[Music] good evening uh this work session of the ISD 279 School Board is being held in the second floor media center of North be middle school on Tuesday February 11th 2025 the work session is being audio recorded the recording will be
made available on the district website within two business days after the work session is ended with regard to the audio recording our communication staff has asked that we share a friendly reminder that conversations during the work session that are picked up by the
recorder and can affect sound quality also conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the recording as well the intent of the Schoolboard work session is to allow for Schoolboard discussion of topics work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the
board to acknowledge attendance this evening I'll ask that all present at the table State their name starting with the person to the love Tanya Prince School Board member Brian bass assistant superintendent for equi and achievement Kelsey Dawson School Board member Brian cers Hall executive director of community
engagement executive director Community Sarah Mitchell School Board member Anthony Paris executive director of Technology HR STK assistant superintendent for the elementary John Mor executive director
of plannings and operations Erica fostor School Board member uh keth take School Board member Kim supera and I Thomas Brooks and present the purpose of Schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and when applicable to provide Direction in order
to facilitate efficient and effective decision making at regular board meetings Dr Hy will you please introduce North View middle schools for people thank you Vice chair Brooks uh it's a pleasure this evening to hold our work session here at Northview so we're going to have principal Diana bledo uh brag
about her school thank you I got a voice can you hear me wonderful thank you all for being here night this is my 11th year principal actually my 12 this building because I was a student here back in
1990 so I'm excited to have you all a part of our it's a great place to be and I hope that you have enjoyed the time with us today just do a short presentation here there a time keeper in here make sure I can talk forever it's not
rud right but we do focus at students and this not not just a slogan for us it is the heart of what we do um and my my goal today is to help you understand that the work we do here at North Middle School to support student achievement specifically I want you to know who we
are and what we do each one of you should have a document in front of you this is called a compx this outlines the promise that we have made to our school Community from which we Center all of our work around it really uh supports
our vision which is about inspiring our students with an inclusive responsive environment and we do that by ensuring that we use the best practices available to support the students that we serve we also have seven commitments that we can read there not going to read it to you
grown up but these are the things that we promise that we do every single day um all throughout the year and what I do want to talk more about the commitment themselves and how to show up in our building for example we believe that we're responsive as a school by
providing a meaningful encouraging safe environment that Fosters the whole child and focuses on student strength how that shows up in our AB upamp he was at nor middle school last year six and grade found his Niche and
after school programming in the chess club and taken that Community Center and is now a chess champion within Minesota um you can see on the right there we also provide opportunities for our students to learn about being safe and having fun through
our assemblies and then making sure that represent night drive by being respectful responsible and safe we put a lot of work and energy into PBIS which is positive behavioral intervention support to make sure our students are safe and inclusive in our school
environment so they can fide like child ha her not only here but outside in the school Community as well we're also responsive by ensuring that we have include data driven best practices and instruction that meets the individual needs of our students improves our
student achievement and promotes growth what you'll see at North Middle School is you'll see opportuni for students to be supported in smaller group environments whether that's um if they need to be supported with special education services English language Services if they struggle in reading and
math our goal to identify those needs and make sure that there's a support need to every single student Miss Anderson who's in the back there our assistant principal does a fantastic job of looking through student data with our student support team to make sure that we know what our students need and each and everyone and I can say it
confidently each and every one of our students gets their needs met here um by the by the use of our data and we also not just focus on students that have special needs but also students that are looking to thrive and grow and move beyond what we uh the high school and
college by with with Aid to support them on their Journey for College and Career Wess as well so I like I'm very proud of the fact that we know each student we know what they need and we provide the supports and resources for those students we also are responsive in the
way that we hold ourselves as adults in this building and what I mean by that is we engage in cultural um continue professional development about ourselves about our kids so we can understand the diverse students that we serve in our building um it is our job to ensure that our students um see themselves in our
school Community I always say our diversity is our strength we are a school that serves 92% students of color and I wish when I came here back in 1990 that the school that we have now was the school that I had been because I didn't see myself in the school um but now I
know that our students see themselves in in the school Community because we work really hard to challenge our own biases and make sure that we're connecting with our kids in a way that meets them not in just in terms of racial racial culture but also I mean I'm knocking on 50 here and we got 11 12 and 13 year olds here
it's a whole different generation right so we're also looking at them as a generational culture as well but our goal is to make sure that we become better and better for the students that are in front of us not the students that we had in the past but the students that are in front of us today we also do that um it's not just
what we say but it's also what we do and some the things that I'm really proud of as a principal of North View Middle School is that when our students um um have been asked and this is a 22 23 student stakeholder survey data you're probably saying why why didn't she use last year well it was a little bit wonky
in terms of its implementation and so I trusted from the year the Year prior just because there's not not as many students that could have taken it should have taken it and just the implementation was a little bit off it's just what it was right but when we asked our kids in the 22 23 school year do you
like the way you learn in class in this class you learn a lot every single day and and my teacher makes learning enjoyable they said yes to the same level of their District peers as well and so that's really important to me that we say we're going to do these things and our students are saying yes
you are doing these things for us when we take a look at our family stakeholder survey data from last year when ask 87% of our families believe that their kids are getting the support that they need and again I said we targeting students who using the data to get them support
and our parents not all not all of them there's always room for grow we're going to continue to grow but our parents are saying yes you are giving my students the support that they need and then we've been recognized by mve for the last five or six years of being a disend
school in terms of PBIS and what that means to us is that we're supporting positive appr social behaviors and a climate that supports um student achievement as well so our kids are saying it our fam are saying it and the greater sa is saying it as well that we
are me commitments and keeping our balances we're also looking at inspiring our kids with challenging opportunities a little academically that's responsive and rigorous that could be going to Three Rivers Park to learn about um exploration through our gym classes or
fire classes they can also be our students um being creative and having an art displayed at the ESC we are giving them environments where they are feeling connected with the curriculum that might be not traditional in the school and then we are also ensuring that our
students students um are having uh are being part of a literacy Rich environment our students come further our students aren't always at proficiency levels when they come to northie middle school and we understand that we need to grow them quickly specifically their reading levels and to do that they need to see they need to
see reading everywhere and so what you can see is we have literacy which classrooms which that means they're focused on social studies they're focused on reading science they're focused on reading Ela of course they're focused on reading math they're focused on reading because we know we need to infuse uh literature in their in their
lives to grow them as readers what she just came through was our media center we're doing a a blind date with the book which is a really a positive and fun we've done it for about three years where our students um come from the ELA classrooms they um they're given a random bag with a random book in it just
to Peak their interest so they're not judging a book on its cover they're getting a new book so they can explore something new that they might not have wanted and this is one of our most popular Media Center events throughout the year kids are very excited about it we also have a therapy dog that shown in the
second picture there her name is s she's in Kentucky she's 12 a little bit older than she was there a little bit fluffier too tell um but what she is she's a therapy dog and sometimes our kids don't feel comfortable reading in front of their peerce in front of their teacher but
I'll tell you what they'll come and read but our goal is get read because the more you the better read you become and so we have opportunities for kids to participate in literature even if they're not comfortable with it and S is a pretty big in bu she walked on her
way she owns the place we also have some points of Pride related to that as well um again we have strategies we put them in place but it isn't uh enough for me until we actually are having some outcomes that are strong from for my perspective good is fine but I want to
be great that's our goal and so when we took a take a look at points of Pride our students who receive special education services their growth rates and reading exceeded the district on the a reading test last year all right number two our students who received English language Services met their and
have been meeting their MC at naal for at least the last two years and I pick out those special populations because those are often times the hardest populations to move in the in in a positive trajectory and the work that we
have done in our building has help those groups that are often times marginalized or disenfranchised make positive outcomes in their um in their daily experiences here at nor middle school and then number three wi surveyed on the 2223 family stakeholder survey um and I
did 2223 because this question is not on the the current survey Dr H saying if you want to put that back on there I would love that but I'm really proud of this because 100% of our families survey believe that their students experience is as as good as students in other
schools in our district and neighboring communities one of the things that we and Le Middle School have to overcome is reputation back in 1990s when I when it started and maybe it was me I don't know but I'm here to change it but I one of those reputation is is that you Scholars
experience isn't as good here as other schools and district for the community our families that were sured in 22 23 school year was and that makes me very proud and I promise it wasn't and then we also in want to inspire our our community and our students by
providing um a partnership with our families and making sure that they're that they feel communicated with that they feel there's multiple opportunities in the building for them to access for involvement communication we do that in a variety of way we have a standard newsletter once a month that goes out um in the s'mores a s'mores newsletter that
goes out to families that is one way for our families to engage you might not be able to come to the building it doesn't mean you don't want to engage maybe you work in the and we need to give you another way to engage in the school Community the cool thing about the s'mores newsletter is you can have hyperlinks they can watch videos they
can see pictures so it it allows families to engage in a way that's comfortable and we've got about 517 students in the building when I send it out once a month I get about 695 views because that is that is something that people engage with because it's important to them and it's easily
accessible for write you an email or even in a in a text message to their to their um to their cell phones talking points which is another method of communication that we have for our families and the nice thing about talking points is that I can send a message in English if your preferred
language is Russian or Spanish or M or Somali or Arabic or all the other languages that are spoken in this building that will come to you in that format so that you can read it again so you can engage in the school environment not everybody's comfortable coming into the school environment my mother many
many years ago were from Germany she just sent me to school she was like school's different in America I don't feel comfortable coming into school I don't really feel comfortable with my accent my language and had this been there for her maybe I would have got in more trouble when I was at home because she would have known what was going on
with me but I was good but what I'm saying is we have to we have to modify the way that we do things to meet the community's needs and that's what we do here at North View and then last but not least we have some standard social media Pages Facebook
Twitter maybe Instagram hip on all that just yet anymore D 50 there but we have we provide multiple ways for people to connect with us as a school community and then we also want to make sure that our kids aren't just engaging with us here in the school but they
engage um with the entire School Community outside of our door so that could be like unified um trips to for bowling that could be a partnership with the improve your tomorrow program for our young males of color and mentorship
and fellowship to ensure that they are seeing themselves as not only as middle schoolers not only as high schoolers but college students and the on and you know so these two programs have really helped our kids connect with each other but also with the greater School community and shown them something that may they
may not have they may not get to see every single day in their experience and we also want to make sure that we're empowering our students and our families by accepting responsibility for each student's success and celebrating them in our school community um what that could look like in our
school building is our award ceremony at the end of the year what it could look like is US celebrating our kids on our March Madness tournament and bringing kids together an all School Community event and bringing in CCX uh news the fil that event and participate in that so they can be seing across our school
Community as well and then it's really about accepting that students our Student Success that is very important to me if a student is having a bad day that is my bad day because I'm responsible for them and that the mentality that we have here as staff at northia middle school is that if our
kids aren't successful neither are we and that that allows us to continue to strive and do better for our kids and then you can see some some um points of prives related for that as well when surveyed 90% of um families
reported that they have a posit that our school has a positive relationship with the community again not 100% but a great place to start I believe um when asked 85% of our families have said our school as a whole is welc welcoming to their
family again about 100% but have a bad face to start and we're we're going to we're going to get to 100 and then 88% of our families at on the most recent survey said they along at our scholar school so the work we do to communicate the work that we do to bring them together the work that we do to have our
kids participate in the D School Community is showing some success for us not enough and last but not least we do have time we are you know a school for 11 12 turning into 14y olds right now so it
can't always be about hammering those books you have to have a good time and that's something that we incorporate in our school building all the time for instance you are now sitting in the VIP Lun of achievement and that this is a place where students have a pizza party
once a month um and they're honored for academics they for Behavior the honor for a wide variety of things because we believe again in celebrating but also understanding that they are middle schoolers and they want to have a time so that's nor Middle School all
right questions have how do I do on time uh we we're pushing we got a couple minutes so I noticed um in the hallways and the classroom it seems like the signage is very intentional is that
because it's an avid school or is that how do I'm not sure that I've seen that in our other middle schools so what sign like like whether it's in the classroom that there's a ton of achievement focused um type of posters it's fairly minimalistic um positive reinforcements
it just see the it seemed intentional what's on the walls here I think one of the things that we can thought of us here SCH intentionality if we only have so much time so much money is much energy right so we are going to put our things in we're going to put our energy
time and resources if you will anything we're going to make sure that it is connected to the the commitments that we have here and that's really this is my like I said my 11th year here and once you started to get really focused on um what our intentions were we were able to
use the time money and energy and put it in the right direction so the posters that you see on there it's about providing it's about um ensuring that our students have a welcoming space where they can feel like they're uplifted where they can feel like they belong where they can feel like they're connected if you see posters in the hall
related to um College signs that's because we want our students to think Beyond middle school high school and then on the college or trade school you know I always say that an 11 12 13y old they can't see Pastor this is all about them right and so we have to be intentional with putting these things in
front of them so they can see what their potential is does that make sense yes that's your question yes it is board members any other questions thank you for your time tonight great looks great enjoy your uh Dr H I think it's back to you
all right thank you Vice chair uh cheer Brooks we're going to start our our next um area on long range fin Cal planning the budget update and John Morad will help us out with that all right oh you introduce yep I
got it covered here uh thank you superintendent H good evening Vice chair Brooks chair Prince board members this evening's conversation is around fiscal year 26 budget will be divided into three parts a general overview of our budgeting process review of budget
adjustment proposals being brought forward for consideration and capital budget request serious security that's just strong security therey keeps the middle school kids from jumping
on okay learning all kinds of things all right first document that you're looking at which is in p on page two of the packet if you happen to have a packet in front of you um is the diagram that you might be familiar with is this is the long range financial planning or lrfp model that the district uses which
holds um two purposes a solid data driven and collaborative budgeting process as well as a comprehensive Financial projection tool few things I'd like to point out on this diagram first the mission is at the center this is a especially important as
we make proposals on how we allocate our limited resources as a system we need to stay focused on that mission the great oval around the mission represents the work of our staff particularly our budget managers that they do throughout the year to develop budget proposals
based on our strategic priorities and the district um excuse me strategic priorities of the district and the guidance of the school board the teal boxes on the outside represent the school board's role in the process tonight we're preparing for work that you will see in the Box on the left side
of the diagram specifically for the board to approve the budget adjustments that are being brought forward and that have gone through the extensive lrfp process the final item to highlight is the Box on the top right hand side which are the guiding principles for the lfp
process next page page three in the packet is an overview of our budget adjustment process how these requests come forward um um and as I stated earlier all budget requests that come forward should align with and support the district's Mission and strategic directives each proposal you will see
under number six on this page needs to be proposed and evaluated using the pair process or program efficiency abandonment and redirection this ensures that there is intentional process for evaluating the impact of a proposed budget adjustment also based on guidance from
the school board back in November all budget requests should have a cost neutral effect mean for any proposal proposed increase of budget capacity in a particular area area there should be an offsetting budget reduction in another area based on an extensive
prioritization process by each budget manager the exception to this requirement which we introduced a few years ago into the budget process is an element called a Strategic investment this is a proposal that does not have a budget reduction offset but because of the potential impact of the request on
the mission in strategic Direction the board would be asked to consider using fund balanced upon the request we are not bringing any um strategic directions forward for or strategic Investments forward at this time for the fiscal year 26 budget based
on our financial projections and maintaining a minimum fund balance policy in future years the last item I'll draw your attention to is number seven which highlights the fact that these budget requests have on January 24th of this year gone through our lrfp Advisory
Group which includes clud some community members for feedback and evaluation and we will go through some of that feedback at the regular business meeting on February 2 the next page page four of the packet is the annual timeline for our budgeting process our process starts in April
every year in our pre-planning phase and ends in June of the next year with the school board's approval of the budget as you can see multiple touch points of various staff and stakeholder groups which demonstrate the colle aborative nature of the process you will also notice that the school board has nine
different touch points throughout the budget process both to keep you informed as well as give direction and make decisions this document highlights um the key dates in the budget process and also note that the items in blue are where the board takes action at this time I will turn over to Kelly benusa
our director of Business Services who will walk through some of the Bas financial information related to the budget this next uh document on the screen is our year 20 five adopted expenditures for all budgeted funds so the long range financial planning
process has been in place for more than 10 years since it's designed it's utilized for all of our budgeted funds with the exception of our debt service fund which is shown in the orange section that the chart shows the size of
our funds in relation to each other $399 million was budgeted for at the beginning of year 25 that does not include our grants such as compensatory Title One achievement regression or any of our es funds that we U had during our
years so we uh bring those budgets to the board monthly for Grant approval once it's given from The granty Entity which is the federal state or local level and as of December there was an additional 47.1 million in the general fund Alone um with those and overall we
have 73 7 so far this year this next document is called an estimated major cost driver documents so just to orient everyone to this spreadsheet so up in the top section of
this document you can see our expenditures for FIS year 25 it's about 315 million and what we do is we break those down into big categories salaries benefits purchase service and supplies and then to that we apply a 3% off of
our projection model and we say that we want our fund our expenditures to grow no more than that 9.4 million and so what we do um with this document is this is just our starting point for all of those expenditures and use up the high
year Trend to project some of this and so for fiscal year 26 we fill in this document um as information becomes available so you can see we have a section in the top for salaries with settled contracts so far we have um estimated increases in some of our
benefit areas that are known and then we also have in our purchas some of the areas that are known at this point so if you focus to the bottom of that numerical section in the column you can see that at this point we have accounted for
1.77% of that 3% for fiscal Year's 26 and that's a similar number to previous years that we'll move on to the document in your package so this is our general fund Financial projection model so a
little bit of history for every this is a priority with two goals or outcomes for the first one is to build that framewor so that was that first document that John spoke of with the gr boxes with the board action items and well
budget and interaction with and then the second thing was to design a longrange financial for which is what you see on the screen so this projection is a highle visual organizer for our financial forecast so there are three sections to
this projection the top section shows the revenue expenditures differences and then our fund balance and fund balance percentage for seven-year window that begins with actual with this year is 23 and 24 we have the adopted budget that's the current year that we're in for f the
year 25 and then it projects out for years 26 through 29 so you typically see some operational adjustments under that chart there are none at this time the Assumption section shows the revenue and expenditure
assumptions being used for fiscal years 26 to 29 we have Revenue increasing based on changes in legislation um the revenue will fluctuate between a 2 and a 3% for just the general or basic formula allows and
those estimates are provided by education and then as far as our expenditures those are projected again to increase 3% which is consistent with our prior year tactics isn't being changed at this time therefore if we exceed that 3% per cost we're outside
the parameters and we would be deficit spending at a greater rate than what is onction the middle section shows the budget projection for both revenues in blue and then expenditures in Red so those of those same colors then show the
trajectory of each of those so as you can see those expenditures are projected on Bas revenues beginning of this year 25 again our current year by about 2.2 million so then the final section on this document looks at our fund balance
projection for that same time period so the green bars represent our actual and projected fund balances for each of those wh the orange bar then shows the fund balance which is 5% which is set by our board policy and again the trend
lines show the trajectory of the fund balances related to that minimum so as you can see our fund balance is projected to start to decline in F year 25 so it's important to remember that fiscal year 24 includes the first year of the voter approved operating
referendum increase from November of 22 so we're currently close to the cap on our Authority therefore we can't use that operating ref as a l to increase Revenue to help us reduce balance in the future budget deficits so all of the requests that
we're going to be revie this evening as well as the expenditure tactics for enrollment alignment State Lees of absence or time off requirements the expansion of a payroll tax for FMLA and an operating capacity for a new Elementary are included in this
financial projection model so as John shared we will not be creating any strategic Investments this year financial position so we're going to continue to monitor that Financial Protection to maintain that Bo required minimal fund balance of 5% so the good
news is under this model we are not planting for operational reactions through fisal year 29 so here comes the caution to the board um we're still calculating several changes that are going to impact this5 for example we're still in negotiations during our transportation
contract which has not been added model tonight also the funding clip that we talked about in education is projected for FIS year 2030 at this time and we'll likely need to address that shortfall earlier rather than later so that we can
have a softer Financial Bing to that 5% minimum fund BCE so for fiscal year 2030 that's the Year we're talking about right now that's going to be added to a projection in the spring of 25 so included in this model tonight we
be C enrollment data and enrollment projections all right as I mentioned earlier in the budget each budget adjustment proposal needs to go through the pair process to ensure consistency in the evaluation process Pages N9 and 10 of the packet you'll see a blank version of the
document that budget manager complete included our questions about the intended impact of The Proposal how the proposal aligns with the Strategic plan how the proposal aligns with our racial Equity work how the budget manager is going to measure the effectiveness of
The Proposal what impact the proposal may have on other departments what legal or Schoolboard policies may be affected by the proposal once the proposal is complete the pair goes through an evaluation with the original Department then through all budget managers districtwide and finally
through the lrfp advisory team which I mentioned earlier that includes community members at any point during the evaluation period budget managers can adjust their requests based on feedback from these various groups starting on page 11 you will see a summary of all the budget requests the
first section represents the recommendations for the general fund broken down by instructional and non-instructional categories the next section includes expenditure tactics also to provide flexibility for increased enrollment next year and again
to ensure that we can provide the same level of services we have proposed a staffing contingency that will only be allocated if enrollment warrants it we have also added funding to support the new Family Medical Leave Act implementation and starting on page 12
you will see a line by line list of proposals including the summary as provided by the budget manager I'll go through those since it's going to be a little bit hard to read them on here um so we're going to start with Community engagement which is $350,000
um intent is to repurpose Site Staffing and Operational Support um their request is actually paired a little bit with the Department of teaching and learning um where they request total a negative $350,000 as the offset so it's not
common that we offset across divisions but just to happen to work out properly with the repurpose of Crestview going from a um primary school to more of a community at for Focus even though but still a a grade level School keep
it um so the uh changes for the division of T leadership teaching and learning or dtl the addition of boys and girls across at high schools including coaches supplies transportation and event fees expenses for this will be offset by participation fees and gate
receipts the addition of one shuttle for the oio education center students are a transition program for out of school job experiences due to an increase in students if you remember the legislation in the the previous year or the year prior I forget if it's 23 or 24 added um
age 22 to the transition program and so we added I think between 20 and 24 new students so so just needs have gone up to to be able to utilize those out of school job opportunities add 2.0 FTE special education teachers and 2.0 FTE education
support specialists in voluntary pre to support the additional seats allocated to oio schools and a reduction of 2.0 FTE specialed teachers and 2.0 FTE educational support Professionals for Gen special ed General support these FTE
will actually be funded through spe um Federal special ed grants going forward the addition of 7.21 FTE social workers to continue FTE that was previously funded with a one-year Strategic investment and is now funded
with the um Step Up of the pup support Aid in the division of instructional and informational technology team or i22 um a zero net offset add 1.0 FTE cyber security analyst and reduced 1.0
FTE application analyst to provide dedicated Staffing allocation to support cyber security for AIO schools on page 13 you'll see a colorcoded results of the feedback from our lrfp advis 13 which includes members
of the community green represents a positive or neutral feedback yellow represents areas of concern and red represents a perspective that the proposal may have a negative impact the prop proposals evaluated this year were primarily seen as positive or neutral
with with very few areas of concern specific feedback was given to each budget manager at the conclusion of the lrfp advisory meeting and there were opportunities to adjust as necessary that completes the review of the budget adjustment process and now we're going
to turn our attention to the capital budget review which we will start with Kelly walking through the financial projection model of capital so again on the screen is the capital fund 5year projection we use a zero based budget approach meaning that every dollar
requested has to have a request attached to it the projection has now been updated with next year's 5e enrollment projections which are finalized in January the top section again shows the reeven expenditures differences fund balance and fund balance percentage for that seven-year window that begins with
our actual for 23 and 24 the adopted budget for fisc year 25 year end and our projections for fiscal years 26 through 29 you'll see some operational adjustments under the chart this line highlights adding 1.7 million
expenditures for fut projection and the assumtions section shows the revenue and expenditure assumptions of 0% being used for fiscal year6 29 the next section shows the budget projections for revenues again in blue and expenditure and red and then the
trend lines of those same colors show the general trajectory of each of those items and as you can see expenditures are projected to outp revenue as planned and then the final section looks at our fund balance projection for that same time
period and the green bar represents our actual and projected fund balance for each year the orange fire shows the minimum required fund balance 10% for this fund which is different from the general fund and again the trend line shows the stru of the fund balances related to that minimum and as you can
see we're managing the fund to maintain that minimum fund balance at 10% so we'll be needing to add um the impact of a large special assessment beginning just for year 26 when numbers are finalized as of today our best estimate
is an increase of expenditures of 3.77 million which will be spread over a number of years that's a special assessment for our new El area that I'll thank you so just like with the lrfp budget adjustment proposals you'll
see our Capital request proposals categorized by division starting on page 17 I'll go through them kind of grouping them together here a little bit so starting with Community engagement $726 primarily for the replacement of two staff computer
200 computers for adult basic head program purchasing of eight computers for facilities scheduling staff and a contingency for equipment replacement in the division of leadership teaching and learning 3,948
79 to replace sports uniforms and equipment music attire and marching band uniforms following a standardized replacement schedule purchase instructional materials and curriculum resources maintain concurrent enrollment offerings
purchase Media Center materials maintain our online software resources maintain a contingency for the Career and Technical education program maintain capital allocations and replace uh Capital Equipment and pay leases for venues
hosting High School commencement Ceremonies for the division of human and administrative resources team for heart 5,799 $22 um contain our lease commitments for instructional spaces athletic
facilities flexible rooms equipment camera systems and so on contingencies for equipment special assessments Insurance deductibles security and Emergency Management purchase Capital Equipment for the new Elementary for interior and exterior
maintenance replace Grounds Maintenance and custodial equipment replace nine automated external defibrillators aeds for the instructional and informational technology team I2 T2 a $0 impact with the use of rate Revenue to
maintain Enterprise technology licensing support internet and Cloud backup Solutions so the total Capital request this year for operating capital is 8,347 495 and now we'll move into the capital
projects technology Levy portion the other half of of capital the total here is 14,400 $497 so starting with human and administrative resource team $2,711 154 for replacement of camera and
cart access systems to maintain our camera licenses the visitor management system tipline and door intrusion systems addition of digital two-way radios a contingency for technology related security equipment and add a 1.0
FTE Technology support specialist to support security and emergency management technology systems in the division of instruction um and information technology team i22 12,32 n,
343 to continue Enterprise technology positions secondary support positions and administrative support position the transfer of 875 FTE instructional technology education support professional staff from special ed
federal grants to the tech Levy maintain Enterprise technology licensing support software and licenses internet filtering Wi-Fi access and Technology repair parts maintain existing technology equipment leases
maintain digital displays cyber security services phone systems and software switches and wireless access points mobile device management software software subscriptions and licenses the school notification system and unified print
solution maintain a device repair contingency purchase and install Wireless displays for the new Elementary classrooms and purchase charging carts all right the next step in the budget process includes bringing forward
the fiscal 26 budget adjustments and the fiscal 26 capital budget to the board for approval on February 25th at the board meeting and with that I will turn it back to Vice chair Brooks there any questions thank you board members any
questions I said a couple when is the transportation contract when is the DAT or what are you expecting that to be in the projected approximate am we would have loved to have been done but we are still heavily negotiating um so our our contract was a 5e contract contract that expires at the endend of this school
year so we're negotiating for the next leg of the contract right now we're looking at options for up to a 10e contract just depending but working with multiple vendors can be a little bit tricky sometimes because ultimately we want to get them as close together as possible so once's not favorable to the other so we're getting really close
we're hopeful but and our goal was to have it for the midyear adjustment but I just don't think that we're going to be quite ready there yet so so you will probably see it with the adopted budget when back around okay and then the number of community members John how
many are on the committee you were talking about the L RF yeah how many Community yeah how many community members are how many community members it's our entire uh fiscal team so I think we have about 20
some okay and so and they're community members or staff members is a combination combination how many are like from the community though I'll see how quick and give that okay it's close to close to half
okay and they have two touch points in this process they have an early look because that's what they have requested as feedback on our continuous Improvement and so they have an initial look in November our budget managers also have their initial look at the um proposals to give feedback earlier on
the process and they're also back for I'm kind of curious about the activities lacrosse at the high schools um how did that come up and then what's the difference between it says add boys and girls lacrosse programs at Maple grow cior high and Co-op lacrosse teams at
oio and Park Center um and Emily I'll take a stab at it and you correct me with anything if I'm wrong so um that program was historically funded with boosters um and participation fees it hasn't been funded by the district and with honestly with the addition of boys
volleyball last year we realized that we weren't funding this program and so it was brought forward to make sure we're funding all those our city programs um the the difference between Maple Grove and AIO and the co-op is just the uh estimated participation of who's in those teams right now so today um AIO
and Park Center Co-op together to make a lross team or Maple Gro has enough participation to support their own so we're just continuing that and obviously the the buildings as they grow participation I believe we've seen this in a few Sports at Park Center eventually break from those co-ops and
come back to a standalone as as their just their school so believe they were doing that with with baseball pretty soon we do have some co-ops that are outside our district schools too yeah we do have for a number of sports you know
and other things on techn ol um just knowing that the needs for technology continue to grow so Anthony are you comfortable with the net yes we're we're feeling very comfortable where the net is and that
was part of the conversation and consideration we had when we went back out for that renewal of capital project Levy with an increase looking at kind of what that potential 10e trajectory um might look like now there's all kinds of unknown as we were having conversations
today about the potential impacts of tariffs on uh technology costs um so we're continuing to monitor that but we're we're feeling good at where things are at at the moment and and where the future looks with with that budget
capacity thanks well it didn't come up um for in the pair process or request for strategic Investments are there any significant curriculum or programmatic change that are kind of varied in within the budget so offsetting within the budget so it
didn't come to us I I'm not aware of of you know really the the elepant with that is just implement the reacting that's really the top priority right now that that's where most of our cing dollars are going um but we also have a schedule that we maintain for when Replacements come in I
know it's been pretty heavily used there have been some pretty big as of the of the learning and achievement Department over the last few years because they've had major implementations and then just to make it fun as a cherry on top they threw the redak changes in um so they've been very very busy and and diligent we
don't see a lot of them there in their offices with their heads down working pretty hard see time because they've got so much to push out so the react is a challenge but I think they're being successful um to come back to the advisory question there are 13 community
members on that committee thanks is there anything that they brought up that wasn't that didn't make it to that didn't make it I think there normally it's just it's feedback and I think we typically get a little more up front and a few more questions
on the first round and it's a great opportunity for the budget managers to go oh I didn't think of that and then they typically tweak their proposal and that's why the typic on the back end the um we see the feedback turns pretty green on the sheet because most of the
time departments are making add the B it might find an answer what's that it might find an answer 13 um so in 2029 on expenditures ping revenues right at what
point it we need to be corrected I yeah so when we come around I believe in in the next year or in June you're going to see 2030 2030 is going to show
you a big red number and say that we're under um so so today it's outside the projection window which is good news but we know it's there and and Kelly and I on on a version of this that we can see we can see that here and we can see that doesn't look very the red number being we're we're getting below the 5% yeah
yeah so so what we'll have to do is make operational adjustments which we typically do and at that time we you're going to see is rather than there being one big operational adjustment we're going to start filtering it into earlier years because the sooner we act to it so if we act 5 years earlier that and cut a
million that's now 5 million off this because it's a million a year so the more we can do and I know cutting a million sounds like a really big thing in our district it's really small because we have a almost $500 million budget um so so it's very doable that's probably the better word I don't want to
say make light of a million but it's a very doable thing so the the more we can trim and make those adjustments early um you know the our our district is growing so we're not necessarily seeing Staffing reductions where declining District needs to right size every year to
readjust so that they aren't um they're keeping the the ratios correct where we're kind of going the other direction we're adding staff because we have additional peoples to serve um so so it's balancing all that out to know okay when when do we bring that chunk forward so you'll really see that shift I think
in June and also hopefully we have uh you know the transportation piece we're trying to get to is a major major dollar for us um that's going to be multiple millions of dollars that we're not showing you right now that will pop on there immediately because with a 5-year
contract we benefited for The Last 5 Years substantially with Transportation where they took major inflationary increases major increases because of work shortages and having to drive up the cost of of their staff to be able to service us fulfill the contract
well that's going to come back to roost and now's their turn to to negotiate with us and say in order for them to operate they need this and so we have to kind of catch up for what we got away with profiting from for lack of a better term for a few years so it's just part
of the cycle um so we're trying to mitigate that and make sure we're doing the best we can with our taxpayer deers but we expect with a big increase can I just add so a big difference between our district and a lot of other districts is um this process that we've developed We Now look
for years out in the future most school districts look to because that's how schools are funded they're funded inum so we get our fund usually in the first year of that and so then they project um any adjustments maor financial situation
um in a 2-year increment we do it in a four-year increment and that serves us well because we can project hope into the future that something's coming and we have more time to react to it so to our system so it's really Serv well
to Pivot and change we have to larg yeah I appreciate us being more proactive than yesterday I wonder if it might be helpful um to include uh a greater uh leing appendix with a greater historical
perspective especially because we have newer board members and what our actual increases have been um over a larger time horiz and that just might put some things in perspective too yeah and I think a lot of that information is contained in our audit report because the back 20 or 30 pages have a
statistical section that shows a lot of history how have we done expenses versus revenues what's the funding that the states gave us year over year so I would encourage people to look at the back of that there's a great amount of detail all the way down to what have our food L cost for lunch has been um so you can
you can pick that what's our enrollment there there's a whole lot there's always a 10 year running History built into the back of um I just have a question like how how is our district preparing for like any potential changes given the federal landscape of
um I mean dismantling the Department of Education or anything I mean how does that impact us or whatever kind of mitigation are we using because I feel like you're talking more about anything that happens at the state level you know we know I mean just kind of to your point T I mean that what the history has
been kind of where we are and we seem always be in a pretty strong financial position we have a super supportive Community um and so but I'm curious yeah so as you as we dig into that one of the things that helps so so
there's a lot of um sound bites out about I'm going we're going to cut this and we're going to eliminate that the things that are important and where the districts get the most federal money comes from three things the first is ideas um the second is what's the and
ideas is just because so that's title it's it's title in those programs special education and then school lunch those are the big three Federal things we get stuff from the first two are administered by the department of Ed but
eliminating the department of Ed doesn't change anything because they've been passed by Congress so it takes an act of Congress to change either of those two programs and the third being school lunch is administered by the USDA so the the federal portion of that comes through that particular Department
haven't heard anything about that now our our state has then added on top of what the federal gives us to get us to Universal meals um so that's separate that's that's a state issue so today as you look and I know there's a lot of hype I'm not all that worried about the federal dollars are and it's frankly a
smaller part of our budget um comparatively the bulk of our budget comes from the state um and comes from our local taxpayers they pick up what percent of our budget is federal dollars about 10% so it's still still an amount it's
important but um where you see the bigger issues with with Federal is like a federal block grant that flows directly to a school that could be in Jeopardy we don't have many of those if any because everything we do almost always flows through the department of
Ed so that's a grant to the Department of Ed who then you know we participate through their systems that's where the vast majority of our federal comes do you want to add anything General Council more at all or no you did
okay good so um our budget process has been extremely successful it's very focused um on traditional uh kind of Finance budgeting
with Department budgets Cost Containment um zerob based budgeting like it's been very successful um I was just chatting with John beforehand um of a curiosity about um more Innovative budget
practices that help um that are really student centered and how do we see how our spending is aligned with our educational priorities or Focus kind of on the classroom out um so that's just been something that's a little bit on my
mind not not a request for some radical change um but I know that we were talking about our metrics a couple sessions ago and um some of the topics that that came up there was how are we um ensuring that our spending priorities are aligned and what are the metrics to
ensure kind of from the operational perspective and financial perspective um so and that might be a future item that I have interest in exploring T that we talk about work session topics and stuff but um again this has been very very successful very
good at it I think maybe there's also some additional ways that we might want to look at our budget and spending and strategic plan thank you any other questions thank you [Music] Je
[Music] all right thank you so now we move on to our next topic so tonight um we're going our objective this evening is to provide an update to the school board um go to the next slide uh tonight suggest is to provide
an update to you on the grade configuration at 279 online and um Anthony's going to start us out thank you just to quickly note uh that this slide and the next slide are flipped from what was in your board packet originally just to work with the flow a
little better um as mentioned in our objectives tonight we are focusing on 279 online our full-time K12 online school since its Inception in 2021 279 online has been under continuous review to ensure it meets the needs of our
Scholars and Community last school year the board requested an update and we presented our findings in August August of 2024 based on your feedback we have continued our review process during this review our team has focused on several key areas including historical context
and enrollment Trends in which we examine the evolution of online learning in our district and track enrollment patterns to understand how 279 online fits into our broader educational landscape and financial stability to ensure the Financial Health of 279 online which is crucial we analyze the
program's cost and funding sources to maintain a syst stainable model that supports our scholar success we'll take some time to talk about each of these areas in more detail back in 2017 our district began laying the groundwork for what would become a transformative shift in how we
approach education we recognized early on the potential of online learning to expand access to Quality education and to tailor learning experiences to meet the diverse needs of our Scholars our journey truly began with the community-driven development of the digital learning for all or deal for a
plan this plan was born out of a collaboration between Educators parents Scholars and Community stakeholders who shared a common goal to ensure that every student in our district has the opportunity to succeed in a rapidly changing world at the heart of the digital learning for all plan is a
commitment to personalized learning we recognize that every scholar is unique and their learning experiences should reflect that individually our plan emphasizes that Scholars will experience learning that is personalized in path place and Pace this means means that we are focused on strengthening teaching
and learning practices to better support scholar success personalized learning allows Scholars to learn at their own pace follow a path that suits their interests and needs and access learning in a place that works best for them whether it's in the traditional classroom at home or anywhere in
between the development and establishment of online learning options in O area schools has spend many years in the making with multiple factors converging for the launch of 279 online in the 2021 22 school year in 2017 our
school board recognized the growing importance of online learning there was an emerging interest in developing online options that would allow Scholars to access high quality education outside the traditional classroom setting later that year our district launched the digital learning for all or DL for a
plan that was a significant Milestone as it outlined strategic goals focused on expanding online learning opportunities for our Scholars the DL 4A plan was not just about incor corporating technology and education it was about creating a more personalized learning experience ensuring that every scholar could learn
in a way that best suited their individual needs including online Pathways at the secondary level during the 2020 21 school year The District parent advisory Council or DPAC presented a specific recommendation to the school board the development of online learning opportunities for our
Scholars at the secondary level this recommendation was a direct response to the growing recognition that our Scholars needed more flexible accessible learning Pathways lastly covid-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on education worldwide as our district
quickly adapted to remote learning the exposure to online learning grew exponentially families and Scholars experienced firsthand the benefits and challenges of online education which in turn increase demand for more permanent online learning options the pandemic
highlighted the need for different learning Pathways reinforcing our commitment to developing a robust online education experience this timeline illustrates the progress of online learning options as we moved into the 2425 school year the
2122 year marked the launch of 279 online our full-time online learning option also known as comprehensive online learning with this launch we began exploring part-time or supplemental online learning which officially
launched last school year as 279 Excel this program allows Scholars attending in person at our brick mortar high schools to take online courses part-time creating more flexibility in learning options as we continue our discussion tonight please note that the information and enrollment data provided are
specific to 279 online our full-time online learning option and do not include students attending part-time at the high school level through 279 Excel I'll now hand it over to Brian who will provide additional historical context around our marketing efforts and
enrollment Trends thank you Anthony uh as you'll see on this slide um and as Anthony mentioned earlier um each year we're reviewing uh both enrollment and budget capacity for 279 online um this particular slide illustrates what our
enrollment has been since the inaugural year 2021 2022 CC 91 students that first year and that first year we began uh uh identifying brand uh design and architecture for the program so we worked with ciso to develop that with
the staff and that took us to the starting line of marketing which which um in the 2022 2023 school year you'll see there that we have much more um we took we took that that marketing plan and then implemented it and so that was
carried over the 20122 2023 school year as well as the 23 24 uh school year and so you'll see that we dropped from 901 full-time students to 491 full-time students uh between those first two years and then uh a dip in 23 24 to
427 full-time uh students and then currently um we're at uh there's two different numbers 368 was the week before and 365 was the the week that we um finished the presentation so you'll see a discrepancy in in that um the next slide shows us uh some of those
different uh aggressive marketing efforts um across those two years so you'll see just a number of examples of what we were trying to do to get it out and it was successful in driving traffic to our website it just didn't translate to um increased enrollment and
application uh submission so we had lots of traffic um that was happening um but just not uh the steps the next step to enroll so our current enrollment uh as of as of uh the last week of January we have 365 Scholars 70 in elementary
school 98 in middle school and 197 in high school so as a part of that review um each year we're looking to find that balance between uh the enrollment um and uh sustaining a bread and depth of coursework that allows our students to
continue to receive a high quality uh education in that environment and so we each year um work to right size um with enrollment and Staffing to make sure we're providing that well-rounded educational experience um and in this current year as we as it stands right
now we we are currently budget um our budget is currently we're currently deficit spending $1.2 million um to sustain uh our current offerings so from reviewing our program a decision was made to reconfigure a 27
line nine online um so we uh decided to reconfigure it into a middle and a high school so it'll be a secondary um school this will start after this school year which means our current Scholars um students kindergarten through grade four
will need to choose another school option for the elementary education and that will begin this fall of 2025 so the question may come why comp figure why why are we doing that now um it's never an easy decision um I would
even want to step my foot in the step um shoes of right now of our parents and of our staff in just the most General sense it was a decline in then student enrollment at the elementary level and then looking at the operational and Fin Cal impacts associated with this decline
um in comparison at the middle and the high school level our rle man is the strongest um we have more course options that are going to becoming available with secret and elective opportunities and then our secondary also closely aligns to our digital learning for all
work which prior to the pandemic was focus on expanding online learning experiences at the secondary level once again it's just important uh for uh us understand as well that district is not alone in these Elementary declines it's a Statewide
Trend and I do believe actually we found out today unfortunately uh Lakefield School District closed their online Ki program today um we'll be closing it this year so um this time we going to turn it over to K more on how this news
has and will continue to be shared okay so it's 279 online staff were informed at a team meeting uh last week on February 3rd um um that same evening an email was shared with parents and caregivers the message briefly described the change as well as an opportunity to
hear more in an online meeting the following day um that meeting was then held um we've been getting feedback from staff and families um and also they have some contacts to reach out to if they have questions um in the meantime as
well uh the 279 online website has been updated and will continue to be updated with FAQ along the way way a snail mail letter was mailed to our 279 online families uh just yesterday um and today staff and families districtwide were
informed via our e newsletters The Insider and connect uh reminders will continue to be shared with 279 online staff and families between now and June and then most certainly we want to make sure uh this uh definitely was a great program for our um for our families that
were're a part of it then we want to make sure that we recognize um all the great things that occurred so we will be celebrating um those pieces um between now and June as well so we understand that families have chosen an online school but we want them
to know that there are other Elementary School options within the district um 279 online school staff were given some information to sh share at their conferences with families last week about this transition so if they did bring that up in conversation they had some tools to be able to help guide
families um really um if they do want to stay connected with our district they're just um to reach out to the enrollment center um of course if they rather to or if they prefer we'd uh love to have them back at the secondary when they are heading into sixth grade as well uh just some notes because we're
going through a tenance boundary change process um just some specifics on whether uh families uh live within the district or outside of the district um we do have um just as of this morning morning um some latest numbers so there
are 56 total Elementary families so those these would be the kindergarten uh through fourth grade families um 35 so the majority thus far have committed to one of our elementary schools already um we're still waiting to hear from 20 at this uh
moment at this time I'm going to turn it back to Dr how for some closing remarks um so thank you um one of the things that I want to make sure you know we understand it's quite a change and um one heing on the recording and we have
said it and both it is no reple whato Elementary staff there's no reflection on our program so we need to understand that it was an outstanding program at the elementary level as well as the secondary level and uh we just needed to do it for other reasons for operational
and enrollement concerns um so our staff and families with questions um we are they can reach out to uh principal Swanson and uh Bon a assistant princial Vincent Bon and um we here to help on every step of the way to be able to
assist where we need to assist um we're we're hoping that we can bring our families back by sixth grade to be able for them to take participate in our um secondary programs as well so um I do
so as Kay mentioned earlier uh we have shared a QR code and uh that was embedded in email as well to to families and staff to be able to provide feedback so um we we we are reviewing that feedback and our plan is to create a frequently asked questions document
around that um so it's a it's a thought exchange um space for for families and staff with that I think uh that's that's the presentation yeah uh thank you thank you
for the update um I do want to acknowledge we have a number of 239 online staff in the room um thank you all for for coming and I know that we also received some emails as well um that were R I know that this wasn't an easy
decision um particularly given uh I think the board and staff's pride in this program uh you know the Innovation that came with it and the pioneering of 279 online I think we all
certainly had a lot of optimism um going into this program hoping that it would um build um but as it was presented today I know the writing was was on the wall for for quite some time that this um could
happen so um I do have a number of questions but I do want to turn over to school members for any questions that you have um call reconfiguring a few times why is not
closure sure you want to answer that am I said we're calling a reconfigure why is it not called a closing uh it's not a school closure per Minnesota statute um because there's no building
so twofold I would say one that statute does reference physical building um a lot of the other language in that statute references you know Leasing and such that makes it apparent that it's an actual physical building but even if it
were considered there's no case law on that um or interpretation um you know online schools weren't a big thing when that statute came around but there have been amendments since then and it hasn't changed so there's that but even if it were considered a building for that
statute uh it's a K12 and we're transitioning the lower grades out and focusing on the higher grades and again per case law in Minnesota that is also not considered a school closure when you are transitioning grades because you still have a school
building similar to our physical site changes and when we were advancing the online program the board um voted to appropriate funding appropriate funding for it but we didn't vote to like open the school either
I just would say though I mean I understand the law but that's just not probably how people maybe feel you know so I think that there's a difference like and to acknowledge that too um because I mean to many families even if it's 56 I mean it's
still and something taken away like a school closing so I just I'm really sensitive to that language yeah we and I do want to that just like I did on CCX I I acknowledge there's there's nothing that you can do to take away the pain pain or the change
or anything and they're two separate schools we also repurpose cresu and so we have over you know 27 I'm not comparing to whatsoever and I'm not saying that but and it's not we're not um we can't even say repurpose the 279
online we're just Rec configuring and what the grades are so see yeah we've had several updates over time um and we supported the spending for marketing and promotion we've had a ton of highlighting of the success of the
programs and the quality of it um so it is really um I think heavy-hearted for us because even prior to this board makeup every single board before this since it began and prior to like was noted has wanted to have this option and um grow this program so um and hopeful
that maybe in the future um there may be opportunity where it has high interest again and we can be open to continuing to evaluate that need in the district I mean that's kind of what I'm wondering I mean I think cuz I was on a previous board and this was one of the areas
during Co before as you laid out the historical context and then during Co um this is our staff really rallied to kind of to build this really quality um school um online and then I guess like with you saying or you know with mentioning Lakeville or some of the
other kind of the trending other onlines closing wouldn't that make ours even more um wouldn't there be an opportunity there like if Lakeville I mean we really did strive like we were paying attention
to a lot of those closures and we did some very targeted um in the areas that we didn't know about we did some very targeted Marketing in those areas so um as the Clos yeah so like a year ago Elk River closed
their Elementary we sent out targeted marketing into Elk River to try and pull those kids and it didn't translate it was mentioned the 1.2 million operating loss so with this reconfiguration will we still be operating at a loss or will we be
recouping that 1.2 million into the budget that we just looked at to be determined um we have to see how the where the breakdown is because there's some shared cost you principles and those things we still have those
positions so they're part of it um I I can say probably the best answer would be we'll get back to you we think that so we can give you an accurate number I know Kelly has it um unfortunately she left her it's okay so the 1.2 is like Staffing it's it's all of 279 onine
right now was running 1.2 negative just in the current year do we have any idea what the 6 to 12 is running is it running at a deficit as well so we have to break down each2 is total we're looking at it as the entire progr I so I've just
been so like I said I I know that the writing's been on the wall my discomfort has been sort of in the way that this pulled out yeah um it sort of seemed to pop up out of noer um with very little communication
from the board staff and families um and so I know that the decision at this point has been made but I think one of the questions I have either for Dr H or even for the board is how do we have an opportunity other than
an email to hear from families about their concerns returning back to a physical School environment can expand on that a little bit more yeah so I think my concern with families is they chose 279 online for for a reason correct and so what is it
that CH that caus them to make that decision to go to 279 online was it safety was it the individualized support like what is it that they 279 online for um that we're now kind of forcing them to go back to um so those are I think
some of the concerns that I haven't heard from parents yet um but I don't know that we've really given them an opportunity to provide that feedback other than the QR code that the Brian mentioned I just want to make sure that we're still meeting the needs of our
students when they return to the physical environment if they choose to stay in our district right so so from what I'm understanding is when we came and anybody else was here that this was um Strategic investment G yes that we were
to look into and from day one we were supposed to be looking and see how that Strategic investment was doing so is it um um God bless that we had this um during Co where we had so the drop from you know the co year to the next year would be just obious right so that would
just be when they wanted um with some um of our families were comfortable and going back but um it's needless to say that one thing as well that uh even prior to that um online programing meets certain needs of certain of our kids just like all the different programs we
have meetings meet certain needs so as we do when we look at all of our programs and all of our schools and the point that we have ecac we're constantly looking at the schools of how can we support how can we do better CIS so uh coming in to spend time on that and how
can we develop the program and how we can develop the school um and working with the admin team on and anybody can jump been un setting what that Vision was for the school so it's at the point where it's also being uh good stewards of taxpayers dollars that is also a
large part of what we're on we're looking at it and like I said there's no offense whatsoever to the program but then as we're looking at it we're trying to keep the program going adjusting along the way each year of keeping the program going and they helped me out here the Strategic investment we were
supposed to look at in in four years am I correct and we're at that fourth years year so looking at that fourth year even after putting quite a bit of money into marketing to grow the program we just did not get the results that we needed and even trying to look at the options
of what we could do for K5 and how we could try to uh situate that and working with the administration uh we had uh five to six options that they were telling us those options could not work so I just want to make sure everybody this table everybody is recording no
this wasn't a decision we just said okay we can't do this right so it was like work went into and working with the administration team well can we try this what's this thought what is that thought and then it came out if we were not able to do that um any of those options be
able to at this point save K5 so if we get Trends where we're coming back and when we can start to get Trends again because that's what schools do if we get Trends again and see that Elementary is peing of course that's what we do in school system is trying to
build that back again so our goal is to continue to build that 612 program get that sious learning in there get more kids in there to be able to do that so it was just a point of just even asking the board from my understanding we had four
years with our fourth year and this is where we're at so um like I say once again it's it's it's it's um no point trying to disappoint staff no point in trying to to um disappoint parents um I've been here
a year and a half and I have repurposed school and I've just had to reconfigure a school it's not a good job but that's what you hired me for so I I just wanted to know a lot of thought went into this a lot of reflection went into this and a lot of work with Administration went into this and that's where at the end of
that four year for the Strategic investment and we're bringing those results so I appreciate that explanation and like you said the data speaks for itself um we know that enrollment has been declining um so that part wasn't a surprise and again like I think we could
have looked at that data and see that this decision was going to come at some point but I think for me I'm still wondering like how are students being centered in this again how are we making sure that they're taken care of and that they're good after this transition what's happening with our staff like
those are a lot of the questions that I don't have any answers to because there hasn't been a lot of discussion or engagement on the board about this decision before you notified us recently so I think maybe embedded in your question is wondering about will there be like
transition support for students or how are we get I think I think it's more not the financial consideration operational decisions which we've been tracking I think you're wondering what now supp well I think I can I just add in there I mean I I this is a an uncomfortable conversation but it needs to be had I
mean and I think it's board members we come with a different perspective our relationships with our with so many families with so many staff and so it's just like it it does feel um like this February 3rd date with all the other things that we have going on it just
kind of feels like it was like dropped or you know to get like this is what's happening now and then there's a thought exchange like after I mean I could be wrong but then there's this wait just let me finish there's a thought exchange kind of you know after the decision had been made and I've been off I haven't
been privy to all the conversations um but I just think that there is this piece of like just how we communicate this I think since when I was on the board last time it's always been kind of this push and like rub against like this marketing piece it's always been a conversation you know just how are we getting out there what are we doing when
is it actually going to be implemented when are we going to see things on social media and I did the summer like a lot you know I saw things on there um but so I I I mean I I actually do agree with what you're saying Thomas um and again and I think it's just from our our
perspective or my perspective as a board member being in community just the feedback I've received and people are rightfully so upset I mean it kind of rocks you know shakes things up a little bit um the other thing I had kind of around this is the enrollment like options also cuz I feel like then we go
because this came out February 3rd and then like now we're telling families that it's there a science school or if they can do an upcoming lottery so then they've also missed this bat of doing an open enrollment option to so like they have it okay so they can go to any
school within the district if they're no not not if they're open and Road it has an option but so and just to note already we have 35 of 56 kids um I'm just I don't want anybody to get defensive I'm just saying like this is just what I'm trying to just um
interpret what this means like how it translate to actual people's yeah so we doing the exact same thing of how we did with crisy of how we with the Crue staff and make sure all the support people were there with the Crue staff we did the same thing for 279 online we did the
same thing of meeting with parents so we're going to have the same celebrations where you have ured like staff uh have the same um um of uh opportunities to make sure they stay higher just like cresi so we have had
where parents we had a thought exchange for cres that was just the first start of being able to get those questions at and then we'll be meeting with Administration we will be be there for the staff and we will be there for the families our whole thing is how do we
meet one inone with families so the same U lack of a better term handholding that we have done with cres we're doing exactly the same thing with 279 online I don't know if anybody else wants say add anything it's everything you know just
to reiterate with Kim said everything that was structured with cresview has been done with 279 online the same resources and supports process around getting questions and developing an FAQ um FAQ isn't out yet because we need to get all that feedback in from thought exchange to be able to
provide responses back to families and St but ex except crispy people I mean they didn't vote on the particular school but there was a whole referendum knowing that there is a school that's going to be repurposed I mean there was a lot of I mean I don't know if that's the same re maybe it is but it I mean that was a lot that went into that um
referendum campaign that was inclusive of a repurposing of the school so there was a lot more lead time time and again I don't know I don't know what happened in the months prior to you know just from what I'm hearing here but so I I feel that we've had as a board the same discussions and
information in both instances so I don't feel that there's any deviation between the two the reconfiguration and the uh restructuring personally and I think that we um are very intentional when we ask for feedback we would never want to ask for feedback knowing that we're at a
certain path to a decision just operationally is going to take place I think the worst thing that you could do is engage with families ask for input and then seemingly disregard it because clear as it was noted the data and the facts we've discussed this quite
a bit over the last four years so I would I would not have it would not have been wise to seek to engage folks and then look like we're not listening to their feedback because the operational datea is what it is so I I don't see it from my vantage point over over this
time period I don't feel that I've not had the information that was necessary I don't want anybody this is not like a critique it's more just asking questions so don't have to get you know it's not about defending anything I think okay I just want you to understand that like it's more just asking just general just
understanding cuz I'm coming into this like kind of like hm you know so according to Dr H there was engagement that happened and I think that's maybe where the disconnect is I think that's probably the challenge having highly competent staff that do
all of this work behind the scenes I think there was a apparently a lot of Engagement that happened without the board being involved we have had presentations and updates along the way over the last several years but um I think as always I think we get the
communication done really well in this District thanks Decay um and the team but I think the engagement sometimes is still a bit of a challenge particular from the board um seat so I think I think maybe that's my where my reaction is coming from is just been like again
even though we knew that this was coming there wasn't any sort of like prep before this decision was made um nor you know intentional engagement between the board and staff and families
um but the decision was made and again I am confident that staff will put an effort into supporting students and and staff during the transition I think to add to that Thomas I mean as as mentioned at the beginning
we presented to the board in August an update on where 279 online was we presented the enrollment numbers there was discussion at that work session and direction from the board for us to do further review and study on the programming related to the enrollment
Trends and viability and so that's we we took that direction and we moved forward brought together with the 279 online administrative team and processed for 3 4 months um meeting regularly looking at options and
opportunities um through a a structured process um that led us to the space that that we here tonight I just want to add too like there are some FAQ on the website that were um that were added so we're going to um take a look um further uh later
this week at the that exchange feedback too and update that with questions that are within those two any other questions I would say uh one of the things that I think uh that we've been able to do and will continue to do in
the case of crestw and looking at when we have a better sense of especially those families who like to come back and coming into the schools there'll be an opportunity for us to work with the administration to find out ways that we can support them support the families
and um a little different situation obviously the request you but that'll be something that will give you visibility I'm hearing that maybe a little bit as part of your concern and the the school choice enrollment notes that you see Kelsey that you brought up so that is in
alignment with just general enrollment so um it's it's a little bit of a what's it what's the word I'm trying to think of just it's hard it's a distinction sometimes for people so IND District transfers is what we call school choice for people who live in the school
district and open enrollment is what we call for people who live outside the district um so they're not both open enrollment and they have different rules and statutes around them for open enrollment as far as people believe it or not people coming into the district
have um some additional uh options than people who live within the district at times um for now it's all still based on capacity if a school's full we don't allow either but that's why you see the um option right now for 279 online
families is consistent with how we're handling IND District transfers uh as we enter into this foundary change which is we're not allowing them and you can go to your home school so that's consistent with that um so there's a real tightness as far as in
Crestview um since their home school was being repurposed we decided to give an option to select up to three schools to attend um when the change was made there so I'm just saying that this group missed that opportunity that we you know that
January 15th that's what I'm saying is there any flexibility for those remaining 20 students they're I believe they're all open road am I correct from other districts yeah so they go through the open process yeah and we're still um
even even the numbers that were brought up tonight were so this just happened right so one of the to Thomas to your point try we're trying to like as folks reach out to the enrollment center we're trying to capture what are you requesting so this is um well it's still
happening live people will still be reaching out to us we want to find out where people go appreciate the leadership in this decision and I know it was not easy and I um I know there's like a really strong heartbeat on what's happening in our
district in this room um I also know it's a really Vol time right now with the boundary changes so these changes may hurt a little bit more than if it wasn't already happening um but I am thankful that we have the leadership in our district to make the hard decisions
like this um and also leadership that we're we're all in tune with the hearts of staff and students and we understand this is not easy for staff um and for students and families too uh I know a lot of kids that attend online so um
thank you for what you've done for those students and what you'll continue to do in our district all right thank you and our last item on here is just the board meeting calendar review so we have our actual board meeting coming up on the
26 um and you have a list of what that is and then we have March uh our work session on March 11 so we do have policy committee meetings or those board members to sit on that from 4:30 to 5:30
we will have a work session from 6:00 to 7 p.m. where we'll be going over there for full State transparency as work that we had worked on during um our PD time and then you would have gotten it on your outlook calendar that we're going to have PD uh from 7 to 900 p.m. and
that all that information will be sent out to the vi and one of the things that we will be working on um during that time is the structure is getting um giving the board the chance to decide um what are some topics and things that you would like to
have on future work sessions so we'll be talking about that as well on the all right this uh work session is adjourned at I'm sorry questions or comments from the this work session is adjourned at
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