You know, I had I didn't want to go all the way out. So clear as day And then I was thinking No, we're like I don't want to have enough time to
I don't know, but right now I need to All right, everybody. We're going to go ahead and call tonight's meeting to order. Welcome. We're at the regular school board meeting for Monday, July 14th. Roll call.
Here, here. Rock here. Weathers here. Mallister here. Young. Zilki here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Motion by
second by Bob. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes. Before I turn it over to Superintendent Page, I just wanted to say a quick welcome to our new um director of study services, Sarah, Dr. Sarah Tansson, who's with us tonight.
Welcome. Thank you. We're happy to have you here. All right. Now you can talk. Thank you, Chair Bay, members of the school board. My report uh for this month, I'll keep brief. We have a lot of things to cover tonight. But the first thing that I wanted to say, thank you,
Dr. B, was welcome uh Dr. Sarah, our new executive director for special services. We're excited to have her on board and looking forward to the leadership that she'll provide for this important work. So again, welcome very quiet.
Maybe that's why Well, we get to introduce Sarah for the third time. Shows how really excited we are. Welcome, Dr. Uh, first time I just want to share on some student achievement highlight. I just want to congratulate
Nathan Martinson from Austin High School. Nathan earned the the top overall title in class uh pre-day at the 2025 trap shooting championship by shooting a perfect 100 straight. Uh that kind of precision is very rare and it
speaks volumes about his skills and mindset and also uh that our team uh Boston also represented themselves very well having the highest finish uh that they've had uh in their career. So congratulations to them. There was over 350 teams, more than 1200 compet or
12,000 competitors in the field and Austin Packers came out uh amongst the best at the Minnesota State High School League state uh clay tournament. So congratulations uh to them and and on their team's 16th place finish. Uh I do
want to acknowledge and thank uh Hormal Foods uh tonight and their donation in honor of Jim Sne. In honor of Jim Sne's uh retirement, the Hormone Foods Charitable Trust has made two $10,000 donations. One to the Moore County CEO
program and once the packantry Jim and his wife Tanny have been strong supporters of education, food access, and local leadership. These gifts reflect the commitment and directly benefit our students and families and caregivers. and we're grateful to the
SNE family and to Cormal for their generous investment. Uh we also have two task force uh that will be starting here this month. One on attendance and one on substitutes. Uh we're launching these uh these joint efforts. One uh focus on uh
as I mentioned attendance and sub coverage. These are areas that affect the day-to-day operations in a classroom and we'll use this time to build out future meetings and plans to start shaping some practical proposals. So more on that. I also want to highlight a
couple of our staff members. Uh one is in regards to geometry and coding. Um Joey Winter uh this year integrated scratch programming. Cody enter her advanced geometry class uh where students created projects that applied
math and coding. And she recently had an article published in magazine where you can read about the strong results higher engagement from students and deeper understanding and more interest in computer science. So it's a great example of how we can spark innovation in our schools and encouraging cross
disciplinary learning. So congratulations to her. Also our packer profile seminar class was recognized uh recently in the MSBA journal. Uh this article was written by our coordinator Emily Hublin and highlighted how the course helps students build skills and
academics, career readiness, and digital tools. This recognition reflects the real progress that we're seeing. Stronger credit attainment, more meaningful support for our freshmen as they transition into high school. Just a couple quick facility updates.
our weight room here at the high school that we're working with the DA Foundation uh is completed. Demolition and painting are complete. The lighting is wrapped up as well and we're finalizing timelines uh when this work will be completed. So, more to come on that, but we're making really good
progress. Uh Hastings schedule or Hastings gym is on schedule. Uh the painting is done. The abatement uh project is over. Now, the flooring should start on July 21st. So, it looks uh pretty amazing in there. We shared out some pictures today, but Chrisco how
uh is getting his uh facelift here with painting starting this week. It should take about a couple weeks. We're also waiting on the delivery of the sound system and the projector and the drop down screen. So, we're working on that. Also, painting for Austin High School begins next week and our elevator
project at Evelyn has been completed. Our tennis courts, if you're out and about around town, you see the progress there. Uh we are delayed uh a little bit thanks to all of the wonderful precipitation that we've been having. Uh so hopefully we get back on schedule there, but we're reassessing the
completion date. Uh we've also done some reinforcement work over at Ellis Middle School as we moved our high school weight room over there uh and getting an elevator uh installed there so they can access uh the stage area. And then our district LED lighting project, Neville,
Woodson, and Sumar are all finished. And we're also working through this There are other buildings as well. So, it's coming along really nicely. I want to thank Joel Adams and his team and Tom here for keeping us on track. Great. Thank you. Any questions?
All right. Hearing none. Are there any reports that anybody has to share? Carol. Um, I just want to thank Mr. Stanley for inviting the school board to his welding training. Um, I was able to
go for a quick tour and I was just blown away. It was just amazing. Um, the training is offered through Riverland's consortium to teachers anywhere in the state.
Um, he had guest speakers lined up and ry tour and 30 hours of weld time in the shop for the students. The cost was free. Um, it was limited to 18 students and I
believe he said he had 16, but don't quote me on that. I might have gotten a number wrong, but he was almost at max. Um and the training is designated to help prepare individuals to teach welding and to fulfill their lensure
requirements. Um and I talked to one of the students. There was a math teacher that said that he had been um talked into teaching welding. So he knew nothing about it.
and um he he just thought the program was phenomenal. But I did take this picture of Mr. Stanley. So those were the two projects that he had the students in the
class do. Um I thought that retractable shovel was really a neat idea. And then um yeah, that's like a hammer hatchet, something like that. in in his other hand. Yeah, there you go. Thanks, Corey.
I was just really impressed with that retractable shovel. That was neat. And then the next picture, students didn't do this, but I just thought this was so neat with the Austin Packers and the logo on
it. Um but he told his students that you know when they get a little bit of practice again this is this is things that I have one of those at my house. Do you thought that was really neat? So um but there's an extreme he said that
there was an extreme shortage of welding teachers in the state. So um this is just phenomenal. my thoughts. Thank you. Thanks for sharing. Anybody else want to go?
Thank you. Uh for those of you who have been fortunate enough to listen to the latest cast, which features yours truly, the time travel warrior. Um, but all kidding aside, I just want to say I was
a little apprehensive about it and you know, why would you let me Ryan Ryan uh did a great job of persuading me and uh and I just want to say Ryan that you did an outstanding job and I don't you're kind of like Sharon you don't like to
have the spotlight put on you but then I didn't either uh for this but you did a great job asking questions making me feel comfortable using a sense of humor. We really did an outstanding job. And so if any of you in the room gets approached by Ryan, jump
on board. It was it was a lot of fun. I hope you had fun, too. Well, he's he's also honest. Um last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The um Minnesota
uh service cooperatives had their summer uh conference up in Duth at the Superior in on Canal Street and um was hosted by uh Southeastern Service Cooperative, one we uh represented by. And I just want to
say the staff at SSC got up there Tuesday night and did a fantastic job of getting everything lined up. We had some great speakers. We had some great activities. The food was good. Um and I just want to share a couple things. We
had a you know motivational speaker by the name of Eric uh Thurwander who a former Marine. So he didn't do a kid around at all. and um he talked about things that I when I was sitting there I was thinking about lots of public schools. Um
he he talked about superheroes. That was the theme of the conference. A lot of things about their questions on the whiteboard about superheroes and these girls were walking around with Wonder Woman t-shirts and stuff. So it was kind of a fun activity and he said have a vision, share vision and then stretch
that vision out. And I think we do that at Austin public schools. He also mentioned to build leaders and then to improve recognition and he thought recognizing staff and one another is really a positive thing to improve the
culture of the organization. And then later on in the day, we had a round table where um there were five or six individuals representing constituents
that um were affected by legislation in the last session. There was Roger Mo. I think he's a household in Minnesota. He's been in the legislature. He's been around for a long time. He knows his stuff. Sam Wus was there who represents
I think cities. There was someone there from counties and municipalities. Kirk Shawan was there representing Minnesota schoolboard association and they all just talked a little bit about how the legislature affects our constituents. I think they
were very um reticent to say things because like Todd found out the spring everything's not quite in yet. And um and then uh later on uh there was a
motivational speaker by the name of Rick Olson and u he was kind of a fun guy. I think he had me in mind when he said the theme of his speech was are you fun to work with? He just had a lot of fun talking about
it. Light enough people enjoy themselves, have fun in the jobs, a lot of responsibility, but have fun doing it. And um it was very sobering on third Friday morning. There was a lobbyist from Washington DC
and we all know that I believe the current administration has withheld like $6 billion for public schools and the things that this individual clicked off uh I think most of the people in the room were really in shock over the cuts.
Head Start is a great example. They move that from educational entity to a human services entity which could affect them. Uh it it's it's it was really shocking and I I hope a lot of these things don't reach fruition because it's going to
impact cities, counties, school districts. It it's it's really a big deal and and so with the experience, but uh the good out the bad was a great conference and you're being represented
well by service. Don, how many are there? How many cooperative there are there's northwest, northeast, southwest, south, central, then there's three in
the area that don't have they have like wonder where they have other than southeast. So, but there's nine service. So, they cover the entire state. Anybody else have a report?
Um, I have a couple uh quick reports. I want to give a huge shout out to our summer school programming um that's going on over. I know that they've had a lot of very warm days over there. Um but I just I've been watching the the
pictures. um on the social media account, you know, about all of the activities that the kids are doing. And it's just really fun to see them um engaged both in learning and in um you know, fun
activities like with bowling and going over to the pool at Ellis. Um I actually was able to go over and be one of their guest speakers for the Packer Profile um days. I loved being over there and being
able to put my teacher hat back on for a little bit. I will say I totally bombed with the seventh and eighth graders but they reassured me that that was normal right% 100%
um but I got to talk about responsibility and that was um it was really fun to just see these kids getting super engaged talking about what responsibility looks like for them as kids. Um, so that was that was a great
experience and I tip my hat to all of their um teachers and staff and you know everybody who's over in that building um this summer working with our kids.
They're doing great work. Um my second update is on the um awesome public education foundation. Uh we you may have heard we unfortunately needed to cancel the Packer Classic this summer which was very disappointing. Just a number of
circumstances that came up that made it not possible to have it this summer. So um we are set for next year to get this thing back up again. Um something that I
decided to do after scrolling Tik Tok. I saw a bunch of teachers posting their teacher wish list on Tik Tok and I thought yes we need to make sure people can see these. So the um foundation has created a space on their website for
Austin public schools teachers to um put their teacher wish lists their classroom wish list on there so anybody in the community could go in and buy things for their classrooms. Um, I know a lot of teachers spend a lot of money out of their own pocket to make sure that their
classrooms are welcoming and um, inviting. So, um, check out the, um, A Foundation website for teacher wish lists and encourage other teachers in the district to add their names. I think
we've got about 20 25 teachers listed on there thus far. That's my update. Is it possible ask what does the uh what does the pack classic generate in terms of hours on a yearly basis? Generally it generates between 15 and
$20,000 and that money goes towards not only operations for the foundation but it goes towards um the endowment funds that fund our classroom grants each year. So um each year the foundation
spends just the interest on um the hunting endowment and then the Packer endowment. Uh the Packer endowment funds athletic grants. Uh so for um extracurricular teams to buy um
buy pool equipment for their teams. Um it means it generally means that we can continue to add to that that base so that we have more interest to give each
year. So um it may mean a few less grants this year and it may mean um or it may mean dipping into our our um financial accounts and pulling funding out there so we can continue to give
give that money. Um, yeah, it's a it's a big disappointment. So, typically we pay for these grants request through the Yep. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. All right. Anybody else have updates?
Not hearing. None. We will keep moving forward um with our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? Motion by CC, second by Vicky. Any discussion?
All those in favor? Motion passes. Right. Our next item on the agenda is a presentation uh from the Ma County Community Health Assessment Report with speaker Allison Scott from our county health and human services department.
Welcome. What a great song. Well, hi everyone. Hello. It's very nice to speak with you guys. Like I've been interviewed. My name is Alison Scott. I am a community health educator with county health and human services in the
community health field. I've been with the county a little over a year now and my main project has been the community health assessment. So I spoke about this data set about six groups and then Dr. Pa I presented to Apex and he's like I
have another presentation for you. So it's in here. So thanks again for having me. So we'll get started. So, your agenda that I saw is very fancy. I've never been one to make really fancy agendas.
So, this is probably the simplest one you're going to see today. Um, we're going to go over what a community health assessment is, and then we're going to say how we did it, what we found, but most importantly, we're going to go over what's next and what we're going to do about the data.
So, does anyone know what a community health assessment is? And if you don't, that's okay because I didn't know either before I started my position. So most people I ask that question, no one raises their hand. And that's again,
okay, but as of next year, it's something that we've been required to do for the past 15 years. We have to do it every 5 years. The Minnesota Department of Health requires all local public health to take an assessment of your community. Ensure that you're hearing
your voices, hearing your needs, and assessing that the the partnerships, the programs that we built today is really addressing the needs felt by the community the most. And with every single year, our community changes. So therefore, our plans need to change as well. So hence why we have to do it
every 5 years. If you look on the right at that colorful wheel, um that's the framework and it shows for continuing continuation of improvement. So they want us to keep on building on our past programs and continuing to be stronger together. Fortunately, in this cycle,
we're at like the six seven range, but we're kind of more nearing towards the eighth because I published the health assessment back in April. So I've been working on the strategic planning for the past few months. So the community health assessment really
focus on these health disparities and priorities that we need to focus on, but it doesn't just address the health statistics of the county. Like we can look at how many people have diabetes, how many people have hypertension, but what does that mean? Unfortunately, it doesn't really mean much because those
are just numbers on the page. Before we give address health statistics, we must look at the social determinants of health. the wise, the hows, of how we got here, the transportation, the language barriers, the digital equity, the financial training that really
determines health. And to to do that, we have to show up. We have to go where the community is, give them the voices they need, for the space they need, the time they need to really let their story shine because every voice matters and every voice counts. So I wanted to
ensure that the one fit-all model of community engagement wasn't in a centralized location. I wanted to get out to the field. I wanted to talk to people. And so I came up with this statement at the very beginning. Um to understand health disparities, one must give the community's voice the space it
needs and listens. So that was the project aim. And it it was really fun how we incorporated that. So the road to publication. So, like I said, I've been here a little over a year. I got hired in June of last year.
Got about four or five weeks to figure out what the project is. Said, "Have at it. Good luck. Let's go." So, it's been it's been a little bit of a understanding learning curve. My my past um I used to be a research scientist at Mayo Clinic. So, I was like, "Oh, this
is this is a whole different field, but I'm good with numbers and data, so I'm here to help." So, I did social media campaigns. I did outreach. I just got some numbers that I want to make sure right. Um, so I did social media, I did partnerships, mail surveys, key
informant interviews, community listening sessions, and far more than I can even remember. Kind of got a little blurry from all the hours, but it we figured it out. But from these efforts, um, a total of 697 responses were collected. This correlates to 1,086
votes for ranked health concerns, 276 statements from the community members sharing their stories, and over 50 pages of key improvement areas, ultimately hundreds of hours of work. And additionally, through collaboration with community partners, we had the ability
to source supplemental data that supported our claims from harder to reach demographics such as people with SPMIs or people in the incarcerated population because again their voice matters as well, but we didn't have the access to get it. So, we found the access to get their voices represented
in our data. Also, you Yes. Could you explain the scar there at the bottom and see? Yes. So great question. So Riverland and Cedars Independent Living, we had listening sessions. So I would go each each partnership was a little bit
different. So at Cedars, it was just an open communication where I sat I gave them two hours of my time and like tell me what is hard for you, what what is hard navigating, is it insurance, is it transportation? And we had a very open discussion. Um and Riverland was a
little bit different. I worked with the adult learning services team and they have at least six six or seven classes um about over 95 students all English as a second language and I used some
software and I translated my survey in uh Spanish and French and I trained the software to read it to them in their in their language to ensure that their voices rep were represented in our data. So I was there all day I taught six or seven classes and I captured another
nine or seven voices. So yeah, thank you for asking. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So going into the numbers, so 7 about 700 people, that's that's not 40,000. We represent 40,000 in M County.
That's less than 2% of our data. I mean 2% of our population within our data. However, something I'm really proud of is while it is only 2%, it is reflective in age. um social economics that is as well as racial breakdown. So if you look
on the left, Mow Countyy's racial breakdown looks quite similar to that of our community health assessment data. Um in the past, we had very limited limited capacity to do this project and we got additional funding from the city um to
fund my position. I had more bandwidth to work on this. So I try to come up with very creative ways to ensure that these piraphs look a little similar instead of 98% um white plus 65. So So the racial is um pretty parallel. The
age was a little hard to get age through 24 but we we got a little bit more representation between 25 and 64. In the past it was pretty much 65 plus. Um and also we got representation in all socioeconomic classes. We want to ensure
that this was reflective because um we all know that different financial strains lead to different hardships when it comes to healthcare as well as age demographics. The older you get, the more aid um medical care you continue to need. So we want to make sure that their
voices were represented as well. And like I said about the Riverland project, um this is probably my favorite slide. So, one of the questions in the survey was um if you identify with a diverse community, and if you do, you can you can say what it was. You don't
have to though. So, almost a third of our participants did self-identify with this diverse backdrop. A lot of them was with our Riverland cohort. Um but 25 different communities were represented in this data, which is something that we haven't had in the past, which we're
really proud of. You see you see you see the word cohort used a lot in these kind of discussions like saying the cohort of people who actually came in contact with yes yeah cohort or just a group of
people yeah of course so enough about methods like I said I was the scientist so I can talk about methods for days but we'll get into the data a bit so this was the voice of community these were the top six
starting with access to health care, moving to economic instability, the mental wellness, housing, chemical health, and then finally overweight and obesity. I'll go over each of these topics very briefly, maybe one or two statistics per category, but within the
document, there's a lot more. I'd be happy to to talk to you about it or it is public record, so anyone can access the data. So, starting with number one, access to healthcare. This was nearly a unanimous vote as number one. It separated the
number one position from the number two position by nearly 100 votes. So it was it was pretty noted that this is a a hard subject for our community. Um about 29% of participants regardless of servant type, dental, mental or medical
said they delayed getting healthcare within the past year um when they needed it. And this highlighted predominantly financial strain or provider not available or they didn't have insurance or they just didn't know where to go.
This is also seen with our kiddos. So in the according to the Minnesota student survey, 12% of our students that participated in the survey couldn't get dental health care when they needed it. So we know that mental health care leads
to a lot of other issues and sometimes it just hurts to eat and you don't want to you don't want to see kiddos not being able to eat. So that that's something that was definitely concerning. Moving to economic instability or alice which is a statistic that United Way
uses. Um so it stands for asset limited income constrained employee or in common term it just means that the people who are working who have income and they are above the federal poverty level but they are not making ends meet. So if you
think about that a lot of the federal poverty guidelines dictate eligibility criteria for assistance. So over one in four houses fall into that category. If you look on your like I live in Grand Meadow, we have 16 houses in a row on my
little pool area. Maybe four of those houses are really struggling to like meet and that kind of is a sobering statistic. And then if you look at the dis disproportionate representation of our single female headache, it's it's
pretty startling. So it's it highlights different target areas that we can look at. This is just another way of representing that data. This is a little bit more updated. Um, this is from the state and it just says that on the left is the
different percentages of our county that fall into that those economic classes. Um, and on the right it just shows that those that's how much you need to make basic means. So at minimum 14.6% 6% of
households are not making enough to hit the basic needs expenditure. We do know it's more but the 18.7% between the 25,000 and 50,000 wasn't lineated out. So we don't know in that group if they're single adults or family. So if they are a family they are definitely
not making moving to mental wellness or a third category. So one in four county adults reported that they sometimes rarely or never get the social or emotional support that they need. This is over three times the state average in the
state of Minnesota as and then we can look at ACEs and this continued to be seen in our kiddos. ACES is a new concept that I learned in graduate school. I thought it was just a newer principle, but looking at this data, you can see that 55% of our kiddos
that did the student survey saw that they reported having experienced an Ace. However, 13% of our adult population also experienced that. So, there is health conditions correlated to more ACE experiences. So this is not a new topic
which is interesting to see if people actually know or for the um group. Can you explain the acronym ACE? Yeah, of course. So ACE stands for adverse childhood events. So any form of
severe trauma. It can be um abuse in the home, substance misuse in the home, um divorced parents, unstable housing, um lack of adequate clothing, food, any kind of insecurity having those
hardships. Um the CDC actually released a report that the more hardships that you stack up and have before the age of 18 leads to higher risk of chronic conditions. Yeah, of course. Is bullying an ace? What is bullying an ace?
I I believe severe bullying. Yes, severe um like abuse or trauma, verbal abuse can be considered as that. The list is expanding though. So CDC constantly updates this finding. So more things are being considered an ACE especially in
regards to mental wellness. So moving on to housing. Um, one of the three participants noted that at some point within the past 12 months, they feared not having enough to cover their housing expenses. This isn't just their mortgage or rent. This also um encompasses the utilities that we asked
about. And then another one is 80% of key informants that ranked housing in their top five did mention um experiences with major health major health concerns associated with unsafe living conditions. Did I touch something?
Oh, okay. You're good. I'm almost done. So, um, so the some of the stories I heard was, um, due to living conditions, there's mold and their little one got sick or they lived in a basement complex and there was a
lot of flooding and there was standing water in their household and their little one was hospitalized with pneumonia. Um so there there are unsafe living conditions that have been highlighted in these interviews. Moving on to number five. Um last year
there were 310% alcoholrelated and 89 substance related hospitalizations for our county residents. So that is correlated to 1% of our total demographic in our county. Now 1% you it may seem small but one life loss is far too many. So,
and bringing it to the student data, according to the student survey, 8% of our fifth graders actually noted that they use some form of substance use. And last statistic is 35% of our county students who participated in the survey
body mass body mass index falling to either overweight or obese at under the age of 18, which chronic health conditions. So that was a lot of data and there a lot of app and you're probably thinking okay that that's a very heavy for an
afternoon meeting and I apologize. Um but they're important. I've learned through my courses as well as several seminars is that we have to be uncomfortable to cause change. Being comfortable leads to complacency. So we have to ensure that these drawing
statistics are something that we're looking at. Um, additionally, I would say that like the stories that I've heard, the the data that I analyed didn't keep me up at night because it does and it still does do. I talked to hundreds of people. We shared stories. I
learned about their families, why they immigrated here. I learned about their kids and their school programs and what they love about what they doing. But ultimately, I heard about their hardships. I heard about their personal hardships as well as generational hardships. And ultimately I I don't want
to look at that as a negative. I want to say this is motivation for the work that needs to be done and we take their voices and we leverage them because every voice counts. Every voice matters and doing action based on this data shows that it does.
So what are we doing at the county? We are working on this right now and this is the CHIP or the community health improvement plan. They love their acronyms. Um so starting with number one is access to health care. Number two is behavioral health and number three is
housing. Ultimately all focus areas are incredibly important but to really cause true change we have to know our limitations and we need to focus our energy on a narrow scope. So that's why we did three. And then you might be wondering why is economic instability in
the center. Well, when we were doing data analysis, we know that economic instability was a root social determinant of health in every single one of those factors. So, moving forward, when we're making programs, we want to ensure that economic instability is at the forefront of our mind while
we're developing these initiatives and programs because we want to ensure that economic in instability isn't a barrier while we're trying to mitigate other issues. Why generate more issues while trying to fix other issues? And you might also be wondering where
our second priority came from. So behavioral health because it wasn't really addressed in our data, but the CDC uh defined behavioral health as one's overall health emphasizing mental, emotional, and social well-being by also demonstrating how actions and behaviors
impact a person's health. We want to look at the total perception of health and not just the physical attributes. Also, when we were analyzing mental wellness and chemical dependency or substance use substance misuse disorder, there was a clear overlap. Hopefully, by addressing one of them, I'll have a
positive effect on the other. So, therefore, we're choosing to focus both of them because there's so much codependency. So, what's next? Like I said, we're well underway on our chip. We working with a lot of partnerships, but we were gladly more. Um, we've worked with, I think, 15
plus organizations and every week the list keeps growing. There's a bunch of different initiatives done by the county, but also by different external partners. And ultimately, this plan isn't a plan for the community. It's for the community, but it needs to be taken
out by the community. We are many voices. We are many different fields. And this data can really be taken in 100 different directions. And at the end of the day, I I'm one person. So, I'd love I would love for it to go very far. It's been in four or five different grant
submissions already. It's helped um structure stuff with Three Rivers and their housing units. I've worked with Dr. Paige a couple of times to talk about some things. And so, yeah, I would love to continue expanding and I want to ensure that our townships are
represented like our Austin. So, I'll leave you with this quote cuz this is my favorite quote that my dad and I read the war like every week and it's a foundation in my life but also in my work and unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get
better. It's not. So, thank you everyone. That's all I got. Thank you. Okay. Um just really quick with the um this entire presentation and study you did is this integrated with uh that
big city and county comprehensive plan that they've been working on last year to actually you know integrate some of the stuff the county is is planning on doing or yeah so some of our questions do overlap
and I do share my data with them now it's not a part part of that. This is a separate thing that the state requires for public health to do. Um and then what that big plan, the comprehensive plan that they're working on is a different state requirement for city and county to do. Um but this data is
definitely reflected within within that plan as well. It's just under a different hat. I have a question though. Your slide about chemical health and the 8% of North County's fifth grade students who participated in the Minnesota student
survey said they had used substances. So, how was that data collected? Is that like then in school or Yeah, I can't speak too much on it. Um if my partner Chris Weiss was here, she's a powerhouse with Minnesota
student survey, but it is a survey that um schools can elect to ask their student body. Um and they are given to the students and they can skip questions if they don't want to or they just fill it out as best as they can. And um the
the schools that participated, that's what their fifth grader said. So yeah, Cy, can you talk a little bit about what we do here at Boston? Absolutely. Yeah, the Minnesota student survey is a trienal. So every three years it's offered um to students in
grades 5, 8, and then 9 and 11. Um and in Austin public schools, we offer it up to all students. Um but families and caregivers can opt out if they choose not to participate in that. But we have a very high participation rate. Um and it's now done, it used to be paper
pencil, but it's now done digitally. Um, so the students were able to do it right online and and the results come back um for this triangle this this summer final results. Thank you so much for coming and sharing that with us. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you, Dr. Yeah, that was excellent. Our next agenda item is a Packer profile highlights presentation with our Packer profile coordinator, Emily Huffman.
Sweet man. There you go. Technology says it's too high. You lost someone. All right. Well, I hope that delay and anticipation
live up to that with this. Oh, no. Yeah, you got it. Okay. All right. We're finally here. So, uh, Doug Paige, chairperson, and members of the board, thank you for allowing me to come here tonight to share a little with you about, um, an update on our macro
profile seminar. Of course, I know you've heard from me a couple times. Um, but we're going to kind of share tonight a little bit about what this year has looked like and then moving forward. So, I will just remind you this is our team for the Packer Profile and the team that will be working next year. We have
our AOA and our ALC represented. So we are growing the program that way too to ensure that all of our students um that attend Austin Post schools are working through their um Pcker profile and um meeting those different requirements.
All of this as you know came from the daily desired experiences. Um, so we'd like to just highlight back to that that this is where that information came from from our students, our teachers, stakeholders, families, and um, we're seeing some exciting things come out of
this. So, we are hopefully meeting those daily desired experiences in addition to meeting the state statute um, which we are required to do um, as a public school of Minnesota. So, those are just kind of some of those initial pieces. Um, I'm going to breeze through these
first ones. Some of you probably know I can get a little long-winded. So, some of this is just a reminder piece. Um, we have looked at and worked with the core values with our students throughout the year that shows up and I'll show you that a little bit later how it shows up in their portfolio, but also in their um
daily work within the profile class. uh the portfolio that they work on. All students will be required to have a portfolio when they graduate from Austin um public schools. And our students in 9th grade with the profile course are on
track to have a very um clear foundation and base for that portfolio and will be um continuing to add to it over the years. But they w they leave nth grade with a really strong um foundation built already in their portfolio.
So with those requirements um that I mentioned before, we do have the students enter in different artifacts and they have to connect those with those core values. We also added in um creativity um and reflection so that students are
able to pull in things that they are proud of, that they're creative in, um ways that they see themselves shine, and then also reflecting on these pieces as well. So they're collecting all those items and then tying them back to the overall um idea of those core values and
how those values that we really saw um and developed through stakeholders and looking at what people are looking for beyond high school. Um so we thought it was important for them to make those connections and still keep growing with that as well. So with the seminar course when we
developed this um you can see the different items that we intended to pursue with the course and we did um we worked really hard to get through those. There were times where our teachers were like we just don't have enough time like we need more and I know early on there
was some um some people were kind of skeptical like how do you have enough content for a year? Uh yeah we have enough content for a year and more. Um, so we through this summer, our teachers have been working and developing um, the curriculum, making
changes based off of what we saw from this year, and I'll talk about that a little bit later on as well. Um, but these are still those core areas that we want to continue to incorporate as we um, as we keep moving forward with the seminar course. Um, we also focus on the career
pathways, which is part of our profile. Um the students were really able to dig into these areas and it was amazing to watch the students kind of come up with ideas about what they wanted to do or what they wanted to explore more and some of them came in career today blah
blah blah and I was like where where did where did you find it? He's like, "Well, on school links." And I said, "Oh, were you doing that in class tonight?" He was like, "Well, no one was on school links tonight." Like looking at these jobs cuz we were talking about some things in class. And I was like, "Okay, that's that's amazing that our students are taking the time to explore further the
things that they're finding interest on um in our our programming that we have. So, our students all we developed four-year plan and we're excited because this year we were able to go over Dean Carlson and I went and met with the eighth grade students and we started their four-year plan that they will now
put into their portfolio when they come in as nth graders. This allows them to um look at their four-year plan and try and be purposeful in the planning of what they might be interested in taking. But they also will be able to review it annually and make changes and edit because um we know that sometimes we
change our minds and that can happen frequently. So, we want it to be a document that is living and breathing with them as they go. Um, when we met with the students this spring, they did an awesome job. They were asking great questions. Um, and we're really starting to look at like, okay, what does this look like for me? In a seminar course,
the students created that four-year plan. We loved hearing them talk about it because when they I um I taught nth graders for about I think 18 yearsish. Um, and I've watched them register. Every year
we've been part of registration. And this year when they were registering, it was a whole new um field in the room. Kids were looking at going, "Okay, so I am interested in this career pathway. These are the courses. Yep, those are the courses you might want to look at." Or, "Well, I'm not 100% sure, so maybe I
should do a few of these." they were looking at the courses they wanted to take and were being purposeful in the plan rather than being like, "Well, my best friend's taking food, so I guess I'm going to do that." Um, which was which is really encouraging. One of our things is we
want kids to explore, but also to be thinking purposefully about what they're what they're choosing. Um, there are many opportunities for electives. So, I know that was also a concern, but um I a really fun moment was when I was helping
one of our students register and they had been like, "Well, I don't think I need it. That's going to take elective away from me." And then they were registering and they said, "I don't know what to do cuz I don't I still have a spot open and I don't have anything left to put it." And I was like, "Wait, can you say that again?" I was like, "Yeah, I know. I get it." So, um, their
exploration has allowed them just to kind of push themselves and see what the options are out there for them. With the course, one of the highlights for a lot of our students was our speakers um that we brought in. We this year had speakers most like most of the
time it was once a week. Um, Thursdays we had people come in. The students went down by each hour of their class and the speakers generously gave up their time to come in and be part of that. Um, kids really liked this. This is where we got a lot of feedback and like that one
was awesome. Or they'd be like, you know, that one wasn't very exciting, but I figured out like something about the career. Um, we also encourage them to think about the careers that were in front of them and realize that you might not want to do this career. But it's probably important for you to understand
what the people around you do because you're part of a community. You're part of something greater than just a single job. Um we were looking at next year having more panel based speakers um because we had a few of those and that was a little bit more interactive for the students. Of
course they this the picture you see on the screen is when um the male clinic brought someone and they allowed the kids to come up and like do echo cardiograms. Of course they loved it. Like they're getting up on stage. They're getting to do that on actually one of our alumni and um they really
enjoyed it. So, we're going to try and up those panels to try and support um just a little bit more engagement and the people who come in and speak to them even I know Caroline mentioned like summer school I don't know we do know that they are taking things in and even
when they're like yeah I've seen that for 18 years and I'm like okay you got it there's something going in. So um we really appreciate the community support in that way as well. Um, this was a fun day. We did this last year
when we did our like um, oh my gosh, my brain's messed up for me. When we did push in lessons once a month and we were piloting, there's what I was looking for. Um, we still did this in the spring. We had our students present their portfolios. This spring, we
brought in um, in last year as well, but we I would like to thank some of our schoolboard members came in for that. It was awesome to have you there. Uh, and the students sat down with an adult, whether it be a district office staff member, a teacher, counselor, uh, schoolboard members. There were a
variety of people there, um, lots of people from the cabinet, those kinds of things. And they sat down one-on-one and got to present their portfolios. And that's super powerful to watch when you have kids who are like, I'm not going to present this. And then they're sitting down walking through and showing what
they're proud of and the accomplish accomplishments they've made this year. Um it's just a really fun day. So we'll be asking for that again um next year and we're looking um to do it a little bit differently which I'll talk about in just a little while and we'll also be
doing it with other grade levels as we're getting towards that graduation requirement. Um so you'll see more of that coming. So when I email you feel free to respond to come. Um you know I'll need you. Um so their portfolio I wanted to show you a little
bit. I know this is small and it's kind of hard to see, but I can share this presentation with you as well. Um, on the left side there, uh, this is I pulled my kid. He gets to be the person whom I share things and he's fine with it. Um, you can see on the left hand side, this is where they start to create
their like bio. Um, it features their post-secary um, plans, their career goals, what their career interest is. Um, you can see there he doesn't have his college goal, but he did put down his major. So, he's got some things going. Um, then his strengths and then
also things they're proud of. And there are pieces that are generated that they can select, but they can also add their own. On the opposite side, then you can see there's a spot where they put in their jobs, their volunteer experiences, um, extracurriculars, things that they're part of. So, they're able to add all of this stuff in addition to the
artifacts that they add. Um, and that's something that they're required to do. Then, when you get to the bottom of the page, you'll see their um, portfolios. And you can see here, this just kind of sort of does a screenshot, so you can't see all the way over, but he's got like probably 10 artifacts in there. Some of
them are the required ones that we say you need to have, but then they're also ones that they select that they feel proud of. Like I had a kid who said, "Oh my gosh, I got my first passing grade on a math test. Can I post can I put a picture of my math test?" I was like, "I would have done that, too." Yes, put that in there. They can also add things
that they're proud of. um accomplishments such as if they go to stay in the sport or things like that so they can add more in um to continue to highlight what they're doing and how they're growing. Um at the end of the year, this was fun. We had a commitment to graduate ceremony
and we did it this year by hour just for the logistics. Um got a big piece of paper. The kids all came in and signed their names. Um and we're going to hang on to that. My hope is that next year we will be able to get like a a better quality banner that we will have and and
um at the end when they graduate that that will be there with them. Uh we also are hoping to combine this next year with our portfolio review and bring in more people all at once so we can cycle the kids through. We then had cookies and went out in the lawn and played games and they just they just had a fun
time. So it's a great way to celebrate their successes from the whole year. Um these are just a couple of things from our students. So their their thoughts. Um I had focus groups throughout the year where I would pull students. I also gave surveys to the
students to get insights because if we needed to pivot, you know, right there during the year we would. Um but I love the thought that some kids are putting in here. And um you know you see here it's not like most classes because it's more inter interactive and lets you
explore yourself and your interests. It's a class where you're not just sitting at a desk and memorizing but doing projects that let you explore the future and what you want to do. I don't know but as a teacher as a parent I'm like okay sold. Um it's not
meant to hurt you but really to help you get a solid start and set you up for the future. I love that these kids were so honest. They were like okay yeah we get it. the way it was shared with us maybe wasn't so great, but they were up
against that and they realized it as young people. It was incredible. Like I was blown away by them this year. Um, if you've come in with an open mind, it can be one of your most helpful classes. Open mind would be good in all your classes, too. Um, here's just a few uh
more. This class is a good class that all grades should have. I was like, okay, we're not ready for that. Um, pause. Uh, just got through this one. Um, at first I didn't think this class was for me. I thought I already knew this stuff, but it turned out it was one of my most helpful classes. Um, I
overcame negative comments by peers and kept a positive mindset. Like, these are things that will allow our students to be resilient and to be learners lifelong rather than just for the moment. Um, I keep I kind of keep saying it's like it's part of a every class is part of a
puzzle and you want that puzzle complete at the end and going forward with what you gain, not just isolation. It's all part of a bigger picture. Um, now I'm going to ask Corey to come up. So we so like I mentioned we had focus groups throughout the year but
also um towards the end of the year I did work on creating a survey and thank goodness for um Dr. Baskin and Corey Hogan because I went to them and said, "Okay, I want to make sure this survey is collecting the information we want from our students so that we can grow and help and make this better, but also
like I just I want to make sure I'm keeping bias out of it and doing what I should do in a survey." So then Corey came in and he helped me to do that. And he also analyzes data much better than I do. So I'm let him talk about these things. Yeah, I get the glorious part. Emily and
the team did all the work on this. I just did some independent review on it. So, um yeah, Emily came to us first. The team had basically generated a 20 question survey um to ask students feedback on their packet profile seminar course. Um our involvement was really around the quality survey design, making
sure that it was going to be impactful. Overall, in the end, um we had 207 responses. So, that's over 50% of the students did respond to the survey. Um and so, it was completely optional for them to do that. Um but as far as statistical significance analysis with here we're we're definitely within that
stat sick uh level on this survey. Um so within those 20 questions we were getting into areas of overall experiences um the topics that they enjoyed most and you heard throughout the entire presentation. The theme that came out through the entire survey was the opportunity for career exploration. And so you'll hear me say that also as
we go through the results here. Um what areas of improvement were available for for the staff um and for the this seminar. um pacing requirements, um teacher impacts, career interests, like I said, um so there was a lot of different areas. So the first piece that's on screen here for you is is
really around those Packer core values. When you think about those things that we want students to graduate from public schools and have those core values around responsibility, resiliency, being a contributor, a learner, and a communicator, these are questions that we had in them. To what extent did the course help you improve? So around our
study skills, time management, all of those. I'm not going to read every individual number here to you. Um, but you can see overall on the insight side students, three out of every four essentially found impact from the seminar course in these areas in which it helped them improve. Um, overall when
you put all these together, over 78% um were in agreement that they had moderately or extreme improvements in these different learning areas. Um, which is huge accomplishment for that course to have that kind of output. To what extent did the course help you
explore future uh options beyond high school? You can see in this one the green extremely moderately in the lighter green. But overall 93% of the students indicated from this survey that the seminar course the packer profile seminar course helped them explore future options beyond high school which
is great because things the earlier that they get those exposures uh the better path they'll have for their pathway in their future. And then when it gets into those pacing considerations, was this uh course appropriate in terms of pacing? Um three out of every four over that
over 75% said it was just right. Um some felt it was a little too fast. 16% of the student body felt a little fast and then 7% felt that they could run a little quicker in this process. Um but overall again pacing was right there. And then lastly, there's not a slide for this one, but I just thought this was
important, too, because she had a lot of comments from students, but themes that came through the open-ended comments in this, what advice would you give future ninth graders taking the packer profile class? Um, the students overwhelmingly emphasize staying on top of their assignments, taking their courses
seriously, and using class time effectively, uh, which I think is great advice for any student at any level. Um, so those are some of the outputs from the survey. I was just the independent auditor of the of the results. The team did all the work on it. Um, so I'll give
it back to him. Oh, yes. Can you can you go back a couple slides for them? A whole bunch of green. What is the orange there? I'm too darn old. Yeah, that was that they didn't feel that that the course helped them uh explore future options. So there was 7% of the students um and basically the
output from that would be that they felt like they already had their plan and their pathway and it didn't help them change their mind as far as what they wanted to pursue in the future. That's what the little orange juice. Okay. So just um I do want to show you one other thing as I'm kind of wrapping
up here. So, um, the final that our students had to do, um, like I said, I taught nth grade for a long time and I have seen what kind of presentations traders can put together. Um, and my team when they saw these
presentations coming through, they started sharing them with me and the teachers um, told me some of these brought me to tears. the growth that the reflection that these kids put in. Um, and then I started looking at them. I
was like, "Oh, whoa. Okay, these were because when we initially created the final, it was kind of like they were like, well, are they going to be able to do this?" And I was like, "They're going to be able to do it. Like, we're getting them there." Um, they had to reflect on their strengths. So, they did a strengths explorer, which they'll do again this coming year. They looked at
those strengths and then they told how that's going to help them in the future. Then, they showed pictures of them doing things that they thought reflected their strengths. They then picked the career pathway that they were most interested in and they had to choose a career within that. Talk about what they um
think is the favorite part of that career for them. What is the education, average salary, working hours, all of that. So um and and then also like what classes should I take in AHS if I want to do this? Um then they went through and they took each core value and made a
statement about how they think that core value is represented in what they do. Um then all about me um what they're involved in what their goals are what they want to be and then
what I have shown like most of myself at this time and um then they just leave you with their reflections on their time in 9th grade which um I think is great to see and then they give that advice to next year's class like this is what I want to tell you.
And when I met with the focus groups that I met with, students wanted to share with the incoming class. They were like, "Can we come to conferences? You know, when you do that orientation thing with nth graders, can we come and talk about this because they need to come with an open mind. If they don't do it, they're going to be crabby." And some of
those kids were like, "Cuz I was I was until after, you know, winter break and I was like, "Okay, I get it." Right. Um and all of that is too in our delivery to students and talking about what is important and um how we can support them. And this is a huge support for our
students. There are new things coming because we are continuing we're that um the survey data that coral can be analyzed. We're pouring into that looking at like how do we what do we change? What do we shift? How do we make this better? A couple kids met with me about digital literacy and we're like uh
we kind of learned that in middle school. We said well do you know how to use AI in the way that you're supposed to so you don't get like I don't know kicked out of college for cheating. They were like oh yeah that would be good to know. So, uh, Amy Fusen and I are going to hopefully spend some time coming up with what should that look like that's
more, um, relevant to them. Uh, so we're listening to our kids and looking at how do we make this better and keep keep, um, really growing forward because the best thing we can do is continue to improve what we do with our students. Um, I think that's what the packet profile in general is about, being
better at what we do all the time. So, um, are there any questions? It's okay. Yeah. Well, you had the ninth graders in the seminar on a daily basis. Yep. And then you showed some of the products
that they created. Uh and you mentioned that there was one student who asked you if he could put something in there for the track portfolio. My question is next year in 11th 12th grade they're not going to
have a class. They're still going to be putting artifacts into their portfolio. How do they decide what to put in there and who is their advisor because it just can't be you. That's right. It's not just me. Um,
currently I am working on all of that and the plan is not fully um like approved yet through administration. So I don't know that I want to give like a ton on it, but the each year will have specific requirements and that will be released soon. Um, that way families can also see what those requirements are.
Families can also use school links and it is amazing. It gives all kinds of information to parents too that they can um support their children with scholarships, all of that. Um so they will have specific requirements of what they need to do with each grade level. And um one of the things that
we're working on is looking at how do we deliver that through our courses so that we ensure that every student is getting it because it's not um it's not fair to our students if they've not been exposed to something within this program and then they miss out on opportunities. So,
we're working on looking at how we can build this in in a different way. Uh because it it right now it can't be class. That's not that's not even in any conversation. So, um they will be adding there will be checkpoints for them for
each year where we will bring in people and we'll do that work. And if it's like juniors and you're a junior teacher, you're coming down with your kids right now and we're doing portfolio checks. So, they will continue to be um checked. Seniors will be checked every year in December to start. That way we'll know
like okay who's not ready and then they'll have some interventions with you know people like myself, counselors, administrators to make sure that they are fulfilling the requirements so that they can get to graduation. Um so they will have frequent checks uh each well
they'll have a check each year um but also support of our teachers getting those um artifacts uploaded and and teachers sharing too. This is a great artifact for your portfolio if you, you know, want to put that in there for this class. You know, going up there that day and
listening to the students, you can see, say I did five of them, some students were more prepared than others. And so as they get further along in the journey, uh, some are going to need more help than others. Will it be assigned an advisor or uh
like when you went to college you had an advisor who helped you select courses to get you to that final destination graduation. Is there going to be is a student going to have an advisor? Is it going to be um I don't know that that is possible at
this time. Just when we're looking at contractually there's just you know we got to figure out what we can do. Um, right now I have a list of my friends for next year that I get to check in on right away at the beginning of the school year and usually a little time with me and a few pieces of candy gets
people to complete what they need to. You're welcome to come if you want. You can all you can all come. I'll take you to all this candy. Yeah. Sometimes it's old. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Really interesting,
Emily. I add a question really quick is I think the program sounds amazing. As a parent of a somebody going into sixth grade this next year, I can't wait till he gets nth grade, go through this program to see I think he's probably about 500 different things he's going to
be when he grows up. I can't wait till he actually starts researching him. Um but uh you mentioned a couple times, you know, with some of the some of the negative feedback some of the kids are are hearing before they go for the program has changed their mind. I mean, not to open Pandora's box or
anything, but where where do you feel that the negative feedback's coming from? Is it other students just don't understand the program? Is it coming from people? Um, I think change is hard for people and when you bring something new in, um,
not everybody understands, you know, why that change, why that needs to happen or how it's benefiting. Um, you know, some might think, well, certain students don't need it. Um, but I would argue with that every single time all students
need to work at developing skills um, our soft skills that really aren't integrated that that well into our like purposefully into certain curriculum. So, it's not a standard to have those. This course is going to address those. Um, ninth graders emailed me this year
with actual subjects and full. I was like, "Oh my gosh, they're real. It's like not a text message like what do you want from me?" Um so I just think that with growth and time that that's going to be the understanding of it's more
going to be there. Um also our students are the best voice for it and the students who came in thinking maybe they didn't need it who now are like this was um I have a video some a couple videos from students that um Dr. is is going to share with the board where they flipped
from I didn't think I needed this to this is probably the most important class I'll take when I'm in Austin High School like direct quote from one of the kids. Um and they're the kid they are the people who share that message and allow other students to feel like oh okay um because they listen to each
other. Awesome. Thank you. You had a question about that strength explorer that you mentioned. Is that like a finder? Yes. So the district does the strength
finder with our teachers um and staff and we I met with um the coach that that that comes in works with our staff and talked with her about the potential of the students doing that um with their age level. She suggested the strengths
explorer because it's not quite so um maybe broad yet and it also is more developmentally appropriate. She said that you know your your strengths taking that actual strength finder is better towards the later end of high end of high school or college um just based on development and things that continue to
change with your brain. So that's why we did the strengths explorer. But for us as staff, it's it's nice because we can look at that and be like, "Oh, okay, my strengths." And then we can look at the students strengths explorer and it really helps us to understand because we've been doing that learning. Now we can see how those strengths are um shining through in our students, too.
Were the students really surprised some of them? Um their strengths, you know, we of course had a few that were like that's not me. And I was like that this is 100% you and this is why. Um but mostly yeah a lot of kids I think just were like oh okay this is
interesting. This is new. Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you for the invitation to come in and look at some of those portfolios with the kids. When initially when I got into the room total silence like what you experienced but on a grownup level
and it was terrifying. And you came in and said okay we're doing this. Let's go. You're going to present. You might as well. They didn't bite. There were two of us in there and we convinced them that we were not harmful beings. And they listened and candy in my pocket.
Yeah. I'll make a note of that next year. Clearly, you have developed some sort of secret sauce that allows you to get through to the students on a regular basis regardless of whether it's CEO or with a profile.
um how do we how do we replicate that because as important as the course is and the students are saying this is a really important thing we do um I think so too is the delivery of the course how do we make sure that that quality
continues like forever um I think well I think my profile team is amazing they are super invested they believe strongly in everything that this course does for
students and the profile overall which is districtwide and I think part of that is to um you know our entire district looking at this is part of everyone's job making meaningful learning experiences making those connections um
looking at core values all of it um but I would say our team is super super passionate and if they you know when they face maybe some challenges whether that be like you know students feel like I want to do this or whatnot. They just continued to push through and they were
like, "We see the difference it's making and um our team is pretty awesome." So, I'm I I trust that they're going to keep doing an amazing job. Based on their book, the MSBA conference, I don't remember if anybody else was there when you initially gave
the um somebody maybe it was it presented the newest data and to see Rebecca's face just like oh yeah she didn't know the data in advance and she would like it's it's awesome. Um yes and actually from
that presentation we've met with I think I've met with three or four different districts who are like how are you doing this? So it's it's not just an Austin thing. This is growing throughout you know the state the country. Um and and I think that's cool that we kind of are
able to connect with other schools and help them and support them too. Thank you. I'm just going to say uh when I was in ninth grade, they were trying to teach me how to create a hyperlink. Yes. And it was larger and hor like I failed
miserably. Um when I was in ninth grade, they didn't have hyperlinks. I like reading folders now. It takes a couple. But when I when I look when I look at those presentations that our ninth ninth graders are creating that
can rival anybody in the workforce today. Um and see them leveraging those skills, the communication skills and you know sending sending an email and formatting it and including all of the different
elements that are expected. Um, when I see that and when I think about what we're trying to prepare students for for the next generation of leaders and community members,
it it feels like an overwhelming sense of responsibility to keep keep staying on top of what's coming next. So like your focus on preparing them for how to use AI with integrity and
uh fidelity in their in their work and not get kicked out of college because like they're using chat GBT to write a paper, right? Um, but how are they using other, you know, AI tools to enhance the
work that they're doing and um continue to uh hone in on on what they're what they're actually trying to get accomplished. So all mail to you and I mean
but but major kudos to the team for keeping your eye on the bigger picture in what we're trying to to prepare our students for because they have they have a really big world that
they're going to be entering very soon. And I think these are the these are the tools that we need to be including. So, I just want to say thank you. Thanks for letting us do this. We love it. And if you see my team, tell them
thank you. Tell them they're doing a good job because they're awesome. They're the boots on the ground doing those work. So, they're great. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Our next agenda item is the request for the approval to call a special election for referendum with
speaker superintendent Dr. J. Thank you chair members of the board. Uh some of the background here uh in 2022 Austin public schools uh created a long-term strategic plan to help guide the district's goals and decision making. And in that same year, the
voters approved an operating that helped stabilize our budget and preserve classes and programs. Between 2023 and 2025, the district has conducted a facilities planning process which included a facility assessment, an enrollment and capacity study, and
gathering community feedback. And tonight, we're proposing a resolution for the board's call special election on a two question bond referendum this November. If approved by the voters, the plan would invest a total of $66.7 million to improve the district's aging
school buildings, making them safer, more accessible, and better suited for learning. Question one proposes a $54.7 million investment in major repairs and renovations on eight of the school district's buildings, including upgraded
mechanical systems, safer entrances, more accessible spaces, updated bathrooms, and some renovations of their classrooms. Question two proposes an additional $12 million to invest to renovate and expand the 50-year-old
Ellis Middle School. Question two can only pass if question one is also approved. And that is the resolution that you have tonight before you. Is there a motion to approve the call for special election
for referendum? Don makes the motion second that discussion. Dr. How much of that $54 million is considered either non-discretionary or discretionary spending, meaning
should it not pass, we still have to find a way to spend that money to fix whatever it is. Or is it mostly non-discretionary? nice to have that we can continue to plan for and build find alternate sources of
funding for in the future. Yeah. Um our facility assessment went through and prioritized uh all of our build all eight of our facilities. uh we have shared this information before working with our architects and categorize these into you know
significant version needs or things that uh we can took away on later times with using different funding streams. Uh the referendum and this question one are all of our priority one and priority two items. Uh these are items that fall outside many of them outside of our
budget uh that we can successfully uh address uh in in an immediate fashion. Um, and that was the ranking system that we used to help prioritize what would be part of uh the referendum question. Um, what's our cost if we move
forward with this and it fails? I saw in this that there's a thousand up to $1,000 for ballot printing. Um, do we have to pay since this is like a special election, do we have to pay
like for the election judges, stuff like that? Do we know like do we have like a ballpark? Yes, we do have to pay for those. Um, sorry. Yes, we do have to pay for those. Uh it's part of the special election process. We've been working with our
county partners to help facilitate uh those processes. Uh we have some historical pieces uh running special elections before Tom um off the top election judges uh cost. We have ballot printing and all of
those. But there is a cost for a special election uh for us to do that. Are we talking thousands or tens of thousands? Yeah. So, we met, sorry, we met late last week
with the county and the city and right now they're estimating about 28 to 33 20 to $33,000 would be for the judges, would be for the machines, would be for the printing of the ballots and running the special election.
And that has been built into the budget that was approved at our last work session. currently the only item on on that ballot if there wouldn't be any city or county elections. No other elections.
Can I ask a question? If I'm I think you might be referring to like slide 15 or 16 where it had if I'm stating stopping I think it said negotiations it had paid leave it had all those
things I don't recall seeing anything in there about elections was it what it had in there was you're talking about the what at that time was the unknown and in there was the unknowns if at that time in June was if we were calling for a special election or
So what we did was we did put an estimate in our budget for if today the board decides to move forward with a special election. We have money set in that budget because our office will not be back in front of the board until um
January with the revised budget. So we put a placeholder in there just to ensure that we would have money in that budget if today the board decides to move forward with a special election. If that answers I mean it was it was in the was in some
of those chart charter it was not on page 15 there the one we talked about the reason for dropping from 12 point yeah it was not one of the reason 16 down to 12 that was articulated on that page budget somewhere
yes it was and the reason for that is 75,000 or the the budget the 30 some thousand and some other costs and that does not the percentage would not prop when you're looking at a $100 million bucket of business. So that's why that was not one of those reasons. But you're correct.
Yep. Dr. B, uh, in your opening comments here, you mentioned we've done the studies, we've done the research, and you talked a little bit about why 2025 is the year to do this and not 2026.
Um so we've been looking at our facilities as I mentioned starting back in 23 uh that looking at the age of the buildings the projects that have been identified and also the work through our facilities committee uh and our
community survey that we've done uh so that we have uh the right time and the right information and the priorities and the projects to move forward this year. Um and that was uh part of our community survey and part of our rationale that
we've shared hopefully. Uh what is the timeline too with that? I mean obviously $54 million projects probably aren't going to be done in a year or two years. What's what's the the scope of timeline to get all those projects done and uh what kind of
guarantee that we have that rising cost get all the projects done? Right. So we have established a work timeline that Todd can talk a little bit more about. Yes. So if the election is called
tonight the ballot and then the public allows and votes yes in November. So, one of the first things we do is get a committee together. We'd go through that um go through some um putting the bids together, the process for that. So, we'd probably look at bringing in a construction management company to help
us with putting the specs for the bids and all that together. And at the same time, you're going to hear from Michael Hart, who's behind me, to talk through how the process of us selling the bonds and that because that was it's going to take a few months for us to get the bonds sold and that. So, you'd be looking at the schedules are out. We
probably not start anything until June, July at the earliest of 2026. I'm just trying to do that in my head right now. Just with what it would take for the bid specs to get done, the bond sales to be sold and stuff like that. So, it would take a little bit from November.
She's been so patient. I was just wondering, do we have like any historical data for what is the turnout for a special election? We do I don't have that. Um you can
certainly share that with you. I think um one thing we need to consider as well that we called out this referendum will directly impact um the desire that we see in the from the district to have a
safe and welcoming working environment. There are lots of concerns about the conditions of the buildings and knowing that all of the number one and number two issues I don't know what else to call them
will be addressed I think will take a lot of pressure off of some of the greatest of those concerns. I would piggy back on that. One of the one of the themes that I've heard coming through especially when we meet with our
teachers union in our in our meeting meetings um frequently a concern that rises to the top from our from our teaching staff is security and safety and you know we hear we hear a lot about their classroom doors and keys
and like issues because a lot of those doors are are 50 years old. They're back to the age of the building. So, I know that that's frequently on our teachers minds as a concern. Um, we also hear consistently that our
bathrooms in many of our buildings need a ton of um attention, a lot of TLC in order to make them functional. Um, I think it's important to
respond to that and also remind ourselves that we do have aging facilities and um we want to preserve them. One of the one of the big things that I hear frequently from community members is how
beautiful our high school is and how um much they love that we preserve the architecture of our our high school building and we really have um leaned into the history of the community as well.
Um, that seems to be something that our community values and and I think if we can uh proactively be taking care of our buildings and making them functional and
um prepared for the next couple of decades. I think that that would be a good adjustment on the part. Um, I also think
um it's important to think about uh how our how our voters are feeling and um it it's tough every time. It it's hard to ask people to to raise their taxes.
That's that's the last thing any of us wants to do. Um but as a school district that's we are we are the entity that that needs to ask voters for um a raise in our taxes. I know that um in the past
several years we have you know seen double digit tax increases um for the city and the county. And that's probably not going to be a term that will change. I'm sure that's going to be the same this coming year. will probably be the
same the following year. Um, so thinking about it from that perspective, I don't know that there's ever going to be a good time to to bring bring a friend with a question, you know. So the
idea of waiting uh simply because there's others asking for tax others asking for tax dollars from our community. Um we're never going to get the question asked if we don't
ask it. Does that make sense? It it does. It does. But I do believe I'm on Morris London. That survey, was it Morris London? Uh, in my mind anyway,
pretty much showed that uh a good chunk of people are willing to fund improvements in the building for students. There are a group of people who are unwilling to do anything. It's
that slim number of people somewhere in the middle who we have to convince. That's my so I think there are a good segment of the Austin community who are willing to maybe not build a new swimming pool or a new hockey facility
but for betterment of the schools and the quality of education for their young people in the community they're for them. Um my concern is uh um
it's been a rough three or four months for the district, for the board, the administration and um um I guess I I anticipate the fact that change weird earlier. People
don't like change, but they want it right now. And the fact of the matter is the legislative process which we are legislators uh changes a long time. I remember where you uh work I went down that ribbon cutting and Jeremy Olsen and
the mayor cut that ribbon and the first thing they came he said six years. I said what are you talking about? He said from the time we talked about at the board meeting to the time we cut that ribbon took six years.
However, uh even though it is legislating is the long haul. You've heard the word voice a lot in this meeting tonight. And I and I think we need to take what what we probably look at as being kind of a negative and turning that into a positive and doing
our darnest the most we could possibly do to win over that slick of people who are a little bit right now. They're a little bit mad at me. They're looking mad at you. They don't think the system responds to that. And I think we've
tried and we need to try harder over the next four months to five months to convince them that we're all in this together and we want a a better school for our students and uh we all need to come together. So hopefully a positive
going to come out of this that will be um good for everyone. And I I I don't disagree with anything you said, Don. And I certainly don't disagree with anything that the the reason be behind why we're spending this money or the the need for it. I I
completely agree. My concern is that if it doesn't pass, we don't have $54 million sitting in our general fund. Right? Correct. So that means if we need to spend this money, it has to come from a different source. meaning we either start making difficult decisions here by what
programs get cut or we start increasing class sizes which I know is not a option um reducing staff deferring projects that's that's my concern is what happens when this if this doesn't pass
I would say what what doesn't get what doesn't get fixed or what continues to be the pain point for our teachers, for our kids. I agree with you. I think, you know,
that's that's a very daunting concern for us to have just thinking about, well, if we don't get all this this what is it, 30 pages of a very specific
structural structural um repairs and updates that need to happen. And if we don't do it, things just continue to deteriorate, decline, and we don't see a turn a
positive turn in our um learning environment for our kids. We don't see a positive turn for sale in in their work environment. Um, I think I think that that that's the that's the
right question to be asking is what I'm saying. And in fact, this did happen, I believe, several years ago when a referendum for a audition for a preschool in Maryland was defeated and then Queen of Angels had a bad
infestation and it was really difficult. There was a lot of um uncertainty. there was a lot of happiness but um I think it's uh it's settled in a in a way that most
people agree is positive but um this is a big deal so that's why we we have to do everything in our power as many people as we can find as many media as we can to let people know uh and and not really good at that piece of the puzzle
but we need to be on board All hands on that is what I'm saying is a big deal. I think it can be overcome and I hope it doesn't go to that. And again, I agree as a a parent of the district. I mean, I trust me, I've been
in the schools. I've seen it. I I know that that these things need to be done. I just want to make sure that we do this right at the right time and not have regrets in November thinking we should have waited that one more year. That's it. Um, I agree with you and I agree with
you. Um, I don't think there's anybody at this table that doesn't think that the Austin public schools could use another $57 million to take care of all of our needs. Um,
I I continue to hear from people about discontent, so that hasn't totally gone away. I have concerns um sitting them apart from record board um their budget will be finalized
right before the election and so that probably 10% and 10% is going to be in the face of the taxpayers and I also have concerns about this
being the only valid item and it I have no evidence behind this. But I can imagine it could bring out more people that say I don't want to pay anymore than it will people saying I really think the doors
and buildings are in need of more um safety things. So that's my concern and and nobody has to convince me that that money isn't needed.
just talk about that. I do have real concerns about that. So many question though I share I just concern about you know they're going to get but they're going to get it again next year
probably another 10 and 10 in 2026. So, we're going to go into that election with the same same possibly higher cost. Correct. And that is a really good that is a really good point. Um I I worry
about um not having anything else on that ballot. When we did that special election for the Woodson edition, was that that was the only thing on the ballot at
that time, right? No, I can't remember. Yes, Jen. Jen knows that was it was like April and it was the only thing on the ballot, but it was really close.
But that was also a much more targeted, very specific need. This is this is districtwide. This is this is going to impact every single building. So, it's going to impact all 5,000 plus of our students, all
500 plus of our staff, um, all of our parents, every single family who has has kids in the district is going to see a better learning environment
for their kids. I think they're all going to understand that. Yeah. I also think they're going to look at the budget. Yes. How much more% I agree. I just worry.
I know. I I can say that as as one of the board members of chamber com many discussions with some local business uh owners and business people u that I've been wondering if
school have a referendum conversations I've had there's been more openness and understanding as to why the school would uh even you know with some of the county the city there's been seems to be more of an
openness understanding why we have the same questions why now versus next year but I mean as as Caroline said next year there could be a 15% levy from the city 15 county that we're staring now and at
that point we be looking at needing $80 million to fix. It's probably never going to be a great time to have this, you know, a referendum for it, but um it's really going to
be up the the district on the communication really promoting the benefits of what this is going to do for our school system. Do you remember Dr. Porman was at our study session? Did they talk
about comparative comparative referendums in Minnesota in the past? Did they talk at all about that? Like you know your real estate comparable sales that kind of drives the the uh
value of the property. that was on, you know, a little bit what they talked about with that survey too is just around uh the community's uh openness to tax tolerance. Uh and I think that was a a major uh factor in moving this to a
resolution tonight that there is uh support uh for the school. I think uh the work that uh our facilities committee did along with our our architects uh as well as to identify those priority areas uh to down uh the
question uh that we're we're posing tonight. Um I think the other part too to bring up is we do have some state support uh for this and aid with the aid to school tax credit uh which I believe is going to be funed around 13% uh of
this this referendum was successful uh back to our land owners and I think that's a real benefit you know tax relief too that Do the do those people are going to benefit the agricultural community? Do they know
about that? Well, I think they're aware of the school tax credit. That's not new, but that would be part of an information campaign to to to that cost are not going to get any cheaper. I just I don't see building
supplies getting any cheaper. Labor is not going to get any cheaper. The longer we postpone, the more expensive it's going to be. And the things that we're we're hoping to to pay for aren't the slushy things. They aren't the pretty things. These are the things that keep our
buildings together. And our facilities group does a phenomenal job of maintaining and mandating where they can. But at some point, that's just not enough. And if we postpone another year,
that cost will be exponentially higher and our buildings will deteriorate another year. And some of those level three concerns are going to start to become level two concerns. So our ask is going to have to be greater. We compound all of those things. I just don't know that cleaning off is
is reasonable. I understand the concerns. I totally I hear it. I hear the talk about town. But we have to be really good at at telling folks these repairs have to be done or our buildings are going to go into
the street. Like I said, our facility team has done a phenomenal job of keeping our aging buildings functional, but they're getting to a point where that functionality is going to suffer if we continue to push the ask out a year or two years or five years because we're
afraid of what might happen with these other entities. I just don't know that putting it off is is going to get us anywhere. What it's going to do is going to cost us more in the future. That's the message out there.
I had a convention earlier does a good job. They did a expose one night KD or SSC and they did a a video presentation for Micro Schools had
something and they interviewed the cook, a custodian, a bus driver, a teacher, a football coach put together. I don't know where they put it out on social media. I don't know what, but it got viewed by thousands of people. Another thing that was mentioned by Mo's other
is I think it was Eden Prairie. They designed a classroom that looked like the classroom we're going to have and then they brought people in to see that classroom. I told you I'll drive that bus, you know,
get those but I mean these creative things I agree that uh that being the only thing on the ballot could be impactful. Um there could be some negatives involved with uh taxes on that. We need to negative turn into a
positive and maybe say okay this this this will this work going to fail but we're going to make sure that it doesn't you know I mean just do anything we possibly can to guarantee it passage 51 to 49.
Passage is a passage but that's we need to do that. We need to be creative and and and do some things on the box. And we have a lot of we have a what I'm sharing a lot of people that would step on. I know we had that reference on the preschool. We had a lot of people that
teacher jumped on board. So I'm all done. Anybody else anything to say? I just wanted to say that this is very important and I agree with
everything that's been said at the table tonight. Um I'm concerned about the timing of it. I'm concerned that it's a special election and getting voter turnout. Um
Yeah. And then you add on the what ifs. What if it doesn't pass? And then we have to start thinking about the questions that Dan was was bringing up. And then also, you know, what kind of hit to our morale is going that would that nonpassage
what kind of hit to the to our district's morale would we take and how would we navigate? But we also always say what if what if eventually you just kind of have to dive in and
go for it and trust the process if they trust the process. How does it work if it was an election year for the you said it was like 28 to 33,000 for us to fund this special election.
How does it work if it's an election year and you got all kinds of stuff on the city? We we would share that with the county and the city depending on what was on ballot at that time.
Thank you, Dr. B. If we if we have a referendum and it does not pass, we block out coming back for another referendum within a certain timeline. Um there are some stipulations about timelines uh depending on um
the dollar amount. Um you can certainly wait another year to try to do another special election. You have to have some I think some changes with that. I'm looking at Michael here. Um certain percentage that has to be adjusted. Yeah, generally speaking, it has to
change by at least 5%. If you're going to do it within six months, it's really not a very restrictive requirement because realistically, in order to call an election, you have to do that about four months in advance. And so, you'd be turning around essentially your next
board meeting to make a decision. So it's very very uncommon to be in that position because usually you're most of the time you're taking at least a year between elections to regroup and and discover what you learned in that
process. One other thing that came up that I remember from that survey is in addition to the fact that there was some openness um or an openness to uh funding um and
and tax threshold there. Um people in the community felt that our district is a good steward of the monies. Um, I completely I completely understand why
we're asking for this year. I'm kind of the mindset you can miss 100% of the shots in your table. So, um, if we're not we're not locked out of asking again in pass and And I would also say too as you're
looking at uh with next year too, you having a different environment. You have a governor's election, you have a senate election. Um also there's definitely more more development. Not good. Not bad. It's a different year.
I think um we all want the best, right? We all want the best facilities. I 100% of that. I think it sounds like that's what we're saying here. I think the concern we have is either one, the time or two, how do you draw people to the ballot box that
day when we have a community of diverse backgrounds and languages. I remember two or three years ago when uh we did this and I remember seeing a lot of social media posts and we did a great job that way everything was in English at least that I saw. Are there different marketing strategies that we can take to
draw more people in to help them understand why this is so important for the families who are either new in the community um whose vote matter and how do we get how do we get those people? Yeah. So um certainly we have a communication strategy that we would
develop. A lot of this also gets to be about community presentations uh and accessing like we did for our um the brand 2022 having different meetings uh working closely with our success coaches in different um venues opportunities and
really working hard to inform our voters through as many meetings as you can. I'd like to call a question. What? I'd like to call for a vote, please. I thought we did. Did we vote? You made a motion.
A motion. Now we have discussion and a second. And Dan made a second. You're ready to vote. Is that what you're saying? That's what I'm saying. Okay. Just ask the group one more time. Does anybody else have anything they want to say before we do vote? This was a really good conversation. I
was glad that we had this discussion. All right. All those in favor? Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Thank you for that that really good discussion. I think the next steps are
going to be a challenge that we are up for, right Bob? Bob's going to be our voice. I just follow. All right. Our next agenda item is a
request for the approval of our lease purchase agreement to fund Oh gosh. Um request approval of lease purchase agreement to fund tennis court reconstruction. Um this is an action item with our
executive director of finance and operations and PTAM BPA managing director Michael Hart. Thank you chair person, Dr. Paige, the rest of the board. It is my honor to be in front of you. I'm going to give a little bit of the background of this project and then I'm going to turn it
over to Michael to talk through the sale. So Austin Public Schools had previously engaged ISG, who is our architect firm, to do a comprehensive facility study. During that study, it was determined that the Pulson tennis courts at the Woodson
Woodson Westcod um athletic complex needed complete reconstruction due to a failing pavement section. So what we did in March was uh myself, we and Dr. Bage came in front of the board. We presented a project and
sent some bids out and then in March we awarded those bids to Rochester Sand and Gravel. Following that decision in the April board meeting, we requested a resolution be um passed authorizing PMA to do some necessary funding for this
project. At the same time, we were working be with Minnesota Department of Education to gather um approval to use a lease levy authority to move forward with this project. We can use lease levy for this kind of project because there is some educational benefit to this
project. So, I'm now going to turn it over to Michael Hart to walk through the sale and answer any questions on this. Thank you, Todd. Good evening. Happy to be here tonight. So, this is a followup on a presentation I provided to the board back this spring uh on this lease
financing. So, we got a quick presentation. Uh this is for the tennis courts. Now, there are multiple ways that we can access financing for school district. And you're going to hear a presentation in a second, which is a different way. Um, and we evaluated different options. And what we we determined that the most cost
advantageous way to access funds was to do what we call a direct placement where instead of going through the bond public bond market, we're actually going directly to a banking institution. And we worked with uh one of your larger banking partners as a school district uh
Bremer Bank, which is becoming an old national bank. and they provided a very competitive interest rate of 4.36%. When we evaluated that against a public bond issue, which would have included more costs of issuance, including a rating fee, additional legal costs, and
some other things, this method of financing we uh believe is saving you about $25,000 over the life of of the the 10 years of the loan. So when you compare this this the March 24th numbers are on here. Those are the numbers that
the school board saw uh prior when this was originally approved. You will notice that there's a small reduction in the size. There are some uh there was a one small element of the project expense that is not eligible for the lease levy based upon MBE and that is related to
sort of the stadium components of the tennis courts um because stadiums are explicitly not allowed and really the bleachers uh and the the public viewing area of that. And so that will have to come from other another funding source within the the school budget. But you
can see that the interest rate is much lower. the overall cost um of this financing is lower than what was originally considered and approved. The pre-sale finance plan, those are the preliminary numbers. Uh and they did not change as we went through the process.
It's paid back over 10 years. Uh the $575,000. This shows you that this this uh tax levy will come in place for the first time in 2026. We've included in here the cost of issuance by way of transparency for the school board and your community.
the tax increase uh that that we communicated with you and this is slightly lower than what the board saw is for an average home in that 175 to $200,000 home, we're talking about $4 per year. Uh so that's an annual increase. So very, you know, very small
tax increase related to this when it's spread over the the entire tax burden of the school district. In terms of the process, we've been working through this. We had approval from MDE for this. Uh this is the last board action here. The funding the the funding is expected to be closed or put
in place in the first week of August. Uh I know the work is underway and this will provide that funding as it's needed. We are executing at this point in time instead of doing this earlier in the spring because it lines up when the funds need are needed. It also lines up better with the levy cycle um to to
minimize the overall cost of our so was purposeful to bring to this to you at this point in the year. In terms of what comes next, the funds are held and extended as those project expenditures come through to the extent that they're uh will make help you
manage the investments of those. And there's also whenever we talk about taxes and borrowing, there are very strict regulations from the IRS about how that money is invested and how we track that and we will be a partner with you to help you go through that process. So what you have in front of
you is a resolution to consider approving this uh ratifying it from a schoolboard standpoint, proceeding forward with uh Bremer Bank, the whole national bank as a partner on this and authorizing the lease purchase agreement and the
execution of those documents to finalize this funding. We'll stand for any questions. Is there a motion to approve the lease purchase agreement upon the tennis court construction? Motion by Carol.
Oh, second by Bob. Questions, discussions, comments, seems very straightforward. All those in favor? Motion pass. Anybody opposed?
Okay, motion passes. Uh, next we have our ratification of the sale of our general obligation capital facilities bonds. This is an action item also with Todd and Michael. Thank you. So, we're here for to talk through the lighting the LED project.
So, um, we had a gathered um, approval at the November 24 board meeting to move forward with the energy savings project. That is a likely project that Dr. Paige had mentioned in his um superintendent update that we are um looking to complete right around school starting.
So with that, we received approval from MDE to use capital facility bonds to fund this project and we had a reading call on June 18th and received a rating of A1. And so we're asking tonight for this resolution to be awarded and to
have these funds um be awarded to TD Securities. I'll again turn this over to Michael Hart to walk through the sale of this bond. Thank you. So, uh again, this funding is a capital facilities bond, which as a reminder, this is different than the lease levy and that this is coming out
of the operating capital of the school district's general fund budget, which means that it is it is uh not going to increase taxes, but use utilize those future revenues, funding sources. We went through a different process with this. So part of our job as an adviser
to the school district is to help guide you to the process that we believe will minimize the cost of borrowing. On this one, we went to the public bond market due due to this is a larger size, a longer issue. Uh and we received seven bids from investment banks across the
country. And uh TD Securities is the the the winning bidder there. you can see on this list um out of New York City. So uh and those bids were very close together and a very competitive bid as we we look at the overall broader marketplace. When
we look at this and compare it to the initial numbers here um compared to what the board saw in March, there's two primary changes. one, we are not borrowing for there's a there's a substantial amount of money that you expect to receive back in rebates from
the utilities uh due to this project and about $275,000. And as we went through that process to and we believe those are are very solid that we're not going to borrow for that money because you're going to receive it uh no no reason to pay interest on that. We're also receiving a lower interest
rate than we expected. students. You put those two things together, um the overall principle and interest is over $500,000 less than what the board saw in March for this project. Partially from the interest savings and partially uh due to the fact that we are now
borrowing for those rebates. So, a very successful sale process at about a 3.7% interest rate. Can I ask a question before? Yes, sir. Um the interest rate on the tennis courts is 4.36.
This is 3.7. Uh is it because the size? Uh because what is the reason for the Yeah, it's primarily because it's a different mechanism for financing. So a lease is a different this is called a general obligation bond. The general
obligation is uh means that this school board has the power to levy a tax in an unlimited amount to pay back the bonds no matter what else happen happens to the school district. That's what you're that's what you're telling the the tax or the the bond holder. We need and now
well we know how it's funded. It's not actually going to increase taxes but they're basically what what the the documents say is that no matter what you seven people decide to do they can take it accordingly. make the tax come in to that as a bond holder. So, it gives it's
a very secure type of pledge from like a a security standpoint. What the difference with the lease is that at least there's actually a a clause in there that says we have the right as a school board to not pay you at any point in time over the 10 years of the life of
this. Okay, that's a very different position to be in as a lender. You would have to give the tennis courts to the lender at that point in time. It's a little bit more like a mortgage for a home the way that the documents are written, but that's much more costly for the lender to consider. It's a higher
security and ultimately from a bank's perspective, it's rated as a higher a more risky type of loan, which means they have to set aside more reserves to cover that. Is there much risk in these two transactions? There's there's very very
little risk in either of these but it is represented in the interest rate that there is a difference in risk from a lender standpoint would be the short way of saying what okay thank you as a reminder we structure these payments you have some other capital
facility bodies currently that come out of your operating capital those are represented in the blue bars as those paid off the green bars represent the new payments on this do and so it is taking up some more of your operating capital which you will see reflected in your fiscal year 2027 budget when that
when you consider that next spring uh but it is not a major change uh if had we not taken an approach like this with the overall structure again we have the cost of issuance in here transparency within the
presentation and the board packet uh the process is a very similar process it's the last board action that will be required. The funding is expected to occur on August 5th and I know these projects have already uh been underway. The one other thing we wanted to
highlight as a part of this process, we went through a bond rating with Moody's Investor Service, which is a third party agency that tells the market how uh financially strong and stable the school district is in relation to how your ability to pay back its outstanding
bonds. I took a quote from that. Uh there's a report that's out there the in terms of there are some things within here that you can control as a school district and some things that you cannot. An A1 rating is a very strong rating uh for
your school district. It reflects as this shows a stable local economy, solid reserves and moderate leverage. um the things that you cannot control the the rating scale goes all the way up to AAA. But as far as looking at your overall
finances, uh aside from having a massive fund balance, it's it's going to be hard for you to move much further up this scale because of uh things like concentrated and agricultural and food. Now, most of you, I think, would consider that an asset in your community from this standpoint. It's not as
diversified as some other cities are. And your income levels are are not like they are in in some major metropolitan areas, which is but an A1 rating is a very very good rating and it is reflective of the interest rate that you receive from bond holders and the the
work that you do at this table to manage the school district's finances. Again, similar process uh in terms of the the financial process does not end. When the funds are received, we'll make sure they're managed. there's pulled in a separate segregated account and um
we'll be in compliance with rules and regulations related to taxes and borrowing from the IRS. So you have a similar resolution in front of you to uh proceed forward with this sale and I'm happy to take any
questions. Is there a motion to approve the ratification of the sale of general obligation capital facilities bonds? Who said who said it first? Who said motion?
Thank you. Sorry, I can't see. Motion by Bob, second by Dan. Conversation questions. Yeah, Michael, I just like to say that you're from a non-mathematical perspect you're the VP managing director. Do you
think if you'd have taken that kind of profound class you can still looked at me like you were just you were born to drive. Is that something you always wanted to be as a work in finance? You know, I I won't take too much of
your time, but when I was in college, I had an adviser. I went to Luther College, not very far from here in Lor, Iowa. And there was an accounting professor from my adviser who happened to be the chair of the school board when I was a junior in college. And she had interviewed firms of people that do what I do today and she shared that with me
and that's how I got my interest in it. So, we all have people in our lives that that point us in the right direction and she is one of those and it's nice to hear that you're doing that here. We're very fortunate to have her. Thank you. Any further questions?
All those in favor? I. Anybody oppose? Motion passes. Right. Our next section item is establishing our truth and taxation hearing date. Good evening. I know we all look forward to this date in December. So, according
to Minnesota statute 27.065, school districts are required to discuss their levy. So in December we'll be discussing the payable 26 220 26 levy payable 2027 FY2027 school year and
we'll also be discussing our 2025 2026 budget. Um this meeting must take place at 6 p.m. or later and it has to take place after November 25th and before December 31st. So we are requesting that uh Monday December 8th at a regularly
scheduled board meeting be our treatment taxation meeting. Is there a motion to approve Monday December 8th is our truth taxation meeting by CC second by Carol I got it that time right conversation
pretty straightforward all those in favor. Anybody else? Right. The summary. That's our date. All right. Our next action item is our
request for the approval of the donations. Thank you. It is my honor to stand in front of you at this meeting um to talk through the donations that we have received from individuals or entities and these all meet our board policy 706. So, I'll read through them
and then ask for permission. Hormal Foods Charitable Trust in honor of Jim and Tammy Se $10,000 CEO program. Hormal Foods Charitable Trust in honor of Jim and Tammy Sne $10,000 Packer Pantry Sne.
Keep adding the D. And I practice that and I do not know why. I apologize. This is why I love my hands. American Red Cross, 1500 student scholarships. Lifegate Services, $140. AfricanAmerican Student
Association, Special Olympics, Minnesota, $300. Early Childhood Special Education. Med City Installation from Dexter, Minnesota. donated labor valued at $6,200
for the Austin High School weight room flooring installation project. So again, thank you for all those individuals for their generous donations to our school. John, can you can you speak what was the
company from Minnesota come? How did that come about? So that is a part of the Thelen Foundation project. So they they partner with the the Foundation. So they brought that company in um and as they did the leveling of the floors and all that, the um invoice that we received from them
had the donation on the bottom of it. So that was a generous donation from them. Is there a motion to approve tonight's donations? Motion by second by Dan. discussion. I think I can echo I know Dr. P said
this earlier foods um honoring uh Jim and me with their retirement um through CEO program and Agra Pantry is just spot on. Those are programs that
I know are near and dear to them. So it is so appropriate and so fitting and we're so grateful that Jim and Candy made such a major impact on our community while they've been
taking the charge at home. All right, I took a motion right and second I started talking. Sorry. Um all those in favor. Anybody opposed?
All right, motion passes. Um, our next agenda item, there's a number of um policies that have received red line updates from MSBA and based on legislative updates. Um,
Dr. Do you have anything you want to say about anything? Yes. uh this is that these model uh policy updates arise from the changes from the 2025 Minnesota legislative session. Uh so they're uh based in pursuant to um Minnesota statute. So
they're um they are substantive uh be straightforward to go through the one that I do want to draw the attention to uh to the board is on the medication policy and section 3G. Uh there was a new law that went into
place where school boards can authorize 9th grade through 12th uh grade students to administer that medication uh if there's needed. And our recommendation that is a um recommendation to the board tonight is that that we not add that to ours
working with our team. We feel that we have enough um supervision and responsiveness in our system not to have the students uh participate that. So that would be the only thing that I would ask the board to it's it's an option that may not approve tonight.
Everything else is uh in there for the legislative but that was a big option. Um on that same policy do we have that do we have that drug on site at football games etc?
We have two kits uh that we have uh for those events that are outside of our building. Okay. But that would not include probably school buses. School buses. Yeah. How you get to your next venue similar
to receiving school. Um I have a couple other questions from some of these. Um it on policy 501 it gives the school principles the authority to give
exception to firearms in the building. specific purposes. Um, but later on the superintendent makes decisions on that. Is there a reason we wouldn't have kn
uh to so how I would see that happening if there was I'm just using the example of a presentation um from law enforcement or some something in those regards. I think uh outside of those avenues the principles would be in contact
Is this okay? Checks and balances. Um and then um in I think it's our um I think I asked this when it came up the last time. Our data
was that data compliance official. Was that you or that would be soup? Who knew? And then um it says um on that same data policy
um number eight, data not accessible to parents in our district. It says that is at the discretion of the district to decide if they're not going to get that data out. And it listed all kinds of
reasons who would make that decision in our district. Um oh it's under sorry I'm just trying to get there. So again depending on what the request is uh with that we walk through um and we guess that's probably starting with
principles similar to the weapon polic or the arms policies we work together with that principal might be delivering what the final message is because they're closest to the situation but we work pretty closely there was a designated procedure
really kind of Holly comes in this is what we're getting and then our team works together pretty quickly collaboratively to do that with your princip um in 2627 um they are going to require cannabis
education. Um are we already doing some of that or will that go into health classes? Where is the other? Yeah, we have uh looking at Dr. baskets here that would be part of our our TML process governance are you working
through there if I'm correct in saying that health okay our health curriculum thank you anybody else um trying to figure out what the best way to call this vote would be in order to
so how would I call a general and then we also So an addon for that. Yeah. Or just direct administration to swipe it in their medication. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the
policies presented with administration striking G and the policy 516? All right. Motion by Peggy, second by Bob. Further
discussion? All those in favor? Anybody? Motion passes. All right. Board update. Yes. Uh certainly members of the board. Um just a quick highlight here. We have more work coming on our study session on
July 28th. Uh but the school board did hold uh it summer work session and retreat uh to reflect on its progress and assess their effectiveness and start to set a clear direction uh for the coming year. Uh the session included uh the review of our uh school board
self-evaluation. We work with Dr. Sher Allen uh and we'll conclude this work uh with conversations more on the 28th study session. So should have received uh her uh feedback in last week's board update and uh also just the starting of
some information for goals that we'll talk about uh at Wednesday session. Carolyn what Carol and we talked about Caroline
I thought it was um Eric wrote a nice piece about the retreat collaboration with you and you talked about action items. He talked about it at the study session on the 28th and and and I think
uh on the April 11th August 11th we talked about Dr. Page's goals. What are we what are you specifically what are we going to be doing on July 28th? That seems to be kind of important meeting for
Yeah. Uh basically we're going to be finalizing our court goals and then that will inform Dr. Agent's goals. So basically we're going to it's continuation I think
of what we um had a couple weeks ago um zeroing in on on what we want the next year to look like in terms you I'm sorry ch feedback there. Sorry. Yeah. So, so 28th
really is uh for us to um have continued dialogue on the goals uh potentially and then finalizing on the 11. So, no decisions on on the 28th. It's a continued work session um from the 24th.
Okay. Thanks. Good. Any other questions? All right. Are there any delegations? Seeing none, um here's a reminder that our school board study session is our next schoolboard study session is scheduled for Monday, July 28th at 400
p.m. in district office conference room. Um we are now going to be entering close session for the negotiations update and a motion to enter close session. Motion by Don, second by Carol.
All those in favor?