June 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM - Monthly Committee of the Whole Board Meeting

001previous um our previous protocol, safety protocols. And so that all got cleaned up. Our crisis um management plan pieces in here was changed and updated to reflect the crisis management policy. Um we our language now around that is emergency operations plan. And so all of those things were cleaned up just to align with line with what our current practices are. Um we also have um added in that reunification piece in there which is is work that um we are engaging with to um ensure that we have a process and I know that you'll see the video coming out and for parents about reunification. We also added pieces about Narcan now that we have Narcan in our schools just updates updates to that. Um, and then we have a whole bunch of policies that were updated

002in the back. And so I don't know what they all are, but we had we updated 514 or 515, 503, 413, 419, 504, and 504R. So all of those things that have been updated throughout the course of the year that are included in our handbook were updated in the handbook. Then so that's just an overview of our um handbook. um something that happens every fall. I know that this was alluded to in the policy committee, so I just want to make sure that I addressed it. Um we jointly as a secondary team get together usually in August and create the presentation for students. So what we have to do is we have to ensure that students are aware of the policy that are in this handbook. And um so we go through it. Um we

003have a presentation that they go through with students in the first couple weeks of school and they get kind of signed off on. Um we also ensure that our students have the handbook accessible to them at all times through their Canvas classroom. So there's a way for us to put that resource in there. So um we know that every single student has the handbook um because it because it is in there. Um, and parents, how are they getting the handbook this year? I'm letting you talk about that. So, parents will get the handbook. Um, they can find it on our website. It's on our back to school web page. So, when I send out the information about the back to school web page being updated to families, um, I also send a copy of the

004new handbook to them as well. Any questions or concerns? Member Banks. Thank you. Just a quick question. Will this document ever um will ever be available in uh those two additional languages that uh were prominent in the district? Yes. So once the handbook is approved um I will be sending it off to Albam to be uh translated into Spanish and Mandarin. Member Loel. So is there a do we have these in print? I I know we talked about that other years like we have maybe a copy. Can it be sent through parent square? So parents actually have a way to keep that as a link. Um yes. So it's constantly linked in Parent Square the handbook. As soon as it's updated on the website, it automatically updates in Parent Square and everywhere on all the

005websites. Um, and I send 20 copies to every school, um, physical copies, but I have received feedback that many of the schools don't even hand them out, so they're just being recycled. Yeah, that's true. Um, and is the font going to be bigger or is this the font that's in the handbook? It will look bigger than that that you're looking at. Wonder if I need Basically, we put the two pages together there. So, it's it it'll be double. That's true. It'll be double. Yeah. Sorry. I I think you you answered this. Um I I know I have seen some paper copies in the entryways of particularly elementary schools. Um, and I'm imagining at our two Spanish immersion schools now, Myers Wilkins and LOL, there will be the Spanish version also available uh for families. Um,

006right. Okay. Okay, great. Thank you. I I I know a lot of work has been put into this over the years and really uh appreciate um all the thoughtfulness that uh goes into the handbook every year. And you know, I I keep saying I was that parent who kept my handbook by my phone. Uh so I knew where it was and and just always appreciated um uh the availability now that so much of it is going online that we make it available in lots of different ways. So Sowki, um you're sneaky. I didn't even know you saw my light there, brother. Um, I would just second what member Laughler Kemp said just about um, gratitude for all the work that goes into this. I remember um, Adele a few years ago, you really did an

007overhaul and well, both of you did. Um, and I I just appreciate the attention to just doing the updates every year and keeping it current. Appreciate that all of our um, updated policies are in there. Thank you. Chair Durk Eater followed by or member Loeld followed by Chair Durk Eater. You can go first. Sorry. I just so I was listening to the MSBA updates today on different legislative things and different things and they mentioned um their model student handbook and and that serves also as a little bit of a guide as we put together ours. And was there significant changes because of legislative updates? So unfortunately MSBA doesn't come out with their model student handbook until July and we need to have it approved before July so that we can get it out to our

008families. So each year what we do is we go back to the previous model handbook and double check that there are no legislative updates. Um some of the ones that were made last year we already had in the handbook like the away for the day for your cell phone policy. We knew that was coming so we already had the language around that. Um, I think the only thing that the only major thing that was really different from our current handbook that was updated last year was the PSO language. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And that and maybe as we work with our MSBA, we can see if there's a potential that they could have it out by May or April if because I think that well the legislative session isn't done. That's probably true. But I

009mean, if they could have it out by like the beginning of June, that would be great. Um, Chair Durker and then member Loel or member Laughler. I'm going to be irritating right now. Can you on page five, the message from the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, the dear families and students, there's different capitalization in there. I noted that and I I will I know that you would catch it, but I will just forget. So, I just wanted to So, thank you. Thank you both. I appreciate your work. Member Laughler Camp, I thought you were going to comment on their pictures, so I'm glad you just picked that. No, just uh No, I I I meant to um uh add this with my earlier comments, but I really appreciated the changes that you made on communication

010and the process. And you know, I know often as a schoolboard member, we get that call and uh from uh maybe a family member or a parent and I say, "Have you talked to your child's teacher yet?" And so I really appreciate you really laying it out even more clear. Um a number of things that fell under communication. So and and putting it right up front. So thank you for that whole information section. So no problem. And I really have to give a shout out to my colleagues at Eden Prairie because I admired and acquired from them. Well, admiring other work that's being done is a good thing. Thank you. Seeing no further questions, we can move on to our next item which is uh actually this is the uh communications officer Adele Wellen show

011tonight uh which is our third presentation that she's assisting with which is our uh 2025 communications update. So, as you know, um I'm the communications officer. I was hired in January of 2022. Um my first day on the job, I had to close Laura MacArthur for two weeks due to COVID. And I got a phone call from Fox and Friends wanting to interview John. So, it's just been a wild ride since um just to kind of understand what I do in my role. Uh a lot of it is crisis communication and district crisis uh and district communication and strategic communication and messaging. Um public information officer is another one. So, that's mostly dealing with media if they have any questions. Um this year I have been working with the enrollment center to do communication and

012branding. um they had kind of brought me in because I'm also doing an enrollment campaign. So that's been really kind of a great collaboration with the enrollment center and that team there. Um I also uh do videography and photography. I handle the district social media. I'm considered the web master, so I'm in charge of all of the websites. Um and then you can see kind of the other things in there as well. So these are just a few of the projects that I have um done this year. I would say that the the largest ones are the emergency operations plan and working with Lexi Dat and Todd McGawen and the rest of the EOC team. Um the language access plan and the crisis communications handbook that goes along with the I love you guys communications.

013Um I also had a large part in communicating um budget changes. So that was kind of an ongoing process I want to say starting in like November and then continuing through March. Um and again and then obviously I have my yearly ones which are the student handbook, the back to school web page, unity in our community, the gold star gold fine award and also doing um a table at capital days. Um this year I was trained as an educ champion. So anybody that might have a question about educ um could come to me. I went through that um with Jody. He was uh really great on getting that set up. And then we I also did the DUTH Promise launch. So handled the press conference, did all the materials for that and um was able

014to get them out to um all of our partners. And then one that um might you might not know. So Boost My School. So we had an issue with we have an issue with Give Mn. They recently changed how they charged their fees and it does not work for school districts because they will just take it out of whatever the last donation was of the year and because our budgets are completely different, I was tasked with trying to find something else so it would make it easier for our finance team. Um after talking to some of my colleagues um statewide as well as nationwide, we landed on Boost My School, which I did a pilot program at Lincoln Park and starting July 1st, we'll be moving over to that as our main platform for fundraising.

015So this year, um I went back through all of my Google alerts. Um, we were mentioned in the news um, 435 times this year from June 2024 through May 2025. 139 of those stories were positive PR stories, 47 were negative, 63 were neutral, and 186 were sports. I felt like sports couldn't be categorized as any of those three because they're kind of their own um, category. And an example of what was neutral is um I would say like our district um talking about the Department of Education um situation. That's not really like positive PR for us, but it's also not negative. I'd find it neutral. And then um stories about the unfortunate loss of our student Oliver I also put in as neutral. Um, so this is our social media. Um, our top two social

016medias are Facebook and Instagram for interactions. Um, you can see our top five posts from this year. Um, Denfeld basketball kind of ruled the the year this year. Um, taking 1, four, and five. Our um, student at ordin East, JemKin, who went to the National Spelling Bee was number two. And then our thank you to Shawn RH for all of his service as the athletic director was um number three. So from June 2024 to May I have posted 202 posts which average is about four posts per week. Um we have received 627 new followers over the year coming to about 12,800 total on Facebook. When I started we were about at 9,000. Um Instagram is we had 134 posts um throughout the year which averages about three posts per week and we are starting to

017gain more followers on Instagram um with our students there. And the recommended for any social media to be continually um feeding the algorithm as well as getting in front of um our followers and our non-followers is to have three posts a week on any social media page. Other places I post are Nextoor, Threads, Tik Tok, and LinkedIn. Um, we're the only school district in the state of Minnesota with a Next Door account because I'm apparently crazy. Um, but I do have a rule on Next Door. It's positive only. So, [Music] um, this year was our first full year of implementing Parent Square districtwide. Um, I have gotten a lot of great feedback from parents, from staff members. I've even had some staff members apologize to me for being such negative nies at the beginning cuz

018as one said um he's never had more family engagement than he does now using parent square. So as you can see 42% of parents and guardians have downloaded the app. Um we have sent out over 200,000 direct messages. There have been over 8,000 posts. Um 143 forms or permission slips. um 826 smart alerts. Those alerts are mostly if we call one of our I love you guys um standard response protocols. Um and then 48% of our parents and guardians interact and there's typically two contacts per student. So that mean that could mean that 906% of our families are interacting. Um our top five authors are Megan Crane and ECF. she's really taken it on and she she's one of probably one of my biggest supporters on it. Um I got knocked down to second this

019year. Um and then Chris Hughes came at third, Jill Ellis at Piedmont fourth, and then Heidi Owens and um at Piedmont for fifth. And then our top five schools as always, LOL is still staying strong at number one. And then we have Lester Park, Piedmont, Myers, Wilkins, and Lakewood. [Music] So this year I've kind of already mentioned it that we are doing an enrollment campaign. Um we have solicited our services with school mints to help with this enrollment campaign and I have to say with everything that has gone on this year this enrollment campaign would not have happened without the help of school mints. So I've really appreciated all the work that they have done for us on this. So, um, as you can see, the green, um, flags are our target area, and those

020are the zip codes that I gave them. So, all the zip codes within our area, as well as the surrounding area. Um, the one that's out by Castle Danger is 55616, which includes um, Knife River, Larsmont, Two Harbors. Um, if you're not seeing the ads, it's most likely because you're not in our target audience. Um, which helps us use our budget wisely. So we tip um so we target females um aged 35 to 55. Um and every time an ad is shown, it costs money. So we only want to focus on those that would be interested or would be more likely to interact with the ad or click on the ad. And then obviously our goal is to reach prospective parents who best fit um what we're looking for. These are um just some of

021the statistics. This is through the end of May. So they have changed. So um you'll see the percentage of targeted reach. So what that means is that there are 28,000 households that we identified as our ideal audience and we have reached by the end of May over 15,000 of them already. Um as for the impressions, so the impressions the you can kind of see um at the bottom. So the total reached that's the families that we have reached the 279 that's the total target audience and then um the total addressable market. So that's like the amount of people with um amount of families within the area is 55,000. So, um about 27,000 of those 55 kind of fit in our age range for students. Um impressions, um the total impressions is over 154,000 and the

022target impressions is 139. So, target means that's how many impressions of the people we were targeting and the total impressions is the amount of impressions we received. So, like if I were to share the post and someone that we weren't targeting then sees my post that I shared, um that would fall under total impressions. And then um the inbound funnel metrics is just gives you kind of a snapshot. So, most people aren't willing to give their information through our uh through online forms nowadays, but we have received um since the end of May um it's definitely changed now. Um we had 30 leads through our form. Six of them were warm. Those were people that were interested in preschool but were able to extend a year at their current um daycare for preschool and we

023had eight applications total. But the thing that I think is the most impressive and I had our enrollment center pull the numbers on is that in February last year we had 154 applications. February this year we had 381 applications. That's a difference of 227 extra applications in February and only six of those or 86 of those were middle and high school. So the rest were elementary. In March of last year we had 324. It's a little higher cuz that's when our kindergarten meet and greets are. Um this year we had 360. So that's an extra 36 applications in March. And then April last year we had 106 applications. April of this year we had 190. So a difference of 84 extra applications. And then in May, I just have the first two weeks of May

024for this year, we had 66. And last year for the total month was 89. So we're on track to meet beat May as well with this enrollment campaign. So I'm also hoping that come August, we won't have 320 applications that we have to process within a couple of weeks. So hopefully those numbers um will continue to grow. And then starting July 1st, we will be doing a school specific campaign with school mint for Laura MacArthur as they lose the most open enrollment students at 122 right now. So our best performing ads were our new inquiry campaign, our custom video ad, and our college and career readiness thematic campaigns. So again, impressions means that um it showed up on someone's screen. Reach means they interacted with it. Clicks mean they actually like clicked on the link.

025And then you can see um how many leads. So people filled out the form based on those campaigns. And then this is what the campaigns look like. So the number one campaign that really worked was the outdoor adventures every day. That was our preschool and kindergarten. And that photo of those kids out in their rain jackets just having fun around um a stump was our most popular ad. Um and as you can even see it had like 73 interactions in 8 years and that's grown even more. So that one continues to pop up and so Facebook continues to feed the algorithm with that specific ad. I've seen it more than any of the other ads because kind of targeting myself which is great. And then these are just some of my professional accomplishments accomplishments over

026the years. So um in March I was elected to the Minsra the Minnesota school PR Association board for two years starting July 1st. Have my first board meeting tomorrow. I also presented at the Minnesota school PR spring conference. Um my presentation was 13 crisises in nine days strategies for solo communicators in high stakes situations. So that was the first nine days of school that I had those 13 crisises. Um I was asked to present at the social school for edu social media retreat which I will be doing in two weeks in Stillwater. And then I was also selected to present at the national school PR association in July in Washington DC on the same thing that I presented at Minsspra. And then um I recently received an award from social school for edu um for

027best social media cutest clicks and shares for the cookie um snow day um post from last year. And I actually got a picture with Gigi who made the cookies and she got a little award too. So they sent two awards to us. Any questions? Thank you. I know we have board member questions. Um, but while we're talking about professional accomp accomplishments, so many things and I know that uh I'm hesitant to even like share all the things because I know you aren't a lover of limelight. You like to shed limelight on other people and that's your your superpower. Um, you were also selected to present um this this past year at the national conference uh in Seattle and we were all set to go and there was uh we we we presented and it was

028was largely your work that that got us there and and you put us uh put the presentation together but there was a um emergency that didn't allow you to present but so really two national conference presentations at the top uh piece is really important and then also thinking about board uh board members and others sometimes have asked, you know, what are we doing to, you know, get our co positive news stories out? I think uh that's part of was part of the impetus of of putting this together is making sure that you see, you know, what what is it that we do with our our communications and how do we try and uh generate more positive news stories. And with the enrollment campaign, I think that um not only is it about generating applications and

029all of the applications, if you look at an application being roughly $10,000 a year, if that student is here for the full 12 years or or uh the time that they're here, that could be well over $100,000 per individual that's brought into the district. So, it adds up really quickly, especially if we're talking about uh budgets. uh and our enrollment just um it's it's on an upswing. I think some quite often I hear people say, "Oh, Duth is losing enrollment or many other districts are losing enrollment." But we're we're on an upswing. We have uh families that are really selecting Duth Public Schools as their school of choice. Member Williams. Um I have a lot of questions actually. Um, I can see why, this isn't a question, but I can see why people mistakenly call

030you director Wellins all the time cuz you're a boss. So, um, yeah, I it was really great to hear those specific numbers in enrollment just to yeah, to kind of have a tangible understanding of how we've grown. So, thank you so much for your hard work in that. Um, so, oh, in the what you do slide in the beginning. Um, one of the questions I had, you said clerical training. What do you train? So, um, this past year I've been part of the district-wide professional development days. So, I have trained them on crisis communication, what to do when they have a crisis and people are calling their phone. Um I also had a training uh with the pair of professionals and the certified staff on that as well. Um another training that I just did

031in the May one was about confidentiality and um student privacy. Okay. Thank you. Um and then um when you're tracking um our followers on social media, do you track um students versus non- students or is there a way to do that or no? Or is that even valuable data? There is there's a way to track age and I would say that the age and gender is where what you can track um via social media through meta which is Facebook, Instagram, threads and the majority of our followers are 25 to 45 female and and majority of our followers in general are female. And then maybe this is more of a question for Superintendent Maggus. I'm just curious if anybody like you highlight a lot like yay Denfeld did this, yay, this teacher was awesome and did

032that. Like who gives Adele kudos on a on a more public um forum and level cuz you do you do so much. You're everywhere all the time. You're at every single graduation. We were elected to be at every single graduation. You were not. So like I just Yeah. I I acknowledge how much you do and know what you were going through this week and you're here now and I Yeah. So, I really appreciate you. Thank you. Sure. Um and we do um try to show as much recognition as we can. Uh quite often we've we've worked with we we're lucky to have a number of staff that that are skilled in in media and so um sometimes we've worked with Brett and Patty to to post various things. Uh but it's it's important for us

033to remember uh the different communication officer days and things like that and and I've uh put together videos and things like that previously as well. But I think in general um you know I think the the work often times speaks for itself when you see these things coming through and Adele's behind it. you see unity in the community coming together and knowing that she's one of the main players in putting that together. I think uh that that uh shows as well and I think that uh the the various newscasters and and media outlets uh who are are around see uh where where that information is coming from and know that that Adele brings a lot of a lot of skills and a lot of lot of um creativity to the the the table. I also

034think since it's praisefest for for uh for Adele, uh if you look you see the the pictures when you first come in, many award-winning pictures that that Adele has taken and and really in addition to the skills she has in graphic arts and and communication and PR uh very very skilled photographer as well. So just really appreciate that. And I'm not sure who was next. It was um let's go with um member Sidowski and then I think it was either um go right around. We can just kind of go through. Go ahead. Oh, I was just kind of as you were talking about the enrollment campaign just kind of remembering when it came across our HR business meetings many months ago now. Um and it's just really um powerful I think to to see the

035outcomes from it. Um, and just wanted to um remind the board um just I know that a lot of thought went into like which program you were using too and from a fiscally responsible standpoint um we really just needed a few um and I forget what it was but just a few enrollments to make it even three enrollments to make it worth it. And we've got those we've got more um bang for our buck I guess than we um than one was the minimum. Um and obviously I think um based on a lot of the data here um I know how I work like I won't I if I saw this across my page I would probably okay maybe I'll interact with it and then I'll call the school to enroll. So, I'm suspecting that

036there's probably a lot more that came out of this than even the data shows. And maybe you um probably know that and track that, too. Um and then my final comment was um I really think that the Laura MacArthur idea is a good one. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing the data on that. Thank you. Excellent. Member Mike, thank you so much for sharing all that you do every day. Um it's a lot of work and we appreciate you. I have a couple questions. One, um the fundraising platform, what are what are some examples of what we're raising funds for via those platforms? So, um Lincoln Park was our pilot. Um but basically, Lincoln Park's willing to do anything for me, which is great. Um so, they had multiple fundraisers that they're going to

037set up every year. And they actually have a page on their website. There's a link at the top that says donate, and it tells any people how they donate. So they can donate to their enrichment fund depending on which grade. So we have it set up for sixth, seventh, and eighth. They also have their one book one day um fundraising on there as well as um their community pantry on there. Um Uni and our community fundraiser page has moved from Give MN over to boost my school and then I set up a boost my school page for um Katherine Nakbar for her history day. So, um, we're just trying to navigate everyone back over to Boost My School because the way Give Men works, just as an example, in December, we had a $500 donation

038for the debate team and 50% of that was taken as a fee. So then I had to go back through and determine which of the Denfeld um organizations needed to have which amount of fee and then Britney had to go back and subtract money from those. Uh Britney's in our finance department. She had to go back and subtract from certain um activities and then credit back to the debate. And after reaching out to give MN and not getting any answers and talking to my fellow um PR people in Minnesota, we all decided that it's just not going to work for us because that's to have it all come out on December, whatever was given in December is just unreasonable. And when asked what happens if we don't have any donations in December, they didn't have

039an answer. So we had to find something and we had to find something to change before this coming December. And the way Boost My School works is that the person who's donating can cover their fees by adding on to the donation. So they pay for the fees. And our data shows that 95% of the people on Boost My School will pay for the fee. And if they don't pay for the fee, it will just come out of the donation that they made, which makes it easier for our finance department to track. Thank you for that. Um, next question. And I noticed um our parent square interaction um we have 42% of our parents and guardians signed up. So that means less than half. Um are is the other half do they receive notifications like via

040email without having the app on their phone? Yeah. Regardless of whether you have the app, you're going to get an email and a text message. Okay. Um and then it will be forced if it's a smart alert. it will be a forced email and text message and it will send an audio message if the text fails and then for any urgent alerts it will force an email text and phone call. Okay, so that's comforting because at first when I first looked at that I'm like oo that's over half of our parents are in the dark but that's not the case at all. They are still receiving information. Good to know. Um, and then last, um, just curious with all of the posts that we're doing like four times a week, three times a week, um,

041do we also share like press releases out with our local media for some of those like feel-good stories that are happening in our schools that are our school um, families and our school staff know so much about, but maybe our community members who don't have kids in the schools anymore or don't have reason to be in our schools. Um, so that they're still also getting some of that access to to good stories. Yes. So I have a form for people to share what I I call my good news form and they can fill it out and then it includes press releases and this year I have sent out one two three four 11 12 24 press releases. Great. Okay, thank you so much for releasing. Um I just I love Parent Square by the way.

042It has just made everything. So I I've seen all of us sit here. Um our phone it'll go text message, email, parent square, bam, bam, bam, and you can just So that's great. Um parent square has been really great to access forms for me if there's something I need to do. It's just one place I know I can always go. So, I just I'm I'm a huge fan of Parent Square. Um and then I just want to compliment you on the enrollment campaign. This is a very very very sophisticated um use of money and targeting specific audiences and you're being very intentional about this and I appreciate it. You can't just blast these enrollment campaigns out. This is probably close to what we do at the college, maybe at the College of St. Scholastica for

043different programs depending on. So I appreciate um the level of sophistication that you're using um to do this work because if you don't target it, it just gets lost in the big abyss and it it really isn't a great use of fund. So I I just want to compliment you on on that for sure. And then I definitely won't be giving your name to the college if we ever need anybody to come in. I'm just kidding. Chair Derk, I believe enough. That's the problem. I know that's where Yeah. Um so anyway, I just wanted to compliment you on that and then I love to to um reinforce what member Sidowski said to look at schools where we see these open enrollments and then to specifically target those families so that they can see Laura MacArthur

044had this great um rate of their kids m getting to their benchmarks for reading. So great job. I appreciate it. Member Loal, I kind of thought my question might be answered and it it is a little bit with parent square. So I'm I'm not a a current parent in our district. So I haven't signed up. Oh, I think I have signed up. I do do that, but I don't really look at it much because I don't I get it. I don't know. But my question is about a little bit about parent square. One of my questions is just when you highlighted the top five authors, I don't know what that what what that means. Like do they send like just little positive notes out to their classes or to their colleagues? So if if our

045top five authors sent out 204 posts, you know, I'm thinking is that like a Facebook post or is that like an Instagram or is that targeted to their students, to their families? What what do you what are the top five authors? What what are they sending out? So that would be posts. So um Megan is uh has sent out 235 posts and because she's ECF, she's a case manager technically. So she has sent out 235 posts to her families. So that is that like parent square is a closed circuit communication. So it's just families and staff. And if she is outposting me, she's posting quite a bit. So, that would be a real that would have been a really great benefit when I was in the classroom because the the laborintensive phone call when sometimes

046you find out that the phone number isn't quite right or just setting up the emails and being individual and sincere with each little message you give or or being able to craft one that goes out to all with the same one one click is awesome. So, that's okay. I just was curious and then I'm just we've had a lot of conversation and and about our our our um enrollment campaign and I my my simple question is we still doing it. Are we still actively in the enrollment posts and will we how long will we be continuing that? So, our district-wide campaign ends June 30th and then our Laura MacArthur campaign will start July 1st and that will go through an entire year for 15,000. But we will not continue in maybe the fall with another

047more robust. We'll target Laurel. Could we target Stow? They're they're the same kind of that same place there. Well, actually, technically Stow only loses 55 students to open enrollment. The top three are Laura MacArthur at um 122 to open enrollment, Piedmont at 95 and LOL at 80. From there goes Myers Wilkins, Lester, Then Stow, Homecraftoft, Lakewood, and Cogn. That's great information. But when you share those numbers, are are they actually are we losing them out of the district or are some of the MacArthur kids going to Lowel or to our other, you know, campuses or are they simply out of the district? These are open enrollment, meaning they're leaving our district. Okay. So, and then a majority of the Laura MacArthur students are going to Proctor. So, Proctor actually steals the most amount of our

048students. So, um, we have 368 students that open enroll out to Proctor. Now, one of the, I would say, issues with Proctor is that they bring their school buses into our zones. So, their buses actually have like pickups within the Denfeld, Spirit Mountain, Stow area. I've even seen Proctor um SUVs picking up students in Lakeside. Um, so they actually have a stop kitty corner to Denfeld and a stop kitty corner to Laura MacArthur. Um, we used to lose a lot more students to Renshaw. Um, when I first started as the education reporter was about 150 students were going to Wshaw. They're only this year took 88 of our students. Um, and then the second largest taking our students is Hermantown at 178. But I'm not too worried about Hermantown because they closed their grades to

049open enrollment a lot. um just because like they cap their class sizes and they do a board action around that every year. So very very interesting and and we are careful with the expenditure. So we we want to make sure that we're investing wisely. We we did some research uh talked to other school district districts that were using uh school mint and through the connections that Adele made and others you know we um we heard that that the school specific campaigns sometimes it provided more bang for your buck and so that's what we wanted to try as another pilot and something new this year. But we'll con continue to consider what we might do for uh other schools or uh a broader district-wide campaign because it's been uh bearing fruit. Member Laughler Kemp. Sure. Then

050member Banks. Great. Thank you. I uh I have one question and then some comments, but uh Parents Square um 42% of parents and guardians have downloaded the app. So how how do we increase that like this fall? So what are the plans for that? So for this past year I had a goal that by December every single traditional school would be at 50% and they did that in October. So um I had to set a new goal and I was hoping to get 50% of our families. So, you also have to um think about our residential and treatment families are also in here and they don't they don't always have interactions with their students. So, like our Arrowhead Juvenile Center is in their um you know, they're outside and they're maybe not as involved. So,

051I'm really focusing on our um 13 traditional schools. Um, and also ALC has a lot of kids that don't have parents within parents connected to their account because they're adults. Uh, some of them are adults. They're they might be over 18. So, um, right now I think the the biggest focus would be at the high schools. So, the high schools are the ones that are lacking the most um youth in Parent Square. So, Denfeld has more than East at this point. Um and then Lincoln Park obviously being the pilot school last year has more than norine. So those would be my two focuses over the next year. Okay. And then just we can be telling men of that age bracket to yes sign up too. Right. The majority of the parents that have parents square

052downloaded are the mothers. Okay. Okay. Great. My other comments are really more just um to thank you. Uh I know uh just again being out in the community in lots of different ways um with families uh in particular that how much they have seen the communication increase since you've been with us and so thank you for all the ways I think um families often are feeling um like they they're hearing from us in some of the many ways that you described um from text to email etc. So, uh, great work there. I also have appreciated and I've heard this also from from parents about consistency with the dis with the school websites, um, across uh, the district and just the information and that and I know that was a goal of yours and and um,

053it's really made a difference, I think. Uh, and then um I I also have appreciated just the ways I've heard that and I've seen how you've collaborated with a lot of different organizations and you're that go-to person uh that people really like working with um within our district whether it's the Duth Superior Community Foundation Boreal or um or other organizations. So, just, you know, add that list of of just the many ways you you have collaborated and partnered and people see you as the go-to person. um uh and and so it's no surprise that you have been asked to serve on um the uh SP board and that you you've been asked to present like you have and I just appreciate you as uh taking the time to share your skills uh that way as

054well and and share your time and talents. That's that's great PR for us as well. So, just big flowers to you. And um I will tell you uh that uh my new grandchild's nickname is Adele. So, Lynn, but Adele is what they're calling her. So, yay. Yay. Thank you, Member Banks. Sure. Thank you very much. I just u in the interest of time, I'm going to be really brief. Um, I want to thank you for uh how you consistently um present the school district um and how you tell the truth about what's happening in our district. There are a lot of positive things going on in the district districtwide and all of our schools and uh getting that information in the hands of the public helps to uh take away from the negative comments and

055negative things that have been said about the district. Uh I know as do uh many people in our community that this district is an excellent school district with incredible students, staff, faculty, and you're sharing that information. You're telling the truth, and it really does help to uh dissuade those negative comments uh that uh most of the time are not true. And so, thank you for all you do for the school district. Thank you. Thank you, Simone. Yes. I thank you. I just want to also add Adele's been a fantastic partner with getting our budget uh website, our budget link onto our website. And you didn't talk about what we did for transportation for summer school use with parent square. This is our first time ever. She just sent it out, I believe, today. Uh with

056summer school, we've had to hire someone to basically make phone calls to every single family, which is two to 300, to tell them what their bus will be for summer school. And we were too late in trying that last summer. So this year is our first time. Uh the transportation routed the students. Um the information was sent to Adele. She created parent groups and also send those sent those out by bus route or bus number. I actually sent it out individually to each family with their individual students pickup, drop off and um locations and times. But to be fair, I put it in a spreadsheet and asked um Gemini to create my template so I could copy and paste them. But today was the first time a brand new improvement for transportation and for hopefully

057much more efficient uh practices. So, thank you. Thank you very much. And uh thank you again uh communication officer Wellins uh for all of your presentation work tonight. Our next topic, if there are no further questions for the from the board, uh thank you. Our next topic will be post-secondary enrollment options with Simone Zunich executive director business services, Phil Pollson, our Mars coordinated, and Jamie uh Sever uh who is our guidance counselor from East who is participating virtually tonight. She's on via my uh computer. I don't think we'll be able to bring her up to to be able to see her, unfortunately. I could sure turn my screen around if that's helpful, but I don't know if that will Sorry, Jamie. Uh, so our PSO credits, uh, it's a it's an opportunity we have for

058students. We're always trying to make sure that we are able to offer opportunities for students to study at very high levels and, um, be able to take advantage of those things. But there are some changes that we're recommending that I think will be uh financially more viable for the district given our our budget constraints that we all talk about each and every meeting. Thank you. Um thank you Phil our Mars coordinator to be here and uh Jamie Sabry counselor Savry that it's on online there. Um, this was brought to my attention last summer by uh, Principal Flhog, Mr. Principal Tuskcen, and counselor Jamie Savry about the way we are paying for our PSCO students. Um, we there's a much more efficient way to do it and it's a cost savings. So, we've spent a lot

059of time, Phil has spent a lot of time and as has Jamie, she's been terrific doing some uh analysis and uh we will I'll go through the slides to explain how we're doing it and what my our proposal is and of course another improvement to our process and system. So, I will start at the top. Um so, why change the PSO model? So the the high school guidance staff brought the suggestion to change from the traditional PSO model to courses according to agreement CAA with Lake Superior College. Uh why make this change? Changes how PSO is paid for and ultimately can result in the school district retaining more general education revenue. This will be no change for the student. they will still go to do take their PSO classes. Students will not notice any changes

060to how PSO is currently with Lake Superior College. Um I should also mention director director um Larva can pipe in too as the director of secondary. So right now our traditional PSO um the Minnesota Department of Education pays tuition directly to the postsecary institute. uh there's a fixed rate between MDE and PSI which is postsecary inst the post-secary institute and MDE pays for all associated costs to attend PSI so that' be your books and parking etc. Going to the new model uh courses according to agreement also known as CAA. The school district contracts with PSI and pays tuition directly to the institute. Uh a negotiated rate between school district and PSCI and MDE is not involved. School district is responsible for all associated costs to attend PSI. So, we would pay for the books and

061the parking. Um, Bill, do you have anything else you want to add right now or? Uh, no. You're good. Okay. So, we have a graph up here uh that I have to say Phil put together for us. This is the traditional PSO model and he provided uh so we have periods in the high school schedule periods taken at high school the percentage of high school credit the gened revenue and gened received. So if and he also provided the math the columns so AB um C= B A D E that's your math. So we have provided if a student takes uh for instance two periods um the percentage of the credit is 0 29 I'm on one two three four columns down four rows down excuse me the gen ed revenue would be $12,430 but we

062would end up getting $3,55150. So let's keep going and then we'll ask questions. So, if we go to the courses according to agreement, we're assuming student generates a 1.0 ADM, which is $12,430 in gen ed revenue. If a student takes 15 credits, PSO credits, the cost per credit would be $250. The district pays the PSI per semester $3,750. and the gened revenue per semester would be $2,465. So the district would retain roughly $4,930 with the CAA model versus 1,500 a year with the traditional model. So it is dependent on credits taken cost per credit and cost of student supplies. Um I am familiar with this model. For my former district, we would receive an invoice twice a year. uh you know after the semester was over from the college and we would pay the the

063bill directly to the college instead of going through MDE. Can Jamie speak or Yes. Jamie, would you like to add anything? Um the only that I would add is at this time the district wouldn't be paying anything for parking for LSC students because they don't charge parking. Okay. Jamie, do you have anything else though that you would uh like to say um uh to the positive for this change? Did she hear? I don't think so. I can I can just answer any questions. Thank you. Excellent questions from board members. Uh member Sudowski. Um my first question is um for other PSO programs like UMD, are we also using the courses according to agreement? No, we are not right now. Um it would only be with Lake Superior College. Jen, can you answer that a little

064bit more? or Jamie, I'll just wait till Do you want to just It's hard to know when I should speak. So, if you want me to answer any of the questions, just let me know and I'll pop in. But for instance, with that with the UMD tuition, the tuition is so much higher at UMD. So, it wouldn't balance. It wouldn't be as cost effective as it would be at LSD. Okay. Thank you. And then a followup on that because my second question was um if the cost savings isn't there someday, are we able to revert back? I was just going to add to the UMD that I know the U of M system, they won't do courses according to agreement. They only will do the traditional model. Okay. And yes, this would be a one-year

065contract that we would bring to the school board every year for approval. Okay. And and I would say that as we work on things like the DUTH promise where we're trying to make sure that we have really close uh connection with each of the higher ed institutions, we are working at on um uh articulation agreements so that we can we can have uh shared uh credits but also looking at things like PSO and how can we make things affordable. Those are things that we're all uh exploring. and um was at um president Patricia Rogers u from from LSC's retirement uh celebration last night and uh the chancellor from UMD uh Charles NY and um the president from College of St. Scholastica, they were all there. There it's a very close group and we're we're working

066together trying to find some of the solutions. And also with the uh legislation that just went through, we did receive $50,000 uh for the next two years to to all work together on uh things like this and trying to figure out how do we continue to enhance access to make sure that all students are able to participate in credit bearing uh opportunities like this. Uh we're also hopeful that at some point it might result in some legislative changes and other funding opportunities so that that these are better funded by the state too as they are in in some of the other uh states where they have stronger PSO opportunity. Um well thank you for um balancing um the fiscal needs of our district with a great program um and keeping it available to students. Appreciate

067it. Thank you Laughler Kemp and then member Williams or Mike Cell. Yeah, thank thank you uh yeah for bringing this forward and for all the the work that's gone in uh to it. Jamie, thank you. Um how many students uh do we have in the past with taking PSO through Lake Superior College and how many up at UMD? I mean, do we got just some rough numbers? Are more people going one way or the other? How can we get more to go? My My kids didn't do PSO, so I'm not as familiar with how it works as I am with CITS classes. I don't know that number um offhand. You think we could we could uh look into it and get back to the board? Yeah. Okay. Unless uh Director Larva, do you have that

068information? Not right. Maybe Jamie, does Jamie know? Maybe we can. Jamie, do you have an idea for East? interested idea. Anyway, I do it based on East, but we have more students um probably about 25% more students full time at LSC than I and those numbers vary. What I saw when I pulled up these numbers was um precoid we had a large percentage of students attending the PSO program both at LSC and UMD. Then it dipped quite a bit and since we've been back in full person it's it's just continued decline. So Rosie I can't give you exact numbers but we could pull them off of Infinite Campus but I would want to make sure that we pull them for um ALC students students and students. Yeah. Excellent. That that would be interesting. And just

069this general idea from East um is helpful as well. I you know LSC is such a a great resource that um I I'm glad all the relationship building our district has has with have had with them particularly in the last few years and um as is UMD and St. Scholastica too but uh I think sometimes students feel LSC is more um smaller. It's more uh easier accessible in some ways. U I hear that a lot from families and so thank you. Thank you. And uh we're assured that the new president, incoming president for LSC uh is equally as interested in in continuing such partnerships and developing them even further. Member Mike, I think, but this might be a question that people would have to get data back to us um because it might not be

070at your fingertips. So I was just curious how many PSO classes we offer between all of our different institutions. And so if that's not something on the top of your or easy at your fingertips, um it would be interesting to have that. We can get that. Okay. Wonderful. And then I just also wanted to extend my gratitude to the principles. It sounds like that you said that it was the principles who brought this forward. Um so thank them for keeping an eagle eye out for opportunities for improvement and um fiscal responsibility. Thank you. Thank you. I would also like to add that Phil and I met with um Stephanie. I don't know how to pronounce her last name. Wayne Wanapia. Thank you. Um on May 22nd, uh the college and the school's director at Lake

071Superior College, um Phil has had conversation with MDE and um I believe I saw some conversation there at least 26 schools that are districts that are going with Lake Superior College and uses this new model we're proposing. So I with your permission I would like to test it for a year. um and see if it really is beneficial for us. I think it will be. Uh seems the numbers are are showing that it will be. And what we'd like to do, we have a contract. Um we, you know, we have to um update it and bring it to HR business services in July and for your approval. Thank you. And uh seeing no additional questions from board members except for member um Lald I thought I turned it on but maybe I go ahead didn't

072push hard enough. So my you know this sounds great and and I certainly support um what we have in front of us in the work. But I do wonder about the unintended consequences like the course like there was always a perception when I was in the classroom that where you took the class whether it was at UMD or Lake Superior kind of also uh had an impact as to what colleges you went to and if they would accept those courses from that campus. So that's one kind of where where do we know if that's going to happen and if that would then you know really get in the way of some of our students. Um the question was already asked about what courses will Lake Superior open up to um PSO students and then my

073other question goes into again my background in teaching means that um teachers have to have certain lensure in order to qualify to teach a PSO and the colleges have quite a significant um determination as a curriculum and the books and the text and the tests and they'll come in and and and you know check in with the teachers that are teaching PSO if still a model. You know, maybe director Larvin knows about those conditions, but I worry about what what teachers will have to have as their lensure to teach PSO and whether or not in our high schools we have those teachers readily ready to teach and will this start next fall. Can I just cl Jamie? Yep. class on their transcript, that would be the same way that we do it now. So, so

074the funding change wouldn't change any of those teacher requirements or anything like that. I just wanted to follow up and and thank you actually I was misinterpreting it so my mistake about between PSO classes and CITS classes you're right thank you member Durker then member Sidowski sorry well I was going to chime in just a little bit and just um state that you know um we do want to start having some more conversations about those college and the school's classes because the um higher education commission has had some you you know, changes with what the requirements are for teachers and we are at a point where we have some, um, some gaps. And so, um, in the future, we will come back to the board with some more information about college in the schools. Member

075or Chair Durker. Nope. I'm just using my microphone to make sure that the owl gets picked up. So, member Saddowski. Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you to counselor Sav and all the other counselors. Um just I had a daughter who went to check out PSO was going to maybe take a class or two ended up going 100% at UMD this last year and I know um just from that one experience I know it's a little extra to communicate with the college and then make sure she's getting all of her credits to graduate from East as well. um just really appreciate the work that you all put in just to meet each students um kind of where they're at um and what's best for them. Thank you. Thank you. And seeing no further questions,

076I just want to say thanks to the team. Also, uh um Phil Pollson does an excellent job with Mars and so many different areas. I know sometimes we don't always see everybody behind the scenes, but but uh we had some really big shoes to fill from some of our previous Mars coordinators and Phil came in with deep deep experience and and was just able to step in with and not miss a beat and take us even further than we've been before. So, just want to say thank you, Phil. And staying for round two, we have Thank you, J. And thank you, Jamie. Have a great night. And I will keep actually I will keep this uh on because I'm recording in hopes that we will be able to post this in some fashion since our

077technology still is not working prop. It is working now. Oh, excellent. Great. Yeah, I'll keep it. Yeah, I'll keep recording just as a as a backup. Um, but we also have our um our next installment of our budget reading, which is our third um third reading of our budget. And I am pulling up some information uh quickly here that I was going to share with the board as well, but uh executive director Zunich is going to be sharing here for our third uh conversation. And then um also we we did just get information from the state related to our um I got to pull it up. My apologize. The the legislative changes that we just had and I I shared that in some of our our board update information, but um the special legislative session

078was called by Governor Walls on June 9th um 3 weeks following the conclusion of the regular session. It enabled legislators to uh work on the policies that we had in place that so the day in during their dayong session they passed uh 15 bills uh notably the omnibus school or not notably the omnibus um education finance and policy bill and some of the highlights of that legislative uh work were uh that spending was unchanged. The total state education spending for this bianium bianium matches the February forecast. The basic formula increase included that 2.74 increase in the basic formula for uh financial year 26. Um as far as new key funding, comped had hold harmless for uh financial year 26 uh preventing major funding drops for many districts related to that. Uh there were some pretty

079significant off offsets however with uh significant reductions in special education transportation aid as well as student uh support personnel aid and library aid were all put in place to uh have that hold harmless clause for the comped uh during the financial year uh 2829 bianium. Uh as far as other things, there were significant reductions uh particularly in special ed. Uh but there were there will be uh 420 million in reductions which includes the um the bulk of the cuts being in special education. There's going to be a special commission that's going to identify $250 million in special education reductions uh over time. So we're I would say it was kind of a mixed bag. there were some some positives, but I would say that in general it was uh not a not a very positive

080year for for school funding like we've had previously. I think we're seeing some of the impacts of of uh the economy and the tax base shrinking somewhat and um some of the financial realities that that are hitting now as far as uh reductions particularly in special ed. And I find that frustrating because we know that with the state only partially funding special education when they continue to cut, we're taking steps backwards in in fully funding education and in particular special education. Uh tonight we're talking about our our budget though and and but we wanted to give that as a as a prelude to the budget conversation since that's all fresh since our last update on the budget. Okay. Thank you. Um so tonight is our third reading. uh June 12th and um I did put

081in my cover sheet I made four changes. Can I ask you to pull your microphone closer? Closer. Is this better? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Um so do me I'll start at the beginning. It's our third reading. And I did make four changes. Um, otherwise the rest of the budget is the same and I included those changes in the cover sheet and I will read them to you and then I'll show you where I made the changes. Um, I updated the special ed aid between the last two meetings we've had. Uh, it actually increased to 2.2 million for FY26. Um, it is based off of our expenditures from two years ago. So, um, what I don't know yet is how much our cross subsidy aid is going to be. So, that could change, but right

082now they're showing this the number I'm giving you tonight includes our cross subsidy aid. Um, we will see after the audit, then some more the final numbers will go in and I updated the ALC state aid per MDE that was brought up last time. Um, we put in new numbers for the whatif. Uh Phil has been working very closely. We still think that number could change a little bit more, but I was able to increase that to a little over uh 1.2 million and that does not include the comped that will go with it. So we'll hit roughly uh 1.8 million for the ALC. And then I also increased on our benefit line item. I added 1.5 million for the potential TRA pension reform. That's a number I'm just guessing at. If we have 12

083people at 150,000, 125,000, I don't know. But I added it uh into the budget because if they go this year, it might we might have to pay them out next June, but it would be in this fis coming fiscal year. So, it's better I I thought it's better just to have it in there. What was uh 1.5 million that we added to that's that's coming from our budget that has to come out of our budget that's okay just not from the state but that's Yep. I added it to the expense side. So um Miss Shannon would you please go down to page four or we'll just keep going and I'll show you where I made the adjustments here. This page right here. So um at last time I had the third line down special education

084that line read 25 million plus I upped it uh according to the current MDE revenue projection to 28 million178705 and um I increased down below in the restricted reser reserved the ALC that's two four six lines down. It's alt learning center uh to 1,248167 and that is the only those are the only two changes I made there. That's on the revenue side. And then um on the expense side, as I told you, I increased the benefits to 1.5 million. So uh Shannon, if you'd keep going. So here's the new with the new adjustments that we made. The bottom line is the same. The general fund to the good of the 248882 is still the same. I increased the revenue but I also matched the expenses to it. But nothing else has changed with food service,

085community service, our debt trust service, internal service or student activities all remain the same. Okay. And then I also, if you keep going please, I updated these documents, the beautiful pie charts. They're so pretty. And I increased I updated those. And then if you go down, those are all funds. And now this is Oops. Back one. That one right there. Uh this is fund one our general fund revenues and expenses and one more there's one more here and then I um in I updated these the the next two the revenue and expense so you can see um the other charts and those changes were made reflective of the the changes that you just discussed that is correct and I also before I came to the meeting today um around 3:00 I checked the MDE whatif

086revenue projection model and the numbers still hold to what we have here. There have been no changes and for our public just a reminder that this is the the third reading of it. So we've gone through this uh several times. So if we're going through a little quicker it's that we we've already spent u quite a bit of time in conversation on it just just for the public to know. And that's all I have to present tonight. So the so the next steps will be to u have presentation at the school board meeting uh and they will request a passing of the budget. Yes. Can I ask a question? Uh, me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me member lalt I was going to do and call you

087chair lalt I think I I think I heard um a reference to comped in the early um thing but I also know when I listened to MDE there was you know there's always there there was a big presence of that topic at the legislative session so the last that I heard was hold harmless and I remember in our previous conversations you have said that what they were previously offering specifically to Duth public schools was a little bit more of a bump than maybe you thought and then but you also were very cautious that there is if if it goes one way or the other. So did we end up coming up a little bit better or are we holdless were the same as other previous sessions? Um I increased it with our our first reading

088to what uh MD has. I that's when I called MD and I said should we use this year's number or should I go with what's on the what if reject uh revenue projection model and they recommended we go with what is on the whatif model. So it is the most updated number. If we can hold harmless to that to the following year that'd be fantastic. Um you know I think a lot of the budget changes that are coming sound like they're in 27 28 29. They're giving districts to time to plan for it. And the special ed transportation, I believe I said this once already, is a uh it is a reduction of 5%. And we receive roughly 2.6 million a year in special education transportation. So it' be about 5% of that that would

089be reduced. And that's all reflecting what year would that will happen next year already. and we do a lot of transportation for special education. Member Williams, um I just need you to refresh my memory and maybe this is helpful for the public as well. Um can you explain fund 20 the internal service? What is that? Sure. So that is our dental Oh, that's right. Insurance. Yes. We're self-insured, so we make the claim payments there. Yeah. And since you didn't ask, but that trust 08, that is a a fund that this district has um we keep money set aside for any um insurance payments that are unplanned for. So, it's basically a savings account, but that fund was established many years ago here in this district. Member Banks. Thank you. Just uh clarification, please. Uh related

090to special education. Um that's a um a very large line item and comped. So could you explain to us again uh comped uses or possible uses for comped? Comped is our compensatory aid and it is based off of our um free and reduced applications and as you know most of the applications are now done through direct certification. I've been talking about that and I think uh we had Sheila Oak here our food and nutrition coordinator came and um we it's been actually very beneficial for us to do more of a direct certification but there was talk about the state wanting to go to paper back to paper applications which would have cost the district or the state hundreds of millions of dollars to go back. um they're more accurate now and it has been quite

091beneficial for us and we've been seeing that in our uptick uh with our compensatory aid and that mean that um money is to be used for remedial education math English um we keep so we have a document that shows how much money each site has earned and we keep 100% of those funds at each site so they stay there And traditionally what you do is you code teachers, you code staff to it and it'll help offset the general fund because it's a restricted fund. Okay. And um you wanted me to talk about special education. if you could uh just um I just need to know um how drastic this is going to be for the district because it's such a large line item and and how we as a district are going to be able

092to pay for this. So that is our revenue that's coming in at 28 million. Um there is a potential for the district to hit $31 million in expenditures and so we get six they pay for 60% of a special ed student the district has to pay for the other 40%. So it impacts general education and this we are we are over budget every year. We do our best but we don't but we don't set our budget over to accommodate for that. You set your budget to your revenue and what your costs will be for salaries, wages, benefits, uh your purchase, services, supplies, and the overage comes out when you finish your audit. And at that time, we use our restricted funds to offset any overages. And then whatever is left over that still needs to

093be paid, that's when we pull it from the general fund. That's where and that's we've been um with special education has been between three and five million and it's been increasing every year. I think when I got here in 21 it was 1 and a.5 million and last year it was close to about 4 and a.5 million. Yeah. over the revenue that we receive in aid. [Music] Right. Sorry, just dealing with uh dying batteries on our our recording, but it sounds like we're I mean, I think this is a backup now, so we would be fine if it if it does die. I apologize. Um, but one thing I was in a uh a regional superintendent's meeting and we're talking about comped. We're getting an update from MASA on uh current legislation. And uh one

094thing that was brought up that I think we have to be grateful for Comped. Uh a lot of states don't have comped. A lot of states only have title, but the state of Minnesota is even though even though we are uh sometimes in a tight place with with comped, it's something that a lot of states don't don't have and don't recognize. So that's important. And then also I was in a conversation with some board members uh um earlier this week, yesterday I believe it was, and we were talking about um the reduction targets and special education I and I want to inform the board. Uh special education is having a challenging time hitting their targets. They are they are scheduled to meet their targets or come close to it based on on current reduction. But

095the problem is is that we always have new uh IEPs and new identification. We're trying to make sure we reduce over identification, but quite often the needs of our students are are growing. And so there's there's uh continued identification from from u from uh special education. So if we don't meet that goal and reduction of our our special education costs, then we have to find other areas for reduction as well. So that plays into our our budget picture. Other [Music] questions or member Laughler Kemp can you explain a little bit more about the changes uh with special ed and transportation and the financial impact ju just with the transportation piece? I know you've touched on it but a little bit more clearer. So last this current year we received close to 2.6 6 million in

096special education transportation aid. We're the prop they've approved f a 5% decrease. So five times to a little over $100,000 will be reduced. We do have a lot of special education transport um every year and um I have to do a report every August. It's pretty intensive. um our transportation manager provides me but with all the miles and by finance group and we report that to MDE and then we also report for just transportation all of our costs. So, all of our wages, our um third party contracts, everything. And we take those numbers with how many miles we drove, how many vans and buses we have, how much we spent on special education and we do a calculation and we we send that report to MDE and that is the information that is how they

097calculate our aid uh for for transportation. So, um, it it clearly won't cover all of it and we are anticipating a 5% decrease. So, it will have to come out of the general fund. So, can you give kind of a rough number? Um, yes. So, I'm thinking um roughly $130,000 less this coming year in special ed education transportation revenue. So, can you clarify that when you say it cost us 2.6 million that that that is what we have spent that that's what they give us back in aid. Do we do we already spend more than that in our transportation? I'm I'm going to look that up for you right now. You know, so if we have to reduce by 100,000, but we actually only our our transportation costs have been larger than 2.6 million. They

098just give us back that much aid. Let me run I'm running that number for you right now. Sorry this takes few minutes. Do we have other questions while she's calculating? Not a question, just a a comment on our earlier presentation um by Adele, you know, for our uh enrollment campaign and just um given the amount of cuts that we see happening here, how important that is. Um so and I I would point out too that was a uh strong recommendation of the DUTH Federation of Teachers uh during our budget meetings that we had where they were generating ideas on how we could uh balance our budget. Uh one of the things that they had suggested was a an enrollment campaign. It was something we had thought about before, but that was something that we did.

099And so I know sometimes people wonder, you know, did we really listen? Did we take things into account? But that would be a clear example of where we heard people and they said, "Hey, you should consider an enrollment campaign, we explored it and did it." And just so we're we're all on the same page. And when we talk about um having students that open enroll out of our district, the Duth Public Schools, because we've looked at this previously, does not have more students than other districts. We're about on average for students that open and roll out to our district, out of our districts, and students that come into our district. So we are not an outlier. Yeah. And actually, I would say for and if I could go even a little be a little more

100bold, uh the if you look at similar size districts, similar uh demographic districts, we actually retain more students than other demographically similar districts to us. So, so even though we lose students to sometimes the periphery districts, we do a better job of keeping our students than the average district like Duth. And we have programs that attract um students from other districts to to ours like our Spanish immersion. Um and I think it's you know you guys probably remember at least in our HR business and I came across the board that we increased our ADM um we made our ADM adjustment by was it 32? Yes. Or so. Yes. 32. Yep. And we consider continue to consider other things like pot if when we are able to improve what we can do with transportation. Maybe consider

101running some buses from some of our neighboring districts to go to some of our schools like our Spanish immersion schools. That would offer opportunity to our Proctor uh and Hermantown and and Renrol districts to to come come see us for a little while. Do you have more information? Okay, I do. I'm ready. So, so far this year we have spent um 2.1 million in special education transportation. That's what we just have coded so far. Our aid was supposed to be 2.2 million. So, we're going to hit that. And we have not finished out the month and all the numbers. It's June. We're going to be doing a lot of audit work here. So, um the expenses will be increased significantly. The year before we spent 2 million five on special education revenue or excuse me

102expenses. [Music] Thank you. Member Mike, thank you for all your hard work. Again, there's so many checks and balances. There's so much auditing that goes into all of this um financing and um I'm glad that you and your team are on top of it all. Um I wanted to speak a little bit more to some of our reductions that we have um you know that we have are considering as we pass this um budget next week. And I just want to say that um I echo statements by many of us around this table over this last year that reducing the budget is hard. It's heart-wrenching work especially when we see and hear about the direct impacts on our students and staff. I understand our goal is to choose the least worst options and I understand

103the goal is to keep cuts as far away as possible from the classroom. I also understand that schoolboard members in Minnesota have three key responsibilities. Set policies to guide the work of the district, hire a superintendent to help implement a vision and mission for the school district and set a budget that lines up with that mission. And as I have shared at past regular board meetings, at committee of the whole meetings, small groupoup budget meetings, and at one-on-one meetings, I feel strongly that the middle school music lessons teachers should remain at their current levels. This is not to say that I don't value other programs that are being reduced. Each one has tremendous merit and brings positive change to our district, but when I look at the number of students who are impacted by our

104abandoned orchestra classes, I see current and future long-term value in maintaining them as they are. for the current education of the students in those classes as well as for an investment for our future enrollment of students who have multiple school options to choose from. According to a music class report I received from administration last semester, there were 369 class spots in our high school's band and orchestra sections. If my math is correct, around 20% of E students and 10% of our Denfell students participated in band and orchestra at the high school level in the spring of 2025. That's not to mention the additional 211 choir classroom spots across East and Denfold last spring. I'm talking about high school numbers because we have heard over and over again from our students, their parents, and even their

105grandparents that without the strong start these students had a middle school they may not have continued on their musical education in high school. Not only do these students learn a fine arts curriculum in their classroom, they also bring community into our schools with their performances. They act as ambassadors for DUTH public schools at community performances across our city. Our school board and our district leadership strive to increase the profile of ISD79. And these well-prepared students in these classes do this for us. I believe a whole arena full of graduation attendees recognize this when our orchestra and choir students kept us entertained during the near hourlong delay at East High School's graduation last week. As we strive to maintain and increase our district enrollment in order to increase our state and federal funding, I believe the

106continued investment in our middle school music programs is a vital tool that brings students and families to our schools and keeps them here. And the students involved come from all walks of life. Some are high-f flyers. Some have overcome many struggles. We heard from so many students at our listening sessions and via email that music classes are what kept them coming back to school every day. I appreciate this opportunity to share my perspective and I would uh encourage us to revisit this reduction in this area now or in the future. Thank you member Lo. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that and you know for raising this important discussion about our budget and that potential of bringing back a.5 music lesson teachers at our middle schools. I certainly know that we have talked about this at

107the board table and we know sort of that we've still are concerned about it want what's best for all and I understand and appreciate the passion for music education. I share that and I share a commitment to providing the best possible opportunities for all of our students. However, I do find myself in opposition to making the specific change to the proposed budget at this juncture and I want to share my reasons with you for transparency and sincerity. First, I believe that the request falls outside the established parameters of our schoolboard governance. We entrusted our superintendent and the experienced leadership team with the extremely challenging task of identifying 7.2 million dollars in reductions. with their vast experience in school finance and deep understanding of our district's needs and the future potential financial constraints we have. This

108budget proposal does include difficult decisions with it and it represents our team's comprehensive recommendation that brought to us. So overriding a specific smaller reduction like this at this stage I feel risks undermining the process we collectively established and the authority we delegated. And I see it as almost like a a domino effect. We pick out like a little jingga uh game where we pull out something to replace it and then we start asking other questions about those cuts. Secondly, I'm concerned about the precedence and equity of selecting and readding one specific position. This budget, unfortunately, necessitated difficult cuts across many vital areas. We've had to make reductions to our media specialists, our dedicated check and connect tutors who support student well-being, our journalism classes, areas in special education along with others. While every reduction is

109painful, singling out a 0.5 music lesson teacher to restore after all of these other essential areas have also faced cuts feels inconsistent with the broader sacrifices we've had to make as a district. Thirdly, from a procedural standpoint, I believe it's simply too late in the process to effectively re-engineer the budget in this manner. We have had a long time. We've talked about this budget since last summer. Even though this is only our third somewhat formal um meeting with it and we have engaged with reductions. We've asked questions. We we've offered alternatives. So making a significant alteration like this now after so much work has gone into balancing these difficult decisions could destabilize the entire budget and potentially delay its finalization which is crucial for our district's operating um moving forward. And I just also want

110to share that at this point in the we have dismissed our teachers. They're on vacation and they've made adjustments. I've talked to some of our um music teachers that have figured out what a 0.5 reduction is going to look like and they are moving forward in a positive fashion to make it work for all students. Finally, I deeply value music education and I know that all of us do. Some of the narrative I've heard supporting this specific restoration doesn't seem to be entirely grounded in current facts. We we sometimes have have heard statements from our students, our families, um that fine arts always gets the cuts or our music has taken significant cuts over all of these years. And I feel like after my years in the district that those aren't always based on fact

111and data. It's more of a like a narrative. And I I see us growing in some of our our arts areas and including our music. We've we've added electives at the high schools for certain types of music instruction, whether that's hip-hop, whether that is guitar. And so we've we are growing and expanding some of our um opportunities for kids. Our art programs are growing in the middle school and high schools as well. So we must ensure that our decisions are based on, you know, information that we have. And I recognize that these are incredibly tough decisions and none of us want to see any programs impacted. But my commitment is to support a fiscally responsible budget that addresses the district's overall needs in a holistic and equitable manner, respecting the process we put in place

112at the beginning and the expertise that we relied on. So I thank you as well to listening to my perspective. Member Banks. Thank you. And I have something I'm going to hand out to you all after I read this. Um, dear colleagues, I don't take any of this lightly. I write or say to you this day that it is of the utmost importance that we continue with the recommendations presented to us by our executive leadership team. As these recommendations are in my opinion in the best interests of all of our students, we have a budget and we have budget constraints. Budget constraints are in fact a necessary part of the work we do in providing the the highest quality of education for every student every day. Due to our budget constraints, we are obligated to

113do the best we can under the circumstances we are going through as a district. By the way, we are not alone in these financial challenges. School districts all over Minnesota and the nation as a whole are facing some of the same challenges that we are experiencing. Some time ago, we as a body gave the charge to our executive or senior leadership team to present to us the best possible budget moving forward. They have done just that. In my opinion, this budget will maintain and sustain core educational programs coupled with the highest quality of education for all students enrolled in ISD79 schools. Even in these uncertain and uncomfortable times in public education in America, our budget does exactly what it is intended to do. Provide a highquality education for all of our students. Our students are

114the consumers we are obligated to. As a steward of taxpayers funds, it is important that we use due diligence in everything we do, especially in the area of a reasonable budget. This, in my opinion, is a reasonable and well-crafted budget. A budget which provides for a high quality education for all. That is in fact what we want. That is why we are here. In these days and times, we no longer have the resources or luxury to do everything as a district. It will take more and more partners to step up. We just can't do this alone. In conclusion, I support the budget as presented to us by our senior executive leadership team as they did exactly what we requested they do for our students and the district as a whole. Thank you. Chair Durker. Um

115I want to start out by firstly thanking the administrative team for the work that they've done on this budget. It is um it's gone very well and I'm very proud of the work that you all have done and presented for us. Secondly, I want to thank each individual member of this school board um personally to think about all the times that we've had conversations about um where our where we center our decision-m process. And sitting on this board, I can say for sure that every member who's going to vote um for this budget next week values kids. And this budget puts forward a budget that values children. as we've walked through this process um together as a school board and an ex and as a district administrative team talking about the cuts to the middle

116school um music lesson the district has um talked about ways that they want to supplement and that includes making sure that we are in in the engagement of outside partners and I want um my colleagues on this board to know that I'm going to be standing there with you to make sure that we hold our district leadership accountable and that they are going to go out and make sure that we can get those outside um partnerships to support our middle school model. Um and I think member banks had reiterated that too. It's time for our community to come in and help us support our students as we walk through these budget reductions. And I also want to know or I also want to express that when we come into a time of abundance again and

117I'm an optimist. I always think that the glass is half full. So when we come back into abundance, I will be right there with you making sure that we go back and support our middle school model um for music in the way that we have previously. And so I just want you to know that I will be in partnership with all of you as we move forward through this budget and we've had to make these very difficult decisions. So I want to thank you for your time and your thoughtfulness and um lift you all up um cuz this is hard. So, thank you for your work. I appreciate all of you. Member Williams. Um, thank you. So, I didn't prepare anything written as eloquently as uh my other three colleagues, four colleagues had. Um, I

118do think it is important when we are discussing this issue, the language we use is is really important. We're not talking about um bringing music back. And I've heard that said a lot. It's um retaining the lessons and retaining our music program um to where it has where it is currently. Um, so I I really want I guess the public to know that we are not bringing something back or adding something in that wasn't there before. We are retain we are asking sorry uh to to retain what was there. Um I I want to echo what um member Mikeel said um and there was a lot there. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you everybody for sharing what you shared. it's um important that we kind of understand each other and and have these

119um discussions. Uh but um I am also reminded of of Superintendent Maggus um telling us repeatedly, you know, how we can do the least worst harm. And and I think um this this is kind of it. like we know that um the budget cuts that we are looking at um yeah they are great and and devastating um across the board and I know that none of us none of the seven of us want to make any cuts. Obviously we want to do the best for um each of our kids. Um, and I I think about the number of kids impacted and um um like member Mike Cell said, getting getting to our kids in middle school um with these lessons um greatly impacts if they are going to continue with music in um high school

120and beyond. And um and it brings people into our schools and shows them what we're doing. And and again, I mean, I know member Mikeell said it. I it was in the paper, but it was such a lifesaver for the East Music Department to step in and fill in the awkward silence of of almost an hour of um sitting there when the technology, which was not our technology. I also want the public to know that as well. When the technology wasn't working, um it was really great to have um the music in there to fill in the fill in the void and fill in the silence until we could get things up and running again. And I just imagine um um an orchestra that didn't know how to play their instruments trying to step in

121and and do that same thing. Um it would not have been as pleasant to hear. Um so um I also respectfully disagree that I I don't believe we would be working outside of governance. I I mean that would be saying you have to do this even though we voted a different way. And so, um, hearing the suggestion, hearing the suggestion and and knowing that we still have options of saying, is there a way to adopt a revision in the budget that's not going outside of governance that's continuing a conversation? And so, I just I want to say that I I don't I I think the language we use is important. So, um I I don't think that that's us going outside of governance. Um um maybe I will Leave it at that. Member Saddowski. Um,

122first I just want to say thank you to Simone and the finance team and um our other directors um Superintendent Magus for the work that you've done on the budget and the communications um the really great communication that you've had uh with us on it with all the readings and our small group meetings. Um that's been very helpful. Um, I also don't have a written out statement. Um, but I have a few thoughts that I wanted to share. Um, I think, uh, you know, I don't want to go back and forth, but and I'm really appreciative that we've added like hip-hop classes and guitar, but respectfully, um, when you're when you're and I'm just basing this on the professionals, um, music professionals in our community, when they share what it takes to get 10 different,

123you know, it's basically 10 different classes in one in orchestra and band. Each instrument is its own class. Um, and I feel like, um, the cuts to music, it's it almost seems like we're cutting a math class or, um, you know, a class that's taught by one teacher, same subject. This is very, very different. Um, I also don't think that the historical cuts to music, there there is data. We used to teach um we used to start our students on instruments in fifth grade and now when we have had the lessons integrated into our orchestra and in our band that was that was because we made those cuts and here we are um maybe making cuts again. Um and so that's not hearsay that actually happened. Teachers have shared that. Um, I'm also concerned about

124the fi long-term financial impact that these cuts will have on our district. I know that there's a lot of families that come to our district for music. Um, and so when I do the costbenefit analysis of this small cut and all of the students coming to our district, um, we may not see the impact over the next year or two, but I really feel like it's going to be shortsighted and we are going to see, um, cuts happen over time. Um, let's see. I'm looking at my notes here. I I would have I think in the process just uh I know it's been really hard like we can't ask teachers for you know their input and things like that but there are music professionals in the community we could seek um and I really truly

125hope that we can um when for the conversation around partnerships and community I'm really hopeful for that and I I would really want to see a lot of effort put into that. I don't think that I'm not going to hold my breath for next year. That that sort those sort of relationships while really great idea and I hope that they come to fruition, they take a while to develop. Um so I think there's going to be some impact there. I'm also worried about the equity for lessons. You know, I work with a lot of youth who are marginalized and don't have a lot of resources and the only opportunity they have to get music lessons is in our schools. Um but I mean all of that being said I I am going to support the

126budget when we look at the cuts that we're facing um right now and we look at um you know as other members mentioned uh other programs that also got cut. Um I just can't it it it's going to be a really hard vote for me but I am going to support the budget um because of those other cuts. I think it'll open up a can of worms and I I do appreciate the work that was done on the budget. Um I would really like to see this as a number one priority to reinstate when we have the funds. Um and I'll just I'll just leave it at that. But that's very difficult. Thank you. Member Laughler Kemp. Uh thank you. Um, appreciate again all the conversations that we've had over the last few months. Uh,

127appreciate the written perspectives. Uh, some of you did. Uh, I did not do something in writing. Uh, but I do um want to continue uh to advocate for for our music and uh for all the reasons that have already been talked about by member Williams, by member Sudowski, as well as member Mikeell. uh advancing equity. Um uh the number of students that participate, the knowledge we do have that kids leave music uh often in sixth and seventh grade when they're not feeling successful and those individual music lessons um uh teachers make a difference. And I could go on and on. Um we haven't just brought this up. Um, we have been, some of us have been advocating for music since we heard it was a cut and we've been bringing and raising concerns and having

128discussions. So, it's not something we we just are willy-nilly about. We've been very thoughtful in bringing it forward once we heard this was a potential cut. Uh, and you know, we have heard from parents and students across the district on the importance of music in our budget. Uh so I guess you know I just I just asked can we still pass a balanced budget right now and retain the small amount uh to retain the the music for lessons? Can we still pass a balanced budget and still retain that? I I mean I think that I think that's what we'll need to consider as far as what that would look like. At this point, it's not the administrative recommendation that we make this change, but what would it look like from a financial standpoint if we

129were to um have board action to move in that direction? Well, if you see um the general fund updes by 248,000. So, by bringing back I believe it was 1.6 FTE. So we would it would be roughly 160,000. So we would reduce that 2488 uh by 160,000. So that'd be what 40 about 88,000 we'd have um of revenue over expenses. The reason we do have a little and I'm just going to say this, it we do have a little buffer right now because we don't know yet what our fall will look like. um are we're going to get a lot of enrollment between now and August. We may have classes what we call bubble classes and we may have um we may need to have room our assistant superintendent in the TLE office. They may

130need to call and say we're getting an influx of kindergarten, first grade, second grade. We know it might be happening at Lincoln Park. Um, so having that additional uh dollar amount there does give the district some room to bring on extra FTE if we do have um additional classes. So in answer to your question, I will do whatever is at the will of the board. Um it would just reduce that that cushion we have sitting there and um it has been asked before if we can bring from other funds. We cannot. That's illegal MDE. So, we can't uh we can't I can't move money from fund four to fund one. That's not allowed. So, it' all have to stay in the general fund. And uh what we would do is just um I' I'd bring

131back that those dollars in the general fund and if needed we would have to um just let it go into the negative if we do have to bring in extra FTE for extra classes or our bubble classes that happen. It can happen up to two to three times in a school year. So, if it happens, we'll just um you know, it would have to go into the negative and then through our audit work, we would do our best to help balance it. So, and I will anything's possible. Um you know, we we haven't made a formal recom um resolution yet. Uh nothing's been formal other than um you know, we've presented the budget um but no actions been taken. So, Member Lul, I distinctly remember um in the last couple years when we've we've had

132enough leftover like we haven't gone down to 88,000 or we've kept it at 268 or whatever we've had. and the and the relief and and almost the giddiness of principles and teachers that have come before our our leadership and asked for an extra teacher because now we've got that little bit of need. And I also remember years where it absolutely could not happen and you were going to have a class of kindergarteners at 32 or you weren't you were going to have that four or five split because there was not enough left over. So, I I very much um caution um going deeper into only having um enough and or or risking going um not having a balanced bud budget. I don't think that looks good for our community or for our taxpayers. I think

133we we we don't know about the financial future. So, as much as we can stay um with a a um or is that what it is? 248 type of cushion and then the ability to um continue to advocate for enrollment. And just another point um and again I I don't want to go line by line. I appreciate I I think this is probably our first um big t topic that we've had disagreement on and I certainly appreciate everyone's point of view and I I feel like I need to share mine as well and I get nervous so I printed my ideas or my comments. I've said it before as well, but um I do know that in a matter of two months, Denfeld High School got an $8,000 grant for this year to use for

134um vocal lessons and they got it from the arts uh Minnesota arts department. So I I do think even though it puts more pressure on our teachers, but I think they are willing to write grants to to have a a little additional money to do lessons if that helps at all. They they did get that grant and they've used it and it's been really really wonderful for that program. Member Williams. Yeah. So um thank you. Um I guess to go back to um member Laughafler Kemp's question um if we did um we can only take from the general fund um and that would reduce but not eliminate our cushion. So we would still have a cushion left for the hypothetical bubble classes. Well, if we take the excuse me the line one there all the

135way across. So see we have to the good of 2400 248,882. I would just reduce that by 160. So that means there's still something left. There would still be about 88,000. Yes. Just making sure my math is math there. There's there's still a little bit of cushion. Yes, there is. But less than one teacher 100,000. Yeah. So I think in some ways we are uh looking for direction from the board but I think we'll have to just u see where things go at the regular board meeting and uh just want to say that this these um conversations are are very challenging for all of us. I I do not relish making any of these cuts whatsoever. Um they've been very hard. It was a long process that we spent many months on many many different

136meetings. Uh a lot of the recommendations came through our our principles and our teaching and learning team. Um, and we also recognize that that these are are um very important to many people and it's it's a hard choice for you as board members and um I know it's difficult. Um, and I appreciate the dedication and passion with which you you uh come to the table here. So, uh, thank you. If there are any other comments or questions. All right. Thank you. From my standpoint, that concludes tonight's committee. the whole agenda and we'll wait till we're live. We're