hello everyone i'm David Law superintendent of Minnotonka Public Schools and I'm Mike Remacol director on the Minnotonka School Board we are glad you're able to join us this evening for our schoolboard recognitions program it's important to take the time to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our
students staff and community members we begin most of our regular board meetings with recognitions to highlight the positive impact that so many different people make in our district tonight we are recognizing boys swimming and diving state runners up a boys wrestling state
qualifier middle school science bowl state champions and runners up science Olympiad state qualifiers math team state champions mock trial state qualifiers and chess state qualifiers
the Minnotonka boys swim and dive team had an incredible season in the team's ninth straight state appearance the skippers are in second place as a team skippers also captured four individual state titles the 50yard and 100yard
freestyle titles for Evan Witty the 200yard freestyle relay title for Daniel Schelstead Benjamin Jabs William Finukane Tuchio and Isaac Young and the 400yard freestyle relay title for Witty Benjamin Jabs Brixton Dit and Ree
Carlson the team is coached by John Bradley Anna Guard Sarah Bielski Dan Bilski Sam Fritos let's hear more about the team season hi everyone my name is John Bradley and I'm the head coach for Minnotonka High School boys swim and
dive we had an amazing season this year starting in early January we won any number of invitationals and dual meets we won the True Team High School state meet and we also finished second at the MSHSL High School state meet through it all we had amazing coaching and amazing
support from our fans parents and everybody else who just loves swimming many many thanks to our athletes who made this season one to remember and did an absolutely amazing job in and out of the pool thank you congratulations to the following student athletes aiden
Brandle Larson Ree Carlson Sun-Hong Chua Brixton Dit Finuka Tuchio William Graham Rowan Irwin
Benjamin Jabs William Jabs Parker Lacy Max Louie Kaden Nagel Elias Petran Jack Petran William Ralph Daniel
Shelstad Alexander Sue Evan Witty Isaac Young congratulations again to each of you we would also like to recognize several honors earned by John Bradley head coach of the boys and girls swimming and diving team this year he was selected as the section 2A coach of
the year he is a candidate for Minnesota State Coach of the Year for both boys and girls swimming and diving congratulations Coach Bradley thank you for the leadership you provide for our varsity programs one skipper senior Dylan Romero qualified for the state wrestling tournament this year dylan won
the section 6A individual tournament in the 133 lb category at state he competed in the first round and the consolation bracket of the tournament the wrestling team is coached by Josh Fry and Joel Shrimp let's hear more about their year hey Coach Shrimp here i want to
congratulate Dylan Romero who won the section 6A 133 pound bracket this year he went 3 and0 with three pins and represented Minnetonka at the state wrestling tournament he not only did a good job this year in this in wrestling but he's also one of our hardest workers
and he's got a bright future ahead of him congratulations again Dylan awesome accomplishment congratulations again Dylan the science ball teams from Minnitankka Middle School East and Minnitaka Middle School West excelled at state this year the MME team placed first overall and earned a trip to the
National Science Bowl competition which will be taking place in Washington DC later this spring the team from MMW came in a close second place let's hear more about the team's experiences my name is Zachary Larson and I'm an eighth grader i think that the most impactful part of
participating in Science Bowl State was the final round i'm really proud of both East and West making it to the finals and competing together i'm proud of my team for our teamwork and our positivity throughout the whole event even though my team went on to win I think that Wes was very talented and the whole
competition came down to the last question i hope to represent Minnotonka while at nationals my name is Eric and I'm an eighth grader at Minnotonka Middle School East i am proud to be part of the team that won the state science bowl competition we have had practices
every Saturday with the group at my house and I guess that paid off in my opinion the most impactful part of science school is getting to know other people who like science in other schools and learning new science hi I'm Aditi
and I'm an eighth grader at MMW recently as a national science bowl Minnotonka Middle School West won second place in the middle school competition me and my other team members are very happy to have gotten this victory thank you so much to MMW for all the support they
gave us towards this opportunity and to Mr albabok for coaching us through my team members include Zachary Kai and Emma we are all very grateful for this opportunity and we thank the National Science Bowl for ever occurring the Science Bowl is a really great way for
students with an interest in science to enrich their skills thank you so much hi my name is Kristen Mory and I'm an eighth grader at Mano Middle School East one of the things that I thought I love about Science Bowl is how it brings teams together i was really proud of how we're able to stay calm under pressure
and come together as a team which came from us not only spending time together during practice but also on our own time science Bull has built meaningful connections and relationships for me but it's also deepened my love for science expanded my knowledge on topics like genetics all the way to circuits all in
all Science Bull these past 3 years has been a really fun and fulfilling experience thank you congratulations to the following student competitors from MME we recognize Hu Hong Zachary Larson Eric
Luol Krithic Mirththy and Nicholas Trill the MME team is coached by Gia Luo and Alberta Anderson we wish you luck as you look forward to the national competition from MMW we recognize Aditi Cannon Emma
Louu Kai Reedner and Zachary Wang the MMW team is coached by Mitchell Elvabach science Olympiad is one of the premier science competitions in the nation competitions run like a track and field meet featuring many events focused on different scientific principles this
year's team placed sixth overall and the team's adviserss are teachers Joe Cassette and Allison Peterson let's hear more about the season hi my name is Joe Cassette i'm Allison Peterson and we're the coaches for the Minnitanka High School Science Olympiad team this year the team competed in the state
tournament and got sixth place overall out of 34 teams in the state there was a bunch of individual medals in the following events and we want to share those with you today first place in experimental design goes to Maya Sandy Savannah Larson and Ellie Stro micro
mission also got first place and that's Grayson Lee and Audrey Gat we also had some teams get third place in state third place in dynamic planet went to Jo Buffington and Michael Luo fossils also went to Jo Buffington and Isabella Toten
and geologic mapping to Jo Buffington and Michael Luo congratulations on a f fantastic year science Olympiad we truly appreciate your hard work your dedication and the incredible accomplishments you've achieved great work Tonka we're looking forward to next
year my name is Evan Trung and I'm a freshman at Minnetonka High School this year I have the unique opportunity of being able to compete at the Science Olympiad State Tournament on the Science Olympiad Minnotonka varsity team science Olympia really allows me to fuel my
passion for science in a way that can't really be done in the classroom and in a more individualized and fun manner it was an amazing experience and I learned a lot that I wouldn't have been able to without science Olympia i want to say thank you to the district for continuing to fund important STEM clubs like
Science Olympia i also want to give a shout out to our coaches Miss Peterson and Mr cassette for coaching and spending their time helping us become the great team we are congratulations to the following science Olympiad team members laura Axen Joe's Buffington
Audrey Get Lucy Gil Stella Keller Savannah Larson Grayson Lee Michael Luo Christenza Nielsen Carmen Pap Maya Sandy Ellison
Stro Sawyer Tatty Isabella Toten and Evan Trong the MHS math team had an incredible season this year students qualified for the state tournament where they beat Wisetta by three points to earn the state championship title three Minnotonka students made it all the way
to the math bowl finals andreas Wallixson Michael Luo and Evan Trong this competition represents the top 10 individuals at state andreas placed first overall and won the individual math bowl title the math team is coached
by teacher Connor Gomer let's learn more about the season from the team hello my name is Andreas Waxton and I'm a freshman at MHS i feel very privileged to be able to work together with other high school students at Maronka with similar interests and passions as me to
collaborate on competition math problems and ultimately achieve first place at the state competition i also feel very honored to be the 2025 Minnesota State Math Bowl champion thank you hi I'm Michael i'm a sophomore and I'm the captain of the math team uh first I'd
like to thank Mr goomemer and Mr holty for all the support that they had throughout the season in particular thank you for proctoring meets one through five and then also being there at practices and proctoring some additional tests that we had throughout the year like from the MA series uh I'm really proud of our team for what we did
i really enjoyed working with all the students like the newcomers and also the more experienced students uh it was great to work with them and watch them build something really cool for the first time thank you hi my name is Evan Trong and I'm a freshman at Minnotonka High School this year the Minnotonka math team won the state tournament for
math for the first time in many years i'm very proud of our club for how far it has grown and the pride our win brings to the school finally defeating Weisetta it was an amazing experience being a part of the math team all year and it was both extremely fun and extremely educational the math team
really allowed my love for maths to flourish thank you to the district for continuing to fund important math and science related clubs like math team shout out to our captain Michael Luo and our coaches Mr goomemer and Mr holty for helping lead the math team to first place and spending their time helping us
become so great congratulations to the following math team state champions max Millian Kenny Mahir Kurana Michael Luo Alex Ren Addison Shei Evan Trong
Andreas Wallikson Isaiah Urar and Suen Woo the Minnitankka High School mock trial team qualified for state this year for the first time in school history at state the team earned 14th place overall two Minnotonka
students were recognized with all state awards haley Holm all state witness juliana Leewendowski all state attorney the mock trial team is coached by Kim Mi and Lisa Lily let's learn more about the program hey Donatrial i just wanted to
share how proud I am and to celebrate all of the amazing achievements of the season uh we had a lot of new members join uh with brand new perspectives and personalities to the mix uh the teamwork and dedication and time commitment really did pay off and got us to a place
that we could only dream of um for the first time in our history we qualified for the championship round at regionals and we also competed in St hall at the federal district court and the state championship for the first time where
students handled it with professionalism and and remarkable poise of of season veterans each of each of you contributed to making this season unforgettable uh your passion to mock trial your support for each other um and your relentless
pursuit of justice uh set a new standard for the team congratulations on all these incredible accomplishments uh let's continue to build on the success and aim even higher for the future thank you for making this season one for the history books congratulations to the
following mock trial competitors lily Canwell Sasha Kovville Haley Holm Juliana Luwendowski Emerson Morgan Shan Rook Cole Rowan Audrey
Sedura Silas Cernick Evangelene Wyant and Felix Wyant last month Minnitankka students competed and excelled at the state level chess tournament at the high school level the team from MHS placed fourth at the middle school level the team from MMW placed first at the
elementary level the K5 team from Scenic Heights Elementary placed first in their division and the K3 team from Scenic Heights placed second in theirs let's hear more from our chess state qualifiers hi I'm Aditi and I'm an eighth grader at MMW
i'm RT and I'm also an eighth grade recently at the state scholastic chess tournament us and our fellow team members from the school of Minnotonka Middle School West won the first place team award in the K to8 section with
almost 94 participants me and my sister have been participating under the guidance of a private coach in many chess tournaments for many years our team beat Nichollet which had way more people than we had for the second year
in a row our team includes Ilia Michael Odlay Rishits Sai Aditi and myself together we scored a major win thank you to MMW for all the support that they have given us we were
extremely happy to have won this award with all of our team's dedication teamwork and skill thank you hi my name is George Clark i'm a fifth grade navigator in Scenic Heights one of my favorite things about the tournament is I got to play with other scen and kites
kids that I knew well and then I got to build new connections with them i'm in the tournament i am very proud that I got to share the experience of winning the trophy with many other kids in the scenic schools district my name is Ilia Chuhuno and I'm a sixth grade student at
MMW the most impactful part of my activity was learning from my mistakes and becoming better from each game I play i'm most proud of being able to play at the same level as all the high rated players in the event as a team i am most proud of keeping up with the
team of 25 players and being able to get ahead of them in the end hi my name is Rasheed Bummer i'm seventh grade from Maka Middle School West our chess team won first place in the Minnesota Scholastic
event for middle school category one thing something that affected our team after the chess tournament was our confidence after the chess tournament we all our chess team members thought we going to win the next chess team
tournaments thank you man hi I'm Albert a 10-year-old fourth grader at Sakites Elementary School i started playing chess at the age of six and I love the game what I love about the tournament is that we were courageous
optimistic and supportive whether we win or lose next time I want to attack more and get a perfect score my name is Alfred i'm in second grade this is my first time in a chess tournament with my
CDC ice friends i feel excited about my tournament my favorite chess piece is the queen because the queen can move really far and the queen is the best chess piece my favorite My favorite chess player is Dingler because Dingler
can beat Magnus Carlson next time at the chess at the tournament I can attack better than usual my name is Warren Harold and I am a third grade navigator at Scenic Heights Elementary individually I placed seventh at the
state scholastic chess tournament for K through third grade the scenic Heights team placed second this was my first nationally rated chess tournament the best part of the tournament was getting
to keep the second place trophy i was really proud of my performance that day congratulations to the following chess state participants from MHS deir Austinine Lucas Granucci Asher
Javanathan Wyatt Marcus Mingchi Matherur oral Wenin and Michael Sander from MMW rishi Bamaretti Ilia Chuhuno Michael
Gomelski Adli Givanathan Arty Cannon and Aditi Cannon from the Scenic Heights K5 team George Clark Lewis Collier Nandith Nat Harrison Tan and
Albert Yang and from the Scenic Heights K3 team Warren Herwitz Dan Seka Sasakumar and Alfred Yang that concludes our recognition program for this evening thank you again for celebrating with us the school board meeting will begin
shortly i'll call this uh meeting of the Minota School Board to order let us stand and say the pledge to the flag i aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all may I have a motion to adopt the agenda so moved dan may I have a second second
mike any discussion changes additions all right all those in favor please say I i any opposed we have an agenda next up is our school report superintendent Law mr chair members of
the board as you're aware we start every school board meeting celebrating our purpose our school reports uh tonight we have two schools presenting in front of us we'll start with Minnetonka Community
Education Executive Director Kim Carlson mr chair uh board members new lieutenant superintendent superintendent law so close as you can tell I'm excited also a little nervous this is my first presentation uh with you as the director
with uh speaking in regards to our community education program and very proud we have so many achievements and our um so much growth and we have financial stability and of course the numbers of our participation numbers are so impressive and I was just in a
meeting today uh we talked about our ski club we have 1300 students participating in our ski club group we have 2,000 participants in our basketball program so just amazing numbers and then of course we have programs that have five or 10 students that attend that are
equally as impactful and interesting and important and so um and I think those numbers uh really reflect the dedication and hard work of our leadership and our um staff our program managers our teachers and of course our enthusiastic
community too they show up they participate they volunteer and they keep coming back and of course I again contributed to our staff uh for creating just a top-notch program and just a really high level experience for the for
our community and um really engaging people students families and creating a place where people feel welcome and belonging and so beyond those numbers though are those people those extraordinary people that um come and
our stories which I'm excited to have some people here tonight to share those stories and um how they've created this connection and belonging and engaging our community and our students in our community as well so Anna can you come on up anna Ashim is one of our program
managers and um she's here tonight to talk about our youth programs youth development council anna hi so my name is Anna Oheim i am the youth enrichment program manager and one of the adviserss for Youth Development Council i have the
privilege to work with and help guide our amazing group of students in YDC three of them well two right now three is on the way um are here with us today chandler Olsen Nick Volov and Xander Grant is on his way um they are the
co-chairs of our group and help us facilitate our events throughout the year in preparing for this presentation I asked them three questions what has it meant to you to be a part of this group why did you join and what is your
favorite event/most impactful moment in your time in YDC i will let them take it from here uh first of all I'd like to thank you for letting me come out here to this meeting tonight um I'm honored to be able to talk about Youth Development Council um my name is Chandler Olsson
i'm a senior at Minnotonka High School i've been part of YDC for four years now um and for me it's meant a lot um I found a sense of belonging with within the community we've got to work with people both young um at the fifth grade finale and the East meets East meets
West events um as well as um the more elderly people in our community through the rakeathon and um we have worked with Chubai nursing home um I joined because initially a friend had told me to come to one of the events my freshman year um just you know it's fun to volunteer together and since then it's grown to be
a lot more for me I've once again like I said I found a sense of belonging and I've really seen myself as a part of the group and the most impactful event for me I would say is holiday family giving um it feels really nice to be able to give back to the community um and the
underprivileged that might not have the opportunities um to get Christmas gifts and things like that um it feels really great to give back to the community in that way thank you [Applause] uh I'm Nick i'm one of the co-chairs and
I've been at YDC for three to four years now and for me being a part of YDC has been a very fulfilling experience just volunteering and organizing these events it's shown me the impact that our work has on uh students at the school and
just everyone else around the community um I used to participate in some of these school events as like a fifth grader middle schooler and now being on the other end of this setting up these events for other students it's been really meaningful for me uh I joined YDC
initially uh because of friends as well they asked me to help volunteer at one of the events and from there I just I really liked it and I also really wanted to uh build my teamwork teamworking skills and working
with many others at YDC it's a very uh very good motivation for me and others just uplifting each other motivating each other to keep helping the community and for my favorite event that would probably be the Rakeathon it's feels
really good seeing the before and after and seeing that we really helped someone in need with uh cleaning something like their yard and it's also a very great way to spend some time outside with friends so yeah
[Applause] uh Mr chair superintendent or lieutenant law and members of the board it's nice to see all of you um I'm going to talk a little bit about what's been happening at the younger ages and the families uh
through community ed so for the district literacy initiatives what that looks like in preschool is not only preparing the kids for those pre-iteracy skills but really getting parents involved and understanding how their everyday interactions are what build those foundations for the kids to be ready as
they move into school um and so one of our initiatives that has taken just all sorts of different shapes over the years kind of went gang busters this year was a six-w weekek initiative called Read the Rainbow and we went a little crazy our PTO went a little crazy we had an
author who come in um and an illustrator and so she read one of her book two of her books to the students and then asked them an animal what that animal's emotion was and what they might be doing and then drew it for them and kind of created a story as she showed them that
their ideas can come to life on paper and it was just so cool she read um her new book which is called Nellie's Big Adventure or Nelly's's Big Splash and then she read um The Rabbit Listens and both of those books are books we use in our tier 2 MTSS for social and emotional
learning and so it was just a really cool connection for the kids and then the parents can use those tools at home we purchased um two books for every family this year so the teachers select a book that resonates for their classroom or something that they're learning they read it in class they send
it home with their kiddos and then they help to refresh the libraries we all remember what it was like to read the same book over and over and over again and then we did Nelly's's Big Splash so it's been super fun we had our book fair this year for the first time our PTO put it on i was walking down the hall and this little girl was talking to her mom
and she says "Next year we're going to have a book fair." And I was like "Guess what it's tomorrow." And she about lost it so it's just such a cool We put a rainbow in our lobby and we just spend a lot of time educating families and kids about just the fun and joy of reading and
language i've really um taken a new initiative this year so early childhood and family education often leans hard on the early childhood part but there is so much for the family education part that's missing and people don't always know where they can find good reputable
research-based information so we all know our smartphones build an algorithm for us and it can be really overwhelming because it can give us information that is good but also maybe not so good so we've been working really hard as a team with my parent educators to think about what are the things families are looking
for we've had parents who some of them have been on our board before to say "Well I don't not need help now that I'm not in early childhood like I've never had a kindergarten before i don't know what to do with a middle schooler what is puberty?" Ah they kind of freak out so how do we lean into that um we have
started a speaker series where we're bringing in um people who we know um provide researchbased information to give parents just good resources to continue to research how they want to be as parents so we have a thousand hours
outside is Jenny Urret she has this whole um movement where right after co as people were coming out and they could be outside but maybe not close together she did a thousand hours a picture and every hour you're outside you color it in and so we have a lot of families who
like her work she has a new book called Until the Street Lights Come on and just the power of boredom just being outside and being bored and that's on May 6th at Excelsier Elementary in the auditorium it's free um we have space for 350 people we're at 110 as of right now so
that's awesome uh May 20th we have someone named Erin Walsh she is the founder of Spark and Stitch and she's going to come in uh to MME and do a a program on it's called it's complicated teen screens and mental health she also has a new book out um and she is phenomenal we had her come in to talk
about little kids from apps to laps and that was really fun and people really enjoyed it and then we've launched a parent coaching um and family support initiative all of the principles from um elementary through high school sent out a newsletter in their newsletter to
families that we offer free parent coaching and support so parents can put in there's topic based that helps them decide like okay I have a middle schooler here are some things I want and then there's place for other and a parent educator reaches out to them to connect and figure out how we can
support them and sometimes we're not the right place and that is totally okay we just make a referral and move them to where they need to go um we have another initiative this year we have something called school readiness uh being a multilingual
learner qualifies families to be in school readiness and we last year had a few families whose parents were brand new to the country but in Minnetonka we didn't have a level one English class they had to go to Hopkins but there was transportation issues and so we worked
together with our adult options to bring a level one class to our community center and then we put the schedules together so that the parents can be in school while their child is in preschool and then their child goes to lunch bunch
where we just practice like small talk English school skills talking about what we're having for lunch and emotions and feelings and friendship and so we had uh six families and seven adults participate in that program this year and so it's my privilege to introduce
Kirsten Firehammer who is one of our lead teachers and she's going to talk a little bit more about our adult options uh program at Community Ed thank you for letting me be here i am really excited as Molly said my name is Kirsten Firehammer and I am the lead
teacher for the adult basic education program in Minnetonka we are part of a consortium with the districts of St park Hopkins Minnotonka and Weisetta of course um hold a soft spot for
Minnotonka and I've been in this program for um over 20 years um and I am so happy I am so happy to be able to say that I still I have the best job ever and I think Superintendent Law you have
heard me say that more than once when you visited us uh why is that um let me tell you a little bit about what we do um at our Minnetonka site we work specifically with refugees and immigrants um if we Is there a Is there
a Oh I'm I'm sorry i'm not used to doing this i'm used to Excuse me thank you thank you um we have students from all over the world and speaking 17 18 19 different languages um now our
Minnetonka site does not have the largest population we are growing and it's very exciting but what I am most proud about is the fact that we have the greatest level of retention why is that that's because our
students really feel this sense of belonging and community at MCEC now the other great part of my job and as Molly just said part of my job is helping my students helping our students to make connections we help them make
connections with those early childhood programs okay we also help them to make connections my name is Start didn't know it start right away oh oh is this going to be your person okay thank you we help them um Well I'll just
continue on help them make connections everything from early childhood right up through K12 and I'm also proud to say that at this time we have 15 of our current students who are employed in the building or in the district excuse me um
I would like you to hear a story of um one of those students hello my name is Victoria i'm from Ukraine and I have lived in the United States since July 2022
when I arrived everything was new the language the people the system i felt lost but then I found the adult options program right in my school district and that changed everything my teacher
created a warm welcoming space we became a team united supportive and full of lover the volunteers too were amazing not just just helpers but people who
helped me fall in love with this country the school helped me find myself i learned English made a real friends and even got into college something I never thought possible my daughter is a student in the Minotaa school district
and she's happy we've meant the world to me today I work in one of the schools here thank you to everyone in the adult options program you are not just teaching English you are helping us
build new lives and hope again yes so I just wanted to add that um Victoria is uh one of my students and when she arrived in 2022 uh she didn't want to be here she didn't want to speak English she just wanted to
go home and she has said to me many times that she is so grateful because of our program she has really learned to love this country and this is now her home we have one more if you take a look
at the picture here this is a picture of Dimmitri and Svetlana they arrived in the United States and in our um came to our program in 2020 just this year they received their US citizenship and I was very honored to
be part of that naturalization ceremony uh if you ever have the opportunity to do that and go I highly recommend it just um another reason why my job is pretty amazing
thank you for letting me share and I will turn it over to Jen [Music] good evening Mr chair Superintendent Law members of the board u Jenny Bederka thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight i'm going to share a little bit about some of our other youth and adult
programs in community ed and first I'm going to share about Project Friendship um many of you may be familiar with our very popular adults with disabilities program which is called Project Soar um Lindsay who runs that program does an amazing job and she and Kirsten always
fight over who has the best job um but as Project Soar has continued to grow we've heard from our families of elementary to high school students that they would really love a program similar to Project SOORE for their students and so uh based on that feedback we've been
working to develop this new offering and so certainly all students are welcome to attend all of our classes and we do provide support to students but this is a little bit of an additional program where they can have community with others with similar needs so we've
hosted an adapted family night in the fall um special thanks to a board member Sally Brown for coming out to that event that night um and it was just great to see families connecting sharing with us what they're interested in um and really we're hoping to model a lot of what we
do in Project Sore for that younger age we do have another adapted family night tomorrow night at MCEC so if anyone is interested all are welcome and we hope um that you'll join us there some of the many things we do in the spring and summer are have a lot of
events you heard from our YDC uh crew about our fifth grade finales our east meets west kind of the celebration transition events for our students as they go to a new school we also have a onemile um trail run our youth triathlon
um and then in the summer we have two big events our minasha mud run and tour to Tonka so just some events to put on your calendar things coming up and last I just wanted to share some highlights of summer so summer is a very busy time
for us in community ed lots of classes and activities happening um the photo on the right is our summer planning guide and that will be arriving in homes any time it's a weekby- week guide so if you're looking for something the week of
June 15th for example um you can see what the different camps and class options by week so we hope that's a great resource for the community um we've got great numbers in Explorers and Quest which Quest is for our middle schoolers but kind of a more um
consistent attendance throughout the summer go on field trips every day um and we're starting a new um opportunity at Scenic Heights and Groveland called Lunch Bunch so families can choose to sign up for a morning camp and an afternoon camp they can also sign up for lunch bunch where we'll have activities
um and a chance for them to eat lunch so they can make a whole day of their um week-long camp at that particular school so hoping to provide a little bit of that care time and flexibility for families as they need it but we're really excited about a great summer
coming up and those are all of the updates we want to share right now i also want to acknowledge Alyssa Peak who's here with us tonight she is one of our program managers for adult programs but she is currently um getting working to get her community director's license so she's going to be coming and working
with all of you um to see what's happening at the meetings but we're appreciative of all her great work that she's doing as well but thank you so much for your time uh and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have thank you for that report uh board members any questions for our presenters
thank you very much thank you Superintendent Law our next school that we'll be presenting tonight is Minnotonka Middle School East with us tonight is principal Pete Dimit mr dimmit good evening uh chairman superintendent
law members of the board what I'd like to do tonight is highlight a little bit of the work that MME has been doing with Tonka Cares um specific to uh drug education and awareness outreach and
um couple things in particular I want to highlight um but before that I want to rewind to a few years ago when I was talking with some high school students and we frequently uh try and reach out to high school students and do exit interviews with them and kind of ask them about their middle school
experience and what worked for them and what we could improve on and we also ask them in terms of uh how we support parents and how we provide uh education for parents you know what are the topics we should be talking to parents about
and so uh one of the questions we asked the high school students is if if you could give middle school parents one piece of advice what advice would you give middle school parents and repeatedly high school students told us uh you need to
tell them that they need to talk to their kids about drugs and alcohol uh when they're in middle school because if they wait tell high school to talk to them uh they're too late and uh that's really stuck with me um over the years and one of the challenges that we've had with our current schedule one of the
things I'm really looking forward to with our schedule next year is it's going to give us venues to have more of these conversations particularly with our eighth graders because there are a lot of really important conversations for us to have with our eighth graders that aren't sixth grade appropriate
conversations and um you know with us moving our health uh course to 8th grade for next year and with us having a eighth grade seminar course next year uh it's going to give us the venues to have more of these conversations that are are needed more and more each year with just
the number of really heavyduty life-changing issues uh that these kids are facing and so um the question is if parents should be talking to their kids what should they be talking to them about and
I think right now uh with the kids that are in middle school right now that are growing up and getting ready to go into high school I see the big issues that we need to be talking to them about is vaping um uh the the growth of Zinpacks
the nicotine uh patches and the um and the caffeine patches um the growing access to delta 9 and and uh delta 8 products that are becoming ubiquitous um and then uh opioids and specifically
fentanyl and press pills and so um we were lucky enough to partner with uh Tonka Cares and specifically I want to give a shout out to Christine Barulan Anthem and she's just been a great person to partner with and she got us connected
um recently with a nonprofit organization called Change the Outcome that I'm going to talk a little bit more about but you know prior to that we've worked with Tonka Cares on putting together parent education around vaping and what are the things parents need to know and be on the lookout for specific
to vaping uh we work with them to have a screening of the documentary SK screen aers with all of our middle school students that just uh increases their awareness of digital media and their susceptibility and their digital footprint um uh educating parents about
cyber security uh issues and then uh just recently last month uh that we brought in the organization change the outcome uh change the outcome is a nonprofit organization that is exclusively focused on opioid education and
awareness and their organization is um you know this is a picture of the group that presented with us last year and these presenters are either uh parents who have lost a child to an opioid
overdose or they are uh young adults that have struggled with opioid addiction and so these are people that have really compelling stories to tell and have a passion uh for making a difference uh for this generation of
students so the focus of of their presentation with our kids were were you know basically five bullet points one was understanding some of the common pathways that a teen takes towards uh opioid addiction and the thing that I
thought was so important for our kids to hear on that is uh the several of the presenters talked about their road their pathway started with uh their own issues around anxiety and depression and how um
their experimentation with drugs was originally a a try and soothe their anxiety and their depression and they talked about how that was the road started off and how it got away from them i thought it was so
important for our kids to hear that and the presenters over and over talked about how um they were embarrassed to ask for help and they were embarrassed to talk to anybody about it and they just reiterated to our kids that you know if you're feeling anxious if you're
feeling depressed you need to you need to talk to your friends you need to talk to an adult about it and you need to not feel that it's a sign of weakness or that you did something wrong um they they also focused on helping the kids to
understand personal risk factors uh that make somebody more susceptible to opioids um they educated the kids about the different types of opioids and then specifically they talked about the growth the explosion of the issues with
fentanyl and press pills and I you know had heard a lot about fentanyl mostly just from news articles and news reports but really didn't understand you know how it how these overdoses were actually working with young adults and um they
did just such a wonderful job of talking about explaining to them that fant Fentinyl is is this opioid synthetic derivative that is very cheaply made and then it's um it's mixed it basically
into baby formula powder and then it's it's stamped into uh pills and they they showed the kids side byside pictures of legitimate pharmaceutical grade uh Xanax
hydrocodone and Oxycontton side by side with these uh counterfeit pressed pills and explain to the kids that there's absolutely no way that you could tell the difference between the two and that they use the analogy of um you know the
the the people that are making these counterfeit pills are they're they're not going through any standards of measurement to um guarantee how much fentanyl is going into each pill and they use the analogy of how you know
when you're making chocolate chip cookies you can take a scoop um and put it on the cookie tray and you get one chocolate chip cookie that might have 20 chocolate chips in it and the one next to it might only have five chocolate chips and they said it's the same thing
with these press pills um you could you could get one press pill which would have just a small amount of fentanyl in it or you could get a press pill that has uh 50 times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in it and there's no way that
you would be able to tell and they talked to the kids about last year the government of all the counterfeit pills the government seized on the streets seven out of every 10 seized pills had lethal doses of fentanyl in them and so
um it was like I said it was just a really powerful presentation to our our kids to help them to kind of understand um all these dangers that that they face as they as they become young adults one of the things that was most encouraging was the uh post survey
results so um this presentation or this um education took place over a two-day period the uh day before they came in our kids watched a documentary during advisory that kind of gave them uh back information on the issues and then they
had about an hour and a half presentation and then afterwards we did a survey with them to kind of measure the effectiveness and you can see some of these results um asking the kids if they know the factors that increase their their personal risk at developing a substance use
disorder really encouraging results on that um a kid's understanding of the different types of opioids again really encouraging pre-post data students understanding about what
press pills and counterfeit pills are and I thought these last two slides were really interesting um asked the students uh I I personally know somebody who has struggled with substance addiction addiction i I was surprised how high that that number was amongst
our students and then lastly um students who answered true to actually knowing somebody who's experienced an overdose um on a scale of 1 to 10 you can see our students uh felt like the presentation was was very
um effective and then lastly some of the comments that they shared um and I'll give you a second to just read through those comments so uh again uh really proud of the work that we've done partnering with Tonka
Cares i'm excited that this is the second year we've done this program um MMW is also doing this program i believe uh we did ours right before spring break i think they have theirs coming up actually next week and also excited for
the future with our new schedule next year you know the opportunities for us to continue to partner with Tonka Cares and other organizations to provide this critical information to our kids before they leave and go over to the high school I think is just really important so and with that I'll answer any
questions you have thank you Principal Dement any questions or comments tamarie this is wonderful information thank you for um I'm glad that the block schedule is going to be helpful related to to
conveying this information can you remind me what grade the survey was with our eighth graders it's just eighth grade just all of our eighth graders okay thank you i would uh echo thanks for delivering this information it's good for us to
hear on the board uh that those com those conversations are happening i think it it's critical as you've shown that all of the parents in of middle schoolers know that I think that message from the high schoolers was very critical that if you wait until they're
in high school to talk to them about drugs and alcohol you've you've waited too long so um Exactly encourage any parent who hasn't gotten that message to reach out to their principles thank you very much okay thank you thank you all
right I believe we have reached the time uh for community comments did we have anyone who had submitted a card for community comments okay uh community comments is an opportunity for the public to address the school board on an item included in this agenda in accordance with the guidelines printed
on the reverse we do not have anyone apparently interested tonight so we'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is approval of Minnetonka Foundation teacher grants superintendent Law mr chair members of the board as you're all aware we have an incredible partner in the Minnitaka Public Schools
Foundation they fundraised throughout the year for the sole purpose of supporting our school district and uh in one area they support our district tonight's topic is allowing our teachers to dream ask for a funding support and then they approve those to enhance
student opportunities and learning tonight we have Heather Markwart and Jamie Hansen to give a summary of foundation teacher grants have been approved for your approval perfect thank you um board members chair Dr law um guests it's great to be here i'm Heather
Mark this is Jamie Hansen we are the co-chairs for the teacher grant committee uh with Minnitank Public Schools Foundation we're honored to present for your approval our recommendation and I have to get the number right to award $122,767 in grants to 60 different grant
applications across the Mitaka district we consider ourselves to be very fortunate to work as a partner with such an amazing school district uh and help these outstanding teachers provide additional educational opportunities to our students uh through these grants um
the foundation has been around for 35 years and in that 35 years we have funded um over 1,020 grants uh totaling over $1.5 million which is very exciting to to see that number uh this year we received 94 requests um seeking over
$390,000 for the 2526 school year after careful consideration and discussion the foundation board voted to approve 60 requests um that you have been provided detail on uh in addition there were another four grants that were able to be funded through existing district
resources um that we uncovered when we met with district leadership so that was wonderful a special note tonight that the Minnitankka Alumni Association um has fundraised and contributed to funding six grants totaling $4,335 so we really appreciate their
support and their partnership so tonight we are asking for the school board's approval of these grants uh we will notify all of the grant applicants of the final decisions in the coming days and then there will be another recognition event in May um May Monday May 12th you're all invited if you would
like to come it's kind of a fun event um to celebrate these teachers and um what they're about to do next year so this concludes our presentation on the grants and we're happy to answer any um questions or listen to comments thank you uh let's see board members any
question would we start with a motion i'll have a take a motion to accept the Minnitonka Foundation's teacher grants as presented so moved camry second second chris all right any comments or discussion
chris just want to say thank you uh to the foundation and I know how much work goes into uh raising all of the funds as well as the process that you guys go through and um really to provide over $120,000 back to the district and you
know seeing but uh not publicly seeing some of the things that we're funding is really is is is really encouraging and it's great that we can provide that back into the classroom so thank you [Music] I think one of the reasons you see we don't have a lot of questions is we're
just very very grateful for the generosity of the time and the efforts and the money that went into raising uh raising this and putting it all together and so um we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say I i i any
opposed motion passes thank you very much i'd just like to say we consider it a great privilege to partner with the district and the school board in our efforts to maintain the high level of excellency in the classrooms of the Minnitankka public schools thank you for your support of the foundation i know
many of you if not all of you were at our Dream Makers event um and it it really means a lot in in terms of our effort to increase visibility across the district and we look forward to continuing to work together support the needs of our teachers and students thank
you thank you very much thank you next item on our agenda is a legislative update superintendent Law mr chair members of the ward we have had um an unprecedented year of advocacy in Minnotonka 100 parents almost are
getting weekly updates uh frequently communicating with our elected officials we have held a town hall we've gone to the capital we have almost daily it seems like uh connections with our elected officials mr bris is a frequent
testifier and a guide on the side for writing legislation and we as we are over halfway through the session we're taking a chance to update our board and the community on where we are with the legislation you know where where funding streams may or may not be and what it looks like for us so executive director
of finance and operations Mr paul Bourgeois is here to provide an update mr bajois thank you superintendent Law mr chair members of the board um one of the things that it we've been obviously advocating for actually the last dozen years is more uh ability to raise some
local dollars and our our prior presentation on community education is actually an example of what we can do with local dollars because about 90% of their budget is local dollars and they do all those incredible things and we've done some incredible things with local dollars with our operating referendum in
particular and uh we've been out of cap but we've been lobbying and lobbying and lobbying to get some more local dollars because the state is is uh in has not been able to keep us up with funding in terms of state aid and uh this year the legislative uh situation is actually
somewhat somewhat dire from a budget standpoint so I'm going to go through some of those items uh and again local dollars local ability to do some things would really help us greatly but a lot of the numbers that are in this presentation are pulled from the uh state of Minnesota um management and
budget office so anybody can go out there and and look at at the numbers and and find the same numbers that I was able to find out of their budget and economic forecast and their historical data so the uh the state is grappling with a a very serious long-term budget
outlook basically I'm not going to run through each number on there but the the numbers that are circled in red show for the next two bienium uh fiscal 2627 and then 28-29 uh they are they have a structural uh
imbalance of about $3.3 million for fiscal year 2627 and then a fiscal year 28-29 structural imbalance of over 6 billion about 6.5 billion so they also at the bottom of the slide say structural imbalance without
discretionary inflation it's a 2.1 million and 3.9 million so about six billion instead of 10 so you know the state can do that because they're saying hey we're just going to legislate away inflation fund at a lower level of course we have to deal with inflation in
everything we do in in employee ben salaries and benefits in uh utilities uh and just everything we do supplies for the uh the the custodial uh people and all that kind of stuff we have to so we always have to balance with inflation as
every school district does so while they're talking about funding to a $6 billion gap school districts around the state will be having to deal with operating at the $10 billion gap so it's it's kind of a somber situation so one of the things is where
did this deficit come from because it wasn't that long ago that we were looking at a a a significant surplus and I I look just look back into it's like you know how did that happen but the 23 legislature in increased the the current bianium budget uh exp of expenditures by
36% in one jump the FY223 bianium was uh funded at approximately 52 billion fy2425 expenditures were budgeted at approximately 71 billion so the the reality is is now going forward they're projecting the ongoing revenues for
FY2627 and FY20 I got the wrong number fy 2829 are not sufficient to maintain that $71 billion in expenditures for the for those bianium so I just showed you this is actually where I pulled the numbers from and uh it you know I highlighted the
number which shows a difference in the bianium in the increase of 36% a lot of numbers but that's right out of the right right off of their web page again and they've been actually the the other important thing about that one is they were projecting this major shortfall in November 23 right after the 23
legislature you know 6 months after the legislature finished up um setting 2425 uh the at the end of the legislative session in 24 it hadn't changed and so that's where we are today uh the November forecast again very consistent all the way through
so um the thing is is I I was going well that's a pretty big deficit in terms of the structural balance how did the how do these forecast differences uh match up compared to the the bienium of the great recession that they always project two out right fy 2627
FY2829 and how how does this compare to right after the great recession FY 1011 and FY 1213 which are the two benium that followed right after that that that big meltdown in the uh um in the mortgage back security market and so there's a lot of numbers
on here uh right report from the state i highlight some and you can't read them but there's some numbers at the bottom but the structural imbalance uh for the first uh the first part uh bienium after in FY 2009 after the great is is part of the great
recession was about a minus 4.8 8 million and so that compares to the February 25 forecast for 2627 of 3 about 3.3 billion the structural imbalance for uh FY in FY2 or February 2009 again to project out that second bianium back
then was about 5.134 billion and that compares to the FY25 forecast for um 2829 uh of 6.5 billion and so if you take that total two-year or four years of by of ual increases projected uh in
2009 uh the the great recession deficit at that time was projected at 9.94 billion4 billion over um over four years the one that we're currently in is actually at 9.736 billion over the four years so it's 98% of the great
recession so you know and some people will go well you know fiscal year 10 or to 13 uh the deficit uh was a higher percentage of the budget which is true but at the same time a billion dollars is still a billion dollars so this is they're dealing with the second biggest
shortfall in this in this um uh you know in this in this era uh in this century actually so there's the numbers that are kind of just uh highlighted in a little bit easier to read so a billion dollars is still at least it's still a lot of money to me um
again the state can legislate away inflation so they'll address the $6 billion shortfall um 88% of our general operating fund is employee salaries and benefits we can't legislate away inflation um 67% of our operating budget
is teacher salaries and benefits you know utilities electricity in the state is up 40% over 40% in 10 years actually close to 46% as uh we switch over to more expensive generation methods water sewer waste water are has been going up at above the rate of inflation every
year uh transportation you know we had uh our our low contract that the past couple years was 19 19% increase followed by an eight followed by a five by a five that was the low bid of the of the bids that we went out for you know maintenance and classroom supp uh
supplies all all those type of supplies are going up so we can't legislate away inflation so our platform uh was to increase the operating referendum cap again uh wanting to ask for some local dollars because we can do great things with local dollars if the state can't
come up with anything this has been the eighth legislative session that we've been lobbying um for this initiative that we started out uh in uh talking about in the fall of 2017 for the 2018 legislature so 2018 through 2025 that's
actually eight sessions so um uh we have had there's no bills that have been introduced this year no sponsors only one bill in committee uh was or one bill was introduced in eight years a year ago Representative Myers um uh did introduce a sess a bill but it didn't get out of
out of committee uh increasing the local optional revenue this is the 12th legislative session that we've been lobbying for this initiative in terms of trying to get an inflationary increase on it and there's been some traction on that um we actually have a $250 per pupil
bills in in HF1 1980 House File 1989 and Senate File 3229 it would generate about $3.1 million in revenue for us greatly needed but it's an uphill battle because it requires $220 million in new state aid for equalization for all the
districts that they're they're smaller or low property value districts uh the total amount of a $250 per pupil increase is over $800 million but about 500 uh $580 million of that approximately would come out of local levies across the state and 220 million
would be then paid for by the state and equalization we also have the uh the platform for an increase in special education cross subsidy revenue uh no bills increased uh no sponsors it's so I unfortunately just help is not on the
way in terms of the legislature uh we are making about $5 million in budget reductions statewide it's over $300 million in budget reductions um I had I was testifying on the local one of the local optional revenue bills and we were able to get the AM Association of
Metropolitan School Districts Minnesota Rural Education Association and the uh um schools advocating for fair funding which is um uh some suburban and and or ex-urban districts um and and the total of all those was over $300 million in
budget reductions that they're looking at and it it's literally the second year in a row that it's been over 300 million because I testified on a similar bill a year ago and that was over 300 million so the sobering thing about that is if you consider uh you know most districts have the great percentage of employees
are are teachers as they should be um but if you're looking at then the youngest teachers being laid off or the beginning teachers if you assume $75,000 for teacher salary and benefits that's a potential loss of 4,000 teaching positions for the second year in a row uh so it's it's you know it's
significant and again not all of it will be there'll be other positions that are eliminated in various places but that's just it kind of gives you an idea of the magnitude so right now the governor's budget proposals if if enacted it would actually increase our revenue shortfall
for FY26 uh they're looking the governor is proposing to eliminate the literacy incentive aid which is a pay for performance for us it'd be a loss of about 987,000 or $687,000 starting right away uh the uh
there's some proposals out there to modify things and delay it a year if they modify it to another formula we'll get it we'll get this for another year but the second year of the bianium we'd get about 20% or about $140,000 under some of the proposals out there but I who knows if that's going to make it again because they're they're
just trying to grapple with such a big shortfall um the the governor's budget propos proposes reducing special educ education transportation by 5% which is approximately $100,000 for us and that would start right away uh eliminate school library aid this is something
actually uh added on not that long ago um but it would be about a loss of about $200,000 starting in FY26 and then uh there's another proposal by in the governor's budget to eliminate alternative teacher compensation program which is a program that uh teachers use
to uh basically improve their craft and they they work on various things and achieve achieve certain goals and then they get some additional compensation related to that and that's 65% funded by by state aid and and 35% local levy so
that would not start until fiscal 27 because we've already levied and so is everybody every else other district in the state that's in the alternative teacher compensation program that we've already levied for that portion of it but um it would so it would start in fiscal year 27 and that would be uh you
know loss of $3 million so one of the things that I just have to say is we continue to be efficient um we and one one of the thing the the conventional wisdom it's so hard to convince people that the conventional wisdom that they think is 100% right is
100% wrong everybody thinks that Minnotonka spends more money than most other districts in the state because our students are doing well the reality of it is is we spend less per pupil all already in the general fund um and we spend less per pupil because we
get less revenue per pupil even with the operating referendum uh than basically every every district in the state and what I did is I pulled this this appendix B out of our uh executive audit summary um uh for the for the for the
audit from the last year and it has it has a table of comparative data for the all districts in the state the seven county metro area districts of enrollment greater than 4,000 so the low the bigger districts relatively speaking and then Minnotonka for 22 23 and 24 and
um there the uh these are the categories are the general operating fund and all the categories of the general operating fund uh for in comparing fiscal year 23 because fiscal year 24 wasn't available and when they bring put fiscal year 24
out we'll be comparing that one but uh as the latest data available to compare all districts for fiscal year 23 three spent $14,677 which is $611 more per pupil in their general operating funds than than we spent in terms of the sevenount metro
area for fiscal year 23 the the average uh 7count metro district spent $15,34 in their general operating fund and which was $1,238 more enroll districts in with across the state so including districts
uh Rochester and Mano and St cloud and Duth etc um $15,28 per pupil in their general operating fund or $1,142 more and Minnotonka we spent $14,66 so if you look at that if if we
generally school districts spend approximately 100% of their revenue or their their revenue every year you know you spend if you expend 101% you might have a slight deficit if you spend 100 if you spend 99% you have a slight surplus but you're always right around 100% of your revenue being expended in a
given year so that's why you can track expenditures and get an idea of what the revenue is because it's always pretty much you know we match to basically try to break even for the most part and so if we had $611 more and just spent at the average of so we could spend at all
the districts in the state level that would have been about $6.9 million more revenue seven county metro area if we had the same amount of amount of money per pupil of the average of the sevenount metro area we basically would have been able to spend almost $14 million more per pupil and again
enrollment over 4,000 it would have been about $12.9 million more if we could just spend at the same level as everybody else so we are are we're swimming really hard uh in terms of performance of our student uh I guess I'd say you know we're we're we're swimming ahead in the race even though
we're pulling a pulling a concrete uh block along with us you know but that's why we're always asking the state is not able to support us we're asking them for the ability for us to continue to ask our local key people if they would if they would help us out in that
regard some potential future challenges summer unemployment for 10-month employees the state is scrambling uh to fund for one more year for this coming summer uh this is a relatively new initiative and they funded it for the
first two summers um in 23 and in 24 uh 25 there's there's not much money but it's a potential hit if they can't um uh do it this year but they think they're going to come up with some funds to fund it from what I've heard and the potential there's a but it's a potential
approximately $500,000 hit to the general operating fund starting in FY27 because there's no proposal that I've seen out there and maybe there's but I have not been able to identify it that would uh allow for additional state aid to pay for that that uh un that mandate
in summer of 26 and that would hit fiscal summer fiscal 27 um there's also potential prorations of funding formulas one thing the state can do is they can say "Hey we're going to fund this." But then if the cash doesn't show up they can just say "You know what we only get
98% of the cash." So you get 98% of the cash um and uh so uh they just shave percentages off the top in in fiscal year 25 this year our special education revenue has been ro prorrated down about
95% down to down to 95% as of as of the latest statements we have related to that so that's approximately $1 million less revenue than the funding formula calculates that Minnotonka ISD276 is entitled to so that's kind of the general it's a
little bit of morose report uh but it's realistic and we're having to deal with it uh we have to keep pounding away at the legislature if not this year than next year uh see if we can you know break through that break through that concrete wall that's in front of us to try to get at least the permission to
ask for some assistance because uh whether it's community education or whether it's K12 we've been able to gener uh to demonstrate that we can do really great things even without you know without the the full assistance of the state if they just let us let us do
what we can and so um I guess that's all I have for now and and I don't want to depress you any further but but but anyway um so I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have or try to thank
you board members any questions or comments chris just a comment uh not the report that we want to get or or hear but one that we need to hear and uh thank you for all the work that you do and I know uh as super or lieutenant
loss said uh that that all all the work that you're doing uh with our legislature and really trying to advocate for Minnatonka and the case committee and and everything and yeah uh yeah it is what it is and we're going to have to deal with it and we know we'll deal with it uh better than anyone so
well and just one thing we all know who who the admiral of Skippers is go Sally thank you very much for your continued commitment to this i'm curious what your perspective is on the
increased engagement we had from the community this year nearly 100 people beating the drum consistently for for much of the year what is your sense for the impact that that's having on our legislators locally or across the state
what is their awareness of that well I believe they they appreciate and and try to listen the um the diff the most difficult thing is is the financial situation and you know with the cupboard being
bare so they're having a hard time trying to address our needs although I I got to be honest it's a little bit frustrating from the standpoint of it's like but we are proposing things that would not impact the state at all but it they you know it it does make a
difference to to show up to email and all that um I mean superintendent law any comments because you've been really in there with them i I think as much as in my career as a superintendent I'm seeing the bouncebacks of messaging at the capital saying we hear you and you
know either we can't find a resource or you know we're in a legislative session where we overpromised in 2023 and we can't deliver and so the only path forward is readjusting the 2023 spend and trying to allow people to
acknowledge that every you know the read act that was written in 2023 has been revised twice so it's okay to go back and revise your ideas and say okay what we did then it wasn't wasn't working for the future we need some of those financial decisions from 2023 to get the
same revisions and and I'm optimistic that um our parents and and some of our messages we've sent to other neighboring districts and their parents have sent I I I know they're being heard so it's just a matter of all of us working together to say "Okay what we have to
rethink what we did in 2023 for today's reality." Superintendent Law oh go ahead Dan i just want to echo what uh what Chris said and and thank you thank you for keeping us cleareyed about the situation
that we're facing and just dealing with it head on yeah like you said it's not news that any of us want to get but you your department David all the principles in all the buildings you've you've been wrestling with this reality for a while you've been making very very hard
decisions to do our our very best to to minimize the impact of these things so um thank you for that please keep it up please let us know what you need and you know any folks out there listening if you if you haven't written to your legislators already I know I've probably
said it dozens and dozens of times at this point but let them know how much we value public education in this state and that it's the uh the best investment we can make uh Superintendent Law one one thing I wanted to ask
um as a watcher of the legislature in Minnesota over the years um I'm a firm believer although I think Mr bourgeois is absolutely right there's some problems with the structure right now that we we are swimming against the tide
uh but uh I'm also a big believer that here in Minnesota it seems like we never really know what we're going to get until the very end of the session do you see any paths for our legislative agenda being made part of uh the state's agenda
by the end of the session well and Mr bourgeois referenced it but I'll say it again there have been hearings for our local optional revenue i mean we we have they they have once they've heard that bill and that is our best path forward has given the board the authority to ask our community for support we've heard it
from our community if the state's not going to give it to us allow allow the board to ask the community they've had hearings um that's the best we've been in a while and now it's just a matter of of getting it through the omnibus process and
moving it forward the bills that are heard this week were the governor's proposal as a starting point um and both if you looked at the House and the Senate Finance Education Committee they both said this is just the starting spot so we have something to start negotiating with as we get into Omnibus
i there's a chance um all of us in our own household budgets if we bought a car that three years later our paycheck doesn't match the car payment you turn the car back in and get something that's going to work for your family this elected session
they need to go back and say what what can we provide within our budget and and certainly our number one spend in education has to be our teachers you know we have to that's that's where we spend money when it flows through as you just saw that report if they want to
manage education and have high expectations for our kids in the future that's where they have to fund and I I think they hear that um they just have to get behind closed doors and make that deal happen thank you thank you
all right next item is a technology update superintendent law mr chair members of the board just over a year and a half ago or under a year and a half ago our community very generously refunded our
capital projects our technology levy and one of the things that's very important to tell the community is when you make a donation as a district we we keep our promises so tonight uh executive director it says interim executive technology for this year but she is the
permanent direct executive director of technology starting in July amanda Fay is here to provide an update on both where we are using those funds and all the amazing things we're doing to keep our district forwardleaning miss Fay good evening
superintendent Law or Lieutenant I guess uh Mr chair members of the board um I am here tonight just to provide you a brief It's not gonna it's not going to go away we're just going to keep bringing it up um I'm here to provide you a brief update on strategic um technology
planning that um my team and I have been a part of in addition to u many other members of our district obviously Mr baja has been uh very pivotal in that um very involved with our teaching and learning department as well so I'm just going to update you a little bit on this
tonight one of the first things that I want to uh draw your attention to is just as a technology department a little bit about our mission so obviously first off as a uh technology department our mission is the mission of that of the district right these things align um and
so we recognize that that our goal is to support the technology needs of all of our end users and really focus on st student learning and growth um prepping our students to be lifelong learners and really that we are a service department
and our role is to serve um I have been presenting just a a a brief version of this to all of our buildings um and will be before the end of the school year and this is really the pivotal piece is this no summer surprises um I didn't come up with this
i I can't recall where I heard it but it really resonated with me and just the concept of when our teachers leave for the summer we want them to come back in the fall and know exactly what they're coming back to we don't want them to have any surprises at all um and so
that's why it's really important to do this long-term um technology planning and be strategic about it is so that we know exactly um what's to come we can budget we can plan um and we can let our teachers know when their time is coming why um and really make sure that we're
all on the same page so when we look at this strategic approach to technology planning um this takes kind of a multifaceted approach uh one big piece of it is um enhancing our technology for teaching and learning um
assessing our current systems and and what do we have as a district gathering uh fe feedback from our stakeholders is a huge piece of this and something we really believe as a district and uh Jackie Getty will be talking a little bit more about that today too and
implementing key improvements based on what we learn from this it's also important to note that even though it's not really pictured here as cyclical this is really a a cyclical process right it it never ends uh just like superintendent law said right we we go back we revise the readact we make a
plan and we're constantly revising it because technology more than anything is constantly changing um one year ago actually April of 2024 myself um Dr leoo and my predecessor presented to the school board around the classroom of the future
so I just want to hearken back to that a second and give a couple of brief reminders because I think it really feeds into um the rest of the presentation today so giving a little bit of contextual background um we talked about number one that instructional technology is a tool right
there's high-tech there's low tech but really at the end of the day the technology is a tool um to enhance instruction and student outcomes we talked about our Minnitankka instructional technology beliefs which we'll talk a little bit more in a second as well and just those being pivotal to
the work that we do as a district we talked a little bit about the historical eras of technology that Minnetonka has been through including the introduction of Smartboards web 2.0 and 1:1 iPads we talked about the classroom of the future um in those priorities which we'll talk
a little bit more about in a second we talked about a research-driven approach um both from looking at what other districts around us are doing looking to the research and talking to our stakeholders um we talk about implementation and pilots right we don't just think this is a good idea and then
we just do it right we try it out on a small scale lean startup and then we see how it goes we get feedback and then we change or adjust or we take it to scale and then also that future vision um being sure that we provide that consistent experience for our students
and our teachers uh throughout the district so looking a little bit deeper here quickly at our Minnitankka instructional technology beliefs um these were developed with a variety of stakeholders being an integral part to the creation of these beliefs but really at the end of the day it's important to
recognize that um we believe as a district that technology is a powerful catalyst that serves as a core tool to accelerate learning promote innovative mindsets and strengthen student success so like I said before technology is not static right it's always going to
continue to evolve and therefore our students must be taught and supported to use technology in healthy balanced ethical responsible and safe ways which you heard really from our two schools that presented today they talked about what each one of their buildings was
doing um with their students with their community with their parents um to to practice this and have honest conversations about technology in the world that we live in and how we set um our students up for success and frankly ourselves up for success
um as we talked about a big piece of this is gathering stakeholder feedback so we've done extensive uh stakeholder feedback as a part of this process and we had really high turnout um on the teacher survey and those are the two graphics kind of on the left and in the center you see here and some of the the
the big themes that resonated with this were um the large displays the importance of having a large display in classrooms uh the importance of student student digital collaboration and the importance of classroom mobility those were things that really stood out so all
of that um feeds into these these four priorities is kind of what we took through all of this we looked at our research our stakeholder feedback what other districts were doing best practice and we developed these four priorities for our district as we move forward with instructional technology so these are
visible meaning consistent reliable modern easy to use bright and clear classroom display technology uh mobility which means responsive productive efficient workflows with the tools to support teachers and students both inside and outside the classroom uh
number three flexibility both physically and digitally um the ability to adapt based on individual or collective student or teacher needs and then fourth collaboration really that every student and every teacher are engaged in
learning so as we look to the work that's been implemented so far as we talk about the quote unquote classroom of the future um the first step that really happened was the high school laptop implementation uh our high school teachers received laptops and then we removed desktops from the high school
and installed um Apple TVs in order to allow teachers to wirelessly uh be able to airplay and connect to to screens uh then we moved on to middle school laptops and middle school having the ability to airplay as well we also did some work with updating elementary
instructional technology guidelines postcoid realizing that our students had 1:1 devices for the first time at our youngest grades and that when they came back into the buildings we needed to really re-evaluate what that looked like um so we took some time to do that and then we've also been working through
some elementary um display and airplane pilots so as we look to the future and we think about next steps of this um this summer is going to be going to be a big summer we've got a lot of work to do to do here so we have kind of developed a a
comprehensive multi-year roadmap and part of this is because we're a small but mighty team we've got a budget right and we need to think really strategically about what to bite off when and um we really did that so with the middle school knowing that our plan was to remove desktops at the middle
school this summer anyways we really decided to focus in on the middle schools for this summer and knowing they have their new schedule coming it's also a great time to kind of lean into that flexibility mobility collaboration and visibility so this summer we will be removing desktops from our middle school
classrooms we will be updating those smartboards with uh new bright clear displays we will be sunsetting smart technology at our middle schools um and then we will be doing uh network and Wi-Fi upgrades districtwide we will also be doing a a
new phone system it's kind of time to bring us into the the new the new generation right with a new phone system um and also a new a new help desk system as we look to next summer our plan is to update our um smartboards with displays at our high school and then the summer
after that we'll move on to our elementarymentaries and that's very strategic because our elementaryaries are in the process of going through curriculum review in all of the core content areas so the last thing we want to do is say "Hey we're going to take away your Smartboard and SMART so you can figure out a new curriculum to just
then do a new curriculum in a year." Right so we're being very intentional around what buildings what grade levels we target when um and then after that as we know some of our unique spaces can be quite expensive to really retrofit and figure out what the best fit is for technology in those spaces um so to
allow us to take an individualized approach then the next summer we'll focus on those unique spaces it's also really important to recognize that uh you know replacing a display can sound very simple but it's actually a really in-depth process um you know we work with a third party to
really figure out where do they go what does this look like how do we do it well um every single teacher was given the opportunity to meet with their tech coach and talk about what their room looks like where the door is what makes the most sense in terms of where their display is how they want to structure their classroom um we really wanted to
make sure that we we did it well and we didn't just do it quickly um so every teacher has had an opportunity to really give feedback into what they would like that classroom to look like um as well as our administrators to really think about strategically what makes sense for their building and the students in their
building as well so really our our current initiatives are around um system optimization so thinking about our current technologies and making sure that they are uh seamless and that they're very userfriendly focusing in on cyber security um protecting our district data
with robust security protocols thinking about stakeholder feedback that's always a really uh core initiative to us and something that we always do um and then also network modernization and thinking about upgrading our infrastructure to plan for now and for the future
so really our overarching goal is that you know we know as a school district and frankly as a society we have a reliance on digital tools and technology and so we want to keep our students our staff and our Minnotonka community as secure as possible by strengthening our
district's cyber security protecting sensitive information and building resilience against evolving threats i would love to to talk more in depth about what that looks like but knowing this is an open session it's recorded it's streamed right we don't really want to talk too much about what we're doing as a district around cyber security so
um maybe at some point we could we could talk more in depth um when we're not being recorded for the public um I will share this with you though uh my team recently talked about how um they noticed that staff were
leaving devices open or unlocked or their passwords and um they saw from another district they had created these little post-it notes that they would then just like stick on that computer like caugh you right and so my the whole team collaborated to to make this
post-it note in Canva and I just ordered these custom post-it notes on Vistar Print so those of you that that work in the district just you know stay tuned because they're coming and then we're going to be all over the place just watching right so just just another a way to try to make it fun but to remind
we so often want to get up and and go out somewhere quickly and then you don't close your laptop or lock it and think about oh if there's a student in that room think about all the information that's on that device so just a fun way cyber security can be such a a heavy topic and so we're trying to find fun
ways to like you know make it something that's front of mind but not not too scary then someone said today what if what if staff start collecting these and they make it a challenge and I was like then we'll have to figure out a different positive way that we can reinforce
right so really looking ahead to summarize here um we are focused on strategic planning and really developing that long-term plan for what technology looks like in our district and how it relates to our educational vision um really focusing on educator development
right it's so important that we provide our teachers and our staff the support and the training that they need to utilize the technology well as it changes every single day um and then evaluating technology as we see new technology come out um really taking the time to evaluate and say is this
something that we should invest in is this something we need to to think about and to integrate into our into our roadmap so really at the end of the day this this road map really leads us to to our impact which is all about our students um and so the work that we do
is really important with our technology and our teaching and learning team collaborating to really build what's best for our students and knowing that it profoundly impacts our student experience and that's why we do what we do at the end of the day thank you
thank you very much board members any questions or comments chris um a comment and maybe a couple of quick questions but um you know as we go into different classrooms or different environments even in our works you know
when you go to a projector or something and versus a high resolution display it's just we know that in some of the classroom of the future work that that you're a part of that how much more engaging that is and so really excited that we're continuing that and going through the through the middle schools
uh two questions I was thinking about um you talked about no summer surprises and with the with the staff and you know we're moving their cheese right we're moving from a Windows environment to an Apple environment uh we're changing you know something that was integrated through smart and two things that came
to mind is like what type of training or I saw that you've set up some pilot classrooms and people are you know teachers are able to see this but as they're um as they come back for their professional development are we doing training and are we more just available
or how are we handling that yeah yeah really great question so um we have technology coaches throughout our district at all of our levels and so first off when they come into the Minnotonka environment for the first time they have that new teacher orientation and they're given time with
their coaches um to really talk about like what our technology environment looks like as a district and then they really are given access to to like an extremely builtout course in Schooly which is the same learning management system we use for our students filled with resources to support them because
we recognize that every single teacher coming in has you know a different experience in college and um they maybe have taught in different districts and so we want to really meet them where they're at and support them in any way we can um in addition to that our tech coaches offer optional professional
learning sessions on a regular basis oftentimes they're doing them virtually too so that it doesn't have to be limited by oh you have to physically be here you can be in your classroom you know moving your desks and kind of setting up for the day while you're listening in and kind of learning on this session they also record them send
them out right so just kind of these multiple options and then they're all also available they have um calendar links that you can book time with them so you can say "This is my prep i want to learn more about this." Um we're also very intentional around our teachers have had iPads for years so they're familiar with the the Windows and the
Mac environment and that that really is something that's important like we want to make sure that we're not just a this or a that we know that in the world you're going to interact in both platforms and we want to make sure that our students and our teachers are prepared for that um but then giving them the MacBook laptops a year or over
a year in advance so they can start utilizing it as a productivity resource before that's their only resource too thank you um and and the second piece I think maybe it's more for the elementary than maybe the high school or middle school but you talked about the
curriculum piece and and I I I just don't know how integrated that is into the smart app or smart technology and have we had to do a lot of curriculum changes or development or what what does that look like and I I know more of the
elementary school they're using the smart devices maybe a little bit in a different way but yeah we've we've been intentionally kind of slowly transitioning away from smart for a while and it's it's nothing about smart you know like the technology that we
have is older but at the same time it's it's that proprietary thing we we don't want our teachers to be stuck and I have my curriculum in this one thing and this is the only way I can do it we want them to be able to kind of like move seamlessly through platforms so when you think of something like you know Canva
which uh MCEC presented their presentation in or Google Slides um these web- based resources that you can utilize on any platform is the direction that we're we're really trying to move in um and so just thinking differently about that that collaboration um so we
we kind of started intentionally our high school was ready right they were ready for that change we saw them not really utilizing and so we said okay let's let's kind of intentionally start this transition with high school moving to middle school and when I presented at the middle schools um just before spring
break one of the things I said to teachers is like if you still have some things in Smart Notebook we're not going to like uproot that from you and take that away from you and like good luck bye right like we're going to do whatever we can to help you get where you need to be when
you need to be there right so really letting teachers know like this is deadline but really like it's a loose deadline right um and so our elementary we're being really intentional around trying to help learn and support what they need right now and um Steve Urbansky our director of curriculum and
instruction um we've recognized how important it is to have our tech coaches in on uh when we're doing curriculum writing and when we're developing and um assessing new curriculum because it's important that we are all moving in the same direction together
thank you mhm thank you very much uh Superintendent Law I'm going to reiterate two things for our community members there's a plan for the next 5 years to spend every dollar that we have
generously received uh on the technology that is focused on students and we'd be happy to provide that update and the other part uh I'm just really proud of the fact that we've gone to every building to tell teachers here's what's coming have been places where it's been really hard to share a single year
vision let alone a four-year vision of here's where we're changing technology and giving people a chance uh to be ready for that as Chris referenced to board member Vitali so I want to thank Amanda and her team for amazing work both preparing our staff for the changes
and being very future uh driven with this work thank you we haven't made it to every building yet just to note so if someone's watching and they're like you know we're but we will before the end of the year so Dan you had your up uh thank you for the presentation and I think it
always bears mentioning especially when we've gotten you know a very sobering legislative and financial presentation right before this that that the funds that we're able to use for technology was a separate tech levy approved by our voters back in 2023 we can't use these
funds for operations so it's not like this planning and and these efforts and these changes that we're making and that are necessary are taking away from something elsewhere this is especially dedicated for this and our operating challenges are are an entirely separate
issue thanks Dan thank you thank you very much all right next item up is a community engagement report superintendent Law Mr mr chair members of the board one of our board goals is to be constantly
looking for ways to gather impact or gather input and as a board use that input to steer the direction of the district because the your your board uh aspirations are that our district is a reflection of the community so tonight executive director of communications Dr
jackie Getty is going to provide an update for the board and the community on all the different avenues we use to connect with the community and gather input that steers board dr getty thank you Superintendent Law mr chair members of the board I'm excited to present this
community engagement report for you community engagement uh and community input does play a critical role for us it plays a role in shaping the direction of our schools and district-wide initiatives and across all of our constituency we actively seek to inform
because first we know that that is very important because it lets people know that they're important to us we provide opportunities for feedback and we build those connections through a variety of means and those efforts give our stakeholders ways to share their experiences their thoughts and their input about the district and to have
their questions and their concerns answered so building that trust with students parents prospective families teachers and staff alumni and the broader community remains an action item I know on one of your schoolboard goals for the district excellence in
leadership and organizational support so let's talk about the various constituencies and how we connect them and engage them so the first one I want to talk through is parents and we know that we have district-wide committees that parents can be a part of um for surveys
and I'll go through these relatively quickly but we can always circle back to them and stop me along the way if you have any questions um for surveys we uh do an annual parent survey every year and then sometimes throughout the year we also add another survey this last year we did a specific one on
schoolboard goals so that you could have some input as you were doing planning for the next year's goals um listening sessions uh I know that you had three planned i think we ended up doing two uh reached out to 160 families had just a
handful of parents come but there were some really robust conversations with the ones that showed up to the to the sessions that you offered uh and it really gave kind of a new opportunity for parents if they had a question wanted to sit down and address their concern with a board member the principles do weekly emails to their
families and the superintendent has been doing a monthly email to parents this year that's been really wellreceived i know that all of you have formal and informal one-on-one meetings with constituents all the time and calls and emails and so do administrators uh this
last year this last May so it's been almost a year now we've had uh the Ahoy Minnotonka podcast and that's been another way for us to engage parents many of the staff and teachers that are on our podcast are also parents of students in the district we have an
ongoing um connection with our PTA and PTO groups we meet with the leaders every month to two months depending on what month of the year it is um to really hear about what's happening in the schools how they're supporting their schools and how we can support them and how they can support each other to really help them have that connection
and that engagement um for um I wouldn't say new this year but kind of a new infusion of energy this year has been the community action for student education committee uh it was active last year it was incredibly active this year and I know the school board and the superintendent um administrators and um
a lot of our parents have gotten really actively involved in legislative advocacy for student funding for school funding um and that has been a a new uh way that a lot of parents have gotten engaged with the district uh Tonka Pride is um as you know a a parent-led
committee that uh sells spiritware and that uh the funds go back to support our PTAs and PTO's uh and we work really closely with them um and uh stay engaged with them our boosters our booster um different uh booster uh organizations
but also our booster store and then the Minnitonka Public Schools Foundation is another way that parents really stay engaged with the district i know you heard from them earlier today about the incredible support they give through the teacher grant program and then nutrition services has done a specific uh as you
heard recently from the report from Kristen Turnblad effort on their communication efforts and connecting with families and really helping families to make great choices about um nutrition and what's ahead and what's in this meal and and to help them with that
planning um these are just a couple of examples um the Tonka fresh off to the left that is the Instagram account that nutrition services started so if you haven't followed that that's um another way that they've really tried to engage the middle shot is uh Groveland Elementary PTO showing the opening of
their Groveland outdoor classroom space which they supported heavily and we heard about at the meetings that we have with them we're also able to tell that story and it just helps us to get even more people involved and engaged and educated informed about what the district's doing and then wanted to call out the Tonka Pride committee leaders
off to the side who received the Sper award for their amazing connections to the district students are of course uh an incredible group that we consider stakeholders an important stakeholder group and you heard an entire presentation from Superintendent Law at
the study session about all the ways that we engage inform and and really involve students in gathering their input so that we can make good decisions and as a board you have made incredible strides in this area as well this last year the listening sessions that you're doing with the cohorts of students at
the high school um the listening session that we did with the student forum the big group and many of you were most of you I think were at that one uh recently uh we do surveys the teaching and learning team really leads that effort and um a lot of it is about the student experience what they're experiencing in
schools and also this year they are doing a survey on um mental health supports through our partnership with the Jed Foundation and that's coming up uh the school board reports that you hear we really try to incorporate student voice in all of those in the school reports and the recognition
schoolboard recognitions we really infuse student voice we love the video submissions where students get to really share their experiences so on the screen there you can see the four individual shots are different kids that are talking about the service learning that they did or the uh activity they were
involved in or the sport that they were really excited about what they accomplished and then off to the side there you see one of our students uh Jose Buffington talking at the um annual recognitions breakfast where she was honoring a teacher who made a huge impact for her
and then other ways that we've elevated student voice most of our feature stories and videos involve students and their experiences and it's really their authentic voice we want to hear what they have to say so they can share their experiences that way uh the podcast some of my favorite episodes have had
students on them and the really sharing what they've experienced i I sit in the back you know you never see me in there but I'm sitting in the back listening to it and one of the students was talking about um Invantage they were creating a lifestyle calculator that you type all these things in and that it helps you
decide what kind of a career you should take so that you end up where you want to when you're retiring i mean it was incredible and they were creating that formula that would get you to that and I thought whoa um but really exciting um and traditional media the student voices
are the ones that the media wants to hear those are the authentic voices what am I learning in this we don't script that they sit down the reporter fires the questions and the students tell them what they really think student clubs and groups so students if they don't see a group that they um that speaks to them
they can start their own group or club uh the students are on the morning show all the time in particular at the high school and again with nutrition services those communication efforts they did this year that was really targeted to families and to students in particular to say "This is what's coming you want this for lunch tomorrow?" Um and this is
a couple of shots of the student forum that you recently had at MHS teachers and staff are a critical uh constituency group as you heard from executive director Fay and I don't even have that on this list but there's so many ways that we really try to get uh
teacher and su teacher and staff um input on decisions for the district we start um well it's kind of an all year thing but if you want to start at the beginning of the year with the back to school kickoff that really is for teachers and staff and so really getting everyone on the same page having a message that unifies and moves people
forward in a motivated way we survey throughout the year on different topics this year the goals um was was another one that we put in front of them but one of the ones that was last year but that was used this year was the facilities study so we asked all staff about their
experience in their buildings and what did they think needed the most input and then all of that feedback went to the principles and when the principles were presenting for the facility study task force they presented based on what they and their staff thought was needed most in the building and that was really I think helpful to the task force um the
principal and superintendent emails are another way that we really try to inform and and help our community connect um with what's going on and and how they can get involved um principles have staff meetings every week of course and then in our videos our feature stories our podcasts we're constantly involving
teachers they along with their students are the ones that know what's really happening in the classroom so they can really share that with us the listening sessions that we've had with the superintendent I know several of you have attended some of them some of you have attended many of them uh that we've been having this spring to talk with
teachers and staff about how they're feeling about this year what they're thinking about for next year what are some of the messages that resonate with them and and where do we uh press in and really focus on for next year as we come back tonka Insider is a staff e-
newswsletter so we help to share what's going on in the district and how people can get involved and engaged and and stay informed our appreciation week features so you see one up on the screen and this is one of our kitchen staff me uh members at MHS um Daryl and uh the
notes on the side that are really tiny and hard to read the reason we put it up that way is because during appreciation weeks uh Mary Cornelius on our staff will write up these incredible features after interviewing the staff for those weeks and we put them out on social and then all those comments on the side are
former students their parents their other staff members and some of the comments there are like Daryl's the best or Daryl's like my favorite smile of the day and that really made my experience at MHS amazing so those are another way that we really help our community to to
work together and to connect um traditional media uh too of course the teachers and staff are the ones knowing what's going on in those classrooms so they're the ones that we connect with the media uh most recently I can think of like the aviation um feature that one of our local TV
stations did and we had Scott Schaefer our aviation instructor up there talking about what happens in class and showing that superintendent Law and our executive director of finance and operations Paul Bourgeois uh had meetings at each school site this year to talk about financial challenges and
solutions and to provide a way for people to give input our teachers and staff to to give input back and then they presented that input and the superintendent and our security coordinator Scott Gerlicker did presentations on safety training with our school staff at every school site and they were at all of those meetings
because we knew it was a deeper training than we' done before there would be questions and then they could get that direct conversation get their concerns or questions answered uh this was the a couple shots of the back to school kickoff i know some of you were there um pretty amazing
event and that was our speaker off to the side Sam Mc Glenn he was great residents so this has been a big focus this year um one that was very recent was the community survey that we did as a result of the facility study
task force's findings um and wanting to know what the community would support um and you know that was really helpful information and certainly um something we would do is go out to the community and understand how they're feeling about things uh we do mailers so we do a school news postcard that comes out a
few times a year and then the annual report of course comes out in October so that we can really prove up to the community how we're investing the money that they provide to us what is it that we're that we're doing how are the students doing what are the staff doing and we give them the financial picture in that of course too and on all those
publications we've been adding QR codes so that they can sign up for district communications we have a way for them to sign up for your schoolboard news so what comes out of this meeting that we send out tomorrow that goes to students staff and um and parents but we also give an opportunity for people in the
public to get it as well so that they can stay engaged uh we've been doing outreach with neighbors on an ongoing basis a recent example is um there have been parking concerns in the neighborhood by MME um with cars parking and idling and so we've been working
with the city to address that and we've been reaching out to neighbors so that they are apprised of where we're at in that process and that was that's been wellreceived the facility study task force membership this is an example I think of the outreach and connection we worked with the Sun Sailor to run a
story so that people could apply to be on the committee and we had several community members that became a part of that committee through that um and we also sent to the Sun Sailor a way for um the public to nominate people um school volunteers or teachers that they know
for the celebration of excellence awards and we got quite a few nominations this year we've had Rotary presentations this year um from principal Jeff Ericson on MHS programming as the school of opportunities and uh our health services
director Annie Lumbar Benson presented on um mental health supports for the district and talked about the Jed Foundation um program uh Superintendent Law has done uh state of the district presentations at senior at the Minnotonka um community
center and at uh two senior living centers and I know a few of you attended those as well and just really to keep those constituents informed and engaged and get their questions answered and uh we did a state of the district presentation for former schoolboard members several of you were at that as
well um again to keep uh those community members engaged we do events um and often invite the public to them the Veterans Day programs are one example of that for alumni we work really closely with the alumni association uh my team
is is really great about supporting them in particular Daniel Campbell has been a really good support uh he's our creative director and he also um has done the social media for the alumni association has done a lot of their uh print pieces um outreach to their um to our alumni uh
through emails and then also leads our alumni magazine which is moving online this year but it still is a lot of work uh and a and a great way to showcase what our alumni are doing in the community we also were big support for the all school all friends reunion which
took place last July and had about 2,000 attendees um and that was really fun to see that connection back with alumni and all the ways that they can learn about what's happening at the district um and become re-engaged we do the alumni awards brunch and over the last two
years we have filled the commons at the high school so about 200 people attending each year and that's great um you know that that's new i mean we before would kind of try to do that so it's really good to see that kind of new infusion of energy from our alumni we do feature video stories we've
had alumni on our podcast um I know that the high school brings back in recent alumni to do student panels um I know there was a recent one um that Vantage brought back some of our design and marketing students because one of my former um Vantage mentees came and told me all about it she was super excited to
be invited back Lucy um and then we also share alumni traditional news that we see out there so one of the notes on the screen there is um Frankie Torres who is a a recent grad I think a 2018 grad is doing amazing things she's got an
incredible voice and um we saw that out there and decided to reshare it so we do that as well oops uh and on the left is a photo of the alumni brunch and on the right are some pictures from the big reunion in
Excelsier last year close partner organizations um so the foundation which we've talked about the alumni association PTAs PTO's the family collaborative uh Tonka Cares of course all of our incredible booster clubs the diamond club the hockey
association Tonka United other boosters the booster store Tonka Pride these are all groups that we stay really tight with that we really try to keep close and communicate with so that they're engaged and we understand what they're doing and how we can support them and how they can best support us and then
prospective families are another really important constituency group for us to engage um whether it's through the website flyers postcards brochures that are put out to the info sessions the principles put on to all the tours and calls and emails that they field and that also the enrollment team feels um
Principal Ericson does a pizza with the principal for prospective students at the high school every year um we do a lot of organic which is unpaid content marketing on social media and then we do some paid of course marketing as well which some of it's boosting those organic posts and then some's paid
search or digital ads uh videos um other multimedia and then we always try to infuse those with connections who do you connect with to get your question answered so timely information guidance support when's the next info session this is an example of the kindergarten
brochure and then this year we we talked a little bit about the community action for student education but it's really had an incredible infusion of energy into it we have more than 90 parents administrators schoolboard members students teachers staff and community members involved in it this year
advocating for school funding um with emails calls letters one-on-one meetings attending hearings and of course that day at the capital where we had quite a few people and we broke into two groups and went off and met with all our local legislators uh the superintendent's weekly emails to the case committee really guides that group and lets them
know what are some action steps that they can take so that their engaged efforts make a difference uh and then of course we have a website where people can sign up so we try to connect them that way as well couple more ways that we allow people to to find their way into the district if they haven't is
let's talk it's sort of a catch-all on our website so if people can't get their question answered or don't know who to go to we field that we direct it to the right person we have an incident bullying reporting tool it is our effort to try to help students to have a trusted adult that they can connect with
in the schools but we also want this as an option for those who want to report something quickly or report something confidential um and that is a well-used tool we get about 1,200 um emails to it or or interactions with it a year most of them are actually around enrollment um and then we direct that right to the
enrollment team but we have a number that come in through the bullying reporting tool as well uh story suggestion form we have that at the bottom of every web page and we get quite a few of our story ideas that way your schoolboard meetings with community comments and citizen input that's an opportunity really for people to come
and engage with you um and then I know again you field a lot of emails and calls and informal conversations at a ball game or formal conversations that you set up meetings with as do the rest of the administration so these efforts really reflect the district and board's
commitment to ensuring that stakeholders in our school and residential communities have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them and really have those connections the district and board will continue to refine and expand opportunities deepen their partnerships and work to foster an even stronger culture of community engagement to
continue to build relationships with all constituencies thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions and I'm sure Superintendent Law is as well thank you Dr giddy board members any questions or comments thank you for everything you're doing to help our keep our community
engaged it's obviously a strength as we saw earlier this evening with the foundation's support and Case's continued support and we appreciate all of your help in shephering that support thank you very much okay next item on the agenda is
authorization of sale of general obligation capital equipment note superintendent Law mr chair members of the board the next three items I'm going to turn over to executive director of finance and operations Mr bourgeoa these are the process that we use to generate
funds to do the projects that we that move us forward so Mr bourgeoa thank you Superintendent Law uh Mr chair members of the board um actually a long time ago in a school district far far away I was responsible for technology and one of the metaphors I used was uh trying to
buy technology and particularly in infrastructure is a lot like uh being a grizzly at a salmon run alongside a stream on with a salmon run you look down the river and there's all these big salmon coming and everyone's juicier than the next right but eventually you got to grab one and eat and so a number
of years ago we pulled a salmon out of the river right and we invested in a lot of technology that served us really well for a while but now it's time to pull another salmon out of the river so uh you know stronger more capacity uh
faster uh just um major upgrade so um the district is is in need of really replacing the the core infrastructure of the district and it's a it's a massive undertaking uh we need to replace 163 switches 774 network access devices
about 57 miles of Ethernet cable with the latest and approximately 9 miles of fiber optic cable and and we're doing that not only to upgrade to where we are now but also uh to where we need to be for a longer period of time because and of course like build building a freeway
it lasts for a while and you got to rebuild it uh they'll this will happen again in another you know 10 years or so so what we're requesting is the authority to issue $2.2 million in what is called capital equipment bonds uh or
notes um to basically undertake this rebuilding process uh executive director Fay and her team will be involved with uh the vendors who will actually be doing the work and trying to do do all that over the summer actually uh but it's a it's a significant dollar amount
now this uh is is not a tax increase on for local property taxes it's being funded out of the capital projects um technology bond uh sorry technology fund and so uh we are uh um it's going to be
repaid over 5 years and the average payments are about $58,000 a year uh we're we are expecting to hopefully well we'll see what happens with everything going on but uh we're the estimated interest rate is about 3.51% and so about a half a million dollar annual
payment for five years all right uh may I have a motion uh to approve the authorizing resolution as prepared by Dorsen Whitney for the 2025A general obligation capital equipment notes to fund the technology infrastructure rebuild
so move chris may we have a second second dan any discussion motion a second all those in favor please say I i i any opposed motion carries thank you superintendent Lana Mr
bourgeoa okay um uh Mr chair members of the board uh we are uh asking on in this next item to uh for authorization to issue uh $1.95 million worth of certificates of participation bonds these will be paid for out of the
operating capital revenue so again no no separate tax increase for this particular item uh it's being funded out of an existing revenue stream and uh this is uh what it will take for us to basically uh reimburse the general fund for the purchase of 18407 Delton Avenue
the cost of buying it the cost of uh uh abating any hazardous waste on the site de demolishing the house removing the utilities and then uh construction of an underground storm water tank with a parking lot on top so uh it's a it's pretty incredible but uh that's what it
that's what it takes to actually get some parking uh put in place there it's not just like uh back in the day in my sand box at home I just you know put the tonka tonka graater out and make it flat and it was done right but this is much more expensive so uh we're asking for uh the authority to issue
$1,950,000 of certificate of participation bonds uh we're looking at a rate for these it's it's a different type of of bond so interest rate of approximately 4.5% and uh we're estimating annual payments of approximately $156,000
thank you Mr bourgeoa may I have a motion to approve the authorizing resolution as prepared by Dorsy and Whitney for the 2025B certificates of participation bonds to fund the construction of parking at 18407 Deltan Avenue so moved sally we have a second
second camarie any questions comments or discussion all right we have a motion a second all those in favor please say I i i any opposed motion carries next item on the agenda is the
authorization to issue certificates of particip participation bonds for the Veterans Field Retaining Wall mr bourgeois uh thank you Mr chair and members of the board uh this one I've got a short presentation on it but um we have some sign significant structural
issues with uh the the Veterans Field Retaining Wall there's been some some water damage to it i've got a few pictures of it but um one of I think it was Randy Moss who had the saying when he was trying to beat a defensive back on a long pass it's if if we're even I'm
leaving is what he said and um it's kind of with the retaining wall if you start seeing it kind of it's supposed to have be be uh you know stepped back a little bit but if it's even it's leaving probably over the long term so um the our retaining wall is having some issues
uh it veterans field was originally constructed in 2006 and at that time there was a small block construction about a 3-ft retaining wall and there was about a 25 ft high slope uh it washed out in the heavy rains of 2013 so we replaced at that time you can see in
this picture there was still grass it was mainly just a big grass slope uh and there's tennis courts there at the time uh but in 2014 we had replaced the tennis courts with parking lot but um the uh what we did is we used small block construction the big block like
you see on the front of of the high school now or for the plaza at Einer Anderson Stadium really wasn't around it was maybe just coming to use but we weren't aware of that at that time and we and so we did a small block but one of the concerns about small block is is that there's it's a 25 foot high wall
that would need to be built and uh so concerned about that height for that small of a block so we did two tiers so that we wouldn't have one large wall we'd have two and it created a narrow viewing area along the plaza out of that off of that sloped area so it was a a nice improvement and it was it was a
thing where we made lemonade out of a lemon so to speak you know um well we have some retaining wall uh retaining wall slippage and and and settling and sinking we noticed some minor you just in in inspecting things and looking at things I noticed some
minor uh settling late in fall of 24 and I noted to check again in spring to see if it was minor and stable or if more issue developed on March 3rd I went back out there and uh there's some significant problems there's numerous areas of heavy sinking uh the plaza area
on top is actually sinking now there's some some water infiltration uh coming from I I think it's because of uh a lot of it might also be because of the way the parking lot uh curbing is set up because uh it actually slopes down a little bit and if you can you can
envision the way like a a rock in a rapids allows water to kind of like go over the top we have this surmountable curb and I think in heavy rains the water must it it almost have to I'm just surmising this but it has to have enough speed that it actually rides up and over the surmountable curb which is kind of a
a ramp curve for snow plowing and and then goes over and I think that's probably what's contributing to this after 10 years so there's also pressure on the wall in uh several locations so we we really need to replace it and what we need to do is replace it with some large block construction like we have at
Einer Anderson Plaza and the front retaining wall we actually have the south end of it blocked off but uh this is a picture you can see actually you see those gaps on the uh the angle there uh the u it's been pushed out there's
been some water infiltration and it's actually like getting popping out and pushing out uh also I think this winter was a little bit hard on it there was not a lot of snow cover and and uh there's a lot of lot of drainage and it's just tough that's just a little bit different angle so you can kind of see where it's at there
um okay it if you have to look a little bit closely on this one but actually when you're out there and it's it's a little more evident the folder doesn't do it justice but it should be just kind of a stepped angle there but if you really look closely at it I I added a straight line you can kind of see how
the angle is at the bottom it's angling up but then it kind of bows out a little bit just a little bit and then it it angles up again uh we're you know we're getting that um here you can kind of see about midway down there's a pretty significant uh bow
in the wall um just a and then um here uh this actually uh again it's it's actually sinking and settling this is on on the very south end where it's it's going down uh this area kind of looks a little bit like a a
Dr seuss house kind of it really is kind of off offkilter from from the way it was originally constructed that's just another angle that also the stairs at this area are washed out underneath and they're going to have to be replaced um
a lot of the blocks on the top of the wall were washed out from water coming down uh but then and this is the area looking at and if you actually it's it's a little hard because this doesn't give you it doesn't give you 3D it's 2D right but uh this is this is sunk probably
almost a foot uh all this concrete work in the in the center and uh this is a view of this and but if you walk on this section this is a section we have blocked off uh a person literally could could you know twist their ankle and break it it's it's very steep when you
walk on it And uh so just just from another angle but but it's down probably that center section is down about at at least a foot it should be level so this is another area where you can see again a swale that's developed
where it's it's it's just there's a lot of issues with it so we really need to to replace it soon we have it out of taken out of commission from the south end where the settling and and things are the worst uh but it'll it'll cost probably an estimated 1.3 million to
replace this uh the way we would take care of that though is finance it with a small COP bond paid with payments same thing out of operating capital so again no no additional property or property tax levy but it it really needs to be done so that's the that's the main focus
of this particular bond resolution but and in the process of looking at this um uh we talked about well the actually next two slides are just kind of pictures of we'll be utilizing this type of really heavy large block and it's actually anchored uh 15 to 20 feet back
into the side of the of the of the dirt underneath it that's Veterans Field Plaza you know like like compared to this is just to show that we have a a situation there where we had it built to a point and it's just a whole different level of construction compared to what what you saw at Niner Anderson Stadium i
mean at Veterans Field and this is the front retaining wall uh just again a couple of much more sturdier heavyduty construction uh with with modern you know the latest materials so uh that's the type of of setup that we would have
at stadium now the thing as as part of this we don't have to do this but there is an opportunity to make lemonade out of 11s because lemon because the reconfigured plaza with the large the large block wall will actually be twice as wide um so that actually gives enough
room to accommodate a permanent restroom structure uh and I've heard it from day one people are not they're not satisfied with the veterans field experience in terms of having to use portable restrooms and they they you know there's a preference for a permanent facility
the the Minnotonka Diamond Club is actually willing to donate funds 100% of the funds to construct a restroom concession facility on the expanded plaza if we do this um and so the retaining wall replacement has to happen with with or without that so that would
be a a separate discussion and I'd like to bring forward at a future meeting just the idea of okay how what would this look like and how would this work um but uh uh we have talked with them the estimated cost of doing that of building that on top of the plaza would
be about 900,000 to a million um it would be an amendment to the current operating agreement uh the Diamond Club has been a very reliable partner they paid off $4 million uh in building Veterans Field and Legacy Fields um so they they're able to give a $500,000
donation this August uh and then $150,000 every August after that until basically until it's paid for or to up to a million dollars um again the re the that's so that's a separate discussion for the future but I just want to give you a heads up on that uh and the
retaining wall replacement though is something we really need to do so um that's just a little bit more about a potential restroom facility it would end up being the same footprint really as what's under the Iner Anderson Stadium and softball field restroom building couple of sets of restrooms but
instead of a big lobby they would have a larger concession stand um compared to the kind of telephone booth size concession stand they have right now um and that's kind of what it would end up looking like just conceptually there's a conceptual idea of that but that will
take again more discussion that's a propo potential layout um but anyway regardless of um how things would work the current plaza is fenced off to keep pedestrians off um so we're asking you to authorize the uh
COP bond sale uh we'll just if you do this then we'll actually design the wall just not you know past the point of just drawings and actually work on getting it approved um we if we would do the diamond club aspect of things that would be worked out over the next couple months but we have to get approval from
the city of Minnitonka and the watershed creek um Mahaho wershed creek district um plan review and approval uh and then open bids probably in October so we would be building this in September through December probably on the retaining wall and if we actually probably take a little longer if we end
up doing the restroom and concession facility on top of that but uh no matter what retaining wall only or retaining wall and then this other feature it'd be open for use a year from now so um that's just kind of an overall view um
but again right now the main focus is we do have to replace the retaining wall and that's what this um this request for bonding is for to to do that thank you Mr bourgeoa um all right uh board members may we have a motion to
approve the authorizing resolution as prepared by district bond council Dorsy and Whitney so moved chris may I have a second second mike any questions comments or discussion thank you very much for all
of your work on these items Mr bourgeois uh all those in favor please say I i i any opposed no motion passes thank you very much all right uh may I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda
so moved dan may we have a second second chemie all those in favor please say I i i any opposed motion carries next item is board reports any board
reports going once going twice uh superintendent report mr chair members of the board just very briefly some of you have joined me i've been on a series of classes you didn't know we teach and each week I go to the high school uh they've all been at the high school and
visit classes that the general public might not know we teach we get a chance to interact with the class and then we uh put it out on Instagram so people can see it uh they they have covered everything from unified theater to metal welding and the arts um uh a very very
high level math class uh today I was at drone pilots and I sat down and two young ladies walked me through the entire syllabus from um the aviation the history of aviation aerodynamics weather patterns weather data our business model
for using drones to make money and it ends with the $75 fee to earn a drone pilot license that you can get when you're 16 um for those people that say school hasn't changed in 50 years I have to tell you I've got six classroom
visits that would beg to differ so uh I'm just really proud of the work that happens in our district and the variety of opportunities we have for our kids thank you to staff that do that work thank you Superintendent Law uh any announcements all right may I have a motion to adjurnn
so move Chris second second Mike all those in favor please say I any opposed no we are adjourned