all right uh good evening everyone uh and I'm going to call to order the April 8th 2025 Lakeville Area School Board meeting um please rise with me as we say the pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we'll do start with roll call starting from my right brett Nicholson Paul Carbone Matt
Swanson Michael Bowman Kim Baker Karly Anderson Brian Thompson school board all right uh agenda additions changes anything from everyone anyone if there are none I would
entertain a motion to approve the agenda make a motion to approve the agenda i'll second all right motion moved by Director Carbone seconded by Director Baker any discussion there being no discussion uh on the motion to approve the agenda as
drafted all those in favor say I i all those opposed all right it is approved we can move over to the good news thank you Mr chair lakeville Area Schools good news we'll start with Lakeville South secures the sixth
consecutive state weightlifting championship lakeville South High School's varsity weightlifting team claimed its sixth consecutive team championship at the 2025 Minnesota High School Weightlifting State Championships held on March 8th in Canon Falls
Minnesota lakeville South Junior Varsity Team secured a second place finish 20 of the 26 athletes from the Lakeville area schools earned medals with the top with top three finishes you can learn more about that at our website
isd194.org/news bringing Minnesota's voice to the nation's capital dr dana Kelly assistant principal and dean at Kenwood Trails Middle School and Brett Dmstrand our principal at Lake Marian Elementary traveled to Washington DC for the National School Leaders Advocacy
Conference where they joined school leaders nationwide to discuss key education policies they met with Minnesota delegates to Congress to advocate for students and worked with National Student Council representatives to demonstrate educational advocacy in
action show and Tell High Schoolers take the mic check out our latest episode of Show and Tell where high schoolers take the mic and give viewers an inside look at life in high school to view the entire Showand Tell series visit
isd194.org or slant show-n-tell and then finally upcoming community survey just letting our community know that during April the district will be conducting a community survey to understand our community satisfaction with district and priorities the scientific survey is
conducted via phone by the Morris Leatherman Company and contacts a random sampling of community members who are representative of the district's residents if you receive a call we strongly encourage and ask you to participate to share your valuable
feedback read more about all the amazing things happening in our district at isd194.org/news and that is all I have Mr chair all right thank you Superintendent Bowman uh with that we'll move over to uh public comment so the board
will is it leave support week this week oh Mr bowman i don't uh have I I don't know if it's this week or so so we just want to send a special shout out to I saw it in a school announcement so thank you to our LEAF staff they do a tremendous job across all of our schools
well in that case I'm going to do something uh special next week to acknowledge that there we go uh public comment so the board will open up the floor for 30 minutes to allow the public to address the board with comments and concerns to participate in
public comment individuals must have registered in advance using the form on our website by noon on the Monday before the scheduled public comment session uh there will be no board response during the session and public comments framed as complaints and/or concerns about students or staff are not appropriate in
a public forum due to the data privacy laws these comments should be addressed to the administration outside of a public meeting likewise complaints about schoolboard members should be privately directed to the board chair and or the superintendent um no formal action will be taken on a topic presented during
public comment as necessary the administration will follow up with the appropriate personnel on any concerns that need to be individually addressed also if necessary the board will follow up during board communications at the next regularly scheduled board meeting uh individual remarks are limited to three minutes and the board will provide
a signal which Director Baker has when there are 30 seconds remaining uh and if the audience would please try to keep their noise at a minimum to allow everyone the opportunity to speak uninterrupted that would be great um and we have just one individual today Robert
Bayer then you may have to move the mic over i'm short but a little taller than that thank you i too bring words of good news and some wisdom and I'd like to pray a
blessing over you when I'm finished ecclesiastes 3 there's an opportune time to do things a right time for everything on the earth a right time for birth and another to pass a right time to plant and another time to harvest a right time
to kill and another time to heal a right time to destroy and another to build up a right time to cry and another to laugh a right time to lament another to cheer a right time to make love and another to
abstain a right time to embrace and another to part a right time to search and another to count your losses a right time to hold on and a time to let go a right time to rip out and another time to mend a right time to
remain quiet and another to speak up a right time to love and another to refrain a right time to wage war yet another to make peace so heavenly father this evening I pray a blessing over these board members who
through your great wisdom were elected by the people to serve the people of our great city of Lakeville and I pray for united strengthened honored and mutual respect among our board members community members where strong and
unified relationships and decisions replace the oftentimes selfish needs to be right i pray father in the name of Jesus that you would take your rightful place as the head of our district turning anger and judgment and hostilities into your peace that far
surpasses our human understanding i pray for a great awakening among our leaders and guests here this evening to remember that the body is made up of many parts like our city many parts yet one body all
different like our city families and children but only one human race all of us are equally important through your eyes let us all live in love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness
and full of self-control as we honor our board as they are responsible for first honoring you this was your city Lord Jesus long before it was ours so we decree and declare our unified pledge of allegiance one nation under God
indivisible so let your kingdom come now let your will be done here on earth in Lakeville amongst us all as it is in heaven and we pray this in Jesus' name amen thank you Mr bear all right that will conclude public
comment moving on to the consideration of the consent agenda does anyone want to remove any of the three items from the consent agenda director Anderson yes i would like to remove uh 4 C all right 4 C is removed
uh anyone want to remove 4 A or 4B if not I would move to approve the consent agenda items 4 A and 4 B i'll move all right it is seconded by Director Anderson um all those in favor
Well yeah all those in favor of approval of consent item agenda items A and B um say I i all those opposed say nay all right 4 A and 4 B are approved uh Director Anderson I'll turn it over to
you on Yes 4c yeah so just a few things um just want to make a couple um things clear one thing in terms of the settlement of this case um I think it's sometimes confusing um when we talk about monetary settlement and what that
means and so um one thing I just want to make sure the public knows is that this is within our insurance policy um and so while we don't know what might impact premiums um this is not something that the district is paying extra money as part of our insurance policy
um secondly I always think it's a little bit confusing when people vote no on a consent agenda and there are multiple items so I want to be clear about why I'm going to be voting no tonight on this um it's not because I think the lawyers haven't done a good job with the board direction i do think the the
lawyers have done an excellent job in in um in what they have been tasked to do to settle this case um I more disagree with the settlement um in general at this point i think you know when we have talked about this as a board in public
um and obviously the close session information is is close session but um we it has been presented in a way in my mind that we didn't have a good standing in this case and I don't think that is at all the direction we have received from legal counsel
um the eighth circuit decision was based on assuming that everything that the claimants were claiming could be possible in any scenario and so to me uh I believe we should have gone through the discovery process which would have
meant gathering all the information relevant to the case in that situation what I've understood from our legal counsel is that we are on very good footing that they felt like what our uh district did was within the grounds of government speech and that we had an
excellent case so while it may have moved forward and the eighth circuit may have made a different decision at one point it's my opinion um as a board member and uh who serves this district that we have not seen this case through in the way that I would have liked to um
and so that is why I'm vo voting no i just feel like this is a premature decision and I also just wanted to make that clear and also that the 30,000 is part of our insurance policy so that's what I wanted to share thank you Director Anderson anyone else have any comments
director Thompson yeah as as I was reading the settlement I just want to make sure I understand the definitions of what they shared uh I think item number three said something about stipulation for order of dismissal by signing this agreement the parties authorize that the
attorneys to stipulate to uh an order of dismissal with prejudice authorizing the court to dismiss the lawsuit so uh that is the that just want to make sure I understand that dismissal is that we're just it's done it's over we're moving on
correct with with that okay and then number six no wrongdoing this agreement is made to resolve a disputed matter and may not be construed as an admission of liability or wrongdoing by or on behalf of any party so uh just want to make sure that I understand that there is no
other like there's no stipulations there is no action that the board needs to go do uh by settling this uh it is a strictly uh legal agreement where the uh both attorneys agree to we're going to discontinue we're going to dismiss this
case uh there's a $30,000 cost associated to it and uh and like director Carly Anderson said comes out of our insurance uh uh funds so that's my that's my understanding okay perfect thank
you anyone else can you can you as a lawyer clarify what the addition additional language really did in terms of the release well it was more uh they
moved moved items around they condensed the attorney's fees and costs because there was two paragraphs before now it's just consolidated to one paragraph they removed some language uh in the initial whereas clauses um regarding what the release entailed but then in the
paragraph 2 release of all claims it still includes essentially all claims that could have been brought at the time that this lawsuit was initiated so and then again you get down to um the dismissal language it is a dismissal with prejudice which means that they can't file it again so I mean if we did
different facts so based on the facts that were present in their rights you know as of the date that the case was brought you know they can't assert any new claims that they had at that time that's essentially what it says what is the or could have been asserted changes
does that again it's it kind of broadens the release language so any claims that could have been asserted by other either side at the time all right i don't know if Superintendent Bowman can correct me if I'm wrong that's my nonofficial
interpretation of it but that is the correct interpretation anything else i so I just have like a a point of clarification that I think needs to be made for the public in this because if if you read through it um and just
knowing that there's been some meetings where we've had some um public comment and um community involvement around the poster series that was originally brought into question with this particular lawsuit um
and it's clearly not part of the settlement in that so can you kind of clarify how the board took a position with that um separate from the actual like settlement because it's not part of the settlement agreement correct you
mean the board's vote on the 28th of January correct yeah correct so the only thing the settlement requires of the district is payment of the $30,000 which comes from our insurer otherwise there's no other obligations we will stipulate to the dismissal of the case and then
also it's not saying that the it's not saying that the district did anything incorrectly correct okay i just want that clarified further of wrongdoing thank you anything else uh if there are no further comments
I would entertain a motion to approve the settlement um for Kajunetal versus ISD 184 listed as 4C i'll make a motion to approve it all right there's a motion by Director Carbone to approve the settlement is
there a second second second direct by Director Nicholson any discussion on the motion there being no discussion all those in favor of approval of the settlement uh the agreement which is attached to the agenda and identified as
4 C on our agenda um all those in favor say I i all those opposed say no no all right it is approved uh moving on to the reports section miss Alrech going to go through some policy
brenda will be handling the first two and then um our policy committee chair will be handling the second two yes good evening Chair Swanson Superintendent Bowman and members of the school board you have before you this evening a second reading of policy 606
which is textbooks and instructional materials and policy 613 which is our graduation requirements changes throughout the policies are minor and have been reviewed and recommended for approval by the policy committee this is a second reading and no action is
necessary at this time director Thompson uh just a couple comments one on policy 606 and then a polic and then comments on policy 208 uh so for policy 20 uh 606 textbooks and instructional materials uh
can we just make sure that when we do the official adoption we remove the the label on the top right where it says like MSBAMS model and just throw in Lakeville and then uh also with the legal references or cross references where it says MSBA uh and just for general
clarity for the community uh the Minnesota School Board Association MSBA that we are a part of uh they look at statutes uh and then help craft these model policies so uh policy 606 is one of those where uh we took uh took le we
took took advantage of what they provided uh we were able to uh bump that up against what we had previously uh so the changes that you see were what we had on our website and then what MSBA suggests recommends uh for uh for the
adoption of this particular policy so it's not something where we just created on our own i just want to make sure there's clarity around how these policies are are created and then how the board here then reviews them uh the one suggestion that I have for policy 606 that I would like to make a
suggestion to is there is a can I ask a question about can I ask a question about what I do yep do you feel like the CR cross references at the end in terms of the MAS or MSB and MASA is sufficient for citing
essentially or do you feel like the the cross references should uh should actually be uh from our policies so when it's connecting to the policies that we have uh our community members won't have a cross reference to what the MSBA version policy is because that's only for us so when we make updates go maybe
I didn't understand your question well I guess I'm wondering if it's based so essentially we take the MSBA kind of model and adjust it for a district but should should there be some sort of citation in the policy referencing the
like is that why it is at the top the so the MSBA model policy cross references is at the end of the policy and typically what is there is any cross reference to um so okay So so 606 if someone is
reviewing 606 they should also cross reference 603 and 604 so we could change that to um Lakeville policy 603 and 604 rather than MSBA model policy 603 and 604
but I believe your question is are we appropriately citing well are we appropriately citing or referencing the or do we have to do that yeah we all of our policies are appropriately referenced at the bottom whether it is referencing other policies or state
statute whatever that might be so we we can definitely update that um and we can also u make the update to what you had brought forward director Thompson on the front page of the uh model policy yep those are quick easy fixes y does that
answer your question yes so are you thinking of adding our Lakeville policy at the end in addition to the MSBA cross reference no I don't think the MSBA cross reference should be listed because it's a placeholder as a template for us when we look at the MSBA
policy how it's connected to another MSBA model policy what we want to do is put in the Lakeville policy so that a consumer or a stakeholder who reads it knows which Lakeville policy it's connected to so it's just a it's a it's a a template placeholder got it and
sometimes like our numbers don't exactly align with correct MSBA so that makes sense i just wanted to make sure we were appropriately citing or referencing understood yes so so the one that I have questions on this one is letter B letter B number three i'm sorry section three
responsibilities of selection uh so while the school board retains its authority to make final decisions on the selection of textbooks dot dot dot uh then uh letter B letter number three uh foster respect and appreciation for cultural diversity and varied opinions
so I want to be cautious here just be because I think there's so much interpretations of what that might mean based on whoever's reviewing and not reviewing uh I'm I'm going to make an assumption that the textbooks that we elect as a board are going to be
represented uh recommended to us that that meet the state standards and and whatever the state standards are and and so the state standards may have a variety of different requirements and and again my assumption is that our our um recommend our textbooks that will be
recommended to us will will follow suit i guess what I'm trying to understand is that uh what is leather uh number three how does that impact the decision on if we accept a textbook or not and so I'm I I think there's too much variability and
I just want to be mindful that how we move forward with this policy based on the previous policies that we've gone through i'd like to scratch that number out can I Yeah Director Anderson well I I feel
like so in I feel like there's part of this that's our role and then obviously part of the the bigger part in selection that is put to our staff who are well-versed in all of these different items and so I feel like it I'm not sure that it doesn't fit with the other
things that the professional staff would be thinking about as they're selecting appropriate texts that then they present to us as like I don't think we're diving into whether these books are age appropriate or whether they meet
um whether they show respect and appreciation for cultural diversity that would be determined by staff so it's more presented to us in a way that this is what we recommend and we I feel like operate at the higher level of how have these texts been compared to others or which are showing
the most success in other districts not necessarily to that level can I ask you seasoned board members how this has come to you guys in the past as far as reviewing textbooks time came to us one time which it was it I feel like
our it's it I do not see our job to dive into I mean there um director Carbon and I will be part of the teaching and learning committee that some of these things are reviewed but um at the board level to me and and director Baker can
certainly speak to this quite extensively I'm assuming but at our level we're not diving into questions related to the curriculum it's or you know what are the relative how does this impact the district financially um how has basically there's a presentation
about different ones that have been reviewed and how they compare to each other and so I I see our job as more at at that level director Thompson I think where I'm I'm not so sure about
is that um number three where while I am in favor of it conceptually foster respect and appreciation for cultural diversity and varied opinion i want to make sure that the curriculum that gets selected is the curriculum it's like reading's reading
math is math science is science and so I I want to make sure that the content uh while we have that kind of line item will that skew the type of curriculum that needs to be that would be presented to us because of uh other
other components and so I just want to make sure that our curriculum is our curriculum and is academic focused and so I am not in favor of that line yeah director Anderson sorry I'm I'm certainly not an expert here but one thing I'm I'm thinking
about is that reading for instance um very important for there to be representation in what kids are reading and so you know um historically if you look back at texts when we were kids growing up it
probably was dominated by people of certain cultures that were now I'm seeing with what my kids are coming home with there's more representation so to me what this is saying is when you're selecting materials considering that there are we have many different cultures in our
schools we want to make sure um you know just like we've seen nutrition come and talk about different ways they're trying to incorporate different cultural uh ethnic foods that kids can see themselves represented in these texts um and that that would be more of a big
thing in certain subjects I would guess um so I am not the professional so I don't know what they how they go about the process but that would be one thing where that would be a relevant consideration so we we have uh our curriculum and instruction is predicated on the
Minnesota Department of Education and the standards that they uh require us to follow if there uh were a um a curriculum item uh text uh that the board had objection to I would expect that you would notify us of that um I I
don't um from a policy perspective I think it aligns with the Minnesota Department of Education with MSBA and um I I don't see that this would be an issue hasn't been in the past if it were in the future um
you know I'd raise my hand and say uh bring that objection and and we will deal with it but I I don't I don't think that we're um doing anything in particular that is uh oriented at
uh setting conditions that the Minnesota Department of Education does not uh expect or define director Baker so I'm going to agree with Director Anderson on this um the school district goes through an extensive process as far as curriculum
adoption um they spend a year possibly even before they even bring a curriculum forward researching what other districts are doing visiting other districts as teams um they send several people out to see see the curriculum in action to look
through the data of other districts and then they spend a year like piloting it somewhere and gathering more data and trying to make that determination um all of those curriculum adoptions are guided by our laws like like the read act for example dictates what we can and can't
adopt as a district as far as our reading curriculum goes um if we don't follow those guidelines and those laws then we don't get reimbursed for that curriculum um so I would say as a schoolboard member it is not really within our purview to determine which curriculum is appropriate like I that's
why we have the superintendent and the staff like they can go through the curriculum and the two-year process and whatever they do they've shared that with us before um I feel like that's extensive the last time they brought a curriculum forward I think was the social skills curriculum um they they shared all the data they talked about it
and then they made a recommendation like this is what we feel is appropriate and then the board had a chance to um you know provide our opinion on that curriculum just based on the little that we know about it because we're not in the classroom every day teaching it and we don't have that knowledge either so I
would agree with also Superintendent Bowman that you know once that's presented to us and if we follow the process where it's presented and then we vote on it at the next meeting so we have time to process it to look through it ask any questions that we have that that would be sufficient
i just want to add to 3B2 and I can't remember if we carried this over from ours or if we added it in um it just adds an additional protection meet or exceed required standards you know so whatever I think that would maybe
alleviate any concerns with you know 3B3 um if the concern is it's going to detract from the um effectiveness of the the curriculum and ultimately it is the school board's decision as as to whether or not to approve new curriculum so we
would have the final say if there is a concern with anything that would be my two cents just clarify with the adjustments then so number two would be the meet or exceed number three would be consider the needs age and
yes okay so just would be okay do you see what I'm saying yeah there there might be a numbering issue there figure that out before we vote do we need to vote on director Thompson uh well I've got a question on six policy 613 but do we uh I think this is
uh just the discussion and then we'll move into the recommended actions after or after this well or not well I'm just for providing some direction for the next copy that we're going to see I guess
um 3B3 or four depending on which number we're looking at it sounds like is staying based on the comments we good yeah y uh so then policy 613 uh we've got again just minor changes
obviously the MSB on the top right there is a section under uh uh five assessment graduation requirements and there's a one that says note uh Minnesota statutes the statutes no longer has a paragraph K blah blah blah um I think that's something that we as a policy committee
uh is supposed to are to read as a reference but probably not supposed that probably doesn't need to be in the policy itself correct it would be would not be in the final policy okay great and then there's another note section down at the bottom and that is it for my
questions on that one all right and then policy 208 which is the development of policies thank you Brenda oh yeah okay thank you the floor is yours Brian thank you all right uh policy 208 the the development of policies
the one here that was that we made changes to so a couple components here so in section two the general statement of policy we did add letter A B and C where it says adopted reviewed and revised so we wanted to make sure that people understood the definitions where
we may uh review policies but not make any changes to it so we want to make sure that gets cap captured uh because I believe previous borders have said that they had reviewed policies and even though it had a date from 2013 it was the most current from their point of
view so we want to make sure that those dates are updated so folks have a an accurate picture of when a policy was reviews reviewed or revised uh and then in section three the development of the policy uh there
is I'm sorry I apologize in section four the adoption of policy letter B we did add this line here the final action taken to adopt the proposed policy shall be approved by a simple majority vote of the board of education/ we'll change that to school board at a subsequent
meeting after public input was twice offered i think it was a little clunky in how to write that but I think we actually changed it where we can just approve it after at the second meeting yeah where public comment was twice offered yeah
because right now as it sits we we do two meetings first and second reading and then the third meeting we can approve it so we are moving it so it only takes two meetings to approve it as opposed to three but you'd still have public comment and discussion for two meetings
i just so just point of clarification does that mean that it would be like in the discussion and then also in the recommended actions mhm okay okay that I guess like I when I when I think about that um I mean if there's any further
discussion from the board on that the public doesn't really have an opportunity to comment on that because public comment happens in the meeting prior to us voting on it and having that discussion you know what I mean like I I think I would rather stay with the
cadence that we've had where we have two meetings and then on the third one we vote dr thompson are you saying that there would be two meetings and then then the third meeting it would be a vote because that's not how the current language had that's not how we currently do it
because if you can do if it's public comment is offered at least twice and then you can vote on it in the second meeting that that's how we have done it so the policy would be in the the meeting agenda uh public comment on Tuesday more or Tuesday in the in the
beginning then we discuss that as a first reading then the following meeting there'll be another public comment about it we can have further discussion based on any feedback we get from the community and then it would then move to the recommended actions where then we would vote on
it and that and I believe that's how we it had been done here before yeah I can add some of the some of the thoughts on this were a number of the changes that we have to these policies are just minor um and so just to not to clear through some of the easier ones um in shorter
order instead of having it take three meetings because I mean some of these we're just changing it from board education to schoolboard you know references um or just pushing them up against the the model policies obviously if we want to extend discussion further
we can yeah do we have to be this clear in the policy in terms just to allow some flexibility well we just moved it so it's you could do it after two meetings you don't have to there's nothing that requires you to okay but the requirement is that we want
to have at least public comment twice to give community input on on a topic yep correct and and there is a clause in here where if a policy isn't drastically changing and the and the intent is there and some minor changes or maybe there might be some legality
issues it can be approved in that same meeting as well i believe there's a clause in there and we've done that before okay um I I feel like this is good i think the only recommend the only change I would have is just change board of education to school board to be consistent with the previous and then
I'm I'm good with that one uh can we make a final decision on that for the rest of the life of this board yeah I I would say I would revert to the state statutes where they call us a school board and so that's what I would recommend uh and so policy 2011 which is
the legal status of the school board so so we're good there uh couple changes here number one is section two general statement uh we did make a change in letter Nope not that one i apologize is section four organization and membership
we did make a change of this one change to this one to uh document that the membership of the school board consists of seven elected directors previous to this it was just six uh so wanted to make that updated uh and then
the other one is letter uh section five powers and duties letter B uh the school board uh we changed the word uh from manages to oversees administrative functions that way it's pretty clear in
in the the role of the school board uh so it is section five it's uh highlighted in green the school board oversees administrative functions and so that's what we did there and then if you go a little bit further down to the very
last two additions right above legal references we added these two because of I think our past two years being here one was retain the authority to name or rename district-owned buildings and facilities just in case and then the
other one was form partnerships and or ad hoc committees for the purpose of addressing short-term and long-term identified needs while we have that authority already I think it'd be just a good good to put it on paper to say hey we have that authority as a school
board so those are the the very last two above legal references yep so while this is a first reading uh I will leave it up to the board if you want to bring it back for another meeting uh but because the intent of uh
policy 2011 is minor you do have the right to vote on it today as well so those are the changes i think we'd have to have it on the agenda for recommended actions to vote to approve it so we can bump it to next meeting any questions of Brian
uh just so everyone knows we do have a policy committee that meets every other week um Director Thompson chairs the committee super exciting it's uh uh folks are welcome to join director Cameron and myself are also take part in the committee along with Superintendent
Bowman and uh Brent Albrech so and everyone is welcome to join usually on Thursday afternoons it's pretty exciting so um all right moving on special education report humphrey on it it's way
I think we have some PowerPoint issues maybe do we need to ask the guy there we go there we go he's He's working he was up for a second there oh it's because I had already brought up the right one there we
go okay okay well good evening Chair Swanson members of the board Superintendent Bowman thank you for the opportunity uh for us to be here tonight again my name is Michelle Humphrey and I'm honored to serve as the executive
director of student services i'm joined by Alisa Anderson our interim director of special services and together we're pleased to be here to share this important work with you and to provide an overview of the special education services that support students across
Lakeville area schools so tonight our goal is to provide a clear and meaningful overview of the systems and supports in place to serve students with disabilities across Lakeville area schools special education
is a complex highly individualized service area that touches every school and impacts students families and educators it requires not only legal compliance but also collaboration fairness and a shared commitment to student success we'll begin by
introducing our special education leadership team and highlight the broader staff including teachers related service providers pair professionals and administrators who are dedicated to incre creating inclusive learning environments next we'll review the
federal law that guides all special education services the Individuals with Disabilities Act or IDA this law ensures that students receive a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment that meets
their unique learning needs we'll then walk through the continuum of services available here in Lakeville ranging from in-class support to specialized programs followed by a snapshot of current student data we'll also examine our staffing structure and the essential
roles our team members play in supporting students finally we'll touch on the financial landscape of special education looking at funding sources and the legal requirements that shape how resources are allocated throughout this presentation we aim to share a full
picture of how we support students with disabilities while also highlighting the opportunities and challenges that inform our work so at the district level here we have a dedicated team that is instrumental in supporting our special education
students across schools several members of our team are actually here in the audience with us tonight thank you for being here um so our team includes four special education coordinators who are responsible for supporting the schools directly they work to ensure that all
students receive appropriate services and resources and they collaborate with school teams to create inclusive supportive learning environments they also work closely with teams to ensure compliance with due process requirements for individual education programs so
this team includes Julie Gekle our early childhood special education coordinator feel free to do a wave um Diane Runquist and Carol Carlson are two elementary special education coordinators and Diane is with us
tonight uh Katie Go our middle school special education coordinator and then we also have two special education supervisors who support at our high school level uh like the coordinators their role is to ensure that students receive the necessary services provide
guidance to school teams and ensure compliance with all special education requirements jazelle Selwin and Amanda Kimry are two uh special education supervisors so one key distinction between the special education
coordinators and supervisors is in their lensure all of our coordinators hold a director of special education license which qualifies them to oversee and lead special education programming across the district our supervisors are experienced
professionals who are currently working toward that lensure and we're proud to support their continued growth and development so just as we're experiencing challenges in hiring and retaining licensed special education teachers and service providers we're seeing similar trends here at the
leadership level in special education as well so recruiting fullylicicensed special education leaders is becoming increasingly difficult across the state and this makes it all the more important that we invest in the professional development of our current team and
create pathways to leadership from within we have three instructional behavior coaches who work to support schools in developing strategies uh ensuring that students with emotional or behavioral needs uh get those needs met their goal
is to help create positive learning environments for all students and our due process clerks are responsible for managing the administrative tasks related to special education including ensuring that all paperwork and processes for individual education
programs are completed in a timely and compliant manner supporting myself and the interim director of special services are our student services support specialist and special services administrative assistant although their
work often happens behind the scenes it is found it is foundational to the success of students families and staff they manage a wide range of operational tasks from organizing crucial documentation and streamlining communication to monitoring timelines
and assisting with budget related processes their attention to detail and proactive support allow our special education team to stay focused on ser serving students and schools effectively together with this team as well as the
staff across the district ensures that students with disabilities receive highquality services they need and the support our schools and they support our schools in meeting both the educational and social emotional needs of all of our learners
u so thank thank you for sharing the the staffing constraints and so I want to make sure I understand this as well uh a special education teacher has a a different license than a high school teacher middle school elementary XYZ uh
and do we offer different compensation structures because of the the specialization or is it the same across the board no so the compensation is based on the teacher contract
so then a kindergarten teacher a high school gym teacher gets put assuming if they're at the same step in lane gets paid the exact same as a special education teacher and and we've got a shortage in that bucket and that is
correct okay i just want to make sure we're we're good thank you yep yep uh so really to understand where um we are today here in special education we'd like to take just a quick look back um to understand where we've come from so
before the 1970s children with disabilities were often completely excluded from public education there were no legal protections in place and many students were denied enrollment altogether are placed in segregated institutions that didn't offer
meaningful education or support in most cases it fell to the families to provide whatever education they could at home without support resources or much guidance this began to change in 1975 when
Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act also known as I just want to give a shout out to Minnesota there because you see this up there the historical context that does not include the state of Minnesota which
did this in the 1960s to have special education whereas other states just had this model we were one of the first states to do that so way to go Minnesota thank you so uh that change really began in 1975 or in Minnesota a little
differently um when Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act also known as a public law 94-142 so this law was a major breakthrough it guaranteed every child with a disability had the right to a free and appropriate education or FAPE
in that least restrictive environment it also uh introduced something that's now a cornerstone in our work which is the individual education plan and this was a formal plan created with input from educators specialists and families to
ensure that each child's unique needs were being met then in 1990 the law was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDA this version expanded services even further especially for students approaching
adulthood it added transition planning for students which helps prepare them for life after high school whether that's college employment or independent living it also officially recognized autism and traumatic brain injury as disability categories which allows more
students to be served so from the late 1990s through today IDA has continued to be refined and reauthorized so all of these milestones have shaped the way we serve students today and they continue to guide our work here in
Lakeville so having uh spoken a little bit about the history of special education um we thought it would be good to focus on those core principles that have evolved from that progress and those principles continue to guide how we support students here today so the
Individuals with Disabilities Act is doesn't just mandate access to education for students with disabilities it provides a clear structure that schools must follow to ensure those students receive meaningful support at the heart of this law are five guiding principles
that shape our work first the free and appropriate public education or FAPE means that every student with a disability is entitled to an education that is both free and tailored to their individual learning needs this isn't about placing students in generic
programs it's about ensuring they have access to instruction services and supports that allow them to make meaningful progress second the least restrictive environment or LRE is a principle that promotes inclusion it ensures that students with disabilities
learn alongside their non-disabled peers whenever possible and are only placed in more restrictive settings when absolutely necessary for their success third each student who qualifies for special education has an individualized education program or IEP this legal
document outlines their unique learning goals the services they'll receive accommodations they need and how their progress will be measured it serves as a personalized roadmap for supporting student success fourth uh parent involvement is
a critical component of IDA families are not just informed they are active participants in the planning decisionmaking and review process their insights and perspectives are essential in building educational plans that truly reflect the needs and strengths of their
children and lastly non-discriminatory assessment is required before a student is identified for special education services evaluations must use valid reliable and culturally responsive tools to ensure that students are fairly and
accurately identified and supported so to understand how these principles come to life in practice it's also helpful to break down the structure of the laws that guide us here in Minnesota so Minnesota statutes are the laws passed by the state legislature and signed by
the governor these statutes provide the broad legal framework for how we operate setting the standards for issues like special education alongside those statutes are Minnesota administrative rules regulations created by state agencies like the Minnesota Department
of Education these rules provide detailed procedures and day-to-day expectations for how to implement the laws while not created by lawmakers directly administrative rules carry the weight of law and undergo public review
before adoption so in summary statutes define the what while the administrative rules define the how so together they ensure our practices are not only legally sound but but grounded in clear actionable steps that support students
these principles and laws are more than just compliance measures they reflect our shared commitment to valuing every learner good evening Chair Swanson school board members and Superintendent Bowman as we continue it's essential to recognize the various disability
categories that determine eligibility for special education services there are 13 categories each presenting its own unique set of challenges requiring tailored support to meet the unique needs of students let's take a closer look at some of the disabilities we serve in
Lakeville speech language impaired includes students who have difficulty with communication including speaking understanding language or using language effectively speech and language services help students improve communication skills for both academic and social
success students who experience challenges with intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior qualify under the category of developmental cognitive disability the severity of this disability can range from mild to profound and support varies depending on the students needs helping them learn
essential life and academic skills students with multiple disabilities that significantly impact their ability to function in academic and daily life settings qualify under the category of severely multiply impaired they may have combinations of cognitive physical and
sensory disabilities requiring intensive support across all areas of life students with physical disabilities have limited mobility or ability to participate in their school activities these students may have conditions like
cerebral palsy or muscular distrophe and often require physical therapy and accommodations to access education students with hearing impairments experience challenges with hearing and communication these students may use hearing aids sign language or
other accommodations to access education and may need speech therapy or other services to enhance communication the category blind visually impaired includes students who have visual impairments that that significantly impact their learning students may be
blind or have low vision and may require braille instruction specialized technology or other accommodations to help them access curriculum materials and the school environment students who qualify for a specific learning disability have difficulties in one or
more area of learning such as reading writing or mathematics these disabilities do not reflect intelligence but indicate a processing issue that can be addressed with interventions accommodations and specialized teaching strategies
students served under the category of emotional behavioral disorder exhibit emotional and behavioral challenges that significantly interfere with their ability to succeed in school they may experience anxiety depression or other mental health conditions and may require
social emotional support counseling or behavioral interventions students who qualify under the category of deafb blind experience both hearing and vision impairments these students require specialized services to support
this dual sensory deficit in the areas of communication mobility and learning often using unique methods such as tactile sign language or braille the category of other health disability includes students with chronic or acute
health conditions such as asthma epilepsy or diabetes that affect their ability to perform in school these students may require accommodations or specialized medical care to ensure they can fully participate in educational activities
students in the autism spectrum disorder category often have challenges with social communication restricted interests and repetitive behaviors the spectrum means that students can exhibit a wide range of abilities so supports are highly individualized to help them
succeed in school and social situations students who have experienced a brain injury due to an accident or trauma could qualify under traumatic brain injury a TBI can lead to changes in cognitive emotional or physical functioning and students may require
services such as physical therapy academic services or counseling to address the effects of the injury the category of developmental delay is for younger students who show significant delays in at least two areas
of development such as physical cognitive communication adaptive or social emotional these students receive early intervention services to help them catch up to their peers and prepare for school each of these categories has its
own set of challenges but they all share a common goal to ensure that students are supported in ways that allow them to access education develop their potential and succeed in their personal and academic lives it's our job to provide the right resources services and
accommodations for each individual student so as we review our special education student population in Lakeville it's important to note that the data we're sharing comes from the Minnesota departments of education December 1st
2024 child count which is conducted annually this child count gives us a snapshot of how many students are receiving special education services under IDA it plays a vital role in securing federal funding and provides a comprehensive picture of our district's
special education landscape so as of December 1st 2024 Lakeville Area Schools was serving 259 students under IDA so when we look at the breakdown by age 3% of our total special education
population here in Lakeville or 70 students across the district were between the ages of birth and two receiving early intervention services 13% or 174 students were between the ages of three and five which
includes both early childhood special education and kindergarten and the largest portion of our students 45% or a thund2 were elementaryaged between 6 and 11 years old students between the ages of 12 and
17 make up 35% of our special education population are totaling 727 students across the district and finally 4% or 86 students were between 18 and 21 years old and participating in our transition
programming looking at the service settings and we'll get more into the service settings too in the next couple of slides 12% of our special education students or 244 students receive services through early intervention our early childhood special education
settings and nearly half of our students 49% or,08 are served in federal setting one which means they spend most of their day in general education settings with limited special education support setting two includes students who
receive more targeted support outside of the general education classroom for part of the day this group accounts for 21 for 21% of our students are 427 individuals 16% or 332 students are
served in federal setting three which provides more intensive support in a specialized setting and 2% or 38 students are served in a federal setting for a highly specialized environment often designed for students with
significant behavioral or medical needs so this data helps us understand not only the range of ages and needs of students across the district but how we structure support across the district okay so as we look at the early stages of a child's development it's
important to recognize how critical the right support is in these foundational years early intervention services and early childhood special education provide specialized support that helps students with disabilities reach their full potential laying the groundwork for
their future success these services which are tailored to each child's unique needs not only focus on the developmental areas that they need that may need more attention but also work in partnership with families to ensure that children are getting the best possible
start so let's take a look at how these services work and the impact they have here on the children in our district so imagine a toddler named Emma who at 18 months isn't yet speaking and struggles with motor skills emma's parents are concerned so they reach out for support
through early intervention services Emma is connected with a team of professionals who work with her at home with the help of speech therapists occupational therapists and a developmental specialist Emma's parents learn how to incorporate intervention strategies into their daily routines
whether it's during bath time playtime or meal time services are provided through the individual family service plan or IFSP designed for children from birth through age two the beauty of early intervention is that it meets
children where they where they are in their home it's about helping parents integrate developmentally supportive activities into their natural routines so that children like Emma can grow in the context of their everyday lives so as Emma approaches her third birthday she
still requires more targeted support and this is where early childhood special education services or ECSE come in now as a part of her individualized education plan Emma's needs are carefully addressed in a more structured setting she may attend programs at the
Crystal Lake Education Center or in a community-based location like a daycare center there Emma receives tailored support in her social skills communication and motor development from a range of professional providers including teachers and speech therapists
so the goal of early childhood special education is to ensure children like Emma are supported in achieving both short-term and long-term goals whether she's learning how to communicate better with her peers are develop the fine motor skills to hold a pencil the
services Emma receives through ECSE set her up for a strong educational foundation as she enters kindergarten uh Director Humphrey are these services the early intervention services and early childhood special education services are those required under the IDEA act as
well yes they are so it doesn't just start at what we would the kindergarten level no it doesn't okay no so as we explore how we serve our youngest learners in special education it's important to understand the case load requirements set by Minnesota
administrative rule 3525.2340 so these guidelines ensure that we provide the appropriate support to children with disabilities in manageable and effective learning environments so for infants and toddlers from birth to age 2 the state requires a
maximum studenttoteer ratio of 12:1 so this means that for every 12 full-time students there must be at least one primary provider responsible for their services this ensures that very young children receive highly individualized and developmentally appropriate support
during this critical stage of early development uh as students grow and enter preschool from ages 3 to five the ratio shifts slightly in these early childhood special education settings the maximum studenttoteer ratio is 16 to1
however even with that broader ratio no more than eight students receiving special education services can be in the classroom at one time if only a teacher and one pair professional are present this structure is intentional as it balances the need to provide inclusive
learning environments with the individualized attention and support for our young learners to thrive these case load guidelines help us ensure that our programming ref remains effective and safe and responsive to the
needs of our students who receive services director Nicholson so based on this and the org chart shown are those do we need uh I mean they have
to have ling lensure um and everything else so do we have 16 teachers doing this stuff no no so in our early childhood setting um it's really broken up by morning sessions and afternoon sessions so where
we have eight student Yeah yep got All right we're making the transition from early childhood to school age settings now so as we continue with our presentation it's important to highlight how the setting levels for students from kindergarten through 12th grade align
with the principles of IDEIDA particularly the least restrictive environment ideida mandates that students with disabilities should be educated with their non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible ensuring that services are delivered in
the most appropriate setting for each student's needs the setting levels in Lakeville are designed to ensure that students receive services in environments that best support their unique needs while these settings help maintain access to the general education
curriculum while also providing the specialized support necessary for each student's success let's explore the different setting levels we use to deliver special education services and see how they support IDA's vision of inclusion and educational access as we
review the setting levels for our special education students it's important to understand the different percentages of the school day they spend in various types of instruction and where these services are provided in federal setting one students
spend 0 to 20% of their school day receiving special education supports these supports may be delivered by pushing into general education classes through co-eing or in special education classrooms this level of service is available at all Lakeville area
schools in federal setting 2 students spend 21 to 60% of their school day receiving specialized instruction this instruction is often provided through resource rooms but may include a combination of general and special education classrooms this setting is
also available at all Lakeville area schools federal setting three involves students spending 61% or more of their school day primarily in a special education classroom with individualized supports this setting is available at the schools
noted here on our slide finally federal setting 4 is for students who receive services in a separate school for more than half of the school day these services are provided through partnership with Intermediate District 917 as we continue to explore the
various special education services available in Lakeville it's important to highlight some of the specialized programs that are designed to meet the unique needs of our students these programs are tailored to address specific challenges and provide the support necessary for students to thrive
both academically and socially let's take a closer look at some of the specialized programs offered to students within our district as I discuss each program you will see on our slide the locations where they are currently located the A+ program is designed for
students with autism spectrum disorder or characteristics of ASD this program focuses on developing key skills such as executive functioning communication self-regulation and social skills this program provides targeted support to
help students navigate challenges and thrive in academic and social settings the ASUS program provides support for students also with characteristics of autism and who have a high level of need for support with communication and self-regulation they focus on using
augmentative and alternative communication or AAC systems as well as functional and adaptive skills students often also receive speech therapy occupational therapy and visual supports to enhance communication and
self-expression the making a positive difference program or MAP program focuses on creating predictable routines and individualized behavior support to meet students emotional and academic needs these students also receive the support of a mental health professional embedded in their program to provide an
environment where students can thrive with the appropriate service supports in place the developmental cognitive delay program offers specialized curriculum and instruction tailored to meet students unique cognitive and learning needs this program emphasizes supporting
functional academic and life skills to allow students to navigate daily life successfully each of these programs are designed to address the unique needs of students and provide specialized supports across various stages of their education ensuring they receive the necessary
supports for success minnesota administrative rule 3525.2340 applies not only to early childhood programs but also guides case loads for school age programs as well this rule establishes guidelines for the maximum number of students per teacher
ensuring students receive the appropriate level of support and specialized instruction it particularly focuses on students who spend 61% or more of their school day in direct special education as well as those who receive full day instruction
for students with severe disabilities such as deaf blindness autism or severe cognitive disabilities the maximum number of students per teacher is three without a pair professional if a pair professional is assigned the number can increase to six students this ensures these students who have more intensive
needs receive the necessary support for their learning i just have one quick question on that um I see that we have like you have the data for students that attend 917 as a separate setting um do we also have students within our district that are
attending the deaf blind school in Farbo and if so like is that documented somewhere else and I just missed it maybe or maybe that's just not we just don't have a lot and that Yeah anyway that's my question we we don't have a lot but we do have some students who are
attending down in Fairb yes yep for students with mild to moderate dis cognitive disabilities or learning disabilities the maximum number of students per teacher is 12 without a pair professional and up to 15 students if a pair professional is present for students with other
disabilities the CAT the case load is set at 10 students per teacher with one pair professional and it can go up to 12 students if two pair professionals are available to support the classroom these guidelines are designed to ensure that each student receives the necessary attention and resources to thrive in a
specialized educational environment with appropriate teacher and paraprofessional support based on the level of disability director Thompson hey so so I appreciate this and I'm I'm trying to follow along with all the data and it feels like it's
a lot of Tetris there's like it's I mean I don't I don't mean to uh like I don't mean to use it as a chest word but it's like you've got folks in federal three you got 332 of from what what I saw but they scan span from kindergarten all the
way to to high school so and so I'm looking at the locations that you offer these services and they're not in every single building and so um and and I believe that the heart of what we want to do is make sure that these kids feel like they're part of school they're part of our community part of the the home so
have them at the uh the closest school possible but when we've got resource constraints and number of pair of professionals that you need like I'm I'm looking at your skill sets i think before you said something about ACES and ASES 2 and and or ASES plus i don't know
if an ACE ACES and an ASES plus TE you know teacher can can do both of them or are they different people i guess I'm looking at your list and you've got a couple locations where we offer these programs so is it kind of like are you trying to create these centers of
excellence or these kind of hubs for Federal 3 students because I look at you know your federal one students they can go to any school because they got zero to 20 but those that might require a little bit additional assistance um we're limiting where they can go and
I'm assuming that's just a byproduct of staff and funding and and you got to kind of pick and choose which buildings that we can offer these services because we can't do it in every single building is that is that my understanding that's correct and and also um the facilities
in some buildings um we have to be cognizant of that too as uh what are the student needs and making sure that we're having students in appropriate buildings that have the structure the physical structure
director Baker uh just in my advocacy work within the district I I will point out that that is something that parents in um the district have brought up several times is that you we understand that there's not a high population of students that are in those federal setting three programs which makes it
virtually impossible for the district to have a program in every single building because we just don't have the student population to do that um but one thing we have continued to request is making sure that when we do have them in separate buildings that they feed into the right um middle school and high
school so for example if you look at where our A+ programs are um at the elementary level the majority of those schools are north schools but then they feed into the South Middle School and the South High School um so it's just things to consider but there's also as
they mentioned um different things within the buildings that make it hard to move those programs um because like right now it's like uprooting something that kids are used to and a teacher and all of the building has grown um to uh become accustomed to
and then moving it to a different building and it's teaching all of the staff and everything which is good because that's inclusion but um also just keeping in mind it is hard to move a program and it is hard to try to get that alignment when this is like something that's been in place for years and and something that kind of happened
like the boundaries right like we started building and this is kind of like a result of the growth that happened within the district and we put programs where we had space at the time and then it became the hodge podge just like the boundaries so it takes a long time to unwind that and try to fix some
of those alignments um so anyway that's just that's just my comment director Anderson I just wanted to I was thinking about the boundaries as you were discussing this and just for our newer board members that was one of the things that I think a lot of people when they were critical of the decision-making they weren't taking
these kinds of things into account in terms of what our what was happening behind the scenes to plan for these programs so Director Thompson is 20% high i I because I don't know i mean when I look at our 12,000 students and if you and if
I heard you correctly we have over 2,000 students that are in the special education category and so that's 8020 you got 20% of our population is in that bucket and then uh for federal 3 you've got 332 which is about 2 and a half% of
our entire population but does is 20% comparable to other districts in regards to special education so this is something I've researched quite extensively recently um and if you look across the state uh you can see our special ed numbers not only within our
own district but across the entire state of Minnesota took um like a big leap upwards after CO uh some of that comes to uh the things that kids experienced during COVID it also significantly impacted kids with disabilities making it like we needed twice as much service
to try to catch up from some of those things based on the fact that they weren't getting the social interactions and things like that that they were before i think it all comes down to like our district MTSS programs and what we have in spa in place for kids now to make sure they're getting those supports before we refer to special education but
um I was talking to someone from Bloomington last week who said um before CO their special ed numbers were at 14% and now after CO they're at 20% that's very consistent with across like every district in the state that's good to know
director Thompson do we have enough funding for this i mean I'm I'm looking at the 16 to1 and the 3:1 and So would you like me to talk about the special ed cost
subsidy even I think it's important like just like let like to be know to know what's going on i mean if 20% of our population is this you've got you know 427 in federal 2 332 in federal 3 and if we've got limitations and if the intent is we want make sure our students can go
to their schools closest to them have them feel part of the process but I also understand you know it takes additional resources due to uh you know legal requirements that we have to staff and so go ahead Bill
they're good to that i mean well even with the C I mean even the change last year I I want uh two things one is the um the cross subsidy uh where we sit at with that cross subsidy refers to the amount of dollars that are
uh allocated to special ed to make up for the requirements that we have and that has to come from the general fund number yeah our our current cross be right at about $7 million that we're subsidizing from the general fund to pay and that would be the best way that I
could isolate and articulate what the shortfall is financially in in uh in Lakeville area schools specifically for one year so given her history of the implementation of IDA which happened in 1975 and the federal
government was supposed to provide 40% of that funding that has never happened ever the most we've had is what like 12 15% so for since 1975 it's literally never been funded so then you wonder why the cross subsidy keeps going like this
and why districts keep saying we don't have any money this is exactly why because even though a student qualifies for special ed and we receive funding from the federal government a little bit and then from the state it's still pulling from the general fund so it's it's like robbing Peter to pay Paul like
it's it's the same pot of money because we just don't have enough money to cover it so we spend like $25 million for our school district and of that $25 million how much is allocated towards special education funding ballpark is it about 45ish i believe it's it's right around
$40 million so 40 million and then of that 40 million we only get funding for about 33 if we're $7 million short is that accurate and so we're taking that seven million from the general fund to make sure that we have we're meeting the state requirements and Okay will the
state and federal requirements that we're mandated by law to provide which is why I keep bringing up the fact that if you're watching what's going on in Minnesota right now with the governor's plan for the budget two things that are on the chopping block for special education is the prorate and that's how
much they reimburse the districts for special education that's typically 99% that's to drop down to 94% so think of $40 million and how much 5% of that would be and then also the second one is to not reimburse fully special education
transportation so those are two big hits to every school district in Minnesota when we're already short to begin with i think you're stealing Bill's thunder yeah but just but but just to be clear that's that's a proposal that's a proposal it's it's not been passed into
law so let's um temper that with the reality of the fact that the legislature uh gets the final word i mean it is an interesting position you're put in as a school district though because there's the requirement and if you don't satisfy those requirements you know you open yourself up to liability and so you have
to find the money elsewhere so did you say we were at I only wanted to note that there was a change last year with an additional 6 million or 7 million for the cross subsidy so we used to be 14 or 15 million in the whole 14 so now we're it's it's still terrible
but it's better than it used to be sorry you can go ahead all right lakeville partners with Intermediate District 917 to provide highquality specialized services that complement and enhance Oh I'm sorry my computer just went
down the educational opportunities available to our students through this collaboration we ensure students with specific needs such as those with sensory impairments physical disabilities or those requiring specialized support have access to the resources and programs that best support
their success this partnership enables us to offer specialized services like aiology physical therapy and programs for students with severe disabilities as well as transition services for young adults preparing for life after school our partnership with district 917
currently serves 85 Lakeville students across a range of specialized programs this includes 44 students ages 18 to 21 who are enrolled in the transitional education service alternative or TESSA program designed to provide essential
support as they transition to adulthood and life beyond high school additionally three Lakeville students are participating in the early childhood therapeutic educational alternative or TE program which offers therapeutic and educational services for our youngest learners with significant emotional and
mental health needs currently there are eight Lakeville students waiting for placement in District 917 programs during this waiting period we work collaboratively as the IEP team to identify and implement alternative programming options to ensure that students continue to receive appropriate
services while awaiting placement by working together with District 917 we are able to ensure that every student in Lakeville receives the tailored support they need to thrive in their educational journey in Lakeville we believe that all
students are our students regardless of the educational setting their parents or guardians choose for them this includes students in private schools partial hospitalization programs homeschooling homebound situations and homebased services we are committed to providing
the necessary support to all students as mandated by Minnesota administrative rules and statutes there are five private schools located within Lakeville Area Schools boundaries all Saints Catholic School Glory Academy Christian Heritage Academy
One School Global and South View Christian Academy in accordance with Minnesota statute special education and related services are provided to students attending these schools these students are transported to Lakeville area school sites for their services and currently we have 23 students from these
private institutions receiving special education support for students enrolled in partial hospitalization programs sorry how does the funding for that work i mean do we just cover the cost of that
or is there anything we receive same way as our students here in Lakeville but Yep same way i mean do we get any are you asking if we get any compensation for from private schools for providing those services or from the state no okay so so so for the 22 students 23 students
that are taking classes outside our boundaries we are funding their transportation to that location no this is within the boundaries also for the private schools right so we are funding their their transportation to
that school and then and we are providing services we are providing services at that school as well for those students correct and then the state then funds which school for that student do they do they fund the private
school or do they fund us for that student no so it's our I'm sorry they're included in our account so we get funding for them correct but but we're providing the services and the
transportation uh for them to take and the teacher elsewhere most of the funding that we receive for special education is a reimbursement process with the teachers that work so wherever we have services going on we get a partial repayment of those
services that's how it it works so when you say partial like that's the proration I was talking about so like typically that that refers to the proration so that was what I was referring to like typically would get reimbured at the end of the year for 99% of those services
but again that's one of the things that they're considering which would be 94% so even with 99 it's not a full rate back and then also any students that come into the district after that October 1st like we have to pay all of that in advance and then we're
reimbursed so even like the reimbursement rate that we're getting this year is based on last year's numbers that that's very correct director Nicholson is there any recourse for us to request any funding
from other schools or other ways or is that not legal it's not legal anything else okay for students enrolled in partial
hospitalization programs such as children's mental health clinic both general education and special education services are required to be provided these programs are designed to support students with serious mental health conditions by providing them with the therapeutic and academic support they
need to succeed while receiving care throughout the course of this year 88 students have received support in this program we also serve homeschooled students by providing special education and related services at their neighborhood schools
this enables homeschooled students to access the academic environment and necessary supports to meet their individual educational needs at present we have eight students enrolled in this category for students who are homebound due to medical conditions special
education and general education services are provided directly at the students home this program is designed for students who are unable to attend school due to their medical conditions currently eight students are receiving special education services in this
way lastly for students receiving homebased services as determined by their IEP team services are delivered at the students home or a community location this approach is tailored to meet the needs of students who require specialized services outside of a
traditional school setting we currently serve four students in this category this comprehensive inclusive approach ensures that every student in Lakeville receives the support they need no matter where they are educated whether they attend a private school are
part of a mental health program or receive services in a home or alternative setting we are dedicated to providing equitable individualized services to all students in order to provide the best possible educational experience for students with disabilities a collaborative team of professionals
plays an essential role in supporting their academic social and emotional needs each member of this team contributes unique expertise to help students succeed in an inclusive and supportive environment this slide highlights the various staff roles that
support our students with disabilities showing how these professionals work together to ensure every student receives the individualized attention and services they need to thrive special education teachers are at the core of this team providing individualized instruction and support
tailored to each students unique needs they help students engage with the curriculum and develop skills to succeed academically behaviorally and socially using a variety of teaching methods and accommodations occupational therapists or OT's assist students by helping them
develop the necessary skills for daily living and participation in school activities through physical and sensory interventions ots support students in areas such as fine motor skills self-care and sensory processing speech language pathologists
or SLPs focus on students speech language and communication skills by working closely with students they address challenges related to speech clarity language communication comprehension and social communication enhancing students ability to
communicate effectively with peers teachers and families developmental adapted physical education or DAPE teachers adapt physical education programs to meet the specific needs of students with disabilities dape teachers focus on promoting physical
activity motor skills coordination and social interaction through customized physical education activities school psychologists are an integral part of the team supporting students mental health and academic success they conduct assessments to
identify students learning needs provide counseling services to address emotional and behavioral concerns oops and collaborate with teachers and families to create effective interventions related services nurses
who are distinct from building nurses play an essential role in managing the health rellated needs of students with disabilities they ensure that medical conditions are addressed appropriately and that students receive the necessary care and accommodations to participate fully in school
activities par professionals work closely with teachers and other staff to provide direct support in the classroom they assist students with learning help implement individualized education plans and provide individual or small groupoup assistance to ensure students have the
support they need to succeed together these professionals create a comprehensive network of support that ensures all students with disabilities receive the resources guidance and care they need to succeed by working collaboratively these staff members help
create an environment that fosters growth inclusion and academic achievement for every student in Lakeville we recognize that pair professionals are an essential part of our educational team supporting students with disabilities their contributions are invaluable as they
work closely with students teachers and other staff to create a learning environment that is both inclusive and supportive par professionals help implement individualized education plans assist with academic activities support self-regulation and behavior skills and
provide direct support to ensure students with disabilities have the resources they need to succeed we view them as key members of our educational team and their work significantly impacts the academic success and well-being of our students in Minnesota the qualifications
for pair professionals are outlined in Minnesota statute section 120b.363 the state has required pair professionals to meet one of three criteria completing at least two years of college credits earning an associates degree or
passing a formal assessment such as the PAR educator or PAR protest these requirements were established to ensure that PAR professionals have the necessary skills and knowledge to work with students with disabilities and meet their unique educational needs in Lakeville we uphold these state
standards and ensure that our pair professionals are wellprepared for their important role in our classrooms the district has made it a priority to support pair professionals in becoming highly qualified by providing various resources and opportunities for professional development our pair professionals have
access to online accounts where they can view training modules and practice tests giving them the tools they need to improve their skills and stay informed about best practices in special education testing sessions for the PAR educator test are offered throughout the winter and spring of 2024 and 2025 and
additional testing dates are available in April and May for pair professionals who wish to take the test the district also worked with community education to offer a course designed to help pair professionals sorry u prepare and take the pair educator test while we face
challenges in securing a teacher for the course this effort represents our ongoing commitment to providing professional development opportunities for our pair professionals currently we have seven remaining professionals who are working towards meeting this criteria overall Lakeville is dedicated
to supporting our pair professionals in their continued growth and development by offering access to resources training and testing opportunities we ensure that they are well equipped to provide the highest level of support to students with disabilities we understand the crucial role pair professionals play in
supporting student success and we are committed to providing them with the tools and resources they need to thrive in their roles this year Lakeville has faced significant staffing challenges particularly with licensed teachers and related services staff several key areas
that have been impacted by staffing shortages requiring the district to rely on tier 1 and tier 2 licenses out of field placements and contractors to fill critical roles these challenges have been especially pronounced in special education and related services where the
demand for highly qualified staff has outpaced availability in Minnesota there are pathways used to address staffing gaps for teachers working outside of their lensure fields a tier one license valid for one school year allows teachers who hold a
bachelor's degree or meet specific exemptions to work in areas outside their lensure these teachers can hold up to four tier one licenses including the initial license and three renewals in contrast a tier 2 teacher license is valid for up to two years and is
available to teachers enrolled in a preparation program holding a master's degree or those who have completed a teacher preparation program but have not yet met lensure requirements for a tier three or four out of field permissions or OFPS
are available to tier 2 three or four licensed teachers allowing them to teach outside their lensure field or grade level for one academic year teachers are allowed a maximum of five OFPS throughout their careers
i think they I think they recently um because of the sh the shortage across the state um Pellsby recently passed an update to that saying that they could that they weren't putting a limit on special ed teachers that just happened yeah it literally just happened because
this is not unique to Lakeville at the early childhood level we currently have one tier one teacher in place additionally three positions are filled with out of field staff remain meaning these educators are not specifically trained or licensed in the exact area they are teaching while this
is not ideal it is necessary to ensure that services are still being provided to our youngest learners who require special education support at the elementary level there are three staff members in out of field placements in addition there is one open position
for a full-time ASD center-based teacher the district is also utilizing two tier 2 teachers to meet instructional needs for related services we have three psychologists who are either contractors or working virtually and four occupational therapists with one working
as a contractor and three taking on extra duties or overages to cover gaps the district is facing a significant shortage of speech language pathologists with seven total four of whom are contractors and three managing overages in their case loads
director Thompson so you've got a virtual psychologist in our elementary buildings and so when a first grader wants to talk to someone they talk to a monitor there are other support staff in the building that would be available to talk to them including like the school
counselor or the principal or their teacher yeah but but if we've got a full-time virtual psych right okay so our virtual school psychologists really are working um only with the assessment and evaluations of students
so being able to that's part of one of the challenges that we've had is that um when we have school psychologists in the building they were um that staff where students could go and talk to or if there was behavior challenges they were there to help support um so we we are
have a very concerted effort to um bring back full-time school psychologist in person uh for next year and that's part of the um our process where we got the staffing out earlier and being able to have those positions posted um and
hopefully attract qualified candidates uh Director Carbone are there any specific uh incentives recruiting programs anything that would create an appeal to come to Lakeville School District for these kinds of positions i
mean they're um you know I know they're sought after i know as uh director Baker said they're spread thin across the state but is there anything that can be done to sort of create a motivation or an incentive to want to come to Lakeville
i would say yes we we haven't developed that right now we don't there's not an incentive program right now but um we certainly are very open to being creative in how we can attract the best and the brightest director Thompson and and so are we
using contractors because a there's not enough staff that will apply or they won't apply because we can't or we're not as competitive financially like school psychologists are hard to
find in general um and so we we did have um quite a few who resigned last year and so being able to make up for um to find people to get in those positions has been challenging this year and because of that we've had to rely mostly
on contractors to be able to do the bare minimum of being able to do those initial special education evaluations or re-evaluations director Anderson can I just clarify those so um just because I work as a neurosychologist and I have done virtual
work and it's very challenging just even with adults um and so I'm just thinking about how so all of our special education like learning disability evaluations for instance are happening virtually so I so there are pieces so
our contractors are doing some assessments online and they're determining this as a team at the building level and then they do come in um to do some sort of assessments depending on what the need is yes because I agree right right doing some
assessments over over the computer is not ideal i think we learned that during COVID um when we when we had to and um so we really are working to the teams are working to whatever that assessment is if we can get the contractors in so
they're kind of like on a hybrid they do both okay just want to clarify thank you do you have any thoughts on why um why we're able to obtain contractors and not full-time employees in those positions is it a compensation thing where they get more salary as a contractor as opposed to a
full-time employee of the district you know that's a really good question uh I you know I mean I guess I would say the trend over these last couple of years that I've seen is um in particular school psychologist and speech language
pathologist um we have a lot that are going to outside agencies where we where many districts are needing to use those contracted services um I I don't have a reason why why that's happening but just over the last couple of years I've
that's what I've personally noticed i would say two things is what I've noticed um when you have people that are going through the contracted services a lot of them want virtual and then the reason that a lot of speech pathologists go to the contracted service versus applying for the district is because it
gives them a little bit more of a bartering chip with their case loads to realize like a a typical speech pathologist right now in the state of Minnesota like the case load is like 60 to 65 students and that's being very generous some districts are higher than that some districts are a little bit
lower but thinking about that um you know they're required to write progress reports like three to four times a year 60 to 65 students that doesn't count the evaluations that doesn't count all the other paperwork associated with that so there's a burnout rate with it and you know if you're with a contracted service
you can say "Well I'm only available part-time so that's just what I can I can do for your district." So you have a little bit more say in what you do all right think we were at the middle school level at the middle school level we have
three tier 2 teachers one of whom is an out of field placement and one centerbased teacher role that is filled by a contractor in related services one occupational therapist is taking o an overage and one speech language pathologist is also covering additional responsibilities there are four
psychologists all of whom are contractors and working virtually or some models of hybrid additionally two social workers are serving as contractors at the high school level we are also facing staffing shortages one centerbased teacher role is filled by a contractor and there is one resource
teacher position unfilled we have two tier one teachers in place and one speech language pathologist working as a virtual contractor the high school also has three psychologists two of whom are virtual contractors as demonstrated across all grade levels the district is relying
heavily on contractors and virtual staff to ensure that students continue to receive the necessary support and services while this approach helps meet immediate staffing needs it does does present challenges in terms of continuity and consistency for students particularly when it comes to
specialized roles like speech language pathologists and psychologists we are committed to addressing these staffing challenges by working proactively to secure staff early for the upcoming fall this will help reduce reliance on overages and out of field placements and contractors by
taking these steps our goal is to ensure that all students who receive special education services receive the highquality education and services they deserve despite the current challenges we remain focused on providing the best possible support for our students okay okay so we've talked a
little bit about this already but just still want to go over it again so when supporting students with disabilities our work is grounded in several critical legal mandates that ensure both compliance and equity these li laws guide how we deliver services ensuring
students with disabilities receive the support they need uh so again at the federal level level IDA guarantees every eligible student access to a free and appropriate education in that least restrictive environment so IDA outlines
how schools must create and implement individual education plans and determines the the types of services students are entitled to based on those unique needs so Minnesota special education statute Minnesota statute 125A
builds on IDA by adding important state specific requirements this includes service provisions for students from birth through 8 through 21 or up to age 22 with an emphasis on transition services to prepare students for life beyond high school the law reinforces
procedural safeguards to ensure that families are fully informed and actively involved in decisions about their child's education a key financial requirement is maintenance of effort uh this mandate requires districts to sustain or increase their special education
spending to remain eligible for federal funding it is designed to prevent reductions in services and ensure ongoing investment in students with disabilities so compliance with due process is another essential element uh
schools must follow all IDA and state requirements when developing individual education plans and delivering those services families are protected by legal rights that include dispute resolution options such as mediation and due process
hearings when disagreements arise these safeguards ensure transparency accountability and that families have meaningful avenues to advocate for their child together these legal frameworks form the foundation of special education ensuring that we meet our
responsibilities with integ integrity and consistency so as we look at the funding that supports our special education programs it's important to understand both the federal and state sources that make it possible these funding streams ensure we
can meet legal requirements in continuing offering the level of support our students need so at the federal level IDEIDA plays a key role with two main components of funding part C and part B part C provides early
intervention services for children from birth to age three focusing on helping young young children with disabilities get a strong start in their educational journey part B provides funding for special education services for students age three to through 21 supporting
students across stages of their education at the state level we also received the general education aid which includes a portion dedicated to special education this helps support our overall education system and ensures resources are available for students with
disabilities additionally we receive special education aid which is designed to reimburse districts for the cost of serving students with disabilities the re this reimbursement is based on the number of students we serve and the actual costs we incur helping offset
some of those expenses so despite these funding sources there's often a cross subsidy that requires us to use general education funds to cover the difference between the funding we receive and the true the true cost of providing special education services uh
finally we also take advantage of Medicaid reimbursement for school-based services which allows us to recover some of the costs for providing therapeutic services such as speech therapy occupational therapy physical therapy and mental health services this
reimbursement helps reduce the financial burden on our district while ensuring students continue to receive the care they need so in summary the combination of federal and state funding along with Medicaid reimbursement plays a vital role in role in ensuring that we can
provide the necessary services for students so in closing special education is a service tailored to meet the unique needs of each student recognizing that every student has their own strengths and learns in different ways our role as
educators is to support each student's journey providing the resources and opportunities they need to succeed and we want to thank the school board tonight for allowing us this opportunity to come and highlight the incredible students educators and families we have here in
Lakeville thank you thank you Director Thompson yeah so I appreciate the the overview um super helpful for me and I think over the past few years I've learned a lot but not as much as in the special education space uh I would ask two questions one uh are we meeting
state requirements at a district and then the second question is like what do you need like what are the top three things you need that we should be that we need we need to be aware of like what do you need oh I hear [Laughter]
chatter uh so I will say yes um yes we are meeting requirements um and we're doing it within the resources that we have although um the resources are limited
um we the number of students that we have who receive special education services um is is growing um we've had quite a few and Alisa may know a little bit better how many initial evaluations special education evaluations that we've
done this year but um feedback that we get and that we see in the schools is that we have teachers our resource teachers with really high case loads um and students who are coming with some unique challenges that um just need some more support and I think a lot of that
too is stemming from COVID is we've just seen students who need um who need more support than what was previously needed so um staffing is is key um and then also being able to provide uh really
robust professional development and training so staff feel equipped to be able to to work with all of our students what do you have for like systems in place in terms of documentation and all that kind of stuff because I mean I'm
I'm just thinking through your case load i mean good gracious you guys probably have paperwork beyond belief what do what's been done in terms of streamlining that process making it easier for you like better interfaces so that it's not as hard you don't have to
put things into 12 systems at once that kind of stuff like is have we done any of that kind of stuff to try to minimize data entry points you know put it in one system and it you're laughing so I'll let you I'm assuming everything is in campus right
no no so what so why were we not using campus then um so for a special education due process system that actually generates the majority of our um or our teachers forward- facing paperwork for families
is um called sped forms um and that system and infinite campus do talk to each other more kind of campus talks to sped forms than vice versa and so we've had a lot of collaboration this year around our student services student
information team SIS team and um our special education administrative assistants to really look at ways to kind of better align those systems and find ways to kind of automate some of those data sharing points so there's not as much manual entry that needs to
happen into all of those things so we are continuing to learn and work on exploring those ways to make those systems work better together um but we do use a combination of um both of those things as well as we rely a lot on our um special education due process clerks
um to help support um continuing to keep track of all of the moving pieces that happen within um our students world director Anderson thank you i just want to clarify with regard to our recent levy where we went out for behavioral
instructional support specialists or I can't remember the term exactly how does this relate or not relate to special ed are they relevant for the EBD programs or students or is that more mainstream um they deal with behaviors coming up in
classrooms that aren't related to special ed yeah uh it it was it's more for the preventative um so doesn't not No okay i just want to clarify yeah appreciate
all right thank you thank you appreciate it bill if you don't mind I think we'll take a short little break here because we've been going for almost two hours let's come back at uh 8:05 she's so cute all right we are back
on and we're going to turn it over to uh Director Homegrren to discuss the fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget yes Sheriff Swanson members of the school board Superintendent Bowman thank you for having us tonight um we have a
couple things we want to go um through right up front here we don't have the microphone [Music] ah here we go we're going to take a couple minutes and talk about the current year budget just to show you how the budget's u responding going through
this year and then we'll talk about the preliminary budget i just really want to say that the preliminary budget this is April this is our first draft first run through you know you will see changes in it before we get to June these are not final numbers by any means but we don't
expect large large changes um when we look talk about revenues um they're pretty solid dependent of course what the legislature does so first we're going to talk about the update all right so if we're looking at
the current year budget by object code it's behaving as planned so this is how we expected it to look we're happy with where we're at um nothing really outlandish stands out to me except for supplies but that's
what's Oh how do I go back that one okay uh supplies and capital they're pretty close with that one i mean they're down i would actually that's acting okay um about in line with where it's at and
capital expenditures that we have a few LTFM expenses that I know are coming that we just had a large expense for in this month a little a little bit when when we borrow money sell bonds um we're limited
to how much money we can make on those bonds before we use them um the IRS if they see us make money on money that we borrow they make us give the revenue back to them okay it's called arbitrage okay so what we did um earlier on is
most of our expense for LTFM ran through fund six because we needed to get the expenditures up in fund six not to pay the arbitrage payment okay with that being said then fund one we cut way back on but now as we go through the spring fund one's going to be hit pretty hard
going up into June so yes that capital expenditures are less than have been but that's the reason why um that they're less they will catch up okay you can likely see it catch up when we show this uh next time around in showing March
instead of February director Thompson so will you say then uh for the supplies of materials at 51% and capital expenditures at 38% that is the norm so then hopefully next year we'll see the similar it should be in a range give or take but
it wouldn't be this big jump of 73% or 75 because we went and borrowed more money and there's reasons why there's an influx likely yes uh looking at expenditures by program area it's more or less the same story um I do want to point out again that
community ed the reason why it is 0% in uh fiscal year 23 is due to the unemployment with um community ed we pay that out of the general fund it doesn't come out of the community ed fund it's just how that is and that's when that
started to be enacted okay thank you Jack okay just a quick reminder of our our cycle and you see there on the top says June preliminary budget approval so we're working towards June to bring that budget to you we have to have a budget in place before June is over in order to
spend any money in July for our staff um so actually um being April right now this is a little earlier than we brought the budget in the past um but I think we I feel pretty strong and pretty good about where we sit and uh these numbers that are coming up and just so you know that's intentional
to bring it this early yes okay thank you um back to our enrollment of course our enrollment drives our revenue and as you can see this is the uh projection we've been using all year and when we look at
the the students now that we have in class this is right on track of where um where we're going to be so we really expect that 12140 when we get to October one of next year now things that we don't have you know kind of finalized in this budget
you know so we talk about budget factors that are kind of still open so um actual retirements you know we we budget for we get about an average about 16 retirements a year of course that saves us some money because we're hiring a new person at a lower amount at this point in time we have 10 retirements that we
know about uh so we do expect that to be pretty close to the 16 but of course that can change um and then of course the actual hiring where are we actually hire the new person that comes in where where are they going to be on the step and lane so um you know we estimate that at this point and as as through go
through the spring we actually get the hiring done we will put the actuals in of exactly where they are technology still has some open um some open items they're working on um a lot of different um um projects and we haven't got all the final contracts in yet so that's
still a little bit of open director Carbone yeah bill um I know you mentioned that when somebody actually retires that you can hire someone at a less expensive salary but aren't there expenses that we pay as a school
district to retirees that just go out to perpetuity well not perpetuity okay um two large Well I'm I'm going to call them large but there's two pieces that um staffing gets as they retire number one they have
a retirement account an HRA account but we pay for that as it goes so when they retire that's fully funded i don't have to come up with more funds to put in their HRA but depending on their age when they retire we do pay some insurance benefits up to age 65 so and
actually we've saw that now if people are tending to work a little longer than they have in the past so that cost actually for us is a little less than it's been in the past when we look at a long range time people are are getting up up into their 60s before they retire
before a lot of lot of wind went at 55 director Thompson can you clarify if if I was a teacher and I chose to retire at the age of 55 uh and you're saying that the school district is responsible for paying their health benefits between 65
and 55 and 65 correct okay and so if the individual chooses to elect the family plan or the individual plan or whatever may be and then they choose pay for example if they choose the $20 co-pay plan it's and it's a family plan it's a
$38,000 expense for the next 10 years the the the amount that we pay is the same whether they're a co-pay plan or a or a 500 deductive plan or the high deductible plan we pay the same amount i don't have that number in front of me as but the staff is responsible for their share of the premiums okay so it's still
a co-share for Okay but the district is still responsible for that$10 to $25,000 district um responsibility for each year okay um the other we'll talk about this in a little bit now state legislation some
things that are are we've been watching very closely um things that we know are going to affect us and things that we don't know um first of all summer unemployment as you know when they first put this in place two years ago um they set aside $135 million to cover
districts as we get these expenses so we do expect um for fiscal 26 that we should get most of this funding we don't know exactly where it's going to be it's going to be very close now there is legislation in place to put more away for school districts but of course that
hasn't been voted on but we don't know but at this point we haven't um added any expenditures to this budget because we we do feel that that will be covered now we talked earlier about special education and right now already in the year that we're in we are being prrated
by 5% so this 5% you can see it's about $1.5 million this has been worked into the budget so the numbers we're giving you tonight have that hund that 1.5 million included uh now as you know the governor had talked about decreasing special ed
transportation um this one um we we don't know what's going to happen here you can see the cost for us is about 267,000 at this point though that is not included just so you're aware uh compensatory the there's um different Yeah director Thompson can you go back
to the special education proration you said the 5% is already uh uh has already been removed from this year's budget correct or for next year we're talking about 26 for 26 but this is affecting us this year too it is so then we're already we are already m So we are
already impacted by the 5% reduction and so then next year it really shouldn't be a reduction this is a continuation of what we're already doing yeah what so I don't understand why there's a negative 1.5 does that make sense or maybe I'm not understanding this from the revenue that we should receive for special
education we're going to receive $1.5 million less for fiscal 26 but I but we're already receiving it less now so it's almost so there isn't a change from this year and next year am I you well there is because the budget
that we're in this year the 5% is not figured in we're just going to be short $1.5 million when we get to the end of this fiscal year so then when they pass the law it's going to retro and then we're going to get hit one 5% this year is that what I'm hearing we're already being hit 5% the last report it's a
reimbursement it's a reimbursement got it okay the last report I received there was a 5% proration on the special ed reports already already already got it okay okay compensatory you've heard a lot about a compensatory these are dollars
that are generated from our free and reduced um kids um that help us support these kids you can see now we have built this into the budget these the 2.3 million is what are on the report what we expect to get and you can see that it's a half million
dollars less um than the year that we're in now we might get some of these funds this this has a little more traction at the state level so we're hoping we get some of these funds back but right now we've built that 500 in uh something else is very interesting
to watch um as you know we have besides our operating levy there's an local optional revenue which which we levy it's um the state understands that they don't have enough money given to school districts so they allow school districts
to levy funds to help cover that it's called L or local optional revenue okay which we do at $724 per pupil unit um they're looking at renaming that to just calling it basic supplemental aid so I'm
not sure the the dynamics behind that exactly why they want to change the name but the interesting piece here is the first hundred would be shifted to state aid which right now we don't get any state aid for any of these um levy items so $1.3 million even though it's not going to change our revenue we still get
the funds either way but it would come as an aid instead of a levy so this is something that would help our levy go down for our for our taxpayers but of course the state's telling us they don't have any money so I'm not sure how much traction we have here but it's very interesting to watch some of these things um going through the legislation
the other thing that's really received some traction here the last week or so is as you know um last legislative session they put an inflation factor in the formula allowance that if the if the um computer the consumer price index was
higher than 2% or less than 3% we would get whatever that is um past practice we usually get about 2% new money from the state on a yearly basis um we actually got a got a report from MDE saying we're going to get 2.74% that's what we've built in now
into the budget um but they're talking about actually eliminating that and taking it back out just we just got it so that's another $700,000 um change so just so you're aware we're watching it very close um most of the funding bills need to be in place or
move forward by this end of this week so we'll have a better idea where we're at so these are some open items that we just wanted you to be aware of director Baker I just want to point out that after the presentation that we had from special education and looking at this slide right here this is why it's so
important to advocate to your state representatives your federal representatives because right now the things that are happening are at the state and the federal level that is going to come down and impact every district for at least $2 million that's a lot of money that we have to come up
with all of a sudden and it's going to cut all of our other services so I just am putting it out there like please write your your state representatives please write your federal representatives please advocate for this um I just want to add as a as a special
education um professional that even with the federal protections that we currently have in place those cuts are all special ed um and I'm very concerned about what will happen at the federal level without that protection so that's
just something to keep in mind director Thompson yeah I want to go back to this local optional revenue so if the community property taxes or tax levy goes down by 1.3 but it's coming from the state as 1.3 then to me it's like a
wash we should there so there shouldn't really be a negative so when I see the fiscal year funding of 1.3 listed as a favorable we should almost put an asterisk where it's actually we're not making any money because the we're getting less in tax revenue and so he
has changed zero okay got it never mind yeah I guess I I wanted to bring it up just because there's a chance that would actually affect our levy actually decrease our levy but yes it does not affect our in this piece it doesn't affect our revenue okay all right so we'll know morely by
the end of the week yeah and just want to say this is this is kind of normal this is the way it goes when the legislature is in session um and and why I wanted Bill to lay this out is so that you see that we're tracking and that we are looking at what
the effects of the budget is and to understand what the planning assumptions are as we're reporting today okay are you also assuming for purposes of this budget that um the levy will be renewed as well that that is true now remember that the levy dollars that we've talked
about they're for fiscal 27 not fiscal 26 okay but yes at this point our assumptions are they would be renewed okay let's talk about um revenue okay now as you can see we're looking at about $3.7 million um in state sources
you see that 2.54 point again sorry I can't talk tonight um is less than the 2.74 that's because we have some of these other pieces that we're not um not going to get property taxes you see we've talked about this in the past we have a
decrease um of 2.3 million now that's a this is a one-time decrease a couple years ago um we had some inflation adjustments kind of a catchup the state's catching up with us so we had some extra we we had we had it levy they
finally showed up but at the same time as you know our our enrollment has slowed um considerable from 2% down to about 1% so that's why we're seeing this decrease next year we'll see um that number come back up okay director
Carbone yeah Bill um if if we play what if and the feds and and they've talked about it but it hasn't happened yet the feds block grant the federal money back to the states for education what's your opinion on how that will
affect this or do you think it'll even happen the the federal funds you'll see here in a minute that we get from from the federal government is very small it's only about one like what 4% of our budget I believe yeah it's like 3.3 million or something like that um which almost entirely is special ed special
education um that's the majority of it and it's the other is the title grants that we receive so yes I'd like to take a crack at that yeah go ahead um so one of the things that concerns me most is not so much what's written on the wall
and obvious it's the when you get a federal block grant that goes to a state and let's call it for education um and if that were to get cut off what is supplanted at the state level currently because of that flow of money that's
where I think we could realize effects across all school districts in the state of Minnesota um by supplanting I mean because because I am the state and I get X dollars I can take state money and put it over here it becomes an
accounting shift right um when that federal money is not coming anymore and that shifting now has to shift again that's the supplanting concern that I have because I I couldn't identify for you where that is or how that will impact because I don't know those
numbers but that's where my concerns lie until then there to cut it off the the the funding within the state would have to go through a legislative process so we would be able to see it coming doesn't mean it make it easier to deal
with it just means you can see it coming and maybe make some some changes in your system but it's like co during COVID we here we are doing our thing and the next thing you know we're having to change like every
eight hours the whole district plan um so I won't say I'm not used to it but I wouldn't like it um but I'll also say this though that concern that's what concerns me uh Director Carbone is the
supplanting that we don't know about and can't identify sitting here today okay so back to federal sources and at this point we we assume we're going to get the same but we really don't know until the legislature kind of gets done here um our local other these are uh
these are these are fees that we collect you go to a ball game the kids pay a fee to be in a sport and so forth and and when we get some small grants from the county and so forth that's what that's what's sitting in this line um when we kind of break down the state a little bit just you see where these numbers are
coming from the formula allowance at 2.74% increases our revenue by $200 per per people unit which generates us $2.6 million when we look at the enrollment change we're looking at 111 new ADM for next year at the formula allowance uh
generates us at 830,000 um the other state aid pieces that are there um of course until we know what the legislature is going to do is um the biggest piece of this is that um support piece the uh student support
increases in 26 from what we had in 25 so total of 37 so that's where 37's coming from when we look at the levy kind of break it down a little bit you can see again the unassigned piece um that is where our operating levy is that's where
our L is and that's where the adjustments at the 2.3 um the assigned the assigned revenue pieces these are these are revenue amounts that are always always levy there's no state well I shouldn't say no state there's some
small pieces in some so it's hard to give you all the details here but we're looking at a small small decrease in the net tax capacity portion um for an example our ANI grant sits in here where a third of it comes um from the from the
local taxpayer um this is where some of our capital dollars come from this is where some of um unemployment comes from anyway small decrease there but then on our capital side we're seeing some increase there um so between all the net tax capacity is about a
wash anyway it was a total of 53 million on general fund almost 54 director Thompson so so I'm just going to So thank you for this i I want to make sure I'm I'm on the same page so uh we would have had roughly an increase of about $3.7 million for this year uh but
due to the property tax uh recalibration from the previous year we are uh subtracting 2.3 million so that's leaving us just 1.8 million in positive revenue or the delta change from from last year to this year or for the upcoming okay now for then if one wanted
to if one wanted to you know hypothesize for the following year if the percentages stayed the same uh it would be let's say 3.7 for revenue next year uh but then we would kind of re we would get back the property tax losses of 2.3 meaning that in year two we'd have
roughly I'm just making it up roughly about sixish million yes then Okay got it thank you that's correct oh you're still up all right so we already uh talked a little bit about federal but just to kind of go to that point um we are not
changing our federal amount because we do not know it as of right now and kind of see where the legislation or lands or where what happens with the um federal funds in general overall we are not overly concerned with not receiving the
funds because they are in law so one way or another we do need to receive those unless it goes through an act of Congress that's kind of where we see it at right now uh the local other at 499,000 a lot of that is due to um LCTS
which is local collaborative time uh time study so that's about what 250,000 175 175 sorry and then a uh there's a couple other factors that line that it's just interest um small earnings but we are seeing a increase there yeah I think
you know part of that is because we have a larger fund balance than we've had in the last couple years so we actually are receiving more um earnings plus the interest rates have been up you know from two years ago up quite a bit so one small silver lining we have
uh so just looking at revenue we just want to point out that about 65% of our revenue is actually um unassigned so free cash flow while the other 35% of it is restricted is set aside for specific purposes we need to spend it on these
purposes otherwise it just kind of sits there so here this just kind of gives you a picture of where the money is coming from again here um actually I had a little high federal sources actually is only 1% of our budget where our property taxes you know what you pay to the school district what what you pay your
portion of the school that comes to us through the county is 25% of our budget by far the majority of the budget comes from the state of Minnesota there at 60 69 70% okay we're going to talk about some expenditures i guess I want to point out first that our overall expenditures are
increasing by 3.28% so um you know really a reasonable amount when we jump back up to salaries you see that we have a 4.8% piece there um that's just not 4% on everybody's salary or almost 5% on everybody's salary if you look at the third line you see that purchase
services that's my primarily um decrease there of of contractors that we use with special ed we're assuming we're going to hire them now as staff members so that 1.5 jumps up to the top line okay and besides that because we
have new enrollment we have more staff coming on so that's been included there so when you look at that 4.8 it's those three pieces put together we're not just putting 4.8 on every Thompson but your your enrollment projection is only like
a 100 students so we're not looking at adding 10 teachers correct i mean no okay so we're looking at like four or five or Okay anyway that they've been they've been included here so I when you look at 4.8% that's not you know going on everybody's salary i just wanted you
to point that out and when you look at the second line of course that's even a bigger number okay and you're going what what's going on well there's some couple very large pieces which actually I'm going to touch the rest of the slide then I'll go to the next slide which will talk about benefits specifically okay so again our purchase services are
going down as we talked mainly because of special education um our supplies and and capital expenditures these are primarily capital items uh that are coming down we're doing spending less capital this next year we actually are spending um a tiny bit more than we
receive in capital in the in the current year so that that fund balance will drop a little bit um but any so for 26 those are going down but it's capital it's restricted funds is not affecting our unassigned balance okay let's talk about benefits some of
the bigger bigger pieces that we have first of all a TRA is moving from 8.75% to 9.5% for the school district to pay so it's a 3/4 of a percent increase on everybody's salary um all of our you know licensed salaries second the
Minnesota paid leave is going in place January that's a point44% on everybody's pay you'll see it on your own paycheck that you'll have to pay this now starting in January and that's $250,000 that we you know didn't have necessarily to do and there's no reimbursement from
the state to take care of this and they're actually talking about this not being enough and it might increase and actually the first initial estimate two years ago when they put this in place was 0.35 now we're up to already four4 we even started okay and of course
health insurance now um health insurance is going up 5% that's a reasonable number when you look at um the actual trend when we look at health insurance now that is shared uh with the with the employees so for us it's a two and a half% but when we look at our total our
total spend on on health insurance even though it's 2.5 we're sharing in that when you drop that denominator we're not we're not paying the total amount right so our actual increase is about 32 3.2% actual cost when we look at our benefits director Carbone yeah Bill we're
self-insured on the health side that I do know but do we have a reserve you know even though you have an aggregate stop loss uh and and even individual stop losses you don't always exceed that but you're collecting premiums you're you're collecting to fill that that void
just in case you get there so do we have any reserves that have occurred over a course yeah we'll talk about fund balances here in a minute but yes we've been building a fund balance since we started we're now going into our fifth year of being So we do we do have a reserve in your but right now it's over
$7 million right now terrific um before we really feel that we can help subsidize that cost we really need to be up to that about 25% mark of our of our total premium which puts us a little over eight so we're really almost there okay to be able to really start helping
with some of these costs okay hey just a look then at our when you look at how we're spending our money by the object level you can see that by far the most of what we spend goes into salary wages and employee benefits uh just I guess this is just a reference so you can see what's
happening but it really hasn't changed from the year before you know it's really about the same numbers the way that we're spending these funds okay so looking at the uh program area one of the first things I notice is that the administration is down 1.77%
um primarily due to uh contracts so student support services is up 4.82% this is due to new hires that we are having and same with the general education so any larger percentage increase that you're going to see is primarily due to new hires that we're
expecting so if you look in instructional services and people support services those will also be additional hires that we have in those uh program areas okay and one thing I want to note on this slide is that the gray piece of the pie that small sliver of yellow that
blue and that green that is all direct costs associated with our students so the vast majority of our funds are spent on our pupils okay okay now I get to talk about fund balance okay so what you're seeing what we're seeing here is our unassigned fund
balance is actually growing from about 13 million up to just under $16 million okay and I I know there was concerns earlier talking about well we don't have enough revenue compared to what our expenditures are but we're spending down the assigned area this is money that's been set aside for future
curriculum which we will use use up at this next year so $2 million will be spent out of the assigned area and that so that all those costs aren't coming directly from the revenue that we receive in that particular year and you can see in the restricted also small decrease in that fund balance so that's
why you're seeing a bigger increase in the unassigned balance so al although you're seeing a slowdown I mean we saw some big increases over the last couple years when we look at our our budget but you can see we're still moving up to that 7.4 four is what we're projecting
on that fund balance to look like when we get to the June 30th of of 26 director Thompson C can you go back to the previous slide just uh for the fiscal year 25 we have we're projected to have about $2 million in our assigned budget and then that is what you're
using for next year's budget for one-time expenditures uh curriculum whatever it may be that that comes out of that okay and then the restricted budget about 500,000 so we we are fortunate to be able to leverage $1.5 million from uh you know
not from the unassigned but in those in those two different categories which is going to help offset which is allows us to kind of continue to replenish our savings account from and again we're uh to be able to sit around $15 million at the end of next year uh 16 16 million
really puts us in a favorable position compared to where we were three years ago uh and then and and again the target ideally would be roughly 10% of what we spend and so if we can get to 20 obviously that would be uh that that's where we would would want to be at to be comfortable so that's exactly right and
especially if you're looking at the restricted balance I mean you can just look at the previous years we've grown that restricted balance to a very comfortable position where we can actually use those funds to help soften the blow in the unassigned fund but it's a onetime event so then now we have to grow it back and and so if we need to
purchase additional curriculum in fiscal year 26 and 27 then we would have to come out of the general or wherever got it correct and then also I do believe um and granted it's not passed yet but there is some um legislation right now um looking at allowing districts to move
some of those funds around like specifically from student nutrition um to other funds correct like would that well that that I have not saw but I have saw it's there I've seen it it's there every session and it never never gets passed I keep but they are they are
talking about though allowing just like we did this year we were allowed to buy furniture for the cafeterias with food service money and they're talking about allowing that again so that may be some place that we can look at but at the same time we'll talk about fund two here in a minute they're really back down to where they need to be so there really
isn't a lot of excess uh left in fund So we'll talk about that right now there we go so again we um this is a first blush we don't have final numbers at all from uh student nutrition but you see that fund balance is expected to drop a little bit and that is about gets us right down to
that threemonth um reserve uh which the state wants us to be under by the time we get to fiscal year 27 so we're right on track when we look at uh fund two and they really have helped us out a lot this year with things that we needed in our cafeterias um and they're doing some
large projects this summer um for an example we have a new cooler freezer going into North High School you know considerable investment is coming from fund too can I ask a question about that um so for example uh Prior Lake is one of the districts that I have watched
that is not participating in the free lunch program through the state so they're still operating under you know if you um need to apply for free and reduced lunch to get that is I guess like I'm wondering about what the impact on that would be for Lakeville if that
was a consideration and um would that help our compensatory funding at all i'm going to say the compensatory funding yes it's going to help because people would have to sign up in order to be eligible for the free juice then we'll know who they are and our numbers
might come up a little bit okay so that would that would help it would definitely increase our direct search numbers would we have enough money within our student nutrition fund if we chose to do that as a district i I would say I'm just hypothetically I would say no because our free and reduced count is
now up over 25% okay and if we don't participate now we don't get the federal funding to pay for that 25% we've got to take it out of our our regular funds to do Okay community uh service again they'll have a balanced budget we don't have the final numbers from Steve yet um so small
increase um going into the end of that year but we'll have the details coming up shortly um building construction um again primarily what's going on in this fund now since the new building has been finished and complete is all the funds
that run through here for our LTFM or our long-term facility maintenance plan and I want to point out right in the in the last column on the right about halfway down you'll see a $21 million figure there that is um which we'll present to you very shortly when we
bring the FPP guys in uh a bonding of 21 million to help pay for these um u projects and really keep our levy very level and flat for our community so we don't big increases and decreases so just want you to be aware in the plan is
to borrow $21 million next year so looking at debt service um continue to make our pay payments it's operating as it should uh fund balance should be at around uh 5.1 million or 5.2 million at the end of next year uh these payments are pretty much set in
stone we know what they're going to look like we know how much principle we're going to pay down the interest that we're going to pay so there should be no surprises when it comes to the debt service fund now here's the internal service fund and this is where our self-funded insurance runs through both our both our dental
and our health and you can see on the revenue side these are the premiums we expect to uh collect in 26 about $35 million with the claims being right around 34 now the year that we're in we're actually doing better than that we're doing very well in the year we're in of course every month looks a little
different and we're not done until we get to summer but you see on the bottom line you see how that fund balance has grown and we expect that to be almost $8 million at the end of next year so that's what it looks like director Thompson hey how did this grow so
quickly to like $8 million i you know I'm looking at fiscal year 22 um and you're oh in fiscal year 23 we had a $ 1.7 million difference between what we brought in and what the expenditures were yeah we had a very good year uh that year but generally you're trying to
keep the total number of premiums coming in to to match what the expected expenditures are so it's well yeah that that's the key because we we're we're responsible for all the claims so whatever claims come through except for a stop loss of course we've got to collect enough premium to pay those claims what's the magic number that you
guys are trying to that you want to have in your fund balance for that i I I want to get 25% of the actual total expenditure line got it okay which gets us up over 8 million so we're getting very close getting close okay okay here just kind of a recap of where
we expect the un unassigned fund balance to be at to push that up to 7.4 for when we get to June 30th of uh 26 so again the fi the total financial health of of the school district continues to improve we're very uh pleased with that general fund
unassigned balance projected to increase to 7.4% of the general fund expenditures and of course our unassigned general fund balance is above what we have in policy right now from the school board at 5% so in that case I mean we're looking very good and then the student nutrition fund balance we had mentioned
this earlier needs to decrease to three months of the yearly expenditures by fiscal year 27 and of course we're right on track to do that so that's all all good news so any other questions i think we'll hold our breath until the state adapts its new budget
yeah we'll we'll be watching the legislation very closely i know I am a little concerned that they're not going to get done on time and we might not know some of these numbers until we get to July it's just it's just the way it is we've we've been there before and we just have to wait um so we'll bring the best thing we can to you in June and
then we'll have to make adjustments after that if we need to thank you thank you gentlemen thank you all right board discussion i think I'm going to uh suspend some formalities here so people can just kind of jump in as they want um
I would like to hear from maybe some of uh the board members that have been on the board for a couple years can start discussion off and explain where we've come from and I know that director Cam uh Director Cameron is out do you know when she will
be returning she's back will she will she be available at next week's meeting do we know i think she was planning on We're not having a meeting next week though she'll be at the training next week but then I think she was going to
be remote for the 20 22nd yeah so and again uh there's nothing we're voting on here just having discussion get the ball rolling on these things um I will say that um I feel like the
training will provide um new board members a little bit more perspective to actually participate more in this discussion about like how we want to run things as a board um so it might be worthwhile to revisit this after we've
completed that training which occurs next week right do you mean on the board goals and stuff like that too yeah yeah yeah cuz I mean once you start understanding like the bigger picture of it um then it gives you a little bit more um perspective on
like what are the things that we want to focus on as a board um and we typically try to pull from like a personal goal as like what we want to do as a board and what like one of ours was community engagement last year and then like something that we're we are working on
um with academics and then I think last year we also had one around finances um so we're kind of and then we were also trying to align like our goals with the superintendent so that we're all working as a team on the same things at different levels which is kind of what
you want right so I do feel like I don't want it to be just like us like as in the the board members that have been here like leading that discussion as much as like I feel like new board members would have more to add when they have some of that perspective but I
guess my question was you know what were the goals because I've seen some goals post posted online um what were the goals you set did you feel like you could actually look back and say "Yeah we achieved that what were some of the struggles considerations for future goal setting?" I think the hardest thing is
just trying to figure out um a method of measurement as far as like success like what do what do we measure success by is it like um a percentage for academics is it like a percentage that we want the district to achieve for academics uh personally as a
board like just us working together or or community engagement like how do we measure that um it's it's hard to I would say to put numbers to that it's it's easier to find um like key indicators of what that
would be for example like um I would say the board successfully had several sessions last year of community engagement um just based on the fact that we had a committee that was working on that we had several things that we set up and that worked out really well
um now did we do a great job of keeping track of like what events that we participated in i would say no and I'm one of the people that was really bad about going on the form and filling it out all the time to make sure like I was keeping track of the things that I attended i just forgot about it after I
attended it um so those are the other things to think about too like we can have the goal but then how are we going to measure success with that and then also I think some of that goes into our board procedures like how we just want to operate as a board i don't know yeah
um I think I think the discussion circles back to some of the dialogue we've had over the last couple of meetings about data analytics and and understanding where baselines are before we can actually establish goals uh Kim
back to your point and I believe this 100% being in business for a number of years if if you don't establish baselines to push goals forward to push the organization forward and then measure them or have ways to measure the
get metrics from that you don't know if you're succeeding and and you can't even really there's there's difficulty in even setting a realistic goal so um I do agree with maybe we should go through the training next week before we get
into an even deeper discussion on this but I also believe that the data analytics and the data analysts that we've talked about for two or three board meetings is is going to raise its head again and be a really important
part of this otherwise I don't know how we show success i don't know where the empirical proof is to show we're successful i um one of the things that I've unfortunately noticed on a downward trend in the recent years is the public
perception of the board um that is one thing that comes through the Leatherman survey um that we will get obviously some updated information on so one thing we could hon obviously look at um is that the other thing that I think is a
clear outcome uh for us is whether or not we are successful in passing levies um that is not just the the job of the superintendent and the administration that is our job to be out in the public and advocating um so to me when we fail levies that is not just a failure of our
district office that is a failure of our school board and so um those are two things that I think we've got big important things coming up that we as board members need to be out in our community speaking about advocating for that I think have clear outcomes
associated with them um not that we can fully control but that we can work toward yeah I think that would be a good short-term goal um on the levy especially so yeah I'm I'm just writing down a few things i think from a board goals perspective like I I kind of bucketed I
bucket them into four different categories one again I think academics is the biggest one because it's like that's our job and we need to be able to deliver on that and so back to uh you know director Carbone how do we know what our goals ought to be if we don't know where we're at and so you know I
can make things up and say you know I want every fifth grader to be able to read at fifth grade level i want 100% of that or maybe I can say it's 90% i don't know what's realistic but I think that's one of the goals that I would like to be able to communicate because when you've got students in our community that are
reading at grade level or exceeding grade level then I would assume parents are going to be happy and they're going to be thrilled that their kids are getting great grades in and in in English they're getting um uh you know fantastic scores in MCA results and that's going to just lead to positive
perception with how their district is performing uh the second goal that I want us to consider is the financial health while we've got a uh Bill's done a tremendous job in helping us get there over the past three years from $211,000 to roughly 12.9 by the end of
this year maybe 13 uh you know we still want to get to 20 now again it's not going to happen overnight but what does that mean uh and so uh how do we get there what are what are the the levers that we can pull to uh make sure that the community knows that we're being mindful with their funds and being good
stewards with uh how we operate that number three I would definitely say employee satisfaction uh I know that those are some managerial things but as a board I want people to come to like I want to work for Lakeville i don't want I don't want to go work for any other school district i want Lakeville and so
what does that mean that might mean uh mentorship programs for our for teachers or staff uh that might mean uh you know benefits there's a variety of different things so what I don't know is uh you know what metrics we use to track that but employee satisfaction is definitely
one of them and then the fourth one that I would probably kind of put in a catchall bucket would be future readiness and so uh how are we future readiness uh operationally as a district uh future readiness for our students and future readiness for our professionals
uh that might mean where does AI come into play in how we do operations uh AI for our students AI for our professionals uh we're like I would love for our district to be this innovation hub of of new things that are coming
that that are just going faster and faster on a technology side so while those are high conceptual topics but again board goals for me are academics financial health employee satisfaction and then future readiness of how we move
forward so I would add to that um employee like satisfaction as like staff morale like that would be something that I would like to see um us focus on as a district and just making sure that people feel um seen and heard within our
district and that um they want to be a part of it because that's also going to play into the fact that there are roles that we can't fill so if our staff morale is really great like your your best advertisement is the people that work for you already and they talk about it out in the community and when they're
at other develop staff developments they'll say "Yeah I work for Lakeville i really enjoy it." So um thinking about how we can can continue to increase staff morale as well sorry I'm not moderating you can just jump in go ahead okay all right thank
you um and and the other thing I think is important is you know Bill mentioned $2 million of by the way public tax dollar 2 million and probably more for spending on on curriculums and what do we do to measure return on investment uh
for the spending versus academic achievement i I think we really need to focus on that as one of the goals but also again as I mentioned earlier have metrics so that we can prove that there are benefits to what we're doing i I
think we need to make sure that we are all aligned on how we are defining what these categories are and so when I say categories not the four that I've selected but how are we defining what are board goals what are school board goals and what are superintendent goals
now when I think about school board goals it could be we got to get a 100 policies done reviewed this year or we got to be you know how do we collaborate with each other and or maybe we got to get down to two meetings a month versus three it's like I don't know so there's a difference between school board goals
in how we operate and there are board goals that we want the district to be at and then there are superintendent goals that might be how we want to engage and interact with the superintendent i would assume that our board goals would filter down to this superintendent to execute
on that uh but those are the three different you know flavors that we've got to think about you know do we need or want schoolboard goals do we want and then what are our board goals district goals and then is there a superintendent bucket that we need to consider so yeah
well and I think on academics if we're just focusing on that you know primarily which we should um I think the board goal could be you know setting appropriate you know smart goals for the superintendent because we're not going to actually improve the students outcome it's you know we're going to be focusing
and watching what the superintendent's doing and monitoring that and reviewing his performance as he directs the district um and that that does go back to you know as a board we can we need to make sure that we're actually measuring something you know um yeah and that that
does go back to the discussion we've had over the past several months of uh what is the appropriate KPI um are we collecting the data and and putting it in a a form that we can actually review in order to assess what's going on um because we could we could come here
every other week and have a very pleasant meeting and and fail completely as a board you know um yeah and finances I would I would definitely agree is up there um I mean we've seen it other
districts all around the state are are cutting budgets you know millions of dollars each year having to lay off teachers and we don't want to be in that position so it might might mean we have to pay a little closer attention obviously and and do a little bit more
long-term planning but uh yeah I I assume and employee satisfaction I guess i'm not sure how to measure that but I'd like to not have to lay off i think a couple ways to measure employee satisfaction is retention um I do agree with staff morale uh statements and job
applications when we put them out there and you know are we attractive um for example High View Elementary Principal we have over 60 applications for that one job so it's it's things like that that you want to you can't actually measure though you say 60 6 wow that's
great um I did have another thought i don't know if this is a goal but just more of a a want um is having some sort of line of communication between us and the teachers um and administration um just so we're hearing that i don't know what it would be um so we can bounce
different ideas off them um whether it's survey monkey or something like that just so if we have a question we can hear just from maybe even more than just the people that are willing to email us independently uh just a thought
i I Brian stole my thunder a little while ago and talking about kind of the the board goals versus the superintendent goals and one thing I just want to make sure we're thinking about is how we what information or who we kind of um utilize to help inform how we establish these goals um so for
instance with the read act and the curriculum and all that you know I think um I don't know that any of us maybe Kim well besides Kim is really an expert in kind of how does curriculum get rolled out and what is the timeline that you can or what should you expect and just
even knowing how things are being rolled out with half the elementary this year and half the elementary or the grades next year um and being mindful about kind of creating goals that are achievable for us um you know so measurable and and achievable um so I
think as we are talking about this you know um the three of us are on this board at least two more years and um you guys are on here for well you're here at least well um but what do we want to accomplish
that is reasonable in this year and how do we look ahead and just not set us I I just think about kind of doing things that are reinforcing and help us move forward um as opport as opposed to kind of setting ourselves up for feeling like there's setbacks when perhaps they're
not reasonable goals so just making sure we use the appropriate lines there so I did have this discussion with Superintendent Bowman um as I've shared with all of you that you know I've asked like what is the metric we should be using what is a fair assessment tool
that we can monitor progress with um and it's my understanding that in two weeks we're going to get a proposal as far as hey these are the metrics we can we can track um because again as you're saying I'm not the expert so I'm not sure what the numbers should be i I have an idea of maybe what the numbers shouldn't be
or what metrics we shouldn't be looking at but uh so we're going to get a a proposal from um Emily McDonald so yeah I would love to i mean I feel like uh since I've been on this board I have a good
understanding of how we generally view student success um you know to me it goes beyond academics it's also making sure that we have the right supports in schools and all the things that indirectly contribute to academic performance um so having a good
understanding of yes how do we how do we want to broadly define student success in our district what does that look like and then how can we look at it from a variety of different perspectives you know MCAs and grades and you know uh graduation rates are one thing but what
about all the awesome other things that are happening in the district that we can try to capture i think I would like for us to have this nailed down sooner than later uh just because uh you know we we probably
should be discuss we should have been discussing this in January and I mean obviously you guys were new in January but but to be able to have these you know schoolboard goals district goals super superintendent goals solidified by ideally probably now because the things
that we would want done at the district level should feed into the budget for the next school cycle and so with the new next budget starting July 1st we're already kind of behind the eight-ball and so I I think the next meeting is sometime the the training session is next week or two weeks but when I think
about it on what is the the the linear sequence of when this should have been done to feed into budgets to feed into staffing to feed into whatever we need to do over the summer in preparation to kick off these district goals for that school year and so we should be so
that's kind of the cadence that I'm thinking but my recommendation is if we can start uh refining this sooner than later that would be ideal well I think part of the issue was um typically we like to have the superintendent goals in place by September um and then we have
like two checkpoints during the year where where he is reporting to the board and checking in with us on where he's at in progress towards those goals um at the time we had an interim superintendent so we we couldn't put those in place for this school year and
at this point in the year considering that it's April um I think the only thing that you could request from the superintendent at this point would just be kind of like a um like a like a temperature on how the district's doing and like an update on um the different
departments um would be I would say sufficient based on the fact that he was interim for a portion of that um and then we um he was moved over into the superintendency so um that might be what the board needs to focus on this year is like um just a just a general goal like
one goal area for the superintendent at this point to um update the board on maybe the district progress and then moving forward into next year and then start working on like what do we want to focus on for the superintendent goals for next year as far as our own goals um
again it's kind of late in the year to do that so it might be more um thinking about like academics and then also like board procedures and how we want to run our meetings and structure that um I know we talked about that a lot last
year and trying to get um like a board manual up to date on um just the basic procedures because those are things you don't put into policy and then we were stuck as like new board members like um all the time going "Well I didn't know about this." Well that's the way we've always done it but we didn't know that
that's the way that it had always been done because there was no written procedure for some of those things and I know that Kim has been working on that um with MSBA and has like a format on what like a board handbook would look like uh I think it would be beneficial as a board to spend some time really
delving into that and making sure that our procedure uh manual is is there for future board members so that anytime new members come on which will be every two years you know depending on if people run again or um how that goes that the
structure and how this board operates is there like there's there's a basic framework that they can pick up at any time and continue on with the work of Lakeville schools well I think Superintendent Bowman's doing a pretty good job so far so thanks
thanks for doing a good job review complete right kim I think that's a great point though like there is no framework like nobody gave me a document that said this is how we operate this is what we typically do like why don't we have that like we should have something like that that
that's doable that's not hard i mean right and MSBA just made the template this last year so we have something that we can just work through as a board and take like a section once a month and just kind of work through each part um I know Kim has offered that she would come to those sessions and kind of type
things in as we do it and then it's then it's done and then you're just updating you know every couple years but at least it gives a framework for like um like the Brian Thompson three-step process like it comes to the board we have it's presented to the board um it comes back
after we've had a chance to process it and then we vote on it like you don't vote on it the day that it's presented things like that that we want in place so that we're getting the information that we need in the time that we need it and then administration knows exactly what the board expects so it just kind of puts everybody on a level playing
field i'm just going to um relate this to the other um agenda item on work session for format that I feel like we would benefit from resuming some more informal work session um where we could do this kind
of work that would not feel that would just I sorry I don't mean to bump us there but I just feel like it feels more collaborative and um where we can do some of that kind of busy work that would help move us forward Can you expand on that a little bit for
us i'm just I'm just curious what having not had participated in a work session how it differs from what we're doing right now um it there's part of it that's just a feeling that feel I think because everybody's just kind of sitting all
around and the other thing is um I feel like some of the presentations that have gone so long I've personally felt bad that people are standing there for for as long as they are and it just to me facilitates a little bit more easy kind of dialogue or um questions that um it
feels less in or less formal in that way um I'm just speaking for myself but I'll speak for Amber because she's not here and she said she was not surprising for work sessions so I mean I mean so I'm Let's just jump right
into that so wait a second it's informal it's all right i mean so whenever we have a board meeting of uh whenever you have a board meeting of four members or more it's an official meeting and so it doesn't matter if it's recorded or not recorded it's an official meeting uh so one of the reasons that I am in favor of
this kind of model is because the last time uh you didn't know who was speaking uh it was super hard because people were like like wrapping papers or eating candy or something of that nature um it was a bit more informal but also it was it wasn't recorded either and so people
couldn't hear and and it was I'm sorry it wasn't it was an audio but it wasn't video recorded and so I mean that's not absolutely correct so I'm in favor of of this i think that we were we we had been talking about this before and Tech said that they do they can record but they
just didn't have the video feed up because the board had put a procedure in place where work sessions were only audio and then our formal meetings were video and audio he's giving me the thumbs up so they if we were to switch back to a work session being that format
we would just have to as a board say we want it video and audio recorded when we're doing that so I mean also that's accessibility for for people but um so then they I think that was part of the reason like we went to this format so that there was recording but you could
still do that but but how is this model different from sitting in a square it so I feel like our directors are on the outskirts it's not as kind of it doesn't for me it does not feel as connected with our deal conducive yeah to
collaboration like our work sessions to me are where that we really do like benefit from their contributions and I feel like when we're all close together face to face that happens it's better facilitated I I know that like in other places like
Prior Lake they don't have a a model like this they all sit in a rectangle and same with Hastings and and probably other school districts where they just their working sessions are just that and their regular boardings are in that same model and so I guess it doesn't really I'm just
even thinking about some of the like when you feel like you can't see that or you tend to look this way right it's harder for you to see everybody and kind of facilitate in a way like to me the I don't disagree with us having a formal board meeting where we and we could set
it up in a similar I know one of the questions is well if we have a work session does that change in terms of whether we vote on things or not we could talk about that but to me just the um I my concern is I feel like there's more distance from our DO which um I
would like more involvement from them and then also um when we had certain parts of the meeting that we had scheduled that were more like board development which is kind of the conversation that we're having now um we allowed like district office staff to leave so they didn't have to be here for
that part so I think I want to honor their time because they've been here all day too and then just knowing that there are some things that the border is going to work on for procedures they know ahead of time and they can kind of plan their afternoon or evening so they don't have to be here for the entire time um so just honoring their time that Yeah
but you can't but you could Yeah that that's what I was going to say you could do that now so just a couple thoughts um one I I've been saved by the video this year already by somebody accusing me online of saying something I didn't
say but uh so I don't mind that uh and it is a meeting regardless of whether we call it a work session or not it'd still be a schoolboard meeting even if we're meeting down there yeah there'd still be Yeah we could still do business we'd be doing business because it legally would still be a schoolboard meeting um
thoughts on I I guess my other consideration was because being on the policy committee we do have kind of a backlog of policies that we're going through um offering uh public comment you know in that kind of a work session
format i don't know did you guys do it before you didn't do it well we had the um stakeholder sessions before the meeting okay so it just wasn't part of the meeting and public comment was only during regular board meetings okay which
we had once a month so it makes it more difficult for policies to be reviewed but no and again that Yeah they can come but and we didn't have public we did have public comment last year right did we bring it back but it wasn't recorded yep and the more transparency that we
can approve any policy at that point yeah no no because we had um we had stakeholder sessions what is with this mic we had stakeholder sessions which people could still come if and talk about like a policy if they wanted to so there were still two times we just had
the stakeholder session as the format before the working session and then public comment was before the regular board meeting and again that's another procedural thing that we could talk about as a board um we haven't had anybody participate in stakeholders sessions um now that public comment is
during the meeting is that something we even need to continue because it is something that board members we would like at least three board members present for when that happens and it is um before a board meeting so you have to do that so th those are again like those procedures that I don't feel like we've
even discussed as a board um which would be beneficial to make sure that we there's no frustration at the table director Nicholson do you have a point of view not particularly i mean if you guys want to sit up here if you want to sit down there I I could care less i none of it
matters to me this is uh semantics in my opinion if you can't hear us down there and that be that's an issue then deal with the issue i I I don't care if I'm sitting up here or sitting down there you guys can argue it all you want it
doesn't matter i would love to be able to like work on stuff without it being like official board meeting that would be great because I do a lot of that on my own time i've been trying to get out that's called a violation of open but that's I understand that but I mean I I I get I
get the purpose of that and I understand that piece of it but I I mean I also now spend a lot of my own time running out and trying to meet with you know I've met with a handful of principles now trying to get around and meet all the principles and you know spend my time
when I can doing that kind of stuff and trying to learn talk with Tracy talk with um you know some of the people on her team to try to figure out the data analytics that we do have the capabilities we have a data wall does anybody know about that no i mean at least you know nobody talks about it
here so you know the the capabilities that we have and the detail in the MCA reports that we get do you all know about that cuz we get a lot of stuff that never get shown to us yet so I'm shocked that we
have so much information and I'm glad we didn't you know go forward with you know any sort of a a motion on the last data analytics piece because wow we got stuff now why don't we know about it that's my question now is that all going to come out more if we sit down there then by
all means let's go sit down on the floor i don't care sing Kumbaya and sit on the floor you know criss-cross applesauce if that makes it better but I just want to know like I've been trying to figure it out and I I know we do we have so much more
information than what has been presented so far and that's the part that bothers me so what form is going to get all of this to the forefront cuz like everybody said smart goals you know specific measurable you know things like that
yeah great but we have no idea what we have right now like we have tons of information like they they they are having trouble I think putting it into a digestible format and that's you know that's fine i mean I I get that but we
have so much more than what we've seen and I just I would love to find a way to somehow get that like out so that when we talk about a goal we're not saying you know try to increase our MCA scores by 10% across the board i mean first off
why two is that really the metric we want to go after and if we are looking at a composite you know view of student performance fastbridge has metrics built in we have target goals for basically every child we never saw any of that we
never talked about any of that stuff so like where is that data like how do we see it like that's the kind of stuff that I think would help us in terms of saying okay these actual goals that if they're doing X Y and Z we should be
able to see on a report you know ABCD and that will lead to a final lagging indicator that we then can hold our super superintendent accountable for but I think I think for for that you just add it to the agenda have them come in
and have a conversation about that and they stand there we have a conversation it's back and forth it's like that's it the only thing I will say is that I feel like the formal former process helped with the I I didn't necessarily want a
four-step process but more of like a we get exposed to something we have some time to think about something and then we knew at the end of the month like that was more when we were making the big decisions like with the recommended actions so it's not that I I just to me work sessions are helpful for just kind
of getting all the stuff out there all the questions um in some cases we had two two of those to make sure we had multiple instances to make sure we were well informed um I mean I have had instances where I've come here and not felt like I knew what we were talking
about and I think we want to avoid that so it it just offered more opportunity to have more informal dialogue to get everybody on the same page so at the end of the month we're not the end of the month meeting should be like a half hour in my opinion we've already worked
through everything we know what we're voting on we do the votes we get out so like that for a while was how it was operating where it was like that was kind of the I would not mind a half hour meeting yeah but I mean that's the goal is that you by the end of the month when everybody's voting we're all we know
where we stand we know what we I get that piece of it but then you also still have like the smaller stuff like can we like as long as everybody's you know can agree that hey if there's little procedural changes and stuff that they're they're minor and you guys can all be comfortable voting in that
setting and this setting or whatever it is like as long as we can still just like get some stuff done i mean I I still look at like what have we actually accomplished so far in the first couple months as a board i don't think we've really accomplished all that much so
I will say the way we've had presentations in this first two months I think has been great i mean it's great i know a lot no I just mean that so I feel like when you come into any new job your first six months I mean
depending on the job I shouldn't say any new job but it's it's a learning experience coming into a new operation learning what it's about learning where the gaps are all of those kinds of things and so to me um you know I know Matt you said like sorry for all the
like I feel like this has been great review and for all the new board members to have everybody come kind of present what they do i think has been a really great onboarding yeah um I don't think we've done as much as a board for onboarding which next week we'll or our
next meeting I think we'll hope to we hope to address some of that but um I don't think we've not accomplished much because the learning piece is part of how we establish goals how we make sure we're coming from a perspective that's informed um so to me it's we're moving
in the right direction but I I'm just trying to advocate for down there it just felt better with the directors i feel like it just offered more opportunity for them to engage with us and when they're presenting they're very engaged with us
but otherwise they're to the side for 4 hours of their time that they're not you know what I mean yeah and I I'll I guess I'll I'll follow that up with you know the feedback that I have heard is they feel more like they're on the spot like it's more of a grill session as opposed to anything else so I I I get that
concept and I I I sympathize with that i mean yeah this is probably intimidating you gota you know everybody's scared of public speaking anyway so you know coming up to the podium and being the one person up there and running through your slides and trying to talk through everything yeah and also fielding
questions and the whole deal so I I I get that i mean I do I But but why would we not ask the same questions in a grill session if that's what we want to call it down there as up here i I'm still not under conceptually understanding if if a
forum gets together and it's an official meeting if it's recorded here there or anywhere if if we're having discussions at the Dist like we're this is a pretty freewheeling discussion and open discussion which I I appreciate too but
that being said I'm not quite sure where the the gain is with a work session and all of these folks folks are very professional people who I I believe do very well standing at a mic i mean the the caliber and and the the job levels
that you're all at um standing at a mic I think they do a fine job i I I think for me the biggest issue is making it easy for community members to see to find to watch uh to hear uh the conversations that are going on at the
board and and so when we had it at the working session the mics that were used I I don't know what the positioning of the the video cameras might be but uh we my point of my point of view is that the most trans the more transparent that we can make it for community members to
easily find watch and hear or see and to follow along that that would be my preference we can figure out how to have dialogue whether it be at a table or or I mean in this manner so yeah my my perspective is that when we're all sitting around together it's just easier
for directors to engage at every meeting sure um and Superintendent Bowman I don't know i mean part of this I feel like it it would be helpful to know how they feel too or how our superintendent feels but to me it's just
um when we have a question for Bill then it's like "Okay Bill come up here." Or when we're at the table it's just all very collaborative all of the directors be there or only only the directors needed based on the topic that you're going to discuss i would say they were
they were I mean sometimes we knew that there were it's well I can't speak about the last two years but typically it was agenda driven the purpose of the work session was to create the opportunities to do the Q&A do the learning process um
you know the city of Lakeville did those when Mayor Anderson was there i participated in many of those um you know I don't know director Erikson uh when he was the city administrator maybe was involved in that he might be a source of information on those kinds of
things but I know that typically work sessions you you all can go through everything from process and procedure um policies get discussed the opportunity for our staff to engage you in the more
of a Q&A process than a presentation process although I will say we did do some presentations along the way as well um because of the nature of the board in terms of you know started in January young board lots of information I could
never get to that level of detail in two hours I need four five six and eight um and so if we were doing maybe work sessions or training sessions like you know was proposed when we first started out in January um I I think that might
have that might get us further along the way i like the work session simply because the the back and forth is is more rapid and we are able to shape which I think is an important element of
of governance is shaping uh and it helps us as an administration do that alongside you better that's my perspective i agree with that i will note going back to just goals and stuff like that we talked about having shorter meetings i mean the goal is and the
discussion has been with Superintendent Bowman you know once we establish what the KPIs are that we're going to be reviewing on academics and finances that we'll just have reports you know coming from you know our director of finance and director of teaching and learning so we'll just be getting those updates and
we'll be tracking you know so it's not going to be Yeah the pre the length of the presentations that we have now um just to address that issue so hopefully it will be will fall into more of a rhythm wherever we're sitting yeah yeah
i know I do appreciate the the input um because you guys have been in have done both settings and uh we have not so yeah I mean I definitely see it i mean we're talking about boundary disputes i mean it seems like that would be a good kind
of a setting to have a table where we have the maps laid out there and we're talking like what are you guys considering so yeah we could consider just cuz I know Paul you said or director Carbon you said "I don't know the difference." Um and I
know I'm speaking for myself and not both of the other board or two other board members who have been here a little bit longer but it just it does feel different so it might just be helpful to and it might be the case that we try it and um I mean I would say we
should try it more than a couple times but um that then we decide we like it better up here yeah so to that point I mean one of the discussions we did initially talk about just trying it right um but then there was an issue with the audio quality and having to buy
additional mics and we're like well if it's going to cost us more money you know and we already have this setup so that kind of was what we're just like well let's just keep it this way since we've got the equipment i know they were trying to address i mean I am one person that in I was fine with it that people
couldn't hear me all the time but um I was one person that people said they couldn't hear so they would like creep the mic closer to me or you know I do think there were it wasn't like everybody could hear i think director Baker was the one who or Kim had talked about that and had looked into getting additional mics yeah we had we had um
looked into getting additional mics because there it is very difficult to hear on the on the little mics um but I think the other issue that that I had the larger concern about with the work session format that we would have to discuss as a board would be the formal voting so that like if we're having a
work session we're be just being presented information it there's nothing that the board is deciding on in an informal format like because those were things where all of a sudden like we would have a meeting and someone would say "Well we already talked about that." and the majority of the board agreed and I'm like but we really didn't formally vote because it was a work session and
we got into this gray area um and I don't like gray areas like I like things to be simple and clean so I like this format because there's always a vote like we're voting on things it's not like this informal four people decided and now it's just going and we we really don't have any idea because it really
wasn't a formal vote so those are things that we could put in place with the procedures if we're going to have that work session format then there's nothing no topics that are coming to the board that are just not being voted on or decided on like that would only happen at the regular meeting um but general
guidance even to the superintendent you get in in the in the into that gray area without a vote saying "Hey we want you to go down in this direction." And no one voted on it but because it was done in a working session that's how the previous board put us in scenar scenarios and we're in now you know and
so like I like this because it's formal you vote can we do Okay can we can we do both no so what well let me sure you can you say no tell me why so here's a question so if we run say a working session we can do those if you want and
then all of a sudden we get to the the end of the meeting and we're talking about recommended actions we take a seat we already know what's on the docket and we do it up here and then it's we can vote from the table i mean we don't have to sit at the desk to make
a vote we could vote from down there no my my point is if people really are worried about like somebody hearing somebody or oh well I can't tell who was talking and that kind of stuff i mean if if we if that's an honest concern I mean worried about that i think we also had challenges where uh you couldn't really
you couldn't dial in or remote in during working sessions yeah and so that was another issue i do really appreciate this the discussion so So do we need to make a motion or We are not making any motions okay there's no recommended actions on
the docket or the agenda for today i do want to confirm though um just so we're we're honing this in a little bit and moving the ball forward and we can discuss it further um I feel like finances is probably something easy for us to make goals on for a board
um don't approve budgets of more than what we're going to receive as far as revenue um academics I think we'll we'll probably touch that again in two weeks so we'll have a better idea of setting actual goals and metrics that we're going to analyze and that'll kind of go hand inand i think our goal is to set
you know smart goals for the superintendent i mean that kind of is the board's goal um I'd be and we don't have to make the decision now i mean get efforts for the levy that'd be a good short-term goal right right you know next six months but then employee satisfaction public perception
I'd be open to you know further discussions on how we So I would recommend like how we've done this in the past as far as like when we set board goals and when we did the superintendent goals we did like a board retreat and we scheduled like two two I
think one time we did two nights of like two hours a piece that was just us working on that um it wasn't like a formal board meeting or anything it was just a board retreat it was just the board and so then we could just focus on that and get it done um I think it's really hard to do that in this format in
a meeting because we would need like a draft and you would we would need to go through a process as a board to make those goals so that would be my recommendation if if we want to start working on that process that we have a retreat and I think I think that might you are you thinking the retreat would
be open to the public too because I think we might be running into open meeting law there yeah so you're saying maybe have a working session well even when we had a board retreat like it's it's public knowledge that the board is meeting and if someone wants to
come and listen they can it's just that we don't have like all of our district staff sitting here and and going through that work and then um it would come back to like a work session or whatever and we would say these are our board goals we've agreed upon it so then the public
has access to what those goals are in fact they're on our web page right now so I mean it's not like we're hiding anything it's just we're working in a format that allows us to only work on the board goals so that we're not meeting at 9:30 at night um just talking
about this in a format that's a little too formal for the process does that have to be recorded i don't know i don't think we recorded it all board meetings are not legally required to be recorded we we do that for Lakeville so um and and I believe
past retreats they are not recorded or or or audio no so why are we having the issue about mics and worrying about whether or not they're recorded because we want because there's a there's a desire for us to provide more transparency for our
community members to like this is this is their school it's their money it was a procedural thing so when we we had um a working session and then we had a regular meeting and then we had a board development session that was really just like our staff development as a board um
and the board development sessions were not recorded because it was just kind of us hashing out like what are our procedures like what do we want to work on um and then we were going through like certain MSBA trainings and things like that so um that's why those sessions weren't recorded but then it
goes back again to the procedures that we want to do as a board and how we want to handle those things and those are the things that we haven't even talked about yet all right if everyone's okay tableling this yeah well I think what's great is that as a board we get to decide how we want to operate so there is
no standard there is no SOP there is no well there's probably some best practices that MSBA will recommend but at the end of the day you get to decide how do you want to operate then document it and then the next board when they come over come on board they can review it make changes and then go so
all right let's move on we can uh yeah pick this up in a couple weeks too but any board member reports i'd be fine if there are none kim I have one um so 917 had our meeting
over spring break um some of the things that we talked about at the meeting um were like the lead teacher model that they have and how that provides pathways for growth as leaders within their district so they're kind of training their own um to move on to those next leadership positions u we talked about
the calendar we talked a lot about compensatory funding and the impact of that within districts um I shared with Superintendent Bowman um district South St paul is sending out like postcards to constituents that talk about compensatory funding and how it's been
impactful within the district i think all of that's just information that you can share with the public so that they're knowledgeable about those and they're helping us advocate for uh those things within our district um one of the things we also talked about was just the uh decline in enrollment in some in
certain programs how to do that um social curriculum we talked about character strong and everyday speech those are some things that that district is using just to kind of keep you updated on what's going on there um and just as a um parent I just want to thank the special education department for
their presentation tonight that was amazing um I thought it was very thorough i thought it was um well done and um as a parent that's had a child that went through birth to two services all the way to age 21 and he's graduating this year from the TESSA
program like I owe everything to what this district did for my child and his success within that special education program so thank you to all the staff and teachers um that do that every day it's just I know it's hard and it it really takes like a community so um I
just really appreciated that um that report and just wanted to offer my thanks and gratitude for uh what you guys do every day anyone else we'll move on to the superintendent report okay superintendent report so I do want to uh
acknowledge that uh we are celebrating our our LEAF and um our LEAF staff and I'll I'll do you one better um I did I did put a video together uh through our communications department and I want to share that i know that maybe our LEAF
staff's not watching right now but um you are and I want to make sure that they are acknowledged and I I'll just say this from the heart uh from the time I came to this district um and I was doing a different job and a different
role uh I got schooled real quick by our LEAF staff and what I learned right away is they are the backbone of our institution here in Lakeville area schools um
every office I go into I learn so much from our LEAF staff uh I talk to them they talk to me they make sure I know what they're thinking uh and I am so appreciative of every one of them uh all the years I've been around uh Lakeville
area schools they're they're very special people they do wonderful things for us and it's not just not just in the office it's just all our LEAF staff are magnificent and I'm very grateful so I I think I captured that in the video i don't I didn't get to see the final cut
of the video but um we're going to see it now al together thank you some volume this week we are introducing and appreciating all our staff and nurses librarians and anybody who works in the
office when somebody's hurt we go to the nurse's office then we get like a ice pack or something i still appreciate what she has to help words cannot express the impact that our LEAF staff have on our students and our staff is
greater good in Lakeville area schools they are amazing uh regardless of the role that they are in uh they definitely help out our classroom teachers and students so much by being that force on the ground they help me do my homework
and my math problems and help me with dual ringer i appreciate our special education pair professionals every single day they come to work and do uh jobs that are behind the scenes that a lot of people don't even know they're doing but they are the backbone of the
services that we deliver for our special education students across the district about the nurse she always helps me with when I'm sick and when I have to do stuff with my diabetes i'm grateful dad like people who are helping us from
teachers and staff members who is like helping us like get through school and learning our education and get jobs in our lives and our futures our LEAF staff are really our heartbeat of our schools we wouldn't be able to do half the things we do without them so everything
from kind welcomes in the office to compassionate care in the nurs's office to our uh LEAF staff that are in our classrooms every day helping to make sure our kids are successful we are just beyond grateful to have them in our buildings every each and every day like
uh helps like for anything and takes me like everywhere and to the nurse if I need to go i was very excited when I was asked to offer my appreciation to our LEAF staff i from the heart want to tell
you that learning about Lakeville area schools was taught to me by LEAF staff you are working so hard with so many parts of our district you're the backbone of Lakeville area schools and I
am so grateful and so appreciative of the mentoring that you have given me over the years that I've been in Lakeville area schools and thank you all for everything that you do happy Leaf Staff Appreciation Week happy Leaf Staff
Appreciation Week happy Leaf Staff Appreciation Week happy Leaf Staff Appreciation Week happy Leaf Staff Appreciation Week happy Leaf Staff Appreciation Week [Music]
[Applause] that concludes my report uh Mr chair have you forgotten about the video earlier no all right uh I move to adjourn is there a second second all right second uh all in favor
say I all right we're done