e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e I all right we'll call the meeting to order uh a little earlier than our usual
time but it is March 11th 2025 it is the school board meeting for um Lakeville School District um if everyone would just rise with me to say the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance 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 we do have four of our seven board members so it is a quorum uh if we could do introductions starting on my right Amber Cameron uh Paul Carbone I'm Matt
Swanson Michael Balman Kim Baker all right are there any requests for any additions or modifications to the agenda if there are none I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda as drafted
so moved uh it is moved by um Amber s second uh I'll second it and seconded by Paul being a first and a second uh all those in favor of approval of the agenda as drafted say I I all right it's approved unanimously uh we'll move on to the good
news superintendent Bowman thank you Mr chair good news March 11th for Lakeville area schools uh start with principal Brett dstr was uh elected to serve a second term as the state representative for the National
Association of Elementary School principles on February 25th the Minnesota Elementary School principles Association announced the results of its elections Lake Maran Elementary principal Brett domstr was elected to serve a second term as the National
Association of Elementary School principal state representative as the state representative of Minnesota Dom strand will continue to serve as a liaison between MPA and nap
[Music] here in the South Suburban division we're advocating for students and staff throughout the state and he will represent mespa at National events ensuring that Minnesota principal's voices are heard nationally so
congratulations to Mr Dom Strand and to Lake Maran elementary students of the month Lakeville area school has a students of the month recognition program students can be nominated by anyone in the the Lakeville area and uh
staff families and community members are all eligible to um nominate we're excited to announce that March students are Josie Foles a second grader at Lake Maran Elementary messen maanvi uh who is a fifth grader at John
F Kennedy Elementary and George Abassi who's a junior 11th grade at Lakeville South High School so congratulations to them as well we do staff of the month uh and that is also um recognition program that
highlights our staff members and they can be nominated by anyone in the Lakeville area schools community so we're excited to announce that March's staff are Janice differing music specialist at lak View Elementary Philip Swain School Success liaison at Century
Middle School so uh both those congratulations to both of those Award [Music] winners our education or special education inclusion Awards family connection special education parent teacher organization has a long history
of promoting inclusion in Lakeville area schools and during inclusive schools week in December students staff and community members submitted nominations for individuals in our schools and Community who go above and beyond to increase inclusion the
20242 Award winners are Lissa har special education teacher at Cherry viiew Elementary Brady Kelly student at Maguire Middle School Stephanie Market speech language pathologist at Maguire Middle School Valerie Miller special
education teacher at lak View Elementary Ann Rouse Lakeville Community member Jenna shr shandler oh schrankler sorry uh special education teacher at High View Elementary and Deborah triplet PA
professional at Century Middle School we give a round of applause for those winners Lakeville Science Olympiad teams exhibit Excellence at state so congratulations to Lakeville North High School and Kenwood Trail Middle School
Science Olympiad teams on their successes at the Minnesota Science Olympiad state tournament on March four 1st at bethl University Lakeville North placs ninth as a team in the High School Division which is the best they've
achieved in quite a while Kenwood Trail's team Neutron placed ninth as a team and Kenwood Trail Team proton placed 10th as a team in the Middle School Division so congratulations to those students and those team
accomplishments and if you want to read more about the amazing things that uh we're doing in our district isd194.org newws and you can find more information and then on a different note
uh just want to share um the Lakeville Online Academy Elementary uh we have U determined to keep that program Open we had to make some modifications with the staff and programming uh but are keeping that open
I just want everybody to be aware of that as we move forward here today in our uh board meeting Mr chair all right thank you superintendent Bowman uh we're going to move on to public comment uh I will read my little piece
and then we will open up the board for uh anyone who those who have registered to speak for three minutes so uh the board will open up the floor for 30 minutes to allow the public comment um public to address the board with comments and concerns to part participate in public comment individuals must have registered in
advance using the form provided on the website by noon on the Monday before the scheduled public comment section there will be no board response during this session and public comments framed as complaints Andor concerns about students or staff are not appropriate in 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 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 individual remarks are limited to 3 minutes and the
board will provide a sign when the participant has 30 seconds remaining of their time thank you Kim Baker uh please try to keep audience noise to a minimum to allow everyone the opportunity to speak uninterrupted um so we will get things kicked off
with cadence you can come right here hi I'm Kaden Keers and I'm in ninth grade I have been with Lakeville Online Academy since the middle of fourth grade when Co hit I was blessed with an amazing teacher Miss krupky which by the way if this is bad it's she helped me re
write some of my first papers so she really helped me transition into this new learning environment and become more than just a teacher to me but a friend to my family even though we weren't in physical classroom each teacher made sure to create connection and bond and make the most of every get together from Trunk or Treat to the morning meeting on
WebEx I believe loola Elementary School truly helped me transition to Elway middle school I believe that if I would have not had an online experience before Middle School it would have been a total culture shock having my elementary teachers to lean on during this time was very helpful and I still reach out to
them today not to mention the flexib flexibility whether whether you are traveling involved in sports or just like the extra free time El is a great option for the ones who like to make the most of every day and there shouldn't be an age restriction to do so I also deeply appreciate the ra help and time
my teachers put in to make sure I was doing the best I I could be doing and I was supposed to be doing I was and if I was lacking in any areas my teachers would make time to go through every assignment with me and explain anything that was misunderstood overall my experience with Lakeville online
Elementary School was great the workload was exceptional and the teachers were helpful responsive kind and most importantly patient with all of my questions thank you for listening and making my online experience the best it could be have a great rest of your day thank you
kids uh we have Jamie and Tisha Jamie and [Music] Tisha how about Peter so I had a a speech um prepared for this afternoon but we got an email that said
that my school was staying open so um I just did some little edits hello my name is Peter and I'm a fourth grade student at Lakeville Online Academy I've been in the school since kindergarten and I have had all three of
our teachers Mrs waja Mrs saber and now miss krupy with the help of my teachers my mom and dad have been able to teach me at home I have learned so much from all of them something that all the teachers have taught me about in every
grade is perseverance perseverance is the ability to keep doing something and not give up even if things are hard my family and the whole school is pers in and fighting to keep our school open I'm so glad the school board and the superintendent
persevered and found a way to keep Lakeville Online Academy Elementary School from closing this school is amazing and I wanted to stay open for kids like me who love learning at home thank you thank you thank you [Applause]
Peter uh Quenton welcome back Quinton thank you thanks for letting me talk today I had a lot of fun last time so I asked Mom if I could do it again we are trying to think of something new to tell you you see we found out today that loola
won't be closing after all you already know that my school has great teachers my school gives families choices and that people really need to know that this great school exists mom says you must have gotten lots and lots of emails
all saying the same things I told her it's really strong when one person repeats what another person has said cuz that means a lot of people agree on the same thing and when a lot of people agree on the same thing that thing must
be very very important a lot of people have been telling you that my school is too important to close I agree and I I agree and I'm so happy you agree too thank you for saving my school thank
[Applause] youon Len Len all right final one uh kylin did I say right yeah
okay hi I'm kylin Keers I'm in sixth grade and I've been with Loa on and off since middle of first grade when Co hit some things I really enjoyed when I was in L Elementary is a flexible learning style I think that it gives kids more freedom to do the things they love by
having that learning style while it also being affected effective sorry I also really love that if I needed any help on assignments I could reach out and ask and the teachers get back you quickly some students have a hard time grasping things quickly and if I needed any
additional help I would have more time to do that with my teacher versus if you were in a classroom one-on-one support isn't always available I appreciate teachers can focus on the subject you need with uh you individ individually rather than as
a class I have experienced becoming more confident in the subjects that are more difficult for me when I've received this kind of help also Lo's Elementary workload is very reasonable with things to focus on to prepare you in the future for Middle School I really enjoyed morning meetings because it still gives students a way to connect with each
other and make friends overall I really enjoyed being a part of Loa Elementary and getting to connect with people while being able to still do the things I love and have a flexible schedule I feel very lucky and blessed to be a part of Loa and have the teachers that I had thank you klen uh and that concludes our public
comment for the day uh move on to the consent agenda are there any items that anyone wants to remove from the consent agenda for discussion if there are none I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved moved by director Baker
is there a second second and seconded by director Carbone being a first and a second uh all those in favor of approval of the consent agenda say I I I I all right it's approved unanimously move on to our reports and
discussions the first being the transportation report the uh report needs to be changed to the transportation report they might not need this you might need to level out your height there that's what the stool's for
you can you could start you could start rolling if you want and we'll get into it I can I do have slides so we can certainly talk through it be great we just we have a a firm deadline of six o'clock to end today because of Elections so yeah okay Mr chair uh other members of the
board thank you so much for the opportunity uh to be here today uh on behalf of my Dave Moore and myself and the rest of the employees owners of Schmid and Sons it's truly a pleasure to be here in front of you this evening uh I do like to try to keep the presentation light and informal so if
you have any questions along the way just give a warm smile or wave your hand and uh we can certainly answer any questions as we go along or discuss them at the end whichever you'd prefer um up on the slide next we just uh would like to talk about some of our key personnel throughout Schmid and Sons
uh first off Mike forbo I've been a lifelong resident uh of Lakeville area schools I grew up I went to Lake Maran uh from there I went to Kenwood went to Lakeville was still just leville believe it or not I was the last year so he do the math I graduated in
2005 um I currently have two children uh that will be going to the into the district as well um they're two and a half and four I oldest one Owen actually is just in speech at Crystal Lake um so that's been a treat to actually be going back through the second generation uh
today with me I have Dave Moore he's actually on his second s stint with schmidan sons uh he is also from Lakeville uh I won't go into when that was I don't know if he'd share or not graduated before Mike we'll just say that before there was yeah kenw tril was
uh Lakeville back in the day Lakeville high school and in total uh between his two stins uh he has been with shidan sons for 22 years uh Dave is our primary uh contact uh operations for the day-to-day operations of the Lakeville schools contract um so he's the go-to
he's he's the glue he makes it all happen every day um around that we have a um a group of support people we have Bill forber our chief operating officer uh a resident of Lakeville since 1981 uh formerly of the Lakeville Police Department for 25 years uh and now he
serves as a Chief Operating Officer uh Jay Young our Chief Financial Officer uh he has been wishan since Mike you missed one of his other accolades he was a Lakeville Area School Board member as well he was okay uh that is true uh he
does have his name on a few schools I think he always reminds me if you think it's bad now just remember I went back to the the public three years in a row to build three schools in a row so uh as things were growing in the early '90s mid 90s uh he was involved with a lot of
those efforts so uh certainly challenging times then as well uh Jay Young is our Chief Financial Officer he's been with schmidan sons for 34 years uh so you're getting the themes I don't know if it's a life sentence or a choice or not but we certainly have a lot of tenured uh employees here at Shan
Suns uh Julie storm uh she's a routing coordinator for Lakeville so she um focuses primarily on all of the routing of the regular education students so if you're looking for stop assignment those types of things uh she works on a lot of those and then also works on some of the behavior um issues and those types of
things throughout the year uh and Julie is also um the mom of Josh storm who's the Lakeville South uh boys hockey coach and her son Ben also is the assistant coach so an interesting uh connection there uh Chad lewison he's been with
Shan Sons for 20 years he's our special education manager um so he's in charge of all of um the rting managing um all those different varied varied schedules uh Ally Mulla she is a Director of Human Resources so she gets
to deal with all the fun stuff the drug testing the compliance um driver files all that stuff that none of us want to do I guess uh and then also I have the pleasure of working with my wife Katherine um so we've worked together for most of our
professional career um she uh is also the director of operations uh we actually met here in high school so uh Becky clawen uh is our training man training and safety manager um so she does all of the uh annual driver
evaluations so a school bus driver is required by the state uh to have an annual evaluation once a year so she'll go out right along uh complete all the necessary paperwork that goes along with that she also trains all of the ISD 194 staff um that drives uh the type three
vehicles that the district owns um so primarily use for speech golf are the two big ones that come to mind debate umk so uh she goes through and maintains the list and I think there's probably between 30 and 40 uh ISD 194 employees
that are certified to drive as type 3 employees by transporting students U that typically takes two or three hours per employee just depending um and then also we have uh Cassie Crawford uh who is our Charter manager so she oversees
um all the field trips uh an extracurricular Transportation kind of outside of that regular to and from uh scheduled Service uh next up our Terminals and kind of along with our terminals um I'll tie into some of our company history
because I think the garages if you look at them you can see that they've been all added on to at least three times holy O's been added on to far more than that uh and the buildings kind of show our history as a community and then as a company that serves the community in the sense that as a community grows we had
to add on and five more places to put vehicles and those types of things so uh shid and Son started serving Lakeville area schools in 1952 uh so it's about 73 years or probably our technically our 72nd school year uh the first garage um was actually
at the family farm on judicial in the northwest corner of the district um it they used it to operate buses up until the mid90s um at that point it just became there wasn't enough room to have enough buses there to justify somebody operating the building anymore and as
the buses got bigger they didn't fit in the old garage anymore uh in the mid 70s um Shan Sons acquired the other bus operator um that was serving leville schools and with along with that we acquired the oil
garage which is shown there on the bottom um they like I mentioned earlier the ho garage has been uh added onto several times along with the district so if you look that side that faces Maguire was the original part and it's all been added on to uh to the north from there
uh due to the continued growth and site limitations of the Holy o Garage in the mid90s um Shan Sons acquired another uh parcel of land on the south end of the district uh and built what we call the Pillsbury garage um it's just soua mixed
off about a mile and a half um near the red fox if you're familiar with that um and that garage has been added onto um three times um today uh Pillsbury holds all of our full- siiz route buses so the class see
to and from buses that you're accustomed to seeing um and then also all of our Charter Fleet um we have room for probably 75 buses inside something like that so on days like last week uh days
that it's cold um like well here with Dave he's lucky enough to have almost all of his buses inside which sure makes the uh kns a lot easier not worrying about them starting not digging them out of the snow Banks and those types of things so we're very fortunate uh to have these facilities um
and then also I should mention too and I mentioned a little briefly earlier but in 2016 um SCH be Schmitty and sons became employee owned um so the son of schmidi uh Dan and Su Schmidt sold uh the company to the employees um which is
truly unique um especially in the transportation industry um at the time that it happened I had never heard of it didn't really know too much about it um as you kind of look around you do start to see it more and more uh one example I always think of his high ve employee owned um you'll see it some like in the
trucking industry um but it's a really cool uh no cost benefit uh to all the employees um so it's a wonderful wonderful thing for us to be a part of now what happens on a daily basis uh we have 56 Class C routes so when I say
Class C that is a fullsize school bus you know there's Class A uh or type A that is a little yellow bus um type B which they don't really make anymore type c is just their standard School Bus which we operate and then a type three which is a van that um we use or the district owns a couple as well so we
have 56 fullsize routes and we also have 56 special education routes transport roughly uh 8 to 9,000 students a day we travel over 10,000 miles uh uh every day and that doesn't and then we'll do any field trip or Sports trip that that needs to be done by the school and I
would add the 8,000 is just in the morning so then we have to do it all in the afternoon so it's technically 16,000 um students that are transported right each so with that part of our uh obligation to the district is uh we take care of setting up all the route routes
for special it and the full-size buses you know as we grow at neighborhoods um we get that all plugged into our software and get that taken care of for you and then we are the primary contact for if people need something they'll call us before they call you um and then we have evaluate uh on a regular basis
just the uh efficiency and look at U what we can be doing better merging you know as some neighborhoods get a little older some are getting newer we'll switch things around uh we conduct bus safety for the students on a that's an annual basis third week in school uh is
when we do that let uh the little kids get to practice jumping out the back of the bus and doing the emergency Evac which is a big deal for them and then um Mike talked about this earlier we uh the drivers all have to comply with uh yearly evals we do monthly safety
meetings and then also what we do is we uh we'll watch uh the load counts you know we design the routes and then we figure out you know how many kids are riding where we can fit some more you know if we are struggling with some areas that have you know we'll get an
area that gets um maybe 10 kids moved in in one month just some of the areas are crazy so we'll have to tweet things as we go so we're always keep an eye on that because um we're looking for a good ride for everybody you know both the parents the students when a bus is too full then um then you guys start to hear
about it so all right um so this first slide here and we'll go a little bit more in depth um to the tiers and and which schools are served and how they're served underneath uh each one um the service that's provided here in
Lakeville is truly very uncommon and unique um operating a true four tier system where one bus is serving four schools I talked to Dave today I thought about it um through our association I've never heard of anybody else that's doing
it um it's most common that you see uh two tiers so for instance it would be like a high school and then an elementary you know typically with the bus leaving you know 7 7:15 serving a high school at 745 is and then having
like an elementary that's like at 9 something like that um so obviously with the four tiers we are able to serve more schools more students with fewer routes um and we have 16 buses um
that actually do serve all four tiers um of the 56 that we mentioned earlier um and another unique thing that um we do and it helps kind of um explain some of the school start times is that these times are built in a way that makes this
structure work and the first tier is dependent on second tier on the third tier and the fourth tier so if something goes wrong in the second tier the times is it you know as such traffic weather it's going to affect the third tier and the fourth tier because it's the same bus hitting all of those tiers if that
makes sense um so another unique thing is Maguire Middle School is actually kind of we call it the half tier because it shuttles from Lakeville South over to Maguire so they're still I think it's getting a a little bit less and less
over the years just as um some of the tenants areas have gr own um but doing it that way allows the south end of the district we only have to cover it one time from Maguire and Lakeville South and again saving those trips and those buses from having to go down and cover
that area again we bring them to South and then we just shuttle them over to Maguire and it prevents having to have separate buser outout for Maguire going all the way down to those Southern areas that would take just 10 minutes of dedicated drive time just even to get to the first stop not to mention all the
stops along way um so in the am just kind of an overview of a normal day for a driver the bus garage opens 5:30 Dave's always there I'm sure there's a handful of people that beat him there that are waiting in the parking lot I don't know all these
early people that it's amazing love coming to work it's the one place I think you can go to that you can show up at 6:00 and you feel like you walked into a day that's half over um so they begin the drivers come in they begin pairing for the day making coffee socializing with all the other
early birds uh I often say I don't know where we'd be without coffee I think that would be probably the number one thing uh that would cause an uprising at 6:00 uh the first drivers will start to head out to their bus uh to complete their pre-trip inspection um that takes
about 15 minutes uh so the first buses actually start to leave the garage at 6:15 in the morning from there um the first student pickups uh happen on the very far west side of the district which would be Kenwood attendance area uh and
they start picking up at 6:25 a.m. so that's going to be the furthest out to the west and then on the north side of the district the buses start picking up around 6:30 and then so the buses are working from the far end and then picking up students on their way into Kenwood and
in the PM um the first wave of buses depart the garage by one uh 40 those would be the buses serving the early middle schools and then the second wave depart the garage at 210 and those are the ones serving um the high schools and then
mugre uh and to wrap up the day uh the last Elementary drop is at 455 and the last garage uh bus is back to the garage at 510 so you can see there's about 11 and 1 half hour period um from when we open and when we leave to when we get
back so it truly is a a half day of service as we call it and I'll real quick explain just you know what we call tier one that's Kenwood and century we got 20 routes out of Kenwood 16 out of century you we're serving 800 students out of Kenwood 900 out of century uh
Kenwood 16 minutes is our shortest route uh 48 minutes is longer Kenwood is a bigger area we have to cover uh centry is a smaller area so hence 13 minutes their shortest route and 28 minutes is our longest route we can get Sentry done pretty quick uh then we roll on to the high schools North is a smaller area as
well so we have 18 routes uh just under 2,000 kids assigned to a bus 17 minutes is the shortest route longest one is 40 minutes so South and Maguire we do have some routes at at South that are South only and Maguire only but basically Mike was talking about the ones that go south
of County Road 70 I'll just say that South County Road 70 those the high school and the middle school right in together so those are the combined routes we have 12 of them and then the longest route is 59 minutes but by the time we leave school and get down to 280th Street uh it's a long drive if you
haven't been down there so lots of land um tier three is our our three elementary schools that are early schools so that's Christina huddles with nine routes Oak Hills with eight routes and Lake View with seven routes um so as
you can see actually my update did not make it into this Mike so the the shortest yeah that's fine so um Christine hudon now that we re we red the boundaries last year and uh Christina Hudson now has seven routes um
shortest route is 10 minutes longest is 20 Lake View uh that ex area got bigger so we added some more routes and now some of the shorter routes are 12 minutes and 46 minutes is the longest route time and last um Early Elementary
is Oak Hills we have six routs serve 300 students uh it's a smaller area as well we can shortest route is 10 minutes longest route is 22 minutes and then the tier four what we call the late uh elementaries is going to be Cherry View East view
JFK High View is the new one Lake Maran and Orchard Lake um biggest areas we cover right now for Orchard Lake and Lake Maran those are the two of the longest um elementaries so we have to go out the west and out South and JFK falls into that one too so Lake Marion wins by having a 60-minute route which is the
peak we we try not to Route anything longer than that but by the time we get out just west of Texas Avenue we're out in the country and um the kids all fit on one bus so we're just going to get you home on one bus so JFK as well once we get South Elco you're talking a 50-minute bus ride but then once we get
up to Cherry View and East View um both one has seven routs one has eight routs and both the longest routes there are 20 minutes and then your new school High View everything is right there we have nine routes we get just under 600 kids ride the boss 7 minutes is the shortest route the longest route is 13 minutes so
they are on and off quick before they can actually start to cause any problems so you can see that obviously some of those shorter route times are the ones that we're pairing together um throughout the schools so that we try to keep them in the northern section and then pair them I had a couple quick
questions oh do you have a question you want to go first you if you want to ask first that's fine I just wanted to clarify and I believe uh I've discussed this with superintendent Bowman we're on this four tier system is there a cost savings because we're utilizing fewer buses
exactly less routes okay so when you shorten up like Mike said a lot of school systems only use two tiers you know they'll bring High School Middle School School in together and then they'll try to get all the elementaries which the same start time which is great it sounds great but um if you just took
the sheer number of kids in Lakeville and divided that I think you'd need 30 more buses okay minimum to do a say a two-tier system and then my other question was how did the uh addition of High View kind of change things as far as planning and number of buses that
were needed so we basically servicing the same area but we were able to take um the buses you know East viiew lost a couple buses Cherry lost a couple buses and um we only had to actually add one route I believe so we just tweaked we were able to tweak what we were using
for our attendance area and then um work it out that way so we really didn't add many buses director Baker I have two questions too um they're not really related but I'll start with the first one um when I see the elementary routes between 45 and 60 Minutes like that I I
just think that's a long time for a kid to sit at the end of the day especially like after sitting in classroom all um and I'm you're saying that that's because of the area that you're trying to cover correct um do you keep any data as far as like bus referrals that happen
um for Behavior related to routes that are longer versus routes that are shorter um would that be something that the district would would house or is that something that that you try to um look at because I mean I just I guess curiosity like you know as a teacher trying to hold it together all day and
so I know sometimes when they get on the bus um they're pretty they're ready to go home right happy to see them get on the bus right so then then I also think of like is there a way to mitigate some of that because I mean you can't do anything about the amount of ground that you're covering but would it be are you adding
like a bus Aid to some of those longer routes to help with some of that behavior that may occur because it's a longer route so that the driver is not distracted we will have a monitor ride and it's not necessarily the longest of road it's whatever roads maybe need some attention um and it can be the shorter
routes um but usually the drivers get to know the kids on the longer routes better so they have a a better relationship if you want to say and that's typically not the area that we have concerned you know with student Behavior perfect I love to hear that um my second question is just one that I
get from parents a lot and I'm just curious as to uh your take on this so a lot of parents that have uh students with disabilities sometimes they're riding special Transportation sometimes they're riding regular transportation um how is the information as far as like related to the child's disability um
communicated to the drivers so they know how to handle those situations usually they'll call us and say hey can you you know I want my if you're if the kid has um some special needs we will the parents usually let us know and they'll be like hey I want to treat them as
normal as we can so but just keep them in the front and we usually will give the driver just uh their student ID with the name and address and be like hey keep an eye on this particular student and when the often for the special ed side of things and we'll go into that a little bit here further on the on next
slide um when the students assigned to specialized Transportation or specialized Transportation will receive additional information from the person that's managing or working with that student if it's a solo transport if it's a they require a special sort of harness um whatever it may be um we would
include whatever they tell us in the notes for the driver so on the route information it would say the student needs um this this this um if there's an issue with the student you know maybe try some of these things so we certainly try to include as much information as we're given in getting that to the
driver uh and then also um throughout the year the safety meetings U we do have District staff that come out and they'll also go through them tip uh tips and tricks uh to kind of help with those students and those types of things so so that it's like on the notes that the driver has for their route every day yeah okay because that's good too
because then if you have a substitute driver they would have the same information so thank you I appreciate that and then I would just add one thing uh tier two so the high school tier um that is where we also provide uh service for the All Saints and the pathway students so the All Saints students all ride in on the high school routes and
there's our shuttles from the high schools over to All Saints and then the pathways as well we're getting down there I promise um special ed routing we have like I mentioned earlier we have 56 special ed routes over 600 kids that are transported uh around the district and
then with that we also uh um we go curb to curb so all the special ed students we we will stop at their house and and that's what's called curb to curb and then um some of the students we transport have both cognitive and physical disability so we'll know if
they need to be in a walker wheelchair and probably half those routes have an aid with them so they can help monitor the students and keep an eye on the students or help with anything that's needed and then part of the other kids we transport on the special services van are the mckin vento students the the
home displace kids and then the students attending care and treatment programs and then um part of the preschool age kids also get a ride um depending on who the school tells us school just gives us a list of who we need to who qualifies
for that so oh this is still me student Behavior not that anybody gets in trouble but I work with uh each one of the schools and when I say I um it's either the principal or somebody they design and and if I'm not there they'll work with uh Julie in our office and we just
go over you know when all the kids get in the bus um there's a list of rules that they have to follow the school the principals actually come out to our startup meeting every year talk to the drivers and uh we go over bus expectations of what the
principales are looking for and what the drivers are going to do about it and then we're all on the same page so we're all presenting hey you know three Simple Rules hands yourself stay in your seat keep the volume down and then if they can't do that then they're struggling a little bit we'll try you know whether
it's the front seat or and if they still are having a hard time riding the bus then usually a discipline ticket is written up or if something else has caused an argument between Timmy and Susie on the bus then usually I'll ask the principles they'll uh they can either request video if something
happened and we have videos in each one of the buses to to see who is doing what but the school is able to bring the kids aside and talk to him and figure out you know what's the best scenario whether that's going to be a seating chart or what we're going to do like I said we're looking for a good ride for the driver
the students and we just want everybody to just not have the bus be a memorable part of their day unless it's a good memory so and I will certainly say that the the principal's coming out at the beginning of the year we've done that the past two years where they actually come to our startup safety meeting uh
the consistency across the schools is super helpful that the expectation is the same across all the schools that makes it a lot easier for the drivers because they know what the expectations are whether they're going to uh you know oills or they're going to JFK they know
that the principles are all on the same page everything's kind of handled the same way so even when they're dealing with different student groups uh the schools are handling it the same way just I just wanted to bring up too that um I believe well I've seen them anyway that there are also tickets given out
for good behavior on buses which yes which I think is awesome because came up with a couple years ago and it's worked wonders we talk about them all the time remind the drivers hey stop and get these it can be anything the the um I don't exactly know how they work inside the buildings but I know in the bus we're to give them out when the kids are
being good whether you know students are fighting to get off the bus and somebody stops and lets somebody out in front of them or even if some drivers if it's your birthday just anything um to reinforce that positive behavior they get a Prof ticket yeah which is greats thank
you um we have a slide here next here about the communication of Route assignments and I will say I kind of laugh when I see the slide is that this used to be a much bigger deal uh even just 5 to 10 years ago um we used to mail a postcards and do all these other Antiquated things as you can imagine
back in the day um now um once we finish up routing in in mid August um we go through we upload the information into Infinite Campus and it allows the parents to view uh the student transportation information right there uh the fourth week of August uh which is
typically the week uh before school starts um we actually still call all the specialed families to provide them with the transportation data and that also just creates that two-way communication with those families that if there is any other concerns or issues that when we call about the route assignment we're
able to to get that feedback um directly from the families so we find that helpful to do that still uh and then I would also mention as part of this slide um we do have the here comes the bus parent app that's available for all the general education families uh there's currently 5,300 active accounts uh each
one of those accounts can be monitoring um one to however many students may be in the family um and the app allows you to monitor um the bus along its route uh and when it's approaching it's assigned stop and then depending on the notif notification criteria that the parent
sets up that it'll notify them when the bus uh is getting close um this one of those things when you when you start working at it or the company starts telling you about it you you can't really believe that it actually works uh it it does work uh we get like zero
calls or zero inquiries um I have my nephew set up on my phone I'm like every day I get a notification when his bus gets there uh and so it's been really cool to see it and I think it's been a tremendous Su success and it's dramatically cut down the number of app parent phone calls when the bus is maybe a minute or too late due to weather or
traffic or whatever else may happen I promise we're almost done do you're not going to hold up a sign on me are you Kim no okay just check put it away all right just check we're good uh bus stop criteria you know when setting up bus stops we just we're looking for the safest corner you know big buses uh
are generally all at the corner unless you live in a busy street or certain criterias where you will get picked up at the your driveway if it's 11 County Road 70 or or dot or one of those we're not going to make you walk so um for secondary students you can walk up to a
half a mile um two-year bus stop for elementary students it's 310 of a mile but generally you know we try to make a bus stop that works for everybody we re-evaluate them in the summer you know parents can contact us right on our website um if they want to stop request form they just fill it out tell us why
we'll look at it um talk it over and then we just unfortunately a lot of parents yeah want to stop right at their house or their intersection that doesn't always work I can't stop at every intersection so we just try to make something that works for everybody and then a lot of parents want us come to go call the sex that doesn't work very well
either so we try to not turn around on a bus um very often but sometimes we have to but yeah we try not to go down call this sex as well so just some of the things we uh we do when we're looking at bus stop there's a whole host of things that goes into
it all right so in addition to all of the uh true and from service that we provide we also provide all the uh charter service for um the school district um so with that uh we last year we operated almost 1,200 trips uh so these be for field trips extracurricular
activities um so all sorts of different things these are the ones that are typically going outside of the district um whether it's a certain camps activities um whatever it may be um we do have a basically a separate Fleet allocated to
a charter service because with our four tier system with the buses being out so long they're still out on Two And from routes and often we're supposed to be bringing the high school team to Apple Valley or those sorts of things um so on busy days um we always count on you know
using those buses to get students to where they need to go um but some days uh we count on the two and from buses and a prime example of this would be like track and field day uh for the elementary schools when we're trying to move 20 buses or 30 buses of students um
we always give them hey you can do whatever you want between 9:30 and 1:30 um because that allows us to use the the drivers and all the buses from the two and from service when they get done with their last elementary school they can go pick up the first Elementary School and start bringing them to track and field day and then as long as they're back by
1:30 they can make it uh for the afternoon rounds so we supplement um but there are times uh for those larger events where we do count on the two and from uh service buses to do that uh spring is definitely the busiest time uh when it comes to Charters uh field trips
are a big one uh in the spring with the end of the year's uh trips and then also spring Sports they seem to cram a lot into a short window so every Tuesday and Thursday uh it wouldn't be uncommon to walk out and maybe see one or two buses left uh and then we also have uh sport
shuttles um that are built into our two and from routes um so they'll bring students between the middle schools and the high schools um to transport them uh to those buildings um in addition to that um we do uh for all of our teams that go to state we offer complimentary
upgrades to motor coaches uh sometimes they take it sometimes they don't uh sometimes they say it messes with their flow and they like to stick with their normal bus and their normal driver um but some some teams jump on the opportunity so that's always kind of something fun that makes a little extra special uh and then I just added one
slide here at the end um about our battery electric school bus so we have had a battery electric School Bus since the fall of 2017 uh it is a 2018 model year um El lion Class C School Bus uh it was the
first one in the entire Upper Midwest uh basically it was the the first one that wasn't in New York or California uh when we bought it uh it currently has about 76,000 miles on it um and we originally partnered on the project um with Great
River Energy and Dakota Electric um so we're all Partners in the project and basically the goal of it was for all all of us to learn a little bit more about the technology and um So currently the bus serves Lakeville South Maguire and
JFK travels miles a day so what's your opinion so far um like anything else it has its pluses and minuses um new technology is always going to uh create some challenges um but I think um you know to and from school bus certainly
could be an a good application U once the technology maybe advances a little bit further um you know we don't want the drivers to deviate we plan where they go we plan how far the route is so if you had um a vehicle that fit those parameters
um it's a good fit um but maybe where it isn't such a good fit would be like some of the charter buses where they might be going to Northern Minnesota they might be going to Southern Minnesota um but the two and from Services um you know they go out for a prescribed amount of time they come back we can charge it's kind of a controlled environment we can
put them back and know those types of things so um I would say as the technology continues to evolve it could certainly be a good still got a little ways to go getting there but uh and with that that wraps up our presentation um certainly take any
questions um and also I'd like to extend an invite if anybody would like to come out to take a tour uh attend a a safety meeting ride and drive I'll let you drive you can't leave the property Drive anything you know within reason uh you guys are certainly more than welcome to uh to come out
so appreciate it thank you guys all right moving on to uh student nutrition all right good evening members of the board superintendent Bowman and executive cabinet thank you for having us today my name is Kristen RAC I am the
director of student nutrition today I have with me Kim Heron our coordinator as well as Evan Morell our training specialist di toner is the cook manager at Lake Mar elementary Julie Wharton is our support
specialist and Lori Schaefer BG is the cook manager at Cherry viiew Elementary our student nutrition team consists of 15 kitchens throughout our kitchens we have 15 managers 14 second Cooks 72 part-time
Cooks as well as our own pool of Subs about 27 Subs at our district office we have the four of us myself the director our coordinator training specialist and support specialist both myself Kim both yes both myself K and Kim are
both registered dietitians student nutrition staff are required by usdaa to complete continuing education annually depending on the employes position they required to complete 5 to 15 hours per year here in Lakeville we also have an internal
certification program and staff can take additional classes to advance their certification level in the department each position is required to be certified at a certain level student nutrition programs are highly regulated by USDA and the
Minnesota Department of Education and must meet Financial requirements documentation requirements and nutrition standards the O2 Food Service fund is required to be kept separate from the general fund of the school district our sources of revenue come from reimbursement for
meals served and claimed staff meal purchases and Student Art purchases any Revenue to the O2 Food Service fund must stay in the O2 fund allowable expenses from the O2 Food Service fund must be directly related to the operation of the
school nutrition programs and being an allowable cost as determined by the Minnesota Department of Education as a highly regulated program we must maintain records in many areas including procurement applications for educational benefits and food production
just as departments in the general fund must follow procurement processes so must the O2 fund with procurement processes we must follow required procedures and maintain documentation of all procurement activities as operators of the national school lunch program and
School breakfast programs student nutrition is eligible to participate in the Minnesota free School meals program while meals are free for all students all meals must be claimed by the district based on each students's approved eligible eligib individual
eligibility a family does not need to submit an application to receive free meals but if they want to qualify for other educational benefits within the district and Community they must complete an application annually or be directly certif through the state of Minnesota student nutrition maintains
and approves all applications for educational benefits daily food production records in the kitchens are required to be kept these serve M multiple purposes they are a tool that managers use to plan for how much to order and prepare based on past
mened items so as to minimize waste they also used as documentation of what was served for the meal to show compliance with meal patterns nut nutrients standards and that enough food was served to justify the number of meals served and claimed School nutrition
programs are reviewed by the Minnesota Department of Education every 5 years students become approved for educational benefits through one of two different Avenues applications or direct certification from the state families can fill out an application based on
household income a foster child or certain household benefits such as snap which most people would know as food stamps MIP or the Minnesota family investment program also known as welfare fdpir the food distribution program on
Indian reservations or Medicaid students can also be directly certified through a file received from the state included on this file are students who are foster kids or are receiving any of the previously mentioned State awarded benefits our free and reduced
percentages having increased every year for the past 4 years it is a result of a combination of things first there were more families qualifying for snap a federal program helping families with food insecurity during and right after
the pandemic then in the 20203 school year the Minnesota Department of Education included Medicaid as a qualification for free or reduced cost benefits via direct certification based on Minnesota Department of Human Resource income levels
this increased the number of students automatically qualifying for benefits by 10% in our school district creating a big increase in our compensatory revenue and bringing our free and reduced percentage higher than it has ever been the percentage of students approved for
educational benefits decreased this year 209 fewer students were directly certified and 24 fewer applications have been approved to date this most likely as a result of the decrease in unemployment and families receiving qualifying benefits or income exceeding
the threshold Minnesota free School meals programs may also impact how many families are applying for benefits as they are already receiving meals for free they may not feel the need to apply for other educational benefits they are
eligible for especially Elementary families nutrition standards for the Child Nutrition programs are based on the dietary guidelines for Americans which are updated every 5 years when it comes to planning menus we must meet different daily and weekly requirements
including calorie ranges for elementary middle school and high school levels which are based on average nutrient needs for students in these age groups 80% of the grains offered must be whole grain Rich there are minimum daily
requirements of 1 o at elementary and middle school 2 ounces at High School minimum meet and or meet alternate requirements 1 ounce daily at elementary and middle school and 2 ounces daily at the high school with a total of 8 to 12
ounces required per week we must offer two choices of milk at breakfast and lunch we must offer vegetables in each of the subgroups there are subgroups from the dark green vegetables legumes red orange starchy and other vegetables
in the minimum daily and weekly amounts 3/4 of a cup daily at our elementary and middle schools and one cup at our high schools we must offer a variety of fruit daily fruit offerings can be from fresh fruit canned fruit in water or light
syrup or 100% juice dried fruit or 100% juice no more than 50% of our fruit offerings are allowed to be from 100% juice at our elementaries we must offer half a cup as well as at our middle schools and
at one at high schools we must offer one cup sodium limits over the course of the week are required with more restricted limits coming in June July of 2027 and then starting next school year
there will be sugar limits on milk cereal and yogurt that is offered menu planning is all about finding a balance of offering students options they like while offering healthy choices the items served on School menus are not the same
products we find in grocery stores or in restaurants for example the pizza we serve is on a whole grain crust with reduced sodium cheese and reduced sodium sauce pepperoni that or sausage that is made from Turkey the breaded chicken fillet we serve is a whole muscle fillet
with whole grain breading and is lower in sodium and always baked never fried none of our schools have friers and everything is baked Kristen can I ask you a question just just generally speaking um what's the process like when you're looking at setting up a meal plan for the school
year and does it change throughout the year are you always looking at um different options that are available and like where do you go to look at the food and examine our options um so yeah we do try to um switch things up we look at
data are things going are certain Entre serving going well do kids like them um we take student feedback um obviously our our our food production records um are a good tool for us to use how much of each entree are we serving um and and
yeah then we do go back um we meet with managers monthly um to talk about what you know what might we put in place of it um we attend food shows um there's a big one every summer um there's various ones throughout the school year that
Kristen and I attend um that uh manufacturer reps will show us different different different items um different recipes different ways to prepare maybe some of the foods that we're already getting um just to kind of give variety for the students and we start our menu
planning for the school year in January so we are actually almost done with our menus for next school year because our food booking um is due the 1st of May Amber um to kind of follow and piggyback
on Matt um I think um I have family members in many districts so I feel like I learned things from them but I think some districts have kind of this like scratch or trying to have like a scratch philosophy and and um and have chefs on staff to help kind of curate recipes and
things what's our where are we kind of in that and is that something we we want to do or is it better to do it a different way here you what's your yeah what's your leadership style so we will be talking about that a little bit here in just a minute but um we
we're continually striving trying to incorporate more scratch cooking into our menus um one of the big things that I'm working on right now is standardizing our equipment across the kitchens um because we have kitchens that don't have kettles or tilt Skillets or maybe they don't have a convection
oven or they don't have a Combi oven so I am working on trying to standardize the equipment so everybody has the same equipment we can standardize how we're cooking across the board also standardizing the product out come that we get since we have the same equipment
so so offer versus serve was developed in the 1980s offer versus serve requires that all the required food components or food groups be offered to students for school lunches and breakfasts but allows the student to decline one or two offerings the offer versus serve
approach was introduced to reduce waste and cost in school meal programs it also allows students to select Foods they prefer and want to eat increasing customer satisfaction offer versus service required at the high school level and is optional for grades K through 8 it is common practice for
school districts to elect to follow offer versus serve for K through 8 due to the many benefits if we did not follow offer versus serve students would not have a choice except for the entree or fruit in what they are served and would have to take all of the menu items
it would increase cost as we would need to prepare and enough of every item for each student and we would see a significant increase in cost in food cost and food waste and a decrease in customer satisfaction the Minnesota free School meals allow students to receive one free
breakfast or lunch per day but a student must take a reimbursable meal for to qualify as a free meal under offer versus serve at breakfast they must take three items one of which must be a half cup of fruit or juice most of our breakfast Entre count as two items so so
most of the time a student just needs to select an entree and a fruit or juice to get the meal for free at lunch they must take three different components or food groups in their full serving sizes and one must be a half cup of fruit or vegetable if a student does not have the
required items or components on their tray we were required by USDA regulations to charge them all a cart pricing for the items selected our kitchens collect organic waste during preparation and at the end of the day any food that has not been put on the
serving line that is able to be safely saved without compromising the quality is saved for example taco meat or prepared fruit and vegetable trays we use forecasting to plan our production for the day so as to minimize
waste can I ask a quick question on that um so just so I'm clear so if they're required to take three items if they take two we've got to charge them but if they take the third then it's free I mean is there any system that we have where we're not wasting CU I'm assuming kids take all three and they
throw something away right yep so I mean we we try to encourage kids to take the full meal and if they don't want to that's when we tell them well if you have money in your account then we will have to charge you um is there any way they can donate it by leaving it in a
place that it could be re I mean so most of our schools have what we call our share tables so they can place items that are um um individually packaged so if they don't want their milk and they took a milk they can set it on that share table and another student is able
to take that item um we monitor them um we actually at our meeting last just just last week with our elementary schools identified that several schools don't have you know a nice share cart so we are working on getting those ordered for next school year um we have cold
pans in the share carts to try and preserve the um the safety of the food as well um but just from a food safety standpoint and what um Minnesota Department of Health requires and allows um items should
be uh individually packaged um so they shouldn't be placing a slice of pizza on there so anything we prepared can't be left there for a different student right yes because you don't know if it's been contaminated so and they they can always
share with a friend if that is allowed within the school sure so all right so um schools that oper operate meal programs under USDA are also required to provide reasonable accommodations to students with special dietary needs um we require a special
diet statement to be on file before we accommodate with uh special needs that must give adequate details of the foods to be avoided and the foods to be substituted as well as a signature of a licensed physician physician's assistant or an advanced practice nurse um and the
three of those professions are because those are the professionals who are able to write prescriptions in the state of Minnesota um these special diet statements are very important because they give us an idea of how we can safely provide um a meal to those students when it is medically
necessary um we write a menu that is free of the top nine allergens that mirrors the regular lunch menu as much as possible so students still feel a sense of inclusivity by being able to eat something similar to what their peers are eating um usually the school
are the first Contact um we work closely with them um they have a copy of the special diet statements so they can send those home um with students and families to be completed I work with nurses on any concerns um I keep them in the loop of students who are receiving special
meals um and many times students who receive special meals from us also have allergy plans on file um with the school nurse when we have a request we develop a relationship with that family I give I always start by giving them a call and explain our process
um educate them on what we can offer um and options outside of our standard menu if appropriate um as well as developing that ongoing communication regarding the students dietary needs um and menu choices I put them in ch in contact with the kitchen nurse or kitchen the kitchen
manager um and that relationship is ongoing with um the family and the kitchen manager as well as far as um what day you know what days that student wants to eat um meals
um yeah Amber I'm sorry um regarding the previous slide to what extent are cultural food needs considered by your team um when designing menus like do you try to avoid pork or you know how do how how does how do you consider that yep so
we we do try to take that into a consideration our menus do um flag or we have a notation on our menus should something contain pork um many times um our proteins I will point out on the menu that it is beef taco meat or we have pepperoni that is
turkey and beef um or if it is pork I I try to notate that as much as possible saying it's pork caras um this year we um tried to incorporate a few more um more cultural Foods um we had sambusa on our menu back
in November and we'll be doing that again this spring um and that was a huge hit um in our schools um we've done um chicken Tika Masala um over the last couple months we'll be doing that again and um just actually this week on on
Thursday in our elementaries and next week in our secondaries we'll be doing tamali so just to kind of expose kids to um different cultural Foods um and the kids who know what those foods are and might eat them at home get really excited um and can share with their friends this is what I have at home so
it's really fun I think one thing um the district might want to consider at least this might be a School site issue not a whole District issue but I know there's second choice right so if First Choice doesn't fit your culture your your food needs you could choose second perhaps in kindergarten at least at the school my
kids go to they're not allowed to choose second choice and so and I I understand it's hard for kindergarteners to make choices that's probably the reason but I think it also could um uh restrict some of our students ability to have have lunch so we might want to think about
that yes I so um during covid it really came to light that there were a lot of families within our district that were requesting vegetarian and so um in 20 the 2021 school year we started
incorporating a meatless option into all of our menus so and we'll mention that here in a little bit but um it is a it is principle Leed with the um choices of students kindergarten
students being able to um take that second choice so it is definitely encouraged by our department to allow for that so all of those students have that same experience hey can I make sure that both you are speaking into the mic because uh
our listeners can have a challenge so even if you're offset a little bit just kind of lean over there okay okay thanks okay um okay so over the past past few years um we've been also incorporating more um scratch
made menu items on our menus and continue to strive towards incorporating more um over the past two years we've been replacing lower quality items with higher quality proteins and Entre in particular chicken and beef items we review ingredients and nutrition labels closely trying to select items that are
minimally processed with fewer additives and do taste testing of products before placing them on our menus we we receive funding from for USDA Foods um each year and one of the areas that we can invest those funds in is the Department of
defense's fresh fruits and vegetables program um and this program allows us to use those USDA funds towards the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown domestically over the past couple of years we've invested more of our USDA Foods funds into those um
domestically grown fresh fruits and vegetables um and uh some just to highlight some of our more popular menu items um we have Burrito Bar at our secondary schools um with scratchmade cilantro cilantro lime brown rice with and seasoned chicken and Pico
Deo orange chicken with brown rice and steamed broccoli uh we do uh deli turkey ham or chicken with veggies on whole grain tortillas or whole grain croissants at our high school so um grab Ando wraps and sandwiches um breakfast for lunch is very popular and can
include cinnamon glazed french toast mini pancakes uh chicken sausage patties uh cheese omelet cheese omelets and hash browns um we also do a scratch made Asian sesame noodles um and tacos are always popular we do um chicken or beef
we have taco salads beefy nachos or taco in a bag so they're all popular kids like tacos is this when staff comes in with samples for all the I know I was just thinking that the yeah I'll volunteer to taste test the breakfast for lunch is always super
popular but when I worked in the lunchroom I hated it because of all the syrup that was everywhere it was just so sticky it's like the homecoming day with the glitter on the [Laughter] pants um so at each of our grade levels the number of choices the students have
to select from it does increase um at elementary we have a hot and a cold entree Choice every day um and every day one of those choices is vegetarian at the middle school they have five to six choices daily and every day there are at least a couple of
vegetarian options um at the high school many choices are available daily there's um we do a peanut peanut butter and jelly uncrustable um grab and go lunch um box salads deli sandwiches or wraps Pizza um chicken like a chicken tender
like a grill basket um hot sandwiches burgers and then one or two other main hot choices um all of our meals are served with a variet iy of hot or cold vegetables fruit and milk students are also encouraged to fill up on fruits and
veggies and are allowed to take as many servings as they would like within reason as long as they plan to eat it um yeah so um just to kind of explain some of our pictures um just kind of highlights how how we present present
our food um because we know everybody eats with their eyes um so we have pictures of some of our wraps at our high schools um we have fruit cups and yogurt parfit um that we sell um there is a chicken Caesar salad
at the top I'm going across the top um there's a couple pictures just how our kitchen managers do such a great job of presenting our fresh fruits and vegetables for our students um you can see some of our students in those pictures enjoying I think it's a a new Bagel lunch that we have at our
elementary school um we have a new uh Bon chicken wings at our high schools with onion rings and that has been a big hit um there's a picture of our one of our girl lines at the high school that kind of shows the burgers and the chicken it's served very much like a grab and go
style and they can take what they like um and of course our uh famous allart chocolate chip cookies um which students have deemed the Lakeville cookies um we've even had graduated students come back at breaks
and ask their younger siblings LS to bring them home for them so they're very popular um and one picture that I just we threw in there cuz I thought it was very interesting if you're unaware of kind of the magnitude and the quantity of foods that we cook on a daily basis
that top right picture is a picture of a a Rollin rack oven um from Lakeville North High School so she loads up the pan of food and bakes that much at one time so I just give you an idea of the quantity that we're making at a time
so we use average number of meals per day in percent of students eating to track participation in school meals school year 2324 was the first year of Minnesota free School meals as we expected participation increased and doubled at breakfast we have seen a
slight decrease this year in breakfast participa participation at our elementary schools but an increase at our high schools the increase at the high schools is due in part to a new breakfast cart at Lakeville North High School where students who are coming in off the bus can grab breakfast off a
cart situated by The Doors instead of going down to the cafeteria this cart has increased our capacity to serve more students participation at lunch has steadily increased since the start of Minnesota fre School meals this year we're feeding over 88,200 students free
lunch free lunches per day and that doesn't even include student all theart sales High School are each averaging about $800 to $1,000 in allart sales daily this equates to a much larger number of students coming through our lunch lines each day than just two years
ago about 1,300 more lunches per day we have individual schools with over 90% participation at lunch which is the highest percent participation that we have ever seen due to the Minnesota fre School meals we are feeding more students this has created an issue with the time
students have for lunch the amount of time given to students for lunchtime has not increased yet we have to get students through in the same amount of time which has decreased the amount of time students actually have to sit down and eat lunchtime should be an enjoyable and stressfree time for
students and when they have to hurry through eating because they have less than 10 minutes to eat once they have gone through the serving line it can create a stressful experience for some students elementary students have 20 minutes from the time they enter the cafeteria to go through the line sit
down and clear their trays before returning to class at our middle schools over recent years the number of lunch periods has decreased from six lunch periods to three doubling the number of students to feed in one Lunch Period and pushing cafeteria space to the limits
students have 25 minutes from class dismissal to the Bell to leave the cafeteria depending on the menu day students at the end of the line can sometimes have only 10 minutes to eat at the high school students have 30 minutes from the time their class is dismissed
to the time their next class starts per student feedback many students bring a lunch from home because they don't have enough time to eat school lunch due to the long lines this year as Kim mentioned we have we have started offering um some
cultural choices within our menus so we were doing this preco and we decided this year we wanted to return to that initiative in November we offered beef sambusas which were made by a local Somali women's owned company called hoyo these
were a huge hit and as she mentioned we'll be offering them again um this spring this past month we offered Tika Masala with naan a popular Indian chicken dish in a tomato based spice sauce next week we are featuring chicken
tamali at our schools the picture on the right is of an elementary student who's having fun building a Bagel banana and apple cinnamon chickpeas bread sandwich this new menu item is made with
the amazing chickpea spread which is made locally here in Minnesota and is a new menu item that was recently added to our elementary menus and has already become a huge hit the cafeteria is is an extension of the classroom where students can learn
about and try new foods how they are good for us and maybe find a new favorite food when planning our menus we strive to offer variety and expose students to new foods our staff also do a very good job of encouraging students to try new
things last summer we went out to bed for local apples we received bids back from three local Orchards and entered into an agreement with Montgomery Orchard to supply us with apples throughout the fall we received a variet of apples throughout the fall months including or allowing students to try
zestar sweet Tango honey crisp harelson courland and Fireside apples on October 10th students participated in the great apple crunch an event to celebrate Farm to school month in local Apple Farmers we served apples from Montgomery Orchard
that day to celebrate their delicious apples just last month we were awarded with a $5,000 first bite Farm to- School Grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture this grant will allow us to continue purchasing local apples and work on expanding on our goal to
purchase more locally grown and raised food our plan is to partner with the good acre food Hub to purchase local vegetables such as cherry tomatoes bell peppers and cucumbers all right that concludes our presentation we would like to thank you for having us to present and would like
to extend an invitation to you if you would ever like to have a tour of one of our kitchens or come out for lunch we're happy to have you and we are happy to answer any other questions you we have director Cameron thanks for the presentation um I
especially love to hear how local businesses are being supported both I forgot to mention with SH and Son's presentation and and this like the school district is supporting I think local businesses and local economy and I think that's important so thank you for pursuing those opportunities rather than
kind of a a national wholesaler at times um we got an email actually quite a while ago now um from a student um and I wanted to bring it up um cuz I've also s thought about it and then in the Dakota County um bullet or brochure thing that
we get I read about this as well um to what extent is Lakeville thinking about using reusable or compostable products in the lunchroom rather than the plastic um I know Dakota County offers grants I think 196 just moved to all stainless steel trays and the student that wrote
is you know concerned about the environmental impact of all the plastic that's thrown away every day in Lakeville um and so any effort towards that um we can report back to them abely so um with high view the opening of High View Elementary we actually received the
$10,000 Dakota County grant for reusables so we were able to purchase reusable trays which um on a daily basis we use reusable trays unless we have a dishwasher go down or we're we're really short staffed um so we do use reusable
trays on a daily basis um at Hi View Elementary 2 we um purchased reusable silverware um my goal at that school was to try and use as little paper products as we could um because my goal moving
forward is to try and reduce the amount that we are using a for cost but also B just for the environmental environmental impact um we have moved away from using foam um trays when we don't have
dishwasher to use and so we do use a compostable tray um and yes we're TR we're trying to move towards more bulk serve our um secondaries do a lot of bulk serve
fruits and vegetables um our elementaries just to speed up suring time um trying to get the kids through the serving line quicker we do do more individual portions of um items but um yes as much as we can we're trying to
move towards those composable items if we are using paper products but they're not always available for the products that we need director Anderson I actually have two questions thank you for such a lovely presentation um like seeing all those options and I those sambusas right
were a big hit I I heard all about it um so with regard to what you were just talking about um um when when did we move away from like the metal forks and spoons and like why did were their concerns that I guess I'm trying to
understand that move away from that is that that's what I remember as a kid having yeah and I'm not sure when that changed um I've been in the district for almost 11 years and um we do have a few I did forget to mention we do have a few
schools um elementaries that do use reusable silverware um we're trying to move towards getting more schools um to using that but to say when that happened I'm I'm not I'm not sure it was before my time here like are they throwing them
away or they get you know I guess I would anyway so my other question that does happen my other question is I know we've been talking for years now about this Surplus and your fund um and someday having to give money back which I don't think anybody wants to we want
to be able to use it so with regard to the farm to table options I know you're talking about grant money but is it possible to use some of the extra funding to do more um collaboration with local farmers yeah certainly
um in regards to the fund balance that we have um we are working very hard on trying to spend that down like I said we're standardizing equipment um so purchasing a lot of equipment um
adding new positions adding labor where we are able to um but in regards to the food yes we are we're with Farm to school and um purchasing locally there's a lot of new
regulations when it comes to how you're acquiring that food so it's a learning process and learning how we need to go about that um and it's easier to do small steps at a time you know as opposed to trying to
completely overhaul things so I think that's kind of been our goal we started this year with the apples then we're like well let's try let's apply for the grant you know just to kind of open and broaden our Horizons but yes certainly we are looking at where else can we
expand on that and um manage it with the the staff that we have as well so all right thank you okay appreciate it you uh I'm going to ask that any board member reports be reserved until next
week because we have like a minute and a half to adjourn here uh nothing from the superintendent I would entertain a motion to adjourn move by director Cameron is there a second I'll second there being multiple seconds all those in favor of
adjourning well we'll give it to what to director Baker but uh all those in favor adjournment say I I I is posed all right we are done e