001We're ready. >> Good evening and welcome to the September um regular school board meeting. We're here to call this meeting to order. Next, we will come for roll call. If clerk Mike Mel will please call the role. >> Member Banks >> here. Chair Derek Eer here. >> Member Laughler Kemp >> here. >> Member Loel >> here. I member Meline here. Member Sidowski >> here. >> Member Williams >> here. >> Superintendent Maggus >> here. >> Assistant Superintendent Bonds is excused. May be coming soon. Um Deputy Clerk Zunich >> present. >> Executive director of HR and operations severance >> present. >> Board secretary Pquette. Student Representative Kate Dean and our other student reps are excused. Thank you. We will now turn and um participate in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of
002America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Next, we have approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Thank you, member Banks. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Um, it was moved by member Banks, seconded by member Saddowski. Do we have any discussion on the agenda? All those in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? The agenda has been approved. Do we have a school and a community recognition this month? >> We do. We'll turn it over to Superintendent Maggus. Good evening everyone. Tonight during our public recognition, I'd like to do something a little different. Often during this time, we honor members of our community who
003have made considerable and outstanding contributions to our schools. But tonight, I want to recognize a group of people who contribute tirelessly every single day. Our school board members. Uh we have member banks, member Laughafler Kemp, member Loal, chair Durk Eer, member Mel, uh member Saddowski, and member Williams. All of you are contributing to so much with our schools. Our school board members are dedicated to the comm community dedicated community members who play a crucial role in shaping the policies that ensure our district runs efficiently, effective, and effectively. This work is often done behind the scenes, but its impact is being felt in our schools on a regular basis. You also uh approve the budget. You supervise the superintendent and you shape the way we educate our kids. As board members, you're charged with representing our
004local educational interests at the state and federal levels and ensure our district remains compliant with very complex laws. You are all very selfless advocates for our students, giving countless hours of time, talent, and knowledge. Your voice ensures that the community's values and needs are reflected in our schools. So today during September which is schoolboard member recognition month, we wanted to recognize you. So on behalf of our entire district, I want to express my my sincere gratitude to each and every one of you on our board. Uh your your commitment to public education is great and very much appreciated. And we have a token gift of appreciation that uh Patty Pquette and Adele Wellins put together for us and they're right here. I I thank you. Awesome. And I'm going to share those with you. >>
005On behalf of the board, I would just like to say we all do this work with the joyous heart. Um it is a privilege and an honor to um be able to serve the students and families of this district. So, thank you so much for this recognition. We appreciate it. So these these gifts are just a token of our our appreciation. Uh Adele Wellins, communication officer, and Patty Pquette did did a lot of work in in uh putting them together, wrapping up the the little gift. It's it's a a DUTH public schools uh bound planner and uh we have just a couple other little token things in there, but I think my favorite thing were the AI generated back- to-school children pictures of our board members. They'll also be on display throughout the month here
006in our lobby so you can continue your joy as we recognize you during school board recognition. Thank you so much for serving our our our students first and our our families and our staff here in Duth Public Schools as well as the constituents of our community. You do such a wonderful job and I'm proud to work for such an amazing school district and school board. >> Oh my gosh, thank you so much. Um, thank you. Just these are amazing. And I just want to compliment the eyebrows on my picture. It is on point. And also member Banks's picture with his beard. It is also just on point. These are amazing. Thank you so much. I just Thank you. That's um that's amazing. So, thank you. So, after that wonderful um little minute for us, now
007we will move on to the reports of the superintendent and um I will turn it over to Superintendent Maggus. Thank you. And let me just uh put things up into presentation mode for you. All right. So first and foremost um my superintendent report for this month uh we talk about our mission vision and values. Our mission is that every student every day will be empowered with learning opportunities for growth, creativity and curiosity and preparation for the future in a global community. And our vision is that DUTH public schools provides an academically engaging, safe, and inclusive environment with high expectations and responsible use of resources. Our core values are learning, developing a love of learning through lifelong inquiry. Excellence, having high standards for all through accountability, integrity, and authenticity. Equity, creating conditions of justice, fairness, and
008inclusion so all students have access to the opportunities to learn and develop to their fullest potential. Collaboration, working in partnership with staff, families, students, and community. And belonging, which is the theme for this year with our staff development, as well as what we're focused on this year, which is providing a welcoming and accessible environment where everyone feels safe, seen, and heard. Our topics for tonight are our student representative reports and tonight uh Representative Taylor and uh Representative Garner are not here tonight, but we have Representative Dean's report in just a moment. I've got some updates on the start of the year, how things went. uh some things related to the duth promise, an update on our b board work session that we had and then just a quick little recap on my superintendent evaluation and
009goals for the coming year that we I worked on with the board. So starting it's best to start with the best. Let's start with our student reports with representative Dean. >> Thank you. All right. So, since the start of the year, e students have been adjusting to new routines and schedules, myself included. Um, but I'm really excited to be back for my first report of this school year. Um, so to begin, I asked for updates from the captains of our fall sports teams just to give you an idea of what they're up to. Um, the girls tennis team has been on the courts since the summer and they're having a great season. The girls volleyball team is playing Proctor at home tonight. There's a soccer double header at East on Thursday. So, the girls will
010play Denfeld at 5:30 and the boys will also be playing Denfeld at 7:30. And it's the boys' senior night. So, we are excited to see everyone who shows up to support them. Let's see. Our football team is well into their season with their next game being this Friday at Grand Rapids. Yeah, this g this Friday at Grand Rapids and then next Friday at home against North Branch. and we're all super excited for our homecoming game which is upcoming on October 10th and it'll be against Cloquet. The boys and girls cross country teams have been practicing since August and have a meet today at Grand Rapids and they will be traveling to the University of Minnesota on Saturday to compete in one of their biggest meets. The girls swim team has also been practicing since the
011summer and is well into their season. We're wishing them luck for their home meet at Ordin tonight. The cheer team consistently shows up to show to support all of our athletes while maintaining a reputation of their own. They lead cheers in the student section at all sorts of events, and we love seeing their routines and stunts at assemblies. Moving on to some club updates. The drama club ran auditions for their fall musical, Alice by Heart, last spring and started rehearsing at the end of August. Since coming back to school, we have been in the theater or choir room almost every day from 3:45 to 6:00. The show will run from October 23rd through the 26th, and we're really excited to bring this retelling of Alice in Wonderland to life. The Climate Club has done a
012ton of research and earned a bunch of grant funding to improve East sustainability by trying to implement composting. Unfortunately, they faced some issues with getting opportunities to have open conversations with our administration about some of their concerns with the issues. Um but they are working really hard to find their next steps to make this happen for us and their commitment to our future and you know the future health of our school and planet gives me a lot of hope. I'm really looking forward to starting student forum back up for the year and today I met Miss I met with Mr. Flhog to discuss POV. We have some efforts in the works to include more underassmen in the group and also some students who aren't necessarily leaders of clubs. We want to make sure to have
013a much more balanced voice of all the students at East, not just the most involved and in charge of everything students. Um, we're hoping to expand our membership to 30. And with that, I received an email about planning for the Intercity Student Council, and I'm excited to continue working to make that come to life this year. um without when finding time for our huge number of unique clubs um is a little bit difficult but we are waiting to hear about what our pause day schedule will look like for this year. Um next for some more general school updates. Student government has already hosted a welcome back assembly and dance both of which were on the first Friday of the school year. Last Friday, the senior class was at Brighton Beach at 6 am for our
014senior sunrise event, which featured pictures, yard games, and lots of donuts and not much sunrise, but it was by the water, so the the fog wasn't too bad. Um, it's been a very busy start of the year, and we are in the midst of planning for all of our homecoming events. On Saturday evening, a group of about 30 students from Albtat, Germany, and two of their teachers arrived in Duth. They're spending the next two weeks living with East students, most of them who are in German classes. Um, they're shadowing us in our classes and taking the time to learn about American culture, and it's been super fun to have them here. On the more academic side of things, there are currently around 80 juniors signed up to take the PAT in October. Four East seniors
015who took the test last year have been invited to fill out the application to become a National Merit semi-finalist, which is a really incredible achievement. I think most schools, if they have any, it'll be one to two. That's at least for East pretty typical to have one person invited to for National Merit, but this year we have four. Um, on a more serious note though, with coming back to school, there have been some really difficult moments and conversations. Um, in the wake of the shootings at Annunciation and Evergreen, my econ teacher opened up our class hour for students to just talk. And the testimonies and opinions and observations and emotions that came forth were super eye opening for me. Um, at the start of the year, students spend time listening to presentations with info that
016comes right from the district handbook. In our third hour, you know, every day for the first week, we go through slideshows. Um, and a lot of our conversations in my econ class revolved around the language, info, and policies in the handbook. So, I just wanted to share some of what I heard my classmates saying in that um, talking session. So, when we talk about the procedures for a lockdown, it really feels like administration doesn't want to name the fact that a shooter is a threat that we may face. We talk about a lockdown, you know, if in the event of, you know, if we needed to evacuate for a gas leak or a dangerous animal or crime in the neighborhood, we'll name everything but the fact that there could be an active shooter. It seems
017like a taboo subject, but in reality, that's something students think about every time they step foot into one of our district buildings. Um, in addition, students feel really concerned that we only go through drills for fire drills, lockdown drills, whatever it may be. we only go through that at the very start or the very end of the year. Um, we're concerned that we only talk about emergency procedures during one class hour of the day when in reality we're in seven different rooms that would have seven different procedures and at the start of the new semester in January, most people have an entirely new schedule with new teachers, new classrooms. I know this is a really difficult subject to talk about and I think there's a ton to think about and discuss. the fact that my
018teacher sacrificed an like an entire class hour of instruction time that it was filled, you know, from start of the hour to end of the hour. Students were wanting to talk about this. Um, and I think it's a prime example of how badly issues like this need to be discussed. Students care and it would mean a lot to see and hear. Our administrators making it really clearly known that they care too. That's something that I think we really need to see. Um, another issue that has been coming up in the past few weeks is where CITS credits are coming from for CITS pre-calculus, CITS physics, and CITS American government and politics at East. Students in these classes at East have felt a lot of frustration due to the fact that not all students across the
019district will be receiving the same credit even though they will be completing the same classes. Um, you know, it's very clear, you know, in this district that decisions should be made, decisions regarding budgets, course offerings, and practically anything that affects students should be made in the most transparent and equal manner possible. So, according to the district website, it still says that Cats courses or so, the courses that are being offered through UMD at Denfeld on the website, it says that those are all courses that should be through FondeLac. Um, and so at the very least, we really feel like that statement should be changed to accurately reflect the discrepancy in where the high schools, the two different high schools are getting their credits from for those classes. So, I'm taking CITS physics and CITS American
020Government and Politics at East. I'm getting those credits from FondeLac. My peers who are taking those classes at Denfeld are getting them from UMD. I don't want anyone to misunderstand me and think I'm saying that I don't want the students at Denfeld to have equal access to CITS credits because that is absolutely not what I'm saying. Um I think our frustration at East R is from the fact that students in those classes were not notified of the discrepancy in those credits. Um and we didn't know about when or why that decision was made. Um in addition in addition the decision to have the high schools go through different colleges in order to offer Cats credits at both schools. um that's contrary to how situations like this have been handled in the past. So in the
0212021 2022 school year, East didn't have a teacher that was qualified to teach CITS physics through Fondelac. So we just offered honors physics. That same year, Denfeld had a teacher qualified to teach the course through Fondelac and they ran the course. So we've kind of seen a situation like this in the past and it was handled very differently and I think that's important to be aware of. Um we're we were also aware that it would be crazy expensive to have all of the students going through UMD and that it's a different situation at Dunfeld with their um different comped funds. With that, we just hope that the district is able to understand why this decision is really frustrating for all CIT students at East. Um we're putting in the same work and hope that in
022the future all students will earn equally transferable credits. So, the last portion of this report was not saved for the end because it's an afterthought, but because there's really no way to follow it up, I don't think so. As many of you may have heard, the East community is grieving the loss of Shamaya, a 2025 grad who has been battling cancer for the past few years. Since E students and our greater community heard the news of her loss last night, there's been just an outpouring of both grief and support on social media and at school. School administration worked so quickly to bring in support staff and the doors to the counseling center and career center have been open all day to welcome students in. Shaya Love to Dance was a member of the East Dance
023team who love her fiercely and they are especially feeling the weight of her loss. She asked that donations be made to the Northern Lights Foundation in lie of flowers. So I feel like that's a hard note to end on, but I just don't think there's any way to follow it. So with all that said, I would like to thank you for your time and turn the floor back to Superintendent Magus. >> Thank you, Representative Dean. Let's due to the the weight of your comments, let's just have a moment of reflection if we could. So, thank you. I just wanted to say I appreciate all of your uh deep reflections and insights uh on one of your prior topics related to the CITS. I know that uh director larva and principal flowhog had worked on some
024some uh responses and information as to that should address some of the things that you've brought up, but I think it's important for us to take a look at it. But we will I know that they're um director Larva's at a at a training today, but they're planning on sending that out. I I think it'll be going out tomorrow if not if not um the next day. But uh again, your your reports and the reports of all of our student represent representatives are so deeply appreciative appreciated. And uh I just want to say too that when there's a loss of student life, even if it's if it's a recent grad and not one of our current students, it's something that weighs very very heavily on on the the students, the staff, the community, and particularly
025in this situation with somebody who was so vibrant and taken from us far too soon. I just wanted to say that uh we appreciate you thinking of of her and of her family and everyone else. It's been a pretty intense time with the start of the school year. There's been a lot going on. Uh much of which has been positive. Some of it has been challenging and and sometimes negative. Uh but I have some some updates that I want to share with you about some different things that have gone on. So, in general, the start of the school year was very positive. There were lots of smiling faces of staff and students alike. I spent quite a bit of time uh the first week and and beyond in in classrooms, but particularly that first week
026when we have our uh all of our students returning on uh Tuesday after Labor Day and then the Thursday when our kindergarten and and preschool students come back. Just so great to see uh so many smiling faces. It's such a reminder of why we're here. I think sometimes during the summer we're working hard on the uh bureaucracy and the the strategic planning and the preparation, but to have the kids walk through the door is just u so important to us to to paraphrase or to to quote your shirt uh chair durer because of the kids, right? That's why we're all here and having our students here is is very very important to us. Um secondly, our enrollment is up significantly. We are uh and I let me just pull the number right now because I
027asked for it earlier. We are up uh quite significantly. We are up uh our enrollment is up to 8,272.88 students and the8 is because sometimes we have students who are attending partially. Uh we don't have partial students and we are actually up 173 students over last year. So I think sometimes uh the community talks about how DUTH public schools enrollment is decreasing and people are leaving the district or or sort of urban legend around those those themes. Uh but it's not it's not accurate. Students and families are choosing Duth Public Schools and this is a time when throughout the state a lot of school districts are losing enrollment. To have our enrollment going up is a testament to your good work and the good work of our students, staff and families. Um, we also uh
028continue to make many significant improvements in many key areas that that I believe are part of the reason why people are choosing to come to DUTH public schools. Whether it's how we revised our um elementary schedule or our middle school schedule or what we're doing with literacy or what we're doing with uh inclusive equity-minded uh work, we have made many many improvements. Um I also want to say that uh we still have some things to work out. One thing, space has been an issue and I think that this is something that that as a board and as a community uh we need to think about how are we addressing this systemically. Uh st space is cons constrained in a number of our sites and we heard a little bit about that during listening session too.
029Lester Park for instance has three classrooms uh with a high number of students but even if we wanted to we couldn't give them another teacher because there isn't another classroom in which to put that teacher. Homecraftoft uh for instance is uh using their teachers lounge as a classroom space. It been formally uh used and so people are using their own classrooms for their place where they prep and there's a small area in the office but it's not the same as having a teachers lounge. And then as you know Myers Wilkins we have with the move of Spanish immersion to make some space at LOL. Um Myers Wilkins is is tight now. So, it's it's not to not to simplify it, but it's kind of like a balloon animal where if you squeeze on one part,
030it pushes into the other part. And so, we're really uh at a point as a district where we have to consider programmatic um placement where our programs are and also, you know, potentially consider other things like boundaries or things like that that might uh have impact on that. I know that's a big topic and something that we will have to think about over time about how do we address that holistically, but just wanted to mention that that's what we're seeing in the schools. I'd also say, and this is with heavy heart, that violence and threats of violence have been a significant issue at our the state level, the local issue level, and the national level. We've seen a lot happening whether it was in the uh Twin Cities, whether it was uh shootings across the
031country, whether it was um things that have happened with threats and things here in our community. Uh those have been things that that we have been focusing on. And it's it's um it's been difficult to write to write a newsletter two weeks in a row where we're basically trying to say it was a really great week except for the violence and and the threats. uh it's it's hard to to think about like how do how do you say we're going to do something different as a community when when we keep progressing in the same way but safety remains our top priority. We are deeply focused on safety and you saw the presentation last uh at our last committee of the whole a couple of weeks ago from um principal and special assignment um SIBO. So
032safety is our top priority and safety came in handy when we had a visitor come to Lel Elementary yesterday which was a bear. So there was a bear that was on campus and uh because we had practiced a lot of safety protocol and because we've worked a lot with communication uh we were able to handle that situation safely and fairly and and um so that's something that we're focused on. But I was I've also been very very deeply impressed with our staff, families, and community and how they've come together and responding to some of these things during the challenging times reporting things that are issues. Like when we had a threat s significant threat issue at at Laura MacArthur, it was reported by a community member. They stepped up. When they saw something, they said
033something. And I think that that's the theme that we've been focused on is if you see something, make sure that you say something. Uh, but we're we're continuing to work on that as a society and as a school district and I have I have a lot of faith in in both our community and uh people in general that we will find a way to move beyond this in a positive way and learn from it and grow from it and u have safe community continue as a district. Duth Promise. I know we've talked about that some uh but our collaborative team with representatives from the University of Minnesota Duth College of St. Scholastica, Lake Superior College, the Lake Superior area uh Chamber of Commerce and the city of Duth Workforce Development as well as Apex uh
034came together and we've been working together about thinking about our robust and collaborative career pathways and partnerships. Our team met today for a half-day work session to plan for some of those next steps, including how we're going to use some of the $50,000 in state funding that we have for this uh piloting program. And we're very excited about the dire direction of this init initiative. Uh we are planning what are we doing for needs assessment? How are we bringing in our workforce partners? And I look forward to reporting more in the future as we continue to put those plans together. We had a board work session recently as well. Uh the B board work session was held on September 9th. School board members participated in uh the board retreat for Duth Public Schools and it
035was Phil facilitated by Dr. Ray Queener who is the uh owner and partner with uh Teamworks International who does they do they've done strategic planning for over half of the districts in the state. So really uh commend commending the board for working with that group. This retreat built on our July 8th retreat and deepened the board's engagement in strengthening governance and modeling professional development as a committed team. Board members demonstrated a strong willingness to be highly engaged and focused during the work on doing the work that's needed and also committing to continuous improvement. So once again during September which is schoolboard appreciation month, we appreciate your dedication to not just being good but continuing to work towards greatness. The retreat provided opportunities for reflection, practice, and collaborative learning. Using the teamworks governance frameworks, the board
036examined the role of the chair, practice productive conversations, reviewed the transition and development framework of teamworks, and also clarified commitments around governance governance culture and identified key messages that would guide our work moving forward. So, thanks again to the board for spending another evening here in the boardroom working together. Then uh my super the superintendent's evaluation just a quick little overview uh the board met in closed session on August 25th of this year for my end of year evaluation and a summary of that evaluation was chaired at the committee the whole on September 4th and that will probably be part of the report from the committee of the fourth and my goals for the year were focused on governance uh information for decision-m uh school district finances which was asset protection or basically looking at
037our budget uh reduction process processes and then teaching and learning for school improvement which is was all about the through line of connection from the board strategic roadmap to what happens with school improvement in our classrooms and we're currently assessing uh what my goals should be for the 2526 school year. We've shared some ideas on what what they could be from that MSBA guide book but if you have additional feedback we'll work on those in the coming weeks. So, any questions with that said? >> Thank you, Superintendent Maggus. And you can find a listing of our schedule of our meetings and events um attached to board book. We'll now move on to reports of standing committee. for the committee of the whole. I turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds. >> Good evening, board. Uh
038thank you. Um we had a robust uh meeting on September 4th. A lot of information shared, a presentation related to our state accountability. Uh the data and the review and where our school district and schools um um are rated uh was provided by the by director Sparts and director Larva. Um it was provided a lot of information regarding um how our schools are fairing um and our overall academic performance. I encourage um the community and others to please take a look at the data that has been provided on our district website. Um it it provides a lot of information. Also there was a presentation provided by our director of Head Start um Barbara Ecberg. uh she provided information related to the onetime supplemental Head Start nutrition grant. Um and it was something that had to
039be uh provided and um we also needed uh at some point a signature to be submitted as well uh which we were able to get all information um uh signed and submitted. Also there was the safe routes to school planning process. We had Andy Hell who is our safe route school coordinator and a guest was there providing information related to the duth safe safe routes to school. She provided a robust uh well uh documented presentation regarding how we are partnering with the city to ensure that um we provide opportunities for students to um walk and bike and or provide uh other means to get to school besides being dropped off. And so I really appreciate Andy uh and her team for that work. And there was also a presentation related to the district safety and
040crisis response uh provided by principal special assignment Dette Sibo and team. Um again I think superintendent may have um shared some information related to it. Uh the team has been working really hard this year to really think about safety uh in our schools. It's one of the first things that we have to always do is ensure that our schools are safe and that staff are well prepared to handle uh situations and that families and students are well informed and we've been working really hard this year to make sure that everyone is prepared in case of any kind of emergency. So I want to thank u principal sibo and the team for um that presentation and that was the uh presentation uh presentation that were given at the call. Thank you, >> member Loalt. Just a
041quick question and this would be directed to board members as well and then just some direction maybe is I know that we all received an email from Andy asking if we would be interested in serving on the committee that she was um bringing together for this um the safety routes to school and just wanted to know if that was something we wanted to discuss uh about anybody's opportunity to do that or if that's already been done but just a clarification for that ask from Andy and how we can help her and and what the board's desire is. >> I may say if you're interested in serving on that committee, why don't you send me an email and then I can pass that information along to does that work for everybody? >> Okay. >> Sure. And
042then is this a a committee that would would maybe be appropriate in January to list as a you know appointed committee member or is this something that is only going to happen for the next you know nine months or six months or is this something that we could consider making it an appointment or should we wait on that? Clearly um the currently that um this work these initiatives are grant-f funded for uh a couple of years and so I guess that is up to obviously the discretion of the board if there's going to be an appointed position or not. I think there might be um some other opportunities we probably want to discuss as well in terms of future appointments um on different committees but more to come. >> That sounds good. Jill, does that
043work for you? Okay, great. So that's again, please send me an email if you're interested in serving on that safe routes to school just so we can make sure that we don't have an overabundance of school board members um volunteering for that committee. That'd be great. Thank you, Member Loeld, for bringing that back to our attention. Member Laughler. I >> I just wanted to uh thank uh Assistant Superintendent Bonds um and our uh clerk and and board chair for bringing the uh presentations that we had uh this last month. Um just a number of of very different uh and very uh important uh presentations. And so I just really appreciated uh even though it was a robust meeting um I I I gained a lot of great information uh as I know all board members
044did as well as with our discussion and I just uh wanted to appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no further um questions for Assistant Superintendent Bonds, we'll move on to Member Saddowski and the human resource human resources and business services committee. Great. Thank you. Um our HR and business services committee met on Monday, September 8th at 4:30 here in our boardroom. Um, as usual, I'm going to give my top five or six highlights, but um, I would encourage everybody to watch the meeting on YouTube where we thoroughly go through the usually every couple hundred pages of our HR um, packet. Um, and just to review like I always do, you know, we have our department reports including the HR or human resources. We have our business services report including our enrollment, child nutrition,
045facilities, technology and transportation reports. Then we look at our recommended resolutions and we look at our consent agenda which has a lot on there and some of it I will highlight and then we look at our contracts and miscellaneous informationational items. But I would encourage everyone to take a look at that meeting on YouTube for more details. some of my top five highlights for today. Um, well, Superintendent Magus already highlighted the first one, which is our enrollment report. Um, our enrollment is up. Very good news. We had budgeted 8,999 students and, um, we hit 8,272.88 students. Um, so up I always like looking at page seven um, which has a nice little line graph just because I think it um, you can kind of see over the last few years um, where our enrollment started
046and where it ended up. Um it's very normal for enrollment to kind of decline over the school year as students graduate early and things like that, but we are up considerably from where we were last year, which is great news. I would also share that um where we've seen the most gains is in the 8th, 11th, um and 12th grades. So that's kind of interesting there. Any questions about our enrollment? Okay. Um, some other, uh, items that I wanted to highlight, uh, was on our facilities report, which starts on page 11. Um, there's a lot on our facilities report because there's a lot going on, always kind of maintaining our buildings throughout the district. Um, but one that I highlighted that I think is of note, especially when we're talking about safety, um, today is
047that, um, we received a conditional use permit with the city of Duth for the guard rail installation. Um, and so that has been approved and we're waiting on the city for next steps. But um there's going to be a guardrail that's put in um to protect the sidewalk and the school kind of on the back side of Myers Wilkins um based on you know the accident that happened last fall. So that was some really good environmental work and um advocacy work from our um staff to make that happen. So thank you. And then another piece I wanted to highlight on our facilities report um just a really remarkable number. Our building operations summer cleaning was a success. Over the summer facilities operations cleaned approximately 1,753,95 square ft of building space. So take that number in.
048That is a lot. And um it's just really nice to know that our students are coming back to a sparkling new, you know, newly cleaned classrooms and schools. It's it's always nice walking into school on the first day, I think, having that happen. So, we really appreciate our custodial staff, especially considering the fact that we know we have been a little understaffed with custodians over the last couple years. So, really appreciate their work. And then um just wanted to quick highlight we had a couple staff um Elizabeth Leoo and Daniel um Colden who reached 40 years of service to Duth Public School. So just wanted to give them a shout out. That is a remarkable milestone. Um Daniel I think sounds like he's going to be retiring soon and we wish um Elizabeth just continued
049success in her role and thank them both for their commitment to Duth public schools and our students. Yeah, that's huge. [Applause] And then um in our technology report, I would just say that our transition is going really well for our new technology director, Greg. Sounds like there's been um a lot of good meetings that have happened to help that transition run smoothly and just thinking about um how to improve technology um kind of as we move forward. One of the things that they've been looking at is our um the scope of the project for smartboards. We know that that's been an issue. We know that smart boards are very expensive. So they're looking at that project and defining the scope to replace the aging classroom display which is essentially our smartboards and maybe some other
050technologies as well. And then um I would just point out our resolutions which are on page 14 and 15. We have of course our uh resolutions for donations to DUTH public schools. um we will highlight that um when we read our resolutions. And so I will let our fellow board member kind of highlight a couple that they want to. But we're really appreciative of um all of our community members who contribute to um our students in our schools through um various donations. And then we have our uh resolution for a maximum levy certification. I'm going to let Director Zunich talk about this a little bit more. However, I would just put point out that our levy is set by the Minnesota Department of Education. We still don't have final numbers from them. They are due,
051I think, by the end of the month here. Um and then I'll let Director Zunich um say a few words about the levy, too. Thank you. >> Good evening. Thank you. Yes. So, um, every September, uh, we bring forth to the school board for approval of the adoption of the maximum levy set by the Minnesota Department of Education. Um, at this time, we usually do not have numbers to present. However, I can say, you know, we have some uh numbers that are still pending in the levy. I checked again today. Um, I did do a a soft mockup with our financial advisors and uh, according to the levy, right now we are coming in at for pay 26 at 46,562,000 and some cents. So, it's up right now 3.57. Last year, we came in at
052minus 2.86. If you'll remember, we did $1.9 million. Um, we had an adjustment in our LTFM. So, that's now been put back. That drives everything back up again. We do have um some LTFM and DNT bonds that are working through our debt. So, that's all been approved. Um, right now it's at 3.57. Could potentially double uh when they finish our LTFM, which is expected. Um, so we I will print out a document after it's uh the school board discusses it tonight and then I'll bring it down for the clerk to sign and then I will send that to MDE. We have to send it to St. Louis County and knowing the school board has fully is fully aware that we are um allowing them to they're allowing us to levy up to the maximum amount.
053And then in December at our truth and taxation meeting, I will bring forth the final numbers and we'll have a good discussion that night. Do you have any questions for me? Chair Eater, >> I would just um just for clarification, the difference when we go through the levy process is that cities and counties are allowed to set their levies where school districts, the levies are given to us by the Minnesota Department of Education. So, could you talk a little bit about that, please? >> I sure can. Thank you. Um MD is responsible for calculating our maximum levy. Um it is based on our ADMs, our debt, our leases and then they also take a look at our property tax values in the city and they have a very fancy formula that they run and that
054is how they determine the revenue that we're going to receive. Whereas a city can determine what they they think their utility charges will be if they want to build new buildings etc. and then they can set their levy according to that. So, um we let's see I wanted to point out one more thing here. Uh and also I wanted to say the Minnesota legislature also sets the overall funding formula and limits for school districts. So between that and what the work MDE has to do, that is how we receive our levy amounts. So, it would be fair to say that unlike city and county entities, we have a lot of our financial resources given to us as opposed to us being able to make the decision as to what would be best for our community.
055>> That is absolutely correct. >> All right. I just wanted to make sure that that's clear for our community that again, unlike city entities and county entities, we are at the um I guess the other end of what the Minnesota Department of Education decides for our levies to be. So um what I am excited to and one thing that will factor into this is that we have significantly um overperformed in the number of students that are coming back to the duth public schools and deciding to come in. So, as member Saddowski talked about early, we budgeted for 8,999 students and currently what we have enrolled is 8,272 and some and some change of a student. But so, um I just want to make sure that our public understands that we are doing um very good
056things with our resources and attracting students to the duth public schools. Thank you, >> Superintendent Magus. And I would just add to that as well that uh when we think about the past two years having reduced uh $2.6 million uh the year before last and 7 million for this year uh thinking about the uh challenges of that belt tightening just as we think about the community and and the reflection on our spending. We have worked really hard to make some difficult choices about how do we how do we um tighten our belts and and focus on on the u priorities of our students but still be very fiscally responsible. So very appreciative of executive director uh Zunich especially as we've had a lot of changes through MDE and sometimes some of the information and timelines
057have come later than normal. Uh I know that that that's not the the fault of executive director Zunich or anybody else uh here and I'm not casting dispersion on MD either, but they've they've gone through a lot of change recently. So thank you. >> Any other questions for director Zich? Um member Lel. >> So just going off of um Chair Eater's comments too about who sets our levy and that the city and the county don't. The other thing to point out for our audience here and for our audience that watches our YouTube is that the school district is the lesser of those three entities on on the on the percentage. So, you know, if you have a pie of 100%, the county gets the biggest chunk, the city gets another chunk that's bigger than ours,
058and then ours is. and and I know that our chunk of percentage that goes to the school district is is smaller than city, but we're pretty close. This the the county with all of its it does have a lot of of of services they have to provide. So, I certainly understand that. But just so at times because we have to we are given what we're going to levy and then sometimes we need more to service our students um we have to go out for that vote and so then you know it becomes a a real fight to you know say that property taxes are too high and and I understand that but um you know that's just reality is that we we get the lesser percentage when all is said and done on our property
059tax. >> Seeing no other questions, thank you, Director Zunich, for that and thank you board members for the great um comments and conversation and questions as well. Um the last piece that I would just highlight from our HR business, um there's actually a lot of interesting things that we talked about. Um, but I just would highlight um under contracts, change orders, and leases that we're going to be um voting to enter into a contract with Environmental Health and Safety Management Services for um the 2025 2026 school years. Um this they are going to help us um they're an outside kind of agency that can help us with compliance when it comes to um safety, OSHA, that sort of thing. um with our health and safety environmental um environmental coordinator left and we're looking to fill
060that role. Um we have worked with this agency before um and they're going to just help us make sure that we're adhering to all of the safety regulations and things that we have to do in the district. So um fully support that contract. Thank you. Um did um members banks or Williams want to have anything else they might want to point out from the HR? Okay. Thank you for your work on our committee as well. Thanks. >> Thank you, Member Sidowski. Um, moving on to member Laughler Camp for the policy committee. >> Thank you. We met on Thursday, September 11th, and we we had a lot on our agenda this month. Um, we policies for first reading uh is policy 301. uh school district administration. It's uh replacing 2055 uh and uh we'll touch on
061that later. Uh the purpose of this policy is to clarify the role of the school district administration and its relationship with the school board and this is a new uh policy um from NSBA. Uh the second uh first reading is policy 305 which is policy implementation. The purpose of this policy is to clarify the responsibility of the school administration for implementation of school district policy. And then uh that would be replacing 2070 policies, regulations and bylaws. And then policies for uh second reading and this is one that we um initi we've been looking at for a few months is our school weapons policy and as we've talked about uh throughout the night that the importance of this policy. Um so we've had really um a lot of good discussion on it and recommendations and changes.
062But the purpose of this policy is to asssure a safe school environment for students, staff, and the public. Establishing a weapons-free school zone is one element of creating a safe environment. DUTH public schools promotes the safe storage of guns in accordance with the schoolboard resolution for the safe um storage of weapons. And there was also some legislative changes uh in this policy as well under uh section three. So this is our second reading on it. Uh then uh we um had a number of policies for review and again ma mainly small legislative changes. I'll read through these. Uh policy 806 is our crisis management policy. Uh the purpose of this policy, crisis management policy is to act as a guide for school district and site administrators, school employees, students, schoolboard members, and community members to
063address a wide range of potential crisis situations in the school district. The step-by-step procedures suggested by this policy will provide guidance to each school site in drafting crisis management plans to coordinate protective actions prior to, during, and after any type of emergency or potential crisis situation. Uh each school district should develop tailored sightsp specific crisis management plans for each school site in the school district and sections or procedures may be added or deleted in those crisis management plans based on site needs. Uh the school district will engage in ongoing emergency planning within the school district and emergency responders and other revolent community organizations. Uh the school district will will ensure that Revalent emergency responders in the community have access to their sightspecific crisis management plans and will provide training to school district staff to enable
064them to act appropriately in the event of a crisis. And again in our committee of the whole meeting um we uh this fits in with the update that we uh got uh as well. Uh the next um uh for review and and again there were just some minor changes in this one. Uh for review 503 student attendance again another very important uh policy that we updated uh earlier this year in um February of 2025. Uh and uh the purpose of this policy is uh the school board believes that regular school attendance is directly related to success in academic work, benefits students socially, provides opportunities for important communications between teachers and students and establishes regular habits of dependability important to the future of the student. The purpose of this policy is to encourage encourage regular school
065attendance is it is attended to be positive and not punitive. Uh this policy also recognizes that class attendance is a joint responsibility to be shared by the student, parent, guardian, teacher and administrators and this policy will assist assist uh students in attending class. And again, um just a small uh legislative change on that. U but I do want to just say we have a attendance campaign that's been going on across our district and really appreciate all the ways that we are publicizing that and getting that message out to the community and our parents. And then um the next policy with the small legislative change we also reviewed and adopted updated it in January of 2025 is the library materials policy. And the purpose of this policy is to provide direction and to delegate responsibility for
066selection and reconsideration of library materials. Again just a numbers change in the statute on that one. And then the last one for review. Uh again because of legislative changes um is uh policy 602 organization of school calendar and school day. Uh we last reviewed this in uh 12 of 2023. The purpose of this policy is to provide for a timely determination of the school calendar and the school day and again um a a legislative change. So those were the policies for review. Uh the next section uh and excuse me um policies for first reading for second reading uh will be on our consent agenda. Uh the the last thing is we've been going through our thousand series again to um look at where uh the policies are uh obsolete maybe um because of state statutes
067and um or we have it in uh involved in some other updated policies. So, uh I'm just going to read the titles of the policies um that we considered and we discussed um and we would like to delete uh our recommend for deletion. Uh, policy six, um, whoops, sorry, policy 2005, administrative and supervisory personnel. And, uh, policy 2020, administrative operations. Uh, policy 2025, principles. Policy 2030, assistant principles. Uh, a policy policy 2040, internships. uh policy 2055 quality work life and philosophy. Uh we're actually going to hold off on that, but that would be um um policy 301 uh that we're doing a first reading on this policy would we would be replacing. So, we're going to have some more discussion at our next month's meeting being it's up for first reading on 2055. Uh, and
068the same with 2055 regulation uh policy60 um curriculum development committee policy policies, regulations and bylaws control and then policy 20775 school closing procedures. uh a lot of that's in in our other policies and regulation. So those were um that was the work of our policy committee. Uh lots of great discussion uh and also really appreciate the research that Patty Pquette had done on um cross referencing it with our current policies and uh state statutes. Um any other additions board members that are were on that committee with me that day? Sarah. >> Okay. Okay. Uh so again uh the policies for first reading and and for second reading will be on the consent agenda. Our next policy meeting is on October 9th. And uh thank you all for the great discussions we had. >> Do you
069have any questions for member Laughler? member uh Superintendent Magus, >> just a quick comment. Uh once again, I appreciate that the board and that the U policy committee are uh taking the time to go through the uh thousand series and and uh really rejuvenate and think about the U policies that can be deleted there as well as what needs to be moved into the 100 series. It's it's u it's a lot of work, but it's uh well worth it and much appreciated. Thank you. Seeing no further comments, we will move on to if any members have any, excuse me, have any um general board committee updates. Anything any board members would like to share? Uh member Saddowski? Yeah, I just wanted to share that um our Head Start policy council um you know we we
070paused for the summer for the most most part but I know that um our Head Start some of our parents were involved in some of the interviews as well I believe for our new Head Start director Barbara Ecberg um but it was Barbara's first time kind of leading um the meeting with our council members and um they had a quorum which was really great to see um and uh really good discussion. I would say just as a followup from our cow, our parents were very excited about the one-time Head Start supplemental nutrition grant that um Barbara applied for and they're excited to see um just how that rolls out with our kids and families in the different schools and they were had some good conversations around that as well as the budget. >> Thank you.
071Member Saddowski, do we have any um committee updates? Um, member Loeld. >> So, just like every other committee, the they take pause over the summer. And so, we we got back with our teachers um on the quality steering committee. That's the committee that currently member Laughler Kemp and myself sit on, you know, maybe next January. Other board members will be interested. It meets uh quarterly, once every other month on Thursday mornings from 8:00 to 11:00, which I know creates um a a problem schedule-wise for many of us on the board. But again, it's it's good to get back and and the agendas are robust. It's led by Assistant Superintendent Bonds and um leader um Jim Juville. Yeah, I knew the name would come up. So, um really enjoy the the ability to listen to um
072the principles, the teachers, the leaders, um directors that sit around a table much like this and you know work through and celebrate and also um listen to um things that are needing some clarification. So, that's always good. The other committee that I sit on that I don't often update, but there are some exciting things coming is the Minnesota School Board Association. So, I am this board's kind of designate for the Minnesota School Board Association. So, um I've made an appointment with um some of our um our athletic and activities directors just for some refreshing. And the um Minnesota school board also puts on a little >> um >> Oh, did I say MSBA? That's because the MSBA is um bringing together some MSBA uh some some school board members who are sitting as their board
073rep for the Minnesota School Board for the Minnesota State High School League to bring us together. That's coming up. And um we have an intergovernmental meeting tomorrow, I believe, to come back as well. And that intergovernmental is really um another community committee that, you know, any of us can can be assigned to by our chair. but it's um currently it's membersly clear form to click on to verify your donations and that hasn't always been um so clearly given and so I really think one we're probably going to see a lot more in our donations cuz I think a lot more do come in but that we've been missing that little um piece of like when I get a donation from someone for the speech team I just give it to the um financial people in
074our building and I don't know if they record it as a donation or not. So, I just think it's going to be a great addition to getting donations. >> Thank you, Member Loel. And we have permitted, we have promoted Brett to what now? He's the executive what now? >> He's the business services coordinator, executive assistant to the CFO. >> He's the assistant superintendent of No, >> I'm I I I appreciate you bringing that up. He works hard on that. and um all of our departments put all our information in there. We have links now to for people to do how to do a purchase order and whatnot. So, we've expanded it more and more and he likes doing it. That's great. Well, we lift him up because he does a wonderful job. And soon we'll
075have all of our plants back out here. We'll have all of our ferns and everything back to keep it nice and green. So, we look forward to that. Um, seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of approving our donations for this month, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. We have gratefully accepted our donations for the month of September. Um, moving on. Next, we have approval of the Office of Head Start Supplemental Nutrition application. Do I have anybody to move this forward? >> So moved. Thank you, Member Loel. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member Saddowski, do we have any discussion on approval of the Office of Head Start Supplemental Nutrition Application? This was a presentation we had at the Cow meeting. We're thrilled to have it. Member Saddowski talked about it
076during the HR business services meeting. Seeing no discussion, all those in favor of approving our Office of Head Start Supplemental Nutrition application, please say I. >> Opposed? We have approved our office or approval of our office of Head Start supplemental nutrition application. Oh, sorry. >> That's that's okay. I I actually just wanted to say you jumped over um one of the special >> Oh, that's Yes. Thank you so much. >> Head start. But >> yes, that's where I missed it. Thank you. And that just happens to be member Laughafler Kemp. Can you bring forward designation of individual official with authority for Head Start? I will. And I was just so eager to do this. Okay. In order. >> So, um I'd like to move resolution E9254122 designation of identified official with authority Iowa uh for
077Head Start. Whereas the Minnesota Department of Education requires that school districts annually designate an Iowa to comply with state access control security standard 1.0, which states that all user access rights to the Minnesota state systems must be reviewed and reertified at least annually. The Iowa, I love saying that, the Iowa uh will assign job duties and authorize external users access to MDA secure systems for their local education agency. Now therefore, it be resolved, the superintendent recommends the board authorize Barb Ecberg, our new Head Start director, to act as the Iowa for the Head Start organization, DUTH Head Start 701084001. >> Thank you. Member um Laughler Kent brought forward our designation of the ident of identified official with authority for Head Start. She made the motion. Do we have a second? Member Williams has seconded. Do
078we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor of designation of identified official with authority for Head Start, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? We have approved that motion. Um, Executive Secretary Pakquette, is it okay? I was out of line there a little bit. Is that okay? All right. Great. Thank you. We have to start the whole meeting over. No, I'm just kidding. [Laughter] Sorry. Okay. Um, moving forward, do we have a motion to bring forward the approval of the community education director individual contract? >> So moved. >> Uh, member Saddowski, do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member um Laughler Kemp, do we have any discussion? We are very looking forward to bring to um having who um assistant superintendent Bonds, could you give us a little update on that?
079>> Yes. Uh, thank you. We are pleased that Nate Chapman has started with us. Actually started over a week ago. Uh hitting the ground running. Uh has already started meeting with his team. Um he comes from uh very close like two almost two hours away. Close uh from um Cambridge uh school district >> Santi uh school district. And so we're just really pleased that he uh is with us and um he's he's um duly licensed and is is doing all the good things to build relationships with his team and move programming forward. So we're just pleased that he's on board and I'm looking forward to what him is him and his team uh put together to improve community education programming. >> Great. Welcome him for us. >> Thank you. Do we have any other discussion?
080Member Banks. So, at what point will we as a board get to get an opportunity to meet him? >> Yes. >> Member Laughler. >> Oh, I I I didn't mean to comment, but I will just say I really appreciate and uh the work um assistant bonds that you did in the absence of our having a community ed director as well as the other staff within the community education team. So, uh, you know, their work doesn't start start stop in the summer and, uh, really just send that u appreciation. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of the approval of the community education director individual contract, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Lastly, we have the approval of the Minnesota Department of Education review and
081comment. And I'll um call forward executive director Zunich to give us a little um synopsis on this. Hi again. Well, I'm really really excited about this. Um we did receive a positive review and comment from the Minnesota Department of Education on our suggested plan uh for the Duth News Tribune building first street project. um they are allowing us to levy up to 73%. So 27% will need to come from district funds and as you all know we do have that levy bond that was uh purchased several years ago. So, we do have those funds sitting in our um EUAR's table and um part of the process it says that the school board must discuss the commissioner's determination of a review and comment and the district's approved achievement and integration plan findings at a regular or
082special school scored I'm tired special school board meeting within 45 days of the commissioner's determination. Uh the department may also request a copy of the board minutes to ensure compliance. So, uh they'd like to have a conversation. I would like to have an approval. And then we also did link into the um agenda the email we received from Miss Vanessa Mo at MDE um stating that the achievement and integration plan that we're using towards this uh project uh was approved. So um do you have any questions for me? I I might just quickly remind the community that this building is going to house just a couple of the program well not a couple many of the programs that this building is going to house um for our students and for our families. That's correct. Uh
083we'll have some early childhood in there, our enrollment center, community education, um an aiologist, um district testing, families in transition, uh ALC, the bridge, uh steps and um other various I think I feed service or I think I I I got everything. So um that equals the the 73% equals the 9,797388. Um total ineligible is 3,ion6. So that is the part that we will use our LTFM money for. Um but I'm I'm taking this as a big win. I appreciate the support from MDE and that they see this is a positive step forward uh for the school district. And many of those programs that we're going to move to house, we're currently leasing those spaces. So that's lease levy that our community is currently shouldering right now. And we will be moving many of those
084programs to a building and we will be alleviating that lease levy that we have on the community right now. >> Correct. That's uh roughly the last when I did the summer levy calculations, it was $685,000 approximately. So we will be alleviating that and um I will be bringing forth to you at our October HR business services meeting the bond information and resolution. Um but after a conversation tonight um I will be contacting MDE and then again they want to see a copy of the minutes. So >> great. Do we have any Well, let's do we have approval of the Minnesota Department of Education review and comment or not? Excuse me. Do we have a motion for the approval of the Minnesota Department of Education review and comment? So move >> member Sidowski. Do we have
085a second? >> Second. >> Member Loeld. Now we can continue our discussion. Do we have any other discussion or questions? Member Banks. >> Thank you. I just have two uh clarification questions, please. >> So you you mentioned 45 days. >> Um where are we sitting? When does that start? And does this meeting require a special meeting of any kind where it just happens here? >> Good questions. Uh the date of this letter is September 11th. So we have 45 days from September 11th and we do not have to have a special more board meeting. It says um it can be reviewed at a regular or special school board meeting as long as it's within 45 days of the commissioner's determination. >> So this would sign >> this would signify. Yes. >> Member Lo, Member Lo,
086>> I think you just clarified one question. So, tonight's conversation can count as the the time that we've had conversation. Okay. My question was just since we've been kind of um not moving forward with actual building uh construction going on in that building until we heard from MDE. Does that mean that now you know starting soon we'll see some more activity in that first street building with construction? >> Yes, we will uh they can finally start moving on all this. I will be meeting with um ICS on Thursday. We're going to start talking budget and uh working through that process and I believe in two weeks they'll start work down there but we will be bringing contracts to you at that time as well. >> Member Sidowski, >> I wanted to thank you for pointing
087out just about our our various leases throughout the community and how this is a very fiscally sound decision to move a lot of our programs into that building. And I just wanted to thank Director Zunich and her whole team um just for your work on making this happen. Um I know that there's a lot of moving pieces um a lot of communications that happened around it and um we just really appreciate your work and the work of our whole administrative team on this. So it's going to really be a benefit to our community and our students especially. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, all those of um all those in favor of the approval of the Minnesota Department of Education review and comment, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? We have approved the Minnesota
088Department of Education review and comment. Moving on. Um do we have any questions or anything else we'd like to bring forward? Seeing nothing, we'll move on to adjournment. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So, member Banks, do I have a second? >> Second. >> Member Williams. Um, do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. A poll.