--------- Sorry. Anyway, >> there we go. Can you hear me? All right. Um, good evening members of the board. Dr. Hy. My name is Neil Chalmer's. I have taught in this district for 30 years, including grades 6 through 12 and including our ALC students. I am here tonight regarding the proposal to move a
valuable a vulnerable population of our students who can be as uh high school age to age 21 into a building that already houses a vulnerable population ages 11 to 13. I'm here to talk about moving the ALC to Southwest. Moving the ALC to Southwest is one of the most
Albertly things ever, and that is to find something that works like Southwest and say, "Hey, that works. Let's change it. To think this won't have substantial negative effects is unrealistic. And I'm sure parents back here and other staff will address safety and logistical concerns and the potential unintended
consequences this proposal would bring. But I want to focus on the gamble that we are taking with our students education both at the ALC and at Southwest. Southwest Middle School is currently something that this district gets right for our students. It's important to know that getting a school right doesn't
always happen and the fact that we get this right is not an accident. Principal Tyler Johnson has transformed Southwest into a school specifically built for middle schoolers to be su to succeed. Mr. Johnson personally connects with students daily and the students really respond to him. Mr. Johnson has also
developed important spaces for students to get the individual help they need. This proposal would undo much of the positive things that Mr. Johnson has done at Southwest. And remember, Mr. Johnson can only give 100%. This proposal asks him to give 200% and he can't do that. for the ALC. We have seen
time and time again how a full-time administrator can help these students not only succeed but excel. Um when Johanna Thomas or Eric Van Brocklin were Eric Van Brocklin were full-time at the ALC, we saw less discipline problems and we saw more students graduating. So let's do that because this proposal
effectively short changes our two most vulnerable populations. Those navigating early adolescence and those fighting for a second chance at their future. Asking one administrator to manage two distinct schools with vastly different needs will dilute the leadership that these schools need and that these school students
deserve. >> Thank you, Neil. >> Thank you, >> Jill Nelson. Good evening members of the board and Dr. Hy. My name is Jill Nelson and I am also a teacher at Southwest Middle School. I am here to add to what Mr. Chmers has said about the value of
leadership and the efforts of Mr. Tyler Johnson has made at Southwest. Tyler Johnson is truly the best administrator I have ever worked for. He is truly kind, does what's best for kids, and cares tremendously for his staff and students. Tonight, I'm here to say that
I think moving the ALC to Southwest is a mistake. Tyler does not deserve to have two jobs given to him. The physical building itself is not set up for this. The area that the ALC would move to is a hightraic area that is used daily by our
social workers, counselors, and special education students. We have created safe spaces for students to self-regulate and a place where students feel safe to discuss personal issues. The space also houses a large conference room and the only dedicated bathrooms for the staff
to utilize. Moving the ALC to Southwest displaces the students and staff who find that area of our school invaluable. I'm a math teacher, so I'm going to leave you with some math facts to ponder tonight. Number one, the transition to middle school is already a time of
uncertainty and fear for families. If this move causes about 12 families to leave the district, the loss our district would incur in state funding would have paid for a dedicated principal just for the ALC. Number two, mathematically, if you take each
administr administrator to student ratio, the Southwest principal would be taking on way more than any other administrator in this district. In closing, leadership matters. Let's not change something that is working so well. This decision requires more
thought and more consideration. Both the students and staff at Southwest and the ALC deserve better than this plan offers. Adding another school to Tyler's plate, which is already full, is not fair for any of us involved. Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you, JILL. >> Casey Walters. Hello, I'm Casey Walters. Uh, I appreciated being uh on the facility task force and having an opportunity to serve as a parent, former schoolboard candidate, and someone who has attended nearly every schoolboard meeting in the
last 5 years. I came in feeling very informed. We reviewed extensive data on the buildings, enrollment trends, staffing, programming, transportation, and finances. It was not a simple decision. It's a very complex puzzle with many moving parts, and I'm grateful
for the stakeholders that took the time to participate, share feedback, and share their perspectives throughout the process. We had six meetings and two public sessions, including a survey, and we worked to evaluate how to best use our facilities while being mindful of
costs and future needs. I'll admit, I initially hoped we would be removing 8th grade from the high school. It has been a very um controversial topic in the last few years. Uh but as I learned more, my perspective evolved. The
reality is enrollment is declining and our costs are rising due to many different factors. Uh we cannot continue to maintain underused space. Personally, I would rather see a building closed than use valuable staff or student programming. Our high school offers the
most available space and the proposed model of sixth and seventh as a grade uh or sixth and seventh grade school within a school is a meaningful improvement over our current setup of 8 through 12. This shift will allow us to reconfigure other buildings, creating an intermediate school for our fifth and
sixth graders and consolidate elementary from four buildings to three. Every pro possible scenario was evaluated, including costs, logistics, student transitions, and long-term sustainability. Now, it's up to the admin and school board to make the best
decision. Change is difficult and it's often emotional, and we cannot get stuck on past decisions. I do not want to see our taxes pay for empty buildings, and I do not want to see student programs be cut. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Casey. Uh, Craig Rosselle.
>> Did I butcher that, Craig? >> No, you got it. That's >> good. Good. >> Uh, my name is Craig Rosselle and I'm a district parent and I'm here to ask that we prioritize our students development and school environment regarding the moving seventh grade. If there is any perception that the task force had
meaningful community engagement, the data does not support it. Today, we were infor informed that the information online is inaccurate. The final sample size survey was 565. Though, this still only represents roughly 3.8% of the community and just 280 parents. Even if
we had the numbers wrong, based on online data, the task force was not asking the right questions. Based on the questions asked, the average family couldn't have known the chase changes we'd be facing. And it is also unclear how accessible these were across demographics in a district with 14%
non-English learners. Once the task force knew what might be coming, perhaps another survey was necessary. Simple questions. If we had to close an elementary school, would you feel comfortable with seventh grade in the high school? Would you feel comfortable with the ALC with fifth and sixth graders? We have spoken to staff members
across many departments. Many have said they were unaware of the survey proposals until seeing our letters to the editor and Facebook posts. Were staff who understood who understand child development consulted? Was their input from uh school social workers and
school psychologists? We understand closing an elementary school is fiscally necessary, but that does not mean abandoning the middle school model. Those are separate choices. We need to prioritize a developmental shield for our middlegrades, prioritizing student
stability above all else, especially logistics and finances. Minimally any seat reconfiguration our district deserves our district community deserves to give meaningful input with any seat reconfiguration as well as a transparent
road map detailing uh plan for grade level separation and any modification costs while ensuring we are putting student needs first. I urge you to choose a model that is scalable, fiscally responsible and most importantly developmentally safe for our
children. Thank you. Thank you, Craig. Katie Roso, this is ready, right? Okay. All right. Uh, my name is Skate Rosel. I'm a district mother and a therapist. First, I want to thank the task force for their time and willingness to tackle district complexities. After only one week of
immersing myself in available data and engaging in conversation, my understanding has grown. What started as a personal concern for my children and my clients has expanded to systemic worry. I've spoken with community members, parents, and school staff, and the message is very clear. They were either unaware or they have not felt
heard. Last year, I watched elementary parents leave the district because they lost trust in their school's ability to provide an environment that would meet their child's social and emotional needs. When that's missing, families leave. We have teachers who do not enroll their own children in our
district. To me, this suggests a crisis of school culture. We need to prioritize the human experience of our staff and students if we expect to retain them. As it appears now, we may be asking fifth, sixth, and seventh graders to share environments with peers which they are
developmentally mismatched for. Playing with seats rather than appropriateness of fit. A district's financial health is sustained by retaining students, not by filling buildings that families are actively trying to avoid due to their environments. In reality, as neighboring
districts start to close their open enrollment around us, our families are becoming locked in. We don't have the options. If our families have little choice other than to stay, it's imperative that we build a district that meets our needs for this entire district as well as anybody who might be
incoming. I'm looking through three lenses. As a social worker evaluating systemic health, as a therapist who hears the direct fears, pressures, and struggles of our students across every background. And as a mother, looking at my own children and asking if I'm
advocating for my children's development and safety or just their attendance. Are we choosing the best model or logistical solution? I leave you with the mission statement which is to ensure individual academic, social and emotional growth. Thank you.
>> Thank you Katie >> and Jody Westerm. My name is Jodie Westerm and I'm speaking of as a parent of one graduate and two students at El Al Elbertly Area Schools. I'm also speaking from the perspective of a teacher at Austin Public Schools. In the 22 years that
I've taught there, I've seen the effects of the many transitions that the buildings there have had with a kindergarten center, first through fourth grade building, 56 intermediate school, 78 middle school, and 912 high school. We saw the issues that arose
from having too many transitions. Each transition requires building processes, reteing, which is especially difficult for ELLL students. A large number of students are new each year, making it hard for staff to really get to know students over a period of time. Parents are not as involved. It's easier for
them to be less involved, and they're more inconvenience with multiple drop offs, making it difficult for larger families. Um, smaller grade levels are less role models for kids. Teachers in isol isolation are less aware of the grade level expectations of the grades
following where they're at. Um large teams of teachers re resulted in unhealthy oneupmanship from um colleagues and favorite teams amongst families. Um failing kids in fifth and sixth grade were not ready for middle
school. Seeing these issues have prompted changes. They closed the kindergarten center. They moved kindergarten back into buildings. The fifth and sixth grade intermediate school has moved back to an elementary model due to the multiple failing kids and behaviors that they experience
there. Please learn from our neighbors mistakes. Um, keep larger bands of grades together. Keep appropriate ages together. Um, research shows that schools with larger grades spans and lower number of students per grade, socioeconomic
disadvantaged students do better in these instances. Um, so I fear we will continue to lose students to online and open enrollment opportunities, especially if we move seventh grade to the high school. >> Thank you, Jody.
>> Okay. Um, just have a couple additions to the agenda before we approve it today. Uh, we are adding 9.15 to the agenda which is the elderly education association 2025 2027 master
agreement. It's an action item and also 9.16 which is a memorandum of understanding with the Albertly Education Association. That's also an action item. I will look for approval of today's
agenda. >> Okay. is second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. Okay. Motion carries 70.
Okay. Mr. Durban. >> Good evening. Thank you, Chair Clatt. School board superintendent Hy uh continuing our practice of recognizing our uh donors uh to district 241. Um as you see on the screen before you, just uh asking for approval of our March
donations. Um and you see a quite a significant uh total here. Um so a lot of appreciation on a a good significant portion of this coming from the education foundation uh here in Albertly. So um just go through
the list. Albertly U Education Foundation, $1,000 to the high school Tiger Pride. Uh $600 to Southwest for student yearbooks. Um the Lake View Heart Challenge, $60, uh going to their spe special project fund. Um Lake View
um Leso, uh $500 donation to the snack cart. And then uh these that say St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, uh I believe are through the education foundation through a trust there at the St. Paul, Minnesota Foundation. Is that correct, Mr. Score with the Ed
Foundation >> to the school? Okay. >> Okay. So, the uh first one there, the large donation of $19,99343 uh to the Tiger Alumni Student Assistance Fund. So, our Tiger Fund and then a $1,565
donation towards band students to attend camp and $1,986 uh to scholarship program at Albertly High School. Uh and then we uh received donations at our concerts. So, thank you for those in attendance that contributed to the donations. uh received $313.30
from various uh donors there at the event. Um and the Union Center donations here, there are two of them. Uh one towards early learning tuition assistance uh there that will go to our fund for um which goes towards our early early learning programs and then uh
$4,000 donation towards our spring sports uh activities. And then um the Blackbod giving fund, $42 towards the Brookside early childhood special education. And then the last one here, um, and I believe, uh, Director Schindler has brought, um, this up before, we've recognized this donation,
the Navy Healthcare Foundation providing a generous donation of $13,800 to go towards our, uh, athletic trainer, our activities, and uh, coach training, I believe there is the description, but I think it was for athletic trainer uh, purposes there um, with the high school.
So there's your list. >> So I ask for approval of those donations. >> Thank you. >> Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign.
>> Thank you, Mr. Durban. Motion carries. Okay, down to the consent items. Is there a motion to accept the consent items as written? >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> You'll second. All right. So, we got a
motion and a second. Is there any uh discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. Motion carries and that will bring us on to reports and
uh Superintendent Hy, you lead us off. >> Yeah, I'm I'm going make it easy. There's enough further on the agenda, so we'll just skip right on over me. And I'm even going to make a Well, no, I'm not going to make that. So, we'll go right into school board. Sorry, Alandre,
you'll be pretty quick. Schoolboard member reports. Let's go, Davey. Anything special? >> Sure. I don't have a whole lot to report. Um, haven't had a lot of meetings lately. I did get to tour the ALC today, which was really nice. Um, got a lot of feedback. Um, a nice view
of how ALC looks. Um, it was actually really interesting. We had some questions. We had, uh, a lot of answers. And, um, it was, it was really nice to be able to tour it. and thank you for letting us do that. >> Uh no committee reports, just a lot of phone calls, emails, meetings. Uh thanks
to the task force for all their hours and hours and hours of work. Um and look forward to that discussion tonight. Um similar comments, just very focused right now on wrapping my head around the big decisions that we're talking about tonight. um was able to tour the ALC
with Davey and Gary was there too. Then went to the middle school with Gary to look at where the ALC could go and then also the high school to look at how that could be set up too. So >> lot to report but I'll keep it short. um
tooken some track and the best response I got I teach uh US history at Riverland and there's a couple of there's an Austin and Oatama student that have self-disclosed their PSCO and they said they love coming to Albert Lee for track because of the facilities so that was
pretty neat to hear took in the play and uh boy what an experience I've been singing he had it coming it I can't get it out of my head uh facilities task force curriculum committee I think there might have been a policy committee in there someplace. Met with
Steve, Dr. Hy to talk about budget and the facility tours that Angie uh mentioned. Served on the administrative uh negotiations team. I want to express my appreciation to Paul and Ashley for making me feel a part of the team. I
wasn't I didn't feel I was just an observer that I could make some contributions. I appreciate that opportunity. Oh, hey, I got to say one thing. A shout out to uh this Alahasa plug. Uh I read an article by Rice Bcher
Bcher on the um uh renewal of the Klux Clan in southern Minnesota in the 1920s. I teach that in my Minnesota history class at Riverland. So I'm going to include his research in my class. So I thought that was pretty cool. And let's
see. Um, and then the foundation, we met and approved the pause business. Um, I've been working with uh Kathy uh Neore about perhaps more of a presence on the school district page for the foundation just to promote our programming and
opportunities to donate. I think that's adequate. >> I will also make it short. I I attended the uh spring musical and uh it was quite a performance. I was really uh really impressed with the every aspect
of the production. This the students were really involved and they own the parts they played. It was terrific. uh met uh with Jess Hatland at the high school last week. Uh uh two as uh actually I just witnessed their
selection of the recipients of this year's scholarships. Uh that's one of the u one of the uh programs of the education foundation too which uh in which I'm pretty much involved. And so that event is coming up on May 6th. Uh
the awards uh presentation is going to be a little different this year. Instead of everybody meeting in the caf in the auditorium and the old audiences plagued with listening two speakers uh announce every scholarship award. Now the event will be
held in in the gymnasium where there will be tables where each uh uh entity awarding scholarships will be stationed and the students will go to those tables and receive the scholarship and it'll it'll it'll be a much better arrangement. I think Jess did a good job
of organizing this and uh the awarders of the scholarships can now have a little bit more time to have uh some communication with the recipients. um went to you. I was uh as Gary and uh
Angie I believe uh attended the curriculum committee meeting. >> It was me. >> Oh, it was you. I'm sorry. I cobwebs are creeping into my mind at an increasing rate. Um the the one thing that's uh
that uh stood out for me was the um Brian Blad. He's going to extend his anatomy and physiology class course from one semester to a full year, which will allow a lot more time for lab work, and that should be that should be pretty
good. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I was going to say the same thing. I have anatomy physiology down here, uh going from one semester to a full year. I also just want to thank um Tanya and her team. Um they do a lot of work. uh that I can appreciate grant
writing and uh we know that that's grant season coming up and just the explanation around title one and title two funding the carryover opportunities um and why maybe there was some carry carryover funds so um and then um it was
a little distracting because there was a track meet going on but we made it through so um and then also I am part of the PAR negotiations and I um I also serve on some scholarship ship uh review teams just impressive students their
stories and and uh their commitment to the work was very impressive. >> Uh a couple things. First, I want to uh thank our task force committee for all the meetings you did. I was able to make about half of them. But I see a number
of members year and it was a was an awesome opportunity to uh see a lot of information that uh was put together that you just might not think about when it comes to different buildings. So that was interesting and uh spent a lot of time uh the last couple weeks probably
more like 10 days on some great discussion and information on what as Angie said we'll be discussing tonight a little bit with the task force recommendations. Um I had an opportunity to see Chicago the play and it was a lot better than I
think going to the city of Chicago was awesome. They did a wonderful job. It was a lot of fun to see what the kids and uh Diane Haney could put together with their uh orchestra and everything. Uh we're in the midst of baseball, so we'll get Alandre, our manager, out of there soon. So, got a game going on now
that I won't make tonight. But one last thing I just wanted to mention was I had the um opportunity to um uh from the MSBA board since I'm our treasurer for the state able to go to my first big four meeting. Basically, it's the uh
associations of cities and counties and townships through the state of Minnesota. Each had representatives and then we did also from the MSBA. And uh had a lot of great information, but I'll just tell you one of the most fun people that I listened to was our state
auditor, bright young lady, and had a great presentation. And she got to the end of this presentation, and she goes, "This is my happy slide. We're going to see probably about two to two and a quarter percent revenue increase in the
state of Minnesota this next coming year. Everybody's pretty excited. And then sheepishly I raised my hand and I said, "Are you going to overset that with your projected expenses of being a little over 3%." She said, "You weren't supposed to ask
that question." So, it's not just us. We see it across the state of Minnesota. and uh thank you for being very willing to do the things we are to try to contain our budget. But uh it didn't look too bright from the uh state end
either. So enough of that. So I will move on. Let's see. Do we have uh uh let's see. Let's let's go to uh Janice Jeff, our teacher. What? Well, we were Oh, I'm sorry.
Janice, I jumped over. Alandre and Carly will see. So Alandre, start away. >> Okay. So I will be leaving after the Band and Orchestra New York City presentation because I got the opportunity to go to New York City for spring break which is why I wasn't at the last meeting. But honestly New York
was a lot more fun. No offense to you guys. You guys are great. But New York I it was so much fun and we'll get to talk about it in a little bit. But love you Dave. You're great. Um so recently um National Honor Society held a leadership conference which was a part of Austin
people from Austin got to come and Alden Conger got to come too. So we got to talk about a lot of fun sessions about how to be a leader, how your influence can be a lot greater than your title and it was a great turnout um along with a clothing drive that we had last week. So, anybody was able to bring in
donations. And then on Saturday from 3:00 to 7:00, we had just like a free clothing drive. And I think we had a little over a hundred people from the community come in and get a lot of clothes. A lot of our clothes did end up um going away to people who needed it. And then what was left over, we did
donate some to the care closet and then a lot to Salvation Army, too. So, that was really good and really good turnout. and student council has Earth Day actually this Friday and it's a student council and NHS thing. So, we're all going to go out and, you know, try to
clean up our area of mainly just as far as the distance we can walk from the high school to around. So, and then we also had final four March Madness because that's another big thing that our flex does with Centers Flex taking
off the overall win in the dodgeball tournament, but oh well. Um, we also had the musical which was really exciting. I mean, Chicago is such a great play and I know that they all worked really hard. So, that's it for me. >> They need you in the dugout
>> after after number eight. >> Yep. Okay, Carly. >> Okay. So this past weekend, well Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we went up to Minneapolis for the Stu National Student Journalism Convention,
um our my co-editor KB won first place for her sports writing, our literary magazine 1/5, and then our newspaper um website 1/5th as well. Um it was also the 100th birthday of Quill and Scroll
which is um which is um like a student organization um of newspapers um and the Alahasa is one of the founding members. We are over a hundred years old. Um and then today
actually C-SPAN awarded six ALH members, LA Alhs members um with some prize money for their student cam videos. So Belle Bachan, Michaela Hansen, and Danica Ptorius one for theirs. And then Kira
Ericson, Danny Jensen, and Addie Gilliam won for theirs. And then the Glow Run is on May 15th. It is for mental health awareness and it's put on by our um counselors or our Yeah. And then FFA
state convention is today and prom is on Saturday. So that's really exciting. So that's Janice. >> All right. I've been crossing things off as I hear them spoken so they don't get repeated. Um, let's see. Fun nights at
the elementary have been happening. Uh, 3rd through 11th grade are in the midst of MCA testing season. The online learning academy has reported an increase 20 percentage uh increase by 20 percentage points of credit acquisition
from last year to this year. Um the transition program students from the transitions program are going to Rochester on the 16th to attend the annual work skills challenge day event with roughly 100 other students from
southeastern Minnesota. Uh the area learning center is sending star uh students to the map stars conference on May 7th and 8th to showcase art um artistic career and life skills. And quarter 3 of 2026 was the
highest number of credits earned by ALC students going back to 2018. And finally, uh during the open form, you heard from our Southwest teachers expressing concerns about the ALC uh the possibility of the ALC move to
Southwest. Our ALC teachers have also sent letters and talked to several school board members uh regarding their concerns and they're very hopeful that those concerns will be taken into consideration tonight during the discussion. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Janice. Okay, let's see. Um principal's report. Mr. Johnson. All right. Thanks for having me, board. Superintendent Hy, Superintendent Hy. Uh, today I'm just going to talk briefly
to you guys uh about our lunch circle program. Uh, we were looking at our five building goals that we had for the year. Unfortunately, we won't be able to give you an update on any of those until the month of May when all those things happen. So, um, for my principal report, I just been kind of thinking about what it is that we could give you an update
on. And, uh, it is our lunch circle that, uh, here we go. All right. So, uh, just a quick snippet exactly what a lunch circle is. Uh, so when a student is sent to the office for a mid to minor
behavior, um, uh, they are more often than not assigned a lunch circle where they eat their lunch with one of our social workers. And the goal there is to work on that um that behavior um that got them sent to the office in the first place. Uh and so just a quick little timeline
uh as far as uh where we are today. Um now this is just my fifth year in this role. So some of these years I had to kind of go back uh to our uh more veteran teachers. Uh and so the 2010 2011ish is uh when we uh at Southwest
developed the tab or tab out process which is a form of restorative practice where again um we're not excluding the student from learning u but we're trying to give them uh opportunities to learn from their behaviors. And so TAB is an acronym take a break. Uh and so 2010
2011 is when that happened. 2014 uh Minnesota state law required schools to use more restorative practices in school targeted more towards at bullying incidences. Um and then 2023 2024 school year uh is when the non-exclusionary disciplinary law came into effect as
well um where as you can see there mandates that schools use restorative non-exclusionary policies and practices before restoring to suspensions or expulsions. So that was the first year that we implemented our lunch circles. In the past, it was uh typically just a lunch detention where the student would eat their lunch in the office. But at
that time, they weren't working on that behavior. They were just eating their lunch in the office. Um I also put in there, too, because uh I think it's important to note uh that that was the same year also that we uh had school resource officer Hughes here. Um he would love to come up here and talk. Uh
but uh no, I'm just kidding. the uh uh so so I do think uh that obviously plays a a big role in uh the data that we're about to see as well. Um he's been a big asset to not only Southwest but uh to our district as well. Uh and then uh this last year was our first year of um
doing what's called the be good people uh social emotional curriculum then as well which we do one time a week during our advisory. All right. Uh so I'll just explain this first slide and then I'm just going to add every year on. Um but you can see 2021 2022 that would have been my first year. So 5 years ago. Uh the first
column in or row in gray shows us the number of students. Um in red is all in school suspension data. So you can see the total number of inschool suspensions. There was 73 in that school year. Uh the total days. Um so out of those 73 there's a total of 105 days. So sometimes it's a half day, sometimes
it's a full day. Just depends on the uh consequence given. And then the number of students with at least one inschool suspension. Um so I put it in as percentages because our numbers um fluctuate from year to year. Uh and so we can see 10% of our students had at least one inschool suspension that year.
And our blue is our out of school suspension data. Um so again set up the same way. It's just out of school suspension. So 75 out of school suspensions that year. Um there was a total of 273 days. Um and then 9 and a half% had at least one out of school
suspension. Now there could be some students that intermix in that in school and out of school data as well. Um and then you'll see on that bottom row the total number of lunch circles assigned. We didn't have lunch circles there. So that's why it says NA. So then as we go into the following school year again exact same data just
different year um or set up just different data. And then our first year with our lunch circles. Uh so again now we can see that there was 400 lunch circles assigned that first year. Um which does seem like a lot and it is a lot. Uh but when you
have 478 students and then there's 167ish days every year um that adds up to a lot of opportunities um for that then as well. Uh and then 24 25 same data
and then this year and so this year obviously still has about a month leftish a little more than a month. Uh so this data was pulled from um after Friday. Uh so our 25 2026 school year uh is just showing up until last Friday data. So those numbers will change as we
finish out the year then as well. So so yes well I like to take the credit for this but really all I do is I hand the student the slip to have a lunch circle. So I don't necessarily do anything uh other than that. So um but again just to kind of see like exactly what we're
we're working with here. So now it's just the last three years of data. Um so you can see the total number of lunch circles assigned. Um the number of students who had at least one lunch circle and then the number of students who had just one lunch circle, the number of students who had just two lunch circles, three lunch circles, and
then that four or more lunch circles in as well. And then at the bottom there uh just because I think that's important as well is the number of students who did not receive a single lunch circle um is listed there as well. Uh and so this is a form that our our
social workers have the students fill out at the end of their lunch circle as well. So that gives them feedback then as well. Uh and you can see uh on the right side there the middle two questions there is that um how can the Southwest staff better support you and then do you have a positive uh
connection and adult at Southwest? Those are two important pieces as well. Um so that way if they click no on one of those questions that we can make sure that we follow up and um they can be connected with an adult. So, uh, one of the last slides here
again, uh, this is where I just like to publicly give a big shout out to our two social workers, Miss Carrie Far and Miss, um, Steph anger Bretson. Um, they are great, uh, to work with, um, and they do great work with our students, um, both in lunch circles and outside of lunch circles, our office staff. So, um,
Secretary Jill, um, you know, she takes care of all the paperwork. Jackie Klson, our dean, and of course, our school resource officer, Hughes, um, all play a big role in that. And of course, our teachers play a big role in this, too. um because without their buyin um this wouldn't um work either. Uh and they
still are doing that tab tab out process and so um they do a great job too. Rachel Crosby's our counselor and so this year she's actually doing um what's called flex bunches and so based on um some of the students needs she actually is pulling them in during our flex time and working on those skills as well. So
um it's great to see and like I said just wanted to celebrate the uh the success that we're seeing so far um with that lunch circle program. All right. And then just a few uh important dates coming up uh on the year here. Um so we do have our time capsule
ceremony uh set. Uh I believe 1:30. >> Yeah. >> Well, yeah. So still working out the details, but at 1:30 is when we're going to have that ceremony um with the time capsule. So digging up the 50-year time capsule and then Mr. Schlmer's has been heading up the new time capsule as well. And so he's done a great job um you know
organizing committees uh and those committees have committees. Uh but uh no the students are doing a really good job um with this time capsule project and it like I said it's been led by Mr. Talmer's as well. So >> and we're hoping to find the old one sometime soon. >> Yes, we got to there's looking at
pictures and trying to match it up and back in the day it was a ramp. So yes, trying to figure out where that is but I think we'll get to it. >> Uh May 14th, 1976. Yes. So, and then we will uh our exploratory day is that last Friday of the school
year as well. So, students got that catalog last Friday. So, um and then our pickum will be that May 1st, that first Friday of May. So, it's always an exciting time for our students as well. All right, that is all I have. Is there any questions or
any questions for uh Principal Johnson? Thank you very much. Okay, we've got 8.1 uh band orchestra New York City presentation. Suzanne Mower. >> Yep. >> Uh hello. Good evening. Uh we took about
not about we took 39 kids and four chaperons to New York over spring break. Uh we left on March 13th, hopped on a bus, stayed overnight on that bus. Uh and headed out. So go ahead and flip to the next slide or do I get to do that? Yay.
>> I can be the clicker. >> Oh, good. You be the clicker. Long as it works. >> Uh so our first uh day we headed right out to the Statue of Liberty. um took a boat out to Statue Island. We also visited Ellis Island. Um the kids had a
great time with that. It was beautiful weather. >> It was windy but wonderful. Yes. >> But better than some of the other days. >> Uh and go ahead. Yeah. >> We took a group picture at the Statue of Liberty. It is hard to get everybody in
one place at one time multiple times, but we did manage. Uh so that is our Statue of Liberty and uh we actually started that day in New Jersey, took the boat to Statue Island, Ellis Island, and then the boat back to the New York side.
Uh and then we walked up to the 911 Memorial and Museum. And that was uh very moving. I think the kids did really well with that. It's a tough subject. Um, but the museum is done
amazingly well. Um, one of our chaperrons was kind enough to bring several uh flags and little flower bouquets with little things that we could tie on and make a message. Um, and you can see in the right-hand picture uh
some of the things that we left there at the memorial. It >> it's a living thing, so it it continually gets things added to. There's a nice blending of um what am I looking for? Like stuff and like people describing what happened. So
it was a really good blend of that. >> And uh we had dinner in Little Italy that night which was great. Then we went to the top of the Empire State Building and we were extremely happy that we had the weather we did that day because the next day it rained and we would not have seen anything if we had been at the top
of the Empire State Building that day. Okay, feel free to pop in anytime if you have something to add. Um, the next morning we went to the Museum of Broadway, which was very cool. And, uh, we knew in a couple of days we
were going to see Wicked. So, that was really interesting. They actually have that three-dimensional model of the entire backstage of Wicked in the Museum of Broadway. So, that was really interesting to see ahead of time. And then I had to throw in the picture on the right because uh when we were in the Museum of Broadway, I saw see that shoe
hanger. Okay. What's inside of that is mic packs and I saw that and went what? That is the best. So during Chicago the musical, we had our very own shoe holder with all the mic packs in it and it worked beautifully. So I that was one of
the things I took away from our New York trip and brought back with me. Um we went on a tour of Radio City Music Hall which was a really interesting tour. They're great tour guides and just that space is amazing. Um and that was
fun. We got to meet a rocket and have her picture taken with her. So that was fun. Uh we had lunch around that area and then we headed out to our performance. Um, we performed at the Care One at the Koopa in Pamis, New Jersey. Uh, which is
senior center. You can see up in the top right, uh, sort of a side view of our audience. Um, the audience was great. The kids did great. Took us a really long time to put the drum set together. So, we really didn't get to warm up together at all. Uh, so I was impressed because also, if you do the math, this
is like day three, so they haven't played since Friday and now it's Monday. Um, and they did a fantastic job. When we were done performing, uh, we had them go out and chitchat with residents and they did an awesome job with that and made some connections. Even found some
people who were from Minnesota who had moved out there. So, >> every person there was like, "These are fabulous kids. They sound so amazing." And we were very well represented um, over there. >> Uh, we had some New York pizza that night and then we headed to Madame
Tuso's. You can see a few of our uh famous friends there. Kids had fun with that. Uh the next day was St. Patrick's Day, so it took us a really long time to get through the Lincoln Tunnel. Um we were supposed to walk around Central Park a little bit and we were still on the bus,
so we kind of missed that. Uh but we went to the Museum of Natural History, which is huge and has just tons of stuff. There's some friends there with our Moai sculpture. Um, and then we also had lunch there and then we headed on to
a Lincoln Center tour. So, we got to see Giuliard. We saw Alice Tully Theater or Alice Tully Hall. Um, the one that's Avery Fischer Hall, but it has a different name now. I don't know what it is. Um, and the New York City Ballet Theater. And what was cool is there was
actually stuff going on in the halls. So, um, we saw a choir rehearsing in Avery Fischer Hall and, uh, you can kind of see a few of the little, uh, ballet friends down there from the New York City Ballet, uh, in that theater. So, that was exciting.
Uh, then we headed to Times Square and we had a little bit of free time there in Time Square where they could go, you know, lots of them went to the M&M store, the Nintendo store, that kind of thing. Um, and then we met at the Hard
Rock Cafe for supper that evening before going to Wicked on Broadway, uh, which everyone just loved. And there were some kids who had never been to anything like that before who absolutely fell in love with it and are like want
to go back and go to more musicals. So, that was really cool. Um because you know you don't you don't always know who's going to all of a sudden pick up on that. Um the kids were literally amazing. They were so fantastic. They
were perfect little angels basically the whole time. I couldn't believe it. They didn't even get crabby at the end. No. >> Like this ride was fabulous. We didn't have to wait for anybody. They came on time. Every single location. Albert Lee Kids. We are fabulous.
And then right after Wicked, we hopped on the bus and headed for home. And we managed to miss all of the weather. The day before we left, it was >> 60 mph winds. The day after we left, there was a blizzard. But we hit it perfectly. So, I kept waiting for
something to go wrong on this trip and it just never did. It was, you know, there's always something, but there just wasn't. It was an absolutely fantastic trip. Alandre, >> was actually so much fun. I actually never really liked Wicked on like a movie and then I'm like I was so
skeptical to go watch it on Broadway, but then I'm like, "Okay, now I understand." Um, it was actually so fun. I even got to catch a little bit of that St. Patrick's Day parade. Um, got a random little shirt in Little Italy, which might may or may not say mommy's
little meatball in the slideshow. And I think I would totally go back to New York if I had the opportunity to >> um it's a 20our drive. So 20 hours plus stops. It took us about >> a day, 24 hours to get there. Yeah. So
>> yeah, but they bonded on the bus. It was good. >> Anything else? Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're at number nine, effective and efficient operations. 9.1 is a district task force committee
presentation recommendation. Dr. Hy and S Bagley. S. >> Hello. Good evening. Um, thanks for having us. Um, some words already got said earlier tonight, but I wanted to kind of uh emphasize the thanks to the task force. Several members are here this evening. Several of you were
observers to the process. And even for those who couldn't be here with us tonight, um, it was a commitment of time. We had six meetings that were each hour and a half, two hours. There was out of um, task force meeting time, you know, homework assignments. Um, and I know people thought about it a lot and
talked about it a lot. Um, because there was always a a healthy, robust amount of questions at the beginning of every meeting. Um, also with me is my colleague Tyler Erdle over here. Um, so if um I'm going to go through this kind of as fast as I can with giving it the respect it deserves, but we had more
than 12 hours of meetings and I would guess we don't want to be here for 12 hours. So um, so I'll keep it high level, but we can always dive in deeper. Um, and certainly Dr. Hy, if you want to jump in anytime, please do. Okay. Um, so we're gonna for an agenda
today. >> Oh, okay. Sounds good. Um we will go over the overview um purpose and outcome of the task force. We'll talk a little bit about the timeline. Um we will talk uh quite a bit about capacity and enrollment which was obviously one of the key drivers for uh the task force to
be commissioned. Um we will get through some of the consensus the task force formed things that were close to consensus but not um fully formed. Um and then some of the realities that we had to spend a lot of time talking about. Um, I appreciated many of the comments that were said at the beginning of the meeting and um, we had
discussions like that at the task force and change is hard and um, we spent a lot of time talking about disruption and appropriateness and things like that. Um, we eventually came to what seemed like three plans. Um, there were kind of tessillations of those plans at times
um, and a final recommendation as well as um, next steps and action. and then if we need to get into it um we do have the full capacity analysis kind of as an addendum. Um so the overview and purpose for the task force was to study how the district facilities and operational costs can
align with your current and future needs. Um so that task force spent a lot of time analyzing data. Um Casey mentioned it in her comment earlier today, but um kind of the first two or three meetings were pretty data intensive, a lot of um reviewing of data. Then the middle of the process was a lot of discussion about um you know
what could we do about it, brainstorming of ideas and options and kind of the back third was analysis of those options and um the pros and cons of them. Um and then our most recent meeting at meeting six was where these kind of three um three um paths emerged. So the intent
was to have a um you know set of recommendations to guide facility planning for the next decade um as we want to effectively support teaching and learning while being fiscally responsible. Um so to start the task force um Tyler and I started meeting with the district
about almost a year ago. I think it was July or June of last year um to do a facilities study. So we looked at capacity as well as condition of the buildings. We did spend a lot more time in the task force talking about capacity but I can talk about condition if anybody would like tonight. Um kind of
another key point uh that we spent a lot of time talking about, not a surprise to anyone here, um is that the district is projected to decline in enrollment and continue to face budget pressures and any ideas to um reexamine or save on operating costs were an intended outcome. Um and then we did have some
moments for community input. We had some in-person meetings. We had survey um and then we also did ask task force members to please communicate and talk to their um colleagues, families, and friends. um overview and Paul jump in if you'd like to at all here. Um some key points
I think probably everyone on the board is well aware of these but always good to revisit for the audience. Um that the district is in a stable financial position um but did not meet your balance fund balance target last year. Um traditional response to declining enrollments is to reduce staffing. And
there's some notes here on reductions that were done in um past couple fiscal years and the anticipation for the upcoming um and kind of if nothing is done that that fund balance will be depleted within two years, right? Um well, you also talked about
educational impact and what is um important to maintain. So, we talked about minimizing impact to the classroom and um class size implications, minimizing impact to educational programming, um increasing staff effectiveness, finding creative
solutions um for long-term success, and building a continuum for the district to serve kind of all age levels from preK and probably your daycare all the way up to adult education. Um brief overview of timeline. Um we were at the board meeting in September
to do a um presentation of the findings of the facility study. Um we did a update to the finance committee right before that. Um and that also was the night that we reviewed the charge statement for the task force. Um and actually a version of this timeline um ended up being slightly different um but
pretty darn close. Um in October um is when we started looking more at the condition of the district's buildings. Um and then that is when we had task force application invitations out. Um during November um we that I should just say that facilities um condition study took a couple of months. Um but we did
have meetings number one and two for the task force in November. They were approximately two weeks apart um and about two hours each. Um then in December we had task force meeting number three. Um and we had some initial survey results. We were displeased with the um volume at that time and I think I
can speak for the whole task force. I'm here as facilitator, right? um that everybody wanted as much engagement as possible and so we actually decided at that meeting that we wanted the survey to live out in the public for longer. We wanted more results. Um so more publishing and advertising was done. Um
then at the beginning of this year we looked over those um results um and uh the community input sessions that were had during the month of January. We had two options. There was a lunchtime option one day and then an evening option a couple days later. Um and then
we started looking at initial concepts in January and we'll get through some of that later in the presentation. Then the task force loot went on a little bit of a hiatus for about five six weeks. Um so we had gotten enough out of them for the administration to go study and look at pros and cons and impacts. I'll talk a little bit about some of those specific
conversations later. And then we got back together recently um to kind of um I don't know share what we've learned, get task force further input and then prepare for this evening. The intent would be uh that going forward um
there'd be continued updates on planning um and elementary school combinations and of course any any planning for school closure decisions and things of that nature. So we're not at the end of the road here. We're in the middle of the process. As I go into capacity and enrollment, um
I do want to emphasize um you know that we could pull an enrollment chart probably every single day and it's slightly different than the day before, right? Um but I think you know macro trends have not changed. We did provide the task force um or I should say Paul provided the task force with I think two
or three different um enrollment projections as they came into view. All kind of telling the same story but of course it changes with every every individual family's choices. Um so to start with that um here is a chart of the buildings that the district currently has serving um grades K
through 12. Um in the blue is the target capacity. Um, so that is really the capacity of the facility if we're at that kind of ideal planning class size. And then the max capacity is in the red column. Um, that's really if like every classroom is at its kind of maximum
recommended class size. Um, so you can choose to think of it as a range. Um, we generally with the task force talked about um, using the target for planning purposes, right? We're not planning to be at that maximum capacity. So across your four elementary schools, you have a
capacity for 1562 students. Um at Southwest Middle School, 668 and then um at the high school 1515 for a total of uh 3745 seats. Um this this data was presented to the
task force a couple of different times. Um just what um by building, by grade level, what section counts were looking like. Um so in addition to looking at things in a more I might go back one kind of building wide level we did start looking at you know what are class sizes
across your elementary schools in particular um what are the drivers to why they might vary um so you can see here an example we've got Halverson and Hawthorne here um the day that this was pulled which I think was um about a week ago um you can see the number of sections at each of these buildings in
each of the grades for example and what the average class size was um And so this was provided to the task force um for comparison sake across the four elementary schools as we talked about discrepancies and why some buildings might have higher class sizes than
others. Um here's the overall across all kind or um K through five uh grade levels across all four buildings. So you can see the number of kindergarten, first grade, second grade, etc. sections that you have and then the average class size.
Again, that average does not speak to every building having that experience, but if you normalize across all four, um, similar data was reviewed for um, your secondary buildings. You can see that information here. So, we were trying to keep the task force kind of as apprised as possible of um, what life
was looking like. Um, and we did do some comparisons. I I went over this at our uh, presentation in September um, uh, to uh, MDE guidelines. And then we spent a lot of time looking at enrollment projections.
So this is a big chart of numbers, right? Um it's the enrollment projections and history for the district. Um I believe we've had one uh substantive change or update to this during the task force process which they got to see. Um but the way to read this chart is that all of the grade levels
are on um they are in the rows. You can kind of go top to bottom to see those. And then years are the columns. So across the top um so it goes back to 201819 and then um we've got 20 2025 through 2030 as projections. Obviously
we're living in the 2526 school year right now. Um and then at the very bottom you can see the anticipated percent change. So high level you can see that over the next four years the way this chart would show would show a slight um decline every single one of
those years. Um, we've spent some time talking about um, you know, what that might look like across your facilities. We've spent some time talking about which um, kind of grade cohorts are your large ones. Um, so in general um, you are exiting larger 12th grade classes
than you have entering kindergarten classes. Um, and so that's often talked about as like a structural imbalance, right? That will naturally lead to decline every year even if all the other grades were the same, right? So, we looked at this um at almost every meeting with the task force and like I
said, we we did a major update at one point when we had gotten a recent one. I think that was in February. Yeah, February, we'd gotten a an updated didn't really tell a different story, but every time we got new data, we try to share it. Um so then, um if you look at this
chart, so this is those same target and max capacity columns. So, no change to those. Um but a couple things added to it just to help you kind of put it into context. So the third column over in the green um was current enrollment at least at the day that the task force looked at it. Um and then the last column in the
kind of the orange um would be how full is the building and again that's compared against the target not the max. Um so you can look down every any individual building and see how it compares against its capacity. Um so the task force spent a lot of time talking this and then of course at the bottom um
being at 76% of your target capacity as a organization or a system. Um in case looking at charts isn't your thing we can certainly look at um graphs. So this is K through five capacity versus enrollment. Just a brief
explanation. So that target capacity is the green dotted line. The max is blue. Again, that would be every class at kind of that max class size, which is not what we planned around. Um, and then the enrollment projection in the orange. Um, so you can see that slight decline
um for grades 6 through 7. And then lastly, grades 8 through 12, which of course is your current grade configuration, how your buildings are being used, and then K through 12. Um, we did spend a little time at our
first meeting talking about ND MDE guidelines. So, Minnesota Department of Education. This is not a big driver of task force decisions, but um, some discussion about if we were planning schools today, for example, what size would we plan for? And so, just to teach people how to read this quickly, on the
very right hand side, you can see the Minnesota Department of Education has what they call square foot per student guidelines. Um, and they are ranges. Um, and they are ranges for a reason to allow for some variation. And then there are actually different ranges depending on building size. So these are for your
size building. Um, so you can see Halverson um the recommended MD range for an elementary school of approximately 500 students um is 125 to 155 square foot per student. Um right now for example you have a little bit over 200 square foot per student there.
So again just other benchmarks to look against. Obviously, we are not in the position of looking to replace all the buildings with new buildings, but it is um I think helpful things to put um your facilities um challenge in context.
Um so I mentioned a little bit when I went through the timeline, but um we kind of had a trajectory of the task force of learning about facilities and capacity and financial pressures and things of that nature. um input phase and a lot of ideas brainstorming and then the last third kind of the last two
meetings we're more trying to decide what what are rational solutions that could actually um help help us with these challenges. So I'm going to go through some summary of those and we can dive into any of them if people would like. Um so the kind of the things that
were agreed upon um were that um we want to use space as efficiently as possible. Um, we did want to reduce or limit overall disruption to the district as much as possible. So, I'll just maybe take that bullet point to say that there were six or seven other options that you're not going to see in the
presentation tonight. Um, that were very disruptive kind of everybody up and moving to another building and, you know, people had ideas of, oh, would that solve or would that fill that building up better or what would that do? And, um, just very disruptive. And so, they did not make the cut in the end. When we looked at the pros and the
cons, um it became pretty clear to the task force that reducing a site, possibly an elementary site given population, makes sense. Um they tried on, like I said, lots of configurations for sizes to try to um determine what would make the most
sense. Um we spent some time talking about a plan will take multiple years to implement. Um so there might be kind of a phase or a stage one and then a phase or a stage two as you watch what your enrollment does. Um, so if it declines as the projection says today, you might
have different choices in the future. Um, if it stabilizes or if it were to reverse and you were to be in a slight growth situation. So obviously want to be nimble. Um, wanting to limit impacts to academic and co-curricular programming as much as possible. That's one of the reasons why
facilities are being talked about, right? If we don't talk about facilities changes, all of your um, budget reallocations will have to come from more of the academic or co-curricular side. So kind of the kind of the whole reason the task force existed. Um and then of course look for ways to expand
programming and the efficiencies, right? Kind of the opposite of could we make it even better. Um so then some of the more near consensus items um heard about a little bit of them um earlier in the meeting tonight and um strong debate in the task
force um survey results split on some of these topics, right? Um but wanted to make sure to address them. Um, so there was some strong voices throughout the process that eighth graders developmentally don't fit well at the high school. Um, it was kind of determined that that is that is appropriate, right? Especially the way
it's being done today. Um, and that eighth grade students need that middle school philosophy and shouldn't be viewed as high school students. That's not really how programming is being delivered for them today. Um, and then there was al oops didn't mean to click that way. Um, an alternate belief um
that the high school should absorb 7th grade and become a 712. um and some some thoughts around that being appropriate with the caveats of not doing it just the way you're doing eighth grade, right? And I'm going to get into that. I think it's my next slide. Um so the challenge and I'll I
probably won't read all the numbers to you. If you look at the bottom two bullet points, so the high school, if we took eighth grade out, as many in the community survey wanted to do, um is well under capacity. So in the 2728 school year, um you'd be at 65% full
there. and at the 30 31 so the enrollment projection a few years down the road um you'd be at 62%. And then with seventh and eighth grade you get much closer to that target capacity but of course it's more complicated than just numbers and does
it fit. Um so as we talk about and Dr. Hil if you want to jump in any more here I'll I'll go over it and then you can give your commentary. um you know the many of the viable options studied well all of our options we're trying to figure out how do we use our buildings better right um so the
three routes I'm going to dive more in detail today um all consider a 712 model at the high school um like I said alternative options really um can either just moved the problem to a different building um or really left the the high school being underutilized and as one of
your biggest buildings is a is a huge drag on your budget Um so the priorities that were discussed and would need further discussion and planning um was to maintain age appropriate curriculum and ensure a clear separation between 7th and 8th grade and 9th through 12th.
So not just do they fit but can we actually have a um school within a school type experience at the high school. Um, so some topics that have been discussed about is having a middle school model with its own principal and dean, its own schedule, lunch, electives, um, you know, physical
separation within the building for core classes as opposed to or separate or distinct from the high school model, which would be principal, um, assistant principal and dean, their own schedule, lunches, etc. um some items that probably make sense to do together like yearbook and student
council um dances and age appropriate activities being separated um to try to use this as an opportunity to embrace um the educational benefits that could come from it. So the electives that could be offered to seventh grade um for example um the
connection to activities which are already in many cases starting at seventh grade um and we I I didn't talk about it much in this presentation but we did do a lot of study of other districts and what they're doing and how they're doing it. Um and so Delano and Redwing both are um districts that have
operated with a 7 through 12 >> is there anything you want to add to that? >> So conversations because of course it doesn't just exist with me. So working with our administration um and there's there's two big middle school guys in the district. Myself very
middle school trained um and Tyler. Tyler is a very middle school uh minded principal. Conversations that we had is um he would absolutely like the challenge of the 78 middle school. So, him and I have talked about um if we proceed forward with this um getting him
to work as a 78 middle school principal, providing him with a dean um working through the bell schedule in combination with Sean at the high school, taking the 912 uh with Amy Steels the AP and then another dean um and working on those
schedules. So, um I owe Tyler a couple emails on on a couple schedules that I've used uh myself um in this um grade configuration. Um but that that's kind of the basis of of kind of how we're
looking at this. The other piece is um and I I call them e- house or e-wing is securing one of those either first or second floor um and putting the majority of the core classes for middle school students in there. Um and that will um
not eliminate but limit uh the mixing the the areas that you run into and I can tell you from being at Delano um is they have one science area too because those are very specialized classrooms. Um so those students would um in the Delano model walk up uh the school to um
the science area. Um they also share the same music areas um pieces like that. So um with this model um then that allows you to run that intermediate school uh fifth and sixth grade um at the
southwest campus. Um, and I've talked a little bit with some of the music department, not all of it, about how expanding programming could bring that instrumental music down and really start to focus on that fine arts part of the music um along with um in seventh and
eighth grade potential uh for uh foreign language. So, there's a lot of of fairly easy Whoops. a lot of fairly easy steps that we can take there. The key in the situation though is having that principal who's in charge of 78. Um
you'll find uh schools that um don't delineate that out and that's how I had it at Delano. I had an assistant principal that was in charge of 78 and an assistant principal that was in charge of 912. It's a smaller student population. Um but the building and we
had just one office area. Um, but that helps to keep that delineation or that separation and then it's just the the staff knows this is who I go to for this or this is who I go to for that. So, um, it it it by far can work and I've seen it work really well. So, I know
Redwing's exploring that right now um, in their community because they're moving to the 712 model. >> Um, and I'll try to get through the rest of the recommendation then would love to take comments and questions. Um, so what I mentioned a couple times
now that there were a lot of ideas that were um, talked about. There were kind of six dis distinct different options that all didn't make the presentation tonight for one of these reasons or maybe they check checked a few boxes themselves. Um, so one of there was a lot of ideas around this building, the
building we're sitting in today and what if we took this out and put that in and move them there and right all of that kind of thing. Um and many of those options um created a lot of like capital cost, right? So classrooms would have to get turned into offices and offices
would have to get turned back into classrooms. Um and it was it was hard to say what what was the benefit in the end other than racking up some renovation costs, right? Um and then daycare and early learning changing location. Um there was some ideas that were pondered
about either relocating um daycare andor preschool to an elementary building or maybe all elementary buildings. Um there was, you know, a a pre-K through two or preK through one ideas, all these ideas. Um but they currently work together and share administration. Um and many of the
daycare kids use early learning programming. Um and there's specialized spaces here that have been purpose created for those for that age group and what have you. So it it was another instance of um you know we could remodel things just to remodel it and move people and disrupt people but there
wasn't a clear benefit in the end. Um and kind of kind of segus into our next bullet point. So either a prek through or an early learning center. Um so some space issues and daycare issues like I already mentioned and again it was just costly to remodel to relocate programming. um all ideas that were
worthy of discussion. Um but when ideas that were less disruptive and didn't incur renovation costs were on the table, it was hard to advance those ones. Um other grade level band configurations. So many of the ideas that were not advanced ultimately or
brought to you as a recommendation um were kind of strong clear um grade level banding options. So, for example, all first grade in one building, all second grade in one building, all third grade in one building. Um, it was challenging
to get it all to fit well with um some capacity issues. Um, like I said, it was a lot of moving just to move. So, it was disruptive to almost everyone in the entire system. Um, it created a lot of transitions for staff. Um, right, it was like either you know sometimes in in
some of the plans every other year students moving to a new building, right? Um we heard from um some um surrounding districts who have tried it and have reversed back from it. Um and there was a lot of uh strong feelings in survey results around pure grade level
banding. Um and then I think most important well one of the most important I should say is um that the transportation costs um were would go up with that. Um so it would create a multiple routes. um you would have to change start and finish times and it was
especially impactful to students who live in your more rural areas um with a lot of waiting around time at school. So um it was a lot of disruption and cost. So most of those ideas were not advanced. Um and then the 4-day school week was brought up I think at a community
meeting for the first time. Um and the the main topic around that um was that child care on that fifth day for families is always difficult, right? uh many families really need the school day to provide um child care for them when they are working. Um and at the end of the day, that does not really address
the the the fact that you have excess space in your facilities. It was another cost-saving idea that somebody brought up at a um community meeting. Okay. So, I'm going to go through um there is an ultimate one plan being recommended this evening, but I'm going to go through kind of the three frontr
runners that emerged. Um we'll talk about kind of the pros and cons of each. Um, and then we've got some summary stuff here. So, again, derived from community input. Um, and like I said, I think the task force wishes we had every resident in town had responded to the
survey. Um, agreed on that part. Um, lot of task force input. I I went through the priorities earlier in the presentation. Um, so all three of them include the closure of an elementary school. So, we do not have a recommendation at this time and working with the administration of exactly what
that would save. We have it on the slide here as a a range from $500,000 to $750,000 annually. And that would be between um the ability to staff things differently. Um you would not have that building to clean, you would not have
that building to do maintenance on, and you would not have that building to heat and cool, right? Um and so the range is really because you would have to do a couple of things to be able to hone that in better. One is actually probably select which building we're talking about. Then attendance areas would have
to be selected and then transportation routing would have to be determined, right? Plus many other things, right? But though all of those choices would change that savings quite significantly. Um so thought it was responsible to reflect as a range right now. Um we did have to talk about that with the task force quite a bit. And like I mentioned,
transportation costs would be different in each model. Um we did also spend a lot of time with special services thinking about how these models would impact programming for students and they would be a little different. and I have some of the feedback we got from them um for each model. And then goes without saying, but
student counts per building are really dependent on attendance areas. So um when I go through the plans, I'll kind of explain how that impacts things. Um so proposed plan one um is to close an elementary school site and you have
three remaining elementary schools that would house grades K through four. um K through four is really what would fit in the buildings if you were down one building. Um having fifth grade back in that um would put all of the buildings over their well I guess I'm I'm going to
talk like all three of them are equally perfectly equally sized buildings which might not be what it is in the end, right? Um but that would put the buildings over capacity at least for the first couple of years. You maybe could grow into that over time. Um so that's why it's K through four. Um as it's already been mentioned a couple times
this evening. Um, that would put Southwest as a 56 and Albert Lee Area High School as a 712, which really is a 78 middle school and a 912 high school, right? That would be the intent of delivery. Um, there's a potential um, if you continue to decline that you could
re-evaluate this um, and maybe take a couple of different steps. You could have 2K3 buildings and Southwest Intermediate could be a 46. Um, you would not fit in that configuration today, right? So, just as the the task force spent a lot of time pre-planning for the future, right? And we we don't
know what will happen in the 5 to 10 year window range. So, like I said, we wanted a plan that could work for you into the future. Um, so here are some um numbers of how enrollment or um yeah, I would call it enrollment could look um at each of
those buildings. Um I will said that they are estimates, right? Like I said, the attendance areas across these three elementary schools are not known. Um, so you can see it's shown as like a lower and upper. You can think of that as a range. Um, I think it's probably safe to say they would not be perfectly equal.
Um, and then you can see across the next fourish years what that would look like, right? So in 2028 what it would look like and then out to 2031 um, as long as you stay on the projection that you're on today. Um then at a grades 56 building you can
see in 2028 estimate estimated to be at about 453 getting down to 393 at the end of the projection and then 712 1495 getting down to 1378 and I should emphasize I think estimate is the right way to talk about this
right um because attendance areas and projections are both things that need to be studied more and watched. Uh so when we talk about savings um you would have fixed costs um every year of closing the building like I mentioned it's the heating and cooling it's the
maintenance it's the cleaning it's things of that nature um staffing efficiencies in grades 5 through 12 you would be you already are banded in grades 6 through 12 and by that I mean all sections of a given grade level are at one site right so this would add
fifth grade to that um and you would still have three um elementary um they wouldn't so you would be down one ele one neighborhood school but it's um very close to what you have today right so there'd be three buildings that would be K through four any of these
plans we're talking about have disruption so we're kind of pointing out the main disruptions in all of this so closing a school site of course creates um boundaries for some families and boundaries will change transportation adjustments and walk zones um there
would have to be realigned staffing right we can't um we would have to reassess the whole system whether that's teaching or custodial or administration. Um but this option was seen as the the least disruptive especially as I mentioned some of the option we're not even going to go through tonight were kind of upsetting the all of the apples
in the apple cart. Um Albert Lee Bus was consulted on all of these plans and this was the preferred plan from a disruption perspective and a cost perspective um from from them. Um and special services had similar feelings. Um so grade level banding pure grade level banding was
challenging to imagine how to deliver services properly for them um that wouldn't increase costs. Um there was some um discussion about adjusting services for fifth grade. Um so elementary to southwest and seventh grade to the high school.
Um and then a short list I would say of the pros and cons. You could probably go pro and con for every grade level, every building. But um again to reiterate preferred plan from transportation special services the initial disruption is more minimal. Um it can evenly
distribute ADMs um with boundary redraw and it uses building um capacities um quite efficiently. We actually have a plan I'll go through in a minute here that uses them more efficiently um but it's much more disruptive. Um and then matching enrollments to building
capacities. um cons um it is not maximizing savings now. Um so you'll see the second bullet point there. The financial benefit has significant savings and um in that 500 to 750 range um but having three K through fours limit some benefits. So some of the pure
grade level banding options would in theory save more money but very disruptive. Um proposed plan two what's similar about it is an elementary school site would close. Um but this is a more pure banded option. Um so buildings not known
but you uh having a K through one site, a two through three site, a fourth grade site and then fifth, sixth at Southwest and 712 at the high school. Um task force critique of this option was um again transitions lots of them um fourth
grade or one any one grade alone in a building on their own seemed odd to the task force. Um, but like I already mentioned, um, doesn't quite fit any other way. >> And you you'll see on that one, it it they suggested like if you were going to
do one grade by itself and eventually that grade was going to move to Southwest, you'd probably house that at Sibi so that they're on the same campus just adjusting a building. >> But again, it seemed weird for the entire task force to discuss it that
way. And um I probably should have gone over it, but you know, if you stay on the trajectory that enrollment projections show, fourth grade would fit at Southwest down the line, it wouldn't fit today, right? Or or next year or two years from now. Um so here are those
same um estimations of what student counts per site would look like. Um so you can see the um you know, K1. Um, these are a little bit easier to estimate because we no longer have to take like the kindergarten grade level and divide it by three, right? This is all kindergarteners and all
first graders at one building, all second graders and all third graders. Um, and then all fourth graders. And then you'll see the numbers for 5 through 12 do not change. Um, savings would have the same savings of the annual cost of closing a
building. Um, and you could get those staffing efficiencies in all grade levels. So K through 12 would all be grade level banded. Um disruption of course same thing closing a school site, train changes, walk zones and transportation and um
staffing. Um but obviously with going to a pure grade level banning it's more disruptive to more people in the system. Um this was the least preferred plan from Albert Lee bus. Um projected significant in increase in transportation costs. So you can imagine the way that they pick up students is
generally by where they live and then having to get them to all these different sites, right? Um so the special services um want to be from their perspective, you really like want great alike peers at um every site. Um and there was some challenges. Um and in
particular, we spent a lot of time with um talking about transitions here, right? It's every two years if not every one year. you know, getting to know a new set of staff, getting to know a new building, all of that. Uh, pros and cons. Um, so it's very
efficient from a like operational standpoint. Um, and there could be benefits from having all grade alike peers in one building, right? You could talk about, you know, consistency and, you know, all grade level teachers getting to plan together and things of that nature. Um, but then the cons is it
really disrupts kind of everyone year one. um increased transportation costs. Um this would uh emphasize that rural riders would have longer wait times. Um and then in town increase of routes and multiple routes which will require start
times to change um special education services spread out by grade level increments and then like I said elementary students moving like every other year very disruptive. Um and then proposed plan three, um it's a little bit of a hybrid between one and
two. So it closes one elementary site and then you would have two kindergarten through third grade buildings, a fourth grade building and then 56 712. Um what Dr. Hil already said could be true in this, you know, in down the road if
fourth grade fit in Southwest 456 there. Um and then have two K3s. Um, obviously that's um not you wouldn't fit in that configuration today, but it leaves that potential into the future. Um, here are those estimated student
counts by site um based on that concept. Obviously, no change to the 5 through 12, the K through 3es. So, you'd have two of those K through 3s and then again a standalone for fourth grade. Um, many of the same savings. So you
would have um the fixed cost of closing a building and then here you would have um staffing of like all efficiencies 4 through 12 because those would all be banded and then you would have um two K through 3es, right? So you'd have kind of half and half. So still more
efficient than what you're doing today but not as financially efficient as a as a peer bandon. Um I won't reread the disruption to you. I think it's all becoming pretty obvious and apparent um what what happens there. Um this was kind of the middle of the road um option from a transportation and special
services perspective. So um so it's kind of the if if they had to rank them one two three this was number two. Um the initial disruption is more minimal um than option especially than plan two. Um you can evenly distribute people um
using buildings as designed and you have that future choice if you have to use it. Um then under cons, it's potential for more future disruption um and it has um significant savings um but it's not quite as much as plan two.
So when it comes to a final recommendation um plan one if I go back to it. So that was the to remind you that was the three elementary K through four buildings. Um was the most favorable option. I would say this says from the task force but I would also say from the work we've done with
administration. Um, it's the least amount of disruption. Um, it does maintain three neighborhood schools, although those would be redefined. Um, maximizes busing and special services programming. Um, it gives you choices into the future. I've mentioned this a couple times, but you know, if you
continue to decline um into 2031, might you have to make another step at that choice or at that moment? Maybe. Um, if you stabilize or grow um you are not um maximum efficiency in this plan. So, this is not every seat on the plane full. Um, right? So, we're not planning
to be tight. Um, so you would have choices at that time. Um, would create a middle school with a middle school philosophy within a secondary building. Um, and then like I mentioned, you have the potential down the road of um, reconfiguring if you needed to. And Dr. H already mentioned the possibility of
expanding instrumental music to fifth grade. Um, and aligns um, your staff teaching lensures to maximize staffing decisions. Um, so I can go back and take comments and questions. Um, but just to get everyone on the same page about next steps. So like I mentioned, we are not
at the end of the process. We are midway through the process here. Um, so tonight I think the board's being asked to approve the task force recommendation and direct Superintendent Hy to move forward um to continue to hear more about that um school within a school model of a seventh and eighth grade
middle school and a 9th through 12th grade high school um which would probably take into the fall. um the board to study um kind of study the buildings um to make a closure decision if that were your choice. Right? All of these are a little bit um dependent on that first bullet point. Um but we're
not coming to you tonight with a building recommendation of which building. Um so all of that would have to be studied, attendance areas and things of that nature. Um if a building could be sold, for example, um and that community um meetings are intended to progress um as all of this work is being
completed and decisions being made. So more more input and communication going forward. Um so I think I'll probably go back. Maybe I'll pause on the slide. Um comments, questions, Dr. Paul, anything
you'd want to add? Like I said, I consolidated 12 hours into maybe I don't know how long I've been going, 40 minutes. So >> So I've been asked a couple of times why why 2031's where we stop. One, that's kind of where the projections stop. But the 2031 date, whether you look at it as
3031 or 3132 is an important date for the district because that's when when I say your average classes of 250 then come out like this is the last year like the 270 plus and then at that 31 is when the the
last of the and this is the most updated. Not all the numbers are going to match on all those slides because it depends on which one of these >> new one every day. Yep. But you'll see um when you get to 2031, the senior class there, that's that 250. So they're getting there's some that
fluctuate up and down in there, but that's kind of your last your last big one starting to come out of there. So that's when the district again is going to have to take another another real big look at everything. We'll we'll manage the budget through there. Um but that's
where depending on what happens, right? So even even if four or five businesses expand, two or three businesses move to town, they do that, it's going to take them a couple years to sign the agreements, they're going to start building, they're going
to start opening. They're they'll slowly have couple year plan of opening up again. That's going to get you down that road to that 31year, 32year, 33y year, but by then we'd have some data on kind of what's going on. Is the housing uh market expanding in Albertly, things
like that. So there's a lot of whatifs, right? Here's what we know now. We do not want to take a huge gigantic step forward that creates so much disruption or constructs any of our buildings to
where when we get to the 31 32 and if we've got to make another decision, we're either impaired by facilities or capital costs that we incurred over the next four years or how we redistributed within buildings. Because if we were to
grow again, we're absolutely going to need to use spaces slightly different, right? So, I'll give the big what if. Everybody says, "What if you get big and seven, eighth grade comes out of the high school, right?" Okay. So, then they go back to Southwest. So, then uh um
sixth grade joins southwest and is a six um 8 middle school. Okay. Fifth grade's got to go back to the elementary. That's got to push kindergarten somewhere, right? Well, if you're in increasing in enrollment, you probably can get a separate building for the ALC and open up classrooms here to have an early
learning center. I don't know. That's an option. There's a lot of you'll have to look at what we look like and where the student need is once you get past that 31 day, but I also don't want to make such a drastic step that we create a lot
of issues. So again, when you get to 31 32, you you can we as a district can realistically look at and say, "Here's where we're at. Now, what do we do?" So that's why I think the task force looked at plan one. Is it a drastic
step? Closing an elementary is a drastic step, right? My mom went to Ramsay School for a couple of years before she moved out of Albertly. Now, when I go look at Ramsay school, because I drove her by it, she says, "I don't recognize it. It's apartments now." Right? But,
um, communities have had to close buildings and then enrollment goes up and down and up and down, right? Um, but I just don't want the district to take such a big drastic step that we have a lot of other issues to to get over when you get to
that 31 32. Um, and that's always been a date because that's when your enrollment is supposed to kind of be where it's going to be at, at least according to the projections. Um, it allows you to step backwards, it
allows you to step forward, it allows you to stay the same. So, and talking with a lot of task force members, I can tell you we got to the end and there was that awkward I don't know what was it 45 seconds minute of silence where it was just silent there. And I can kind of remember just waiting
for someone to say something. And I know one of the task force members, I know exactly who he was, said, "Well, it's obvious it's got to be one. Now, what are we doing?" And I said, 'Well, now it's now it's my job to work with the the school board and and Sal's job to work with the school board and
say this is the direction and why. I do know that school within a school model works. I've already had some conver preliminary conversations with Tyler about it. I've had some preliminary uh conversations with Sean about it because I wanted to
make sure the administrative teams that will be affected by that believe it could work too. and without speaking entirely for them, they said, "Yes, we we could make that work. We can make those schedules work." So
So here we are. We don't want 45 seconds of silence, right, since we've been here. Thank you S for all the information and again the task force for all the different things and it was very in-depth the time that I was there and uh very interesting as as
everything is summarized a little bit and pulled together and uh we'll definitely all get a chance to uh speak our piece I thought I would just start out um I guess when I looked at this plan the first thing I thought was are be are we being reactive or
proactive and I think we're being proactive at this point because it's it's kind of like our fund balance. I don't like to see some of those numbers, but we're not cut in half. And that's the same thing as we look at our budget.
I think going forward, any place that we can find efficiencies, I think, and I think that's in our own personal life and our business life, our home life, whatever that we need to find efficiencies. And that's what I looked at. I I think the most the biggest thing
that I thought about was honestly was was what is less dup disruptive to our kids? And I taught a little bit. I'm not going to sit on that any longer. But each time they make a change, they make a move. I
know you either go from being the youngest or you go being the oldest. You go from the oldest, you go to the youngest. That's hard on younger people. It's hard on older people, too. when I'm getting there. But I I want it at least erupt disruptive and flexibility because what if something does change?
What if we do get more kids in this this uh district? I hope we do. But um I think the demographics we see are pretty close. Uh the other thing I I I like again with flexibility is the um the full service that we have in our
buildings that we can we can use to our advantage. again for the flexibility if I sure didn't like that second plan where the kids are moving about every year because to me that's hard on kids but you know to have that you've got to
be able to I mean and that's such a short-term plan to me that was that'd be a hard one to uh see that's like ultimate flexibility but then it might be ultimate nonflexibility. Um, the other thing I really liked was because we're so used to it and the
second bullet point or minor bullet point on their maintain the three neighborhood schools. That's something Albert Lee's been. Now, I come from a place where we were in the conference of Alen Conger and we walked down the hall when I was a
kindergartener and we high-fived them seniors. Okay? Didn't have any problems with them, but you know, it's different times. I'm not getting into that. We high-fived them when I was a senior. We high-fived those little kindergarten kids, too. And that wasn't a terrible thing because I mean, we ate in the
lunchroom with them. We rode on the school bus with them. I'm not saying that's what I'm basing a decision on, but I'm thinking that least disruptive again the neighborhood schools. I mean, obviously uh something needs to change uh to help out our budget, but uh those
are the main things I looked at. But I want to just say one last time, I think we're being very proactive at this point. We don't have to do it. We should do it and it should get something done, I think, for future uh financial success
of our school system. So, that's my piece. Go ahead. Anyone that's >> Do you mind if I make one comment? I'm just realizing it wasn't said in the presentation, but um I don't think any of these changes would be pursued for this fall. I think that's that's obvious to me. We talked about a lot during the
test, but I'm just d it's dawning on me that's not in this slideshow. >> No, the the this takes considerable planning. >> Yeah. >> Right. Cuz we we we only got one chance to get it right. There's only be one time that it opens, right? So, and I
want to make sure that we give our 78 middle school and our 912 an amount of time to plan because it's going to be staff meetings. It's going to be working with staff differently, right? And then as we as a board look at um and as
superintendent and as a board as we start to look at the elementary schools, right, we have to consider transportation walk zones, what do the neighborhood schools look like? What are the capacities of the building? And every time you adjust like special
education and e programming at a building based on how you draw your um your lines um per building it adjusts like how many kids can be in there, right? So it it depends on how many uh setting three rooms you have, how many
different uh e rooms you have, what population needs are. So then it it alters by a little bit the capacity of each building. So, we're really going to have to study it. And I don't I I can't say get it right. We can get it very close
to right because no matter what you do, five years from now, it could alter a little bit where it is. Um, I've been told that history of of Lake View has altered a little bit here or there and they've redrawn boundaries for the school a couple of times and some people are happy and some people are not. But I
think we have to keep that that idea that we got to get it as close to perfect or as close to correct as possible and then move forward and then just watch it and adjust as we go. Part: 2
considerable planning. >> Yeah. >> Right. Because we we we only got one chance to get it right. There's only be one time that it opens, right? So, and I want to make sure that we give our 78 middle school and our 912 an amount of
time to plan because it's going to be staff meetings. It's going to be working with staff differently, right? And then as we as a board look at um and as superintendent and as a board as we start to look at the elementary schools,
right, we have to consider transportation walk zones, what do the neighborhood schools look like? What are the capacities of the building? And every time you adjust like special education and EL programming at a building based on how you draw your um
your lines um per building it adjusts like how many kids can be in there, right? So it it depends on how many uh setting three rooms you have, how many different uh EL rooms you have, what population needs are. So then it it
alters by a little bit the capacity of each building. So, we're really going to have to study it. And I don't I I can't say get it right. We can get it very close to right because no matter what you do, five years from now, it could alter a
little bit where it is. Um, I've been told that history of of Lake View has altered a little bit here or there and they've redrawn boundaries for the school a couple of times and some people are happy and some people are not. But I think we have to keep that that idea that we got to get it as close to
perfect or as close to correct as possible and then move forward and then just watch it and adjust as we go. >> I was just curious about if you have a number of attendees at the the list or the the report outs from the task force
so the community meetings. >> Oh, sure. Um, so it was already mentioned earlier today, we had in the mid 500s for the survey. Um, we actually had impeccable attendance at the task force. Um, around 25 people. Um, almost
no no misses or changes. Um, and then we had a lot of people at the community meetings. I'm trying to think of how many we had that were not school district staff and not task force members. I think it was >> the lunch one was lighter. The evening
one was I can't >> I want to say the lunch one was around 20 individuals and the evening one was 30 plus. >> Yeah, probably closer to 40. >> We made some real committed task force members who came to both. Right. So, but I kind of don't not that they don't count as people but I don't think of
them as more community input. Right. Uh, Chair Claude, I I um and other board members, I like the idea of being proactive and uh we so we we obviously have to do something and and uh you're right that closing a building is going to be the sensitive part and I can
testify to that because uh my wife Jean and I drove by where Hayward school it used to be. And it was the first time that I noticed that that building's not there anymore. It's gone. And I I moved into that building in 1955 when I was in
third grade. And uh Hayward, Hollandale, Clark's Grove, all of their schools were closed. That was that was pretty tough because the the the school was the center of the community. And that that's pretty much ancient history. Now it's
gone. Um but but closing choosing picking a school that's going to be closed is going to be a sensitive issue and it's going to get the public's attention. But in the meantime, we we need to we need to uh we don't want to react to a devastating financial
situation which will inevitably occur if we don't do something. So I will move that we adopt the first plan. Not that I'm, you know, fanatically or wildly in favor of it, but uh we need to open up the discussion. So, I will put
that on the table. >> Is there a second for the motion from Director Score? >> Okay, now that officially opens us up. We got a second by Angie. >> Uh, go ahead.
>> Yeah, I go ahead. I You're more senior. Um, I just want to say I was I attended the task force meetings as an observing board member and I'm going to give my impression. I think that that words on
the wall were always mind I think we were always mindful of our mission. We were just weren't talking about brick and mortar. We were talking about that. Um also my impression was that the discussions about these plans was a very
robust dynamic discussion about what was in the best interests of our kids. Um so I you know that was a big takeaway for me and every time the notion of this is just my
experience but what I observed is every time we talked about something moving to the high school the response was yes we can do that we can do that. So that's sending the signal to me and the task force guy think is that we have space in the high school and now I think we have
a responsibility to make sure we fully use that space otherwise we're looking at potentially 40% almost being underutilized uh and after meeting with uh principal Johnson this is more in the weeds but if
we have a seven or 78 middle school concept in the high school, there needs to be a principal for that for that grade and better be I hope it's Tyler because he can make it work. But I think we have the capacity to make that work
712 because that's even the dialogue the dialogue when we were exploring options and writing them on the board number plan one seemed just to percolate out of the out of the task force. it seemed to make the most sense. But I would say
that 78 model, we have to make that work and give those learners a sense of their own community uh with again administrative leadership. Um I think it's possible, but I'm
believing that because of the optimist optimism expressed by our administrative leadership. So I I can support plan one, but based on some of those caveats. >> Yeah. Oh, go ahead.
>> We're not doing the most senior right now. Okay. Okay. Um I agree with what Gary's saying that, you know, first first and foremost is what is best for students and we know educational research is the least number of transition a student makes in their
K12 career is what's best for students. And so option one gives a student three moves. Opt option two five option three four. So that alone um you know is is very what's the word um
dominant in my mind for option one. The other thing, you know, as an adult, a long-term first grade teacher in this district, um, as an adult, I might say, I'd love option two because then I can work in a building with all 10 or 12 colleagues of first grade teachers so we
can team. And teaming obviously is very important, but it's not great for kids. It's not great to have do that to families, to have them bounce around from school to school. Um, and so there's that as well. So, you know, from
an adult perspective, because that did come up in some community meetings that as I was talking to people, well, it'd be great if you could have band grade level teams together. Yeah, it would be great, but it's not what's best for kids. Um, and you know, we are taking this
seriously. You know, I thought about it sitting here and um my husband's family, my granddaughter will be the sixth generation um family member starting kindergarten next year. So this is very serious to us all and again thank you for the task
force. You did a lot of work and I appreciate all the data. Um and then Dave your comment about you know we are being proactive. We are but much longer it it would be reactive. So I appreciate all the work and that this is being
discussed now. So thank you. >> Have to add one more thing. Um I think and I think you are thinking this way Dr. pile, but we can talk look at those enrollment numbers and just sit back and let it happen to us. But I'd like to see
the district put together a strategic enrollment plan. How can we gain enrollment? We don't have to decline in my we just we we'll let it happen to us. I don't want us to do that and I don't think we're the type of school system that would do that. But I'd like to see
as a board member a comprehensive enrollment management plan. How can we attract students and how can we retain students? I think that has to be part of this because I I was watching some program that was a waste of my time, but
here's an advertisement for Mano State saying come to Mano for PSO enrollment. Well, that's money that's walking out our door. So, I and I know our friends in Alden promote their school system to attract students. I think we need to do
the same. >> Yeah. A few board meetings ago, I talked about that and then this has kind of been my attention for a while. Um been working with Sean on in increasing seats with online um for our online school. So, actually the high school's taking
that over. Um, I think a big piece, um, when I helped school, uh, the school that I was principal of grow in, um, Arizona when I was there, we brought in more fine arts for the students, that grew students. That's why I think it's
key when I say, I'd like to see that instrumental music get down to fifth grade. If you talk to the music department, wow, we'll be turning out some really great musicians by just starting a little bit. But it gives families and and when I say that this comes from a sports guy, right? I'll
admit it. I quit playing the baritone as soon as I could after sixth grade to to focus more on my athletics. But I do also have a daughter that played the saxophone all the way up to her junior year, sings in the choir, and that fine arts is is her piece. But the more times that I talk with a lot of families,
you'll find out there's a lot of fine arts people out there, and they really would like their kids to have more opportunity. I also think when you have a 78 middle school at a within a comprehensive setting of a high school, the the taxpayers in the late 90s in
this community designed a high school that I know many of the high schools in the state wish they had the facilities we have. When you look at all the CTE programming that we could offer our students and we can start to, it's not
going to happen right away, but we can start to tap into that. um as I've will work with Tyler and Sean on that about how we get that that seven eight right your seven eight middle school is about exploring about learning who you are exploring possibilities and seeing how
what you like and what you do like to that 10th grade or nth grade what I call academy get everything down to then the the 101 12 pathways and if we could do that in one building across two principles and really help two staffs work together like that and start to
design we can really create an awesome comprehensive secondary system. Um, not say that we couldn't do it without it, but I think the possibilities increase when we put them together that way. And and again, it's circumstantial that we're putting them together that way.
But I think it's also proactive looking at what do we do? What does it look like at that 31 32 date in there? That 31 date that I always talk about, and then what what steps do we do and where do we get? And I also think that focus on literacy and what I call numerical
literacy from our prek all the way through senior, but that real big focus that we have prek through 8 is is going to be a a big draw to families when they see what our graduates can do. >> Yeah. Um you said pretty much what I was
going to say. Um, I I see some real advantages with uh 7 through 12 in one building, two separate schools, and and finally an actual middle school, seventh and eighth grade classes together with one principal, one administration.
But from an athletic and activities point of view, music and and athletics, the Minnesota High School League considers 7 through 12 their their uh arena. And so, uh, not
all sports, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have a seventh grader playing on the varsity football team, but, uh, in, uh, wrestling, for example, it would be wonderful to have 7th through 12th graders in one, you only have to range for busing for those rare
individuals that are good enough to be a varsity caliber when they're in seventh or eighth grade. Um, I see a lot of advantages there. and having seven through 12 in one building. Uh people get tired of me telling about how
uh things were when I was a seventh grader in 1957, but my my class was the first to go three years at Southwest 7th, 8th and 9th.
But while I was in southwest seventh, 8th and there were seventh, eighth, and ninth graders in central high school. So we had a 7 through 12 building uh in 1957 and before um so it's it's in and
as far as I know, uh it worked pretty well. >> All right. Um, similar to what Casey Walters had commented, when I first heard that we would be restructuring things or looking at that, I was hoping that maybe we could get the eighth grade out of the high school. Um, and the more
data that came out, the more, you know, the less likely that that seemed feasible. And then when I first heard that, oh, we might be looking at moving seventh grade in, my reaction was, oh, that's that's not good. Um, thinking that we would throw them in there like we've done with eighth grade. But as
I've learned about this, the setup of having a middle school in the high school seems like it could solve multiple problems at once and be a better setup, at least for the eighth graders. Um, and when we toured the high school today, you know, I'd asked um,
Superintendent Hy, why um, haven't we separated the eighth graders in the past? What makes it easier to do it with seventh and eighth grade? And I was wondering if you could comment on that. >> Sure. And so what we did uh kind of looking at it is uh gave the tour of e-
house first and second floor. um we looked at were the science rooms and we just talked about and I counted the rooms and explained how you could fit um your your your core uh language arts, social studies, math class within one um
and that on one level and then they had travel out for science then it matters on the schedule so that the passing times don't match and that's the one thing that we accomplished when I was in Delano is we ran the seventh and eighth graders as a middle school philosophy on
the teams. So they kind of team so you kind of knew which of the group you had. Um and then their passing times were different than the 912 times. Um it worked. Um did it work 100% time? No, because you got kids that are out in the
hallway. You got kids wandering around. But um but it did work academically. the teachers were able to to continue their middle school philosophy and I think at the high school using one of
the e-wings or e-houses um for the 78 um will accomplish that goal. So right now I'm working with Shawn to to fit everything in there appropriately. >> I would just add that people do feel skeptical because you know they were sold the idea back in the day that 8th
grade would be separated and it didn't happen. So naturally, people are skeptical. I would want to be very sure that we're not selling anything that we can't deliver on this time. >> Um so speaking as a parent with I got three
kids in the school district now. I got one at elementary, one at Southwest, and one at the high school. Um one thing that I've learned with each of my kids is they're most nervous switching to the new school every so often. Um that's why when I'm reading through the options and I'm looking at two and three and I'm
like well it's a lot of changing around for these kids and um especially the high school. The high school is super intimidating um for the kids coming from the younger grades. Um and my oldest one was I think one of the first eighth graders to come into the school. Um we were all real nervous about it. Uh and I
remember asking him probably daily for the first month how is it with the older kids there? Um he well I don't ever see them and if I do they don't bother me. And it made me feel a lot better about that. Um, same thing with my middle school when he switched from elementary to Southwest and he said everything's been great so far. Um, I was also very
skeptical with hearing at seventh grade to move up to the high school. I didn't like the idea of that very much. Um, learning that we're going to separate them. Um, there isn't going to be a lot of disruption, a lot not a lot of school changes. Um, I do think that out of the
three, number one is um the best plan in there and I like that it's just it limits the amount of changes that are going to happen with how often they transfer schools in there. Um, so again, just speaking, I think level one is definitely the way to go too.
>> Any other uh discussion? All right. Seeing none, got a motion on the table to um to adopt option number one, which would have three K4 schools, a 56
intermediate style school, and a 712 high school. All those in favor of that plan signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. Motion passes 70.
>> Thank you. task force. >> Thanks again to the task force. Yes. >> Been here. Yeah. >> Commitment >> and responded us. Well, thank you. >> Okay. So, that will take us to 92. Dr. Hy, a summary of budget adjustments.
Okay. All right. So, like I kind of said earlier, tough part of the job here. Um, tough part of being on a board. This is something we we never look at doing. Um, so budget reductions and we did the
first part when we talked about teachers. Um so out of the office of the superintendent um we have some general district uh reductions uh activity supplies non-instructional supplies instructional supplies
potential additional staff reduction that would be non-licensed staff um at 60,000. So the estimated general fund savings would be 85,000 there. um technology. We've met with um mainly at the high
school um and we've talked about some of the younger grades uh from taking Chromebooks home to focus on classrooms that continue to use Chromebooks for uh assignments. So, we can we'll see a reduction of about $35,000 um through those Chromebooks.
Um in the off office office of um finance and operations, we're going to reduce our account payable down to a 0.8 FTE. You'll see about $26,000 in savings there. Um custodial maintenance um kind of in this is a little bit in
preparation of um other district of our of our journey with um option one there. Um we're going to at this time reduce uh really what is a 4.5 FTE reduction in the A13 position. So it's four
elementary and one Brookside. Um and it reduces that truck driver uh delivery driver to three days per week. So estimated general fund savings about $325,000 there. um student services. Um we're going to
reduce one of the assistant director of student services. Um school site reductions of and these were the reductions that we went through last month. So you can see that's about 1.8 million a little over $1.8 million
in reductions. And then um uh talking with uh Darcy, we're going to um uh try not to use name, but my executive administrative assistant will go from 40 hours to 32 hours a week. So that's approximately
24,000. And then the option that a lot of people have have questioned that we have talked about and it's been that lack. So I'm going to tell you I I sat with Darcy and I said, "Darcy, what am I missing? What what am I not looking at? Where am
I going to find roughly $175,000? Because I got to estimate a little bit on the high side. Um where am I going to find that? How are we going to do this if we don't move the ALC? And she said, "Steve, I'll go home and
think about it." So she did. So the next morning I came back and I sat and I looked at her and I said, "How can we do this?" And she looked at me and she said, "There's one person you haven't thought about, I bet." And I go, "Who's that?"
And she said, 'You and I. So, what do you mean by that? She said, "You can keep your office down here in the morning. Just go upstairs late morning, afternoon." She's right. Or at least I think she's right. Well,
might get a few more gray hairs, but um I think it's a viable. We could move the ALC to the Southwest campus. The ALC could run an alternate schedule. The programming works. We can make mixing of the students minimum. Um
and it would remain in effect for multiple years. What option B does it gives us another year to look at it. Um Darcy and I can go up and and I say work afternoons, it's not just afternoons because it's not like the students are only there in the
afternoon, but it's it's myself being and working with the ALC staff, working with the students. Um and I've said it a few times, I kind of miss being around the kids some sometimes and and kind of the action of that. But Darcy and I can go work, you know, afternoons and as
much as available at the ALC and we can study this for one more year. Now, since I've written this and I've kind of left it that way, it's dawned on me that as we do the shuffle after next year, we will wind up with one additional dean of
students. And that dean of students could transfer to the ALC, which could really make that a multiple year. we they just stay at Brookside unless the district has to make additional reductions and stuff, but like I said, that gives us time to
study the issue. So, you'll see the estimated general fund savings is at $37 uh,000. The reason for that really is is the administrator was really eliminated last year. Sean and I inherited an administrator
that was supposed to bounce between the ALC and the high school. through some additional cuts that we made at the high school this year, but between Sean and I communicating about um some items through the retirement of an AP rehired as a dean um and some
adjustment that we did there. There's now two deans, an assistant principal and a principal at the high school. Through all of that, we were able to hire an interim part-time administrator at the ALC. So, the funds really we're going to
reduce an educational assistant at the ALC um to kind of help with some of that um with the fund, but ultimately I can go up there. I'm licensed for it. Um the great kids up there, great staff
up there. Um I think you all have heard me talk about there some of our most vulnerable students. Um, and I also have some uh connections in the community that um maybe we can start have some students make some extra options on what their career path would look like,
apprenticeship, things like that. I get kind of excited thinking about it. Do I like the the amount of additional work it potentially could be? Now, I stay here till 5, so what's 6 7:00 at night anyway? But um I think the option allows
the ALC to stay here at Brookside, allows us to work, um and really solidify. Met with many of the ALC um when I came into the district in June and August of last year. Um and it allows us to to really create an
identity. I'll do some of that strategic planning and and uh uh school identity work with them. And I I think uh getting back to what Gary said, we could make our ALC even stronger. And I think with myself being up there,
it's I'll I'm more interacting with everybody. It'll be a little bit easier to do. So the next one when I kind of have a statement option A and B, that's kind of what I'm getting at. So to kind of go over the budget cuts, um we're a little bit under 2.6 six
because as we did our realignment with the teachers, we had a few more staff that uh had experience were a little bit more expensive. So, I'll continue to comb the budget. Um Paul's find out has found out working with me, I comb the budget
all the time and and like uh Sean and I did at the um high school, we were able to create some savings that are still in the nature of about $40,000 in savings. and we were able to hire an interim
part-time ALC um principal. Um but we still have to go through these budget cuts. And so I think I have an option B that's workable. I know it will work. Um and um it kind of keeps us intact. We
could we can still study the ALC if we need to, but I think when we get through all the change next year, I believe we'll have a dean of students position. um that between our current three dean of students, we could figure out who
goes to the high school works with the 78 who goes or stays at the high school 78 who goes or stays to the high school 912 and who comes to the ALC um to help run the ALC. With the high school, you'll have three licensed administrators. We
still have three administrators here. Um, so there'll be six available licensed administrators to if a dean needed something the LC in future years. But more importantly, what it'll start to do is free up her counselor and take off some of the administrative duties
that she's been doing at the ALC and gets her more into that counseling role, which was one of the chief things I was trying to accomplish with moving the ALC to allow that counselor more ability to be a counselor and less role as an as an
administrator or dean of students. So that's where we're sitting right now on overall budget cuts. Questions for Dr. Hyle on the cuts. >> Yes, Neil. >> Sorry. I like the idea about the ALC. Um, and you're right. There are some
opportunities there. They're great staff, great kids, and it should be exciting um working with that program. >> I agree with Neil, too. I'd rather see us or the administrator
focus on the transition at Southwest versus having to add on that the ALC might move there. So, I would prefer to see it stay perhaps and you can do some administrative uh reorganization to assure them um because Angie and I were
up at the ALC today and the counselor I asked her specifically and she wants to be a counselor and I don't and I don't blame her and she's good. I'm just the impression is that she does a good job for the students there. So, I think this is a wise decision. Let's make the first
priority needs to be that transition for the other buildings and let's set Southwest aside and uh hopefully move in a direction that perhaps they stay here because Angie and I are very impressed with the layout today and talk to every
staff member in the ALC and uh that would be my preference too. So, I I appreciate the opportunity to share with you my concerns and ask about a what's a plan B because I didn't think plan A was really a valid option.
Understand why it came forward, but and so I'm appreciative that we we thought about that and we talked about having three administrators in this building um and having one administrator at Southwest. this makes more sense to me
that we would uh en encumber that opportunity until we know for sure. Um and I also I'm I'm do we we'll we'll see about a vote and for discussion because I have some concerns about
cutting the the um assistant director for special ed. So you know, uh, we've got a summary of what Dr. talked about. Do you want to add anything to the ALC discussion or
actually I look for a motion on 9.3? We'll slide right into that on option A or option B for um, ALC. I make a motion to adopt option B in the
proposed uh um structure for the ALC for the 2026 2027 academic year. >> I second >> and there's a second. Is there any other discussion?
>> Okay. Hot button. I'll just say that I'm relieved to see a second option like this after speaking with um after touring and speaking with the admin today and um you know we had a nice conversation with each of them. Um we looked at the size of the classrooms and kind of compared that to what Southwest
looks like um how the students enter, what time they do all this at um where the interactions or interruptions might be. Um I just it feels like Brookside is the better fit for it. Um and I was really hesitant with the Southwest thing. So, I'm glad that option B came in and we we have a good option there.
We're at least going to look look it over and and give it another year to look into it. Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Um yeah, touring the um Southwest Middle School campus with Gary today. I I actually could see how it could work. I
didn't walk away feeling like this is a terrible idea to put it there, but I'm not feeling a lot of support for that. and there's only so much stress that we can throw at our staff right now. So, um I appreciate that you looked at this further and are willing to put some time
into it and um maybe after a year we'll have another solution. So, it'll just be less disruptive. >> Any other discussion? All right, seeing none, all those in favor of option B for the ALC staying
where it is with Dr. Hy and um Darcy overseeing it signify by saying I >> I pose the same sign. Motion carries. Thank you for option B. >> Yeah, thank Darcy. >> Darcy, I'm looking great.
>> All right, let's go to uh that was 9.4. We have a resolution reduction in hours of uh executive administrative assistance. Uh Ashley Madson. >> Good evening, Chair Clott, school board director, Superintendent Hy. Uh so
tonight, uh the following resolution provides notice to two executive admin assistants regarding reduction in work hours from a 1.0 O FTE 40 hours a week to a8 FTE 32 hours effective July 1 of
2026. Uh the two positions are the accounts payable position and then the executive administrative assistant to the office of the superintendent and school board. Um the resolution again is part of the budget adjustments for fiscal year 27.
Okay. Is there a uh motion for the resolution the reduction of hours of executive administrative assistant? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion?
Seeing no discussion, all those in favor signify by saying I. I >> I oppose the same sign. >> Okay. And 9.5 resolution pertaining to the elimination positions of the A have
LCIO local union. Uh I've written over that uh our local union for the custodial employees. Ashley. >> Yes. So, this resol resolution presented this evening lists the elimination of five A13 custodial positions
districtwide. Um, effective June 30th of 2026. Um, it is one evening custodian at Southwest, uh, two evening custodians here at Brookside Education Center, a day custodian at Albertly High School, and an evening custodian at Elbertly High
School. Um with the school board approval of tonight, layoff notices and recall information will be provided to each employee um as agreed upon agreed upon with the custodial master agreement. Is there a uh motion uh
to support the resolution pertaining to the elimination of uh uh custodians as written? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion?
>> Yeah, I'm I'm curious as to who is going to assume the responsibilities of those who were terminated or or eliminated. >> So, working with um coordinator of operations and safety, we'll be working
on a rotation schedule. Um, and we've met with a a custodial unit as well. Um, after these notices go out. >> I guess my concern is that uh we're going to be operating with five people less than we have in the past. And I'm
assuming that those people were doing something that needed to be done. And I I I would hope that uh this the new arrangement will continue to have all the services provided that we need. >> That is correct.
Is there any other discussion? Uh we have a motion on the table for the elimination of uh five of our uh custodial employees. Uh all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I >> oppose the same sign.
>> Nay. Okay, motion passes uh 6 to1 and let's see. So 9.6 a resolution pertaining to elimination uh positions within the support staff unit. Ashley,
>> yes. The following resolution lists one support staff A13 position for elimination effective June 30th of 2026. Um, this A13 position is the attendance clerk at Albert Lee High School. U, again, a layoff notice and recall
information will be provided to the employee as stated within the support staff master agreement um, following the approval of tonight's resolution. Is there a motion um, for the elimination of positions within our support staff?
unit. >> Is there a second? >> Second >> and a second. Uh any discussion? >> So, who is picking up this role? If we're eliminating, >> there is a high school office
restructure. So, that will be absorbed. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed signifi same sign. >> Okay, motion passes.
Uh the next one is uh Ashley is a resolution relating to the termination of and non-renewal of the teaching contracts of probationary teachers. Uh so this resolution terminates the teaching contract of three probationary
teachers at the close of the 2526 school year um as part of the staffing adjustments for the 2627 school year. Um these are three licensed staff members again that are probationary. >> Okay. Um this is a roll call vote
on this one. So, but I will need a um motion first of all for the um the termination of non and non-renewal of the teaching contracts of probationary teachers. Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Second. >> Any other discussion? >> And I'm I'm assuming that this is precipitated as a result of a declining enrollment. >> So, staffing adjustments for next year and the realignment. Yes. >> Y
>> any other discussion? >> Oops. Are these related to the um resolution recalling teachers that's coming next together hand in hand. Yes,
>> I guess. And I just want to say I apologize to those teachers who were told they were given a job and then two weeks later find out they weren't. That's not how we should be doing operations here. and also to the teachers who were told
they did not have a job for two weeks and were recalled. So unfortunate but we are correcting the situation. >> Any other uh discussion? >> Okay, Darcy. >> Director Nelson.
>> Yes. Director Square. Yes, >> Vice Chair Schindler. >> I >> director Hoffman. >> I >> Director Dorman. >> Hi, >> Director Ber. >> Hi, >> Chair CL.
>> I Okay. 9.8. Uh Ashley, this is for the resolution to recalling a proposed uh ULA of I'm sorry, unrequested leave of absence continuing contract teachers. >> Yes. So, this is the final resolution
that recalls the unrequested leave of absence for five licensed uh teachers placed on proposed ULA from the March 16th regular school board meeting. Realignment and staffing adjustments recall all five licensed staff members to continue to continue with their 1.0
FTE for the 2627 school year. >> We'll make this a roll call vote also, but we don't need to. Okay, then that's fine. All right. So then I would look for a a motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second.
Is there any other discussion for the recalling? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Oppose the same sign. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So, this will take us to 9.9
then. Mr. Durban, we have a health insurance discussion. >> All right. Thanks for having me back again. Uh, Chair Clott, school board, Superintendent Hy. Um, so this evening we have an action item uh to approve uh
our insurance um rate increase for the fiscal year 27 uh school year. Um and also um here with us this evening is Mr. Aaron Casper from NIS. Uh Aaron, can you hear us? Okay, on the Zoom,
>> I got you. >> All right. So, um, in short, and I know it's been a long evening, uh, but, uh, hopefully some healthy discussion here about our insurance, uh, RFP and premium increase, uh, recommendation for next school year. Um, I will just kick it off. Um, the recommendation this
evening, as you had in your board memo, um, board, uh, packet of a increase of a 14.75% um, premium increase. And um we've outlined uh the impacts of those premium increases um in your board packet as
well for each uh uh plan and deductible uh for your consideration. And at this time I I'll kick it off to Mr. Aaron Casper with NIS, our uh consultant uh for our self-insured program. >> Okay. Thank you. And and you can hear
me. Okay. Okay. Super. So um thanks for having me tonight. Uh, Chair Clatt, members of the board, Superintendent Hy um really just uh you you know just going to walk through um what was in your uh board packet and then make myself available for any questions. Uh
just to summarize the process this year for this year's renewal. Um it was a required Minnesota statute bid year. So we went out um performed that bid uh under Minnesota statute. We received a um a number of proposals. uh most were
self-insured or within the self-insured realm for uh administration as well as uh stop loss and pharmacy benefit management. And then we did receive a um would be a pool plan or similar to a fully insured plan um from PEEP the
public employees insurance program. Uh ultimately after review of the finances and talking through uh with the representative insurance committee uh as well as the district administration um it was our recommendation to accept the
blue cross blue shield um uh response and in addition to that um set our rates um in and that that 14.75% threshold. Um couple reasons for that. Uh right now we've been actually fairly
consistent on our on our overall claims and our high claims, but we're really in a market right now that's impacting everyone specifically due to market inflation or um medical trend. So right now in our geography uh obviously we're
impacted by Mayo Clinic um given where we're located and you've heard this from me before but trend has moved up from that mid to upper single digits to the upper threshold of the single digits to um the low double digits. So basically
what that means is if we were running as expected um we would at a minimum um be giving ourselves a trend increase and we're not too far off that. we probably peg trend right around 12%. So at that 14.75
um it it doesn't feel good. Um there's no doubt about that. But overall in the market, we've really seen an escalation in those um in these renewals regardless of the funding model. So whether you're uh you know self-insured standalone like we are at Albertly Area Schools or
you're in a uh you know fully insured uh direct with a carrier model or you're in a cooperative or a poolled model like uh the public employees insurance program. So overall um to maintain the stability we we need the revenue um and you know
that's kind of our our recommendation and based on our our three different uh models. Uh the other thing that I would note and we're asking for your approval on tonight is um we have been having the conversation over the past probably three to four years probably three uh
regarding uh evaluating a uh nonoale option uh medical plan option for our employees. Uh we are bringing that forward. um we're applying that to a our our highest deductible plan um as an option for for our our staff and their
uh dependents. So we are bringing that forward and there was a slight uh decrease um um for that. So overall I would just open it up and and and be happy to field any questions. Um I know you've had the opportunity to review the information and we do have a couple
board members that are are participants in the in the representative insurance committee. So any type of comments or questions I'd be happy to field. >> Is anyone from the insurance um committee would they like to comment before we go into uh ask Aaron
questions? Yes, I'm I'm on that committee and and uh was at the meeting week or couple weeks ago and it's a committee that consists of representatives from each of our bargaining units and as as far as I
know most of them were there and had opportunities to provide input and there was as usual good discussion and the consensus was uh among all of the participants at this meeting representing bargain units that that
seemed like a a reasonable plan and uh the consensus was that we should adopt that recommendation. Oh, I I also uh applaud the uh out of mail option for the for that uh number
three deductible plan. Erin, uh, you work with a lot of plans. You'd mentioned, uh, so 12 to 14 15% is getting to be pretty common right now on a self-insured standpoint. >> Yeah, I I would say it's it's common
among all all funding uh models. So, you know, unfortunately, the last probably 24 to 36 months has been challenging. And what's really been driving the vast majority of this is the the increase in frequency and severity of high-cost
claims across the board, not even, you know, in, you know, our geography or even in Minnesota, but even nationally. Uh we've seen that I', um, gone to a couple different stop-loss conferences and to hear these national providers, uh, speak to what's happening in the
market. And granted, it's it's just a a portion within our overall uh plan, but it continues to grow. You know, a couple years ago, we were looking at maybe 15 on the on the high side, a 20% increase in these stop-loss uh policies, and now
we're looking at double that, you know, 40 50%. And we've seen um you know the you know working with over a third of the school districts in Minnesota on on their medical insurance we've seen a variety of um of increases over the
years and um I would say that they've in in whole have have definitely ticked up where we're we're now in an environment where it's rare to see a single digit increase. Now they it can happen but there's there's always you know some circumstances around that. the norm now
is is the is the teens and we have are still seeing 20s out there. >> You know, I think we've been pretty blessed at least the first three years uh when we started the stop loss or self-insured some will call it plan that you know we had zero, didn't we? Or
pretty close to that. So, I mean, it's not really catching up, but you can see where the the overall expenses have just continued to creep up on every plan, and then you get one or two big big uh uh incidences that hit stop loss. I mean,
that is tough on a uh self-insured plan. So, >> yeah, we're, you know, we're we're definitely seeing um an increase in high-cost claimments across the board. uh it's the rare it's the rare entity um that that doesn't have that. Uh and you
know what we're trying to do is we're we're trying to ultimately level off those oscillations as best we can. Uh and we have the protections in place to do that. So in the in the good years, you know, fortunately we we bank some some reserves in our fund 20 reserves
and we're going to lean into that a little bit here um this next renewal cycle. So, yeah, we're we're trying to do what we can to to to mitigate it, but um the market is the market. And as a comparison, if we were still in a fully insured environment, we we'd be looking
well north of of a 14.75 increase for sure. >> Any other Kim? >> Hi, Erin. Um you mentioned um a slight decrease in the out of network. What do
you have any kind of ballpark there? >> Yeah. So out of the out of the 14.75 if you think about it on on what we're what we're looking at in terms of um a revenue increase, we're we're looking at a 5% reduction off that off the high uh
plan of that 3000 deductible plan. So, um, really it's it's about a 5% differential for our employees. >> Erin, would you be able to talk a little bit more about the high value plan and how hopefully that could impact future costs on the road? Um, we'll see how it
goes, of course, but >> that would hope. >> Yeah. Abs, absolutely. Um, uh, Clerk Hoffman, I I I think the the best way to describe this is that what we're what we're really doing is we're giving
employees the option, uh, to voluntarily elect to choose a plan um, and a network that no longer contains uh, Mayo Clinic in network. That doesn't mean that they couldn't access Mayo Clinic in an emergency type setting. Emergencies are
going to be treated as in network. Um but but ultimately if folks um want to have that ability to re you know save on some premium dollars so impact to pay uh and not access Mayo Clinic we're giving
them uh that option. Um you know it's going to be you know the juryy's still out you know so to speak because we're we're going to wait and see how many people are are willing to to make that you know switch. Um but typically
when you make plan changes like this there is anywhere from a two to threeyear transition when folks um kind of move with their feet in their in their pocketbooks. So um we'll see how that goes. You know bottom line we still have to make sure and keep mindful of
the revenue that we need to take in to cover our administrative expenses and our and our overall claims cost. >> So uh Erin, if I can jump in on that point. Um just a reminder to the board that as a self-insured um program u the
premiums that we set are what is the money we bring in towards uh those claims right so we are essentially setting our premium to maintain our insurance fund balance so when we offer this um highv value plan the non-manual plan uh as a sidebyside with that high
deductible plan we're offering it as a a discount right a 5% discount but what essentially we're doing that discount is impacting the amount of revenue we bring in as well. So if we see a lot of employees migrate to this plan, we bring in less revenue towards our insurance fund. Um and then we do need to continue
to do the analysis on what the impacts are balance and our um costs of those claims with that plan as well. So, um, Aaron and his team, um, I think are approaching this, uh, very really intelligent, uh, giving us a plan to
start it and offer an opportunity for our employees to, if they prefer, uh, a little bit cheaper option. Um, this will be a good option for them, but it's not going to put us at um, a tremendous amount of risk by offering it at a 5% discount. Um, and I just want to just
comment on um, Director Nelson, your your question about the the cost. Um, so 5% discount on that off of that premium increase. Um, the premium costs for this are in that board packet. They're listed as the $3,6,000 deductible single or
family uh highv value network option in your board packet. And the premiums u listed are $1,235 a month for the uh single and $3,100 a month for the family plan. So slightly more affordable than the um Blue Cross Blue Shield plan that
we have existing. Any other u comments, questions? So, uh Paul, then we basically is there a couple motions we need to get right now? >> We I think we can do it all with one action. So, just a couple final points.
So in summary or reminder first and foremost we talk about the high-cost claimants uh driving uh this and that's essentially we're thankful that we our employees have the insurance and when they need this it's there for them and um unfortunately that that's uh you know
the driving factor in a rate increase. Um but we don't um you know we we need to be mindful that this that's this reason we have it too, right? And so um >> so there are some levers we can pull not necessarily with the high cost claimments right um but um in our
self-insured model we do have our well at work clinic and we get really really strong feedback from our u our staff about our clinic right here in Brookside and not very many school districts can offer a clinic in house um same day
appointments um very good feedback from our nurse practitioners that staff it um we share that facility with the county. It's a strong relationship with both parties. It's working well. It's about a 62% uh school district, 38% county,
anywhere to 65% school district um usage, which is right about where our agreement is between the county and school. Um, and we also have a healthiest you um, uh, TEDoc app that our staff uh, if they're on our insurance are eligible to use for
themselves and their dependent and get strong feedback about uh, how convenient that is. Um, if we are not in this current model that we're using, those may not be eligible or not they may not be available to our employees. So, something else to consider as we look at our self-insured model and we've done
some deep dive into those discussions in the insurance committee. um but just want to celebrate those two uh programs that we offer as well to help keep those um in increases lower. Um so in summary, recommending insurance premium increase of 14.75%
um for our medical health insurance increase under BlueCross Blue Shield plan this evening. Uh the plan options will now include a highv value sideby-side plan with the the high deductible option under Bluec Cross Blue Shield. Um, and then this vote this evening will also include a dental insurance renewal with no increase. Uh,
a vision insurance premium renewal with no increase and no increase to our long-term disability premiums uh, for the July 126 renewal. So, at this time, we ask for a motion to approve the proposed insurance premium increases as outlined in your board memo. >> So, move.
>> Second. >> Any uh any other discussion? One quick question, Aaron, for you. Did each one of the RFP companies have a uh high deductible plan proposal?
>> Um they the so PEEP proposed a high deductible health plan as a part of their program. The um the other providers did provide from their actuarial workup um a an expected claims rate associated with our existing plan.
So yes, they all included um a high deductible health plan uh equivalency. >> Okay, thank you. Any other questions? See, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign.
>> Thank you, Aaron. Motion carries. >> Thank you. And Aaron, thanks for staying up late with us this evening. >> No problem. Have a good night, everybody. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh calendar master calendar uh 7.11. Tanya,
>> wake up, Tanya. >> All right. Save the best for last. Just kidding. >> Okay. Good evening, school board. Chair clot, superintendent Hy. I'm here this evening to go over the proposed school
calendars for school year 2627 revised and school year 2728. Um, as I get midway through the presentation, I'll also be inviting uh Principal Larson and uh Principal Gaston up um to share some crucial conversation
information as part of the calendar committee. Um, one more thing to add um related to the school year 2627 revised. Uh, Director Dorman reached out to me a couple weeks ago um, inquiring about why
do we have a 26 27 revised? Um, and this fall as we were preparing to create the calendar committee and get the next uh, calendar uh, prepared to go, Dr. Hyle had learned that although we had board
approved calendars from for 2627, they were not MDE approved. So last year um it was not submitted to MDE for the early start renewal um or the early
start approval. So, that also, as you'll see, um, when Principal Larson comes up, gave us an opportunity to look at some revisions that really came forward this year as some pieces that didn't work as
well as we wanted them to. So, it opened up an opportunity. Um, that's why you're seeing the revised here tonight. Hi. So to go through the process, uh we established the committee in December.
Um our first calendar committee meeting was held on December 15, 2025. Uh we gathered feedback after that first calendar committee meeting really gathered feedback then in December and January. reconvened our calendar committee in
February, sent them back out again, gather feedback in February and March. On March 2nd, we received MDE confirmation um regarding board approval for 2627 and
2728. Essentially, once we approve these two calendars, um if the board chooses to approve these two calendars tonight, we now just submit those to MDE for the 26 27 27 28 school year. Um, Principal
Larson Gaston and I uh did some draft work um in March and then we brought all of those uh final products to the calendar committee and then you see we are bringing this to the board meeting tonight.
The calendar committee really identified priorities and these were the key pieces that came up. elementary and early learning conferences, more time. And when we say more time, we mean length of conferences. Um because of our class
sizes and the eight-hour day, our conferences were smooshed down into 15 minutes. Um so more time came up. Conferences at the high school resounding less time. So you can see how we kind of sat as a
team and committee and thought how do we we make this happen? Conferences, interpreters, we need more and we need concentrated in-person efforts. We heard more more student contact days. We've heard Chair Clott say more student
contact days for years. Um but we are also hearing it out of the high school um leadership team as well. eliminating or reducing two-day weeks that was coming out um mainly out of food service. Um but teachers also find
challenges in those uh two-day weeks. No PD on Fridays. Uh feedback that we like academy days and then um stakeholders at the table continue to feel if we're going to have a pre-LOR day start, we need a pre-LOR or
pre-memorial day dismissal. Um you'll see this exact slide come up again at the end of our presentation tonight to see um which of those priorities the committee was able to meet. So um Darcy, would you click on the 2627
calendar revised for us please? Uh you should have a close copy um provided to you this evening. You will see this is the revised for 2627. The main pieces to point out in the
revision are conferences. Um, we have switched to two eight-hour days of conferences in August, November, and February. And I will let
Principal Larson speak to the crucial conversations that happened um around conferences. >> Yes. Good evening. So, since I've started here in Albertly, it's changed quite a bit in the elementary what conferences looked like. When I first started, it was a 12-h hour day on a Monday. You can imagine how tired
teachers were and how the attendance rate come a Friday, right? So, um lots of changes. We went down this past year, past school year to 15-minute conferences. That didn't work at all, especially for our success coaches. Imagine bringing in three students into the school and a teacher's running late.
Now, we've pushed the other teachers to all running late as well. So, we really needed to make that change and adjustment by being able to have a Thursday, Friday, an 11 to 7, and a 7:30 to 3. Um, then we're able to meet the majority of the needs of our parents. We
can have a longer conference schedule. Um, there's going to be a little more wiggle room and then we'll have more time for our success coaches to really help our families instead of rushing so fast that they can't have their needs being met. >> Thank you. All right.
Uh, continue. And then this calendar does mimic in 2728. So what Principal Larson spoke to, you'll see in 2728 as well. Okay. Principal Gaston is coming up to talk through a couple pieces in this calendar as well. He's going to
talk through uh crucial conversations related to finals around link crew and how we're providing those opportunities for students new to the Albert Lee High School and then commencement. So Darcy, if you would
pull up the 2627 calendar again and then Principal Gaston will speak to those pieces. So, one of the things that we've tried to implement this year and and really push is the creation of a true final experience for our students. And I think
our teachers are are doing a great job making that transition more towards those more comprehensive assessments that both give us an accurate picture of what did the students truly learn this semester, but also preparing those students for, you know, their future education. But one of the feedback we
got from both staff and students and parents was that our current model, especially those two-day weeks in December, you're smashing four finals into each day pretty much by the time you you actually do it. A day of three, a day of four, that type of thing. And the feedback was just from a teaching
standpoint, we know that's not good practice. uh from a student standpoint and Carly may attest is it's overwhelming to have that many finals especially in those upper grades when you're starting to get students doing college level material and parents gave a lot of feedback on that as well was if
we're going to do this we should do it right and so by moving out of those two-day weeks and it we can move those finals into a full week and we can spread that that whole uh load over the the course of three four days. Um, so that was that was sort of one of the
great pluses of being able to uh eliminate those two day weeks. >> Link crew. >> Other topic we were looking at was um we have an amazing program. Kevin Gint, Dian Henry, Mary Bon run our link crew. Um it's an opportunity for our upper
classmen to connect with eighth graders. They get to do some fun activities in the morning and then they get to introduce the eighth graders to our building. They do a mock day in the afternoon. I think if you talk to our eighth grade teachers on the eighth grade teams at the high school, that's a vital day. You're getting a chance for
the kids to feel more comfortable. They're getting introduced to older kids who are going to be there day one all the rest of the year, that type of thing. So, we really wanted to make sure that we were uh honoring that. We've been traditionally running it the day before all students report. So, if you look at this calendar, that would be on
that 18th. Um, so we wanted to make sure we we kept that going. Uh moving in though to the following year with some anticipation that we might be looking at a 712 building, we would have two grades transitioning in. And so we've already started the planning process of what
will Link Creek look like for both incoming eighth graders and incoming seventh graders. Uh the immediate feedback from Kevin and his team is you can't do that in one day. You just can't. Um and so what we looked at was creating a two-day introduction period. Seventh graders coming one day, eighth
graders coming the other. We run the same type of program but giving each grade the attention they deserve so that they feel comfortable moving into Albertly High School. So that was our second main area. And then the last one was commencement. Um very similar type discussion to the December we've had
these sort of lame duck days where we have commencement on Friday and then we come back for school on Monday and Tuesday. Um heard from about a dozen families last year saying what are we doing? Why do we come back for two days?
We all know nothing new is happening. At the same time, as teachers, we don't want to cram the finals into those two days for the very reasons we just talked about. So, we're trying to come up with a better commencement schedule where commencement truly marks the end of our school year. It's a celebration to honor
those seniors. Staff gets a chance to say goodbye to that group as it's leaving, but also we just mark it as commencement is the end. And so, that was sort of our impetus on why we have been adjusting that ending. You notice we do not have those two hanging days on
the back side. >> So in looking at each of those calendars, uh again, conferences are reflected. Uh Sean spoke to the link crew in 2627 and 2728.
Uh you'll notice the extra diamonds for link crew in 2728. Um, a new color has been added to the calendar this year in yellow. The yellow reflects the parent teacher conferences
for early childhood, elementary, and southwest. Those will be non-school days for them, but they will be school days for high school. That's how we were able to add four days back into the high school calendar. Um, so this year we
have 171 student days for all students. Um, both of these calendars reflect 171 for early childhood elementary and southwest, but 175 for the high school.
Um, so four days added back in to the high school. Um, red days, you'll see two academy days remaining on the calendar as protected professional development time. Um, over the last few years, those were four. um they've been
decreased down to two but still having that protected um professional development time. Um other than that, Sean spoke to the uh final schedule um and the elimination of those kind of
lingering days in December to just uh capitalize on that time. Darcy, will you go back to the slides, please? Um, as I stated, I would bring this uh slide back. Um, these were the
priorities that the committee identified at the start of our work in December. Um, each of those priorities, um, we were able to hit with the exception of no PD on Fridays. Um we still do have one academy day on Friday.
Um and then the eliminating or reducing two-day weeks. Um we were able to reduce the number of two-day weeks but not eliminate them because we will still have a two-day week on Thanksgiving um by making the 25th a non- studentent
um I'm sorry, the day the Wednesday before Thanksgiving by making that a non- studentent non-staff day. Um, so that one we were able to reduce, not eliminate. And then no PD on Fridays we weren't able to avoid 100%. Um, but we
were able to hit seven of the eight priorities as a committee. Um, tonight um this is listed as two separate action items on um your agenda. Um so we're seeking approval of the
revision of school year 2627 and approval um action for uh school year 2728. Following approval of both those calendars, they'll be sent to MDE per MDE's direction.
Uh Tanya, I I'm not seeing anywhere on these uh two calendars uh student days and staff days for 2627 or for 2728 total days. >> I will have Darcy, I know we usually have that little number count in the
bottom. I will have Darcy add that number count. Uh but just to review what I stated, it's 171 for early childhood, elementary, and middle. And it's 175
for the high school. And then per teacher contract, it's 186 across the board. >> That's 25 or 26 27 >> for both calendars. Are those same numbers? Chair clot. Yep. >> Does uh at the high school 175 days,
does that include seniors? >> Yes. based on principal Gaston's uh recommendation of making graduation the commencement the culminating this is the end >> good job
>> and uh one one other quick thing total staff days >> 186 >> 86 >> 186 yep licensed staff >> and just to clarify for me there is a clean break then in December Sean for the students that as far as term is a
term end in December they start a new term in January >> that is what what we've done that's the plan at this point is to continue that practice I know that's something that the early start has been favored on um to be clear there is a little bit of a
conversation just from the standpoint of there is about a 13-day discrepancy between semester 1 and semester 2 >> and so right now um that's something our staff is actually looking at when we look at the future transition. If there would ever be any different models of
how we schedule, we would need to revisit that to make sure we're being equitable to both both groups. >> I can just say as a school board member, I probably have had the most student feedback about making it a clean break for them and that makes perfect sense to me. Yeah.
>> Um the other curious about spring break. Spring break seems late in 26 27 and then more midmon in uh 2728. So they're just rationale for that. >> Very keen observation.
>> I'm going on no food and water. I'm weak. I'm weak. >> The rationale is uh we originally in our first draft in 2627 had it the third week of March. That's what it has been historically for a number of years. Um,
in looking at that, it would create a um week off that third week of March and then a 4-day week because the 26th is Good Friday. So, as we looked at making some shifts, we gained a student day
back by pairing spring break week with Easter. That was the rationale. The other rationale we learned after the fact is a more natural break for uh the high school league. >> One other spring break question. Uh Mr.
Gaston, you'll appreciate this one. I'm sure. Do you know what's coming is we've got a problem with our spring sports and spring break because in this district there is no telling the students they can't go, which is fine. It's whatever
it is, but all of a sudden we lose a week of practice when we're just starting out and who knows if it's going to be good weather or not. So, it's kind of nice to see it down here in the 22nd. But then I'm also going to tell you that we're going to run into game week pretty
close to the end of that. But Good Friday, I think we're okay. But you go into 28 and we're going to run into that again because you shifted it back up to the third week and that's always the first week of practice with Minnesota State High School League versus arm week
or or captain's practice week the second. So that's a challenge that I don't know I talked to Dr. Hila about that. I don't know where that would ever go other than um you know choices that have to be made. So anyway,
>> um, in the past I've said I would vote no to any calendar where we didn't first survey the parents on the pre-LOR day start. And, um, I'm just assuming we we didn't >> we did not send out a survey. However, we did have parent representatives on
the calendar committee who each time we met um, we kind of had a task going back um, and gathering feedback. So, we had parent representatives on the committee. Okay. >> I do appreciate breaking the break uh before Memorial Day though, just both
for families and students and um and staff. I think that's just a nice uh approach. >> Okay. Any other discussion? Even though All right. Well, we got two motions. The first one is to uh approve the the
revised 2627 uh prelabor day start calendar. I look for a motion to approve on that. So >> move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify
by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. >> I >> Okay. 6 to1 on the um 2627. Now I'll look for a motion on 2728
to approve the calendar. Yes, sorry Neil. Okay. >> There a second. >> Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. >> I
>> passes six to one. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Executive Director Franks. Okay, that should bring us to uh 9.12, but I just want to mention that after we come back out of close session, we do
have 9.14 and then we added 9.15 and 9.16 with some agreements. So, you know that there will be a couple things discussed and voted on at that point. So, uh we're at 9.13 or I'm sorry, 9.12. who are
going to close session persuade to Minnesota statute section 13D.03 for labor negotiations. I look for a motion to go into close session. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign.