June 17, 2025 at 6:30 PM - Regular School Board Meeting

001All right, I think I'll um give the signal. So, we'll Oh, there we go. Didn't quite mean that fast, but okay. Um, good afternoon and welcome to our June regular school board meeting. It is June 17th and it is 6:34. So, we're calling this meeting to order and I'll turn it over to clerk Micasel for roll call. Member Banks here. Chair Derek Eer present. Member Laughler here. Member Loal here. I am member Mike Sol and I am here. Member Sidowski here. Member Williams here. Superintendent Maggus here. Assistant Superintendent Bonds present. Deputy clerk Zunich present. Executive director of HR and operations severance present. Board secretary Pquette. Student rep. Kate Dean and our other student representatives are excused. Thank you. Clerk Mike Cassell will now stand and the pledge if you're willing. Um and the for our

002pledge of allegiance and our flags are found in the corner of the Thank you. And now I I will look for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Um the motion was moved by member Micasell. Do we have a second? Second. U member Laughler Kemp second it. Um do we have any discussion on the agenda? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor of approval of the agenda, please say I. I. Approved. Uh opposed. Um the motion carries. The agenda has been approved. Now we will move on to school and community recognition. Assistant superintendent bonds. Come on in. Dear school board members, tonight it is my distinct honor to recognize an exceptional student who has truly shined at the national stage. Jimma Kim, an outgoing eighth grader at Ordin East Middle School. She's here because

003she represented our entire city at the prestigious 2025 National Scripts Belling Speed, making us incredibly proud of her and her performance. So, let's all give a round of applause. Now, competing at such a high level requires immense dedication, intellect, poise, Jimma de demonstrated them all with flying colors. Though the competition was tough, Jimma excelled. Unfortunately, during the sixth round, she misspelled the word litigation, which is spelled L E V I G A T I O N. She said it was a tough word at the time. While the competition was incredibly tough and her journey and her performance are truly commendable, she is an outstanding student and she represented DUP public schools well. So, let's give her a round of applause on her accomplishment. And she said she would like to uh share a little bit

004about her experience as well. Um, thank you for everyone at the school and at the district for supporting me on my way to the national spelling be. It was really great getting to go to Washington DC and getting to represent DUTH at the on the national stage. Would you like a Would you like a picture? So proud because I'm sure the board would like to come and congratulate you and maybe say, you know, a couple things as they're coming up. Congratulations, Gemma. I think were you doing the competition when I was giving you the words? Wasn't that at Ordin East on stage? I think it was made. So, good luck. Good luck. Congratulations. Congratulations. It's a lot of hard work. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Great job. Thank you for that moment of joy. That was

005wonderful. So, now we move on um to the report of the superintendent. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Magus. Thank you. Uh, as we always start with our our superintendent report, we start with our student representatives. And Miss Dean, Representative Dean is ready with their report, I assume. Yeah. I don't have too much to say because no student forum this month. Um, the biggest thing that came to mind when I was thinking of what to share with you is that our Spanish students, I think, just had their first day in Costa Rica with the uh, yeah, East Spanish classes. So that's what I think maybe like 30 students from East are doing right now. But um summer practices for sports are going on and I think you could like feel the anticipation in the air

006by the end of this school year. So I think everyone is enjoying a good break, but yeah, not too much to share today. No problem. I'm having a hard time getting into the Wi-Fi right now, which is why I was struggling a moment ago. So I'm trying to pull up my report so I can cast Um, just one second. Just trying the guest Wi-Fi. One second. Could you try casting for me? Thanks. Sorry about that. We have it and Miss Pquette will be casting. But um basically uh we have several topics that I wanted to talk about tonight. uh one was really we spent much of the last uh few weeks in various leadership work sessions whether it was the uh administrative work session or the work session of cabinet those have been things that

007we've been focusing on. So if you want to advance through just a couple slides there we have our mission vision and values which we've uh talked about often. We had our student reports uh just one second. So basically the So who sorry one thanks. Yes. Yes. Thank you. So uh talking about the legislative work up uh work session updates. We met with our admin team and I'll talk about that at a high level and then uh some of the legislative updates. As you know, there's been recent news that we've had and then opportunity for uh additional context. Thank you. So, for our work session updates, if you could click one more um as I've mentioned just a little bit at the committee of the whole, but I wanted to share more. Uh we have a

008number of posters around us that really outline a lot of the celebrations of our 202425 school year and all the departments put together uh celebrations from what the work that they had accomplished and the successes that they had achieved. You see communications, you see secondary education, elementary and the speech bubbles are actually from the individual schools because we didn't want to have them spending time creating posters during their last week when they were so busy with our students putting attention uh there where it was needed. our safety committee. You see um facilities, you see transportation, you see professional development, uh many many families in transition, you see career and technical education, you see American Indian education, all the various departments put together uh posters for us. So they reported out and then we had a

009carousel uh activity there. And then if you can click on the next slide, we also uh reviewed our strategic roadmap and then also an updated uh three-year operational plan which we'll bring to the board in greater detail in August. A lot of what I'm covering here is is kind of a a prelude to what we'll we'll cover in August with our revised action cards and things of that nature. But if you can flip to the next slide. So again, we talked about some of the highlights from our upcoming action cards. And when I go through these next slides, please know that this is meant just as as kind of a 10,000 foot overview of of what we're doing. This was um a couple hour event when we were going through each of these slides. So,

010uh it's it's meant just sort of as a fly over of some of the main activities that we'll focus on for the coming year. So, under supporting every student, and we really preface everything under our three focus areas, supporting every student, advancing equity, and improving systems. But as you see, uh, we're we're really focusing on, um, several things at the elementary for priority and several things at secondary for priority. The focus areas for elementary are our letters training and continued work on literacy. Uh, working on teacher clarity in particular with assessment for teacher clarity. Uh, there's going to be a social focus on the social studies curriculum as we look to um, move forward with a new social studies curriculum at the elementary level for next year. and also uh working on community building through

011positive behavior interventions and supports. And then also uh thinking about educ uh what are we doing to use edge climber as a data tool and one of the things that they're focusing on this year is something new is entering minor behaviors into educ so they can start looking for for behaviors uh just before they before they become something big so that that we can have intervention have supportive intervention with students before a behavior becomes too problematic. uh thinking about being tardy to class or something like that, want to make sure that we we're focusing on it before it becomes too big of an issue. Then our secondary priorities uh really are largely content specific. We have our phase 2 letters work that we'll be doing as well as our ELA adoption as well as uh

012thinking about content area departmental work that we have uh teacher clarity like at the elementary level. will focus on assessment but also on grading making sure that our grading practices are more standardized and more based on um best practices related to assessing student work. We under targeting supports thinking about our multi level systems of support work. We're working on an early warning system and you might be thinking oh is that tornadoes is it uh earthquakes? No, it's uh early warnings for uh failure and potential for being off track for graduation. there are a lot of different indicators that we can look at that that are uh quite often precursors to a student failing classes and and um struggling and maybe not graduating. So, we're we're fine-tuning our early warning system. And then, as you know,

013we've worked on our our middle school implementation and our our high school schedule implementation. We're continuing work on that as well as credit recovery. Next slide, please. Advancing equity. Uh we know that u our coordinator for our our um achievement and integration is on leave right now but Mr. Bonds uh is working on this as well and shared some information just about uh something new that will be part of the plan which is focused on relationship building which has always been important to us but explicit development of relationships which is we know that uh teachers don't or students don't care what teachers know until they know that they care and so really focusing on those relationships. Another aspect of advancing equity on the next slide is uh family and community engagement and we're talking about

014having Shelon Monroe's been working on that and we've been uh talking about um parent academy sessions. So basically different um ideas that parents have as far as things that they'd like to learn more about like um you know how can they support their students in literacy? How can they support students who are struggling with attendance? uh if they're having behavioral issues, how can they provide better support? And then doing more with our monthly celebrations, thinking about things like the um the different months and days where we celebrate things like African-American history month, uh thinking about our our American Indian um education and and celebrations that we have, making sure that those are are um extended to our families in a more robust way than we have previously. And then also thinking about family engagement through

015our PTAs. We have a a city-wide PTA and we have a lot of PTAs and also PTOs and we want to make sure that they they've asked too how can we make sure that we're providing additional uh support and encouraging and kind of scaffolding for for groups that want to join PTA and I want to thank U member Laughler Kemp too for being very involved in that group and and oftentimes championing the work of our PTAs within that organization. Then we have a lot under improving systems and sometimes under improving systems they tend to be more operational in nature and by operations thinking about you know facilities and human resources and um things of that nature. So under business services our goals for this next year are to continue improving what we're doing with uh

016financial forecasting budget forecasting and and hitting our targets with with u expenditures. uh we are working to improve and develop our enrollment center and really focusing the pairing of that with our enrollment campaign but thinking about that enrollment center and making sure that we're improving our grant process PECARD processes and then also uh transportation is implementing new software for field trips. So that's something that that is also a focus to that department. Human resources is going to be focusing on their comprehensive recruitment and retention plan. You've heard about that in some of the previous meetings that we've had. They're also doing a full circle integrated onboarding program. So, making sure that we're well preparing our our uh people when they come to us, make sure that they're having all the supports they need as well

017as uh doing more to make sure that we're reviewing job descriptions. Some of our job descriptions are pretty old and sometimes the verbiage is not uh really appropriate for what the person is doing now or or really matching what we have have for the position. And so making sure that we go through a a cycle of review and not just do it when we have an opening come up, but that we have a a process for for cycling through all of those those things. We're also working on teacher apprenticeship program as well as uh transitioning to a new employee evaluation uh program that we we are working on the vector training and things of that nature. So all right, facilities uh we have some goals there. So basically uh developing and implementing comprehensive training program.

018So working on our our boiler engineers providing leadership training for all department supervisors. Uh because sometimes people advance to leadership roles partly because of their their um their job knowledge which is very important but sometimes job knowledge doesn't necessarily mean that you have the the supervisory skills with evaluation and things like that. So we're making sure that everybody has those skills as they move up the career ladders. Also thinking about our plan for updating necessary equipment that we have within facilities and improving communication between facilities and maintenance departments regarding the uprocoming pro projects that we have. Sometimes we have a good idea and it moves forward really quickly and and we want to make sure that the communication with the schools is there. And then safety updates. Uh you see the safety poster over there

019but really we have a safety poster and we're trying to increase or safety poster we have a safety survey that really gets to a lot of heart of the safety uh elements. We want to increase participation by our employees and also increase the responsiveness that uh we want to make sure that the ISD79 staff knows that we care about their priority the priority of safety and that they know that we care about them and also create a new hire checklist for all groups related to safety as well. So, that covers uh and it was a very high overview, but we'll share more again in August on our action cards, but we wanted to give you a uh kind of a sneak peek at what we'll be focusing on this next year. As far as our

020legislative updates, as you know that there was uh new information came out related to our um to our funding, in particular, the education finance and policy bill. Uh the fiscal impact is uh that that we have a $420 million reduction. Uh the formula for inflation is intact and there are not really many additional mandates or no real new mandates. But there's also under special ed there's a new blue ribbon commission that that is tasked with finding $250 million in savings. So, it'll be interesting to see what that looks like because we quite often we we have well intended tried to find savings within our district and department and it's really hard because the needs continue to grow. We we always have uh as Jason can attest to uh find finding ways to to uh seek

021efficiencies and and challenge legacy practices, but it's hard to find that those um changes when the needs keep growing for our students. Uh under comped we have our um base year option and there's $55 million appropriated there and basically the district-wide allotment is lit limited to 80 or 40%. It used to be 80%. We we have a greater percentage than that. Uh our percentage is 80 we're at 100%. We're at 100%. So we we put all of our compad money out to the sites. we don't put them into put it into the uh district-wide positions as is done in other districts and has done previously. That gets the money from our perspective to this the location where it's most needed. And then under funding adjustments and reductions, uh student support personnel aid, there was uh

022red they reduced the uh per pupil allocation there, but they did expand the uses so that you can use it for coaching, training, and travel. And um basically it allows declining enrollment districts. We we are not a declining enrollment district, but allows you to use some of that student support personnel aid for maintaining staff. Under school lunch, uh they lowered the state funding from uh as you can see there, uh 12.5 cents to uh 6.25 cents per meal from for the financial year uh 2028. And the second meal uh purchase is allowed. So, we're they're allowing us to let kids buy a second meal if they're still hungry. And then there was a school library aid reduction as well. And um the tele telecommunications access aid, that program was repealed. And I don't think I

023don't really know much about that program, but that was one of the the programs that was reduced. I don't think we're taking significant advantage of it at this time. Under policies and program updates, there there was the some information on the read act. It extends the literacy uh intervention deadline clarifies training requirements for special ed and newly licensed teachers and allows instructional hour reduction. Uh it also expands what we can use for approved screeners. Sometimes we're waiting on the state to say what could be an approved screener and they've expanded that. Uh minor thing they've renamed literary literacy incentive aid to literacy aid. very exciting name change there, but that was one of the one of the things that they were touting in the the summary. And under facilities for LTFM, long-term facilities maintenance, you

024now includes roof repair, which is great because, as you know, we we uh added a lot of roofs at one one time and so they're coming to the end of their life cycle. And this allows us to use more LTFM money for some of that replacement. And then it also consolidate there's under consolidation aid there's some increase in per pupil rates achievement and integration increased u MDE administrative retention and then this hasn't hit us but I know hockey is important here and there was a ice arena levy uh which allows costs appro appropriate for jointly operated arenas and I think that affects some school districts around us like Hermantown and others but that is our legislative update for now. and I join your sentiments uh that you shared during the listening session related to the

025very unfortunate tra tragedy of some of our our house of representative and individuals. Any questions? Oh, I suppose my computer is is hiding that. So, thanks thanks for the updates and the the overviews. Um, we appreciate all of the information all the time. Just um really glad that we that you are highlighting PTAs and the PTO's across our district and you know their vital role and just continued work. I know that um PTAs throughout our our city are working with other PTAs to increase their memberships and increase what they can do in their buildings as well. And as a school board, I really want us to continue that, too. I know we have member Laughler camp that's really um integrated with PTAs, but I I've been attending some of the some, you know, once in

026in a while a PTA, especially out on Stow. Um I went to Laura MacArthur's as well, and they they have decided not to have one next year because their members are are not growing. So, we can hopefully encourage other PTAs to to reach out. I really am excited about our enrollment center and and what that can really bring. Um and I really appreciate the leadership of that staff. They seem to be really on top of it. I had a parent um when I was in the buildings last month, you know, talk about how how quickly they got back to them, how quickly um they showed up at the building to walk them through and and um make sure that they got their their students enrolled. So, really appreciate that. I think it'll really be it

027will take some time to let everybody know that that's a process now, a newer process. And then um I just had a question on the student support personnel. I I know you've told us this probably every time you present a budget, but who are those people? Student student support personnel because we've got some aid. What are who are they? It can be um my turn. Sorry. It can be paraelp. It can be um nonsp special education parahelp. Um so, you know, a building personnel. Um we can use that money. I'm trying to think of the third option off the top of my head. If you give me a minute, I will find out for you. Okay. Yeah, no problem. I like that. Say, you know, you might have to look for this one, too, because

028I the library aid reduction. And I think I remember us in budget talks over the years talking about that that that has been used for staff within within our district. Yes, that's correct. Okay. And then I think the the when I listened to the ch the the legislative updates from MSBA or from AMSD, they talked a little bit about the change in the name and maybe um Simone can help us there too. I think it was to it it gave us a broader use of how we can use that money by just changing the name I guess or uh the literacy aid. Yes. Um the um Katherine Kathy Ericson from MD spoke at Mazbo and yes it is to in to kind of make a broader impact of that money and they've changed it several

029times. So they feel like this is where it will land now. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. And you mentioned enrollment. I know we're going to be doing some things related to enrollment at uh the Junth celebration at the Central Hillside Park as well as other uh booths that we'll be representing there. And I I didn't mention this in my my um superintendence update, but I'll be running the grill from from 3:00 to 7:00 and I'm I have experience as a chef at Big Boy. So I if you want a good burger, that's that's where I'll be. And everything's free and it's a really really nice opportunity to to get into the community. Um, that was actually where I first met member banks. Well, we were neighbors in the central hillside and and, uh, got

030involved in in some of the junth activities there. So, uh, great opportunity this this coming Thursday. And as a reminder, too, uh, Duth Public Schools declared Junth a holiday before the state did because we we wanted to make sure that it was recognized and celebrated from a perspective of advancing equity. And then I think member Mike Sel was next and then member Laughler Kim. Yeah, thanks to um all of the staff who's thinking ahead and having lofty goals um for our students and for our community was which is awesome. I was curious um as some of the goals were being format or formalized and and put into place um how were we involving our district advisory committee that we've put in place in policies earlier this year um that include community participation on a number

031of different areas. I'll allow Mr. Bonds to answer that. he's working with um Jen Larva and putting that committee together and I think we brought a policy forward on it as well. And I want to be clear, it sounds like you were talking about um several of our departments have um committees such as Headstart has its own advisory committee that also provides information that helps formulate goals. So are you talking about that committee or is is there a specific committee? We have achievement integration comms also has um a committee that provides uh advisory support for uh goals that are established in our achievement integration plan. So many of our departments have either committees that have been established that provide input for goals, but I want to make sure I'm clear on is that what you're

032referring to or is there a specific committee? I think I'm referring to the committee that's um established in policy 616 um under our district system our school district system accountability policy that talks about a district advisory committee that meets throughout the year to look over academic goals and um and how we're meeting graduation requirements and student achievement. It's this district com or this district advisory committee is also mentioned in policy 603 under curriculum development. Um, it states we must ensure active community participation in all phases of planning and improving the instruction and curriculum affecting state and district academic standards. So, that's the district advisory committee I'm referring to. And that's the one that I know we were working um aggressively on trying to reestablish um for the future. I think superintendent has mentioned that before

033on restarting a committee that could be advisory in nature and and so right now what's happening in uh the various departments there are various committees that are providing that input but having an official uh established committee that's identified there um that's something that we are moving towards as a district for establishing that's good because it's required by state statute so um I'll be interested in hearing more about how we have them involved as we're going through some of these discussions thanks member Laughler Camp. Thank you. And I think you know just back to that committee uh when it was the world's best workforce, we had that that district-wide committee. So it's kind of reestablishing this new committee um that you're referring to. So um thanks for raising that. Yeah, a couple quick things. Uh, one

034is just on the PTA note for a moment. One of the things I would just say is that um the schools all across the district that do have PTAs are putting on incredible events all over the district where they turn out lots of families uh for science night and STEM night and health fairs and bike and walk to school days and that. So there's really lots of wonderful family engagement that is happening. And I just also wanted to recognize that member Michael Cell this year um when we citywide saw a need to develop some stronger leadership at Ordin, she took that on. She became the president of the PTA. She developed a whole new leadership team of people that are taking over for her and they put on many events this year. And um I

035know I was able to get out to a couple of them and volunteer and uh just thank you for meeting a need as a parent and and uh making it happen and then uh leaving some great leadership uh that you developed this year. So good job. And the last thing and I have to say this as a former state PTA president, we all can become members of PTAs. So, I go around when I do my little visit and I become a member of a few different PTAs. Uh, because you can be a PTA member in more than one school and then you also get on their email list and you can then volunteer for fun things like what was that? I volunteered for the sixth grade winter party. It was really fun. Uh, winter fest.

036Yeah. Yeah. So, that was fun. Uh, anyway, so so uh their membership drives usually begin right away in September. So, I'll do a just a a big plug for that. When I was the state PTA president, I was a member of many PTAs all over the state. U but um anyway, so um the other thing I just wanted to uh mention um with your legislative update, the facility roof maintenance piece, um that was something that uh the NSBA delegate assembly that Jill and I went to last year was a part of uh our platform too. So the uh NSBA was also lobbying on that and we got to hear from school school board members from around the state why that was important to them when we were at the delegate assembly. So um that was

037something I know I was tracking. And then the last thing uh uh Superintendent Magus I just wanted I know I think you did an update last week at the cow meeting but do you want to just do an update on the um duth promise um funding that we got through the legislative our legislative efforts? Actually, thank you. As and and as you were talking about different legislation, I I thought, "Oh, I should have highlighted that as well." So, thanks for the the uh opportunity. Um we did receive $50,000 $25,000 for the the next two years in the biameinium to support the DUTH Promise efforts, which is um largely CTE related, but but focused on pathway development, workforce development. It's a partnership with the um Duth Area Chamber of Commerce, with um the um College of

038St. Scholastica, with UMD, with Lake Superior College, with the the city's workforce development as well as Apex, our economic development. And even though we we didn't get the full amount amount that was expect or that we were hoping to get, uh really everybody said it's amazing that you got funding that almost nothing was funded this year. And so having even reduced funding was seen as as a huge win and basically a feather in our cap uh for the group that put that together. And I want to thank um the whole team of people that worked on that as well as Jeff Anderson for his lobbying efforts and supporting us. Thank you. And I would just say also that the chamber did a big update on um uh their legislative activities and they highlighted that as

039well and talked about the strong partnership with the DUTH public schools and the other um uh uh colleges and Lake Superior College. So yeah, thank you. They have been very supportive of what we have going on. Whether it's a um connect at the Clyde lunch or or one of the events at at Grey Salon where they have membership of of hundreds of people that are that are attending. They've really been celebrating that that Duth Public Schools has increasing enrollment. They have new direction. They have a strong focus. And I want to thank the board for that as well because I think that uh that has been uh very helpful in moving forward as a district. Excuse me. Seeing no further questions for the superintendent, thank you for your report. Um, attached in board book are

040the schedule of meeting and events. Um, just to know what's coming up. And so now we'll move on to our reports from our standing committee. And as a reminder to our community, you can go to our YouTube page and always have access to the full recordings of all of the different committees during the month. So, I'll turn it over to um Assistant Superintendent Bonds to talk about the monthly committee of the whole meeting. Thank you. And uh quickly get there um because I was working on uh something else. So, you caught me multitasking. But I do want to say uh thank you to the superintendent who did cover me uh during this time. So let me quickly get there. That's what I get from multitasking. Sorry about the pause here. We've had some slow internet

041issues this today, too. So, I don't know if that's part of it, but I'll throw it out for cover for you just in case. It's It's I'm up now, but I appreciate it. So yeah, it um our Carl meeting was held on June um 12th. Again, uh superintendent covered for me that day as I was um out. Um during that uh meeting obviously was a full meeting. Um Adele Wellins um and others provided a presentation related to the language access plan uh presentation that superintendent did reference earlier and that was under the advancing equity. Um we also had a presentation provided by um Jackie Atwway um related to the language access presentation um again that has always been referenced to um already referenced as well. Um she also provided an update uh both Jack outweigh

042um Brenda Sparsia and Lara related to our local literacy uh plan uh a full presentation that I had a chance to uh preview a little bit as well. Also, the student and family handbook for the upcoming school year was reviewed um supported by Jen Larva as well as Adele Wellins. Um those changes are now u uploaded and available. Uh every year we have to go through that process where we are reviewing and updating our handbook to make it more accessible to families and um students and provide any additional changes that may um come about as related as it relates to policy changes. So, I do want to encourage our uh families who are interested to take a look at our student handbook um in advance um of the upcoming school year for those uh modifications.

043Under improving systems, Adele provided uh some information related to um her communication plans and and new structures that she will be um implementing or has been employing. And of course, Simone Zunes provided an update for our um upcoming budget. Specifically, in this case, it was related to PSO and the changes that were made to um to the programming, how we support um how it will be supported differently and funded differently. Um which is also a cost uh savings that was um you know moved forward or um is being proposed here. Uh and that is also for um voting on under under the consent agenda. And then also um again third reading for the FY26 budget provided by Simone Zunich um and that was covered as well. So it from what I was told again I

044was out that day. It was a very uh lengthy conversation and I want to say thank you to the team for covering me that day. Thank you. Do we have any questions um about the committee of the whole meeting? Member Lovel. So, can we just clarify again because I had some some questions from some of my students about um the post-secary enrollment options. Are students not going to take classes PSO from UMD next fall? Nothing will change for the students. They can continue to take PSO wherever they have they can. Okay. The only thing will that will be changing is with Lake Superior College on how we are paying our bill. Um right now MDE pays our bill but they reduce our basic formula um by if a a student takes two classes then they

045reduce it by 27th or 28s and then we but this way we are now going to actually be build by Lake Superior College for those two credits at roughly $250 a credit. uh we will have to uh purchase the books but in the long run. Counselor Savry uh in uh text or emailed me the next day and said thank you very much. She's been wanting this for 14 years to make a change and does the board realize that this could be a tremendous cost savings and we'll see that in a year from now. Well, I'll be able to analyze it and see how much it did save for us. But nothing will change for the students at all. U member Banks, thank you. I have a quick question regarding the uh student handbook. Is there

046a way to um enhance or include the integration specialist in their contact information? I did not see it um in the directory. Is it possible to have that in the directory so it's easier for students and parents to access uh those individuals? That's something that we could consider for the following year as things have already progressed in terms of making those late modifications. Those are things that um I will work with the team who um spent the time um modifying the book and see if those late editions could be added before they're printed. If not, then maybe those things that we would have to consider for the future. Just to follow up on that, there is a section on the website with the integration specialist, isn't there? And are they listed there? I'm not sure.

047D would you like to speak to? She's saying yes on all of the websites. The answer is yes. They are listed there. So they may be on on the website, but they're not in the handbook. Is that correct? Or the potential for them being in the handbook, I think, is uh important, especially for our families who do not have internet access. Thank you. Again, we I will uh circle back with the team on um that see um about the dability of that. Uh right now if if in the handbook it's mostly the admin team that's there but I do hear what you're saying in terms of some support staff it may be beneficial to have them included uh in the handbook as well. Thank you superintendent Vegas. Thank you. Uh executive director Zunich has additional

048information on the student support aid question that was asked earlier by the board. Thank you for giving me a few minutes to look it up. Um, this is new newer aid that we receive. It's roughly $40,000 and it's it's a lot of money. Yeah. And it can it can go towards a counselor, psychologist, social worker, a school nurse or chemical dependency counselor, any type of parah. And it can um so it it's only 40,000. I mean, I shouldn't say only. It's $40,000 and we're lucky to receive it. Great. Seeing no further questions, we can move on to our human resources business services committee. Um, member Stellski. Sure. Um, we met for our HR business services committee meeting on Monday, June 9th, um, at 4:30. And, um, all of our meetings, as I always say, are

049found on YouTube. We go through our whole packet, um, pretty thoroughly and identify go through all of the materials in here. Um some of the uh reports that we go over are human resources monthly summary report, our business services and all of the reports under that like enrollment, child nutrition, facilities department, health and safety report, technology department report and then the transportation report. We also look at our resolutions that our committee is bringing through. Um, we take a deep look into the consent agenda, which had um many job descriptions this last um month. We also always look at our financial report, of course, our enrollment report. We looked at our bids, RFPs, quotes, contracts, um, and then miscellaneous information items. So, I always just share that at the beginning of this um schoolboard meeting because

050I'm not going to go through it all totally again, but I always pick out five or six things to highlight from our meeting. But I would encourage everybody to check out that meeting because we do go over everything very thoroughly. Um the first kind of highlight that I wanted to point out today is on page three, which is our human resources report. Um we our human resources team highlighted our school bus driver training program that is being offered um six weeks of paid training progressing from bus helper to certified bus driver and then on two page 243 in our packet at the very end you can see a flyer for that program. Um as we all know finding bus drivers has been challenging. We really appreciate our bus drivers. they're some of the first people

051that our students see um when they're heading to school in the morning. So um just really appreciate the work that was put into that. So I wanted to highlight it and I would encourage everyone to who might be interested in that to kind of check that out. Um the second item I wanted to highlight was also in the human resources report um which is on page three. HR is working really hard to develop and update job descriptions to accurately reflect the responsibilities, especially um in our clerical um department. So, I just wanted to let the board and public know there'll be more to come. Um we had about four or five or six this time. Um and you can see those in our consent agenda, but we're going to have many more next month. Um

052Director Seance, do you have anything to add to that? I know some of that came out of negotiations. Some of it comes out of just, you know, looking at job descriptions that are older um and really aligning them to the work that's being done. Uh yes, thank you. The clerical job descriptions in particular was part of a negotiation discussion, noting that those job descriptions, many of which are well over 15 years old, and just knowing how those positions have changed and evolved over the years, especially at the school sites. So that was our first project and undertaking. Each time we post a position, we also look to see the last time that it was revised. Now there is a process and part of it coming to this board. So sometimes that does delay the hiring.

053So we've made some decisions sometimes to review them and replace them or just move forward and know that that's another one that we'll have to take a look at next time around. So that's kind our process that we use for that. but the clericals in particular and the other one you'll see on your um consent agenda tonight is the apparitional one for our next gen uh teacher apprenticeship program. So that's really exciting to bring forward and that's just a new opportunity that we had forward that we didn't want to miss the window to get into that grant um cycle and so that's why it's coming forward today. Great. Thank you and I'm really glad you mentioned that um Gen Gen X teacher apprenticeship job description. That was my next thing to highlight. Um, if you're

054following along, it's on page 22. Um, and you kind of summarized it, but it's allowing parents an opportunity for paid work experience while they're going to school to get their teaching degree is is it in a nutshell, but you can read even the general s um general summary and purpose of the job description right in our consent agenda. Great. Um, I will keep going. Um, let's see here. What else did I want to highlight? Um, obviously I always want to highlight our enrollment report. If you turn to page nine, I really like this graph because it it shows our enrollment over time um, year after year. So you can see on page nine, you know, the 2122 school year, 22 23 and so on and so forth. And if you look at the month of

055June, um, every almost every month this whole year, we've been trending up compared to every other year. And I think it's a very um good graph to highlight that. So that's good news. And the next thing I would highlight is our budget summary which is on page 45. This is a big packet so bear with me. Um there's not a lot to highlight on here. It's pretty standard budget if you look at it. Um, but it is our last report for this fiscal year as we talked about in our HR business committee. Our audit is going to start August 4th as usual. Um, so we'll be working on that. Anything to add, Director Zunich? Nope. You've captured it correctly. Uh, we won't be showing any more of the um FY25 as we are cleaning up

056the year. We have payoff payrolls that are coming in at the end of June. Um, our certified staff gets paid all summer, but we put them in the current correct fiscal year, but we pay them out all summer. And so, a lot of that will impact the budget. And yes, the auditors will already be here August 4th. Perfect. Thank you. And then, um, I would highlight our recommended resolutions from our committee, which start on page 17. We have um the resolution for the adoption of our FY26 budget, the resolution for the acceptance of donations to deal with public schools, and then uh the resolution for the acceptance of grant awards for the resolution um for the adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget. Um at our HR committee, I mean, we were all here, but

057I would highlight for our public too, we've had many different readings of the budget. um and here today will vote on that budget. But we um we had a meeting on May 6th at our committee the whole. We had um a meeting at a special committee the whole on May 27th. We had another one just last week at our June 12th committee the whole and then we've had a lot of other small group meetings um when it comes to the budget. So I just wanted to highlight that. And then um the last thing I wanted to highlight today um was that we finalized the Duth Transit Authority contract. You guys have seen that before come across really there was just some finalized language um but that was finalized. Any questions, comments? Uh Superintendent Magus, just

058a positive com comment. Uh we were trying to figure out with the DTA what to do about our incoming ninth graders, the eighth graders who are transitioning to high school because they don't have high school ID. And we were able to work out uh with the DTA a uh special sticker that they'll have so they can be identified as high school students and and thus be able to ride the bus over the summer before they get their IDs so that they can go to summer school and things like that. So really appreciate um the team that worked on that as well as the DTA for their flexibility and putting that together. And I think Print Shop had uh Print Shop put put together the special stickers for us too. So nice uh team effort to

059get uh everybody on the bus. That is that is great news. Um I'm really excited about our DTA opportunity for our students. I know my own kiddo takes the bus to work, got it got his first job and is taking the the bus, so that's great. And I know a lot of families depend on that and and our students too next fall um when they're going to school if they miss the school bus or maybe aren't in that um one mile is it now we got it down to one mile but they can hop on the the city bus which is a really great opportunity um member Mikeo as a parent of an incoming ninth grader I'm curious if a plan has been made for how those stickers are going to be um dispersed to

060incoming nth grade students. Well, right now the as a matter of fact, the stickers have been um sent to East High School and they've been picked up already by uh Tom Tuskin from Denfeld who just happened to be in the building um either today or yesterday. I think he picked them up. And so they come up with a game plan in the in the um on site uh to determine how to get those stickers for students because some again some students are already doing summer programming and or participating in summer school. those um each building will be coming up with different ways on um providing the students those opportunities to get that sticker on there. So, great. Thank you. Look for communication from those sites. Chair Eer, I just wanted to um give my appreciation

061for reooking or for improving the job descriptions for our clericals. I know that that job can be a lot, right? And it looks very different from school to school. So I think if you can um unify it to however to the best that we can so that everybody knows um what is what is entailed in their job and what isn't to just give some relief to those clericals across the um across the district. So I just I want to lift that up. That's that that's great. That's a great job. a very important job. Again, one of the first people that our students might see um the day and it allows them to be personalized to their school but also have that uni uniformity across the district. So, I want to lift that up. Thank you

062for that. Yeah, really appreciate all the work that um our HR team is putting into those job descriptions. Any other questions? member. Yeah. I just wanted to go back to um what you were talking about with the paras and the training. Can you just kind of reexlain that? Yeah, I can. Hold on. In fact, the the description is really really short. So, I will I will just read that. Okay, great. Thank It is on page 22 and the position is the next gen teacher apprenticeship for pair of professionals who are going to be an apprentice teacher and the general summary of purpose of job as an apprentice teacher in district 709. You will directly support students under the guidance of a tenure tier 3 journey worker teacher. This role involves simultaneously serving as a paid

063district pair professional and enrolling as a full-time University of Minnesota student earning lensure in academic and behavioral strategist ABS or early childhood special education ECSE. Apprentices will learn. Apprentices will learn directly from experienced educators while applying theory to practice preparing them to make a significant impact in district 709 classrooms. Excellent. Thank you. And do we know how many people are going through that right now or are planning to or Yeah. So, this comes along um with a a grant which pays for the first year um of the education and it's we put it out for our current pair of professionals or we will once it's posted um and approve approved at this board meeting and we have three people that have signed up with the university to go through that teaching program under this this

064process. So, I would expect that those three people would apply for this position. The first year of course is a is a little bit different. The apprentice piece where they work with a mentor um will be more in that sec that second year. But it it is a state um certified apprenticeship program. So similar to what we see in the trades, this will be um following that that same lead. That's excellent. Um uh h how were uh paras notified about this opportunity? Do you know? Yeah, we um we actually had a a different program that we ran through Minnesota deed. And so we had been in communication with the parah professional group through the union as well as um emails out to those those um employees letting them know of those opportunities and we had

065a feel for how many might be interested in pursuing something different when we were looking at other grants. So when this came about, we went through that same process. We went through the union. Of course, we wanted their buy in um to make sure that this was something that they they would support because we do need to have anou with the union to do that as well as a job description that works through that process. Uh and then we offered that up and then the um the person that's assigned to um our district did come to a union meeting for the pair of professionals to explain it and go through the process. We also sent out flyers um put those in the buildings just to make sure that people had many opportunities to see the

066information. That's excellent. What a great example of growing our own. So, thank you. Yeah. For all the work because I know it took a lot of coordination on your part. Seeing no further questions. Um thank you member Saddowski. I will have um member Laughafler Kemp um for the policy committee. Okay, great. Thank you. So, our policy committee met on Tuesday, June 10th, and uh member Micosell as well as member Lo uh serve on that committee with me. Uh and like um uh member Sodowski said about HR and business, our policy committee is also on YouTube. uh so you can hear more of the discussion and the questions and just because we have uh some uh uh additional folks in the audience I'll just reexlain to that u most of our policies we do two readings

067of uh and um but really they're talked about four times because they're a reading in our policy committee and then here at our general meeting again uh in our next month's policy meeting and then our general meeting Um some policies um are just need to be reviewed if there's just um a name change or a slight change to them. So they just have one reading. Uh and then um uh uh we often have regulations that go with policies and that's um how the policies will be implemented and uh the regulations are areformational for us as a board. Uh, and any of these policies that we're going to be talking about often come from our staff having a committee of people uh that uh look at the policies and and update them and give feedback. And

068then also the policies um we get model policies from our schoolboard association and our superintendent association. So they vet it with the the uh changes in state statutes and they vet it through uh their lawyers uh before it comes to us as a model policy. So there's a lot that goes into the policy coming to our committee for us then to digest and dive into and uh look at. So for June uh the uh first reading policy for first reading we had two uh the first one is policy 501. It's the weapons policy and the purpose of this policy is to asssure a safe school environment for students, staff and the public. We added establishing a weapons-free school zone is one element of creating a safe environment. Duth public schools promotes the safe storage of

069guns in accordance with the schoolboard resolution for the safe storage of um weapons. Um, and we we're actually going to probably change that a little bit. There was some discussion on that in the second reading. Um, just where that second sentence is placed, but uh that's the general purpose of this policy. And we last looked at this policy and adopted it was in uh April of 2019. Uh there were some changes that were made uh through state statute. as you go through it under definitions uh as well as um uh uh anything in red uh relates to the state statutes. Um uh there was an addition where it uh under um 4D firearms in school parking lots and parking facilities. And then um again at the end of all of our policies you can see

070the legal references and the cross references any state statute uh changes. So we we had a lot of good discussion around this uh and some questions that we were uh going to be checking back on with uh NSBA uh when we do the second reading on it. So that is was our first policy for first reading. The second policy for first reading is 512 school sponsored student publications and activities. This is replacing 5080 our student expression of opinion. And what's in what we're replacing is included in this policy. And the purpose of this policy is to protect student rights to free speech in production of school sponsored media and activities while at the same time balancing the school district's role in supervising student publications and the operation of public schools. And this uh again is

071a a newer policy. Um uh it was revised in 2024 from the schoolboard association. Uh again want to appreciate Dale uh from our our curriculum coordinator for working on with the committee on this. Um really we one of the things that was really talked about while we were uh reviewing this policy is just how important student voice is to our district and how we value that. Uh and um so again, you can go through the policy uh and this will also be in the student handbook once it's adopted. And um school districts must actually adopt uh a school student journalist policy consistent with Minnesota statute section 121A80 and it must be posted on our district website. So just wanted to highlight uh that this is for first review again. And then uh policies for second

072reading is policy 807 which is health and safety policy. Want to thank Lexi Ness um our um uh health and safety staff person for all the work that she has done on this policy with a variety of committees. The purpose of this policy is to assist the school district in promoting health and safety, reducing injuries, and complying with federal, state, and local health and safety laws and regulations. And uh there uh as you read through there again, and you might remember the discussion we had last month, there was a name change to the committee, occupational safety committee. Uh so it um that's highlighted throughout. Uh there were some um uh additional areas underneath uh who is covered uh and uh what is covered uh and we last adopted this policy in May of 2022. So

073we had looked it over well then. Um and again you can see the legal references and the cross references. One of the things we wanted added was OSHA as part of the cross reference. So that again a lot of work was done with the safety committee and with our our unions uh on this policy. Uh let's see and this policy is also replacing 4165 eye and face protection for staff and 5145 eye and face protection for students. And again that's part of this policy now. It's just replacing those thousand policies. And then the last uh policy for review uh so it just has one reading is 412 our expense re uh reimbursement and our policy itself did not change um just the regulation that went with it did did but I'll read the purpose of

074this policy is to identify school district business expenses and how they are either prepaid by the district or reimbursed to the employee And um so you can read through that again. And then where the change was was in the um expense re the regulation 412R expense reimbursement. And there were some changes in procedures and processes there. Quite a few of really really good changes. And uh thank you Simone Zunich for um all the background explanation on that policy and the work uh with that policy. So uh and for schoolboard members, you want to look at those reimbursement forms because we filled them out, too. Uh uh so make sure you uh read that thoroughly. Uh and again, because this is just for review, uh we'll be voting on that and everything else will be on

075the consent agenda. And then the last thing I was just going to say is uh in May we had policy 9003 which was the visitors to our school district building and sites and we had our first reading in May and the committee working on that wanted to do some additional work so it'll be brought back to us uh at a a later date and that sometimes happens after a first reading. Uh so um that'll be coming back. We do not meet in July, but we will have a longer meeting in August. Uh, which has been what we've been uh doing the since this committee is established just because of the Fourth of July holiday and the date makes it hard. Uh, so um that is the policy committee. Uh, as always, I really appreciate the

076great work of our staff and and Patty and Jason uh has been with us for a lot of policy meetings the last few months uh because of his work and um the committees he's working with uh on different policies as well as just um uh uh member Michael Cell and member Lo for being very thorough in looking at the policies ahead of time. So, thank you. Yes, you can see I is just a re is policy 807 on a second reading. So that one is going to if we I know it's on the consent agenda, but if we pass the consent agenda then policy 807 we're not bringing back for any more, right? It's a second reading. It's a second reading. So but then policy 501 and 512 will come back to us in August.

077Right. Okay. Yep. So, if it's a first reading, unless at the first reading we talked about, um it coming back at a later date, uh then it would come back in at the next month. Thanks for that clarification. And even though I sit on the policy committee, you do a great job of reviewing our committee meeting. I I learned a lot even more. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Yeah. Hi, Katie. Hi. I just had a quick question and I didn't write down the number but the policy having to do with just like the student journalism and I think it was the second one you talked about. Uhhuh. Um how one two Yeah. So I I know that at least at East and I think it's the same at Denfeld we aren't able to have

078a student newspaper next year. How does that decision kind of like tie in with this policy? because we were told that we weren't able to have a newspaper because the way that those new state like the state statutes required the district to like not have any control over what students were publishing and that's the reason the journalism staff was told they couldn't have the newspaper anymore and then they were also told it had to do with budget stuff. So, I don't know. It's just kind of confusing and I'm curious how that ties in there. I'll let the superintendent or the assistant respond, but I would just also add this is a newer policy that we're required to have at the state level. Okay. Right. And I know that there are some revisions being done for

079the course and Mr. Bonds, if you want to talk about that. I know uh Director Larva would normally be the one to speak on it, but she's not here right now. Yeah, as um member law for Kemp stated, this is a newer policy that um we had to um get in place. Um but it clarifies in the case there are student publications here are the procedures and it's um I see the connection between the newspaper um not being in existence for next year. But this is a policy that if there are student publications and um communications um this at least provides us with a policy to follow. Okay. So there's connection to it but it doesn't change the the decision that has been made on the newspaper. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Thank you. Yeah.

080And I I would add if um take this is again our first reading. So uh look it over. Any other questions you have uh Katie uh make sure you bring them to us. But under definitions, which is um section three, and most policies have a definition section, uh it does um highlight that um school sponsored media means material that is prepared uh uh wholly or substantially written, published, broadcast, or otherwise disseminated by a student student journalist enrolled in the school district. Uh so it's it's kind of broader than um it's it's the yearbooks. It's um if you had a student radio, some some schools do have a student radio, things like that. Thank you. And I and I don't have my computer with me, so I so I didn't have the policy right in front

081of me. Thank you for clarifying that. And appreciate any other questions you have next month or before our policy meeting. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, um we'll move on to any general board committee updates if any board members have anything they'd like to share. I do member Laughler. You guys are all going to love this update. Uh so I serve on the Duth Public Schools Endowment Fund sponsored by Boreal Waters, formerly Duth Superior Community Foundation. Uh and so we had a end of the year meeting and I shared with them uh my the committee that uh other people want to serve on this committee too and can our bylaws have more than one person and they said we would welcome another board member coming on this committee so we can have two. So that

082could happen at the start of next fall if we wanted uh to join me uh and um or it could start in January when we appoint generally but it would be good if someone is interested to start in September because that starts our year process for our uh grant funding cycle. So, um I will talk with uh Chair Derek Eermore about that and um and can let people know when we meet. Um but I was excited to share that with you. Um they were excited that more than one person wanted to join us and that we just had to do a little bylaw change. So, thank you member Laughler. That's great news, especially when you think about carrying that work forward. So, thank you very much for that. Do we have member Saddowski? Yeah. Um,

083last Tuesday we had our final Head Start Policy Council meeting for this school year. Um, it was really uh a neat meeting because it was also um um Sher Williams' last meeting um as our DUTH um early childhood services coordinator because she's retiring. Um but you know, we have just a great group of parents that are just committed to that meeting and Sherry has done a phenomenal job facilitating um facilitating those meetings um kind of guiding that. But um you know really all of the decisions are made by those parents. Um and I just had to share it was pretty sweet because we had a nice little dinner together and they were very all of them gave Sherry a hug um when we were leaving. the dinner. So, they will they will miss her. Big

084shoes to fill, but I'm confident um that we will get that position filled. And then I was teasing Assistant Superintendent Bonds here that Sherry always texts us reminders for the meeting, the whole group. So, um but I offered to help with that if needed. and I will definitely take you up on that because um as it falls under my department, it's another uh department that I'm leading for a few days because um I'm excited to say we do have early childhood um and the head start coordinator uh director position. Um those interviews will be held tomorrow. So, it's going to be a short tenure for me to take over because hopefully um we will have a successful candidate come out of the that process and have someone named u sooner than later. So, that is

085happening tomorrow. I would just add just thank you to Sher for all of her work um in our district over the years. She's she's held different positions over the years. I've only got to see her in this one, but um wish her very well in her retirement. Member Laughler camp. I I have one more and I uh before she started working with Head Start, she was a teacher at Lester Park Elementary for many years and even though my kids didn't have her, I got to tutor her kids at u when I was working with the Minnesota Reading Cor. So I it was wonderful to see her when she came to that new position. Um, this isn't an an official committee of the board, but I did want to kind of take the opportunity. Many of

086us serve on other community committees that might not be directly uh related to the school. Um, but I serve on the Great Lakes Aquarium Board. Uh, and they do provide a lot of teacher training and resources for our staff. Um, and uh, environmental days, they send kits and everything. But I just wanted to let you know it's the 25-y year anniversary of the aquarium this year. So all the month of July there will be lots of different events going on. And it would be really great if you guys joined any of them and just you know celebrating this wonderful resource that provides a lot of resources to our schools including uh free busing. um they have a scholarship fund that they set up so uh they can bus uh and that teachers can apply. Uh

087and that came out of a a conversation at the board at our board table saying what does the schools need and I said we need uh to help with uh field trips and um so anyways come and celebrate with them. There's lots of fun activities happening great right on the lake there. Okay. Thank you, member Laughler camp. I love the aquarium. Um, do we have any other All right, seeing no other general board committee updates, we'll move on to our consent agenda and our um chairs of our committees were talked about what information will be on the consent agenda. Do I have a um do I have a motion for the consent agenda? U member Loal uh made the motion for the consent agenda. Do I have a second? Member Saddowski second it. Do we

088have any discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing no discussion on the consent agenda. All those of in favor of passing the consent agenda, please say I. I. I. All those opposed, we have passed our consent agenda. Yay. Moving on, we will go for a resolution from our committee report coming out of Let me get my stuff straight. Hold on. Coming about out of our HR business services committee, we have the adoption of the FY26 budget. Member banks. Thank you. I'd like to bring forward resolution B-6-25-4102, a resolution for the adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget. Be it resolved by the school board of school district number 709 St. Louis County, state of Minnesota, that the fiscal year 2026 budget as presented to the school board be adopted. Member Banks has moved the adoption of

089the fiscal year 2026 budget. Do we have a second? Second. Member Loeld has seconded it. Now, do we have any discussion? Uh, member Laughler. Thank you. This is my 12th budget I have uh voted on uh in my 12 years on the school board and I've been through lots of different processes to get to the budget uh with different staff and uh different superintendent and I I first of all I just really want to say I really appreciate all of the work uh particularly Simone has done in uh providing all of us uh as board members a lot of information uh our staff a lot of information and um u making sure any questions that we possibly could ask and I know we ask a lot of questions uh in our small group meetings as

090well as here. So really appreciate the work uh particularly from Simone as well as your department um and the whole team of administrators um many of them sitting here that have worked on this. Uh so I I really appreciate that. Um and I I know um uh that when we're in years like we're in this year where we are cutting and like we were last year, I know these are really difficult. I know they are. I've been through them in the past. I also know though that my job as a school board member is to um not just find a great superintendent and work with him or her, not just do policies, but is to be very thoughtful about the budget that we have to as board members uh adopt by June 30th. So, I

091I guess I preface it by just saying I I am going to vote for this budget. Um, but I'm doing it with a lot of reservation and I didn't really sleep any last night because of this budget. Uh, and particularly uh because of not retaining our music teachers in middle school. I see this as an equity issue on so many levels as a parent who has had four kids go through music programs. And so I um I'm going to vote for the budget, but I do this with reservation particularly about music. Um and and you've heard me as well as a few other board members bring this up over and over again since we became aware of it this winter. So, I I just I hope um that we um uh I will be continuing

092to advocate to bring our music teachers back as soon as we can, as quickly as we can, so they're not missing anything, whenever that might be. Uh and um I just can't say enough how important I think the music program is. I I sat last night uh in the middle of the night reading all of the emails and conversations we have had with families uh and students about music. And one sentence that just kind of struck me in a few different letters was just music was a path to inclusion for their student. Music was a path to inclusion. And so I know we all value music. I I know many of us have gone to the concerts. We were delighted by East High School being able to uh help us with graduation with their music

093program, but I just um hope that we really uh can figure out how to get our music teachers back into middle school. That consistency is so key for those kids in middle school. And I could tell you many examples, including my own kids, that would have dropped out if they wouldn't have had lessons. So, I will support the budget, but I really um uh uh have reservations about that item in the budget. Thank you, Member Laughler. Kemp, member Williams. Um there's a lot of feedback on my mic. Um, I want to echo a lot of uh what member Laughler Kemp said. Yeah. Is this better? Okay, here you can have that broken one. Why not? Um, last week when I spoke, um, I didn't have my words written eloquently like the other members did. So,

094I neglected to also um tell Simone how much I appreciate the hard work that you have put into this. And um yeah, I I have to say that I acknowledge it. You have been a wealth of knowledge and um answered every question just like Rosie said and and I really appreciate you and and your whole team. Um, but with that said, um, I know that we are facing tough choices and none of us wants to make some of these choices that we have to make. Um, and it's my duty to speak on behalf of the constituents that put me in this seat. Um, and I've heard from students and families again and again and again, please don't cut music. Please don't cut music. And um arts seem to be the first cuts that schools often

095make. Even though arts are just as crucial to a child's education as reading and math, um music education enhances all the other disciplines. And I am sad to possibly stand alone. Um but I understand why my colleagues are voting the way that they are voting. and um my respect for all of my colleagues remains the same same for um we're all in this for our kids and so yeah, we just are seeing issues a little bit differently and and I understand that. Um I I cannot vote to approve the budget as it's written. Um I would like to see a revision that retains the music department at the same level and that's why I'm not going to vote in favor of this resolution. But I know that next year is going to be a great

096year for our kids. So, thank you, Member Williams. Member Saddowski. [Music] I also share the reservations and thoughts that um member Laughler Kemp and member Williams have shared and I know I've shared a lot over the last couple months. I also haven't been able to sleep very well at least the last um week or so. Um thinking about this, I really appreciate member Laughler Kemp sharing that she's um reread a lot of the emails. They're very um impactful and illustrate um why I feel we need to hold on to the music lessons and I too will be joining you in advocating um that as soon as we can reinstate the lessons in the middle school we need to do that um my it's really hard to look my own child in the eyes at home

097right now to be honest I don't think it would have been really difficult for us to afford music lessons as Well, and uh he was able to get those lessons and I really I would echo your what you highlighted about it correlating with math and sciences and other things. Certainly, we see that in the data and certainly I see that in my own child. Um I don't know. I've said I've said a lot on it, but I will be um I'll be voting to approve the budget. Um but it's very um not a happy vote. Thank you, Member Saddowski. Member Micahel. Um, I don't think any one of us at this table enjoy making the reductions that we have to do, we must do to uphold our commitment to be responsible fiscal stewards for our

098community. Um, I will be reluctantly voting yes to adopt the fiscal year 2026 budget. It's no secret that I have been outspoken in my oppos opposition around the reductions to the middle school music programs. My last statement made during the discussion at the end of the committee of the whole meeting on June 12th, which can be viewed on the DUTH public schools YouTube channel encap encapsulates my feelings on the matter. That being said, by the end of that meeting, it was obvious my position was in the minority on this topic. And while that's personally disappointing, we are a democratic body. So therefore, I'll be voting to adopt the proposed budget in order to move forward collectively to meet our overall financial goals. Thank you, member Mikeell. Member Loeld, much like all of us, I have

099also shared from different committee meetings about um my position with valuing music of course and I reread emails as well and know that they're they're passionate and they are right in in how they've they've traveled and how that has impacted. But sometimes we don't hear from other families and other community members due to just other um other reasons why they don't either get all the communication that they need from the district or they're not aware of some of the the cuts. And so I I also know that there are some other community members especially where I represent on district 4 that might not um feel coming to the board with their concerns. And I I really I value music, too. And I I tried to stay away and and we have all stayed away from

100kind of pitting the different cuts against each other. I don't want to do that. And I'm not going to do that tonight either, but I have reservations um as vital and as passionate as all of us um for other needs that we also reduced. Um, and so I'm going to support the budget because I value the leadership that we've had and I'm I'm trying to figure out how what what I can learn from our budget process and and wonder if there's an opportunity at our workshop um in a few weeks to talk a little bit about that because I do think that we've I I've learned a lot about this kind of budget. It's really the first time our district has been in this severe type of budget reductions and so the process that we

101used was complete. I I feel like their administration absolutely did what they said they were going to do and they had a timeline and they had a process. But there were some things that I learned about my role as a board member and what I could have done to either navigate and and let them know through a vote earlier in as soon as you learn about a potential reduction, does the board bring that to each other and make a a vote. we we often came to the table and asked our administration to reook that, but that wasn't always from the whole board's, you know, po point of view. So, I know that I've really learned a lot about the the budget process and and how we can, you know, go forward to and have have

102an opportunity to to make some different choices if that's what the will of the board is. And we we heard that a lot from superintendent. What's the will of the board? And I think we shared some of that, but we never really brought it anywhere to a formal motion or a vote early in the process so that, you know, you could have had some some opportunity there. But I'm just trying to think about what I could learn about being a a school board. But I like I I I value what we're doing right now and I thank all of the administration and our staff for um the opportunity we to meet, to ask questions. um and to get really clear communication from the leadership what the process was that they were taking. So, thank you

103and I appreciate us. You know, it you know, as as I've learned about as we've talked a little bit about the tragedy and the events and and things about elected officials, it kept coming back and and Chair Eer did a really nice job of opening our listening session with um in honor of the Hortman family and the Hoffman families. But it's all about relationships and this has been a tough decision for all of us. But we have built really strong relationships with each other. And we've we are disagreeing and we are emotional and we are losing sleep. But we're going to we're going to be a stronger board um through this process. And I also think that um it could have easily become much more divisive and it didn't. And I respect each one of

104you because of that because we still we had we have built relationships with each other and we continue to do that. So I appreciate that element of this process as well. Thanks. Thank you. Member Lo, member Laughler. I I had wanted to actually add at the end of my um comments um that I I too uh uh as it sounds like member Loel would like uh is I would like to have further discussion on the process and frankly I'd like for us as a board to have some real um listening to learn conversations about why some of these issues are important to us whether it's music or whether it's uh media specialist or what because I think that frankly was missing a little bit with this discussion and uh these discussions uh and so I

105I would love uh this to be a workshop topic um so we can really move forward respectfully. Thank you superintendent Magus. I just want to say um thanks to the board. I know this this is a very heavy decision for all of you individually as well as collectively. It's been a very challenging process for our team and the people that have had to to come up with these hard hard choices. There's really nothing uh other than adding a painter so that we pay less for outside contracted services. That was a pleasure to add. Many of the things are painful reductions and many of them have left me uh also sleepless or meeting many many times to explore many different options and trying to see what we can do. Um, and I just want to say

106that uh we're always looking for ways to improve and if we can improve the budget process for the future, we're we're always uh open to those improvements and also that uh this this is a substantial course correction in our our finances. It's important for us to to make sure that we continue to uh hold ourselves accountable with with the um the reductions that need to be made. and I I know they're very hard and I appreciate that the board is is uh moving in this direction and I thank you for your time and effort that you've all put into it there. I know from the numerous numerous conversations uh small you know in meeting with with a couple of board members meeting individually talking in in large group uh I know that you are deeply

107deeply invested in this process and that you hold this responsibility uh paramount in your decision-m so I appreciate everything that you've done as well as well as the work of our Thank you all for your thoughts. Um, seeing no further discussion, um, do we do a roll call vote on this? No. Okay. Um, we will do a roll call vote. Um, clerk micel, member banks. Yes. Chair Derek Eer. Yes. Member Laughler Kemp. Yes. Member Loal. Yes. Member Mike Cell votes yes. Member Sidowski. Yes. Member Williams. No. Uh the vote is 6 to one in favor of adopting the budget. Thank you all for your work. Moving on, we have acceptance of donations to the Duth Public Schools. Member Saddowski, I um move resolution B-6-25-4103 um for the resolution of acceptance of donations to Duth Public

108Schools. Whereas Minnesota statute 465.03 03 requires a school district to accept donations by resolution expressed in 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 duth public schools. Now therefore be it resolved that the duth public schools does accept the belowescribed donations from said organizations in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the Duth Public Schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to these various individuals and organizations and we are very blessed to have two full pages of donations to Duth Public Schools here. So I move resolution B-6-25-4103. Do we have a second? Member Williams. Member Williams. Second. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor, please say I.

109All those opposed. Motion carries. Next, um, we have the acceptance of grant awards to Duth Public Schools. Member Micasel. I move resolution B6254104. Um whereas Minnesota statute 465 uh.03 requires a school district to accept grants by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full. And whereas acceptance of the grant in accordance with the donor's terms in the best is in the best interest of the DUTH public schools. Now therefore be it resolved that the Duth public schools does accept the belowescribed grant from said organization in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Be it further resolved that the duth public schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to this organization. And this month we have uh the Northland Foundation um working with Jen Jaros of ECF uh awarding a $5,000 grant which

110will support and enhance our home visiting strategy in an effort which has proven an effective way to engage and provide parent education to families in a variety of ways. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. Member Laughler Camp. Do we have any discussion? Um before do we have all those in favor of except Oh, did I what did I do? Just a comment. Oh, yes. Sorry. I I just wanted to just highlight because sometimes people don't realize all we do for early childhood education uh here in our district. And and again, this is for for ECF for our earliest learners. And so I just um am really excited. I I hope the public knows that we do so much for our early learners uh throughout the district and uh go on our website to

111learn more, but this is just one example of many ways that we support our youngest learners. So, thank you. Maybe somebody else might have some discussion about Oh, do we? We can still Okay. All right. All those in favor am I at the right spot now? Right. Okay. All those in favor of acceptance of grant. Can we just wait? Oh, got it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying. Everybody just got me some point of discussion. I've noticed with the National Weather Service. They've sent some updates about just that there might be rain today and quite a bit of it. And um here we are with rain and just wanted to say that we sometimes have unexpected circumstances and Chair Eater, you might want to mention for the mic why we took a quick pause and why.

112Okay. Thanks. All right. We just had a little bit of an emergency with a flash rainstorm here and some open windows. So, we needed So, we needed to give some grace to our other members here. Thank you. Um, do you all We're just just for quick recap, we're at acceptance of donations. So, we did our discussion grants. Thank you, Clerk Mike Cassell. Um, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have resolution for the membership um in the Minnesota State High School League for Denfeld 2526. Member Williams. Yes. Um, I move uh E-6-25-4105 uh resolved that the governing board or entity of Denfeld High School located in the state of Minnesota delegates the control, supervision, and regulation of intercolastic activities in athletics referred to in Minnesota

113statute section 128C.01 01 to the Minnesota State High School League and so hereby certifies to the state commissioner of education as provided for by Minnesota statutes. Thank you. Member Williams, do we have a second? Member Banks, do we have any discussion other than go Denfeld? [Music] Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next, we'll turn it over to member Laughler Camp for the resolution on the Minnesota State High School League membership for East High School. Okay. And I just uh want to do a quick check with member Williams. Did you read both all three resolves and you read that or just the first one? Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh so I move resolution E6254106. Uh be it resolved that the governing

114board or entity Duth East High School located in the state of Minnesota delegates the control supervision and regulation of interolastic activities and athletics referred to in Minnesota statute section 12801 to the Minnesota State High School League. and so hereby certifies to the state commissioner of education as provided for by Minnesota statutes. Uh so I move E6254106 go greyhounds. Member banks will second. Um are you seconding member banks the go greyhounds or the motion? No. Do we have any discussion? I will um support member Laughafler Kemp and saying go greyhounds. I I would just uh add for discussion is uh one of the names signing this is Sean RH who's been our former uh activities director and want to honor his many years of signing this and his work in that former role. uh uh he

115has had for many years in our district and served us well and am glad that he is uh going to continue working with us in a different role. So just wanted to note that um as well and I'm glad that we're part of the Minnesota State High School League. Um they are very supportive of all our students right now in our state for many things and we I'm glad that we're a member of them. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Last member Loel. Um the resolution for uh excuse me, let me move down uh the resolution for non renewal of staff. And you do see the no name. So I make a motion. I move HR-6-25-4107. Whereas during the first 3 years of consecutive

116employment, all teachers in the public schools in cities of the first class are deemed to be in probational period of employment during which period the school board may renew or not renew any teacher's annual contract as the school board shall see fit. The term teacher includes every person regularly employed as a principal or to give instruction in a classroom or to superintend or supervise classroom instruction or as a placement teacher and a visiting teacher. So now therefore be it resolved by the school board of independent school district 709 St. Louis County, Minnesota as follows. Um the employment contracts of probationary teachers shall not be renewed and their employment shall terminate at the end of the school day on June 5th, 2025 unless another date is indicated below in which case the employment of the particular

117teacher shall terminate on that date. Be it further resolved, the clerk of the school board shall notify such teachers in writing before July 1st, 2025 of the termination of their employment. So I move HR-6-25-4107. Second. Member Saddowski seconds. Do we have any discussion? Executive Director Seant sent out um a littleformational blurb about this earlier today. Member L. She could reiterate a brief summary if if desired. No, I I think we're good. Sounds good. All those in favor uh please signify by saying I I opposed. Motion carries. Do we have any other special We have no other special resolution or action items. Next we have any questions or time for anything else? Do we have any questions? Member Laughler Camp. Yeah, I was just wondering um if uh the superintendent or anybody else wants to just

118reiterate some of the events the school district will be involved with on Saturday with Junth. I know you just That's a great idea. Sure. Yes. So on Thursday um there trying to think of the start time of Junth, but I know that 3 to 7 is when I'll be on the grill. I know that I'll be uh doing that, but many many other people will be involved. I know that uh we'll have various tables available. Uh human resources has run a table. I think we have early childhood. We've talked about having enrollment. Uh so we want to be uh as involved as possible during that. Um so that will be good. Many many team members putting in in uh volunteer time as well. Um so that's coming up. We also have Grandma's Marathon on Saturday

119and I know that they're looking for some volunteers as well for for that. They're a really strong partner of us. I don't mean to diminish the other event, but uh looking for some early morning volunteers and Miss Severance is uh coordinating that if if anybody is interested in helping with runner bags. Member Laughler. Okay. Sorry. Oh, thank you. Uh member Williams. Um, I feel like I probably should have verified that this is accurate. Um, the weekend of Junth, um, St. Marks usually has their gospel brunch. Did that happen or is that happening this coming Sunday? It happened last weekend. Never mind. Seeing no other questions or others, do I have a motion for adjournment? So move. Member Banks, do I have a second? Member Saddowski, do we have any discussion on it? Uh before we

120leave, I just want to take this moment as a point of privilege to thank all of you very much. Um as we've worked through this process, we you have all done it with grace, humility, and most importantly, good faith. Um good faith in each other, good faith in the administration, and um good faith in doing the hard work for our kids. So I want to thank you all for that. That was demonstrated clearly by all of you today. So any other discussion? Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of adjournment, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. We are adjourned.