So, we can go ahead and call the name of >> Okay. Council member Erikson, >> Council Member Jeang, >> President. >> Council member Clowski >> here. >> Mayor Winston. >> Council member Paige >> here. >> Council member McGarvey >> here.
>> Council member Tran >> here. >> Mayor Winston, you have quum. >> And uh we'll go ahead and call work session for the OIO school board. Um we'll do a similar roll call. Director Dawson >> here. >> Director uh Brooks
>> here. >> Uh Director Tate >> here. >> Director Foster >> here. And I myself Tanya Crimson here. And uh I got everybody. We're missing Sarah. All right. >> All right. Thank you. So I guess we can go ahead and jump into it. I just want
to first just official welcome. Um excited for us to have the school board here. Um, I know y'all get blamed for quite a bit of the rest. So, good to have uh good to have everybody
um in this room and I know there's been some requests where we can get together and see where the synergies and where we can continue to bring this work together. So, it's quite an honor to be with you guys and uh I have a self-interest cuz I do have children school system. So, um I have very much
self interest in this. So, uh, I know that the first time you back on a paper, but I don't know if you want to say anything. >> Yeah. Um, just thank you so much for, um, putting this together for us and hosting this and, um, this is the first time we've really done something like this. So, um, hopefully this is a new
precedent for how we can come together and continue to work to serve the youth of Brooklyn Park um, and our in our own community. Thank you. >> All right. So, um, also a shout out to Nadia's Jamaican Kitchen.
>> Everybody is full and we have to wake up. So, thank you to Nadia for that. People didn't know who provided the food. Uh, so uh, and the district did assume the cost. So, thank you.
Get the next one. Um, so we'll go ahead and head into tobacco and um, vaping. So, first we're headed to tobacco debating, but also then we'll go to the city of Brooklyn Park for our updates and then we'll leave the meeting on that and then I'm sure there'll be some
questions after that. Then we'll go to OIO area schools for updates. Uh, and then chair Prince will read that piece and we'll have a tour after that. So, we can go into the tobacco. The presentation will be made by Jackie Seen County Public Health and Lisa Lavine
loss tobacco of the tobacco free alliance. And then we're going to have some student discussion around that as well. >> All right. Good evening everyone. >> Uh thank you for the invite to be here tonight. My name is Jackie Stewart. I'm with Henipin County Public Health. I'm joined by Elise Libby, one of my
partners at the Tobacco Free Alliance. We work in partnership in the community. Um, it's really great to be here tonight. We have a short presentation for you about commercial tobacco in the community. Uh, I'll note that some of the council members have already seen this presentation, but I hope that
everybody will have a chance to learn something new. Tonight, we are going to be talking about the problem of commercial tobacco. We'll talk about the harms that it causes and health disparities that we see related to commercial tobacco. We'll also share share some local data with you and uh
provide some solutions for this problem. Before we dive in, I want to mention some of our partners. We have a lot of partners working on this issue in Brooklyn Park. Um all of these organizations listed on the screen have uh been engaged uh and uh working on
this issue here in Brooklyn Park. Um actively working on community education and policy efforts including the last time that the city updated their tobacco ordinance. So, um, thanks to all these organizations and if any of them are in the audience tonight, thanks for being here. >> Thank you, Jackie. Hi, everybody. Thank
you so much for having us. I'm Elisa Lavine Les and I'm with Tobacco Free Alliance. I am going to talk with you about the problem of commercial tobacos. This is a very, very short overview. Um, despite decades of progress, the tobacco industry's influence keeps commercial
tobacco a major public health threat. The commercial tobacco industry remains commercial tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Fueled by an industry that spends nearly a million dollars every hour on marketing, flavor products play
a major role in driving youth use and worsening health disparities in targeted communities. The impact goes beyond individuals. Tobacco use decreases cost for our health care system and our communities. Meaning everybody pays the price forward to the harm caused by t by
commercial tobacco. Okay. First kind of flavor I'm going to talk about just really briefly is menthol. Okay. Um, the tobacco industry has a long history of targeting communities that face significant racial and health inequities
from menthol. Tobacco menthol makes smoking much easier and smoother. You get a big hit of nicotine, which really increases the nicotine absorption and and addiction. Nearly half of adults who smoke use menthol. Use is highest among
youth and historically marginalized communities. Though teens who smoke menthol show stronger signs of dependence compared to non-metal teen smokers. So this pattern of targeted marketing didn't stop with them. Today the
industry continues to apply similar tactics focused toward use by promoting flavored ecigarettes designed to attract and hook the next generation. So when I'm talking about ecigarettes I'm al that's the same word as a vape. Sometimes people are confused that they're different
products. They're the exact same product or nicotine. Um they're they're electronic nicotine delivery system. Kids call them vapes. Public health calls ecigarettes. I'm using them interchangeably. And that that's really important because I want everybody to understand they're the same. Um so I
want to start by giving you just a few statistics from the Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey. the the vast majority of tobacco products that you use are are flavored. That's first and foremost. Three and four students who have ever tried a commercial tobacco product started with a flavored product. 81% of
Minnesota middle and high school students who currently use a tobacco product um use a flavored product and it's even higher for vaping and oral nicotine products. More than 90% of teens who vape use a flavored product.
Almost all nicotine pouches are flavored, like something other than tobacco. More more than 95% of young people who are using these new nicotine pouches, I'm going to show you those in a minute, use a flavored product. You can find flavored tobacco products,
primarily that ecigarette flavors, and more than 15,000 flavors. And remember, these are an adult product, yet their names are like Unicorn Poop and Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, Cotton Candy, Cherry, Grape, you name it. There's every flavor out there. Blue rass seems
to be a a flavor of choice I hear a lot about from from you. We work with so many youth throughout the Twin Cities and I hear that all the time. So the thing about flavored products is they mask the harshness of the the tobacco taste but they are just just as
addictive and harmful as non-flavored tobacco products. Okay. So here's my show and tell and I'm going to pass this around. These are some of the products that many of the student I mean this changes all the time. I I feel like I have like I'm going to pass these around, but I'm just going to show you a few things.
Historically, I mean, I I have nobody uses a Juul anymore. How many of you have heard of Juul? That's what started this this whole new nick the whole youth vaping epidemic was when Juul came out in 2015. What it did was it changed the formulation of the nicotine and it made
use nicotine salt to e-liquid and it made it much easier for people to get a big hit. Goes to your brain really quickly and um it came in all these flavors. You know what could be bad about that? People talked about it that it was flavors in there, but it's not. It's nicotine and lots and lots of
chemicals, but we only have 10 minutes, so I can't do the the part about that. But if you want more information, I can. Um, anyone know what this is? Who wants to guess? >> Cell phone case. >> It is not a cell phone case. I'm going to give you a pass. It's a vape. It's a
vape. Why? Why would we want something like that? I'm sure everybody who works in a school might venture to guess what the answer might be. They market these products like stealth products. You can use them discreetly. Why would you need to use it discreetly if you're an adult, right? Um so some I'm going to pass
these around. These are a lot of the popular brands. I don't know if you've seen this. Has anyone heard of these so-called smart vapes? >> Well, you can put it in vape mode. You can put it in game mode. So you can play video games on this one. >> The student is >> Oh, I'M SORRY.
AND YOU'VE SEEN THESE, RIGHT? YEAH. OKAY. And I can't wait to hear what you all have to say about all this. So, and feel free to chime in at any any point. Yeah. These are what's out there. Um, and I'm going to pass these around. Lon, this is a homegrown product. This is
made in Minnesota, the Lon. Um, and these are some examples of the nicotine pouches I'm talking about. These are different from chew tobacco chew. These are they are marketed as tobaccof free nicotine. That just means that they're made from nicotine that's derived in a
lab and it's it's it's nicotine powder and there's a lot of kids using these. And I know there are adults that use these too, but our whole point here is to talk about youth starting to use products that they would never use. I mean, am I right? Would any of your friends pick up a cigarette?
>> I mean, when I talk to teens, I hear like gross, disgusting. There's no way I would ever smoke. But these things have a peel that's incredibly different. So I'm gonna I'll start on this side and pass this around. Okay. And
just be careful touching them. You can smell them. And I don't say this facitiously, but it's nicotine. It's a neurotoxin and it can be absor absorbed through your fingers. And just want to let you know that. Um I'm almost finished. I just want to name a couple more
things. So, I'm showing you these products with all these different flavors, right? And what they look like. And the nicotine content in these products is getting higher and higher and higher. And I just wanted to show you these are already from a few years back. Some of these nicotine products, some of these vapes have the equivalent
nicotine of 26 packs of cigarettes. We've done the math and we can I can show you that later if anybody's interested. That it's about what you're actually absorbing. It's actually 500 over 520 cigarettes. When you think about that, you think about how somebody
hits a vase all day, stick it in their pocket, it's very, very, very easy to become dependent very quickly. Nobody ever has the intention of getting dependent, right? What 17-year-old thinks I'm going to be doing this when I'm 50? So, that's that's the situation. You're dealing with kids who would
mostly never pick up a cigarette doing this. Um, okay. Lastly, I'm just going to touch on the impact of nicotine on the adolescent brain. There's so many impacts of nicotine, but the one that we're most concerned about with young people is the
impact on their brain. Okay? The brain is still developing until about age 25. Every everybody seems to know that including teenagers, but no, no amount of nicotine is safe for them. Nicotine impacts learning, memory, and attention. It's highly addictive because it can change the brain chemistry and increases
it also increases the risk of smoking and using other substances. And we know that youth who tried ecigarettes have tried vaping are um twice as likely to start smoking cigarettes in the future. And before I turn it over to Jackie, I want to I'm going to I'm going to pass these around. So we work with the
wonderful Christa Brena who is back here with from OIO High School. She's a school counselor. She has a group of students we were doing a project with where they um they did this really cool tableling event at lunch and they were educating their peers about all about quitting and about um all you know the
harms from the environmental harms to the to the health harms and we they asked them anonymous questions. This is all anonymously done to to share if they were comfortable anonymously how vaping has impacted their lives. We got tons of responses. These are just a few samples of that. I can send it electronically to
somebody also, but I'm gonna just pass this around. If anybody just bought these copies, you can help pass them on the other way, too. This way, I'll turn it over to Okay, so I have a number of data slides in this presentation for reference. I'm
not going to go over each one with you, but just know that the data is all here if you want to look at it at another time. I am going to summarize all of these charts for you on this slide right here. Um so first um commercial tobacco use among youth is down overall since we
saw it peak in Minnesota in 2019. Which means a lot of the work that we've been doing in public health and in prevention is is working. But what we do know is that the level of addiction for youth who are vaping is increasing. Meaning that the youth who are vaping are vaping
more frequently. They're using these products um with more dependency. uh commercial tobacco use is higher among students who have experienced economic hardship, gun violence, and mental health challenges compared to their peers who do not have those
experiences. We know that most students in the US, Minnesota, and the OIO district who use vapes uh use flavored products. And then lastly, among adults in Henipin County, we have two racial groups here that are disproportionately impacted by
the harms of commercial tobacco. Um, these groups smoke and use menthol at significantly higher rates um than other groups. And those two groups are our American Indian and Alaskan natives and our black or African-American population.
Next, I have some local data to share with you. Um we did an assessment of tobacco retailers in Henipin County in 2024. We looked at 335 retailers across the county including 44 here in Brooklyn Park. Uh we did this in partnership with
um the Sierra Leone community in Minnesota as an organization. And um the goal of this assessment was to understand the landscape of commercial tobacco retail in the community, how it's being sold, how it's available and accessible. Um, and this is really
important because it gives local decision makers like yourselves local data to ground your policy discussions in. So, I'm going to share with you two key points from these assessments. First, um, is the percent of retailers
that had flavored products. And the way to read this chart is that of the 40 retailers that were selling cigarettes, um 85% of them were selling flavored cigarettes or menthols because that's the only federally legal flavor of
cigarettes. Of the 26 retailers selling cigarellas, little cigars or blunts, 88% were selling them in flavors. And then for the other four product categories, ecigarettes, hookah, oral nicotine, and smokeless tobacco, if a retailer was
selling that product, they were selling it in a flavored variety. And I will note that these percentages are slightly higher than what we saw across county. Uh we also can look at the percentage of retailers selling different ecigarette flavors. What we saw in Brooklyn Park
and in Henipin County is that retailers have a wide variety of flavors available, which is very appealing to young people who want to try different flavors. Um, and just to give you an example of this, this is a photo that was taken during those assessments at a gas station here in Brooklyn Park. This
was a display in the store. You can see at least a couple dozen different flavors. Bright colored packaging, shiny packaging, sleek devices. There are flavors here such as orange orange creamsicle. Um there's uh white gummy
ice and I think there's one. Yeah. OMG be pop. If anyone knows what that is, let me know. Um but these aren't flavors that adults are looking for. These are appealing to. So we all have a role to play when it comes to commercial tobacco prevention.
One thing that the city can do is they can consider restricting where flavored products can be sold or restricting the types of flavored products that can be sold. Even better, the city can end the sale of all flavored tobacco products with no exemption. That type of
comprehensive policy is going to have the highest impact on youth tobacco use. It's the most comprehensive and it's the easiest to enforce. Um the 2024 Surgeon General's report um indicated that eliminating flavors in commercial tobacco products is expected to lead to
a reduction in commercial tobacco use and uh tobacco related health disparities. If the city were to adopt some sort of flavored tobacco policy, they would be in very good company. On the left side is a map of Minnesota communities that have some kind of flavored tobacco
policy. Um here on the right side is Henipin County kind of zoomed in. Any um city that is in green is a city that has a comprehensive flavored tobacco policy and a shade of yellow just indicates that they have some kind of restriction on flavored tobacco. Um so as you can
see there are many communities in Henipin County and Minnesota that are doing this. Uh adopting a flavored tobacco policy isn't the only thing the city can do. uh they can look at pricing of tobacco products by and they can set minimum prices and minimum pack sizes and they
can also prohibit the reduction of coupons and price promotions. Um price is one of the most effective tools in reducing tobacco use and helping people who want to quit. Uh the city can also look at licensing and zoning policies related to commercial tobacco retailers.
They can adopt a license cap um to cap the number of uh retailers allowed in the city. They could also set a minimum distance from a retailer to a youth oriented facility like a school or a park. And they can look at spacing between retailers and set a minimum
space uh spacing between uh tobacco retailers. So to make sure that there's not too much density of these retailers. Uh lastly, the city can also look at their penalty structure and increase their penalties to make sure that retailers are being properly held to account. So I'm going to leave you all with this.
This is uh how we like to think about commercial tobacco prevention. It's a bunch of slices of Swiss cheese. One slice of Swiss cheese has holes, right? No policy, no single policy is perfect. It's not going to solve the policy or solve the problem with just one policy. But when you have multiple strategies,
policies, and interventions layered together, that is the most effective approach to addressing this problem of commercial tobacco. Right? That's what we have for you. Um, all right, Dr. Bass, uh, thank you. Are you you're going to present?
>> Uh, we're going to >> introduce. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, again, Brian Bass, uh, assistant superintendent for equity achievement in high schools for OIO area schools. Uh, thank you for having us. Um, I want to thank, uh, Na Cooper, one of our, uh,
four student school board reps uh, in Ocio area schools. is at Park Center Senior High School as a senior doing doing big things. Um, and we're just so glad you're with us to share some student perspective. Um, Amy Tolson is our district level principal who works across the district. Um, she's
here as well. She works with all of our student schoolboard reps. And then also joining us uh she was introduced earlier by our presenters uh that just uh shared that information with us uh Christa uh Renault who is a chemical dependency counselor at OIO Senior High School and
or just AIO that apologizes my voice. Um I full at AIO Senior High. Um but I've been in the district for 26 years. So I've covered many buildings. Um so I'm happy to be here tonight and answer any questions. Um I guess I am I am a licensed alcohol
drug counselor. I'm also a licensed clinical therapist. So in the buildings I do I work with students around substance abuse issues and mental health issues. Um I had the pleasure of working with um these wonderful people. Um tackling the idea of vaping. Um it is a
significant issue at all of our buildings. I have been around for a long time. So it is not unique to AIO schools um or any school district. Um but as they have said we by the time students get to senior high um I do work in some
of the middle schools I'm covering currently um we we are almost being reactive um we are dealing with an epidemic a generation with an epidemic of nicotine addiction nicotine addiction um the easy access is huge um I often
ask my kids you know if there were not flavors in tobacco products would you be interested many of will say no, but I often respond and say if you're not addicted, right? Because if you're addicted, then you're going to um access the product. Um regardless, I'm also
really concerned about the progression because many of our kiddos are starting with nicotine products, um the vaping, um the flavors, all the products that they showed, and now we're also dealing with the movement into THC products, um carts, cartridges, oils, edibles. Um,
the problem is significant and I we do a lot of reaction. I work with kids every day. I work with parents. Um, I can't tell you how many phone calls I get from parents saying, "I found a vape in my kids's backpack. What do I do?" And so, of course, there are tobacco sensation
products out there. But from a school perspective, um, our admin teams are working so hard, right, to monitor bathrooms. We did a great event during lunch um asking kids how vaping has affected you and you saw some of the comments. Um kids are tired of walking
into bathrooms, right? And kids are in there vaping. So we're monitoring bathrooms as much as we can. We installed baby detectors a couple years ago. Um they went off all day, all day. So those detectors were removed. Um so
administrative teams are trying. It's not about penalizing kids. It's about deterring. It's about trying to get kids to not use during the school day. So then we're also seeing use linked to truency. Um absenteeism grades, right?
So as school districts, as communities, as we're looking at grades and we're wanting test scores, I mean our kids are struggling and it it doesn't it's not one group of kids. It's our 4.0 kids. It's our lower socioeconomic kids. Um students in the front can probably
attest to this, right? Um, I have a lot of kids that are trying to quit. I have a lot of kids that are trying to cut down. I have a lot of kids that have no interest in stopping at this point. So, I love working with kids. I'm happy to be here. Um, I do think starting with access. Um, I also believe, you know,
unfortunately you commented about location. We have smoke shops in Brooklyn Park in AIO. They're not carting kids, right? That's another thing. It's very easy to get. Um, and they're buying it, you know, in schools, on the streets, very easy to get. So,
I'm just here to support. I love working with kiddos around substance use issues. I appreciate Dr. Bask asking me to be here. Um, so I don't know if there are questions, but I I appreciate the work that you do and I I hope that you will take into consideration um looking at doing some banning around the flavors
for these IT products because they are such a progression into other substance use and mental health. U one of my favorite mantras I say all the time is chemical health is mental health. So you hear on the news mental health in schools, mental health in schools, right? Everybody's concerned about mental health for our kiddos. Um, in
connection with that, we have a lot of kids that are using to self-medicate their mental health. So, they all they get all those together. >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah, I'll hand it over to Amy Thomas, a district level principal who has um talked with our students and has a few
questions I think primed for Naomi to respond to. >> Yeah. Well, unfortunately, two of our other scholars could not be here at the last minute. So, we did have a few more students to join, but Naomi will be representing our student perspective tonight. And we're glad that you're
here. And it's also her birthday, SO are you. >> Yeah. You can go now. >> Oh yeah. >> It's a great present. >> But I just invited Naomi to just talk a
little bit about um you know to comment about some things she heard earlier in the presentation as well just to share about her perspective of being in the school. So I'm really just going to let her take it from here. >> Okay. Well, to start, personally, as a
student of color, I do see a lot of like vaping stores, tobacco stores right next to our school. We do have a gas station and a tobacco store right next to our school that literally sell vapes all the time. It's within like 2 minutes walking distance. So, if we're talking about
easy access, it's right there. Where I used to live, there was an Arby's. Nobody likes Arby's. They took it out. They replaced it with a tobacco store. That's great. Everybody likes and so then they started making money. It's in my opinion when I saw that happen it
kind of reminded me of redlinining taking communities that struggle and turning them into struggling or communities taking the drugs putting them in there putting more drinking stores in there and giving more kids access to that. Um,
I do know people who get fake IDs to start drinking and start getting tobacco and it's easy access for them. They pay for that kind of stuff. But my question is, what do we do with those students? Cuz a lot of the time, um, when I went
to BMS, it was more like suspension, expulsion. That's just teaching the kids, you do something wrong, you're gone for life. I can go to a different school and then I won't get caught and I'll do a sneak here. It's not a crime if you don't get caught. How can we help them? How can we
get them rehab? How can we rehabilitate them? Cuz I feel like it's not just a slap on the wrist sometimes. Maybe it's like I'll help you up. We are each other's neighbors, you know? So, I think we should look at that too along with the restrictions cuz when people are
addictive, you know, it's going to be hard to get them to stop even if they want to. And it's really hard when you're a child. You know, I have a lot of friends who are affected with this stuff. They still get good grades. They still play good sports, but they have
they struggle with it. So, we should really like hone in on middle schoolers too and focus on the high schools even like counseling and like, you know, regular questions, you know, just trying to get into the schools and see what we can do because it's not just
about like taking it out, it's done. It's about working with the students. What can we do after that? The progress after. But that's what I have to say for now. I'm open to any questions. >> That's all I got. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming here, especially on your birthday.
More fun ways to spend it. But um I will say when you say it affects them, right, or they struggle with it, what what specifically do you have examples you're comfortable sharing? Well, um, we do live Brooklyn Park, in my opinion,
is a safe community for me because I live, you know, where there's a lot of food, so it's a safe park for me. But we do have stuff that happens, you know, and we already get a bad rep from some of our other schools. And last year, I
know we did have to write a page in the yearbook for someone getting shot in our community. And it's just it's adding more stuff that we don't necessarily need. And it usually happens to communities like this. They're not going to put something in Egan or Edina like this cuz they don't want that to happen
in Egan or Dina. >> Can you talk more about the impact that you see like around vaping specifically on your friends and how that might show up in school or around activities? >> Yeah. Um,
I haven't seen anybody get harshly in trouble for it, like suspension, but it does stop us from using the bathroom a lot as you can see on the cards, which I don't mind. They'll close the bathrooms, you got to go bathroom,
and that kind of sucks for all of us, but what can you do, you know? But besides that, what was the other question? just talking I mean you had mentioned that you see the impact of some of your peers around vaping and so didn't know if there's other examples.
>> Oh it's really hard to stop. >> I've had friends who've like tried to quit and they'll say I'm 3 days clean and then I'll be like hey I come in on the fourth day I'm like how you doing now? They say I'm not clean no more. >> So how can we get them to stay? Um I guess just out of curiosity from
what you've seen or maybe you're curious as well um do they ever share or specify how they gain access to it? Is it just the shops directly but they don't ID? Is it other adults? Do they have friends who share cards with them or sell cards to them? Think of it like it's it's
different for everybody, but from what I know, sometimes it's like a dealer type situation, which is very strange cuz that's not something you usually think of when students get like stuff like that. But I'll see, oh yeah, sometimes,
oh, he's here. The car's outside and he's waiting. It's weird, you know, but that's how some people get their stuff. Naomi, in thinking about um prevention, um what type of communication or
engagement with students would you um think might be effective? Like is it a matter of education? Um is it like what would resonate with students? Um, I feel more like a heartto-he heart person to talk to like what we already have in our buildings,
but maybe a little more. You know, maybe at the start of the school year, people can anonymously anonymously say if they have bathed or not, then they can get help and we can put them into a program or some kind of place where they can just talk or speak or have a club where people can just like sit down and like
open up, you know, because I feel like education, if you tell students no, they're going to want to do it more. That's just every teenager in the group. You're gonna tell a teenager, "Your curfew is 8 o'clock. Their curfew is not 10." So, you know, I feel like more of a
circle like this where they could just talk openly about their youth to just get it out there cuz all everybody wants is their voice, you know, someone to listen, you know, and I think that would be wonderful. Well, we also know that for our athletes
that that comes in conflict with Minnesota Minnesota State High School League. And so athletes that are um addicted or are using are going to try to hide that >> and not be open about it because then there'll be penalties potentially which would be removing them from their
competitions. So obviously as an athlete that would be something they're avoiding at all. >> Anonymous slips that could work too. city council. >> Oh, I'm sorry.
>> Okay. Thanks. Thanks for coming. Go be on us. Um, so here's my question. What's happening now? Like what did you hear growing up in elementary or middle school? Did you It's been around for a while, right? So, what did you hear in
your studies or in conversation from educators? Was there conversation about this at all or I know that the student athletes have signed the commitment or or did in the past but like for people who are not
does that make sense >> like in health class or I don't even know what it's called anymore. So I as an athlete haven't signed anything saying I don't do drugs. I don't know if other sports have to do it. I have not seen anything like that.
Um for middle schools when I was in middle school it was all co so nothing happened >> but it was more like after I left >> I think someone else >> um thank you so much for for your input.
Um so I want to say a couple things. Um first of all I'm really proud to be part of OIO schools. Um we are one of the districts that still have um substance abuse counselors in our buildings. um they are brought up by principles as well. So um absolutely I go into health
classes um when students get caught in the building either with nicotine, marijuana, any kind of substance they are referred um to myself. We also have a fuller staff park center and a partner Maple Grove. So the support is there. Um
this year I've also started um a vaping awareness and education group. Um, so getting kids, kids that use, kids that don't use, kids that want to quit using. Um, and the group is not to stop using. The group is to hear student voices.
What do you need? Um, I love that you said kids just want to talk, like get them together. Um, so that last we've teamed with um the tobacco alliance and did some activities. Um, and they're excited about it because they're tired of seeing it and how the impacts. So yes, athletes do sign the state high
school league. Um and but it gets complicated, right? So they're caught. Um that's dealt with at the high at the high school. Um you made a comment about not just giving discipline. I know the county there's a lot of programs out there that are really gearing up towards
support over suspension. And so I am piloting this year. I talked to Amy um about Stanford University has come out with a tool, an education tool. So like our first time offenders for nicotine. Hey, you watched the 30 minute education
video and and maybe the consequences will be decreased. We're tinkering with it this year. Um looking to implement it. AIO senior high is kind of piloting. We're just kind of seeing how how it will work out. So we are very much wanting to give support to kids. Um I
come from the world of addiction. I I worked in the field of addiction for 30 years. Um, so we do we also do need some consequences unfortunately and we don't have enough resources in every building to do to do only support or suspension.
So we're balancing the two, right? Really wanting to get parents involved. Um, how do we looking at the student that is potentially experimenting versus a student that may need an intervention, maybe a treatment, you know, episode for substance use and or mental health. So,
we are we have a lot of really great things happening in our schools. Could we have more? Absolutely. Um, so we're always looking to to figure out how to access more students, but everything you've said is is so accurate and yeah, just need a lot of support for young
people. So, between the intervention and what we do like boots on the ground compared to what communities can do, you mentioned location of smoke shops and all those pieces. So, teaming together I think is just absolutely incredible. Um, I have a question. Okay, go ahead.
So, I'm kind of curious around I mean I'm always a little sensitive. I our young people have so much going on in their lives. Um, how do how do we I don't know um educate parents or caregivers because I I myself have four
kids and I have one daughter who was very successful on a but then when I listen to her friends and their stories I'm like you did what? like and I didn't know what they I didn't even know I don't even know necessarily always what to look for and I also think even that you guys passed around you know adults have addictions too and that's
generational and so if you know it's like how do we expect our kids to if they're not um if their families or caregivers aren't able to model that behavior and I know it's a disease it's not you know um you know how do we kind of really integrate kind of that whole
unit because um you know I think it's hard for just one student. We already know there's so many pressures on our kids all the time in every area. Um but it has to be kind of that multi-pronged approach to to educate and inform um the people who are also supporting them
outside of the building, >> right? Yeah. And and I would I guess I would say to that I mean yes 100%. um marijuana specifically with the legalization of marijuana again the age is 21 that's 21 for nicotine marijuana
um but it's legal for 21 and plus right so we have a lot of kids that there is active use in the home um that's not new but it's grown significantly because of the legalization um so from a school perspective from a community perspective
um we just did a a community event on opiates so there are community things that go on. Um we at conferences I generally will hold like a parent information session. Um the turnout is always not what I would love it to be, right? Um so I think the questions and I
I have to operate on accessing one student, one family is progress, right? And so when kids gets caught in the buildings, that's an an amazing opportunity to do intervention, get parents involved. Um there's no shame,
there's no judgment. It's how can we help? How can we get your your kid back on track? I I'm not here to assess your whole family and judge, but I'm here for support and whatever is needed. So, yeah, your point is is very well taken. And so, we are doing little peace meal
things. And I wish we had 10 of me in each building. Um, middle schools, elementary, the middle schools, um, a lot of nicotine use. And if we could, you know, access them at a younger age and get those parents involved would be
great. So, but we have there are a lot of great things that are happening. But that's a great point. We we need more. Yeah, for sure. >> So, regarding the um you know, the carcinogenic effects or or health issues, what's I guess what are those
one? Um cuz I I heard there's I heard someone say there's health issues but then what are those and then what's the mechanism that caused right it was sold in the in the beginning that they needed like smoke this and that so what are the what are the mechanisms that actually
lead to these health implications and then what are the health talk a little bit about the chemicals that are in ecigarettes. So there's 67 known chemicals in these cigarettes, many of which the same of that you see carcinogenic chemicals that are in
cigarettes, but there are thousands of unknown chemicals that there was a study from John Hopkins where they said they couldn't even quantify them in the lab because they were they're unknown chemicals. But of the known chemicals, we know that they're let me just back up a minute. With cigarettes, you can say
cigarette smoking causes cancer, right? You can say causation, but with vapes, since they're so new, all we can say is we can say that, wow, there are a lot of cancer-causing chemicals in these products and there's heavy metals. There was a study that came out last summer.
We we already knew that there were heavy metals in vapes because the vapes are made out of metal. The metal leeches out of the device and you're breathing it in, but was it enough to cause harm? Well, there was and I I'm happy to share all of this data with anybody. There was a study last summer that showed that the
they measured the impact for lead levels that people were actually inhaling lead antimony and nickel and they um saw they they were off the charts so far exceeded that the the minimums that people could handle.
So we know that there's heavy metals that are now we know that they're causing that they're a high high level that really increase the risk of cancer. We know these products are there. It's going to take another 10 years to probably see, you know, cigarettes that wow, there was causation, not just
association. Yeah, I was just going to say, I mean, aside from the flavors, these young people are being sold the idea that it's safe. >> It's safer, right? So, they will tell you cigarettes are dangerous. Vapes, I will have conversations all day long
with young people. They're like, "Well, no, the vape is, you know, it's safer." Um, so they go to goods, right? um kids will say, "Oh my gosh, don't drink and drive. That's dangerous." But to drive on marijuana is safer. So all of these sort of messages that are out there, um
the medical aside from all the chemicals that are in it, again, we go back to the mental health. Um I I don't know what's going to happen with this generation of kids and the the level of use, you know, I mean, liver and lungs and all the things because the the research is
beyond heartbeat. So it took a long time. If you think about the cigarette industry and what happened with the cigarette lawsuits, the tobacco lawsuits, right? And then cigarette use went down substantially, that is now happening with happening with vape. And I really do believe in the next 3 to 5 years, vaping is going to be out. And
you know what students said to me? Until the next thing comes along, >> right? So it's always access to youth. So between the mental health, physical health, it's out there. And so they are hearing this in health classes. Um there's more and more advertisements, there's more TV commercials. So the word
is getting out there. Um but they still operate under the under the pretense that it's safer and it's fine. So everyone thinks they're invincible, right? >> And I'll just add one other thing. So most adults who use tobacco products, whether that's cigarettes or some other
tobacco product, started using before they were 18. They started as young people. So this is an addiction that these young people will carry with them into adulthood and they may be using other products at that point. They may be using those, you know, the cigarettes
or other tobacco products and not just vapes. So um we have to prevent it before it's the idea. >> So back to the original question, thank you. the uh people were thinking this probability for cancer that comes from
this long term. And then I heard I don't know if I heard from you or someone else that kids are saying that they're already feeling some health issues trouble breathing a lot. >> Yeah.
>> We just don't know about that. >> That's exactly it. The research is out. So, in the vape, I mean, aside from all the chemicals, um, deacetate is a is a chemical that's also used causing a lot of lung issues. Um, I there is a couple stories of young people having their
esophaguses restructured because of because of vaping. Um, but absolutely the research is continuing to come out. So, no different than the tobacco, the the cigarettes. I think in the next three to five years we'll have significant um kids are going to be like oh just
like just what happened with cigarettes. >> The other problem is some other data that's now coming out a lot of multi-use. People have this misperception that oh some people vape to quit smoking adults and that's that's we're more concerned about kids starting right but kids who are starting now
they're using vaping and those oral nicotine pouches I showed you and then kids go on to cigarettes. There's a lot of multi-use. It's not just a single use product. So, it's the nicotine in them that causes that that causes that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Were there any other questions or comments? >> Board members, any other questions or comments from you? >> Um, I I have one question. So I was looking at the um like the medicine department
surveys and things like that and it was funny interesting to me because I think like 15ish% of of kids or something like that I remember they question that was asked is how many of
your peer or do most of your peers vape or something like that and it it seemed like everyone thought their peers were all out baby but in reality wasn't really like that. So, how do we teach the kids like you know actually not everybody is doing this? >> That's an excellent point because I will
say I talk to my students all the time the perception is everybody uses. The reality is that it's not factual. um most kids do not use um unfortunately there's a lot of experimentation you know so you have the FAR on this end and the FAR on this end um Minnesota student
survey data is helpful I I don't you know I don't know how serious kids take that survey to be quite honest with you having been a part of it for 20 plus years um but I would agree most kids are most kids are not using so it's right it's that it's the percentage kids that
might begin that might experiment how do How do we how do we get to them and prevent and also with the kids that are that are addicted? How do we help out? So there's many there's many many kids that do have. Absolutely. >> I did have a couple of data questions
not for the purposes of like if we whatever you want to email that that stuff out great. Um when you talked about access here in Brooklyn Park, 44 points of access for folks to purchase bait. I'm just curious how that compares to like the state like it like for per
for 25,000 people in a population how many access points would you see like I just would be curious to see are we about average or are we way more over represented in access than other cities similar in size or what have you and the
other question I had is when you talked about cigarette use I'm wondering about the arc of the use in terms of how early when cigarettes came on the scene in North Carolina and tobacco industry just launched and they're handing out cigarettes for free. I've got some good friends who talked about like when they were kids they were just giving away
cigarettes in North Carolina trying to hook people into it. I'm just curious about it feels like vaping is hitting kids younger than cigarettes do. I'm just wondering if there's any science or any research that backs that up or am I just am I in terms of the presentation you
said how early um kids are getting access to this and are using is that about is that similar on par when cigarettes came on or is that or is or is is the vape coming in younger younger than when cigarettes came I'm just I'm just curious
how how the epidemic compares in terms of how the spread we want to limit it to a few more minutes. We do have other items. So, >> yeah, I'll be quick. I can answer your question about density. Um, so based on so, I'm actually working on
this right now and and pulling this together for Hipan County to look at all of the communities and how much how many retailers they have. Um, from my memory, I think Brooklyn Park was kind of in the middle. Um, but I will send you that data in a follow-up email so that you can look and compare and have the
information for the >> And you asked a great question. I don't have the answer off the top of our head, but we'll make sure that it's in the packet that Jackie said we do. I want to check and see about cigarette use when the game first came out. I don't know if that's out there, but I'll take a look.
That's a great question. >> Mayor, before we close out this topic, um can you speak to any policies that the city is considering? >> So, I think um with the policies they put up front, I was talking to J about this. I don't I don't like necessarily
uh committing the council on anything before we've actually had a meeting about this, but I do think it's in terms of how we want to limit um do we want to limit overall being able to offer these flavored cigarettes, right? or is there I don't think we necessarily do distance
well distancing requirements may be difficult because there's some places that are distributed so you wouldn't necessaril but again I don't I think we'll consider our own options but I'm also not going to commit to any particular policy for
or against it and that's just kind of the nature of me allowing council to commit uh and discuss whatever polic policies as well. And I know that this is the second time for some of us that we are hearing this presentation. For me, it's the first, but uh second time we're hearing this presentation. So,
rest assured we'll have discussion on it probably during the work session as a council. >> Um I have question for school. Um do school have a education program for the student around
the the heart of a group because the self motivation is the the strongest one you want to answer. Sorry I didn't have a question. >> Uh do we have education for the kids?
>> Um yes um so the health classes deliver it. Um, and I will say I don't I mean this is kind of brand new, but um there's legislation right now that schools are mandated to provide THC oil um education in however, but AIO will be
doing it through health classes. Um so yes, and like I said, I'm I'm very blessed because AIO we have support in the schools. Many schools have had to get rid of support or they're contracting out. So yes, we do education a lot of different ways. I would say
primarily through health health curriculum um and then support in in the individual buildings. >> Okay. >> Yeah. For the middle for the little >> Yeah. Thank you. information because you know the policy
only can keep the result to target to the children or the public but the most important is the self education self awareness um and if they know the harm
they don't like to use it you know and I'll tell you what I work with kids where they're at right so I was trained in 12step and I I do a lot of heart reduction with kiddos, right? Like how can we reduce your use even? Um so really try to figure out what kids and
where they're at and what they need. Um so they're really receptive. People literally will say, "Do kids really talk to you about their substance use?" Yeah, they absolutely do. Of course, they do. So I'm I'm grateful for what I do. >> Yeah.
>> All right. Well, thank you for the presentation and then Naomi, thank you for taking the time. Uh please enjoy the rest of YOUR Thank you for coming to the next which is the city Council.
>> Yeah. >> I want to show it to my parents. You're not going to get in the picture. You go over there. Heat. HEAT. All right. One, two, three. >> OKAY.
HEAT. HEAT. HEAT. All right. So, we're going to head to the city. They'll present questions after. Thanks, Mayor. Um, good evening everyone. said, "My name is Jay. I know many of you for folks that don't know. It was great to meet you and thanks for making this all
happen." So, um, what we did is we identified I don't know about five topics or so um that we thought are both relevant in terms of priorities for us as a city and then also relevant to our partnership and work with the young people in the community. So, um, we're
going to bounce around a little bit and I'll just hold the clicker and you guys tell me forward. Does that work? Okay, Brad is up first. Sure. Good evening. Uh Brad Helper, Recreation Parks Director. Welcome to Zaywood Recreation Center. Um the Zaywood Recreation Center has been a
collaboration between Ocuary Schools and the city since 2003. Um about 10 years ago, we experienced uh growth in our programming, growth in our need that grew beyond the walls of the space that we're in currently. Um and so we started working towards um a bigger, better
Zwood Recreation Center, Zwood 2.0. if you will. So, um, last year about almost a year ago, Tuesday, we broke ground on a brand new space. Um, we set out to intentionally design, uh, redesign or renovate the existing building to be,
uh, run into the K5 program and then built a new space, uh, which most of you entered into tonight, um, for our teens. um features a Best Buy tech center which will give young people access to um all sorts of technology that they don't necessarily have at home, maybe not even
within the school system. Um workforce development space which connects young people with 21st century job skills. Um dedicated art space, a lot of social connection space or hangout space. Um and then also the city's uh first uh
city gymnasium. really a space for young people and family uh to serve as a resource on for young people in this area. Um I could go on and on about that, but I won't. So, you'll get an opportunity to walk through it afterwards if you'd like to
to take a look at it for yourself. Um there's a couple of photos. There's the new gymnasium. Um again, as we you know, we've talked about a lot of people in this room have talked about we are short on gym space throughout our community. Um, this gives us a little bit more gym
space. Um, but we'll we're also continuing to look at other opportunities to do that. >> Next one, J. There's the ribbon cutting happened about a month ago. Um, we we cut the, uh, ribbon on the building, but we had some issues with our elevator.
So, um, we finally have that all resolved. We've, uh, you all have a flyer in front of you. Um, certainly invited to the, uh, April 23rd cops and teens event. um will also be the grand opening of our uh our new facility. Next one.
Uh the next one I mentioned the uh um expansion of gyms and uh trying to support the young uh programs for our young people both uh basketball, volleyball, um wrestling, all sorts of our older adults with pickle ball. Uh we've got a request in for the state
legislature for the Northwest Regional Athletic Facility um to add a multi-court gymnasium, either three or four courts uh within a uh gymnasium space that would support tournament play, but also would help serve the need of the day in and day out usage of our
young people. It would improve the uh entrances and corridors of the facility and also some exterior enhancements to support community events and uh as well as parking infrastructure. Um this is just a rendering of the facility. Um the
community activity center was built in 1983. Has two ice arenas, um banquet rooms, etc. Um there's been five different additions to the community activity center. It's really evolved as our community has evolved. Um and this really is the next iteration of uh how
we support the community. >> Can you tell people how they can support us getting funding in the bill that is currently before legislators? >> Absolutely. So we'll be thank you for the segment. Um we're launching our uh kind of next campaign or our advocacy
campaign if you will um for uh supporting this. So, uh, a letter writing, email writing, uh, reaching out to your legislators, um, both the chair and the vice chair of each the house and senate bonding committees are important. Um, so we'll be, you likely will get
included on our, uh, email campaign um, asking for your support um, with our legislators to uh, to help advocate for um, our additional spending request. Um originally we were allocated $5 million for a project to convert our one of our
ice arenas to gyms. Um our the the council direction staff direction is we want to add not subtract. So we are looking to uh for this project to do exactly that. So um yeah if you want to advance J I think there's one more slide
just a renderings of what that would look like. um really a you know a multi-court gymnasium again serve for pickball, volleyball, basketball. Um you know we honestly don't even know the full extent of the demand out there because um our gym space is so high in
demand that there's uh community or uh programs or organizations within our community that are looking in other places. Um and our the programs that we have are really restricted in their growth and their opportunities to expand their existing programs by the uh infrastructure that's available to them.
>> I know you want to keep on time, Jason. So >> yes, it's Brad took like six of our 10 minutes. >> Sorry. >> This was supposed to go the other way. Uh my name is Matt. I am the uh north inspector at the Brooklyn Park Police
Department. Uh this is a slide we love to show. You can see our population growth has uh continued to rise over the years and the line that starts high on the left and goes down is our overall crime. We can see that there's some spikes there right around the 2020 area.
Um and that that number continues to fall. I look this is a really large view. I look at our crime stats. that's I'm responsible for and I can tell you that the granular granular level it's continuing to go down particularly as I looked at yesterday um uh we had small
number we had a decrease in violent crime which is a really really important uh critical thing for us >> that's a 35 year low >> uh this is I'm also in charge of the real time operation uh center um which is what you can see on the right there
and then you can see on the left there um our community intervention unit. Community intervention unit is really focused on addressing those uh folks that are at the highest risk of uh being victims or maybe being uh suspects in the future, connecting with them,
finding out what it is that they need in their lives to keep them off that path and trying to surround them with those resources. That's what our CIU does. We have a CIU team that's out in the community trying to connect with folks and do that. We have case management that's doing that. um people that are reading all of the reports saying, "Oh
man, this kid was involved in this and I remember they were involved in this last week. What type of resources can we direct towards this kid so that they can make better choices?" Um really really critical for us. We're doing it differently than most anybody throughout the entire country. We have them in our
uh police department connecting uh with us. That's why they have access to the data that a lot of times you wouldn't get at other police forms. They don't get access to the data. Our data is very powerful which is why they're there for that. >> What does CI CIU stand for? >> Uh the community intervention unit. Um
before I get the eyes to speed up, >> let me uh go over real time operation center. We're focusing very heavily building the real time operations center right now. It is up and running. We are flying drones. It's not just cool stuff. It's not just this that can translate 19
languages for me right now live, which is cool by the way. And 25 years ago, I could have used that. Um, but it's all it's really about how do we direct our resources more efficiently, more intelligently? Um, how
do we send cops where we need them when we need them there? Cuz that's always the problem, right? There's only so many cops for 26 square miles. That's what this technology is all about. It's about connecting it with cameras. It's about using object recognition so it can tell us someone just got out of the car with
a rifle. You need to go here now. And we're looking really, really forward to connecting with our community partners to see how they can integrate with and leverage this technology with us to advance safety. >> Thanks, M.
>> All right, let's see if I can do it less less than five minutes. >> All right. >> Um, Dr. Angel Smith. I'm the assistant city manager and director of administration. Right here is a picture of our Health on the Go mobile unit. And
so Health on the Go is um it really started from the need to be creative during CO. Um during that time we realized that most of our residents who were not only impacted by um health disparities but but a lot of the the
challenges that existed during that time they weren't coming to us. So we made the decision to go to them. Uh we we realize now that what started as a response has now transitioned into a strategy. Um, next.
And so with Health on the Go today, we're meeting our residents where they are, um, where they live, where they gather. We're also connecting them with critical resources, um, like food, housing support, as well as physical and mental health services directly in our
community. Additional additionally, um, one of the things that's most impactful is our partnership. And so we're currently partnering um, next slide. We're currently partnering with um all of you and we've done it for the last um
few years. We've done it through Junth, our back to school initiatives as well as um had additional conversations with many people on your team now in terms of how can we continue this partnership, work to connect with our families, our
students, and um yeah, and some of the individuals within your own schools. So again, we see a lot of opportunity here and we're just waiting to um waiting to see what's next. >> Uh Tim Gladill, community development
director, a lot of long planning and economic development. Uh busy busy team. Uh but we're going to focus on two areas of the community today. our northwest area growth plan 169 and 610. It's only 10 15 minutes away from downtown
Minneapolis. A great opportunity to manage growth a little bit better. Um attract the shops and the restaurants that we're really trying to get in the community, not only here. Um but this is a strategy to build tax base to pay for the services elsewhere. I can't talk about this plan without talking about
the commercial tax base gap that we see with our peer communities, especially Bloomington. $5 million commercial property base. We've got about 2.5. We're trying to bridge that gap uh through smart growth here. So, very much in the planning stages for our school
district, be aware, we're probably going to see 4 to 5,000 new households um in this area alone. So, you take that times three, get your population. Our population today, it's about 86,000. Um in the next 20 years, we will eclipse
that 100,000 population mark. So, we'll see some growth in this area. uh for sure focused on the biotech, life sciences, medtech industry. Uh the other area we're focused on is continuing to revitalize the Brooklyn
Boulevard corridor. Uh there's a lot of vacant properties, under utilized property, a lot of underinvestment over the years. So, as we focused a lot on the 610 corridor, we cannot forget about this area. So, very much in the early planning stages, I would assume on this
corridor between Regent and 81. um probably about another one to 2,000 households over the next 20 years. Indirectly related, this property right next to us, which used to be known as Huntington Place, now normal one, uh recently changed owners, and that's going to go through a transformation
very similar to what Crossroads at Penn, now Concierge in Richfield did. Um and just as a heads up, that impacted that school district a lot as that tenant turnover occurred. They'll be investing $18 million. There's going to be some displacement. uh we cannot control but
overall we're trying to replace some of those affordable housing units through this plan as well as well as provide market rate step up housing to reinvest in this corridor as well. I'll stop there. All right. And then the very last topic
um is really one it's really multi-ep department effort um previously known as we mentioned a public safety effort. Uh back several years ago, uh we were part of and have continue to be part of Cities United, an organization that works nationally with um cities and
mayors about reducing uh strategies to reduce violent crime um but in a more holistic way and in a more upstream way. Uh so this is a mission statement related to that work. Um this is going to be really really hard to see. Um but uh Cities United kind of
came out with this model um probably eight years ago and we sort of took it and made sort of our Brooklyn Park version of that and again um everything related to the community intervention team that Matt talked about the workforce development strategies to our
Brook Link program just had its 10 year anniversary to our recreation programming um that we're doing out of this space and other spaces in the community uh to community engagement And so it's really very much a holistic approach obviously in addition to some
of those traditional um placing techniques as well but focusing on interrupting dismantling investing leveraging um relative to our folks. Um I just highlighted a few of these things. Um but over the course the last 10 years or so that we've had this plan
in place uh Brooklank um which many of you know our workforce development strategy we're sitting in Zanwood CIU um police technology upgrades alternate response teams and so on and so forth. So um it's
a very comprehensive approach. One of our next steps though um is to not only uh continue to push ourselves internally for what we can do as an organization um but also leverage how we can work better uh with our partners. And so
that'll be a focus here in the last 6 months in 2026 of connecting with the multiple school districts that serve um our community. Of course, our favorite is Aeria Schools, right? Um, obviously the county is a big partner, North Community College,
Henipin Technical College, and then other nonprofit partners and other organizations like Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth. So, just wanted to preview that. Um, on this point, I I also want to thank Australia Schools. We are part of a regular meeting that um
Dr. Kyle and her team organize with local park um other community stakeholders specifically around safety. So I just want to complement that work that's been going on for several years as well which we consider kind of part of this overall
effort and that's that's really our presentation. So thank you uh thank you for that um uh Jay. Um, and then thank you, uh, Brad, uh, Tim, uh, Dr. Angel,
uh, and then, um, Matt for the, um, for the wonderful presentation and, and the work that you're doing. And I'll just, I'll keep it high level, and then we can open it up for for questions. Um, but I've been really impressed by the progress that staff and team has made by kind of working across uh, different
silos. I think from from the council perspective, we have spent a lot of time well initially many of us first got we spent a lot of time saying how can we bolster public safety so you see that with alternative response community intervention resources for the real time operations sector uh that's been
incredibly important but I think even when it was mentioned earlier right the uh when we're talking about the ecigarettes vaping all of that kids that are socioeconomically not doing uh not as privileged maybe as some older kids seem to be more at risk
for that. They're also more at risk for uh inequitable uh educational outcomes, right? Or to be within the criminal justice system. So, I think one of the things that we have taken some time to focus on is we have this 700 acres of undeveloped land, which is unheard of
when you're 15 to 20 minutes away from um Minneapolis. So, how can we use that to grow that out to help with some tax base based issues with the Brooklyn Park to get what we need uh in terms of retail and restaurants, but also to kind of break that cycle for some youth. And
I think our Brooklyn program uh which helps youth with that is incredibly important. I think the only bone of contention I have with Tim on this piece is that if you're going to if you're going to use the Bloomington example, you have got to embrace mayor math. So if it's 5.3 billion, you push it up to
5.5 billion and then you go to 6 billion. But you never vote down talking numbers 6.5 billion. But but um but I do think that that's going to be an incredibly important piece. And the reason I bring that piece up is because um you know, we
have the privilege of having a school district with us. And so when we talk about creating 10,000 jobs, uh what does it look like to create that school to work pipeline or that school to opportunity pipeline? And rarely do we
get opportunity and I'm I'm not saying we solve for that here. you guys have some a lot on your plate as well, but to begin at some point talking about a conversation and I know some of this is happening, but how do we create that pipeline so that once it is built um we're all moving those many of the youth
in the same direction to say hey this is something you want you can now get graduate get two years associates now you got a $78,000 a year job that changes the outcome for some youth who are coming from generations behind you. So, that'd be my only two cents to add
on on top of that. Um, so we go ahead and uh open it up to questions or comments. >> Members, do you have any questions, comments? >> Um, the alternative responses like mental health, social work.
>> Yeah, we have alternative response in our police department. We have social workers. We have community paramedics. Um folks that uh co-responders that will go out with police to people that are in crisis. Um our art, we have two art teams now. Um we're the first in the state to stand it up. Unbelievably
affected by it. We've seen the numbers go down in our in our mental health calls and I will tell you it was skyrocketing. I mean really really getting out of control. This is the first time we've really seen them go down. um really effective at not just, you know, getting to the scene where
they're not in danger, but there's some sort of crisis. Dealing with those folks, but then also later on connecting them into services so that they don't continue to call back. Really, really, really effective. And the cops love it. Love it.
>> Oh, sorry. One thing. Oh, were you so sorry. Um the school to work pipeline is a really huge passion of mine and I'm already working with a couple companies to try to get that connection made because students that if you don't have connections it's so hard to get that
first job or know what the path even is like. So um I look forward to working with you on that and seeing what's to come. >> I So I just had a couple of comments. Uh no question. one just wanted to
congratulate um and thank the city for um your efforts in crime reduction um but also the wood um so I was previously on the human rights commission many years ago at this point um and those were two topics that we talk about almost every meeting um so to see it
actually come to life um and actually be here is pretty cool um and then the second thing I think my one take away from this is if I did the math right 6 to 7,000 new households coming to our district. Um, so some more changes coming in the
future. It sounds like >> actually we discussed it at cabinet on Wednesday. We know you're coming. So yeah. >> Yeah. So yes, >> I don't know in terms of you guys. I know we're creating work for you in terms of probably a potential school up
there and and you know more lines to educate, but maybe there'll be more jobs for them to shoot for. So, >> good job, right? >> Good job. >> Thank you so much for the presentation. And of note, we do um have the uh joint
powers board um that some of us all serve together on Bday. That's another good connection point um for the work that we do with you together. Okay, are we ready to turn it over to I
one person and superintendent. Uh thank you for your service to our colleagues our city. Um like recently we have uh several school closely
and so uh um I the school um because the part family and children don't have a lot of u after hours after school hours program. So he
said that uh the school said uh they are welcome to others who need but uh because these family are very uh you know very restricted economically
parent work uh maybe do job so they don't have transportation uh they want to so can school uh school board you way to help that meet you and to be able to attend after school
activities. >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> So, as we get queued up here um a fun fact that um the city representatives may be interested in. So, while our
school board um is elected at large, we are not an award system. every single one of our schoolboard members has a connection to Brooklyn Park. So, um whether growing up in Brooklyn Park and living in Brooklyn Park, I live in Brooklyn Park, or serving Brooklyn Park,
both Director Foster and Director Mitchell through faith organizations, um I think that's pretty unique that all six of us have had uh deep ties to the community here regardless of um where we currently reside in the district. So, that's a good planning fact for you to carry around with you when people are
curious about our board. So, uh, you want to anything before we jump in? >> Um, no. Should I just start speaking to it? I hope I can see
I'm a little quick. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Um, so good evening everyone. Um, I am thrilled to be here um with Brooklyn Park uh and and all of us here together. So, one of the things for over the last three years that we've uh are working
really hard on is to for area schools to become one community for all. And what that mean does not necessarily mean losing your identity with anyone but for everyone to understand that we serve all and everyone's voice is important and it's everyone's voice is important to be
valued and heard. So one of the things we live by and we have had training from the school board all the way through all of the administration and we did have used this tool in attendance boundaries and community conversation is this concept of holding space. I will read
just this time. It means that we're willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they're on without judging them making them feel inadequate trying to fix them or trying to impact the outcome. When we go space for other people, we open our hearts off unconditional support and let go of
judgment and control. And we have seen massive changes in that district court where we take time to hold space and just listen, not solve the problem, but listen. And when we listen, we're able to open our minds to multiple perspectives. So, it's well in our district. we uh live with the three C's
that in order for us to be able to have coherence in our district that we need to make sure that we have consistency and connection in what we do and it's kind of listed there. So in order as far coherence whoever are in our district they have to know the why and what we do
and how we make our decisions but we also have to look seriously at how much weight are we putting on the system what are we asking um if we put too much weight we can't get to uh where we need to go. So the next one
we understand our role in how we impact our families and our cities. So, one of the important things for us is to understand that our schools help shape the communities. If we have strong schools, then that helps to build strong neighborhoods. So, uh we want to make
sure we're looking at that all of our schools are and with all of our cities and we're strong and it shouldn't depend upon a zip code of what resources that you get from the hostile area school district. So, this slide just goes to show you we uh serve about 21,000
students. We cover eight cities and those are the cities that we cover there. And so once again, our goal is to make sure that we're one community for all. And because we're so large, sometimes cities feel separate from each uh from auary school. So we want to
assure our families that we are here to support you uh regardless of what your zip code is. So we just want to give you a little fact. So, did you know so currently uh that we serve more than 7,200 students who live in Brooklyn Park has chosen to attend our AIO area
schools for their education. And by the way, all these gorgeous kids are our kids, by the way. Uh so, uh Mayor, you were speaking to um the pipeline. So, we have really been focused on how do we help our scholars find their path. So I
think we're kind of uh speaking to the same thing because every student who enters our district comes with their different strengths. They come in with diff different interests and goals. But our responsibility is to ensure that we create environments where those differences are valued and supported so
they reach uh their dreams of what they would like to be when they leave here. This is a fresh fresh statistic and we're very proud of it. Uh we just did a community survey and surveyed that 90% of um our community are proud who recommend district schools and friends
and then actually for parent or caregiver subgroup we had 95% said they would suggest hospitality to schools park center once a pirate always a pirate we want to share about that so they offer and get over 200 plus courses
there and and it is an international balorate school and That's a very rigorous program uh that we have our kids involved in. They're also part of Abbott. I don't know if you heard of Abbott, but it's advancement via individual determination. And they generally started with taking kids who
scholars who families have never gone to college. It was a first year for college and now it it it crosses that. It's not just that, but it teaches kids uh our babies, I call them our babies, our babies skills for them to be able to be successful in their future.
We're overly excited about our CTE program and our opportunities. So, if you see there, those are all the courses that our scholars are offered from automotive to construction management to health science, engineering, and so all of our kids are able to uh attend these.
It's starting this coming fall. Um, all of the classes that are there, they're not all taught at PAR Center, but if any of our scholars want to attend one that's at another high school, we will transport them to that program and they'll get transported back um to their
school. That was a miracle. I think that was a year and a half study. That was a lot. And that's been one of our key elements of leveraging our scale um is to create more opportunities across the district that any student in the
district can access. So yes, we're very proud of that. So here's a short clip on our CTE program. Heat. Heat. Yes, we have several courses of where our scholars can earn college credit while being at the high school. So, yes,
we do have some that go to PSO, but within our um uh district as well, they can earn college credit taking classes with us as well. Um, so we have multiple before and after school programs and activities. You're not going to be able
to see them all because there's many of them and they're all not just sports either. We have a very strong robotics program at uh Park Center uh National Honor Society. We have play. there's all kinds of uh opportunities for our
students after school. So, we wanted to share that. And we have many accomplishments that we've had. So, we've had um uh Lillian Chan, she was in the top 20 statewide for best prep 2026 student spotlight competition. Uh our
park center uh uh students as part of one of their AVID um projects, they work with elementary kids. So, we do do crossgenerational uh working with our kids. And then we had actually eight of our uh babies recognized as state scholastic art awards uh this past year
as well. Uh our parson wrestling advanced to the state high school league. Uh we actually had our first female wrestlers went to state actually this year too. So that was that was exciting.
Um our park center uh cheer team is you just can't touch them. So they are in first place as usual and they also went to nationals and did quite well as well. And this is our robotics team at Park Center that does extremely well. Brooklyn Middle
uh we're very proud of but we'll let the um students and the teachers talk first. I love the school because it's like a community and you get to know like different types of people when you go to your classes. So, you get to talk to a whole bunch of different people and we have a lot of learning opportunities.
The teachers and the administrators and staff, they really think about us and how how the school really um supports us in a very very very thoughtful manner. Our teachers really do a great job at integrating our steam pillars which are
science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. And how we they integrate it within the classroom and every single day. >> Brooklyn Middle School has a lot of opportunities both in the classroom and outside of the classroom to extend their learning through STEM. In
>> seventh grade, we teach the basics of coding. And um in 8th grade, we get a little more creative. We build upon the foundations that we learned in seventh grade. And then we really explore different cultures and um we bring in a lot of student voice into that class so
they feel represented in everything that we do. At Brooklyn Middle School, our science students are engineers. They are developing uh different things as we learn about the lessons. Like in the human body unit, they develop hands that work and that do a function like grasp
something or throw something. And we are always thinking along the line with an engineer that you can always make it better. So then we have students who will go beyond what we think of in the classroom and they will develop their own engineering projects where maybe their hand moves by itself and can throw
and can write. So they're always thinking along that next step of what's next for me. And we have a great project lead the way. We have a great advocate for students who take students out into the environment that has ground lunches and we have teachers who are doing
hands-on stuff with kids that I don't see in other places. I chose Brooklyn Middle School um I had a son that attended Brooklyn Middle School and then decided to send my daughter here as well um because there are a lot of great opportunities within STEAM for them to
get involved in if they so choose to. So, I wanted to make sure that my daughter had the opportunity to tap into all of those wonderful um options available at soul. Because we are a steam school, we really uh want our students to focus on that
science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. And these are all skills that are going to help them in not only their education pursuits, but just skills that they're going to build to be successful adults. Um, and then if you ever want a tour,
we'll house you at Brooklyn Middle as well because that entire building has been renovated and it's like nothing you've ever seen before. It's a beautiful building. Beautiful building. So, next uh we want to share about Northw Middle School. So, Northw also uh is a literacy rich school and it's also
an Abbott program as well. We have AVID in every one of our secondary schools currently and we just get really really good results from that. So, Northview also uh does uh Project Leadway and they also have a food and consumer science
class as well. One of the best things about Northview, we did have to end up taking out the pool because of the lack of use and the cost of it. So, we asked our babies what they would like to have in that space. They chose a dance studio
and it has uh an inside turf filled with a climbing wall. So, it is in place. Uh you'll see a little bit of the dance studio in the video, but uh would love to share that with you at some point, too. There is a lot of good perks about North
UI. If you start off as a sixth grade, you get to experience like day one, day two class. you can join one class at a time and another class and there's just so much of the community of people becoming a web leader is amazing which I am student aids for the media center counseling office it's just all so much
fun here is really special to me um in so many ways I think number one is the diversity that we have here and student needs and students cultural backgrounds and the languages that our students speak and their families speak when we come here we're all part of Northview we're all nice um but with that everyone
brings their stories brings our strengths um brings our challenges too yet we all really team as one and that's I think the best way for our kids to succeed you know as a Ethiopian American I am more I really recommended this
school because like my daughter was struggling with the learning they have all extra hours teachers maths so that is number one thing I like about this school I would say the middle matters.
Um what happens in middle school is so important for when they go off to high school, college and careers and beyond. But it's a special place for kids to develop who they are and learn about their strengths, their gifts, their talents. And it's wonderful to help
shape and mold and help them discover that. >> My experience here, especially in sixth grade, it was my first year. I was very nervous on the first day cuz I've never really been to like a middle school before. in my tour here. It was really good. Like I was already excited. I was like, I can't wait to be in this school
and here I am. Like the classes, they give you a lot of opportunity to like maybe do new stuff. Like in this gateway class I'm taking like you could really go out of your space and like build stuff like cars. Like we already
finished the car project. Right now we're building something else. What I love about working here at North K is the sense of family. as a family. Um, it's a oneness as being a lead secretary in the front office. It's my my duty in
the morning to make sure the atmosphere feels set for the families, students, or our leaders. I love the fact that the admin and the staff are really engaged and really adant about making sure these
kids are really learning. We actually moved out of the district, but I wanted to keep her here. So, we do open enrollment because she has just flourished since she's been here. You know, it's it's fun coming to school. Yeah, the people are nice. Staff are
nice. Classes are fun. It's easy to learn. >> So, well, uh as well we have our elementary schools. Uh we have about we have eight elementary schools as well that is in Brooklyn Park. So we have Birch Grove uh school for the arts. Um
they put on plays. They have music, visual arts, drama that is a magnet school. So anyone can apply to be able to go to that school. Uh and we do pull kids from all over the district as well as outside of the district. We have Ed Brook Elementary School that is also an
AVID school, the only elementary AVID school in our district and they are actually one of the star schools where different other uh districts actually come to see them. Uh Frell and we have Garden City, uh Closknake Communities,
uh Palmer Lake and Parkbrook. Parkbrook, if you did not know, has a strong strong emphasis on physical education. So they do we teach the kids cross country and skiing. They're doing snowshoeing. They have I don't know what punching bags and
everything and everything they do is is physical cross and they have a girls on the run team. They have track team. So that is a very very uh physical ed type school. So if anyone's interested in that and we do see the difference with in his test scores and things that go on
from having physical movement um there's less concern around um any behavioral issues as well. And of course, uh, we have Palmer Lake, we have Woodland, and then Zaywood Community School is also a magnet, and that's a steam elementary school. So, we start very young there,
and we're very blessed with Zaywood. There are several several companies that come in and work with them. Um, uh, what's our which what's the science one? >> Boston Science. >> Boston Science. >> And gave them lab coats and the whole
thing and the glasses and things like that. So we also know that we need to serve the whole child and we just do not serve an academic part of the child but we also need to um help and support the social emotional part of the child as well. So we do uh work to have
counselors and mental health therapists in our buildings and social workers. Do we need more? Yes, we always need more. We also have equity and multilingual services that are there for our students as well. So and for everyone to understand that this support is not supplemental but is a foundational to
our student success. We know we must have that part. So looking into the future we were blessed in having uh build a better future was uh passed uh by um all of our uh I call them our panel but our stakeholders and from that we are
literally uh starting last year we have 66 construction projects. So every site in our district is being touched. Um and so we're working on safer what you can see there safer school entrances, uh modern libraries, um flexible learning
spaces, uh uh newer furniture for them as well. And so we have already completed a lot of our projects and we still have a lot underway. So um it's hard to see that uh but up there is the new Palmer Lake Media Center. Brooklyn
Middle Commons is just amazing. It's just amazing. Fair Oaks, some every one of our elementary schools will have a maker space. Most of we're almost there. We're getting there. We're large site. So, uh, and every elementary school also has an outdoor learning area currently
as well once they their construction comes their way. Um, you can kind of see, it's hard to see that middle bottom picture. It's North Gian Middle School uh multi-purpose uh space turf uh area that for our our our RVs for them. And
then uh the Northview we also have flexible learning area. Then our large one that we're working on as well as Crest View is being revisioned around we just had a groundbreaking. Thank you um for those that were going to come uh that we'll be working on that. And then
Park Center has their large amount of work starting this summer. So just to give you an idea of what's left. Now we already was going we had started already but this is what's left for us to continue to do construction with. So um as you can see there the elementary
schools the middle schools the high schools. If something is not there that means we have completed that construction but you know you're never really done with construction. There's always something else that may pop up. So uh this is the work that's going to be be doing uh in construction in the
future. And if anybody ever want to know like what we're doing, it's all on our website at osteioschools.org/betaf future that we can always and we keep updates on that and what's happening at each site. So one of the things that has done for us so through the construction
is limiting us to the availability of spaces as well. So our whole goal is like why does this matter? Why are we sharing all this? Because we know uh modern schools do more than just serve students. We anchor the neighborhoods,
right? So they attract families. They signal uh signal which Brooklyn Park is doing long-term commitment to the community. So when schools are strong and well-maintained, communities grow. So that connection is important for our families in turns to have housing
stability and the market growth. >> One thing I would add to that is um I've been on the board for eight years and from the very beginning we've always had a long-term plan of investing in our schools. We do not let our our schools fall into disrepair. And as we um took
this investment with the referendum, as you can see, we brought all of our schools up to the next level. If you walk into a school in Brooklyn Park, walk school in Maple Grove, you are not going to experience a different difference. Everything we put into our schools um keeps all of our schools at that high standard. So, that's something
that I would love for you to continue to support the messaging in because I think sometimes people have outdated understanding or perspective. Um, as Dr. Hy said, we'd love you to come in and tour and see our schools. Um, so you can see firsthand and speak about them in the community, but we've raised the bar
across the entire district and we're going to continue to do that. And we created learning environments where it's not just rows and rows of desks, but we know we had where kids would have more flexible learning centers in a in a public library than they did have at school. So, we're creating those
environments for them. We also had a large uh chance. We have an ECMAC uh committee that looks at enrollment and we've had it for several years and it also uh has many community members on it and so we have been looking at capacity and it finally came as like it's time for us to do
attendance boundaries and we had not changed attendance boundaries K for quite some time over 15 years. over 15 years. >> Yeah. On this scale I >> at this scale. Yeah. So, um currently opening up for 26. So, this fall the 26
27 uh we will be shifting K through 8. We'll be shifting a little bit under 3,000 because our crispy babies already allowed parents to let them be in the schools that they chose to uh they chose to be in. So, we will not move those scholars again. But, we'll be moving,
you know, 2 about 2,600 students in the fall. uh some of our teachers are shifting as well. So we're making sure that um we're uh working with families and understanding with families and and I have to give one shout out. So we did holding space Kate helped to design the
process of how we got parent input and we had sessions for that. We have a parents and community and community he can give input on it. So the day that the board had to vote for the attendance boundaries there was like no one in the audience. the lights went out. Let me
just see. Okay. All right. So, that's our big deal that's going out. Our attendance values there. And um did you have them on the K12 school then? >> Yeah. >> I clicked too fast. >> Oh, okay. Uh so, we just want to let you know as well cuz we, you know, trying to
keep it small that we do have about 2,000 Brooklyn Park youth that have participating in enrichment classes after school. And so, our kids stop, our school age program is about 1,200 of our babies. Uh we call Brooklyn Park home. Our early childhood programs have been
supporting more than 500 Brooklyn Park families and there's almost about 400 Brooklyn Park adults that have been taking part in our enrichment classes this year. So we want to make sure we share that. And um we can't do it alone
without our partners. So this is just a small amount of partners that just help our scholars that help our teachers. So it's not I just want to give a shout out because it's not always necessarily just our students but of the the help and assistance that we give to our teachers
as well. So uh we truly appreciate that and they help us work with our families. So out out of all this, our just main goal is we want to build a district that's having growth, that's fiscally responsible and student centered
decisionm and we want to do it with each other as a community. So we've all heard that um adage, it takes a village. There's an ibutu quote, an African quote that I particularly like. Next slide is um I am who I am because of who you are.
Right? We are who we are because of what Brooklyn Park is. And I said we are who we are to hopefully reflects back on you. So we know that we need to partner this in together to create the world for our kids that they need. So thank you. Um actually board members, is
there anything that you would add to that presentation from your perspective? >> All right. Thank you. Any questions for city council members? your question, but thank you everyone. Thank you for our team for helping organize this and to get it home
together. feel it was really overdue because so much of what we do also in city council impacts families, youth, and I feel like we probably have some common goals and it's better to work together and um share ideas especially when we're dealing with some challenging
issues with youth and safety and mental health and all the things. And I also just wanted to say um I don't know if you go by chair Pierce. I don't know what the titles are for you guys, but sorry. I'll make up names, too. She came
to a a immigrant community listening session we had to. One of the things that really heard loud and clear was the the sense of belonging that so many of our um BIPO and immigrant family and children need to feel. I've walked away
from them even really struggling and trying to understand how as a community collectively come together to address that because it's heartbreaking to hear. I'm sure school board members and families are keenly aware that my children are grown so I don't have children in the school system or hearing
these things daily. But I'd love for us to work together on helping make sure our kids really know that we are one solid community. It's OIO, it's Brooklyn that we're all here for all of the children. >> Yeah. And we actually to respond to
that, we just got our community survey um and would share that information out. We reviewed it at our work session and um we have very high um parent um positive response to exactly that to belonging and inclusion. It's one of our
strategies um and and it's embedded in our values. So, um, we can continue to share more information with that partnership. >> That would be great. And what what can be successful? Um, yeah, it's just really hard to hear people especially during heavy ice activity feeling
scared. >> And we and we did have experience the significant impact of ice. I don't know if there's like a 30 second. >> Yeah, I'll just be real quick. So, uh, we did end up offering, uh, online and so within a week to two weeks, we shifted 3,000 students online during
that time period. And as of last Friday, they were all back. >> So, yeah, elementary took a little bit longer. Secondary came back somewhere. >> Well, thank you for all you do, too. I mean, post all the challenges that came
with coco and just all the things. So, thank you for making sure our kids are at where they're at and where their families are at. And I do really hope we do more of this more collaboratively. Thank you. Um, so just two things real quick and I know we've got times for Jay
in the eyes too, but um, one of the things that you didn't highlight in your slides. Um, as a parent who raised both my girls in this district, one they both started at Birch Grove. Maggie was the first year was a magnet. So she continued the arts. So we did three districts because of of that experience.
And my youngest um had educational challenges and it was at Birch Grove where they discovered that and explain to me resources for that. And then the network of she needs to be a well it wasn't whatever it was called when we were there was >> so and they were like yes and you need
to be with you know runquest over at so like I I've experienced that and I love the district um and I don't know if we we felt that in our first interaction but what I will say is I would highlight that special education program how amazing it is when you share that
because I lived it. Um, and I really successful children because of the district. The second thing I would say is what I heard you say really resonated with me because we as council and residents of Brooklyn Park, we've been running uphill for our narrative for Brooklyn Park and we love this city and
I'm hearing that you've got that too. So, that really resonates with me that we do have to do more of this. I was like really advocating with all of our council members to like be here today. I didn't know was going to be such a big group. I know it's on Tuesdays is when we should have done it. I learned that
the other day from your your normal sessions, but I'm so thankful that we're in this space. Um, and I'm glad I heard some of the things I needed to hear tonight. So, I really appreciate that, especially you. So, thank you guys. >> Yeah. Um, I wanted to go back to the
Operation Metro Surge response from the school district. I spent some time both at Park Center and at Brooklyn Middle in the sort of after school hours in the early days of the surge. And I just and then I have kids that are attending Park
Center. And I just want to thank the school district overall for the level of um kind of flexibility and discretion and creativity that you've allowed and encouraged. I like we should clap THAT
box staff is awesome too. >> Yeah. >> I just would say it just I mean I think that um I think it's really positive to be together. I think that we I agree we need to do more of this. Um, you know, I think that
we can really align our shared outcomes around our young people and their families. Um, and you know, disparities. I really am always really focused. I mean, I we I think we've done I think our district has done an amazing job. I've had my kids in the district. Um, I
grew up in Brooklyn my whole entire life. Um, and yet we still have significant disparities. And so I feel really laser focused on that like and we build upon the strengths but we all share the disparities right and editing capacities
and people's lives are not just like cut out for schools or cities and they live your life in the community and so I think the more we can um connect and really bring accountability um programming um coordinated resources
because like when I was on the board the first time it was you know I thought I was just like, oh, I'm on the school board. I'm passionate about education. And then it was like co George Floyd. I mean, now it's the Metro Surge. It's I mean, there's all these issues that we don't know what's going to come up. And
I think it's hard as kind of government units of government to be super nimble. Um, but even Christian, you talked about like what happened at center, some of our schools. I mean, it was really our community too, right? Like that stood up and like they were making sure we our kids were safe. They were making sure
that they were protected. they were communicating. I mean, I know keep we'd always get communications from people about like this is going to be like Dr. Hy, you know, we heard this. And so, um, I just, um, I think that just will only help strengthen our trust and we can
intervene earlier for with our young people for whatever they need. And so, I'm really proud. I'm proud to have grown up in Brooklyn Park. I am proud to be part of um, this school district. and I'm really excited for um what we can do together moving forward.
>> Thank you. Um, and so I wanted to piggy back off that Gus and I think one of the things that I always concerned about was disparities. And I think that um, you know, there's two factors, right, to me that really control
educational outcomes, right? And they're kind of circular. And so talked on one is wealth, right? You just see in communities that are wealthier that the kids tend tend to do well. I tell I can tell you for a fact I went to school with those kids. they are not sharper or smarter IQ wise they're not um so but
it's that wealth that allows them the resources and the parents aren't worried about certain things so they can focus on the other piece though is for kids that are coming from a background that is high right is the educational opportunities do have to be there and some of them latch job and then they do
and outperform everybody else around them so I you know one of the challen one of the things that I did want to challenge us coming out of this is um I do think we need to do this on a regular basis, but I do think it's to to director Foster said, right, creating that and I know you guys are already
working on it. I know it's annoying when somebody tells you do something that you're already doing. So, I'm not I'm not doing that. But I do think as we build out the um as we build out the Northwest Corridor, the biotech district, if we're looking at 10,000 jobs, our preference is that the
majority of those jobs go to people within Brooklyn Park and that youth are at a young age being prepared for those, right? So, one of the takeaways I think would be how as we form this strengthened partnership because we're already working together, how do we really lean into when that thing is done
in 5 to 10 years, we already have something built out where we know these are going to be going there. Um, or people that are in our in in the educational system in our arena, right, are going to be going into that arena, right? And that to me helps with that circular some kid that was going to grow
in poverty now he's not in poverty or she's not in poverty and so that makes it easier for the education system if they stay in Brooklyn Park right because now their kids have more resources and they're performing better right so I think those two work hand in hand but
it's kind of we working hand in hand so that when that opportunity comes we can make that happen and um the other piece I want to say uh um is uh thank you chair Prince for for uh helping to make this happen. Uh but also thank you to um
city manager struggle and then superintendent how for doing this because I know that uh you know school board and city council to say hey these things are important and then there's always these two people who have to kind of >> her the cats right. Uh so thank you and
thank you staff uh for supporting bringing everybody together. Thank you. Um, sorry. And one last comment. Um, we do you we saw a lot of great things tonight and to what Director Dawson said, you know, we do have challenges that um very real challenges really very real disparities
that our um administrative team is working on. We have an incredible leadership team here um tonight um and we're laser focused on achievement, closing our achievement gaps. um what type of innovative programming can we add? What type of strategies are having
the greatest impact? So um I would say like in the last three years under Dr. How's leadership um we've gotten very laser focused as you saw on um driving strategies that lead to improved outcomes for our students. I don't want to gloss over right that everything is
wonderful and perfect. So we have um thank you for bringing that up. So we have real things that we're looking at. So, and what we can do if we will um get after it in partnership um together with the city. So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you. And then I was going to call the audible. I don't think we need to to go out of the but uh I
think maybe we adjourn and then folks if they want to go to the go to the Does anybody object to that? Don't be that person. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.