I would like to call to order the June 17th regular board meeting of the Mountains View School Board. Good evening and welcome. The first item of business is item 1.2, adoption of the agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Agenda has been moved and
seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um we'll move on to section uh 2.1 announcements. Uh we'll start with the gifts. Shauna, uh could you please read? Yeah, absolutely. There were 13
gifts for schools and programs received this period for a total of $7,520.39. And there were 21 gifts received for the Ralph Reader food shelf this period for a total of $15,59868. It's recommended that the board accept these gifts and extend our thanks to the
donors. Thank you, Shauna. upcoming meetings. We have our next regular meeting of the school board on Tuesday, August 19th at 700 PM here at the district center. At this time, we will move to agenda item 2.2, superintendence report. Wonderful. Uh thank you, Diane.
I've several things this evening. Uh starting with student and program recognition. Uh Irondale High School's Nightcrawler Robotics Team uh took first place at the Minnesota State High School League state championship. Uh the team uh partnered with students from Peekquat
Lakes and Becker to defeat the teams from Rochester, New London, Spicer, and Sock Center in a tiebreaker match. Uh this is the team's fourth state title. They have also won in 2013, 2014, and 2016. Uh that's just a wonderful program
and we're so proud of them. Uh, also Mountains View High School sophomore Saurin Swenson won the singles title for Class 2A boys tennis at the Minnesota State High School League state tournament in June. Uh, he won in straight sets with a 62 and 64 victory
over his opponent from Weisetta. Over at the state track meet, Mu High School had two track and field state champions. Uh, Casey Popppler in the 1600 meter run and Allison Richtor in the 300 meter hurdles. Uh, Lulu Semakula from Irondale took second place in the
pole vault and the boys team from Mounds View took second place overall. It was just a a great showing from all of our student athletes. And for the 13th consecutive year, the Mountains View School District again won the best communities for educ music
education award presented by the National Association of Music Merchants. Uh, Mount View is one of only nine Minnesota school districts to receive that designation in 2025. So, congratulations to our staff, students, and everyone associated with our music
program. And finally, just a followup uh related to staff recognition. I wanted to let the public know that more than 2500 thank you notes were sent out to district staff during our staff appreciation week that we held in May. Um, and we just want to thank everyone
who took the time to reach out, send a note, and uh, thank our wonderful, amazing staff members. And that concludes my report this evening. Great. Thanks, Superintendent Lennox. We'll now move on to item 3.0, approval of the consent agenda. I would entertain a
motion. So moved. Second. The agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next up um is
4.1 resolution detailing capital projects levy for technology safety and security and calling for a special election. Um I'd like to welcome um Superintendent Lennox. Thank you. Um I
wanted to come um and sit out front. I think this is an important uh item that I want to make sure um the the community is tuned into. Um and really the the next two agenda items are connected to budgeting for for our future. But uh
this first item 4.1 uh focuses on a on a resolution and that resolution outlines the capital projects levy uh that is focused on safety, security and technology and as um chair gline stated
also calls for a ballot question next November. So, I was want to spend a little bit of time providing some background for the public on how we're arriving here today. So, as I I think everyone knows, safety uh and security
for our students, staff, and and schools has been and will continue to be an ongoing priority for us in in this district. Uh and over the last two years, we've also been focusing on some district goals related to to technology.
During that time, we've we've completed actually several uh technology audits. Uh two around safety and cyber security and one that that took a look at the learning environment in our in our classrooms and our schools. Uh through
that work, we really started to identify recommendations that we thought were important uh for us to look at. Uh and we've outlined some plans about how we want to to move forward with those recommendations that came from the audits. One of the things that became
clear as we continued to have conversations around those areas was that funding these efforts really was going to need to be u a focus and a priority moving forward. So that led us to start looking for for solutions. How how would we do that and how will we
move forward with these plans? Um, many might not know, I know as board members, you know, but in the public that currently any of our technology uh uh funding that we do is coming out of our our general fund. Uh we do not have a separate dedicated funding source at
this time for those technology um for those technology needs. That can that can really put them in competition uh with other classroom and learning needs. uh it's a it's a difficult position to be able to maintain the programs and
services that everyone has come to expect in this district and also make a priority of funding safety, security and and technology. Now, fortunately, the state does allow school districts to access dedicated funding for those
purposes. and our resol resolution tonight that that is in front of you in your packets really is the start of moving forward with that process ultimately culminating uh with a community vote next November. So for the public a little bit more background
information um through the work we've done over the last several years really looking at our our technology in the district and the district operational goals we've worked through. Uh here's a few things we've learned. First and
foremost is that our schools are safe, but they could be safer. Um I think our school district has recognized that we are now not just Mounds View, but school districts generally one of the top targets for cyber criminals. Um healthc
care, finance, and school districts really uh are targets. And our district team along with our security vendors have uh shared with us that we face daily challenges. Uh people trying to access our information, access our data.
Um attacks coming from the outside really looking to get into our school district. And we want to make sure we're uh forming the right security measures we need to protect our again our staff, our students, and and all of our data, our school safety and security uh
equipment. We've learned over time, you know, some of that's becoming dated. We need to take a look at that. We need some refresh to happen um to our existing equipment. We also have areas where we probably could use some additional equipment uh across across the district. Um and that would be
things like when people say, "Well, what do you mean by technology security? What what does that look and how would that work?" Well, I think if you went to any of our sites, they would they would provide information like security cameras, uh radios. uh we have them. They are becoming dated. Probably need
to be refurbished, refreshed. And in certain areas, we could use maybe some more radios. We could use some more uh some more cameras as we go forward. I should also say when we talk radios, it's walkie-talkies, right? People are think, well, radios, what do we got kids back carrying around the radio? Nope.
Nope. These we're talking about communication uh devices, the walkie-talkies that we use in schools. And certainly those are are pretty powerful and need to be to get through some of the cement walls and buildings and travel in the spaces we need them uh to to make sure that we're uh continuing
communication for our staff. Uh another thing that's come up visitor management equipment. So we want to make sure that as people uh visit our schools that we can record who's coming, who's going uh letting them in and having access to our sites. We want to make sure that we have
uh up-to-date software, up-to-date equipment uh in our front offices as as uh folks come to visit our schools. Um we've also talked about the need for upgraded inschool communication. I think many of us of an age remember the old uh
PA systems where they tap on the microphone and attention staff and students. Um those days are gone. I mean we really have moved to digital communication. Much of it can be done now through PAS and phone systems. Uh but what what we've really learned is
there are now digital display options within classrooms and within schools. So if you think about an an incident that's happened, maybe it's a hold. We put kids in a hold for a medical emergency. We need to transport a student or staff member from point A point B. We don't want anyone in the halls. We won't need
that clear to be able to do that. When we get on the PA and announce we're in a hold, people's minds tend to go places that they don't need to. It's usually a worst case scenario as they start thinking of why am I being held here? Um, with the digital displays, that information can come up. We're in hold.
It's a medical emergency. We expect to be clear in about 10 minutes. I mean, more information comes. It lowers anxiety for our students, for our staff, and frankly for some of the parents who get texts and other information from their own kids about, hey, what's going on? So, we're we're looking at moving in
that direction for sure. Uh, electronic door locks and fobs, that's another we have some we we do have that technology, but that's a a direction we'd like to move in um and do more with uh in the future. Uh if you think about keys, uh
if if we have to give out a key and somebody loses a key, then I may have to replace a lock with a an electronic lock or a fob. uh at any point I can turn off that access. If somebody loses their fob, we shut it off. If some for some reason we don't want somebody to access
a particular space at a particular time, we can set conditions around when they can access and and when they can't access. So that really provides a whole another level of security um as well. But again, tied back to that technology uh that we're that we're using and and
want to continue with in our classrooms. We also have have needs around learning and inner learning spaces. So, our interactive displays and smartboards, some of them have been around a while. They're they're needing a refresh. They're needing a refurbish. They're
needing to be upgraded. So, that's an area of focus. I think as we've talked with staff, they're identifying as something they'd like to see uh happen. Uh equipment is becoming dated uh needing to be updated in classrooms. our
stu our student devices uh our staff devices some of the learning technology whether that's computers tablets other other uh technology devices that we use uh we need to have ongoing replacement cycles they only last so long and then
they need to be replaced uh and upgraded uh moving forward additionally we've talked with some of our our teachers working with steam equipment in and software in our maker spaces those are areas too we've made investments in but again equipment technology becomes dated
and and could be uh upgraded so that kids are having the the best experience they can with that equipment. So those are just some examples of needs we've been we've been talking about with uh with our staff and within the district. Uh you may recall, I know the board
recalls, but if the public is watching us closely, they may remember that we've worked with uh Morris Leatherman Company and earlier this year we actually had Peter Leatherman here to share information uh with the public about the surveys they had completed out in our
community. Uh they had completed both a parent survey as well as a community survey. uh both came back indicating significant support for for the needs we're talking about safety, security, and technology. In fact, they were
specifically asked those who were involved in uh that survey information uh about a question funding uh projects up to $10 million. And and if the public's watching and just hearing said, "Well, I wasn't asked about that and 10
million seems like a lot." Well, I can promise you if you want to sit down with us and start adding up uh the costs of o over 11,000 student district and 1,600 employees, the cost of the cameras, the radios, visitor management, devices for
students and staff, smartboards, etc. Uh it really adds up quickly. It is a significant investment. And again, we're only at this point having access to general fund dollars to make some of those investments. So, what we're looking for really is a dedicated
funding source. We know that in the in the future without that, we will be faced with tough choices. Um, classroom learning over safety and security. And I know I'd prefer to be able to fund both. I I think both are incredibly important.
I think the the community would prefer to fund both. And that's really why we're here tonight. We want to provide that opportunity for our community to have a say in if they think that's important as well uh moving forward. So tonight as a board you have the
opportunity to uh approve this resol resolution which will put a question on the ballot in in November that will provide dedicated funding for school safety. It will provide needed funding for the learning technology we talked
about and at the same time then it will preserve the general fund and the funding that already exists that can be focused on our classrooms. So over the course of the year we've had opportunity to discuss this um administrative uh administration is recommending approval
of that resolution. We believe this is the right direction and as a board with your approval tonight uh we will begin um sharing public information and getting out uh information well in advance of any question uh showing up on
the uh November ballot for the election. So, um, with that, I would again say we are recommending approval of the resolution, and I'd be happy to, uh, open up if board members have any comments or questions. I'd be happy to answer those at this time as well. Thank
you. Any questions? Well, I just reiterate, Chrissy mentioned that um, we've talked about it quite a bit over the last year as a board and um, for everyone in the public to know that we've um, explored these issues um, in work sessions. We um don't
take lightly the responsibility of um going to our residents and and asking for um an increase in taxes. Um but definitely do feel like this is a this is a need. We took you know you and your team um uh put forward as a district uh
uh operational goal two years ago to look at our technology and really do a very thorough audit at that time. And um I think that was the right direction to go to really look at what needs we had and um really get an assessment of of um
risks for our students and our staff and their data. So um glad to hear that you know we've done the homework. We know the reasons. We know um through that audit that we have some needs. We have some gaps and like you said our schools are safe but we want to continue to be
on the front edge of this. This is everchanging as we all know um with right news new new computer software, new phone updates, all those kinds of things for all of us continually in our own lives. We know that all that technology just is continually changing and adapting as well as um you know bad
actors out there trying to get into that data. Great points. Any other questions? All right. Right. I would entertain a motion to adopt the attached resolution.
So moved. Second. The resolution has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. So, we're going to keep um Superintendent
Lennox up for item 4.2 and we're going to welcome Paula Steel, director of finance. um they're going to give us an update on the fiscal year 202526 budget. Fantastic. Well, thank you uh for giving us the opportunity to do
this. Each year, school districts have to adopt a a proposed budget for the upcoming school year. Um this year was a little bit more challenging um with the the delay at the state level going and the legislature going into special session. So that pushed us a a little
bit later in in pulling all of this uh stuff together. So uh in large part we're still waiting for information that we know will be coming from MDE um probably throughout the next weeks u into the summer and and in preparation for the fall. But tonight we are
bringing forward a proposed budget uh based on the information we have at at this time. kind of inherent in the work we do each spring is knowing that as we get updated information, we'll put in those numbers, update it, and bring it back to the board in the fall uh as an
amended budget, right? Once we have the actuals um and bring that back so we can move from projection to actual. I do want to thank Paula for being here uh with me tonight. She uh has put in a ton of time, energy, and effort trying to
pull all of this all of this stuff together. Um she and her team are amazing. Given the the unique circumstances of the year, uh the timing of this and the fact that I've done it a couple times and this is the first time for Paula that I would I would be the
spokesperson and talk us through that. But I just need you to understand how much time, energy, and effort she and her team have put in behind the scenes to to get us where we are uh today. So with that said, um let me highlight a few things for the board uh and the
public. You have your summary budget uh documents uh as board members. And uh first uh one of the things I guess I would say for the public, the the school board knows this. We really do take a conservative approach to budgeting. So
so we intentionally look at at revenue um and and we don't over project. We don't expect more than we think we we would get. We we keep that, you know, really conservative. Uh also with expenses, if anything, we roll, we probably might spend a little bit more,
so we better budget for that just in case. That philosophy has paid dividends for us. I think it really has allowed us to stay in a strong financial position for some number of years. And and we intend to do that moving forward. I think you'll see that reflected in the budget that's uh that's in front of you
this evening as well. So um maybe I'll just highlight a few things in your packet. I am not going to take you through all pages but just some of the highlights. Uh if you wanted to look uh at page one that gives you um an overview of the pro projected revenue
and expenditure uh for the 202526 school year. And really for our purposes tonight I'm going to use rounded amounts. All right. So that's big big numbers. Uh this is reflective of um the general fund on line one. If you look at
that and you'll see revenue of 202 million and expenditures of 214 million and you might look at that or the public might look at this and say wait a minute now wait how how are you expending more than than revenue is coming in. I I need you to understand and the public to
understand that's intentional. Um, and the reason for that is often the way school funding works, we get money that comes in in one fiscal year and we actually wait or need have projects that tail over into a second fiscal year that we end up spending spending that money
uh as we go forward. So we also put money aside knowing and expecting that costs will go up. So we we expect our expenses to go up. Things I mean related to inflation, personnel costs, transportation, uh our utilities likely
go up, facility maintenance, and we just mentioned safety, security, and technology. We also have expenses for that that need to come out of the general fund. So that's another area I think I would highlight for folks looking at that number and just saying, "Okay, talk to me about how those uh two
numbers align." uh the additional information the next lines underneath that you'll notice that these are the additional funds that we have within the school district. So nutrition services and community education really are aligned in terms of revenue and
expenditure. That's more how those um those funds work. Uh building construction and so wait a minute there's no revenue at all but we're we're spending a lot of money in construction. Again that's the way construction work. we get money for the project that comes in and projects can
take multiple years as we move forward. So you'll see expenditures, the revenue has already been booked, if you will, in in the system. And then our debt service fund that really is to pay our principal and interest on on our buildings, similar to how a homeowner might think
about their mortgage, right? Money coming in and that's how we pay our our mortgage, if you will, principal and interest. Moving forward, starting on page two, uh there are several pages that really outline the schoolboard assumptions. We had those in front of
you back in January, uh is when you guys actually approved those, but we use those in in projecting and putting our our budgets together. I will highlight a couple things that are different and changed from when you when you last saw this to what we'll update and use moving
forward. So, as an example, uh the legislature has indexed the per pupil funding that we get to inflation. So, in the middle of page two, you're going to see a basic formula increase um that on on the paper says 7,426.
It's actually 7,481 per pupil. That represents a 2.74% increase. So, we're going to update those numbers. that will be reflected in our budget as we as we move forward. But that's that is one thing the legislature
did. Um we originally had projected 2% but again this is an example of conservativism, right? We're we're we're being conservative in our revenue and actually the state is uh now that they index index to inflation, we're going to see a little bit more. Um the state is
also projecting a one-year hold harmless for compensatory funding. Um we in the packet we talk about using the state um schedule or state um rules to get that funding and distribute it. Uh we have
one more year of that funding uh for us and then we should expect and we'll plan for that to change uh in the second year of this bienium or fiscal year uh 27 as we move forward. So this time next year
you would see adjustments. Well, probably by January as we're looking at some of those um assumptions that needs to change moving forward with that compensatory uh funding. Really, there were no other changes. We didn't make
any changes to uh the instructional um class size ranges or any of the other assumptions within that uh document that you provide us in terms of pulling all of this together. I would jump you ahead then to page four. And on page four, what you will
see there um is the projection for both our unassigned at the top of that page and the assigned or restricted general fund. Uh when totaled together, if you did the math on this, it will add back up to page one. So if you add unassigned
plus assigned restricted, it adds back to the the numbers you just looked at um at page one. But at the top of page four, we've included three years of the projected budgets. Um, you're going to note that the 2023 24 budget looks very
similar to the 2526 budget. Both of those, again, we're using assumptions from the first year funding year of a legislative session. We use many of the same uh assumptions when we go into those years. And that's why I would take
a look and you you'll notice that those are are very similar uh in terms of how we go about projecting a budget for the the following year. Uh the only other thing I would highlight in that section again the top the beginning fund balances pretty stable right I mean
that's maintaining I think that shows the stability of the district and our our financial um uh focus as we as we move forward. So, uh, very little variance, financial stability of the district over time, uh, is important.
Then on pages 5 through 8, uh, all of the detail that goes along with the unassigned and assigned restricted funds, all of the categorical information is all included in in there.
Um, happy at any point to answer uh, questions. The one thing I would note as you go through that is that we've uh the far right column gives you a a percent of proposed budget. So if you're thinking about what are what are you
actually spending our money on, where does it go or what does that look like? Um that column will let you know the percentage that that category is of our of our general fund budget. One of the things I would uh I would call out because I think this is um this is
important is that uh more than 75% of our general fund budget is actually focused on student support and instruction. And we have the graphic on on page eight with the dollar that it kind of explains that. But that is an important focus of the district and and
will continue to be um well into the future. As for the other funds in the district, uh those really start on page nine with nutrition services. So we project receiving 8 million in revenue and
making 8 million in expenditures uh next year. Page 10 provides you again with the categorical funding or the categories within uh the nutrition services fund. Page 11 provides the
community service fund outlook. Again, within that fund, we expect to receive uh eight million in revenue and make $8 million of expenditures. Again, page 12 would provide you with the categorical
funding in community services. Page 13 highlights our construction fund. Again, as I mentioned earlier, you'll note this is an area where there is no revenue. We've already received our revenue. So, we're we're booking expenditures and they're being recorded,
but the revenue was already received for our our construction fund and the construction projects. We do anticipate spending about $17.7 million on projects out of this fund next year.
Page 14 uh contains information about the debt service fund. Again, that is where we're projecting revenue of 14.6 million, expenditures of 14.8. paid. That's the principal and interest payments. That's how we pay for our our buildings, our schools. Um, and page 15
just outlines the bond schedule. So, if anybody were looking and wanted to know what are we what is our LTFM and building bonds, those are all included there on page 15. Finally, pages 16 and 17, uh, we've
provided some graphs of the projected revenue and expenditure by district fund. Uh you'll note that the general fund really makes up more than 80% of our overall financial activity uh with nutrition services uh community service,
construction and debt services making up much smaller percentages of that overall district budget. So tonight I I guess I would just want to conclude reminding uh the board and the public that we'll continue to receive information from MDE
as we have that over the summer. will update all of that information uh and bring it back to you guys in the fall in the in the amended uh budget that we bring to you. Uh the other thing I guess I would I would want you to know and I
think many of you do but for the public too, we've already started our uh the process of auditing this fiscal year. So the auditors have already come spent some time with us. We have them scheduled. Uh we are looking great. Um
so they are uh excited to come in I think and and work with us. Uh I think our reputation I think the work we've done here um attracts right that auditors come in and say yeah great auditing mountains view that's that's wonderful. We're happy happy to do that
and for us and for the public we want to be transparent. So we we do that quickly. We do it upfront as we're just ending the fiscal year. As I said they've already been in they're looking at our books. we're very transparent about what we're doing. Um, and I think that helps us maintain um really a very
solid financial position uh as we move forward. So, uh with that um administration is recommending approval of this uh proposed budget for 25 26 school year and I'd be happy to take any
questions. I'll let Paula grade me later. I don't have a qu go ahead. I was going to say I don't have a question. I just want to really say I appreciate the approach. I feel like again to your points earlier you we do look at this
through a very fiscally conservative lens um and approach to the budget and I just I appreciate that because we've been able to keep class sizes within that same range. Uh I've been on the board now this is my fourth year. I feel like class sizes have have stayed in the
same range. we've been keeping costs um stagnant for families on items like transportation despite transportation costs rising. Um so I do feel like again we we we do a lot of due diligence. We have a lot of different discussions and
then of course the team like Paula and the rest of her team just do some amazing work to make sure that we're managing within the confines right of the budget and and making some hard decisions along the way of course but just making sure that those have very minimal impact on the classroom and on
our students. So I just wanted to say thank you so much and to to you Lennox and uh you Paula and then of course your team for doing such a great job. Thank you. Thanks Elena Jim. Yeah. I know I echo what Yolanda said is quite simply is that thank you for all your good work
on this. Our budget process is long. It's ongoing. It changes. You know, our fiscal year starts July 1 and we get over 60% of our funding from the state and we found out what about 10 days ago how much money we're getting from the state. So, it makes it a little bit
challenging that it's June 17th. But um you know we um all um you know work together on this and as for Yolanda says we want the school experience and the classroom experience to be very stable for families and kids and our employees
too. So, um very proud that we approach uh our budgeting very u fiscally conservative and uh even out any bumps that we might see down the road and still be able to do a lot of the great things and innovative things that we do in the district. So, uh thank you for
your good work. Thanks, Jim. Any other comments or questions? All right. Um I would entertain a motion to adopt the 202526 budget as presented. So moved. Second the 2526 budget has been moved and
seconded. Any discussions? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you again, Paula, to you and your team. All right. Now, um we have item 5.1,
approval of policy revisions. And I'd like to turn it over to Heidi Danielson, uh school board vice chair. Great. Um just want to give an update on um our uh policy work. So last summer the board found uh formed a policy subcommittee
was comprised of Alyssa Darren Nelson from our board um myself and a former Mount View board member Amy Jones. Um our policy committee began meeting last fall. We reviewed all of our board policies um and district policies with the goal of aligning the language,
updating policies to reflect um current board processes and reviewing our evaluation dates. The full board has reviewed the suggested changes to the policies at several work sessions throughout the year. There's lots of different policies here. We divide our policies into different categories. We
have a set of policies that cover the board and superintendent um relationship and association. um some policies around board governance um the way we govern ourselves as a board. Ends and goals are the ones that um all the policies that pertain to um uh the way we um
effectively manage our programs and our schools. And so there is a quite a healthy list here of um policies that we are um would like to um recommend that we have reviewed them. We um have two that we'd recommend for deletion. Um,
we've changed the way in which we um get feedback from the public. So, we'd like to delete BG0204 and as well as EG5150, which is naming school district facilities. We haven't used that policy in a while and it was on hold. Um, and
then a whole list of policies that are presented um for approval as revised. Again, most of these policies had um minor language changes to them um updating them to reflect the language of the equity promise. um updating um uh I
think we had some he she and we updated it to they you know some a lot of them were very minor policies um but anyway we would recommend that um um we adopt all of the policies listed here that have been reviewed by the board you any questions no just to thank you
to Heidi and Alyssa for doing this this is kind of long and arduous work but um when we looked at our policies um some of them just didn't apply much anymore. Some of them didn't make great sense. Some of the language and references were antiquated. So, um, you know, something
good to do every 10 years or so. God bless you. Thank you for doing it. Same. Thank you to you. A few long nights, but we made it through. Yes, we appreciate you. Yes, we very much appreciate it. Okay. So I would entertain a motion to adopt the
policies presented as revised and delete the policies recommended for a deletion. So moved. Second. The pol policies have been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any
opposed? Motion carries. Okay. So next up um we are at uh 6 or sorry um 5.2. um superintendent's year-end evaluation. So every um year um we evaluate
superintendent Lennox um midyear and then we do a year-end review um where each of the board members can provide feedback um and um you know any suggestions for areas of improvement. And so this evening um Heidi Danielson
is going to give a brief update on that year-ended evaluation. Heidi? Great. Well, like Diane said, all of the board members got a chance to complete um an assessment and then we met as a group. Um and then uh Diane and I were able to meet with Superintendent Lennox and
share feedback from our from the board. Um I just start by saying as in past evaluations, the board is overwhelmingly grateful for Superintendent Lennox leadership of the district. And again, this year um we we've seen um so many great things happening in our schools. All seven district operational goals
were achieved for this year. And we got a chance to um not only help um decide what those goals were, but hear updates throughout the year. Um and you and your team revised those as you went throughout the year and investigated um what was best for the district. Um and
um board members included feedback about the recognition of the proactive nature of the goals and how well they were implemented. As we looked at Superintendent um Lennox's um management style and leadership skills, I'm just going to summarize a few things that
were brought up um in evaluation by some of our board members. Um we we overwhelmingly feel that Superintendent Lennox builds and communicates a clear shared vision for the district, fosters a culture of equity, collaboration, and innovation, aligns resources with
district goals and priorities, and balances competing interests while keeping student outcomes at the center. So again, we had much more information that we've presented to Superintendent Lennox, but that's kind of a high level overview. Um we're very pleased with the work that um you and your all of your
teams, your 1600 employees have done throughout the year. Um again, for students and families like we keep talking about tonight and uh we're very excited to have you continue on as the leader of our district. Thank you, Heidi. All right, moving on
to item 6.1 updates. Um, Association of Metropolitan School Districts, Legislative Jim. Yes, thank you. Um, AMSD, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, um, we were up at the capital till the last hours and, um,
pleased to report the legislature was once again good to public education. Um, as um our superintendent noted, we did get a 2.74 increase percent per student aid per pupil. Um, some things we care about, Q comp, which supports excellence
in our teachers were was maintained after threatening get getting cut. Uh, paid school, uh, breakfast, lunch, and special ed programs that we had advocated for previously all remained intact. So, really, uh, pleased about that. There's always small little things
like that. There were some small transportation cuts and things like that, but overall I believe it was a pretty positive uh as a matter of fact a very positive uh session for public education and supporting students and their families. So um that is my report.
Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Uh Shauna, um any updates on Northeast Metro 916? Yeah. So, just as a reminder, Northeast Metro 916 is an intermediate school district that Mel View utilizes for some of our special education services as well as career and technical education
programs uh for students in our district. Um so, we met the first Wednesday of this month. Um it was a very routine meeting much like we did tonight. Approved a budget uh for that school district. Uh recognized some staff that were retiring and heard some
highlights about graduations that we had um in the district and we will take the month of July off and we will meet again uh for that board in August. Great. Thank you Shauna. Uh now we have item 6.2 school board member reports. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to
share or report out on? I just like to say I think um many of us have mentioned it previous to um our June commencement ceremonies, but even at those ceremonies, it's one of my favorite times of the year is getting to see all of our students as they've um
acclimated through our schools and and are looking at what's next. So, it's a great time of celebration. I was able to go to several different graduation ceremonies and um I had one person come up to me and say, "You sat through that whole thing." I said it is so much fun for us to see all those students and
their families celebrate the accomplishments of the students and um just see what's next for each of them. So congratulations to each one of the graduates of the district. I got to attend the adult basic education graduation. So for students who for whatever reason didn't finish
their degree when they were in high school, they can come back and um get their GED. So we had quite a few graduates get their um GED. We had also had students get um certified in paraprofessional
some career uh some computer technology things um certified nursing assistant. So, it was a great celebration of our adult learners and really neat to be a part of. Great.
Anything? You're good. And then I also uh got to attend Irondale's graduation ceremony and that was amazing as always uh to uh to be in the room with with so many graduates and be able to shake so many sweaty hands.
It was it's truly a joy uh to see the excitement and and the fun reactions from the from the crowd and and those that come to support the graduate. Uh so it was a great time. I also attended the uh Bounds View Schools Education Foundation board meeting and we had four
board members whose term was up on the board. So we did say goodbye to four great board members. Uh so I wish them all well and then we added uh we got to vote on four new board members joining the foundation board. So uh I just want
to thank those who have served on that board and and those who committed to serve uh a new term. Uh we appreciate the work that you guys do because the foundation just does some really great work to support our mounds schools. So thank you so much for the work that you guys are doing on that board. Thank you.
Yes. and I also was able to attend Irondale's graduation. It was uh bittersweet for me. Um my son, uh graduated, so um there were um a few tears. I'll just be very honest, but it was a very special evening. So, um congratulations again to all of our
graduates. Um if there is nothing else to come before the board, um this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thanks.