Oh my goodness. steak. [Music] Good evening everybody. It's our regular school board meeting for Monday, September 8th. Call our meeting to order with roll call
here. Hartland Croc here. Leathers here. Mallister here. Young Silky here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance [Music] 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. All right. Can I get a motion to approve tonight's
agenda? Second. Motion by Carol, second by Dan. Discussion. All those in favor? I. All right. Motion passes. We're going to start out with some recognitions. Um,
starting with Superintendent Beach. Yes. Thank you uh chair debate uh members uh the school board and all those in attendance. Uh a couple recognitions I just want to call out. One is September is uh Minnesota school board recognition month and so I just
want to take a minute here over the last few days uh we've been sharing off just the great work that our school board does uh every day, every meeting I should say um for the students and the staff and the community of Austin. Uh it's a pleasure working with you and we
just want to take a minute to recognize you. Uh we do have the 2025 school board recognition certificates. So I just want to make sure that you have those and uh again just thank you very much for your dedicated service to the students and the staff public schools.
And another part of recognition as I've um invited principal Southgate Elementary Garrett Gustson here tonight because he has some great news that we've been sharing, but I wanted him here tonight just to highlight that. And I'll turn it over to Dale. We'll go sit
down. Hi. So, I appreciate the uh invite from Dr. Paige to talk about um South Elementary and our recognition is a MESPA school excellence in the state of Minnesota. And so, um every year the uh elementary
school principles association uh chooses a handful of schools that have gone through um usually a 2-year application process. And um this year we were one of 12 schools in the state that was chosen for that recognition. Um so it's a it's been a really great process for us as a
building to go through. Um it involves soliciting feedback from our families, from our students, from staff, um from administration about what things um we're we're doing well in our system and what things we can improve on. Um I was interviewed by a member of a local news
agency and I reiterated um you know, we're not a school of perfection. We're a school of excellence. What that means is that we're we're ready to keep learning and growing and trying to do better all the time. And that's not just the job of the principal, it's also the job of the staff, it's the job of our
families, and it's the job of the students as well. So, it was a huge honor um to be recognized for this. And what makes it feel really good is is all they really had to do was brag about the stuff that we were already doing. And u you know put put pen to paper for for all that we're trying to do and the and
the processes and the systems that we already have in place and you know for someone else outside of of Austin to recognize what we already know that we're excellent with was was really great. So um I appreciate being invited tonight to to share the the story and um we're excited to celebrate being a
school of excellence and I think we deserve it. [Applause] That's all I need to [Music] All right. Thank you for sharing that, Gus. We appreciate you. Thank you.
Um, our next agenda item is our superintendence report. That's Dr. Beach. Uh, thank you, Chair Deb, members of the board. I just want to welcome back to the table Michael Gary and new to the table our school board representatives uh for this year. We're excited to hear
your report. Um I just want to jump back to uh Southgate Elementary as you just heard from Princesen being recognized uh for the Minnesota School of Excellence Award. Uh having gone through this process myself uh as a principal and also serving as the master president uh
many years ago, I know firsthand how rigorous uh this recognition uh is. It's researchbased. It's aligned to national standards and it focuses on leadership, vision, student and adult learning, decision making and community engagement. and some feet to set a
powerful example and it's encouraging that other elementary schools in the Austin public schools are also looking at exploring this program as well. Uh a short uh PBIS recognition too. I want to congratulate IG Holton Intermediate School and Sun Elementary School on
being named the PBIS sustaining exemplar schools this year. They were two of 93 schools in the state of Minnesota recognized for creating a positive and supportive learning environment. This week is athletic administrators week.
This is the first uh inter uh scholastic athletic administrators week that they've had. And I want to thank Katie Carter and Ryan Kelly for their vision and leadership. Uh they're behind the scenes organizers who make education based athletics possible, scheduling
games, supporting coaches, and ensuring safety and creating opportunities for students to succeed. Uh, a couple notes on podcasts and communications that if you haven't heard, but our latest Packer Cast with Abby Arian is out. Uh, it's great to hear her story, so please check
that out. Also, the Austin Packer Bulletin is now available as a weekly podcast and on the referendum. I recently joined John Wright. I'm right here right now uh on a community presentation on a referendum. So, if you get a chance to to listen to those, I
encourage you to do so. Just a community of thanks here. I want to thank the community of Lanesboro. Uh our cross country team has camped in Lansboro for the last 17 years and this year when the storms rolled in uh a city
employee stepped up and offered the use of their community gym. The kids stayed safe, played games, and made the best of it. And that kind of hospitality means a lot. So we're really grateful for them taking care of our students and our staff. Also want to thank our crossing
guards. This is just a quick but important shout out to them. Uh Jack, Renee, Kenny, Robin, and Pat. They're out there every day, rain or shine, making sure our elementary students arrive safely, and their commitment does not go unnoticed. So, we want to thank
them. Uh student recognitions for FFA at the state fair. Sisters Ellie and Sophie Struck ear are in the top FFA goat breeding stock award this year. So it's a tremendous accomplishment for them and reflects both their dedication and strength of our FMA program. Uh also
with student recognitions uh from Mrs. Sanders AP human geography class, three students were selected to attend the global youth institute in De Moines, Iowa this fall. Ian Johnson, Nor Sand, and Aiden Seion. They'll be presenting their work on food security
alongside peers and leaders from across the world. This is exactly what our vision of preparing students to make a difference in the world looks like. So, congratulations to them and thank you to Miss Sanders for her work. Our distinguished alumni for 2025 have been
announced and uh Dr. Sharon Adams and Thomas Herrera are being recognized at this ceremony later this month. Uh this is one of the great traditions of Austin High School, connecting current students with graduates that continue to make an impact in their fields and their communities.
Uh also the Austin Symphony youth concert is going to be taking place in October. Uh this is uh from the Austin Symphony will once again present its youth concert to all fourth and sixth grade students on the area for 68 years.
This concert has introduced kids to live symphony music free of charge. This theme this year is on heroes and villains. He had Superman, The Magnificent Seven, and narrated performances of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Last year's record
attendance topped 2,200 students, and we expect another outstanding experience this fall. And finally, uh the class of 1965 will meet this weekend for their 60th reunion. Uh and a personal note, they've invited me uh to share a few
words. That's my dad's graduating class. So, um, and I was fortunate to have 8 hours in the car with my mother this weekend. So, I got a whole bunch of stories to share. Uh, but this, uh, concludes my report. As always, these recognitions and updates show the strength of our staff,
of our students, and community, and together we're building momentum on what's to come ahead. So, that's my report. Thank you. 60. Yes. I feel as if I could call you dad. Wow. Anybody have any questions?
I I want to just piggy back on to the Lansboro comments as a parent of a student who was on that trip. They spent 4 hours in that gym from like 11:00 at night until 3:00 in the morning. So, I'm very appreciative of the community lsboro.
They make sure our our kids were all very safe. So, Um, it's nice that we we can count on other communities to lift up our kids as well. All right,
reports. There we go. I just had a quick one. Um, Dr. Paige and I had an opportunity to connect earlier this month on a variety of different topics, but one of the topics that we talked about was uh school safety uh in light of the recent events in Minneapolis. Um it was good to
just reiterate the different things that our district has in place, safety policies and procedures, protocols, uh connections with local uh police and area. Um, however, I would also just ask and call
out for other board members or others to either write a letter to our state legislator or take action um and raise your voice if that's something that's important to you. Um, I have a a generic letter that I can help provide if anybody's interested uh to our state
legislature about safer gun control laws uh in the state of Minnesota. So, that's all I have. Thank you. [Music] I just have a couple things. Um, I had the pleasure of attending the Sumar
family fun night last Thursday and what an amazing event that was. Um, I saw nothing but families having a lot of fun. Big smiles on the kids' face from ear to ear. Um, I got a picture taken
with a star and I saw a picture of Don with the astronaut. So, that was kind of fun. Um, but I just wanted to thank Principal Raleigh and the staff at SAR um, for all of their hard work in planning that event, executing that
event, um, and for the invitation to us to attend. So, thank you for that. um also attended the Apex Austin meeting on uh September 3rd
and some of the things that they talked about um Vicki and I apologize if I'm going to say her name wrong. Vicki Belholski um First United Methodist Church and
she's also on the Human Rights Commission. um she was talking about um the Austin Community Waring Center. Um and that's to serve Austin's unhoused population
during the winter months uh November 1st through March 31st. They're planning 20 beds. Um, it's going to be in the old Knights of Columbus building. Um, based on the Catholic Charities
approach, uh, next steps, she said that they need a handicap ramp. They're having zoning discussions with the city. Um, some of the resources that they need, um, funding, of course. She said the annual
budget was 40,000 um for 12 months and of course they need volunteers and community support. Um so some of the current data that she said in 2025 they
have there are 54 people that are considered homeless. 33 singles and seven families. So that's really concerning. Um and then they talked about welcoming
week and welcoming week is an annual event um to celebrate communities coming together to promote cross cultural understanding and raise awareness of the benefits of a welcoming welcoming
everyone. Um and that's September 12th through 21st. And they've got a whole list of um events. Thank you. Anybody else? Can I say something? Yeah. Go ahead. No.
Oh, I saw your hand go up and I thought you wanted to talk. Turn off the mic. Uh in my previous life I coached little girls basketball over Glenville East Club and on occasion we came over to Austin and played in ninth
graders at Hasty's gym and a lot of our kids were farm kids and they did not really appreciate Hasty's gym that much. It wasn't their favorite facility to play basketball in. Then later on I uh hung up the whistling started another whistling that is refereeing and I
referee a lot of basketball games in AC gym. have a couple of joint replacements to prove it. That floor was blue. So, the other night at the volleyball game after it was over and everybody was leaving, I snuck over to Hy Gym and the lights went on. Although the lights in
the in the Patrick gym are awesome, I might say. So, I assume that the lights at the Hastings are just as vibrant. But what a what a fantastic job. I looked at that floor and they probably saying, "Come on, let's get the kids together.
I'll run down the floor." And I don't run very well anymore. But just fantastic floor. The walls are painted nice. Um the basket is it's really a a facility spinning Austin Becker sports and activities.
Um I know that some of you were kind of walked when I walked in the room kind of taken a back by my facial hair. I just want to say I'm I'm starting a fundraiser for an Austin High School activity. And so if anybody like a a
whisker rub or just rub my whiskers for five bucks, I'd be more than glad that the money is going to a good cause. I just collect baseball. That's all I have. That's weird. respond.
Anybody else? All right. Our next agenda item is our first sum up report from this year's representatives. We're going to start with Michael Gary and then move over to Livia Misara. We're gonna have Don turn off his
microphone. Superintendent Paige, chairs for convey and members of the school board. I am Michael Gary and I will be presenting the first half of the super board. To begin, sports are officially underway for the fall season with students actively participating in volleyball, cross country, football, mountain
biking, cheer, and girls tennis. It's good to see so many students embracing these opportunities to work on teamwork and perseverance in the school spirit. Our district our district recently hosted a mountain biking event which gave students a fun and challenging way to compete while also bringing people into the community. I would also like to
recognize K K Oer a junior at Austin High School for getting his first playing time as an Austin pro. As we eagerly await the completion of the new weight room, students are already enjoying the partnership with ETSs weightlifting. They've been actively attending workouts and being
enthusiastic about the program, often commenting on how much they appreciate the new coach and the structured training ECS provides. Once the weight room is open, this combination of state-of-the-art facilities and expertled programming will make it even more exciting and motivating space for students to build strength, improve
fitness, and enhance overall athletic performance. The student council continues to do an outstanding job to help all students feel connected and included. The beginning of the school year were very smooth and I felt very included. Their work on homecoming preparation is especially notable this year as they
plan engaging activities and events that promote school pride and ensure everyone feels welcome. Their dedication makes a real difference in the building a strong sense of community across our schools. We would also like to congrat extend congratulation on behalf of the students
to Dr. Kabine on earning her doctorate. This incredible achievement reflects her dedication, leadership, and commitment to providing an exceptional education experience for our students. Finally, the summer school program was a great success. Approximately 250
students participated and 12 students celebrated graduation during the summer ceremony. This highlights the district's ongoing commitment to supporting students learning year round and providing opportunities for success in every season. I'd also like to thank the teachers and principles that participated in the summer school
learning. There are so many exciting things happening throughout Austin public schools. And this concludes the first half of the student. Thank you for your time. Any questions? Did you talk about the mountain? Yeah, I mean I I was out for the car. I
drove by that just I drove by the park that day. There were cars lined the hallway. I remember seeing motorc cars and and from all over the outer west and there were bikes on top of cars. It just it's really awesome. Yeah, it was really cool to see. I mean,
you saw I didn't even know I was in town until you start paying attention. You realize there's bikes everywhere at restaurants and all around the town in the back of the cars. That was a particularly busy weekend on top of it. Yeah. Did you say that
being a high school junior also playing for the Bruins? Yeah. So, he can't play during the regular season, but he got drafted by the Bruins or however that works, and he plays in the preseason and postseason, and he got his first ice time this weekend. That's fantastic.
Wow. What's the best thing about the school year so far? Um, I always like coming back to school and just reconnecting with all the teachers and all the students at the school. and your senior year, right?
Yeah. Thank you so much, Michael. Our next report is from Ian, our representative. [Music] Um, okay. Superintendent Paige,
chairperson, Duke, and members of the board. I'll be presenting the second half of the report. My name is Lydia Masan and I'm your 11th grade student representative for this school year. To begin, Link Group, a program at Austin High School that pairs juniors and senior mentors with AHS freshmen, help
ease their transition into high school. With over 80 members, students volunteered more than 18 hours of their time early in the morning to welcome new students into the building. Activities at AHS are in full swing with both new and returning clubs. For
example, debate club, which has not been active at HS for over 20 years, is making its return to our halls. Recently created cultural clubs such as the African Student Association and the Asian Student Union and the Hispanic Latino Youth Group are also holding
their first informational meetings. Meanwhile, our high school building has been going through some well needed improvements. The new page and updated Florence in Hast Jim and Chris Hall have already made a noticeable difference in our school years. In addition, the West tennis courts are being redone and the
rate room is currently being updated to provide students with better facilities. Students at AHS have been very excited about these changes and expressing how much they already love the new improvements. These projects are still ongoing, but we're excited to see the final addition and that will continue to
enhance our school for everyone. And personally, as a member of the tennis team, I'm especially excited. Thank you for your time. Any questions? We feel your pain. Every time I drive by that, seeing it's not finished, just
come on, mother nature, make it stop. Uh, can you uh share with us just a little bit about yourself so we can get to know you as our newest board member? Yeah, sure. Well, to repeat, my name is Lily Masara. I'm 11th grade this year.
Um, I started the African Student Association here at AHS and we did a big part of creating culture week here. So, that was nice and fun. Um, in addition to that, I'm involved in the speech team which we made to state this last year, which was nice. And I am planning on
doing the debate team that started out here at AHS and just super excited for the school year. Great. What's been the best part of the school year so far for you? I think just like the busyiness, like being able to add more stuff to my schedule.
You like to be busy. Yeah. Does anybody else have any questions? All right. Welcome. We're happy to have you with us. Thank you. All right. Your next agenda item is our consent
agenda. Can I get a motion to approve that? Motion by Dan, second by Carol. Discussion. All those in favor? I. Anybody opposed? Motion passes.
Right. Our next agenda item is our request for the approval of extended field trips. First one is to Minneapolis with equity coordinator Christy Beckman and May advisor Amanda. [Music]
Sorry I still have the hat saying on chairperson Dubet superintendent Paige and members of the board Amanda. Good day. My name is Amanda Strant and I am a Native American success coach for
our school district. Tonight I come before you with an opportunity for some of our Native American students to attend the National ASUS conference. ASES is a 4-day three-ight conference that focuses on educational, professional, and workforce development
for indigenous students in science, technology, engineering, and math study and careers. This is a once ina-lifetime opportunity. Um, and through lots of networking that I've been doing, Mayo
Clinic has graciously agreed to pay for everything besides, um, transportation. So, um, and our equity advisor is going to pay for our transportation. So, we get to go on to this conference
for basically nothing. Um, so we are asking for your approval to be able to take a couple of our students up there. Um, and give them this opportunity that nobody in Austin has ever been able to have.
Can I get a motion to approve the extended field trip for Neil Pet? Okay. Motion by Carol, second by Cece. Discussion. Chrissy, what else are you going to pay for? 16 full-time success coaches.
I thought you were I I just want to take a second to give Amanda um some recognition for her amazing work um with the NAPAC. We're really fortunate to have an an active NAPAC with over five families consistently um attending all of the cultural events that Amanda
coordinates. It's pretty incredible. Um, we're only in our third year of programming and last year we already had other districts calling us to ask us for advice. So, I'm really impressed by Amanda. None of this would be happening if it weren't for her dedication and her passion. So, I'm really excited to be
able to work with her and I couldn't do it without her. So, she she's the brains behind it. I just I go at it. That's me. I'm like you. I'm on a roll. So, right. All right. Wait. Does anybody have any
questions? Do you know how many people applied for that grant? Um they did not tell me. Um I had gone on um over to the churchy where I'd met with multiple different people from the
Rochester district and one member from Mayo from the Dakota program over there. She came and brought this up and asked if I'd ever heard about it. I said, what are you talking about? I said, and she was like, well, we've got this. Let me look into some things and we'll see what
we can do and we have we were selected to have the opportunity. Awesome. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I Anybody close? Motion passes. Have a great time.
Thank you so much. Okay, our next agenda item is a request for the approval of an extended field trip to Boston, Massachusetts with activities. [Music] Good evening, board chair, Dr. Paige,
members of the board. I am here tonight on behalf of Boston High School's English language department. They are requesting approval for an extended field trip to Boston in the 26 27 school year. Uh the reason for such early
approval is so they have time to be able to get the word out, promote it, hopefully get the 20 to 30 kids that is their goal. Um and just, you know, have that opportunity to finance it in various different ways as you can see on
the form. Um, Autumn Hamburg is the English language teacher that is in charge of this trip. It would happen right after the school year ends. Uh, June 7th to June 10th, like they said, 20 to 30 students. Um, 1 to 10 is their
ideal ratio. They would be flying. They're working through a travel agency. Uh and then as you can see, uh it'll be financed in various different ways from students having to put some of the cost to fundraisers to outside contributions.
Um but then again allowing a full school year and a half to be able to work how they need to to be able to get those funds for the cost of the trip. Um, and it's really just connecting, you know, literature to real life and going to
places where they might have read books and they get to go see a play or go visit museums and study and just connect literature and English to real world experiences. Can I get a motion to approve the
extended field trip to Boston? I'll make that motion. sending great names, questions, you potentially do it. I always said my kids are older now and so if I have the opportunity I love I love watching kids experience and learn
in real life in real time. I was fortunate enough to go stand two years ago to DC. Oh, you didn't get to go, did you, that year? No. But going I had never been to DC before. So being able to go to all the museums and learn and just experience
that with them for the first time, it was it's it's great. And if I have the opportunity to hang out with kids and be able to watch that and be alongside them, then I'll take the opportunity. If I'm the right fit as a chaper for their
trip, I have to be better, too. Looks amazing, right? It does. It looks like you're going to if you do go though, I think you're going to be very, very tired. Probably get this new hip and be working out.
Looks jam-packed, but it looks like a lot of fun. Yep. All right, further discussion. All those in favor? Anybody opposed? Motion passes. I have a
great time. Well, do Thank you. All right, our next agenda item is our summer programming updates with our principal alternative program, Dr. Jessica and targeted service leads, Rebecca Dio
and Gina Williams. [Music] You may just have to skip that. We'll go ahead and we'll just do it without I can send we can I sent it ahead of time, too. So, we can send it again.
Yeah. Fill the void. Fill the void. Okay. All right. All right. Good evening, Superintendent Paige, Chair Peterson Dubet, members of the board, Michael, too. Thank you both for being here. My name is Jessica
Deine. I'm principal alternative programming. And before we get started with our formal agenda, I'd like to introduce the people who are really the leaders behind the work and I had to bribe them to get him there today because they don't like to get the the center stage. But let me introduce the two targeted service leads to.
[Music] Hi everybody. I am Gina Williams and I am the site lead of our students. Oh, yes. I think I just finished year five,
I believe. And I'm Rebecca Do. I had the pleasure of having fourth through eighth graders at home this summer. And I'll make sure I'm making them st characters if you have any questions, they're going to be available to answer questions throughout the presentation
because uh while I I get to stand up here with the clicker in the presentation, they're really the brains behind the work and the passion that you're going to see uh and the evidence of data as we go forward. Uh again, we obviously with our all of our summer programming K12 really want to continue
inspire, empower, and accelerate. And we really saw those metrics in a lot of different variations this year. Um we think about our vision of preparing allers to make a difference in the world. The um incorporation packer profile has been really exciting and we have a number of guest speakers come and speak to our students and really inspire
and empower them. It's been great to have student volunteers come in and pour into our kids too. And the power of a high schooler with a third grader is pretty remarkable. Actually high schoolers and eighth graders is pretty remarkable. They really do enjoy it and it's been neat to watch those pathways. So, um, and we're going to continue with
our core values and strategic priorities and really want to focus on those desired daily experiences. So, uh, really when we look at I'm supported and challenged in my learning and believe I will be successful. Uh, the teachers that sign up to teach summer school are absolutely amazing. I
think you wouldn't I mean if you went into the classrooms they are compassionate, caring, high expectations and really define warm and as a as just they just really work hard and the kids really do appreciate what they they bring to the classroom. For the rest of our family, my my child enjoys coming to
school and is safe, included, respected, so they're learning every day. We do exit surveys with our students and we get really strong feedback that not only do they enjoy coming to summer school, they come back again and they make friends. So I think not only do our academic outcomes we you'll see but we also see some of that social emotional
learning in incorporated in it as well. And finally the staff when we think about being seen valued and respected work going on in the work I do. Uh I get to go to all the sites and get to talk to teachers and just hearing how much joy they have in their classroom getting to try new things getting to see student
growth and the fact that like we hadn't even finished the last day and I had four teachers can come back next year already. So I it's pretty exciting to see that they we hadn't even finished and they were ready to sign up for next year. So a good testament to the work that we're doing and the work that the league teachers are doing to support staff and students. So as we move into
that what ought to be when we think about the foundation of those student family and staff experiences we hope that our strategic plan is successful for implementation and I think when you get to see some of this additional data you'll see that we really did try to aim for that this year. uh for targeted service again is an intervention program
for criteria for at risk students and I think when we think about that and actually we just had a state meeting with our ALC principles where they said we're really trying to shift from at risk to in need so it's not so deficit-minded and I think that's the piece too is is all students need something a little different to be
successful and targeted service and next school and credit recovery is just being able to fill that need to support students to getting the success and moving past into their vocational and college and career pathways There's our leaders. They look better in person. I'm going to tell you that right now. But we are
really grateful for the time and energy. I mean, they start planning this. I start bothering you in November, December. All year. All year. Okay. All year. I bother them all year. But it's so neat because they're constantly going, "Yes, and like yes, let's look at this field trip. Yes, let's bring in these speakers. Yes,
let's talk about swim lessons." So, it's really neat to be able to work alongside two dedicated and inspiring future administrators that are just really leveling the bar for other people that are coming behind them. By the numbers, uh, K8, 572 students participated. We
had over 50 staff and 12 high school students consistently volunteer at K8 sites. So, they were there every day and the kids knew if they were going to be gone, what was going on. So, I think that just really necessarily about that lasting impact on the next generation of hackers. All right, here comes our data. And I have notes on this. And of course,
Cory's in the room, too. So, that's not stressful at all. But, oh my goodness, here we go. But overall, uh, we saw a notable gain in in when we talk about reading. So, this is our reading data, a 19.1% gain with an
increase from 45% to 64.2. The largest gains were observed in grade two with Oh, I love Cory. Impressive. Impressive 25% increase. That's I like that Cory Cory's an impressive that um followed closely by grade one and grade five. And
so that's really exciting to see everything going up. I think that especially when you're when you're talking about a six week program to be able to see pre and post surveys with that type of gains really shows the work that the teachers and students are putting in. This is again just a different way to look at it more around
demographics of um gender and demographics of ethnicity and e services and specialized services. But again, you can continue to see that we had gains in every area and the overall gains really reflect the program's effectiveness in enhancing language arts proficiency across diverse student populations.
When we turn back over to look at math, uh you're going to see overall improvements that students improved by an average of 16.6 percentage points from 55.1% to 71.7. The largest gains were observed in grade three with a 21.6% 6% increase followed
by grade 4 at 20.9. Again, we're just going to go over to the next slide which this was about grades and the next will be that demographic piece. When we see this again too, um we see the growth in gains in all of the areas. Um again, major gains really look at um our demographics
and our gender. We're just it's really exciting to see these gains across the board and then continuing to look at how it's being effective in improving mathematical proficiency across varied demographic suburbs and with the number worlds math curriculum. Again, noteworthy improvements were observed especially among native Hawaiian Pacific
Islander and ELEL students highlighting the curriculum's wide reaching impact. So, we just want to continue first off to thank Corey for pulling all this data to thank our teachers for the the fidelity of doing a pre and post test and ultimately for the students for working really hard and seeing the evidence in their gains and preparing
them for the next grade that they're entering into. Another component we added last year was our Packer profile. So, we wanted to continue to to expand our students knowledge of career pathways and things they can do in their future. So we have weekly lessons focusing on our core values and there's
journaling prompts for all the students. And this year we had over 12 community participants um with ongoing tacker profile celebrations and our daily journal prompts. So we continue to appreciate our community volunteers that dedicate their time to come in and just share a little bit with our students and
it's really fun to watch and appreciate Ryan for coming out taking pictures and also sharing that with um our community and our families so they can see what their students are doing in summer school. when we go to that desired day experience for families, uh that extended day program. This is the second year we've run almost a full school day.
So, prior to this, we really ran kind of a 4-hour day and we really expanded it to six and parents have really appreciated it. Teachers have our I think our enrichment component has been helpful. Our connection with kids corner is really important. Enhanced communication, especially with social media, so families know what their students are doing during the day. We
have academic and social activities. So, parents really appreciate that their kids are getting exposed to a lot of different things in this in the summer. and then also hopefully building leisure skills as they take those things outside of that. And then we added that future teacher and African Student Association volunteers last year and continued on
this year. So, it's been really helpful. And again, kids just love to see successful versions of themselves, whether that's an adult or a junior, senior in high school. We go to the staff. We do an exit survey for all of our staff every year. 100% of our staff
appreciate the PE playlist. So in about May, we send that page playlist out because some teachers like to get started right away in May and some want to start in June. So we give them some flexibility in developing um their skills and what they need to know to be able to be a successful teacher. 84% of them believe the mission was aligned
with vision mission and vision in Austin public schools. 92% of the Richmond teachers aligned in enhanced programming. 84% satisfaction for summer school and 100% this year would return next year. So that's really really exciting to just see that that and I think and I would we would hire them all
back, wouldn't we? Yes. Get those contracts out today. Uh when we talk about enriching experiences outside of the classroom, again I just these are some great pictures of some of the things the kids do beyond just their academic classroom. So I have listed field trips, bowling,
hormill institute, river college visits we've done, library, fan museum, direct frisbee golf. These are things that we've done in the last few years, too, that just continue to support our students in different activities. We've had health and safety presentations um at the high school. So, we had uh Kathy
Euing bring in some community speakers to help with our EL health class. Um we've had creative um electives this year. I think was Brian Tim, was that I wasn't he? And science science is experiential science. It was so fun to see the kids really getting engaged with that. Uh and so and we have
the enriched library enrichment at JJ Holton too. So we really want to again continue to thank all our volunteers, the speakers and the apex generous donation of outdoor games for some of our celebrations. Could any of you walk us through the water tower tour? To me it's amazing.
What did you do? Yeah, they brought them inside the water tower to look and see like pressure of water and different stuff and then gave them all colored glasses. So when they got really cold water, showed them how the glass turned colors and they kind of got to explore a little bit too. It was
nice. They got to walk there, come back. And so they got in the water tower, not like the actual water tower, like the building connected to it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I couldn't answer that one. That's why we had the brains behind
all this. Uh when we laid them out on our student desired daily experience, this was kind of the range of students that we were able um to survey. And let's see here. 96% of them enjoyed summer school. 93% learned something new. 100% of their teachers, they rated their teachers okay, good, and
excellent. 95% of the students met new friends and 78 would come back next year, which I also think is a great testament to, you know, I mean, they dedicated six weeks of their summer in summer school and they're willing to come back. additional comments uh from students that field trips more field trips they like the food rice palooa was
a hit math was a favorite subject area um and then they they do identify like I learned more about this or I learned about this and it's really neat to hear in the student voice the specific skills that they learned through the summer um I want to just quickly touch base too because we do have 912 summer school under our umbrella as well um I want to
thank Kimish for her work and dedication and really um continuing to accelerate student learning and proving meaningful experiences. This was the first year with our new curriculum and a few new things and Kim just did an outstanding job of supporting students and it was really fun to see students start this
the session with maybe more of a fixed mindset like I'm never going to get this. This is too hard and within a couple days it's like okay I think I got this. I think I got this. And to have a number of students being back on track as they enter the school year this year and having that confidence has been neat to watch. So we had about 249 students
in the 912 summer school uh 18 staff supporting them and we had 407.5 classes recovered. So that's really exciting to see students that are not only getting on back getting back on track but for the next slide too just to identify that 12 students became summer graduates. So again, instead of being at
risk, we were in need of a little additional support. And I want to thank the board members that were there to be able to hand those diplomas. And uh if you were there, you got to hear um Rhonda Alberts give a very beautiful graduation speech that really had ripple effects, I think, for the students,
families, and the community that were there. So I just want to get back to that daily desired experience. We always try to ground ourselves in that as we plan the next year to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all of our stakeholders while also accelerating student learning. So, um, you okay?
Okay. Thank you. With that, if we would entertain any questions and these would be to step up, too. Not a question, but a comment. Um, I love that you guys plan activities that really address the whole child and keeps
everybody motivated, not just with academics, but with the fun activities. Um, because you can learn when you're having fun, too. Don't tell anybody. Um,
it was it's great to see so much growth. I know that every year we we think about um how do we how do we capture that momentum and keep keep our kids moving forward
and not not slide backwards. I know that um you know six weeks of intensive time is great but they also have six weeks where they're not not with us. Um, what do we do
to to help encourage that that continued upward trajectory instead of backwards slide? Uh, I'll take that a little bit. Uh, so speaking more at the K8, we really work with teaching and learning to ensure
that the the curriculum and the vocabulary is very aligned. So we're not and that was really Dr. Baskin over here's vision. um when she handed the the rings to me is it's very prescri like it's very prescribed it's aligned to standards and the the language is the same where I think sometimes summer
programming they buy different curriculum different tools and so kids learn something in the summer and they're not able to extend it when they get back to the school year so and then we also share this information with with building leaders um it's going to be in the edge climber so we can see where the kids were making progress so we can build on that when it comes to 912 we
spent some time trying to like let the counselors know who was successful and and have touch points with some of those students to see watching their attendance as the year starting credit attainment and just trying to keep them. Yes, you needed credit recovery because you were in need, but now that you met that need, we want to just keep you
progressing with your peers at the same time. So, I think those are two pieces that we continue to work with, but I think we can always continue to improve and and do a continue to align. But I think just in talking with other sites across the state, having that alignment
of curriculum that extends through the summer instead of two separate things really does help to to keep that muscle going. Even if they have that break after summer school is starting, then it's like, "Oh, wait. We just talked about this." I know like Miss Becker with the phonics program really saw some great gains and I think it was because she was really using it during the
school year and that's going into summer school too. Thank you. So would you say that um you had 200 high school 9 through 12 students would what would and you had um
um I forget u 47.5 recovered credits. Would you say the average student recovered two credits, one credit, three credits? How would that work? That's that's a great question, Don. And it it kind of depends on their um
pathway, how many credits they needed to recover. We had a couple students that maybe just had a little bit of a dip and so they had just a half a credit to recover. So they kind of came in and came out. I would probably say around three or four credits is is probably the the average. But um one of the pieces
that we have with this new curriculum that we use is it is able to extend past the instructional day because we do have students that especially in high school they might be trying to also work a full-time job in the summer to support themselves their future aspirations. So a lot of our students would come during the day but then they would also
continue work working on their coursework at night or on the weekends too. So that's where we could see a little bit of an increase of recovery where we didn't require them. We would only accept work while they were sitting there. we allow them to do some of the work offsite and we've seen some like student feedback of like let me learn what I can learn so I'm not stressed out
about also trying to provide for my family or to also work or or do other things too. So and this was just our first year with it down but I am going to watch to see how that recovery is going and what that credit attainment looks like and what the average is but usually two to three credits over a six
week period was was pretty manageable if they needed that much. Could I ask one of you too just to address uh you had 538 K through8 students something like that. How does a typical student land in summer school if they don't need to
recover credits like maybe a junior senior? Can you give me a Yeah, I can I'll talk to them. They're going to jump in. I can talk from the data point. When I talk with principles, we really look at um students that maybe just need a little bit of a bump. So
they're not completely like red or inner like intensive but just maybe just a little bit. So like back in the day we would use like in the yellow like kids that are maybe just is that still I still use that terminology. So when I work with the principles and their MTSS teams that's kind of the students that we're identifying. We also work with
special services to see if students would be successful with with PAR support. So we try to identify students around the same academic needs. So then when we're clustering them we sometimes will well and you guys can kind of talk to that too. Some teachers want kids that they had during the school year. Some teachers want to split that out. So
we try to balance that with gender, behavior, and academics. But do you want to just is that you guys want to just talk about how that fits with your I think that fits well and it it aligns like with our um with our curriculum too like the curriculum that we that they purchase for us to use. It just it
meshes well with those students like the levels that she was just talking about. So as a classroom teacher, how would you explain that to parents when you're recommending for summer school? That might be the other piece, too. Yeah. Um, I guess how do you explain it? The kids aren't like in the yellow. You just need that little extra bump, that little extra push. Um, those are the
ones that we try to push in there. We look at kids that that can sustain that amount of time, that extra time past the school year where it's not going to be too much for them. I mean, I take a look at that when I consider like my first graders for example. Um, who would be a good support for that? You know,
families that um can support them, get them there. Um, kids corner like she said has been like a good thing because then that's not a hindrance that they can come to and from kids corner too. So we talked about attendance this summer in some of these subgroups. How's the
attendance uh for summer school? I mean you gave us some statistics but how did it pretty good? I mean overall I think attendance at the elementaryaries is probably the best. It's when you get into the seventh and eighth grade groups
that can be a little harder. I had some good success with some students really showing up every day and then some that just come a couple days and leave. But I really think the ones that stayed really got a good experience and they were with friends that they could connect with and
they still got to see each other even though they weren't in the same class all day too. So I thought that was important. And Rebecca's being modest. Um she made extensive phone calls and communication to families. Both of them did. And I think and we talk about attendance and engagement, having someone call and just
say, "Hey, are you okay? Are you coming?" Sometimes it was a vacation, too. We just didn't know. But they were on the phone all the time connecting with families. What can we do? How can we get here? How can we support you? Which I do think when we talk about attendance and and strategies to support that, that connection to school, having
that person in school that wants to see you there does really improve that that engagement in attendance. And you have to collapse any sections? Oh, yeah. We did not have to collapse any sections this year, which was the first. Usually come July our kids have fallen off and we have to collapse a session or two. This year we did not. So that also probably shows the effect that
they continue to come. It used to be that students had to go to to um after school summer school or after school targeted services to be able to attend in the summer. are
is the funding still based on both or is different now? Um the one thing that we do when we build out the calendars we watch how many hours a specific student could acrewue because it's summer and after school all goes together. So is it like 172 hours something like that?
So there's an hour requirement but then there's also it it's not per the student but for programming we have to if we're going to provide summer school programming you have to have the after the extended day program. Y and a lot of times the same the students might be similar so we want to make sure that we don't go over that
amount but yeah and actually tomorrow starts our after school K8 and today started night school. So, we just finished talking about summer school and we just started after school program. I just finished enrolling um in on boarding over 30 students in our night school today. So, and tomorrow we start
K8. So, yeah. Wow. Mhm. It's fun to see that we have a lot of opportunities for families and students that need that academic support. I would just like to add I had the opportunity to see Miss Dale at J a couple years ago and the engagement is
real. um your ability to run through the halls and and make it fun for the students uh is a real deal and I appreciate that. I had no idea what to expect walking into that situation and I walk out thinking this is so much better than I had thought. So, thank you for your engagement and I'm sure Mr.
Williams it's the same way for you. Always ready. Of course, I'm always ready. So much. I just had a comment and a question. First of all, I want to thank all of you. Um, obviously the data speaks for itself that you're doing a
phenomenal job. If you've got 100% of your staff saying they want to come back next year and 96% of the students enjoying summer school. So, thank you very much. Um,
I guess my question is when you said that you had 572 students in the younger grades, um, how many of the students that were identified that were
kind of in the yellow that needed a little bump um, didn't participate in summer school? Do you know? That's a that's a great question too because it it does it's like the you want to have program we have to have
the staff to have the programming. So it is kind of a dance and space. I think we're getting pretty tight on space when we when we go into these elementaryaries because we run three to five sections per grade. So I think this year we did have a little bit of a wait list but we were able to to get most of the students
in. So we do the first wave of registration kind of Februaryish. Um we and we actually ask for teachers by November December. we get a good sense, but I think we've kind of found our sweet spot of um the right amount of students and staff and space that they can get those enriching experiences um
and be successful. So, yeah, we had a very small weight list um but we were able to get that filled and cleared up. That's awesome that you had a weight list added a section too like our second grade group. So, we were able to staff she was able to staff it and we had the
numbers to fill it and like she said, we didn't even have to collapse a section this year. Our attendance was really really good. Great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all. Kudos. We appreciate you
tonight. Now go home. All right. Our next agenda item is our request to approval of our donations with executive director of finance and operations. Good evening chair. Superintendent H and members of the board, it is my honor to
stand in front of you again this month to go over the donations. Each one of these has been reviewed and it is um in accordance with school board school board policy 706. So I will read these off and then ask um for approval at the end. Southwest Central Service
Cooperative $950. Banfield Elementary. Austin Area Foundation, $500. A Austin High School football program. On Time Sports LLC, $252. AHS student or AHS athletic department.
Cloian Cup, $3,000. Asian Student Group Austin Youth Basketball Fast Break Club $4,366.52 AHS Boys Basketball authored Amy Neers
Children's Books Valued at 223 223 14 grade second classrooms paternal order of Eagles $1,000 AHS cross country again thank Thank you all these organizations for their donations this
month. All right. Can I get a motion to approve this month's donations? Motion by second by CC. Discussion. Yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about donation elementary being a member
of the souththeast cooperative. How did the southwest central cooperative get involved with Bfield Elementary? You know someone has a connection with the southwest. They must have property over there and apply for the grant.
Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor? I posted motion passes. Uh next I'm going to invite up our delegation for the evening. Um, tonight
we have Heather Duda here to speak with us on an opportunity to bring suicide prevention programming to AHS. Welcome Heather. You guys just had a great event, the same weekend as all them together
community events. All together. Yes. Same time. Um, just a quick reminder, we have uh presentations from delegations are limited to five minutes. Um, and we won't be responding directly, but we are glad you're here to share with us
tonight. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Heather Judith. I'm one of the lead organizers of our re recent mental health awareness community event called Beyond the Shadows that was held August 23rd at the Austin Band Show. We were
overwhelmed by the turnout and by the feedback from people of all ages who told us how much this type of awareness is needed. This cause is very personal to me. In August of last year, my little brother died by suicide.
Sadly, I know he's not the only one. In just the past several years, a handful of Austin High School graduates have also lost their lives to suicide. This is heartbreaking. This is my hometown and it's why I feel so strongly that we
need to do more. Some of you may know that suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people ages 10 to 24. Every single day in the United States, about 20 young people die by suicide. Recognizing the signs and knowing how to
respond can save lives. That's why I'm here tonight, to ask for your support and approval to bring a nationally recognized suicide prevention presentation to Austin High School that has already been presented at 17 schools
across southeast Minnesota with already five more schools added for October and five in February. The centerpiece of this program is the documentary My Ascension, which tells the story of Emma Benoy. At just 16 years old, Emma was a
varsity cheerleader who appeared to have everything going for her. But she was widely struggling with anxiety and depression, too ashamed to share her pain with family and friends. One day, Emma attempted to end her life. That day changed everything. The film follows
Emma's journey of recovery and how she discovered a new purpose in helping other struggling teens. It also weaves in the firsthand experiences of families, friends, school officials, and suicide prevention experts. While it does not shy away from the difficult
realities of youth suicide, it offers hope and practical resources to keep teens safe. Following the 90minute film, there is a live Q&A panel with Emma herself, a licensed mental health provider and someone with lived suicide
loss experience. Students not only see Emma's powerful story, but they also get the chance to ask her questions and connect directly with people who understand. And this presentation works. After surveying more than 400 students at 16 high schools across the country,
the results show that 90% agreed they will be better able to help a friend experiencing suicidal thoughts. 90%. The event costs around $4,000, all of which is fully funded by the Aiden's Light organization, meaning there's no
financial impact or cost to the district. We also respect time is valuable. This program was designed to fit into existing school schedules with minimal disruption, and the timing could not be more important. September is suicide awareness month. On September
10th, we recognize World Suicide Prevention Day. As a parent of a senior at Austin High School, I've seen your newsletters highlighting resources like the 988 lifeline, which is wonderful on a broader mental health and suicide prevention. But the truth is, those
resources alone are not enough to support our students right here in our hometown. By approving this program, you would be giving Austin students the same life-saving opportunity that other schools in our region have already experienced, including the smallest schools like Grand Meadow, all the way
up to the biggest schools in the region, Mayo High School and Century High School in Rochester. This is more than awareness. It's about equipping our kids with tools, hope, and a reminder that they are not alone. I also understand there may be some hesitation. You may be concerned that parents might push back
if we talk about suicide too directly. What I want to share is the program uses age appropriate research-based language that has been widely accepted in schools across the country. Evidence consistently shows that talking about suicide in a safe, structured way does
not increase risk. It decreases it by giving students the words and resources they need. local districts have already introduced it successfully and we'd be happy to connect you with them. You may also want to rely on your own staff of resources. We completely understand the
desire for consistency and this program is not this presentation is not a replacement to that. It's a compliment that supports and enhances the work your staff are already doing. It empowers students to recognize signs in peers and connect them to the trusted adults in
the school. In fact, it strengthens the relationship between the students and the staff. I respectfully ask for your support in making this possible for students at Austin High School. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to the well-being of our students, and I look forward to your decision.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Heather. Thank you. Somebody will get back to you at Right. Correct. to my promises something that I can promise. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much
for sharing that. All right. Our next agenda item um is our review and request for the approval of MSBA legislative resolutions. We have a handout um that you should all receive with that. And um
our speaker for that is John WS. Thank you, Chair. you have in front of you two uh two resolutions that um I put together with um in conjunction with a couple members of the uh school association staff and um
oh I think I don't think I was clear last time so I want to clarify and then those you in the audience we'll know what we're voting on talking about uh Minnesota schoolboard association has seven there about 110 10 members,
schoolboard members from the state of Minnesota from about 10 different regions. Austin is like a district one, district three and uh we come together in early December and um we vote on resolutions that are put forth by school
boards around the state and uh typically we might have anywhere from 21 to 40 resolutions. We do it on a Saturday morning. Sometimes it might take up to four to five hours. We have robust debates, amendments are added, and uh we
forward those resolutions if they're approved to the state legislature. The resolutions you have in front of you, and I am going to read them to you because I want you to be exactly clear on what the resolutions are. They're
very important, especially financially. the second one I'm going to talk about to the financial health of the um but uh the schoolboard staff then takes these resolutions and they use their
legal research team and they go through and find statutes that support these various resolutions. Um, invariably most of the resolutions are approved by the state school board association. Some of
them we do not recommend passage and I've I've um altered my first one with that in mind. Okay. Does anybody have any questions about the delegate assembly resolutions? I think last year there were four resolutions that were
adopted in the state statute. So, I put it up there. Um, you might get some traction. Um, but as we found out in recent past, a lot of times legislation is a long process. Okay.
Hey, Don. Yes. Before you get into it, can I clarify the purpose of today's vote? Um, you are looking for an endorsement from our board for you to take these forward. Is that what what you're looking for?
I don't take these forward. The board does. So, it's Austin public school. So, a board member cannot advance a resolution. He or she has to get the approval of the school board. So, I just kind of as a vehicle, okay, you have you either will approve it or
not approve it. If you don't approve it, we won't move forward. If you approve it, I'll submit these by September 24th to Denise Dri up at the um the governmental relations chair up there. Um and we can have a discussion on it.
Okay. Okay. Yes. Um you may remember uh maybe three weeks ago I gave you a copy of a resolution and it had in there um some firm numbers about board stipens and it had numbers
about colas. um shred that because I don't think that's going to get um approval although um is not going to get approval. They're going to recommend no passage for that. So what I've done is I've changed that to
what you have in front of you. And the first one you have is um about the board. Okay? And it asks for a resolution proposal. My proposal is this. The state of Minnesota will establish a
working task force or a committee of legislators from the House and Senate to seek a solution to make schoolboard stipens more equitable and economically fulfilling, which will further reflect the crucial work board members do to advance the goals of prek education
Minnesota public schools in addition to helping recruit new board members and retaining current ones. Now we have to describe the problem. I've described the problem as such. Schoolboard members are historically underpaid for the crucial
work they do. Teacher administrators pay has increased over time. Board pay has in many instances remained flat. Statewide schoolboard stipens vary radically between districts thwarting equity and fairness.
Stip pens in the state. I got a data spreadsheet from state schoolboard association. Joey has provided us with those in the past. This is the current one. And um they work vary from 40 to $50 per meeting
to5 to $7,000 for many metro districts, some outstate. And then the uh largest annual schoolboard stipen in the state of Minnesota is $16,000. There is a district in the state that gets $22 per meeting. Now, if that's 12
meetings of a year, that's $4. If it's 24 meetings, it's more than that. So, there's a wide variety. Um, decreasing enrollment in out of state schools puts burdens on school boards. Being a board member is
an increasingly demanding position. You may remember that we had our addresses scrubbed from uh the website because it is a very at times demanding position. More than ever, social media has exposed elected officials to public criticism.
School boards approve budgets, oversee staff work closely with superintendent and policy, self-evaluate. We attend workshops and conferences. And these duties make it appropriate for school workers to receive equitable and reasonable compensation.
Any questions on page one? I'm just saying go ahead Dan. Yeah, D just quick question on this. You're still suggesting though with this resolution that the school board would still be responsible for the payments, not the state. Correct. No, I'm not. I'm saying that uh the
state of Minnesota will establish a committee to investigate why are some districts getting $22 a meeting and some district school members are getting $16,000 a year. That's inequitable. So
I'm not asking for any additional dollars or any state funding. I'm just saying explore the topic because um just just just to the to the layman's eyes that that that
gap in in compensation is quite large. That's a good question. I appreciate No. Um, it just a committee at the legislature and they have committees and subcommittees all the time and and then when you have a committee and you get uh
testimony and and board members might come in and testify about that and legislators like to hear personal stories about real life situation. They like to look at data but they also like
personal stories and angles because it it humanizes the experience. Okay. Then why is it a problem? Board members are hesitant to approve stipen increases during public disapproval.
Board member stipens increases an imperial referendum requiring voter approval. So people might say if you're asking for a big increase maybe you don't need my vote for referendum increase board stipens can serve to recruit new
aspiring members and create board stipens by might serve to retain quality experienced members in this district. I've um talked several times about trying to recruit members to this board who more
accurately represent the demographics of student body of a public schools. Maybe an increased stipend would do that. Um um decreasing outstate enrollment trends make stipre hard to justify. uh rural
schools in the state of Minnesota and I suspect that Austin could be classified as that enrollment is a serious issue and when you start losing students school like Chapfield and Pine Island and and some road um it's difficult to
ask for an increase in spite but the work of the board doesn't decrease as a result of that um and then having statewide level playing field concerning more stipens seem to be the right thing to do. You know,
that's just my my own feeling. But does anybody have a question on number one? I have one more question. Correct me if I'm wrong. So, at the beginning of the year in January, we as a board, we set the second amount. Correct. That's part of the agenda. And each school board across the state
does the same practice, right? The organizational meeting. So the ors that have a $16 meeting statement, they set that themselves. Is that correct? Correct. So I I'm not because I'm not sure how a
committee would make any changes when the board is responsible for setting the site for the border. That's a good point. But it it I I in in in short of asking that there be a minimum requirement for board stipens,
uh this would at least get the discussion going. Um we had a a resolution a couple years ago about an alternative way of um training sub substitute not regular teachers, substitute teachers. Um that discussion
at the delegate assembly lasted 90 minutes. There were amendments on amendments because a lot of districts felt the same thing. We did have two meetings this summer dealing with substitutes is an extremely important thing not only on our mind but across
the state. So we can get a discussion going and I believe that the school board is the greatest democratic democratic forum because we're close to the people we represent. um a full-fledged discussion of the topic doesn't hurt. This just gets the topic
going between those 111 people. And some of them are going to say, "We don't want to we don't want to put in the hands of the state. We don't want to commit." And some will say, "Don, we want to Austin, we appreciate this. We want to discuss
it. We think it's a serious concern." So really, it's just a vehicle to end for discussion. opening lies questioning. I appreciate the time and energy that you have put into both of these and I so
much admire that um your understanding that as a board member it doesn't stop at this table and um you're looking out for everybody. I really appreciate you changing this up to make it more doable.
Um, I see this as a no lose situation. If if this is these reasons on on why it needs to be done are all very very valid. and
setting um having boards set their own um pay is just never a good thing. So what what we found I think even with something like um putting the phones
away as soon as it was talked about at the state level all of a sudden it became much easier to take care of. And so I I appreciate what you done. You um you put in the time and you do the
research and and this is a really good document. Thank you. I want to thank you. This is my questions were kind of the same as Dan, so you already answered my questions.
So should we begin? I I have for to move forward after we have to we have to approve this board. Okay. Does it have to be majority? Unanimous majority. Okay. Would you say Dr. Correct?
All right. Is there a motion to approve the proposal for the for the state of Minnesota to establish a working task force to seek a solution to make schoolboard sites more equitable and
economically second? [Music] All those in favor I motion. Anybody opposed? You didn't say anything.
I should vote or not. Yes, you please please vote. Okay. Yes. So motion passes for you to bring forward um the resolution proposal about
um a working task force regarding and again seek a solution. We're just seeking try to find a solution to a a problem that could could be may be solved. It's a good discussion. Yeah. Okay. And the second one has to do with
um um got too much paper here to do reimbursement in the state of Minnesota. Um it um it's a second resolution. Um, a little background on a little background
on this is that in I believe 2023 $135 million was passed by the state legislature to provide employment for non-certified staff which would include pair professionals, food service workers and transportation and $135 million
um I think $36 million remaining in November 2024. So that $135 million has been spent. So this last summer uh or this last session, the legisl
legislature passed an additional hundred million dollars and the program will last through 2028 29. And the feeling is that money will not last that long. And if it doesn't last that long, the
responsibility would put on the school districts and the monies will come out of the general fund and uh that would be in my opinion an unfunded mandate. I think that's what you would call it. So
this proposal says or asks um that um the statute be fully funded or repealed. And we're not the only district that's making this proposal. It's on the record. It was proposed in like 2023 by
a district and now this year Inner Grove Heights believe and one other district in Austin are proposing it. So, it's automizing a lot of people because uh as I put as Todd Todd told me through his looking at the budget, it would cost
Austin approximately $325,000 which would equate to three certified staff members being cut. Am I correct? Yes. That's a that's a big deal. So this is on the minds I believe a lot of
districts in the state of Minnesota because it's going to sunset and the money going to run out in that I won't read this one I just explain I think as much as I know it's and the thing is here here's what happened first
year a number of pair professionals food service people and transportation took advantage of it and then some people who didn't take advantage of grow. I can do that. So then the growth went 40% higher and then taking into consideration the
salary settlements increased like salaries 4%. So then it's even it's like that remember the free lunch program they appropriate x number of dollars and it was wfully underfunded. This is I believe underfunded as well and it's
going to fall on individual districts and either fully funded or review it. I get a motion to approve the resolution proposal for the state of Minnesota to fully fun the unemployment reimbursement aid program
um etc. And if not fully funded we are asking the legislature to repeal the law. That is the proposal that we are voting on today. Motion by Carol. Second by Cece. Further discussion.
All right. All those in favor? I. Anybody opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much for your support. Can I just say one more thing? Um, and it's open to anybody, but I believe beginning September 4th that nominations are being
uh taken for the delegate assembly. And if I want to do it, I'll do it. So, you want to otherwise I can just nominate myself. So, and that's not a guarantee that you know there is I mean last year I believe there were three people
which was a but uh interesting. Yeah, I think it's good that we have a voice whether it's me or someone else um at at at this assembly and it it really is um democracy and action
and you get to meet people from different parts of the state and it it's really an astounding opportunity for board members. Is that the first month of December? It's like December 4th and 5th. So, it's
a Friday night and a guest speaker and then Saturdays and then Saturday. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Reminder of our school board special meeting scheduled for Monday,
September 22nd at 4 p.m. in the district office conference room. Get a motion to adjourn. Motion by I need a second. All those in favor of
motion passes. Thank you. have a derby.