I would like to call to order the May 6th regular meeting of the Mountains View School Board. Good evening and welcome. The next order 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? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We'll move on to item 2.1, uh, student representative reports. And it looks like we have both Iron Jale and Mount View representative represented.
So, welcome. Looks like Mountains View is going first. All right. So, this will be the last report for Mountains this year. Um to start we have some sports news. So we do have an Athena Award recipient. Her
name is Kate Reber. She's a senior at Moundsu. She's been highly involved in cross country, track field, and basketball. Um she's received around like 15 allconerence mentions and awards, which is very impressive. She's also um a top 25 school record holder
for three events in track. Um she's also involved in NHS, Mustang Mentors, and FCA or the Fellowship for Christian Athletes. Um she plans to go to university and continue to play basketball. Um and just to give some perspective, there were around 48 participating schools in the metro. So
48 athletes were um recognized in this program. And then next we have our all-state music students. Um these students uh auditioned in February and they just heard back a few weeks ago. Um we have 15 allstaters heading this year. Um the camp will be from July 29th to
August 2nd. Um we have eight orchestra students, four band students, and three choir students. Um and also for all state in general there are around 600 students in all of the ensembles combined. Um and each year thousands of applicants um apply and this year was
particularly competitive because I heard they're trying to balance out school representation. So good job to Mountains View. And then next we have theater. We had our spring musical this past weekend. Showings were from Thursday to Sunday. Um I believe they had sold out
shows on Friday and Saturday. Sorry for the interrupt. Technical difficulties. Difficulties. Yes, we got it. There we go. Thank you. We're back up and running now. Thank you. Anyway, um something unique about this year was that they were able to do a
cast recording of their songs. So, they're professionally recorded. Um, I believe you can find them if you ask them. But, um, they went to a recording studio in St. Paul. Um, and they worked with a sound engineer. The studio was called Born into Royalty. Um, so that was something unique. I believe they
haven't done that before. So, they were able to use these recordings at the shows, which is very cool. Okay. Some trouble with this. All right. Okay. And then we had our NHS mental health walk, which was this past Saturday um, at Long Lake Park. Um, we
brought home 10 medals and senior Emily L brought home five medals. Um, there are 25 participating academy in Menota Heights in Cambridge, Asanti High School in Cambridge. Wow. And then for our last two events, we had a startup contest. Um, if you know the Junior Achievement
Organization, we had two startup um, businesses compete. We have Earth, which is um, a business run by sophomores at Mountains View. They were awarded $6,000 for J company of the year. Um what their business does is they upcycle recycled glass beads into sustainable bracelets
and you can find them selling their bracelets at lunch at Mountains View. And we also have third place uh which went to Girl Ease. Um they won $3,000. Um it's a group of juniors at Mountains View. They made like a compact safety hygiene kit for girls to use in schools.
Um and they'll be able to go to nationals in Atlanta. Cool. And lastly, we have our DECA International Competition, which was also known as ICDC. This was in Orlando at the end of April. Um, we had a junior named Macy Adams. She placed on podium um for
hospitality and tourism with um other international students. They also got to visit Disney World and visit leadership sessions. And then lastly, for May events, we just have signing day tomorrow with 28 seniors getting signed schools. Um they'll be recognized by our activities director, James or Jim Jim
Galvin, sorry. And then we have prom on Saturday, uh, May 10th. Um, it'll be a tangled theme. There'll be grand march at Mountains View dances and rides. Uh, students voted on a theme for the rides, which will be pajamas, but they can opt in if they want to wear PJs or not. I don't know if you want to get your dress
wet, but there's always options. And then we have events for seniors. Uh, we have senior awards night on May 14th. Um, on the last day of school, we're having a senior picnic and we'll be dismissed at 1:00. And then we'll come back later at 8 for a senior sunset for one last sunset together. And then we'll
have senior breakfast at Bethl the morning of graduation. And then um we'll have a senior party at Bolero, I believe. And that's it. Thank you. Very nice job. Appreciate all the updates. Yes. And and congratulations for not
missing a beat as we uh navigated the techies. You didn't miss a beat. So nice job. Thank you. All right, Iron Dale. Okay. All right. So, we have some recent events that have been happening at
Irondale. Let me get a pull up. Okay. Okay. Hello. It's nice to see you all again. Um, and so here are some of the things that have been going on at Irondale within the past month. And so, first is Idle's robotics team. Um it's
called Nightcrawler and they competed in the Arkhammedes division at um nationals and they placed first which was hosted at Houston and Irondale's junior Aomia Mespin um was recognized as a deans list finalist which means that um she was honored as a student who was outstanding
and dedicated to um STEM. So that was nice for her. And then um in terms of athletics, we also had our senior Lulu um who was awarded the Athena Award of uh award um for Irondale High School along with many other seniors
surrounding. And then um an upcoming show at Irondale, we have our uh multicultural show coming up. And so various daspora clubs at Irondale, from the Black Student Union to the Asian Student Union are hosting our the annual annual cultural show. And so students
put on a show full of acts from talents to singing to a fashion show. And then um at the end there's a hot dinner for everyone to enjoy and it's open to um the whole community of New Brighton in Mountsview. And so another exciting event at Irondale was that Irondale's
Women in Law hosted their first lawyer guest speaker which was um Nicole Katwick. She's a criminal defense lawyer and also Carol 11 News was interested in covering that club. So Irondale's Women and Law Club was featured on um the news as a reporter was recording and
interviewing throughout the meeting and it's going to be um broadcasted sometime this week. Cool. And for our speech and debate, we had sections in state within the past month. Um I was first overall. Good job Mounds View though. And our
coach was also uh the coach of the year. So there his peer coaches voted him as a coach of the year. So we love Mr. Gray. Um, and at sections we had 14 finalists. Some of which being Bella, Marley, Kenna, Birdie, Dona, Gwenny, Sam, and
Tegan. Um, but out of the 14, there were six that made it to state. And so, Bana was first in exempt speaking. Um, Ron was 12th in original oratory. Bri was 12th in duo interpretation. Landon was 11th in duo interpretation. Haley was
10th in Great Speeches, and Elsie came in ninth in dramatic interpretation. And so for speech um we have a spectacular um speech member who made a lot of accomplishments this year and her name is Bana. So one of her accomplishments was that she was first
out of 35 students in the prestigious tournament of champions at Northwestern University. And she was also second in exempt speaking and first in impromptu speaking. And Irondale placed third overall even though she was the only um Irondale member present there. So good
job to Buana. Wow. And then just continuing to honor Boyanna here, she received, well, Kenna briefly touched on this, but she received first place in the exemp category at the state speech tournament. Um, which is super
notable because she was the first Iron Doll student to win first place at state since 2002. So, we're super excited about that. And we had several other students that were represented there as well. And then also the Ironell Marching Band is holding their first annual garage sale um on May 17th and that's
going to be taking place at Edward Middle School um just to raise funds for the Iron Band because it's a very expensive activity but they're looking forward to that. And then ACE is Irondale's architecture construction and engineering club. Um and they just had
they just competed in their second annual or their annual ACE competition which takes place at the U of M. they have to present their like project to a board of professionals at the O of M and we actually won second place there. Um so they've been working on this project since September um basically to design
like an ideal school and yeah they won second place so we're excited for them and then because of that also there were four students from that team who were awarded scholarships for their work. Cool. And then we also had two student artists who were honored in the White Bear Lake Vision and Verse exhibition.
So AJ Tong um was given an award of excellence for his charcoal drawing and then V. Anderson also won the um MCAD PSCI award for her colored pencil drawing. And their art will be on display through May 16th at the Ford
Family Gallery. And then also the Ironal Drama Department had their spring play called Puffs. It's like loosely based on Harry Potter. Um, but yeah, we had a great turnout for that and the cast had did a great job and had a lot of fun.
And also, this actually happened today, but Irondale's heart club, which is our mental health club, had their mental health walk. This is their fifth annual one, and it occurred after school at Irondale. and they had a bake sale, a nature walk, um a bunch of games, and
then we also had like mental health organization like leaders come in and yeah, it was super fun. And then just some updates on student council. We had our staff breakfast on Monday. So, every year um I know student council puts together a staff breakfast to honor our
staff um for our staff appreciate appreciation week, which is this week. Um so, we had Panera for them and a bunch of snacks. And then also we're in the process still of planning our spring carnival which is going to be May 22nd in the varsity gym. So we're going to
have like game, food trucks, um activities and just a bunch of stuff. And we're still working on advertising and just finalizing those details. And yeah, that's all we have for you guys today. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you. And I just wanted to thank you all for always being here. um
your dedication to making appearances at our board meetings to give us updates and it's always great to hear what's going on in the high schools. So, thank you. Appreciate it so much. We will for sure. Um we'll move on to um item 2.2 announcements
um and gifts. So, Jim, would you like to read the gifts? Certainly. There were six gifts for schools and programs received this period for a total of $10,950. And there were 21 gifts received for the Ralph Reader Food Shelf this period for a total of
$39,869. It is recommended the board accept these gifts and extend thanks to the donors. Thank you, Jim. Upcoming meetings. The next regular um meetings of the school board will be on Tuesday, May 27th at 700 p.m. And the next
meeting after that will be on Tuesday, June 17th at 700 p.m. Uh both here at the uh district center. Uh at this time, we'll move on to agenda item 2.3, superintendence report. Well, thank you, D. I have several things tonight. Um, as
many of you, I think, already know, Edgewood Middle School teacher Zoe Courage was named a finalist in the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award. On Sunday, Zoe was one of 12 educators recognized at the annual banquet. While Zoe was not named this year, our teacher
of the year, we do want to congratulate her on being recognized. One of 12 in the state is just an outstanding accomplishment. So, congratulations, Zoe. We are very proud of you. I also want to highlight the Equity Promise scholarships that were recently awarded
this year. $192,000 in scholarships were distributed to 167 seniors. Uh what a great recognition for our students. And I also want to mention that we so appreciate the Mountains View Schools Education Foundation for partnering with
us to manage all of the annual scholarship contributions. Uh thank you to everyone who helped throughout this process, but most especially congratulations to all of our students who were recipients. Great job. Uh the district art show starts started this
week. Uh kickoff event is this evening over at Irondale High School. Uh this is an annual event where hundreds of pieces of art that are created by our own students from across the district at all ages, all levels are on display in the
commons. Uh the display is open and will remain open from today through the 13th. It's a wonderful opportunity to to really to see some amazing art. So anyone who can, I'd encourage you to stop by Irondale and see the uh amazing
display of art from our students. And then finally, uh this week, May 5th through the 9th, uh Mu Public Schools is recognizing all of our staff during staff appreciation week. Each day this week, you can see an employee group that's being highlighted on our social
media pages. Over the course of the week, we want to encourage anyone uh to take the opportunity to send notes of appreciation to our Mountains View Public Schools staff. Um I know these notes are really truly appreciated. When you talk to the staff, they love getting
these. So, uh last year there were more than 3,200 cards that were sent out acknowledging our staff members. And if you are interested and able, I would encourage the public to visit mvpschools.org backthank
uh to get more information and to be able to create your own custom card for the employees of your choice. So love to see them sent off. And that will end my report this evening. Thank you, Superintendent Lennox. We will 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? Um all in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh next up, um
is 4.1 survey presentation and we'd like to welcome up Peter Leatherman um CEO of the Morris Leatherman Company to join us. Good evening. Hello. It's a pleasure to be back be to be back with you to go over these results. Um,
just to review with everybody what we undertook for the district. We spoke with 500 randomly selected residents across the community. Interviews were conducted between March 26th and April 9th. And like I mentioned at the work session, um you were right in the divide
of economic uh shift uh with uh the tariff liberation day uh on April 2nd. Um I still am not seeing it impacted. We've run three more surveys this week for school districts. So I'm not quite sure. The macroeconomic situation like we talked about is a factor for school
districts. Uh it was a factor in 23 24 and it will be a factor in 25. We just don't know how it's going to play out yet. Average interview time was 12 minutes. Non-response rate was six and a half percent. Uh the 500 samples projectable at the plus or minus four and a half percent in 95 out of 100
cases. And then putting up some demographics so everyone can see the profile of the sample. 65% were cell phoneon households. Uh 10% they still exist are landline only. And then both landline and cell phone are 25%.
Continuing with the demographics, how long has the resident lived in the school district? Uh we have that screen's too small with my cheaters. Uh we have 19% that have been in the district for 5 years or less, while we have 34% that
have been in the district for over 20 years. Uh the typical resident comes in just under 15 years of residency. 13% have a preschooler or a child in or an infant. 23% have a child attending the Mountains View School
District. And then 73% are empty nesters. An empty neester does not conotate an age. It's just lack of presence of a child. So your core constituency is about one in four of the residents as you look through the results. 24% are 18 to 34 year olds.
Well, 38% are over the age of 55. Uh typical resident comes in right at about 48 years old. Continuing with the demographics, uh we looked at uh the respondents ethnicity, 70% white, 14% Hispanic,
Latino, 6% each African-American or actually reverse that African-Americans were 14% 6% each Hispanic Latino and Asian and 2% or 4% were two uh ethnicities or more. the financially stressed and this is what's we're going
to watch for in the coming months. Um, but at the time of your survey, you were a little bit below what we're seeing in the first quarter of 25. We're seeing about 45% of folks saying they were financially stressed. It's down from where we were at the high of 20 uh 23 in
the first half of the year where we hit 60% financially stressed. So, it is moving in the right direction, but it is still a factor for school districts as they plan for funding requests. Uh because that number is still yours is about 15 points higher than it was pre-
pandemic. Um and what that does is create more folks that would support something, they simply can't afford it. Women outnumbered men and then you by 4% and then you can see the geographic distribution with Shore View and New Brighton. Uh those numbers are based on
the number of registered voters in each of those communities. Looking at some atmospherics in the district, first off, how do they rate the quality of education of the Mounds View School District? Last time it was 88%. This
time it's 93%. It's not a statistically significant change. It has to be 6% or higher to be statistically significant. Um but still uh in comparison to what we're seeing across the metro area and across the state uh the overall rating on quality of education has dropped down
to about 80%. Um and so at a time where it continues to drop yours actually increased. The 93% is among the highest. You do have a bit of a drop in the excellent the enthusiastic rating uh from 51 to 43. But like I talked about
when I was here in 22, you were the only school district that maintained the excellent rating post pandemic. The typical drop was about 40%. Uh and what we have seen now with the excellent rating, as I mentioned, we're at 80%,
the norm excellent rating is about 11%. Um so you're still almost 4x on that enthusias enthusiastic evaluation of the quality of education. What do they like most about the Mounds View School District? Well, first off,
as a singular category, teachers lead the list at 23%. But if we combine good education, good academics, and excellent academics, it's actually 38% of the sample that that is what they value, the academic
quality of the schools. If we combine the variety of programs and broad curriculum, it's 20%. You have a clear leader on this. This varies from district to district. But your folks when they look at the school and make an evaluation of what they like most, it is
the quality of the academics, then the personnel, then the programs and curriculum being taught in the district. Now, if we ask what they like most, we always follow up with what the what is the most serious issue. Um, what leads the list everywhere right now is
lack of funding. Uh it's typically somewhere between 15 and 20%. Of the two surveys I ran this week though, they were actually at 25 and 26%. So I don't know if this is a growing concern coming from discussions from the federal government and the state government.
It's something to monitor. Um it leads your list um and it leads every district list with one in six residents as a top-of-the-line response indicating lack of funding. Everything else is single digits. Um, the one I will point to that you are atypical also is people's
perception on high taxes. We've seen a a real explosion since 2022 of property tax hostility and that typically is around 15% as a top of the mind. We'll talk about their perception of taxes specifically in a few slides, but as a
top of the mind, it's much lower. And then the other uh area that you're unusual on this chart is your booster core. You've always had a very strong booster core of people that see absolutely no problem in the school district at the bottom and that 29% is
about three times the normal uh that we see currently. Now how does the district do in meeting the learning needs of all students? Most only some or very few. The 58% all is among the highest we have
over the past 24 months. Um this has gone down. The norm now is in the low 40s for all students. It's a stringent standard. Um so that 58% is very strong. Now we follow up with the most or only some or very few and ask is there a type
of student whose learning needs is not being met. That's what's arrayed in the upper left hand corner. And that they indicate it's the struggling student, the average and special education. The clear theme and the areas of concern that people have all over the state of
Minnesota. Some specific perceptions. Does the district spend taxpayers money effectively and efficiently? That's up 12 points from 2022. The norm on this now is about 60%.
So, not only are you up statistically significantly to history, um you're up very high in comparison to metro area norms. Are the schools a good value for the investment? Absolutely. That's always been a core value going back to
the 90s with 90 uh with about 90%. Have you been honest about spending? That's up 11 points to 80%. The bottom question is really an important question. Is your planning for a future funding request? And the question is the schools are a good investment and I would support a
property tax increase to protect that investment. The key on this is the no because as the question is framed, it doesn't talk about operating bond capital projects. Um that fleshes out the core no and we always want the the
disagreement to be less than 30% at the outset. Uh the lower that number is does not guarantee success. It just shows a willingness for a discussion in the community for a property tax increase.
How's the district doing a job? Does a a good job of involving the community? That's up six points to 83%. More than 10 points higher than the norm. Do they trust you to do what's right for children? Up eight up uh six points to
85%. You can see 2022 that gets an asterisk on decision- making like we talked about because the decisions back then were well we were past virtual versus in person but then we were talking masking versus not masking and vaccines and all those discussions um
that's actually up 19 points uh in three years uh 85 to13 and then this one I always look at a ratio uh your ratio is better than five to one uh agree disagree and the norm is a little bit below 3:1
currently. And then the final set of perceptions, does a district do a good job of communicating? 10 points higher than the norm, 83%. Are they proud and would recommend the schools? 86% unchanged. And we added the last
question simply with the capital projects levy looking at safety and security. Um because to see if there's high levels of support, do people see it as an issue? It's not an issue that they see. 91% say the district is providing a
safe and secure learning environment currently. Now, some job performance ratings. The board and the administration are both up. Most boards and administrations are up when we're comparing back to 2021 and 22. Uh, but
you're up at a very high level, 79% favorable. The norm bait board rating right now is 60%. on the superintendent in administration, it's it's a better than 4:1 ratio. Uh, you know, 4 and a half to one. The norm
on administrations right now is 2:1. Um, so on both of these statistically significant gains to 2022 and well above the norms and the teachers are up eight points. They were at 82% back in 22. The
90% is not only impressive comparatively to your history, it's also impressive in comparison to what we see because teacher ratings have gone down um to about 80% as a norm uh in 24 and 25. And a lot of it has nothing to do with the
teachers in the district. It's national. It's statewide issues. It's the Minneapolis teacher strike. it it spills over and impacts especially non-parents opinions and attitudes of teaching staff. So very highly
evaluated. Now the value rating when they think about the quality of education uh and the property taxes they pay how do they rate that value? Last time it was 77% this time it's 80%.
uh so statistical type but it's going I mean let's talk let's just put table this for two slides and we're going to talk about something else that's changed because one of the uh prop components of this value proposition people's the
property taxes they pay has gone up um and so even if they think they're paying more for taxes the value is still seen by the quality of education provided here in the school district is the district adequateely funded. Nobody knows. Um we're right
where we were in 22. We can take this back to the Tim Penny years to the Mark Dayton years. Uh really the only time this went uh where we had a majority of people was after the 2021 budget uh legislative session where Governor Walsh
talked about the largest funding increase in the history of Minnesota. And by the fall, 70% of people said yes because the governor said so. Um, now uh it's he's not trusted as much on this, especially when they hear the narrative coming from the legislature, but they
see what districts are doing with the budget cuts, the staff layoffs across the state of Minnesota with the economic insecurity. The other issue is property taxes. Like I mentioned, those the dark green bar is
the perception of total property taxes. you're at 51%. Uh that's above the threshold of 50% uh which would classify you as a hostile property tax climate. Well, but I only have two districts that are under
50% in the last year. Um so every district has a hostile tax climate. It is just the level. Um the 51% is actually pretty good. The norm right now is 60% and the high category. the high I have as a school district that is at
77%. Um, so you're on the lower end of the scale, that just means the lower that number is, the more willingness there is for the discussion. If you're at 77% of people saying, "My taxes are high," you have more people saying, "I'm not willing to have this discussion.
They're already too high. I don't care what the funding's going to be used for." Now you also follow the pattern and it's become even more disparit in the results when you look at their perception of school taxes. It's a 16point drop. So this tells us the
animous on property taxes is not focused at the school district. It's focused at the city or the county. Um and that's that's helpful um that you're not the focus. That's the good news. The bad news is you're the only government entity that has to go to the taxpayers
for a yes vote. The city and county can basically uh do whatever they want without uh going to voters. Are they aware of budget cuts? Um kind of 41%. Like I mentioned in the work session though, you're you're never
going to have a 100% aware that you have not made budget cuts over the past few years. 60 to 70% would be a target and I think it's something to reinforce in a narrative for funding requests. We have not made cuts. Um you do have high
levels and this talks about the the publicity about what other school districts are facing with 62% aware that other districts have made cuts. I mentioned in the work session a real shift o over the last 6
to 12 months on people's valuing of technology and we see it here also on the question of the importance of technologies to student learning. We're down to 62% indicating it's either essential or very important.
Now in 2015 we would have 62% in the absolutely essential category by itself. Um this shift is happening all over. Uh two years ago the absolutely essential was about 45%. It's been cut in half
again. Uh my goal is uh with the statewide that we always do for education over the summer and I share in the fall is to go more in depth in this to try to get an understanding. Um, it really is important for school districts to understand this because as you shift from absolutely essential to very
important, technology becomes a nice to have, not a have to have. That's the value proposition. Now, how do they view the technology opportunities in the Mountains View School District? Uh, they're good. They're 84% favorable, but
the vast majority of it being uh, good. So any discussion of technology funding, it's how you're going to move from good to excellent, but not just for technology sake. Think back to what they like most, the academic quality. How is
the technology in the classroom going to improve that the quality of education students are receiving? If they heard the district was going to ask for a property tax increase, are they for all, against all, or are they persuadable? You start out one point
ahead. 26% are for all, 25% or against all. Uh, a great place to be. Uh, what I have right now, first quarter at 25 is a minus 4 uh with 4% more opposition than support. But the key is obviously going to be the persuadables.
If we ask about a tax tolerance for a capital projects levy, 25% say nothing. Well below the threshold of 35%. 18% say $5 a month. 24% say 10. And
then we have 30% at 15 or more. The typical resident comes in, we take out the nothing. We're not going to let them drag down the average. Those willing to accept a property tax increase, it's about 12 bucks a month. about 150 bucks a year at the outset, but the key is
always what the funding's used for. So, what we told folks uh and asked about was a $10 million capital projects levy. They were told it would be used to fund safety and security, cyber security and data privacy, computer hardware,
software, technology support. They were told on a $300,000 home it would be $15 a month. on a $400,000 home, it would be $21 a month. So on the average home, you're talking about $18 a month. So about 50% higher, but because it's
linked back to what they value and especially safety and security. And once again, that's why we asked the question, 91% rate safety and security highly, it's not seen as a deficiency. It's basically now safety and security investment is seen as an insurance
policy by residents in every school district. um you come out with 67% support to 31% opposition. What's the reason for their decision on the levy? Um education's
important. The cost is reasonable. Uh 10% say it's needed. Uh if we look at the other side, taxes are already too high. No children, cost too high, poor spending. The need proposition 10% to 3%. over the course of a campaign, what
will lead, it led to yours in the bond referendum, it led it in the operating levy. Um, it need will go to the top and the the importance of having it, the logical consequences of of it failing. Testing a few statements in
support and opposition. What resonates with folks? Um, it is the safety message. In this day and age, it is absolutely essential to invest in the best safety and security measures available to schools. Then it's the important to invest in technology- based
cyber security and data security at our schools. Up-to-date technology is the key to ensuring students have connection to anytime, anywhere learning. And at the bottom of every list of arguments, like we talked about at the work session, it still works in amongst
supporters, but the Mountains View Public Schools is one of the few Metro School Districts without a technology levy. The comparison to the neighbors really is not a key message that resonates with persuadables in any school district. Now, what would be the
reasons for opposition that would resonate? Not surprisingly, and it's the factor completely outside of your control, and that is with inflation and the cost of living increasing, many cannot afford a property tax increase. And then local property taxes are going
up too quickly. We just can't afford to put more taxes for education on the backs of homeowners. And then we drop down. Tech uh is uh given too much emphasis in schools today. And the funding is adequate. uh those arguments,
those two arguments operate in the echo chamber of opposition. Where the persuadables can be moved in your favor, it's safety and security. Uh with the opposition, the persuadable messages, it's the macro. It's the economic
insecurity and its property taxes. It's not unique whatsoever. Overall, what can we say? The atmospherics are really impressive in the school district. Um, you were impressive in 22 in the I don't know the
middle tail end of the pandemic, however we classify 2022. Um, but you have rebounded at a higher level than many other school districts. Um, you have the issue of property taxes, not the level. Um the but the focus of the concern on
property taxes is not school directed. It's the city and county. Um you're one of the few school districts in the past 18 months looking at funding requests um where I can say what we tested has a high probability of success. Um there's
not I normally I go in and say you need to drop the price. You need to look at two questions. I'll be going to a district next week where I'll say you can't go. there's no chance of passage. Um you're one of the few uniquely positioned right now that all things
being equal uh with the economy um with cities and counties making wise decisions for property tax levy increases in the fall. Um a $10 million capital projects levy would have a high chance of success. Be happy to answer
any questions. You have a question. We asked back to the quality issue. Um I I know we had 2022 had co I think you and um uh Bill did our one previous to that. Are we you
at 93? Are we back kind of where we were postco? Yeah. As for my assistance. Yeah. In the in the low 90s. Absolutely. Did you ask at a time where others continue to drop one I ran this afternoon as 75%
favorable. Okay. Yes. Thank you very much. We talked about this in great length at the work session um this past Thursday. So a lot of the questions were answered at that point in time. But thank you so much, Peter, for being here tonight and giving us that uh readout update. Super
pleasure. Thank you. Have a good night. Um we will now move on to item 4.2 uh DOP goal update uh community resource center. So we'd like to welcome up Jen Lodin uh executive director of student support and engagement and Carl Brown,
director of community education. Thank you. Um good evening. So tonight, Carl and I are here to provide our um final report regarding the goal um looking at exploring the development of a community resource center. And um as you know, for for more than four decades, the Ralph Freeder
Food Shelf has stood as a trusted resource for our families in our district and surrounding neighborhoods. As community needs have grown, the Food Shelf has increasingly served families with resources that go beyond food insecurity. So Carl's gonna um start us off with an update on some of that
information regarding um the food shelf. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um like Jen said, I'm going to provide just some basic updates uh for um last full calendar year, give you a little bit of information on this uh year and then also a little bit of historical information over the last few years. So
um to start out with basic food shelf utilization, that's um individuals coming in and getting food resources and other things at the food shelf. Last year we had third over 38,000 individuals served and that would include the number of individuals in a household with the vast majority of families coming in being um parents with
kids uh living in our immediate district area. Um from 2021 to 2024 we've seen an increase of 34.5%. So the the need is definitely growing um in our community. I would say that um we're probably have slight
growth right now in 2025, but really it's you're seeing a lot of it where higher food costs are contributing to new people coming in. Maybe people that when food was less expensive didn't have the need. Now that uh the dollar doesn't go as far, it's definitely impacting uh families. We also have uh big school um
programs at Snackpack and Smart Snack at a number of our schools. Um within those programs, they're either providing snacks for kids or weekend snack or food programs for students. We have close to 20,000 um snack packs and smart snacks that were distributed in 2024 and that
was about a 20 22% increase over 2023 and we've seen strong interest in that with um kids and families in our schools. Um really a lot of um generous donations from our comm community that I'll talk about in a moment. Um also we have an annual school supply program that is in August. We're gearing up for
that in the coming school year as well. Um for that we've consistently over the last few years uh served between 900 and a little over a thousand students every time and that's backpacks, notebooks, and the basic school supplies. Uh been a great service that time of year as school uh school supplies are, you know,
being purchased. But then any additional supplies we have are shared out with the schools. So um we usually get great donations and then just because you buy them in August doesn't mean you can get through the full year. So having more available has been helpful. Uh we also have an annual Operation Joy holiday gift and toy drive. um working at with
the MUI Community Center for a number of years and different community partners. Um we've served close to 400 families that works out to be about a thousand children. So it's been a very popular and wellreceived u piece providing holiday gifts and other resources around those times of year. Um with all this I
just want to um give the opportunity. We're very fortunate in our community to have really strong community support. And by that I mean hundreds of volunteers annually. Um very generous financial support from individuals and businesses in our community groups. So I want to say thank you for all of that continued support um and helping people
um in our community that have needs. Um also that as our community needs increase, we continue to ask for the financial aid and volunteer support of our community so we can continue this work. It's it's critical uh to the work that we're doing. Um, a few upcoming things I just wanted to share partly this time of year is
that uh, summer food programs. So, we do a lot of work during the school year. We also have food programs and breakfast and lunch for kids during the school year. Summer can be a challenging time. Um, all students that are receiving um, any support over the food shelf would know that it continues. we're open in the summer and and resources are
available, but for students that may be receiving the snack pack or smart snacks, um they will receive information on how they can tap into resources with their family during uh summer times. Um we also have summer meal programs. I have a flyer, but there's one that'll be distributed u with our nutrition
services and partnerships with um the state and Ramsey County. Um we will have two sites, Pike Lake Education Center and Pinewood Elementary will have a summer meal available for all students. um really concentrated in our district, but it's really for any student in the state 18 and under can come there. It's
during the four weeks of our summer uh program. So, those will be available. And then uh we're also gearing up uh participating and looking forward to participating in the community resource fair at Mount Community Center. Um, I know Jen will talk more about our partnerships, but it's a great example of where where we
are there and have resources available, but we're with a lot of other community partners just helping to know that we're not the only ones in the area that are providing support. Thanks. Thanks, Carl. um recognizing that school systems and the Raler food shelf cannot address all of the community needs alone. That is part of
the reason why we needed to look at um developing this idea around a community resource center and understanding that those direct impacts also impact our students learning and readiness. And so we started exploring um this goal throughout the year. As you'll recall, we were here in the fall in September
when we had Mary Sue Hansen um the director of Suburban Ramsey Family Collaborative come in and provide an update on that partnership. and um we are in process right now of finding um her replacement, but we'll continue um those partnerships that are strong. Um we were back then on April 3rd during a
work session to provide you an update and then this evening we're doing our um final report. As the planning um has pro um has progressed and conversations with partners have evolved, we have refined our approach. Rather than pursuing a single physical location for a community
resource center, we are really shifting towards strengthening our coordinated network of support that leverages our strong existing partnership and focuses on streamlined access. This updated direction allows for broader reach, less duplication, more flexibility, and
family centered support. This refined model will include a formalized referral and resource network that will link schools, nonprofits, county services, and community groups. A shared needs assessment process that allows multiple partners to consistently identify and
respond to family and student needs. And we will utilize um the existing community spaces and programs to meet families where they are without the need for a centralized site. This approach reflects both fiscal responsibility and responsiveness to students and families.
It emphasizes the value of trusted relationships, ensuring that support is not only integrated across systems, but also delivered through the people and places where families already feel connected for families who may not yet be engaged or aware of the available
resources. This model creates multiple entry points for connections through the schools, cultural liaison, community events, and our partner organizations. By meeting families where they are and inviting them into a support network, we continue to foster stronger
relationships, reduce barriers, and promote access to services. Um so as you might recall throughout the year um Carl and I engaged in um a few different strategies around analyzing trends, identifying additional barriers and those unmet needs to help us understand
who those partners need to be. Um we've continued to identify those current county and community service providers, identify any service gaps or redundancies that we may see. Um and then part of this work will be really looking at that needs assessment and the
partner roles and responsibilities. Um of course this work will not end not end this year. It'll continue into next year. And we will look at finalizing and implementing that shared needs assessment and process across not only our schools but those part partner agencies. Really look at
our partnership structure and then look at the tools systems for services integration and coordination. We also know that metrics and to understand what the impact will be across the community will be really a valuable part of this and the evaluation. And then really continuing
to look at opportunities for sustained funding and any training that may be needed for our community partners or for our school um system. And so that ends our report. Amazing. Any questions or things you'd like to know more about? I
have a question. When is the um the community resource fair? Do you have that date? I don't have the date right now, but it typically early September. Early September. Okay. From the time when school starts. Okay. Thank you, Pat. Does anyone else have any other
questions? Not many questions, but thanks so much. Um I know that um so many in our community have so many needs and it's really hard to know where to go and and I think it's great to continue to just work with all of our staff members across the district to be
that entry point wherever that is. Um, so I think it's it's a great um I appreciate all the work to to make sure that we're not missing anybody, that we don't have any gaps in that, but I think that makes the most sense to really um support students and support families um
with that connection with any um any adult that they know in our district that can point them in the right direction. And I just wanted to also acknowledge you for the the holistic approach, right? Um and I I think there is um
maybe some folks that might think, well, gosh, is it this is it the district's responsibility to provide all of these resources, etc., etc. Um, and I I think one of the things that you have made really clear and that has been important
to us as a board is does it affect the child's um academic success, right? um and keeping that as the center focus and any barriers that that do show up in a child's world um yes affects their their
uh that that affects their academics in a negative way. That's what what makes it the thing. So, thank you for keeping the thing the thing and for doing so much work to really get down to root cause and all we can do to support them. Well, I'd just like to say thank you. Um
Jen and Carl are the face of the work tonight, but there are so many people in our school system, in the community, in the network. I like the concept of the network. I mean, you I don't know if you caught you heard, but but it's different than a go to this place there. There are
so many places. Um, and I think this work really has engaged and energized people around how can we help our our students in our community. Alyssa, you're absolutely right. this. Why schools? Because the kids are here. Yeah. I mean, they all come here. And
so, if we're going to remove barriers for them and their families, then they can re-engage in the learning that we're here. That really is our mission. But having these partners, having this community, we are resourceri blessed. And I just I know you're here tonight. Uh, you know, kind of a final report is
the face of this, but there just thank you to you, your teams, and everyone out there who's been part of this because it's been tremendous work. uh has been tremendous work this year. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it correlates really well with what we just talked about or heard about. I mean, that's part of our stewardship and part of our
fiscal responsibility, too, right? To make sure that we're managing those resources effectively as well. And this network allows us to do that. It allows us to tap into that network where the need is, when the need arises. I know there's been many examples of that
throughout this year that we could point to. I won't call them out specifically, but I know those families that were impacted truly appreciated how we were able to mobilize resources when needed to support our students and families. So, and I think that we do that in a very fiscally responsible way. Um, so I
just appreciate the work that you guys are doing to to support, you know, the students and the staff. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Uh now we're on to item 5.1 DOT goal
update uh comm um the implement technology audit recommendations. So we'll like to welcome up John Perry, director of technology. Thanks for having me here being here. Um so just a little bit of history. I was uh in front of the board, I believe
it was back in September to talk about the DOC call and we've had a couple updates through the year and so I'm here to kind of close out the the year of work and let you know where everything landed and what's been done. Um the foundation of the work that we did this
year was all around the 2324 DOP goals. In 2324 we did the FR secure and true north assessments. And so moving forward from that, the idea was we would implement the recommendations in those assessments. Um, one thing that was I
think very important to to doing that was recognizing that some of those recommendations were the quick and easys and some of them took a lot more thought. And so um, we approached this with a sprint and marathon. Uh, that was the language we talked about in September. So what is what is really
desirable, feasible, and sustainable for us to just go and and get at this year? and what do we need to take more time and talk to folks and plan for that long-term direction uh that the department takes. Um so to do that um we
breaking that up into the two pieces to talk about the sprint a little bit. What did we get done this year? Um it's quite a bit. The three different areas that we're sort of evaluating technology through uh is our educational technology, operational technology, and
all of the cyber security or our secure business infrastructure. And so you think about it, we have the learning side of the house. What are what do teachers and students and parents need? We have the business side of the house. We need to run payroll and HR systems and communications. Um and then that operations piece in the middle is how do
we keep it all running reliably so people can focus on the work or the learning and not on the technology. Um in the area of educational technology uh really what we focused on this year was replacing things that are broken. And if you look at that assessment that was
done there's a lot of comments about smartboards in classrooms or displays that aren't working. Um some frustration around teacher devices. And so we've we've tripled down on our efforts this year to replace any broken technology and make sure folks are getting the
support that they need. Um a part of that getting to that operational piece is really well how do people ask for support? How do you get support? What if something's not working? What do we do? So we've made some changes to our help ticket system. Um there's multiple ways for classrooms to request and receive
support. Now they have an on-site technician they can go to. they can use our electronic help ticket system or they can call our help desk. Uh and we're encouraging people to reach out in whatever way is comfortable for them to make sure that they get the support they need. Um on the third side of that is
the secure business infrastructure and this is where most of the work was done this year. Um and that is in part the nature of the assessment. The FR secure assessment was very clear about here are the steps that we recommend you take to improve your security posture. Um whereas if you look at things on the
educational side, it has a little bit more to do with how do we structure the long-term budgeting and support for how we implement the technologies that we that we use. Uh and I think people at home will have be able to relate to this. You know, if you have a an 8 n 10 year old computer at home, it's probably
not very reliable, not very fast, right? And so as we get to um those planful replacements of obsolete equipment, that's a core component to making sure that staff and students have a reliable piece of technology in their hands. And
I think that we do a pretty good job on that. But the assessment did point out areas where we need to improve. And so that'll be a multi-year process. Um but getting back to the secure business infrastructure side of things, um we really focused on improving our security
documentation. So modern security programs uh demand that you have what they call your government's document. So how are you securing your network? What are your standards for encryption, for VPNs, for authentication? It gets very complicated. uh and I won't go into all
that detail here, but I will highlight that we uh made specific improvements for MFA or multiffactor authentication of our staff, which is recommended by the federal government as one of the number one things we can do to keep our data safe. We implemented an event log monitoring solution, sometimes referred
to as a SIM solution, that monitors all of our core systems 24 hours a day, seven days a week, uh for abnormal activity, so that we know if somebody's trying to get in. And so that early warning system is probably one of the most important things we could have done this year to improve our security. We
also implemented a robust uh patch management solution to make sure that all of our software on all of our workstations stays up to date. When those notices come out that there's a new vulnerability, we are pushing a patch that day. That happens immediately. It doesn't take a week. It
doesn't take a month. So the team is very focused on what we call those zeroday vulnerabilities. when something is discovered, we're responding to it. Um, we did some network segment isolation. So, that's where you take things like your HVAC systems and move it onto its own network. Those systems
typically have more vulnerabilities because they aren't updated as frequently. Um, there's there can be times where you have to spend half a million dollars to update an HVAC system that works and you say, "Well, why?" Oh, it's running Windows XP, you know. So, um, you're not always going to do that.
You're not going to spend that. you just isolate that system so that it doesn't impact the other systems on your network. Um, just to break it down to basic numbers, last year FR secure did the assessment. They gave us a score. So, it's a score out of 850. 850 is like
that theoretical score you would hit. Um, and they gave us a 689. Um, this year we redid the assessment. We just completed that this month, this past month. Um, and they gave us a score of 734. Um that's a huge improvement in
terms of cyber security. Um and really it comes down to some of those key areas I discussed uh equate to that. Um it it it's not all about that money though, right? It's really about are we ensuring that our that our systems are secure that we're not uh putting our
students data or our staff data in a position of vulnerability. Um, and I think some of the decisions that were made even before I got here in terms of how the department was going to move forward with those security plans was really well thought out and the team did an excellent job with
that. Um, in terms of the marathon, getting into more methodical technology planning. What is the technology system that we want to run that best supports the academic outcomes that we expect to see, right? Um so to do that we we
stepped back and we we kind of talked about what what is the mission of the technology department here and uh subject to change but the where we are currently is that the Mounds View information technology department exists to support the education and business operations of district 621 by providing
secure and effective management of the district's technology systems providing staff students and parents with help resolving technology related issues and by bringing forward innovative solutions that foster improvements across the organization. I think of technology in
this context as the road. People got places to go, they have things to deliver. We don't want them thinking about technology. Uh we want them thinking about the learning that needs to happen. And we support that when we provide that stable foundation for them to work on. Um and I think that mission
statement gets at that. There are three core principles that we bring to bear as we wrote the goals for this technology plan. The first is regular and reliable access. So I probably mentioned that last year. Um classrooms will not cannot use technology that is not something
that they know they will regularly have access to and they know it's going to work when it's in their hands. And so whether it's the interactive board in the front of the room or um you know clicker response systems or whatever the history of technology has brought, teachers have learned if it's reliable, I'll use it. If it's not, I won't. So we
need to focus on reliable technologies that we can deliver. We need to fully support teachers, staff, and students. So I'm talking about the human support. So everybody gets stuck. Um something isn't working. Sometimes that's because I don't know how. Sometimes it's because
my technology just failed. Uh and so we need to make sure that we have that fast, rapid response when when staff need that support. And then the third principle is seamless and secure access to resources. And when you think about the emphasis that we have now on
security in school districts, you can get into this tugof-war. Are we going to be secure or are systems going to be usable? And those can feel oppositional. Um, and this principle is saying that we have to find ways to move forward that are not oppositional. We have to do
things with better security and with better ease of use and access. Uh, getting back to, you know, kind of that invisibility, something I I like to talk about is the light switch technology. When when people walk in a room and they hit the light switch, they don't even think about it. You come in, you hit the
lights, the lights are on. You're in here to have a board meeting, you're going to have a class session, you're going to clean your room, whatever your activity is, the lights are a given, right? And we need the technology to behave that way. So when people come in and they need to use technology as a part of their job or their their
learning, it just works. I'm thinking about math. I'm thinking about social studies. I'm not thinking about Chromebooks or websites. Um so that's that's really important to how we write the goals. The goals and benchmarks of the plan are the framework for how we expect
our technology program to develop. And given where we're at and what came back in the assessments, I think it was really important that we focus on the foundational uh pieces of of the program. So what's most core? Um let's just make sure that we have that well
defined especially from a budgetary standpoint. Um and that we can by defining that we can make it clear to staff and and students what it what is the program that we're making available to you so that you know what those expectations are. And that can be as
simple as if I need help with X, what website do I use? What tool do I what tool do I pull out? Where do I go? Um, and so taking a simple example like um maybe learning to type, right? There's there's a hundred solutions out there. I need to know what ours is. And so we need to make sure that that's being
communicated. And in that example, I think it is well communicated um around educational technology. Uh so we're ensuring that systems are connected, that data is shared, and that training and support is available. Um, so the goals focus on defining classroom
hardware standards, defining classroom software tools, defining acceptable use, uh, including like our our content filter rules so that people know what websites they have access to enhance the learning in the classroom. Uh, there's a focus on systems integration to make
sure that when I get on to systems, the system knows who I am and the data that it needs to know about me is there. So, as I move through my day from English to history to social studies, I'm requesting transcripts, enrolling in a new course, it feels seamless to me because systems are integrated. And then
the last piece is training and support. So, if we've defined what our standard tools are, then we can do a lot more to develop the training and support that our that our staff needs from us. In terms of operational technology, this is really budget. It's knowing, okay, what does our what does our laptop fleet look
like? And if we're going to run a five to six year obsolescence, how many laptops are we buying a year? If we have these interactive displays on the wall, what's the life of a display? How many displays do we we have in the system? So, how many do we need to purchase every year? How many students are using
Chromebooks? What does that refresh cycle look like? So that we know what these fixed costs are and we're not uh caught off guard when all of a sudden we find out, oh, we've got this huge technology refresh and we didn't know it was coming. So just making sure that that's in the plan, that the plan's looking out multiple years um so that
other district leaders, superintendent, finance folks know what what costs we're going to anticipate. In terms of cyber security, we're focusing on ensuring that we operate uh a security program in alignment with industry best practices. Typically, that's going to be NIST, the
National Institute for Standard Technology. Um we're going to continue to define and refine our security processes. Part of that is we are going to continue to assess and implement security improvements to maintain our secure status. So we did the FR secure assessment last year, we repeated it
this year. Where were we? Where are we now? The plan would be to do it again next year. Keep making sure we're making progress and hearing what those recommendations are. Especially bearing in mind the industry is changing so quickly. Um there's new recommendations, there's new threats. And so this is
really helping ensure that we are staying on the forefront of of those security recommendations. Um we need to so when we talk about those data exchanges for student systems, we have to make sure that's secure. Data is encrypted at rest, encrypted in transit, encrypted
everywhere. Um a lot of the data breaches you see recently had happened because of thirdparty access to a system that had nothing to do with the school district, had to do with the vendor, but then the data in the system wasn't encrypted. So, how can we push our vendors to be more responsible with our
data? Um, and some of that is contracts, uh, use agreements, um, and and really data data protection agreements that that we'll be implementing. Uh, we need to implement secure authentication processes. So, everybody's familiar with multiffactor authentication. I think now um, our
students don't currently multiffactor. So, that's an area for us to look at. Um, and then also to make sure that we are making more use of those kinds of technologies. But again, not at the cost of usability. You know, teachers need to they've got 43 minutes with kids or whatever that class period is, and we
need them not having to fool around with authentication. So, make it secure. Um, but also make it very easy to use. And I might think of the example like when you're at the doctor's office, they're they're counting the minutes, right? And they come in and they can very securely log into that machine, take care of business, and get out. We want to make
sure teachers are they're logged in. They're ready to go. Um, we are looking at business continuity planning. So, that was one of the recommendations. It's definitely a long-term recommendation. It's basically where you answer the question, what if what if there's no power for a month? What if
your data gets encrypted? What if uh the sky falls? How are you going to function as an educational institution? What are your what's your plan B for every system you have? And so, that's a process that will probably take years to develop um to maturity. Uh and then we need to uh
continue and improve the cyber security training that we're offering to staff. So what a lot of people will tell you is that your biggest weakness is people because we can I can be tired and I give away my login credentials or whatever it is. And so we combat that through training. Um and we need to do more
training with staff. And so we are we are looking at ways to do that. Um, and so the plan now is to move forward with the implementation of of the technology plan, which as it was written and I mentioned before, it's a living document. It's going to keep changing.
So, we're going to keep looking at it year after year and throughout the year. Is this still doing what we want? Has our current reality changed and do we need to address a new current reality? Um, just some reflections I wanted to share on my year one and going
through this process. Um, some things that are are maybe hard not to notice is what an amazing community we have here. So, when I'm going out and talking to people about these initiatives, these assessments, um, there is an openness, there's an excitement, there's um, an
eagerness to engage. Um, and I, and I say that because, you know, anytime you look at, oh, are you saying that some of the technology isn't reliable and that's frustrating, folks aren't frustrated, they just want to dig in with us. They want to do the work with us. they want to make things better with us. And so that's it. It's it's notable. It's
noticeable when you go through our schools and you talk to our teachers and our kids and our staff, you you feel it. And I've definitely felt it. Um we we have some amazing staff in the system. I really want to call out the technology staff. It's it's been a year of getting to know them. Um one of our members, I
give a shout out to um Pam Vincent is retiring uh this year after 28 years of service to the district. And so you think about people that give three decades of their lives to serve kids. Um, it's I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but you'll find that in the technology department and and it it
warms your heart. Um, I see a lot of district stability. You don't see that everywhere these days. Um, there's a lot of strength in in in our leadership. Um, the quality of our educational programming. Um, and and a really strong
culture of belonging. and and I I just think that's, you know, those things don't all directly relate to technology, but again, technology is supposed to be invisible. This is how we engage with each other. Um, one of the neat things I do see about technology is when you walk
our buildings, you'll see very smart use of technology. Uh, and when I say that, what I mean is if if I'm going to read a book, my teacher is probably going to hand me a book. But if I'm going to learn computer programming, you're going to see me on a Chromebook. If I'm in a design class in middle school doing 3D
printers, I'm using computers and design technology. If I'm doing research, I'm probably looking at online research databases. Um, but if I'm doing group work, it's likely I'm doing that in person, face tof face with my peers. Um, you don't see a whole lot of kids on
computers for the sake of kids being on computers. Um, I think the district, I don't know if I think maybe Mountains View never fell into the trap of, well, technology is more engaging. Just do it on technology and everything will be better. Um, there are things it does great and there are things it doesn't do
great. And it's encouraging to see teachers and staff out there really differentiating when is this the best tool to use, uh, and when is it not the best tool to use. And so I, you know, I think when I see that, I go, okay, so we're investing in technology smartly in
the district. we're putting it in the places where it makes sense and and I like and I like to see that. Um there's a lot of district support for classroom and building level innovation. So, um this was new to me that the district really gives those teachers in those
buildings a lot of freedom to say, "Hey, we want to try this. We want to do this." Um and then see how it works out. And so you have a lot of variation across a district and there's there's a balance. you know, it's nice to have standards and keep everything the same.
It's easier for departments like mine to support, but also you got to let people innovate and try new things because that's how we learn. And so there's there's a a really, I think, powerful balance of that here that's that's that's good. Beyond that, there's uh the
purposeful questions of people asking, is this desirable? Is this feasible? Is it sustainable? Are there better better alternatives? Not just jumping on to whatever uh the next hot topic is. And so um appreciation you know I feel valued
and fortunate to be here um and I'm looking forward to the work that we are going to do in the years to come. Happy to answer any questions. Well you are valued so I'm glad you feel valued. Amazing. Uh thank you for really
detailed report. Um and again just underscoring that we're keeping the thing the thing which is um how are we supporting the academic journey of our students. Um and it's it was great to hear everything. Yeah. And also to add
that um you know we did a serious assessment and that was a priority of the board and uh really appreciate that you're implementing um more security and on the secure business structure. It's impressive to raise the score that much. I'm a little bit familiar with that. So,
congratulations. I've always been in panic when I see neighboring school districts, down to Rochester, things like that shut down and um it's very important and um it's ongoing and it's a constant battle and I'm glad to see
we're really improving in that area. So, appreciate the efforts there. Say hi to Pam for me. I went to Island Lake with her. So, I will. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to thank you. I know it's been a big undertaking the last several years. Um, and I I know you're newer to us, but just thank you
for your guidance and your leadership. It is much appreciated. Thanks. Thanks so much. Thank you. I have one more question. I'm so sorry. Um, the the score that you talked about sounded a whole lot like a credit score, which is sort of funny to me. Um, is that
something you obviously we did a baseline, we got it re-evaluated, you're planning on doing it again next year. Is that an annual sort of, for lack of a better term, report card for how we're doing? Is that something that is going to be a continual kind of KPI for us?
Correct. That's that's the intention. Um, there there's a couple things I' I'd put on that. Uh, one is just keep in mind as security requirements are changing and the landscape evolves, those assessments also change. Okay? And so it's possible for your score to go down, right? There's new requirements,
especially when they're um expensive. Uh we can find ourselves assessed on something that wasn't assessed prior. Um the the other thing about those is is they actually break down hundreds of recommended action steps. an action
step. Uh, you know, we don't we don't take the steps because of the points. It's just kind of a nuanced way to look at it because it does kind of feel like the credit score, but some steps um might be important. Uh, but they're worth half a point. Um, so we don't we try not to chase the points too much,
but um it is important to have an understanding of whether we're moving forward. And something I like about the continued assessment is it helps the technology department generate some accountability for itself to district leadership. Yeah. Um so that it isn't
just well I don't know I hope we're secure technology they live in that building and we think they're doing good stuff but we don't know. So it's comprehensive is incredibly comprehensive the under the underpinning to why this this assessment is so important. Correct. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh we'll move on to item 6.1 updates. Uh Jim, uh any updates from AMSD or legislative? Uh let me see. Uh AMSD is the Association of Metropolitan School Districts. It's about the 50
biggest school districts in the state. I always I don't you know I always like to spell things out and uh and it does include Duth and St. Cloud and Rochester as fellow school districts. We don't all we do a lot with legislative and policy but we also have policy roundts. I just
want to let folks is about two weeks ago we spent a fair amount of time with Jeff Rhovven who was our former deputy superintendent in Moundsu um uh principal on teachers pensions. Um last Friday um we had the leaders of Pelsby
which is the um teacher lure organization in Minnesota and I got to participate in a round table with the leadership there and discuss some difficulties in licensing and interestingly enough we have over 80 licenses in the state of Minnesota for teachers which is just mind-boggling to
me and did discuss some of the difficulty of uh licensing um outofstate recruits especially in the area of recruiting um teachers of color and uh had a very vigorous conversation about that. The legislature continues to meet.
They're supposed to get out May 19th. Um as every day ticks by, it becomes a little more doubtful that all their business is going to get done. Um there are continues to be over in the House. No. Uh um there's a lot of bills that have moved forward and a lot of good work done, but no ED or HHS and human
service bills have passed out of the house yet, which means a 6767 tie. It's just not happening at the moment. But uh Ed and HHS is 70% of the state budget. So that's those are the two crucial bills and we're hoping a lot of meetings
a lot of meetings a lot of meetings with the governor this weekend, but not much moved along. Um, as state aid goes for education, um, we will get our pretty much sure we'll get our 2.7% increase, which we fought for years to get an inflationary increase, and that's
excellent. There's other uh programs that are uh being reviewed for, you know, for cost and, you know, there will likely be some budget cuts um maybe not the first year but the second year and the years out um on some education
things, but um you know, as we look at it as a MU school district, um you know, next year we'll probably be in pretty good shape and I'm very hopeful we have to patch a budget on June 17th and by then I think we'll probably have a sense of where we are at with the state
legislature, which is always a bit of a challenge. And people ask me, well, you you know, your your budget happens on July one. Why do you wait till June? Because we get 60% of our funding from the state, and they usually finish up around May 20th. So, it's very difficult
for us to make budget decisions until we have actual numbers from the state. We operate on assumptions as we all have worked to build this budget. So, that is a long uh a long description of where we're at. So, thank you. Thank you, Jim. Um Shauna was unable to be with us
tonight, but um at our next meeting at the end of May, she will have a Northeast Metro uh 916 update. Um now we we are on to item 6.2, schoolboard member reports. Does anyone have anything that they would like to share? I can jump in. There's been so
many fun things going on around the district and I know a lot of our students and parents are very busy this time of year. Just want to shout out to um uh Jill Spencer and um all of our indigenous students and families for the exceptional POW um two Saturdays ago, I
guess a week and a half ago. And uh great attendance, lots of um vendors, lots of great participation from the community. I know few board members and and executive team members were able to make it. Um and uh Jim and I actually met over at the art show opening tonight, which was uh great to see at
Irondale. super fun to see all the little artists and big artists, I guess, in their t-shirts um showing their works of art to their family members and just thanks to all the um staff who put in all the effort to have those kids display that and have fun. Um as I plugged in before, I'm going to say I
went to them. I went to both Irondale and Moms View's drama productions and just so fun to see those students doing what they love up on stage. uh great ch great shows uh both at both schools and great turnout from the community and lots of great fun. Great. Thank you,
Heidi. In the spirit of staff appreciation week, I think I'd be remissed if I didn't say a special thank you to all of our staff. Um as we heard earlier with the survey results, we have an incredible staff who supports our students each and every day. Thank you to the folks in the room uh and those
who aren't with us on our administration team. And of course, thank you to you, our one employee, Mr. Lennox, um for all that you do to to lead the district. So, um we really appreciate all the work. Thank you. Thank you, Yolanda. Any other
update? Yeah, and um yeah, I got to go to with Heidi district art show. We just got a lot of great teachers and a lot of great talent and it went from elementary to middle school to high school and just being over at Irondale at 5:30 today. There was softball going on. There were
um uh there was lacrosse going on. There was baseball going on. We had kids in the school, families there at 5:30 in the afternoon. The place was vigorous and exciting. And then I drove by Moundu because I actually wanted to go to Mju. I think was playing Edina in tennis
tonight and I'm a Mju tennis alum. And so I wanted to get over there, but the parking lot was too crowded. I couldn't find a spot to park. good problem to have because they had a track meet, they had play practice, they had a speech thing going on and there were schools
from all over the metro and the place was full of parents and kids and community members and it was just wonderful to see that our schools are just such centers of uh community. So um my last note is it is staff appreciation week and as we've all said around here,
we've got excellent staff as the presentation showed us today. the community give us a lot of confidence and they certainly love our teachers and that is um that is wonderful and it just goes back to this whole thing we do here doesn't happen by accident. We got a lot of people rolling in the same direction.
So a big thank you to folks. Yes. Thank you Jim. All right. If there is nothing else to come before the board uh we are adjourned.