioning in a system. So, I think it's important for us to uh we we actually just had our graduation for our our letters training upstairs for a group of people. They were um not not just eating cake cake, but they were talking about how much that they have changed the

026way that they teach. I was speaking to a teacher uh just just this evening who was saying that she that this has been transformative. And I've heard that that expression transformative, "It's transformed my teaching." uh many times for many teachers, and also they're starting to see the results. So, those professional learning opportunities, even though sometimes they're not always highly loved, are are necessary for us. Another thing that came up again and again uh was thinking about a four-day school week. And this is something that we've we've we've looked at. We we at un- under every rock, and we consider every every possible change. The thing about a four-day school week that I've mentioned before is that that really only saves a district money if you can pretty much shut down the school on that that

027fifth day. So, in in districts where you can just turn off the lights and and close things down, cool down the building and not have anybody there, that then it works for saving money. But, the challenge is is that we have a lot of a lot of students in our district that don't just need us four days a week. We have a lot of families and students that need us five days a week. And so, we remain committed even though some of our neighbors are making other choices and those might work for those communities. We know that our community needs us five days a week and that we wouldn't be able to we would need to still do things like Key Zone and feed meals and and make sure that we had safe places and

028supportive places for our students. So, we're not pursuing a four-day work week or four-day school week at this point. And I also think um sometimes that could make us an attractor. We think about how we're going to be different than other other people around us and what can we offer that's different? And I think if other districts are going to four-day week, I think offering a five-day week can be something that appeals to families and students alike. So, those were some of the thought exchange ideas that we had. And some people were saying like, are you just going to use thought exchange to vote on like what you do or where you reduce? No, not at all. This was meant to sort of uh measuring and and taking stock of the currents that were in

029the water. So, if the guiding change was the rudder, knowing where where the community felt, those were kind of like the currents in the water that we dealt with. And this gave us a much better read on not just gut feel for how people are feeling, but what did people actually think and and how could we quantify it? Uh one of the cool things about thought exchange, too, is that you can use it for um pretty deep analysis. So, you can go in and just ask for like different These These were the highlights, but you can also ask it to tell me more about what high school parents think about our sporting events or you know, you can ask ask very detailed questions and it gives you really significant analysis. Um but, some of those

030things that came up really affirmed what we already had in the guiding change. Uh and those were things that we wanted to focus on on transparency and have open honest communication with everybody present. And so, uh one thing that was focused on was prioritizing students first. As much as possible, we were we were trying to reduce uh the impact on classrooms. Uh and also focus on mental health needs. We also I would say one of the things we changed significantly based on the thought exchange feedback and feedback from our groups and other folks was uh overhead reduction. Making sure that we streamline our administrative costs. And so, when we look at our budget reductions overall, um we had uh approximately 16% of our district office uh general fund fund expenditures. We we had a 16%

031reduction in in district office expenses, whereas for the sites it was uh between 6 and 4 and 6%. So, nearly triple and in many cases triple uh the reduction at district office uh in those areas. We also wanted to make sure that we were keeping our referendum promises. We know that we've uh talked to the community when when we're going out for referendum and we said that if you fund certain things, we would we will do certain things. So, making sure we held true to those things uh was important for us. And making sure the process we've had is is been really inclusive in the decision-making. Those are were all parts of the guiding change, but they were really affirmed through that feedback process that we had. So, what does all of this mean? And

032and really uh this is the time that we give the higher level overview of where we're at. Uh so, if we think about the general fund recommended reductions, and it's important to say general fund recommended reductions because I think sometimes people think about budget overall, but there are some restricted funds. So, the big difference general funds are like it's money that we can spend on whatever we need to, where restricted funds are restricted for certain uh needs like food service uh nutritional services funds can only be spent on nutritional services. Special education funds can only be spent on special education. Um American Indian education funds should only be spent on American Indian uh funds. All of those areas title all of those areas are are things that are specific and they're not part of the

033general fund. But, when we look at the general fund reductions, we actually found uh reductions of uh $4,288,500. And that's more than we targeted. We targeted 4 million, but we also know that as we head into the year, there are going to be other things that are needed and other prior like if we reduce just at 4 million, we know that there's going to be a situation where maybe there's a classroom bubble where we have to give an extra classroom teacher to to reduce if class sizes are above 30, we might need to split a classroom. Or we know that sometimes when when teachers are doing scheduling, if we have a a very high point with our with our numbers in in geometry classes, we might need to add another section. So, we wanted to

034make sure that we we went slightly above target so that we had just a little bit of flexibility as those needs came in. So, uh based on the feedback that we had and pri- prioritizing prioritizing classroom stability as much as possible, we did have as I said a higher uh cut from district office. So, from district office we identified um $4.249 million, which is uh 15.61%. From our secondary level, we are reducing by an estimated uh $1,781,500, which is 5.8%. From the elementary, we would be reducing by an estimated uh $1,258,000, which is about 4.1%. You might be saying People might be asking, how come we're reducing a little more from the high school percentage-wise than the elementary? Uh and I think what it comes down to is at the elementary level, there are fewer

035things that you can flexibly cut. You either have a first grade teacher or you don't have a first grade classroom teacher. Whereas at the secondary level, when people are taking a wide variety of classes and elective choice and they're doing things by registration process, there's more areas that you can identify for potential reduction. And sometimes uh in our elementary schools, quite often there's just you know, just a principal and just a a clerical and and just classroom teachers and hardly anything else. And so, you can only reduce so far in those areas. And so, we we did take a little bit more out of out of secondary, um but less than we were asking from uh the district level. And so, you might be thinking, well, where are those areas? And I'm going to pull

036that up right now. Just give me a second. And that's linked in the presentation. So, So, here we are. Uh this is our budget reduction sheet. And it outlines where the the reductions are and what what types of positions. Now, I want to point out, too, that um all of the positions like when we think about district uh district level positions, what we did the there were reductions of administrators, but there are also a lot of positions that are supporting administrators. So, we might have teachers on special assignment and other sub- sub- clerical support and other positions that are supportive of those roles. And so, we did cut administrators, but we also uh reduced a lot of other positions that had uh a supportive role there. So, that means that there will be uh more

037on the plates of those administrators. So, if there's a curriculum teacher on special assignment position that's reduced, for instance, those duties would fall upon the people that are are left. And so, uh even though the numbers aren't quite as reflective, uh I think it's important to note that there's a vast increase in in workload that are that's going to be expected from from those that are remaining. So, our district office reductions, we you can see here how those are laid out uh with the different staff that we have here. At the elementary school, uh there are teacher reductions and non-certified reductions. Uh we also had um contracted services of about nearly $300,000 reduced from district office. We had about 30,000 in uh contracted services reductions from elementary. And we'll be sharing more about that. At

038our our high school, we had about 15 positions uh that were reduced as well as 2.12 certified or non-certified positions. There were uh there were some things that were reduced beyond that, but there were also some things that were added. For instance, our Check and Connect mentors that we have, you just talked about mentoring and the importance of mentoring. Uh we recognize how important mentoring is. And so, uh at both East and Denfeld, they they found other reductions because they knew that the grant that was funding all those those uh um all of those peer mentors, that was not peer mentors, but the Check and Connect mentors, that was going away. And so, for instance, at Denfeld, they they actually looked and found more than what they would have had to reduce so that they

039could buy back and keep those um those mentors. And so, this is the the reductions that we had at at secondary. So, again, it's um about 4 4.3 million dollars in reductions. And uh that's that's where we're at at this point with with those reductions. Um Let me go back here just a second. And I know it's likely that we'll come back to questions on budget. So, I could either stay on budget or continue and just finish. I just have a couple more slides on legislative update, but then we can come back to budget if people prefer. All right. So, our legislative update and they really do weave together because if you think about why are we in this economic situation, it's partly because of the funding issues that we have. The funding isn't keeping

040up with the needs. And so, we we are working hard and I want to say thank you to our our board members. Uh so many of you were there for the uh Minnesota uh MSBA and MAS A day at the Capitol, but then we also had nearly full board participation at the Duluth-St. Louis County Days. And so, uh the uh MSBA MAS A day was on March 9th advocating for for funding for our students. And then on the 18th and 19th we had our Duluth-St. Louis County Days asking for many of the same things. Um and really uh I do have some very significant concerns because our our governor's budget uh that was proposed they they were looking at reducing and finding efficiencies through the Blue Ribbon Committee for uh special education. They were looking

041for efficiencies of 4. 400 I'm sorry, 240 million dollars. The governor just proposed that they they up that to 300 million dollars. So, as we're looking at at tightening our belts already, there's there's even a request that we tighten even further to go to 300 million dollars in reductions and efficiencies through uh the governor's budget. Um so, we're hopeful that that we can continue to advocate in that area. Uh the session adjournment the session state legislature goes through May 18th. And that's part of the reason why we we don't move forward with things like uh layoff if there was a need for layoff. And once again, I want to reiterate we don't forecast that there's going to be a need for layoff. We think it's going to be displacement. The difference between displacement and layoff

042is that you are uh contractually separated from your position. So, you still have a job in the district. But like if I'm a first grade teacher at Congdon for instance, if I'm displaced, I still have a job someplace in the district, but it might not be that particular job that I had at that building. So, uh right now the the the after break, uh we're going to wait we worked with our teachers union. And we're going to announce those displacements after break once we once we have an opportunity to go through the seniority and those aspects. So, we're not sharing any details about what positions tonight because we we want to make sure that we honor those processes of of uh going through those those areas. But this legislative session ends on May 18th and

043after that we'll have a better picture of where we are financially. And if there's a little tweak here or there that would impact how many positions we actually have to re- reduce or if there's additional things that's that's flexible. And we're promoting flexible funding and and local decision making. And so, if we have that that could mitigate some of these reductions. So, here are some of the great pictures from our day at the Capitol. Some smiling faces of of uh of nearly everybody uh there. And we just had had really really good opportunity to uh talk about our students, talk about our school experiences, talk about what their needs were and really express uh what were some of the things we could do to uh shift things and find uh support for our students. I

044also want to give a special shout-out to Adele Wellens and Patty Paquette who uh worked really hard to put together our booth for our Duluth-St. Louis County Days. It was excellent. We had lots and lots of compliments uh and I think representing ourselves in the community is really important and wouldn't have happened without the two of you. So, thank you. And here's some more pictures. You see uh diff- the different teams. We actually had three teams of people and actually they're they're represented in these these pictures. There was uh two school board teams with um myself and um and Kelly Durkee Eder and Amber Sadowski. And then there was a team with Anthony Bonds and uh and um Rosie Loeffler Camp and Jill uh Lofald. And then we also had a um we had a

045uh Duluth Days team from the Chamber that was um Demetrio and uh Sarah Mikesell. So, really focusing on on our Duluth Promise work there, too. So, just want to say thanks and everybody and and Henry Banks, you were part of the team with uh Anthony Bonds. Sorry. I was I was trying to look at all the pictures and get everybody in the same the same time. But really appreciate everybody coming forward. And I know uh if other other members had commitments and and weren't able to be there, but they would they were there in spirit and and celebrated as well. Thank you. AKA Stephanie Williams. She she would have been there, but she had to work and we totally get that that priority as well. Sorry. Um the litigation update uh just just a reminder

046that we are are finishing we're part of that lawsuit against the federal government. Our court date is uh April 9th. So, that's uh the date that we have coming up uh right after break, the Wednesday after after break in Fridley and the Minnesota Education Minnesota were also plaintiffs uh which was filed and it was not filed yesterday. That's a that's a type previous typo. But we're we are not we are not spending any school district money on this. I want to make make it clear because some people are were commenting in social media saying you know, if you weren't spending money on this, you know, you'd have more money for your kids. That's not the case. This is all pro bono work and um we're just trying to make sure that we stand up for

047our neighbors. Questions or comments? Member Loeffler Camp Thank you for an excellent report. Um and really have appreciated the uh many meetings uh that you and um uh Assistant Superintendent Bonds and Simone Sounik and uh staff have met with us to answer our questions um on our budget questions. So, just really appreciate all of the time that you've you've given us um uh over the last few weeks. Um uh one of my comments actually had more to do with thought exchange and um I was going to beep you when you're talking more for the public to understand a little bit more on how that went out, how people were able to give feedback, who gave feedback. Uh because those numbers are impressive how much feedback we did get. And I just thought that would be

048kind of important for people to know a little bit more. So, thought exchange, it's a I think sometimes we think about sur- it is a survey tool and it's but it's far more than a survey tool. It's more it's more of a dynamic engagement platform. So, uh people can can put there's there's a central question that's put out. And Adele, if you have anything you'd like to add, feel free to jump in. Uh but there's an essential question that's put out. And then people make a comment based on how they're feeling about that particular question that was asked. And then state their rationale. And that uh after people start doing that, they the comments are anonymous. They go up anonymously. So, so it's not based on who said what. It's based on what was said.

049And people rank those comments. They give it a it's a five-star rating system. And then it gradually as different ideas are are surfaced as being more popular than others uh or or more widely shared it it's it those those questions rise to the the top so to speak. But again, we had uh nearly 2,000 participants. And they ranked uh a total of uh there there were a total of of 45,000 rankings. So, different interact- 45,000 times that people interacted with other people's thoughts. And you think about the power of that, it's it's really impressive. Uh also, as I mentioned, it has a couple of different tools as an advisor tool that allows you it you to ask it certain questions and it will basically nearly instantaneously call through all that qualitative data and give you

050um feedback on on what you're asking. Uh and then there's also another tool called discover where you can add additional documents like you'd you could add the guiding change document, you could add our strategic plan. You could add what our final budget reductions were. And then ask you know, how did we do in relationship to these or how do these factor in? So, it's um it's a tool that we've invested in recently. We used it for our uh for our calendar our feedback on our calendar and there was a lot of great feedback there as well as our school resource officer uh feedback. And so, we're just starting to get to use it, but it's it's another way that we're trying to make sure that that we are as transparent as possible. And that we

051also use that data. And again, like I said, we more than doubled what we reduced from our district expenses because we were hearing from so many people that they wanted us to focus on administrative overhead. So, we we don't take the feedback lightly. We want to make sure we're inclusive. Anything else you'd like me to No, I appreciate that, but but also on the same vein of the decision making process process in the slide that you had you did talk a lot about uh uh the principal collaboration and I you know, I want to also thank our principal leadership across the district cuz I know they put in much extra time uh in this. And I guess is there anything else you'd want to share about um You know, we all know that principals know

052their buildings the best. and um uh and uh just how the decisions came about. >> Sure. And I think it So so I look at Usually decisions are made best decisions are made by the people who are closest to the work and the people who have most responsibility for what the outcome of the decision is. And so that's where why when Director Larva and Director Sparks and Assistant Superintendent Bonds and and myself and others we were working closely with the principals, but I especially want to thank our two directors because they worked really closely in trying to get that that principal feedback on where we would make our reductions. None of the reductions were reductions that people wanted to make, but it was more of a question of if you have to make this reduction,

053you have to make this target, what would be the the places that would have the least impact possible on the system. And so that's where where we had a lot of back and forth conversation where we would talk with the principals and get back. We might give them a little bit of guidance on what what would work or not work for instance, but then we were able to really coalesce and move forward and I would say that the reductions that were made um were large I'd say were very largely based on the feedback of the principals of those various schools based on meeting their targets. So that back and forth opportunity there and then also through our labor management process with the DFT and others we took feedback there and also we What I would

054say is there there was a part of the guiding change document that said that we need to examine all legacy practices with an eye of fiscal responsibility. And what we mean by that and that those words stick in my mind because they're they're powerful is we can't just do things the way we've always done them. We need to look at every single expenditure and think about could we do this differently? And and there were many many many things that were on our list for consideration that you don't see here because we considered them one way or the other and we we decided that we could move forward with it or we couldn't move forward with it. I would say however and this is a warning for the future that we very well may have additional

055reductions in in the future if we don't have changes in state funding or if we don't have a referendum that would better support our schools, we will have to continue to make reductions the same as all other districts or most other districts. And so some of the things that we were able to save this year might be things that are impacted next year if we have to make further reductions. So I'm very hopeful that we're going to have a change in state funding through our advocacy or that we'll be able to consider an operational referendum or something like that as needed. Otherwise we're going to have even more challenges in the years to come. Um can't see all the lights, but any other questions? No. Uh Chair Eder, Director Eder? Oh, I'm sorry. Member Myxell?

056>> [snorts] >> Uh thank you for the report. I just um want to highlight the seemingly collaborative work that went into bringing forward um the where the reductions are be or will be held. Um it's just a such an awkward time right now recognizing that we're about to go into spring break and um there'll be news like when people get back and so I just wanted to give a moment to honor like where everyone's sitting right now with that. Um I also just wanted to share that we took lots of nice pictures when we were down at the capital on our various days down there lobbying. Um but we I know that in my groups at least we had hard conversations with our lawmakers at the state level. We were sharing with them what the

057impacts are in our district. Um especially about proposed changes. So I just hope that our community knows that we are really going to bat when it comes to the funding that we receive from the state and federal level doing as much as possible trying to convince those who have the power and um to work legislatively to make sure that our schools um don't do not suffer. So I just wanted to make sure that that's also very clear. I also just wanted to thank our community because um I recently was at the community information session about budget reductions that was held at East last week. And we had community members there saying what can we do? How can we help? How can we get this message from our school district out to those who need to

058hear it? And so I just want to thank them for stepping up and I hope that we are able to engage and you know help people organize and support our schools and support our community in that way. And this is obviously isn't a fun time. I've been on the board it's my third year. This is the third year of cuts. So it's not exactly what I signed up for. Um but I do appreciate the um the positive intent that everyone comes into these decisions that are very very difficult. Um and know that the people at this table I feel I can speak confidently are really trying their hardest to have the least impact to kids and to make sure that our students and our staff are very successful. Thank you and I I too I've

059I've thanked many people in the process, but I also want to thank the board members because you've leaned in very deeply, spent countless hours in conversation with us and talking about the different reductions that we're going to be making giving us guidance, giving us you know from from a um from from a governance standpoint you've you've done a excellent job in that regard and then also when we think about the outward facing work that we do, the advocacy that you speak about in the frank conversations with our lawmakers I think were very very important. And I think being forthright about what what are the things we're having to reduce because three years in a row we've had to make really significant reductions. The first year to some degree we were able to look at lower

060hanging fruit and make make reductions without significant impact to staff. You know you you tighten your belt. Second year you're starting to have impact to staff and we're we're cutting staff and reducing in areas that that we don't want to. But this third year it's even more painful because it's it's the third year in a row that we've we've gone again to people and say you have to do more with less. And so I think it's it's important for us to recognize that and it's important for us as as not just as a community but as a society think about what are our priorities and really if you think about the priority of state government one of its biggest priorities is to fund schooling. And so that's that's what we need right now. Chair Director

061Eder? I would reiterate many of the things that Member Myxell said. We went down and lobbied very very vigorously and vociferously for um our students and our staff. We are a large district with a fairly good size budget and 85% of that budget goes to the people that we employ. So when it comes time to make significant cuts like a $4 million cut those cuts come from the people that serve our students. And so while as um Superintendent Magus talked about displacement this year if we're and and being able to do that piece hopefully with most of those cuts if we're back here in this position next year I'm not sure that we're going to be able to talk about displacements. We're probably going to have to make um cuts again in the people that

062serve our children. Um we are battling against rising costs and health care um for our staff and we're also battling against rising costs to deliver the services to our special education that are both federally mandated, state mandated and it is the right thing to do that we believe here at the Duluth Public Schools. So we want to continue to serve their students serve our students where they're at. But we are also battling some um significant inflationary costs around health care and then unfunded mandates by the state legislator legislature. So we're going to continue to try to seek efficiencies within our budget, but we have to face the reality that at some point we're going to probably have to have conversations with our community around what do we want our schools to look like and how

063are we going to fund them? So that is something for all of us in this community to think about over the next coming year and if you want to help us here at the Duluth Public Schools ways that you can do that is to reach out to your legislators and have conversations and talk to them about the importance of what teachers and staff do for kids every day in the Duluth Public Schools. Um and so I just want to thank everybody who's been part of this communication, part of this um community doing this very difficult work because again as I've talked about 85% of our budget is people that serve kids that have gone to school and dedicated their lives in service of other people's kids, in service of students and in service of their

064community. So I would just ask that you go back free and talk to your legislators and then think about how we can continue to do this work for kids that takes the pressure off of our teachers and our staff when it comes to what does their take home paycheck look like and will they have a job next year. So I just want to leave that and Duluth is an amazing community and I know they always show up for their kids. So we want to just again implore our community to reach out to your state legislators and have those conversations with them and tell them that it is important that they show up for the kids the same way that the teachers and the paraprofessionals and the counselors and the social workers and the lunch ladies

065and also the custodians and the bus drivers and the huge contingent of people that serve our kids every day. Ask them to have the same commitment to those kids that our staff and our employees do. So, >> [snorts] >> thank you for this work and I just really want to thank everybody who who has has engaged in this process because there is not a good answer. It's just choosing from a bevy of very difficult not great choices. So, thank you. I also would like to lift up our superintendent and our assistant superintendent and all of our directors for leading this. So, thank you. Thank you. And um another thing and thank you Assistant Superintendent Bonds for giving me the nudge on this. Uh we we've done some really good work on our budget page when

066we were seeking transparency. There's a link on the main page you can or you can search uh budget in general, but it talks about what are some of the the budget impacts that we have. Talks about what are we doing? What is how are we getting there? Basically, it lays everything out. It also talks about our year-to-date revenues and lays out all that information. Uh but then it also talks about what our expenses are. And then you also can see uh the that that we have uh started a frequently asked asked questions area as well. So, basically, it goes goes into greater detail there. So, we're we're always working on expanding this page, but this is a place where you can um where you can uh seek additional information and get additional answers. And we

067update that periodically. So, I think it's important for for those engagement points. But thank you uh for tonight and I'm sorry that we're having to focus on on unnecessary but negative reality of education in the United States at this point. That concludes my superintendent's report. So, Um thank you very much and we have no further questions, so we'll move on to our next agenda item. You can see attached to the board book we have a a schedule of meeting of meetings and events coming up. Next, we'll move on to reports of the standing committee. We'll talk about our committee of the whole meeting and I will turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds to talk to us about that meeting. Thank you and I'll be brief. Uh the last COW meeting was held on Tuesday,

068March 3rd. We had three presentations. Uh one presentation was provided by our uh coordinator who oversees our literacy programming, Gretchen Karg. She provided an update related to the Read Act uh professional development that we have been providing our staff to again ensure that they develop the knowledge and skills to provide uh high quality literacy instruction to our students. So, I just want to say thank you to all of those teachers for all of their time and energy that they've put into um building up uh their skills. Um as Superintendent shared, uh there was a celebration even today related to some of that training. So, uh I would say thank you to um our coordinator who oversaw uh providing that training and the team that was with her. Also, our professional development coordinator, um Annie Schilling,

069provided an update related to the status of our current professional development opportunities. Even though we know that it was something that showed up on the survey as things that we we should consider um reducing or scaling back, I want to also emphasize that the importance of professional development uh dedicated time um during the day um while staff are uh working is important. It's essential. We really need that time to continue to work with our staff, our teachers, our custodians, our parents to ensure that they have the skills and uh dispositions that they need to be successful in their job. So, um I want to say thank you to Annie who worked uh with a lot of people to really pull this off. So, uh she provided an update to uh this year's programming uh for

070our professional development and also gave a preview for next year's professional development. And the last presentation was provided by our very own, Simone Zunich. She provided an update related to um uh just overall budget update um that she uh has always been providing us during the COW meeting. So, that was the three topics provided for the COW. Are there any questions of the review of our Committee of the Whole meeting? Seeing no questions, we will then hear from our Human Resources and Business Service and the chair of that is Member Zidell-Skky. Yeah, I will also try to be brief, but we had over 167 pages per normal. Um but we met on um Monday, March 9th, um here in our District Service Center. I always mention every month just for our community, you can find

071all of our meetings on YouTube. Um we go through all of the pages very thoroughly. Uh at this report, I'm just going to kind of give a higher level overview. Um kind of hit some of the uh things that kind of stood out to me um and our our committee, which consists of Member Banks and Member Mykell. So, I'll start by saying that we had a special guest presentation that day. Uh our own facilities manager, Brian Brown, was here, as well as Justin and Jacob from ICS. And they gave a presentation of um about our First Street Buildout project and gave an update there. Um the nutshell of that presentation is that we are on time and we are on budget, which is really great to hear. Some upcoming um things that are going to

072be happening at the First Street Buildout is uh carpet's going to be installed. Uh that was supposed to start yesterday. Um painting is going to start on April 1st. There's an elevator that's going to go in in late July. Roofing in August and we're still at this point on schedule for a mid-August move-in. So, that was our update um about the First Street Buildout. And uh it was really great to have a couple people from ICS and Brian Brown here to kind of answer questions. And then they also gave a uh presentation about our um LTFM project, so our long-term facility uh maintenance projects. Um Let's see. Project Let me look at the project summary here for you. Lots of paper. I'm looking at my notes here. Um this was on board book, so everyone

073could check it out. If they checked out our HR, um you'll see this. But um so, on some of the project summary, um so, for the upcoming year or three, I guess. So, winter of '26, um Lowell Elementary is going to have some lighting replacement as well as Lincoln Park Middle School. And then it kind of goes through our projects um for 2026, 2027. For example, Denfeld High School HVAC and controls and the Lincoln Park Middle School HVAC and controls. And then in the summer of 2028, the East High School and Ordine East Middle School HVAC uh and controls. So, I will let everyone I know you all looked at it and there were some nice photographs, but for the public, um this is a really great update. Also gave some project updates about what's

074going on right now. So, that was nice. I know um Member Mykell had a question about, you know, other projects kind of in the future and um Brian Brown was able to kind of provide that, but just for the community, we pass our LTFM plan, 10-year plan, every year. So, we kind of update that and and pass that as a board. And um that's just something that we always continually look at. So, it was nice to again have that update. Any questions on those two pieces? I know that that's something that we're all paying attention to as a board. Uh Member Lofald? I just remember it and again, I always like to um support the the contracts and the bids and and what what's really being done in the in either our First Street project

075or our long-term [clears throat] facilities plan. And I can remember ICS just saying that there are 50 like the carpet was supposed to start tomorrow. I hope it's ongoing. But you know, there's over 50, you know, um workers there all representing um different contractors. And and we're we're always wanting our um local workers, our locally union support companies if they can, if the bid comes in that way to help us finish those projects. And ICS was right there to answer that question for for you and for me when I listened to. So, just want to kind of support the business uh the the direction that ICS has. And I love that they are committed to coming to the board every month and um really giving us the background and the pictures and all of that.

076So, thanks to um Brian Brown as well. Yeah, since you brought it up, I'll jump kind of ahead. I was going to address kind of our change orders. I'm always taking a really good look at those, especially when it comes to uh our First Street project. One of the questions that I asked at our HR meeting was, you know, how do you are we still, you know, what percentage of a wiggle room do you leave for, you know, for change orders? And I forget exactly what they said, but they always leave a little wiggle room for change orders because with construction, you never know what you're going to run into. And that we're still well within that amount that we budgeted for, which is why we're still on track. If you look at our change

077orders this month, because the project is ramping up and getting to the end, um we do see a lot of change orders in there, but they are all within the scope of the budget. Um, so I just wanted to share that since you brought it up. Um, member LaFour Kemp? Yeah, just I I really have I I was going to ask you something about the change or orders, but you did already and just I I had a chance to listen to the meeting as well and just appreciated the questions that uh the committee posed to ICS and and the in-depth um update that they provided um for the board as well. So, thank you. Yeah, agreed. It was really good timing because as I was reading through um our packet and I I started using

078just my iPhone calculator adding up all the change orders and it you know, but they're all within that that scope and that's pretty normal standard uh procedure for a project like this. So. Any other questions or comments on that? Okay, seeing none, I will just keep going here. So, our HR uh report, um we had a little update on our PFML paid family medical leave applications. We've had 80 so far and um those are obviously processed through the state, so there's a employee uh responsibility and then there's an employer to responsibility to kind of go in there and um you know, verify that. So, we're working through that and the state I think is also working through that. Um, it's a new obviously a new benefit and um we just appreciate the work of our

079HR team to kind of help with that. And then um let's see. We also have continued negotiations with our DLI group and then our NCBAA group and uh those are still uh kind of ongoing. So, we're in the process of setting up meetings um making sure we know who we're negotiating with, that sort of thing. Um, our enrollment report, that looks good. We're still trending up like Superintendent Magus um previously mentioned. We're um up 200 students this year. I would also just mention um we all know this, but just for the public, we're funded on what our enrollment was 2 years ago. And so, that's another that's how it is, that's how the state does it, but when we're looking at our budget and we're looking at the cuts, that's another really good problem that

080we have that our enrollment is increasing and it increased last year and it increased this year and we're so happy about that, but we also don't get reimbursed um for the students that we have, those extra students right now. So, it's great to see our enrollment up um but that's just another little factor in our budget. Um >> [clears throat] >> for our child nutrition report, I wanted to highlight that. I got lots of pages here. Um I didn't do a good job highlighting it at the HR meeting, so I just wanted to highlight it tonight. Um we had attached to our packet the Choice Unlimited newsletter for February um and these are one of our community partners and they supply um our dishwashers with job coaches um and there's a really nice article that

081was attached about the Lester Park kitchen and if you didn't get a chance to read it, I would I would encourage you all to read it and I would encourage our community to look at it. Um but just a paragraph after they kind of talked about one of the employees and one of the mentors for that or coaches for that employee, um you know, it says quote that seamless fit didn't happen by accident. It's the result of a workplace culture where every team member is valued and where there's room for personality alongside productivity. Um for Rob, that sense of belonging matters. He takes pride in being um part of the team and genuinely enjoys coming to work. So, it's just a really neat article about that partnership that we have with Choice Unlimited. So, I

082wanted to highlight that. I'm glad I got a second opportunity. For our facilities report, um right now um we're working on um getting a lot of bids for projects and there's also some job postings that we have out. We have um two positions posted in the facilities for assistant facilities manager and the operations manager. So, those are posted out. So, that's our facilities report. And then for safety, um I think one of the things that I would highlight is our total case injury rate, so our TCIR um went up and a part of that had to do with a lot of the ice that we and rain and then freezing rain that we've been getting, there's been more slips and falls and uh the district is um looking to work with a new contractor to

083try to address some of those um issues and concerns. So, we'll we'll get that um turned around. And then for our technology report, um right now they're um looking into leveraging our E-rate funding, which is a way that a lot of school districts fund technology. Um so, we appreciate our technology team's um work on that. Thank you. And then for our transportation report, um one thing that kind of stood out to me and I think we had some good discussion about it was we are pilot our district is piloting um some AI-powered dash cams on select buses, not all of them, but um having been someone who's had to in my work look through camera footage, it can take hours. It could take a whole day sometimes if you're trying to look for certain um

084video camera footage on an outdated system. And that's a whole 'nother discussion because when we're talking about technology um and the fact that we had two technology referendums fail, like it's not just the Chromebooks, it's so many things that are related to safety and um now I'm just totally going off the cuff here, but one of the things that we were down at the capital um and we were lobbying for is flexibility in some of our uh el uh yeah, our LTFM funds so that we can use some of that funds for for technology such as that'll affect safety. Safety's a big concern for our legislators, uh Democrats and Republicans alike. So, it was a really good opportunity to ask for more flexibility in our LTFM funds and what we can spend it on because

085it is very narrow sometimes um and so, that would be helpful. But anyway, um we're just what these AI-powered dash cams will do is just basically allow for us to pull up footage more instantly versus going through the camera so much and so, we'll we'll look for more updates in the future. It's kind of new um but I know we had a lot of questions about that. Um our transportation department is also looking at a lot of different cost-saving initiatives like um new software to improve systems and then um working with colleagues in the school district for for example for um field trip costs or if there's um like my kid is on the speech team, let's say they get a coach bus, we reimburse for the you know, we they get a certain um

086they get enough money to pay for a regular bus, but then they can fundraise for more money to get a coach for example. So, we're looking as a district just to figure out how can we make that process go more smoothly so we can get reimbursed quicker on that. So, that's a transportation update. We had two resolutions, um our donations to Duluth Public Schools and grant awards. Um our financial report is on page 22 and I I'll flip there, but really we're trending um very similarly to last month where we're running 7% right, Director Zuniga? Yep, 7% over um thus the cuts that we're talking about here, which we already talked about, so I won't um but I do really appreciate Director Zuniga and your work in helping us forecast a lot of this. I

087mean, some of it is unexpected and some of it is is very expected and I think we all knew we were we're going to have a hard time this year. Um I'm also very concerned about the additional proposed special ed cuts. Because when I think about 60 cents on the dollar, where is that going to put us? You know, it's 55 cents on the dollar or it just keeps getting snowballed. So. >> [snorts] >> Um that's our financial report. Um for our bids, [clears throat] RFPs and quotes, we had a Lakewood Elementary boiler replacement in there. And then for expenditure contracts on page 28, there's several there. They all look understandable. Um one that I would point out is that um we had our expenditure contract for TeamWorks come through for the capacity city, which

088we've talked about. No cost contracts are always great to see, especially when you're looking at budget cuts, but um there were a couple MOUs, one with Starbase. A lot of our fifth graders, I believe, go to Starbase and learn a lot about science and technology uh and that's wonderful. And then there was also a MOU with UMD for Upward Bound, which is also another phenomenal program. So, I thought I'd just highlight a couple of those. Um we had our grant applications on page 165. One that stood out to me, first of all, I just really appreciate all of our staff and sometimes community members who apply for these grants. I know that that's a lot of work. I also appreciate our staff when we get the grants to kind of manage those. Um but just

089a uh shout out to Dinette Seebach for her grant that she applied for for career and tech ed for Easton Denfeld. Um and then that was with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. And there were I think it was for about $100,000. I'd have to go on off my memory there, but um just really appreciate that because we're able to provide a lot of enriching opportunities for students because of of these grant funds. So we appreciate that. And then um change orders are on page 167, and I already kind of talked about those. Uh majority of those were on our First Street build out project. Any questions or comments? Great, thank you. Thank you, member Sadowsky. We'll now turn to um member Lafler Camp, chair of the Policy Committee, to give the report on

090the Policy Committee. Thank you. Uh I also want to thank uh uh members uh Stepney Williams and member uh Joel Loeffholz who served with me on this committee. Uh so uh we met on Tuesday, March 10th, and again um our um our our meeting is on YouTube to hear more of the full discussion that we had. I'm just going to do some highlights um on our policies. Um uh on our agenda uh we uh tabled policy 909 um as we're gathering more information. That was going to be the only policy for first reading. And then policy for second reading is 542, intra-district transfers. And again uh this was renumbering and updating to the 540 transfers within the school district policy. And I'll just um highlight that the purpose of this policy again is to establish

091the process and criteria for students to request attendance at a school or program within the district other than their assigned attendance um boundary um school. And there was a name change, so uh intra-district, which is uh from MDE. And then uh the uh work on this policy too was really bring um bring it to the practices that we're currently following, uh especially with our new enrollment center uh as well. Uh and um uh so everything that's in in blue uh is um uh with some of the changes that were made after the second reading. And then along with that policy um there's a regulation 542R, again intra-district transfers. And uh we made a few changes on that to uh uh again to to follow the policy and to make it uh uh easier for families

092um and and guardians. And um so uh that we uh is more informational, but I just wanted to kind of connect it to this policy for second reading. >> [snorts] >> Uh and then um we had a number of policies for review. And just a reminder that review means that we've looked at these policies uh and there's either kind of minor changes that don't change the the the the meaning of the policy. Often they're legislative changes or statute changes. Uh and so uh we just need to look at them in one reading. And uh so I'm just going to quickly go through those policies and read the purpose. Um and they'll uh they're they're they were for review. So uh the first one is uh 507.5, school resource officers. The purpose of this policy is

093to establish the contractual duties and training requirements of a school resource officer. And we had just passed that in uh August of 2024. Uh and um uh mainly the changes were some additional resources at the end of the policy uh after the legal references and cross references. So more kind of background information. The second policy uh is policy 513, student promotion, retention, and program design. The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to professional staff, parents, and students regarding student promotion, retention, and program design. Again uh we uh last approved it in uh September of 2024. Uh and uh you'll mainly find in the legal references and cross references some some changes, uh legislative changes um in red there. Uh the next policy 519, interview of students by outside agencies. Uh the purpose of

094this policy is there are occasions in which persons other than school district officials and employees find it necessary to speak with a student during the school day. School safety or student safety and disruption of the educational program is of concern to the school district. The purpose of this policy is to establish the procedures for access to students by authorized individuals during the school day. Uh and uh we last uh adopted this in March of 2025. And if you'll just go through it again, you'll see some updates, again Minnesota state statute changes. Uh the next policy 601, school district curriculum and instruction goals. The purpose of this policy is to establish broad curriculum parameters for the school district that encompass the Minnesota academic standards and federal law, and are aligned with the comprehensive achievement and civic

095readiness. And again, there's there's more information to the policy, but this is just the purpose. And this mainly is an update uh from when this was switched to comprehensive achievement and civic readiness from what was uh the world's best workforce. Uh so um there's some language changed to reflect that. And then uh policy 616, school district system accountability. Um uh the purpose of this policy is to focus public education strategies on a process that promotes higher academic achievement for all students and ensures broad-based community participation in decisions regarding implementation of the Minnesota K-12 academic standards and federal law. Again, uh there's more to this policy, uh different categories, but um uh one I guess piece of it that that we spent some time on was uh the District Advisory Committee that was um created under

096policy 603. And just uh that the Policy Committee is functioning or the um uh District Advisory Committee is functioning. It's meeting four times. Um uh it's met two times so far. And uh if anyone from the community is interested in that committee to contact the Assistant Superintendent's office. Uh there were some changes in the policy uh just highlighting uh the timeline for our curriculum adoption. And then again um again some minor um changes related to state statute uh under the legal references. Uh so you can policy 616. And again, we um last uh adopted it was uh January of 2025. Uh policy uh 621, literacy and the READ Act. Um the purpose of the policy aligns with the Minnesota law established in the READ Act and on other topics related to reading. Uh Duluth Public

097Schools places a high value on literacy as a core component of students' educational journey. The school district is committed to providing evidence-based reading instruction that is consistent with the READ Act, ensuring that students develop strong reading and writing skills. The school district emphasizes a comprehensive standards-based approach to literacy encompassing foundational skills, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. This dedication to literacy aims to equip every student with the essential tools for academic success and lifelong learning in all subject areas. Uh and again, appreciated the excellent call presentation uh that we had on uh the training of our staff with the READ Act uh earlier this month. Uh and the main changes again related to state statutes, and you'll find them some some really un- one or two numbering changes. Um and uh we uh adopted

098uh and reviewed this policy October of 2025. And then the last one, uh student transportation safety policy, policy 709. The purpose of this policy is to provide safe transportation for uh students and to educate students on safety issues and the responsibilities of school bus uh ridership. We actually had just reviewed and adopted this policy re-adopted this policy in January of this year. Uh there were some um uh language changes and additions uh since then. Uh again, this policy is also highlighted in the the handbook uh as well. And you can go to it needed a few words added like paragraphs in a couple sections. So very minor but they're Um just so the public knows we meet probably at least quarterly for our school board work sessions and so that was really helpful. I noticed

099that we had a couple Head Start Policy Council members here tonight one of whom had her daughter in the music in our school so just really great. Um Trying to think of other I wanted to thank member Laffler-Kemp because the parent advisory council on special ed is this Thursday and there's also a or the East school board member may have left but there's also an orchestra concert at East. Oh, you are there behind. Um so I'll be going to the orchestra concert because my son is performing in that so I really appreciate member Laffler-Kemp attending that for me and um I think that's all my updates. I did get a chance to we were just went on behalf of the board to meet with the climate club at East and I can give an update

100about that but they're going to be one of the interesting things that they're doing is they're going to be piloting a composting project. So they're having a pilot. They're collecting a lot of data and then they're going to do collecting compost for like a month or few weeks or something like that and then they'll they'll kind of report back. So. Great. Do we have other updates member Laffler-Kemp? >> have a couple. I just so one of the committees I serve on is the Duluth Public Schools Endowment Fund which is a separate fund a community fund that allows schools and staff to apply for grants between $500 to $5,000 and um uh pay attention to the April in April the grants will be coming in front of our board to finalize and you'll get to learn

101more about them. I got a sneak preview as a voting member of that of the grants that were approved but um a number of really creative and interesting projects again from schools and staff across the district. And then I just got notice that April 16th we have our Safe Routes to Schools meeting so I'll be participating with that for with that as well. So. If you have any thoughts on that before then share them with me. Thank you. Um I just had one committee. Oh, sorry about that member Myxell go ahead. Thank you. I didn't mean to jump ahead but the District Advisory Committee met earlier in the month and had a robust discussion. Thank you to all of our community members parents staff members who participate in this very important committee and there's always

102room for more. Um looking at our agenda because that seemed like a really long time ago. We talked about the budget. We used ThoughtExchange for the first time as a group to kind of see what that process would be like. We provided feedback to our social studies curriculum talked about MTSS tier one and core teaching and also had a robust discussion around AI implementation and feedback. Thank you and then on Wednesday March 4th member Sadowski and I attended the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee meeting that happens that happened at Denfeld in the Indigenous Cohort room. It was a very spirited meeting. We spent time um member Sadowski and I spent time listening and discerning about concerns that APAC had surrounding finding a coordinator which is very important for our indigenous students and then also some

103great information surrounding a trip that some of our APAC members were going to go to for and it's escaping me right now. I forgot to write it down. Member GreenSky? Thank you. Minnesota Indian Education Association conference right and we sent how many people did But several families of our families and our staff traveled to go so it was it was a very robust meeting and we look forward to going in April. Member Lofald. I'll jump in. I you know my committee I think I wasn't able to attend the March 5th but I there's just a lot of other committees we attend that we're not really assigned to so I really enjoy the Friday morning legislative updates that all of us can tune in to from 9:00 to 9:30. It is a fast pace but it

104is updates on exactly what happened that week. And if you go a little bit more regularly you'll kind of get the tie as these bills keep running. So I encourage us to go there but because of the schedule I keep with not working in the mornings like that that I can attend and I'm willing to share notes. They they have if you've never visited the MSBA's website for legislative updates they have really stepped up there they call it dashboard. And you can listen to the Friday morning updates and they also print it out so you can print that and that really helped as we traveled this past week to the capital because I I I printed out the Friday chat information. The bill numbers were there the support was there so that was really good.

105I'm also going to the Safe Routes to School follow up as I was a part of the Western Walk Around Stowe. I went to Denfeld's daily experience community gathering last month and I'm encouraging any of us to go there tomorrow night from 5:00 to 7:00. It's held in the Commons and it's facilitated by one of our community members so it's really a opportunity for a lot of conversation and discussion. It's really well organized. You have project at at each table color coded. You really do maximize the use of the time that you have there to actually really you know dialogue for solutions. And then on Thursday member Myxell and I will be attending our our Quality Steering Committee where we predominantly listen and get a lot of good updates from what's going on with our

106teachers and programs and and it's just a good opportunity. They meet only four times right? Four times in a school year so they're they're productive. They they are three to four-hour meetings but also a great opportunity for my learning and I'm glad to have member Myxell join me this this season. Thanks. Member Banks. Thank you. I patiently wait. So I um need some advice or some help regarding the Park and Rec Commission. I was appointed to the commission in January. The first meeting we were at the MSBA conference in the cities. The second meeting um they canceled and didn't notify me. So I went to the meeting and ended up at City Hall and uh was there in the I think it may have been the Human Rights Commission meeting because that's where the initial

107meeting was to be held and they said well no that meeting was canceled. It was canceled on Facebook. I didn't get an email through the school district email system and then um I don't know what to do. Should I contact them directly or does someone else need to do that within the district? Um I think contacting them directly or if you would like me to do that whatever whatever you would find most helpful for you member Banks. >> Yeah, I would like to attend their meetings but if I'm not getting the information in a timely manner or I'm not made aware of cancellations um that's a waste of my time when I go down to City Hall and there's no meeting. I can send another follow up. At the beginning of the year I did

108send an email saying that you are the rep now. I'm looking through my emails. I feel like I haven't gotten updates that they think it's still me but maybe they don't know who it is. So I can send another follow up to my contact and make sure you're copied on that email as well so you each have each other's contact info. If I may we I did receive their initial welcome Okay. Good. But right after that it was like the communication was not there. So I just want to get that solidified so I'm not missing meetings. Thank you member Banks. Seeing no further community updates we will now move on to hold on to our consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Member Laffler-Kemp do I have a

109second? Member Williams has seconded it. Do we have any discussion around the consent agenda? Seeing no member Laffler-Kemp do you have discussion or okay. Seeing no further discussion around the consent agenda all those in favor of the consent agenda please say I. I. Opposed? The consent agenda has passed. Next we will move on to resolution from committee reports. Next, we have acceptance of donations to Duluth Public Schools. Member Myxell. Yes, I move resolution B-3-26-4158. The resolution of acceptance of donations to Duluth Public Schools. Whereas Minnesota statute 465.03 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 the Duluth Public Schools. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the

110Duluth Public Schools does accept the below described donations from said organizations in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the Duluth Public Schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to these various individuals and organizations. And we have many pages of donations uh going to East, to Head Start, to Homecroft, Lester Park, Lincoln Park, uh and Stowe. And then, I do want to highlight um of this multi-page document, 67 donations came in to the Ordean East Middle School One Book One Day event. And that is a tremendous and remarkable amount of support from that school community. And I would love to hear more about um their One Book One Day event when uh the opportunity presents itself. Um Member Myxell has moved the resolution. Do we have a second? Second. Member

111um Sadowski has seconded it. Do we have any discussion? I will add a little discussion. Um Member Myxell, so um at Lincoln Park, they have One Book One Read, and it was a lot of fun um to listen to my son be so excited about it. I actually had to pick him up early cuz we left for something fun, and he got in the car and he was like, "Thanks. Didn't get to finish the book, Mom." And I was like, "Well, we can do that later, right?" And he was Anyhow, so it's such a great activity that we do in our middle schools. It's just to lift it up is amazing. So, awesome. Um do we have any other discussion? Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of acceptance of the donations, please say

112I. I. Opposed? We have accepted our donations. Next, we have um Member Loeffler Kump. I move resolution B3264159, a resolution acceptance of grant awards to Duluth Public Schools. Whereas Minnesota statute 46503 requires a school district to accept grants by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full. And whereas the acceptance of the grant in accordance with the donor's terms is in the best interest of the Duluth Public Schools. Therefore, be it resolved that the Duluth Public Schools does accept the below described grant from said organization in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the Duluth Public Schools wishes to extend its great grateful appreciation to these organizations. And we get many um uh This month, we only have two. Often, we have many more. Uh but the

113two that uh just wanted to highlight, uh Minnesota Sea Grant Center and the uh Center for Great Lakes Literacy, a grant of um $600 to Tanya Kalenda, uh who is a kindergarten teacher at Stowe Elementary. Uh they are going on bus field trip programming to the Great Lakes Aquarium, and they get a book. And then, WLSSD on uh giving not money, but guess what? Compost. Compost uh to Ordean East for their school garden. And uh so, we we take anything. We take compost. And uh anything. Uh but I I did want to just quickly uh mention, I happened to be I read on a uh often out uh in Tanya Tanya Kalenda's class out at Stowe, and I was there the day before their field trip uh giving them a map of Lake Superior and

114going over fun facts of Lake Superior. And these kid And I had a globe, and it was really fun. And these kids were so excited about for their field trip. Uh and um Tanya has written many grants um related to the region. So, just want to thank um uh everyone for those grants. And I move again resolution B3264159. Thank you, Member Loeffler Kump. Do we have a second? Second. Member Loeffler has seconded it. Do we have any discussion? I always love um trips to the aquarium with kids. It's amazing. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? We have accepted our grant awards. Next, we're moving on to special resolution and action items. Um we have Hold on here. Resolution E-3-26-4160. The resolution is response to the American Indian Parent

115Committee resolution of concurrence and non-concurrence for the year of 2025 to 2026. Whereas Minnesota statute 124D-78 requires a school board to respond in writing within 60 days in the cases of non-concurrence to each recommendation made by the American Indian Parent Committee and state its reasons for implementing or not implementing the recommendations. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Duluth School Board submits the response to the American Indian um the American Indian Education resolution of concurrence and non-concurrence 2025-2026 reported as attached. Do I have a second? Member Sadowski had uh Member Eder has made the motion. Member Sadowski has seconded it. Do we have any discussion? Member Loeffler Kump. I I just wanted to thank board members for the discussion that we had on our retreat uh at our retreat uh and just the thoughtful discussion

116uh as uh we reviewed uh the our response to the um non-concurrence and and just the discussions around it. So, uh appreciate the opportunity and the space to do that as a whole board, even though we have a couple members that attend those meetings. Uh and um appreciated everyone's uh insights and feedback. So, thank you. Member Myxell. I just want to thank the members of APAC for bringing forward um such thoughtful recommendations and look forward to working together to improve um education in our district. Um I would like to also just lift up because um members of the APAC Committee, the co-chairs Amber Greensky and Amber Lightfeather, we had some questions for clarity around some of the responses, and they graciously um took time out of the their day, and it was a quick turnaround,

117to take time to clarify some of the responses. And as I was speaking earlier, those clarifications um to the response really helped us build a plan um that hopefully, working with our APAC Committee and with the district, is really going to make meaning meaningful change for our American Indian students. So, I just really want to lift up the co-chairs of that committee on the quick turnaround as we asked for that clarification. So, you have our deep gratitude. Thank you. Member Sadowski. Yeah, I would just second what you just said. I really appreciated APAC um kind of helping clarify those things. I just I really appreciate when I look at this uh you know, the recommendations and then the response. Like, we wanted the response to be reflective of of the recommendations and make sure that

118we can um have it as detailed as possible so that we can make sure that we have um a checklist of sorts, you know, just to try to address those things. So, um just thank you for that. Seeing um no further discussion, all those in favor of passing the resolution as a response to the um American Indian Parent Committee resolution of concurrence and non-concurrence for 2025-2026, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? The resolution carries. Next, um we have Mm. Who did Member >> me. Yes, okay. Member Loeffler for the school board member attendance at AMSD Day at the Capitol. So, I make a motion to um accept the resolution SP-2-26-4161. This is a resolution that states resolved the Independent School District of 709 in the Saint Louis County, Minnesota, pay costs incur

119incurred as per district policy for school board members to attend AMSD, which is the Association of Metro superintendent school districts. School districts. at the Day at the Capitol, which is coming up April 13th, 2026. So, I move resolution SP-2-26-4161. Do we have a second? Second. Member Myxell's uh Member Loeffler has made the motion. Member Myxell seconded. We have just time for discussion now. Do we have any discussion? I know I've been kind of chatty chatterson this meeting, but what I will um say is this resolution for school board members to go to the Capitol is another um opportunity for school board members to directly lobby lobby members of our legislator associated with both policy and finance um to try to solve the problems that we have in front of us in terms of um school

120district finance across all the state. So, this is um meaningful activities, and I want to thank school board members who are going to be down doing that. And I know my plan at this time is to attend. And Superintendent Magus, will you be there? Um >> [clears throat] >> We I'm looking into it at this this point. I know I'm out that Thursday and Friday for personal matter, but so I'm weighing that, but as uh co-chair of the MASA committee, I try and stay involved in a lot of lobbying and really um I think the the Association of Metropolitan School Districts has a really good pulse on what are the needs of larger and mid-size districts like like ours. Uh we I actually I didn't mention this in my my Superintendent's report, but uh I

121did a presentation with the Superintendent from St. Cloud, uh Lori Putnam, and Matt Gross, the Superintendent from um Grand Rapids on mid-size school districts, and I think that there are there are different needs that mid-size school districts like ours have. Uh and one of those is uh that that quite often we can be seen as sort of an semi-urban hub of resource for people, so we end up getting a lot of students and a lot of families that might have some additional needs that might be coming to the city like ours uh because they know that they can get additional services. So, thinking about impacts on on our financial needs, AMSD, and um the mid-size school districts, as well as the large school districts, I think it's important to keep that in mind as we

122advocate together. Member Loeffler Camp. I I was just going to add I I'm hoping to go too, so. Oh, great. Can I just I I want to just extend to that much like the Minnesota School Boards Association, and then it again um uh the the Duluth and St. Louis County Days and the prep we did for that, AMSD has a very effective website with very detailed um helps with bills going through and positions that a a mid-size or a metro um district should be focused on. So, they also provide a lot of information for board members um and and district employees to to to speak to legislators with with some strong information and um asks. Thank you. Seeing no further Oh, sorry. Got to put that out there, Member Sundquist. I'm I'm fine. >> [laughter]

123>> Holding it up. Can you Can someone please remind me of the date of that? I was just looking up in my email. >> April 13th. Okay, thanks. Okay, good. So, we have a motion and a second. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of the resolution, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? The resolution has passed. Um moving on, do we have any questions or any other information we'd like to share at this time? Seeing none, do we have a um motion for adjournment? Member Williams, do we have a second? Second. Member Loeffler, we are not going to have any discussion, so all those Oh. >> [laughter] >> All those in favor of adjournment