six o'clock. So, we will call the meeting to order. Um, all members are present except for Ron. I know he may may be here and he may not be here. So, we'll move on. So, first item of business is communication items. Okay. Um, uh, we'll start with our, uh,
elementary principles. So, uh, Mrs. Dickerson, we're Oh, she's shutting the door. Leave it to me. Sorry. Um if if you want to give us an update as to what's happening at the elementary school that would be wonderful.
Good evening. Got a few updates and happenings um that are taking place last month, September and this month. First just recognizing our custodial staff. It was school custodian day October 2nd. Um, so just thanking our our staff for
making our learning spaces ready each day. It was also National Fire Prevention Week last week, so we had some special visitors from the Heatville Fire Department. Um, they came over and did presentations to our preschool and kindergarten classrooms.
Tonight we kick off fall conferences. Our building is hopping with families. It's great. Um, we've got the book fair going on. Always are busy. Um it's awesome to see families coming in and during conference time we share uh
progress and goals and also share out the personal learning plans for each student um which reviews their fastbridge data. We'll talk more about that later on tonight. Also tonight is our club choice fundraiser product
pickup. So very busy as well with that. But I just want to say a sincere thank you to our families for supporting our fundraiser. It was another great success. Um, also thank you to many high school students that came over and helped unload five pallets of boxes. Um,
we got those organized and lined up and as families came in having to get uh product for families to make it smooth and and uh so very thankful for that. And then just kind of two other items. We have our third annual family pumpkin
decorating contest um at the elementary school. This is a great family activity um where it promotes the family coming together and decorating a pumpkin and then they put it on display and we have some fun with that. Uh we line up the hallways with decorated pumpkins um the
week last week of October. And then lastly, uh we are looking forward to our inservice time tomorrow um where we are partnering with um resource training. They're going to be providing some math
um training around our new standards that are coming out from uh the department of education and then also we have um Mr. Matias leading some training in adverse childhood experiences which is um being trauma informed and looking forward to
that. I'm on a phone call please. Um, I also noted some important upcoming dates for families and for the public to know um in the next month and a half or so. And that really after tonight, we
got a lot going on. Um, I think our our families and students will be ready for a nice fall break and hit that reset button and come back next Monday. So, any questions for Mrs. Baker? Cassie, thank you.
Thank you. All right, we'll invite Mr. Rasmmanson up and hear find out what's happening at the secondary. Um, and then are you Yep. We'll get you rolling. Perfect. All right. Well, good evening everybody. Uh, I just wanted to start off by saying a big
thanks to all of the adviserss, parents, and volunteers um who helped make our homecoming week successful. It's uh you know we did it really early this year and so it was a big list to get that up and moving and so um just did a lot of reflecting on that week and I was just really um thankful for everybody who
helped out. It was really fun to see everybody there. I I remember looking across at the homecoming football game and just seeing a sea of families and children and it was just such an awesome community event there. So um one of the things and I put some pictures up here. One of the things that we tried this year or something new that we started is
we um I reached out to our student leader groups, our SAD groups, um our um student council groups, and I asked them, "How would you feel about doing a homecoming cleanup where on the last day of homecoming, we get on a bus and we go around to the towns in in uh the houses
in the town and we pick up toilet paper." So, that's what we did for about an hour and a half one day, we went around and cleaned up the town of Payville just kind of a as a thank you to our community for, you know, supporting us and supporting our homecoming. And so we went out and did that. It was great. We had a fun. Mi Mr. Matias and I were out there with him
picking up toilet paper all over town. So we accepted in the country, too. We didn't make much out of city limits here. We uh we're pretty tired by that time. So uh we picked up a lot of toilet paper. So I Cassie mentioned school custodial day. I I was in a meeting with
Ken and I don't mean to put him on the spot, but he said our job is to uh do all the things so everybody else can do their things, right? And I didn't say it as eloquently as Ken did, but we're just thankful that uh they do all the things behind the scenes so that all the learning can take place here and
everybody else can do their thing. So really thankful for them. Um one of the things I'm excited about starting is we just started this thing called the uh you uplift positive messaging system. And so if you take a walk around our building in our student center in our cafeteria, you'll notice um
displays uh that stream positive messages. And how this works is students, they submit positive messages. There's a place on their student portal that they can go and they write in a positive message. Hey so and so, thanks for being a great friend. You know, and then Mike and I get to look at those
messages and we either approve or deny them. And so if we approve them, they go up on this kindness board for everybody to see. and it's just been a really cool way of uh students kind of supporting each other and writing positive messages. Um, social media tends to be a very negative
thing and people get really beat up on social media and so it's nice to have a a pseudo social media that's positive for students where they can they can lift each other up and say, "Hey, I saw you at the game. Great job." And so, um, that's there's a video in there that you
can watch if you want to. But um it's a it's a really cool program that I'm excited about having. It was started by um LifeTouch. Lifeouch reached out to Uplift and they do they wrote a grant for all Minnesota schools. So it's free for every Minnesota school to do this.
And so um the guy who runs Uplift reached out to me and said if you want to get on board, it's free. And so we did it. And you feel free to walk around take a look at them. But it's just a really cool thing that um we're we're starting over here. So, I'm looking ahead in a very short time frame. I guess when I wrote this a week ago, I
didn't fall conferences are here. And so, uh, tonight and tomorrow, we have fall conferences. Uh, we have no school. October 15th, 16th, and 17th. Uh, and then October 31st is the end of the first quarter already. And boy, does that happen fast, you know? So, it does.
So, that's what I have for the secondary. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Rasinson? All right. Thanks, Jesse. Appreciate it. All right, moving on to community education. Let's find out what's
happening out and about in the other spaces of our learnings. Yeah. All right. Mine's pretty short, but we'll go over a few things on in early childhood. We started those ECF classes.
We have eight kids in our two and three year olds, six in our zero to two, and then our additional class that starts on Monday. We have 11 families. So, that's been a nice uh addition. We have a booth coming up. That's October 30th. The
middle school um the middle school student government is going to be helping us with uh just running the games and doing the activities. So, we're excited to welcome them to our team um for that night. And then the early childhood playground, we have have
played on it, so the kids are excited. Yes, it's not quite finished, but we put, you know, a a group out there, a small group out at a time to keep them in their in their area. But, uh, soon the cement and and the fence will be done. But it's it is we were out there,
a bunch of us. I don't know what day it was, but we went out there with our rakes and and Ken came with a with a skidster and we did wood chips and got it all done. So So we're excited for it to be finished. I'm sure Ken is too. So
um we have our winter catalog coming up. That's what we're working on now. Many of our fall things are done and we're gearing up for winter. So, it'll come out the week of December 1st. Um, and then finally, just a bit of our child care task force that's been um
working for the last few months. We held a um child care uh provider appreciation event on September 22nd and it was at um the Coron Coronis Brewing and there were 12 childcare providers that were there.
that we had uh really good food and uh they split up into groups. Had some great discussion around you know the issues, roadblocks even you know concerns around uh child care and you know how we could grow it and then also
just some uh a few even uh they talked about some ideas. So, um all of that discussion was all the information was gathered and along with that survey that we uh had out um uh that just ended in
October. All of that data is going to go with us to the town hall meeting and that is on the 3rd of November. You can still sign up. So, that link will get you to your QR code if you're interested in being part of the discussion. It's open to everyone. Um and we'll be taking
the the survey data um information that um we have from the first finance um people and then the um uh daycare provider event and brainstorming ideas, brainstorming solutions and putting that
all on a giant document at some point so that this task force can come back together and write some goals. So that's what going on with that. Um, this event includes dinner, so that's an incentive.
And the other piece that I just want to add, I'm going to just add one other caveat to that is even though you may not have kids in daycare anymore, you could very well have solutions that sometimes really people that are very close to the issue can't see. So, please
don't don't feel like it can't be there because my kids aren't in daycare anymore or I don't know. My kids are long gone. Well, we need the brainstorm and we need we need all of the the conversation starters at the table. So, come on out and have dinner, right? If we we need those daycare
providers, our our businesses need them to keep people, you know, in that their jobs. We need them here to maybe build homes. So it impacts our economy and and so that's why it's everyone's issue and we all need to get together and talk about it.
All right, any questions? Questions for Okay. All right. And we will wrap up our administrative updates with buildings and grounds. Mr. Osen Dorfs, what's happening? Oh, almost sick of talking about the
playground, huh? three people. So, uh it is going really well. Um got all the posts in before so we can get the concrete rolling. We got the forms up. We've been uh uh getting it ready, prepping it for the concrete
and it started raining today and not going to lie. I was like, "Oh, thank God for the rain." Needed a little break from it. So, yeah, it's going really well over there. I do want to get it done completed. So, uh, science room. Uh,
we've polished the floor once. It looks okay, but when they took the asbesus off, they left some grind marks and they ground that off. And I'm trying to get them polished out a little better so it looks better yet. So, I've got uh Brad working on that, going over it again.
See what we can come up with there. Um, hoping to pull ceiling tile here in the next couple weeks, so on and so forth. Get it ready for that paint. and uh pull some tile off the floors, just minor things before the cabinets do come, which is we're way ahead of schedule for
that because the cabinets aren't scheduled for a couple weeks, probably two months. So, something uh few things with air handlers, start firing them up to full power and some bearings and so on need replaced, so
we'll stay on top of them. Uh, we had a huge drain pipe plugged when I had to shut a bathroom down for a few few days. We got that the big rotor router. We got through it. So, and then uh Thursday,
Friday, we're going to finish up uh LED other than cubbies, you know, but main both schools, the main school should be all LED lights. So any questions? All right. Um we will move on to the tax increment
financing and tax abatement. Um just so for the board it's a information only. No voting at this time. So uh the first uh presentation that we're going to have uh Jod can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Can you hear me?
I can. Um, do you have control of the screen? I don't see you at the m There we go. Um, so Jod is with uh Ellers Financial and Ellers is um the financial really the financial adviser for the school district who has um we've consistently worked with when we've
worked through um our building bonds, our operating referendum, our um our uh capital project levy. So, you all might recognize Jod um and and so Jod, thank you for being here to just kind of walk through uh what tax increment financing
is. Um kind of the tax abatement. And then after your presentation, we'll just um have you hang out to answer any questions that may come up as well. And then we'll move in and and uh we'll hear um a little bit more information about the request to um for consideration for
the board. So, I'm going to just turn it over to you and uh and we'll let you get rolling. All right. Thanks, Janelle. And good evening, everyone. Um, we are going to start out, we put some information in the presentation just to provide some background information and some of it
will be repetitious to those of you who have been on the board for a while, but I think it's helpful just to understand some of the concepts behind our property tax system, our funding system. All of that will be relevant to the conversation on abatement and tiff. So um first of all
we pay of money in property taxes and we probably think that that is providing the majority of support for our schools. But in fact the majority of funding for operating costs for school districts does come from the state. And in particular when we talk about that
general education for me allowance that is entirely paid for um and comes from the state. So with respect to property taxes, you can see that is in the blue slice, which is um what we um have labeled as local revenue. That includes a few other sources also besides
property taxes, but property taxes are included in that portion of this pie chart. The maximum authorized property tax levy is determined by state funding formulas and the district can levy less but not more than the amount authorized by the state unless approved by the
voters. So when you guys see that 39page report from MD from Minnesota Department of Education, it's in like size four font um that has all of the different funding formulas that are approved by the state and that um provides the maximum that is available to the school
district through property taxes and also does include your operating referendum and your capital project levy that Janelle referenced a couple of minutes ago that um those are approved by the voters and are in addition to those funding forms. formulas.
So, both our school finance and property tax systems in Minnesota are complex. We've been told there are some of the most complex in the nation. Um, but it uh is important to note that the revenue is primarily based on enrollment is not driven by the tax base. So, often we'll
see um a new hospital built or new um uh new manufacturing facility and people will say, "Oh gosh, now you're going to have so much more money from property taxes." But in fact, that is not the case. Um, and when your property values increase, that doesn't mean that the school district is getting more money
either. So, all of those formulas for the most part are determined by enrollment. There's only one exception to that, and that is your capital project or technology levy. That is the only funding formula in all of your school funding formulas that is based on
a tax rate. And that tax rate is approved by your voters in the question that you present to them. So the revenue does fluctuate based upon your tax base. So as your tax base increases, you are eligible for more revenue. In years when
it goes down, then you are eligible for less revenue. But everything else is determined by your enrollment. Um importantly also and different than other taxing jurisdictions, you have two different tax bases and two different
tax rates. So, we often also get asked, can you tell me what the tax rate for the school district is? And we'll say, well, there's two. So, we need to um you need to know both of them. And um referendum market value or if you hear people use the acronym RMBB, that is all
of the taxable property in your school district excluding seasonal wreck and egg lands. And that um exclusion was put into place when Governor Ventura was in office because he had a seasonal rec property in a district that was voting on an operating referendum and he didn't think he should have to pay on the
referendum if he didn't get to cast his vote. So that has been in place for a number of years now. And there are only a few categories of funding that are spread on that tax that referendum market value tax base, but it does include your voter approved operating
referendum. All of your other tax levies are spread on the tax base that's called NTC or net tax capacity. And um that is calculated through a through formulas that um that um take the market value of
the property and then there's different class rates assigned and determined by the legislature. So for net tax capacity based levies that tax rate is a little higher for commercial industrial as it is as compared to residential homes. So
any of those levies that are net tax capacity based you those um um people are paying at uh different rates depending upon the type of property owned. This is um taxbased composition specific to Payneesville. So each of these charts
look very different depending upon the school district that we're looking at. So, if you look at the different types of properties on the left hand side, residential homestead, other residential, commercial, um non-qualifying egg, which is the house, garage, and one acre, qualifying egg,
and we're we use that acronym because it qualifies for the um the egg to school credit, which is a very important property tax relief program that's been put in place for owners of agricultural properties. And then seasonal wreck. So you can see the shares just of the
overall market value of the of those types of properties. Um and then you'll see columns for both of the tax bases that we just talked about. So referendum market value is uh one of the one of the primary levies in that category is your
voter approved operating referendum. For that particular levy, your residential homeowners pay 64% of that levy. Your qualifying egg, you can see is zero. They are exempt. And for the most part, all of the seasonal recre property is exempt. There's a few categories of uh
resorts that aren't exempt from that referendum market value um levy. So when you're asking a question for to your voters for operating referendum, you can see who which categories of property um types pay, what what amount they each
pay. So contrast that then to the the final column which is net tax capacity. So, anytime you present a um school building bond question, your capital project levy, all of the other levies that are determined by the state are assessed in this way. So, residential
homes instead of paying 64% of those levies pay about 35%. And then you'll see you pick up your your qualifying egg and the seasonal wreck all contribute toward those levies. One caveat um with respect to qualifying egg is that on all
of your debt service levies, they do receive that 70% egg to school credit on their debt service levies. So again, that's been a really important um component of property tax relief for those um property taxpayers because they felt like they were paying too big a
burden toward those. And um the legislature and governor agreed and put that uh program in place in 2018. So um why why would the school district consider um or any other entity consider an abatement and or tax increment
financing district. So generally these are economic development strategies to encourage your uh community reinvestment and enhance your community objectives. So again, creating or retaining jobs, de uh redeveloping areas, um constructing
affordable housing is a common um uh a common uh strategy that we see throughout the state. And the abatement approval, abatements can be established by the different um jurisdictions. Um each entity does have to hold a public hearing and adopt a
resolution and the um the items that need to be included in that resolution are listed there. So, the term of the abatement, the statement of the um public benefit that it's expected to result, uh findings, and then a schedule of repayment of the taxes.
So, school districts can elect to participate in their share of the taxes toward the abatement. Um the the duration or time limit or term varies depending upon how many of the entities are participating in the abatement.
And then this is abatement guidance specific to school districts from the Minnesota Department of Education. So the board can approve the resolution only after holding the public hearing on the proposed abatement and again the details of what must be included in that resolution.
um uh similar to what was on the previous slide, the nature and extent of public benefits that the district expects to result. And then um the language included in the guidance from MDE states that districts granting economic development abatement must levy an amount equal to the estimated sum of
the abatements granted. uh with respect to the impact of abatement on a school district, the amount of the abatement is added back then to the total levy and that's determined based upon the amount that is paid. Um the result to the district
though is revenue neutral. So you remit the payment of the abatement and then you levy to offset that payment that you're remitting. Um so then the abatement does result in an increase in school taxes for all existing property owners. It's a separate levy included in
your that um that levy report that I mentioned from Minnesota Department of Education. You provide the information to them and they add that on as a separate line item within your levy report. So now we're going to talk a little bit about tax increment financing, another
economic development tool. Um with respect to tax increment financing, the school district's role is largely limited to making advisory comments. So you don't have a hearing, you don't have a resolution. Um there's no specific action generally taken by the school
district. Um they do require approval though if uh it's a workforce housing project financed by economic development district. So that is one exception and generally you are receiving communication from the city regarding
the tax increment financing process and they do communicate with you on it but again you generally don't have any role with respect to action taken on tax increment financing districts. So with respect to a tax increment
financing district um uh the city creates that district results in new development and um if there's an increase in tax base with no change in enrollment for the referendum market value based levies there's an immediate impact for growth in R&B because uh the
tiff property takes out a greater share of the R&B levy. So those uh tiff um uh there's no um R&B levies captured as part of a tax increment financing district. So then again the result of the school district is revenue neutral.
So because you are all of your funding formulas are debased are based on enrollment um and most of your funding formulas have a equalizing or state aid component to them. you would either receive less from state aid and more from property taxes as that referendum
market value grows or you would receive the um same amount of state aid with a lower tax rate for all of your existing taxpayers. Uh with respect to the net tax capacity based levies then um the if the city's creating a tiff district that results in
the new development and an increase in tax paid again with no change in enrollment for your capital project levy the growth in the net tax capacity causes an increase in revenue but you don't collect that. deferred really until the tiff district is descertified
because they're capturing that portion of your uh net tax capacity until the time that the uh tiff district is uh has expired. For other net tax capacity based levies again the effect is deferred until it's certified and then
um the result is revenue neutral. So, you're either going to receive less um from state aid and more from property taxes or again the same state aid with a lower rate for all of your existing taxpayers. And this kind of shows you a graphic of
how um that uh tax capacity is captured during the time that the tiff district is in place. and the base tax capacity remains with the taxing jurisdiction and then the uh tax capacity is captured during the time that that um tiff
district is outstanding and then you can see um once the uh tiff is descertified or ends or expires the full tax capacity is then available to all taxing jurisdictions. So um the tiff district as one of its um components at from the
start has to meet a butt for test. So without the tiff district in place, we assume that that growth would not occur. So in the end, um the benefit then acrru to all of the different taxing jurisdictions from that tiff district
over time. So um with respect to tax increment financing, no loss of revenue. We often um hear people um that are concerned when a tiff district is formed that the school district is losing out on money. But you are not losing out on money.
Again, your tax um your your formulas are dependent upon your enrollment. You're still going to collect your money that you would have otherwise based upon your student enrollment. And then your tax base growth as a result of the tiff will reduce school tax rates for all
existing property owners on your on uh with respect to the referendum market value levies that is immediate and with the net tax capacity levies again that's deferred until the end of that tiff district.
So, I probably spoke fast like I usually do and went through a lot of information. And Janelle, I don't know if you want questions now or if you want to wait until we've um seen some additional information. Sure. No, I think um maybe just to kind
of recap why we're having the conversation because as a school district we have um we have um businesses that are have applied for tax increment financing and we have businesses that have applied for tax
abatement. So, as we're sitting and having a conversation about um uh about a consideration for the board, I wanted to make sure that you all understood what attaching what a tiff is and what abatement is. Okay. So maybe before we
move into just kind of the the request and and the open conversation around uh Lewis Industries request, let's just maybe um pause for any questions about abatement or tip in general before we look at the specifics.
Give us a quick definition of the two a tiff versus the bait for instance. Oh, so yep. Go ahead. For instance, Bruce. So, um, last night I looked at some of
the taxes where we had a tip and tax increments. There was a, um, they actually paid the taxes. They do. That's true. Funded to them through a process of the tip. With the tax abatement, there are
no taxes. Am I reading that right? So with respect to the tiff, you're correct. It exists. There's no tax statement on the properties where tax abatement exists on the county site. Yeah. So with respect to the tiff, yes,
people everybody's paying the taxes. You wouldn't really notice any difference, right? You're just paying the taxes as assessed by the different taxing jurisdictions, but it's getting captured and used toward the development of that particular tiff district. You know, for whatever types of costs are assigned
with the abatement, you are actually so the amount of school taxes that are collected on those parcels are being forwarded then to help fund um that economic development activity. And then
you actually include a separate for school districts, you include a separate additional levy within your property tax, all of your property tax levies that's spread against all of the taxpayers in your district. So you forego that abatement. You're giving up
the abatement money on parcels, but then you're spreading that uh you're adding an additional levy that's spread against all of the taxpayers in your district. So, what does the additional levy potentially cost the taxpayer? So, we um kind of did a little rule of
thumb as we were looking through that because that was a question that Janelle had, too. So, for a $5,000 tax abatement, it's about a dollar a year on a $300,000 home. Other general questions about tiff or
abatement. I move on. Okay. Um and I um so I'm going to move on to the abatement request. So I'll invite um Logan to come on up and you can sit next to me here and we'll join have your your brother join us. Um, Lance is online. Um, so
Jody, if you want to uh close your presentation and then uh I think uh Logan will be Lance will be a Lance will be able to see a little bit better. Um, but really I guess what I'm just going to walk through and then um Lance and Logan are going to stand for questions
from the board. So uh what has been kind of uploaded within the docu within the board agenda here is the request that uh went to the city. So, um, as Jody mentioned, um, an abatement approval
needs to be be done at the city, the county, and the school district. And, um, I'll let you guys I I believe that that's been done at the county and the city already. County number three. Yeah. Can can everybody hear me? Okay. Y, we sure can. Yep.
Okay. Maybe I'll just just spend a couple minutes here answering or giving you the high level So this is the second time now you're breaking up. Okay, you're break. Okay,
do you want to turn L? Yeah, maybe if you turn your screen better. Yeah, try that. Okay. Okay, so we did our first tax abatement in our in our 2021 expansion.
The reason we have to ask ask for tax abatement and not go with a traditional tiff district is if you look at our lot in the industrial park, we actually have 11 parcels separated. Um and in two of the parcels
are separated by an old railroad track that was never properly abated in the 1940s. So when we combined all these properties, built over the properties, we couldn't do a tiff district based on some some rules with the state of
Minnesota. So we had to go with tax abatement. The reason we cannot ask for a tiff tiff district today is you cannot do tiff and abatement at the same time. So to continue our expansions, to continue our business success,
we have to do an abatement district on top of an abatement. Um, Michael Williams at the at Sterns County has has been very helpful to us. Um, we we worked with the city, with the county, the city of Payneesville has
taken the lead. We've done all of our public hearings with the with the city. They've passed the abatement. Then they they punted the ball to the county. The the county has done their hearings. They've passed their abatement. And now we're here at at the school kind of
asking for the same thing. If you if you look at the headlines, we're uh we're in the midst of a of an $8 million expansion. Some of that includes adding 15 additional jobs, all
of them at wages above $20 an hour. I I think that's probably the high level I'll I'll add here. Jody did a great job explaining everything else. Logan, I don't know if you want to add anything in the room. Otherwise, I think we're
we're kind of here for questions. Um and then too, I'm also gonna and you may not be able to see um but I'll and I can show it on I can share it to you if you'd like. Actually, I am going to share it because and I'll make it bigger. Um, so when when Lance
referenced that the city has kind of taken the lead. So what you're going to see here that I'm sharing with you is a document that outlines the estimated financing because that's one of the components that needs to be presented is what is the fiscal impact.
And so okay, that's going to be super small. So let me let me go myund and let's go 200% here. Um, and then I'll just scroll over a little bit. Um so as you take a look at this you're going to see um how this works for each of the
entities. So you're going to see the city tax abatement, county tax abatement, and school tax abatement. Okay. So this is one of the areas where where Lance was saying the city has taken the lead. So this was prepared by um and I believe it's Northland Securities is the financial advisor for
um the school district or for the sorry for the um county and um the city. Okay. So, this kind of gives you a rough outline and you'll see on um uh so in the first taxes payable year 2027. Now,
I'm going to scroll all the way over to the right. You're going to see the school tax is approximately the tax abatement would be 2,124. The um uh uh I forget what PV tax abatement the
dollar amount 19. Go ahead. So yeah, the the the PV is just the present value. Present value. Thank you. Yep. So that's going to give you a kind of a a road map of what those dollars are per year. So then just as a reminder now, I'm going
to stop sharing um just so we can makes it a little bit easier for you on online to see the board. Um, so just as a reminder, what Jod kind of referenced is for for a home that's valued at about $300,000, that would be $1 for every $5,000 that's
abated and levied back. Okay. Um, so now board members, um, I'll stand kind of with you and and um, answer any questions that I can or else I'll let uh, Logan and Lance answer questions from the Leis Industry side.
So uh what one of the things that we I I guess will be in the uh if we move forward with this is uh what is the benefit we have we have to have a benefit statement. uh not having seen the whole document.
What is a benefit statement uh for for this and and I I'm taking that it must be maybe individual. So let's say what was the benefit statement for well we're trying to have 15 jobs with
it. So, the hope is, no guarantee, but that there's more people that either stay in town or move to town and hopefully if they have kids in the school district or move into the school district. I mean, if you want to come
take a walk around the shop, you can see a bunch of PhDs and people have their kids working all over the shop. on it's just trying to retain talent or bring talent to pay
the best we can for the years that I was working with that kind of development the jobs is the only indicator so the amount of jobs that they're forecasting and I last night just out of curiosity I took 15 jobs at $20 an hour times five day work
week times 10 years I'm not exactly sure what the number was go was $5 million that was coming to the community in a 10-year period of time for a tax abatement which was relatively nominal for us specifically.
Even if you put all three of them together, that was still it just appeared to me to be a little bit of a nominal amount for those kind of wages. But it's also not going away. The other thing is that can I just express a personal
opinion? Commonly small towns look at everybody from out of town being the ones you want to participate with, right? This company comes in with their big song and dance. We have tax increment financings that we
had when I was more involved that disappeared at the end of the tax increment financing, right? Came to town, big fluffy story. It was all gone. So all this great idea didn't really pan out quite that well. This is different.
This is a a rock solid company in the town of Painsville showing a history of great employment since their the beginning of the whole thing. It's kind of a different thing. But I know that when I was dealing with a lot of
economic development authorities and things like that when all of this was first generated, all the conversation was about somebody from out of town and but how do you help somebody local? That's who you want to help. They're
already here. Um it would seem to be our best shot of gaining those wages. Do the wages come to us directly? Um we don't know. It's our job to prove to them with what we're coming up with with what
we're doing with our students that they should bring their kids here. But um most of these the dollars make a lot of sense. In the first economic development grant that I was directly involved in, the whole grant came to the city based
upon jobs involved all the the new jobs that were created. And I'm just a little bit where when it's a local company that's if I had to put them on a plateau and
again this is personal opinion. The ones coming from out of town with all the song and dance and everything else I would rank here. a local company that has shown a history already, man, those are companies you want to settle in with. If these guys, obviously, I don't
really know what your expansion deal is specifically, just what I read here, but if they're looking at expansion and it's a local company, they've shown us the path already, they have lots of jobs in the community,
it just seems to me that it would make a lot of sense. I'm guessing that same analysis probably was already done by the city and the county because they've seen the same thing. Somebody comes in with a big song and dance out of the metro or
coming from another state. You know, it's not always better there, but we don't have a history here. You have a history of a good rock solid company that's going to perform like they say they perform. I I don't mean to be an advertisement for Lewis Industries
either. You're doing a great job. One of the other companies that had a tax increment financing is a local company. They are here. They're solid. They have proven it. But without naming them, I can think of three of them that left at the end of tax increment
financing. Once it hit the 10 years, they were out of here. That was not beneficial to us. turned out to be. But then it took building sales. It took five ten years for companies like this to pick up after them because I think
you guys might have picked up after one of those already. Um expenses over the years, but just a personal opinion. So, so right now uh Lance or uh or Logan, what is say a percentage of the
number of employees that you have that that are within our tax district as far as school district uh that are already paying taxes and and I mean it could it could be an estimate 70% 30 whatever that is. Do you have an
idea? Um, I don't have an idea for the the the actual Payneesville school district. Yeah. But when we when we tracked when we track addresses from our plant Yeah.
90% of our staff lies within 25 miles of our factory. That is okay. Very good. Thank you. Yeah. No, and that's that's a great question and we we do look at that. You know what what what we find is if if people are traveling too far, they're
going to go find another job closer. Yeah. So, recruiting locally within that 25 mile district is huge for us. Thanks, Lance. You did mention one thing about helping the school. We run that apprenticeship program.
Oh, yes. Right. So I think Lance where we have three kids right now in the apprenticeship program currently on it. You know this is the time of year where we're settling in with new kids this year. I I can't tell you today where we're at. Um I believe
we might have three. We might have another one slated to start. But what I can tell you is the apprentice program we do is has been a phenomenal feeder. future success. So, several of the kids that have been
through the apprentice program are actually working their way up in our company over time. Our our plant manager was our first apprentice. We have an engineer that started in that and we've got a young another young guy that's that's working his way up and
getting those kids in our factory, you know, showing them what what a manufacturing career can be and then letting them grow is is amazing. And when we when we take school groups through, a lot of times the teachers,
principles, whoever come through actually are amazed by what some of their students are doing, you know, a couple years after school. And that's that's always fun to watch that interaction. Thank you. I Janelle, one one thing I would point
out to the to the board and Janelle because we can't qualify for TIFF. The the request we had with the county, the the city, and the school board is really to to mirror a nine-year a traditional nine-year tiff with just a nine-year
abatement. So the ask we have is is no different than what a traditional tiff would be um in terms of dollars or length or anything. You you could ask for a lot more in abatement, but we just we felt it was fair to imitate what a tiff would
do because that's traditionally what what businesses qualify for. Sure. Thank you for the clarification. I say my last words of Bruce said I just feel the same sentiment. I mean, it's good local company that's been around. I
I have not had any concerns or major questions on this so far. So, I don't have any real concerns either. It's just um seems like a boon to our community to bring in 50 more jobs,
whether it be students that are graduating or new people coming in. We're constantly talking in our board about growing our community and that's one of the things we need is more jobs along with more housing and other
entities. But um I think it's a excellent job that you guys are doing and most of those 15 jobs are either being filled or if you you look at our Facebook page or our Indeed website or
even our our website, most of those jobs are are currently listed and we're trying to fill. It's it's not like we're adding these jobs two years down the road. We actually have a need for for skills today.
Any other questions? So, just kind of as a process reminder, um so this is kind of our um theformational component. Uh the resolution would be presented in on October 28th. Um and and within as Jod
mentioned um there's a a set criteria of of uh information that needs to be in that resolution um that will speak to um the why and the and the dollars and and all of those components. So that'll be presented at the October 28th board meeting. Um and at that point in time is
when the board would decide to take action and I and approved through a resolution um the abatement process. Okay. Um, any other questions for me? Jody, is there anything further that you
feel like you'd like to add? I don't think so. Thanks for the opportunity to present to you tonight and you have the material. So, if any questions come up after the fact, just funnel them through Janelle and we'll get back in touch. All right. Thank you, Jody. Uh, Lance,
anything further that you'd like to add? No, I think the only thing I'd add is, you know, any of you are welcome at any time to to come take a tour of our plant, uh, see what we're doing, see where some of the products are going, see the staff, see the robotics, see the automation, you know, see the vision of
what we're what we're doing in the future. So, you're you're welcome at any time. You can even come right now and see how the construction's going. I'm sure Ken will be right there. Anything else do you want to add?
Uh, no. That's the main thing. If you guys want to see what we're doing, by all means, contact Lance or myself or even Kevin. Kevin's Kevin's there three days a week. He can help, too. But, uh, let us know. We'll take you for a tour.
Thank you. All right. Okay. Um, and with that, if there's nothing else, I'll say thank you for joining us. Um, Lance, thank you for hopping on, Jody. Have a good night, Lance. And wherever you're off to, enjoy. And, uh,
All right. Thank you. Have a great time. Thanks. Bye. Bye. All right. Um, and with that, um, do you want Yep. With that, uh, we'll move on to the district data followup.
Um, and this is uh, so I will invite um, Mrs. Akerson and Mr. Rasmmanson to come on up. Cassie and Jesse, if you want to come on over and uh, take the take the helm. Um, this is uh it has become one
of my uh one of my favorite meetings uh because I think it does provide us an opportunity to publicly do what Bruce just said, talk about the things that we are doing in our buildings and uh and talk about the academic components, the
things that are are that are really driving what we do. So, do you want me to uh how would you like me to Okay. Uh so, I will I just have it in front of me. Okay.
Print isn't so small. What? I appreciate that. got a lot here. Um, let me Yeah. Um, I'm I'm gonna pivot for just a second and I'm gonna find I'm gonna find it in
a different format. Okay. Can you remind me what the document is called? Schoolboard data presentation. As you present, do you mind if we ask questions on the go or do you want us to wait till the end?
I don't want to speak for Cassie over here, but I'm okay if you ask questions on the go. That's not it. That's a different title. Share. All right, there we go. This will be
easier. Um, then I All right, thanks for the technical difficulties. There we go. Well, we wanted to make sure we start where we where we should start here. So the next slide after this is our uh
mission. So the mission of Payneesville Area Schools is to prepare students with the academic, social, and personal skills uh to succeed in their career and community. And this mission statement really guides our work here. And so I want to make sure that was at the forefront of this presentation.
Uh if you go to the next slide, um we've been having lots of conversations this year with staff and at staff meetings um and especially around data using these four guiding questions. So these four guiding questions that we put here really guide what we do and the first
two kind of cover the first part of this presentation. The last two cover the end of the presentation. So our first guiding question is what do we want our students to know and be able to do? And so that looks at things like knowing academic standards or social emotional
skills. And so uh the first question we always ask is what do we want our students to know? And number two is how how will we know if our students know it? And so that's where the assessment piece comes in. That's where this um our suite of assessments, fastbridge, MCAs, and all the data we collect
is all based around this number two. How will we know if our students know it? So looking at the next slide, when we talk assessments, we're really looking at evidence of learning. It might not be a computerized assessment. It might not
be um multiplechoice assessment. It could be a project, right? Um but just to review the evidence of learning and where tonight's data is pulled from. Uh we have screeners. This is our fast bridge. And so again, I
will use the same analogy. It's like checking the oil on one day, one small sampling. Um that is our fast bridge. And then from there when that check oil light comes on, we do a diagnostic and we look into okay, what's what's the
problem? And we can do problem analysis work um with our diagnostic. And so we have assessment tools that we use to get down to the root cause. And then more on the day-to-day, we have formative assessments. Um oftentimes, you know, in our learning spaces, we might do um a
quick thumbs up, thumbs down. It might be an exit ticket, a quiz or a small project sampling. And then we move over to the summitive, which is going to inform um our understanding after the learning has taken place with bigger
comprehensive assessment tools. Um unit tests and MCAs would fall under the summitive um piece here. And the next slide, um, this is the visual that you've seen before. And Jesse and I really had, um, some good
conversation about making sure that our presentation is staying consistent over uh, the last couple years. And as we continue to build, you know, the board knowledge and our um, school community knowledge to use that same verbiage and
same visuals um, so we can continue to go deeper. And so this visual just shows we start with state require state assessment uh like MCAs and then we have come down to the district level those are fastbridge assessments um but now
and more recently um our district assessment with fastbridge has trickled up to the state level and so requirements from the readact um coming at the state level through fastbridge. Then we hone in on um what do assessments look like at our sites,
secondary and elementary, at the classroom level, and then we get down to the most important nitty-gritty, the individual student level. And so how are we assessing students and and their knowledge? Uh so hopefully that visual looks um familiar to you. Before we jump
into data, um we've had a lot of conversation again um in this first quarter about moving the needle. How do we move the needle with student achievement as a district? Not um by separate buildings, but together. And
so, uh Jesse and I have had a lot of conversation about how do we take a step forward together so that we're building some commonality um throughout the district. And we've used the phrase move the needle um go small to go big. So
that way we are able to identify, you know, I think of valves, right? If we start turning all the valves, we don't know which one did it, right? And so we need to make small tweaks so we can modify and adjust as needed. Um, but
most importantly, when we talk data, yes, it's a number, but it's also our students and it's um each other's children um that go home at night to our families. And so it's important that we remember that the data represents
students and every student has a story. um which we'll we'll get big picture tonight um but really when we look at a data point it represents the child. So with that we will continue to jump in. So one of the big kind of outlook ways
that we look at data this is a um what we call our one pager but it's really a two-pager and we uh we publish this out on our website. Right. So, if you go to the website and you click on the little circle that says about um this is the thing that'll come up and and on here is just some some key metrics for our
school district. And so, um on the left hand side we have our graduation rate which you can see is at um 90.3% 93% the percentages are pretty small here. And then um you go down and I and I was joking a little bit that I have to
explain this. This says concurrent college enrollment. So what this means is how many students currently enrolled in Payneesville schools are taking college in the schools type classes. Okay, this is not how many students go on to college, but this is how many right now while they're in Panesville
are taking college in the school type classes and the state averages 30%. Uh we in Panesville schools are at 61% of our students that are enrolled are taking uh or high school students, sorry, not of total enrollment of high school. 61% of our high school students are enrolled in college level classes
while being here in Payville, which is a a pretty impressive number. Um, if we look to the right there, we have our Fastbridge scores, and we'll kind of parse these down into individual grade levels. We provided you a lot of data to look at and kind of dig through. Um, but if we look at our district fluency, we're at 67%, a district reading, we're
at 62% proficient, and at math, we're at 68%. And then down below we have a little section um that shows our trend lines for the MCA scores. And again we'll go into that in a little more detail and kind of parse out that data for you so
you can see a little more than that small graph down there. So but we do publish this. It's out on our websites. Families can click on it. They just click on the little about link so they can see um the good things that are happening. Um so up here u moving on to our MCA data. Um, so we pulled the MCA
data and so you can see this is the elementary slide. There's elementary math, elementary reading, and elementary science. Um, on each of these graphs, you're going to see three lines. The the light blue line um indicates the building. So in this case, that is the
elementary school's line. Um the dark blue line indicates the state average. Uh and the green line indicates the district. So you can see those on all three. Uh the blue line indicates the the building, dark blue state average,
and then green line district. So if you go over to the next slide. Wait, on my science only has slides. Perfect. Thank you, Bruce. So they just started. Last year was the very first year of the brand new science
assessment. And there's a disclaimer down here that MDE put out. says, "The science MCA4 is a new assessment in 2025 reflecting a reset in the way we teach and measure science learning. Results cannot be compared with previously
years. So, it's not real fair of us to draw a trend line from where we were at from science to this new test that's brand new." You know, in the in future years, we'll be able to kind of look at how that trend goes as we learn more about what's on the test and um and how
to how to teach science better. But um at this point that's where that is and you'll see that dot on every graph you see for science. But that's a great question Bruce. Thank you. And with that um it's our science assessment are the MCA4s which were
previously MCA3s um which we will also see a shift in reading standards um with our new reading MCA assessments this spring. So, we will likely have another dot for reading as a reset just like we did with
science. Um, again, here is the the secondary. So, we have secondary math on the left, uh, secondary reading on the middle and secondary science on the right. Uh, again, the the dark blue line is the state average, the green line is the district, uh, and the light blue line
represents the secondary trend scores. So that is our those are our MCA um assessments for uh last spring looking at the fastbridge piece then um like I mentioned they were a more local
assessment I'd like to ask questions on the I thought there was one more so when I look at the secondary school compared to elementary school there's a little bit of difference between the state average and our line so
does that mean have a whole bunch of kids not taking the tests in high school because if I remember right from last year that is as far as the state's concerned is a zero and when you put the zeros in there it throws us out because I and just a quick
note about the fast it's not doesn't show up in fast bridge but it shows up here correct which means that something is out of ordinary we we have just as a rough rough data point and I can get you the actual data.
We essentially have about 10 times more tests that are um opted out of at the secondary level than are opted out at the elementary level. So for every one test that's opted out of the elementary level, about 10 tests are opted out at the secondary level.
But so we go back to bringing people to the community, right? So are they going to want to look at our fast bridge or are they going to want to look at the MCAs? So most people are going to look at an MCA. So do you ever talk about how to change
that? Yeah, we we spend a lot of time looking at that. Um and you know like as you'll see from our Fastbridge stories, we have we have two very different stories at the secondary. Our FRA our FastBridge data is exceptional. Like we have we
have a single area. Yeah. We have 71% of our our eighth graders in taking a math that's proficient at math which is really correlative to the MCA math score. So 71% of our kids are able to prove proficiency in math on the fastbridge scores. Uh but when we look at the MCA
score it's significantly lower. So, I think that's that's a really good question for us to wrestle with is like what is the difference between MCA assessment scores and FastBridge scores and how do we how do we align our MCA scores more in line with what we're
seeing in FastBridge and what's the perception of the people that would bring your person to this community? So, I can look at this and so I got an eighth grader saying, um, geez, that would be nice. It'd make me younger, wouldn't it? But anyway,
I kind of would glance at this and I would probably take notice of it, then roll down to fast bridge. Now, I'm not sure the Fastbridge information's quite there, but um it doesn't look right. And
that's why I was really curious because it's hard to overcome a zero. Yes. So, you might have a an excellent student and they decide not to take it. That is a huge loss. But as far as MCA is concerned, it's a reflection that I'd
like to see go away in this school because it doesn't look right. And not only that, what but when we have a student that would normally pass the proficiency test, not opt out of it, it it almost hurts us double because not only are we not getting the boost from
them being proficient, but we're getting penalized as a zero for a student that normally would be proficient. And so, you know, those are a lot of questions that we wrestle with of of how do we how do we, you know, align these two scores and how do we make sure to tell our
story because I think our fast bridge story looks really good and and our fast bridge story tells a really good story of where we're at. Um, but the MCA scores, we'd like to be more in line with that fast bridge story. When you talk to other secondary principles, I suspect we're not the only
ones. Absolutely not. And so nobody's got any revolutionary idea how to make these kids take I I think part of this is is encouraging conversation with our legislators about the reality of the data. Is this is this
a true reflection of our school districts? The other piece is um we do know that the Minnesota Department of Education is um going to be I I anticipate starting to use Bathbridge data differently and perhaps that can become part of our story. So um The most
local things that we've done action-wise is to make sure that we're sharing that FastBridge data in addition to the MCA data on our homepage. So that click here, learn about us, it it tells Yes. And but we we do wonder.
So you're thinking the Department of Education is going to have a little more um reliability of fast bridge. I can present that. Sure. That'd be great. I'll I'll shut up. No, that's that's good. So, with um the
recent readact um they districts are required to use one of their approved screeners and so that's fast for us and now MDE pulls our fastbridge data into their system. So now it is state data
and so anticipating that will be rolled out and so when we complete our local literacy plan um which is a public document now all of our fastbridge data is out there and so you can go on MDE website and look up other districts
fastbridge fastbridge data on the MDE website. So it is evolving at the MDE level and so I will be curious to see the the fastbridge story right be told
um similar to MCBA and that that's new as of last um last spring is when MDE started pulling that data so pretty recent. Yes. Yeah. Okay, that makes some sense because when
I look at this, if Fastbridge was something people relied on, I'm not sure we could keep the kids out of this school. The performance I see here is outstanding everywhere. But to get to the MCA, which people know, I remember
one of our districtwide meetings, the that came up at the districtwide meeting because that's what everybody there, we had a lot of people from a lot of areas. That's what they were looking at. Um, well, we'll hope they're faster down
there than the usual movement from the Department of So, um, next looking at Fastbridge data. Uh this first slide looks at our early reading assessment which is for our kindergarten students and our first
grade students. And those are um they consider up subtest. So like letter names, letter sounds, uh site words and onset sounds. And so they'll take subtests to create a composite score. And so this data represents their
composite. And in kindergarten and first grade, those subtests change from fall, winter to spring based on the progression of skills during the school year. Um, but so just kind of overall, I just want to point out the left is our
district. So that district data is the two combined. That star represents that's our fall data this year. Okay. The the bars to the left of the star are data from the springtime. So we got
spring of 21, spring of 22, spring of 23, spring of 24, and then this fall. Does that make sense? So where we've been in each spring, where we're currently at. Okay. Um and when we look
at the colors on the graph, um FastBridge uses the terminology of high risk, some risk, low risk, and exceeds. And that means, um meeting benchmark and meeting that proficiency level. And so, uh we're looking at the purple up above
as meeting those benchmarks. So, that's our early reading for um our youngest learners. And then we look at fluency. How many words correct in a minute can students read? And this is oftentimes um you've heard us say before
um a data point that will be a big indicator on comprehension, right? We need to have fluent readers in order to understand what we're reading. And so second grade, third, fourth, and fifth grade, you can see fluency again where we're at this fall and where we've been
previous. That's impressive all by itself to me because they've been out all summer. It seemed to me that when we first started this, we had more of a drop in the fall. We actually
looked like they were studying half the summer. And it's impressive, I think. Now, does that follow just a Oh, that follows every class like the fifth grade. Is that the spring fourth grade scores of the current sixth graders
for fifth grade data or is it the spring of the acro fifth grade class? Yep. If we look at um grade three, I'm just going to go to the farthest left. That 58%
spring 21, that same cohort then is spring of 22 as a fourth grader. Okay. Yep. So you got to jump. So you're moving ahead. So essentially that spring of 24 would be this year's
sixth grade class as they completed fifth grade over here. Yeah. Or fifth grade. Yep. Okay. And that's how I was trending with it, but I didn't want to assume that. And that's and that's, you know, like
fifth grade fluency, not the grades fluency as it moves along to, right? And it's easy to see these graphs as, you know, following the same groups of students, but they don't, right? This is each line represents a different grade of students, but based on fifth grade fluency or
fourth grade fluency, grade levels. Yes. Perfect. That's what I was thinking. So, what's good with this is, you know, as far as the curriculum you're teaching for that particular grade.
So, so for for fifth grade every year that that particular that that that uh the what you're teaching them is uh the curriculum that you're teaching is sustaining from year to year.
Yeah, that's one way one way to look at it is what we're doing in fourth grade working. Exactly. Right. Regardless of um where they're coming in at, right? Are we being drilled over that time? The other way to look at it is following that cohort of students,
right, as they progress. So, so, so then then you've seen the building of of that as far as a particular grade Sammy through whomever versus just a a grade level. Yeah, I like that.
Okay. Um, the next then was um sixth, seventh, and eighth grade again looking at fluency. And then um the last one is our district percentage uh for this fall and then previous.
So that's looking at accuracy words correct in a minute. Then we look at a reading and a reading is an adaptive reading assessment which is going to adapt as
the student goes through the assessment. So if they continue to get uh questions correct, their an or their questions will change um to higher level. Um if they answer incorrectly, then it's going to back up to um various skills. So it's
adaptive and this looks more at the comprehension piece. Um so you can see again um that same star representing fall and then each spring where we are at. and our second graders are the first ones to take this
a reading assessment. Um it is not included in kindergarten or first grade. Um so we shift from learning to how to read to learning to understand what we're reading and then same for
sixth, seventh and eighth grade. And then again as district and um we were pretty excited when we looked at that district data and we talk about moving that needle right um and you can kind of see it just up and to the right um moving in that
direction. What what year does that start out again this spring? You know what I as far as the calendar year? So we started fastbridge pre is that what you mean? Yeah. Precoid. Okay. Y
and for this particular report we can only have five data points. Yeah. Which is kind of nice because then that's postco. Um so then we can look forward, right? Okay. to answer my question because I like that because now start so now
figuring out where those kids were at with COVID and I ke I remember vaguely seeing some of that data that they were down but it looks like now you're you're pushing into kids that are in that seventh eighth grade period and where they're at now versus where they were
say four or five years ago. It absolutely looks great. So something is working very well. We're moving the needle. Yep. still keep moving. Okay. Um our ninth and tth graders also
um have taken the A reading. So you can see their data here. Um we haven't always taken the A reading in ninth and 10th grade. So that's some fairly new data points. Uh shifting over to early or to math on
Fastbridge. So this is the um early math assessment. So this would look at uh things like number identification, place value, number decomposition, number sequence um stuff. So you can see again the the the graphs are aligned the same way where we're looking at um spring
data for the first few lines and then that last data is the new fall data point that we've taken. Um and so on the left you have district um and then we have kindergarten and first grade that we assess in for the early math assessment. Um and then the major assessment we use
up there through second through um 10th grade would be a math assessment. And so um these are the A math scores for the elementary school second through fifth grade. So I'll give you a second to just take a look at those. Um and again these are the AAT scores.
on the left is sixth grade and then it moves to seventh grade um and then our eighth grade A math scores and then our district A math scores overall. Um and AATH is a lot like that adaptive math. This would be um pretty correlative of the MCA test where they're um answering
grade level math skills questions. Pause there. Anything else about data before we move on to questions three and four? If I have one more, so if we compared the MCA data and you didn't have the state average in there,
it would look a little different. Okay. Well, we're not the only ones in the state of Minnesota doing fast bridge. Does fast bridge give us a summary of those that are in fast bridge of what's going on on a state level. So we have a
comparator. So sorry go ahead and you can back off or add more. Um so fastridge is a nationally normed assessment and so when we look at benchmarks where the the graphs we showed you tonight are for Kingsville.
we can look at a normed um uh normed results in comparison to how are other students around the United States performing, but it doesn't give us
friendly graphs. Um not necessarily that anybody that's doing computer stuff can query it. So it would be just Minnesota. So if there's a whole bunch of people in Minnesota, right, where would we be at? Because that's truly the missing comparison here is
what the the people that are using Fastbridge in the state of Minnesota where they're kind of at and then you have a true comparison to the MCA, but they can't query those. They haven't yet. And what's um
interesting is FastBridge isn't the only screener assessment tool that is on MDE's list. That's okay. We would just want what's there and we would then we would have other fast bridge schools out of all the schools we have that are
on fast bridging, right? It'd be interesting to see where they're at. And because they have no names, you're not giving away any private data. you're just averaging out those that are in the system. Be real curious to see what that looks like. And I would venture to guess um there
are people at MDE who are also interested in that information, right? And as they're rolling out with the readact and collecting this level of data now. I would venture to guess there's people that will pull some reports together. Just surprises me actually.
Yeah. for a computer-based data company that you can't query the state of Minnesota out of the rest of it seems almost impossible that they can't do that and maybe we just haven't you know a lot of the conversation is around the nationally norm like how do how does this compare nationally because that's
how it's normed it's not normed in the state of Minnesota it's across the nation so that's I I presume that's part of why it isn't broken down that way but and and the Minnesota comprehensive assessment is about Minnesota specific speifically, right? So, yeah. Yeah. And see, they're telling us what
the average in the state is. Gosh, if there's 200 schools on this, 250 100 at least, it'd be interesting to see where we're at because my guess is that we're going to rank quite high straight across the board. That's my guess. I think what I see is we are
spending a lot of time with these students to make sure they're on track or if they're off track we're getting them on track again and we're doing it on a regular basis which means it's bragging rights right and it's something
that somebody like myself or again people coming to the district meeting that we have where we have everybody together we have people from all over a a comparator that they have and and Bruce that is so true especially
when you take a look at our small numbers as far as our student body being so small it doesn't take much to tip the scales where we're not going to look good you know or or hurt that we can't build back up and so it's very important I I I
you you said it perfectly that that we have teachers here we have staff here that is paying very particular you know close attention to what's going on in order to keep our students students at a very high level because just a little uh
a small uh skew in the data or a small percentage of of of uh students failing in some area is going to look like you know a huge impact to the data that's out there. So you guys are doing a great job. That's a good segue into this slide
question three and four. So we gathered the data but now what? So, how do we respond when students don't get it? And and to your point here, um we do spend um and we allocate time and people, right, to help students uh when they are
not responding, but we also allocate resources for when they do respond. And so, how do we extend their knowledge and enrich their learning as well? And so with that, we um part of the readout was
to bring on um uh literacy specialist. And so um Mrs. Rasmathon is in this role new this year uh to help guide that work um and meet those requirements from the
readact as a system K12 um and making sure that we are meeting those requirements. um also working with grants and aligning um all of our resources and and programs that we have um so that way we are using them to the
best that we can and spelling them out. Um one of her bigger roles is facilitating um the MTFS team and making sure that we have evidence-based and researchbased interventions during power half hour and lead time. um reviewing
data and responding to when students are responding positively to an intervention, then we're moving them on to the next step, right? If they're not responding to the intervention, how do we modify and tweak that uh to meet their needs? Um so that's been a big
part in helping us respond to our data. And then lastly, just we wanted to call out our MTSS team of of people. Um so you can see who they are on the right. um you know working with social emotional and behavior uh throughout the
district um math and reading as well and then pulling together um kind of our MTSS logo as a district and um which mirrors MDE's um multi-tered system of support uh
framework which we take all of the outside of the circle making database decision um engaging our family and community in the work that we're doing uh providing the infrastructure to do this work and to do it effectively um
having assessments like Bassbridge um accessible to our students and then providing supports um in um behavior and academics bringing that all in to serve our Bulldogs
questions at our last slide. We just had to call out MTSS, but other wonderings or questions or things related. Just a comment. You're doing a wonderful job. Both of you and staff that you have
under teach. Thanks. I know the data isn't the student specific but I love data and I like this because it at least I feel and I can talk to anybody and say now listen this
is really where we stand so you can say whatever you want but on average this is what the system's telling us and what we are providing for the students here will go up against anybody. Oh, absolutely. Especially with hearing
that 70% of our students, high school students are taking college based class, college level classes. That is that is outstanding. I don't know if this is even, but is any of the other area schools using
Fastbridge? I'd be curious if you compare it directly to schools we're essentially competing against. Yeah. Yeah. And we um we were able to go on the MTE website and look at local literacy plans because we had the question, oh, I wonder how many um in a
neighboring district um are meeting proficiency levels with their fluency. And so we were able to poke around a little bit and just kind of see where we didn't do a super deep dive, but we scratched the surface. Okay. But that'll be a tool we can use to compare schools
in the future. So that'll be good to have. Absolutely. It's impressive that we have the leadership that have also impressive talking to the teachers and the parents and the other workers in the school and
how hard they all work to be a team for all of our students. It's just impressive. We we have a great staff. We have a great staff. You're also great staff. Any other questions? Otherwise, uh,
thank you. Thank you for the time to pull this together. Very informative and again short period of time. Yep. Yep. Sounds good. Yep. Thank you. Moving on to the request for information roundt.
Yeah, we had the districtwide uh excuse me, we had the developing committee that was back on the eth did a great job. again talk about the staff here and just the way that they they are just very particular on how they lay
things out and just way talk about uh what is best for the district, what's best for themselves and then how to lay that out to ensure that students and of course this is for for staff uh not necessarily for the students but they're always looking at the students uh and
the importance of that. So, just a I can't say enough about the staff. And then we do have the the district-wide advisory committee that's coming up on the 20th. So, next days we'll throw that out on the 28th. We'll
get an update for that. So, two things. Um, one is I really like it when the kids come and I know I mentioned it before because you've got the intervention center going on. We have stuff going on here that nobody
knows about. And I I enjoy when it comes here because the one thing I know for sure is that camera is on and anybody can sit and watch what's going on almost no matter where you are. The second thing that came up tonight was we had an
offer from a company or everybody had gone down to Lewis Industries. So, how many have been in there recently? Couple years ago, the last time I Yeah, I've been in there probably for five or six years. I don't know how we would do that as a
school board. We would probably have to have a meeting there. Yeah. I mean you what I've heard is a personation you can reach out and they'll walk you through I I met um I met with Lance and he walked me through the whole organization and the whole company and and had a great opportunity
to sit down and learn about what they're doing and um when it works for you give them a call and uh and and well to be more efficient with their time then if we all could show up on a similar time and then get a grand tour
might kind of cool just food for thought. I mean, I think part of this is thinking of stuff that would help us all. And I think it reminds me of a time that we were trying to get some of the
um let's call them the vocational trades going in the school. And at that time there were these days off, not days off, days of not um in the classroom around. And there was a trip that was conducted
taking everybody to a trade school in St. Cloud. The whole picture of what we were doing in the trades changed and I think those kind of things are important a little out of the box. But anyway,
yeah. And um October is actually um I I believe all of October is manufacturing month. Is that right? Um, so there's often uh there's there's tours of all of our organizations in October. Um, when I get those dates, I'm I will forward
those on to board members. And as a community member, you are welcome to attend. And um, we've been to Avon Plastics, we've been to Nelson Plastics, we've been to Lewis Industries, we've been to um, Valley Industries. So, it's a really nice
opportunity to learn about what's happening in our industrial park um and see how uh how we have partnerships and and and how we do connect. And so, um when I get those dates, I'll pass those along. Yeah.
Good. We also have a major pool industrial park. So, we got full set up there. Hearing nothing else. We are