March 18, 2025 at 6:30 PM - Regular School Board Meeting

001Thank you. I call this meeting, the regular board meeting of the Duth Public Schools to order on Tuesday, March 18th, and we will begin with Clerk Micasell. Um, doing a roll call. Member Banks here. Member Derek Eer here. Member Laughler Kemp here. Member Lald here. Excell member Sidowski here. Member Williams is excused. Superintendent Megas present. Assistant Superintendent Bonds present. Deputy clerk clerk Zunich here. Executive director of HR and operations severance present. Secretary Pette say here correct. Uh student reps uh Taylor and Garner are excused and student rep team Dean. Thank you. Thank you. We will now say our pledge of allegiance. Our flag is located back here. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

002justice for all. Thank you. And now we will move on to the approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Um do we have a second? Second. We have it moved by um member Loalt, seconded by member Saddowski. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no further discussion, um we will now vote. All those in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. I. opposed. We have an approved agenda now. Moving on to school and community recognition. Assistant Superintendent Bonds, I turn it over to you. Thank you and good evening board. Members of the board, tonight I am pleased to recognize Samantha Kapan and Maria Forstano for their exceptional commitment to our students success. Samantha was not able to join us, but Maria is right here. Samantha is a

003mental health professional. Maria is a prayer professional at Denfeld High School. They both went above and beyond their regular duties by organizing events during the February spring break at Ako and Nys. These events provided Denfo students with valuable opportunities to catch up on homework, receive tutoring, and to obtain credit recovery information. Their efforts were a great success. Over a dozen families and students attended these events and they are hosting similar events this spring break. This initiative demonstrates their dedication to supporting our students academic journey and provided them with the resources they need to be successful. Furthermore, Samantha and Maria demonstrated their commitment to our families by meeting families in their spaces over at Ako and NYS. This embodies our commitment to family engagement. Please join me in expressing our sincere appreciation for Samantha and Maria

004for their outstanding contributions and return. Thanks very much. It's a night a very kind recognition and honor. Thank you for that. Um yeah, in addition to what you presented what you explained about the program, another For us, an importance of this of this initiative is to to work with and to take advantage of the partnership that those organizations have offered. Like they're ready. They want to work with us and and as much as us taking the initiative, like they're they welcomed us in. The ideas are are there and they and welcomed us in and they're willing to do it again for the April break. So, we really want to to work with those partnerships and recognize the place of those halves in the place that those organizations and those places have in the lives of

005our students and of our families and really work to build that and um yeah, and take it take advantage of that and be welcome to be part of it. We we're very appreciative to be as Denfeld staff to be welcomed into those spaces by them. So, thanks again for the recognition. We'll keep you posted as more happen. Thank you. [Applause] Take pictures. No, we'll take pictures. Such an amazing job. Thanks. Appreciate it. So do I. Thanks. Thanks. Board always wants to come and say hi. Of course. The board always come. All right. You're welcome. We will now move on to the report of the superintendent. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Magus. Thank you. Um, let me just pull that up a moment. But um I also think it's a this isn't a formal part

006of my report, but I think it's very exciting day today for Duth Public Schools and in particular for Denfeld High School. And I'm sure we'll hear more about that during our our student reports today. But with Denfeld uh playing in the state um state championships u it was just really really impressive game. We uh were we were defeated, but not after some really really great uh work by our Denfeld Hunters. And and I just want to give a shout out to uh Denfeld as a whole, but also to the the boys basketball team for all their hard work and also for our student representative who cheered them on. Yay. So, uh, and since you are coming in and catching your breath, uh, when we start, we we can start with, um, uh, Representative Dean if

007that's okay with you. Okay. All right. Good evening. To preface this, just know that I haven't had a student forum meeting since my last report, so there isn't as much new student feedback, but I still found plenty to talk about. Firstly, I'd like to thank member Sidowski for coming to our last active youth of DUTH meeting. It was led by some of my peers from Marshall, but there were tons of East students there engaging in conversation about climate advocacy. If anyone is interested in coming to our next meeting, I'll share the details with you. In addition to that, there's a student forum meeting coming up next week. I apologize for not getting this information to you sooner, but there are going to be stu two student form meetings on our next pause day, which is

008on Wednesday, March 26th. There'll be one in the late morning and one in the early afternoon. If you are able and interested to listen in on some great student discussion, let me know and I'll get you the specific times. Now, just to share some updates about some exciting things that have been going on at East. Last week was Red and Grey Week, a spirit week that culminates in the crowning of our three top dogs. There were 10 students nominated by the senior class for demonstrating positive qualities and great school spirit. I'm sure that you know one of our winners very well, Mia Petronis. The theme for the week was uh blast to the past, so everything was centered around our childhood memories. The halls were decked out with rainbow light covers and we had great

009turnouts at our movie night, picture recreation station, and other activities. The assemblies were also a huge success. I'd highly recommend checking out the East Stugo Instagram if you have that if you'd like to see some photos. The climate club is working to get schoolwide involvement and support to get composting in our lunchroom. We've taken inspiration from our peers at Marshall and are super excited to continue working to make our school and our district more sustainable. There have been surveys shared to get student feedback and involvement. And I think that people really appreciate being kept up to date about things happening in the school. Next, Amnesty International just finished their Right for Rights campaign and is ready to send out over 100 letters. It's genuinely so inspiring to see this group of my peers engaging with

010with each other to speak up on international issues. I noticed students at East who are constantly seeking out engagement and activism, and it's an incredible thing. Members of our drama club are back in the theater starting rehearsals for our spring play, Lost Girl. Performances are on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of May. The speech team is still in the midst of their season. East students have earned numerous top places along with consistent representation in the final rounds. Boys tennis just had the start of their season along with softball. Baseball, cheer, boys and girls lacrosse and track are practicing as well. There's a track meet this Saturday which is exciting as it's one of the biggest teams at East. With red and grey week behind us, student government is brainstorming new committees for the rest of

011our year. March Madness will be held next week. We will also organize a senior sunrise powderpuff football game and teacher appreciation week. I'm looking forward to Friday when we will all share slideshow presentations with ideas for other projects or activities to take on. This week, administration at East is running an attendance challenge. The three first hour classes with the highest average attendance this week will earn donuts on Friday. I asked some students what they thought of it and there was definitely mixed feedback. One person didn't know it was happening and they shared that and others shared that while they don't think it's super effective, it's definitely starting to get people's attention a little bit more. I think that this sort of positive reinforcement is a great approach and asking for student ideas um or opinions

012on this kind of initiative would really increase engagement. On a different note, I'd like to share that this past week, I shared uh I received from some questions from a student who was still wondering about how the decision to get rid of win and the shift to the 7-hour day happened. Even as someone in a position who should have a strong understanding of how these decisions were made, I realized that I didn't know enough to give a good answer. I reached out to Mr. Flowhog and he pointed me to you. I think that this serves as a reminder of something that I've mentioned in the past, the importance of keeping students in the loop. The students that I speak to are curious and excited about opportunities to engage. And it's important that you try to

013meet them halfway. One method I see to achieve this is to help me stay upto-date and knowledgeable about how decisions are being made. And I will do everything I can to get that back to students. I felt incredibly welcomed by this board and I do believe that you really care about student voice, but simply having me here isn't going to be enough. If there are discussions happening around issues that are really pertinent to students, I want to fully understand what's happening. I did some brainstorming about how I can work with you to reach this goal. And the main things I thought of were participating in feedback sessions to get more student input on policies, providing clearer or more publicized follow-up information about student about issues that we've demonstrated interest in. For example, solar for schools,

014changes to our library next year, and how will how we will feel the effects of the budget cuts. In addition to that, I think we should start discussions about following through with the with the idea of an intercity student council. I talked to some students about the violence prevention policy and they feel like it isn't necessarily authored with a strong understanding of what the environment within the school is really like. People found it odd that we weren't able to access the policy while it was still being discussed and it was pre repeated over and over again that this is exactly the kind of issue that you should be going directly to students to learn more about. I'm more than happy to work with you on that. With that, I've appreciated receiving the district digress, but

015I've heard feedback with that and it's feedback that I understand that the information shared feels either a little bit insubstantial or that it's written in a way that's not meant to be understood. Um, I'm excited to have I sent an email with some questions and I think I'll be hearing back about that soon. So, I'm excited to share that with some students. I'd love to have conversations in the near future about how that sort of communication could be of even more benefit to students. Next, I'd likely I'd like to briefly circle back to two issu two of the issues that E students care the most about. Our library and our dean of students. Decisions about our librarian and our media center are what I've been asked about the most since I've started my role. Students

016are really appreciative of your decision to keep the library space open. And with that, we're still upset about the loss or the possible loss of Mrs. Canettle. As a student who has checked out many books from our library and as a book club co-president, I've personally interacted with Mrs. Canettle any many times and I can't emphasize her impact enough. One day earlier this year when I told my mom that I was going to school early to do work in the library, she was surprised and brought up instances she remembered from my freshman year when I'd complained to her about how no one liked being in the library and that it just was not a nice environment. So, what's changed since then? Mrs. Canettle arrived. She's an invaluable resource, and it makes me sad to imagine

017our school and our library community without her. Next, I hope you'll be mindful of the fact that every single testimony regarding Mr. Clark during the listening session is personal and comes from a unique place of care. I bring this up because I know that the stories shared in listening sessions can often follow similar themes. Um, but I challenge you to continue to remember that any sort of repetition isn't that at all. Every story deserves to be heard and considered on its own and then be strengthened by the fact that it is one of many. The decisions that have been made regarding the library, librarians, and Dina students are not in alignment with the goals that this board has promised to work towards for every student every day. To wrap up, I'd like to share a

018bit about what I've been doing personally within my role. In the past few weeks, I've started a newsletter um with updates about board meetings and summaries of the district digest. For now, each update is added at the top of a public Google doc. I have shared the link with students that come to student forum and I encourage them to share it with anyone else. If you're curious to check it out, which I hope that you are, let me know so I can share the link. In addition, I will do my best to make sure students know about know that they can reach out to me with any questions, things I should share with you, or anything else. I do this using social media, announcements at school, and with QR codes posted around the school that

019lead to a Google form. I've been in contact with a teacher adviser of Real Talk, which is a student discussion group at our dean. I'm hoping to connect with them in the near future and I'm excited to think about how I can help share their voices as well. I'm glad to be here tonight and thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. And we of course would be very interested in seeing the the uh link to the the information. I think that would be very interesting for us. So, thank you. Um and appreciate you coming in and uh getting here. Representative Gardner, if you don't mind uh sharing your report as well. Hi everybody. Um as you know, I'm not normal self. Um been a long day cheering. So um notes on

020that. Uh we went down to the Williams Arena at the U of M and the boys played a very hard, very tough game against Totino Grace. They did they put in their all. Marnerius had 41 points on multiple D1 um prospects on their team. So that's very exciting for Marerius. Um unfortunately we did lose, but you know it's the farthest we've made it since 2004. So I am very proud of them. So along with that we have upcoming events at Denfeld. Um speaking of basketball, we have a student versus staff basketball game, our second one. Um, the grade with the highest Hunter license gets free popcorn. Right now, it's seniors, unfortunately. So, that'll be at the end of March. Um, we're doing our lip dub again this year, which will be finished by early May.

021And then women's history spirit week spirit week put on by student government as well. They're putting on the student versus staff basketball game, too. So then with Denfeld students making history, the boys basketball team obviously earned a ticket to state first time since 2004. Very exciting. And Mariner's became the all-time leading scorer with 1,99 points. So he currently holds the title. So that's very exciting as well. Um I guess my main topic is today. Um, I've heard obviously the news report done by Northern News Now on Denfeld's fire alarms slashvaping issues. Um, the main reason that I focus on this so much today is because it hit me hard when I watched it. Um, and also multiple teachers and multiple students. Um, when I seen that video, being at Denfeld for three years, um, obviously

022being a cheerleader, so I love Denfeld with my whole heart. Um, I felt it was really poorly put together. It was very last minute, as you can tell, that news outlet did not care about, um, putting Denfeld highlights. that same very day we earned our ticket to state and they did not highlight that as they did this um vaping and fire alarms. Um so when I got to school the next day I was outraged. I will say that. Um because I'm just I'm very involved and everybody knows when you go to Denfeld it has a reputation. Um, and that just that news article slash video um added to it. It did not put Denfeld in a good light whatsoever. Um, what what really made me mad was that there was no data to back it

023up. Um, there were actually a couple of lies. So, that that got me too. They didn't they didn't value getting more than one student's perspective on it. Um, that's why I took it upon myself and I emailed Northern News Now and um, I just sent an email um, with my concerns. Um, and they did reach out to me for a follow-up interview, which is nice. But um I do have multiple students hopefully coming with me to talk about that because there were just some very hateful and horrible things said about Denfeld students from the community from this community that should never be said about students whatsoever calling Denfeld's just a case of bad apples and that really hurt my heart. So, I just hope that the next time that something like this is put out

024about Denfeld that one, there's information to back it up and two that if we are going to touch on something that obviously fire alarms happen at Denfeld and the one time that we did like last week had three in one day, it wasn't even all from vaping. So, you could tell that they didn't get their information from a good source. Um, we have never been outside of the building for more than 20 minutes. Um, at the most, five. And we have never, um, had all of our bathroom closed at the same time. So, it just hurt to see all those lies put in there. But, um, with this follow-up interview, I hope to shed what good Denfeld has done and what they don't see behind the scenes. Um, and I hope just to use my

025voice the best I can and uh advocate for the people who can't speak, you know, for them about this. So, I will be talking to them and I will be getting a follow-up interview so that Denfeld can be highlighted in a way that they deserve to be highlighted because our boys basketball team just went to state. So, we we've been doing a lot of good at Denfeld. So, that should be that should be shared. But that's all I have. Thank you so much. Appreciate your report. Appreciate both of your reports. And I think u both of you exemplify why it's important to have student advocacy and student voice. And and again, we're dedicating ourselves to make sure that we continue that. And thinking about uh the work of our assistant superintendent, Mr. Bonds and uh

026director of of secondary larva. I want us to to continue to work together to think about how can we tap into that voice even more strongly as we put together our intracity student council. Whoa. Pardon? My report just shut down accidentally. Let me pull it back up. My apologies. All right. So, uh again, we always start with our our mission, vision, and values. Every student every day will be empowered with learning opportunities for growth, creativity, and curiosity, and preparation for their future in a global community. And our vision is that DUTH public schools provides an academically engaging, safe, and inclusive environment with high expectations and responsible use of resources. Our core values are learning, excellence, equity, collaboration, and belonging. Topics tonight uh include the student reports that we just heard. Uh some additional information on

027budget reduction and realignment. Uh some things about some things that are uh changing within the federal government and possible impact on our schools and actual impact as well as some legislative updates as far as our budget reduction and realignment. Uh we've talked quite a bit about that and um we have a video that that basically outlines some of the um impacts on the budget from a state sense. This this provides um a lot of context for us as we as we have these conversations because I think you know we we heard tonight during our listening session we hear about the the pain that there is uh behind the reductions and the impact it has on programming. And I want to assure the public and the students and the staff and the families that none of

028these reductions are things that we want to do. They're uh basically we we have to uh make reductions partly because of some of the things you'll see in the video here. Um but they're not easy and we we are trying to do our best with the reductions and I'll talk a little bit more about that after we show the video. if the video works. Let me see. I'm going to try casting from a different piece here because it's a great video. You're casting. Okay. All right. Don't mean to build the anticipation about how great this video on on statewide school funding is, but it's it's worth the wait depending on how long the wait is. Yeah. Let me see if I can do it through mine. After headlines across Minnesota declared record school funding in

0292023, you may be asking yourself, why are so many school districts making budget cuts and going to voters for more funding. Here are the top reasons Minnesota schools are struggling to balance budgets. After headlines across Minnesota declared record school funding in 20 After headlines across Minnesota declared record school funding in 2023. You may be asking yourself why are so many school districts making budget cuts and going to voters for more funding. H here are the top reasons Minnesota schools are struggling to balance budgets. Number one, inflation. Families aren't the only ones feeling the impact of rising costs for school districts. The costs of labor, health insurance, property insurance, and school bus transportation continue to rise. The 2023 inflationary increase to the general education formula is a step forward, but it doesn't make up for decades

030of underfunding and failing to keep up with rising inflationary costs. Number two, unfunded and underfunded mandates from the state. When it comes to some of the most costly things schools have to pay for, it's the state legislature, not the local school board, who makes these decisions. From implementing new instructional strategies to increasing curricular requirements, to providing unemployment benefits, there are decisions made at the state level that local districts must follow. While the state may offer one-time funds to help pay for some new requirements, the ongoing costs are often the school district's responsibility. And number three, the changing role of schools in our communities. The needs of students are different than they were 10, 20, or 30 plus years ago. From mental health support for students, specialized learning assistance, family resources, and career programs to help

031meet workforce needs, schools have taken on additional responsibilities to meet the needs of their students and community. When you add rising safety needs, aging buildings and technology, and declining birth rates, it's clear why Minnesota districts struggle to balance their budgets. School funding is complex with the majority of funding coming through the state in the form of general education aid. Schools also receive funds for specific categories that can only be spent on certain items. Additional needs are then covered by property taxes. In other words, just because the state is providing us with more dollars doesn't mean we can use those dollars wherever we like. Each year, we tackle the challenge of balancing these funding sources with our increasing expenses to build an effective budget that meets student needs. When our student needs exceeds state and local

032funding, we may seek additional support through a referendum. As you can see, there's more to the story beyond headlines of schools receiving record funding, inflation, unfunded mandates, and a changing role for schools. Funding schools is an investment in our students, community, and future. Please reach out to your elected officials and share your story so they can help do their part to make sure our students and our schools are receiving the resources they need for success. Visit our website to learn more. So, one of the things that we appreciate about this video is it um it takes the complex and makes it simple. In some ways, it simplifies it quite a bit, but really um it points out some things that we've talked about here for quite a while that the cost of education is just

033outpacing the the funding and that the mandates are having an effect. You also saw within the video they talked about referenda that many times school districts when they get to a point where they realize that their that their state funding and the federal funding just aren't going to meet the needs they go to the public and they ask for a referendum. Uh and we went for two referenda this in the past year. uh we went for the one in the November of 23 and the first question passed and that gave us um about $2.3 million more per year than we would have had and we were able to do things like keep many of the uh MTSS specialists and some of the mental health supports and the reading and math interventionists as well as have

034money for the the high school schedule. Um but the technology referendum question failed. that technology referendum question. As as you might recall, uh a lot of our technology needs we have to take out of the general student fund. So, we're actually taking about $2.5 million per year out of the general student fund that could go towards many of the teaching positions and things that we had to reduce. And we tried to make that clear during our referendum uh the first time and it was very very close. And so we we went to the public again a second time because we knew the state that we were going to be in. We knew that we were going to have to make really hard choices that were going to impact kids. And I'm not trying to make

035any excuses about this. I'm just trying to lay it out there that we went to the public a second time because we knew we were going to have to make reductions that were going to have negative impact on our students. And we didn't want to see that. So, we tried to be brave and bold and go for it again. And uh unfortunately, that effort didn't pay off. It was very very close. Uh but it didn't it didn't result in in what we had hoped. So now we're in a place where we're having to, as I say sometimes, make the least worst choices. Every choice we make related to funding is um going to be impactful. I mean, we heard today about uh a couple of couple of key positions at this at the high school

036level that will be reduced, but we I also know that if we don't reduce in that area, the next choice is to uh reduce elective choices for students and push up our class size, which was one of the primary things we said in our our uh guiding change that we wouldn't do. So, that's an area that that we really are trying to um focus on and make sure that we're not having those reductions. Let me pull my slides back up here a second. Okay, so that's where we put together the that guiding change document and we used that extensively in the over 60 meetings that we had with staff, students, and families. uh and really tried to to first and foremost try to make sure that we weren't reducing classroom positions and increased class size

037that that those were some of the primary drivers that we had. Um, and frankly, it it does frust me frustrate me sometimes when I hear in the public that that we're just mismanaging money or we're not not uh being careful or thoughtful with our with our uh resources because since I've been here uh a couple years before I got here, we had about $3 to $600,000 in our our fund balance. And now we have a healthy fund balance that that it has served as a buffer and it's allowed us to have that stair step down where this year we identified $2.6 million in reductions and we're making the reductions for next year for for 5 million. Other districts had to make those reductions a year earlier and they had to make them really quickly. And

038so the forth forethought of our our board and others gave us some cushion for what we needed to do. Again, when we talk about this, I I think there there is a lot of emotion in the room and there's a lot of uh sentiment and it's certainly these are reductions that I know the board does not want to to to make. Uh the board didn't ask I we when we talked about the reductions we we talked about does the board prefer that we have um a list of possible reductions and the board weighs all the different possible reductions and makes those choices or did they want us to put together a guiding change document and then use that guiding change document to come with a holistic approach to where the reductions were. Uh so that's

039what we've done and so that's where uh we we've come forward with with our our whole list of reductions rather than saying do you want X Y or Z reduced. Um and I I'm assuming that those those things will occur. Uh when it comes down to it though we have changes in the federal government that are are concerning as well. we think about the uh and we're very closely monitoring the federal government changes and the uh possible elimination of the department of education. Um it astounds me that we're in a place where that is even being considered because of the resources that that provides towards our our neediest students. title funding, which is for students who have uh been been in significant poverty and have have uh opportunity gaps that have been historically there. Those

040those programs through title are are hugely impactful and they they impact the students with the greatest need first. We also have our special education funding that comes through the Department of Education. So all of the the the funding that comes from the Department of Education, if that were reduced, and I'm not saying that that will happen, but if it does happen, that would be about $10 million uh per year. So $10 million, if you imagine that we've had $5 million worth of reductions this year, imagine if we were suddenly to have to make another $10 million worth of reductions. That's about 100 positions. And so I think it at risk of of sounding as though this is a partisan issue, I think it's more of a moral issue when it comes to are we funding

041kids? Are we giving are we giving the students the what they need so that they can be successful. And so I I really hope that that uh these changes don't occur in the way that that we've talked about. So in addition to um in addition to thinking about the federal uh changes, we also have been doing a lot of work with um the um state legislative pieces and I've got some updates there. We have multiple bills authored including bills for the uh duth promise uh and for up come coming uh the special education funding anomaly. many many things and I'll talk more about that in a minute but I'm going to try to show one more video think it's gonna work it's going to take you outside so you're pardon that page recast one sec

042so the duth promise we had a press conference just before the week before last and uh as you can see here there's a pretty broad group of people that are working on the duth promise The duth promise is a workforce development program. It's also focused on career pathways and just really robust collaboration. You see in the video here uh you see uh the the head of the chamber of commerce. You see the president of Lake Superior College. You see the chancellor from uh University of Minnesota Duth. You see myself and you see Elena Focher from the uh city. I'd say the other partner that's not represented and is probably off to the side is um Rachel uh Rachel Johnson who is the head of Apex the the u economic development group. All of us are

043working together in a way that hasn't been done before related to these changes. So let me show that video if it works. Hopefully we don't have Interpac ultra flat hydraulic cylinders have a high capacity and are incredibly durable. With an impressive power to height ratio, these powerful single acting cylinders are engineered for use on the most demanding applications where other cylinders will not fit. With a wide range of models to choose from, there's an ultra flat seat ulp cylinder for most low clearance applications up to 100 tons. Buy now at interpac.com. and I'm Laura Lee. Thanks for joining us. Education leaders are always looking for ways to help prepare their students to be ready for jobs in high demand fields. That's why the DUT Chamber and school leaders are partnering with Apex to create a

044program helping boost career readiness. Northern News Now's Ryan Hayes was there for the unveiling of the program. We could be on the national map as a leader in innovation and technology from beginning to end. A promise for a brighter future. DUTH education and business leaders came together Thursday to formally unveil duth promise. It's about ensuring that every duth student regardless of their background has the opportunity to succeed in a high demand field. The goal is to provide students with interest in high demand fields including healthcare and manufacturing with relevant work experience before they even graduate. It's connecting students at the right time with the information and then also making sure that they're having a good experience while they're pursuing that pathway. Early phases of DUTH Promise have already helped young professionals like Noah Abernathy secure

045employment at places like Cirrus and project leaders say more opportunities like this are coming. I was there for like 3 months. I'd go to Cirrus for about 3 hours in the morning and it really got me like into like the motion of like what's life after high school. Two Duth lawmakers Senator Mchuan and Representative Kazlowski authored a pair of bills to help expand the program. Chamber of Commerce President Matt Bombgartner says they need $500,000 to help support Duth Promis' mission and we were so grateful to be met with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate to get this done. Superintendent Maggus says this funding will take DUTH career readiness to a whole new level and fill jobs when industries are struggling to find workers. This legislation would will provide a catalyst so that

046we can advance this work more quickly in Duth. Ryan Hayes, Northern News Now. Ryan, thank you. Program leaders say Duth Promise will also reach students at a younger age and build strategic partnerships between them and employers. Leaders from St. Scholastica, UMD, and Lake Superior College were all on hand to celebrate the program. Hello. And I meant to mention um the uh College of St. Scholastica. Actually, um President McDonald and I were were two of the first people that were talking about it. And I I would be very remiss if I did not mention President Barbara McDonald for that work as well. So, tomorrow I will be uh going down with um u our our lobbyist um Jeff Anderson and actually u member banks will be joining me as well for a series of meetings with

047various uh senators and representatives to share information about the duth promise uh bills that are coming up. and then on um Barbara McD president Barbara McDonald uh from Scholastica uh Charles NY the chancellor from UMD and I will be testifying at the House Workforce Development Labor and Economic Development uh committee on Thursday. So we're we're down there. We're we're trying to rally for more resources. We've heard about the lack of resources and we're trying to do all we can to get them. And then also uh on Monday the 24th uh I'll be uh back in uh St. Paul um representing for the MASA and AMSD day at the capital uh and I do that partly uh for representing DUTH but also in my role as uh the com committee chair elect there for that. So

048those are some of the things that we're trying to focus on uh as we we go through our our work. Uh but I offer time for any questions. My lights on. Uh, member Laughafler Kemp, thank you. Um, thank you. That's a a really excellent video. I think it uh gives a good snapshot of of school funding. Um, many of us board members have had day long trainings on school funding, but that really uh captures it well. Um, I guess I I just wanted to really also just stress that the the lobbying um that's going on. Um cannot just be us. It cannot um Superintendent Maggus is going down. Um we have he mentioned a number of people uh we had board members go down for duth days. Um I I missed that bulleted point. I

049meant to say that. Uh yeah. Uh and uh sorry uh we we uh Jill Loel and I were down on Monday with Minnesota School Board Association. We'll be joining uh Superintendent Magus on uh this coming Monday. Uh and and I guess I just share that you know when we we we met with Senator McHugh and we met with Senator Hotchild. We met with Representative Kasowski. We met with Representative Pete Johnson. We rep uh met with Senator Majority Leader Erin Murphy. and and when we're out there talking to them, we're we're sharing our successes uh but we're also sharing the challenges of the budget cuts and sharing the challenges um of uh you know class sizes and and uh telling those stories. But I just really urge the public um help us out. um contact your

050legislators, let them know that you support our public schools, but let them know um issues that you're concerned about or passionate about. uh we're going to be doing it as board members because that's a key role of what a board member does is advocacy on the behalf of our children and our staff. But we really need the public to also um just like we heard some of the the leaders with the DUTH promise um uh that that uh them speaking about the importance of our public school system for our district and for our region. So, I just really kind of make a plea. Uh um our voices do matter and and our legislators do want to hear from us. Uh and student reps, I encourage you to do that, too. Uh is to speak out

051and share um um um things that are important to you right now with our legislators. It's it's really a critical time and it really does matter and it really does make a difference. So, I I urge the public to help us out. Thank you, student representative Dean. Okay. I have a question about I know a piece of legislation that's being discussed. I believe it's in the Senate right now because I I thought of it because you're talking about all the different things you're testifying on and it's Senate File 1557. And I'm not sure if you've heard about it, but it's the proposed amendment that would lower the voting age for district school district elections to 16. Um, I guess I was just curious if that's something that anyone here has looked at at all because

052I know you guys are pretty involved with legis state legislation. I was just curious if that was one that was on your radars at all. Can you repeat that Senate number again? It was I believe it's Senate file 1557 and I think that it then it's I don't know. Yeah. So, member Dean, can you um one I think one of our one of our um helpers will find that file. I don't know if you're talking about the there there is a house file in the Senate with um like like requiring school boards, school districts to um hold elections for the school board rep. Now, we probably already do that, but there are many many districts across the state. So, is that the bill we're referring to? because there was there's and and and the and

053there's been some push back on it as far as um not every school district needs to do an election and and nor should we mandate necessarily. Is that the file you're talking about? No, that and that that's one that I have followed along with a little bit. I have a lot of friends in the cities who have been testifying on it a ton. But I'm talking about a bill that proposes an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution that would make the voting age for school district election 16 and just I I was only asking about it because I you were talking about all the different state legislation that you've been involved with and I was curious if that one was on your So I'm familiar with it. I'm I haven't done work specifically on this and

054and again I'm always a proponent of finding ways of allowing for student voice. Um and I think I I I would want to know know more about it. Yeah. Before I would say that I support it or don't support it. Partly because super respectfully some some student some individuals between the ages of 16 and 18 are not as involved and as informed as as as you are. I see a lot of so making sure that voters are well informed. Right. I see a lot of both positives and negatives with this. So I wasn't necessarily asking for specific support or not. I was just curious if it was something that had been looked at at all. Thank you. I have my light on again just to clarify. I've located it Senate file 1557. Is there a

055date when it was when it was brought to the floor? That it's not brought to the floor yet. Okay. Yeah. And uh communications officer Wellins emailed it to school board and cabinet. And if you could email it to our student representatives, too, that'd be great. member Laughler camp and and I I I can't remember our student reps when you uh started attending meetings and where we were discussing our legislative agenda. Um but we we have a legislative platform that the school board does vote on each year and and um gather input from all board members and with our lobbyists. um there's many issues we could be lobbying on, but we also have to kind of narrow our focus um to really be effective as well. And so um um if you haven't seen our platform,

056it is on our website. So I encourage you to look at that. Solar in the our schools is something that is on there, by the way, and has been the last few years. Uh and um uh so there there's there are lots of different bills out there that we could look at. We could decide to support or not, but it it's we also need to keep our focus on uh what we as a board supported and agreed on uh with our legislative platform too so we can be effective. Do we have any other comments? I just wanted to quick make a comment about um the pot looking at the federal funding and how that affects public schools. Just for the record, the the money that we receive from the federal government having to do with

057title funding, special education funding, and other types of funding, that's they're obligated to give that funding through law. So regardless of whether or not the department of education is around that funding is given not given we are get that funding because of federal statute. So I'm not advocating I believe strongly in the department of education and what it does but just to be clear the department of education gives that funding out to public schools across the country but we are we are owed that funding because that has been written into law in this country. So, I just want to be clear about that that we have that that is the federal government owes us that money because it's in federal statute. So, we need that title funding. We need that special education funding. We need

058other types of funding and the federal government owes that to us because of federal law that they wrote, they voted on, and they decided to to um give federal dollars that way. So I just want to be clear that that money we are owed that money by the federal government. Do we have any other? Seeing none, let's move on to let's see do we have um look looking at board book. You can see that we have an attachment in our board book that is looking at meetings and events coming up [Music] um this month. And the next big event we have for the DUTH public schools and our school board, woohoo, is going to be um the week of April 7th when we start our monthly committee of the whole and then we will have

059um a close session for our evaluation of our superintendent and then some other um meetings that we have beginning in April. Now that we're done talking about our um schedule of meetings and events, we'll move on to the very exciting reports of our standing committee and we will turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds to give us the lowdown on the committee of the whole meeting. Thank you. Our committee of whole was held on the 4th of March and so uh exciting day because we had uh a number of presentations. Cindy Miller, the library media content specialist, um, and district computer science lead, uh, provided a presentation related to the loop public schools computer science education. And so it was a very wellthoughtout and detailed plan related to um, computer science um, in the district

060for advancing equity. Shalan Moro provided an update related to the attendance campaign that is being um implemented at this point in time to improve attendance across the district and other efforts that she's working on. under improving systems. Our director, executive director of severance as well as our manager for HR, Charlie Cook, provided an update related to the recruitment and retention plan that is being um in draft form and worked on at this point in time to focus on how we attract and retain all employees, but especially uh candidates of color uh and um in other areas as well. and Simone Zunich, our executive director for business services, provided a verbal update related to our ongoing uh budget status in the district. So again, um quite a lot of information presented that day and that uh

061was the agenda for the cow meeting. Thank you, Assistant Superintendent Bonds. And I'll just say on our consent agenda, some things that came forward from the monthly committee of the whole is our diploma requests, any field trip requests, and some data sharing agreements. So that can all be found on our consent agenda. Moving on to give the lowdown. Oh, I'm sorry. Do we have any questions? Member Sidowski, can you I just couldn't see your mic. Sorry. Okay. Just kidding. Now we have um chair Saddowski of our HR business. Okay. Of our HR business services meeting to give us the lowdown on that is member Saddowski. Um I have so many things here right now that I'll try to get the microphone closer. Hold on one minute. So, we met for our HR business services committee

062on Monday, March 10th at 4:30 p.m. Um, and I'm just going to kind of give a brief overview of some of the different reports that we look at at this meeting. Um, and you can find I wanted to say too, you can find our whole um, meeting on our YouTube channel and I would encourage folks to watch it. We go through our whole report um, thoroughly. We ask good questions. Um, our HR business services report is super long, but some of our department reports that we look at are our human resources report. Um, for business services, we look at we have an enrollment report, child nutrition department report, facilities department, technology department, transportation department reports. Um, we have recommended resolutions. This time we have the acceptance of donations to Duth Public Schools. And then on

063our consent agenda, um, we always have our staffing report, our financial report and fundraisers, bids, RFPs and quotes, contracts, change orders and leases. And then oftentimes we'll have miscellaneousformational items like expenditure contracts, no cost contracts, revenue contracts, and grant applications. So, um, this time I'm just going to do, um, kind of a summary of some of the things that I'd like to highlight, but I'm not going to go through every section. Um, but I would encourage everyone to kind of go to our YouTube channel and watch that. Um, first I wanted to highlight um, from our human resources report um, about our job fairs and hiring practices. Um we kind of gave an update on that and all of the different things that we're doing um with job fairs, lots of job fairs and hiring

064thing practices and um there was a question that was asked in light of the current national climate you know um what are some details on the hiring p practices or and process um for those who are at risk. And I just kind of wanted to share um members of the board, you got an email from um Teresa Severance about that, but I just kind of wanted to share as an update for our public too when that when that question was asked at our meeting. So um our hiring practices or our hiring process is designed to be equitable and inclusive, mitigating potential risks for all candidates, especially those who may be disproportionately affected by the current national climate. And this aligns directly with our recruitment and retention plan which emphasizes diversity um inclusivity and a creating

065a welcoming environment for all. And then below that in the email there were some different um examples of this from diverse advertising platforms um our applicant tracking system and standardized process um diverse interview committees and anti um bias training. So things like that. Um and we really appreciate the followup from um HR Director Severance on that. Thank you. Anything to add on that or any questions on that part? Okay. Um the next item that I wanted to highlight was our enrollment report. So, if you look at our enrollment report, um you would notice that, and I know I've talked about this over the last few months, but um this year we had budgeted for 8,000 um 68 students, but if you look at our report right now, we're at 8,083. So, that's still up quite

066a ways through the year, which is really great. Um and you will see later when I go over our finance report, um that we are showing that increase in ADM. So each butts and seats, right? But our ADM um to our budget um and so I I can highlight that. But that is really good news. We've seen um greater retention of students, increased number of students, which is um excellent news. The next thing that I wanted to point out was just really briefly on our child nutrition report. Um, we are, one of the items there is that we're working on health department requirements to bring meals to the ALC students. So, just thanks everyone for the robust conversation at our last schoolboard meeting and thanks to our staff for working on that. Another thing that

067I wanted to highlight would be um our financial report of course um which if you're following along is on page 20 of this packet. So, um, this is kind of an important time of year year because, um, it's about this time of year that we do a revision, a budget revision normally. Um, as you know, we pass our budget in June or adopt our budget in June, but there's a lot of information that we don't have at that point in June. Um, so for example, um, our revised revenue for special education, just a reminder that we look back two years for special education funding or that's how our current funding is determined is that they look back two years. And so we don't really get those numbers until later in the year. Um, and so

068at the top you'll see that that is reflected on our budget revision. Um, $3,759,1084. So that is um part of the budget revision. So you'll see that revenue reflected. Um you'll also see on the second line um a revenue adjustment for the 32 ADM which is um basically 32 * 9,000 each. So that was added to our budget as well um or at least reflected on the budget I should say. Um and then you'll see at the on the third line um we have some revised revenue um which is 361,539. Um this was our TIFF money that we used um uh in part for the DTA bus pass. Um and so we've already had that money, but now you're seeing it reflected on our budget since we're doing this budget revision. And then I also

069wanted to point out near the bottom um in the expense category you will see in red the 2.6 million um we just show this is something that we've been talking about and working on with our cuts. Of course it's still an estimate but it's something we've been working on and now it's you'll see it reflected in our budget here um in the budget revision. Um and of course um the 178,000 or million187,56 this is an estimate. So that is our current year um revised budget expenses. Um that is an estimate because it's always hard to know where we're at with benefits and salaries and just different things like that, but that's a very very very close um estimate. Um, does anyone else have anything to add or does our finance director have anything to add?

070You did a great job. Thank you. Perfect. Any questions on our budget? Member Loel, do you want those now or do you want to wait till We can have questions about the budget now and then we can move on. But I'm not quite ready because I We'll keep going. Okay. We can we can do it later too if you want. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Member Sidowski, can I ask a quick question? Um, we talk about the health of our we talk about the health, the financial health of the district as it has improved over time. I'm just curious, are we going to have some money to be able to slip into our savings account at the end of the year? That's a very good question. Um, I am monitoring our budget carefully and um, with the

071the hopeful 2.6 6 reduction. Um that would give us a little bit of money to do that but that is all ongoing. Um half of it's payroll related so things can change and [Music] um I will try. Thank you. So I can ask that question now too since she gave me a pause. So um and this might go back to our um our CFO CFO Zunich. But so if enrollment is up, is that a is that a reflection that funds for our current year right now or or next year when we are reducing um 5.2 million is enrollment could enrollment make a difference in how we move forward? And and I bet I know the answer because you're shaking your head and you'll respond. And then I guess it behooves me to say something even

072after superintendent's report that we we are in a we we've announced budget cuts and we've heard you know some community feedback as to where they might be but it is still a working document. We're still, you know, moving forward, making um looking at other ways that funds, if the if we get some kind of bucket list of hopes from the legislature, not not counting on that, but enrollment increases, extra retirements, um going back to your HR report, too. There's I saw more an increase in retirement um notices coming through and maybe there'll be more. So, so my my initial question is enrollment it could go into next year's budget if it continues to rise. And just a general comment about the budget still has room for some fluctuation and some reappropriation things. Maybe I I

073would say that if if we do have new funds come into the budget that there are still other needs that we would probably not be focusing on adding back positions, but we have many many other needs too, like uh our 30-year-old textbooks in in social studies, our um projector at East that doesn't function properly anymore. uh things like that that that would probably make uh investment in some of the things that we need right now because it wouldn't necessarily be ongoing funding unless we had if if there's a huge economic turn and we end up with more money and the then the state increases the um per pupil funding significantly or or uh red gives us significant money for um um special ed cross subsidy or something like that then I think we would have

074to have more conversation but I don't think we would be able to add back uh bits. Um we do have a little bit of a sliver of margin, but that margin is intended for um as we see class sizes in certain areas. For instance, we have a huge sixth grade student uh group coming into Lincoln Park next year and we're probably going to have to add some teachers there. or every year at one or two schools you end up thinking that you're going to have 27 students but you have 32 students and you need to split that class in two. So we do have a little sliver of buffer. Um but but there's I I just want to um not give too much false hope that that we will be able to add back lots

075of positions at this point. Fair enough. Fair enough. Good good question. Good response. I I understand that completely. And I'll let Director Zunich um chime in here a little bit, but um about the ADM, I know, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I um we do a really good job of just looking at historical data with enrollment, future projections. I know that we like to budget a little bit conservatively on that because you don't want to be get caught in a position where you thought you had more and then you had less because then you're really in a pickle financially. Um but that's why we do these revisions halfway through the year. And I know that last year I remember we added some ADM on. We had had it less and then added more.

076Do you have anything else to add? Sure. Those are all great responses. And with our ADM, we don't get our final numbers until December for the previous school year. And when we do get those funds, they're when they come through the ideas payments through from MDE, it says FY24 ADM adjustment. So we through the audit process have to put it in the year before and receipt it in that way and uh we call that a receivable. So um we are the through the enrollment center the enrollment team we're seeing some nice um enrollments coming through. We had 36 uh in the last three weeks. So, we're very encouraged by the process and um I I don't see a huge swing coming through, but I see a positive swing. I've listened to other school districts. They're

077showing, you know, two to 300 less um you know, over time over the last 5 years. So, we're holding steady and we have um we came in at 8,221 for the year before. So, we are seeing a nice increase. Um, but when we receive the money, it does technically have to be in the correct fiscal year that the year the money was earned. And to the superintendent's point, yes, if we have a small um surplus, we are going to uh keep those for a bubble class or, you know, if the assistant superintendent says, "I need some Chromebooks." we we need to be able to do that where right now we're really um not a able to do that. And then as far as putting the money in the savings account, I mean that is ideal.

078We want to bring that SOD the statutory operating debt percentage back up. Two years ago was at 14.78. Last year went to 10.71. So our goal is to of course increase that as best as possible. So there's a lot of work. They're still working on some parts of our audit. They're still doing a single audit on title and special education. So we have a lot of work that still is being done. So my intent is always to uh have some surplus left over and to be able to put it into our assigned fund balance. Member Ler. Yeah. And I don't know if this is the right place to ask it or not, but being you're talking I'm going to ask it. Uh um I just um uh I know from talking to other board members

079uh um uh particularly this past Monday and around the state uh and some superintendent too that there is concern um because of the uncertainty at the federal level uh that how it getting some of the funds how quickly and if we still will get them even though by state law, our federal law. Um, but I think there there still is a lot of uncertainty that probably then affects our cash flow, right? Can you speak towards that? Sure. Um, last week, you know, after watching the news, I directed the our staff and finance to go ahead and and get some draws in. And a draw is when we go through Head Start, Title, or even at MDE through the MEGS used to be called serves. and we do them quarterly, but I asked them to do

080it last week and excuse me in special ed as well. Um because I did not know where what was going to happen uh this week. So, normally we get those funds in in 3 to 5 days. It's the last draw on January 31st 31st took three weeks to get our funds in. And we got an email from the head of Head Start yesterday saying that now when we do a draw, we have to provide justification for the draws. Um, usually the document looks like you fill it in by the um the the dates of service that we're asking for uh funds to be reimbursed. We pay for our staff and then we ask for the reimbursement on most of these grants. And um they now have another tab that's always been there but was never

081required to be filled out. And now there's this justification tab needs to be filled out. We have not had to do it yet. So I can uh update you on that. Um also this week I asked for a cash flow from um PMA, our PMA financial advisors. We get one every month, but after last week, I asked for one again with um going forward for the next 18 months with a reduction in salaries and wages and potentially getting in 20% less in cash. And so we have a our cash flows projected out. I can pretty much tell you where we're going to be every day uh for the next 18 months after we pay our bills. We put all of our assumptions in there for payroll, accounts payable, any revenue we're going to get in.

082So cash flow is something we watch very, very carefully. And payroll of course is our always our number one priority. So um if we sense that we're not getting in our cash in a timely fashion, what we simply do is then just hold back our accounts payable. We pay those our bills weekly. you know, if we have to hold something for a week, we will do that to help our cash flow. Was that Was there more to that? I think I got everything. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Thank you. And I, you know, would be remiss if I didn't point out that we would have, you know, significantly less cuts had one of our referendums passed. And some of the things that Superintendent Maggus mentioned, um, you know, our smartboards, Chromebooks that need to be replaced,

083things like that, um, all cut into the cut into our finances and and are a big, um, part of the picture. So, just had to say that. I'm not going to get tired of saying it because this is not a not a great position we want to be in. And uh yeah, but I if there's no other questions about our financial report, I will move on to the rest of my report just really quick. Under contracts, change orders, and leases, um we have a lease for the Arve building. Um really to support DUTH adult education and a few other programs, just some expanded um uh you know, programming space. We also have a contract for the district service uh transportation building um which is bid number 1333 33s. Um um and so that is the

084whole contract. We already voted on that but it's there. Hopefully you could take a look at that. And then um one that was added that wasn't at our HR business services committee was a contract for um solar and that was for Wolf Wolf. Last month we approved 10% $36,72 and that was basically a down payment for um the Wolf Track contract and today we're going to vote on the whole contract which is 361,725 and that's for solar or over here in our transportation building. Um that 361,000 includes that's including the down payment we already made. So um just wanted to point that out. And then near our grant for under our grant applications. Um, one that I wanted to highlight was for Lakewood School for their school forest. Um, they are we're going to vote

085to just give them permission to apply for a grant to kind of help um help them do work on their school forest. You know, some of the bog bridges, things like that. Um, and they're applying for a grant to the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. And what's kind of cool about that is that um Lakewood Foundation um has committed to a $96,000 match for that if they get it. Um and so then they would be able to do a lot of work on that on that school for us. But right now we're we're voting to allow them to apply for the grant and it'll be a long process. It's basically a you know letter of intent to apply and there'll be a couple rounds. So it doesn't mean they have it yet. Um, but

086just kind of wanted to point that one out. Any questions or follow-up comments? Superintendent Magus. Yes, just a follow-up comment on the the solar. Um, just because I I recognize the juxtaposition, it it looks like on the surface of we're making these reductions, but we're spending hundreds of thousands on solar. Pointing that out. Thanks. Um um 50% comes from from the state grant that we received and we also have additional opportunities for reimbursement for uh significant portions of the other 50%. Furthermore, it will reduce our our costs over time for electricity. And so that will uh it's not just out of a a sense of sustainability, but it also saves us money in the future. So potentially saving um positions down the road because we will be spending less on power. So, I just wanted

087to point that out that that we're not frivolously spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a solar project when we're when we're cutting teachers. Much of it is already funded, right? That came out of fund six, um, which is our building bond fund. And that money we are not able to spend on salaries or anything like that. So, thank you for pointing that out. That was on my list of notes and I skimmed over it. So, very good point. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you. Um, next we'll move on to our policy committee meeting to get the lowdown on that from Chair um Laughler. Want to make sure my mic is on. Uh, okay. Great. So, we met uh on Thursday, March 13th. Our policy committee um you might remember last month

088we had 107 pages of policy. This month uh we had less. Uh so this will be a shorter report. Um but um wanted to first mention that we do not have any policies for first reading. Uh policies for second reading on our uh committee agenda was policy 525 violence prevention. And I I am going to read um the purpose of that, but I'm going to preface it by saying uh in the policy committee we um uh discussed that we want it we we're still the policy is still being worked on and so we're going to be bringing it back in April. Uh so we're not it's not on the consent agenda. You won't be voting on it. Um there's it's it's just a a lot of information in that policy. Uh and um we appreciate

089the work that our staff in particular uh Jason Crane are um has been doing on that. Um but just for the record, policy 525 um the purpose of this policy is to recognize um that violence has increased and to identify measures that the school district will take in an attempt to maintain a learning and working environment that is free from violent and disruptive behavior. The school board is committed to uh promoting healthy human relationships and learning environments that are physically and psychologically safe for all members of the school community. It further believes that students are the first priority and they should be protected from physical or emotional harm doing school activities and on school grounds, buses uh or field trips while under school district supervision. uh and um we um discussed that we're going to

090actually um uh take out the first paragraph there and we're going to add what I'm going to read next. Um so that was one thing that I guess I'll share now. Uh and so we're going to add this policy acknowledges that violence is a critical issue for schools to address. the Duth School District will establish uh and implement measures to ensure a safe and disruptive free learning environment for all students. Um and so we're going to use that and then um that second paragraph in the the the current purpose. Um we we agreed that we wanted that to be the purpose. Um, I'm not going to go into all of the other um things that we did talk about for potential changes, but because we'll be doing that more, but there were just kind of

091a number of areas. And I do urge um board members to listen to our policy meeting uh if you can on this because um uh Jason Crane uh director of special I just shared a lot of good background information as well on um this uh pieces of this policy but we'll be bringing it back. We'll be discussing it at our April 15th meeting. Uh the next policy for second reading uh will be on the consent agenda and that's policy 519 interviews of students by outside agencies. And the purpose of this policy uh is there are occasions in which persons other than school district officials and employees find it necessary to speak with the student during the school day. Student safety and disruption of the educational program is of concern to the school district. The purpose

092of this policy is to establish the procedures for access to students by authorized individuals during the school day. And it goes on uh with a number of other sections. But one of the key changes and uh this was brought up in the first reading is um uh there's a number of places that we add um it shall be the responsibility of the principal and or assistant principal. Uh and so you'll see that highlighted um as as the main changes in this policy. Again, this policy had has had a lot of discussion in both um uh February and um uh March's uh meeting. Uh and so that'll be on the consent agenda. Uh and then the last policy is a policy for review um 722 public data request. And the purpose of this policy is the

093school district recognizes its responsibility relative to the collection, maintenance and dissemination of public data as provided in state statutes. And again, it goes through a number of sections. Um this policy is for review because every year this policy comes back uh uh in front of us. Uh we need to review it uh before August 1st of every year. So if you look at the end of this policy, you'll see every year uh when we've reviewed it. Um the other u piece that we spend some time talking about with this policy is just um uh and you'll see it throughout where we ask that um the request for information is done in writing. So the the one change we made is on section five and it um let me see here section five uh a and

094it's says now all requests for the preparation of summary data must be made in writing using the data practices form and directed to the responsible authority. Uh again, it had said written um uh requests made in writing in other areas of this policy already. We just uh added that. And then um the other changes is just um uh having the on the back the data practices contacts and it has um uh the the correct emails um for data request. Uh and then also in your packet you did get the data request form that we use. Um we did note um at the board meeting again that uh we Simone reviewed how um people the process for requesting uh data and then also that it is on our website. It's very clear on our website and

095once we um uh uh vote on this review, it'll be updated with any changes um uh on our website, but um it is it is there. We want to be transparent and um over the years that I've been on the board because this keeps bringing back every year, we've had lots of discussions around it. Uh we're following state statute. Um uh and uh every year again we review it prior to August 1st. So that uh is was our policy meeting um for March. Um does anyone have any questions or uh board members that are on the policy committee? Any additions? Yes. Yeah. who who we forget who calls on us when when I'm not the not sitting somewhere. So just two two questions. One is well they're not questions. So one is that there is

096a a bill addressing data uh requests and data things in the Senate right now I believe and it's about um a a somewhat guideline about if the data request is requested and then not picked up like the person who requested it and something about not being anonymous. I'm following it. Doesn't sound like I know exactly all of it and I probably don't but I I keep aware of it. Um, and so if there's any update on that, we can we can communicate that at our next meeting. The other thing that I I think this is a question for for um, executive secret or um, CFO Zunich is that we used to the board had had requested data reports quarterly every 3 to four months. Um, and it was given to us more in our board

097updates. um than here at a meeting or anything because that's privacy. But I just wondered if we could continue to do that where we were were just given the um number of data requests um the the number of data requests that were um um completed and the ones that are still being worked on. Just it would give us kind of a better understanding of you know what the data presents especially right now it is in the legislature. has been for the last few years because of some incredibly expensive data requests that have come not only to our district but to others. So it just be would would be a nice report if other board members are interested. I know we were doing that and then I think just in the transition out of CO we

098we haven't really revisited that. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from people who are at the policy meeting? Okay. Okay. So, um the next policy meeting is April 15th. Member Banks, did you have a question? Yeah, thank you. Um with regard to interviews of students by outside agencies, can you elaborate a little bit more on that? And what does that mean in regard to um um students talking to the media or uh things like that? Because I don't want our students to get in trouble, but I I want uh an understanding related to freedom of speech. Uh is there any um um is there any relevancy there in this policy? Member Bonds, would you or uh there's no relevancy to um freedom of speech outside, you know, speaking with news organizations and social media

099or any of that. Uh this policy only addresses when there is a public official that needs to speak with the student on school grounds and there are certain parameters and certain guidance that must be followed in order for that to happen. So this only refers to um say for example um someone from the county social worker uh agency or um police department. There are certain parameters that must be followed uh for them to uh speak with students on school grounds and have access to students and so so we follow those procedures but it doesn't impact or impede students from speaking with the media. Okay. Thank you for the clarification and and if you read through it's really specific on um so and it's a it's a short policy. It's two pages. So okay member Michael

100statement was covered by the answers that were provided. Okay. Thank you. I'm done with my report and again our next policy meeting will be on April 15th. Thank you member Laughler Kemp. Um, moving on to general board committee updates. Do we have any general committee board updates we'd like to share? Member Lo, just the update on um the monthly Eek committee that I'm on and we met um maybe Assistant Superintendent Bonds can give me the date, but we we met in the past two weeks and um there was great representation from our community and from especially staff members in our comm in our district. And then um Assistant Superintendent Bonds had um presentations because the month before there had been um questions and just things that we um that we had for things going on

101in our our district and programs that we have and things that are working, things that we're addressing um concerns. And so there was a presentation from Jen Jaros who um I know you can probably share with me early childhood ECF. Where is it? Early childhood. Early childhood. Okay. She presented about a lot of the um programming and a lot of the um wonderful things happening in our ECF that might address things like you know um reading strategies and early reading and early um uh early education for our youngest learners in our community. So, I think the EAC committee appreciated that information. And we also had a presentation from um Terresa Severance, our HR um director on things that we do to continue to um reach out to certain student certain employees that give us a

102a wide diverse uh group of hirees. And it was the same presentation that we were a part of at the cow meeting. And I think that was well received by members of the EF because they have questions um about what is the district doing to address, you know, um getting um um getting employees that represent um our workers and our students. And there was one more presentation and and now that escapes me, Assistant Superintendent Bonds, and I wouldn't pretend to even put you on the on on the memory thing because if I can't remember, it's it was a couple weeks ago, but I know there was one more. And there was actually one more that we we postponed because we had conversation and questions and so the meeting was finished. But you know really a

103good job and I think EAC appreciated that and then that will spur them on for their work and their subcommittees for the EAC. Thank you. Thank you. Member Saddowski. Just a quick um update on our intergovernmental meeting. Last um this last month we had Dr. Marsha Louu um the new human rights and equity officer for the city of Duth join us um just to talk about her role um give us a little bit about her history and and how her role can kind of intersect with um city county and and school district and then um Head Start our meeting last week was um rescheduled for um Thursday. And just a reminder to those of us on intergovernmental, I think we have it tomorrow at 2 o'clock. Member Laughler. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh so a

104couple of the committees that I serve on is uh one again is the DUTH public schools um fund endowment fund that's administered by the DUTH Superior Foundation and we are now in the process. March 1st was the deadline for um staff to write grants. We have 28 grants applications. So that's really good. And uh the committee that's work is reading through those. And so uh in the next um well I have a meeting next Thursday. So we'll be deciding on which grants will be funded and we're hoping we can fund as many of them as we can and then it will come in front of the board uh either in April or May. I believe it is. Uh the other committee uh member LoDold and I serve on is uh uh quality steering committee, the

105labor management committee. And um we do have our meeting coming up next Thursday uh as well from uh 8:30 to 11. Uh so we'll have some updates after that, but just wanted to give a heads up. also assistant superintendent Bonds and uh superintendent Maggus and other staff Jen Larva and and principles um um uh attend that meeting as well and and we get minutes from it. Uh so those were just a couple of mine and I'm now just realizing I'm going to be spending the day in meetings next Thursday. Okay. Uh thank you. Seeing no other um general board community updates, we'll move on to um approving our consent agenda. Do we have a motion to bring the second? We have a motion from member Laughler. Kemp, a second from member Loal. Do we have

106any discussion? Seeing no further discussion, we can take a vote on the consent agenda. This doesn't have to be roll call, does it? All those in favor, please say I. I. opposed. Motion carries. The consent agenda has passed. Next, we have a resolution. Um, and member Laughler Kemp, can you Yes. Uh, so I move uh resolution B3254091. This is the acceptance of donations to Duth Public Schools. Uh whereas Minnesota statute 46503 requires a school district to accept donations by resolution expressed in the terms prescribed by the donor in full. And whereas acceptance of the donation in accordance with the donor's terms is in the best interest of the duth public schools. Therefore be it resolved that the duth public schools does accept the below described donations from said organizations in accordance with the terms set

107herein. Uh be it further resolved that the duth public schools wishes to extend its grateful appreciation to these various individuals and organizations and I won't go through all of them but I will say um Danfeld High School received uh for their track team and debate team um um a number of donations. Um the Head Start program. Lincoln Park Middle School uh received a few. U Myers Wilkins received um uh uh uh uh $3,2628 for sources of strength, which is great. And then um uh Myers Wilkins received another smaller donation. And then the Washington Center Early Childhood Family Education received a donation. So a number of donations. Um, so I move uh resolution the acceptance of the donations resolution B3254091. Do we have a second? Um, moved forward by member Laughler Kemp, seconded by member Saddowski.

108Um, do we have any discussion? Oh, I have a question. Yes. Um, with regard to the Myers Wilkins um, donation, can somebody explain or expand on what sources of strength is on that curriculum? I think if I remember correctly, sources of strength has to do with they have it at East and it has to do with bullying. It is it's one of our curriculum mental health. Mental health mental health support. Correct. Peer support. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I can just say sorry at least at east it's really um sources of strength their symbol is this color wheel and each of the colors on it represents a different source of strength. So I think there's one about positive friendships, one about mentorship. So it's just about like a community building, um, friendship building, positive interactions, and

109it's a really cool club at East. And during our last spirit week on Friday, we had everyone when they came into school got a necklace of beads, and then anytime you saw someone with beads, you could play them in rock, paper, scissors, and if you won, you got their necklace. And then we had the final showdown between the top 10 at our assembly. So, it's just fun, positive interactions like that. Okay. I just needed to hear more information. Thank you. All right. Do you have any other discussion? Seeing no other discussion, um, all those in favor, please say I. Opposed. Uh, the resolution passes. Now, we're going to move on. We have two special resolutions. And the first one has to do with approval of a revised calendar. Um and assistant superintendent Bonds did attach

110a cover letter and essentially when we approved the 2025 2026 district calendar on February 25th, it was discover discovered later that we were short by one day. So they made some movement um a day just moved around on this 2025 2026 district calendar. We changed. So January 2nd is now a professional development day. Students will be out of school. April 6th is now a regular school day for students. Did I get it covered correctly? Assistant. Okay. So, that's that. So, do we have um a motion to approve the revised 2025 2026 school year calendar. So, we're going to say member Saddowski moved. Member Micell seconded. Do we have any discussion? I I do I do just have how how are we going to because I know that draft went or that went out there to

111the public. So, how are we and and we often get questions from families planning ahead. Uh so, how are we going to make sure they're seeing that change? We're going to push out in, you know, various formats. We're going to rely on Adele Wellins um to really push out on social media and through Parent Square and just make sure it's really um highlighted that there's been a modification Thank you, Adele. Member Masel, I apologize. I had the same question. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any further discussion? All right. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. This special resolution is approved. Lastly, moving on to the contract for solar development agreement with Wolf Track Energy that um member Saddowski explained earlier. This is the contract that I think is

112around for 360 and change and member Saddowski and Superintendent um Maggus did a nice job of explaining where the money comes from. So, do we have a motion to move this contract forward? So moved. Member Banks. Do we have a second? Me. Member Laughler Kemp seconds. Um do we have any discussion? Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, motion carries. We approve this contract. Moving on to number 12 in our agenda. Do we have any questions or this is time for some other comments? And usually we're here another hour and a half. So, does somebody want to, I don't know, sing a song? We could do some spontaneous debate or something to We don't We don't want to spoil everybody by getting out of here before 8:30. I I

113think we should end with the the sound. Oh, what is it? What? How did it start out? Mango. Mango. No. Mango. Mango. Mango. Mango. Mango. Mango. Maybe not. Banana. Okay. All right. We're done. Well done. So, we've sucked up some time now. Um, seeing no other spontaneous displays of art, I make a motion that we adjourn. Member L makes a mo. Member Mosel, then member Sidowski thirded it. So, all those in favor, please say I. I opposed.