order of business is agenda approval and there has been a request to move policy 713 transportation from the action section to the discussion section due to wanting to review it with more with the board of
So with that change, do I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting? Man, uh is there a second section to the discussion section due to wanting to review it with more with the board?
All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Tonight's agenda is approved. Uh before we move on in the agenda, I want to take a moment to recognize that this is the first time that the board has had a full board meeting since the tragedy that
took place at Annunciation School on August 27th. The board wants to express our deepest condolences and our strongest support for our neighbors who have been impacted by this horrific event. We know how interconnected our communities are. We have former
Annunciation students who now attend our schools. We play on sports teams together. We sing in choirs together and you are our neighbors and our friends. Edina stands with you during this terribly difficult time and we are here to support you today, tomorrow and
moving forward. [Music] and this month features cabinet members sharing about their back to school plan. Great, Madam Chair, members of the board. I just want to take a couple quick moments. Want to introduce a new uh employee to us, Franciscoca Stand,
our American Indian Education Coordinator. Let's give her a warm welcome. We're so happy that you're here and we know that your family's here, some of your family's here with us tonight, too. So, thank you so much. Well, you don't have to stay with us the whole night. We know this is your time. Uh, and but we
just wanted to put your face in front of the board and we're grateful to serve with you. We're so happy that you're here and we know that your family's here. I'd also like to take a moment here uh just at the beginning to recognize our schoolboard members. So, as you might remember, this is schoolboard recognition month, and a lot of work
goes on behind the scenes to make sure that the magic happens, that 10,000 students come to school, that they have an amazing opportunity through our quality programs and our extracurricular activities. And we have a number of folks here that are interested in
recognizing you tonight. And so, we're going to ask that you just come up to the front. We have a little certificate for each of you when we call your name. We'll smile for the camera. Miss Stephanie is going to take a picture of each of us and then we're going to take one group picture. But on behalf of the cabinet, on behalf of the school
district, and our entire team, thank you so much for what you do. Let's give them a round of applause. So, when we call your name, we're going to have you come around to the front and we're going to hand out a nice certificate. I There are some folks in the audience who might want to join us
for that. So, we'll start with board chair Karen Gabler. Come on up. Where's our son? [Laughter] [Music] Thank you very much.
[Applause] Come on in. So Erica is especially important to our team tonight because she was the longest standing member who was the former board chair. So there's a special recognition. So important. No one from my family's
here. Do you want to borrow a Gabler? We can only do so much with all the activities that our families are involved with. So again, just behalf of the school district and our entire [Applause]
dad. [Applause] [Laughter] So again, we're so glad you could join us.
Thank you. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you.
We're so proud to have Thank you so much. [Applause]
We didn't blow the surprise. Thank you for that. We are We are grateful you're both here. Just so grateful. [Applause] Elliot man
for this one later. clock is right for today. We're so proud to have you part of our team. So, thank you. I will. You want me to? [Applause]
Thank you. It's a busy time with families. I know that they had a big event tonight and so that's what they told you. We are so grateful for you being [Applause] I got it.
So again, on behalf of IC 273 D, I'm looking at his shirt right now, making sure he's with us here. Just so grateful that you are all here and for the work that you do and I hope that you feel that this is just a little bit of a token to let you know how much we appreciate you. So families, thanks for
joining us. have a wonderful evening and we look forward to continuing to keep your families busy and productive. So, thank you. Have a good night. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you families for coming. That was
quite the surprise. So, all right. I guess we really we still have the cabinet coming up for excellence in action uh to talk to us about their back to school planning. So, we'll welcome them up. That sounds great. Come on up. So, madam chair, members of the board,
it was our pleasure to just open up our schools to our 10,000 students and families and community. We have so much to be proud of, but what we asked our cabinet members to do is to just give two or three highlights of back to school of things we may want to know. um being the work that we do throughout our buildings. And so with that, we will
turn it over to Franny to start us off. Um so things I move it that way. So So things I worked on, uh um highlights worked on a lot of things, but things I worked on um I took the two parts of my job name. So, achievement equity
multilingual learner programming. So, with multilingual learner programming, I met with all secondary EL teachers and a partner teacher. So, oftentimes our EL students will go into a partner teachers class for ELA or math or science. So, I
met with all of those teachers and provided some professional development um during opening week. Um and we are really excited at the elementary level that with um Benchmark coming in, not only does Benchmark have um a curriculum
in Spanish, it also has a curriculum just for English language learners that supports the English curriculum that is happening in the classroom. And then I always get the joy of leading culturally proficient school systems uh facilitating those trainings and I
facilitated training for new teachers. Um and I got to facilitate training for community education and probably one of my favorite facilitations that I've gotten to do in the last two years was I got to facilitate a half-day training for all the paraprofessionals in the
district. And that was just an absolutely amazing time with the prepare pair of professionals. Okay, good evening. Um, so I want to start by saying this is work that my teaching and learning department did and I did in collaboration with them. So the two main highlights are we welcome back
new staff with intentional and targeted professional development. Um, as you know, we worked with not only the whole entire teaching and learning team, but all the people behind me and many, many other people in order to welcome new teachers to Edina and make sure that they were supported and felt a sense of
belonging right from the start. We had 51 in our new teacher training this year. Um, and then on August 20th, we had our kickoff day as well as our PD afternoon session. Very targeted PD around new resources that are coming in or just time for our secondary staff to
vertically plan and align with each other and be in a good place to kick off the school year. And then um, as we hear a lot about, we are still deeply engaged in the read Act and the science of um, reading training, specifically letters. So this year we have three cohorts still
going strong in letters. And so it's interesting as that gets smaller, it's getting a little bit more complicated because some teachers are coming to us with half of it done or all of it done and just navigating that. Um the other thing that uh my teaching and learning team did in collaboration with me and
many many many other people, I do want to give a huge shout out to DMTS with this area is really ensuring resource purchases um and allocations were ready for teachers. So, we we know when kids come to the teachers in the classrooms, we
want them prepared in whatever way that means. And I have to say the longer I've been in this position, the more I realize how, um, behind the scen the the depth of the behind-the-scenes work that happens there. So, um, just some highlights of curriculum that has been
purchased and, um, the process is long and it's important. So ELA secondary um and elementary resources and then social studies secondary resources and then some elementary smaller amount of implementation. But if I look at our
list of the things that have been purchased, it's many balls into my pants as she could in a period of time. And I lost um Jod and I we lost against um Dr. Bitman and Mert. Um Dr. Bitman caught many more balls into his pants than I could catch
in mine. So I'm going to just say that was probably Jod's tossing, but it started off in that way of time. Um and I lost We also um have just really worked with a lot of different departments and so um Daffany talked about capturing the joy and kind of talking to staff. I spent a lot of time
traveling around to different buildings talking to staff asking them what the highlight of their summer was. And one of the things that was really great for me is that I haven't seen staff so excited and happy and healthy since prior to the pandemic. And so seeing that and engaging staff in that in that
way was really great. We also were able to um select some read act trainers for our pair of professionals so that we can be in full compliance with the read act making sure that all pair of professionals who work on reading instruction also have that that training. Um I've spent some time um
meeting with the district behavior team. We have um new behavior um analysts that are starting this year and so um onboarding them. um we've launched a project to eliminate our um disproportionate um suspension rates that we have for our black
African-American students with disabilities. So really framing what that project will look like and getting started with training around how we capture that data so that we can really make meaning and better understand our practices. And then we had the first meeting of our safe body boundary
committee. Um it probably sounds like I need that after the first thing that we started with over at South View, but really working on that so that we can um be able to provide direction to our buildings and things like that so that we can help students how to keep their body safe. That's how we started out. Um it
probably sounds like I need that after the first thing that we started with over at Southview. Good evening. So, we have kind of a standing joke with a wink in human resources because people like to say to us, "Hey, do you work in the summer?" And we always laugh about this a little
bit because um actually since since we turned this in last week, we have now onboarded 212 new employees since June in our school district. And so what that means, of course, is we have posted for those positions. We have collected all the paperwork for those
physicians. We have onboarded, which means we invite every single new employee in our school district in to meet with us. Whether you are a coach, whether you are working in our kids club program, whether you're one of our teachers, whether you're a principal,
every level of the organization, we we invite you in and we spend time with you. And that we spend that time because we want to ensure you're welcomed. We want to ensure that your questions are answered. We go through all of the benefits that you're provided in addition to all that fascinating payroll
paperwork and all of those things, but we also spend um a good amount of time with every employee going through their insurance benefits and the options that they have. Um, that's a really important piece to
us because we know that that feeling of belonging, that feeling of being welcomed is really important to someone, their initial perception of an organization and whether or not they're going to stick with that organization long term. In addition to onboarding for
a new school year, um, we also are responsible for a lot of the mandatory training that goes on through throughout the school district. And we use um an for most of that an online training program that's used by many school
districts in the state called safe schools put out by Vector Solutions. And so we have since August um actually sent out training assignments to 1727 employees um 9,012 actual training
assignments. and those. So, every employee in our school district this year um was assigned bullying recognition and response training to um train employees on what to look for um between students in bullying situations and how they should respond. Um child
abuse and mandatory reporting of course which we provide every year and then standard response protocols um to ensure safe conditions within our schools. In addition, there are certain positions in this in the school district that also have to have some additional training um
such as the the highly popular bloodborne pathogens exposure training which many of our of course our custodial staff, our science teachers, our health services staff, our art teachers. Um and then hearing
conservation me for our music um band and then um also some different OSHA trainings as well. So that's how we have started our year. Good evening everyone. It's good to see you all. Um Dr. Bitman talked about
making the magic happen. Director Edwards talked about capturing the magic and I'm here to tell you the magic doesn't happen on its own and uh I just want to give a shout out to our principles and building leaders. I've had the good fortune to spend quite a
bit of time with them in preparation for this school year and uh they have just done a marvelous job of preparing for the school year, getting our schools ready, getting teachers supported and prepped for everything that uh comes
their way. So, I just want to give a shout out to our principles. They're doing a fabulous job. Uh the second thing uh that during this time of the year that I spend a lot of my time doing is being out at sites and uh checking in with teachers, checking in with uh
building leaders and um there's just so I I know that we started the board meeting with the sobering uh recognition of the tragedy that happened. And I'm here to also tell you that there's a lot of happiness in our schools right now,
too. and people are are in a in a good place. Um, and so I'm very appreciative of our staff. Um, uh, during the first day of school, I got to participate, uh, at many different sites. Uh, and I got
to see the transition program that South View and Valley View both do called Where Everybody Belongs or Web. Um, and that brought back back memories because like 25 years ago I was doing that at a school that I was at and so it brought
back really great memories. And then I have uh been paying particular attention to countryside. Um, and just making sure that everything is going well there. Uh, and I am just here to report I think our buildings are in really good shape. So, thank you.
Good evening. Um, having safe, temperature controlled, and clean buildings is a critical component of having and delivering an educ excellent education. And so, our buildings and ground staff spent a lot of time this summer cleaning almost every nook and cranny of our 1.853 million square feet
that we have in our facilities, particularly after a really um hard use this summer by our um community education programming and and all that they deliver. Um, we also spent a lot of time walking through the various schools that have um, significant construction,
particularly the high school and Cornelia Elementary who's getting a a restroom renovation that's about 60 years in the making. And so making sure that those projects are being completed on time and up to specification was something we spent a lot of time on. U, back to school for students also means
back to school for more than 70 bus drivers. And so training and retraining our school bus drivers on transportation safety and all the responsibilities that they have to safely transport our students to and from school is something we spent a lot of time doing. Also adjusting all their various routes to
accommodate the uh pretty robust construction that's occurring particularly around the Highway 100 areas. Um we're still not exactly where we want to be in terms of route times, but um overall I think things are going pretty well and we'll continue to fine-tune as the school year progresses.
Madam Chair, members of the board, just a quick shout out to our cabinet for the leadership they're providing. I know you know this, but the tireless efforts morning, night, weekends, etc. to make sure that that's a good experience for our families um is humbling. So, I'm just so grateful to work with this team
and I continue to learn with and from them each day. So, thank you. Thank you, cabinet team. All right, we are moving on to hearing from members of the public and we have someone here this evening to speak to us. So, I will um just reiterate that
when you signed in and asked to speak, you acknowledged and understanding and adherence to board policy 206, which are community comment guidelines. Pursuant to this policy, each speaker has a maximum of three minutes to speak. A clock on the screen will be a visual
reminder of your time remaining, and I will prompt you verbally if you are going over the three minutes. When those three minutes are up, you must conclude your remarks. Um, and um, finally, during public comment period, our role as the board is to listen and but this
is not the place for the board to resolve any concerns and as such, no comments will be made from the board. issues will potentially be referred to the superintendent for appropriate followup. So now I welcome up Mr. Ralph Zicker to speak to the board. Welcome
Mr. Ziggard. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Dr. Mr. Bitman, board members, first I have great respect for Adina School District and its teachers. Adina Public Schools have made an incredibly
positive impact on my family. Mary Jane Hulahan and Bill Webb, both retired, deserve a special shout out. I can't say you can't say thank you enough. Second, I applaud this board and Mr. for Woodard
for their foresight and courage to look for outside help and ask the community for direct involvement with the budget reduction reallocation revenue generation process. It was a credit to your transparency, community engagement, and willingness to confront the brutal
facts. With that said, my main purpose tonight is to call your attention to an issue that will come before you between now and December 31st. In the coming months, you'll be asked to extend the duration of two tax increment financing districts by an additional five years. Per state
statute, the school board's approval is needed, and when it comes before you, I urge you to vote no. Reject the city council's August 19th resolutions of 2025-69 and 2025-70, copies of which have been pro provided
to Miss Nas. City staff portrays that there are no adverse impact to Gdina schools through the creation of a tiff district. Yet for the next 20 years, the net tax capacity, a term I hope you're familiar with, will be frozen. City council and staff
contend state funding will make up for those 20 years. If only that were so. As the school board is only too well aware, state funding has lagged both the classroom needs and inflationary pressures funding that shortfall.
A shortfall that now stands at $1350 per student and some $12 million annually. The council would have you believe it's just a small of an amount of this t for this tiff tiff district. I'm guessing state legislators had much the same
thing to say in 2003. Finally, please do not discard be distracted by the small number of affordable housing units proposed by these tiff districts. All the affordable housing units have a sunset clause and after 15 years, the developer can raise
their rents to market rate. On top of which, each TIFF district has proposed tens of millions of dollars illspent taxpayer dollars. 20 million for a parking garage to support an unbuilt commercial office building and another $31 million for a pedestrian tunnel
under France. While school revenue remains frozen, all of which constitute good reasons to vote no and do not extend the tiff districts associated with the 7200 and 7235 France Avenue.
the old bank US bank site and Macy's site respectively. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Zucker. We appreciate it. All right, board. We will be moving on to the consent agenda. Uh, is there anything anyone would like to remove
from the consent agenda? All right, then. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Some moved. Sorry. Arum moved. Is there a second? Second. Birdman. Second. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. I.
Anyone opposed. The consent agenda has been approved. Moving on to discussion items for this evening. Our first item is the conquered flood red risk reduction infrastructure project. And I welcome to the dis uh
Mert Woodard, director of finance and operation. And a special guest Ross Bitner, engineering services manager for the city of Edina. Welcome. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the school board. I'm Director Bergman, Superintendent Bitman. Um, thank you for
taking an opportunity to listen and hear a report about the conquered flood risk reduction project. This item was initially introduced to members of the board through the superintendent's weekly updates. I believe that took place about a month ago. Um, at last month's finance and facilities committee meeting, this topic also came up. really
grateful to have Ross here from the city to help kind of um bring all the school board members and members of the public up to speed. Before I turn it over to him to speak uh maybe more to the technical aspects of the project, I'll just provide a little bit of context for those who haven't been following closely.
Um during the spring of 2025, the school board approved a project that's taking place at the Dana Community Center rehabilitating the tennis courts. Um, that project involves removing the lower tennis courts and bringing them up to join the existing tennis courts that were higher up, providing what we think
is a better amenity for our tennis teams and users of the space. During that project's design, we also designed storm water management facilities as a portion of pvious surface was being removed on the site. And whenever that happens, um, typically there are requirements to pro produce storm water facilities so that
we don't create additional flood planes. Um when we approached the city for a permit for that project, we discovered that there was a more robust um storm reduction storm water reduction facility in the works um on their on their side. And as a result, we did not uh move
forward with constructing our own. Um that actually provided an immediate savings and change order to the project you approved of about $256,000. Um, at this point, the school board and the city um must enter an agreement if we are to construct that more robust facility between the conquered
playground and South View um parking lot, which is why we are here before you today. Um before we have to move towards that um agreement, um we we likely will have a review period by our own attorneys to make sure that um we are meeting all of the school board's requirements, meeting all the city's
requirements. There's also the potential for future savings with what we like to call storm water management credits. I think that's what they refer to. If we do have projects within um the Minihaha Watershed Creek District in the future that would otherwise require um storm water management facilities, this more
large robust facility may actually um provide more accommodation than required, thus reducing project costs on future projects. Um without further ado, Mr. Ross Bner. Thanks, Director Woodard. Uh I think you've got a lot of good information in
your packet and director Woodard gave you a really good outline of uh kind of the the potential efficiencies we saw through our conquered flood infrastructure project and then the required uh treatments for the tennis court system. Uh so I learned about the
tennis court system when it came into my office for a permit. Um we want to make sure that the building that's being done in the uh the wershed isn't causing downstream flooding uh to neighborhoods or to people. Um but uh here we actually realized that we had overlapping needs
to facility that you would have invested in. Uh so that's when we uh we made the connection here. Uh when I uh kind of put it up through the chain of command in the city of Adina, they really thought it was a no-brainer. uh it's about you know spending the public
dollar once and for the most good uh rather than uh peace meal and at different times. Um but it does uh get this body involved in a decision-making process about uh land and community spaces that you may not typically be
involved in. Um, so I put together the information about uh flooding in Dina with a lot of good links in that PDF so that you can kind of explore a little bit more and help others explore when you hear um because the work that we do is uh impactful to the community. These
are construction projects that uh sometimes go on for you know three to eight months. Uh they can take uh the fields that are in place out of service for two full seasons. Uh so there's real trade-offs that happen, but on the end
of that construction project, we end up with a system that does a lot better for flood risk reduction uh and for clean water purposes for our natural environment. Um it can also uh remake and reform the spaces uh that we work in. Uh so I've given you a couple of
examples throughout the community. Um, as I've been uh at the city of Adina for 13 years, uh, it gets easier and easier to sell these projects and to really uh, bring the vision to bodies like you and the community in general because I can tell you to just go look at the Linmar Basin or go look at the Morningside
Flood Infrastructure Project or the uh, the creek restoration uh, at Ardan Park or the next project or the next project. So, um, our resume really is on the landscape. Um we have a holistic process where we engage the community. Um we're
proposing to lead that engagement uh with whatever uh interests or concerns you have in mind uh kind of baked into the agreement to use the land and the space. Uh but I just wanted to start that conversation here and make sure that we really uh took this board's
pulse so that we understood how to make this project the best one it can be. Uh before we turn it over to board members for questions, um Mr. Bentner did remark on fields perhaps being down for one or two seasons. I did pull
permit information and over the last 5 years, uh about 207 different permits were issued for use of the the ball field and the um the other grounds that are there. About 3,800 hours of use. 26% of that was used by the Dina High School
track and field teams. Um another 26% for community education programming. And the third highest user was the Dina Baseball Association at just under 10%. No other group um yielded more than 6% use. Um so we have three pretty pretty significant users and those those groups
would have to be accommodated um during the potential project phase. Board members, what questions do you have for Mr. Bitner or Director Water? Director Ellenberg. Hello. Thank you for bringing this and
thank you Director Woodard for this. Um I have a couple of questions um about this. Um, one is I don't know if you could explain the um it sounds like a a great use of
funds, but if could you explain to me the I guess the difference in variability in the land use because we had a plan to for storm water sewage. I assume that plan wasn't for the entire conquered neighborhood. So, can you
explain the impact to the actual land um for our district? I I can do my best. Uh we don't call them council members here. Commission members. No, board member. Board member, Erica, whatever. Thank you.
I'm a stranger in a strange land. Uh so when we do permitting for new or redeveloped imperous surfaces uh and this is a a broad we because it's mostly the wershed district or the Miniha Creek wershed district in this case um the
rules are typically uh do no harm. So, you're going to build more spaces that are um impervious uh and you're going to create some sort of a facility to help mitigate for the potential damage that that additional impervious might create for those downstream pieces. When we do
flood infrastructure projects, uh we're looking to try to turn back the clock a little bit and actually do a net benefit for the environment and for uh flood risk reduction. Uh so I think the scope is a little different but the strategies that we might use are the same. So the
facility that this displaces would have been an underground uh pipe system where the water from the tennis courts uh would have gone underground and then maybe slowly uh trickled into the groundwater or if it got a big storm it would uh you know meter off in a slower
rate than it would before. We're looking at some of the same facilities. Um it could be uh bio retention uh in a beautiful rain garden out in the uh unused space. Uh it could be large underground uh chamber systems so that uh we don't sacrifice any of the use of
the fields. And then when the really big storm comes it could be on field uh flood storage. Okay. I'm I I think like I think I would like to make sure that I really understand like for the district of
Edina and our land use, how if at all would this impact the actual land use and not just not just thinking of the implementation, but if I understand the
um contract correctly, um we as a district are giving up some control in that um for the upkeep um we have to let the city maintain this. And so I just want to make sure that as a district,
however we want to use our land, we're able to use it and we can um are not restricting ourselves in the future in any way. And so there those are my two primary concerns. And so I guess I would um probably ask those to our legal
council when they review it. Is land use um not just as it's um implemented or I I apologize I don't know the correct term for flood mitigation. Um and then on an ongoing basis are we restricting
ourselves in any way not just for use but maybe in 50 years if they wanted to sell part of that. So, um, those are, um, my two questions slash concerns. Yeah, I think I could answer that right now. It definitely encumbers the site.
Uh, so if you had plans to put a building in that low area, um, that might not be technically feasible or it might be ruinously expensive based on the the law, but say you had a dream to do that. I think we'd want to know now if you had some of those those wishes or
wants for that future space because going forward with this agreement would encumber that space and mean that uh to go from a field and flood infrastructure to something else in the future would be much more expensive. And I'm going to add on to that because that was one of my comments. I think my
big takeaway, and we saw this in finance and facility, is that one of the school district's most limiting factors is space and land. And so my biggest concern is giving up the use of a parcel
of land that we may at some point need. Um, and I think that's what I hear director Alenberg talking about as well is just making sure that even once it's completed, um, if it limits our usage into the future,
I think we just have to as board members with our due diligence make sure that we're not boxing the district in and 15 years later board members are saying, "Why did they do that?" So, I would love to make sure we're partnering, we're good partners with the city and we're having that conversation. But from step
one, that's been a little bit of my hesitation is just understanding if this backs us into a corner, which was a little bit um about my question is like what is the what is the sort of like the percent change if we had to do flood
mitigation anyway with tennis courts and we were going to probably have limitations to the land maybe. um does this change it by a that's that's what I'm trying to unders so it's that it's that change that I'm trying to
understand I I think it's important to also note and this is what would be very helpful from the city in um in our discussions and potential proposals to that question what could we do on that land as it is today if we actually
did the the the the drain the water um mitigate ation which we would have had to do for the permit process which Fiori had for the tennis courts. We were going to have to do something anyway. It just is not as big as what the city is coming to asking us for. The question then becomes if we didn't agree with the city
to do this, what is the actual use of that land that we could actually do something with? Is it just amount of money? We could do whatever we want. It's just going to cost a lot of money to be able to mitigate something or through the per permitting process with the city which has its limits. um what could we actually do with that to then
get to your answer of what are we then giving up if we do that that would be critically important to understand and I think it's very important as it was discussed in our finance committee but on that I'll say it to you since you're the representative from the city and to our wonderful colleagues that we all
know um the land use for the district is already so limited this and one other space that we have is all that we have in the needs are evolving. We're looking at our strategic plans for the next 10, 15, 20 years in different things. Um,
we're going to need a lot more discussion and understanding of what that is, I think, to be able to consider to move forward. It's not because the plan that you've put on the table is something that's I'm not supportive of. Makes a lot of sense to me and having
the neighborhood have better flood mitigation is we're all we're all we're all neighbors, so we all care about that. But the tradeoffs is really really important and we need to make sure we have a clear understanding. And the second part that came out of the finance committee was
getting the this field area back into a state that's either the same or better than what it is now. you know, where do we go into the process of okay, if we then need to do maintenance on the field itself, but your infrastructure is kind of part of that.
Then what are the reasonable expectations of what the needs are of the district for something versus what the interests and needs are of the infrastructure for the city to maintain? That's a critical element because again to to Chair Gayler's point, we really
have to be able to understand not any of us are going to face this. not even necessarily anyone in the cabinet's going to face it. You might not even face this no matter how long you decide to say with the city, but for a generation from now, we need to make sure we're very clear about that. So, I I'm I'm regurgitating
a little bit of what uh Chair Gibler said, but I can tell you this is what in the finance committee was not only the members of the board and the administration, but we also had our community members who are also a part of that committee. This is where we were not against it, not negative about it, but concerns as to we have a lot more
questions and interests that we need to figure out. And I'm not sure we could fully cover those tonight because I think there's a lot a lot of questions that need to go in more detail. But I think that's the track I would want you to go back to the city with and talk to um you know, city manager Neil and the council and so on so forth as to how do
we go forward from there. And the other thing I would recommend too is that we have a standing um kind of committee between the leaders of the city and the leadership of the district. This is a great topic to bring to bear in that committee to discuss this going forward.
Which might be out of your purview, but something you might want to take back to them as well. Thank you. Director Man, do you have any questions? Uh nothing really to add. I guess I would just Yeah, to echo what has already been said. I'd love to what the zoning uses are for that. As a district,
it would, I think, behoove us to understand, you know, we talk about what that might be someday. Um, what are our possible uses for that spot? I mean, right now it's pretty swampy to be perfectly honest. So, we it'd have to you'd have to have
mitigation regardless of what you're doing. Um, but if we're going to have those conversations to know what we want, what do we expect from that site, but then also what it's zoned for, I think would be really um, uh, important questions to know. But otherwise, on its face, it's a great idea. Uh, attending
those flood issues are important, but yeah, I guess just having some more info would be great. This one, um, does the permitting process continue on while this is being discussed or does it or does it stop and is it on hold until we decide something.
That is a great question. Um I believe now we have something of a variance um as we discussed with the city as to what our next um steps are moving forward. If we are not going to be moving forward together on um this project, the district has an obligation to construct um storm water facilities for the tennis
courts within 24 months. I have just one more kind of comment. First of all, Mr. Rittner, you are correct. So, I live in Morningside. So, I have seen the city's process for how you handled um what are we calling it? Linmar. That one's Morningside Flood Infrastructure Project.
Yes. So, we had Weber Park and then we had that other area. So, I know that you do the city does a nice job of engaging stakeholders and making sure that people have have a say in that. Um you know, if we I think the board has kind of reiterated some of our questions
about that. Um, I think one of the other questions that I had or at least things that I want to be mindful of is if this is a two-year process and I know we're trying to mitigate flood risk for the entire city and they talked about a pipe
if roads are going to need to be disrupted in this process. Just as you heard Director Woodard say in his kickoff, um, busing is a big part of our work and traffic. I don't know if you've ever spent any time around one of our
schools at pickup or drop off. It's a nightmare. So, if I think I think she meant to say every school, not some of them, every school. So, if you if this moves forward, if you can personally
make sure, yes, thank you. That traffic flow is like front and center and communicated and working with us about that. um that is our biggest c like landmass campus. We have four different schools there and um that will be a
really important part of this. So I had one follow because I I might misunderstood something that you said. So with this particular project as it's generally proposed we would be creating a positive effect in terms of not just meeting the minimum but we might go past
that point to from what we were originally needing to do for our land by doing this project. we would basically almost get in the plus column of of benefit. Did you say that if we did that, does that mean that if we were going to go do something else somewhere else with a permitting process that had
some with the um impermeable space that was going to be sort of um the credits a credit? Yes, thank you. That's what I was looking for. I just want to maybe I don't need it tonight but that would be something I'd like to understand a little bit more because when I think about the only other space that we actually have is the northern part of
the high school which is also runs up against uh the district the water district and so on so forth that again I'm I'm more interested in knowing what our options are related to those types of things and would this credit have any ability to be applied to some other
project that we have within our land use. Mr. Bitner can correct me if I'm wrong. Um, how are the the high school I know Creek Valley's also got a little bit of space there that can potentially be built on as part of the NM Creek wershed district and I don't believe the credits can necessarily transfer between
different wershed districts. Yeah. So, and I I kind of knew that, but this is why I wanted to ask that question to get that answer is that again going back to that re-emphasis of our limited ability to use the land that we have because of all these factors.
That's why I think you're going to get a lot of attention as to what happens with all this and what our choices are around that because it's so limited. And the reality is the city has limited opportunities too in terms of its property given that it just finally made
a decision on the Grand View project um related to their last piece of of available land. Um we're both married to that same problem. Thank you. Okay. So gentlemen, um what I have heard this evening is that the board is open
to having the continuing this conversation. We have some misgivings about the usage and and knowing that we have limited land. Are there questions that you have for us or further information that we can provide you with this evening to help with next steps?
No, I think you did a great job of articulating your concerns and um we'll try to get back to you with some answers as as best as we can. Okay. Well, thank you both for being here this evening. I hope you got a cupcake. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thanks, Ros.
Uh we are moving on then to talk about our preliminary certification of property taxes payable in 2026 and director of finance and operation MR Whit is here to talk us through that. Thank you Chair Gabler and thank you for allowing me to present on our
preliminary property taxes um in 2026 which will fund a portion of our fiscal year 2027 um operations. Typically when I uh bring forth this item for discussion at the board table, I would have uh significantly more
information to give to you. Um unfortunately at this point in the in the calendar, the Department of Education has not been able to produce um fully accurate data for us to present. And rather than present inaccurate data and have to revise that at a later date, I'm simply going to
review kind of our levy process. um some of the uh most important variables that go into the process. Um information that we know about our major levy categories and then some next steps. I'm having some difficulty advancing the slides. There we go. So again, those are
the the topics that we will be discussing tonight. Um in terms of the preliminary levy process, really there's a lot of data that is transmitted to the Department of Education and that's coming from three different parties. um the district administration uh the department of education itself and also Henipin County
has a part to play in this. Um in terms of the district administration uh the most important piece of information that we're providing to the department of education is regarding enrollment data which we'll touch on um on a later slide. We're also providing them information about um items such as our
other post-employment benefits and severance payments that are eligible to be reimbursed through property taxes. um some of our community education levy programs. Um and those are some of the major items that we're transmitting um to the to the department of ed. The department of ed
is collecting um updated revenue formulas um particularly during years that follow a legislative session. Um so they're updating all their systems to capture the newest per pupil enrollment information. They're capturing updated consumer price and um index information.
um particularly for districts that have an operating referendum that's tied to inflation. So all those figures are being updated. The county is transmitting um new assessed market values um because those are important components that are part of the levy process. In fact, they are directly tied to one um one of our property tax levy
categories which we'll touch on at a later date. All of that information is collected into something called the levy limitation and certification report. It's a 39page report um that contains every single levy category and formula. It shows you how it's derived from start
to finish and then summarized on on the on the following at the uh the following pages. That report, as mentioned, is not currently available. Um so we'll provide you with the best information that we have at our September 22nd, I believe,
um work session. We're hoping to be able to provide you a fully accurate report so that you can understand how our levy is going to be changing. I can tell you now that we're looking like it's going to be a less than 5% change um which is in line with kind of the average change that we've seen over the last 10 years
and also lower than um two years ago and also lower than last year which is um I think something that we can celebrate for our taxpayers. We'd like to have enough money so that we can operate adequately but also respect um all of our property owners within the district. If the board acts on that in September,
um typically we'll recommend that you levy the maximum. Um when you do that, you can also um under levy in December if you choose to do so. However, if you don't levy the maximum in September, you cannot increase your levy um for that truce and taxation meeting in December. Um should the school board approve that
in September, we'll transmit that information to the department and also the Henipin County um auditor's office. They will then begin to produce parcel specific notices. So, every property owner in the district sometime in November will receive a sample property tax notice that describes both the
school district's taxes, the county's taxes, the city's taxes, and also any special districts such as wersheds, etc. So, that's sort of the process that's going to be followed. Um, the most important variable in all this, um, as you all very well know, is enrollment.
Enrollment is responsible in some way for about 85% of our operating revenues. So typically there's a per pupil amount um which is multiplied by your enrollment. So it's it's something that the district's very sensitive to and something that we pay very close attention to on the school district last
school year. So 2425 ended with average daily membership of 8711 students um which was greater than the 8630 that we levied for. So that's a positive surprise and also has been reason for us to kind of reconfigure the way we're looking at enrollment um so that we can
get closer and closer and be more accurate. We don't want to um overburden the tax base by levying for more students than we're going to serve, but we also want to have enough money um on hand through our levy process to serve the students that we do have. In doing that, we looked at four different um
calculation methods. Um all of them are based in the cohort survival method, which is basically taking your grade cohorts, moving them to the next year, and then adjusting for historical capture or loss at those transition times. the 5-year average method of
looking at that produces a 1.0178 or 77 um survival um which is probably the most conservative of the four different ones we look at. We look at fiveyear, fiveyear weighted, threeear and three-year weighted. The past couple of years we've used three-year weighted um
so that we could kind of avoid the COVID dip. Um but now that we're kind of getting past that, looking at a more fiveyear is starting to make more sense. although I think it's a little bit more conservative than some of the other ones at this point. Were you to use that cohort survival method um for last year's final enrollment, you'd get
something like 8,750 or so students. Um when you apply a little bit of conservative conservatism to that, we arrive at the 8735 ADM um for next school year. Here's just a graphical representation of how
um enrollment's doing in Edina. Over the last three or four years, we are at record highs in the school district. This is the most students that we have ever served in Edina. As you can see, since that um 2021 COVID year, we've rebounded strongly. We're not only at pre- pandemic levels, we're actually
further along than that. Some of that is due to the um expansion at Countryside, but I think what we're noticing is that we we've got very significant and robust enrollment at our secondary. Um we're retaining more of our middle school students. Um typically we'll um promote a number of open enrollment spots and
we'll see that figure drop as the first week of school begins because parents and families might be shopping around for students. They might make a different choice and not let us know and all of a sudden we're short a few students at middle school and high school. um this summer that has not been the case and that was also not the case as much last summer which is positive.
So kudos to those who are involved with that process for making sure that we've got um all of our students in place. We also graduated a relatively low senior class this year um of about 620. However, our freshman class this
year is at 709 this year. And so we're going to continue to see larger and larger high school classes. Um we're at about 2775 students at the high school this year, which is a little bit above the 2620 that we aim for. We will lose some of those students to PSO and other options
throughout the year. Um but that um our flagship continues to be in a very healthy state. We're also seeing pretty good growth in our virtual program, Edina virtual programming. Um we're at over 100 students now, whereas this time last year we're at about 74. One thing to note about enrollment, and I don't
have it on this slide, is that our kindergarten um classes continue to be something that we're monitoring. Um I budget for about 580, which I think is relatively low. Um I think it would be good if the district were closer to 590 or 600 at that level. Um we're at about
560 today in kindergarten. So the last two years we've seen a little bit lower enrollment in kindergarten. I think some of that was a response to um a couple of cohorts being over capacity at two or three years ago. Um but there may be other factors um including just
declining birth rates both in Edina and the surrounding um cities that are contributing to that. Um we'll hope hope to take a deeper dive into the reasons as to why that's occurring over the next several months. Next, we'll talk about the operating referendum, which is a very significant
u portion of the school district's revenue, just over 13%. Um, as our public commenter remarked today, state um state funding does not keep up with inflation. Historically, we finally gotten to a point in Minnesota where that now is tied to inflation. However, that gap has acrewed over the previous
20 years. Um, voter approved operating referendum authority is one way which school districts are able to mitigate that lag. Um, our voters, as you know, last approved our operating referendum near the max in 2017. We're about $6 short. However, our our referendum is tied to inflation. So, we're going to
see about 2 and a half or so percent growth on that each year. I think three years ago, we saw very significant growth. Um, as we exited the pandemic, we were closer to about a 9 to 12% increase. However, that's continuing to go back to normal. Um, so we'll be in that 2 to 3% range absent any
extraordinary events in the kind of macroeconomic environment. One other thing to note about the operating referendum is that it's subject to negative or positive adjustments. So, when we do our levy in December, we're making a projection on what our enrollment will be. Um, if we actually serve more students, then we'll
see a positive adjustment um two years from now um because the levy cycle is always lagged by a year. If we serve fewer students, we'll of course receive a negative adjustment. Um the Department of Education's um consumer price index adjusted inflation figure is also an
estimate at the time the levy is certified. So if that figure is greater um than what the department and what the school board leveies at, then we'll also see positive adjustments for that as well. some of the adjustments um that I believe I've calculated accurately are are are presented to you for fiscal year
25. Um we actually levied at $2,197. The actual authority is going to be closer to $2,205. So we'll see a positive adjustment there on both the per pupil formula and also for the enrollment. As I mentioned, we overperformed enrollment by about 70 ADM.
For fiscal year 26, we levied last December 8670 um ADM um we're revising that closer to the 8730 that I had mentioned. So we'll see receive a positive adjustment on that. We'll also receive a positive adjustment on the per pupil amount. We
levied at $2,261. We're actually going to receive 2274. And the current estimated cap for next school year um is $2,340.76. Of course, the Dinos Authority is just a little bit under that. Um, so we'll be
receiving $2,334.87. All in all, I think we'll receive new revenue on our operating referendum to operate next school year of just under $1.2 million. Um, so that's going to go towards maintaining all of our collective bargaining enhancements, step movement, um, inflationary increases to
supplies, software licenses, etc. The next major levy category that we'll quickly review is the local optional revenue, which um at this point has actually become quite stagnant and boring. That's been in place at $724 for a number of years now. And like the state education formula has been lagging
inflation since inception. This one has not been tied to inflation by legislative measures over the last couple years. So it remains fixed at that 724 and the gap is now at about $250 per pupil. So, we'd be closer to $950 or so dollars had that been tied to
inflation, which means revenue growth or decline is purely tied to what your enrollment's doing. So, we're lucky to have um a little bit of growth in our enrollment. So, we will see um some additional revenue. We'll also see some positive adjustments because our enrollment has come in better than
expected the last couple years. capital projects levy, also known as the tech levy, which um is almost exclusively used to finance um our technology staff, our technology devices, and all the software, both instructional and operational throughout the district. Um this is a relatively
simple voter approved levy to understand. It's simply a a tax rate approved by the voters multiplied by the district's net tax capacity. um which means that this is the only levy category that is actually tied to the tax capacity of the school district. Um so as the um properties in the in the
district grow in value, that levy will grow in direct proportion. We're going to be just short of $9.5 million, so an additional $286,000 above the current year, which is about a 312% increase. This is levied on the tax
capacity of 2024. You'll notice that the three years postco we were average averaging increases of about 9.3%. So the robust um property valuation growth particularly in Henipin County um really um aided districts that have a capital project Sylvia in place um kind of like
the operating uh referendum revenue. We're going to get closer to normal with closer to three or so percent um annually. In fact, the average over the last 10 years was about 3.36. We're really close to that. Debt service is the next major category.
Um, this is a levy for principal and interest payments on outstanding general obligation bonds. That includes both voter approved bonds such as um the large $125 million voter approved bond of 2025, the smaller $7 million in 2021, as well as our um long-term facilities
maintenance program, which the school board approved in July, actually. Um, so we are required to bond for not bond, levy for 105% of the principal interest payments. So if we have principal and interest payments of 100 million in a given year, we're required
to actually ask the the taxpayers to give us 105 million and then in the subsequent year, we'll give back that 5 million and then levy for another 5% on top of um the next years. So, there's kind of a revolving cycle of giving money back to the taxpayers and taking
money um giving them a refund and taking more from them. Um over time, that's going to adjust to zero. Um if and when we extinguish all of our debt, um that's likely not going to happen with the way that we finance our construction projects. Um however, um there's also the component of um the timing of
payments. We've structured our payments in such a way that our long-term facilities maintenance program um really provides a stable tax rate for the residents. So, in years where our pay as you go portion, which goes to the general fund, which I'll talk about on the next page, is higher, um we've timed it in such a way that the voter approved
payments on um school building bonds, such as the 2015 bond, are lower. Um for next school year, we're actually seeing the inverse of that happen. We're paying more on that 2015 bond, which was of course refunded by the 2024A bond. Um and so we'll lower our our PO levy as a
result to keep that nice level um tax rate for our taxpayers. long-term facilities maintenance. So, as mentioned, this can be split between pay as you go. So, if I think I'm going to spend $10 million next year, I'll ask the the tax base for $10 million. And then bonded debt, so we'll have stable
payments over the years, and that structure creates level taxes. We are one of the 28 school districts that have um kind of uncapped authority. We're able to levy for exactly what we need on our property taxes. all other school districts um with the exception of
indoor air quality projects and roofing projects now which was um a positive result of legislative um action committees throughout the state for 2025. Those districts are subject to $380 per pupil and so we would not be able to do the level of deferred maintenance that we are in this district
had we not had that uncapped authority. Um we're anticipating a planned increase um to our bonded portion. Um, however, we've mitigated that by dropping down the pay as you go portion. Overall, we're going to see about a $3 million
increase um between both the debt service and the long-term facilities maintenance pay as you go program. Finally, next steps. Again, I will provide a full breakdown including calculations of all the different levy categories, percent increases for all those at our next finance and facilities
committee meeting, which is next week. Um, that same report will be given to the full board at our September 23rd special meeting, at which time the administration will recommend approving the levy at the maximum allowed by state law. As shared early, I'm expecting that's going to be between um four and
5%. Um, I'll have an exact figure next week. Parcel specific notices will be mailed by the the Henipin County in November. Um, we'll then go through our truth and taxation hearing on December 8th and we'll also seek final certification at the same meeting, which is allowable by
state law. And then we'll begin collecting that that first bit of tax in May of 2026 to finance um about 35% of next school year's operations. Any questions? Just a question about the September 30th
deadline. if they haven't given you the report. So, we're still obligated to meet the deadline even though we don't have the information. Is that my understanding of how the system actually works? We are required to. I think uh the MD late this afternoon did um make their
first levy run. It's um wildly inaccurate at this point, which is why I declined to share it. Um I do have a very good idea of where we're going to end up. um were we to for some reason not have numbers um the school district can simply say we're gonna levy the maximum
and find out what that is in December. Okay, not ideal. I think we're going to avoid that situation. We'll we'll have complete data for you next week. But great question. Just to be clear, I'm not laughing at your answer. I'm laughing at the ridiculousness that of a requirement that's provided, but you can't do anything until they actually give it to
you. I'm just want to make sure that's on record. Thank you. Uh, thank you for the very detailed report. And while we're talking about being on record, I think um I wanted to make sure that so in November when
people get these reports lately, there's been a little bit of a shock that goes nationally. We've seen property taxes going up. And I just wanted people in the community to know how seriously we take the district takes our role. um and
how appreciative we are of how supportive our taxpayers have been to our school district. It's really allows us to do the work that we do every day. And so, um we I wanted people to recognize how
seriously we take our job of being fiscally responsible with the money that the taxpayers do give us. And we are one of only one district in the state of out of three in the district that has there's one of three, right? Three of about 330
in the country, right? Uh one of about 93 in the country. Okay. Even better than I thought. Okay. Uh that has a AAA bond rating. And part of that is because of how seriously we take that. And so I just want to state that because I do know that when those
reports come to houses in November, there can be some shock and um we have worked really hard to make sure like you talked in your report that we've kept that stable for taxpayers and um yeah, so I just wanted to make sure we we were mentioning that. If
I could just add on to that, I really appreciate you bringing that up. It's not a you know, we don't simply receive the reports from the department and say, "Okay, that's what we're loving." you know, we do um kind of dive into the details and make sure that we're manipulating our levy as as much as we can to to both satisfy our requirements as a district so that we have enough
money to operate, but to also again keep that tax rate as low as possible. Great. We view them as partners in this work. So, thank you for that. All right. Uh thank you, Director Woodard. And next, we have a report on the summer
programming from our community ed and strategic partnership department. And I welcome up Dr. Ann Marie Leland, director of community ed and strategic partnership and Dr. Cheryl Gunnness, community engagement and purpose
learning supervisor. Welcome. Hello uh Chair Gabler, directors and superintendent Bitman. I have the pleasure uh with Dr. Gunnness right here to talk about our summer 2025
wonderful programs that we had. We delivered so many programs and services this summer. Uh, one of the things I wanted to go back to in terms of the excellence and action item was um, one of the things that I got to do to
welcome our our uh, year round or I'm sorry, our school year staff in this fall was um, just to shake hands and everything, say hi to everybody. But it was because Dr. Gunnness had put on such fantastic
professional development for that team, for our kids club, our enrichment team. and I just want to publicly thank her for doing that. So with that, um, 2025 it was a hit. Oh yeah, Mer was right. There we go. We had quite an impact on
the community and the students that we served. Um, I'll just start by saying early learning and family center along with all of the enrichment camps that were provided by some of our teachers and team members. Uh we also had ready
set K which is a partnership with Hopkins and my colleague Dr. Franny Bakur. Um, and I and Hopkins were, uh, I'm sorry, I just got a message from Pton. Um, we're so pleased to welcome 32
students from both of our communities who really had, um, maybe a little bit of preschool, preK experience, or no prek experience. But in the space of three weeks, we extended it by one week from last year. served lunch, all sorts of things, and really surrounded these
kids with love and experienced teachers that really guided and engaged our children in that space. That was fun. Okay, kids club, nine weeks, big programming. I got to be on site a lot
this summer. It was so fun. um three sites, nine weeks, 178 students, grades K through six, over 220,000 hours of engagement, and um just
loved having them go to pools and zoos and theater and all sorts of places. And as you can see from last year to this year, we certainly ticked up in terms of our enrollment. So we increased by quite
a bit. And those quotes are from parents. So now I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Gunnness. Um so kids club all day every day Monday through Friday. Our enrichment camps are um weekl long camps that are usually
either the morning or the afternoon. Um I would say um some of the highlights of these enrichment camps were um we had some visiting artists come and um many of them visited at our community wood shop. So some of the first camps to fill
were furniture making for your pet and um um birdhouse making um make your own guitar. And so it was really exciting to see so many middle schoolers in the in the wood shop. Um
are we actually doing that or is there um so you will see an interesting thing about our enrichment camps is um you know you talked a lot about the space available we are really limited by the space that available like we can't grow because we don't have the space the demand is there
but we don't have the space to grow and just a key point even though we were talking about kids club earlier you said it was at three sites kids club was offered right can you explain why it's only at three sites Go ahead. Go ahead. Uh, yes, Director Burman, we are at three sites because the other three
elementary schools were offline due to construction and other projects and that is pretty typical every year. It is qu Yes, we could probably have all six open and full. Um, we work really hard to make sure
that all students are able to access these um, experiences. And so this year we served over 194 youth. Um through our partnerships with the given go and the Southdale YMCA and a community ad funding um you can see that
our we do have steady growth in this area and it's coordinated through uh Christa Phillips and our resource center. Um, targeted services is an invitationonly program that combines social emotional learning, direct instruction, reading and math, and also
project based learning. We had a um this program is also growing. We added an additional week this year. Um, we increased the number of students by about 26% who actually accepted our invitation and attended. We had 18 teachers who were repres all UDA
teachers who represented every single elementary school. Um, we did a field trip for the first time this year and we also um really helped at the transitions and regulations because we had an on-site mini kids club site this year so students didn't have to get on buses and
ride back and forth and that was a huge um benefit to the program. Um, and we saw so much joy and many students were really sad when it was over and a lot of parents wanted to know if we could add add three more weeks. Um, but
it was really exciting to be feeling like we're really making a difference for a lot of students. Volunteers are also a huge part of our program. We had um over 142 high school volunteers who are helping with early learning center, enrichment programs,
kids club. This year we also added um or increased our middle school volunteer options with um helping with our unify camps and also with a um partnership with the University of Minnesota um 4 program. Um and that six almost 7,000
hours of volunteer service when calculated at the national volunteer rate is over $241,000 contributed back into our into our program. Um, again, this continues to grow and we certainly couldn't run any of our
programs that we're running without the volunteers. We feel like the volunteering is a part of um, leadership and and career exploration. Um, but we also take really seriously our opportunity in community education to hire the students who have been part
of our kids club program and our enrichment programs. This year we had 24 high school students hired um both in summer enrichment and um kiss club. And thank you for that. And we have another opportunity through the department of labor and industry to get
a youth skills training grant. Again, it's another two-year grant that will feature uh students having career exploration and opportunity in terms of internships in not only IT, but also we've added healthcare this year.
So, as you saw as we were going along, we added up all the hours of engagement and I just was trying to think of a way to provide some context for that. So 349,000 hours of engagement if you divide it by the number of hours in a year and I'm
talking about 24 hours in a day. We delivered almost 40 years of experiences for students here in public schools which is now proudly emlazed on our on the our yes walls in community ed. Yes. So
Oh yes. Facilities. Thank you facilities. Thank you custodians. Oh my goodness, the logistics, the cleaning, the the swapping out of rooms, just making sure that the rooms that we did have available to us um were cleaned in
rotation. But facilities 1,162 facility permits were approved. though just this summer. I just still can't believe that. Uh 122 unique users and one of them is a resident sewing expert
there. There you go. Um and just to end, I wanted to say that it's not just about the numbers for us, but about how we're doing the work. Um and so we are really um focusing all of our um professional development and
training working with um Dr. care on making sure that we're aligned with the the what's happening in the school days with cultural proficiency, multi-tered systems support, um making sure that all students when they come they're having quality experiences and they're feeling
like they really belong and can be who they're meant to be. So, and I believe that is the end of our presentation. I was going to say show. Uh but one of the things I wanted to add was uh Dr. Gunnness also helped us
deliver I mean we didn't but through your through your work of putting together for give and go the extra week of um camps that was extraordinary. So we sure we delivered 10 weeks of enrichment but then there was that 11th
week you know where families are like what am I going to do? Well, we had quite an opportunity with that and our facilities again were full. So with that, any questions? I don't have a question, but I wanted to
commend your team, whoever touches the summer programming, from the custodians to the people that flag people in and out of the parking lot. Mhm. Um, and truly to you, I didn't realize
it was Dr. Gunnness now. Dr. Gunnness. Well, she has her PhD in English literature. I believe it was Jane Austin. That's right. That was her inspiration. Um, you guys are real truly living out the vision and mission of our school
district when we talk about each and every student and it just warms my heart. And I know you and I have worked over the years about making our summer programming more inclusive and to see the growth over the years and um to hear
you talk about having kids be the genu their genuine selves to the programming with give and go it it is exceptional work and it is unique and there's not a lot of
districts not just in our state but in our country that put this much care to make sure all students can have access to something that really sparks them and just thank you. It's it's really outstanding. So,
thank you so much. We feel the same way. We're back here year after year doing this. So, we love it so much. That was really well said and I wanted to say that too because it had the growth under Cheryl. I know you have put a lot of care into this and Ann Marie,
you too. Um, Community Ed is a shining star and I have to think that some of the enrollment increases we see are because of people having that experience in Dina public schools in the summer and saying I want in on that. And so, thank you for those numbers continue to grow
and the leadership opportunities you've embedded in this are just outstanding. um the middle school volunteers, the high school volunteers, how you've brought that program to life is just amazing. And I'm always I page through the catalog and I'm like, what did you what did you come up with this time? And
like I saw that for the fall you have multigenerational classes which I think are so cool. I've got to find myself like a grandchild or something because my kids won't come with me to do wood shop or there's like a quilting one. I'm like this is so cool. So, thank you for the programming
that that your team is offering and please pass along our gratitude to everybody that had a hand in this. So, we do. We have an amazing team. Thank you. Thank you. And actually, real quick, although I did I did want to say one more thing. Um, and I'm glad that you emphasized the
point about space. Um, again, when we hear the city of Edina coming to us and saying they want to do a mitigation program, we have this limited space. These are the types of things that we where do we want to go? Because we do have demand, right, from our community
um and from our parents and from our students for the types of programming that we're already doing. And we can't be all things to all people, but there's a constant strategic imperative for us to constantly look at what else can we do for the for the demand that people
have for what we do because what we do is so good, is so excellent, is so meaningful to each and every satisfied because I if you just I think about when my when my kids were doing this to where it is today, we're we're we're proud of
what we do and we and we have amazing amazing people doing amazing work, but we're never satisfied that we've hit the apex that we're always constantly figuring out where else we want to because the world doesn't stop. It constantly changes and we try to adapt and change with that too. So, they're
all interrelated. So, I just wanted to point out that I I got that emphasis throughout the space and at the same time we have certain capacities which is a word we don't like to use. there's only so much capacity that we can generate not just from the buildings and
not just in the space but of the people. Um you know when we I do want to take this really quick moment especially for Mer and your team you know what our custodian staff has had to handle with losses that they've they've personally suffered from from staff who are no longer with us um and still keeping the
job going. And when you mentioned earlier about cleaning every nook and cranny of our of our campuses, um it showed like when I was at kickoff at the activity center at the high school, I've never seen that basketball floor look so clean. I mean, it it was unbelievable.
So, all of these things are interrelated to one another. And what I I guess the message is for the community is we are pushing our capacity all the time. And it's amazing that we're able to do what we do and not have things break because
we're constantly taxing that ability. So, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being here this evening. All right. Our last item up for discussion this evening is policy review. And I will turn it over to uh Director Alenberg, chair of the policy
committee. Thank you, Chair um Gabler. I almost said chair Alenberg. Like that's not that's That's me. Um, I'd like to invite up Assistant Superintendent Swinson. Um, we're going to review um two different
sets of policies. Um, our our policy 208 um allows us to have policies go through rapid review, which means that we review them and vote on them in the same night. So, we have a second section of policies and action, but our first set of
policies are for discussion. policy 208 516 516.5 524 and then I requested that we move 713 to um discussion um just to make sure that we were um honoring our um policy um for rapid review. And our
first policy for discussion is policy 208, the development, adoption, implementation of policies. And the change to this um is the policy committee um um is making the recommendation that we review policy
um the technology policy um by annually as opposed to every year. Um because um the rationale is that there's so many changes in technology. If there's something urgent, we will bring that through or if there's a statute change,
we will bring that. Um but reviewing it for no purpose other than just reviewing it. That could be an every other year thing. Um so that was a recommendation which is the only change to this policy. I guess my only question is is that
given the regular review annually for no other reason other than to review it, how many changes have actually been happening on an annual basis to that policy if any? I can answer for this year. There were there are no substantive changes for
this school year um or for this round. Last year, if I remember correctly, this was right when I started, so forgive me if if I'm not 100% on, but I believe that there was something that we added
in uh that would accommodate the use of a our use of AI and we had cell phones. This is one where we actually have had it reviewed every year only because of the state cell phone, right, discussion. So this one has been had a
lot of hands on it lately. But what I meant is that that was driven by legislative action or whatever rather than it coming specifically from a specific desire at the policy committee and an administration to do something with that. Correct. And most of our policies that
are scheduled to be reviewed annually have to do with harassment um discrimination. Um there are very few policies other than I believe this one. This is sort of an anomaly where it's um reviewed annually and it does not fall in that
category of um uh really HR driven legal things that we need to look at on an annual basis to ensure that we are up to date with statute. Great. Thank you very much. Does anyone have questions or Okay. Um the next one um we're going to they they
really need to be looked at together, but first I'm gonna um start with 516.5. Um and are you reviewing this as well? Oh, that's right. Director Reming. I have Director Reming. Um Director Reming will do a better job
of explaining this than I will. So I will um let you review the recommendation behind um why this is coming to us and the recommendated recommended change to 516.5 and 516. Okay. So 516 is our student medication
policy and um what the changes will allow for is for students to self-care opioid antagonist treatments for their own use or to be used on others as permitted by Minnesota state law. Um it also talks about how epinephrine is now
available through a nasal spray where it used to just be available through um an injection. And so by calling it um they end up calling it oh shoot they have um a delivery system. It will encompass the nasal spray as well as the injection
and um and then also the commit the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health will provide districts their standing orders so that we can distribute and administer under state law. And so that makes it just really um efficient for school districts. We don't have to all go seeking our own um
medical orders. And so, as you recall, we discussed this at our work session and just the community knows what this was discussed um prior to tonight. Um and as Director Ramsey mentioned, um this change in
policy would allow um opiate antagonists to be um delivered from high school students and held harmless. Um, and if you could um maybe speak to um or maybe a board member that had um um attendance
on the testimony about the rationale behind this change in state law, I think it'd be um nice for the community to understand a little bit of that. So, one of the pieces about opioid um um abuse is that typically people who are using it um have have addiction issues. And
that is something that carries um just just something that people often will will not want to go to your school nurse and say, "Hey, I'm abusing opioids. I'm afraid that I might overdose." And so, that is something that is usually held in secrecy by people who are using. And with that secrecy becomes um it becomes
life-threatening. And so while we hope that none of our students are using opioids um and we want to help anyone that has an addiction, we know that we also don't want anyone to die because they are unable to carry this life-saving treatment. One of the pieces
about this life-saving treatment is that people who use it um it it it's harmless. It isn't going to cause any negative side effects that would damage anyone's health for using it. It really is just something that can save your life if you need it. It's also easy to
administer and it's widely available through many um nonprofit organizations that are really just trying to get this life saving treatment to people who would need it. Thank you very much. That was helpful. Um and so the um tandem policies 516.5
and 516 allow for students to carry it and then allow for students to carry it without permission from a school nurse. Um, and that being said, I don't know if you have further explanation or if there um comments or questions. Did
I don't have any further comments. I think you summarized it perfectly. Okay. Thank you. I think I just wanted to reiterate something that we talked about in our last meeting about this is that my one question was about the liability that um under the state legis legislative statutes that were done to enable this to happen that there isn't
any increased liability or liability not only to the school district but also to the individual who might administer um this uh life-saving um uh treatment um for that making that happen. And that was one of my concerns to make sure that we understood that and I got confirmation if you can confirm that.
Yes, no, there is no liability to the district for enabling this to happen. That's accurate. Great. Thank you. Well, and then if someone were w were wondering, well, why don't just the nurses carry it? Um the time period of going from where
maybe an incident happens to go find the nurse and then come back could turn out to be fatal. Whereas if a kid is right there, it can make it work. It's the difference. So, um, it really makes a lot of sense in that regard. Thank you, Director Man and Director
Birdman. Are there any other questions or comments? Director Huie. Um I would like it would also be true that you don't need to be
um a regular user of a narcotic sub to have benefit from this because there are um things out there fentinyl for example that could end up in accident you might take it accidentally
and this could save your life as well. That's accurate. Thank you very much. Um and so um the last thing that I wanted to um re let let the community know is that one of the points that was brought up in the work session was um we're discussing
this tonight. it doesn't go to action, but the one thing that the board brought up was they were in favor of this change and we're tasking the administration with making sure that it was clearly communicated um to um individuals at the high school and
students what this change was and any other stakeholders. And so um I just wanted to make sure everybody understood that piece. So, okay. Um, that's 516. 516.5. Um, so I believe, um, Assistant
Superintendent Swinson is up for 524 for tech. Did we just do electronic technologies acceptable use? Sorry. No problem.
You basically did in 208. So do you want to go over the change in uh 524? For 524 there are no substantive changes. That is the update. But the change doesn't basically
plagiarism used to specify for the internet and now broadens it to technology given AI. So that's the change. Any questions? Okay. Um and then um Director Woodard, we are going to talk
about policy 713, student transportation. I'm sorry. I try usually to put you guys in order so you're not going up and down. Um but I did not do a good job tonight with that. I apologize. Good evening, Chair Alenberg. Uh, policy
713, which I believe is the combination of MSBA policies 707 and 709, was last revised, I believe, in the fall of 2023. Um, legislative session um kind of removed some of the timing deadlines which were specified by grade level in
the statute. Um, those were removed. Um, some some of the language is also updated, but no substantive changes. Director Caper, I had a couple of questions on this and this one's a long one, so I forgive me if I ask a question that you're like,
"Oh, actually that shows up later." Um, first of all, let me find it. Um, there was some parts under section three A, student training. I think you
just talked about it here where you so we we've removed like in two and three where it says students in kindergarten through grade six. That's what you're talking about when you said that the legislature has removed some of that language. Okay. But the blue language is
what MSBA is recommending. Yeah. Just general by the sixth week of school grades kindergarten through 10. And then my other chair Gabler, if you see, so what we did is the um A1,
it says we basically moved all of that different verbiage up to the sentence that says by the sixth week of school, the district will provide students in K through grade three, which is the different audiences that were um in um
number two and number three And number four, we made it into like one sentence basically saying all these different audiences need to have this by the sixth week of school. Okay. So I that was that's what I wanted to actually explain because it looks like we took out
right that's what my question was. I was like wait a second. Okay. Thank you for that clarity. I appreciate that. Um and then I think my only other question um because you know how fond I am of our bus drivers. They do such a
great job. um on section four where it's talking about students with disabilities. Do those guidelines apply to our students who are being transported by our third party vendors? All the policies should govern all the students that are being transported. So
yes, absolutely. Okay, great. Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. May I just ask an operational question because I was completely unaware until I read this policy um because I hadn't paid attention to it before unfortunately. Um, the student training, when does that actually occur? Like it
happens on the bus, happens in the classroom, but like I I'm unaware that any of my students actually went through that because it didn't happen to the parents. I'm just curious when that actually occurs. In the classroom, like home room classroom. Oh, they were on a drill.
Oh, okay. Yep. So, in my time in the district, as super assistant superintendent Swson mentioned, in the classroom, however, a member of our transportation department who kind of functions as the safety coordinator does partner with the building principal and teachers to update any curriculum that goes with
that. Lovely. So, I seriously I was just ignorant to that. So, I'm Thank you. Any other comments on policy 713? Thank you, Director Woodard. Um, our next set of policies are up for rapid
review and so they have um either hardly any change or a statutory update. Um, since we have so many of them, do you want me to run through them or should I presume people have read through them? I think because they're up for action, I have to have a motion first.
Oh, that's right. I apologize. No, you're good. You're good. I will turn it over to Chair Gabler. I'll turn it right back in just a second. Uh, so we are moving on to the action items. So, do I have a motion to approve policies 418, 501, 515, and 802? So, moved,
second, man, and then Alenberg. Uh, policy chair Alenberg, turn it over to you to talk about the policies. So, these policies are up for rapid review. Um, they either have um statutory
changes or not much of a change at all. Um, since this is the first time I already changed my mind what should happen in that limited time period. Since this is the first time the board members are seeing it, we should probably walk through what the changes are before you vote on them. Um, so the
first one is policy 418, alcohol and drug-free workplace and school environment. Um, and we have um, director Sailor, the head of HR. Is it director? No, it's not. Exe I'm sorry. Executive Director Sailor. um if you wouldn't mind coming
up and explaining the addition to this policy that would be wonderful. Thank you. Good evening. Uh so the policy 418 which is our alcohol and drug free
workplace and school environment there is only one um change that's being recommended and it comes directly from the Minnesota school board's association's recommendation and it's um an update to include their proposed
redlinined language found in section 4 paragraph D Minnesota law was amended to require both employers and schools to provide a 14day written notice to an employee or a student when the employer
believes this inaction would be a violation of federal law. If you look at um section 4, paragraph D, what it's what isn't the only change is that in
addition to a district not being able to refuse to enroll or employ a person enrolled in the Minnesota patient registry program, cannabis program. It also now that same um prohibition is for a tribal medical cannabis program. And
if the district feels like doing so um may result in a viol violation under federal law because of course under federal law there our state law pro um allows cannabis in a different way that
than our federal laws do in our country. Then the district's required to provide a written notice to the patient which would be a student or or a a employee at least 14 days before it would take any action against that patient. In other
words, stating that um it the school district might may lose federal funds if it allowed or enrolled a student or an employee uh employed an employee who was a part of the Minnesota
patient registry program or type tribal medical cannabis program. So it's simply a procedural change that provides that this written notice must be um provided what the time period is um the um and
then provides the statutory information. So this is why we've recommended the language addition simply go through the rapid board approval process. May I just ask what the practical effect of this is in terms of so federal law
states X state law is saying yeah but you can't really do this so on and so forth. Yes, you're trying to protect the the school district from federal cuts or whatever it might be. But the impact is that in one of these patient registry programs or cannabis program they're in like um is that a court-ordered program
that like is a deviation program? I mean I don't even know what those are. is like, "No, they're they're medical programs." Um Oh, so someone's like under medical cannabis. Correct. Got it. Okay. Correct. And and so as a reminder for employees, even if you're in a medical
cannabis program, you cannot be impaired in the workplace. And so there that does not change regardless. Um and that was actually covered I believe was it last year? I think we I was on the policy committee when we talked about that particular issue and so on so forth. Okay. Yes, we did. So this is really just
nothing more than this written notice is now required. But in answer to your question, Director Bergman, I think that there's it is really unlikely that we will ever be providing this notice. Any other questions or comments? Um
we're going to move on to policy um 501, which is our school weapons policy. Um, and assistant superintendent Swinson is up here. And the addition to this policy is in section seven. Um, and it requires
an afteraction review port. Um, it's a change in state law and that's the only change to this policy. Questions about this one? Okay. Sorry. Do you want to say something just for It's the Minnesota Fusion Center.
I just asked him about that because I was like, is that right? Yeah. So, yeah. Thank you. Would you like me to stay for 515? Absolutely. Why don't you do 515? Uh, so policy 515, the key changes are basically enhanced parent privacy
protection. Uh, in uh 73 uh treats parent contact information as private data now, regardless of whether it was designated as directory information before or not. And then in uh 6B23
um it allows sharing of student contact and directory information with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for special ed students postsecary transition planning and services. And then for federal reporting requirements in 784 it
clarifies that we can share that information with the Department of Education for federal reporting purposes. The other changes are technical um in nature and uh cross references have just been updated.
Director Bergner, I I just want to make sure I understand the the implication under uh section 7 A3 apparent a parent's personal contact will be treated as private data on individuals regardless of whether that contact information was previously designated as or treated as directory
information under the section or state law. Practically again is that is it bec unless there's a release provided by the parent to share that information or no matter what the parent allows or doesn't allow we have to treat it as private information.
That's a really good question. By policy we have to treat it as private. Um I had not thought about a parent giving us release of that information. Um I would assume that that's something we could probably that we'd be able to work out
with the family. Director Birdman, it's a really good question. So, typically we consider that as private data, but if the parent signs a release from say another organization, a medical doctor, things like that, then we then we release it. But as a matter of note, it would require their release.
So, help me understand for just from a practicality standpoint. Um, I know when I was liazing with the high school PTO and there was issues about wanting to have directory information in order to promote um the PTO's actions or it could be the ED fund or whatever it might be
that the district certainly cannot provide that information without a release and so on so forth. I just wanted to make sure that with this addition it doesn't prevent a release from the parent to be able to provide. We just can't release that because it's private until such time as a release is given.
That is correct. Thank you. And PTO's these actually are going directly to parents because of some because of some of this. So it shouldn't be a change actually in practice. I didn't think it was. because I know it's just it's just an issue that's related to
where we have the communal elements of what we're doing within a particular building and so on so forth that this particular element which I don't know if this was the exact design that was meant this is an all-encompassing sort of private data classification
this is what challenges some of our organizations who work closely with us um where we as the district cannot provide that information okay thank Any other questions on that? And the last but not least um is policy 802. And
Director Woodard, I think I can handle this one so you don't have to get up. Um but it adds in there that um we're able to donate um it specifies um where we can um donate and get rid of old textbooks and stuff and says that we
could um donate to a charity 5013C. Okay. Okay. That's all for our quick review. Right. Thank you. Uh we will now vote to approve policies 418, 501, 515, and 802. All those in favor say I.
I. Anyone opposed? Policy 418, 501, 515, 80, and 802 are approved. Board members, do you have any leadership or committee updates? I just have one quick.
Yes. Um, we uh started this the year off for the LAC. So, we welcomed uh 16 uh student members and community members to the LAC for this year. So, we're excited for um that. And we're going to be working on uh two different groups uh
one with platform development and one with legislative outreach. And so we look forward to presenting to the board uh later on this fall. Great. Thank you. Dr. Bitman, do you have any updates you'd like to share? Two very quick ones. One to compliment
Dr. Arum and doc and director Birdman for their work director uh for their work on the LAC. It was a great evening. The kids were really excited and it was so fun to be able to share some information. We do have confirmation from representatives from
MASA, MASA, AMSD, MSBA, and AESA, as well as it's looking good for the governor's office to have a representative in meeting with our kids throughout this year as well. So, we're excited about that. Our next uh guest will be in October and it'll be Scott Kunquist from AMSD.
Was a lot of A's in there. I did want to also mention just to bring us back to the beginning before we let everybody go home in the audience. I know parking will be hard to get out. Um, just to bring us back for schoolboard recognition. We really do appreciate the work that you're doing uh
each and every day and we know that it's tireless and we know that you don't do it for the money. So, thank you for being here to support us, to support our kids and support our families because the bottom line is we couldn't do it without you. So, thanks for what you do.
Thank you, Dr. Bitman. Uh, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So, moved. Second man and then we will vote to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? The motion is passed in the September 8th, 2025 board meeting has
adjourned.