I will now call to order the meeting of January 27th meeting of the Monsu School Board. Good evening and welcome. Our first item on the agenda is um the adoption of the agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved.
Second. Then moved and seconded. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Next on our agenda is uh item 2.1, announcements. Jim, would you read the gifts for us tonight?
All right. Thank you. There were 110 gifts received for the Ralph Reader Food Shelf this period for a total of $338,797.15. It is recommended that the board accept the gift gifts and extend the thanks to our donors. Great. Thanks, Jim. Thanks for the
generosity of our community. Um, upcoming meetings, the next uh work session for the school board will be at 6 PM on February 5th um here in uh the district office and on February 10th at 7 p.m. will be the next regular meeting of the board. Um our next item on our
agenda is superintendent report. Thank you so much. Uh tonight I just have one update and I want to provide a reminder to the community that uh the annual SEC conference music festival is going to be hosted this year at Mounds View High School. Uh the allconerence
honors concert is going to take place this Sunday at Mounds View High School February 1st. Uh and the concert will feature the best choir, band, and orchestra musicians from across all of our conference schools. That concert begins at 6 pm. Would love to see some
of you there. And then Monday, students in the performing groups from all over the conference schools uh come to Mounds View High School and spend the day performing and working with our guest clinicians. It's always a very exciting time. If you've ever been to that day or
interacted with the students in our music staff, it's just absolutely wonderful. Uh, and just a reminder for any Mountains View High School students not participating in the event on Monday, that will be a virtual learning day for those students. So, thank you in
advance to all the staff who are involved working and planning and of course all of those who will be ser supervising the students from across all of the districts on Monday. We really do look forward to hosting that event this year. And that's my report. Thank you.
Uh we'll move to item 2.3, board vacancy appointment. On October 24th, the school board accepted Jonathan Weinhagen's resignation from the board effective immediately. Applications for his replacement were accepted November 17th through noon on December 12th,
2025. The board interviewed candidates on January 15th and January 20th, 2026. and the board held a special meeting on January 22nd, 2026 to vote on the candidates for the appointment. Tonight, the board formally announces the
candidate to be appointed to the remainder of the term expiring on January 3rd, 2028 is Andre Con. Congratulations to Andre. Andre will be sworn in at the regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting on February 10th, 2026. And we do wish to extend our
thanks and appreciation to all members of our community who applied for the open seat and uh came forward to serve our community. All right. Uh next is 3.0 approval of the consent agenda. I would entertain a motion.
So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Um all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Great. We will move on now to item 4.1 and call up
Paula Steel, our director of finance, and Jackie Hegel from the audit firm Malloy Montigue Carnoski Rodosich and company and they'll review the 2024 2025 audited financial statements and supplemental reports with us today. Thank you.
Name change. Name change. Oh, look at that. Here they are now LB Carlson. Look at that. So much easier to say. I know. Thank you, Jackie. We are pleased to present the 2425 financial audit performed by LB Carlson.
I have Jackie Hegel here, the lead auditor and partner with me to provide a summary of the findings. All right. Well, good evening and thank you for having me tonight. As Paula said, my name is Jackie Hegel. I am a partner in charge of the district's financial statement audit and here to
present the audit results for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Um you should have received documents in front of you or as part of your board packet there. Uh one item was the annual comprehensive financial report. Uh that is the district document, the district
financial report that we issue um an opinion on. The second document is that special purpose report which summarizes the various audit opinions of the district. And then the last item is a management report which is our LB Carlson document that I'll be speaking from tonight that follows through the
PowerPoint here. I'm talking a little bit about our auditor's role. Um as an auditor, my role is to issue an opinion on the financial statements over that district audit noting that they are fairly stated. In the current year, your
district did receive more than 750,000 in federal funding. So, there's a separate single audit of those federal awards. Um, you're going to notice if you're looking at your audit opinions and as part of this presentation, those federal audit opinions are not included in the report. Um, that is because the
federal government had a delay in issuing what was known as the compliance supplement. That was not issued until the very end of November. Um, so that federal audit report still needs to get wrapped up and there'll be a separate audit report that you're going to be receiving with those audit opinions. Um, as part of this delay from the federal
government, the Department of Education has issued an extension for all districts through March 31st, 2026. So, within the next four to six weeks, you'll be receiving uh separate audit opinions on that. Um, as part of our audit, then we also review the internal
controls and the compliance over that financial statement audit and also with Minnesota state laws and regulations. So each year the office of the state auditor releases what's known as that legal compliance manual and we test the specific statutes that are noted in that manual.
Um in the current year then in addition to completing the district's financial statement audit um at the request of the school district. Our firm did also complete what's known as an agreed upon procedures engagement. Uh that is completed in accordance with attestation standards uh relating to former board
member Winehagen. Um, as part of that engagement, we did complete or conduct interviews with schoolboard members and district staff. Um, as part of that, then we further identified or uh came up with a list of vendors that were approved by district management and we completed vendor searches on the
district's financial records from the time of July 1st, 2014 through October 24th, 2025 to review any payments that were identified from those vendors that were on that list that was approved by district management. Uh the payments that were identified and reviewed as
part of those procedures were all supported with proper source documentation had the proper approvals from management. Uh there were no reportable defi deficiencies that changed our reporting with the audit process relating to that agreed upon procedures for us to be here tonight to present the audit results for the year
ended June 30th 2025. Moving in then further into the district audit results here. Um this summarizes then further the audit opinions on the financial statements after wrapping up all our additional testing. Um the audit opinion you're seeing over that district
financial audit. We issued an unmodified or a clean opinion on that financial statement. Um if you are looking at your opinion, you're going to see um a paragraph in there about the implementation of Gazby statement number one 101 related with compensated absences. Um so in the current year,
local governments were required to um implement another Gazsby standard. There's been several over the past few years here. Um this standard changed the recognition and the measurement of how local governments now report compensated absences on your financial statements. Um this is only reported on what we
consider those entitywide, those full acral uh liability financial statements. So it does not change or have any impact on your fund financial statements like your general fund reporting or anything. Um but it does have a significant impact on those entitywide financial statements. Um it shows a change in
accounting principle of about a 15.9 million liability you're now seeing related with this compensated absences. Um as part of the audit results then over the internal controls and compliance opinions. There was no material weaknesses or instances of non
non-compliance to report in that area as well as no instances of non-compliance to report with those Minnesota legal compliance opinions. So, all very good compliance reports to report here. They're all clean opinions with no findings to report.
The next several slides then move into the financial results of the audit, specifically focusing here on the general fund. Um, this shows a slide of that general fund financial position, which is that cash and investment balance, the unassigned fund balance of the district. Um, and the line graph
there shows the revenue. Um, at year end, the cash and investment balance ended the year at about 80 million, decrease of about 540,000 from the prior year. If you're looking at that unassigned fund balance, that ended the year at about 35.3 million, which was a
decrease of about 5.2 million from the prior year. This table here then further summarizes those components of fund balance of that general fund. Um it shows it by like I said the various components the non-spendable the dollars that are
restricted assigned and unassigned. Um at year end the total fund balance in the general fund was at 64.2 million. Um there's about 1.1 million in non-spendable fund balance. That is dollars that are tied up in prepaid. So items that were prepaid by June 30th. A
restricted fund balance of about 5.8 million. Most of that is dollars that are restricted for operating capital. There are some dollars set aside for medical assistance as well as some literacy incentive aid. The assigned fund balance at year end was 21.9
million. Um you're seeing about 10 million of that is for uh subsequent year budget deficit. So anytime by June 30th, 2025, you've approved next year's budget. If you're projecting to spend down, you have to set that aside in this assigned category. And then you also do
have some dollars set aside for future site improvements. Um that leaves about 35.3 million in that unassigned fund balance at year end. Um which is about just over two months of operations. Um which is in align with that range of your district fund balance policy as of
year end. This graph then summarizes the adjusted ADM and the pupil units served. The ADMs are used to close a lot of the revenue calculations as part of the audit process. So you're seeing at year end 2025 am of about 11,330.
Um that was an increase of about 73 from the prior year. Next couple graphs here then focus on general fund revenues and expenditures showing current year actual compared to prior year as well as comparing it to budget. Um overall the general fund
revenues were about 3.9 million over the final budget. Um, most of that variance you're seeing in the state sources, a budget variance with more special education funding than was anticipated in the budget. Um, as well as you saw property tax revenues coming in over budget. Um, overall the revenues
increased about 11 million from the prior year. You're seeing increases in that property tax area with just the increase with the schoolboard levy. Uh, the state sources, you're seeing increases in there with general education and special education dollars.
And then that's offset. You're going to see the biggest variance going down is that federal sources. Um the uh decrease there was with the end of several of those pandemic related entitlements that had to be spent out. Moving on then this shows similar graph just of the general fund expenditures
for the year. Um overall the general fund expenditures end of the year about 2.9 million under budget. You're seeing budget variances in that salaries and benefits area. Just conservative budgeting and the staffing costs. Um as well as capital expenditures were under
budget. Uh the district did have some lease costs that were anticipated in the budget that did not occur. Um when you're looking current year to prior year in your general fund, you saw increases in expenditures of just under 16 million. U most of that is in salaries and benefits you're seeing go
up about 14 million with contractual wage increases and then also purchase services going up with increased utility cost in the current year. This next slide then summarizes the other governmental funds the specifically that food service special
revenue fund and the community service special revenue fund. Your food service fund you're seeing both of them have very positive operations in 2025. Uh the food service fund uh saw an increase of about 920,000. Um you're seeing your revenues were over
budget mainly and the state sources some increased participation there. But overall the year on fund balance in that food service fund ended the year at about 8.2 million. The community service special revenue fund also saw very positive operations an increase of about 1.6 million from
the prior year. your revenues did come in over budget and most of that increase you're seeing there is just more programming and participation than was anticipated in the budget. Then the last slide I have here summarizes what we consider the district-wide statement of net position.
Um so these are if you're looking at your financial report these are the front two statements that we call the full acrual financial statement. It includes all the capital asset activity of the district. It also includes all the long-term liabilities of the districts, any bonds, pensions.
The top portion of this shows it by the governmental fund fund balance all the different adjustments to get to the bottom portion showing those components of net position. So overall, when you're looking at this net position, you're seeing in the current year a decrease of about 9 million. Most of that is due to
the new Gazsby standard that had to be implemented that GASBY 101 for compensated absences. how I was saying that you have now have to book a a new liability related with this on your financials and they changed the reporting of how that's reported. So that is booked on these statements only,
not in like your general fund financial statements. Um so you're seeing a decrease um consistent with other local governments as well, but that's what the unrestricted net position is going down from that change in accounting principle. And then overall the total is offset by just the changes in the TRA
Pension plans that you're shown on your financials as well as the positive operating results in your general fund for 2025. So with that I can open it up if there are any specific questions. No questions. Great. Well, thanks so
much. We appreciate presentation and I know that the board had these materials in advance and and took a look at them. um appreciate all the hard work of Paul's team and I'd like to thank Jackie specifically um for all the extra work
her team did Paul and and our team they know I love them and um publicly say I I really knew the amount of time and energy and effort that that happened but this year especially going back uh in their willingness LB Carlson to work with us to go back to 2014 for us to
open the books again they go through everything that was a lot lot of additional work and not something they would have had to do. So, I just really really appreciate your your company, your auditing firm's willingness to go back through and and let us shine the
put some sunlight on on this with uh with everything that's happened. People wanted to know that everything was was there and and we just appreciate you coming back in and helping us do that work. So, thank you so much. I just want to second that. Um it it
obviously was a really uh difficult thing um that happened to the district. Um and you know to be able to um ask you and your team to to do all of that additional work and yours as well. Um to
just assure the public and to kind of reestablish that trust when when something like what happened happens. um it it does put question marks in people's minds um and appropriately so and so to um be able to go back um 11
years and and do a whole you know deeper dive um to assure that um the the finances in this district are on the up and up um just means a lot um and made me even
more proud uh to be a part of this district that takes takes the financial responsibility so um so so seriously. So, thank you for all of your work. Thank you. Great. Thanks so much.
Appreciate you being with us tonight. And Paula, for better or worse, you get to stay. Part two. Part two. Uh uh agenda item 4.2, fiscal year budget assumptions. We talked about these last month. Um So, you're here to
share them again and have us approve them tonight, right? Tonight, I'm presenting the final 2627 budget assumptions and these have remained consistent with the details we discussed during our weekend recent work sessions and the January 13th school
board meeting. So, since there's no changes to these figures, it is recommended that the board move to approve the 2627 board assumptions as presented. Any questions for home? As Paula said, we reviewed them um in
our work session. We talked about them at our last board meeting. We've all had a chance to look at them. So, um I'd entertain a motion to approve the budget assumptions for the 2627 school year. So, move. Second. Been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Um no, just to note, thank you for all
your hard work on this. The budget is something we start early in the year and we approve uh late in the year in June. I think we'd like to get it done a little earlier, but is our previous person, our previous friend showed us uh we get plenty of revenue from the state
and we don't know until they leave St. Paul and pass the bill where we are. And I think last year we actually passed a budget not knowing exactly where we are. And so um it's um you know uh it's a long long long process. We're um these
really reflect our values in the school district. is the most important document I believe we have. Where you spend your time and your money is a big deal and um we have over the years been successful and been able to manage our budget and our finances well by being very
conservative in our estimates and I'm very pleased that we are have conservative estimates once again in revenue and I think we'll uh always be able to adjust because of those. So thank you very much. Great. Thanks Jim. All right.
All in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. And Paul gets to stay for round three. For this agenda item, I have the revenue and expenditure reports for all funds for the quarter ending December 31st,
2025. These are provided as part of our standard quarterly reporting to keep the board well informed on the district's health. Are there any questions or comments? I would since we're doing the audit tonight, I would just offer again this is part of that annual budgeting process
Jim just mentioned. Um and and you'll see in the documentation we we actually compare two years. So you can go back and see uh where we were this time in 2425 compared to where we are currently. Um and again should be around halfway. There's some things that are always
different. Salaries always lag a little bit. capital depends on when money comes in or when things are expended. Uh but it's a great document for the board and for the public uh those interested to watch as we go through the year. Again, transparency in in the work we do in our
financial uh planning and dealings over the course of the year. So again, thank you. Love the team. We've got an incredible finance team. Thanks for all your work. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. feel like you deserve a round of
applause. All right, we'll move on to agenda item 4.4. Uh Julie Coffee will join us tonight with approval of non-affiliated terms and conditions of apply. Good evening. Um so tonight we're bringing forward um the salary increases
for the non-affiliated group. Um this is a group of individuals that are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement with the district. Um, so there's staff um that have an employee handbook that outlines the terms and conditions of their employment. Um, this group includes non-eing professionals
that hold titles such as specialist, coordinator, manager, supervisor, assistant director, director, an executive director, some in schools, many in our district center. Um, you've got the details um of that agree not agreement details of those increases in
front of you. I'm happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, we're asking for approval tonight for the two-year compensation increases for our non-affiliated employees. So moved. Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Second person today.
All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Julie. Thank you. All right. Well, we're getting the table ready for all of our next guests. Um we'll move on to agenda item 5.1. We'll
have a DOP goal update tonight. DOP again is our district operational plan. And one of our do goals for uh the past couple of years has been um around career and college. And tonight we're going to hear an update on career pathways. So, we invite up Jen Lodin, executive director of student support
and engagement, Mindy Hamburg, assistant director of community partnerships, Madison Hendrickson, Mounds High School career and college coordinator, and Fritz Rock, Irondale High School career and college coordinator. Welcome. Thanks for being here tonight. Great. Thank you. Um, board chair Danielson, members
of the board, and superintendent Lennox, um, we are happy to be here this evening, um, and excited for the opportunity to introduce this report on our work to expand career pathways and opportunities for our students. The rationale for this work is straightforward and deeply student centered. Um, when students are able to
explore their interests, see a clear connection between their coursework and potential careers, along with developing real world skills, their learning becomes more relevant and purposeful. That relevance increases engagement, strengthens academic motivation, and
better prepares students to transition successfully into post-secary education, training, military, or workforce. Our goal is to expand career pathway opportunities for high school students in a way that is intentional, equitable, and sustainable. This means not only
increasing exposure to a wide range of careers, but also helping students make informed decisions about their futures earlier while reducing uncertainty and opening doors to meaningful options um after graduation. What you will hear tonight reflects steady progress towards that goal. This
includes a comprehensive career pathway audit to assess where we are and where we are needing to go. The thoughtful selection uh and implementation of school links is a district-wide career and college planning platform. targeted onboarding for staff and students and expanded career and college center
activities that connect students directly to colleges, industries, and real world experiences. This work represents collaboration among across departments, schools, and community partners, and it's intentionally designed as a multi-year effort with clear next steps. So, I'll
pass it along to our colleagues who are here tonight to continue presenting. Thank you, Jen. Good evening. Um I am going to provide just kind of an overarching update with regards to um progress towards the goal. As Jen mentioned, we conducted a career um pathway audit. We worked with Education
First, a consulting firm um after securing a grant to conduct that audit. They did an extensive assessment of our current career pathways that included um interviews with staff um uh examinations of kind of our equipment in our rooms in
our labs um and also um did some focus group with students before they left last year. Um and came up with a plan um that will be completed during the next three to five years um to continue with some of
the recommendations. The second um initiative that we've been working on to um to expand career pathways is um by uh working with school links. Last spring we our team conducted kind of an audit of different career and college
platforms. We came um after having um a number of demos from different companies. We selected school links and we started implementation last summer um with some of the school links trainings and rolled it out this fall in both of
our high schools in addition to ALC. And I'm going to have both Madison and Fritz talk about specifically what they've been doing to onboard students and staff um with school links as we move forward. Well, yeah, thank you. So, I'm Fritz and I'm the current college coordinator at
Irondale High School. And so today I'm going to speak on the onboarding process. And so prior to the school year, we had all the deans onboarded to just get acclimated and trained in to just make sure that they're better supporting our students for the college application manager and just career assessments and things of that nature.
Um with that being said, we fell into the fall which we had a senior meeting and the whole purpose of the senior meeting was to get all of our seniors um acclimated with the college application manager as well as different career assessments that they want to take for those that are unsure of what they want to do. And so we've seen about 90% of
our seniors have logged into school links right now. And so the vast majority that's left are PSCO students typically and we'll get to connect with them on the back end of the school year here. And so we're really excited with where we are right now currently. Um and now we're transitioning to our junior class. And so we just partnered with
Methodized Learning, which is a self-paced ACT prep tool, and it's a really great tool. It's another way to help our students build their confidence as well as um increase their uh test scores. And so we're promoting that weekly to students as well as we're promoting it in our parent newsletter.
So parents are in the know to encourage our students to take advantage of this free ACT prep tool that we have. Um and so with that being said, we're going to transition to our underassman and make sure that all of our freshman and sophomores are onboarded as well. Um to
basically uh complete the find your path assessment to customize their dashboard to basically tailor their career and what they want to do. And so we really appreciate this new platform. We've had numerous kids come to us and tell us about how they really appreciate this new platform. It's modernized and so a
lot of kids can relate to it. So for instance, when they create their account, they have like a news feed and it's similar to their social media platforms that they use. And so it's really exciting to hear some of the things that our kids are saying about this platform. And um we're just excited. Yeah. And just to add to that, um my
name is Madison. I'm the career and college coordinator at Mountains View. And so what's been cool is Fritz and I being the student face of implementing this new tool and kind of being the go-tos for any help as we introduce it and show students how it can be utilized
for their career and college plans after high school. And so it's kind of nice having a one-stop shop now for students to go and explore different career interests, college interests, and we found it to be very studentfriendly. And so we look forward to continue on to implement it to the other grades as
well. And along with school links, we also try to tie in a lot of in-person and activities um with our students to help them explore those different post-secary goals. And one way we do that is right at the start of the school year, we
start off with a lot of college visits where schoolings has come in handy for that of scheduling a lot of those visits, which has been really nice for students to sign up and attend and hear from a college representative right here at their school, which is also great for students who maybe can't go drive to
different colleges and they get to have it right there at their high school. So, we've hosted over 50 college visits right now and they'll start picking up again in the spring. We've also had and attended career connect day which was in St. Paul where students get to see kind of a day in the life of many different
career pathways and go booth to booth and hear about what it's like working in different fields which was really successful and we had Mounds View Irondale and ALC students attend that. We also during manufacturing month which was in October we got to have some fun experiences for students where we got to
go to Graco manufacturing Cummins um some students will be going to Medronic and so they get to get a big tour of what it's what it's like to work in some of these facilities and be in that career field and for a lot of our students the rise in interest in the
trades and manufacturing and um in health careers has been rising and so we really try and key in on that and take up as many opportunities as we can, especially with a lot of our local partners and take advantage of that. And then with school links, also I've had the privilege of going to the ALC and
showing them how to use this tool as well and helping them with a lot of FASA questions and how financial aid works. So been trying to get as much information to our students as we can. And as far as next steps, we're going to continuously um onboard all of our grade
levels. Our goal is to get everyone onboarded by the end of the school year as well as we have a couple of other training sessions coming up for teachers as well to get all of our staff on boarded. Um we'll continue to connect with um the the different deans to make sure that they're being um acclimated
and fully supported with whatever they need for their students as well as we want to make sure we start connecting with the middle school deans as well so that they can be on boarded with the eighth graders as they transition into high school. um in ACT prep. We're going to continuously promote the ACT prep all
the way up until April to just see if we can take advantage of that free tool. And so we're really excited with where we are. Um I really want to thank Mindy. I want to thank Madison. I also want to thank Jen and Michael for just their ongoing support. They've been really amazing throughout this and we really
appreciate them. Great. Any questions from learners? No, I will say as a parent of a senior, school links is really amazing. It's so just easy to use and kind of just you just know where to go and how to navigate it. So, it's been really
helpful. So, thank you. Absolutely. Happy to hear. Is is that something that once on boarded the students can just do on their own or do they need to have one of you or a counselor? They can just do it. Great question. They can just go right
in there. So that's why we typically train them with the onboarding process, but for the most part, they'll just sign in with Google. As long as they're using the school Chromebook, they'll log right in. And so we kind of try to make it easier for them to eliminate any barriers. There's times when a student will come in. They'll start to try to
write out their email. I'm like, "No, no, no, no. Click the login with Google. We want to make sure that we just have easier access for kids to navigate these resources." One thing Michael Wernernner and I did, we at the beginning of the school year, we went and went through all the different tools um in school links to
really figure out what is going to be best fit for each grade level and where they would benefit the most because a freshman's not going to be using for the same purpose as a senior might. And so we went through all the different tools and created a scope and sequence for each grade. And now we're able to
communicate those different activities and grade specific tools for all the students which we hope will be helpful. And lastly, we're actually we're going to use this platform now to keep track of data. So we want to see fouryear two-year as uh Madison mentioned earlier
um trades is growing by the second and the military as we all know college is getting more expensive and so we also want to utilize this platform to provide data to better support our students. So if it's healthcare, we want to make sure we're partnering with Mindy to make sure we have those different corporates coming in to better support our
students. Well, thank you so much. This is a great initiative, I think, for all of our students, great support for our staff. Yeah. No, I'm really excited to see the interest in health and the trades because I think in this in our metro area, we see those jobs growing and
being on top of that and also excited to see that we're working with local partners. Um I'm always um I'm always impressed by our local businesses, how they want to connect with our kids and our community, and that's great. And Mindy, you mentioned focus groups. I like focus groups and
research. So, you had them with the kids. Was there anything notable that they came up with or what are they looking for? It was kind of um education first initiated those and and implemented those and gave us the findings. Um but I
remember being surprised at um the students lack of knowledge of kind of some of our existing pathways that we thought were pretty solid. Um and so that in turn um we need to do a better job of communicating pathways and what
that means. Um we had kids and I think it was at Irondale specifically participating in a big way in the business marketing pathway and really not understanding that that's what they were doing. So, um, part of the planning is to be in more intentional and if, you know, if a kid is going to take a
student's going to take two or three courses within a pathway, consider offering the the certificates of some kind that that would they could work towards. Um, so I I remember that as being kind of a aha for us as we retool what we and how we communicate.
Thank you. Yeah, it's insightful. Thank you. Any other last questions? Great. Thanks so much for being with us tonight. We appreciate the update. Thanks, guys. All right. Um, our next agenda item is
6.1 updates. Jim, could you give us an AMSD legislative update? Well, we've actually been meeting here more than AMSD has been meeting, so I don't have a whole lot with AMSD. I did send spend some time to send a letter to some of our federal friends asking that
uh uh AMSD and a lot of school organizations ask that schools, churches, and hospitals be off limits to uh uh federal ice activities. That letter was sent out last week and so spent some time there. Uh we have our
big February 6th at Quora at 7:30 in the morning our legislative session review. We will have the chairs of the education committees, one of them being uh Senator Kunish who uh represents the New Brighton part of our district. Um we'll have all uh both the Democrat and
Republican leads on the education committee there to talk about the session and what they seem to happen. So all the school board members are welcome. Uh the coffee is mediocre. The breakfast sandwich is pretty good. So come on over and join us. We sell it every time.
Every time. Makes it sound so exciting. Thanks for your work there, Jim. We really appreciate that. Uh Shauna, any update from N uh Northeast Metro 916? Yeah, so the Northeast Metro 916 board met last Wednesday. Uh just as a reminder, Northeast Metro 916 is an
inter intermediate school district made up of 13 member districts um including Mountains View Public Schools and we use their services for special education and uh career and teched classes. Um, so we
had our uh organizational meeting last Wednesday where we um have a new board chair. So the the member from Stillwater is our new 916 board chair. We had uh our audit as well also came back uh with a clean audit for the 916 board. And
then our um annual reports just kind of giving statistics of who's using the services and what services they're using. So, we will meet um again the first Wednesday of February. Great. Thanks so much for representing
us there. Uh item 6.2, school board member reports. Any board members have anything to share tonight? I just wanted to talk a little bit about our uh process for interviewing and um ultimately choosing a new school board
member. um you know because of the timing and the situation you know we really had to make sure we were doing it um correctly right and that right right is what I want to say but correctly and so it was a lot of really good new learning for many of us here on the
board um but I I was most impressed with the caliber of of candidates um you know not a single one of us had a clear idea a of who was going to be our new colleague. Um, and it was a
process that we all took incredibly seriously um to to really make sure that we were choosing somebody who was going to be the best fit and the best representation for our students and staff and community. Um, and I'm just really proud
of the entire process. I'm very very excited about uh welcoming Andre to the uh the the V here um in February and um just a huge thank you to the community
for trusting us on the board to make that decision. Um and uh yeah, to the the the incredible candidates that um took the time to put forth uh really thoughtful applications um and wanted to serve the community in
this way. Um it just made my heart really proud of our community and of how we operate on the on the up and up. Our integrity is not something we just talk about. So um kudos all around. Thanks,
Anyone else have anything to share? I would uh go along with Alyssa's statement that not only did uh was I really impressed with the candidates and really appreciative of the people who put themselves out there, but I also want to extend my appreciation to the people at this table. Um we have spent nearly
every Tuesday and Thursday um in the month of January in this very room. And it's been um it's been a big- time commitment for all of us and um like Alyssa said, everyone approached it with professionalism and integrity and and wanting the best for the district. And
um I was grateful that each one of us uh came prepared, reviewed our materials. Um I feel like we had uh really good interactions and interviews with so many folks in the district and um excited. Um hopefully a lot of those people who weren't selected this time will continue to stay involved in the district and
serve our community in other ways um and keep their ears open for um you know our next election in just under two years as well. So thank you to each one of you as well as as our community. If there is nothing else to come before
the board, we are journ