Good evening. I would like to call to order the SNoka Henipin School Board meeting for today, December 8th, 2025. Please join the board in pledging our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands one nation indivisible with liberty andice for all. >> All right. Our first order of business is to approve the board agenda. Is is there a motion to approve the
board agenda as presented? So moved. >> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Director Lingfeld. Is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, will all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. With six in favor and zero opposed, the
agenda is approved. So members, our next order of business is um recognitions with item 4A, innovative project award for Adventures Plus. Welcome Michelle Trellstad, director of community education, Tiffany Weekes, community education program supervisor,
and Julie Morris, Adventure Plus site coordinator. Good evening, co-chairs Arco Duchaine, Superintendent McIntyre, and members of the board. Um, I'm here tonight to recognize Julie Morris from our Adventures Plus School Aage Childcare Program for receiving the Minnesota
Community Education Association 2025 Project Award for School Age Care Hybrid Social Worker Internship Program. That's a mouthful. >> There's a mouthful. Um the hybrid um the hybrid social work program is a partnership between Anoka Henipin
Community Education School Age Care and Anoka Henipin Schools and the district social workers. The internship program exists to create important training opportunities for our college students that are majoring in um social work and especially not especially but as a bonus
to address our ongoing staffing issues that we've had in Adventures Plus. So, at this point, I'll turn it over to Julie Morris, who spearheaded the program, um, to give you more information. Okay. >> Hello. Um, in 2018, uh, we were asked, uh, by
our supervisor, Monica Helman, at the time for some ideas around staffing shortages. And I remembered at my site that I worked at at the time, Rum River Elementary, that um we worked a lot with our social worker on a daily basis um
because we shared a lot of children at at Adventures Plus and social work. So um there was born the idea of the school age care hybrid social work interns. Um as Michelle said, they're college students pursuing their masters or
bachelor's degree. So it's either or. we are a part of the internship um interview process uh and that it's been just a wonderful experience for the students and the stu the staff uh through adventures plus um
they do their traditional school social work um knowledge and skill development and they usually come out with a goal. They've had a gamut of goals that they want to accomplish while they're going to school and they've always ended up working for us longer than intended. I
think they really enjoy our program. So, some we have for one semester and some we have for a whole year and into the summer. Um, the hybrid social work program is a win-win for both Adventures Plus and the school district. The interns have the opportunity to connect and interact with children in a social
recreational environment, giving wonderful experiential learning opportunities to both the interns and the youth enrolled in Adventures Plus program while at the same time filling the gaps at the sites that are short staffed and teaching the ever important social emotional skills to the
Adventures Plus students. So these enthusiastic college students uh shared their knowledge and experiences with younger generation while pursuing their academic social work goals. All around it's just been a positive community impact. Um so thank you social work
department for ana henipin for allowing us to create this partnership and this opportunity for so many learners for the anoka henipin students. Um I wanted to sh thank Michelle Charlesstead. um she's been there since the beginning, the executive director of community ed,
Tiffany Weekes, the um A+ program supervisor. Also, I wanted to mention Julie Buff. Um she is a rock star. She is in charge of all these internships and um coordinates them with the college with us. Um she is a school social work
and department co-lead Compass program who also organizes everything else social work. Um, Candy King back here in the black and and white sweater. She's our staffing program coordinator and really helps us with all the leg work of
hiring them all through Adventures Plus. And then my supervisor, Lynette Hess, our inclusion program coordinator. She always assists in the interview processes in the beginning. And it's just been really successful and we're really excited that it keeps going. >> This is something that Julie has been
really passionate about. So, I also want to thank Julie for pushing this forward and really um making this what it is. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I guess that's going to be a show. >> Yeah. We're gonna do the full group. Let's move on over here.
>> There's more room >> for everyone. >> Thank you. All right. Well, thank you and congratulations. Our next recognition is 4B Youth and Music Class A State Champions Outstanding Color Garden Outstanding
Visual Awards. Welcome Dr. Ranette Ziegler, assistant superintendent for secondary schools, John Pena, Green Rapids High School principal. Jeff Thompson, Green Rapids High School activities director, and Brian Palmer, Green Rapids High School Music Teacher. Good evening, uh, co-chairs Duchain and
Arco, as well as Superintendent McIntyre and the rest of the school board. Uh, it is with great privilege and honor to, uh, introduce, uh, your Rapids, uh, state champions, uh, this year in our marching band, uh, competition.
Before I introduce you to the true magic and talent, uh I want to thank you on behalf of a longtime employee in the Noanipin School District for your commitment to student activities. Um particularly the arts. Uh this is a byproduct of what that looks like. Um I cannot tell you the pride that I take
starting in July. um when these young students enter uh the field to begin practicing and the amount of countless hours that they put in. Um it's lucky when we have such talented staff members like our marching band director Ryan Palmer. Uh but it's also because of this
army of people you see behind you. Our families are exceptional and a lot of them are responsible for uh making this possible. They give up countless hours uh in order to make this possible. So without further ado, um I would like to uh turn it over to the uh star of the
evening, Mr. Ryan Palmer. >> Good evening, members of the board, uh and thank you for the invitation to share and celebrate with you tonight. My name is Ryan Palmer. I am the director of bands at Rapids High School, and I am proud to share that for the first time in its history, the Rapids marching band is the Minnesota State
Champions for Class A. Uh, I was here just about a month ago to celebrate the best communities in music education and um, you know, in thinking about what I wanted to share tonight. I think it's important to point out that the students that you're about to meet, they're going to their names are going to be read and they're going to come into this room. They are the
distillation of everything that is great about music education um, in our district and they represent all of the positive values that I shared with you about a month ago when I was at this table. um they work hard, uh they sweat, they shiver, and uh we don't actually
start in July, we start in uh April. And so for about half of the school year, these kids are working um far above and beyond uh to demonstrate their skills and grow their knowledge and become what I think is truly the best version of themselves. And that's all done through
uh marching band, through music education. Um and like Mr. Thompson uh just talked about the this championship right here was not earned by just the students you're going to meet, but also by the parent volunteers, many of whom are sitting behind me, the band booster board, um the marching band staff, and
the CRS admin team who have been incredibly supportive of everything I asked for uh to help support these students. It is through all of their support and hard work that together we have earned this award. So, congratulations to the Rapids Marching Band.
Are you introducing me? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I am going to introduce our drum major, Natalie Wendling, who is going to be reading the words of the students as they come in. Maline Aoga,
Kaden Anderson, Emily Anderson, Eman Counts, Jason Flowers, Robert Gerard, Nathan Holland, Nicholas Holland. >> Mhm.
Riley Hansen, Courtney Hair, James Heggy, Chase Hendrickson, Ethan Hoffstead, Rain Hootman, >> Brady Hudac, Rebecca I may feed >> Aiden Jacobe
Tenzen Jordan Kiainhome Maddie Kle Reese Larson, Matella, Edison Lee, Isabella Lemieux, Andrew Lindso, Samuel Lindo, Nathaniel Lowinger,
Lillian Matthews, Adrien Metsler, Cameron Metsler, Liliana Nelson, Emilyn Nimmerfro, Grady Nitski, Io Olawi, Braden Olsen,
James Olsen, Adam Palmer, Sarah Ramos, Feliciana Santiago Deford, Amaya Slatterie, Aubrey Snider, Logan Strowman, Tito Tumbi, Hannah Vanist,
Cheyenne Vanberen, Avil Velasco, Martinez, Anthony Velasquez, Sicily Williams, Natalie Wendling, Don't worry about it. >> No, no, no. Jeff. You want to stand up and
One, two, three. Uh, the superintendent had a comment he wanted to make. >> Thank you, guys. board members as they're leaving just an observation. >> Um, at a football game in September, I was on the sidelines with Mr. Thompson
and Mr. Pñena in September and he they were telling me as halftime show started, he goes, "You wouldn't believe how hard this group has worked this summer through this fall to get to this point in the year." And this was September. and for them to now, you know, achieve a
state title, >> it's it's sure an example of hard work, attitude and effort, uh, discipline, all those things. So, just congratulations to, um, tremendous effort and it's an example of tremendous growth when you put your mind to something. So, uh,
congratulations to Rapids. >> Yes, congratulations. All right, our next agenda item is communication and public relations. Item 5A, canvas election results resolution, election district 6. Welcome Jim Skellyy, executive director of
communication and public relations, and Thomas Hunt, Anoka County Elections Manager. >> Uh, thank you, uh, Co-chair Arco, members of the school board. As you recall, the board took action to canvas election results at a November 10th meeting and those results uh was for
district six were challenged with and a recount was held and Thomas Hunt or Tom Hunt who's the elections manager from Anoka County was the administrator of that recount and he can take it from here. >> Yep. Thank you members of the board. It's hard to follow that. But uh yeah,
so after I was here last to when we certified the results of the election, we did have a a candidate request a recount for the election district 6 uh race and we did hold that recount uh at the In Noa County Government Center.
Both candidates were there and it was a a full hand count of all of the ballots that were cast at the election. Uh and the results of that recount are I believe in front of you and they did not change at all. So uh tonight is just to
certify the now official results of that recount and if you have any questions as always I'm happy to answer anything you need. Any questions from board members? All right. Um if not members before us
is a resolution to accept the canvas election resolution results. Election District 6 as presented in appendix A. I'm hearing no request for discussion. The clerk will call the role please. >> Uh Simon votes I. Hulman >> I. >> Audet >> I. >> Langenfeld
>> I. >> Desaine >> I. >> Arco >> I. With six in favor and zero opposed the resolution is adopted. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Here they are. >> All right members. Our next order of business is item six, finance, and item
6A, our truth in taxation public hearing. Welcome Michelle Vargas, chief financial officer. >> Good evening, Chair Arco, Superintendent McIntyre, members of the board. Tonight's presentation is our truth and taxation public hearing required by
state law. Um, tonight during this public meeting, we will talk about um, well, we'll start with it's required to be between the dates of November 25th and December 29th at 6 p.m. or later, which is tonight during a scheduled regular meeting. We
will allow for public comments after the presentation. Um, and then come back to adopt the final levy. Um, as part of the presentation, we are required to talk about the current budget. Although this tax levy does not fund the current year budget, it's a timing thing, and then
the proposed tax levy. So within the hearing, we'll talk about the background information on school funding, the district budget as required, the proposed tax levy for taxes payable in 2026, and then we will allow for public comment.
So, a uniform systems of public schools, it is the legislaturator's um requirement to provide provisions by taxation to fund. It is part of our Minnesota constitution. Um the results of that, it is a highly regulated
the formulas are set um by the state determine revenue and most of them are based on pupil units. um tax policies for local schools and then maximum authorized property tax levies. Districts can levy less but they cannot
levy more than is authorized um by the state or by voters in November. We did not have anything in November. So um nothing is new. Um states also authorize boards to submit referendums for operating capital needs to voters for approval.
This is just uh basic information on our current general education formula um going back from 2003 to 2026. Um the current fiscal year um is an increase of 2.75. The 2425 was a 2%. We do now have the
formula linked to um the CPI. if it was linked to inflation that entire time, um we would be at an amount of $8,91 versus the current 7481. Another area of funding in the state is
our underfunding of special education. Um currently, um in FY23, we are underfunded statewide by 726 million. um even though there has been additional cross subsidy um aid, it is still projected to be underfunded by 455
million in fiscal year 2027. So the primary um funding options to bridge that gap is for budgets and program cuts or districts to um go out for an approved referendum.
This is just a comparison of the school district's current referendum. um compared to um some other districts that are either similar in size, demographics, or proximity. Um Anoka Henipin's current referendum in the
current fiscal year is $1,154. There are two components to that referendum. One goes through fiscal year 2028. That was part of the fit for the future in 2017. And then the other one, and I'm
2034 or five, I don't have that one off hand, um was just the one that was renewed in fiscal year 21, a year early. But this just shows a comparison per pupil unit um of some of other um districts near us or similar size.
The budget component of the truth and taxation hearing is required to talk about the current year budget. This tax levy is actually for the 2627 budget which will be adopted by June 30th of 2026. Um it talks about the district's funds
which include our general fund, our food service fund, community service fund, building construction, debt service, internal service, OPE um either irrevocable trust or OPED debt service.
So this slide and I'll have you focus on the actual budget slide. This shows our 2425 actual expenditures and revenue. On the right side is the adopted current budget of 750 million for our revenues and 780 million in expenditures. That is
the current budget that we've been working on. Um that was adopted June 30th, 2025. Um and uh the deficit within that budget and um the items we've been talking about for budget reductions is then projected for into fiscal year 27
which this tax levy um is about. Moving into our revenue, the current year revenue total revenue is 750 million. The majority of that revenue is the general fund. That is where our K12 operations um consist. It's 90% of what
we do. our general fund revenue at 675 million. This shows where our funds come from and as you can see the majority of our funds come from the state 76 almost 77%. As you can see that is why we rely very
heavily on state funding. We are very involved in the legislature um and advocating for funding um because of this. Our federal funds are 2%. We are now down back to kind of what we've averaged over the years prior to COVID of about $13 million annually in federal
funds. Our local funds, 133 million. Um the majority of that is property taxes. That's the 116 million of that. And then there's fees um fees collected and other local revenues. And then our other for 10 million that
is a transfer. the majority of it has to do with the transfer in transfer out that we do um for the English learners cross subsidy. It's not um additional revenue per se. On the general fund expenditure side looking at it by areas of expense that
700 million you can see that we are 77% so close to 80% uh people that's going to be your benefits and salaries. Um, as we had a large increase in our transportation contract, that's kind of purchase services has grown a little bit
more with that $10 million increase this year just in transportation and purchase services, the next largest area of our expenditures. When you look at by program level for our budget, the 700 million, um you can see on the left hand side of this graph
are our educational um start at the bottom the regular instruction 304 million, vocational instruction, our special ed instruction at 157 million, instructional support, professional development, those type of items are in there, and pupil services,
which would include um the transportation budget. Um as you can see administration 14 million 2% district support services which would be finance HR legal student accounting are also 2% of the general
fund budget. So moving on to the actual tax levy. A change in tax levy does not terine determine a change in budget necessarily. The tax levy is based on state determined allowances. Some increases in tax levies are neutral.
Sometimes it is a calculation of a certain dollar amount and depending on um our tax base the equalization aid changes. So sometimes it is just a shift between the two. Most of them are all based on our pupil units um from that
which changes it. But our expenditure budget is limited by the state revenue formulas and our voter approved. An increase in school taxes does not always correlate to an equal increase in budget. This slide just shows a comparison of um
our P taxes payable 2025, our current one on an average home of about $400,000 in the district. That shows a Noah Henipin's um a $400,000 home currently has $1315 in taxes for the school district. So
that would be all the state formulas, the voter approved, which would be referendum, tax levy, and debt. um all of those together and that's a comparison then for those same districts that we looked at referendum just to give an comparison um which these are
the different values that go into it and then your different tax bases all have an effect on what a parcel pays for um their taxes for school district. The differences in the levy cycles makes it very confusing between a school
district and the cities and counties. So a school district we're all levy the taxes are levied calendar year but as we are levying and adopting this in December it is for fiscal year 27 which will start in July. Cities and counties
they set a budget for next calendar year then they set a tax rate and that's what they're proving their budget based on their tax rate because they align with each other. So, it's very different school district. You're you're given what the revenue will be based on um the
the different formulas and cities and counties have much more leverage to build a budget and then set a tax rate. This is just a sample of parcel that most all tax tax um payers will property payers would receive. As you can see,
there's many different jurisdictions that are going to show up on there. What we are talking about tonight is only school district taxes. Just that portion of it. We have no control over any of the other um areas that show up on the bottom line of any parcel owners taxes.
So for school district property taxes, each district is limited to the authority to levy taxes. MDE, the Minnesota Department of Education calculates all of our levy levy limits based on either state law or board approval.
Within the process there are many steps. The steps that we are at tonight is step five where now you are setting the levy. We've already um receive the preliminary. You approve that in September. Tonight you are setting that. After that is approved then the county
auditor will finalize and start collecting. They collect all the taxes and then distribute it to all the different municipalities and school districts. So this is just our timeline. It should say levy 24 payable 2020 levy
25 payable 2026. That is a typo. On September 8th, you approved the MDE elimin um preliminary. It was put out on September 28th. The MDE uh tax calculation. On September 22nd, you approved the proposed amounts. Then in
mid- November, all of the tax statements went out. So tonight, this is our public hearing and then following the hearing, we will allow for public comment if anybody wants to come up and speak and then we will certify the final amounts. As we look at the overview of the
proposed tax levy, our 2026 tax levy is a decrease of 2.7 million or 1.97%. This decrease is based on the formulas. It isn't something that you as the board can change. U it's what's handed to us
from that based on pupil units. The majority has to do with a reduction of pupil units. Um which many of the formulas are based on. So the changes by level c le category and reasons for any major increases are included on the following slides as required.
This is the overall based on funds um and categories within our our tax levy. You can see within the general fund the majority of the reduction is there at 2.56 million or 2.18%. The majority of our reduction as you can
see is in prior year adjustments and we'll go into these but again when we are estimating in fiscal year 24 for 25 and 26 we were on a an increase at that point in time when we actually had an October one last not just this past
October but a year ago much lower than what we expected how that extrapolated out was almost over 800 pupil unit change so from what we levied last year to what actually was in the estimates this year. That's what's making that large change when you
have that for year $1,154 a referendum. Um you can also see that we're decreasing slightly in community out at 2% 102,000. Uh our debt service debt service is always based on our actual debt payments
plus 105%. anytime that 105% calculation there if there's more than 105 in your fund balance that is debt excess and they pull it back. So the only thing that would change the majority of our debt payments are very flat. It was all
planned that way. When you see a change it's going to be based on debt excess. Also at the bottom it shows the portion of our categories between voter approved at 66 million and then other which are all state categories 69 million. So it's
almost equal between the two of what is voter approved and what is based on straight the state categories. So looking at the major changes um our our general fund voter approved operating referendum is a $331,000 increase.
This is offset by the 800 adjusted pupil units. So there's a we have our our voter referendums increase based on CPI. That CPI was 2.37% for next year is what it was based on, but then it was offset by the reduction
in the estimate for the pupil units for a year-over-year increase. Our long-term facilities maintenance is a decrease of 513,000. Um this is due to again the adjusted pupil units. It's a per pupil unit
formula and there was also an adjustment of shifting some of the revenue to state aid as it's based on the state's average um adjusted net tax capacity for the equalization factor and that increase.
So it um increased the revenue that we received in state aid versus levy. The largest area, as I was speaking to earlier, is in our prior year adjustments. So, for the local optional revenue at $724 a student and our $1,100
in um referendum, an adjustment for that 890ome adjusted pupil units is the majority of the 1.8 million reduction to catch that up. Other factors that impact individual
taxpayer school taxes um could be a change in your individual property um that you know as your property goes up your taxes if taxes remain the same you're going to get a larger portion of the tax base. Um total tax or value of
the property of the entire district. If all taxes stayed the same and the whole value went up of our tax base, there's going to be a reduction for people because there's more to spread it on. Um so increases and decreases in levy amounts caused by changes in funding
formulas, local needs and and voter approved referendums are other factors um that are in there. So as our referendum increases with with CPI, that's going to happen. The next slide is just an example to look at. Next
slide, please. Um, two properties. So, if you start with two properties, if say all we were levying was $500 and both properties were $100,000, they would share the $250 each. If the next year
one went up to 110,000 and one went up to $125,000, that same $500,000 would reduce the $110,000 house by $16 and increase the $125,000. Just shows
that all of these things have an effect on the the total base and your individual change this. So there's many different factors that can go into um your individual impact. Next um slides we have four-year comparison that shows kind of the four
years of our last um levies and the values. Um examples are going to show where there's no change and then we have examples where it shows 10.8% an 8% increase which um was basically using the average increase in our referendum
market value of the district. Um the actual changes in value may vary less or more for any parcel. Not everybody's home is the same. Um and it's intended just to be a fair representation of what happens in school district properties. Um, we are using for some of the
commercial industrial on the next slide we're using the city of Co Rapids. Fiscal disparities change values depending on how they they happen in each municipality. Um, and they're for preliminary estimates. Final amounts can change slightly. Um, it's based on what they have now. And these estimates were
prepared by Ellers for us. So, as you can see, um, we are 80% residential homestead. So the different columns that you can show um going across all the values of your estimated market value and you look from 2023 all
the way to 2026. The changes from 2023 to 26 are all negatives in total. 25 to 26 are all negatives in total with our 1.9. If your value did not change, if your value stayed exactly the same, how
many of it works out that way? Probably not. But everybody's is different. So, this is just showing if no values changed at all, all parcels in our district would see a decrease. This one shows um our home values. So, a
$250,000 home with no change shows what they are paying in 2023 through our estimate for 2026. So, you can see just the value as it goes down um for each year. a $350,000 home the same starting out $1,213
and then in 2026 the estimate is $1,081. >> I have a quick question on that. >> Sure. >> Um so is that decrease then from year to year is it a result of like a combination of more houses being added but population of students declining or like why does it actually decrease from
year to year? >> Um so we've had a decline in our levy for two years. That's part of it and part of it is the growth that you we've we've seen it. Yeah, we've had I mean there were double digits increase. I don't remember all the way back. It's
overall we've had 10%. The one amount that they were using um in the next slides is a 6% increase from 2023 to 24 then a 1.7 and then another 2.3. So it's kind of looking at so our tax base has
increased. there were larger I think before that increases were more double digit but it's been um in the almost in the kind of CPI range with the 6% and that so yes as our tax base gets bigger and your value doesn't change you're
going to see lower as long as we're levying about the same >> so so if I'm understanding it's so because the the tax base increases but the levy amount stayed the same it's spread across more yes households essentially and then okay that makes sense >> yep So, there's five of us paying and now there's six of us paying. You add
those other houses and that you can spread a little bit more. Yep. Um, look at $500,000 home and a $750,000 home, you're going to see the same the changes from 2023 to 2026 with no change
in property value. The next slides look at a cumulative change that we're talking about. 6% the first year, 1.5% and then 3% were the amounts used. So you can see uh although they may have went up when there was a 6% increase, they came down the next year and then
down again from um based on our levy. So with those changes and that's what generally what we'll show is if you didn't have an increase of more than 3% you're probably not going to see an increase. It all depends on where that average falls once we see the full
amount. But um with both of these you can see there was a a slight increase in 2024 when values went up six. So that 6% would have been higher than our overall increase and then dropping down after that. And then just showing for the $500,000
house and the $750,000 house. You can see again they're going to go up and then come down as we've seen the de decline in our levy. Uh, another requirement of tonight's is to mention the different credit um refunds that can be found on the
Minnesota Department of Revenue. There's a homestead credit refund. Um, there's a special property tax refund. There's a senior citizen property tax deferral. Um, so and just talks about if you itemize. So, please contact um look for
these on Minnesota Department of Revenue or contact your tax preparer. So our next steps is to open it up for public comment. I'll open it up for questions from you first before we do that and then we can open it up for public comment. After that I will come
back for us to do the certification. >> Any questions or comments from board members? >> Director Langenfeld. I just want to thank you, Michelle, and your team for putting together such a clear um
explanation of of this entire process. The school taxes are always very confusing and to walk it through and give some really specific examples, I think, are very, very helpful if it isn't something you're familiar with and working with each and every day. So,
thanks for that. I appreciate it. Especially the explanation of levy changes. I think people always want to know what happened. So, thanks for that. >> Any other comments from board members? Otherwise, I have a comment. Um, so
thank you as well for the great presentation. Um, so I just wanted to speak a little bit to the idea of just kind of our tax levy and just how all this works in general because I have have before me and we all got one of these in the mail our
tax statement depending on where you live. Mine is from Anoka County and it just lists on the back all of the taxing authorities. In in my case, it's every city and school district and of course the county in ana county. Um, and it is unique in that ANOB is the only one
where the percent change went down instead of increased. And I just wanted to comment on that because I know there have often been questions on if we should go out for referendum. Of course, we haven't done that as of yet. Um and so so the one of the problems that
has kind of or is beginning to impact the school district that the superintendent has spoken to in the past is the idea of declining enrollment. So if we have less students, we're simply going to get less taxpayer dollars. It's that simple. That is a problem actually. And as it turns out, it looks like we've even been increasing households while
simultaneously decreasing students, which I personally think that's sad. Kids are wonderful, but it's just the reality of the situation. Um and so uh Director Langenfeld and I over the weekend we got to go to the MSBA delegate assembly where there was a guest speaker um Dr. Lawrence R. Jacobs
who is um one of the leading political analysts and a nationally recognized scholar on elections governance and public policy. He gave a a very fascinating speech just kind of the state on politics in general both at a national level all the way down to a state level and two things kind of
jumped out that I think are highly applicable here. First one is the kind of nationalization of all politics. Every issue is just kind of all encumbering now. Like anything happening at the national level, it just feels like it applies to everything. So it's just a very noisy way to deal with
politics. Now that we live in the age of social media and whatnot and so there there's been an kind of just this shift where we used to distinguish state and local politics from national politics and that that's happening less and less. And then if you couple that with the fact that the other thing he mentioned
was the number one issue um for just American citizens in general right now and it wasn't close is economic considerations specifically cost of living. Um you know there's all all the other hot button political issues in there but cost of living is the number one.
And so the reason I want to mention this is because I am unique on this board I believe in that I am a member of the millennial generation. Of course after me comes um Gen Z and then I believe it's Gen Alpha after that. And I've I've heard it stated that we not me I I will
say I'll caveat this. I I'm very blessed in the situation I I have, so I'm not complaining or anything, but millennials in general and kind of Gen Z are going to be the first generation that tragically have it worse off than their parents have had it in American history is my understanding. And so you you
couple that with the fact, and I can speak to this personally because I know countless friends and just people I know in my generation that simply don't want to have kids anymore, which actually is a problem impacting this district. and they don't want to have kids. The number one reason is they can't afford living and specifically they cannot afford a
house because the average well I the average price of a house it's higher but I I want to say it's at least $300,000 at this point kind of in my area I guess in Blaine but I'm fairly certain it's even higher than that. So just to get an entry- level house, so to speak, it's unobtainable for a lot of people. And so
that leads to unfortunately them never having never really thinking that they have the option to have kids. And so a lot of millennials are just choosing not to have kids now. And so the reason I bring this up is because while it is true, and I will be the first to state this, I think we absolutely should have
wellunded public schools and I want a healthy, thriving public school system. Um, every decision that we make comes as a with a cost. It comes as a trade-off. And we are at a point kind of going back to what I was saying about that speaker Lawrence Jacobs and how he mentioned politics in general where if you zoom
out and see the bigger picture where right now the number one issue to pretty much every American is economics. And at a national level we have it's somewhere around $ 38 trillion of debt. Essentially an unfathomable and unpayable amount of money that is crippling the economy. And then at the
state level, even the New York Times is now covering that apparently Minnesota is like fraud capital USA. So well done the state of Minnesota. I guess the the notion that we are now going to ask the public for more money comes on the heels
of all of that context. And I think now more than ever it is extremely important as I think we are doing a good job doing but it's extremely important that we don't just you know spend money but that we can prove show the work that the money that we have is being spent
exceptionally well because again now more than ever I mean people are quite literally choosing not to have kids because they can't afford to live and so the the notion of going and asking them for additional money ironically to educate kids that I guess millennials are now just not going to have um by
increasing their taxes in houses that they're now not going to buy because they can't afford there. There's kind of a general generational shift taking place. And again, while I stand by I I want to fully fund the public school to the extent that we can and to the extent that the the taxpayers want to, but we
have to be more mindful now than ever before with what we do with the taxpayers money and realize that if they're getting squeezed, we need to be very mindful of that as well. So, I just want to throw that out there. Um, I think it's unfortunate that every other taxing authority in Elka County is increasing
their taxes, but that is the nature of government government. So, those are my comments. Um, any other questions or comments from board members? Director Duchaine. >> Thank you, Zach. just wanted to um maybe add something of how I see sort of the
presentation that we just had in light of of that and on your comments as well. You know, as a government entity, we're subject to all the same inflationary increases in cost that the cities and counties are experiencing and you've noted that all of them have um put out
significant increases and they're able to do that, right? School districts are not able to do that. We're not able to say this is what it costs us to operate our schools, keep the electricity and gas on, transport students, buy supplies like books and papers, and pay for labor
costs. And um we know that the truth is that our district isn't making widgets, so we can't raise our prices. You you outlined that very well. We have funding sources that are not keeping pace with inflation. That was very well articulated and very visible. We can
also see that our neighboring districts have faced that same challenge with levy increases and an Oka Henipin has not and we will not be um we will not be able to keep up with
the neighbors um if this continues. And the costs and the cuts that we're doing are real and they're hard. Um, and it still is the reality that um, if we don't have a good, strong system with
fair pay and opportunities for students, we're going to lose way more students than just those that are um, not being born. So, I think, you know, I just I looked at some of the numbers, too, and and it is it's startling to me that the
expectations placed on public education for what what we're meant to do for students and the achievement that we all want to see um come with with funding that is negative like it goes it goes negative um in in a few different years for the reasons that we've heard. Anoka
County 9.4%, 4% the city of Anoka 8 and a half% Blaine 9 and 9 9.9% Rapids 7.6% Champlain 7.9% Brooklyn Park 4 and a half% Henipin County 7.8%. I mean those are all exceedingly higher than what we're able
to do. And the reality is all of those entities and city councils, government agencies are doing that because things cost more. um we we have to be realistic about that that our things cost more and if we don't choose to go to a referendum option and let our voters tell us what
they're able to pay or not and what they want to invest in or not and they might tell us no they might they may say this is too expensive we cannot say yes to this but that's information for us as a board um withholding that decision from them is um going to continue to place us
in this situation where we're making budget cut after budget cut after budget cut Um, and I'm very worried about that. So, a couple of thoughts on that. Um, I do appreciate your comments. Um,
the state, just as an independent fact, the state at any time can fund the public school districts to whatever extent that they want. And so, as we've already discussed many times at se past board meetings, the um Democrat trifecta passed a bunch of unfunded mandates that we are now suffering from. So, never
forget that. The second thing is um so one of the hallmarks of all government is the unbelievably shortsightedness of how it does its business. And so we're facing, you know, crisis on multiple fronts, but as we've
discussed at multiple board meetings. Um the the actually one of the reasons that we have less funding, as I mentioned, is specifically because people are having less kids and they're having less kids because the government is quite literally squeezing them dry with all the money
that they're taking from them from the national level to the state level all the way down all the way to the cities and whoever. The government is squeezing the taxpayer dry and there's nothing left to give at this point. So that's why you have millennials and genzers who are just having less kids and that actually is impacting our bottom line.
So if now this is certainly I think far more applicable to the state, national state, federal government, but you have to keep that in mind that we would like to see not only increasing households but increasing students as well. And that means we can't make the cost of living unaffordable for everybody. And
then the last thing because so this question has often come up about if you know we we theorize about if the public would pass a referendum or not. The reality is we can say with a high degree of confidence that they would not. And here is why. I can actually give you specific numbers based on the Morris
leather or Peter Leman as superintendent McIntyre for information on this. He got it to me per um just stats that Peter Leatherman gave us. So let's say hypothetically to just play the scenario out. Let's say that I decided to agree with the three of you and go out for a referendum. So you'd still have director
Audet, Director Hulman voting no. So that's two two board members opposed, four in favor. So we'd go out to the public and we'd ask them if they want to do a referendum and they take a vote on it. Um when there is one board member that is opposed a referendum, statistically the odds of it passing
drop by a little over 30%. When there are two board members that oppose a referendum, the odd statistically the odds of it passing drop by about 75%. So there is a greater than 3/4 chance the odds of a referendum passing would be a no simply because two of the four
board members oppose it. And that's assuming I went ahead and supported one anyways. And the reason that is, and I want to speak to this specifically, is because whether or not you or I or anybody likes it, representative democracy actually does a fairly decent job. The public did put us here for a
reason. So they trust us to some extent. I don't think anyone completely trusts any politician even if they generally agree with them. But the public, you know, it doesn't matter what your views are. Um they voted for us. They put us here and they trust our opinions at least to the extent that we explain them to them. And so when you have multiple
board members that say, "Hey, this is not the time for a referendum." The public is actually going to trust what they say because the public put them here. And that is why you would have a greater than 75% chance of failing if we went out for referendum. So the the
proper place to start is not to convince the public. It's to convince the board that the public put here that the district needs a referendum. And then once you have convinced the board, then you go to the public and then you probably actually will get a referendum that passes. But don't bypass that first
step. The first step is convince the board the public put here and then we go ask the taxpayers for more money. >> Anybody else have any thoughts or comments? >> All right. Hearing none, we will move on to item 6B, our next portion of our
truth and taxation public hearing to offer public testimony. Um, there are no green cards acts. Oh, there's there might be one incoming. So, all right. It's Sheila Burby. Sorry if I miss or Shaylee
Burbig. I see over there. Shayen Burbig. >> Hi, co-chairs, board members, superintendent, parents, teachers, and community members. My name is Shayen Burbig and I'm a parent in the district. Um, I also got that tax notice that everybody got this year and I noticed
that my taxes for a Noah Henipin are $66 less per year. Um, another friend was $22 less. Another friend was $58 less. And I would say like to say that I would rather pay that money and have the positions back that we laid off last
year and fund our schools than have a $60 decrease in taxes. What an extraordinary waste. Um I would rather pay for that. And what I heard at at that presentation earlier is that our
schools are underfunded. Our special education is underfunded. And that is what I think is shortsighted. >> That is shortsighted. That we're not funding our special education and that we're not funding our schools so that our students can succeed.
That is a failure. And we need to have a referendum so that we can ask the community because just these six people in the room, seven people in the room, that is not enough to decide. >> That is not enough to decide. We if it's
if the question is do we want it? Then let us vote on it. >> We should not these teachers should not have to do this every two years. I want to ask not you board specifically, but just everybody watching, would you stay
in a job if you were making suddenly $600 less per month >> per how much would you stay in that job? Because I don't think that many people would. But these people were called to teach and they want to teach our kids
and they care about our community and our community needs them to care and educate our kids. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right, with that I do not see any other green cards. So we will keep moving on to our next part. Item 6C,
final tax certification for taxes payable in 2026. Miss Vargas. Good evening, Chair Arco, Superintendent McIntyre, members of the board. So, in appendix C1 is the proposed pay 2026 tax
levy to be certified in the amount of $135,566,69.36. So, I have this um for your approval tonight. >> All right. Is there a motion to approve the final tax certification for taxes payable in 2026 as presented? >> So moved. Thank you, Director Simon.
>> Second. >> Thank you, Director Wangfeld. Is there any further discussion? >> All right. Hearing none, will all those in favor say I? I. >> I. Any opposed say nay? >> Six in favor and zero opposed. The final tax certification for taxes payable in
2026 is approved. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Vargas. All right, members. The next item on our agenda is item seven, the consent agenda. As normal, members can remove items for separate consideration and discussion if that's their desire. Is there a motion to accept the consent
agenda as presented? >> Thank you again, Director Simon. Do we have a second? >> Thank you, Director Adet. Is there any discussion? Um I I have just one comment to make. Um on the consent agenda, there is um the
make sure I see that correctly. the we had discussed an AI course last time and so we did not vote on that last time. Um since then I appreciate superintendent McIntyre and team got got the board some additional details. I do actually see the value in the class so I am happy to
vote for it this time around. So that's all I have to say. Um is there any other discussion? All right, hearing none. Will all those in favor say I? I >> I. Any oppose say nay. with six in favor and zero opposed. Our consent agenda is
approved. All right. Our next agenda item is item eight, the communications, delegations, and petition section of our meeting. This is the time for community members to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within the school board's authority. We plan this agenda item for 15 minutes. Our policy
allows for community members to speak up for up to 5 minutes, but if there are several persons that want to speak, the chair has the discretion to reduce the time to comment, to hear from all, and also to keep the meeting on schedule. Um, during times of large committee input, we have been flexible in allowing
the meeting to run late. Um, tonight we have 14 cards. So, to keep the meeting on time, I'll ask individuals to keep their comments to two minutes. As usual, um I will ask co-chair Deshaine to monitor a timer and if you run over your time, she will ask you to wrap up your comments quickly. We welcome written
testimony if you have more to say than time allows. Please complete a yellow card and provide it to Miss Ball so that we can provide a written followup. And a couple of procedural reminders. Our meeting participation procedures are in place to asssure open and orderly public comments as well as to protect the due process and privacy rights of
individuals under the law. If speakers use specific names of students, staff, or board members, I will need to interrupt and or stop a speaker. Please remember to direct your comments to the school board chair. Members of the audience, please listen respectfully. The board cannot hear speakers. I may reset the timer to allow
speakers to be heard. Audience members that disrupt this portion may be asked to leave for the remainder of the meeting. And with all of those disclaimers being stated, the first speaker is Scott Zachman. Welcome to the board. Good evening, co-chairs, members of the
board, and Superintendent McIntyre. My name is Scott Zachman. I've served this district for 21 years. 21 years of showing up early, working beyond duty hours, believing in kids who sometimes don't believe in themselves, and giving every ounce of who I am to our community. I've also given 15 years of
Blaine High School as a head girls soccer coach, investing in young athletes, building their confidence, and carrying our district values onto the field year after year. As you know, this year my district provided healthc care went up nearly 18%. I now pay $1,500
every month just to ensure my family. I pay another 200 a month for my son's medication. On top of that, I face a $6,000 out-of- pocket max every year. Last contract cycle, for a brief moment, I felt hope. I finally saw an increase that made me breathe a little easier.
And then months later, it was gone, swallowed by insurance and inflation costs I cannot control. So I work. I work beyond what is healthy, beyond what is reasonable. I work summers. I train athletes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights in the winter. And I
give up every single Saturday night to bartend. Not for extra spending money, just to make back what we have lost. And I'm not alone. I stand here not just as a teacher, not just as a coach, but as a father and a husband who is doing everything he can to hold things together. And I'm telling you, the
burden you are placing on your educators is breaking people. We, your teachers, are the lifeline of this district. We steady kids who come to school carrying things most adults can't or couldn't handle. We give energy we don't always have. We absorb stress we don't always show. And we are the reason classrooms
function and students grow. But I cannot draw from a well that is running dry. This is not equitable. It is not sustainable. And it is not a reflection of the value we bring to the district every single day. We are asking all we are asking for is a fair, reasonable,
and stable contract. One that honors our commitment, our sacrifices, and the countless hours we give to our communities. None of us should have to choose between the work we love and the well-being of our own families. Please wrap up your >> none of us should have to fear whether we can afford to stay in the prof
profession we love. Tonight I'm asking you to see us, to hear us, to stand with us and to invest in us and to make SURE and to make sure the people who hold this great district together are given the stability they deserve. Thank you.
>> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is John Wallhopper. Welcome to the board, >> members of the board, Superintendent McIntyre. My name is John Wallhopter and I'm the president of Anokeip and Education Minnesota representing the over 3,000 licensed educators of this
district. I am here again to implore you to provide your negotiations team with the authority needed to settle our contract. Last spring, a noipin found a way to maintain affordable health coverage and raises for district administration. The same consideration
should be extended to all employees. This fall, we have seen the district's financial situation improve compared to projections last spring. We share in the financial stability of this district. Recruiting and retaining staff is listed as a top district strategic priority. We
agree that having the best educators for the students of noipin should be a priority. One of the best ways to do that is to provide competitive pay and benefits to our employees. For all these reasons, we urge you to settle our contract without asking
educators to take a pay cut. We have surveyed our members to gauge their willingness to take a strike vote if necessary to settle our contract. I have copies of those results for you tonight. I can tell you that over 90% of our
members said they would vote for a strike to reach a fair contract settlement that reflects the work they do every day for the students of Anoka Henipin. Earlier tonight, the HM executive board unanimously approved taking a strike
authorization vote by our members. This is not this is not a step we take lightly. A strike is a last resort, something none of us want, but it could be the only way for teachers to show how serious this situation is to us. I want
to be very clear. A strike is not inevitable, but the district must act now. You, the board, have the authority to provide your team with the resources necessary to settle this contract. >> Please wrap up your remarks.
>> The members of HM urge you in the strongest terms possible provide the resources necessary for a settlement. We stand ready to negotiate anytime, anywhere. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
>> Our next speaker is Laura Brlin. >> Welcome to the board. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, co-chairs, board members, and superintendent. My name is Laura Bratland. I am a proud I am proud to say I have been a teacher for 34 years in
Anoka Henipin. I am standing here alongside nearly 3,000 educators in this district to share the reality of the financial distress we are faced with largely due to unprecedented increases in healthcare.
I am fortunate for now I was able to switch to my spouse's insurance insurance three years ago. I am looking ahead and know I will be on the district's insurance within the next few years. I am standing here speaking out tonight about this because I know
countless colleagues who are in financial distress because of the cost of insurance. Many will have to and are leaving this district because they cannot afford to stay. My question is who will replace us?
This is not only about us now, but the future of our district. Colleagues have come to me regarding a career change as they cannot continue to work in a profession they love that no longer pays the bills. I have colleagues who are working all day with students
only to head off to another job in the evening or on weekends. This is largely due again to the unprecedented increases in the health care cost. In my building alone, approximately 40 thou 40,000,
sorry. In my building alone, approximately 40% of our teaching staff are working a second job and extra worked to bring in supplemental income to compensate for the loss of income largely due to the increases in healthcare premiums in an OKA Henipin.
These are good people, the best people who come to work every day and serve the students of Anoka Henipin because they love the work. They love the community and they love the students. But they should not have to sacrifice
their health or financial security to be a teacher here. >> Please wrap up your remarks. >> Many of us have come to work when we are not feeling the best. Some cannot afford to come to have any breaks from work. Some are already facing several hundred dollars less in paychecks because of
these skyrocketing costs. We are facing the impossible choice of settling for some contributions for our health care or a small raise that will be eaten up by the health care costs. This is not sustainable. This is not fair and this is not what the educators
conclude your remarks >> and students of Anoka Henipin deserve. On behalf of the nearly 3,000 educators in this district, I ask you to do the right thing and widen the financial parameters to settle a fair, competitive contract. Your employees and students
deserve this. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Lois M. Zack. Welcome to the board. >> Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre and members of the school board. My name is
Lois Sach. I'm in my 37th year working as a speech language pathologist and 30th year supporting students here in Anoka Henipin. In my current role on the special education evaluation team, I work in schools districtwide. This gives
me a clear window into the daily realities our educators face. From my hard-working colleagues on the evaluation team to incredible educators across the district, I see dedicated, talented professionals pouring their
energy, skill, and hearts into their students, often under challenging circumstances. The landscape today is very different from when I began here 30 years ago. Student needs have grown significantly. Educators are expected to manage more
responsibilities, increasingly complex behaviors, and at times high-risk situations. In recent years, we've also faced chronic staffing shortages. Now, add to this the difficult truth. This school year, many
educators have in effect taken a pay cut of hundreds of dollars each month due to sharply rising insurance costs. Imagine doing more, carrying more, and giving more, yet taking home less to support
your own family. This is not sustainable, and frankly, it's not right. If the district is truly committed to recruiting and retaining highly trained, highly effective educators, then offering a competitive
and fair benefits package must be top priority, not an afterthought. Compensation and benefits are not luxuries. They are an essential part of valuing and keeping the very people who make this district strong. Please
provide your negotiating team with the financial authority needed to reach a fair settlement. In the end, >> please wrap up your remarks. >> In the end, actions will speak louder than words. Our educators, our families, and our students are watching. LET'S GET
THIS SETTLED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS. >> Our next speaker is TJ Bubalo. >> Bubalo. >> Welcome to the board. >> Thank you >> members of the board and superintendent
McIntyre. Good evening. My name is TJ Bubalo and I'm a speech language pathologist with more than 31 years of professional experience. I work on the special education evaluation team and I have for the last 21 years. I have a master's degree in communication disorders and a certificate of clinical competence and additional continuing
education that supports my work with students who have complex communication and learning needs. I'm here to advocate for a contract settlement that aligns with the district's stated priorities. creating safe and welcoming schools, boosting student achievement, and retaining quality staff. For 21 of my 31
years, I have served the students in Anoka Henipin. During that time, the numbers of students needing evaluation and support has grown significantly. Their needs have grown more complex. Yet, staffing for these legally required evaluations have steadily decreased, mostly through positions left unfilled
when colleagues have chosen to quit or retire. The results are clear. Dedicated staff are being pushed to deliver high caliber work with an everinccreasing workload, fewer resources and now reductions in compensation. The shift from qual this shift from quality to
quantity is not sustainable. It affects the accuracy of our evaluations, our ability to collaborate with families, and ultimately the services our students receive. A clear example of this challenge is with our district speech language pathologists. A firstear SLP in an Oka Hannipan earns around $58,000.
Despite the requirement of a master's degree in clinical fellowship, according to Zip Recruiter, entry-level SLPs in the Twin Cities area typically start between $85,000 and $106,000 in the Twin Cities area. An SLP choosing to work in an NOA Henipin would need to make the
choice to work for roughly half the salary they could possibly make elsewhere. This is not competitive. It's not sustainable and it is already driving specialists and other other educators out of the district. Our educators want to stay. They want to serve our community and they want to
provide high quality assessments and legally compliant services, but they cannot continue without the district honoring its own commitment to recruit and retain staff. Tonight, I urge the board to support a contract settlement that pays a living wage, aligns with our strategic priorities, and respects
professional expertise, and ensures we can continue to deliver highquality, timely services to our students. >> Please wrap up your remarks. >> Our students deserve nothing less. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Please welcome our next speaker,
Christopher Hosy. Jose, welcome to the board. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, board members, colleagues, and members of the community. Thank you for this opportunity to speak amongst you. Um, I speak not only for myself but
also for my countless educators who also stand behind me. I also stand for you, stand by you today as a human being, a husband, a father, a provider who is struggling under the weight of a system that asks more of us every year but gives us less in return. This year alone, I've had to make
choices no educator or no working professional should ever have to make. I have to ask myself, do I pay this bill on time or do I buy groceries? Do I eat dinner tonight or do I stretch what we have so me and my wife and my children do not go without? These are not hypothetical questions. They are lived
realities, real moments, real decisions, and real sacrifices. And I am far from alone. Educators across our district are working multiple jobs, tutoring, driving, ride share apps, etc. However, with all of this being said, our healthc care situation has only magnified this
crisis. Premiums have risen, coverage has decreased, deductibles feel impossible to reach, and every year the question becomes, how will we pay for the care of our families? You cannot imagine the stress of sitting at the kitchen table with medical bills bills on one side and the monthly budget
on the other trying to figure out which of the corner of your life you can afford to cut. Physical health suffers, mental health suffers, our work suffers, and ultimately our children suffer. We are the backbone of this district. We are the ones who show up early, stay late, comfort students through tears,
celebrate their victories, and guide them through the challenges no curriculum has ever prepared us for. We are not asking for luxury. We are not asking for extravagant living. We are asking for dignity and we are asking for the ability for our families with the same compassion and energy and stability
we pour into yours every single day. Fair pay is not a reward. It's a necessity. Affordable healthcare is no joke and it's not a perk. It is a human right. We are committed to our students. We are committed to this district. Now, I'm asking you,
please be committed to us. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Please welcome Cedar Kilby to the board. Welcome to the board. >> Hello there everyone. Um, my name is Cedar and I have spoken here a few times before on numerous different topics, but
today I want to talk to you about the current contract with teachers for our teachers. I am a student and have been so for 12 years. I am in my senior year of high school. I look to all the educators behind me and in the hallways and even at home watching and I think,
man, I really wish those guys got paid what they needed. I want to go into education because of the things that those teachers have put me through as well as the ways that they have taught me. They have inspired me to go into education myself. But as it stands, I
don't think I would want to work within this district due to contract issues and sometimes the extreme amounts of time that these teachers put in and they are not recognized for. I believe that teachers should be able to live. Some of
the other speakers today have shared personal things about how they can't afford to feed their families or pay bills or all sorts of different things. And quite frankly, for someone with, you know, degrees, that shouldn't really be happening. Um,
like a lot of people, you know, they go to college and they're like, I want to make money for the future, you know, I want to be successful and I want to be able to retire. And that should be able to be a reality for our teachers, too.
So, just kind of listen to teachers and what they want. If they want something in their contract, it's for a reason. I mean, I listen to teachers every day. Like, I sit in a classroom for like seven hours a day and listen to teachers. So um maybe sometimes we have
to look at our students and think maybe we should follow their examples in listening to teachers and their wants and their needs. Um and just let's not have a repeat of previous years just overall. Um that will be all.
>> Thank you for your comments. >> Um our next speaker is Diane Schultz. Welcome to the board. >> Members of the board and superintendent McIntyre. My name is Diane Schultz. I'm in my 31st year of teaching, my third year at Anoka Henipin. I came here
because the salary and the benefits were attractive. I intended to finish my career here and retire from this district. Now I may not be able to stay. I'm facing an $8,000 pay cut. >> Here's a personal note.
>> I had scheduled back surgery in July so I wouldn't miss any work. >> August 3rd, I was admitted to the hospital with a staff infection. I had to be hospitalized, have two more surgeries, and was released from the hospital just in time to be in
attendance for the first contract day. stitches in my back, a pick line in my arm >> because I can't afford to go unpaid. My monthly insurance premium have increased by $600 a month for the same plan that I had last year. I qualify for
FMLA, but that leave is unpaid and I'm still responsible for my portion of the health insurance premium, $1,95. Yes, that's $390 more than the district contribution. Like many in this room, I simply can't
absorb the increase on top of the rising costs of living. So, I come to work limping along in significant pain, risking further infection because I can't afford not to. It's not good for me and it's not good for the students. I'm not asking for personal sympathy,
thoughts, or prayers. Many of my colleagues face similar situations. What I'm asking is that you recognize that affordable, competitive health insurance is a strategic decision. It directly affects your ability to attract and keep experienced teachers and to maintain a
healthy, stable, productive workforce. My colleagues and I, the dedicated educators who work hard and often sacrifice their own health to serve an Noah Henipin students deserve to have the affordable insurance and competitive salaries that will make this district
among the state's very best. >> Thank you for your comments. OUR next speaker is Katherine Verich. >> Welcome to the board. >> Thank you. >> Hello, I'm Katie Verichek and I am here
to share not my story but a colleague who could not be with us tonight. Good evening, esteemed school board members and superintendent. I am Amanda Salmanson. I'm unable to attend this meeting dur due to family obligations. So, my dear colleague, Katie Verichek was kind enough to share my comments
with you this evening. I have been an educator for over 10 years. This is currently my third year in the In Noa Henipin School District. This year at Rapids Middle School, I would like to start by congratulating Casey, Matt, and Jeff on their recent re-elections. I will keep my comments brief but they do
involve math so hopefully you will forgive me. In my life I have many I have had many titles. The ones I hold most dear are wife, mother and teacher. I have the absolute privilege of being the mother of two amazing little girls. One is nearly three and the other is six and a half months. The only way I can continue to hold the title of teacher is
by having my two beautiful girls go to daycare during the day. Now it is math time. My current take-home pay after taxes and benefits is currently $1,78 every two weeks. In the same two weeks, I spend $1,470
on daycare, which is similar to other centers in my area. Some subtractions and multiplication shows that at the end of the month, I have $476. This amount will be even smaller when daycare costs rise 7% on January 1st. I then have to account for gas it takes to
get me to school every day and the payments for student loans that allowed me to be a teacher in the first place. At the end of the day, my family is net negative so that I can keep my cherished title cherished title of teacher. This is why I am unable to attend tonight's meeting. If my colleague was not kind
enough to share my story with you all, it never would be since no one else would be able to care for my kids at this time. My sincerest hope is that a contract agreement can be reached soon so that our community of teachers can continue doing what we love and our families can prosper at the same time. Thank you for your time. I wish you all
the best and happy holidays. I would like to add one personal note myself. This is my third year teaching third year in Anoka Henipin School District and even if I am offered tenure, I don't know what would keep me in this district with our current contract.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Uh, our next speaker is Michelle Powers. Michelle Powers. >> Welcome to the board. Thank you. Co-chairs, board members, superintendent. Parents, teachers, and community members. My name is Michelle
Powers, and I've been a teacher at Kunapas Middle School for 17 years. Do you know how to boil a frog? You don't drop it in a pot of hot water because it will jump right out. You place it in cool water, water that feels comfortable, even refreshing. Then you
slowly turn up the heat. At first, the frog is fine. It swims. It adjusts. It believes it can handle just a little more. That's how teaching has felt in an Okenipin. One degree at a time, the heat rises. Extra responsibilities, larger class
sizes, new mandates, student behavior issues, mental health concerns, resulting in more unpaid hours than ever before. We are told to find our why. We push through and then the heat rises again. And now this year, our paychecks have dropped dramatically because of
insurance hikes. On average, teachers in this district are taking home 22% less than they did last year. We are on track to lose about $5,700 in a single year. Do you know what $5,700 means to a teacher? A University of Minnesota meal
plan for a college student. A year of therapy, a used 2014 Ford Fiesta with 83,000 miles, a full year of home utilities, two to three months of mortgage payments. This financial hardship feels like a slap in the face.
Additionally, the public may not realize that an Noah Henipin already spends $2,000 less per student than the Minnesota state average. So, I'm here tonight to create awareness and to put this on the record. The refusal to offer teachers a fair contract is creating yet
another hardship for a workforce already stretched to its breaking point. District leaders, the water is boiling. Your teachers are boiling. You have the power and the responsibility to turn to turn the heat down, to stabilize your staff, to keep good educators in the
district, and to show our community that that Anoka Henipin values the people who show up for its children every single day. We need a fair contract, and we need it now. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Our next speaker is Barbara Blake.
Barbara Blake. >> Welcome to the board. >> Thank you co-chairs, members of the school board, superintendent. My name is Barbara Blake and I have been a teacher for almost 27 years. Almost 20 of those being in Anoka Henipin. A school board
member recently posted on multiple social media sites bragging about the tax levy decrease for Anoka Henipin on the Anoka County tax statement. This post was a slap in the face to teachers who were told there's not enough money to get a fair contract. You wouldn't
even entertain an option of letting taxpayers vote on new money for the district. My paycheck is over $600 less compared to last year due to increased insurance costs. Teachers are now having to make impossible choices which Bill
can wait. What can I go without? Do I need to get a second job or even a third? Do I need to leave the district? Do I need to leave education? We are not asking to get rich in this contract. We are asking to stop the financial hemorrhaging. We are asking to stop
losing money every single month just to keep doing the jobs that we love. We are being asked to choose between health care and salary. current contract offers would still leave teachers hundreds of dollars a month behind last year's salary. If you truly value education,
stop celebrating cuts that hurt people in the classrooms. Start start acknowledging the real financial burden teachers are carrying and start fixing the problem. Teachers want a fair and equitable contract that doesn't make
us choose between health care and salary. We need a new contract now. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Mike Phillips. Please welcome Mike Phillips to the
board. Welcome to the board. Good evening, co-chairs, members of the board. My name is Mike Phillips. I'm in my 13th year teaching at Champlain Park High School. I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of many of my colleagues. You may have noticed that this room and this
building are full of teachers tonight. So, I thought this would be a good time to update you on how we're doing. I wish I had better news to share. I've been talking with my colleagues and I'm sad to say we are sick and we are tired. We're sick because a contract you've
offered us has fallen well short of fair contributions toward our healthcare. We're sick because while we once again wait for a contract settlement, we're bearing the entire increase in those healthare costs. We're sick because the only healthare plan we can afford is the
one with the fewest benefits and the highest deductible. And the only way we can afford it is to not use it. And we're tired. We're tired because you're offering us stagnant wages and diminishing take-home pay. So, we're taking on second or third jobs to make
ends meet. We're tired because you refuse to engage with the community about how to address the district's needs, placing an everrowing burden on us to fill the gaps of the services you cut. We're tired because you're telling us that the only solution to your self-imposed problem is to cut teachers
and increase class sizes and case loads. as if 40 freshmen in a room or dozens of students on your case load weren't already exhausting enough. >> So, to summarize, we're sick and tired. We're sick and tired of excuses rather than solutions. We're sick and tired of
being asked to carry more of the load while taking home less. We're sick and tired of being told we can have fair health care or fair compensation, but definitely not both. and we're sick and tired of having to get this sick and this tired before you'll consider giving
us the contract we deserve. >> I ask that you address these concerns by authorizing your negotiators to offer us the fair contracts we need so we can get back to doing our jobs in a healthy and sustainable way. Thank you.
>> Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is Emily Neworth. Welcome to the board. Superintendent. My name is Emily Newharth. I am a parent in an Oka Henipin School District. I have a daughter and I am currently pregnant with my second child and I am a
millennial. It is my UNDERSTANDING It is my understanding that teachers in our district have been without a contract since June 30th. That is five months in which they are not receiving increased pay for their additional experience or education. And due to insurance increases, many of these teachers have lost an additional 22% of
their pay. This concerns me because these teachers will be the ones who teach my daughter and my son. And I believe that all children deserve high quality education. Members of the board have often used the slogan, putting our kids first. One of the biggest influences on the child's school
experience is the quality of their teachers. So put our kids needs first. We have to have the best teachers working with them. Studies have shown that increased pay the and the respect that goes with that is associated with improved teacher retention, gains in students performance, and an increased
likelihood of hiring teachers who earn top scores on their education certification exams. Many board members, if not every board member, have received endorsements from teachers during their campaigns. These same teachers who endorsed you and cast their vote for you
are the same ones who were receiving no pay increase and yet higher insurance rates. It doesn't matter if your election was a month ago or it's coming up in two years. The teachers who have supported you past and present are negatively impacted by your inaction. Some believe that the state should be
helping us and I agree that it is frustrating that the district is receiving less state funds. But instead of waiting around for someone else to solve our problem, you the board have the power to bring more funding to our district and to attract and maintain top talent to teach to keep our teachers
healthy and to put the educational needs of our kids first. I ask you to put in place a levy. At first, I had my own concerns about a levy and the impact, especially to low-income families and the folks like our teachers who are seeing increased living costs. But I learned that a levy would be based on
property values and so the tax would be based on a spectrum. The children in the district, including my son and daughter, are great and they all deserve the best. >> Please wrap up your remarks. So let's stop waiting for the state and put our words to action. Put our kids first. Agree on an adequate contract for our
teachers and at the very least and think seriously about putting a levy on the ballot. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. OUR last speaker is uh Shayen Burby.
>> She switched to >> Oh, she was the green card. Okay. All right. Well, with that um that concludes with no other comments our community correspondent section. Um so our next agenda item is item nine, board calendar and district update. I
will hand it over to Superintendent McIntyre. All >> right. Thank you, Cochair Er. Good evening, members of the board. And tonight, I get the opportunity once again to present some items of interest for the board and our community regarding activities and events that are
that we are proud of in our district. And we do this to celebrate our student, staff, and community members who are contributing to the accomplishment of our mission, which is to effectively educate each of our students for success. So to start things off, you saw the talent of our music programs on
display earlier this evening. And our first item is to just highlight that our Noah Henipin High School and middle school music programs have been practicing in preparation for many seasonal concerts which are happening now and will be wrapping up soon. A list of those concerts for school choirs,
bands, and orchestras um that are hosted throughout the district are posted on our district website. Also, student performers from Anoka High School and Champlain Park High School were featured as part of holiday tree lighting events in the respective cities
held over the weekend. The city of Rapids is lighting up its holiday tree in a community event on Saturday, December 13th from 3:30 to 6 near the Rapids Ice Center. Thank you to our students who are involved in being such strong ambassadors for our schools and
helping make those events very special for our community members. It's also that time of year for students and families to explore education pathways for next school year. And in addition to events at individual high schools, the career pathways offered
through our secondary technical education program or uh our STEP program, they're hosting openhouse events on Monday, December 15th and Monday, January 12th, both from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Career courses available span a wide range of interests from
automotive and aviation to medical careers to law enforcement. Full and part-time schedules are available and transportation is provided from the students home high school. Anoka Henipin is a leader in career and technical education classes and the programming offered at STEP provides students
options to explore those in demand career pathways. And board members, you've been hearing about this for some time. We have been sharing over the past few months that the district is updating our district and school websites and that changeover date is set for December 18th. The
updated sites are formatted for ease of use on mobile and desktop devices and include improved language translation and accessibility. The district receives 2.5 million visits per year to our websites and they are considered a major source of information and transactions
for families and community members. This uh this is a required move due to the technology change within our vendor and is being done within existing budget parameters. I do want to take a moment as well to highlight uh one of our own teachers uh
Andover High School teacher Amna Kiran who was presented with Minnesota's pre prestigious Mary Diaz award from the Minnesota teachers of secondary language for 2025 for her advocacy for changes being made to the Minnesota
drivers exam unique uh experience and this five-year process that originated with problems experienced by her own students that take the exam. Kieran is the ninth recipient of the Mary Diaz Award for Multilingual Learners Advocacy
and joins Aaron Kerry who teaches with the North Metro Adult Basic Education or AB program as an Okahhenipin Educators honored for their efforts. In the spirit of service, Kieran has donated her $500
award proceeds to the multilingual students at Andover High School to support their needs and development. Uh, Coocher Arco, that concludes my superintendent's report for this evening. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. Um,
and with that, our next agenda item is elementary and secondary education item 10A, resolution to close specific school sites for non-resident enrollments. Welcome Michelle Vandentop, director of technology and information services. >> Good evening members of the board,
Superintendent McIntyre. Tonight I'm here to present the resolution of closing three of our sites for the 24 26 27 school year. Um this would mean that um we'd be asking for these three sites to be closed to new applicants for open
enrollment and indistrict transfer on December 1 of every school year through January 15th. We have what's called the enrollment options priority window. What this means for our families is that they can apply to attend a site that is not their attendance area school as an
indistrict transfer as well as students from outside of our district can apply for open enrollment. Um, so one thing to consider is prior to this window opening, our district has an enrollment advisory committee that meets to
determine which sites are close to capacity. We use the capacity of the site as well as other data points like future enrollments and trends. And we also consider other programming that might be placed at sites based on the
school year. Um, so with that being done in this past fall, we're recommending that three sites be closed. Now, one thing that is important to share when we're considering this is that how will this impact our currently enrolled families. So, our open enrolled students
will not be impacted by this change. Um, they will follow the cohort to the next school even if that school is closed for the 2627 school year. Another thing to consider is siblings of these students that are attending our schools. So
siblings are also a priority when a closed site takes place. Our goal is always to keep our families together at the site. So those are two considerations that can be um a little wiggle room when we do close sites based on board resolution. So, at this time, I
would recommend the approval of the request to close Oxbow Creek Elementary, Blaine High School, and Champlain Park High School for the 2627 school year to open enrollment requests as well as in district transfer requests.
>> Thank you for that quick presentation. Any questions or comments from board members? All right. Hearing none. Um members, before us is a resolution to close specific school sites for non-resident enrollments as presented in appendix Q. Hearing no request for discussion, the
clerk will call the role, please. >> Simon votes I. Oakman >> I >> Aat >> I. >> Langenfeld >> I. >> Desaine >> I. >> Arco >> I with six in favor and zero opposed that resolution is approved. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Vandentop.
Our next agenda item is item 10B, phase three, budget reduction and reallocation process. Welcome again, Superintendent McIntyre and Michelle Vargas, chief financial officer. >> Okay. Thank you, co-chair Arco, and good evening uh board members. As Michelle
settles in here, I'll we'll move uh quickly through the presentation as mo many of the pieces of information have been reviewed previously. So tonight, based on board direct direction, I bring the final recommendation for the phase three budget reductions and reallocation process. I do want to take a moment to thank board members for working with
each other over the past uh few months, the past few weeks, and the past few days to come to um general agreement on the reductions necessary to get to our target of $8 million that are needed for our budget. So on to the next slide. Uh since we've
covered this information in previous uh board meetings, uh I'll move quickly uh just through a brief review of phase one and two uh along and we'll also include a quick overview of the uh 2526 budget and reduction target and then get to that final recommendation.
So as discussed at length in previous meetings, phases one and two and now phase three of our budget reduction and reallocations uh that process is uh happening due to multiple factors coming together at the same time. As we've discussed previously, it's not one thing driving the need for those reductions
and those factors are listed here again on the next slide here. As we've worked through phases one, two, and now three, the district has considered a number of planning parameters uh listed here one more time to help shape those rep uh recommendations. These have al also been
discussed in in previous meetings and um those are all found in in previous board packets uh previous board recordings. Uh just a brief review of phase one. That reduction and realignment plan was completed in the spring of 2024 ahead of
the um uh phase 2 efforts and those phase one reductions included a $5.1 million reduction in realignment in central uh services affecting approximately about 50 positions. The district then moved on to phase two reductions and reallocations of
approximately $9 million and those were approved by the board in November of 2024 which reduced approximately 176 positions in central services um in the departments listed here in this slide. The details regarding the phase one and two reductions and realignments have
been provided in multiple board meetings and are again in the supporting materials in the board packet this evening. So, uh, just for a quick review of our 2526 budget, Michelle, um, Vargas, our chief financial officer, will will cover the highlights.
This was a little bit repetitive since we just reviewed some of this. Um, in our tax levy, um, our 26 budget is a $700 million general fund budget. Um, well, 780 million for all funds. The 700 million is the general fund. The budget
reductions that we're talking about are within the general fund. Our other funds listed that other $80 million is not available to cover the the deficit. Um, and as we've said before, the general fund is required to cover a deficit if
it were to happen in our food service fund or our community service fund. The next slide is the breakdown of how we spend our budget. So, we spent um time this summer breaking it down more granular for the board um to show where
we are spending the budget. Um and there were more specifics behind this in that 70page document, but as you can see our $700 million um budget and the areas that it is in um and showing it by federal grants and some of the areas
where we have restrictions um being that we have our restricted area of 126 million. We know our federal grants um are restricted. There are additional federal grants. We know there's 13 million in total revenue within the special education area. um our strategic
investments, our one-time dollars and special education. Although it is not restricted, there are the restrictions on maintenance of effort. Um the area of the majority of our spending is in our prek12 program. So those are our schools. The expenses that
are directly related to them, our unassigned operations, that's your um majority of that's transportation and then it's your operations of your building. So that's your your lights and your heat and custodians. Um central services in that area is going to be
those items that aren't directly costed in the buildings which would include um our central services for finance and all of the district support operations. Our um area our nurses aren't located
technically in the buildings way we code them. So they're also part of that area. And then the unassigned other of 36 million which the majority of it has to do with our um our adjusted budget where when we drop down the target by seven and a half million that amount sitting in there will be part of an amended
budget 10 million transfer that are close to $6 million that we pay in tuition our subs and sbaticals and then that was also all detailed out in the longer um document on the next page. This one's been updated. So, as we've
been talking about our adjusted target, I've updated the numbers for our current projection for fiscal year 27, which we will start doing very soon again when legislators come and we'll start showing the two years. Um, so with our updated
enrollment with that 7.5 million that we will be part of our amended budget for fiscal year 26, um, our adjusted revenues and expenditures, our operating deficit of 12.3 million in 27. In 27, we don't have that 9.4 million that we've
had in strategic investments because the five million drops off. So that's the difference between what you've seen and the 9.4. So our net deficit is that $8 million which has been your target, your updated target. At that point, the
unassigned fund balance is 10.1 million prior to making that reduction. So at that point, um that is where it is. we make that reduction and we're sitting we're sitting over 10%. If everything lands the way it does, I mean, there's still a lot of things that are out there
with some of our unemployment and those type of things that are, you know, the funding and those that could go away with the the onetime money set outside. But with everything out there, if everything goes as planned, that's what you're looking at with the 8 million showing that $8 million deficit and
where fund balance will be for unassigned. All right, board members. This this slide represents the timeline that we've re we have reviewed frequently and used um throughout the phase three process. It reflects that the process started last summer and has continued through
the fall months with the final recommendation based on board direction now coming to the board tonight for board action. The timeline for this process was designed to ensure that our staffing process can stay on schedule for the hiring season for the 2627 school year.
On our next slide, uh we've we've moved through this phase three process um with direction from the board remaining focused on some guiding principles that have really aimed to try to minimize impact on literacy, class size, student behavior, and safety in our schools while providing as much flexibility as
we can at the school level along with the opportunity to review and um redesign and rethink our K12 instructional coaching and intervention models in the district. So this next slide is the final uh phase three recommendation again based on that
board direction and it's provided here from the comprehensive list or menu of items that have been reviewed and considered throughout this process at previous meetings. I want to take a moment to thank the leadership and facilitation of our board co-chairs um working with board members to provide
direction to bring forward these five items uh on this slide that gets us to that $8 million target. And then finally uh before we get into board discussion what these eight it's really closer to 8.1 million uh that
brings our phase 1 2 and three total to 22.2 million um while working hard to adhere to those budget parameters and key planning uh efforts uh throughout phases one two and three. So with that cochair Arco I'll turn over
to you to facilitate the board discussion and board action. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent McIntyre. Um, board members, are there any questions or comments for the superintendent, Director Langenfeld?
First and foremost, I want to begin by uh thanking everyone who has provided input into this budget. Um, it has been a a collective collaborative effort and it has not been an easy journey because none of these cuts are comfortable or or
not going to have an impact on our kids in some way, shape or form. As I was thinking about how to share these comments, I I thought about a quote that I used frequently during COVID as it began to send communications out to my
staff and and to the community. And the quote is from Vince Lombardi and he talks about the measure of who we are is what we do with what we have. And we were given a current reality that was less than desirable certainly with $22.1
million to cut. But this budget right now I think reflects what we said we were set out to do. We achieved the bud budget reduction of 8.1. What we have also is a budget that was intended to minimize the impact of
reductions on our students and learning. What we have is a budget that is intended to be responsive to what we heard. We did not cut or restrict programs. We did not raise class size. We did not change schedules. So options and choice are still available. The
budget is aligned to our district priorities as best as it can and we expect that our management team will continue that safety and behavior as well as literacy K12. And the budget is the final phase of this three-step process bringing us to what we needed to
achieve of $22 million in cuts. So, that's what we have and this is what we need to do next. With this successful vote here tonight, um through a collaborative effort of everyone here at this table and
management, it's time now for management to do the work that they typically do at this time of year. that staffing and those staffing decisions where they look at the data in every school. They review it K12 and they look at student needs
and they put the student at the center and then they begin the staffing process. That's what leaders do and that's what they've always done in terms of the looking at uh the future and how they're going to address the budget
cuts. In addition, I I am confident that they will look at the safety and behavior and literacy and keep those at the center as well and stay within the allotted means provided in this budget. This means we will see some staffing changes, I'm sure, as we move forward at
all levels. Um, you know, we know we're going back to some precoid staffing numbers and there were are already some significant additional cuts that were in phase one and two, but I am I am confident that even with these uh less
than desirable circumstance that we will be able to continue to move forward as best we can in this current reality. But I would offer after um the previous budget that we have to really consider
how many more reductions we could make, that we cannot say to our public, that we will not touch programs, we will not cut class sizes. All of those things we were able to yet to do at this budget level. So I think that's what where we're at. Um,
we did what we said we were out to do, set out to do in terms of targeted uh, priorities. And as a result, we do have a budget that I believe will provide our students, staff, and families the best budget options that we could do based on
what we have. Thanks. >> Any other thoughts or comments from board members? Um, I guess I'll throw out a comment as well. Um, so kind of echoing many of the sentiments of what Director Leanfell just said, if we just look at this list
of items on the the final phase three recommendation, um, it is very encouraging to see that we're not going to impact classroom size. We were very careful to preserve that and we have um the something to point out that is also encouraging is the cuts correct me if
I'm wrong here but they did come down from the initial number we were given in phase one wasn't it closer to 30 million so that that's kind of just outside of our control based on student enrollment and other things but so we we actually didn't wind up having to cut as much as we thought we would have to that's encouraging no programs were impacted or
no removal of existing programs is another very good thing um and then uh two things in particular I want to point out and this um so again it's two things are always true it's never ideal or preferable to cut anything that's the
first thing and the second thing is everything we spend comes at a cost to the public so it's it's always a trade-off it's we don't live in a land of ideals where we can have the best of everything or we can have our cake and eat it too as the saying goes so the two things I want to point out in this list that I I'm encouraged to see on here are
the I think in my opinion the least impactful to anything we're doing is the central services restructuring where we're essentially just ending a lease on a building in Rapids that cost us uh $700,000 a year. And so that is fantastic because that means we're using our existing facilities more efficiently
and better and we're going to save $700,000 a year going forward. And then another one I've this has come up at numerous board meetings is the discussion of professional development. Um, of all the of all the things that the district does spend money on, again, there certainly is value in professional development, but the state requires, I
think it's 2% of our budget to be spent on essentially teacher PD, which is a staggering amount of money to spend on professional development in my opinion. So, the fact that we were able to find some of that money and pulled aside, we're still going to have plenty for professional development. Um, I think
again, that's a great thing. And just those two items together are a million dollars. I don't know if that f the PD is going to be reoccurring, but even the certainly the facility is a reoccurring $700,000 a year and the PD adds another $300,000 up to a million dollars. And so
going back to my comments earlier, I'm going to continue to throw this out there. Um I unfortunately don't expect it to go anywhere, but I am open to doing a referendum provided you just do what I ask, which is convince the board first that we need one. And it is encouraging to see that these two kind
of non-impact, non-classroom, non-program impacting items are being cut. Um, but things like these are what I suspect we would find more of if we did do zerobased budgeting. And so when if or when the rest of the board would
like to do that and to actually go through everything with a fine tooth comb and start from the bottom and build up and show us that everything is being spent efficiently and well, I am happy to support a referendum at that point. But it it's it's kind of the double-edged sword here. I very much appreciate the superintendent and his team for bringing these things forward.
I I would always prefer to cut, you know, a lease that we have over just about anything else, but at the same time, it then also makes me wonder what other things like that exist that we could be using our money better on. So, it's always the there's always two components to it. You got to fund the
public schools will well, and you have to spend the money well. And the second part is not as enticing to talk about or focus on, but it is equally as important as the first part. The just the getting money part, second part is just as important. So, I am very happy. I I know
we haven't voted yet, but I suspect we're going to get a 60 vote on this. So, even as divided as the board has been on some things, it does seem like we have gotten through these budget cuts with unanimous support every time. So, that's encouraging and I I thank my fellow board members for that.
>> Director Simon. Thanks, Zach. Um, yeah, I think I'd just like to thank the board, too. I think, um, doing the work outside of the meeting and then bringing it back here for transparency for the community is a good model that maybe we can utilize in other things going
forward. Um, so I appreciate that. Um I I'd just like to say and I'd like to ask uh u Corey this also. Um a lot of these cuts are going to be very very tough, right? And I think that I'm
just going to point out two areas. Um at our district office, we cut we cut a lot. Um and I've already heard of some areas where schools are um maybe not getting the service they used to get or even the service that they need. So
that's one area. And then in these cuts with the extra 8 million, high schools are getting hit really hard. And I agree it's we did the best we could do. I agree with that. Um but I would just like to say when you're cutting or when you're changing just like when you add
things, um you should monitor it, right? I would just ask administration to monitor it. um if we find out that we are missing some critical areas because of those cuts, the they would be prioritized of where we'd either have to cut somewhere else and build that back
or build that back if we get additional funding. So, I'd just like to say now that we're through the cuts now, the monitoring should happen and should um and should be given back to the board would be my suggestion. Thanks. If I could follow up on that, um, to put
you on the spot, Superintendent McIntyre, but also if there's no answer, that's totally fine. Um, what has been the most tangible impact or the most tangible impact at the central office so far from the initial wave of budget cuts that we've done?
>> I appreciate the question. Thank you. um response time and um just the accuracy of information with fewer staff there. We have fewer people to do the leg work on the various requests and that cuts across departments and you know we are
um I think on a lot of sectors in the state nervous about what this paid family leave will do uh and the and the work that that will require to track and monitor. And so, uh, we're we're going to, to Director Simon's point, be constantly monitoring and collecting
that feedback and really making adjustments where we can because we just don't have depth in certain positions. So, if someone is out, we we just don't get to plug some a substitute in some of the roles there. So, we'll do our best to triage and and we'll keep the board
up to date and how what that impact is. It's not just schools, it's I think across many sectors right now. the not knowing how that'll play out. So I think that's probably the the things you would hear is just response time and uh just because of the lack of the number of
people to follow up on the various you know demands of the of the district throughout the different departments. I appreciate you asking >> any other thoughts or comments from board members. All right. Uh, members, before us is the
approval of the phase three budget reduction and reallocations process as presented. I would entertain a motion to approve the phase three budget reductions and reallocation process. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Director Langenfeld. Um, is
there any discussion? All right. Well, hearing none, will all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. With six in favor and zero opposed, the phase three budget reduction and reallocations process is approved. Thank you very much. Our next agenda
item is labor relations. Um item 11A, authorize the 2025 to 27 child nutrition assistance master agreement. Welcome Dr. Cherry, chief human resources officer. >> Good evening, co-chairs, uh
superintendent McIntyre, members of the board. I'm pleased to announce that our child nutrition assistants represented by Minnesota School Employee Association have ratified a new two-year agreement with the effective dates July 1, 2025 through June 30th of 2027.
Thank you to the board or I'm sorry, thank you to the members of the employee group um and also the district bargaining teams for their work in negotiating an updated employment contract. Uh with this tenative agreement, it includes salary
improvements in the first year of 80 cents per hour per step. Uh as well as an extra 5 cents per hour on the top step and an extra 10 cents per hour for employees with 25 years seniority. We've
also increased each level of certific certification pay by 10 cents per hour in the first year. Uh all of this comes uh uh without step movement in the first year. In the second year, we were able to provide step movement uh and an
additional 20 cents per hour uh per step and an extra 5 cents per hour on the top step. Our medical insurance contributions increased $40 per month uh for employees selecting single coverage and $150 per
month for employees selecting family coverage. And in the second year, those district contributions increase again, an additional $95 per month for employees selecting single coverage and $255 per month for employees selecting family
coverage. Our dental insurance contribution also increased $10 per month in the second year. Uh these employees will see a uniform allowance increase of $15 per year. They have updated life insurance
and retirement benefit uh language to align with other employee groups. And we also have added break language to the contract. The total compensation package here includes a 5.8 point uh 5.81%
increase or approximately $328,000 in new money. This contract equals uh 11.5 million over the course of the two years of the contract. And this proposed agreement is within the authority provided by the school board. Uh the
agreement is listed in appendix V of your packet for your review. As a result, I'm seeking approval of the contract as presented. >> All right. Are there any or Thank you, Dr. Cherry. Are there any questions from board members?
All right. Um if not members before us is approval of the 2025 2027 child nutrition assistance master agreement as presented in appendix V. I would entertain a motion to approve the 2527 child nutrition assistance master agreement. >> So moved.
>> Thank you Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you Director Duchaine. Is there any discussion? >> All right. Hearing none. Will all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Six in favor and zero opposed. That
motion is approved. Which brings us to our next agenda item which is labor relations. Um item 11b to authorize the 202527 principal assistant principal master agreement. Welcome again Dr. Cherry, chief human resources officer.
>> Thank you. Uh this item is listed in appendix W of your packet. I'm pleased to announce that our principles and assistant principles who are represented by the In Noa Henipin Elementary and Secondary Principles Association have ratified a new 2-year agreement with the
effective dates July 1, 2025 through June 30th of 2027. Thank you to the members of the principal team and the district bargaining team for their work in negotiating an updated employment contract. This tenative agreement
includes step movement both years of the contract and salary schedule improvements in year one, which included moving off-schedule performance and leadership pay to the schedule and adding $250 to each cell of the
schedule, plus an additional for um $1,450 to the top step. uh for the employees that would not see step movement in year one. In year two, it includes dropping the
bottom step and adding a new top step to the schedule, as well as adding $250 to each existing cell of the schedule. the flexible benefits account uh contribution increased $1,226
in year 1 and $440 in year two. That's the equivalent of 6% in year 1 and 2% in year two. The total compensation package includes a 6.26% increase or $1.5 million in new money.
Uh this contract equals 51.3 million over the course of the two years of the contract and it is within the authority provided by the school board. As a result, I'm seeking approval of the contract as presented. >> Thank you again, Dr. Cherry. Are there
any questions from board members? All right. If not, members before us is approval of the 2025-27 principal assistant principal master agreement as presented in appendix W. I would entertain a motion to approve the 2527 principal assistant principal master
agreement. Thank you, Director Adet. Is there a second? Thank you, Director Simon. Is there any discussion? All right, hearing none, will all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay.
Six in favor and zero opposed. That motion is approved. And then the next item is a labor relations update. Again, item 11C. Welcome again, Dr. Cherry, chief human resources officer. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um this evening,
uh my labor relations update is getting a little bit shorter. Um hopefully it'll continue to get shorter each and every month, uh as I come back with these updates. Uh we do provide labor relations updates for the board and the community um in alignment with our
policy 209 negotiations code of ethics which indicates that administration will review the status of negotiations at public schoolboard meetings. uh consistent with open meeting law in Pelra, the detailed negotiation discussions are reserved for close
sessions of the school board. An overview of our goals during uh bargaining include a collaborative effort or a collaborative bargaining process. We focus on finding mutual gains with our employee groups and solving shared problems. Uh we ensure
that our agreements are legally sound and operationally manageable with clear and concise contract language. We focus on recruitment and retention of highquality staff in all of our uh proposals and um ultimately we ensure
that we are fiscally responsible stewards of our taxpayers money. Uh we do operate within a fixed budget and so all changes or updates to contracts um ensure that we are evaluating not just the one-year uh impact on the budget but
the continuing costs on um uh the budget uh for years to come. When we look at the facts about our budget for the fiscal year 26, the current year, our general fund salaries
and benefits total 539 million. Uh our salaries and benefits, as you heard earlier in the presentation this evening about our budget, are approximately 82% of our general fund. When we're looking
at what's included in our FY26 budget, it does include a 2 and a half% increase overall in salaries and a 5% increase in benefits. Our employee groups in the school district, uh we have 18 employee groups.
Five of those are non-bargaining or unaffiliated groups and 13 are collective bargaining groups. Five of those have current 2025 through 2027 master agreements. We do have four um that are considered in the the off year.
They have master agreements for the 2024 through 2026 term. And uh we still have four bargaining groups that are operating under a master agreement from 2023 through 2025. Those are the four groups that I'll
provide additional detail about next. Uh the first of those four is our school office supervisors. I'm happy to report that this group did reach a tenative agreement when we met last week. Uh they uh anticipate that they will be um uh
working with their members to ratify that tenative agreement in the coming uh couple of weeks. Uh one thing to note about this tenative agreement is uh as all of the other agreements that have been made so far, they are within uh the
parameters that have been established by the board. So uh we are hopeful that we will have a contract coming forward to you at the next business meeting for your authorization. Uh the next group is our teachers. This
is our largest uh bargaining group includes K12 teachers as well as AB ECF and preschool. Our teachers are represented by Anoka Henipin Education Minnesota Local 7007. Um there are over 3,200 employees in
this unit. Uh we have been meeting with this unit uh since July 11th. From the time period of July 11th through September 11th, we did hold five different negotiation meetings. After the meeting on September 11th, the union
did file for mediation. Uh, prior to um mediation, the uh groups uh worked quite diligently on um many language item proposals and were um uh um uh having
difficulty finding agreement as it related to primarily salary and benefits. October 14th uh was the date of our first mediation session. We've held three of those mediation sessions now.
Um and while we are in mediation, all proposals exchanged uh are confidential. Uh we anticipate that uh we will continue to uh work towards uh a
contract settlement in the near future. >> I have a quick question. >> Sure. um to the extent that you can. So tonight we heard a lot about health insurance and the number 600 was thrown out a lot um like a $600 increase. I know we've talked about this at previous board meetings, but what um is like the
the cause of the dramatic increase of the health insurance? >> Sure. Um our premiums increased overall. The board voted to um authorize those premiums uh when we were before you last May. Our new uh term for our plan year
started in September. Uh since that time, our employees saw overall across um all of the different units about a 22% increase in premiums. Uh the difference between what the district contributes
versus what the employee uh pays out of pocket towards those premiums varies quite um uh uh drastically depending upon uh what type of coverage the employee selects. Uh but that's uh predominantly the the
heart of the issue there is the premium increases. And so like I know that we voted to approve that but what because there was a dramatic increase in like our interest what what was the root cause of that. Was it just a number of very expensive insurance claims or like I think I
remember that is that >> um uh yes and a variety of reasons. So the primary reason is medical spend overall. So trends in in um health care expenses have gone up approximately uh
10% 9 10% uh year-over-year. Uh on top of that we also had a very difficult year where we had um multiple members in our plan uh with high claims expenses. Um, so we had uh uh just uh overall more
uh more claims and more expensive claims overall. >> And so then that would have caused like a similar increase even if we were not self-insured but sourced it out to a company. >> Correct. Um so you're right, we are self
uh insured, self-funded. And so what that means is that uh we are processing our own claims. We collect premiums. We set those premiums um and then we process the claims, the medical claims as they they come in. We fund uh that
amount. If we were fully insured, then um we would have a company that we would be still be paying those premiums to. But essentially the premiums are uh based whether you're self-funded or fully insured based on your experience,
the claim experience and your pool of uh members that are in um the makeup of of how those claims are considered. So our pool, our employees and the members that they cover um had a a very bad
experience and it it the claims just continued to rise year after year. Okay, thank you for that explanation. >> Yeah. >> Um, okay. Uh, the the next two items uh or the next two groups uh that I'd like
to provide an update on are still um in uh the beginning phases of negotiations. Uh the first group is our community school programmers and early childhood screeners. These are education support professionals represented by ANOA Henip and Education Minnesota's. Uh this group
typically will wait to begin negotiating until after our teachers has have settled because they are also represented by Ahem. The next group is our special education administrators. Um they are represented by our special education program
supervisors association. 15 employees in this group. Uh we are planning to meet for the first time in January. Uh with this group, it's very typical that they um wait to begin negotiating until after we have um uh settled with our our
teachers sometimes, but often our principles. And with that, we will continue to provide regular updates at schoolboard meetings. Um we are updating our negotiations website. A note about our
uh website is we are in a a state of transition uh moving to our new website which should be going live in January December 18th uh December 18th. Um so you'll notice that some of the updates
that are made on this page um are lagging a little bit as we're in that that uh transition uh period. And so with that, I am open to any other questions or comments from the board. >> Thank you very much. Board members, any
questions or comments? >> Director Langenfeld. >> Uh Jennifer, could you talk just a little bit about the work of the insurance group that's been meeting looking more carefully at that at the experience? And I've been sitting at
those meetings learning a great deal. And I think it's very important that our public know that we aren't just and our staff know that we aren't just hoping this fixes itself, but really looking deeply in into it um to make sure that we have the very best that we can with
the resources we have and yet at the same time recognize that the experience of our staff and their their needs need to be addressed, too. So, it's been a a couple rough years from what I can tell as well. So, just just so people have an
understanding that this committee is meeting. >> Sure. Uh we do have an insurance advisory committee. It's made up of uh representatives from all of our staff groups. Um large representation from our largest employee group uh being our
teachers. Um and uh within this group we do look at our uh claims, our um experience. Uh we just uh at our last meeting we um discussed uh a plan review. So looking at uh what our
experience was over the last year um and all of the different factors that go into what um uh makes up the the experience. Um and um so the types of claims that are coming in, what we might
um be thinking about in terms of our plans and our coverage uh that might help in mitigating costs in the future. Um very serious considerations for plan design changes. We have not had uh plan
design changes as we have uh experienced um uh a need to increase premiums uh to make up uh the the the um uh revenue that we need uh to um pay out our
claims. We have not made any substantial uh plan design changes for a number of years. And um whereas other uh employers um look at that year after year to try to keep their premium at a level um that
uh they believe is affordable uh for the employer and for the employee. Plan design changes might be um something that looks at what is the deductible, how is that different, what is the maximum out-ofpocket costs that um uh
can be paid, um what kinds of um uh uh wellness programs are in place? Uh are there um point solutions uh to help with certain types of expenditures? Uh those are all things that um this committee is
is charged with looking at. Um there is a a real appetite um for um figuring out a way to mitigate those costs so that uh we don't have to see uh double-digit increases in our premiums year after
year. So how do we account for that in different ways? Um, another item uh that this uh committee is looking at is our um uh thirdparty administrator. So, currently we work with Medicica to
process our claims. This is a year where we're going out for an RFP to um bid for the third party administrator, the administration of those um and um uh this group will be looking at those
proposals as they come in. um and um um making recommendations as to uh not just uh who our administrator um might be in the future or third party administrator, but also um any plan design changes that
might be necessary. >> Any other comments from board members? >> All right. Well, thank you very much for the update, Dr. Cherry. Thank you. >> All right, we are nearing our last board agenda item. Item 12, board correspondence and communication. Members, this is your opportunity to
share happenings in your community, report on committee assignments or other items of interest. Does anyone have anything to share? Director Simon. >> Thanks, Zach. Um, I just want to put a plug in um for the Anoka Henipin Educational Foundation. I'm the board representative on that board. And as
times get tough and healthcare insurance uh health care uh insurance increases, donations tend to go down. So I just want to put a plug in for the upcoming Northstar celebration which will be in February. I believe it's February 7th, but don't quote me. Look for more
information. Yeah, it is. Okay. Um February 7th. So please attend that. And also um if you or you have others who want to do donations, I want to give a quick um example of what the foundation
does. Um so recently on November 19th, the foundation, Rapids Middle School um uh media center specialist Allison D'Angelo uh got a grant to bring a local author into Rapids Middle School in the media center. Um that
author did two um two talking engagements. ones one was with the battle of the books members um which was it was quite a few kids I would guess there were 50 to 70 kids in the battle of the books there um talking about the process of becoming an author and um how
that process goes down to trying to find an agent and publishing books and everything like that and about her um her books also which some of them are in the battle of the books and then also um they also met with an additional 70
students that signed up that were interested in visiting with an author. Um, every student got um one of the author's books uh signed and autographed and um the feedback was amazing. First of all, Kunrap is middle school showed up and did amazing. The kids were great.
They were energetic which in in a good way. Um asked a lot of questions, very engaged and that author was just wonderful. Um, and then I heard feedback from Allison, who by the way, if you get into Rapids Middle, stop in the media center, check out what she's doing in there. She's a first year media
center uh person. She is amazing. Um, and you will you will love talking to her and you'll love her library. Uh, but I got feedback from her after that that the kids were going up to teachers and saying, "Oh my gosh, I met a celebrity. Look at I have an autograph from an and
now I want to become an author." So, um, helping with our strategic priority of reading, getting kids interested in books. So, that's one example of what the foundation does with its donations. Thanks, >> Director Wangenfeld.
>> Thanks. >> And you forgot to mention that she shared she was rejected 71 times and she had the kids guess how many times she was going to be, how many times she went through that process. So um uh Dr.
Cherry gave my update on insurance my committee attending there. Um one thing I did attend was in with the AMSD was the AMSD conference in Brightworks and our our in Noa Henipin team uh Superintendent McIntyre, Dr. Gustoson
and Dr. Ziggler and Deputy Superintendent uh Constantine did a presentation that was very wellreceived um around it was called genius at work but it's the work that the the central office has been engaging in to really
define a better way to understand their own talents and gifts and to work through uh frustrations and priorities to really get the best results. Um it was a very well-received presentation as well, one of the breakout sessions. Um
and you probably have many things that I could I could go on and on about that. It was it was a very good uh presentation. I think the other thing um within that particular conference they had a very impactful literacy breakout session around the implementation of the
read act and the action steps and really focusing in on the tools needed and really talking about very deeply about the change model and the change process. Um this is not this is not an easy lift. It's been a difficult lift um just even
going through this change and so to have people and support in place. They talked about the role of the coach, but they talked about how humbling it's been for for the coaches going in because they want teachers to be able to feel
comfortable and confident making the significant changes they need as they adopt the new way of teaching with the science of reading. It was really inspirational. And I think the other piece is they kept going back to the change model that they were using to
bring people along and making sure that this first time out when you unroll a curriculum. Um they're doing it with fidelity and taking their time and breathing and going forward again. And I I'm sure that as we get an update soon,
I hope um we will hear that kind of work that's underway. It is a heavy heavy lift. So, thanking everybody involved in our district who is picking up that work right now and really working hard. I'm hearing they're loving it, but it's exhausting. It's kind of a two twoprong
uh situation. I wanted to give a big shout out to uh there are so many schools doing so many great things right now. I had the privilege to attend the Adams Elementary fall extravaganza and that's a night when all students come
together with their families and uh the teachers are in full force and the PTO's are there to support them and they they had this time a naturalist in snake which was a very popular thing but they were also lots of games and things and
it was really interesting. One of the most um successful areas was the Lego room. >> Okay. And and some of the kids really were enjoying that and they had all different sizes of Legos and they were building things together. And what I
love when I watch that is you see such great parent and child interaction and teachers being the experts in the room. It's very very very important to to have those nights for families. One of the things that I also attended as part of
my area and role and serving and supporting uh the community of Brooklyn Center, they did an entire uh three series nights of Brooklyn civic engagement and so Brooklyn Park civic engagement. So really getting to know
the community at various ways and different levels in terms of the governance pieces, also looking at safety and uh the opportunities that are there. And what was really important in that is a lot of our students um in the in Champlain Park and Jackson were at
present to talk about how they felt in the community and they were asking the leaders how um you know all sorts of really challenging questions about their safety and how they felt about their community. Um, and then I'm going to go
to the delegate assembly because it links into something else and then I'll let Zach talk more about that because we we had quite the weekend with MSBA delegate assembly. Um, two things kept coming up at the delegate assembly that
I want you to re be aware of. One of them was the concept of dual enrollment or PSO and how it's being funded and different resolutions were coming up. It just so happened that earlier that day
in that same weekend um last Friday the AMSD also had two speakers and one of them is from the state department that's focused on dual enrollment and gives a really good update of this working committee um that and that's available
and superintendent McIntyre you should I'm sure you have that link. Does everybody get that link? >> Yeah. And then the other piece that they talked about in that same particular um uh meeting was cell phones at
Stillwater. And um what they had done, I think the the most important thing they did was spent significant time setting up conditions for the change. And so really putting into place a change model and really bringing a lot of the voices
to the table and doing all sorts of community outreach and so forth. So it's interesting and it's a short short uh presentation but it gives you gives us I know that's been an issue that we've we've started down that road and then
then um and much of it actually when I look at it is very similar to what we're doing right now. It's what I understand we're doing in our schools that has seems to seems to be working. So, at that point, the last thing is last last
Saturday night at Champ Park High School, it was the 7th annual Mung New Year and um if you've never been, it was quite the celebration. Um and our our incredible teachers um who hosted that
Mangyang um and Miss Her uh did a great job of of supporting the students getting them prepared. They were extraordinarily outstanding young young adults and children students who were sharing their heritage and culture in so
many different ways. and uh the newly elected representative for the area XP Lee was there and inspired the students as a as a person who came to the country as a and um from that as among a young
person in the country and told his story as well. The kids were very excited and um and uh this the associate principal over there, William Hill, was the was kind of the introduction and stayed with
his small children and participated as well. So, lots going on in the district and I think Superintendent McIntyre uh characterized it well. The music is alive and well in this district. And quite frankly, what an impressive group
that came tonight to all be here on a snowy night to receive that recognition. You could tell they were all in. So that's and you can find that everywhere across this inc this district. >> Director Desane, >> thank you. Um, and speaking of music, I
wore my music sweater for Rapids marching band tonight and in honor of all of the winter concerts. Um, really encourage everybody to look at those seasonal concerts that were mentioned by Superintendent McIntyre. The music is beautiful. It's a great way to go into the winter season. Um, I also wanted to
report on a committee assignment the community education committee met. And this is a chance for us uh to work with our city partners and county partners to make sure that the offerings in community ed are varied and meet the needs of all of our different cities and communities and also find ways that we
can work on things together, utilize buildings and resources in creative ways that serve um everyone in the community, all ages. Uh it's a really um excellent committee meeting and I think the partnerships and just the conversations between all of the city partners and the
district are are really valuable. Um thank you. >> Any other comments from board members? Um otherwise I also over the last month I got to attend um the Jefferson Elementary Veterans Day event and I thought that was pretty neat. They
brought all the students outside and just had them around the flag as they ra or put it on there and raised it. Um it's it's just very encouraging to see students taught at such such a young age to have appreciation for our veterans. Um and then also way to go Jefferson Elementary again on uh the math night
that they hosted. Got to attend that one as well with my daughter and uh we had a good time there. It was well set up and um there was like a raffle at the end depending on how many of the events you did, you got points or whatever on your card and even though we only did so many of them, my daughter actually wound up winning the next day the Hi ho Cher
board game. So very lucky girl, I guess. Um so again, well done to Jeff Jefferson Elementary and uh yeah, that's uh that's all I got. All right. Well, with that, um, the next
item, item 13, the executive session will be conducted in closed session to discuss labor negotiations pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.03 to discuss matters with all open groups. The closed session will be held in the Michael Sullivan room. I will entertain
a motion to move to close session. >> So move. >> Thank you, Director Simon. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Director Dasha. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Will all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. With six
in favor and zero opposed, we will move to executive session in the Michael Sullivan room. We will take a 5m minute break and the meeting is recessed at 9:10 p.m.