Or maybe it'll be so long it'll have passed already. >> So, Michael, all you're going to need is this tonight then, right? Hello, Jennifer. >> Not at all. >> Hello there, Katie.
>> How are you? >> Is it just picking up or is it >> No, the sun's out. >> Good. >> We'll be fine. weather to be here anyway. >> Yeah. I know that's
my shoulders. What do they get? Yeah. All right. Call please. Jabet Hartman Cross >> here. >> Leathers >> here. >> Young
>> here. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Maybe you like football picture. >> If not, that's all right. We have an agenda in front of
us. Can I get a motion for approval? >> Second by all those in favor? public hearing on the proposed property tax abatement for parking lots executive director operations and the vice president managing director
at Michael. >> Good evening. Thank you young Dr. Paige and the rest of the board. Thank you for inviting us tonight for this public hearing on the tax abatement. During our March board meeting, uh we received approval to move forward with a
resolution regarding making some fixes to our parking lot. With that, we can solve eight and bonds. And with that, we have to have a public hearing. So, I'm going to turn it over to Michael here to explain why we're here for this public hearing. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Michael Hart with ETMA. So, this is a
continuation of conversation we've been having now for several months with the school board related to proposed board approved financing for projects. We've also been talking about indoor air quality and some other remodeling projects at your schools. Um this
particular public hearing is just related to the financing for the parking lot work and it's expected to be about $140,000 is the the total amount of a you know 20 plus million overall uh financing uh plan and project plan.
We're going to go into more detail later on some of those other parts of this together. This is a required public hearing in order to date related to the $140,000 expected school questions or comments.
And finally, does anyone with us have any questions or comments about the proposed agreement? >> All right. Thank you. Next up are the activity department updates. We'll let us back.
chairperson down, Dr. Paige, members of the school board. Thank you for having us once again. Um, we are here tonight to deliver the winter activities and athletics report. Uh, we had a great season. We have a almost all of our programs here today. We had a couple who
have busy schedules, multiport athletes, stuff going on. But at this time, we are going to call out this theater here. >> Yep. >> Yep. We're going to call it theater and then robotics is going to go next and then um athletics. So you guys can line up behind them through the doorway and
we'll just kind of filter them through and they're going to share just a little bit about what's been going on in their programs. Good evening school board. My name is Kim Potter. I am the acting um AHS theater director. Uh this will be my final year as the theater director. Um
looking to focus on who are constantly joining us for different activities. We have 30 who are active um attending everything. We've opened it up 712 to get ready for one act next year which will be directed by Brian Flanders and Eric Atin. So I was
very fortunate to get a team this year and know that I'm leaving it in amazing hands. Um highlights for this year troop is two days a week for 2 hours. This is year round. So even though we're presenting in the winter, we've been doing this since um August. We have actually collaborated with Matchbox
Children's Theater because our students said that they were struggling choosing what they wanted to do. And so we if they're in one place, then they have one place to go and know all of the opportunities. So they actually had one fall production with Matchbox, one musical production with um AHS, and one
spring production, which will be in two weeks, which is Stage Spear's 12th night um at Matchbox. Uh our students have also participated outside of Austin stages. We've had students go to Rochester Civic, Albert Lee, O Stage, Somerset, and even a few taking classes
up in the cities. Collaborations with Matchbox have allowed us to also um collaborate with Second Act Press, Sweet Reads, Stamps, um Spam Museum, Formals, Historic Home, Artworks, and the YMCA will be joining us this summer. more and more people are asking us to come into
the community and we're happy to share all of our talents. Events we've supported this year so far. Um concessions at all the Somerset productions in the summer. Artworks we've done for the last four years. Halloween downtown Halloween warm-up. Uh Matchbox open house. We did Christmas
downtown. We've done elementary um family fun nights. Pelli invited us over for a character visit. Uh we've done the preschool showcase concessions at all of the theater events at Ellis and Hatchwalks. The we just finished our historic home um halfpints program with
um the K through2 and all of the area schools that came over to the Hornell House and we did a production for them. And NR NHG is coming in May to do a field trip with Matchbox. So our trip will be taking care of them. Uh we plan on going all summer. We will also do two
days a week for three hours. The students are wanting to learn how to build sets, paint with details like sound, video production, 3D printing, cricket, green screen, stop motion, hair, makeup, design, and the list goes on and on. So, I need to back away from the production and get them learning
from these amazing community members we have that can teach them these things. So, we appreciate the support you've given us to continuing to see us grow and hopefully expanding to classes as well. Any questions?
You know, I was really pleased to hear uh at the beginning of the production Peter Pan that you were, you mentioned that tonight starting a Minnesota State High School one night play. I think that's great because not only does it give more students an opportunity, it
allows the director to explore uh cultural issues and types of plays that normally would be put on the public. So, that's really an outstanding thing. Ryan, I believe you're going to be deeply involved and both of you. So, that's really, really great. Start
looking for material. I'm sure you already have. And I'd like to say having gone to some plays in the last couple years of Kim, you've done a great job and we really thank you for fantastic Next we have robotics.
>> Good evening. I am Joey Winter. I am um one of the coaches for our robotics team and also a math and computer science teacher here at high school. And I'm an coach for the team. Curious George is our team. We uh work
with first robotics competition which is building a large scale robot and competing against other teams from different states a lot of times. Um with us today
uh we have two of our leaders uh in Caroline and then we have two movies to the program. Um yeah, I almost called by his nickname. And
then uh um also here starring our star in the center that we built um from scratch. There is the robot. We thought we would bring that to showcase um some of our season highlights. Um finished an alternate robot. So this is actually the second robot that the students worked
on. um they went to the first competition and decided we could do better and um decided to build this robot with a different drive um and a different um system with it. Um some of our other um memorable moments include um we worked on building our social
media presence and started an Instagram account this season. Um on our last competition um we struggled a little bit. um did not make it to practice round necessarily our wins and losses but measured in growth and what we achieved.
Um, we had um some great time making friends with people from other grades, accomplishing some short-term goals. When we were focused, we got a lot done. Uh, we did a lot of troubleshooting. Um, we did some better scouting of other um teams when we were at our competitions.
We had some better rankings than we had in past seasons and lots of members filled in with different roles on our team. >> Uh, some of the lessons we learned, I think the key one is teamwork. No one can do it alone. There's uh roles
for everyone on the team. Whether you're a public speaker to whether you're building I we actually want to invite you to an opportunity to see the robot mashion. Um, as part of the computer science um, department, I am going to be talking to
the nth grade seminar classes on April 21st about um, engineering and technology careers. And um, we decided to highlight our robot and so it's going to be shooting the balls um, into the hub on Nolton Auditorium stage. Um, as long as all of our tech works, right?
Um, so we're going to do that um, through every single class um, that day and I'll be talking about careers. So, if you want to see this team in action, you guys are all welcome to come. Um, and we hope to have more uh students involved and more outreach as the season
progresses next year. So, you have any questions? >> How big is the team to? Uh, right now we're at 20 this year. Of those 25, so we had 15 new um and they were
wonderful. And we also had two alumni mentors that um came with uh to our last competition and I would say three to four consistent mentors from our community. Um so it's great to have uh some engineers and um computer
programmers helping with our students. >> I I can sing and I can act a little. When I look at what they do with this, I am in awe. I don't even know where you
start with that. I can't use my teard. So I hats off to you kids. This will go such a long way in life, this skill. So, >> and that's a beauty of robotics is it is a gateway to a career path which a lot
of I I hate to say it because I was an athlete but uh there's not going to be a lot of professional but we can have a lot of engineers and coders and things
like that as a professional and we're looking for marketers too because it is we have all different roles and I'm going to talk about that on few days and also they can shoot the ball at you as you go. >> Thank you so much for the invitation on
April 23. Appreciate that. >> Up next young. We are the wrestling captains. I'm Michael. This is William. Um, a few of our season highlights this year were beating JM and then we had
some younger guys have some success in the ninth and under league and just younger guys showing up proving they can work really hard. So, I'm excited about the future of the team and obviously that's the most notable thing I noticed this year. >> And then some uh some memorable moments.
We had a senior hit 75 career wins this year. That's a big accomplishment for him who is actually well right here. Um, you also, like Michael said, had two n or yeah, two ninth graders go to ninth and underqualify for state, which is a big accomplishment for them in their
wrestling careers. And then another milestone I wanted to share about was >> oh, we had four people received all conference honors after our season ended. The strength of the program Um, some notable things was we moved up
to class doubleA this year and we performed respectfully at the section of state meets considering our competition level stepped up significantly. That was a really really big jump for us from siglet with teams likely and to a with teams like
some highlights and accomplishments. Um, our medley relay became the second alltime relay in uh, school history. And then Brend Doll became the fifth all-American since 2018 in school history. Well, no, not school history
since 2018. The team has seven AHS tops, top 10 swims, and two NHS records. uh some of our strengths from the team. We had a number of news this year. We had a very young team compared to a bunch of the other teams in conference in our conference. So I think for how
young our team was, we did really good. Especially I think next year our team will do even better than we did this year just with the number of guys we have coming up. And this year we actually had the most athletes on the team we had since 2020. Uh the main lesson we learned this year was that results come from consistency,
showing up every day and putting in the work every day, not just two or three times a week. And a few of the team traditions that we have are our mascot Moby who's a plastic duck. We have it all week. And then every year at the
beginning of the calendar year, we throw our packer invite, which is historically different. It's a different lineup of events from other big invites and meets for our community involvement. Every spring we host a twoe swim camp for athletes in grades 5 through eight. We
also working to revive the Austin school which we have not had in Austin for a number of years. Looking ahead, we have three graduating seniors this year, so we're not losing a ton of people. And for the offse, as we've done previous season, we'll have several opportunities for swim to swim
throughout the summer. We'll have Atlanta swimming federation outdoor pool which is 50 meters and we will also have swimmers at the pool at Ellis being able to swim short course yards which is much easier to swim at. We also expect the YMCA to host summer swimmer swim lessons
and we are evaluating the case for any other needs. Our hopes for next season is we're waiting to see if we can rejoin class single AA next year just so that we can give our boys a better shot at making state as a relay team. And with the youth on our team next season, this will be really helpful to bring us back
in line with teams who have similar similar competition levels to us. Any questions? >> I should notice maybe. So what put you from one class to
another? I think it was because we had a swimmer from Pell on our team this year. So that combined our class size with Pelli. So we had a much class and you get moved up or down a district down a class based off your graduating class size. So with being combined with the we had a much bigger class meaning you got
moved into the top 64 classes >> even with just one. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> You two did a real good job explaining the program and talking about the positivities. I'd like to just say to the board right here in the next couple
months if things get really really bad. You ask yourself why am I on the board? What am I doing here? Just remember you are a guardian of the district. >> Thank you. t-shirt. >> Hi, I'm Juliet Zimmerly and I'm Cal. We
are proud to represent the Austin High School gymnastics team and share a look at what we accomplished this season. This year, our team of six dedicated, hardworking, and talented gymnasts and all six of us earned our varsity letter. That really speaks to the commitment, resilience, and work ethic behind our
team. Individually, we had a big night allconerence athlete, a state qualifier on beam, and three gymnasts earned all state or all state honorable mention. Academically, we are especially proud that our team earned a gold team GPA in section 1A
committed to excellence both in the classroom and in competition. Our team motto this season was to train with a purpose and we truly live that out every day. We focused on intentional training, making every rep count, staying efficient, and taking care of our body
so we can perform at our best. We also made mental training a priority. We worked on mindfulness, visualization, confidence building, stress management, and positive selft talk skills that confident than ever before. And it showed from the beginning of the season
to the end, our team score improved by 11 points. At the section 1A meet, we scored a season high of 135.675 and placed fifth. That was our strongest performance of the season and we did it when it mattered most. We also made an
impact beyond the gym. We hosted a packer pal night inviting younger students to march in with us teams cheer and be part of their team experience. And we have got we have gave back by volunteering at youth gymnastics teams helping us scoring timing and cheering
on the next generation of hyper gymnasts. This season wasn't just about results. It was about growth, teamwork, and representing Austin with pride. We're proud of what we accomplished, and we're excited for what's ahead for our program. Thank you for your contributed continued support to Austin High School
Gymnastics. Do you have any questions for us? >> I would just like to say uh those of you who don't know much about gymnastics, I've learned a lot in the Olympics. um when they say that they're involved in the youth program here, there's they're serious about
that. Uh these youth girls look up to these girls. They're great role models. They're great examples. Uh they travel to the youth meets which I don't I'm shocked but thank you. Um so your involvement in community and volunteering has noticed. So you guys
are doing a fantastic job. Thank you. >> Any other questions? How many of you are on the team? She's six. >> And you do all that. all that. >> Thank you very much. That is
mindboggling. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Satie Cington. I'm Jamie Bster. And we are two of the girls hockey captains. We managed to double our wins from last season, ending with a record of 1052.
Some notable wins were beating Winona twice, winning our first section game, which hasn't happened in a really long time for our team, and beating multiple teams by double digits. We got to compete against last year's state champions, and even though we lost, it was a really good learning experience.
Our biggest strength as a team is our chemistry that we share on and off the ice. We learned to not let negative moments affect our feelings. Instead, we focus on what we can control and learn from performance growing as team. Some of our team traditions are secret
Santa, shopping after the season ends, uh gummy dark before home games, and foot competitions in between periods. Oh, I'm sorry. We do things such as bell ringing for the Salvation Army, toys for tots, donating to Packer Pantry, and having
youth play the game every home game to give back to our community. This season, we had no graduating seniors, which made it more of a year for improvement and getting closer as a team for the coming years. In the offse, we are planning to have ice every week starting in the summer, as well as dryland, ETSs, and
lots of team bonding. It also goes to other travel teams and camps on our own time which is a huge overall success for our team. getting more determination. Is there any questions? >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Ellen Heidi. I'm Aubrey.
I'm Kaylee Clemen. And we're representing the dance team. A highlight of our season was taking second place in jazz and first place in kick in the sections tournament, which led each of our teams earning a trip to state. Our biggest success of the season would be sweeping the big night competition for
the first time in program history, taking home first place in jazz, first place in kick, and first for the overall title. A team accomplishment was earning the silver academic award, having our team cumulative GPA being between a 3.5 and 3.74. Some individual accomplishments were
having four athletes make the all state team to representing kick into representing Jazz as well as one senior earning the academic all state award. Our team culture and growth. One of our greatest strengths as a team was keeping a positive outlook on everything and
encouraging each other. We were also really good at pushing through even when practices were tough and we all stayed very determined and we all worked hard. Some lessons we learned were how to work together with our younger dancers since we had a really young team this year and we had a lot of patience with each other
and good communication and we also learned how to deal with disappointment when we didn't make finals at state. It taught us to be supportive of each other and to use as a chance to grow. Um, our team traditions or themes were our team codants this year that were ownership, sisterhood, consistency, and being
coachable, which we did a great job of following. And our main word was trust because we knew how important it was to be able to count on each other. Our community involvement was we had a fifth through sixth grade clinic in March. We'll have a 6th through 11th grade clinic on May 18th through 20th. And we
had and we have a K through six kids clinic in the summer. In this past successful season, we had six seniors on the team who will be greatly missed and made a positive impact. They will be referenced and remembered for the next season coming. In the offseason, we are still
constantly training to be prepared for the winter season. In the summer, we offer summer clinics and are open to anyone interested in joining the team. We have many special guests and instructors that teach other successful teams and give us insight from outside perspectives. We focus a lot around team
culture and growing technique and strength over the summer. We also attend just for case camp in Brainer in July. Our hopes for next season is to grow a strong resilient team by leading by example. We are always striving to make sure that we become a we become stronger
dancers every practice as well as stronger people. We are proud to be a part of a legacy that holds high expectations and we are committed to keeping the legacy steady for the next coming season. Thank you for all your contributions and do you have any questions? >> What are your t-shirts? Can you explain
your all three of the same t-shirt? Can you tell us what they mean? >> These were the team covenants that I was talking about. This was our name trust and these were the four covenants that we followed throughout the season. >> Nice. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Hello, I'm Chloe. This is Gracie. And this is Anija. And we're representing girls basketball. Our team captains this season were Chloe Canon and Gracie Art, which were our senior captains, and Aio Bay and Addison Walsh, which were our junior captains.
>> Okay, I have the season highlight. So, one season highlight was our game versus captain. The game determined our seating in sections. It was a competitive game and we ended up tying into overtime where we lost 70 to 73. Despite our loss, it showed how competitive our team is and how we don't give up. On Noble
Wins, games, and successes, one win was our game versus M East. We won the game six to 46 and it was one of our best games of the season. Because of how well we played as a team, we ended the game with a season high assist with 19. We have some memorable moments. Um, we
have a shout out for our teammates. first Gracie Arrow two rebound records, single season record. The record was 259 and she ended the season with 289 and the single game record with 27 while the previous record was 20. She also received honorable mention. Second J
Ericson, our team's only seventh grader, started off playing Cad and ended the season by playing two halves of varsity and being a valuable asset to our team. Chloe Canon has an academic all state and high distination. I need Every person on our bench scored a point in a varsity game this season.
Some of the players who scored the first varsity points this season were e Piper Jifi and Miranda of the season. Our team grew in many different ways. Our team's chemistry grew every game and even though our record didn't look the best, we didn't give up and ended every game with our
heads held high. Some lessons we learned is the role we had to fill for our team's success and the importance of doing your part, which is an acronym our head coach B created. P for positivity. A for appreciation. two summers. Our hopes for the next season are
I like the point that you made about every person on that bench scored at least one point in every game. And a lot of times when you think of a team, you get started by this first seven, but everybody on that bench contributes whether it's in practice, cheering in
the game, uh, in the hallways in the school day, talking about basketball. That's really a great accomplishment. And so to make all Minnesota all state, is that what it was? >> Yes. Academic allade.
Good job, girls. Thank you. Thank you. Well, hello everyone. My name is Captain for this year, but they couldn't make today so they chose the next best Our season highlights um our record was 97
and0. Um I think best game of the season was our last game against Farmington. We lost um one to zero. Farmington was number one. That was >> pretty good. And also we beat we
assisted two after we lost to them earlier in the season 5. Nice. Some of our strengths for the hockey team. We do a drill called the Marshall drill. We do it every practice and we got great at it. It's amazing. Lessons we've learned is it's all about
having fun. You don't usually have to win to have fun. You just have to have fun. Community involvement. We have a few players on our team that help and coach the younger kids, younger teams. Um this year we have nine seniors that
are going to be graduating. So it's like half our team. Um in the offseason a lot of our players do summer camps and play on summer teams. So our hopes for next season is
that we win the state tournament. >> Any questions? >> What's the Marshall drill? You're smiling broadly when you talk about the marsh. >> It's kind of hard to explain. You kind of just have to be there to witness it. >> That's all he's going to say about that.
I feel like there's a a vibrant um youth hockey in Austin. Do you see a lot of kids coming up when you're graduating? So many seniors. Oh, this year there's not too many because most of them this year are younger. We have two people coming out from homes. So, they'll get a
spot on maybe one. And then the younger kids, they have a good shot at the state this year. There's some talent. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> That concludes the winter activities report.
Okay, >> next we have the summer EPS update. >> Correct. Again, welcome or thank you for having me. Um, the summer months provide a critical window for student athletes to develop physically, mentally, and socially outside the demands of the
school year. During the academic year, time constraints, competition schedules, and academic responsibilities often limit an athletes ability to focus on long-term development. The structured summer program fills that gap with intentional, consistent training. Um, so
we are joining voice forces with ETSs this summer. We will have two sites. We'll be here at the high school and if the numbers prove to be healthy, we also have Ellis as an option to have two sites. Whether we split them up, middle school and high school, I think it will all depend on registrations. But our
summer ETS strength and agility program is designed to support students in grades 7 through 12, so incoming 7 through 12 for the 2627 school year by providing access to safe, supervised, and progressive training opportunities. The program emphasizes foundational
strength, speed, agility, mobility, and injury prevention. key components that benefit all athletes regardless of sport or experience level. Why it matters? One, it builds a strong athletic foundation. Two, it reduces the risk of
injury. Three, it promotes equity and access. Four, supports mental health and confidence. Five, strengthen strengthens school culture and connection. And six, maximizes a limited development window. Um, in order to kind of kick off our
registration process and promote it, I had the pleasure of working with Ryan Mayors and he kind of already before the meeting was over, I could tell he was forming the video in his mind. So, he was able to put out together a promo video which we highlighted last week on social media. So, we would like to show
it for you today. So, as you can see from the last part there, just some of the detailed information. It will run for 9 weeks this summer starting June 1st, which is the first day of our summer season that we have for the state high school league. It will go through August 6 with that last week. They'll be doing test
outs to kind of see their progress throughout the season or the summer season. It will be offered three days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Scheduling again in groupings will kind of depend on, you know, our numbers and our age groups. And um Sam Perkwell, our ETSs trainer, he will also be um running
it in the summer. and Jesse Cyn um who runs the Ellis uh strength stuff out there. They have been talking to him to see if he'd be interested in partnering with ETSs kind of independent contractor through the summer to then help the
Ellis uh kids out through there to have, you know, really good programs for uh middle school and high school. Uh do you guys have any questions? >> So Katie Stan was the young man from Prairie. >> Yes. who came with sports that night. >> Yes. >> How's doing?
>> He's doing great. They just had a baby, so they are off for a little bit, but um but he's doing good. The feedback from the kids is great. He's really interactive. Um listens to their needs and listens to the coaches and they work really well together. It's been a really good year.
>> Enjoys the job. >> He enjoys his job. Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Katie. This is the first year just got over, is that correct? after last summer was kind of the kickoff of BTS. >> Yeah, we got started just a late, you know, late start in August. We didn't
get started as early as we wanted to, but we are, you know, finishing up the first school year under this. Yeah. >> Is the general plan to keep it kind of the same structure next year? >> Do you know what that looks like yet? >> We don't know what it looks like yet. I have sent out feedback forms to my head
coaches to get their thoughts and I'll take that to ETSs so we can kind of look at all that together and figure out, you know, what went well, what maybe do we need to improve and um, you know, times just yeah, kind of overlooking everything to see if there's any changes that need to be made.
>> All right. You want to move into the flag football program? Yes, please. All right. Third and final agenda item for me. Um, across the same country, girls play football is experiencing significant growth with increasing
participation at both the youth and high school levels. Um, it's also a collegiate sport now, and in 2028, it will be featured at the LA Olympics. So, our decision to pilot the program aligns with our commitment to provide inclusive forwardinking opportunities that meet
the evolving interests of our students. Uh, this school year does mark the first year of our our girls flag football as an activity in our district made possible through external grant funding with the Minnesota Vikings. The purpose of launching this program was to expand
participation opportunities, increase equity in athletics, and respond to growing interest in emerging sports for female student athletes. Um, before Ruth does come on, I when Ruth does come up, Ruth is the one that came up and asked me her freshman year, Miss Carter, can
we get a flag football team? And I said, I don't know, let me look into it. So, you know, students come with their interest and, you know, the follow through and when we have opportunities like that because, you know, things do cost money and we have those opportunities to partner with the Minnesota Vikings and, you know, bring a
sport in. I'm proud to say that, uh, we have 63 registered girls playing football. >> 63 >> 63 girls. Um, 24 of them are also spring sport athletes or 23 of them. So, that leaves 40 girls still. that will be
their first or second sport for the school year. Our head coaching or our coaching staff, we have three paid coaches splitting two siphons through the grant. Our head coaches, uh, Tom Captain. And then our two paid assistants are Lee Febrink and Mission
Duke. And then the two volunteer assistants are myself and Tik T. So we practice right now just one day a week, Wednesday nights from 6:00 to 8. So we take it after the regular sports practices are over. So girls that are playing spring sports have the ability
to come join us if they're a ball. We kind of, you know, piggyback with the weather whether we're on the track field or in the dome. Um, so we practice 6:00 to 8 on Wednesdays. The girls have been bugging for extra practices. So actually starting tonight through the rest of the season, we're going to implement Monday
night op optional practices for those that can make it from 6:00 to 8. Uh, that picture right under the logo there. Last week, um, Coach Compton went down to the style lounge and picked up eight pairs of cleats that were donated
courtesy of Midtown Auto Clinic and the uh, Chateau Raceway. So, we will kind of loan those out for the season for girls that don't have cleats and hopefully we can build that because, you know, things cost money, cleats and receiving clubs. But, it's been great. They work hard.
They're excited. They want to learn about football and I mean they're ready for April 26 which is our first games. Our games are played on Sunday evenings with the club team. We don't have that restriction of not having or Sundays
off. So our JVS will play um at 2 and 3:00 on Sundays and 4 and 5:00 will be the varsity games. So we play double headers every Sunday. Uh we will host at Hawks Field Sunday May 17th. So, we will be putting a big campaign out there to
try to get people to come out and support our girls. I just wanted Ruth to come up here really quick. Like I said, she was the one that came and choir and through persistence and opportunity, here we have it. And I just kind of wanted her to share her thoughts on
what's going on so far. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Ruth Pawal and I am a 10th grader. Um, I just want to start off by saying this program that Kartner helped start means a lot, not just to me, but to everyone that is
on the team. This program is more than a sport and it creates opportunities for girls to be involved and to feel fulfilled like the girls who don't participate in our sport. Um, this program helps the team build leadership,
discipline, and communication. And although we aren't very far in our season, I I can say that a lot of the girls are getting along, we feel like they belong in something um as brain as this. And I'm just really thankful that
it happened because I really wanted to play some type of football, but I didn't want to get tackled by guys. So, I was just like, can we dream to figure out something? I'm so glad that girls step forward and are willing to put their all
into this and be just at their best and enjoy the sport as it goes along. You guys, you guys have any questions for me? So, since you kind of were the start to this program, did you like help recruit? Because I had read that there were 68
girls. I thought that was phenomenal. Did you like help recruit or did this just like everybody was so excited about it? They all just wanting to sign up. >> Okay. I I kind of helped a bit because I started the flag football page and I like started posting stuff on there and
then I would also go around and hang up flyers and like if I see someone I'm like, "Hey, you want to play football? We're awesome." >> Any other questions? >> We also did an interest meeting in the fall way back in September and we had 75 girls show up to the interest meeting in
September. I think it was right after homecoming. So to see out of that that we got 63 girls signed up out of even 75 whether they were there or not. I would say you did a really good job of recruiting. >> Who are we playing? >> So we are in district four. Do you
remember the teams in our district? No, I just know we're playing Fairmont and so >> so we're in district four and our district is ourselves NRG Fairmont and WM Waterville Malaysia Morris Town and then week three we will travel up to
Lakeville and do a cross district where we're scheduled to play Lakeville South and Farmington and then there will be like a bracket playoff state uh championship and that is hosted in Egan at the Vikings practice facility on their outdoor turf
And that I believe is Sunday, June 7th. >> So, have you had any like scrimmages or anything? >> Yeah, we have. >> Yeah, the first week I would say we kind of practiced on our throwing skills, trying to identify who our quarterbacks might be. Um, quarterbacks and
receivers. Uh, the second week we were route running, so we're learning signals. We're learning routes. And then last week we kind of put it in where we are starting to get in formation, learn a little bit of zone defense, and we got our four receivers up there. They're all
running different routes and so it it's fun there. They're we're prepping for it. >> Yep. >> Awesome. >> So, is it a passing game or is it a running game or both? >> So, it is a it's both. >> Um there is no there's no tackling obviously, but the quarterback will
receive the ball. She gets 5 seconds to release it before then it becomes live. And then um >> it's just a flag and yeah, >> it's a 5v5 league. So we got to try to figure out how to rotate 63 girls in
play. We told them they might not might not play every game, but everybody will be able to touch the field at some point this season. >> Very exciting. >> That's fun. Where do we find the merch? >> We are working on an online store. We haven't got the link yet because we'll
share it with you. And we got uniforms. And so those they said will be guaranteed before the first game. So >> thank you. Thank you for your persistence in this. >> Well, that's it for me. Thank you for
allowing me to take a good chunk of your first hour. Um, and I look forward to seeing you in June for the spring report. >> Thank you. Next up for our superintendent report, Dr. Paige. >> Thank you, T. Young. Uh, I just want to start with some just brief information from the Minnesota Department of
Education. Uh, they recently shared uh instructional resources connected to, and this is last month, the women's history month. Uh, these materials highlight the contributions of women across science, education, the arts, and public service. and they're available to all of our teachers to support classroom
instruction. Uh and the same communication that NG shared, we've also included some nationally recognized uh observances also including transgend uh transgender day uh visibility which took place on March 31st. Uh this was also
awareness calendar for schools earlier this year as they plan learning opportunities. And this is also um library Congress. So thank you to Minnesota Department of Education for these resources. Uh just a
note on our graduation update. We saw a strong gain in our four-year graduation rate this year was up to 8.6% and that was a 5.6% point increase ahead of uh the state. And when you step back and look at the patterns in the Austin
public schools and the decline and stabilization and now a clear upward shift, it tells us that the system is starting to respond. Uh the most important change is happening earlier in our system. A few years ago, 15% of our freshmen were failing their first semester and today that number has
dropped down to 6%. Uh that difference is between students uh starting behind or starting on track and it directly connects to the graduation outcomes. uh the improvement is selected across the system. Just a couple things to highlight uh with that is our ninth
grade seminar is building organizational accountability early and also exploring career pathways. Bar is strengthening relationships and using real-time data to uh respond sooner and also our achievement and integration plan which you heard information from earlier from Christy Beckman about the work that's
taking place within that. So it's not just one program uh that's impacting that, it's alignment. And I would say the key point is this is that the changes were made earlier in grades are still moving forward and these results uh is just an early indicator we believe not the ceiling and our focus stays
consistent on strengthening our transitions into the middle school uh out of the middle school into the high school. Uh keeping an attendance priority across the system because presence drives outcomes and ensure supports are consistent across our
buildings. uh this is uh this information uh that we saw with our graduation uh information is a meaningful step forward and the work is trending in the right direction. We really appreciate everyone's hard work uh on our results. Just a couple focus highlights across the district and I
know uh executive director Tim Rusk is here tonight to talk about um public education foundation, but we really appreciate their support and supporting educators and staff across the system. I'll let him talk more about about that tonight. Um we last week had our uh
military national guard summit that took place in auditorium. Uh we hosted the regional ceremony this year at Austin High School. There were 16 students that committed to serve. Uh this wasn't just a recognition event that reflects the students choosing a path of service, structure, leadership after graduation.
So congratulations to them. We also recognizing our Austin Music Hall of Fame. We had three new inductees this year. uh Christina Pollson, Deborah Martin McDonald, and Tim Austin. And these recognitions matter because they show the long-term impact of our programs. And if you have haven't had a
chance, you can look more deeply into the awesome hero that has a significant write up on each of these inductees. Just want to congratulate coach Debbie Bray who's named the section 1A girls hockey coach of the year uh since we last met. His leadership is helping rebuild and stabilize that program, and
this recognition reflects that progress. Also, uh just an acknowledgement to the KL Excellent Educator Award. Uh this Welker at IJ Holton um Intermediate School. After 40 years in education, her focus is simple. Making sure students
feel known, supported, and capable. And that consistency is what strong classrooms are built on. So, congratulations to her. Uh also want to recognize our Austin. Uh the smooth sailing um show that took place a couple weeks ago was an outstanding tribute. Uh certainly reminisce of driving around
with my parents in the car and listen to all the music. So they kids did a wonderful job. Uh culture week just took place at Austin High School. I'm sure we'll hear some more about that tonight. It was a student led that included performances, speakers, and a cultural showcase and it was a good example of our students taking ownership of the
school climate and learning from each other. And then last week we had national assistant principles week. Our assistant principles are often the ones solving the problems in real time, supporting staff, managing student situations, and keeping schools running.
And their impact shows up dayto-day and stability in our building. So, thank you to them. And just looking ahead, we have a couple things later this week as our n poetry, which is April 15th, will be taking place in this room. Uh, this highlights student voice across the district. Events like this give our
students a platform to reinforce that their ideas and perspectives matter and also u hard to say believe that we're close to graduation. The uh project graduation uh is planning is underway for the class of 2026 and this has been
a community supported effort since 1989 and continues to provide a state and structured celebration for our seniors. It takes a lot of volunteers and the support is really important but it keeps going. So thank you to them. Overall I see uh we're making progress where it
matters most student outcomes and that slides you directly to more online work across the system and >> isn't prom? >> Yes. >> Thank you. questions.
We'll find the school reports. >> I wanted to echo Dr. Paige's comment about the Austin Air show. I attended it on the Saturday the Saturday show and it was phenomenal and it too brought me back
several years. Um enjoyed the enjoyed all the performances. Everybody did a phenomenal job. Um and I also attended the National Guard inductee ceremony and so I just want to thank the 16 inductees
for their service. um the Apex meeting um Phil Burkart gave a presentation on the Austin Symphony Orchestra and then 256 season is the year of the
piano. Um there's a concert on May 3rd at 2 PM. Um Roberto Plano will perform the pieces from Wraps to be in blue. And then the other um presentation Carla
Miller and Mir Hernandez Lopez um gave a presentation on NAMI which is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Um, this alliance serves se seven counties in our
area. They're a nonprofit, so they don't charge at all um or bill insurance for any type of support services um or the educational classes. Uh they have eight workshops that are approximately 90
minutes each that equip participants with knowledge, skills, resources to improve mental health well-being to to diverse communities. Um and one of the statistics that they shared was from the
mental health America. Um, it was really, it really took me back to hear the statistics because it said 46% of Americans will meet criteria for a diagnosible mental health condition in their lifetime.
55% of adults with mental illness do not receive treatment. and 12% of youth experience a major depression in the past or have experienced a major depression in the past year. So this is
a phenomenal organization and they do have a website if anybody is interested in finding out more information >> back on what you said about mental health that if you had a chance to look at this in the latest journal um it's
entitled the article entitled principal speak up and it was um a survey on topics that impacted principles in the school that they are in. And uh the important thing that I took from this
this graph is that uh the number one by a long margin the number one activity the single greatest challenge principles addressing student mental health issues. that is the number one.
It it scored 114. Um addressing chronic absenteeism was number two and we are currently working on that. The attendance committee from last year has issued a large paper on
that and uh and then number five is addressing staff mental health. So those things are extremely important in our world we live but are also very important in the schools that we um
manage. And then I was interested in uh what one of uh the um analyses is that uh what could school board and district leaders do about these challenging problems that exist in
our schools. And one was a convene a round table discussion with local principles to discuss the findings that apply to their local context. So that means getting the school board and the principles in the district to sit down together for a couple hours and talk
about something that is of concern to all of us. And I will also say um I think it was 47% of the principles responded to that survey. Normally when we have a survey in the district it's about 18% right. So that was a really
good cross-section of principles in Minnesota. I know it's a long meeting, but I feel it important that I um mentioned to you the latest Southeast Service cooperative update last March 17th at the Woodland Conference Center
in Rochester. Uh and the robotics team was talking and that I like the fact that Christo a lot of those kids aren't. It's a spot for them to be and that's really a great thing. And I feel the same with family speech, you know, it's a it's a nice resty place for kids who
might not look chiseled like those rest did. And so, uh, there's a welding competition if you remember and our school did pretty well in them last year and we've had some really generous support in Southeast Minnesota where some businesses have kicked in thousand
dollars to support that. Remember last year one of the one company in Rochester had a state-of-the-art welding facility allowed competition to occur there. So great things are happening in that welding program. There's another uh
activity that is is greatly needed maybe even like football. Uh we had Tess Krueger, a longtime city administrator over in Houston retire after like 30 years on the board. Uh we picked up uh I
shouldn't say picked up. Alter came on board. He's a city administrator in Byron and then uh Mitch Lance is county commissioner in Filmore County. He came on board. So now we have four school board members, a city administrator and a county commissioner. So we have a a
wide range of individuals. Um I would like to just applaud the speech team sending three service to the statement. That's awesome. You had number one in your category. That was awesome. Um, and then I read the other day in the paper
uh a lady wrote an oped piece about poetry and she talked about in this county world we live in all the headlines are negative and people in each other's throats with a corporate footprint on sports, education, everything.
Maybe it's time for us to nestle down and read some poetry or write some poetry. And as Dr. Pa mentioned, in this room two nights from tonight at 6:30, there'll be poetry readers from every grade on the school. I encourage you to
come out and and the nice thing about that is acoustics are great in this room. So, you're going to hear what kinderg you can't say that. You'll hear everything they have to say. And I believe they put on the whiteboard, too. So, you can see it and hear it at the
same time and celebrate poetry, uh, which taps into our social, emotional, um, beings. I really encourage you a poem. Go pick up a poem and read it and just relax a little bit. Right.
Next are student representative reports with Michael and first young and my board. My name is Lady and I'm going to present the first half of the student report. But I do have some stuff to share from culture week.
It's co Well, why are we waiting for that today? >> Asking for permission. >> Well, in addition to culture, um earlier in March, we sent an all girls group to the state tournament. It was an amazing opportunity for the team to be able to perform and to be able to just showcase
our like business skills. And then not only to be be able to were we able to compete on the state level with people from all over the state, um we were also able to connect with former Austin alumni at like a like a Fortune 500 company. And we got to sit in and learn
about like how we can apply like our business skills that we're learning through NECA in the real world and like how that might look like for a career. And it was really like eye opening and very insightful to see like what can I do like after college and after high school like what can be my plan and
activity like see that a lot of girls were really envisioning themselves maybe like going to business and going to those different fields. Um, we got to see like some like Super Bowl commercials. Like we we met with like um a company that like was I think it was
um Accenture and we like they like literally made commercials for the Super Bowl and they're just this super huge company. We got to see like real impact of like for being able to see like how girls who like kind of near us are able
to like really like successfully do in the like business world. And then um I would also like to talk about the our speech team. We had a very strong um showing at sections and a lot of the our performance. A lot of our students
performed really well. I'd like to thank Alice Osmanson for placing third in storytelling and earning her second straight to state award. And then Martha Lopez took second grade speeches. She's someone I've seen work super hard this season. She's been in Miss Trans's office, Miss HR's
classroom every single day. And it's really nice to see that her murder paid off. She got second and she's going to go skate with us. And then along with Sam who plays the discussion and Louisie who starts captain of the
speech team who also plays n and the compet tournament will be April 24th and these past coming weeks. So we're just going to be preparing and being able to do that. And on that a lot of our um team is actually placed for the national tournament. So, it's the national light
event of tournaments of champions. It's called night talk and that will be taking place May 7th through May 10th. And um Alice Austin, Martha Lopez, and Lois a will all be going to the national
tour which will be this year. >> And I also want to thank Kendra Wington for their work as coaches. um they have truly shaped our program in such a competitive environment and I'm truly thankful for the work they put into help us shine at speech. I think like going for my freshman year I feel like I've
done I've had such of a great successful season and such a great um I sort of like career with speech and that wouldn't have been able to be possible without Kendrick. So I really appreciate them for their hard work. And then lastly I'd like to recognize the meaningful event I was able to attend
the military signing uh ceremony. I'd like to congratulate the 16 students who came in the national guard and this ceremony was incredibly powerful. It was filled with passionate hardworking students who have committed like a lifelong like passes to serve and I was really proud of all of them and a close
friend of mine also signed that day and I was really proud of it. Um, and I can't wait to see um what they all do in the future. >> There's up in your upper right corner. Can you share the public? Did I
come on? Come on. Okay, time to through 2026 recap. First time I can see a huge success this year. Um last year when we were making like thinking of doing this for the very first time through spirit house all the planning it took lots of like blood, sweat and tears but this year we're just
hoping to do it again and make it more inclusive and work on and just amp it up a little bit. Um so here at >> um here's like our basketball tournament some teachers coming out to play for the basketball tournament and the teachers
ended up actually winning the competition which I was really surprised about and having to battle with the African Student Association for the uh final spot. Um here's a some pictures of like the ASA team and as you can see like this
year we're trying really hard to be more inclusive and being able to make it more fun and more people pop out this year. I think after doing basketball tournament, we had like a really big open team filled with students from all different grades and ages and it was just a lot more inclusive this year. I was really
happy about. Um here's another photo of like all the teams. And then here's Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Santino cuz he did a couple times. He made a couple shots. And then something else that we had the cultural trophies. He had that in
Christown Hall during sixth and seventh hour last Thursday. Um, I think it was absolutely wonderful. We had a big show up of students and people coming out to watch and support us, but we also had a lot of students come out and perform and put themselves out there for the first time. We had like a guitarist group. We
had a wood woodland group for the student organization of Latinos, which was really beautiful. And for our pep fest, we actually had the student organization of Latinos and like a dance group, which is really fun and really hype. And we also had a current dance group, which was a lot more fun. and we were just able to showcase our cultural
each other and we were able to come together as a school which really just made me super happy. Um here's like a photo of like all the people in the cultural showcase. Um we did have people from all over which I was really happy about.
And here's some more photos of like students who dressed up and were part of the whole thing the culture week. As this student went, we had a big student population of students come out and help and help plan the event. And it was completely student. We didn't like let the advisors take over anything. It was
completely all. We like did all the planning the blood and the sweat and the tears. And it was it was a lot. It was a lot of fun. And then uh for breakfast we actually had the Austin choir sing and they sang a song called Baraka which is um a song
suck completely in Swahili and the choir did a great job and then we had a who's my vice president of African student association. She kind of introduced choir and she talked about how like how meaningful it is to be able to spread our culture with not only culture but the choir is saying this for their like
um state competition. So, I was just really proud to see that like we're able to share like different languages and different languages over the district and we're able to like come together and like showcase it. >> And then here's our language video that we submitted
that we made with Mr. Mayers. You belong at Austin. >> You belong at Austin. >> You belong at Austin. >> You belong to Austin. >> And you belong at Austin. >> You belong at Austin. >> You belong to Austin. That's all I have. Any questions?
>> Nice job. Thank you. >> Thank you for providing more opportunities for all of our students to feel like they belong. It was a lot of hard work and thank you to Ryan or whoever. I watched a lot of
clips on that day on Facebook or something else. So, I love having all of that. So, thank you. Thank you. chair young superintendent members of
the school board. I'll be presenting the second half. To begin, I'd like to say thank you to Lydia and all the people involved in culture week um for making that happen. It's one thing to hear all the stats about how many languages we have and the different cultures in our district and it's a whole another thing to see it and feel it and it's really empowering and it's a great way for
students to show who they are and their true identities. Secondly, I'd like to recognize the Austin Air Show as well as the elementary tour we went on which was a great success. The performance highlights the talents, preparation, and dedication of the students involved. And
I would like to give a special thank you to Mr. and all the volunteers who put hours and hours into that show to make it happen every year. I also would like to thank the elementary schools for letting us go there and show our talents to them as well. Um, I don't think they realize how
much it means for us to share it to them and see all their smiles to just show our talents and be able to inspire the youth. Next, I'd like to highlight the strong the strong start to the spring sports season. Many of our teams have already begun competitions. Tennis has
gone 2 and 0. Um the baseball team I think is 3 and 0 and then golf 4 and 0. And who the golf won this tournament, the Hayfield Open this last week. So I'm proud of our spring sports teams and the strong start. In other news, 105 Austin students traveled to the St. Paul River
Center to attend IFest, the International Festival of Minnesota. This cultural event celebrates global diversity and features over 60 nations and ethnic communities. Students had the opportunity to explore music, dance, food, arts and crafts and cultures
around the world. It was great to experience a meaningful opportunity for students to learn more about cultures from across the globe. This is just another example of Austin doing what it can to make all cultures feel included. I would also like to recognize the important role that the assistant the assistant principles play in our
schools. As students, we like to see firsthand the difference they make every day. They are steady leaders behind the scenes solving problems, supporting staff, making sure every student feels seen and supported. Their work helps shape the culture of our buildings and strengthen the experience for both students and educators. So, thank you to all the assistant principles in the
district. That concludes my first second half of the report. Any questions? >> How are the new tennis courts? >> The new tennis courts are awesome. It's very relieving to not have to worry about a crack when you're playing. Um, we also have a lot less puddles on rainy
days like today. >> Good to hear it. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Right. Next up is our consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve first? Second
discussion >> are these policies in the consent agend Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. Can I ask just I went back >> I went back today and look through all of these. I know we talked about all I'd
like to is in house 625 prophecy in article 2 letter B. It's the first mention of H-
A1 and it's Could we put a parentheses? I know it's in the definitions down below, but it's the first mention if we could put human AI human in there. Um, I
remember the first time I read it, I was thinking, I wonder what that means. >> But when I looked at it again today, we do that. That's it. Any other comments, questions? All those in favor?
>> Motion passes. Um, next up, Austin Public Education Foundation overview with AP Executive Director. >> All right. Good evening. Thanks for the invitation to come here. if he wants to come back again and give some updates of
his annual or whatever you you'd like. But um sorry director position for Austin Public Education Foundation November. It is a side position. I'm still giving instruction. I messed it up. >> So I um I started in November. Is it is
this a side job district? looking forward to mobile May 11th through 15th down at the Cedar River at Kansas Mil Pond. I just figured out we done this we've done this since 2018. So my first fourth graders all Austin public schools fourth graders come through this wheel
program they'll be graduating this year. So um we've had thousands of kids out there not only from Austin but rest county and field as well. So looking forward to that. But I am very grateful to be in this side roll with the public
education foundation. Um located also in the Austin High School Museum. So I love that the history part. But um I am trying to keep some some regular uh presence in that office and around the high school and trying to
engage overall more with the with the community. Um, we have a great uh, well, I would say as far as my connection with Austin public schools, I'm a 1999 Austin High grad. My mom was a longtime elementary teacher. My dad served on the school board. My wife Heather's a teacher in the district. Our daughters
attend Austin public schools and served on the Austin High Alumni Friends Association thing for nearly 20 years and help with Jenny Lindberg create this twice a year postnel publication which we do a lot also with the public education foundation. Um, I've been on
two vol committees and and served more than a year on Austin public schools facilities committee. I'm not a handyman, but they keep having me back there. It's been very educational. So, um, our board, we have a very engaged and
talented board. They each bring some different perspectives to foundation's work. It's chaired by school board chair Karen Dubet. Our vice chair is Christine Kosovas. the treasurer as of last fall Liz Kelner another awesome high grant
and she's brought in some great ideas as well our secretaries Derekson the south gate principal and then other board members are Nicole Edwards Lorie Marco and more recently we added Tagger Medgarden and Maria Frank we have some non-boarding members Jenny Lindberg of alumni and friends Phil Burkart AHS
music hall of fame and Joel sheep of the AHS athletic hall of fame so we help fund raise for them too we have funds that we can accept donations to support their their um their their causes in my role working with the board uh you know
these last five months trying to improve our operations doing kind of an internal review of how we do things our policies and um but also you know in how we can um help generate support better. So, you
know, adding Venmo and PayPal, which was more difficult than I thought it would be. I had to end my own Venmo to get that through, but trying to make it easier for people to donate and share fundraisers for us. We helped support that. More recently, M County CEO program. They use our better world site
for their silent auction. So, um trying to connect better with our public um and also expanding our public engagement. you know, from the alumni side, it seemed from my experience with public education foundation was the the grant distribution and then the Packer Classic every year like to spread that out
throughout the year. So, we did um April 4th a fundraiser night with the Bruins for the first time and they had a pretty full arena. So, it was nice to uh they plugged us a couple times and played a 30 second video to so and raised a little bit of money for the foundation. So, we hope to continue to build off of
that and um and other partnerships in town. Uh the Packer Classic, as I mentioned, was off last year, but we're bringing that back. This would be the 27th annual Packer Classic golf fundraiser July 13th. It is a Monday,
but um hoping we can fill out a lot of teams for that. We're starting to get some sponsorships in and uh again, the proceeds from that go back into the foundation to support uh awesome public schools, which you know, that's why we were started in 1990. first grant is
it's amazing how much has grown was $500 in 1992 and then more recently as we just announced 89 grants totaling more than $112,000 uh thanks to the hunting and packer endowments the hunting late James hunting started helped start the
foundation back in 1990 and he and his wife Joanne donated $100,000 that will never be spent down so those earnings have grown over time uh we also since 2019 have received major contributions every year from the hiration which has been very has helped expand
our offering what we're able to do as far as grants and then of course uh support from the general public including donations to the floor on the wall. We've been busy adding plates to the phone on the wall in the the gym lobby concessions area of Austin High School. Um, and so a lot of different
ways again trying to engage and get people thinking of the Austin Public Education Foundation, whether it's an endowment, a scholarship like the class of 1960 started a scholarship fund that they continue to add into through us. Um, are those, you know, looking to support
our our general grants. So, just a quick overview on this year's grant process. My first one, we did review 105 grant applications, awarded 89 of them. um you know this the award awarded grants for the 26 27th school year um and they they
go across the district. So CLC at Woodson all four elementary schools Fton Elvis Austin High alternative learning center then ones that are more districtwide as far as the areas that they support. I think it's pretty impressive as far as
these grants and the credit goes to the staff teachers administrators who applied for these. But they help support math, reading, music learning, orchestra, band, photography, 3D printing, video game design, robotics, social studies, language, science, teaching, uh, and supporting students
with special needs, theater productions, physical education, problem solving, safe space tools for calming students, play centers, multi- language learners, packer pantry, student council, and more. So, um it's again to the credit of all those who took the time and effort to apply for these grants and use their
creativity um having the vision for these and then you know we've we've had the um great challenge to to see what we can award and um you know help out the district in that way and that's why the foundation was was started in 1990 was
specifically to support Austin public schools. Um, we also have things that pack our endowment, multiple sports that were supported by grants for the next school year, um, including the new weight room as as well. These grants will help practice for practicing, training, and competing for those
athletes. Um, and also want to thank all the public school employees who do that pay it forward payroll deduction. We do get benefits from that too, from that throughout the year from their payrolls. Lastly, um just want to thank you for
all you do and always feel free to reach out to me and let me know how possible educ education can improve. I think we're hoping for even better next year for the grants that will be distributed. Any questions?
>> No, I don't have question. I want to thank you for the work that you're doing. You're doing incredible work. >> Thank Even just your social media presence and your invitation to others to be part of that is >> Thank you. No, we have a great team and I've enjoyed working with them and made
my connection with the school makes it's easy to get behind it. So passionate >> I appreciate the update knowing who's on the board um who's impacted by the donations
um who started the foundation. I mean those things I didn't know you are conduit of knowledge. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So the 105 grants that you received and
awarded 89 105 is that like normal or is that like really increase this year or >> I think it was up from last year. I mean we did have a big $20,000 grant last year. So the overall number of grants was less but the amount was slightly up
and I think the grant application that came in was was up as well. A lot of people like me that waited till the last minute. So we we about double our grant applications seemed like overnight by the deadline. But um a lot of uh a lot of great thought put into those
applications and and so hopefully we'll be able to keep fundraising more can fun >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next we'll have the bar update with Ellison principal a principal
and bar coordinator bar. Oops. tonight. >> Yeah, we're we're all good though. So, Chairperson Young, uh Dr. Paige, members of the school board, >> that
perfect. Uh we're here tonight to talk to you a little bit about uh building assets and reducing risks and to center user. >> So we're not
there. Let's center us in our work here and talk a little bit about our strategic plan. First of all, our mission is to inspire, empower, and accelerate. uh our vision preparing all learners to make a difference in the world and our core values being responsible resilient a learner communicator and contributor.
Tonight uh communication is probably our main focus. We're asking you to be active listeners and we're going to provide information for you uh to help you do that. And our strategic priorities support and support resources to ensure a safe and welcoming learning environment. A character profile for all
learners, district-wide multi-tered systems of support for all learners, and excellent excellence in resource management. Should you have trouble falling asleep some night and would like some material to help you do that, you could read our site improvement plans. When you do that, uh, look at strategic
priority number one and three. You'll see a lot of our bar work in strategic priorities one and three. So tonight I have uh Dr. Kabine. She's going to talk to you next. And then we have Karen Dunar, our bar coordinator at J and Ellis and Angie Taylor who is a social
worker at the high school. Thank you. >> All right. So I'm just going to touch base a little bit on our desired daily experiences. So when we think about um bar, it works because it brings things together in schools that often keep separate strong relationships and real-time data. For students, bar means
that they're not invisible. Every student is known academically, socially, and emotionally. When we combine consistent relationship building with shared data, we can respond early, not react. The results that our students are more engaged not just in school, but in their learning and their future. When we
think about families, this translates to consistency and trust. They know their child is seen, supported, and monitored by a team, not just one person. Communication improves because we're aligned, proactive, and focused on the whole child. And when we focus on our staff, VAR strengthens how we work
together. Instead of operating in isolation, teachers collaborate regularly around students using clear, actionable data. That means better decisions, shared ownership, and the support educators need to do their jobs well so they can create safe, healthy, and responsible learning environments.
Responsive learning environments, sorry. What makes FAR different is that it doesn't replace what we're doing. It strengthens it. It's designing systems approach and supported through ongoing coaching and professional learning. So implementation is just not a one-time initiative but a sustained way of
working. At its core, bar ensures that every student is known, every staff member is supported, and every family can trust the system around their child. All right. Um I'm Angie Taylor. I'm the bar coordinator at the high school social worker at heart and I will be giving the update tonight on the high
school. Um, I'm Karen Dunar and I'm the bar coordinator at both Ellis and Holton. Um, this is the bar model and I I know people have seen this before, but we still wanted to start with it. Um, because these are really the eight
strategies that we focus on um, every day and every day that we are here. I I I have a I have this on my bulletin board and I read it right away when I'm starting my day because I want to make sure that the work I do um is aligned with these strategies.
Okay. Um when we're talking specifically about Holton and Ellis, I Bolton is in their first year of implementation. Um and this is our structure. We have small block meetings for 40 minutes um once a week and there are eight different small
block teams um of teachers and big block meetings are 30 minutes a week and there are two teams or actually at Holton that's in this IG Holton it should be four teams um there's two at the fifth grade level and two at the sixth grade level and then community connect there's
one team and that meets weekly um and at Ellis you can see that it's very similar small blocks we have six teams of 45 minutes a piece um and big block We actually just have two teams. We have one seventh grade, one eighth grade. Um, this was by design. The teachers really like having a time when there's a lot of
them all together. Um, and really focusing on the students in their grade level. Um, and at Ellis, we were really focusing on the integration of MTSS and bar. Um, we are also focusing on that at J, but because it was the first year, we still kept community connect and IST
separate. Whereas at Ellis, our IST intensive support team is combined with our community connect. um in in one meeting um 45 minutes weekly. Okay. And um this is a little bit of data around our bar meetings at J. We
have currently discussed um 66% of our students that's 490 students using this um strength-based approach solution focused approach um at our small starts at small block moves on to big block if we need to and moves on to community
connect if if that is needed for a smaller group of students. Um at Ellis we're at 60% about 420 students. Um last year at Ellis we did made our goal our goal is to talk about every single student. Um, and some students we'll spend more time on than others, but we
still want to touch on every single student. Every single student has strengths. They um, we make a smart goal. Um, and and we really at least spend a few minutes just highlighting that student. Um, you time and it time lessons. This is a big part of bar as well. Um, the
you time lessons are about 30 minutes in length. Um, there's 30 lessons on Thursdays throughout the school year. Um and these are for all students at IG. It's a whole school initiative at both IG and Ellis. Um Ellis is is similar um but the instead of taking place just in
one classroom being the home room classroom at Ellis the IT time lessons take place um in the four cores and so they rotate um at the end of the the school year we will have completed 32 IT time lessons. Um they're either they rotate between science, language arts,
math and social studies. And you can see the topics on the bottom. and those are the same as in years past. And so it really is a spiraling curriculum. If you think about um starting with our fifth grade, they're having these two time lessons um in fifth grade and then they'll have them again in sixth grade.
They'll have different lessons, but they'll still focus on those same themes. Um and then they'll move into them, you know, seventh grade, eighth grade, and then nth grade as well. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Are those lessons provided by bar and >> Yes, good question. Yes, bar provides us
with the lessons and what I do as the coordinator. Um I, you know, I print out the lesson for the teachers. I want to make it really I want to make it not to be more work for the teachers because our teachers, you know, they they have other other things they're working on as well. So I print out the session. Um I I
put all the information into a PowerPoint. I make sure the teachers have all the supplies that they need. Um, but then I also let the teachers know too, you know, please keep with the same theme, but if you want to personalize it, if you want to add your own flare, sometimes they add in um, for
example, we have we have teachers that say, "Oh, I think our kids could do better with a gallery walk versus just um, talking to one other person." Say, um, we have teachers who want to do that as well. But they they are all provided um by the bar center. That's part part
of what we pay for. And and I'll tell you um our home teachers this year I I was a little nervous because we are adding one more thing but I've heard so many good comments from teachers and from students and they know that that I'm the bar person and so like I'll bring the supplies and students be like
what's that for? You know they get excited. Um students like they kind of get excited inside but maybe not you know maybe not quite quite as much outside. No, they're they're good. And um you know teachers sometimes they like
some lessons better than others. I'll always ask them about the lesson. You know I collect feedback and and we had a couple recently that the teachers like this is my favorite. You know this is there's teach a lesson where the students bring in um pictures of themselves as um babies or young
children and then they talk about like the inner child within you and it's really great. Um anyway, okay another this is the same as last year. We really um I will shout out to the high school. I mean they started positive postcards. They started our a year before we did
and I heard great things about it. So I said, "Hey, you know, let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's do this at Ellison and at J2." Um the bar center encourages this work, but not all schools do positive postcards in the same way. But our goal, of course, is that every student or every family receives at
least one positive postcard. The card is usually addressed to the student, but because it's a postcard and it's in connection to families, students, families will see it. Um last year we did um meet that goal. Every every family would you know was mailed at least one postcard sometime during the
year. Um at we're at about 60% as of April 1st. Ellis we're at 80%. Um we'll see how close we get to our goal but I feel like people people are very invested in this. Um teachers enjoy doing this. Um, some people some people
have done way more than their share just because they they really they really believe in the mission and they really want every single one of their students to get at least one card. Um, 1,08 postcards total um between the two schools so far. Um, I bolton, what I
wanted to do is as far as data, I really wanted to highlight on our coaching visits because as our first year really our job is to implement bar fidelity. Um, and so this this shows us um according to our coach that she just finished her fourth visit today. She
actually wanted to be at this meeting, but with the um tornado warning, she felt like she should get home, so she decided not to stay. But um you can see um the blue is her September visit, the orange is her November visit, and the gray is her February visit. So you can
see in all of those categories um she feels like we're growing in each category, which is what we want for our first year. Um as far as Alice, I want to show some different kinds of data. Um our failure rate data, you can see, um I didn't have our quarter three data yet, so that's
why for this year, all we have is quarter one and quarter two. But you can see that we are um moving in the right direction as far as our failure rate. Um the blue is 2022 23 and then we have red is 232 24 yellow 2425 which was our
first year of our implementation. Um and then the green is this year. Um and for our behavior data this is this is from um the last three years. Of course we don't have the full year done for this year yet but you can see that really dropped. We did we did um change
some other things in the system that also contributed to this drop. Um our dean of students though does really feel like bar is part of this um as far as really being part of those conversations about students at the on the front end and really um collaborating with
teachers on some creative solutions. Um, and then this is our monthly data. And you can see again, you know, we have last year that had dropped a lot from the two years before, but this year is the green. And in most months, we're still dropping a little bit for this year.
Um, I won't read through all this, but I talked about this last year. If you remember, um, catch days are something that happens at both the high school and at Ellis. Um, and just it's just a way for our students to get more time and support if they need it. and for our students who have all their work done in
that core subject um to have some time for enrichment activities at Ellis um it it really grew last year you know now we're up to um well most of our offer is is eight different catch days through the day four for seventh grade or through the quarter four for seventh
grade four for eighth grade um and most of our course subjects really want to be involved in that academic coaching I talked a little bit about this last year too it was a check-in program we saw a 54.7% decrease increase in the number of apps for the students that participated and
we had an academic coaching class um that was modeled after this that was created based on this data. Um the national conference um myself and then our seventh grade counselor and five of our teachers in grades 5 through eight are attending this conference and
we have a poster that will be um pres well basically posters are just hanging hanging on the walls around and we have one from Ellis um And this is this is what's on the poster. Some of this is the same data that I shared with you already. Um and then I'm also doing a
presentation at the national conference that's focusing on the times and the ad times. Key to collecting qualitative data while focusing on the whole student. Um I'm going to turn it over to Andrea and then if people have questions at the end that would be great as well. >> All right. Thank you.
Um, as you're going to kind of hear, um, both Karen and I have some similarities between the, um, two schools. So, I'll talk a little bit about what we do differently. Um, but and she already kind of talked about some of the things that we did, so I won't go through those again. Um, but this is our third and
final year of the implementation process. Um, I am so thankful. I thought, um, Dr. did an excellent job highlighting really what bar does for our students, our teachers, and our families. It is a system and I say it's like an
undercurrent to a lot of the things and a lot of the work that we do in bar I say sometimes students don't necessarily see or it's really hard to explain. Um but it puts a system in place and I will say this forever for teachers to do their best work. teachers want to help
kids as much as possible and this system allows them the support and time to do it. Um, and I'm very grateful for the creative scheduling at the high school that allows for that to happen. Um, because it does put a strain. There's so many different constraints on scheduling
and prioritizing. Um, but allowing teachers to have common time who are on the bar teams together allows us to get this um, really important work done. So that's the anything I want to say. Um, and that is part of this whole bar model that is up here. Um, it's really
engaging. All right, this is a little bit of a review, but I'll get into year three. So, like I said, we are in our third year of implementation process. If you remember, we started with a pilot group um the first year, two years ago in the 2020 23 24 school year. So, just one
cohort. We served about 90 students. I had four of our teachers um on that team. And then along the way, ALC kind of heard about it and so we kind of did a makeshift one throughout the year and got that up and running. Year two, which is um a lot of our end of the year data
that I'm about to show is going to be based on all of year 2. Um year two, we had both nth grade um we had the entire nth grade team, two teams. We had five teachers, five to six teachers. we were able to pull in our packer profile teachers to the bar model which I think
has been super important to continuing to see our progress. Having those teachers on um on team allows us to do a lot of our interventions um through that hacker profile seminar course. Um therefore we were able to team about 320
students. We got ALC bar completely up and running. We did 9 through 11 because if you remember we did not have 12th grade last year. Um so we had 9 through 11. Um um and that whole the whole school was teamed with those teachers. Um 9th grade across the board does I
times like parents I times times. Year three. Um year three we just kept rolling. Um I also wanted to shout out to the slow roll we've been able to have at the high school. That has allowed us to learn along the way, tweak things,
make it better as we bring more teams on board. It also gives us more time to be creative with how to schedule more teams to get them on board. Um, so this year we have two nth grade teams um that are up in fully functioning. The ALC is now
9th through 12. AOA is a full functioning team as well and we do all grades in AOA. Um, we started uh 10th grade bar team. So we have one cohort of teachers. We're serving about 70
students um on that team and then ELR is partially getting up and running. Um we had to be a little bit more creative with their scheduling. Um but there is significant there was a desire from that team to get up and running. So we're creative this year with trying to run
those meetings. But the structure time for those meetings are so important and how much time is dedicated to those um because that allows us to get even more work done. All right. Um, key insights. Thanks to Corey Hawin. Corey, I just wanted to
give a shout out to him. I always do. He provides um bar with endless amounts of data. He gives me data every week. Same with Karen. Um, he runs me also towards sorts of reports that I want. Um, and he usually always says yes. So, I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful to that. um
but um highlights and I have some graphs and I'll I'll show this is that we've seen a significant reduction in failure rates over the course of uh two years two and a half years. We've also seen a significant increase um in the credit attainment um behavior rates both cohort
wise and um especially cohort. So the reduction from 8 to 9 um and then we've seen a reduction also that and then attendance in general is less impacted. Um, we're still working on that. Um, I'm hoping some of the work that we did with the attendance task force, um,
attendance has stayed stable is what I pretty much say. Um, but we want to do more work in that area. Um, and I kind of I I kind of went through this slide as well. There's more. Um, but this slide just kind of illustrates. It's
pretty powerful to watch. This is credit attainment. Um, and so this was the year before um alarm came on. Um 66% of our students attain six or more credits. Six is important because if we get six every year, we make it to 24. So six is
considered on track. Um so this was the year before bar. Um the next year we got up to 71% with the um one team in nth grade. And then last year's data at the end of the year we d we jumped 10%. So we went from 71% to 811% of our um nth
graders who had six or more credits at the end of the year. So that's last year. So we're really anxious to see that this year too. Um and then lastly, you've probably seen this. There's been a lot of social media pushes about our
failure rate here. Again we show in 2223 our failure rate was at 15% that was before bar in the 23 24 that was when we had the bar pilot the one team and then 9th grade failure rate um for 2425 and
2526 also then included um wrapping packer profile and joining those two things and then you can see we went um to 6.2% 2% last year. Um I know this is really tiny. Um and I know but um I could show you
our coaches report that's going to show you the areas kind of a lot like um Karen talked about. Um we are scoring in place with almost all of them. Um, but I wanted to give some more um qualitative feedback from our our coach and that's
really because it talks specifically to all the team members um that I work with. I'm here presenting but I wish I could bring my teachers um they are the ones doing all the work as well as my administrators and counselors who team who team and attend those meetings as
well. And so some of the highlights are um in general we had really good feedback um on our last one on our IT time decision making um our bar coach noticed um I have one team that consistently does an ex an exit ticket
so we get feedback about how those are going um they're also going to do a huge shout out um about um Matt Schmidt and how he has monthly meetings with me to make sure that we continue to be on the same page so we can continue to move forward and also um to Dr. Kavine and
her um lively and very active um role um leading her team in all of our bar meetings and following up. Um our coach really enjoyed meetings with Dr. So um he highlights that in there. Um but
really if you read um it really showcases the consistency in these meetings um how well our teams stay to the agenda, the amount of students we are able to get through and follow up with and to be
thoughtful and also take into consideration the whole child where they're at. Um, constantly looking for what cause. He mentions that both for my AOALC and both for my packer and my scarlet teams. Um, and so I've been
really happy um with their feedback. I will I will miss depending on where we move forward, but like the the coaching um that we received from the bar center these last three years is super helpful um with continuing to implement this model.
Um and then a couple extra shout outs. Like I said, we so far have um this was as of like the start of fourth quarter, we had sent out over 826 positive postcards um between the four teams. Um
and then we have discussed over 386 students in team. Um my ninth grade teams carry about 130 140 students on a team. That's a lot of students to get through. Um I have two teams racing for the first time to
see if we can get through them all. My other um bar 10 and um ALC teams, they're smaller about 70 or 80 and we always get through those. Um we have hit 100% um postcards to all this will be the third year we'll get it. A lot of my
teams, everybody on every student on the team is getting two. So we send out a lot of postcards for them. Um and then lastly, just moving forward, like I said, this completes our third year with FAR. Um so we'll kind of see
where where that goes. Um I hope um for next year, some of the things I still think we have to work on and that is refining our EL team and trying to get that structure. Um I'm working with admin on that. Um we want to put out student um student and parent
questionnaires. Um in general um parent engagement is something we want to continue to increase. So getting more feedback from parents about what they want for their child, join with them. So we have common goals not only for the students go school but the parents goals for their um students as well. Um and
refining our community connect our two or three our top our students with the most level of concern or need the most support to continue to refine that meeting. And one of the biggest things moving forward is and that I'm so thankful with bar is bar has a ton of things that I say you can use for
fidelity checks. Um they have tons of rubrics and so we've implemented PD days in which we are completing block meetings and other like bypacker team is doing it and then my scarlet team watches and can give feedback and very specific rubrics about what it time
should look like and what blocking should look like. And so that's going to be imperative moving forward for us to stick close to that model so we can continue to see some positive gains. And that concludes my presentation. Are there any questions for Karen?
Can you talk a little bit about the postcard? Is that like a handwritten personal note to each student? Yeah. So I think you both can say um we used to just Last year I was we just get random
from Amazon but we were able to but then we found we were confusing the mail place. I never knew what school build. So we made this year we have specific ones that say like a learning center online and um Austin High School and yes
they're playing postcards that we hand to the students and yours. >> Yes. Yeah. ours. I mean, we did buy ours from Amazon, but that's we were asked like when somebody signs their postcard, they put this tool from, but um yeah, they are handwritten and very very nice.
It's like it's one of my favorite things because we can forget how the little personal touch so much technology, right? Um and what it means and to sit in block meetings and hear people and I've had the personal experience, but hear kids who say, "I got you.
and like students will go out of the way to stop someone who did send them a card. And so I think sometimes we forget especially how like the sincerity and genuiness written in some of those cards. Um I think that's so important for students to receive.
>> Yeah, I can talk about like I was in a block meeting today and um we were talking about a student that that a teacher was really wanting help with. you know, she felt like she'd already tried a lot of strategies which she had and one of the other teachers in that was small block meeting said, "Well,
have you written a positive postcard?" And she said, and then they said, you know, I well, actually that teacher said, "Well, I know this student too, you know, and I'll write one, but I I think that that could help." So, it's something that also helps with their relationship with
the student. I have one more comment about the your behavior. That's very impressive. I'm so glad to see that decrease. What is a major referral though?
>> Yep. So, um a major referral is is I the way that we categorize them, we have minor referrals, we have major referrals. U major referral is something that that the administration is involved in to a certain extent, you know. a minor referral a teacher um it's used
for documentation purposes and you know eventually it could you know turn into a major if that behavior continues but um basically I think one thing that really changed um and this is largely credit to our students and and really just looking
at it like we are we are not going to systematically remove students from classes because then they're missing class and because removal from class is considered a major a referral. Um, but she really works with the teachers, maybe works with the students will go
into the classroom to really assess the situation to visit that way so that it doesn't turn into a major referral. And she's also as part of the big block meetings. She's caring about things that teachers need help with. Um, and she said that really helps her too that she
has really that pulse on what's going on um before before it turns into something that she has to deal with in a negative way. Can I say um I really like the check-ins. I like the 30 minute activities. I like the coaching. I like
the the fact that you get together and talk about students that every teacher contact or 49 students have been contact. Uh can you take me back to prebar and you know we've all done stuff here uh that we know very little about the
board members do I mean even though you inform us but can you take us back to pre-bar and what what set of circumstances because we we do sign a contract with this bar organization you maybe have a a threeyear or one year or
a fiveyear contract before we sign that contract what were the things we were looking to change. What what were things that were happening in the district that we thought we need to get something going here? >> Um specifically it was um our failure
and graduation rates that is what um bar um bars research if you look um they failure rate graduation rates um behavior are all outcomes that have been researched and well defined. if you go on to their website, that's what you
see. And so that's what led us there. Um, and it's a high school program. Um, I talked about that in the beginning. It's very hard to find secondary programs, model programs that are started there and actually go the other way. And so that was another appeal, but it was it was specifically related to
our failure rate. >> And oh, sorry. I thought I was gonna say like pre what I would say before is um high school in particular went away from teaming and so um if I was a student, right, and I had Karen for and Sharon or
and other people like as a teacher, I would have no idea who that student had for other classes. And so if I was struggling with someone, I wouldn't know who to go to. Um this brought teens back and so in nth grade in particular if I
this student I know they have that most likely they're going to have this person for science this person for social exactly who I can go to to help me support this student. So that was a that's a significant change pro that we were not doing at the high school and
when bar came it's a readjustment that we brought in. >> Yeah. And I can say like with with Ellis of course Ellis came on board after AHS. So AHS was um adopted bar one year and then Ellis was the year after and then I
the year after that and I I think that some things that were very appealing. Of course we we saw the success of the high school and I think the district thought you know it it's worth it's worth thinking about and um kind of researching a little bit of whe whether or not this is appropriate for our
middle school and then for our intermediate school. And I think it was some of the same outcomes, you know, the failure rate, the behavior data, um, attendance, which like we said we're still working on. Um, but but then also those those time and you time lessons which are focused on the social
emotional learning and we felt like we did not have, you know, a researchbased program for that and we didn't have a system in place that this we were delivering this on a regular basis and it's and the nice thing about it is that it is sustainable. um you know it's not
something where it's not sustainable to to put that on our counselor's plate anymore because our counselors are doing so many other things. So I think that was that was really appealing as well you know from the grade five six and the grade seven eight perspective and as far as the team just like Angie said you
know at different times both Alice and I have had a team meeting it's not that that that didn't happen before and they had team meetings um one thing that is is different is that the team meetings in the past weren't really focusing on talking about every single student and
they weren't necessarily um starting out with strengths you know some some of these parts of the the bar model um are just what what we've seen and I think I I've actually heard Dewey say this that that the the depth of the conversation that we have about students it's just
it's just deeper. >> Can I just ask one more thing? uh Carol mentioned in that uh southeast Minnesota organization NAMI NAMI uh 22% of students suffer from and that's probably
side I put out that sheet that talked about principles and number one concern is mental health in the strategic priorities early on one of the bullet points was multi multi-tered systems to support each and every student how does
bar support those students that may have uh mental health issues. That to me that's a it's not too big a percentage and principal identify hopefully bar deal with that. >> Yep. and and really because we start you
know at the teacher level and teacher strategies at that small block but then then it goes into if there's a student that teachers are like we we tried things and it's not quite working you know they will refer the student up to the big block big block we go up to the
community connect I mean I think the level that you're talking about a lot of times is that community connect and that's where we have we have the social worker there we have the counselors we have administration we have everybody around we have a school resource officer we all those voices in those spaces around the table to really help the
students. So I think I think the way that nobody can completely fall through the cracks in this system, you know, um there's a and also I'll say yes, there's a there's a procedure small big but if we see a student, you know, they can
they can jump one of those levels if they need to if it's somebody that needs help right away. Um so I I've really seen that. Um yeah, I bars model
very closely aligns with MTSS. Um and I think the delivery system of what students need for mental health, I I think that's something that is a work in progress. Um you're absolutely right. The needs are significantly um high. Um and and the hope is that
this is going to connect our teachers with with students and to notice students and to notice these things sooner so that we can get things in place for them. Um, but I say to work towards gain things because we also know that there is a shortage of services for
students. And so I'm not I won't say like we're you know it's it's it's m it's beyond the school really like but but I truly believe that the the structure in place helps us to identify
students and pick them up so we can be working towards that. And you you have the resources out the community if you did have >> Yes. Like our social worker Julie Hail is well versed on community resources
and we know that we are referring um out but it also um to find you know culturally responsive mental health for our population it is still somewhat of a struggle. There's just there's a lot of layers to
understand the mental health and understand mental health. We all view that very differently. But I do think if we go back to the model, it helps us to identify it and to start to work towards interctions. >> Thank you. Thank you.
Next, we'll hear an overview and request approval for the resolution calling for the sale of general obligation facilities maintenance and tax and maintainment plans with executive director of finance and operations vice president director PTMA Michael Park. >> Good evening. I will start this
presentation and I'll go over to Michael to go through more details. So just a little background since November we've been working with PTMA and ISG to continually look at our facilities and look at our critical needs. During that time, Michael's been really helpful in
determining what the board of authors could be for us to look at funding. Um as you know time could be looking at another referendum would be November. We looked at different um funding sources and in March we Michael and myself came to the board and gained approval to do a
tax abatement on parking lots to do capital facility bonds for about $3 million and then to move forward with the long-term facility maintenance plus indoor air quality project for 19.2 million. So when we gained approval in March for that, one of the things we
asked Michael to do and IG was to look at a timeline of when these projects can be done because we cannot start these until summer 2027 and summer of 2028 to finish. So we asked Michael to look through and look at how we could structure these bonds to ensure we are
being stewards of the money and looking at saving on interest expense. So I will turn over to Michael to walk through the plans. Sorry. All right. Good evening. Um, so I'm going to start the the first piece of this information is going to be review for the school board as we've seen in the past, but there is a new piece of
information in terms of how we're recommending that we actually implement the finance plan. Um the the school board approved proceeding forward with this. There's three different parts to the board approval. Uh which Mr. Leenberg just went through. Uh the indoor air quality project is funded by
facility maintenance bonds. The bathroom and electrical service projects are funded by capital facilities bonds and the parking lots are are funded by taxment bonds. Those are three different statutes under Minnesota law. We do sell them all together. We can sell them all together as one. what we call general
obligation in the school district. Okay. So the statuto references are on there that we're working with. Okay. So uh the school board has seen this chart before. This chart shows uh your current debt in blue or your current bond payments that you have
outstanding and then the bond payments related to the LTFM and the abayment bonds in red which those two parts of the overall plan do add to property taxes and we have uh these numbers are are what you've seen in the past couple of
months too. Uh the total property tax increase related to this is expected to be $89 on a $200,000 home. uh to fund those two parts of the plan. The capital facilities bonds do not
increase taxes, but they use part of the operating capital of the school district to pay for them. We're really replacing one bond with the other. So, we're planning to pay off that other bond next February 1st. And so, the payment structure and budgetary impact of that will be the schools have roughly the
same amount of money going toward those bonds as they do currently today. So, all of that is kind of review information that the board has seen in the past. And here's the part where there's some new information here tonight. We are recommending that you
split the bond financing for this 20 plus million dollars of work into two parts. And the first part of that, which we're asking for your approval tonight as a part of this resolution, is to fund the first $10 million of abatement bonds. So the abandonment bond portion which is
140,000 that you know the public and the remainder of that will be the first part approximately half of the indoor air quality project funding. This will fund the project through kind of the middle of the summer of 2027 based
upon the draw down the expected spend of that money uh from ISG. The second part will come uh later this probably in in the first six months of calendar year 2027 and at that time we'll sell the capital
facilities funds which will fund that the restroom remodeling and the the electrical service upgrade projects which are expected to happen in the summer of 2027. So they're on track with that standpoint and it will fund the remainder of the LTFM funding. So there's a few reasons that we're cons uh
recommending that you put it into two parts. One, the your partners at ISG and others are going to start some heavy lift in terms of design. So there are engineers, architects there for the design of this project. Now they've been given the green light to move forward.
They're going to be working in earnest here over the next six six or so months to begin ready to so that project can get out. So you're going to have some expenses related to that. Okay. when we talking about this kind of bond issue too, we're approving it for
specific sets of projects and and so we also want to be a little bit more careful on making sure that we borrow the right amount of money. So the school board has approved a maximum amount of money for us to borrow and the intention would be that second bond issue would be sold at a time which you have already
received construction bids back. So our understanding is that the the design period will happen over the next six plus months. you'll then you have construction documents out of lots of bid and around the end of this calendar year is when you'd expect to have those construction bids back which gives us
much better information. We're working on estimates budgetary estimates from experts but these things change over time and hopefully that you know if that all goes well hopefully that means we can reduce the amount of harm that would be the the best case scenario in this overall. Of course, the other piece of
it is once you sell a bond, you start paying interest on it. And so, we don't need that other money until we need it, which isn't really in 2027. And so, by not uh selling the bond, you're not paying interest expense on that for, you
know, approximately, you know, years worth of time. There are some risk. the the primary risk to this kind of plan is interest rates rise which mean you know we don't have control over market rate uh market interest rates and if they do rise of course that could offset the
savings of interest that you receive by not paying interest in the meantime. The second piece and this is really you know definitely transparency piece is that when you sell two bonds issues you have to pay the professionals like me bond attorneys you know the firm I work for
two different times to go through the process because it's you know the the work happens twice from our end. So what does this amount to as some numbers? The expected cost of issuing the bonds increases by about $85,000. Our expect our expectation
um the interest rates if they stay the same we would save $373,000. We put that into a break even that last bullet point what we call a break even to say if if interest rates rise by 27% you're kind of in the same position.
So, if they rise by more than that in market rates, you'd actually be paying more interest in selling it all today. But if they stay the same or go down, you're in a better position. Um, and of course, we don't control the market. And we don't we don't play the game of
trying to predict that as we're working through this. So, the timeline for this first $10 million, which is what we're going to ask you to consider taking action on tonight, we have gone through the first steps of
this um to approve the LTFM plan submission to the state. We have received back the approval letter from the capital facilities bonds. We're working with the engineers on a couple of last pieces to finalize our submission related to the air quality budget.
you uh held the last step in the earlier in the meeting tonight really it's the engagement for parking lots so that now that that public hearing has been held once you take action on this resolution you have the authorization to proceed forward with that. So over the next couple months, we'll finalize that the
authorization in relation to the air quality projects and we expect to be working on the bond documents, holding a rating and releasing that to the market by about July 1st. We would sell this first set of bonds on July uh you know
approximately July 8th. The board would see this as a ratification at that the regular board meeting in July and the money would be in the end on August 4th this summer. So the action that you have uh tonight
the first step is that it does a process or finalizes the process of the abatement bonds which actually grants the tax abatement in an amount not to exceed 160,000 which is the 140 I talked about earlier plus the the expected interest uh over a three-year period of
time. It allows us to submit an application to the state of Minnesota for the credit enhancement program. This is a program where the state of Minnesota says that they will pay back the bond holders really the the investors who are lending the school
district money in the event that the school district can not pay the bond holders. We do not expect that you need to use that but it does lower interest rates and it doesn't cost you anything. Um so we'll help you move through the process of that application. And then the last piece is that this
action of the school board gives authority to two individuals to actually go through the process to execute the bond sale, to finalize the bond sale, enter into the contract to proceed forward with this. And those two individuals include one school district administrator, either the superintendent
or the director of finance and operations. So one of those two people and one officer of the school board will need to execute that in order for it to be valid. And they can only those two can only do it if the amount the interest rate does not exceed 5% the
amount of the bond does not exceed $10 million and the authority extends through the end of this calendar year if we're presuming we need to delay the timeline that was presented earlier. So that's that's a review of the actions
tonight. Kind of in summary, the key piece of new information is that we're recommending split this into two and proceed forward with the first $10 million here this summer without saying questions. According to your timeline, you
submitted the uh we submitted the plan to the education in March. Do you expect a new approval? >> Yeah. So, we've we have not we've received approval back from the capital facilities part but not yet the LTF
number and we do expect them to approve it but we have not received the final authorization yet. We will not proceed forward with the bond sale. It actually is part of the resolution. If you read the final letters we cannot unless you receive that. >> Thanks.
What's the current industry right now? >> Yeah, we would expect to be somewhere in the ballpark of between four and four and a quart state. Now, we're using in the in the numbers that I presented to you, the tax impact
numbers, we are using a cushion above current market rates um of about 3/4 of a percent to be conservative just given that there's a period of time between now. So that that um if anything you know market rates stay the same the tax
rates slightly just slightly lower than >> I don't understand the uh resolution on the last page granting property tax not >> yeah it's it's Um,
you know, property tax abatement, it's kind of confusing the way that it functions in this setting. I know the school board has seen property tax abatement in relation to like new homes or businesses being built. So, you're actually paying the tax back to the
developer. Um, and this is under the same statute, but it's really a different process. Um, so the taxes when the taxes to pay back those bonds are taxed at the end of the
day in the same exact way that all of your other debt payment leies are taxed. Um the way that the statute reads is that you have the it's an economic development statute at its core and the school district is allowed to use it for
property or for parking lots because it provides safe access to public facilities and that is deemed by MD to be an economic development item. Um and that's the only thing that's needed to
be an economic development item. So we identify parcels and you'll see that actually is an addendum to the resolution that benefit from this particular project and we've gone through the process of identifying parcels. It does not actually matter which parcels
because any of the parcels in the school district in you know our view would benefit from access to these public assets and there's not any particular benefit to one specific property. So that's what we're doing is we're complying with the legal statute for
this economic development law. Um and we're we're granting the authority to levy this tax that we call out money to pay that. And I know that's a lot of kind of mumble jumbo. I don't know how else to
say it but the it isn't it's it's not a logical law in terms of how it is applied in this particular circumstance but it has been widely used in this manner by school. >> Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate that. But I I will say this that uh just
from my seat at this table I do trust that you and Todd have investigated this in such a way that it benefits the district. It's the best thing to do. So he's okay. I I tr I personally trust you
to make the current decision decision. Thank you for that. All right. So now we can ask for a motion to approve a resolution called general obligation facilities maintenance and tax as presented. A motion
Second by Dan. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Unless you are really interested in this stuff. You have other things you could be doing right now. Homework. >> Go do your homework. >> Have a good evening.
>> Uh, next request approval to award the bid for the track reservicing at West Athletic Complex. Again, executive director finance and operations. >> Thank you guys. So we went back, we looked at our existing mod track surface that was installed that was installed
back in 2008 and that's got a life expectancy about 15 to 20 years. And so again, as we can look at our um commitment to have a safe and high quality facilities, not only athletic, but our um academic facilities, we came
to the school board and our long-term facility maintenance plan and had put in there $550,000 to resurface the track surface. Um, we had asked ISG just to look at it one more time, make sure we were on the right plan with that and they came back
and said yes that we would only be looking at a resurfacing of the majority of the track, but a few other areas like the long jump runways would need a full reconstruction. So, we went out to bid in the end of January
and we received two bids. Um, they're up on the screen right now. 1.5 million, 1.7 million. Um, again, as I mentioned before, our budget had been set at 550,000. After the deadline, we received a quote from Upper Midwest Athletics. The reason
that is a quote is they're on a state contract, so they did not have to go through the full bidding process, but what they provided was a gel for system, which is not the surface we currently have in place on. after doing um research and continually looking at this
um and talking with our director of facilities and going through our facilities committee going through our finance committee. We feel the MO service is a better investment because longterm that will withstand the Minnesota winters. Um the gel course system only has one client and it's in
one kind in the Midwest and it's in southern Illinois. Otherwise, most of that surface is down south. And depending on the usage of our track and we go with the gel core, we're looking at a resurface about every 3 to 5 years. So, we take the 550,000 and you look at
a 20ear cycle with the monot track should last. We'd be looking at probably more costs than investing currently today in the mono system. So, we're in front of you today with our recommendation as followed to award the bid of Ulan Brothers for 1.5 1
million514,840 and use the following funding mechanism. Take the $550,000 that was already in the approved long-term facility maintenance plan. And in November, we had assigned a million dollars for Westcot Athletic Complex, knowing we were going to need
to make some facility improvements out there and take the remainder $964,840 out of the assigned funds for the West Complex. And we will continually um myself, the director of facilities, look at building our long-term facility
maintenance plan to put back the $964,840 that we have put aside for turf replacement, which we know that facility is also coming towards the end of life expectancy. So, we do this investment now and then look to build up our
long-term maintenance bank balance over time. Any questions? So Todd the million dollar Westcott complex dollars that's specific for WCOT the long-term facility that's districtwide money right
>> correct we so long-term sil when we submitted to MB we had put in 550,000 for site improvements and then we we had the board assigned a million dollars on this in our financial results and we had quoted as Westcat athletic complex so that we could look at the facility out
Thanks. >> I just want to thank you for the extensive discussion that we had on this at the study session because this Mondo versus gel pore system was way above my
head. So, I appreciate that. So that that gel is a little less expensive than it >> and depends on which way you look at. If you're looking at today's dollars versus a long if you looked at over the life expectancy of the track it'd be pretty
much the same if not a little bit more just because that core doesn't there's no studies that it would withstand the harsh Midwest winter and we'd also have to look at different uses of our facilities >> really quick you remind uh the board
what the if approved what the construction plan will look like timing and all that. >> Thank you. So, if we approve this today or tonight, we will notify you tomorrow. We'd be looking at a end of June, middle of July um start
date. Um we have worked with Ulin, just had some preliminary conversations explaining that we need the turf field there to be usable. Um we have soccer, we have other rentals going on in the summer and they would allow us the ability, they'd always have a walkway
onto the turf. there be about a week in September where we have to paint the lines and actually paint the bottom of a surface that we would have to take that facility offline and we've already worked with athletic director Katie Carter. Uh we think we know the time of the week but again we'll work with her
to give us about a two week window of probably not having any home games. If we do we're just going to move games around in that. But um we're going to work through this as much as we can. Hopefully we have a dry for at least our purposes a dry summer so that we can get
our track installation going. >> All right. So right now we're looking for a motion then to award the bid for the track resurfacing to brothers as presented. >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion second by Carol. Any discussion?
All those in favor? >> Well, I'd like to discuss something before we do this. talking now with the taxpayer not. We heard some uh some anecdotes from fairly knowledgeable individuals that uh people out there with snowblowers
blowing out the track with their snowblower and I'm concerned on the tennis court. Michael said the tennis court was awesome shape. I'm concerned about skateboarders blades you know just uh four-wheel bikes motorcycle. I think
we need to have some kind I know it's a public space and I know we don't want to be punitive but at the same time I think we have some signage that says absolutely prohibited this this this and this and not necessarily saying we'll be
litigating you to the extent of the law just let them know that these things are not acceptable and I I just if I'm driving by the track and I sight someone I'm getting out of my car I'm I I hope community members
are because it's their money. >> So I hope we can put some signage up and discourage people from using that those beautiful beautiful facilities. >> Thanks, >> Dr. P. We have any security cameras on West.
>> We do have uh some out there uh in our concession areas too. Uh but that's something that we can look at expanding. And to address your question too around signage, certainly for that. >> Investing
whatever discussion in favor next time there request the approval of donations. >> Thank you. It is an honor to be in front of the USBN tonight to go through our donations. We have reviewed all these
donations and they are in accordance with schoolboard policy 706 exceptions at the end. So I will read these off and ask for approval at the end. Culver's $500 AHS FFA Tristan $1,500
AHS robotics Bfield PTC $180 Bfield Elementary Banfield PTC $260 Banfield Elementary
AB Fast Break Club $300 AHS Boys basketball hustle family $40 AHS robotics community charities of Minnesota $500 AHS adaptive owning Dave Rzit books
valued at $1,700 each kindergarten student throughout the district. West Minister Church $200 ESL department. Again, we'd like to thank all these entities for their donations to our solution.
>> Motion to approve the donations. >> Any discussion? Those in >> favor. Next, we're going to have a request for the approval of nonrenewable probationary teachers with human resources director STAR. Okay, chairperson
superintendent page and members of the board. Um, tonight I am the resolution for not renewing probationary teacher contracts. Whereas Samantha Ging, Brian Flanders, Sam Good and Candace Huggin are probationary
teachers with 482 now therefore be resolved by the school board of independent school district 492 as follows. Pursuant to the Minnesota statute 122A.40 subdivision 5, the probationary teaching contracts of the
probationary teachers listed above are hereby not renewed in their employment with independent school district number 492 is hereby terminated effective the end of the 2526 school year. The school board hereby approves following written
notice informing the teachers of renewal of their probation contracts. The superintendent is directed to sign notices of non on behalf of the board. It's my understand >> any discussion? Yeah, I'd like to just
ask a question either of you to um and I know teachers often times are not for various reasons. Are teachers ever not renewed because their lensure expires or they don't have the proper
credentials? And are there on this list? Can you tell me which one they are or is that? >> Um yeah. Okay. Um yes. So we have um on this list we have um three of them that
are not properly licensed in the field. >> Three of four are not properly. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> And they can get relics and come back and maybe seek employment in the district or elsewhere. >> Um as long as they're applying to
something that they're >> licensed for. Additional discussion. Those in favor. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we're going to hear all about the approval of the budget reduction.
Dr. >> Yeah. Thank you, Jerry Young. Uh before we begin tonight on this uh particular agenda, I just want to say that this is one of the more difficult responsibilities we have and I want to be clear about why this plan is before you and how we got here. So in January,
the board resolution had a resolution which the board recognized that financial limitations and operational needs could require reductions in programs and positions and or department reorganization. As a result, the board directed the administration to explore ways to
operate more efficiently and effectively, including potential cost savings through restructuring departments, eliminating positions and/or reassigning duties. The administration was directed to bring forward recommendations that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our
operations and to present those recommendations. We've been working through this for the past several months uh board study sessions through our personnel and finance committees meetings over the as I mentioned the past couple months and this plan reflects that the ongoing work and the
feedback and direction from those conversations I will highlight here the moment is projected to decline by 127 students which represents about $1.75 million reduction in revenue for next year in addition compensatory funding is still
being finalized at the state level. We do not yet know whether there will be a reduction or hold harmless from the legislature and the exact amount is not set. Based on our projections, we're planning for an estimated $2.5 million decrease. Taken together, we are
planning for an overall impact of approximately $4.25 million heading into next year. This isn't a choice. This is the environment we're operating in. Given that this plan reflects a disciplined and measured approach that spreads reductions across staffing,
operations, spending, and uses our fund balance in a responsible way to manage this transition. It also avoids overcorrecting in one area and keeping the system stable. At the same time, stays anchored to what matters most,
safe schools, strong support for students, and preparing every learner what comes next. And that connects directly to who we are as a district. Our mission is to inspire, empower and accelerate every learner. And our vision is to prepare all learners to make a
difference in the world. That work shows up in the day in our desired day of the experience for our students and classrooms and the relationship and the opportunities we provide. This plan was built to protect that experience as much as possible. No one wants to bring forward reductions, but responsible
leadership means acting when the data is clear and doing so thoughtfully, transparently, and steadily. And this plan reflects that work. Thank you, superintendent. So, as we go through this plan, consider this plan tonight is important to ground
yourself in why we do this work. Our mission at Austin Public School is to inspire, empower, and accelerate. Our vision is to prepare all learners to make a difference in the world. These are not just statements. They show up in our daily experiences
when we look at our students in our classroom in relationships and in opportunities and in the support systems we provide each day. Liz plan was built with that in mind. While we are adjusting to financial realities, the goal has been to protect the daily
student experience as much as we possibly can so that our mission and our vision remain real for our students, not just words on a page. This is the standard we use to build this plan and that's what this recommen recommendation reflects. As Dr. Paige
mentioned, this plan is being driven by two major primary factors, enrollment changes and state funding. We will continually monitor these trends over time. So, as we go to look at our FY27 adopted budget, right now we are looking at our
enrollment is projected to decrease 127 students, which would bring us to approximately 4,768 students next year. When we look at that in dollar cents, that would be about $1.75 million reduction in revenue. In addition, as
Dr. Page mentioned, we are looking at our compensatory revenue review. This compensatory revenue has been something that's been looked at the last few legislative cycles and they've always had a whole harmless list put in place. We are still not sure of what the reduction will be. We are not sure if
they will have a whole harmless list put in there. So as of right now we are planning the numbers that we have been provided is the $2.5 million reduction. So just a ground says when we combine both those guys together we are looking at overall reduction of about 4.2 25
million. The plan that we're about to go into addresses that. Our approach was to be balanced and measured. We aligned reductions across staffing around operations and spending while keeping our mission at the center. Continue to inspire, empower, and
accelerate every learner. That means protecting the conditions that allow students to grow and succeed even as we adjust resources. We are going to notice at the very bottom we have a couple we have three fund balances that we are going to look to spend down. Um we've done this in a
limited strategic way. This supports the building in the short term while we adjust to the long-term realities. It reflects our responsibility to manage resources carefully while staying focused on students. Our vision is to prepare all learners to make a difference in the world and that work happens in the classrooms in
relationship relationships and opportunities. While there are impacts, the intent was to minimize disruptions to the daily experiences, keep schools safe, supportive, and focus on learning. Another trend that we are closely monitoring is our enrollment. So, this
is a presentation that was given to us from teamworks. As enrollment and state funding becomes more certain, we'll adjust when needed and bring updates back to the board. This is an ongoing stewardship staying responsive and responsive while keeping our direction
steady. Administration recommends approval of the FY27 budget reduction plan. This plan aligns our resources to to project revenue while staying grounded in our mission, our vision, and our responsibility to provide a strong daily experience for every student. This
allows us to move forward while keeping students at the center of our work. I will open up to any questions. So, um even those of those two um monetary points about um enrollment and
compensatory dollars. Neither one of those is actually um cast enrollment can change. Um, but Dr. P, you had I mean this $2.5 million is a really serious thing. You I'm sure
have had communication with legislators in our district. Have you heard anything from them? Do you have an overall understanding what's going on? I'm sure >> Yes, we have uh I've communicated directly with our our legislators uh on
this. Um we've heard back um from one of them as they work through committee. Um, and I'm sure we may have more information from them as they go through the legislative process. They'll keep us updated. >> So, say that say that that number was
altered would and the legislative session gets done on May 20th. We would and right now you got your principal making schedules. If if dollars came in, would you revisit
those schedules or would you depending on the dollars or >> Yeah, it would really depend on what came out of the legislative session. The compensatory funds that you'll see in the column there are more categorical aid. Uh there's only certain things that
we can use those funding pieces for. Um on the enrollment related column that was more general fund specific uh and so if there was uh an omnibus bill or additional funds that came in from the state um you know it could certainly be
helpful uh for that and as we go through this process too is uh there is an opportunity for the board to restore reductions um should the financial environment change um on the road. So it doesn't
mean that things have to be permanent. Uh but we are presenting them that they are and the board when they see fit and have the resources to do so can restore just so that we're clear on the issue of
um aid is really tailored to a district like Austin as opposed to say Eden Prairie. That be fair, Stephen? Um I don't know the allocation at the prairie u you know I mean one year we had a
presentation with Minnotonica and we had like a free reduced lunch at 53% and they had 2%. So I mean I'm just that's anecdotal information that I just got processed but I mean there are some districts let me ask you this there are some districts receive more compensatory
aid than others. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I think one of the things to point out too, and you mentioned in conversations with uh our legislative representatives, is is how come how compensatory aid is being calculated right now, moving away from the
educational benefits paper form and moving to direct certification uh for government state programs. Um, and so our concern with that is that it's not active accurately representing the poverty level in Austin. Meaning when we
pull the direct certification numbers, uh, we have a different poverty rate that's coming from that than when we do historically uh, from educational benefits form. Uh, reasons for that um, can be multiple. Um, I think one of the
clearest is that we don't have people that sign up for all of our state programs. Uh, and that's where they're pulling the certification from. So that's uh harmful um with our compository aid calculation.
>> Okay. Thank you very much. >> We will get an answer one way or another though by the end of the legislative session on compensatory. There's no way that they could like the ball down the road to not give us
any answer. >> We should have an answer. Uh whether it will be a hold armless uh or just fully executing the law, that remains to be seen. Um but we'll have an answer.
So can't get a can down the road basically held harmless, but you don't believe that's going to be a permanent status not in its definition. Uh it means it will be revisited and we're already on harmless this current year. So at some
point I think that the state will move forward with removing the whole harmless list and actually um execute the full extent of the law that's been written. Um as I mentioned our position too is we want them to work on the formula and
find other ways to pull these rates so they accurately reflect our demographics in our school district. All right. So now we're looking for a motion to approve the budget reductions plan as presented. Is there a motion?
I Carol. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. >> All right. Next up are our delegations. Quick reminder that each presentation is limited to five minutes and no response
to reaction nor action shall be taken by the board during the delegation portion of the meeting. The school board will also not hear complaints about individual school employees or permit discussion of such matters in an open meeting. Those complaints must be submitted in writing to school
administration. Profanity and use of other inappropriate language will not be permitted. First we have Rhonda Alberts. Good evening chairperson y superintendent page and community members. My name is Rhonda Albert and
I'm a current employee in Austin public schools. I've been a teacher at Boston High School and a member of the world languages department for over 30 years and I'm here today to comment on the recent decision to eliminate all four levels of French. I understand that cuts
must be made at the district as the district faces financial challenges and that these decisions are complex and unpopular. However, cutting all four levels of the French program represents a significant loss for our students. This decision reveals a disconnect
between what students and families desire and the actions that we've taken. After registration this winter, there were over 90 students enrolled in French. enough for two sections of one, one section of French two, and additionally 18 students registered for
French three or four. As past practice supports, there are creative ways to offer these options. Eliminating all four levels disregards clear student interest and demand. In doing so, we jeopardize college and career readiness for students already on this pathway.
The incoming ninth graders who already enrolled in French one and current students registered for French 2 would now have to start over to meet CHL college recommendations or requirements. Students who have already invested two years in French would see their progress
cut short. Are we truly data driven? Students have already created their four-year plans and registered for next year's classes. Yet many families remain unaware of what this cut will mean for their student schedule next year. and for their four-year plan. Most colleges
and universities still recommend at least two years of study in the same world language and some require it for admission or graduation. Let me see where I am. Um institutions such as the University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities, University of St. Thomas, Gavas Adulus, St. St. Poland, the University of Iowa, Iowa State, and many University of Wisconsin system schools maintain these expectations. Eliminating French removes an important pathway for
students planning to pursue these opportunities. As we know, we serve linguistically diverse population. Currently, 98 students list French as their home language with others speaking indigenous languages at home in addition to French. Our district has supported students in
earning a Minnesota seal of by literacy. But simply hearing another language at home does not guarantee literacy in that language. Many students who earn the seal of literacy do so because of the structured learning and academic development provided by our courses.
Removing French as an option directly limit students ability to reach the level of proficiency they need. We were close to offering a pathway for our heritage French speakers as we do our Spanish. One that would strengthen literacy in both French and English and
build academic language skills. Eliminating French halts this progress and limits opportunities for these students. We are fortunate to offer strong support systems such as bar reach Austin buyers grade level teams and packer seminar to help struggling
students succeed. that AHS is so much more than these programs. What is sacrificed by the 70% of students that are prepared prepared for the challenges of high school that have proven themselves through reaching their full potential sorry for first eight years of
school ready to explore all that the high school has to offer. They too deserve to fully explore the pathways and courses and should not be required to spend additional and valuable time on a required elective course. These top students are not in need of additional
support or training of soft skills. They have the power of core values. They have already shown the ability to organize, manage their time, advocate for themselves, and will continue to develop their study skills, learning strategies, and digital literacy through their 27 other high school courses during their
four years at AHS. They deserve the opportunity to explore rigorous and meaningful pathways without being limited by reduced course offerings. Requiring them to redirect their plans does not accelerate their learning. Employers consistently rank
multilingualism among the most valuable skills across industries. Whether a student becomes an engineer, a business owner, or works in service industries, knowing more than one language strengthens their opportunities. So there is a clear dis disconnect
between what colleges and colleges and employers expect and the decision to eliminate the French pathway. There is also a disconnect between what students and families are choosing and what is being taken away. We encourage students to explore diverse pathways yet we are
eliminating one that nearly 100 students selected and one that is not even introduced to students until high school. Our district has invested significant resources in identifying strengths and building effective programs. Our French teacher has spent
24 years developing expertise in her field. Removing this program disregards both both that investment and the benefits it provides to our students. Reducing the world languages department to just three teachers is already a strain and will require one of us to
teach an overload next year. >> Thank you, Miss Albert. >> We want all of our students to succeed. As we just heard, these cuts are not finalized. I beg you to please reconsider until these are finalized. Thank you. >> Do we want to group our French folks
together or >> um what are we hearing next from Emily Wakefield? Good evening, members of the school board, superintendent Paige, fellow educators and community members, and I think even one former student. I'm Emily
Wakefield, known as Madame to students in my classes. Almost exactly 18 years ago, I was offered the French position here. And almost exactly 10 years ago, I wrote a letter to the school board and district offices. I save everything. So, I'd like to share a few excerpts with
you. I wanted to take a minute to first express my gratitude for the maternity leave I was granted for the full 2015 2016 school year. It has helped me focus my attention where it was needed. and as a result, I am eager to return this fall and have already found myself searching
for new ideas for the classroom. I also wanted to say how proud I am to be a member of the Austin school district. Prior to my employment here, I had spent eight years teaching at a college prep private high school. It was a great beginning for me, but it wasn't quite
the right fit. When I relocated to southern Minnesota, I felt very fortunate to be hired by APS. At the time, I know other districts were cutting French, especially after a teacher had retired. I appreciate the foresight of the district to maintain the French program and to continue to
offer kids a choice in which language to study. This is something I do not take for granted, as I know it is not the case everywhere. Sadly, 10 years later, I found myself blindsided by helping my program face elimination.
I do understand that it has to be incredibly difficult to confront this budget and make tough decisions. I don't understand removing a program that has been in existence at AHS for more than 50 years with anywhere from 90 to 160
students participating in it. When I first started teaching, the number of native and secondary speakers of French was 200 million. Now that number has almost doubled and is close to 400 million. They've also seen an influx in Austin of native speakers of French from West Africa. The French language is
experiencing renaissance, adding to its relevance both here and around the world. Despite budget cuts and fewer students in their French programs than mine, my colleagues in Oatana and Albertly report that as of now, both of their French programs are safe. Those
districts have committed to relevance, representation, and offering language choices to students. When I first arrived here in 2008, world language classes were offered in some capacity to grades K through 12. Unfortunately, in the past seven years, after the elimination of the world
language explorations class at Ellis and reducing the number of electives most freshmen could take by half, we have seen a significant dip in enrollment in both Spanish and French classes. We are an important pathway, but our role is often blocked. We are a department that
has been reduced by nearly half its members in just two years. And yet we were highlighted just two years ago for having the second lowest failure rate in the high school with my students having the lowest failure rate within the department. There is magic happening in
the world language department. It might be assumed that learning another language is only about memorizing vocabulary and conjugating verbs. It's nice but maybe not necessary. But the truth of its benefits goes so much deeper than that. In 1946, right
after the end of World War II, President Harry Truman signed the Fulbright Act into law. To quote the program, "This act aimed to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. I was lucky enough to
be a Fulbright recipient in 2001 2002 serving in France. At my very core, as an educator, I believe in everything the Fulbright program stands for. Learning about another language and culture provides students with employable skills such as conversing civily and
confidently in person, actively listening, and embracing curiosity in place of judgment. All of this in turn builds something this world needs more of. Learning another language also boosts overall literacy skills. For
12 of the past 17 years, I've had an hour and a half roundtrip commute to get here. Students have asked why I would drive this far if I could be employed closer to home. My answer, because of you. I love what I teach. I love the Austin community and I think Austin
students are the best. Teaching French is how I most effectively reach students. I implore members of the school board to please reconsider this elimination, especially if the budget forecast improves. Maybe it's a now thing, but
hopefully not a forever thing in a community with a beautiful tapestry of over 40 languages. Why would we offer students only one choice in world language? Thank you. Next up, we have Morning. >> Good evening. My name is Heidi Mory and
in the interest of time and the fact that there is a lot of weather happening at a few minutes, um, I'm going to I'm representing both Nicole and myself. So, um, let me start back over my introduction.
Um, good evening to all of you schoolboard members and chair young, superintendent page, and community members. Uh, like I said, in the interest of time, I would really like to read Nicole's
uh, testimony of her experience in the Austin Public Schools French program. I'm here tonight to ask for you to really consider maintaining French program in Austin public schools and the importance of it.
So, she um has given me permission to share this with you. In false words, in 2012, I was a freshman at Austin High School. Like many freshmen, I was uncertain and overwhelmed by the fact that I had four short years to figure
out what I wanted to do. The beginning of my adult life. Little did 14-year-old Nicole Shawn know, she had picked a French class that would influence her life forever. Being in Madame Wakefield's class was more than a French class. It was a complete
cultural experience. But Wakefield's French class sparked a deep love for world cultures and languages within me. She opened my eyes to the world. In my adult life, I have realized an inseparable correlation learning a second language has had in my current
career and everyday life. Learning French at Austin High School with Madame Wakefield and our student teacher from France, Elise, has directly impacted my seven-year teaching career here at APS. The skills I learned in French has have allowed me to build lifelong meaningful
connections with students and their families. When I speak French in the halls at J, students stop in their tracks and one of two things happen. One, they look at me very confused and inquire about what pretty language I'm
speaking. Two, and this is my favorite, they turn around with wide eyes and ask, "You speak French?" To which I say, After I say this, I normally slam with a
or give an extremely enthusiastic. My ability to speak French has allowed me to connect with students who aren't in my language learning classes. Almost all students, whether they are multilingual or not, always ask where I learn to speak French. I
proudly tell them I I started learning French in high school here in Austin and you can too. As an EL teacher, I have the privilege of working with the most wonderful multilingual families in our district. On numerous occasions, French speaking
guardians have been brought to tour to tears while talking to me for very simply a powerful reason. I can understand their language. To direct quote a parent, I am so sorry for my tears. My family has been in the
United States for five years and I have never had a teacher that un that can understand my family's language. Take a moment and imagine this. Spending 5 years in a new country without having one educator fully
understand you or your family. It is because of the French programming at AHS that I am able to understand our French speaking families. Because of an Wakefield and the French program at APS, I now have the power to give families a voice that would otherwise not be
understood. The French program in our district is a gift. As a homegrown K12 APS student, graduate, and now educator, I am living proof of the value of our French program. Now in four, please reconsider
closing the door on a French program and many of the things that I was going to mention in my presentation have been touched on. And so I appreciate your time. I want to thank Nicole for her
amazing testimony. And there are many other students that I'm sure would share the same. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, let's hear from Billart. Good evening. Is that correct?
I've been teaching for 50 by being 53 years now. 30 regular teacher and student teacher and 10 son and consultant. Um I want to thank you all for the tough work that
you do sincerely. It's it's it's a very difficult job and the time that you give is well appreciated. I also want to thank you historically the support you g program we have our finest in the state and it's mainly because of the part of
administration in the school board through the years. Music education changes kids lives. Let me say that again. Music education changes kids lives. It makes them smarter, more disciplined, more
compassionate, and more successful in life. It's been shown to be true in study after study. And the music teachers in Austin, K through 12, are some of the best in Minnesota. In my travels as a music judge around the
state, I hear many, many groups and I talked to a lot of teachers and this is what I hear time and again. Austin is well respected for the quality of its performing groups, but also they don't always realize this. They are also
respecting us and the fact that we do everything possible to get everyone who's interested into our music program. Regardless of the background, regard regardless of their socioeconomic levels, we will do everything to get
everyone into our programs. and the numbers are growing. It shows that as have also heard a tiny end about how important small group lessons are to a program. They affect both the quality of a program and the ability of the
teachers to reach the kids who most need our help. I think it's important to know that the lessons that we give in the high school, there are two periods that each of the high school teachers get to teach lessons and this discussion moving
either one or both of those periods. Group lessons are not individual private lessons. They are small groups that meet once every three to four weeks and I'm talking high school. They are the best method we know of differentiating
instruction as each student is assessed and a plan for improvement is begun. It's a time for teachers to connect with students. And these lessons are a key to Austin's music department's long history of success because they have a huge effect
on the child's progress both in music and in life. So many times I have seen a student being helped by a word of encouragement from a nurturing music teacher. Okay? And the effect is amazing.
A boost of confidence, a sense that they are accepted, they are special, and if they work hard, they are capable of achieving great things. And this is especially true for those kids who come from disadvantaged homes or are dealing with struggles in their lives. These are
the kids who will suffer the most if lessons are discontinued. We don't expect any child to be a professional musician. But we do expect them to be better human beings and lessons are an important part of that process. About three weeks ago, I was subbing for Mr.
Scott and I had a lesson that a makeup lesson. The student came into play for me and he was distressed, visibly distressed. He was shaking, nervous. I said to him, "Are you okay? Do you want to continue with this?" And he said,
"I'm sorry I'm having issues at home, but I do want to play for you today." He said, and I quote, "I need this now." It bears repeat. He said to me clearly, "I need this now." That's what that's what we're here for. And then as he
left, we talked about and then as he left, he said we talked a little bit about music in his life and he said, "Music will always be with me. It's such an important part of my life." And he thanked me for his help. And he sat down
later that day and played the game viol amazing. This comes at a crucial time as numbers in the music department in general and the high school performing groups in particular are growing and so many more kids will need our help. Well over 300
present in the high school play in and sing in our music groups and you'll hear later about the numbers that have increased in the lower grades. This makes lessons even more important. These kids are looking for something in their lives that music can provide. If you
believe in differentiation, if you believe teachers need to connect with students, if you want to preserve the quality of our music program, please do all you can to keep a small group lesson program in the high school. >> Thank you, Mr. Burker. >> You will not regret it. We will continue
to change kids lives. Thank you. Hi, um, parent of two students who went through the music program, um, graduating in 2013 and 2014. Thank you for this opportunity to
address the board. As everyone has said, I too recognize the difficulties you face when in the position of adjusting budgets to educational goals. I must admit to not being 100% clear on what has been proposed regarding cuts to music program
and this is based on public published information. However, I would like to speak to the importance of inschool group lessons um outside of the instruction provided in full ensemble band orchestra and coral classes.
Group lessons encourage growth and skill development through targeted instruction and peer support. These lessons engender section awareness, emphasize the importance of listening to each other, playing as an ensemble, and reaching a
performance goal. Most importantly, inschool group lessons put students on a more equal footing. Not all families have the wherewithal to finance, provide transportation to, and track private out of school lessons.
Music classes with the full ensemble are not the proper setting for targeted student specific instruction. The extra work required to bring a piece of music to the level of being ready to perform really requires a separate group lesson
instruction. Um, plus it provides additional emphasis on how to practice. Um, and music instruction isn't important only for the sake of music because it also teaches discipline. It
builds confidence and the ability to recognize when a task be a piece of music, job application letter, fabrication of an item has reached the level of ready to be shared with a wider audience.
Quality music education is a part of what has distinguished our community for years. Our reputation for excellence has attracted highly talented music educators whom we now employ. I hope that these excellent dedicated teachers
will continue to have the opportunity to transmit their expertise and enthusiasm for music to our students. Finally, speaking for myself and my family, music has been a life lifelong source joy, connection, and outreach.
Uh my husband Lee and I were fortunate to attend high schools that valued music highly and that offered group lessons and so were our kids. I know Austin will remain a music focused community, but it feels like our kids will be losing
ground in the areas of skills and confidence. The confidence required to share their love of music with others. whether that be with their own families, friends or wider as professional performers.
Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Um, next from Nicole Christensen. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Nicole Bus Christensen and I'm here as both a parent and a former student of
Austin public schools. I'm also speaking on behalf of my husband Brian Christensen who is currently at a violin builder conference. We are both products of this district's music program and we are and we are deeply grateful for the role it played in shaping our lives. We
sat in this very building in orchestra chambers and choir risers under brilliant teachers such as Sue Radoff, Phil Burkhard, and Brian Johnson. Teachers that didn't teach music, teachers that didn't just teach music, but saw something in us and pushed us to
become more than we thought we could be. These programs didn't just teach us how to play notes on a page. They taught us discipline, confidence, and how to strive for excellence. A critical part of that experience was access to small group lessons which allowed us to grow
at a pace and depth that simply isn't possible in a large group setting. Music became a lifelong pursuit for us. Baron went on to build a professional career in music performing on the Grand Lab for 17 years touring internationally and winning many accolades. He's also a
proud member of the 2025 Boston Musicians Hall of Fame. I have also continued performing both instrumentally and vocally. We share this not to highlight our accomplishments but to illustrate what is possible when students are given the right opportunities. Our accomplishments were
made possible because of the foundation we received here in the music program. For many students in our district, especially those who may not have the means to pursue private lessons, school-based small groupoup instruction is the only pathway to that kind of growth. Small group lessons are where
students are truly seen. It's where a teacher notices the subtle tension in a bow hand, the slight hesitation in a breath or the spark of a student who might otherwise go unnoticed. It's where confidence is built one small
breakthrough at a time. Without more personalized instruction, students will often plateau. They don't get the tailored feedback, the technical correction, or the encouragement they need to truly advance. And when that happens, we risk we risk losing not only
potential musicians, but students who might otherwise find confidence, identity, and belonging through music. The budget is being cut in response to lower overall attendance. However, the attendance of music programs is rising. My daughter Elsie is in the sixth grade
orchestra where they are bursting at the seams. The sixth grade orchestra has 90 students. There are 120 students in the fifth grade orchestra. This is 30% of the total number of students. Many orchestra programs are lucky to get 10 to 12%. Retention is also growing moving
from grade to grade. It has doubled in the last few years of kids moving from J to LS. In a lower income district such as ours, not every family can afford private lessons. Cutting small group lessons
might save money. However, removes access entirely for most students. We're telling some kids, whether we mean to or not, they can participate, but they can't truly excel. They can sit in a group, but they won't be given the tools to rise above.
While we like to talk about all inclusiveness and equity in our public schools, cutting small group instruction directly conflicts with this idea. Austin has long or Austin has long taken pride in its music program. Austin is arts was recently an article published
in the Austin Packer Bulletin. It reflected it reflects community pride history and a place that supports the arts. That pride is well earned after decades of generations have been given the opportunity to learn, grow, and fall in love with music. The arguments being
made by making these minor cuts to small group instruction, the program is being preserved. However, small group lessons are truly the foundation of a strong music program. When we cut them, we are not trimming a budget line. I'm sorry. We are not just trimming a budget line.
We are weakening a pipeline that has taken decades to build. Programs rarely disappear all at once. It starts with one cut that seems manageable, then another. Opportunities shrink, enrollment declines, and eventually the program no longer has the strength to
survive. This is how vibrant music programs fade. Not because the community stopped caring, but because the support structures were gradually removed. Budget decisions are often driven by short-term financial pressures, not long-term vision.
If we believe that music matters in our school, if we believe it builds discipline, creativity, a sense of belonging and pride, then we must protect the elements that make it affected. Small group instruction is not expendable. It is essential. Without it,
we are not just saving money. We are sacrificing opportunity, equity, and the piece of who we are as a community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Tyler Myers. >> Good evening everyone. Uh, my name is
Tyler Myers. I stand before you as an educator and a veteran of the United States Air Force. In the military, we are guided by three core values. Integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. I believe
in Austin public schools, but as a veteran, I know that when a mission drifts from its core purpose, those on the ground must sound the alarm. Tonight, I am doing that. We have entered a phase of what's called mission creep. This is where gradual
shifts result in unplanned long-term consequences and commitments. We have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars forward into rebranding, surface appeal, districtwide initiatives like strength string. While these sound good during the pitch and look greater on social
media, the boots on the ground, our teachers and our students are reporting a different reality. Last spring, we watched veteran educators cry as they read their resignations. They didn't lose their passion. They were leaving because their expertise was ignored, as
were their passions. This year, we are seeing repetitive behaviors. When we prioritize surface appeal over the substance of the classroom, we aren't achieving excellence. We are simply managing optics. This is our mission creed.
The consequence or at least one of them happens to be the death of student voice and choice. The freshman seminar was pitched as a foundation for students that has become a roadblock because this is a required year-long elective. It is decimated the master schedule. When you
force every incoming student into one specific course, you create a ripple effect that damages the arts, music, and world languages. We talk about the pack pathway as a way to explore interests. But how can a student explore a pathway or numerous pathways if that path is
immediately blocked? Elective courses allow students to explore interests outside of what is required, but they have been pushed into a disruptive cycle. Administration sees lower enrollment in electives, which leads to fewer sections offered. Please speak with all the elected teachers to learn
more. Fewer sections lead to scheduling conflicts. Please speak with the counselors to learn more. And ultimately, students are being forced into classes they didn't choose in subjects they have no interest in simply because there's nowhere else to put them. Please speak with all of the
students to learn more. Families are leaving Austin despite Austin Public Schools previously projected enrollment increase. They are chasing opportunities we are cutting by looking for live PSO or online options. We have reached a
compromise of values. The district's strategic plan lists five core values. We're looking at our mission assessment right now. Responsible. It is not fiscally responsible to fund branding and countless new initiatives while cutting the programs that make students
want to come to our schools. Learn. We cannot claim to value learning if we ignore the feedback of our most experienced staff and our students who are struggling the most. Contributor. What are we contributing when just last week it was said that we celebrate
diversity while we simultaneously cut programs that allow students to connect with it? The path forward is through unity and calibration. I'm not here to cast blame. I'm here to call for that recalibration through unity. In the Air
Force, excellence in all we do doesn't mean doing a 100 things at a mediocre level. Means being great at our core mission. We are subtracting from our existing greatness to fund shine new programs without addressing developing realtime consequences. I ask the board
is three-fold pause and evaluate conduct an immediate transparent review of the freshman seminars impact on the master schedules students and staff. Number two, re-engage the experts. Please bring the teachers and the students to the
table. Ask those that are being most impacted. What can we do for you? How is this helping? How is this hurting? Number three, prioritize the classroom. Every dollar spent on a brand or another initiative is a dollar not spent on a music lesson, a world language
experience, or access to a pathway a student hopes to explore. Let's stop trying to look like we are improvement and start doing the hard work of actually being great. Let's bolster a system that honors student voice, respects staff expertise, and puts
resources where they may not have in the hands of our students. Let's include all voices in this effort and show everyone that we are indeed the pack. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. This is a reminder of the
school board study session on Monday, April 27th at 4 p.m. and right now the board will enter into close session. >> Oh, can we take them? Do you have their names?
>> I do not. >> Sophia Sophia Madison O. >> Hi, my name is and I am a senior at Austin High School participating in two varsity sports as captain band as a treasure. I'm Spanish 4 and NHS as
treasure. I'm Addison Tobac and I'm also a student here. I have participated in many music ensembles with leadership roles a varsity sport as a captain. I'm in Spanish for and NHS. Throughout our time here, the music program has had a huge influence on us and it saddens us to see that some things which helped us
learn will be changing for students moving forward. One thing that has really helped us grow is lessons. That leads us to our first point. It will be much more difficult for teachers to continue impacting students learning when they are teaching such large classes with no individual time. In
band, the ability to sign up for a lesson whenever you need help on our curriculum music or other music is something I have taken for granted and now realize which effective ensembles on an unfortunate scale. These lessons now provide students with an opportunity to grow as a musician. Throughout my time
here, I have learned a lot about music. Much of it coming from lessons. lessons enhance our performances and without them the level of music we produce would likely decline. From a choir perspective, I came into choir with little to no knowledge on how to sight sing music and would not have learned properly without Mr. Acriman helping me
in choir lessons. I already had music knowledge from band going into this. So it would affect someone only participating in choir even more. Most students would not know how to sight sing properly and it would dramatically push back the level we sing and work at. Another way individual time with my
teachers has affected me is at the start of this year I thought that music is what I wanted to go into. I would sign up for times with Mr. Dundis and he would help me to figure out logistics like how to sign up for an audition and what music to use for one. This was an incredibly helpful resource and although I didn't decide to go into music, there
are many kids who do and it still helps me to find the correct path. There are a lot of music majors that come from our school and without the resources to these helpful tools, who knows if we would get the same number of interest. Music lessons through other sources can get very expensive, common costing about $50 for a 1-hour lesson. This can add up
to over $900 for a semester worth of lessons. Offering the ability to get better without financial burden gives every student equality and the ability to reach their highest potential. The music plan to get rid of is almost impossible to get back. Best case scenario, music programs will start to plateau or even start degrading. Music
is such a big part of our community and is growing every day. What message does this send? When schools have have to make cuts, it's not uncommon for electives and is to be first to go. According to right for education, these decisions are rarely easy, but they tend to favor subjects perceived as more directly tied to test scores or job
market. With rising demands for academic performance and standardized testing, music sometimes gets pushed aside, not out of disregard, but as a strategic choice. I believe our school does not have to follow this trend. I believe our classes should support the musical interest in our school. For as long as I can remember, I always struggled to find
a place I felt like I fitted. After moving to Austin, I found my love for music and the community that was brought together by it. The opportunities given here have driven me to become even more passionate as well as helping me form connection with people similar to me. A hobby which I fell in love with became a place that also made me feel less alone
and more understood. It taught me a sense of community. I wouldn't want this community to be neglected because it is so impactful and important to me and so many others. When looking at the support of our community, I know that it's not lacking to department. While applying for
scholarships, both of us noticed that the number of scholarships directed towards music students was high. Many need given out on the local level, showing the support that our community has for music. While participating in jazz band and marching band, I have seen firsthand the support that the community gives. We have played at many places for many people and I love seeing the impact
being made across all generations. After this year, I will be gone and this will no longer affect me, but it will affect the lives of my teachers. These people have done so much for me. I participated in wind ensemble, concert choir, full orchestra, Austin, flute choir, and other music ensembles. So, I've really gotten to know all three teachers at the
high school. Mr. Douglas has been a huge help when I needed it while applying to colleges, scholarships, and even helped me to figure out my future. Mr. Aman has helped me to find my voice and love of performing. He taught me to see past my worst moments, focus on positives, and to always be kind to those around me. Mr. Scott has been welcoming and
understanding to me and others, band, kids, and full orchestra. These are the people who taught me to believe in myself and are so much of the reason I feel so ready for my future. I am a senior leaving this year, but I could not have possibly said nothing for the people who have supported me to become who I am today before I leave.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you all. All right. And with that, can I get a motion to enter into session? Second by Carol in favor.