Good evening. I would like to welcome everyone to the Minnitankka Public Schools study session, April 23rd, 2026. I would like to extend a special welcome to our student board representatives this evening. Ana Samir, Alli Stockman,
and Austin Harrison. Welcome. I would also like to give our warm wishes to a recent um teacher, math teacher and community member, also a former board member, Bob Kwam, who
recently passed away. Um he was a beloved member of our community. I have heard that he always greeted his students with humor and a warm big smile. So we recently learned of his passing and we would just like to extend our well wishes and thoughts to his
family. So thank you. Okay. Uh the first up is our citizen input and I've learned that we have two people this evening. So first I would like to read the guidelines for the citizen input.
So bear with me. We have a little bit of a um text here. Welcome to the Minnitanka School Board study session. In the interest of open communications, the Minnitanka School District wishes to provide an opportunity for the public to address the school board. That
opportunity is provided at every study session during citizen input. Anyone indicating a desire to speak to any item about educational services except for information that personally identifies or violates the privacy
rights of an individual during citizen input will be acknowledged by the board chair. When called upon to speak, please state your name. Connection to the district and topic. All remarks shall be addressed to the board as a whole, not
to any specific members or to any person who is not a member of the board. If there are a number of individuals present to speak on the same topic, please designate a spokesperson who can summarize the issue. Please limit your comments to three minutes.
Okay, first up we have review of fees. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, on an annual basis, our district runs an audit of all the different fees that we charge
and aligns those fees to the cost of the services that they're connected with. And then as appropriate, they're adjusted to make sure that we're, you know, our board goal of long-term financial stability. So, you know, different departments weigh in on these things, whether it be instructional or
co-curricular. Tonight, executive director of finance and operations Paul Bourgeois is going to provide you a summary preview of fee adjustments. These will be formally approved at a later board date. Mr. Bourgeoa. Okay. Thank you, Superintendent W. Madam Chair, members of the board. Um uh we
have a a relatively well there's not a lot of fee changes in most areas. Uh at the elementary school level there are no fee changes proposed. Uh and of course we we increase fees across the board for this year because everybody remembers FY26 is our second year big budget cuts,
right? Um we're still in that actually even though we did the work over basically a year ago. Um and then uh at the middle school level, we have one fee change proposed by principal Dimit, principal Shermacher for the family consumer science fashion design class.
The fee is proposed to be increased by $2 from $8 per class to $10 per class to keep up with the cost of increases the cost increases for materials for those classes. At the high school level, uh the only specific changes that we have are all in
the um uh in the area of activities. uh activities director Ted Schultz has recommended across the board fee changes to keep up with the costs of uh in particular mainly uh a lot of additional costs for uh busing for activities uh
because that's paid for out of that budget and um uh and then just based on on the the recommendations from coaches uh to him on certain other classes. So, uh, if these fee changes are actually approved, comparing ourselves to our, uh, Lake
Conference, uh, co-chools or co-dists, uh, we currently have the lowest average fee structure in the conference. We would be the second lowest, about $5 above what Buffalo is at compared to the other schools in the conference. Uh, some of the, um, the following fee
increases are recommended by uh, Mr. Schultz. Increase the participation fee from seven by $7 from $83 in FY26 to $90 in FY27. Increase the co-curricular activities specific activity fee by $30 across all
activities. So per participant, each activity would be picking up an additional $30. Cheerleading would is recommended has requested an additional $50 for the activity for a uniform replacement at the recommendation of the coach. And then uh Youth and Government
has requested a new $50 fee. It's a two-year-old program. It would be the first fee and an initial fee to fund the activities that they want to um they want to part have the students participate in. The um uh primary drivers again are rising
transportation cost of activities and uh the cost of paying officials and referees for various activities. making sure that we can find people and pay them enough to show up to actually, you know, manage the various uh uh athletic contests. Then Tonka Dome fees are
recommended to increase $10 for a full field reservation and $5 across the board for all other res uh reservations. And we we pretty much do that every year uh just to keep up with the the cost of kind of like normal inflation. uh you
know for instance the cost of electricity has increased in the last 15 years by about 65%. on a per kilowatt hour basis in Minnesota. Uh just one example. So we just kind of nudge it up a little bit every year, but not not too much. And uh it it we seem it it seems
to have been a a a good process to make sure that the dome, which uh actually is still three more years of bond payments on the original dome, uh are are able to be covered, uh and then also 100% of the operational costs. So those are the recommendations
um across the board. And I guess I'd be glad to try to answer any other questions you might have. >> Karen, >> thank you Mr. Bao for going through that. I just want to double check. Um, and I think I know the answer, but if as we raise these costs, if a student can't
afford this, is there some some way that, you know, we want students to be able to participate? Are there scholarships or what would a family do if, you know, this becomes prohibitive in some activity or >> um activities? Director Schultz has the ability to uh look at situations in in
wave fees. >> Okay. So, we're not going to the raising these fees won't block participation for any of our students. Okay. Thank you. Dan. >> Yeah, just on that front, Karen pretty much said what I was going to say, but I think we should always be thinking about how we can make that information more
readily available to parents and families so it's easy for them to access those resources and that financial help if they do need it. Megan, um to follow up on that, as somebody who registered my child for a high school activity for the first time this year, I was pleasantly surprised
that it was pretty obvious in the um sign up process, there was like a clear reference. So, I do think that that information, I mean, we can always say things more, right, because people don't necessarily read, but I thought it was actually um pretty well articulated in
that Tanya, I'm just curious about how what the process is about getting uniforms. So, cheerleading wants new uniforms and right or updated uniforms. >> Yeah. And activities director Schulz
pretty much manages that and works through um and a lot of actually these fees are actually accumulated for for uniform replacement. So, it's not just cheerleading. Um but they're they're saying they need some additional because apparently the uniforms as I
understand it might be a higher in price as so many other things have been. Uh so but but they it it's uh activities director Schultz manages kind of how often for the most part and uh so he I I I don't want to put words in his mouth but he's got a recommendation from a
coach that they need some additional dollars to replace uniforms when their next cycle comes up. Right. >> Which I have no idea if that's right away. >> Sure. or a year from now. But um and that's why he's bringing it forward. >> Thank you, >> Megan. Um the other thing I was going to ask is
I didn't realize that our fees were so low comparatively. Are is what we're charging able to run our programs at break like are we creating a deficit in other areas or is this sufficient to cover our coaches and staff and
everything that we need for our programs? >> Yeah. Um actually activities director shows says that that uh had had produced some information for superintendent law and myself that these changes would allow them basically to keep operating on a break even level with all the costs
that they have to run. So you know uh in a lot of ways we actually spend a lot less money than other districts. were efficient in all areas and and activities director Schultz is also. So he says that this keeps him at at at break even uh with revenues covering his operational uh costs and
some small capital costs. We subsidize co-curriculars so they don't come anywhere near break even but we we subsidize at the same level. Every district spends a significant amount of money to subsidize co-curricular. just for the public. I don't want to I mislead. Yeah, we
>> it's an investment in our that our district makes to make this full balanced opportunity for students. I don't have the dollar amount, but I, you know, I don't think around the metro, it's uncommon to have a between one and $2 million deficit spent to subsidize co-curriculars. >> Yeah. But on the on the items that uh
activities director Schultz kind of controls that, this keeps them at break even for those items. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Ba, for all your work on that. Appreciate it. Next up, we're really looking forward to our student board advisory
representative presentation. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, about a year ago, we decided and students, I'd invite you to go down to the chairs. Thank you. We the board decided to pilot a new model for student
school board representation. And that model was actually presented by students from our vantage program. That model uh that the board adopted was that teachers would nominate students to be considered for student schoolboard reps as these uh students were. Then students have to
accept that nomination and be put on a ballot. Then their peers elected them by grade level. Then beginning in August, they were trained in what it means to be a student school board member, similar to how board members were trained to be what it would be to be a board member. And then every two weeks ahead of board meetings, I personally meet with them
and run through the board agenda. And um as we went through the year, we knew we were leading up to a time to do an evaluation and make recommendations. And so board chair Foss and Vice Chair Olsen joined me in a lunchon where we visited with the students and asked all these questions about how's it going, what do
they recommend? And tonight, what better way to summarize student schoolboard participation than have students tell their story. So, I'm thrilled to have Ana, Ally, and Austin here sharing their story of the school year. Welcome. >> Thank you. Um, hello, Superintendent
Law, school board. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. We're so grateful for the opportunity. Um, we're here to present present our year 1 review on the student school board advisory. I My name is Ally Stockman. I am a sophomore at Minnitanka High School. My name is Austin Harrison and I am a freshman at Minnitankka High
School. And my name is Nika Samir and I'm also a sophomore at Maka High School. So the reason here we're here today is to give you a chance to hear directly from the students who were involved in this pilot on how everything went this year and what our takeaways are from it. So the main reason that this was created
was for students to have an opportunity to have a seat at the table, have direct input and create and maintain connection between students and the schoolboard. It was a unique and amazing opportunity to be heard. We got direct input into real district decisions and it was overall very positive and a great experience for
everyone who was involved. Okay. So, going into it, what we expected, I can speak for myself and a lot of other people. We didn't have many expectations because we didn't really know what it was going to be like. It was an opportunity presented to us at the end of my freshman year. And um it was just a way to get more involved with
the school, student voice, leadership. It just seemed like a really cool opportunity. And then when we entered, it was like a really amazing process. And I would say the most amazing process was probably gaining understanding of like the decisions you guys make. We had pre premeings with superintendent law
and he did a really great job of like explaining the agenda for the school board and everything that goes into every decision, what the context is um of like like school boards and comparing it to other districts and just like realizing like the trickle down effects of how the decisions you make affect our
everyday lives. And it helped give us exposure to administrative decision-m and it was really educational and I think that was a big part of it. Obviously, not everyone could come to every schoolboard meeting, but like the pre meetings were also like super important because it gave everyone a lot of information that we obviously shared
with our friends and our family um at MTO High School. Okay. As for learning and growth, as I said before, we felt super prepared and confident. Um our training and premereings like built our readiness. Again, we had a lot of knowledge from the agenda, from the meetings. They were
really helpful coming into every school board meeting knowing that what we wanted to talk about and everything. And I can speak for myself. This is my third school board meeting and I've been to two before this. The first one I didn't really speak. It was a little I was a little uncomfortable. But the second one I spoke more about issues and that just
speaks on my own like a willingness to be more confident in expressing my perspective especially to like a group of adults who you admire and respect. You guys are schoolboard members. You obviously matter. So it just was great to learn how to engage with like people that you respect and you admire for the future when we become, you know, go into
college, go into education experience and increase my confidence in sharing my perspective and realizing that my voice as a student matters a lot. Now on to how we experience the schoolboard process. We observed multiple discussions that actually led
to decisions that we were able to experience in person and that was very very interesting. I can speak for all of us saying that it was very very interesting to hear this discussion before the decisions because a lot of decisions are kind of feel like they're made for us when in reality you
everybody on the board does consider uh student voice and how it's going to affect us as students. So it was great because the school board became more real to us and we really understood the process behind it. And then we also heard multiple perspectives from board
members just by being in meetings or being at those premeings and hearing a debrief about the meeting from students who were at the meeting is very very valuable because we learned about different perspectives that people might have on certain issues that we might
have not thought of before. And then finally, it helped us gain understanding of complex topics because there were a lot of topics that were discussed at these board meetings that maybe we aren't as knowledgeable about. For example, the discussion of fees today.
We all of us, we really don't know a ton about that, but I think already I gained so much a bigger a greater understanding about the fees because uh we're all involved in sports and that affects us directly. And so it just really overall helped us felt feel more connected to
the board. than our contribution as students. We felt as though our input mattered through this program because we after every single point that was made in a board meeting, we were asked if we had
any questions or if we had any comments to add on. And that made us feel very very included and connected to the school board because that's an opportunity that none of us have ever had before because a lot of us are in leadership clubs already in the school but we've never had a chance to talk directly to the people who are making
the decisions in our district. Then it also increased our district awareness. We as students became more aware of the decisions that are happening in our district because for example the religious holidays that were just made holidays for school. We knew that those
were new to the district but we didn't know that how this these decisions were made and the concerns behind it and people who were in favor and against. And through that, we have been able to share it with our peers and our friends and our family about what how that
decision-m process was and why we have those holidays off and why maybe we don't have other holidays off that we're trying to get into um our next calendar year. And finally to add on to the sharing the learning with peers even if a representative did not attend a
meeting at the pre meetings we all heard about the meet about the topics that were discussed and the relevant things to us. So it was very valuable for every single person in our committee. So we're here and we're main question we're asking is how do we know that this
was successful? How do we know this was productive? And as we said before, the core goal was to include authentic student voice. That was the number one priority for this and that's what we succeeded at. So the student present at presence at schoolboard meetings demonstrated this. And just by having
the representatives there is visible evidence of our success. even when maybe like Ally mentioned earlier, maybe people the student representatives didn't talk much, but being able to sit there and listen and learn was a way for us to gain more understanding. And in
addition to that, students from multiple grade levels participated in this and the group was intentionally representative of our school and it was demographically balanced and also students were selected by staff beforehand and this helped identify strong contributors in the classroom who would be great for this pilot.
Obviously, it worked out. We got a great group of people going and it went very well. And on the student side of the experience, it was a lowrisk and high reward opportunity. It was minimal cost and time commitment. We met during anchor time, but it ended up having a
very large impact. Students felt I can say for myself and I can say for the two beside me as well. It was very comfortable. It felt meaningful and as I said, even when we were just listening and learning, it was still valuable for us. And as Ana mentioned, peers and families beyond the student
representatives who were part of the team were also positively affected because the information that was shared with them helped spread more awareness throughout our different communities. As we look to next year, what are some changes? We obviously want to continue to make this a better process and a
better club. And something that was really important for us was gathering broader student input. Obviously, as Austin said before, we have different grade levels and a diverse representation, but Minnitanka High School is a huge school and there's lots of different groups and lots of different clubs. And so, to be able to include more student voice, we've
decided to come up, we had a couple ideas. Um, one of them being the student survey. Um, we think this would be a way for students to feel more comfortable sharing their voices just because not everyone's comfortable going up to a representative or something. We know that there's an issue with parents and sharing student surveys, but we think this is a really valuable thing that we
could use next year and would love to look more into that. Adding on just using the resources we have like the morning show, that's the most important time of the day to communicate whatever event you have and we would love to go on the morning show and just have maybe a couple representatives talk about the agenda on the school board with our
knowledge that we learned from superintendent law or like what happened at the board meeting. We think that could be really important for next year. Moving on, as we obviously expand access and looking into next year, um we want to make sure that we include new voices as well as experienced voices. Um so for
the process for next year, nothing is conclusive or final, but these are some ideas we had. Um we were thinking of selecting about half of the people that are already in the school board representatives um randomly selecting them and keeping them in them so we can have the experienced voices and then the people who weren't randomly selected
could still be on the ballot for them to be selected again by their peers. And then obviously you would still have the teacher nominations um for also new people to be on that ballot to be selected by your peers. We just think this is a good way to balance the new voices and the experienced voices to make this club available to everyone and
continue to be a success. Um we also know that some people were thinking about being students that weren't selected by teachers and other ways for them to contribute. Um which is something we want to focus on. So considering open forums more when we talk about the pre meetings with superintendent law making those more
available because again that is a super valuable thing and obviously not everyone can be at a actual schoolboard meeting but those pre meetings with superintendent law were really important and valuable. So again, looking ahead, we want to build on the success that we already have and we believe that we can continue
to make this program even better because this is an amazing opportunity for us as a student body to learn so much more about our district and feel like we have an impact on our community. Um, so as Ally stated earlier, we have basically three ways that we are planning on
bringing more student voice into decision-m in the board and making them more aware about about what's happening in the district. So the first way is the morning show updates because as Ally stated earlier that's one of the most important times during our day in high school and that's where everybody's
watching that show. So, one thing that we discussed is having some two of our seniors go on the show because they're the most experienced and they can probably talk the best and just having giving a quick one minute rundown of what has happened in the board in the last month. And that's just an easy way
to let our students know what is happening in the board. Then our surveys, there are some complications that we have to work out, but I think we think that that is a great way for us to get more student voice because it's it would be an anonymous survey and
students can add whatever input they want and what they want to see maybe um being changed in our district and that's just an amazing way to go from student to board directly. And then finally, this forums led by our club. That's just a report on what has happened again for
students who want more in-depth information about what has happened. So why does this matter to our community? So efforts like this this make the school board feel real to us? Because it makes us feel connected as both a
student body and a community as a whole. And we have a real impact on the decision-m that affects us directly as students. And honestly, I can confidently say that every single student involved in this advisory has gained so so much from it from a variety
of different ways. And we believe that this is just a great opportunity and we want to thank you for giving us that opportunity. So again, thank you and we'll open this time up to any questions that you guys might have. Well, I don't know about the seniors
speaking better because I think AAA the 3A's here do a fantastic job. So, thank you. I would like to open it up to the board for any comments and questions. Karen. >> Yeah, thank you for being here. Um, and
so I'm new on the board, so kind of I understand your situation. So if you don't have an answer for this, this is fine. But how did you you talking about having surveys like moving forward to to get more voice, but how did you go about try or did you go about trying to get thoughts from your fellow classmates? If
you did, how did you do it? Um, I'm looking for some tips myself actually. >> Okay. Um, I can speak to that. Um, I mostly again just spoke to like I spoke to my parents a lot. um just because these are issues that are a little bit more serious and they have opinions in their voices and I admire them. But I
also spoke to my friends and my different groups of friends in different classes. I would say I would speak more in like my classes that were um more advanced level like they would care more and they knew more about the club. Like the people who knew about the club and knew I was in it would come and ask me
questions or like talk to me more if they they obviously already knew me. that was kind of my main way of communicating was to my friends and then people who already knew I was in the club um would come and talk to me about it. >> Yeah. Just a quick note to add on to what Ally said. I think that um these
surveys are important because we're talking to people who have like very similar perspectives to us. Like maybe a bit of variance, but we're friends with people who are similar to us. So having these surveys would get us to a broader range of students. >> Tanya
I really like the morning show idea. I think that's a cool way to bring your learning, your experience here to everybody, right? If everybody's watching that >> and that would be a cool way for you guys to articulate that like you're here
articulating to us um giving your input here to the board on the decisions that we're making and then you get to go back and talk to your peers about that. That's a really great way to transfer what's going on here. So, thanks for that idea. Um, and I'd also like to say
thanks for being a part of the advisory. We all here care about public education and you are a part of public education, but you're kind of taking it a step further and being really active in your public education. So, bravo. Bravo. >> Thank you,
>> Sally. Yeah, I'll just kind of build on that and say so I've been wishing for this for many years now and it has far surpassed my own personal expectations for how it could go and it is because of the student involvement and that you all have taken it to another level even
beyond I think what we envisioned um and to see these recommendations is really heartening too because it wasn't like a hey you know it's okay you you I can see um the energy behind this that this is worth carrying on that this is beneficial to you as individual iduals and to the collective hopefully and I do
like the focus on how do we loop back to the student body so it's two-way beneficial right and that we can um benefit more students along the way so thank you appreciate and please do keep keep coming with these ideas we are really excited by what we get from
students >> Megan uh I'm not going to rehash everything everybody already said because I really appreciate you guys being here. I will tell you when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, there is a 0% chance that you would have gotten me to come and speak to a room full of adults
while being live streamed. So, I commend you for that. Um, I also appreciate I wrote down a couple questions and you answered them all during the presentation. So, I really appreciate the um anticipatory nature that you were really thinking through, you know, what questions we might have about the
process. Um, one question I have is when we were kind of starting to talk about this, like I don't know if you know the history, but it was kind of like a couple years of evolving where we went out and did research at what other districts were doing and we talked to superintendent of other districts and we looked at different structures and we
got the recommendation from public policy. But one of the questions that we had kind of thrown around was whether students should be present for the entirety of the meetings or whether we should structure the meetings so that things that are like more relevant to
students would be kind of at the beginning and then students wouldn't necessarily need to stay. And I don't need an answer for this right now, but just something to think about. Um >> were the was the entirety of the meeting informative and interesting? Were there
some aspects that you felt like I didn't really need to hear that because it doesn't, you know, directly apply to students? So, just something to think about. I I think that we had kind of considered that and then we were like, well, let's let's start with having them attend the full meeting, but sometimes
they get really long and sometimes, you know, um so we want to value your time. So, just that structural piece. Are there suggestions that you would have to improve? And if you have some now, great. And if not, shoot them our way. I you know how to reach us. So
>> yeah, I mean I would say um it's definitely like even if you don't have input as a student, it's still good to hear it. Um obviously the financial stuff it can get pretty long and um you know there's a lot of sheets but um I think it's important obviously everyone
has different interests. Like I mean my I have a twin brother and he loves finance so maybe he would find that interesting but um it depends on everyone's interest. I don't really have an answer for you right now but I think that's a cool idea to schedule it for the student. Obviously we don't want to inconvenience the board either. So
>> I just give my two cents. One, nice job. >> I had a chance to prep with these ladies and they took it and ran and um it's it was just you did a nice job. And two, for all those other superintendents watching, this was really fun. Like one of the highlights for me every other week was to go to the high school and
visit with our students and the great questions they had about the topics we were talking about that really forced me to be giving perspective to that and to be balanced because we talked about all the time. This is the board's decision and and they're non voting members like me. But nice job tonight and I'm excited to see what we're going to do with this
next. Well done. >> Thank you. Thank you students. Always impressed with you guys. Thank you. Next up, middle school program update. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board,
amazingly, two years ago, the board approved um the expansion of our middle school program. The school district worked on that program to the program we have today and implemented in the fall. And one of
those commitments a year ago was that we would study this program on a monthly basis and bring back an update on how it went and what recommendations there are moving forward. As the board is aware, but the public probably is not, our middle school principles, associate superintendent Amy Leu and a team of
teachers probably met a dozen times between late October and February to determine how to make changes ahead of the staffing process and ahead of some of the decision-m. So tonight, you're going to hear a summary of that review and what they're recommending moving
forward. Dr. Leoo. Good evening, Superintendent Law, Madame Chair, members of the board. Uh we appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and to provide an update as we're nearing the end of the first year of implementation of our updated middle
school program. Uh tonight we're going to talk just a little bit. will recap the process that we went through to get to this new model. Revisit the purpose and the focus and the key priorities that we outlined.
And then we're going to head into related to those priorities what happened this first year of implementation and based on the feedback and the collaboration that's happened as superintendent law spoke about as well as with the broader
school community um and staff. We're going to share some of the planning and adjustments for the year ahead. This gonna come in one at a time. missed that. So, in 2023, uh we came to the board and said, "Our
last middle school program review was in 2006. A lot has changed. It's time for us to revisit this." And we were grateful to have the support of the board to begin that work. um our administrative team here along
with many other both the APS at the building and key district administrators worked together as we gathered initial information. We also had an outside consultant who happened to be a previous middle school principal who also helped
us with that process. Um then in fall of 2023, we brought together a team of 25 teachers representing both buildings, various content areas, as well as a variety of school and district administrators. And we really wanted to
look at what does the research say? What's you know best practice? What should we be thinking about as we think about designing the best program possible for our learners here? And then we also looked and said what are other districts doing? Uh what are the
schedules? What are the programs both within our region? And then we did comparator schools of highly effective schools beyond our area and state. One of the unique things that we learned um and that continues to be part of our
work is that um we run a very complex program in Minnotonka. We have English, Chinese immersion, Spanish immersion, and multiple levels of programming both to meet advanced learning needs as well
as to differentiate and make sure we're responsive to all student needs. And all of those factors really uh were significant as we designed this model. uh beginning in winter of 2024, we
shared the findings from this uh team of stakeholders, teachers and administrators with all staff as well as with the broader school community. We began feedback loops and really that work to gather input and continuing to
finalize that model was ongoing and continues to be as we're refining. Um, the school board approved this in the winter after I think we were here four or five months in a row with updates and next steps and what the
group was doing. Um, initially we thought we would implement in the fall of 24 and we decided as we worked with our teachers that more time was needed. So this became our first year. Finally, we worked with our teachers association
in the winter of 2025 to make sure we had all the plans and supports in place to ensure we were setting both our teachers and therefore our students up for success. And finally, um much work went into
curriculum adjustments, curriculum development, uh assessment work, professional learning, and just collaborative planning. And again that started early and is continuing yet today. Um as we started our work we really
wanted to keep students at the center and we wanted to keep in the forefront that the purpose really was what's our students experience? What do they need and how do we best help them um grow and develop during those middle school years
that are so critical? And so we uh kept in mind that we wanted to think about that whole child that we wanted to prioritize helping them identify and develop their strengths, interests and passions. We wanted to them to uh have
that introspective view of themselves as a learner and to know how to study and be successful in their schooling. And finally, um, which aligns very much with the previous presentation, we really wanted that student choice, that
ownership, that voice in their school program beginning, you know, earlier. Uh, we had key priorities and these were part of the initial recommendation and approval by the board. It was about creating that more flexible schedule so
kids weren't needing to make the number of choices um that they were based on the programs and their needs. It was about making sure we had flexible, responsive academic support. Um, that we were thinking about that whole child development, knowing that academics are
our core purpose and yet whole child is really what it takes to make sure that we're helping our kids be the most successful and become their best selves. Um, we knew we wanted more elective options and we wanted students to have
more choice. And finally, we knew how important it was going to be to continue to provide that professional learning and support for our teachers. So, our recommendations really outlined our pathway in each of these areas and we've learned a lot. So, I'm going to turn it
over to I believe Mr. Dimmit to talk about how that's gone. >> Advances. Okay. So I'll t talk about what year 1 has looked like for us and uh what we've actually rolled out. So uh the first
piece is uh we rolled out a modified block schedule and again prior to this we had a six period day and the biggest challenge with the sixth period day was uh 43%
of our school is immersion students and for those students we to create time for that immersion language arts class we tethered social studies and advisory and we created that immersion block which meant that almost half of our school
didn't have advisory. Um and the other challenge with that was that it just uh we could not be efficient in staffing our our emergent people which as the budget cuts became
uh more real to us that became a a significant drawback with that schedule. Um so the first thing that you know the the block schedule allowed us to untether advisory in sixth and seventh grade. Um the second thing it allowed us
to do was to incorporate advisory time within the instructional minute day. And the thinking on that was, you know, in the old model, even though, you know, a little more than half of our school actually had advisory time, we really couldn't use that advisory time for
instruction on SEAL and executive functioning because it was it would go beyond the the allowable instructional minutes for teachers. So this model allowed us to incorporate advisory instructional minutes within the day so
that we could we could really use that as a dedicated venue uh for instruction. Um it allowed for increased elective opportunities. Prior to this in the old schedule, if you were an eighth grader
that took immersion, you were locked out of any elective choices. So you were basically as an eighth grader who was in immersion, the only way you could access an elective would be if you dropped a half a year of FIED, then you could you could pick up electives. So this new
model allows um much more um elective choice which for us was a big priority because we feel historically we haven't really promoted we haven't set students up to take advantage of the really unique opportunities they have at the high school with Vantage Momentum and
and the variety of elective courses that they have. Um and then the way we structured this master schedule, we did it in a way that uh created continuity for math and language arts because um you know on a
four period AB schedule, you know, one option is you could just have math be one period on A day and uh language arts be one period on B day. Um and we were really concerned about the the lack of continuity for that. And so with this
model, we we created a new communic communications course um in in sixth and seventh grade. Uh partly driven by feedback that we got from high school students. And high school students told us when we, you know, early on in this
process when we talked to high school kids about what should we be thinking about with this new model, one of the things the high school kids told us was that they were surprised when they got to the high school by how much and how frequently they would be asked to
present and they they in retrospect they wish they would have had more opportunities to practice that presentation and that communication. So uh so thus uh we added that communications and so uh that created
that continuity where students have language arts one day, communications the next day in sixth and seventh grade. And then on the math side we we added a an additional half block of math um on the opposite day. So the kids have a
full block of math a day and a half block bay or or vice versa. Um and then lastly, this model was financially sustainable. You know, the Cadillac model that would have solved this would have been the old-fashioned seven period day.
>> Um where you know, teachers you had teachers taught five and had two preps, you know, and that would have allowed us to solve for the immersion. But financially, it's just not sustainable for us. So, this was uh this was a model that checked those boxes and was also
long-term sustainable. And this is what that looks like. It's way too much to you know to try and absorb from here. Um but basically what you can see is that um each period is a half a block. So period 1 and two
creates the first block which is 82 minutes. three and four create the second block five six seven eight and each block um has the ability to be split into two mini blocks. Um and so uh
some students will have their mini classes which are their FIAD and their music, their um math half block and their crew class. you know, some will have that uh first block A day and some
might have it uh third block B day. Uh and so that's that's spread. And then uh we held on to the lunch model where we have six lunches um two lunches per grade level spread out.
Okay. Um how we've uh f how we've tried to address the academic uh support option piece. uh first was uh creating a flex time in advisory. So advisory with our new model is right away in the morning. In the old model advisory was
midday tethered to launch. So now we moved it to um right away in the morning and uh Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week are are flex time. And basically what that allows students to do is they
can sign up to go see any teacher um that that they need to get help from. In the old model, advisory was specific to a grade level. So if you were a sixth grader um you could you could go see your sixth grade teacher if you if you
weren't in immersion. Um but but you had a really limited access to which teachers you can see. And so now uh the whole school has advisory at the same time and can utilize that that flex time. Uh we shifted our intervention focus to prioritize foundational skills.
Um a lot of our previous model uh intervention was a lot of it was uh prioritizing homework support and propping kids up. And so we've tried to make a shift towards more addressing the core um executive functioning,
organizational skills and uh knowledge gaps. Uh we've created a tier intervention, a tier 2 intervention on an SEAL level which we did not previously have. Um we've uh we've
adapted to um create intervention options that will align with the new reading act which has been a huge um challenge for us this year and and quite frankly a work in progress for us. Um
we've created uh datadriven uh flexible options for intervention in math. Previously we had a mass skills course which was you know if the kids accessed that they accessed that in place of their fied or their music course and they had it uh at a minimum they had it
for an entire quarter. And so the the thing we're trying to create is opportunities for more responsive short-term uh intervention support in math. And again uh in addition to the academic
also trying to create interventions that would more uh focus on the developing successful life skill and being able to provide students more proactive support in that area. So, uh, also equally important now more
than ever was creating a venue that was going to foster that sense of belonging and, uh, intentional life skill development. And really, uh, now that the entire school has advisory um, and advisory is instructional time, we could
start to use advisory to foster those uh, uh, belonging and connections and that life skill development. So the advisory model we went with this year we decided to go with a mixed grade model and the thinking on that was to develop long-term relationships
and so um you know the kids that the sixth graders and the seventh graders teachers have this year they will have them next year and um by that third year they will know them and their families extremely well. Um and again those minutes are built into the instructional
day so they become a venue for uh for curriculum that's focused on executive functioning and and um it's a time for academic monitoring and support on the flex days and uh you know what the first flex day of the week
is Tuesday and so on Monday the adviserss are doing grade checks and they're talking to their advises about getting ready for Tuesday. Tomorrow's flex time. What's your priority? who do you need to go see? Um, and again, uh, also creating that venue for
relationship and team building. So, Fridays, you know, we have, uh, grade checks on Mondays, flex time, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Friday is that day that's dedicated to, uh, team building and building specific initiatives.
Um, next slide. And then again uh also wanting to create a venue in this new model that fosters uh intentional life skill development. And so in addition to uh the restructured advisory, we've created
this crew course. And uh the idea behind our a crew academy course that um every student takes and it's a every other day half block course is to create a venue to provide tier one schoolwide
proactive uh educational um focus on executive functioning skills and SEAL skills in addition to digital citizenship and um you know study academic skill development.
Um again the other opportunity that we have with this crew academy is it can be a venue for fostering these bridge years fostering the bridge between fifth to sixth grade and then fostering for our eighth graders preparing them for that
bridge uh to 9th grade. Um, one other thing we incorporated with the new crew academy was uh we we took our old uh HP uh support services
model that was a pull out. So students were previously pulled out of classes to have that instructional time in advanced learning and we incorporated that within uh the crew course. Um
and then uh as much of this stuff has been a work in progress um throughout this year, uh crew probably more than any other area was an area where we had to make pivots mid year. And you know,
one of the biggest challenges in working with middle schoolers is um we know that they need support and seal and executive functioning, but uh very few middle schoolers believe that they need support
and seal and executive functioning. And so, um there's a lot of curriculums out there that are great for, uh, you know, creating a map and materials and lesson plans for teachers. and and you know, it's pretty easy to develop those at the
elementary level. Um but developing curriculum and lessons that are going to work with middle schoolers is is such a unique challenge. And so, um, we we made some pivots mid year on that area and
tried to shift away from, um, as much direct instruction focus and more, uh, thematic >> and kind of a cyclical, uh, circular conversation with kids on those topics that we'll talk more about. Um, I think Freya will talk more about that.
Um and again a huge win is just that expanded opportunity for elective courses. Uh again 23 new electives uh that were created um for a total of 43 different
elective choices kids now have. Um and then you you know we were really curious to see what kids were going to sign up for. And you can see in seventh grade uh the forensics course new course has been overwhelmingly popular. uh the financial literacy which you know I would have we
were always curious about whether you know mom and dad were going to win that one or if the kids were going to win that one. >> Um and as it turns out mom and dad won that one a lot and um and it's been very popular. We just found out this week that two of our kids uh placed uh in the
top 10 uh statewide uh competition and so have been invited to a uh to a lunchon to celebrate. Yeah, >> that's fabulous. And then in eighth grade, you can kind of see which elective courses were most popular. Great.
>> And then uh equally important to go along with this, you know, such a huge shift in instructional strategy was making sure that we prioritized uh professional learning uh for teachers. We knew it was a huge ask and a huge lift for them. So we wanted to make sure
that we were dedicating the needed professional development time for them and collaborative uh learning opportunities. So again this year our focus on that professional learning uh lens was um giving them time to really study how do instructional practices and
strategies look different when you're teaching in an 82minute block. >> Um discipline literacy was a huge focus this area related to the read act. Um again the growing importance of social emotional learning um and culturally
responsive practices in our classrooms and then again the importance of creating those collaborative opportunities particularly as we've created more priority to be similar as middle schools. You know trying to adopt that
model of one middle school program executed at two different schools. Um it it it created that need for more collaboration time um between teachers at East and West. >> Great.
>> All right. So, uh what Pete just shared is a lot of information. Like as you know, this just wasn't a little tweak to our schedule. This was a massive adjustment, a really big change. Um, and we knew going into
it, we're not we're not going to this isn't going to be a perfect process. We knew that we're going to learn so much year one and we are going to be continually revising and adjusting. Um, and we also know that change is a process that takes years. It isn't a one month, one week, even a one-year
process. It takes three to five years to really feel comfortable in such a such a such a big change. So, um, some of the the opportunities we had to inform our process included meeting with our middle school oversight committee, which included teachers from, uh, East and
West and district staff and, uh, MTA leadership just to kind of talk through on a monthly basis, hey, how's it going? What's going on? It's like keeping a pulse and a tab on certain things, whether it's just for information, whether there's little adjustments we could make. um it was very important
just to to have this continual conversation of how things are going and with that team we developed in in November December some extensive surveys for families students and staff that we shared so those those were shared I think in December and January and again
in December it's pretty early in the process so it's kind of like just a dipstick of like okay how's it going we're in at a quarter we kind of had a quarter of this how are you feeling what are you experiencing So uh we reviewed that data. There was a lot of data um
from those surveys and shared that with our staff as well and also shared it with families. We had a family information session as well and we based on that then opened up opened up a forum to staff. Okay, what are some ideas? What are some thoughts? What are some
feedback? How do we respond to the survey data? Um and from there there's some ideas that percolated uh you know how do we address you know thinking of some of the insights and inputs from the survey how might we address these uh so
we met with department chairs uh for all the core content areas and really like what you know what are your thoughts what are you thinking are there things that you would like to change we met with crew academy because that was something that surfaced in the survey is
how might we make this really meaningful for students. Um, so we met with our career academy leadership team and I I believe that the feedback was we just made a major change. We probably don't want to make another major change next year. We want to give this we want
to come in in the fall and do something relatively similar to what we did last fall. That predictability I think was really important. So the message that we received and I think we agree is these are great ideas. let's continue to refine and think about them and maybe implement them the following year um
with confidence um after we've had a full year of kind of the predictable, you know, year two of the block model. So, um we really wanted to balance what adjustments can we make and then how do we also have a very consistent year for
year two. So, thinking about that and and weighing these different ideas that come up like how do we gain back there was a lot of great ideas. Um, these were kind of the adjustments that we thought, okay, this is going to make sense. We adjusted our schedule. One of the early comments that came up was 2 minutes is
just not enough time to get to point A to point B. Um, so we adjusted our schedule to support those transitions between those mini classes. Um, we worked out ways to, excuse me, to have additional flex time during key time frames. Right now we have flex twice a
week and students said, "Hey, we would love to have more flex time." So towards the end of the quarter, we could potentially have three flex times or figure out ways to work that into our schedule. Um, again, focusing our advisory for community building and collaboration like and one of our plans
next year is to be really intentional about that advisory time and how might we better utilize it. um a lot of feedback that it was really positive to have the multiple grade levels in advisory with our eighth graders as leaders and kind of guiding along our sixth graders. It's really fun to think about next year is those con those
advisories will stay the same and two of the grades will be consistent. Then we'll have our new sixth graders that are really going to be shephered in by those older students. That's kind of a fun thing um happening for year two. We're focusing on refining our career academy content now that we know, you know, eighth grade we're going to be
doing some more career exploration, more preparation for high school and sixth grade we're going to be doing more introduction to middle school. Seventh grade, you know, what is how am I as a learner? Um what is my learner profile? So that is kind of we're going to be differentiating career academy a little
bit. Um and a a big learning process and opportunity is refining our scheduling process. As Pete mentioned, we have a very complex schedule with many different um considerations and we're working right now actually we've started
to be very proactive with that schedule so that it's really ready to go and we're going to have a draft schedule for teachers by the last day of school. Um, and to do that, we need to be proactive with scheduling student support, with intervention, um, and really just working with our leadership teams in the
school to make sure that we are ready to go, uh, at the beginning of the school year next year with our schedule. And then obviously, we want to continue to provide ongoing curriculum development and professional learning. We haven't stopped, we haven't figured this out. We haven't totally cracked this nut at the end of year one. So,
we're going to continue to grow and focus on our learning and how to best meet student needs at the middle school. So before we take questions, we do want to just acknowledge that the three of us are sitting here tonight, but this has
been a huge team effort from district level leaders that have significantly supported the process to our principles and AP team to our teacher leaders, but really to all of our staff. I mean, it's taken
each of them to grapple with how to think differently about, you know, their instruction, how they manage their classroom, how they get to know their students. And as Freya
mentioned, change is hard, but we've seen our staff really just persevere throughout the year to figure out new ways forward. And we're really proud of the work that the teachers and our leadership team have done together to
make this change. And the feedback from students right now is that we're moving in a good direction and we're excited about what's to come. So with that, we'd like to take any questions. Thank you, principles Shermacher and Dimit and Dr.
Leoo. It it is a heavy lift and we appreciate everybody who's been so involved. And I was talking to my daughter when Dr. Law and I went and visited fashion um elective and she said, "Why didn't I have that when I was at West?" So, it's really exciting. So,
thank you for that. I just have one quick question um Pete about the dig digital citizenship as part of crew. Can you give us just a few ideas of what that is involved in the in the digital citizenship? >> Yeah. So
historically it's it's primarily focused on understanding your digital footprint and the permanence of social media. you know the shift for us um next year will
be what how is AI going to be part of their their world now and in the future you know but continually with middle schoolers that um you know when that prefrontal cortex isn't developed and
the impulses are are still a a big risk you know just that message that you know even if you you know send it and hit uh unend or uh delete, it's it's too late.
You know, 3 seconds is too late because kids are just trained that anytime they see anything sensational or shocking, the first thing they do is screenshot it. And so, you know, adolescent kids just need that continued
um conversation about about the permanence of of their digital footprint and what they say and and and type online. So, I think that will be a continued focus uh next year.
>> I appreciate that, Ana. >> Uh I just want to say I appreciate all the work that you guys have put into this. I think this is a really really great step for the middle schools like with the electives. Um, we were all just talking about how Alli's younger brother
is in like a nature class and they get to spend time outside and I think that's like a great class to be in and it's really really necessary for especially being in middle school you don't really get time outside you know so I think that's really great and all the other elective options and the flex time like
we used to have masked but I think that's probably better cuz it's more times a week you know and you're with the same people and your advisory stays the same with your teacher it's kind of like a little counselor that you guys have. So, I think that's really great. Um, but I had one question about the
crew academy time. Uh, Mr. Leoo mentioned that the HP kids like I I had a little bit of confusion on HP cuz I was involved in HP and I really loved that time in middle school and I was wondering how that's involved in career
academy and how that's available to all students rather than just a select group of students. I'd love to learn more about that. the crew um that it's this advanced learning crew. So, it's really a hybrid of the crew curriculum and then some of the advanced learning topics and
curriculum that you probably are used to. Um so, it's applying some of that executive functioning uh critical thinking skills into crew or advanced learning curriculum if that makes sense. So, it's kind of a hybrid. But I think it is true that as we kind of go through
this, what of that can then be kind of retroacted into crew like today they're they're actually doing a kind of a forensics unit in advanced learning crew that I observed today which I think all students uh would love. So, it's kind of like how do we now now that we've kind of gone through it a year, then how do
we start marrying some of these things together? Because I think you're right. >> And Crew Academy, having that advanced learning crew allowed that group to meet on a regular basis and not miss other classes. So, it kind of became that win-win.
>> Megan, >> um I just want to ask a follow-up question because I had written down the exact same question. Um, so are they doing uh the same like topics that they did in seminar previously? Are they doing those now in crew academy with their advanced
learning peers? Like are there still are they still hitting those same units? So, it's been um updated to a degree, but yes, core concepts from those seminar units have been integrated with the crew academy topics so that kids were getting
both combined and, you know, modified to fit the new structure. >> Awesome. Um, I just wanted to say a really um, cool thing and something I really know that I would have loved to have at my middle school experience was the um, integration of different grade
levels. I thought that was so cool because I remember being a sixth grader. Obviously, it was very scary time coming in from elementary school and I have a couple friends and I know younger siblings who are sixth graders, seventh graders now. Um, I think that that is
just so cool that they're able to have the eighth graders to look up and I think that's amazing that it stays the same and you get to know those people because I think I'm a very social person and I think that would have been super fun. So, I just think that's great. I just want to say that was really cool. >> Thank you,
>> Tanya. >> Hi. Um, I'm new here because the last 15 years I was teaching middle school language arts, middle school, uh, social emotional intervention and I've done reading intervention and I've taught on a sixth period day, a seventh period day
and a block. So, my first comment is I know what a bear it is to change uh, from a seven period day to a block. That's that was my experience. So, please tell your staff, every single one
of them, thank you so much. I know what that what that is like. And I'm just really proud of you guys for being great leaders, for supporting them with the PD and the time to meet because I know how crucial that is. And um I can just tell
you're very positive and uplifting and bringing that energy to them is crucial. So, thank you for that. I have two questions. Is the flex um a reteing for students? Is flex time reteaching? So, do kids sign up like in the hub and then
they go to where they need maybe additional math help or is it an extra prep for the teacher? >> It's a retach or it's an opportunity to get more information. But we've actually started it's also an enrichment time. So, for example, if you are caught up some of the enrichment some teachers
have offered, we've had maple syruping now we're doing seedling planting. We've had book clubs and like you know arts and crafts. So it's kind of a both end and it's almost a an you know an inspiration or a carrot to get your work done because there are other opportunities. Yes.
>> So we've just started that enrichment side kind of building that up. But we hope that in the you know next year students who are done can do many things during flex. It's really an enrichment time for them too. And on that note, Edina Middle Schools have been just a wonderful uh mentor for us on this
because they're 10 years in to a block schedule. And when we look at what they've done with their flex time and the enrichment opportunities they've created, um it's super exciting to think about us getting more in that direction
because, you know, not only will that provide enrichment opportunities for, you know, a boy who might want to, you know, has all their work done, doesn't need to retake anything, and now can have a half an hour to play basketball with their friends. But that can also,
you know, if we can pull 40 kids into that venue, that means that we can take two teachers that would normally be trying to do interventions with with 20 other kids in the room and say to that teacher, "No, you just you're just going to have your six kids
that that you need to uh redo this unit on, and don't worry about the other kids. We'll we'll those other kids will will go elsewhere." And the hub the hub has the ability. Y >> to do that. So I think that um I'm super
excited for what advisory and flex time could look like next year. >> We can talk more if you want. >> Also once when students are gone, it gives them a built-in time to get some of that either extra help or caught up
and hopefully relieve some of the stress that kids feel when they've missed school, they've been sick or whatever the case might be. Great. >> And that's a that's a good point. One of the one of the things that is a challenge with the AB four period block
>> is when a kid misses school on an A day. >> Um it's hard for them, you know, cuz they come back the next day and it's a B day and they're not going to see that A teacher >> until the following day. And if that happens to fall over a weekend or a three-day weekend, then it
>> and then it it just as easily becomes out of sight, out of mind for that kid. and next thing you know they have forgotten that they didn't turn that assignment in. And it's so so again uh trying to use uh those flex periods
during advisory as a quick way for a kid who is absent to get back on course and get that contact time with the teacher before before they fall too far back. My second question, sorry, um is specific to MME because I have heard rave reviews
about the lighthouse program and I'm wondering with the block schedule if you had to get rid of the lighthouse program or if that's been absorbed by some kind of intervention or >> Yep. So, uh, the lighthouse program that
was a pilot that we ran at MME and again it was specifically targeting kids who had school anxiety that was so significant that we we couldn't uh get them to actually come to school.
um we we've held on to parts of that and um so uh Patty McConna who is the teacher who ran that uh we carved out uh whereas before she was in the lighthouse
program all day. Uh this year we carved out so that the first uh two blocks of the day she had she had time to work with kids. Um ideally, you know, at some point we would get back to kind of having a program like that. That's
that's all day. Uh but again, that's that's always um a challenge of priorities of where we're spending our >> FTE. Karen, um thank you um for the presentation. It was very very helpful to see where
you're at and I appreciate all the work that's gone in. Um would you mind talking a little bit about science? Now, I and correct me if I'm wrong, but in this new model, we lost minutes in science instruction. And I understand that when we're doing a science lesson
that we don't have the setup and the take, you know, I mean, that that can be beneficial, right? But I I would like to know like what is our plan to monitor our students and make sure that I mean that that's working the way we wanted it to because I I do believe we lost some
significant chunk of time there. So, if you could just speak a little bit about that, that would be helpful. >> Yeah, kind of a couple things. Um, one thing is we did add quite a few science-based electives. For example, you saw forensics was is the most uh I
think popular or highly attended seventh grade electives. So, that's one opportunity and there are several other science electives. We also have been working with departments on some options for year I guess it would be year three um of how to you know look at the schedule and get back some more time for
science and social studies. Um but again that was one of those things that we discussed that were great ideas. We just need a year to kind of feel it out and and get a little bit more specific on what that would look like for year three of how to kind of gain back some of that time if that's possible. So, >> additionally, as we looked at the
transition to the block schedule, as you know, each day when a class starts and when it ends, you have minutes on either end that are not as maximized. And when you go to the block, you reduce the minutes you're losing in transition.
Teachers also have done extensive work uh making some modifications within the curriculum in terms of how they're designing their lessons, their units. Um so that the essential learnings are all still being prioritized within their
curriculum. Um and there are also advantages because kids can do the setup, do the pre-work, do the experimental activity, do the reflection in the lab report. all while it's fresh
and happening in with continuity versus starting and stopping. We also made some other adjustments because we used to carve mass time out of every period of the day and reduced time. And so when we really look at the math, there are minutes reduced and
um we continue to look at is there an impact in how will we address that as Freya mentioned. So, I'm hearing that you are it's on your radar basically. That's what Yeah, I figured it would be, but I just wanted to wanted to bring it up because science is I mean obviously a
very important topic as well. Thank you, >> Megan. >> Um I would just add an extra answer to that just anecdotally. I think the other thing to remember is teachers are always monitoring whether student learning is on track or not and we'll be able to
tell based on just the results in those courses and on standardized tests whether there's a significant impact to science or not. My guess would be that because of that like less setup less takeown that the instructional time is actually not as impacted as the overall
time. But just want to throw that extra. I also wanted to piggyback on a student comment. Um, I'm really excited to see teacher feedback in year two and three of the advisory because I did teach advisory myself, you know, ages ago, um, where I had students for multiple years.
And the cool thing about having the same student in the second or the third year is like you hit the ground running. And so you come in, you already know the kids, they already know you. They can kind of yes, mentor the younger students, but I think we need to also keep in mind that that teacher student
relationship and the dynamics of the class will be um really different in year two and three. And so I'm excited to just hear about that. Um I've had the luxury mean I don't know if I call the luxury of having anecdotal evidence all year. Um, I drive a lot of car pools
with a lot of middle schoolers and it's been really fun to hear the evolving just like commentary, right? Like I don't ask any questions, but that's when middle schoolers tell you the most is when you're just like eavesdropping on their conversations. Um, so for all of
you carpullers, be careful what you say in my car. But um it's been just really cool to hear just like that um the tone around the change like the beginning of the year compared to the middle of the year compared to the end. It like there was a dramatic shift and hearing them
talk about the way the classes were structured especially after that midyear PD day where they talked a lot about how to effectively use a block period. It seems like students felt that whe I mean they didn't articulate it in that way but there was less time being kind of
not used efficiently or they weren't being asked to sit for a huge chunk of time alto together. So it's just been really fun to hear that evolution. I have two quick questions I think will be quick answers. One of the things that we talked about in the um planning was
where to put the flex time and Mr. alluded to that and it's at the beginning of the day now and one of our original concerns was whether or not students would use that to just opt out and sleep in. Um, has that been a problem? Have we seen any different attendance on those days or are people
showing up and using it effectively? >> I mean, I I forgot that that was even a concern. >> I think it was a bigger deal at the end of the day actually when students Yeah. I haven't noticed it. >> No, I really haven't. It's been, you know, in the winter on the days when the
buses are late. It's so nice to not lose core instruction time on that to kind of have that. >> That's good feedback also. Well, I'm the fact that you forgot about it means it probably hasn't surfaced as a problem. So, I will take that and be happy. And then, um, second question was one of the
other things that we were hoping was, and you talked about this a little bit also, was that fewer students would have to miss out on PE or FIED. um has that come to fruition or are a significant number of students still having to get their support in a way that forces them
out? Cuz I think that was one of the things that we were worried about, right? Like a student who may have like ADHD or something and is needing support like also are the students that most need that motion and activity and benefit from FIAD. So can you just talk
a little bit about that more? Yeah. So, uh, it we haven't dropped that number to zero. >> So, one of the challenges is that, you know, there's no free lunch. So, if you are going to create dedicated time for
remediation with a student during the day, unless you're going to do it during their lunch, um, it comes at the expense of some class. And so uh what our goal was was to provide options so that it wasn't always exclusively at the expense
of PE and music. >> Um one of the ideas that we pursued earlier and then we kind of pumped the brakes on was the idea of doing more of those interventions during the communications um time.
And um you know we got mixed feedback obviously not surprisingly the language arts teachers feel like that's you know that should be sacred and we we shouldn't be pulling students from that. Um which which I get. Um and I think uh
as things have evolved um and have we've gotten more comfortable with the the new way that we're identifying kids um for uh interventions as part of the read act. Um, we're becoming more nimble in in terms of thinking. You know, this
intervention might not be an entire quarter or an entire section semester. So, we can think differently about the fact that we're not going to pull them from a class for forever. Um, and we can be flex more flexible in our thinking in
terms of which classes that we're pulling kids from. And I would think that that probably will evolve significantly this year too in terms of where we decide to pull kids to create those intervention opportunities. >> We learned a lot this year just about
our schedule and scheduling because it's a complex schedule and it really matters where we put the intervention classes and where we put gym and where we put music. Um and so we're applying that. We're building our schedule now as I said. So, we're applying that now, working with our intervention teachers so that it isn't a it isn't a put on it
when it's done, but it's actually the first thing we're scheduling to make sure that we have that flexibility because with our math block and a half, that created some complexities when needing to reschedu. So, we're we're kind of building our schedule to allow for some of those changes. So, that's a
growth opportunity that we're applying next year. Sally, I hope you can see by all of our questions that we put a lot of value on on this. So, I this I think is also quick and it goes back again to the flex time and I'm just curious about how much
if any discretion do students have about how they spend that time because I can imagine that doing, you know, SAP gathering whatever would be very attractive. Um, but I need but I need assistance. So, how how does that work? And what are you seeing in terms of the
level of student engagement in in reaching out for that assistance that they need? Like, has that been an improvement about the same as in the past? What does it look like? >> So, uh, one of the features with the hub, which is the software that we use
to manage where kids go during flex time, is it allows teachers to, um, request students. >> Okay. And so, um, we didn't have as many teachers proactively requesting kids, um, as
maybe we thought we would early on. And in retrospect, you know, it makes sense because the teachers, you know, just the lift of teachers just getting used to teaching in a block, they they had their hands full, just trying to make sure that they had high quality lessons ready
to go. And um my sense is is that and we've seen this already uh in the second half of the year that teachers are more proactively requesting kids uh through the hub. Um and I I think that we'll see
greater numbers of that. And then um kids that are not requested by a teacher would be the kids that would have opportunities to uh sign up for some of the enrichments or we can have the hub randomly
distribute those kids to >> uh which could be really helpful for us if we want to reduce the number. If I have a teacher that has requested eight kids to retake a test, um I can arrange for the hub to distribute the rest of the kids that that teacher would
normally have elsewhere. >> Yeah. And that's kind of where we're headed is that if a student is not does not, you know, you know, sign in for a session or is not, you know, drafted, >> um, the hub will assign them to one of their teachers on their schedule so that
everyone is moving essentially during that flex time. So, they're actually with one of their teachers. Uh, and that's kind of a focus work time. And I also just wanted to express gratitude again. Yes, for everybody uh including nutrition services and facilities management who I assume also had to
change the way they go about things. So thank you to everybody uh for persisting and persevering in all of that. We are deeply appreciative >> Dan. >> Um anecdotally like yes I can say the
flex time utilization is increasing. I've gotten I feel like I've gotten personally a lot more of those emails in the second half of the year for my two eighth graders. So, that is being utilized a whole lot, at least in my experience. Um, no questions. I just
want to say thank you for the lift. I really appreciate the um cander about the challenges and the successes you were facing along the way as you worked up to this and then implemented it. And
I would just ask that you be just as candid and and forthright with us going forward about what your future challenges are, about what you need, and about how we can support you because we're very thankful. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Tanya.
I came up with another question. Um, is there opportunity for special ed pushin for core teachers during the large blocks >> or maybe in the future? Could there be >> should I push coaching like extended support class? We do have classes that
are with special education teachers and regular and a regular education teacher. Is that what you mean? Yeah. >> Like we have extended support which is when there's a special education teacher providing services to students with IEPs or specific services. And then we have some fusion classes which are formal
co-taught which Yeah. So those are those are in action now. We do have those in the schedule >> and that and that actually started the year before. So we're in year two of that. That was an initiative. >> Yeah. Dr. Christine Breen that was a
real priority for her and a push for her. >> And so we're in year two of that now. >> Ana, >> uh just one more quick question that I had about the flex time that arised through our conversation. Um, I think it's great that we're using the hub to
prepare middle schoolers cuz that's what we use in high school, too. Um, and so I was just wondering about flex time at the high school for anchor time. Seniors can sign up to go work at a different spot in the high school like um in maybe a more comfy space. I was wondering, I
know there were more um construction projects happening at the middle school. Would you guys ever think of implementing that for eighth graders or something like that so that they can work in a different space other than a classroom? >> Yeah, one of the things we're super excited about with the uh referendum
passing and the new construction on the middle schools is that it will create some of those open unstru, you know, nice venues um around especially around the media center. that could be those flex learning space opportunities that,
you know, right now we just don't have the space. But we're super excited, you know, a little more than a year from now, we'll have those beautiful new spaces and can start taking advantage of those opportunities and create that for kids. >> It's a great question. Great things
ahead for the middle school. Thank you again to all of you for all of that work. >> Awesome. Thank you. All right. Next up, review of long-term facilities maintenance 10-year plan. Superintendent Law. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, uh,
on an annual basis, school districts review the next 10 years of needs in long-term facility maintenance. And the language in statute for this is like for a like. Like, you don't use long-term facility maintenance to build a pool where there is no pool or to add to a
building. But if you're replacing current with better because it of the need for maintenance, these funds can be used for that. The multiplestep process for LTFM approval by the board and the state starts with a review of the plan. Then
it comes back to the board for approval and then the state provides a form that all districts must submit in June. And you'll get a chance to submit that. Often that results in a special meeting in the end of June. So tonight, executive director of finance and operation, Mr. for Paul Voisa. Do you need me to fill some time, Paul, cuz I
got a song I worked up here. >> Well, my computer went to sleep while I was trying to come on here. So, come on, wake up. Um, so tonight, Mr. Bourgeois is going to preview uh the summer of 2027
long-term facility maintenance projects. So, we're really looking at our 10-year plan plus what are we asking you to consider for the a summer from now. Then when you approve this, we immediately start bidding these projects, as you're all aware, in the fall, ahead of all the other construction projects, so we get a
more attractive bid process. And um a complexity in our system is we're layering this plan on top, and they've been around $14 million a summer. We're laying that on top of our $85 million of um building because if you do things at
the same time, it becomes cheaper. And so as often as possible, and Paul's done some incredible work in this area, if we can open up a space at one of the middle schools and do our LTFM at that same time, the the maintenance cost goes down and we get more bang for our buck. So,
you're going to see a little bit of that tonight as we do that process. >> Well, it's kind of interesting because this TV is not casting. I'm picking up all the screens downstairs. Um, >> do we have a handout? And can we do you want
>> I don't have a handout, but I can also go to the big screen if I have to. >> Um, >> okay. If you want to use the big screen, that's fine, too, Paul. >> And we can turn around. Wait, >> Andy's going to help with that. >> Pardon me.
>> Yeah, I'm trying to find which one. Is it that one? No, it's not that one. >> You have to use two of them at the same time. to use USBC and HDMI together. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
>> Okay. Now, so I do Windows P >> Mr. Bourgeois. >> Yeah, there we are. >> Cool. All right. It's magic. All right. And sorry about this, but it's going to be about financial stuff.
Okay. So, this is something that we do every every year. Uh, as superintendent law said, >> uh, let's try it again. Okay. >> Thanks, Andy.
All right. And uh we've been doing this since 2004, but the interesting thing about it and we have some new board members and stuff. So there's some slides that some of you have seen a number of times. Uh but um uh we're going to go over them just again quickly because um it's very
valuable for people to uh learn and remember. So we have um this are this is a history of our district by construction by decade. You can see a lot during the 50s and 60s with the baby boom generation, a lot in the '9s, and then we didn't have a whole lot of
construction until about for about uh 10 years. The 195,000 there is is actually about 2010 when we really started uh getting into our buildings and and started growing the district. Uh the uh interesting thing about it is that we
have 1.871 871 million square feet. And of that uh about uh 29 or 25% is actually about 400 um 470,000 square feet is 68 years or old or older. Our oldest building was 1929. Uh Excelsier Elementary School, the three-story
tower. Uh but then you look at so you add that in and the additional construction after that. So we have about 59 years old or older 8 58%. And uh even our newest stuff uh 28 years of use of about 1.5 million 81% is at least
you know 28 years of use. So if you think about your own house right you have a lot of things that you have to keep doing uh with your with your facility just to keep it up. So, just for fun, uh this is our newest facility, the uh spectator hospitality building at
Veterans Field. And uh so sounds way better than like a concession restroom building. Um but it's it's actually it's up and running. We got our our permit today actually to do the concessions. Uh the restrooms are open and according to the Diamond Club, uh the fact that we
had permanent restrooms up there kind of like melted down their social network on the first day that it was open. So that's like a positive thing. Um anyway, so the concourse will be open. I guess we're going to have prom out there on the 16th. So, um lots of rooms to launch
fireworks or something. Uh anyway, so back in 2007, our district was doing about $10 million of facility bond debt payments, but um we actually had built up a lot of deferred maintenance because the district had only been in in into
this uh funding source called long-term facilities maintenance for about three years. And uh so we had a lot of buildings that were 50 to 60 years old and so they needed a lot of work. So we again we began bonding for long-term maintenance spreading out the costs over the life of the improvements we're
making actually even the partial life because a lot of the improvements that we've been making last 50 or 60 years and uh it was a way for us to just do more faster. Uh so again we spread the cost over multiple generations and multiple taxpayers on for the long lived
improvements. uh the uh you know we got lower interest rates on on keeping annual payments down we look at restructuring our bonds and everything to just keep every time we get a chance to restructure a bond and lower the payments on our taxpayers we do that. So we do do a lot of different different financing strategies depending on the
situation. So we've been really eliminating deferred maintenance and it's that's a long list and it's like hey okay 20ome years right? Well, uh, yes, but it's the district wasn't Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the district. And so you and just,
uh, stretching things out. It's literally hundreds of millions of dollars over this period of time that we've done. These are all some of the things that we've replaced currently. We're one of the first districts in the state to be 100% LED lighting. We went in big time on those and and uh,
basically we were all LED by about 2013. Um, great thing about that is is the the all those lights still haven't burned out. The old fluoresence used to burn out all the time and our custodians were spending time going up and down the ladders replacing lights. Uh, now they just stay on. Um, so uh we're working on
elementary exterior windows right now and uh we actually finished unit ventilator replacement last year, right? Uh those of you who are on the board remember that. So all of our classrooms are HVAC climate controlled. When I got here, uh, the high school was air conditioned, the media centers of the
middle schools were air conditioned, and the offices there, and then the offices of the ele of the elementary schools had window air conditioners, and that was it. So, it took a while. We kept chipping away. It was about $25 million worth of work, and and we got there. Again, our bonding strategy is to uh
have the levy remain relatively flat as much as we can. And it's allows allows us to do long-term maintenance, and we're trying to rebuild the buildings for another 50 to 60 or 70 years of use. We're standing on the shoulders of the people who spent a lot of money building the buildings in the first place. They have good bones. So, it's it's, you
know, it's our way of kind of paying it forward to just keep it keep things up and make sure that we keep continue to get good use out of them. The other thing is our campuses are so tight. There's no place that you could actually build another building while your school was, you know, and then tear down the
old one like they used to do way back in the old days. So, we have to keep these things in good shape and keep them going. This is actually a history of of long-term facility maintenance since uh the district got in the program back in 2004. So, they did about $13 million and
I came in 2007. Uh so, uh we've been kind of trucking ahead here. uh the last 10 years of this are actuals are all the numbers that are are um through fiscal year 20 uh6. It's still the budgeted amount. We'll get the actuals as of June
30th, but uh uh so fiscal year 26 through fiscal year 36 are the 10-year plan that we have to update annually. Uh but it's a prudent course of action. Again, it's much more cost effective than tearing down rebuilding. It's kind of hard to believe, but our 1,871,000
square feet would take about $479 per square foot at current construction costs. And it's about $900 million to rebuild our buildings. So, we've been over the 33 years on that chart, the average is about $6.7 million. Uh it's
over the 33 years on that chart, it's about $222 million of total expenditures. That's about $3.6 6 per square foot annually over 33 years. So that's like one 133rd of building new and um uh you know so it's it's just 75%
of building new. So you can keep if you keep your buildings up uh yeah in 133 years you'll spend the same amount as if we tore them down and built them new. So now I'll just get into some of the highlights of uh the larger projects of the of the uh 10-year plan that we're
going to be uh asking you to approve next week. And then we have to uh also then reapprove with the official state form. They have this form to actually I give you more detail than the state form requires. And then we do and the state form is not ready now anyway. But since we don't have board meetings in July, uh
I've got to get that state form ready to go be for the last board meeting in June. Uh because it's due on July 31st. And um uh so we'll have that ready to go. But uh basically for this coming summer uh we've got about $14.3 million.
We're doing elementary cabinet replacement. The last two hallways, we've been replacing cabinets around the elementary schools, one at Scenic Heights and one at Groveland. Uh hallway resurfacing, that's a word for tile. Uh we got one small area at Groveland and uh that basically completes across the
district. Interesting story about that that I'm going to tell you about is when I first got here, uh the high school had all white block painted walls and there was all kinds of marks on the wall. There was the students really like weren't weren't proud of it. Um, and so
there was like Sharpie marks and scuff marks. Back in the day, you had shoes that you could leave scuff marks with your shoes and there was a lot of trash around. We started rebuilding the the uh uh the high school uh in the first year I got here and it took us five years but we ended up resurfacing the walls,
retiling the walls. But it was interesting as we went section by section the scuff marks and and the marks in the other parts of the building started disappearing and uh and and the trash started getting less and less too because people were proud of the building and you know we we all want to be proud of where where we go to school
and uh it's important to have these buildings look good because it does set the tone that something important happens at every building even for every elementary student and every every middle school student. So, uh it is it does set the tone and uh if you want to be a district of excellence, you have to
exceed excellence in every every facet. Our uh cafeteria HV replace HVAC replacements at Dpave and Excelsure. They're going to get new air conditioning, windows, boiler room work in in at MMW 1964 stuff. So, we have to replace a lot. That was 62 years ago.
And we we always have roofing and paving in Minnesota. Uh fiscal year 28, which is summer 27, uh $13.5 million. You can see window more window replacement. Uh JV baseball field turf is up and uh a bunch of steam, water,
electrical things that need to be replaced. We're doing this coordinated with the building bond projects so we get economies of scale and stretch all the dollars as much as possible. And at every slide you see on here at the bottom, lots of roofing and paving. uh fiscal year 29. Uh it's things are going
to drop. We've done a lot and uh so there's a lot of things that we've done that's going to last 20 30 40 years since we've installed them. And so things are actually getting to the point where things should slow down a little bit. Stuckle replacement. Uh just kind of finishing the exteriors of MME and
MMW that aren't going to be uh touched by the building bond project. Uh we've got to replace the wood uh shop dust collectors and and put HVAC in the the two shop rooms at MMW and MME. The North Soccer Field uh turf replacement that
was put in in 2013 and uh it's due so that'll be going and lots of roofing and paving. Uh 2030 we're looking at about $5 million and uh Iron Anderson synthetic turf is ready ready clear steam water piping roofing and paving.
You know, the other thing about this is is as you do the annual update, there's going to be things that might pop up that aren't on this list. That's the nice thing about the 10-year plan, have it be rolling is you can always adjust on the fly as you go. 2031, we're going to start tuck pointing some of the buildings to to keep keep
the exterior uh where because the mortar actually after 60 70 years, the mortar starts deteriorating. So, you got got to actually grind out about an inch of the the mortar between the bricks and replace it. more steam pipe and water pipe from 1956. Uh finishing tuck
pointing the uh um MME and MMW. And then the Southfield turf is going to be due. Minnitankka High School has some windows that need replacing. Some of them were actually put in in 1952. We're actually going to those are actually over the um the courtyard by the science um science
silo area uh in the 1952 section of the building. 32 tuck pointing uh steam water pipe replacement. The Pagel ice system uh needs replacement. That's about a $ 1.5 million job and uh we are currently
still on the original system put in in 2001. The interesting thing about that system is it's it uses something called R22 for which the actual usage of it and production of it was banned as of 2020. But when we bought the Pagel building
from um from MYHA, we um I brought in a a specialist guy named John Chrisitz from Stantech Engineering. He had done 152, I believe is was the number ice rinks that he had built or rebuilt. And he looked at our system because I wanted to know how old
that that how long that would the icem system would last. And he said it should go 35 years. So we're going to go not quite 35 years on it, but uh I knew R22 was banned. So what we did is um uh we
bought about $60,000 worth at that time of additional R22 which you while you still could buy it and we have it stored at our our mechanical uh shop that that's our contract mechanical repair people for the uh ice rink and uh there's enough there to replace four
complete failures of the ice rink. So we haven't actually touched it yet. So we do a really good job maintaining the ice rink every morning. And the first thing our maintenance staff does is they come in and read if we're going to have ice because hockey is the deal in Minnesota, right? Got to have ice. And um uh but if
our a compressor goes down, they uh we immediately immediately replace it. We have a whole complement of four compressors uh to back up the four compressors that are operational at any time. And we send it in immediately to get uh one that's gone down. We send it in immediately to get repaired. And uh
then we keep a whole complete set on the shelf. So, um, we we have not delved into that, uh, that R22 stash. So, uh, when we do this and switch to an ammonia system in 2031, uh, right now that the value of that R22
is about $600,000. So, it's probably going to be over a million dollars worth. So, there might be some extra cash you can do if you want to sell it uh, in 2031. So, I'm going to replace a chiller uh in um on the top of uh the high
school in 2033. Just about done here. Groveland. Uh some tuck pointing, window replacement. Uh Veterans Field turf is going to be due then. Um fun thing about Veterans Field, that's going to be the second time we replace it. But, uh when we replaced it last time, the the turf
on Veterans Field was just green with cutouts for the bases and the pitcher mound. And uh I I told Field Turf we needed to uh I used to play baseball too and uh played out field among other things. And um uh but I said, "We need to have a warning track." And they said,
"Well, why do you need a warning track? It's not it's not sand, it's not whatever." And I said, "Well, if you know, if you're if you're you're playing center field and you're locked in on a ball, but you're using your peripheral vision and you can kind of see the wall coming up and you can see the grass below it, you'll see the color. It's just another little visual cue." And uh
so we put the warning track in and uh and we also put a full complement of an infield in. And the interesting thing about that is now if you actually go on field's website and look at where they've put in additional new fields, you'll see like our configuration like a real we were like the first one to do
that. So but now everybody has it. So it's kind of cool. Um 2034 uh tuck pointing at Minowashta and and a lot of roofing and paving. 2035. I just mainly have roofing and paving as we get out farther. So, in summary, uh
we got about $66 million budget or, you know, projected right now for FY27 through FY36. Um major midlife component replacement and uh you know, the annual amount has been will lessen over time because the big chunk of our buildings were built in two chunks in the 50s and
60s and we worked our way through those and another big chunk in the in the '9s and we've kind of worked our way through those. So uh you know we should be in in in good shape in that regard. So I just say paying it forward for 2070 because uh these buildings are good for another
you know 35 40 45 50 years. So um so any questions? I'd be glad to answer them. >> Thank you Mr. Bourgeoa. Any questions from the board or comments? Dan. >> Um just a couple quick questions. I'm
curious how our estimates have been stacking up against our actuals over time as we've gone through this process and kept it rolling forward. And are those future um estimates of expenses toward the end of the 10-year plan? Are those inflation adjusted?
>> Uh they're they're not inflation adjusted. So um and then as how we stack up is uh you see like the bid the bids that we get typically they come in very close. So, uh, and with the dollar amounts that we issue in a given year, some of the
some of the projects we'll do immediately that next summer, but we can also, depending on where we're at and depending on the load in the buildings and the need for summer school and other things, we may actually take some and uh, shift them actually into the next
summer because uh, well, we can do that. Once you bond, actually, you have the bond proceeds to uh to utilize. So, uh, on a project by project basis, our estimates come in really well. If you say, "Well, what did you close your books at?" Depending on the mix of last year's projects and this year's
projects, uh, it won't necessarily tie direct directly to 14,285,000 because, you know, you're spending money all the way through. So, I would, you know, I I all I would do in terms of that is I'd say, okay, in terms of the project we have and and the bids we get, I'd, you know, would would go back and
stack those up. Uh but we're we're pretty close in terms of our estimates. So >> no other questions. Thank you very much for the detail. Moving on. My glasses. Okay. Finally, discussion on
the endowment fund concept. Superintendent law. >> Madam chair, members of the board, since I first came to Minnotonka, one of Mr. Neighbors W's goals was to create an option financially for our overly generous community to create some
sustainability certainly in times of financial challenge but to continue the amazing opportunities we provide for our students. One of those things is this concept that Mr. as well. We'll share tonight that um in 2027 or 2028 won't
generate millions of dollars, but um could be the start of something really incredible. You know, when we look back at the buildings being built in the you know, the baby boom time of the 40s to the 60s and here we are 80 years later have these amazing facilities. This
could be the start of that opportunity where 50 or 60 years from now they'd be benefiting. So, I'll let Mr. Bris explained the the strategy and the um structure of this and and eventually the board can consider if it was it's something the board wants to approve. Mr. Bourgeois.
>> Okay. Thank you very much. Um yeah, I just calling this pay it forward perpetual endowment trust fund. Uh you know we have in this district and I've worked in a number of districts before I came to Minnetonka. Um but uh it's a unique place. It's very
unique in terms of the community support that we have. Um we have a long history of community support by donations. Actually uh we actually get about $ 1.5 million in donations annually for various classroom initiatives, scholarships, booster clubs, uh
Minnitonka Public Schools Foundation, uh gives in six figures for grants for teachers, uh grants for startup for the writing lab, uh mobile maker stations, the hub, those types of things. technology in the momentum u building and building uh forum room. Uh we've
also had donations via um uh the diamond club and tonk united for veterans field and legacy fields and uh soccer fields. We also have a lot of alumni pride and uh community pride. Uh and often I've been
in in all the other school districts I I worked at, I never had people come up and said, "Hey, you know, you're from that place. I graduate from there." This happens to me all the time if I happen to be it even happened to me down in Florida, you know, when I um down there for a few months with my wife at our house down there. Um but uh we're people
go you're from Minnitonka? I graduated from there, you know, people just they want to tell you, you know, and which is really unique uh because we talk about Minnitonka public schools in some respects in a manner that most of people talk about their college, you know, where they graduate from university,
their college elma mater. So just a strong community pride and support and it's evidenced by support for various referendum. I mean at over the last two decades we haven't run a lot of referendums couple of uh uh operating referendums and tech referendums and then one building bond referendum and
and we're over 65% and more uh often up in the 70s approval for the various questions and uh we've built a reputation for educational excellence in the state and people are very proud of that. uh we've been able to do that by uh to
be thriving by within the rules, within the statutes and and what's allowed by the uh financial accounting regulations for school districts and all that. But within the rules, we we were thinking about outside the box. Um we've done a unique referendum design tax neutral in
2007. Uh the first ever 2000 two-step referendum for operations in Minnesota in 2015. Um the district turned around declining enrollment and near annual budget reductions with educational programs that many districts do not have to benefit residents do and that would
benefit resident students as well as open enrolled students. Um and we provided revenue for those programs um and space for those programs by leveraging OP well the revenue came from leveraging operating capital and lease levy revenue to build uh basically over
120 classrooms and other numerous facilities without doing a building bond referendum to provide the space for students and students bring in revenue. They bring enough revenue to cover themselves and then they they bring in in this in in fiscal 25 they bring brought in enough to increase the money
for resident students for general education programs by about 35% over what would be if we were standalone district. So these this next slide is something that you've seen before and I put them together but uh you know we we
we were declining in 2000 in in the early 2000s from from residential standpoint and in fact we've declined steadily uh and so if we had not gone for open enrollment uh our our path would have been greatly different uh we
uh you know we we'd be I did a little little research on on a similar neighboring district and in 200 07 this particular neighbor neighboring district I'm not going to say it but um it it had um or in 2000 I should say it had 8570
students of which 7920 were residents and uh by 20 25 it had 7 it had declined to 7,000 and had gone through just budget cuts budget cuts cut budget cuts and 5,000 residents but in in 2006 there
was the the board at that time their years are going to uh burning because I'm I'm uh going to say their names for the first time in a long time in in this in this august room here. Aaron Adams, Judy Dall, Pam Lang, Kitzky, Kathy Mace, Peggy Stef, and Bill Wenmark. They made the decision along
with Dr. Peterson to try to attract open enrollment by doing unique programs. And the first one was our was really our immersion program among many. And and that coupled with the building plan so that we didn't top out at 8,300 or so and then start declining again. uh has has been a model that has worked for us
for a long time. And we we ended up with an 18-year run, of course, of no budget reductions because of that. And we've had a couple years of budget reductions, but we're done doing a few tweaks yet. Uh but we're we're running to the end of the line on that model. Uh because we can only build so much in the district
our size. But again, and so uh for people who haven't been on the board, uh we had this 18-year run and it was it was basically we were flying high basically state aid and local levy, which everybody gets, but we had open enrollment growth of $223 students per
year. And then we passed an operating referendum c uh increase in of $436 in 2007 and then the two-step in 2015 for $340 per student in 2017 and $340 um dollars per student in 2020.
So that allowed us to do I I call them out of the ordinary programs. They're they're normal for us, but they're out of the ordinary or extraordinary compared to most other places. Uh you know, language immersion at all elementary and middle schools. I don't know of any other district in the state that has all the schools be language
immersion. Uh they might have one uh because you have to have a lot of reading teachers to teach kids to read in two languages. It's expensive. Um when I got here, elementary there was music on a cart in the elementary was was the thing. No band orchestra in course. We had elementary band orchestra
chorus. Okay. navigators and I'm going to miss some here but IPAB Minnotonka Research Vantage Momentum Aviation Art Center drama program w a really wide array of activities and club activities at all levels and you know we've been expanding like recently with uh um uh
boys volleyball and badman right and um other places are actually have been having to pair back so the thing is though over time um we had a couple things our open enrollment growth it's that engine's going to be shut down I mean We're looking at the 50-50 plan for
a year just to kind of keep it going. Uh but operating re referendum, we've been trying since 2017 to get that engine turned back on, but we're at this state cap and of course we haven't been able to get the legislature to do anything. But we built this amazing
amazing district with all these excellent things and some of them take a little more money than your average kind of standard core program to support. So this and this is the old the old standby, but you know, you build the best sand castle you can and then you
fight as hard as you can to keep it as long as you can. So we right now unless and and we keep p have to keep pounding away at the operating referendum, but see if we can get that increased. But if we don't uh we can do nothing and just, you know, accept our fate or we can do
something about it. So school districts are allowed to have trust funds. In fact, you all actually have a whole bunch of trust funds in our fund 8. Uh there's an I use Dr. Peterson scholarship trust fund as an example. Uh people donate for a specific purpose and
it might be I'm giving this money for for this particular program or I'm giving this money for um again scholarship fund or whatever. Well, every every meeting you accept donations, right? You're basically creating a common law contract. you're saying, "I give you this money,
but you have to do this with it." And you accept it and you so then it's like, "Okay, we're going to do that." And so then you as a district or you as board and we as a district have to follow through. So we have to spend Dr. Pearson scholarship trust money on scholarships, not on, oh, we're buying some gas for
the lawnmowers for the grounds group, right? Okay. So we're doing trusts every day. So what this idea is is to do a trust but just kind of give it a little more oomph in terms of having specific
documents and um uh and and and a little bit more structure around it that would give people the opportunity to do what I call legacy giving. Okay. So it's different than it's it's it's a different ask and a different time horizon than uh like say the foundation
would do. they they tend to do more things for let's get some things in and then let's let's you know do the grants and other things like that. Um so um but the characteristic for our culture and community it's high you know they highly value education so it
creates a condition where we're probably probably one of the only districts if not the only district in the state that probably could build a perpetual endowment trust fund. So um really if there's any place in the world that a public school system could have a university level perpetual
endowment trust fund it's it's here. So the concept is that we would uh set up a trust fund, take board action, develop the whole thing, develop a uh um the policies around it, uh develop and and develop uh you know that whole structure
around it. Uh to actually, you know, be able to take funds and have let people legacy give, you know, people uh do that to universities all the time, right? And so, but the big thing is is um the idea would be that try to make make
it maybe but it it's all at the board's discretion. This the other thing about this is as opposed to a donation where somebody says, "Hey, I want you to do this with the money per se. Um or or like with or or we ask uh or or the even the foundation would say, "Hey, we're
going to run this little program for you for a few years or whatever." And they've done a good job. I mean, 1.8 8 million over over 40 years is what we heard at the their presentation last but the idea behind this would be that this would grow to be millions of dollars per year and the board would be determining
where it goes just like with the OPED trust you know once we get to the point where the OPED liabilities paid off. So the donations are perpetual so the corpus is never trust. So, if somebody says, "Hey, I'm giving you $5,000." Um, we make we make the promise in our
in our trust documents that we will never touch that $5,000. We'll utilize the earnings on it. And, uh, so we'd then be able eventually over time, we'd be able to make annual dividend withdrawals from the investment earnings only. Uh, you know, and we'd have to get
some kind of strategy. We'd have to look at it a little bit and say, you know, but just conceptually, only a percentage of investment earnings are withdrawn. So try to keep at least 50% of the annual earnings staying in the trust to keep it compounding to larger and larger and larger numbers.
The uh so the focus again is it's on legacy giving. So you know people we ask people hey you know if you want to think about the school district uh in your will we'll take that. Um there may be you know we we have an incredible number of entrepreneurs in this district. Um, we've actually been approached by people
asking us if they could have a place to put something like this in, you know, into a perpetual thing where they made this perpetual um, uh, gift, but we didn't have anything set up like that. So, we've been appro we've been approached on occasion. So, I think if
we had the vehicle, I think you might see more of that. Uh, again, provide con uh, funding that makes things unique. Oh, I think I had There we go. I went backwards on it. Sorry about that. So the thing is is what investments can we do right now?
Policy 705 actually ties to Minnesota statutes 118 8.04 and 118.05 but includes the following. So US Treasury obligations uh you know you can get Treasury bonds that uh 30-year bonds are at 4 a.5%. But we earn money taxree
right so there's no taxes that are taken off of that. So, um, uh, bankers accepted mo notes, even commercial paper, uh, you know, money market funds. Uh, we actually bought our own bonds once a couple times when they came on the secondary market because we thought
we were good a good risk. Um, and then, you know, but certificates of deposit and depending on where you look at at for those, you can get, you know, in the four and a half to 5% range, uh, depending on on how that, you know, on how that goes. So, uh, you know, if you
compound at 4% per year, it's it's u not like being invested in the stock market, but it still starts adding up. So the main general steps would be that um we would develop our perpetual endowment uh fund trust document and we've got a template similar to the
existing OPED revocable trust fund but this would be an irrevocable fund uh because it's going to be for whatever the you know the the uh um purpose of of it is that we actually decide what the final purpose is although but again it would be basically a trust fund that we
never touch we commit to everybody everybody who donates that your money a 100 years from now is still going to be earning interest that's going to be going for education and I think there's a lot of people that would find that interesting a lot of lot of former uh a lot of former students uh a lot of
former staff members uh so uh we would then uh you know ask the school board to approve this trust fund document uh and then establish a trust fund advisory committee similar to the OPED trust uh three members if at a minimum could always be more um And then we would
establish our policies regarding the growth of the trust and withdrawal levels at different dividends at different stages. You know, the first couple of years you might or x number of years, five years, whatever say, you know, we're not going to withdraw anything. We're going to let it build and build and start compounding, right?
And then uh but then you might say, okay, and then years after your five through till it gets until this level, we're going to pull out, you know, 15%. But then it's get big gets bigger and bigger. It's like okay now we can pull out 25% or 30%. So we can set those you
know and and of course as a board you have the ability to set that and also what the use of the fund is going to be in terms of of utilizing those dividends and uh but myself finance and operations would work with Dr. get in communications. We develop plans for
informing alumni and others that le leg legacy giving to our perpetual endowment trust fund is available and uh that can be as simple as you know an annual mailing to alumni uh just advertisements and certain things you know not you don't have necessarily have to spend a
lot of money on it. Um even just a note when people are graduating saying hey you know if you think your your child has done well you know we have this available if ever you're interested. So it's we're never demanding anything. We're just letting people know if if if you're moved, you have you have a
vehicle, you know. So just just soft soft pedaling in terms of trying to do it. So the thing about it is is I've run some I've run some uh numbers, you know, um scenarios obviously. uh just taking assuming like a million dollars for a
startup that we you know we got a million dollars the first year and then $250,000 a year and in in in 30 years and 40 years I mean you're talking about it's hundreds of millions of dollars and you're pulling millions of dollars out in earnings you know so this is a long-term play and you know one of the
reasons that I mentioned that board from 2006 is their they made a decision to make a long-term play that benefited basically at least one generation is start and it's going to continue to generate another generation benefit
another generation because of how we've been able to grow the district and develop the district. And so it it you know the hard thing is is keeping that sand castle protected and and trying to figure out ways you know because we if we wait on the state you know the state
has a hard time getting us more than 2% and inflation 3% right on our basic formula things like that. So and will this solve everything? No. But uh if we do it right, I think it gives us a chance to keep the stuff that makes Mitaka really special because if you
start that downward slide, right? Um you start pe you start you have to pair back, you know, and you start pairing back and pairing back. We went through two years in the first year of reductions. the first years weren't w were they weren't great but I mean but they weren't really felt but this last year for this year we felt it you know
and then you start pairing things back and uh you know there's there's stories out there that we've all heard of you know how how people are they they end up just pairing back to the core so this is one way that we could actually take take some action and do something so I guess
that's the pitch and um but I just want to do this uh show you this I mean the you know got to live in California for about 10 years and we'd go to the Mirwoods and you know um you know up up to Seal Capitan and all
that kind of stuff and uh Sequoas and everything at Sequoia National Park and they're just incredible. But what was amazing is uh redwoods, the California redwoods. The little seeds are right actually these are that's a seed, you know, that's a seed. Those are the seeds.
That's actually the the pot, you know, the the cone. So the cone has all those little seeds in it. That that little seed becomes that 300T tree, you know. So that's the kind of thing that we'd be looking at here. And and um
so that's the thought. Thank you for all the research and time you put into that. I just have two questions. One is did you say that this has come forward to a previous board in 2006? I mean has this ever come to a board in our history?
>> No. No. I talked with Dr. Peterson about it back in about 200 uh n at that time we were just growing and we had just passed the operating referendum and he was worried about having some mixed messages. >> Okay. >> You know and so there was some some some reasons for it. >> Okay. Uh and and and we're we're we're
starting on an upward track, you know, >> right? >> And so uh but you know, we're in a different situation right now. So >> Sure. And then my other question is you said that we would probably be the only district that this would ever work in. >> Why do you say that? >> It's it's it's just my opinion. Uh
>> just the uniqueness of community. >> We have the uniqueness of the community. uh you know we have an incredible numbers uh number of entrepreneurs in this district that are very supportive of the district in a lot of ways. Uh we
have alumni that are really proud of you know I don't run around going hey I graduated from Luxembourg Cascal High School you know you know I mean it was a great place you know my dad taught there and everything but you know but the point being is is this is a unique place and people are like really I think I
think for the most part you know knock on wood and that stays that way but people are really appreciative of the education they've received and are receiving and you know we do have a community that's very generous and I think the whole idea of paying it forward is something that resonates with
a lot of people. And and I also think the the idea of, you know, I'm gonna give them a chunk of money and I know, you know, 100 years from now, I'm going be looking down and seeing those kids still doing, you know, doing great >> like school. >> That's an appealing thing to a lot of people, you know, it's like that's
really paying it forward. So that's just the whole thing. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Karen. Uh Mr. Bourgeoa, thank you for that presentation. And I think that's really an exciting um uh thought. I will say that I I believe that you are absolutely correct that
there is a huge amount of support in the community. When I was doornocking in the fall, I talked to lots of people who have tremendous pride in Minnetonka and mentioned what if we had something like an endowment like colleges and universities do and many people seemed
willing like they'd be interested in doing, you know, donating to that. Um, I mean sometimes people be like, "We're third generation here." You're going to go down the street and someone is going to tell you they're fourth generation, but like we started this place. You know, there's that much pride in Minnetonka. I mean, people love this place. So, really appreciate you
bringing this information to us and sounds like um a great opportunity to get building our, you know, redwoods. >> Megan, thanks Paul, Mr. Braw. Um I have two questions of my own and then I'll open
it up and then actually Dr. Mike sent me a couple questions because he knew he wasn't going to be here tonight. So my first question was um this has been kicked around I think kind of off and on for a while. I'm assuming at this point it's like gone through the finance committee to kind of get some feedback
or some ideas around it. Can you just talk about that a little bit? >> They're all supportive of it. Um and in fact um I I gave them a whole write up that I'd given um Superintendent Law u about 12 months ago and um shared it
with them and uh at the end of one of our meetings said read through this and let me know you think and um um we had a couple members come back and say we we just need to do this. It's it's a no-brainer. So, um, if if it I haven't
asked them to express support to you directly, but I think if you think it'd be valuable, I think they would be very much willing to come and speak in support of this and um and or you know, just write a note in support of it. So, >> Okay, great. Thank you. And
>> and I would say feel free to email them, you know, and and ask them what they think too, you know. >> Um, great. And then second question was just around where the money would be allocated and you kind of alluded to that we'd talk more about it, but um
would it just go into the general fund or would it be targeted and is there would there be legal limits about what we can use it for? I asked that because the district that I taught in um had a similar like it didn't it wasn't an
endowment exactly, but the money that came in through that fund couldn't be used for teachers primarily because it couldn't be used for permanent positions. So, we could use it for like a single year staffing of something or
anything, but most teachers don't want to be hired as permanently temporary. like most teachers come in and hope to achieve tenure and all those things. So, do we anticipate there being any um like legal limitations about what we could spend it on or would it just go in as an
offset in the general budget or do you have any ideas about that right now? Um, I I did some I mentioned some things conceptually about things that are like unique that would probably be lost if we ever got in a big long-term cutting situation. But reality is is it would be
completely up to the school board. And um right now if a if a donation comes in to the district that has you know no strings attached. Hey here's some money or whatever it like it basically just goes into the pot of overall revenues
and basically it's expended in in the general fund you know for whatever is needed. You it doesn't have any strings attached so to speak or any any um specific trust directions from the donor. So this is just that that same
thing. Um I think the the important thing though is uh it would be really important to have the trust kind of identify certain things that are the most important to people. But it would be but it would be
done by the board. The board would have to determine this. And of course if the board the board's a trustee so if they uh if they want to change the direction of the trust for any future donations. So let's say the trust built up to X million but it's like you know what we want to try to balance the budget with
the new stuff you can start using the new stuff but if but for what it what whatever we that's what we have to we have to choose wisely so to speak but um whatever we set as the the commitment of this trust that we're asking people
to donate for you have to follow through on that commitment uh for the dollars that they gave you perpetually. So um you know in terms of what the you know a not touching the corpus and then b whatever we said we want we're planning to use the money on you really have the
most part you know you have to do what you say you know >> so when we originally set it up any money that came in would be directed in that manner and then if we wanted to change it would only be
principal added after that that could be used for Anything else? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Just thinking through that. >> My brain is >> Thank you. So, sorry I missed the the March finance advisory committee meeting and now I'm really eager to see what it
was you shared with the group because I want to um see more about that. But I do have a few questions. One is have we or would we perhaps consider having an independent assessment of the viability is not the right word because of course
you could get something and build on something but in terms of being able to get enough support to make this truly meaningful for the district on a long-term basis. Is that something that we might consider? I'm thinking like a Leatherman sort of assessment of what
>> I if you're going to do that, I would try to get a uh I mean like I'd get a CPA firm or something of that nature. >> Um to to just say, okay, you know, or maybe even an actuary. Um you know, but a lot of it is
>> how do you measure the appetite, you know? So, we're taking we're taking a a a leap of faith in that regard. But at the same time, the downside of this is if it never grows big, well, we we will have something. It
wouldn't be as big as we all wish for, but it's like but we haven't lost. You know what I mean? It's like there's there's like no no way to lose other than we've invested some time, >> you know? Do you see other down potential downsides or things that we would want to be mindful of that could
be a like uh when Dr. Peterson said now is not the right time. How might having an endowment fund affect our ability maybe to do other things. I'll think like Minnetonka Foundation >> for example different sort of thing because it's money in money out with
them right >> um >> well you know that's why I in terms of thinking about all that that's why I kind of mentioned is is the things that we would the things that make Minnotonka Minnotonka that we would lose are a a
somewhat you know a somewhat there a finite set of uh right now uh you know but like the things like I said elementary band orchestra and chorus it's like you know and you could set a priority list it's like okay as we start drawing this stuff out the first thing we're going to keep funding is elementary band orchestra
course and then as it grows and grows you could say well you know what uh we've got enough money we want to make sure that we can fund um Vantage or whatever you know I'm just throwing that out uh just as you know just kind of riffing on that regard but the point is is um because that's a real clear thing
I think if Um it I think I just think personally it would be a harder sell uh to say hey we want a perpetual endowment and we're going to use it to sell negotiations this year you know right >> so we'd have to we have to choose wisely that's what I mean it's like really uh
but I I think um because the other thing is is there's no guarantee that we'll always stay at 11,000 students >> and um but one of the things that's really important is the things that make the school special are also things that keep or the district special are the
things that keep students in school. So, um you know, the the the art center uh it's an amazing program, but if all of a sudden we said, you know what, we you know, we had to cut the budget and we could only had to cut that staff in half and we could do like one play a year, you know, that would be that would be
awful, you know. So those types of things are the things that I I think are have the most um appeal to people to say, you know, those are things that I want to keep funding. So I actually I
would ask our student uh people, what do you think student board members? I mean, I think this is a really cool opportunity. Like just thinking about like in the future when you want to come back and repay whatever you gained. Like I'll talk a lot to like college students right now
and like how their Minnotonka High School education helped them in college and it's like a lot of them say college is easier than Minnetonka High School. Like so I think people are really grateful for the education and so I think this would be something also like my parents like I'm sure my parents are super grateful for the education their
children got. So, not only they didn't go to Minnetonka High School, but um I think they would love to help out just knowing like my dad always talks about like when he went to high school, he went to Burnsville and when he went to Burnsville, it was like a really big school and like now it's not like as
successful and just trying to build that long-term success to be continued proud of your district you're from would be important. Just one thing to add on to what Ally said. I think I also agree with that because my brother, he's a junior in college right now and he went to Mitanka
and he went through the Vantage program and he did uh global business one year and then business analytics and that's how he really found his passion for what he wanted to do. And now he's at um the Kelly School of Business. and I think that he would love an opportunity to
just repay the school that got him to the point where he is right now. So, this is an amazing idea. >> All right. Um, just something I wanted to add to that is sometimes I forget how many opportunities Minnetonka has
because I came from I moved up to Minnesota from Oklahoma in 2017. So, I was just going into first grade and in Oklahoma, the school I went to didn't have nearly as many opportunities and especially going into I went to Scenic Heights and like the navigator program
was something that was really uh I think important to kind of like where I am today. And I really think it was something that was like amazing, like an amazing opportunity. and then going into middle school, high school, all these things that Mitanka offers. I think it's it's just amazing to think like there
would have been nowhere near as that like if I had stayed in Oklahoma where I was. And I just think it was I agree with what Alli and Anika said that I think people would definitely want to give back to that if they've gotten the same at least from my experience. And I'm just a freshman in high school and I already feel like it.
I would just uh in response to Sally's question, you know what the as Paul and I have talked about this dozens of times, it's a low financial burden to start. The more information I I I don't
perceive I don't foresee our community being less likely to support an operating levy if we have this. We could do a little bit of research with the Morris Leatherman on a sample community survey to say would the district having an endowment fund make you less likely
to support future asks financially. The the downside of that is there's a cost. The upside is there's information. The other thing is we could start this and then we could ask the next time we have the ability to go out and ask our voters, we could ask
the question, are you impacted by the fact the district has started this endowment fund? So I I the the return on investment here is you know it's time to start and marketing possibly to start.
Um and then at some point in time you can say boy it's been 5 years and we have $10,000. We we lost the investment of time. So there there isn't a downside. you know, the the perception piece I think of of of what I've heard the most as we've
been making cuts is how can we help and what are you doing? And I I can remember the people saying, you know, why aren't you going to the capital? And you all know, boy, are we going to the capital? >> But it's one more way we can show the community we're doing everything we can think of to maintain this. And this is
this is taxpayer neutral. This is an investment that doesn't fall on the backs of all our taxpayers. Um, I was just going to respond to sorry to uh the the question about like conflicting with the foundation. I was thinking because I thought about that
too, like is this a competing interest? And what I came to was it doesn't feel like it really is because the foundation it feels like it draws from our local community um you know some alumni but more like families who are active in the
d district currently or recently. And it feels like this is more like somebody may leave some money earmarked in their will or their trust upon death to be earmarked like you know that um charitable giving upon I don't know what
it's called. There's some fancy term for it. But anyway, um, so it doesn't feel to me like cuz I kind of initially had that same like, huh, is this going to be a conflict of interest? And it just feels like it's targeting different demographics and I think that there are
a lot of people who are alumni or are in the community and they're older. I would never think to come to like a foundation event or um, Dream Makers or something like that. So um, that was kind of where I landed on it. I mean, I can't speak
for everybody. Um, I do still had uh there were two questions. I think the first one was answered. Um, was that donors will not be able to request their funds be spent in a certain way if they're contributing. It would just be that it would go into the fund and then it would be used by how the board has
decided. So, if a donor wants to target fund, they would still do it the way we've had it currently, right? >> They give us a donation and it goes to the football team or something. >> Okay. Uh and then the second question um from Dr. Mike was will donors be recognized for donations and so have we
talked about which ways they might be recognized and would it be tiered like the more you donate the bigger your recognition >> there there's a lot of ways to do that. Um, and well, first of all, and and every donation that would go into this
fund, a you do have to accept it by board action. Um, just like you do now, right? But you could have a whole special thing about, okay, these are, you know, this is for the the trust fund. Um, and you know, that that's kind of like a
detail that we can work out. I I you know I haven't I I deliberately didn't want to get down into every single detail because I think if this is a concept that we would take forward and we would work on it and we get a bunch of brains involved and and if because if anybody if if any district can make this
work and with a bunch of people involved like really trick it out, it's our district. >> So um >> I think you meant tonka it up, right? >> Yes. There you go. Tonka it up. Yes. and u and so so yeah, we would we would want
to work through those details because ultimately what we'd want to do is have >> here's the framework and have you >> um approve the framework and then then once you got approved the framework it's like then we would go into Dorsy and say put this trust document together for us. >> Okay. >> And then we get that and then it would
be a matter of and you approve the trust document and then we would would hopefully go. >> Okay. And then the last question from Dr. Mike was um around just and this I realize would be total speculation, but given if we're assuming like a four to
5% interest rate, what do we see as kind of like the the amount that we would be hoping to generate enough to make a meaningful difference? And do we have any guesstimate about how long it would take to get there?
>> It it it really all depends. Um it all depends how much we would get at the start. That base would really be a a big uh it would would make all the difference in the world. So um you know
because if you have um uh if you have $2 million and uh you know it's earning 4% it's $80,000. Okay. uh you can you know that's if you start taking out a little bit of it that will
make a difference but uh that's what I'm saying is it probably would be beneficial we'd run some scenarios and say do we want to like build for four years or five years and see where that gets because like and the fir I'm I'm not going to but maybe the first thing is is okay um
you know we're going to have a dollar amount and the first things we're going to do is like I said we're going to fund uh elementary band orchestra or we're going to fund the navigators or we're going to you know I mean so you could have the list of like the priority as as you build and build and build what are these other special things that get get
sort of for lack of a better term protected by having uh the trust in place. I was just thinking I I was thinking of the in the uh recognitions piece, right? Like I think Oh, yeah. A lot of the funds that do this kind of thing will
just have like a name on a brick for permanency or something. So, like is that kind of has that been talked about at all or is that too early? >> Oh, no. We could we could also do that in and and kind of decide how we're going to do that. Um, you know, if you if you've ever had the opportunity to
walk around some of the lower levels of the Mayo Clinic where they have different donors and stuff, they'll have a donor wall and they have um, you know, actually there's one wall. It's like it's just a bunch of kind of interlocking like leaf shapes with different people's names on and stuff. And of course, the people who donated,
you know, eight figures or nine figures, they got like a bigger leaf. But the point being is is, you know, we could find a place to do that. Uh, and um, you know, we have we have a lot of a lot of wall space that we could, you know, I mean, even we just start out here and we could just work our way around the art pictures for now, you know,
>> you could put up a bunch of planes and ships and anchors, all sorts of nautical goodies. >> Yeah. Yeah. But, um, Thank you. >> Yeah. So, we could, but it wouldn't it wouldn't be that hard to do. >> So, I um I'm going to state the obvious.
It's rare to have an employee who takes on a substantial project like this, not because the board has said come up with an idea, but comes to the board and say, "Hey, I would like to do a lot of extra work
different from what I'm assigned to do to the benefit of kids that I'll never meet 50 years from now." We don't have the opportunity as a system to say, "Let's try this in 5 years.
because um we're fortunate that we have an employee who's willing to do this now, but understanding that celebrating a birthday in the last month. I I know that 10 years from now, Mr. Bourgeoa
isn't planning to be building this foundation. So, I I say that to board just to say we're in a unique opportunity. There aren't a whole lot of districts across the state that might not have our generosity. there are fewer districts that will have an employee willing to take on a huge amount of work
for the benefit of the district long term. So I I throw that to the board as another consideration. I feel very honored to have a colleague who has done all this additional work >> voluntarily. >> I second that. Thank you for that reminder. Super Sally.
>> Yes. And I definitely feel that sense of urgency and I'm just kind of playing devil's advocate with some of those questions I've asked. But I do think one thing just to be mindful of is these we will want to have some projections of when does it get to an amount where it would actually offset some of our deficit, right? Because because if we
put this forth to the public, they're going to think, "Oh, problem solved, right?" So, so we'll we'll need to be clear and we will be clear about that. I'll cap by saying though, I actually see another benefit to this that hasn't been mentioned yet, which is that with
um the scrutiny on public education right now and frankly the risk to public education in this time we're in, that making a commitment like this says a lot about how people feel about the value of public education. And so I see that as
as a distinct benefit that we would enjoy and that hopefully others across the street and the state and nation would also enjoy. >> That is a great point. Any other comments or questions from the board students? Tanya, >> thank you Bob.
>> Oh yeah, just roll the boat. >> Yeah, >> thank you very much. That is yes. >> Okay, >> a lot of work. So thank Karen. >> Um so with the sense of urgency that superintendent law has gr us and with the willingness to do it is it too early
to ask what the next steps would be just for clarification >> based on the feedback from the board. We'll go back and put forward a little bit more to this um uh do some research and bring it back to the board. There'll be at least another study session before formal approval.
>> Perfect. With that, I would like to say good evening to everybody and thank you for being here and thank you for all the thoughtful comments and questions everybody. Good night. >> All right. Thanks everybody.