meeting. This is Independent School District 832 regular board meeting of education Monday, April 27th, 7 p.m. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Please.
>> Complete. >> Looking for a motion to approve this evening's agenda by Director Peterson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Director Donna. Any discussion?
All those in favor say I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next. Looking for an approval of the consent agenda this evening. >> So moved >> by director Donna. Is there a second? Second by director Peterson. Any
discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Um next we are going to move forward with presentations and recognition. Um O Anderson and I believe that's Mrs.
Good evening board, Superintendent Duffren and the Madame Comm um community. I am so pleased um to recognize Miss um Autton Romero um who is our school psychologist at O Anderson. Tony and I um she as a special
ed director and myself want to um recognize her for the work and the dedication she has given to the Mamemidai schools. She's been here with us for three years in Madameai but a school psychologist for 10 years with experience both in Brooklyn Park and in Madison, Wisconsin. And she's currently
um pursuing her director of special education license to continue to grow her leadership. Um, one of the things that I really appreciate about Paola is she really lives that strategic plan. We write the strategic plan um, as a vision of who we
want to be and where we are as a uh, group of educators here, but she really helps to develop that strong educational system for students who might have an IEP. She is a systems thinker and looking how we can do the best um, to really meet the needs of our students.
She also is a teacher leader and you some of her colleagues are here tonight um both at O Anderson and throughout the district. Um and I know I corrected this but um um she also has um does everything to make sure that all students are feeling valued, respected,
seen, and heard at OG Anderson in everything she does and says. Um one of the biggest things about a school psychologist is they are knowledgeable in special education, the laws, the rules, the regulations. if we ever have a question, we talk to Paula and she either has the answer or will come um
back with that answer to help and support her team at O Anderson. Um I think the biggest thing that I appreciate about Paola Romero is she is an advocate for our students and knows every student at O Anderson. Um she um
completes the formal assessments for students um that might have an educ individual education plan. She actually teaches some of the classes. So, you'll see her her boots are right there in the classroom, uh, teaching social skills, math lessons, jumping in and helping with kids every every day. Um, she
checks and connects with kids to see how their days are going. Um, make sure that they're um, engaged in their small groups. And she really facilitates that communication between um, the district and the school and amongst um, team members to make sure that we're serving kids the best that we can.
Um, as I said, her leadership is what I value. Um, at O Anderson, she runs, uh, weekly team meetings for our special education team. She does a lot of the professional learning on educating our team on special ed updates on the law, um, all of those pieces. Um, she is the
mastermind that looks at all the IEPs and creates schedules for students, teachers, and paras at O Anderson. and she supports teachers on a daily basis and myself um on interventions, progress monitoring and how to best support our kids. Um she is around and um people uh
really appreciate that. Um I think another strength of uh Miss Romero is her communication with families. She's super knowledgeable about special education, but she knows how to put it in um a form that people can understand. and she's very clear at sharing her
reports and her data about student strengths and maybe areas of need and what we're doing to help support kids. But she also is able to articulate to parents like what are those accommodations and supports we can do to really build on those skills to help every child to be successful.
Um I have a couple quotes of students but um this is Ali a fifth grader. He just says what he loves about Mr. Romero. She's very helpful with his math. Um another student and I won't put his picture. He said um what he thinks about Mr. Romero, she holds him accountable and she's consistent. I
didn't put his name. He didn't give me permission his name, but that is one thing that I I would say about Miss Romero. She's consistent. Kids know what she says. She means and she holds them accountable for that as well. Um here are two um quotes from her colleagues and one of her colleagues is here
tonight, but it really just emphasizes her leadership, her dedication, her knowledge and really the support that she gives her colleagues on a daily basis. So, I'll let you take a peek at some of those quotes. Uh, Miss Stelmeck also, you know, talked about that same thing about her
knowledge um of special education, how she really leads teammates and her strong leadership skills um and doing what's best for kids at all times. So this evening, I want to thank Miss Romero for her contributions to O Anderson and really building a system of
success for our kids. She's part of our MTSS um uh team that is learning about the MTSS system and how to continue to strengthen our system. So I want to thank Miss Romero for her all of her time, her hard work, and the knowledge that you share to O Anderson and to our
district. Hey, we're going to come get a picture with you. Okay. Okay. Um, next, moving on to item eight, report from student representative Matt. That's you. >> Hey. Um, I wanted to start with a shout
out to eighth grader Liam Anderson. He competed in the script regional spelling be. Um, he did an awesome job. He correctly included correctly like retroedance and hydrocortisone which is incredibly impressive in eighth grade. So congrats
to Liam. I want to move on to um the career and internship and volunteer fair that we had at the high school. Uh I spoke with two students who attended the fair. Um the first one was Ellen Gruba. Uh she had worked as one of the volunteer student guides at the fair.
She said that she thought she was extremely helpful with helping student attendees connect to where they needed to be within the fair. Um, and I think it's easier for students connect with students rather than maybe the intimidating adults that are behind the tables at the fair. That's a nice
addition. I also talked to Cam By um he was respectfully he said he was surprised with how interesting it was. Um, but he said uh he wanted to talk to people in the STEM field and he found plenty of options. So he was he was pleasantly surprised.
And then he also appreciated how it was organized within zones. So students they knew the interest they were headed in. They could go to a zone of the gym and see people that they knew they wanted to see. Another event that happened recently was Night at the April 17th. If you haven't
been to Night at the Um I always go I make it every year. It's band and choir students and they compete in a talent show against each other. So there's about maybe 20 um during the night and each person who attends gets a vote and you can vote for
your favorite act and that person wins a pizza party for their respective band or choir group. Um you learn talents about your classmates that you would have never even imagined um because they're given complete creative ability to what they want to perform that night. I want
to give a shout out to who I voted for, Charlie Dhan, who sang and played piano. Georgia on my mind. The spring fling will be at Wildwood from 5 to 8:00 p.m. on May 15th. There's live music, games, raffles, and
high school has uh prom this weekend, May 2nd, and students get to celebrate after prom with AP testing. So it is it's kind of crunch time for a lot of students. There's a lot of stress been around my high school with people
taking multiple AP courses and having to deal with multiple. >> And then families with children two years old to second grade um there's a nature activity for them and it's STEM themed. Um they can explore natural materials. Uh they can go on a scavenger
hunt and more snake discovery will be there with live reptiles if that's your thing. Um I know my mom would never but food trucks are also available. That's Thursday uh April 30th. So that's really soon. Um and then the final thing I have is it
was in the e-news but the middle school has started adding additional time to lunch to let kids go outside and play games. Um I love to see this. I know the stuff you've heard me suggest in superintendent academy and stuff that we get people outside more often students because I always think it's awesome and I think it's sad that the older you get
the less time you get outside your school. Um and I can attest to the truth they are having a lot of because I was doing my sit spot with Mr. class where you sit silently in the woods for 40 minutes by yourself and there was screaming middle schoolers for
30 of the 40. >> Thank you, Matt. I always loved your reports and I love the humor and the deep dive around district questions for Matt. Um, next, Superintendent Duffren. I have some things that are happening
around the districts and noteworthy news and upcoming events that I'm pretty sure Matt hits the least. Um on April 14th, there are a few of you that were able to join us for the AI dessert and dialogue. Um this again was
an opportunity we we sent a call out to community members who use AI as um a big part of their work and we asked them to come in and talk with us a little bit about what that looks like and what we need to know about AI and um for our
students. And so we have a few themes there. Um we're we're going to talk about it with students because we had a number of student um student representatives there to listen. we're going to be able to process with them this week. But some of the things that we took away in terms of themes
kind of highlight that um the competencies that are included in our portrait of graduate uh remain as essential human skills. So they we did talk about the idea of the human skills but still being a very important and a
critical part of using AI. Um students need strong background knowledge to use AI well. So in order evaluate and analyze what comes out of AI. You need to have that strong content knowledge in order to do that. And then also we
talked about integrity and judgment when using AI. What is what does it look like when AI enhances work um creates efficiency versus taking over their own thinking or replacing their So we had some great conversations. We're very thankful for all the community members
that came out and volunteered to to join us and um share with us a little bit more so that we can we can grow in our abilities to support our students. Matt talked a little bit about this already. This is our second year at the high school for the career internship
and volunteer fair. Um and it doubled in size and um the career bingo sheet. I don't know what you thought about that, Matt, but I think it helped people kids students get around to different tables and make sure they talk to people. >> Just if you're only comfortable, I know
the zones were helpful, but it also gets you out of your comfort. So, um Matt highlighted that. Um we also had the career day since the middle school career day since last um I
think our third year maybe of the event. um maybe fourth. Um and again, uh community members volunteering their time to come in and talk to students about about their careers. Students were able to sign up for careers they were
interested in and just learn a little more. So, we're always thankful community nature night. This Matt already highlighted this as well. I told you as he was going through that he was hitting my my just point out that this is here if you
want to reference it in my power. Um just some things about facilities update and I'll I'll kick off and talk a little bit about what we talk about in our facilities committee. Um and then you can just join in. Okay. Um so as you
know monthly um our facilities committee our board facilities committee meets to just get updates about where we are in the process um around the facilities uh work that we're doing around the district. So, I appreciate that director put this picture in the PowerPoint
because look at those seats. They are leaving. We will be replacing those brownbacked, pink seats with black backed and dark blue seats >> that are not falling apart and do not
need welding. So, um that will be that will be wonderful. Also, um an ADA lift as well. And so, those um that is all going in um before Octo they're they're working around the events that we have in August in the theater. We have a few
theater events and so they'll be doing some work leaving before that those um events happen and um they'll wrap up putting in all the seats before before I So, those are coming. So, get your look
at this last look now because it'll look a whole lot better very soon. Um, we are also getting ready this this summer for safety and security updates at OA Wildwood and the district center. Um, a number of those are out to bid right
now. So, we'll learn more soon about how those came in. um the innovation wing and the commons those so the innovation wing and the wait room we have a draft right now what that will look like but those are out to user groups right now so the people who
will be using those on a day-to-day basis are giving feedback and getting more in the weeds on what that what that's going to look like we have some some drawings that we can um look at but they'll get a lot more specific after those user groups and then the commons
area which is where the cafeteria to the hand that way. They've had two meetings so far um and so there are some sketches but um by the next time we talk will be a lot more and say those are the big highlights. Did you have anything else that you
wanted to point out? >> Um I think it's just great to see how much feedback went into this. How many groups were participated in multiple cycles of providing input and just to see how that these ideas start to come alive. Um so it's just it's really exciting to sort of see the the things that can impact students. um immediately
things like this and and then some of the longer term projects that will happen over the next over the next year as well. So, it's been uh just encouraging to see this happening so well and having so many people involved in the process. >> Um graduation rates are out um and we continue to have a high graduation rate
as I I'll just remind you that we talk about this every year. Um our graduation rate goes up and down because um though our students who go on to passages are not they are counted as part of the graduating class for the ceremony but
then when it comes time to um talk about the graduation rate they are taking out that because they are continuing their education at passages which we um are very proud of that that program we continue to have
Um Annie Doll uh won the outstanding DECA award um DECA advisor award for 25 26 year. Did she win this last year too? I that's what I thought. She's won this two years in a row. Uh both both years
she's been the deck advisor. She has she's it's going to be a lot to look up to. So congratulations. It's very Brian Farmer also uh won an award as the
aerospace STEM teacher of the year for the Air and Space Forces Association. And he had um I think it was on the same night as we were at the gala he was accepted. Congratulations,
Brian. Uh community lunch, I'll just highlight community lunch and food truck Friday are coming up pretty soon. So, if you're available for the community lunch, is it too late to sign up? It's not too late to sign up for community lunch if you're available and then come on out and join
us. Hopefully, we have a nice sunny day trip. I have um any questions. Okay. Um next, let's move to item 10, discussion information items, letter A, board member calendar. calendar in your packet. I guess I'm
looking for any questions or comments about upcoming events for May and June. Lots of graduations. That's my takeaway. Lots of lots of fun celebrations coming. We do. Um so I did get confirmation about rehearsal will be on Friday
morning if you're available. Luckily, you have all been through this before. But um graduation rehearsal since graduation is now on Friday, the rehearsal is that morning at 10:30. I know you all, but if you're if you're
able to get away um and join us, that's great. Otherwise, we will practice the handoff and I will go over all of it right before. >> Um I have one one schedule conflict May 19th for the May board meeting. I know
I'll be traveling. Is there someone who would like to attend in my head? >> Monday, >> Tuesday, Tuesday, May 19th. >> I can check my personal calendar.
>> Anything else regarding the calendar? >> Okay. Um, next item 10B is quarterly finan. update Ericson. >> Good evening. There we all right. So, this is our quarterly update and this is through March 31st.
And um I'll walk you through the the format of the report, but you're probably fairly familiar with it. Um what we like to do here is to compare and look at a lot of times really kind concentrate on those two columns on the far right. So, percentage of budget
received uh or spent and then the actuals received or spent because that's a that's a nice quick gauge of how we're doing and are there any areas that we might be concerned about. So, uh I'll I'll really focus on those uh as far as
the report's concerned. Um when we're looking at uh and I'm going to skip to federal uh federal or federal revenues and there we have a difference. We're at 46% uh for budget received in last year. We are 41.73.
And what that is is is really a timing of uh our special education claims. That's a that's a thing where we have to submit claims and get reimbured. So there there are time lags and sometimes there's a difference in when those claims are submitted, but uh we're we're
tracking tracking just fine there. Uh the next one when I look at uh property taxes that one is uh different uh mainly due to some accounting entries that happen and those they may span they may we might have that entry happen in March
it might happen in April there's a little bit of a cut off there but uh but we're again tracking really tracking just fine on those property taxes uh and then local fees um and that's going to be donations and uh just interest
earnings and a number of different things. And that one um the donations are definitely harder to predict, but they're they're pretty much right in line with last year, incidentally. Uh but those are individual donations, donations from May and Don donations
from individuals and businesses. So there's a lot of support here for that. So when we look at our revenues, the total revenues were at 68.57% compared to 70.5 uh 70.05 the previous
year. So tracking right on. And then when we look at our expenditures, we look at salaries and wages, those are right in line with where they were last year. 64.71 64.96.
and health health and dental um at this point are tracking lower than budget which is good news. So we're at about 64% uh spent there versus 66% last year. And then we've got uh our purchase
services. Um we've got we've got some additional expenditures for what I would call special transportation. So it might be special ed, might be their care and treatment kids. So those costs are up. We're up uh in the number of kids there
that are going to those and they're requiring a special transportation. So that one is is running higher. And u let's see when I look at technology, activities, athletics, uh that we're
we're up in those two areas. look at 87 about 87 and a half% versus 75% last year. Um but then I'll refer back up to those donations. So when you look at activities and athletics, a lot of there's a lot of donation funding there,
a lot of fees of course fees that students are charged. So uh there is an offset there. So then we're looking at totals. We look at the total expenditures 66.6% versus 64 6% last year. So, well, all in
all, tracking right where we should be. So, and then when we look at I'm going to go to that green column over to the left in the middle and down at the bottom when you we look at revenue under expenditures. Uh, of course, we're
planning for $812,000 deficit when we get to year end. Still planning on that that amount. Any questions? answered my question. >> Sorry. How does the 812 compare to where we thought we' the year would when we
started a year? We knew we'd run a deficit. How does that number compare to what we had? So, when we when you when you approved a preliminary budget >> Yep. uh back in June of last year um we were high the deficit was higher I
sorry I don't recall I think we were about 1.2 two million somewhere in there. And so then subsequently we did that revise that that revision in February and so that came down. >> Yeah, just following up on uh the last
question. If so, when we get to June, will you show us what our end balance is and then have the comparison from last June what we thought it might be. >> We won't do I we we'll give an estimate.
Uh we won't do a final though because between June so actually between May and the end of June auditors come in they do field work and that's just the beginning of their audit and then uh we'll go through the whole summer we'll be working on audit and adjusting entries
and then then we'll bring it but we can bring an estimate. So when we but I guess it doesn't need to be June, but when we get the final report on our year, can we can you be sure to include what we had looked at as our preliminary budget and what we thought the deficit would be versus where we end it?
>> Just because following up on his question, that helps to have it in front of us. >> That Thank you. >> Thank you. Items 11 action items. Item A, approval of donations and grants for March 2026
totaling $44,182.11. Um, looking for a motion to approve. >> I don't know the motion, but I think you >> Is the number wrong? That's what I was looking at. >> Yeah. No, I think >> I think the number might be typed wrong, but I think it correctly. Yeah, that's a decimal before the 11.
>> Okay, thank you. >> I was I was pretty sure it wasn't 44. >> I got really excited that it might be 44 million, but then I weren't recognized for the same reason. So, >> well, I will make that motion. >> Okay. All right. Okay. So, motion by director Stout. Is there a second? >> I'll second.
>> Second by director Domen. Any discussion? >> All donations and grants are greatly appreciated. The use of these funds will be to further the mission of the school district and are used towards the wishes of the donor. All those in favor say I. >> I
>> opposed. Motion carries. Okay. I had the same thoughts. >> Yes. >> Um item B, approval of single audit report. Again, you're still here. Here it is. Yeah.
>> So, hopefully you all remember when the auditor was here to give his report on on last year's audit, there was a delay in the federal government issuing a guidance on some certain things in that audit. So, uh what he said is I will be
back if there is a finding. If I'm not back, that's good news. Everybody remembers that? >> That's what he said. So, I'm I'm glad to tell you uh he's not here because he didn't need to be. And I'm just going to
very very highly summarize what what this is. So this thing was so when we get our federal dollars which are normally specialed dollars and title dollars we don't get a lot of those but uh we have to have certain uh federal
the auditors follow certain guidance uh that the feds put out and uh so um what I'm going to do is go down to I'm going to go down to the schedule schedule the audit opinions and findings that's on the management Okay. So, I'm I'm just going to extract
a few just a few phrases in there. So, that first bullet point, uh, the schedule of federal awards, that's the that's what they call SIFA, is fairly stated in all material respects. And I'm going to go down to that second bullet point. Uh, the district has compi
complied in all material respects. Stop me if you have a question. Um, I'm going to go to that last bullet point right there. Uh, and so we reported no deficiencies in the
district's internal controls over compliance that we consider to be a material weakness. So those are those are the phrases that I kind of pull out of that. Now I'm going to continue. That's the that is the management
letter. I'm going to go to the uh the action plan. So, we do have a corrective action plan and that one we have every year. Okay. And what that is is it's the when we
look at um our internal control, there's a significant what they call a significant deficiency. That sounds really bad, but versus a material weakness, it isn't. what the two what those two phrases mean is what
happens is they look at the probability of something happening and how material it is. And so ours is is one that we have every year and that's because we've got a smaller we we've got a smaller staff here. We can't split up the the duties to gain a certain amount of
internal control. And what's done what the auditors do because of that is they'll perform additional procedures to make sure that we don't have a material miss statement. But it's it's a it's a lowlevel really a lowlevel thing. So um if you have any questions you can let me
know. That's all I've got. >> I brought that point up when we had the audit report. I mean we've been talking about it for years and I don't it didn't sound like that he said that was really something we could do a whole lot about. >> Right.
>> Hired more people. It's a it's a cost benefit what it comes down to. So So the material the the likelihood that we're going to have a major error is the probability is >> any other questions. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Um next item C approval to approve that. Oh, I'm sorry. Yep. We didn't do that, did we? Nope. We need to move. I'm looking for a motion to approve the uh single audit report. >> I moved by director Stout.
Second by director Peterson. Any discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppos. Motion carries. >> Okay. Yes. Now we approve that item C. Um that is approval of calendar for
2627. And we have that We talked about this and looked at this at the last study session. What comments or questions do you have about the 2026 2027 board calendar?
So, they're all on Monday still. Um, and a reminder, I need you all to look at your calendars for July to figure out if July 13th can be our retreat. Okay. >> And then we could do our meeting at noon.
>> Like at one vote on that. We're gonna vote. So we are going to vote on this. we have it here and then sometimes you realize that there's something else planned in July. We need you to realize that sooner rather than later. That's
what we're asking. You're going to prove this and then notice your July calendars. All right. We will check our July calendars and make you want to. >> Yes, please. Get back to her with the yes or no. So
that way we know Okay. Um, with that, I'm looking for a motion to approve the schoolboard calendar for 2026 2027 by Director Peterson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> By director Donna. Any discussion?
I will just add that I shared my feelings of potentially moving the board meetings away from Monday to later in the week back to when we used to meet Thursdays and we had a discussion about that and it didn't seem to be the best interest of the board at this time. So,
I've talked it through and figured it out. So, I just wanted to add that in the discussion piece. Any other discussion, right? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Item 12, schoolboard committee report.
We'll start with AMSD. >> Um, I feel like we Oh, we was done at a workshop session. >> We did talk about it at the workshop. All right. So nothing new item B um the main conversation at May was
about the gala which was very successful the most successful in many years if not ever I don't know if I get to say ever but certainly in many years um the fan um I also don't want to tell you that
because they're going to come in >> big >> with the big check probably, but um I'll say probably $20,000 more than any of the next highest. So, it was a night that uh was
just really surpassed anyone's expectations. We are very thankful um for our community. The fan this year was to support the angel fund. So to support students who um need extra support um in order to participate fully in all the
programs we have and um and in school for that matter. And so um yeah, it was a very generous evening. Um I'll highlight that thanks to Latte is coming up there. This is an opportunity to um
for a $20 donation to MAF, a card and a gift card to uh the um wild bean. Sorry, a gift card to the wild bean uh will be uh given to whatever teacher a teacher of your
choice. So for the next month, there's an opportunity to to donate $20 to make and Thanks a lot. >> I'm going to say nowish >> right now until the end of May. I don't
remember the exact dates, but the first week in May is teacher appreciation. So you'd like to um and I do believe they are also looking for a member or two for the board still. We have a few people who
are leaving at the end. I don't think you um MSBA the only thing we can really help with right now is well a lot of the things I gave scary reports on have fallen off because they didn't go anywhere which is good. Uh but
it is not too late. There's three weeks left to please email anyone who represents our district and tell them you support the permanent school fund. Uh which you do. I mean look into it, but yes, we should be supporting that.
Um it is no new tax increases for property. Um we would get a 4.5 every single year for school funding. Not not up to what the current administration feels like giving us. Um
There's over two billion dollars sitting in the state education fund right now and it is just earning money and interest and we're just asking them to give every school 4.5% of that every year. And Tuesday morning, excuse me, at
8:00 is coffee and conversations with board members across the state. to clarify the permanent school fund what you would be asking for is to um have it um voted upon that a change to the way the money is managed. So, the
money is currently managed in one way according um constitutionally. It's a constitutional amendment that we're looking for. And so, you would be asking for this to go towards a vote, have an amendment so that the school fund can be
managed differently, which would then in turn earn more money for schools. Um, Metro 916, I I think Leslie already shared the reports.
Do we have >> I did attend that. >> Um Dr. Rel, any chance you would come up to the podium and share with us on the spot? And if not, I can pull up the notes. At the final district curriculum advisory meeting for this year, we typically look at new courses that were
in place new this year, but we didn't have any. So, we um shuffled that up and our focus was about family engagement. Do you want that add on to that? You got >> about family engagement.
>> It was a a great conversation. We had several people who had kids or used to have in the district talk about the ways that kids have uh families engaged with the district, ways that the district has done really well, opportunities for improvement. That was productive,
productive conversation. >> Madam Chair, she looks willing and able to I was not able to attend the last meeting. So Kate's going to explain what happened. It's gonna try to remember um yes, it was our last meeting of the
year. Um we did some recap on some highlights um of the previous month um or last two months. Uh got some ideas from our members and then we just kind of shared around the table about um some district updates, some city updates. But
uh majority of the time at that meeting um we were problem solving some um situations where we partner with our library and how we can support each other together and working um together to provide great things for our
students. Thank you. >> Yeah. And food truck Friday is May 8th 5 to 7. We're hoping for a sunny day. Um, any other board reports? All right. Well, with that, looking for
a motion to adjurnn. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Uh, moved by Director Donna, second by Director Stouts. Um, all those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. We are journed. 7:43.
>> It is a record.