Good evening. I'd like to call us to order for tonight's special meeting of the Minnetonka School Board for October 23rd, 2025. Let's stand and say the pledge to the flag to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Uh, may I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So moved.
>> Camarie, I have a second. Second, >> Mike. All right. Any discussion, questions, additions. All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? We have an agenda. Uh, one thing slightly out of the order here
with us this evening. We have Associate Superintendent Amy Leoo filling in for our absent Superintendent David Law. Uh, first item up for the special meeting is the approval of collective bargaining agreement with the MTA. Associate Superintendent Leoo.
Mr. Chair, members of the board, as you know, every two years we go through a highly collaborative process with our Mitaka Teachers Association to negotiate an updated collective bargaining agreement.
There we go. Tonight, our general counsel and executive director of human resources. There we go. Okay. Tonight, our general counsel and executive director of human
resources, Angie Flowers, will provide a summary of that agreement. Miss Flowers. >> Thank you, Associate Superintendent Leoo. Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. First of all, I'd like to start off with thanking both teams during this
negotiations process, the district team and the MTA team. Associate Superintendent Leoo said, it was a very collaborative process. There was a lot of teamwork and we think we got a lot of good things done for teachers and students.
The financial settlement for teachers includes a 2.25% 25% enhancement to the salary schedule in year 1 and a 2.2 enhancement to salary schedule in year two.
That also will include and be on top of step movement in both years of the contract. And this contract will be for 2025 through 2027. In addition to the salary schedule enhancements, nurses were moved to our
teacher salary schedule and that's pretty exciting for us. It's a big win for the nurses. It's a big win for the district. It allows us to be more competitive as most nurse positions are on that same salary schedule. We also made improvements to insurance
and there was a big focus on family insurance and making that more affordable for our families. And there were other benefits um as well that we improved in including um retirement incentive. Tonight I'm asking for your approval of
the MTA and district collective bargaining agreement terms with the Minnotonka Teachers Association for 2025 2027. >> Thank you again. Um, uh, I would entertain a motion to approve the agreement between the Minnitonka
Teachers Association and the Minnitankka Public Schools for July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2027. >> So moved. >> Megan, we have a second. >> Second. >> Chris, any discussion? Board members.
>> I just have a question about a term that I noticed. There's an acronym on uh let's see this is um pardon me. Okay. Section A subtitle one C.2
E SST time. >> Yes. Employee sick and safety time. Yeah. the the new or more recent law that gives more sick time and more eligibility um for our employees to take off >> when they're ill or their family
members. >> Any other questions or comments? >> All right. Uh seeing no other discussion, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion passes
unanimously. Thank you very much. >> All right. I will now entertain a motion to adjurnn this special meeting. >> So move. >> Chris, may I have a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Camarie. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed?
>> Motion carries. We're adjourned. >> It's good to see. >> And now we'll shuffle shuffle to our spot for the study session. Okay, we're ready to get started with uh the uh October 23rd Minnotonka School Board study session. Um couple of quick
comments with us tonight. In lie of our absent superintendent David Law, we have associate superintendent Amy Leoo. And at the end of the table, we have our student board representatives, we have Reena Youngquist and Jacob Gendro. Thanks for being with us. Uh first off,
we at 6:15 has come and gone. So, we've reached the time for citizen input. Citizen input is an opportunity for the public to address the school board on any topic in accordance with our guidelines. Is there anyone here who wishes to address the board? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to our
opening of school report. Associate Superintendent Leoo. >> Yes, Mr. Chair, members of the board, October 1st is a key date the state of Minnesota uses for official school data. This includes enrollment and
demographics as well as data for decision makingaking for areas such as categorical funding, including those connected to areas like free and reduced lunch or our English learner program. Tonight, our general counsel and
executive director for human resources, Angie Flowers, will provide you and our community an update on enrollment as of October 1st by levels, schools, and programs as well as hiring for this
current school year. Miss Flowers. >> Thank you, Associate Superintendent Woo. Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. It's my pleasure to share the information from the annual opening school report with you this evening. And first, I'd just like to start by
thanking the enrollment department and communications just for all the energy and effort that they put um into getting the word out about our programming and what Minnetonka provides. This is how excited our students were when they came back.
>> Um as Dr. Dr. Leoo stated, Associate Superintendent Leoo, that the information is as of October 1st and our students are off to a great start. So, I'll begin with district enrollment. Overall, we had 265 more students
enrolled this year compared to last year, our largest increase in five years. Highest Tonka online enrollment since launching. And that's just amazing to see that also
with the online as where some places are decreasing. We're still growing. For elementary enrollment, it increased overall by 109 students when compared to last year and is also the most in the last 5 years. Clear Springs had a drop
last year, but now they are at their highest enrollment. Deep Haven has had a gradual annual increase and stayed almost the same with only three fewer students. Excelsia remained about the same with a
slight decrease at 701 students from 707 and Menasha saw a gain of 13 students and scenic Heights notable increase of 28 students in their school. 101 more students in kindergarten.
Again, enrollment and communications put in a lot of hard work and really focusing um on those kindergarteners and and what we could offer them and we see that in those increased enrollment numbers. Um the majority at Clear Springs, Groveland, and Menowashta.
Moving on to first grade, there was a decrease of 18 students. Second grade has 51 fewer students compared to last year. Third grade increased by 39 students. Fourth grade 29 more students. And fifth grade, eight more students.
[Applause] Average class size um is always a big topic. So highest average class size for kindergarten across schools is 23 students at three schools and the rest all have lower class sizes than the 23.
There are two schools below 20 Excelsier and Scenic Heights. Overall they've been able to maintain their smaller class sizes in kindergarten. First grade is also averaging a low class size between 19 to 23 students.
Uh, second grade the average is less than 25 students across the school buildings. Third grade average class sizes are less than 25 with the exception of Groveland which averages a class size of 27 students.
Fourth grade ranges from 26 to 30 students and fifth grade ranges from 22 to 29 with the most being on the lower end of that number. Bright Works is an organization that we always look to each year just to compare
to see how we're doing compared with other districts. Um they they survey many districts including our comparator districts um Eden Prairie, Weisetta, Hopkins, Eastern Carver County. And if you look at that chart, you'll
see half of our average CL class sizes are less than Bright Works for 2025 26 with three buildings just being slightly higher. Um, so we are we're pleased with those numbers. Some are just like a.3
decimal higher. So we are we're still in a good range. Moving on to middle school enrollment, MMW has stayed consistent. They have two students less this year and MME increase by 45 from last year to this year.
Total enrollment for the middle schools 2671. High school enrollment has officially surpassed 3600 students coming in at 3601. Uh this was an increase of 48 students from last year. The high school remains
very popular. Any questions on any of that before going on? Okay. Uh Tonka online and navigator enrollment are next. The data that you see for Tonka online, keep in mind that is our full-time
students. It's not our students taking supplemental courses or extra credit and things like that. So, it increased at all levels. Solid growth of full-time online students at the high school. Increase of 65 students
overall from last year to this year. Um 32 at the high school, 17 at middle, and 16 at elementary. Looking at elementary again, very steady with the largest increase at third grade followed by fifth grade.
Total of 40. Middle school, there was a slight drop at six, but significant increases at seventh and eighth. And we tend to see those increases as the grades get higher. 32 students is what Tonka online has
increased by at the high school level with the majority of those increases being at 11th and 12th grade. Anything on the high school or Tonka? Okay. The elementary navigator program
overall navigator navigator enrollment has a historical high with 213 students in 10 classrooms across 2 grade through fifth grade. This is an increase of 10 students over last year's enrollment of 203.
Excelsier Navigator experienced a decrease though we continue to encourage enrollment there. The program is strong and solid. Uh some of that just has to do with location and start time. So, we're still trying to get get the word out about what's offered there with
Navigator. And you'll see that Scenic Heights increased by 19 students in their Navigator program. Moving on to immersion enrollment. Districtwide, Chinese immersion is at 9%. That was a slight decrease by 1%.
Spanish also decreased 1% from last year and is now at 28%. Looking at the immersion versus English and how those compare, they've hovered at like 6040 split respectively for English and immersion.
uh this year you can see that it's 63% English and 37% immersion and immersion has experienced that 2% decrease from last year whereas English increased by 2%. For elementary district-wide, Spanish
immersion enrollment is 23% higher than Chinese immersion, which is typical in given that we have four Spanish immersion schools and two Chinese immersion schools. English is still um the largest at 57%.
Looking at middle school immersion, Chinese specifically, Chinese immersion at MME has experienced a slight decrease of nine students. MMW had a slight increase of four students. Overall, the data shows that both schools have steady
enrollment in their programs, and it's just good to see that kids are continuing their education and that immersion experience. Spanish immersion at both middle schools uh increased 12 students at MME and two
students at MMW. Total of 410 this year. Looking at high school Chinese immersion, decreased by 37 students from last year. And you'll also see that there's a
decrease in Spanish immersion at the high school. This is because students take um the AP exam and when they pass that they really do believe that they're proficient talking talking to the principal the APs
uh students believe some of the students the ones that are doing other things that they are not only proficient but they have more than enough because it's been such a well-rounded program. One of the other recent changes also of
course is Vantage Momentum and the opportunities that they offer. So when now they have a class period where they can just experience some other things and they just have a lot of interest. So looking at Spanish high school, there
was a decrease. We have 39 less students and again just more opportunities um to take other courses and participate in other activities but still very strong enrollment. Yes.
>> You may not. Do you have for it. >> It might be a combination, but I believe it's more about what they're electing at the beginning when they enroll. So, would you add anything different, Dr. Ludoo?
>> I would say that we do have, as you can see, our numbers increasing. So, that is offsetting that. Um, but we only have small numbers of students really moving from immersion to English during their elementary experience. So I would say
it's the other factors that are probably playing into it more. All right, moving on to just some information about our teachers and paras and what our hiring looked like this year. Starting with par profofessionals,
um 96% of our paraprofessional positions are filled. So we are super excited about that. We have hired 40 new pair of professionals this school year. Two in early childhood, 29 at the elementary level, seven at the secondary level, and
two at Sale. Right now we have, of course, 4% of those positions to fill. Um, elementary, we have six openings, four part-time, two full-time, and at secondary we have five openings. Please send us referrals if you have
them. Uh, and now our teachers. I like lastly like to share information um about them and what this year's teachers look like. So the first day of school we had 100% fill rate of the teaching positions. So
we were able to start off strong. So we are proud of that. There have been some leaves since then. So we're not quite still there, but we're we're covered. Um, we hired 53 teachers. 11 previously worked in Minnetonka
public schools. So, we were excited to welcome them back. Seven teachers have taught internationally internationally. Seven are first year teachers. They are averaging 9.8 years of teaching experience, which is pretty standard for
us. We do get very experienced teachers. 28 have master's degrees and two have international degrees and some of those international experiences include places like Taiwan and Poland. So very diverse
backgrounds. The profile of the new teachers, 18 elementary, 27 secondary, one immersion, and seven related services. Our psychologists, social workers, speak language pathologists, counselors in
those positions. We are excited to continue serving our current and new skippers. And that's all I have for you. Questions? >> Thank you. Board members, any questions or discussion? Chris, >> and I think um maybe we covered this a
little bit the last time, so I think it was what, two years ago or last year we're at this time and had a really low kindergarten class and we can see that rebounding nicely. But I mean, a lot of the talk was across the state that kindergarten enrollment was down and it
I don't know, do we have a feel for is that coming back? is was it just a blip or you know I mean we start getting kindergarten classes that are that big all the way through right that there's going to be different planning that uh good things but um you know that's a pretty big class coming through so
>> yeah I I'm not sure but I know that for Minnetonka there was a lot of proactive and concerted efforts and working with school buildings and you know um and also I believe like the the deadlines were moved up or actually communicated
more earlier so people could enroll earlier um versus you know if people are taking a long time to enroll such as January then some of those spots are already taken. So I I think a lot of it was really just the groundwork.
>> The West Metro did see increases overall and so is it more movement this direction as well as people choosing schools? All right. Uh Megan, >> um one question I've been getting
recently is about the comparison in class sizes between English and immersion. >> Um mostly I think at the elementary level. Do you have any inkling for if the class sizes >> are pretty comparable or if there is
actually a discrepancy? >> I I haven't looked at that data. I wouldn't know offhand. Would you, Dr. Leil? I Yeah, >> I haven't looked at it um recently, but I think as we looked across the board, we felt it was pretty comparable. We
know that in kindergarten we often start a little higher in immersion because it allows for some attrition if there is some and keeps class sizes strong. Um, but overall, I think it just really has to do with where residents land and
programs uh families choose. I don't think there's a consistent pattern, >> but happy to pull that data and get it to you. I can do that. >> Dan, >> um I I also seem to remember that um
like on the employment side, like we had a lot more vacancies in recent years and trouble filling positions. Do we think it's we're we've just become a more attractive place to work or we've reduced employee attrition or both? Do
you have any idea? >> The market is getting better the, you know, for jobs and employers. So, that's definitely a trend that's increasing. Um, also we of course we we didn't we just didn't have as many openings given
our financial situation currently, but I'd say last year before the first day of school, the couple weeks out, I think we had like four teacher openings and we were able to get those filled and get someone in there um by the first day of
school or or that week. Um, but we had coverage. So it is an attractive district. So we're always getting a good amount of candidates, but where we still struggle is special education because those teachers are so sought after. So
I think that's just a challenge that the whole state has. >> Anyone else? >> All right. Thank you very much for that report. >> Thank you. Okay, next up we have a nutrition services update.
>> Yes, Mr. Chair, members of the board, for the past three years, we've had a district goal that's included the area of nutrition services. Initially, this focused on the implementation of the state funded breakfast and lunch
program. Our program though has evolved to focus on ensuring that we're providing those highest quality meals uh possible for our students each day. Um I'm pleased to report that our nutrition services team has done an exceptional
job um of being both innovative and really just having an approach that uh is not only meeting these goals, I think it's really exceeded them. Um, tonight we're excited to have both our executive director of finance and operations, Paul
Bourgeoa, and the director of nutrition services, Kristen Turnblad, uh, here to provide us with an update about the great work happening in our nutrition services. >> Thank you, Associate Superintendent
and members of the board. Um, and I'm just here actually as a start start and end. Kristen's going to take the baton. There's a metaphor in the way she's been doing the job too for in that. But I just want to say one of the things in my position that I'm really fortunate. It's like a gift to me is I have really
excellent staff people that I get to work with every day. And Kristen is one of those. She's the best of the best. She's taken the baton from Jane Bender and the last 15 months has done a lot of amazing things. And uh I think you're going to be pleased with what she's
going to be able to re uh relay to you today. And um so I just want to thank you for all the good work you've been doing and I know she's gonna do good work for a long time too. >> Thank you. >> All right, >> Mr. Chair and members of the board, thank you for having me tonight.
[Applause] >> I wanted to start off uh the evening just talking about staffing where we're at so far this school year. Uh our full staff is considered 62 members in nutrition services. We are currently as of today at 56 staff. Um we
are almost at 90% fully staffed. We have um been busy over the past summer. We hired 12 new staff to start out this school year. So all of our elementary schools are staffed. We have one opening at a middle school and then we have four um five positions at the
high school. Of those positions, we're covered for the program that we're offering currently at the high school. And those additional positions will just help us expand what we're already doing. Of that of our staff, of those 56 staff,
37 of them are um parents of the district. whether it's current um students, whether it's students that have already graduated with us. We also have some grandparents. Um their kids didn't go to our district, but their grandkids do, and so they wanted to um join in on the fun and see their
grandkids at lunch. So, as a USDA breakfast and lunch program, we are required to provide training for our staff. um training in uh civil rights as well as what we call offer versus serve, which is offering the students five components of or five
items um of each meal for breakfast and lunch and then having the students choose instead of us putting it on the plate for them. So that's the difference between offer versus serve. Um, this year with offer versus serve, I wanted to add a fun aspect to it because you
can look at a PowerPoint for six hours a day, but that's not really how we operate, right? We're on our feet. We're always engaging with students, um, serving food, moving. So, we actually played Jeopardy. Uh, we broke out into groups. Everyone got to meet new people from other buildings, which was a great
um, opportunity to collaborate, see how others do things. Uh, played some Jeopardy learning about offer versus serve. Um and then later on in the day we used our knowledge and we actually played Plinko. That's what the um left
picture is. And they um each team got to, you know, drop the little Plinko um chips which landed on food items. They used those food items to then build a what is a reimburseable meal, meaning that we can get the funding for that meal. um they got to create meals and
then present them um kid-friendly uh ideas too that we could bring back for menus this year. When I ended the workshop um with the staff this past August, my motto this year was let us have a great year.
Instead of let us, I use the word lettuce. It's food lettuce, you know. Um and and I thought it was a great idea this year to um try something different for our team leaders meetings. We usually get together about once a month. Sometimes it ends up being, you know,
only seven times in a school year just depending on the calendar. Um and we usually just talk about what they all need to hear or, you know, what's going well, what's not going well. Talk through some new menu items. Um are we having trouble cooking, you know, the vegetables? How can we make it more
appealing to students? Troubleshoot. Um this year I decided to kind of build um a growth a leadership opportunity for them to actually train them using each letter of lettuce um stands for each meeting. And so for the first one when
we met for L it's lead. We actually collaborated together and came up with a manager's manual. It's how to order right like wake up one day and forget how to do I need to log in here or am I going here? just um kind of helping them be able to work autonomously in the
kitchens and troubleshoot on their own instead of always, you know, oh, I have to call someone or oh, I have to do this. So, working together, got their input what, you know, are their top um hiccups that they experience so that we can put it all together in a manual. Um
they don't know the rest of the letters yet, so this is just a sneak peek for um everyone. All right. So, participation um traditionally in the month of um September, it's always a lower participation rate for nutrition service
programs. Uh students are getting back into routines. You have the new kindergarteners coming. There's so much new for them that lunches maybe they just want to do a home lunch. It's more friendly um comfort comforting to them. Um when we built menus last year, so we
have to build menus. Uh we started in March of last school year just um to be able to have the food in for September. But when we were building uh menus, I had an idea to take the top nine student favorite meals of last school year and
use those for the first two weeks of school this year. Um bringing their favorites in to try to entice them um you know to eat with us. Well, as you can see, um, under the lunch category, um, for elementary, we increased 3% over
last year. Uh, middle schools, we increased 1% and then the high school, we actually increased 5%. Um, we are hitting some record numbers um, at the high school with the meals that we're serving. Um, they're shaking their heads. Yeah, they're excited. Um, we did
see a slight decrease in breakfast. Um, we have tried new menu items with breakfast, bringing in some things they might see at home, whether it's the that's it fruit bars, crunchables, applesauce pouches, that friendly those friendly items. Just haven't quite found
that um what word am I looking for? Um haven't quite found the perfect blend or the perfect mix for breakfast. So, this next screen looks very busy, but these are all of the new menus uh items that we have done this school
year. There are three words in there. Um three menu items that are actually a sneak peek as to the new menu for November. Um they are the chicken enchilada empanadas, uh the uh cheeseburger empanadas, and then the there's a cheese empanada, which would be our meatless option that
day. These menu items were a have actually been served at all schools in the district. So last year we started just at the high school introducing new items and then would trickle it down. Um this year we started with all schools experiencing all the new items together.
Um which has worked um excuse me very well. So empanadas is the menu item for November. Um we have a new vendor for meatless products to have they call it kicking kicking patties, kicking nuggets, kicking tenders, uh kicking spicy patty, uh meatless um
meatless items for entre. I'm pointing out two items. Um the first one is the yogurt parfait. Elementary students love to do a build your own um make it creative build your own meal. So, we did a bento box um offering it um
every other week on Mondays with a hot item. So, whether it's French toast sticks or pancakes, we're doing uh yogurt parfets. Currently doing strawberries. Also looking at bringing in um maybe some other fruits to experiment with those, see what they like. Um but you can see she really
enjoyed building her um yogurt parfait. And then the other new exciting item was chicken wings this year. Um we have only done that one at the high school. Um but it went over uh very well. In fact, we just had it for the second time last Monday and we did over 2,000 um
servings. So a serving I think is like seven wings. Um so that's a lot of wings. Um but they had five different sauce options to choose from. Um trying, you know, to mimic their favorites. They can pick and choose what they'd like.
Last year we spent um a lot of time creating a lot of marketing initiatives and we continued those this year. However, we um have added new things to them. So, continuing with our Instagram account, we're up to um I think it's a little over 300 or almost 300 um
followers. So, we're continuing to grow at a slow rate. Uh we're still doing our newsletter which is a great way to highlight showcase some of the things we're doing in our department that month or what students can um are experiencing at school. Parents can hear about it. The website is still being kept up to
date with the help of uh communications team and always having the most up-to-date information for parents. We're also doing flyers, um, morning announcements, and then we also have our, um, menu app, Neutri Slice, which
is what the parents use or students to look at menus. I tried something new this year. Um, I pre-planned the entire school year as a marketing calendar, which includes all of our Instagram posts, which at least are twice a week, sometimes three, sometimes more, just depending on what
it is. um also include all of our dates for sampling with the students as well as um newsletters. So, we already talked about and figured out what each month's newsletter was going to be, which corresponded with all of the um Instagram posts. It has been a great
tool to have that already laid out to know what's coming up. Um and it will be continued. So, with um Instagram, Tonkaresh, um we recently celebrated National School Lunch Week. Um it was a pass uh the passport into school lunch. So we
showcased um different areas um traveling to different countries of the different foods that we offer to students. That theme is actually not I can't take credit for that one. That is the school nutrition association. They come up with a theme every year and then we just did a little u tonkaresh twist
on it. Um we also did a new series this summer uh since it's our first summer with Instagram. We did a behind thescenes look in the kitchens. So each week we were in a different kitchen showing what serving lines look like, the storage rooms, the coolers, the freezers, highlighting each kitchen just
so that parents could kind of have that behind thescenes look. Then in addition to that, we also did a nutrition post. So um breaking down, you know, school meal standards, talking about um sugars, talking about sodium,
different kind of nutrition posts throughout the year or out the throughout the summer. Then we did a back to school series. So we took our um parent communication welcome back letter and we broke it down into a daily series
kind of um detailing each one of you know what to expect when you're coming to lunch, what to expect when you're coming to breakfast, how to load money in an account, um offering the opportunities to apply for the free and reduced um meals program. Uh what does that mean? Um what kind of benefits come
along with that? Um just a bunch of different commonly asked questions trying to again get it out in a different format for parents neutral slice menus. So we have not changed that program. It's working very well as far as the software. Um they
keep doing updates. We keep updating it with pictures. We have ingredients available on there, allergens, all the nutrition facts. Um, we have them available two weeks ahead of time. The nurses and the schools love it because there is a carb count on it. So, it will
actually provide them the counts for um if they're needing to um disperse insulin. We also have the Tonkaresh food truck. Um, it debuted in the homecoming parade this year. Um, I was driving the truck.
Um, it was a very fast-paced parade, but it was very fun. Uh the all the little kids were asking for the horn. So it was like the horn every couple I don't know feet it felt like. But it was very fun um exciting. The kids are excited. We have uh restructured the manager
position at the high school to bring it into a co-manager position where one of the managers is focusing on all cart catering as well as the food truck. So that will allow us to be able to expand our offering um for the spring to make sure it's brought to all schools with
the students. Student voice, I think that's the most important reason why we're all here is the students. Um student voice in sampling through the surveys and through our student groups with taste testing. We are currently um starting with candy
corn vegetable blend. It has parsnips, butternut squash, turnups, and um carrots. Um it's a traditional favorite. Candy is candy corn. So, it's the fresh, healthy, spin, nutritious. Um so far, the students are liking it and we have
many more schools to visit. Um it's very good roasted just with olive oil, nothing else on it. But, um February, we're going to try kale. Um we don't know yet if we're going to do um kale chips or just kale by itself. kind of might do both just because then they can
see the different um how it's baked. And then in April, we're looking at doing um taheen. So that is a common um commonly known spice. Looking to do it on watermelon um and maybe even doing it as a dip for some vegetables like celery
and carrot sticks. So, uh, after my presentation last school year, I talked about meeting with students at elementary schools and letting them create menus. Um, those menus did debut last year. I'm happy to report that most of the items that they came up with are actually still on the
menu this school year, which is really cool to see. And not only just at the elementary schools, but they're also at middle schools and high schools. So those those little kids came up with some great ideas that we have implemented across the board. Uh this year for November, we're going to be
doing focus groups with um east uh the middle school east and middle school west students. Um kind of giving them a taste test. So we have a bread stick, a garlic bread stick. We have several different vendors. Which one do they like? They're all whole grain. They all have like that butterly garlic um
flavoring to them, but which one do they like better? um giving them the opportunity to kind of see the variety and then pick which one they like. And then in the spring, we'll be at the other three schools, Groveland, Minawasha, Scenic Heights, working with um students that the principal select for us to meet with,
developing menus, and then um helping them market and advertise and showcase those to their peers. It'll be at all elementary schools. um the nutrition services oop sorry the nutrition services advisory committee um
at the meeting um at the end of the year last year we decided to try two meetings for this school year um our first one is coming up in mid November and then we have one uh scheduled for April we also have sampling opportunities sprinkled throughout the year too um so that they can get into the kitchens and see the
kids and then also we're very open to if we need to have another meeting or something comes up to being able to schedule another meeting So, staff appreciation. Um, the district had a thank you for child nutrition staff. Um, student centered excellence and then I put a little snippet of some
of the signs that our staff got to uh receive in the kitchens. Um, at the elementary schools, even middle schools and high schools, our staff were appreciated. It was it's very uh brings tears to their eyes just to be able, you know, they're being noticed, right? So,
it was a fun way um to celebrate them. We have been doing a lot of celebrations already this school year. We celebrated the great apple crunch. Um everyone got to bite into a delicious locally grown apple. We also did that for the wellness committee too for staff. Um and then we
also celebrated the Hispanic um heritage month. Um we brought chicken mole in. Um it is free of the top nine allergies, so it's a little different than maybe what you have at home. Um but we showcased that menu on our nacho days. We also celebrated Rashashana with
apples and honey. Um and then we just celebrated yesterday Unity Day. Um all staff got a orange apron this year. So everyone was dressed in orange. Some staff even did orange hats, orange sneakers. They took it a whole another level. But it was just cool to see the sea of orange along with all of the
students as well. And that's end of my presentation. Thanks for having me tonight. >> Thank you very much for the report. Uh Camry, >> Kristen, you guys are killing it. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> It's just I love I love reading the
newsletters and the food that we get to taste is fantastic. So, thank you. And I know I'm probably speaking on behalf of the board, but we've gotten so many appreciative emails from parents regarding Rashashana and um other emails
about was it was was it just Rashashana um about the food that was provided. So I think that's been just really noticeable in the community as well. So I wanted to bring that to your attention as a thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Yes, Jacob. just from the student
perspective. Yeah, we have seen obviously a dramatic increase in the quality of food over the past couple of years. Um, and it's fun because you actually get excited for what you're going to eat at lunch and it's not just an opportunity to talk to friends, but it's a time to eat some great food, too. >> Thank you. >> So, thank you very much.
>> You're very welcome. >> Um, just to add on to that, I also really appreciate the diversification of the menu. I think it makes it really fun every day to go to lunch. Personally, I'm a big fan of the chicken wings, so thank you. Sally.
>> Okay. I'm waiting for my fan badge on the Tonkaresh Instagram page. Okay. Um because I love So it Well, it's just kind of it's joyful, right? It's it's really fun to watch and I really appreciated just this week the unity day because what you didn't mention was in addition to the orange aprons that the
menu was orange, >> which and what I really appreciated about that is that really was fun and engaging. I'm sure it was probably delightful for the students to to get to participate in that. And I just think, you know, no wonder you see your numbers going up because you're making lunch
fun. >> That's the goal. Thank you. I do have a question about um so you talked about the distinction between offer versus serve. >> Yes. >> Right. >> And I have been in cafeterias before and watched what happens at the end of the
lunch and what does not get consumed. So I assume that is having some impact. What do we know about that? Um so with the requirements we'll talk lunch because that's five components that are offered. So that is a grain, a protein, milk, fruit and a vegetable. Of those
five items they have to take three and of those three items they have to have a fruit or vegetable and that is in order to get the free meal. So that is the requirement of the USDA of the USDA a to get the reimbursement but then also of the state to get the free from the
state. >> Okay. We have we have both funding sources. >> So naturally that we are having a decrease in waste. >> Yes. >> So thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Board members, any uh Megan? Um, I would echo the increased diversity has been
really great and I I've heard from multiple parents like that their student would never have tried it at home, but because they see other people trying it, they came home and they were like, I really like samosas or, you know, whatever that they maybe wouldn't have tried otherwise. So, I think that's
really cool. Um, one feedback piece around the breakfast. Anecdotally, what I've heard from my own children is that some of the um >> requirements around timing and or where where they can eat have changed for breakfasts. Okay. >> And so, uh it sounds like a lot of
students are having trouble accessing them. >> Um and like my own kids are reporting that they they eat breakfast, they usually eat at first breakfast and second breakfast, but they've been eating more first breakfast because they don't know if they're going to have time to get breakfast at school. So, that's just a feedback piece. I don't know if
that's true at all the buildings, but um that's been consistent this year for my kids compared to last year. So, just something to consider. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Um yes, Dan. >> I'm just going to echo a lot of what was
already said, but I think that's been a lot of awesome work that's been done in this department. And just to bring it back to our board goals, I mean, talking about excellence in well-being and inclusion and belonging, like just being being able to do that with our food
items and recognize various people in the communities and their their needs and their wants. It's >> just been a very very positive feedback that we've gotten. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, I have one followup and I don't know if this is a dumb question, but it never stopped me
before. Um >> there's no such thing as a dumb question. >> Well, we'll see. Um the uh uh given the the nature of the funding for for our meals and the fact that the US government is currently shut down, is
there an impact from that shutdown? Do we anticipate at some point there being an impact? >> Um we have been told that our funding for meals is secured for September and October reimbursement. Um, beyond that, as far as reimbursement goes, I don't
have an answer on that, but I can get back to you. But as far as what our fund or our fund balance has, we would be able to continue operation as it is. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And thanks for the wonderful report. >> Thank you. >> All right.
>> Thank you. >> Nothing else. We will move on to the last item on our agenda is an update on outstanding bonds and certificates of participation. Dr. Mr. Chair, members of the board, as a
reminder to our community, long-term financial stability and facilities that meet the current and future needs of our students are also a part of our board goals. Tonight, executive director of finance and operations Paul Bourgeois
will provide an update on the various bond issues of the district, the annual bond payments on the outstanding principle, and a look at current and future levels of outstanding bonds as they're paid off over time. So, I'll
turn it over to Mr. Bgeoa >> as I work on casting here. Um, interesting. Works every time. Okay. It doesn't want to do it. All right. How about this? No, I got it. I got it.
Here we go. Long doesn't decline me. All right. >> Yeah, there we go. All righty. Um, thank you for uh having me again. This is something that we do approximately once a year because um our finances are kind
of the bedrock on which everything else sits and rests and no money no mission, right? Um, so we're going to be going through our just background and and status of our bonds outstanding and our fiscal 26 activity and we're going to
just estimate the future a little bit in terms of um uh you know what happens after November 4th in the near term. But uh our facilities all of our bonds are related to our facilities and this is a chart of how uh our our facilities were
built over the over the decades. So you can see that we have uh 27 years of use about 83% and so if you put that in terms of your own house you know you have a lot of things that need to be replaced right uh and then uh about 58
years of use uh gets us over a million so almost six decades of use of about a million square feet and uh almost 70 years of use of another of 500,000 square feet. So, uh, we actually put a lot of, uh, time and effort and dollars into making sure that our buildings,
they got good bones and that they're they're built to last for the long term. And I just always throw this fiduciary thing in here. We're all fiduciaries, but it's always good to just think about that because we try to do the right thing for our public for the long term.
So, uh um back in in 2007, our school district was levying about $10 million a year in bond debt payments and long-term um uh long-term maintenance project on a pay as you go basis and a lot of deferred maintenance had built up. So, they were chipping away, but they
weren't able to get ahead and uh so uh we needed a lot of work to basically update them for the next 50 or 60 years. So, beginning in 2008, we basically moved to uh bonding for long-term maintenance because we're replacing components that would last, you know, uh
25, 30, 40, 45, 50 years. And so, you spread that payment out. Uh that's kind of like what they do with the electric company. I used to work in the utility industry. And in the utility industry, if you're building a new power plant, they stretch the payments out over over 30 to 40 years because that way rateayers who are getting the benefit of
it uh will pay for it versus the current rateayers getting a big giant spike, right? and we do the same thing. That's what bonds do. It it basically allows for an improvement and then generations pay for it over the life of the of the facility, but also over the the the
generations that are getting the benefit of that facility. So, I kind of went through this this uh slide already, but it so one of the things that we can do to also keep overall annual payments approximately flat, uh we can, you know, we can work on lowering interest rates.
Uh we've got a bunch of bonds that are are really on the cusp of being able to to be refinanced if the interest rates start keep dropping the 10-year treasuries below 4% for the first time in a number of years. So that there might be some opportunities there and we're watching that. But we also look to
lower payments if we need to create capacity for a future uh bond. And um we also work on net present value savings depending on the situation. So we don't just take sell a bond and put it on the shelf. uh we basically look at ways to improve uh improve the payments in one
way or another for the public when when an opportunity comes up. So uh we also did a lot of facility improvements from uh July 1st 2007 through basically this year about 230 million1 million in facilities related
improvements and we've done these with uh uh general obligation long-term facility maintenance bonds of about 147 million. Uh we've done about $92 million in in uh what's called certificates of participation. It's a little bit different nuanced uh way to talk about a
bond that you used to do a building addition. Uh and uh we've built classrooms, uh gyms, music rooms, science rooms, specialist, small group rooms, lots of those. Bought land, uh added a lot of parking lots. Uh we've also done uh 50 refunding bonds. So,
we've done basically over over 110 bonds. Uh this is I haven't updated this picture, but the lower level would go a little bit further to the right, but I keep those handy. It's kind of old school, but I literally can if I need to look at a bond, I can go in there and get what I need faster than I can log in, wait for the authenticate
authenticator to come up, and then get authentication. So, um, but what have we gotten out of this investment? We've gotten capacity for our additional students to generate revenue for programs that serve all students. And we've really pretty much eliminated deferred maintenance. Uh,
there's always something to fix, but for the most part, we are just as current as you could possibly get. Um the other thing is we we manage construction in house and and over that $231 million it's about $ 8.9 million of construction management fees that we've avoided. So we just plow that back into the building
buildings. Uh this is actually a list uh I've keep a cumulative list and I update it every year. So, after as of summer of 20 uh 25, uh we've actually uh I I'm not going to read them all off, but 151 classrooms, 77 small group rooms, five
elementary schools. Um we a lot of kitchen expansions. We built 22 parking lots expansions. It's not enough yet, but um we keep working on that. Uh we've rebuilt actually we built and rebuilt all basically built new 22 tennis courts. uh the two middle schools
and the high schools and um we built three aviation training areas. Uh this is uh an interesting chart and I have it in here because had we not done any of that, our school district would have basically had the capacity to grow to
about 8,200 students and then we would have topped out because we'd have been full with the capacity we had. Uh, but we've added about 370,000 square feet to be able to provide additional space. And um I if I'd have been smart, I'd have put I'd have put a uh a picture of the
Golden Gate Bridge in here um as a metaphor because if you think about uh education, a K12 school system is being able to take kids from kindergarten on one side to bridge the gap of ignorance or whatever and go to the and get to
graduation on the other side. kind of like going from San Francisco to Salelito right over the Golden Gate. Um you know the the bridge peers, those two things, two big towers that hold everything up. Uh without those nothing else happens. you need the space and so we've invested in the space and then the
bridge deck is the programs that we've been able to build across and the cars are the kids zipping across going to graduation you know I mean so you need all those components and so what that's what we did is is uh we basically made possible with 51 major facility projects
large enough to warrant a dedication plaque and we've been able to create enough space to actually um provide uh student growth up to 11,000 um 288 through 2425 and now we're up to about
11,500 in FY26. The um um that that also then resulted in a virtuous cycle of we didn't have to go through budget reductions. This is a historical um track since 1996 when some
funding levels changed and there were constant budget reductions or deficit spendings. But once we got on the track of student growth and improved programs and people wanting to come to our district, we went on an 18-year run of uh no budget reductions, uh we've been
asking for a little bit of help from the legislature with operating referendum capacity since 2017. They haven't approved anything yet, but we keep knocking on the door, right? Uh so we've had some budget reductions the last couple years, but that 18-year run was was quite a streak compared to what every other district around us would have been going through.
So, this is a long list of long-term facilities maintenance uh rebuilding for 2070 uh room unit ventilator systems. That's basically uh u HVAC. Um we've done basically we've were able when when I started here we had the high school
was air conditioned and the middle schools were air conditioned in the media center wings and then there was a bunch of window air conditioners at at different places around and we've been chipping away chipping away and this year we finally at the middle with the last uh rooms at the middle schools and some atashta uh we are actually at 100%
uh um climate controlled with h heating ventilation and air conditioning across across the district. Um, but just a lot of things that we've done. So, it just gives you an idea of what it takes to keep a building up. But our bonding strategy, uh, we've kept our facility
levies relatively flat. Um, you know, the the 51, uh, building projects that we had, we've done that. It's about $170 million worth in with a revenue stream of 4.5 million a year. So, we just kind of kept working everything and squeezing another payment
out to do another project. So, uh, but we kind of built, uh, have done this major rebuilding over about 20 years, which is kind of when a lot of the a lot of the district's facilities were built in during the post-war baby boom. So, again, we'll always uh keep doing
things, you know, having something to do. You have have to do roofing and paving in Minnesota. Uh, but about 1 million 870,000 square feet uh to keep doing. And it's a prudent course of action though because our our replacement cost is 925 million to to
tear down and rebuild 1,870,000 square feet. So, um, you know, putting a little bit of money into it every year is very it's it's prudent. It's a good it's a good fiduciary act. Uh, this is our long-term maintenance facilities history and you can see uh through fiscal 26,
which was just this past summer, most of the work was done. um we've been pu, you know, pushing through kind of completing a lot of things. We've got one more year where it's a little bit higher, although we may be able to actually pair that down a bit and then after that it gets into more of the kind of just steady roofing and paving and some some smaller
projects going forward. So dollar amounts, our total current outstanding general obligation and certificate of participation par value is about $189 million. And of that amount, $159 million is really uh is to be paid back
over time by our property taxpayers. are um so the the general obligation debt levy is 111 million625,000 and actually with with the payment that we are so um that's what it will be on June 30th 2026 with the payment that
we're making on February 2nd we're actually paying making the last payment on the bonds that were issued after the last building bond referendum on April 23rd 1996. Uh so all the all that debt there that you see is related to the rebuilding of the district for the next
50 years with long-term facility maintenance bonds. Then we also have a post-employment benefit trust that we actually uh we bonded for to fund it back in 2008 and 2009 when there was an opportunity to do so. And there's about $15 million of those original funding bonds left to be paid out. They they
matured the last payment in 2038. But um the interesting thing about that is is those bonds were able to the bond proceeds were able to be invested and then pulled out annually to pay for post employment retirement benefits that had been uh negotiated uh they had to be capped off as of 2002 but they had been
negotiated prior to 2002. And if you and we've actually pulled uh $21 million out of that fund and if you basically if we hadn't been doing that and paying for that out of the general fund instead, our actual general fund fund balance would be there. So it's been a really
good way um for a a good addition to the in essence the revenue stream of the district by being able to cover that those long-term liabilities uh related um post-employment benefits. Then there's other funding sources. We have about $25 million of bonds for paid from
a ongoing source called operating capital. Uh we have $2.2 million that we just issued in five-year notes to rebuild our network infrastructure uh this past summer. uh community e education. Uh they're they they pay off
bonds that were issued back in 2008 2009 to build the uh uh the pool. Uh the the ma the the main pool at um you know our our art aquatic center and um the uh then also the the we've had preschool
additions. So, we've used issu paid bonds back there or issued bonds back in those days to to add some preschool additions as we were looking at growing the district and adding capacity for more preschool students and and fees are basically paying those off and as well as a Tonka Dome. And the Tonkad Dome is
actually going to get a new Tonkad Dome roof this year. Uh but there's still three years worth of bonds uh left to pay off uh in December of 2028, which is fiscal 29. So, who pays this off? Uh we are a unique school district in that we
have very little commercial and industrial. You know, we have uh downtown Excelsure and the high 101 and seven kind of complex and a few other things you a little bit up in up in Deep Haven and up near Groland school and things like that. But we don't have you
know a big like you know shirt uh uh was it Shirway or I'm sorry Safeway um uh you know warehouses and Cargill offices and things like that that some of our other surrounding districts have to share in the property uh tax burden. Uh
so basically uh residential parcels are about 92% of the whole thing uh there's about um in terms of property value and that's made up of residential and then homestead residential which is people who are residents of other states who still have their house here and they
come back and they use summer as a verb. They summer up in Minnesota. Uh so uh during fiscal year 2026, the only thing that we've done is issue some long-term facility maintenance bonds. Uh and that's those are actually going to fund the projects we're doing for summer
2027. You've been able to uh um I'm sorry, in summer 26 for fiscal 27 and you've been approving the bids that we've been opening. Uh refunding activity, we are just we're like race horses at the Kentucky Derby waiting to get led out of the gate. Um we're waiting for the rates to drop. The Fed
is hopefully going to drop some rates some more next next week and again in December. And as those things edge down, some of our bonds are going to be in a situation where we can refund them at a lower rate and and drop payments and and do some of those things. So, our eye is on all of those and uh we're going to
strike when when you know when the gate gets lifted, we're going to run. Uh this is uh a distribution of the interest rates of our outstanding bond issues that we currently have. So, we've actually done really reasonable uh rates um for the you know, for the most part
over the years and and in the 2010s when we did a lot of the work uh constructing the district, we uh you know, interest rates were were were relatively low and uh I'm going to talk fast because it says my battery is running low even though I had this thing plugged in all day. Um and so we we've got an number of
bond issues uh you know 15 in the 3% range, but most of them are below. Couple on the far right are uh just the uh um uh you know ones that we've issued more recently when rates are a little bit higher but still uh
still uh reasonable uh compared to some of the days before that in the 2000 1990s and 2000s. This is a list of all of our bonds the 111 million. This is what our payment schedule looks like. And you can kind of see how we're going to basically layer in if we do have a
successful bond referendum. I say if we never count anything before it's happened, but if we do, we're going to be able to layer everything in. So to keep the keep the uh uh general obligation tax payments level, and that's what the retirement schedule
looks like. So um this is our lease purchase uh levy uh outstanding bonds. We got about 32.7 million and that's paid out of uh $212 per student levy every year that generates about $2.5 million. But that's a flat levy. It just
stays basically pretty flat. It can't well it's two $212 or the amount of your your bond payments uh whichever is less. And so um we have that pretty much covered. We have uh this is our schedule that we're looking at, but some of the one of the bonds we're looking at restructuring is that one in green uh so
that we can keep dropping that down uh below the 2 uh $5 million level. Uh but um uh you know, we have a few years to go before that happens, but if we can do it now, we'll do it now. That's that reduction or schedule of payments. This
is our outstanding lease purchases uh for our operating capital and this is a revenue stream of about um $130 per student uh that we get no matter what and we can use it on a variety of things. One of the things we can use is to actually pay for some of the building
projects that we built the district with. And and you know, we can buy lawnmowers, we can buy books, we can buy uh computers, we can buy all kinds of stuff with this, but we we because we have our capital projects technology fund, we actually are able to utilize more um uh of this to to about $2
million you'd make payments. So that's what the um those look like and uh we keep staying under our $2 million target and that's where that goes. uh capital projects, technology, uh infrastructure related. We've got $2.2 million there.
Uh we have the uh the pool addition and community editions at about 1.3 million each. They just steadily get paid off. The dome will be paid off in three years. That's what those look like. And uh that's the retirement schedule. And then we have our OPE levy. And I actually have some other ones on here
because this is just an example of how we restructured. We initially sold bonds at 6.83 and 6.24. We restruct restructured those down to uh 5.05. Then we restructure them down to 3.01. Then we restructured down to 2.93 and 1.64.
So that's what that debt retirement schedule looks like. So um I just always want to toot our horn in this regard. There's three school districts in Minnesota that are currently rated um AAA, which is the highest bond rating you can get. Um there's four school districts in
Minnesota all the time that got one. I was at Rochester when we were able to do that in Minnetonka. So, I'm just glad to be able to have had the opportunity to do that at both places because you need school boards to actually run a really tight ship to be able to do that. Um, this is just uh excerpts from a 2003
rating write up about factors that can lead to an upgrade. Well, we can't get an upgrade because we're at the highest level of bonding. Um, factors that could lead to a downgrade. If we have a weakening of the tax base or resident incomes, that's not likely. Um, reserves or liquidity, we have to keep balancing our budget. um or material increases to
the debt burden or unfunded retirement liabilities. And um uh but our our pending bond issue is not a material uh item in that regard because we are still well under what this something is called a statutory debt limit where in theory this district could issue as much as $
1.5 billion and we're never going to get close to that. So, uh, just estimating the futures of other bonds. Um, you know, we, uh, continually valued savings for, uh, and restructuring for call dates. Uh, so we'll see how that goes. Um, we have a couple larger projects
yet. Uh, the cooling tower at the high school for air conditioning and the ice making equipment for the ice skating rink at PGO. Um, that's going to be in the latter portion of the 2030s, though, because that was built in 2001. It has a 40-year lifespan. And we have spare parts. And we also have a whole actually
lock and keyed area at at our vendor who maintains the system for us of a a a refrigerant called R22 which is not made anymore, but we sock stuff away so that we could continue to use it until the end of the useful useful lifespan. So um
you know we've added capacity the momentum edition at the high at the district uh high school uh attached to PGO basically gave about 45 students for momentum classes advantage momentum 300 student capacity there we have the Minnotonka Education Center um it can be
used for a lot of other things it's kind of like a Swiss Army knife of a building so uh there's a lot of things that are are possible in the future to to keep uh housing programs as we develop new ones and and come up with other innovative ideas. And then finally, this is this
this is just a chart, but it's not it's it's the be the best I could do with the data available. And this shows our 189 million versus all the districts surrounding us. And of course, you have everything from Orino at at 2,934 students or whatever they are up to AIO
at 2000 20,873. So there's different levels, but you from what you can see is is our bond our bonding level is reasonable compared to the districts around us. We're not an outlier in any way. Um again, that the tall one there at 389 million, they're
uh that is uh AIO and they're, you know, basically uh double our size and they just had had a bunch of major bond issues and they're building schools. Uh we I know Hopkins is going out for $140 million on this referendum. um um
election uh on November 4th and um you know so even even if our referendum does pass, we still won't necess we won't be an outlier at all. In fact, we're and again we're going to layer our bonds in. So, uh, there'll be $5 million that would be added to our current level of debt and then the next 50 million is
going to actually be pushed out a couple of year u a about a year and then that the payments actually are going to start in two years so that we can layer in those payments and you know on that chart that we had had where we showed how you know the debts would be retired. So, uh there's and there's also a lot of
different ways to compare this data just like there is with uh student data and uh um student performance data and all that. And so one of the things that we annually do at the finance advisory committee uh and sometimes we bring it to the board, sometimes we don't, but we're we've just got uh we'll be getting
the um uh FY25 audits posted to everybody's all these local districts websites and then we'll be able to get FY25 comparative data uh related to a lot of their their um u finances again just to kind of see where we fit in kind
of a local peer group. And um um we're always, you know, in the middle, you know, thereabouts. But uh we'll be bringing that forward at finance advisory and then probably to the school board at a future date. So that's it in a nutshell. Um but um these are like I said, it's uh these are the peers of the
bridge. So um we're just trying as best we can to keep them solid and stable so those students in their cars can zip across to graduation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bourgeoa. would not be a Paul Bourgeoar would report without a fantastic metaphor. So, I'll read that.
Um, board members, any questions? Chris, >> just uh two quick comments. Um, could you go back to your slide 33 if you have a battery enough to do that? Um, and just for those watching, uh,
it's it's really a great example of the wizardry of, uh, of Mr. Baja and his team is really looking at this and um and you look at how many bites at the apple they came they they look at this and you know I've been a part of a lot
of these so I've seen this over a lot of years and how you are tyrously always looking for ways to improve our financial position and so being able to do what we're able to do w with so uh such a minimum uh minimal impact to our our our community and and a maximum
impact for our students and staff is amazing. amazing and and this is some of the nuts and bolts things. Uh these are some of the big things and all the way down to to the small things. And so just want to say thank you and and appreciate what you and your team. >> You know, I mentioned you working with
Kristen and and others. I work with really great people, but we're all committed to the mission because uh we know that what we do is supporting what makes it possible for every state and and it's one of the great things um we're proud to work for Minnetonka because it doesn't matter where you're from, what your background is, wherever if you walk through the doors of
Minnitonka schools, we're going to do whatever it takes to help every student rise and and so it's it's you know it's it's it's a gift to be able to actually work in a place like this. It really is. >> You're here. >> And my second comment is going to be less impactful after that. Uh, but I'm
gonna say it anyways. Kudos to getting some Packer stuff in into the presentation as well. Any other board members? [Music] >> Um, I'm just going to add, uh, I always appreciate the the detail with which you
provide these reports. Over the past four years, I've I've learned a lot more about education finance than when I started. And I think understanding uh especially those charts showing how uh we're able to layer in bonds over uh
different years helps helps understand a lot of how we're able to find uh additional funds and resources to really put back into the classroom. And you know it takes you're right it takes a team and so I appreciate you and your
entire team. Although I will point out that it does appear that one member of this team has is a common factor in 50% of all of the districts who have ever had a AAA bond rating in the state of Minnesota. And we're all very grateful that you're still with us. >> Well, thank you.
>> All right, I think we have reached the end of our agenda. Thank you very much.