--------- okay welcome to the August 12th regular meeting of the board of education for Prior Lake Savage area schools this meeting is called to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um roll call all members are present tonight um before we start the open Forum I'm going to read a statement sent
to the board by a mother of a student who passed away on July 1st Adeline Sylvia Shephard or Addie loved school and had a thirst to learn she loved to read create art work on her
writing cursive Math Science and more she loved everything about school school she became close with every teacher always being helpful and a good friend in the classroom there were multiple parents attending the celebration of life due to their children asking them
to bring them cuz Addie played with both younger and older kids basically all the kids at kids company and the kids wanted to attend even with us not knowing their families there are a lot of families and kids hurting in our school district due to this tragic loss Addie's parents want
to thank everyone from the Prior Lake Savage Area School District who have supported them in this difficult time and send their love to everyone at this please join the board in a moment of silence for Adeline Sylvia Shepard thank you next we're going to
move on to the open Forum in accordance with board policy 203 a 15minute period is set aside to receive citizen put through this open Forum segment on the board agenda the sign up sheets are available 10 minutes ahead of time we have one speaker today so I'm not going
to go through and read all of the rules uh the rules are available on the table outside um if there is a violation of the rules the board will stop the speaker uh at this point I would like Stacy Buckingham to come up and speak and she wants to speak on cell phone
policy hello everyone Thanks for hearing me uh for the past few years we have heard a lot about our schools failing test scores mid- Rising discipline issues I sit on the curriculum committee and a big push to fish these issu fix these issues has been new curriculums but what
if I told you there was a much more simple answer the iPhone was introduced in 2007 which means all of our students haven't known life without them since then Studies have shown that teenagers are sleeping less spending less time with friends are 134% more anxious and more likely to
feel lonely 22% of high school students have seriously considered suicide in the past year and 10% have attempted it and that is a striking and horrifying statistic Dr Jean M twingy says rates of teen depression and suicide have
skyrocketed since 2011 it's not an exaggeration to describe gen Z as being on the brink of the worst Mental Health crisis in decades much of this deterioration can be Tred to their phones most kids get between 237 and
4,500 notifications per day on their cell phones with about 23% occurring during the school day that's 54 interruptions on the low end of the spectrum this statistic coincides with studies that show students can only focus for an average of six minutes
before they are distracted by their phone and it can take them up to 15 minutes to get back on task what's more 35% of students admit to using their phones to cheat over a million students across this country currently go to schools where complete bands are in
place one principal stated it's an absolute GameChanger the climate and culture on our campus is so much more energetic and positive another principal stated we reclaimed the classroom learning environment kids spoke to one another in the cafeteria we had two
lockdown situations and without student phones we were able to deliver Vital Information to our families without misinformation information being spread we also keep the building more secure and calm because of it schools with complete bands report an exponential increase in academic achievement across
all segments a shocking decrease in discipline issues and an overwhelmingly more positive campus experience for both students and staff but parents we parents me included have gotten into the bad habit of texting our students during the school day and expecting an answer
we need to realize that that's not okay and that disrupts from the learning um schools with bands have made a phone available for student use and parents with actual needs to reach their students can call the office and have messages delivered just like when we all
were in school my child needs their phone for medical issues not a problem but what if an emergency happens at school if there is an emergency students need to be focused on their teachers instructions and not their phones and there is zero data to suggest that
phones make schools safer students aren't going to like it initially but where complete bans have been initiated after the first 2 to 3 weeks students report feeling free and at peace in a way they didn't know existed how does this happen well some
schools have students check in their phones at the start of the day and retrieve them on their way out others Implement something like Yonder pouches where students have their phone with them but locked in a pouch that they swipe at an unlock station on the way out of the building Yonder pouches can be purchased for students by schools and
in last their entire tenure or pouches can be put on school supply lists for families to purchase they are $30 the high school could F fully outfit uh the high school for probably around $100,000 which I think is not outrageous
for the um benefits that that could bring remember as adults our jobs isn't to do what's popular but to do what is best for students and without questions a complete cell phone ban is what is best for students academic achievement social interaction and mental health so I hope you seriously consider these
points when you are discussing the policy tonight thank you thank you okay thank you very much next on the appro uh next on the agenda is the approval of the agenda I need a first
and a second motion so made by director Velasquez second second by director Crosby all in favor point of order point of order chair France um if we're following Robert's R order there's a
motion there's a second and there's discussion are you going to be allowing discussion per Robert's Rules of Order do you have something you want to say yes but the chair is conducting the meeting and you have to call for discussion in order for me to be able to or any board member to be able to bring something up do you have something you
want to say yes I'd like you to recognize my point of order though that is your job as chair as as well is to recognize the point of order I can recognize your point of order do you have something to say Yes um with
the agenda this evening I would like to pull out the monthly check register for July okay that's on the consent agenda that's not on the overall agenda but this will impact the actual flow of the agenda which is why I'm I've been consulted um by both msba and parliamentarians that this is the proper
place for it to be pulled out because it impacts the flow of the agenda okay what you're asking for is on the consent agenda which is the next piece right and I'm asking for the July monthly check detail to be pulled out
and moved as a separate discussion which will impact the flow or it will impact the agenda okay that is still part of the consent agenda the consent agenda itself does not change though correct that is still part of the overall
agenda well that's correct yes if you'd like me to hold I can I can hold off till we vote but we still your job as a chair is to call a motion in a second and call for discussion on every Motion in the second unless it's a privilege motion actually the consent agenda has no discussion unless someone pull
something off but this part does this one if you'd like to discuss it you just did unfortunately what you just said is part of the consent agenda so when we get to the consent agenda after this does anyone else have any comments okay so with that all in favor
I I opposed okay that passes 70 next is the consent agenda the consent agenda items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless requested prior to the vote in which
time the item will be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed as new business the consent agenda excuse me consists of financial details for June and July purchase orders above 25,000 the enrollment report approval of
the July school board minutes Personnel items which includes candidates for employment resignations terminations and retirements and over the summer we had two retirements Dwayne Johnson for nine years as head custodian at Twin Oaks and ginger Joyce for 18 years as a student
services attendance Administrative Assistant ala at Twin Oaks and the annual contract renewal for henip and Tech the monthly financial report which is normally included as part of the consent agenda will be included after the completion of the ual Financial
audit so first I need a motion in a second by director Crosby second second by director Vasquez there's no discussion unless you pull it out okay now you're supposed to call for discussion all right so now that you did I would like you to pull
out the monthly check detail for July okay how am I supposed to call for a discussion if you don't call for discussion you are in charge of cond the Mee secondly I would like to call to pull out purchase orders above 25,000 please
okay all right so anybody else okay so the consent agenda now consists of the July first one was the July check transfers check detail please 7 A7 7 a so A and B and
B so we'd like to see who's in favor of the consent agenda without the financials the check wire transfer dispersement summary that includes the combined June and July as well as the purchase orders above 25,000 um the monthly check detail
number seven not the monthly wire detail I would just want to be clear okay A7 correct correct yes correct Y and then 7 B that's it 7 a is the financials that includes all the check wire transfer dispersement including the efts a AC's bank
reconciliation and monthly wire no just 777 oh 7 A7 down here the June and July monthly AC details okay all right sorry all right and then all of B purchase orders purchase orders above
25,000 correct right purchase orders above that's the only thing we have in the consent okay so all in favor for the consent agenda except for 7A Roman numeral 7 and 7 b i
opposed okay that passes 70 okay uh next on our item is the resolution for acceptance of gifts and this uh month we have three gifts a 500
mental health Wellness kits for grades 6 through 12 uh a $177,000 gift from the prior la PR Lake Optimus club for two spot vision screeners and a $2500 gift from the Prior Lake Lions Club for the CES youth
scholarships can I have a first and a second so made by director bullan second a second by director bernick any discussion on this okay all uh gifts are roll call
votes so I'm going to start with director olad hi director Crosby I director bernick I director bullan I director Velasquez I and director Atkinson I and I so that passes
70 and next on the agenda is Laker Pride the special recognition for the prior L op Prior Lake Optimus Club art donation I'm going to hand this over to uh Dr Thomas thank you chair friends members of the board um just want to send an
extra shout out to the Optimus Club they've been a strong historical supporter of our district and our students and uh I just really appreciate um the the donations and the gifts just previously and also the annual recognition of um Artistry in in our
district um tonight uh we have Greg from the Optimus Club who will introduce our um student artist Avery thirston and give a brief overview of The Optimist choice this year Greg himself is an artist and has completed murals in some
of our schools and downtown lake so well known for his imagery on on walls and I look forward to the conversation tonight and the reveal of uh a very unique piece and we love to hear the story from uh Avery as to the conceptual vision for that piece so Greg I turn this to you
we're going to come forward and Avery you can step forward as well to the podium and then afterwards I'll have you all stand forward with some certificates and recognition all right well well thank you um yes so I'm from the Optimus club and the Optimus Club
uh has the honor of uh being the sponsor for the high school art show and competition and then along with that is uh selecting a piece for the purchase and uh I was um I was uh happy to be part of that uh group uh me and um
Andrea stegger were the uh uh the representatives from the club that got to uh review all the pieces and there were many wonderful pieces it's a I I follow the show I have had several I've had five students go through the high school several of them participated in the show when they were there uh so it's
it's always fun to see the wonderful work that is there and how impressive it is with all the great work being done and this year was no different than than any um it was um a little tough for us to to look at all the pieces and narrow really down to one piece uh Andrew and I
kind of looked it over and and and and and found a few that we really liked but um uh this piece by Avery really stood out to us uh uh for a few reasons um uh first of all as as an artist and an
illustrator um I was struck at the um the quality of the piece and the the handling of that Avery did of of her um medium the color pencil so it's it to me speaks of a very professional look to it like uh something you would see from
many professional illustrator so the quality was really wonderful so that struck us first and then the image too the the I you know it's not just um it's not just a great rendering there's there's an idea there there's a visual there's a neat way of combining two two
things together that really struck us um and that um that too uh we thought well uh for a piece that's going to be in uh in the pray Lake School District uh um what better than a than a than a um a
fish out of water so we really thought this really was going to be a great piece to represent um beyond that again I just really want to stress the quality that we thought that that that the piece was uh and so congratulations Avery incredible job you did with this um I want to thank you too
for being willing to allow us to purchase it I know how um when you put that much time into a piece it's hard to give it up sometimes so thank you very much and uh Avery maybe if you want to share a little bit about uh the piece and Greg would you mind grabbing it in
this kind of standing at the podium so folks View doing this online could also see it while she's maybe talking a little bit about the piece and Avery if you just want to share just some brief words about kind of the creativity behind this and what inspired you to create such a phenomenal
piece of art yeah okay so I made this piece right after reading the metamorphosis by France kofka for my English class in the metamorphosis France kofka explores themes of alienation and isolation by telling the story story of a man who turned into a
bug and was therefore disowned by his family now after reading this book I just could not stop thinking about it I was like this is amazing I have to create something like this and so that got me thinking about the idiom of fish out of water which refers to someone who
feels unhappy in their environment because they feel so different to those around them and what I found is that when this social isolation just continues and continues it builds up that leaves the person feeling like they
are too far aranged to fit in similarly to how in Metamorphosis France kofka explores his experience with tuberculosis by describing his character his character friends sorry Gregor samsa as a bug so
that's a fish out of water wow that's awesome that is amazing not only is an amazing piece of artwork but the story behind that you know usually when we go to museums we never know what was in the artist's uh mind behind the creation and it was also appreciate you uh letting us
get a little peek into your Insight and your vision so it's it's clearly you've got talents and uh we're proud to say we knew her way back when yeah that's so good congratulations I'll turn it back over to you chair and then I'll get pictures if you want any wonderful words thank
you thank you that is wonderful incredible and this was all colored pencils you said like oh yeah color pencils mhm that's amazing beautiful pretty cool that's uh why don't you hold it for your
picture [Music] congratulations this pce has been in here as we could set for the meeting let me tell you some conversations about the peace CH I turn it back to Youk you okay next on the agenda we have uh Personnel
items with uh executive director of administrative Services Herman who is uh suffering from a loss of voice um the first item uh that we need to discuss is the Early Childhood family education assistant for 16 and A4 hours per week
and then again the Early Childhood family education assistant for 26 hours a week before we get started I need a first and a second motion I made by director olad and director bullan
okay all right uh and I hand that over to director Frederickson thank you chair France um these two positions are requested by a community ed who will the funding will come out of the fund for Community Ed and they're requesting these two
positions um because they have increased needs in their program um they have been run by budget and we have dollars in in the community ed budget to pay for these okay are there any
questions hearing none all in favor I I opposed that passes 70 and then the next one is also I believe director Frederickson and director Herman uh that's additional Staffing for 2425 school year and before
we get started on that I need a motion in a second come Me by director Vasquez second second by director berck okay please go ahead thank you this position is a 1.0 Indian education
cultural liaison um to support the students elementary students in the American Indian education program and it will be funded with the American Indian education aid grant that we have um we have looked at the budget there is
dollars for so we're recommending that this get approved okay any questions I just had one question would this um obviously it says Elementary Student Activities is there um potential districtwide or this really would be
just for elementary is that a question for Sam but primarily for elementary to start thank you okay any other questions
yeah I have a couple of questions so how would this position interact with the existing American Indian coordinator role sure we'll have director Oak come forward and speak to some context here around it thank you director Oak thank you yes so um the American Indian
coordinator will coordinate the programming um help work with the schedules and all that um the additional lay design will help provide more contact time at the student level uh so we'll have one person Focus on the high school and then one person focus on the elementary students and then the
coordinator will be um coordinating the program writing the grants and making sure that supplies and resources are appropriate for the students okay and will this position also help the district get to a place of concurrence I hope so yes that is the goal Yep this is
actually a conversation that we've had with APAC we've we've had this conversation with APAC with the exact committee and this is the direction that they would like to support we've uh received additional resources and monies as well and as we are talking with them to understand how to best utilize those resources to really differentiate
between secondary and Elementary support and the broaden That Base where we've had one split now we can kind of help specialize fantastic thank you thank you okay any other questions all right I believe Sam uh director Oak has already discussed it
with um many of the board members that have come in to talk with him so thank you very much uh for your added clarification um so with no other questions all in favor I I I opposed okay that passes
70 and again the next one is director Herman AKA director Frederickson um and this is for the 2024 um Middle School principal reclassification um I need a motion in a second please I made okay by by director
Crosby and director olad okay I hand that back over to you director Frederickson thank you chair Fran as approved in the 24 25 budget we are consolidating the two middle schools into one principal position that has
already been approved um so this is to restructure that CL reclassification in the principal's contract for the Middle School principal and we'll be adding um memorandum of understanding for an additional $2,000 contribution to a health
retirement account for the 2425 and the 2526 as we transition there is budget to pay for this um and it has been approved by the budget office are there any questions from the
board I believe this was discussed at a study session in a previous board meeting for the decision to um reclassify the Middle School principal uh to be one Middle School principal and an assistant okay ready for a vote all in favor I
I opposed that passes 70 and again we have um director Herman AKA director Frederickson uh discussing the custodians and maintenance tentative agreement um before we get started on this I need another Motion in a
second made by director vesca second second by director Crosby okay um go ahead D director Frederickson thank you um the custodial maintenance uh crew have um signed off on the
tenative agreement the agreement includes moving juneth as a m um memorandum of understanding into the contract as we have with all the other contracts um it reflects the health insurance increase allowance of 4% for
both 2425 and 2526 will'll be enhancements for both years of 2% plus steps um we're increasing the overnight hourly stien to $2 in year one and 250 in year two um
we've updated the vacation carryover to December 31st in the previous contract the any uh carryover vacation they had to use um I believe until September we moved that to December so they had more time to use the carryover um we've
changed the 5 day vacation carryover to be automatic they don't have to request it we've increased the 4 obb lifetime match contribution to 27,500 we have reinstated language for assignment to a higher classification that was inadvertently left out of the
last contract so we now put it back into the contract for this time um there were several language updates and the total compounded 2-year percentage for this contract is 7.51 which equates to
$335,900 okay now we're going to go on to uh new business and the first thing we're going to do is bring up the consent agenda polls of s uh of uh the financials 7 uh
A7 and the purchase orders above 25,000 I want to remind the board that policy 203 section 15.3 indicates that questions on things like the consent agenda um need to be provided by
Administration by 400 p.m. on Friday so Administration uh is able to respond to these questions not only to the whole board but also be prepared for tonight uh therefore there's no obligation from Administration to answer these at this
time but in so doing um yes thank you and I do appreciate I submitted my questions as quickly as could this morning that information was not submitted by the the the deadline that admin Administration typically sends it to so you know coming
through the July report I think it was 188 Pages or something like that um I do have some questions so thank you um I'm just um going to pull up the email that I sent in here
um and certainly I'm not I don't have questions on everything that I answered here but there's a couple things that um I think need some clarification on before I can vote on this um the first question I have there are several reimbursements for non-public
Transportation can you help provide more clarification on what this is for so again we haven't had time to um actually answer all of the questions it's been kind of a busy day today but um that one I can tell you that we are
obligated to provide transportation for non-public students we get money from the state for that specific purpose and if um non-public choose to do their own transportation then we reimburse them for the cost of the transportation and
that's required by federal law um so it's just a reimbursement from those non-public sites that have requested it so it would be anybody that goes to um like private school or correct Char well Charter would they use our transportation but um well the one does
in our district but and then homeschool I'm assuming it's for the non-public schools non-public schools okay thank you for clarifying that um and then the next thing um the jmf software for
8355 um last year when I looked at our board book that was on the list of purchase orders over 25,000 that we approved um this year it's not on the list of purchase orders over 25,000 it's clearly over 25,000 it's 8355 um can you help me understand why
it's not on that list and what it is for I'd like to clarify that the jamp software was actually in the purchase orders um that was carried over from the last year in July and I do know that um that is the same that's happened every
year before this um and it's called jamp um we've had it for years um but we are getting into the weeds of questions that were already um chair frent can you point to yeah can you point to where it is cuz I looked through that list and I did not see it on the July so you're
saying it's on the July purchase orders over 25,000 list yes it is it was carried over remember when when uh last year and this year director fredericksen sent the board POS in advance to make sure that they had the money in there and then every year the only thing they
can do is carry over from the previous year so that is in there but Jam is very common but I do want add and then I have one other question there was um the brain pop so last year Brain Pop was on the um purchase orders over $25,000 and this year it's not listed on
the purchase orders it was on the September 11th 2023 um board meeting and it was um this year it's not listed on the purchase orders over $25,000 and so and this year it's $30,000 so I'm just curious why it's not
listed on the purchase order over I mean there's just seems to be a lack of consistency is what I'm not what I'm seeing from one year to the next and I guess how do we know when we see these big charges are they supposed to be on the list of purchase orders over 25,000 or like yeah I I think that the here's
something that we need to qualify first of all I don't believe it was over 30,000 I think there was two separate charges for that they were the same second of all Every Other Board member was able to get these questions in by 4 P.M on Friday per policy Every Other Board member was able
to get their questions in by 400 p.m. on Friday I didn't see any answers to any questions so you didn't send them in until this morning saying um that's fine for transparency I would have asked the question whether it was 4:00 on Friday or if it was 9:00 this morning chair France so and I do certainly don't want
to bother our Administration on the weekend so this I'm call close this purchase order was $30,000 24,000 on one line and 6,000 exactly like it was last year yes 30,000 because they're two separate lines but going to call this
discussion to a close you're ask questions so you're not going to answer my question the administration and us and policy have already stated that if you have these detailed questions you need to get them into Administration or if you have them at all you need to talk
to them and get them in by 400 p.m. on Friday then isn't it policy admin then it is an administration's policy that they have to get us the information time so that we can review it and ask the questions but they did everyone else was able to ask questions didn't yes they did okay um answer that
we that's great we are going to move on and the next thing on the agenda for new business is um um the uh
theair um these were two agenda items that were pulled from consent so we need to vote on them oh the second item okay uh there was two of them that were pulled and I and then there's the purchase orders over 25,000 as well but if you don't want to discuss those for transpar we don't have to disc those
either um does anybody else have any comments or which are we approving no we have the two agenda items that were pulled from the consent agenda okay we have to vote I just had a question about the one-year renewal of
the Vic Services have I'm going to call for a vote is unless anybody else has any other questions or comments I have a question but she won't let me speak it's consistent that's consistent at this board table um okay so I'm call
a vote does everyone okay with us calling for a vote we're not even discussing what I called to talk about everything that you sent in this morning I didn't send this in chair France you pulled it and you had to get your questions in by 400 p.m. on
Friday okay I pulled this from the consent agenda so that we can discuss this because I had a question question from a Community member and I'm asking it right here at the board table for transparency and so my question is the one-year renewal on the vicma GPS
services for $34,000 the question is what is it for and I'll let you answer that first that was already sent out by director Frederickson but you can go ahead and answer director FR I did send that out we also have director PO is
here that he can address um the renewal Madam chair members of the board um the particular GPS one then question is uh GPS monitoring service for all of our buses and vans um that we contract
with and so another question was that I believe I did send on Friday um was how come that's something that's not paid for by the bus company if they own the buses and it would be part of their equipment is that why wouldn't that be
under the bus company um or is it I no there's two basic ways we can look at it one of them is we could ask them to cover that as a part of their contract in typical when they cover costs they add an additional cost on that of um whatever 10% or 15% on top of that just
for their administrative purposes um we could definitely go forward and ask them to do that my preference would be to do it ourselves um and pay for that and then if we need to we can look at different Services ourselves and have more control over that and reduce that
overall cost by that um expense that they would charge for their profit and overhead yeah no I understand I'm sure there I mean somebody has to pay for it right um who manages it and controls it is it do we have access to control it or do they we have access to it and the bus company also has access to it this is so
in general when a when a home or a um parent calls with interest or they've got a a student there or there didn't notice the bus coming and we can go and track down exactly the time within seconds of when that b bus passed that particular location so both our
Administration and the bus company can answer those questions to for the parents yeah I appreciate that I've had nothing good but good things to say about the bus company I mean they're every time you call them they're good and very helpful so I just wanted to better understand why that we were paying the cost of that versus it being
I'm assuming it's just not part of the contract and I know we just renewed that contract so it it isn't a line item on our contract right right okay all right well thank you for sharing that thank you mhm okay um we are going to vote uh on consent agenda item 7
A7 and 7B okay I have to take a motion in a second first so so by director bernick second second by director Crosby all in favor I I opposed nay okay that
passes 61 next on the agenda is the policies for the parent student handbook and that will be director Edwards of executive director of academic services and again this is something we've done for every year now okay yep so this is uh just to
remind uh you that this uh portion is the policies that are dictated to be included in the handbook uh student handbooks each uh level has additional information in the the student parent handbook but policies specifically are noted here in this document that you
have in your packet and uh just to know also uh I think this is will be the second or possibly the third year in which we have created a document that is essentially a live document so as policy committee and you as a board act on policies throughout the school year and
take action uh we keep it uh current uh through that process so these are the standard uh handbook parent student handbook policies of the board that we uh communicate out to our constituents there okay and you a motion in a
second by director bullion second by director okay any questions comments discussion okay so this is I have a question are there there wasn't any line items on this for us to see if there's been any changes um are there any major
changes from last year that the community would need to be aware of uh not anything other than policy changes that um for example later in the meeting this evening will'll be addressing a policy and again that will be kept live
in the handbook and uh procedures related to those policies will be communicated accordingly but uh nothing of uh substantive nature other than that um that will be included and again we are also uh we on an ongoing basis review
policies that pertain to students and once again those will be kept current in this portion of the handbook so I just was looking at some other districts um parent and student handbooks and one of the things that I felt like a way that we can enhance our our handbook which I
understand this is you know the same we haven't made any changes to it but since we have a new strp plan um there's another District that basically launches the the parent student handbook with their mission their Vision their Strat plan and they say Greetings students and
it's much more like we start out with a specifice management plan which is pretty boring but I know it's alphabetical but it's not very like oh my gosh welcome to PR Lake savary Schools here's all the information you need to know about our school and like the one I'm looking at is 88 pages long and there's a lot of times people ask
questions on social media or where do I buy a best bus pass where do how do I buy tickets to a game how do I buy activity I mean there's a lot of questions that we get asked online and I'm just wondering if we could enhance this to make it a little bit more um friendly for our community and I can
give you an example of the one that I'm looking at here um but I know we don't even have anything about our our dress policy in here as well and so I think um you know I think there's a way we can en enhance it I didn't see it unless I missed it so I looked over it several
times but so if I if I may uh jump in on the beginning portion each handbook at each respective level does have much of that information that you're speaking of um more uh readily accessible information is on the front end the policies that are required to be
included um come later in the handbook so we don't this portion of it as you see as you pointed out is laid out in alphabetical uh nature but when you get to the policy portion that is included in the handbook in a in that format
however uh more pressing or pertinent information students and parents such as the daily schedule how to get a hold of your uh son or daughter's counselor at the secondary level who those folks are um all of that additional information is
included and front end loaded into our respective handbooks yeah I I don't see anything on the dress code in here it's student attendance student discipline there's nothing about dress code in here and then y there is actually where is it's hyperlink in there to the policy student discipline it's hyperlink in
here student the policies are hyperlink in there that's what he was just saying student discipline student clearly not user friendly as I have been a parent I'm a parent of a student in the schools but um you know I just do you want me to tell you where it's at yeah no I'm seeing I see it right here now it's it's
in the very bottom of student dis it's under student discipline but it's under I and responsibilities student rights and responsib I see that under I um and then also like in the part that talks about and I'm just trying to look at ways that we can improve our district right we continue to do the same things
over and over again and you're not going to get different results and so when we look at our stakeholder survey we hear things like we do a terrible job at communicating as a district we see things online that say how do I buy a pass for games or how do I call my student out for attendance I mean there
are just other things that other districts are putting into their handbook and so if you guys don't want to if you're not open to a discussion that's fine so let me Dr Atkinson if I may um because I appreciate some of your comments about let let's make it easy for our consumer
um as a point of comparison I think I'm not going to have these numbers exactly right CU they're off the top of my head but in Prairie schools for example not to name other another school but this is a concrete example their Communications Department is
upwards of 15 to 20 employees ours is two and a half um so they have resources to put forward in that effort and so given what we have we're doing a strong job in my opinion and I don't want to get too off topic here but this
is a piece of communication so really solid Outreach and consumer you know reaching out to our consumers and our and our students and our families in this really solid kind of very um cuttingedge fashion takes
resources and so that's another discussion but I think when we're looking at the handbook it's a matter of what do we need to communicate from a board perspective about our policies and where we stand and then as it they drill
down deeper but on site handbooks or um at different levels when K K5 or middle school that's going to be a a deeper dive that is not as board involved and director Herman um I know I
see you raising your hand because we do have a lot of the information that was just said online what we're actually voting on is the substit portion of it but did you want to try and say something I just want to reiterate that this is just the policy portion a lot of the information you're suggesting does
it live in each individual school districts at the beginning so it has parking pass it has attendance information all that kind of stuff this is just the required policy piece that we have to get the board to approve right this is the only subsistent policy piece this is just the meat of it it is
not the whole handbook um the rest of it is actually available online and in various sections including parking passes and all the welcome stuff as well as the mission statement what we're voting on here and what we voted on for the last few years is just the substantive pieces of the rules that
include the policies that's the that's the meat of it it's not the whole well I understand I'm just trying to think about ways that we can do things better in order to improve things that have been challenging for parents right um um also in the student attendance it says
in here that um parent Guardians are required to notify the office via a note or telephone call well at the high school it's a totally different procedure and so you know in in fact that's that procedure is confusing to parents so as long as like I don't know
I just think we can do better to be honest with you and there's other districts that have examples I understand what you're saying about resources but we're just basically like Dan said Dr Edward said we're just taking exactly what we did last year and approving it and so I'm
just saying can we take us a pause and say how can we enhance this for our families a lot of parents say like I don't even know who to contact at my school district right like I don't even know find a phone number like let's not speak for the entire Community because that's kind of disappointing right like it's a large district there there's ways
to get answers you just pick up the phone and call somebody so and yeah I I don't I don't think this is the avenue to go down comments that we're not doing a good job for our students in our community I think that we are here to approve a handbook and that's the dialogue that I'd like to keep this part
of and keep our I okay I just comparing it to other districts and there yeah districts do things better than we do so um okay so are we ready for a
vote Yes okay um all in favor I opposed that passes 70 okay um the next one is the board roster committees we have um rosters are presented for this year for the finance
advisory committee the policy advisory committee and the teaching and learning advisory committee um before I start I'd like a first and a second motion so made by director bullan second second second by dor sorry saw you open
your mouth I was just speaking for you it's there just didn't come out right all right so I'm going to hand this over to the various committee uh chairs uh for discussion thank you chair France the finance advisory committee has three
opening or sorry four openings uh we have posted it several times now on our website and have not received responses so we'll continue to um recruit try to recruit for the four open positions all
the other ones are the same as we've had um this past year okay and then I'll speak for executive director Herman uh the policy advisory does not have uh did not have any openings for this upcoming school year
all positions are filled um and then the teaching and learning advisory committee did have vacancies and we did have some interested uh parties uh express interest actually a very strong slate of candidates and I worked with director
Atkinson and director olad in selecting the three uh vacancies that we had you can see in the document that you have there are still uh to be determined positions uh once teachers return here in the next couple of weeks we will solidify uh those spots as well as
solidify the spot for the APAC representative uh working with director oak on that and uh our first meeting is in early October so we will have that filled out that roster filled out for that first meeting before October 9th I believe yep okay I think it's that
yeah okay any questions um just one um Dr Edwards did you um the the staff that we need to fill out for teaching and learning committee are there interested parties that were Ser that served last year I
think I asked this I'm sorry that want to return or would this be a whole new we're looking for a whole new slate and we'll we're looking for folks at each level uh elementary middle and high school as well as a non-certified representative so that will go out to
all staff uh when we when they return in a couple weeks an invite to express interest sorry non-certified um par professional yeah y okay yep so in the past that's that's an add to the
SL this year we haven't had representation in the past want to make sure we uh do moving forward and also Dr Edwards just a reminder of the TBD on the APAC representative as well he he mention that okay um are we ready for a vote
okay all in favor I I opposed that passes 70 the next we have uh the adoption of resolution calling for the general election and this is the general election of school board members uh and calling the school district
general election um I need a motion in a second so Me by director vesca second second by director Crosby um note that the filing period uh for Schoolboard member uh filing to run
for school board ends uh tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. um does anybody there's really nothing to discuss here but does anybody have any discussion points or questions okay seeing none uh all in
favor I I'm sorry this is roll call roll call uh director I director Velasquez I director bullan I director bernick I director Crosby I and director olad I I that passes
70 okay next one is also uh a roll call vote for the special election and that one is for the levy uh so I need a and we're going to do the do you want to do a motion in a second first or do that
during the adoption um we'll do that during the adoption okay that's right no board actually you're going to do the presentation first sorry about that okay thank you I hand it over to you Dr Thomas thank you chair friends members of the board um you have seen various
iterations of this presentation um uh in different uh stages of the conversation that we've been having with you around the levy and just quick question team do we have this
um Can somebody cue that up front thank you I'm scrolling mine as it's up thinking it's here but it's not and I can certainly come up there actually if if that would be okay oh that's F yes please that we don't have to deal with
clicking and somebody doing all that for me so thank you no I think I can click and talk I'm GNA give it my best shot if I can't do this as a superintendent we got bigger problems MH all right um
good evening chair and members of the board um and I I am not going to walk through in a presentation style we've seen a lot of this content but I do want to kind of pause on a couple of different slides that I think are going to be really key and important but essentially what you have embedded here into our community watching this is
essentially going to be our presentation deck that we will take on the road if you will um to inform our community about uh the possible Levy conversation uh that you all will be taking action on here uh momentarily and um scheduling
out for you know uh parent advisory committees uh Chambers other community events will uh be more than happy to go out and and speak and I know Martha has been booking these left and right like a concert venue so it's going to be a busy fall of of Engagement and really just
wanting to make sure that we do our due diligence to help our community understand um the conversation behind it so um uh we start our presentation with a lot of demographics and some program characteristics again I'm not going to go through all the slides but I will
invite any of you to come come back to the slide deck and you can take a look at our variety of our programs but we've called out a couple of unique program options that we know have come up a lot during our strategic planning process as kind of key areas of interest and priorities for our many in our community
so we've highlighted a couple of those outside of our strong neighborhood schools um we have the Spanish Immersion uh school as well laa De Lago and again um a pathway going up now into our second year at the high school um for this fall so we're really excited about that and again a lot of strong interest
in um continuing for that we've long held on to our tradition here in our district incorporating e stem into a lot of our curricular instruction options for our kids and so uh that is one area that are you know when we ask the question what don't you want to see go away in that strap planning process a
lot of conversation around that eastem opportunities for our kids U continue to rise to the top and then um our AP and gifted education this is also another strong area of interest um one area that we know that we've had to make some adjustments in over the years but
definitely want to make sure that uh our community understands we share that same value and what the resources it would it take to um um move forward with uh that continuation uh we continually hear great things about our district there's no perfect District we're not perfect we
know that we always have opportunities to continue to grow and improve and that's something as a district that we Embrace as a continuous Improvement um mindset um throughout the district and you can see um that uh uh favorably uh high with our community with regards to
trust with the board trust with our teachers excellent uh quality of Education Etc and so we're very proud um about that and when we talk to our community about the uh the possibility of a levy uh our community is looking for some
aspects of a of a return and so if the if the community if the community chooses to make an investment by way of an operating Levy um this fall with our district these are the key themes that came out in conversations in that poll of what they're really looking to see
and again there's really not a strong conversation to say would you support a raising taxes with nothing in return they're they're looking for something and so how do we find that balance between fiscal stewardship and a return to um uh impact uh positively for our students and our families so these we've
covered a lot of these too in some previous presentations um as mentioned earlier we have a brand new strategic plan and that strategic planning process was a wonderful time for our community from all different backgrounds to come together at a variety of different touch
points um throughout the school year last year from last January until last June and it uh resulted in a very comprehensive complete um renew uh of a strategic plan and some of the general themes that came out from that planning
process um a high focus on academic achievement this is something that's one of our greatest pillars uh with regards to academic Excellence it's something that's going to be driving a lot of the uh theme for the year as well but we know that is our bread and butter and we want to make sure that we um are
breathing life into that plan so that folks understand that is the ultimate goal for us is to bolster uh those academic gains of our kids we we want uh the community wanted to have strong critical thinking skills reflected in their graduates career Readiness Pathways we know many of our students
will take traditional College routes but we also know many of our students are going straight into the work industry and that's a growing demand not just in our district but for many in the metro area um our students don't come to us as kind of unilateral Learners they have a
variety of needs some need a lot of scaffolding to kind of ramp their learning up some need a Runway to Jet them off two or three grade levels ahead of where they're currently enrolled and we need to cover that entire spectrum of students and that is something that our community really wants to make sure that
we are focusing on and then lastly when our students successfully graduate from our high school they are going to be smart they're going to be beautiful they're going be intellectual but we want them to have a good heart a good character and that's something that's also part from our community that take care you know like I kind of affectionately say we'll take care of
the head but we also want to hold the heart so part of our work last year was to help develop that learner profile that's going to really help our students engage in kind of illustrating what is that character that we want our students to demonstrate when they're walking in our schools walking in our communities
going off to college going into the military or the Seminary or whatever life might call them to be they represent us and they do us proud and we can say yes that's a plsa graduate just like Avery this after uh this earlier this evening I mean when she writes her uh does her next art gallery to say
that's that's who we want to see out there right very proud and this is our brand new strategic plan this has been uh promoted in a lot of different spaces a lot of excitement around this and you know one of the things that you hear us continually talk about is that the
Strategic plan is not just a a pretty shelf document um this is something that is a living breathing uh document that we are going to hold ourselves accountable to um this is something that we'll be launching with with our back to school celebration coming up here in a
couple of weeks uh when we do our back to school welcome with all of our staff and when we begin to kind of brand the district under the Marquee of this new strategic plan specifically our core beliefs and how the visual signage of those values and those core beliefs are
something directly from our community how do we embody that so that is placed all throughout the district and so when you walk into a school campus or you're walk into a district office you see those beliefs and you expect the behaviors aligned to those belief that's something that's critically important again Way Beyond words on paper and
that's something that I hold myself to a high standard for as your superintendent and it's something that I Cascade throughout our organization and throughout our communic uh throughout our community as well uh we have been talking for quite some time um about our financial pressures and about some of the real
tough conversations that we're going to have to have and um this is something that many who have been in this District far longer than me have been forecasting it's something that I was able to also see and speak to um when I first began here in the district saying we are going to have to have these conversations we
knew that and um I think some of our earlier conversations this evening around uh what are some you know best options that we can do to enhance product or enhance experiences and many great ideas that many of you as board directors and staff and community and
students have we also know great ideas sometimes come with great costs and so when where will we make those critical Investments to ensure that we are being mindful of the public resources that we have at our disposal but also um investing in high quality experiences for our students so that they are ready
to chase their dreams when they walk out of our doors and cross that stage um we've been talking a lot about our budget so this will be a heavy conversation in uh the community engagement sessions much of this you've heard during our financial Town Halls
Etc but our expenses continue to to grow while our revenues grow at a slower pace and um you know whether it's the price of gas price of milk or the price of bread um or the price of just doing business here in Prior Lake Savage area schools everything is coming inflated
and the revenues are not necessarily keeping up with the types of inflation that we are seeing um throughout the uh industries that we are partnering with as well so it's not only just what we have within our district but we also get the hand-me-downs of other contractors for example who are subject to some of
the same um uh economic pressures or the same statutory laws that have just passed in this last session that some of that they will take on but some of that they're passing on to their clients and you know so whether it's Transportation Food Service Etc lots of those um
expenses are being passed on on top of what we are also experiencing at the local level we've talked about a variety of mandates I think one that we are closely watching is the implementation and the uh uh the Fidelity of react and so this
is one very big one that's obviously near dear to many of us because literacy is the Bedrock skill set of any other discipline that students uh uh interact with here in schools and no questions asked we want to heavily invest and and really bolster that but we also know
that that mandate is coming grossly underfunded and that's something that uh We've advocated for many of you and through your lobbying have also advocated for that and but the resources are on the table for what we receive and we will make the best that we can given
what we we've got uh and then navigate any of the uh kind of politics and uh uh challenges that come when you have high expectations with low support um so that's something that we'll that we'll uh work through but we're excited um many of our staff have been engaged this
summer and doing some of that literacy training so U we'll we'll have to do that with a lot of these other mandates as well uh this is not something that was created overnight this has been going on for many years and just really driving home the fact that if inflation were to
be keeping up on Pace you know our resources would look very different um if that were the case of starting back to 2003 and we continue to have ongoing budget reductions um I think uh correct me if I'm wrong uh any of you board
members who were here for a while but what 17 18ish or so uh we went through some significant reductions um maybe that time frame I could give give or take there I can't remember when that 20 20 20 2020 and 2021 we went through
significant budget and then again before that uh 2011 2012 there it is 2011 2012 was actually where I was trying to date myself back to so I said the wrong early year and then we also had some time just uh preco or right at the onset of covid uh and then we have had some reductions
last year and we will forecast based upon previous slides that we are going to have some continued reductions with a flat enrollment um and maybe some peaks in vales along the way but essentially flat and so with the revenues being um
not keeping in in Pace with inflation those are going to be some ongoing challenges that we're going to have to have and again um we want to make sure that we provide the resources and supports for our students but we also have to be mindful of where we're at financially so um this is really driving
a lot of our conversation there sorry that was 2019 20120 and then 2011 2012 okay was off second one again just just before Co right around that time frame um and uh looking at how we balance
efficiency with our student needs and uh you know our costs are about $2,500 below the state average and um and again State average is the entire State understand there's es and flows with small rolls large urbin and everything in between um but if we could try to do
you know as close to an Apples to Apples on the average this is where we fall and I think there was a point in time in our tenure where uh we were able to meet the needs um of our students um and now what we're seeing is that the needs of our students continue to go up along with
the other factors that I mentioned in a couple of slides previously and so the cost to uh support students um fully is very significant and so it's not something that we're able to bridge together as we might have in the past um
where we know that other districts are able to secure resources far and above where we uh currently are and and how we spend our resources again we're trying to be as um uh open and transparent as we possibly can around where the penny you know every dollar
goes uh with that investment and um and I think language matters here too because um you know when we look at where 80 cents of every dollar goes to salaries benefits and supplies that's primarily our student facing aspect of the dollar and everything else is kind
of in that support side of of of um what takes to educate our kids with very minimal on some of the administration and again Administration is the qualifier here we've had some conversations as a board um through some of our study sessions um for various
reports that people will pull or reference you know whether it's a Stars report through mde which codes and defines uh employee classes very differently than what we do here it is really important that we understand when we're having these conversations that we are talking kind of the same language if
you will and so when we're talking about Administration here in our district we're talking about principles and above if you will not those who might be coded in the state system as a teacher on special assignment doing District level work as an administrator um but that's
how oftentimes they are coded there as well so we want to make sure that we're trying to help our community understand some of those nuances that can actually make a fundamental difference in terms of how you understand um the the levy conversations um looking uh with regards to some of the voter approved levies
we've shared this kind of where we fall um currently at about $624 per student that we are um under with our operating Levy and just a little Point caveat here both Prior Lake and Farmington as of what we know today are going out this
fall potentially for uh uh conversations with their Community for the levy and um if we go forward and um and the community would support a levy just for a point of reference you can see where that Levy would put us kind of solidly in the middle of the pack if you will
we're not at the top and no or no longer closest to you know one of the closest to the bottom we're kind of in that solid mid-range but also able to deliver on many of those factors that the community was looking for in terms of return on that investment so the proposal as we've
talked before um and just looking at where we are um looking at the $45 a month on an average 450,000 medium value home um is that sweet spot balancing between um an expectation on a return
for that investment by way of an opera or by way of taxes to support an operating Levy which is uh repeal and replace what our current so get rid of what we currently have start a new with a brand new Levy um that's where we sit and you can see that um hashtag line
there is our fund balance threshold so um as we begin to dip below that that's where we get closer and closer to statutory operating debt um fancy way of saying that's not where you want to be financially and um that is something that we know that is not an option so
we're going to have to do something and there's you know I I know that levies are not guaranteed these are conversations that our community has to have at the polls and this community has had affirmative conversations and they've had you know ones that they've negated and or that they've negated initially and then came back a second
time in a firm so that that's going to be in the power of our community you know based upon our information and sharing that with them but we're simply trying to just State the reality before us um but I will have to just be biased here and say statutory operating that's not an option okay and that's not
something that we are aspiring to to find ourselves in and I think we've got many other ways that we can address that U before we we even get remotely close to that but shows you where we're at in terms of um our proposal our statutory Authority is 6 $ and I think we've had
this conversation $60 conversation with our community is just not it it's not even going to get started we know that and so uh and then anything below 45 really starts putting us um fairly quickly um going into that uh Direction below our fund balance that we don't
want to be and so trying to find that midg ground um Sweet Spot there um so this is uh a November 5th conversation should the board support uh the the resolution that we have for you um later on here um that they would
revoke uh the current existing operating Levy of uh approximately $624 per student 62397 to be exact um and then we replace that with a levy of $183 per student netting about100 or
10.8 million for that first year uh with an inflationary Factor built in years 2 through1 which roughly hovers around 2% give or take is that about about average um so so again that also doesn't say
what happens legislatively you know 10 years from now no one has that Crystal Ball but um you all get a sense of where we're going with that impact and we'll also have um a website um should this be something that we continue to go forward with by way of
the resolution this evening um that when we produce this um individual could actually plug in their address and get exactly for their home um so there's a because there's a lot of factors that go into it and I know we've even had conversations here at the board table if you live in Savage if you live
in Prior Lake your age of your house the valuation Etc so there's a lot of the different things that go into what is that net impact uh at that individual homeowner level homeowners will be able to do that specifically unique to them um in the privacy of their own home if
they would like to see that um oops all right so we're seeking to sustain our current academic programs really strengthen our financial stability for years to come and then make some key uh Investments where we
are going to start seeing um that accelerated growth rate in our students academics as well as that holistic support for our kids and also deliver on the expectations that are associated with our brand new strategic plan um one of the pieces of feedback um that I've
heard coming in as a newer superintendent um 3 years ago or two years ago is that um in the past um uh how we've communicated some of the specificity could have improved and again not being here but hearing some of that feedback we thought as a team that
we really want to make sure that we are um as specific as we possibly can be with some latitude by way of our Levy oversight committee to be able to um have some um nimbleness to it based upon what happens in the actual practice but one of the things that we want to make
sure that we target is bringing on those additional specialists into every one of our buildings so that they can actually enhance that spectrum of learning that I just mentioned a few slides back where if we need to scaffold up or accelerate on we have real specialized uh uh
trained staff who can enhance that differentiation and meet the rigor whether it's scaffolding or accelerating um rigor still has to be at the core and that need to be able to um conduct that professional support and development with our teachers um so that they can be
responsive to those indiv idiz needs that exist within the classrooms going back to that strong desire for our Spanish Immersion many people I've heard through our strategic planning process so well you know that's kind of a luxury and that's that person's perspective of that
and I would wage to say that in you know the world that we're living in coming out monolingual is probably going to be a deficit in the years to come where more and more countries are coming out double or trilingual um students this is something of strong interest um and it's
also something of a strong life skill and um we uh we have heard Dr Edwards and I have been at many a meeting in front of uh hundreds of folks in in in auditoriums hearing the concerns expressed by our families around um the
investment need around Spanish Immersion particularly the vertical articulation and coordination k12 and some of the gaps that our kids fall into and that they've invested these resources up front and then only to kind of fall back behind and it's hard to pick up when you're still in that language
acquisition mode of learning and so again really finding ways that we can enhance that vertical uh alignment with our Spanish curriculum across all of our grade levels this past year we've had some really effective class sizes we heard a lot about that matter of fact I think one of our last board meetings of
the year we heard a teacher come forward uh during public comment speaking about that and um we know that uh when you have a smaller class size you have the greater ability as an educator to have those onetoone connections and deep connections with your students and really get to know them on a very
personal level um and we want to maintain that and enhance that wherever we can and so if we do have um areas of our district that have uh some larger U class sizes or we have grade levels that are growing we want to be able to mitigate that so that we can have that personalized experience of learning in
every single one of our classrooms throughout the district increasing Staffing for behavior intervention and student support this goes back to the Head and the Heart That holistic perspective of how we educate our kids our staff do an amazing job um with the academic
components uh really bringing that forward that's first and foremost but we also know that there are a variety of things that we have to engage in getting to know your students um activities to build community in in your classrooms within your schools Etc um students who might be struggling socially or maybe there's some things happening that they
need to have an outlet or release to go talk to a trained professional well our Math teachers they have a big heart that might not be their virtuosity they need a a colleague to be able to maybe meet that need so our counselors our psychologists our social workers this
was something that I heard after my first year folks were clamoring for this support both our students our families and our staff and that has been a really significant aspect of support to really help bring the temperature of disregulation down in many of our
buildings and many of you um know that there are certain campuses that were just kind of bubbling up well a lot of that has really calmed down and I attribute a lot of that to the Investments that we made the second year that I was here to really bolster that um um overall um holistic support and so
here we're looking to introduce counselors to the elementary level really hitting early on some of those social needs that our kids might demonstrate so they don't become patterns of disregulation later on in their academic careers and then also at the high school we know counseling ratios in the state of Minnesota are
among the highest in the nation and our district is not exempt from that and so we want to make sure that when kids are in that final four that push to walk across that stage we want to have all the resources and supports necessary to make sure that they are on track for graduation when they walk into that high
school and they stay on that trajectory as they cross that stage and get prepared for Life After High School um in some of the psychologist support again adding additional psychologists to assist and addressing those um academic and behavioral needs right now many of our psychologists are relegated to peer
special education assessment which is a great skill set because that demographic is growing significantly and very rapidly um but we also need time outside of just diagnostic testing of kids we need other aspects of the psych
psychological industry that allows us to holistically support our students so we are looking at adding two of those psychologists to address some of that behavioral uh component here um throughout our district uh we talked earlier about uh career pathway programs as being a real
big Conversation Piece throughout our strategic planning uh process um every year every July we have a metro areas a metrowide mayor and superintendent convening Downtown Minneapolis and last
year this was the topic of conversation every District in the Metro um is partnering with their cities looking to expand these career pathway programs it is a high demand learning pathway for many of our students here in Minnesota and that's not going away we have
Partners uh neighboring districts who would like to partner with us we don't have the bandwidth nor the space the physical space to even remotely have that conversation even though that that interest is knocking on our back door so we've got to find ways that we can um uh
keep the interest of of our students at the Forefront and feed that interest versus denying kids to enroll in HealthWay Pathways Etc or other um of the six areas that our kids can specialize in um so we need to look at some space conversations um I think with
that greater space conversation comes various Partners who would like to be a part of this I think also we are looking at enhancing our current model to Bringing on um you know what we heard from earlier this this this evening with our Optimus clubs or other Private
Industry in the various Pathways that they might be able to also enhance and financially sponsor maps in ways versus just have an internship um experience for them are there other ways that we can leverage resources through those
Partnerships um with local businesses as well school safety is something that will continually come up and I don't see how we would be able to have conversations about high quality academics without kids feeling safe and secure in their learning environments
first and foremost when our families send their students their most pride precious Joys into our classrooms every day my parent radar does not go down to say they better be safe right and when you know you all can think about when you were releasing your kindergartener
for the first time and you know that was a tough experience but you knew that it was going to be okay because schools were safe for your kids and given what we have been seeing happen throughout our country throughout the world with regards to safety um in our campuses K12
higher ed or wherever we want to make sure that we are making that investment as well and so enhancing classroom security where we can um uh and these are all coming um from our homeland security audit that we just recently completed um this is kind of in this
priority priority area where we would make some of those Investments so when we have a situation in our schools we want that quick ability to lock down a campus lock down a wing Etc so enhancing those door locks for quick emergency responsiveness is something that we
would look at uh making uh perimeter security we know that we have areas within our uh schools that have um uh lack of coverage if you will for some of our cameras and or some of our cameras being outdated and more pixelated and so we might need to enhance the quality of
resolution Etc that is something that we would like to make we've been having lots of conversations with some of our principles um around just that sight line the sheer visibility of seeing a student that that is a potential Target for me if I'm a bad person wanting to do bad things versus having some type of
screening where we can actually prevent that to not know are there is there somebody in this room or not those are some of the things that we're also having conversation with um and I would say it's mainly for the visual not so much for the you know um uh weapon kind
of uh penetration of of Shooters um that's that's a different conversation but we are you know there's a significant Coster on that but we are exploring and having those conversations but mainly I'm talking about um sight lines um and then lastly um the high school security those of you who have
been to the high school campus a couple of you have called me um off work hours to say hey I was able to walk in there didn't seem to be somebody supervising the door or you know the lighting Etc so we are we are looking at um the high
school primarily the main lower student entrance as our biggest vulnerability Point um of access and and so that is something that we would like to um uh consider uh should the community um support the conversation um in November
so um as I mentioned earlier one of the things that we felt that was really important as administrative team is to ensure that we have stronger oversight and adding some additional layers of that oversight um we have done a great job in enhancing um the transparency and
Trust around our finances um over the past several years by having a lot of access to online dashboards and regular reporting um this is something that we want to make sure that we don't lose and so bringing forth a levy oversight committee I know in the past I think we
might have had something on maybe a capital committee some years ago when uh when we were building um uh some schools similar to maybe those of you who recall that we would bring that forward on that operating Levy so when uh we bring this to the con uh community and if they were
to vote this to be affirmative we would establish a more detailed itemization of where those key investments in those key areas that I've just mentioned would be develop an operating plan that would be over x amount of years and then each year we would launch the priorities for
that year if uh over the course of that Levy um we are finding that the strategy of investment that we are going to make um around a said investment wasn't getting the return that we would expect we want to bring that conversation back
to the levy oversight committee to give them the data and the information about our concern to either withdraw from that commitment and revise that commitment and or maybe we're seeing extreme success and we want to further amplify that and so we might ask to move some uh
resources from a different Levy line item because that is really getting the outcome that we strongly desire any of that kind of movement would be a conversation with that Levy oversight committee which then based upon their feedback and considerations um and that they say yes this is something that we
could support uh we would want to bring that to our finance committee uh that we just spoke of with the rosters here um just a minute ago and have discussion at that finance committee ultimately culminating into a recommendation to the school board so we've just added a three-step phase before we make any
changes so that our community can really tightly track and monitor um the implementation of that operation Levy operating Levy and or any changes that uh might uh come during that uh lifetime um and if we don't uh if we
aren't successful in passing um a levy um which again this is something that will be in in the community's purview um I really don't want to as the superintendent be naive to the fact of the tough conversations we're going to have to have we've been living this
unfortunately for several kind of rounds of deep reductions in this district for some years now so this is nothing new in terms of process but the actual conversation is slightly different because um we've trimmed a lot to the
this to this point and when we you know have to make reductions upwards of5 you know million dollar just using like this year uh or you know more that's not a just a little bit of a trim that's a deep impact in a in a budget our size
and the District of our size and so some of the things are likely to include conversations about closures of school campuses or programs that also might result in boundary changes many of you have lived through that I still hear that from our community about the impact
of those conversations and those impacts class sizes that is a real conversation to have how large can we make class sizes before it becomes uh negatively impactful to the learning but that's a reality that we'll have to have reduction in Personnel expenditures um
movement of programs you know I won't read the whole list but there's an array of things that we're going to have to have conversations about there's no sacred cows right we we have to have the full conversation and I'm not wetting ourselves to anything that you see here today or anything that might not be listed here today but what I am
committed to as your superintendent is to be very open to say here's what we intend to do if we can get the support here are the types of conversations we're likely going to have to have if we can't get the support um and either way we're going to have that conversation um with our community and ultimately with
our board so in summary we want to maintain what we have and build on that foundation and the momentum of a brand new strategic plan as our rebirth and reboot to becoming the premier District of choice in the southwest Metro enhancing academic Excellence as one of
our key priorities and you'll even notice um some of the changes that I'll will be bringing forward to you um later on this fall and how we're revamping our school Improvement plans and our department Improvement plans all kind of cascading into the primary target um for
um in increased proficiency and outcomes for our kids um AC emically um we want to increase that Staffing for Behavior Uh support so that we are doing that whole student experience expanding those career Pathways and really paying attention to the safety needs of our
kids um area where people can contact from more November 5th is when we would have uh the election um on the same ballot as the conversation with the uh board uh elections as well and um early voting as you know begins um September
20th um so that is the presentation um kind of walk through it fairly quickly again you all have seen a lot of this information um already but I wanted to just kind of put that placeholder out there for our community who might not have heard that or watched it back it's going to be uploaded now into uh
boardbook but be looking for this iteration of presentation either by myself and Tammy and others or you know folks um at our schools that will be doing that with their local communities as well so um with that chair uh that is the present ation for context to go to
the topic of the resolution okay so before we go on the topic resolution does anyone have any questions for Dr Thomas again we've seen most of this before I have a question um you know I know our community wanted more
transparency on you know what we would list as far as what would what they would basically get for their investment spend so um I support that but the one that I'm really struggling with as I've looked at other districts and their levies and how they presented presented them is the list of cuts because I know
that list has already changed it used to have iPads on there now the iPads aren't listed and like you said that is it is fluid and ultimately it comes to the board for discussion and knowing that we have Board elections this fall three seats up we'll have a new board next
year or portion of our board I mean how does what's listed on that list really determine what will happen if this Levy doesn't pass and my concern is that um you know no individual board member has
the authority to influence or even to you know have Scare Tactics and going around and telling the community what could potentially be cut that's not even on this list and I was I was sent by a Community member I was sent a Facebook comment made by chair France stating that the Outdoor Learning options would
be cut and that's not even on those list so how does that I mean how do we put together a list point of order that that was never said like that and and I you want to read it I'd be happy to read it I have it right here I'm sure you have a
copy of something that I don't have in front of me I'm going to ask you to keep this conversation professional and respectful not take things out of context and not call out other board members that you just apparently just want to aim at that's unacceptable
period end of story if you have a question for Dr Thomas I asking Dr Thomas a question I'm sorry you took offense to that but but but when we have so let me back your question back to my question Dr Thomas please address so
yeah I going back to the technology uh D first of all uh director ainson um as I stated this isn't exhaustive we we know but we needed to be illustrative so that our community understands the conversations that we are engaging in as
a administrative team um that kind of everything's on the table um to your point about um technology it actually still is one of the bullets reducing student access to educational technology that's the conversation about fromp and whatever so so and and what we have here
as illustrative by way of engaging our community so let's just say um the the community does not support the levy we would go through an engagement process of identifying where are are the areas that we may need to address to make budget reductions in a more
comprehensive uh way with our community because it's going to be deeply impactful and we want to make sure that we're hearing and understanding um from our community around that so that process would also include some things that might not be on this list right and
similar to the budget cuts that we did this year they would come to the board for yes we would discussion and just like would be as we prepared the budget for the board that process uh chair and board directors would be no different um and we'll talk a little bit about our
budget timeline I think tonight too um as one of our topics but that won't change um you'll have ample engagement um we'll have our town halls Etc things that we've done in the past ultimately we'll be recommending a budget to you
all that will include like we did this year upwards of whatever the millions of dollars that we would need to R reduce to kind of bring balance um to that budget so that would say the same and so this is the presentation that will be going out that the community will see on
any of the presentations that you're giving or yes this this is kind of this is kind whatever this is the I would say this is the primary presentation um I will say that as as we've done in the past and as you all probably have gotten to know me as your
superintendent I don't script well I like to hear and listen to what's happening and what's happening from our community and staff there might be themes that begin to emerge that I'll probably incorporate into the presentation because it is now that organic of a process because I want to make sure I'm repeating back what I'm
hearing along my journey as your superintendent so this is what we have today I would say 98% is probably going to stay the same allowing for autonomy to understand we're going to hear things differently as we go out on these
conversation um tours if you will and we want to say hey you know what this is like the fifth time we've heard whatever I want to make sure we bring that point to the broader community so that we're echoing this trend that we're beginning to hear so but generally speaking yes
thank you and then lastly um one of the questions or concerns that Dr Edwards and I heard at the Prior Lake days is you know without a newspaper how are we going to be communicating this to our public and then I think we had I had also asked before is um will that result
in additional marketing spense and how much are we budgeted to spend on marketing for um for the levy as well yeah so we are trying to be real creative and Innovative with our finite budget and our uh our department of
communications and they are small But Mighty as you always hear me say um and we also are partnering with ciso who is a strategic Consulting Group who specializes in working with K12 specifically around Levy um uh conversations and so we've been doing
some promot pieces with them um that we'll be able to distribute out um uh kind of making our own videos versus commissioning that that we've done in the past um we're we're taking that in-house um we have our Public Notices page and again I'll just reiterate for
the community if you go to our school um board or if you go to our school web our district website and go to and just hover over about us and you'll see Public Notices or you can go into the search bar and just type in Public Notices that's our de facto newspaper
and and I just if you all as a board could also remind folks that is a big area that we will be utilizing digitally um to replace um our advertising that was going into the PRI Lake American and the Savage Pacer um I know that Martha
has uh already extended Partnerships with our local libraries um there are certain things legislatively that we still publicly need to post in those spaces and so we've got got agreement so thank you Martha for your work on that um and uh we also have um the senior
center at prior in Prior Lake um Club prior thank you Club prior I I probably will get in trouble on that one for client the senior center but it's Club prior um where folks play bridge but uh that is also they've also helped um
partner with us both in terms of posting as well as shared space for events we've allowed them to use some of our spaces and they will allow us to use some of their spaces where we know we'll have a different kind of audience too so thank you to Club prior and the city's leadership for allowing us to kind of be
in those spaces so yes that is where you will find a lot of our information then we'll do our you know mailers um we will have some of those promotional videos be sent out through our student um um uh information system so we know a lot of
our parents are checking um uh uh scho um schoology in the of where they might find assignments and things of that nature promot or promotional um statements from our principles they can push that out in their newsletters you know so a lot of different venues um and and and I think
it allows us also to ensure um other Partnerships for example uh we have some other Publications um residential Publications that we've also uh been invited to um uh have a standing column
and so we'll do those targeted pieces but a lot of it also is going to be um a campaign Road Show so a lot of folks out in the community trying to get into these spaces and um and Community has heard me make this offer and a couple have taken
me up on this to have you know it's that time of the year where we're approaching the uh driveway bonfires as they sit around and just talk as motans do at the end of the driveway with the fire pit and believe it or not those are some of the most impactful powerful conversations to have um versus a room
of 100 and you got a driveway full of 10 so and anything in between so we will be wherever we need to be and get our message where it needs to be so thank you for that clarification others on the board yes have any question or question yeah um a couple of things that
just stuck out with me too in this presentation is um you know when you talk about the whole student you know the heart and the head I think that's incredibly important and I think we heard that loud and clear in our strategic planning um Community meetings
as well as well as the um mcap support you know that that one was a big one in a lot of the community meetings was let's utilize our neighbors and our business owners and our community to you know help and I think that could lend
itself to some natural cost savings too in a lot of different ways um so I really appreciate that as well being uh discussed in this plan or in this presentation um uh I'm also pleased that we're including the inflationary factor I think that's
incredibly important for people to realize too that that is built in to this now um and and you know I'm already seeing you know as we get ready for back to school time already um you know a lot of teachers posting their Amazon Wish
lists you know um and I've seen the generosity of our community when somebody says I need more Kleenex I need more you know whatever in our classrooms and I've seen the generosity of our community come through in Spades um when it comes to that so I'm glad that
we're that we're talking about you know as as specific as we can get right now right because a vote hasn't happened and I realized that the two questions I had was what goes into scenario planning um what is kind of the process for that and
then my second question is when it comes to um the group that will be uh formed uh the levy oversight committe thank you the levy oversight committee you know we've kind of touched on this a little bit how do we form that what are the
rules to that are there kind of mandated you know somewhat similar to like our our board committees where we have to have kind of a certain number of you know specific um families and things like that what goes into that because I really support that and I
think that's a great way to have open discussions and get our community involved in yet another way um so those are my two questions the scenario planning and the oversight group and and I I might need you to clarify what you mean by scenario planning you mean um
reduction scenarios you know kind of yeah so okay clearly if if a vote passes you know we know what we want to do and I I have some other specific questions on that but I think those can be easily answered over email and that's fine about numbers and things like that of
some roles um but you know on the other side of the scenario um what what's the process that the District staff kind of goes through to look ahead um so yeah I I'll start with a lad because I think that's a shorter one and that is the levy
oversight committee I would Envision to be very similar to the board committee structures that we have um nothing more nothing less so we we target about you know 15 to 20 individuals that may be on that um committee uh and we want
representation from staff from folks from our community um you Administration so really the process that we've done with our other board committees I would look to essentially modify that process to have an open call for folks and again that would be uh similar where we'd have
rotation of terms so that we don't have a static committee that we are also getting additional perspective through the life of the levy as well so that's how I think that would be structured in terms of the scenarios um we we kind of backwards design so if we know that
we you know if through Tammy and her teams they project uh resources will increase or go down that's our Target and so from there we start making um our initial scenarios as a senior um leadership team so for example this past
year um I had a fixed threshold that I wanted to start the convers with our senior cabinet and that is what does a 10% reduction look like in your budget and um clearly there are some departments that can address that if I'm
a department of one 10% is a little harder to come by and so we've had but that opens up the conversation and dialogue and then we begin to say the impacts and way the pros and cons of what we can um forecast as perhaps
second and third order effects of some of these decisions um before we then say okay we kind of land right about in this space that we want to then take this to the board to have some of our initial um conversation with the board we share with you this is some of our thinking
this is where we might need to make some reductions this is why we think we need to make these reductions you all then provide the feedback I'm just reiterating what we just went through you all provide that feedback you push on us to say yeah but not that or you know what we need more in this area and
then we go back as a team we recalibrate to say okay we start getting it more narrow by the time you know we have two or three sessions with the board you have provided that feedback and guidance um I will say moving forward this is something that we
discussed maybe my first year perhaps it was my second year I think it might have been my first year actually around budget parameters set by the board kind of the rules of the sandbox um as a board you weren't ready to be there yet I think this is
something we would want to entertain with you all again of you know essentially what are your budget priorities um so that we understand this is something that you really think is important so Michael don't even go back with your team and discuss that this is
something that we've got greater flexibility on and we're willing to have you and your team do something there so go ahead and play in that space of the sandbox um that's really important because as a board your biggest levers of governance are budget and policy and
so you know I defer to you all as the board to kind of set those budgeting parameters and I think that would be really helpful really helpful as an administrative team to kind of know those guide posts and so um that might be something that will uh reproach with
the board uh moving forward in this next budget development cycle no matter which side of the conversation we might be on with regards to a possible vote in the fall um so whether we're building a budget or because we have additional revenue or for reducing a budget
parameters are key because that's your lever of authority um and it helps guide me as your superintendent to know what is critically important off limits and where's more safer places to to to make some key decisions so hope that answers your question director olad and
directors thank you questions that you might have maybe more of a comment than a question but along those same lines we keep if you've been around long enough you've seen the pie chart that talks about that the bulk of our
expenditures is people and so you know I really appreciate the conversation of what might happen the impact if a levy doesn't pass we as a district have never put that out and I appreciate it because if I parent in the
community I would really like to have an idea of what could be ahead and I know that we can talk about weaponizing it and and trying to use Scare Tactics and I don't think that it's anything it's about that it's about just the reality
and so playing that forward you know for me I sit here and I hear a lot of people come and speak and share that we need adaptive playgrounds and we need cell phone bags and we need a lot of things but the things as a percentage of of our budget is pretty small so to cut
things is really not anything that makes a big Financial impact as we look at budgeting so I'm thankful that we're at least putting some of this out there um but in reality it always ends up being people
and that's yeah um yeah I would just really I'm thankful that we can at least you know don't sit on one item realize that that pie chart is a pie chart for a reason and it shows it shows the slippers yeah director bernick thank you for that comment and
and if I if I may just kind of um lean into that a little bit I I want you all to know as a board um there will never be a tactic of fear from Administration I I know that people might be uncomfortable in these
conversations there there's no doubt but I want to be very clear this there's no tactic to evoke fear in our community um that does not elicit anything positive I do believe that we do need to be open to the types of conversations we
will likely have to have and some of those might be painful conversations we can't shy away from that um and that's where we as a community in good times and in bad we have to lean in and not lean out um
because that's what's going to help even if we have to make tough decisions that's what keeps us strong as a community um so just want to lean more into what you just said because we went back and forth on how that slide might
be perceived we really toiled with that because we did not want to be accused of evoking a fear-based vote that that is not ever going to be something you're going to get from this Administration um but you're going to get a very factual
informed conversation so that our Community knows what they're engaged in before they make a vote or before you all I mean that's our commitment to you as a board that's our commitment to this community um I just kind of made some notes while
you were presenting Dr Thomas um you know talking about from the very beginning just the funding um the funding the lack of funding that we receive and um honestly the continue continuing to push
and advocate for for more local control of the funds that we do receive um I really appreciate that the priorities or how the money will be spent was kind of put into four
different categories um being specific as possible with our goals we just learned of that at our uh conference that we went to on Monday and and they talked about Clarity is kindness and um you
know getting the input and the collaboration from our staff actually of you know when we are setting goals making sure that we have the information um from the the people that touch our you know our students they they're the
ones that can really they talked about at the um the pathway to oh I'll I'll butcher how they said it but um you know we we went to a a conference on Monday about Student Success and that's really
what we're after um we want the highest um Student Success possible in this district and they talked about um that pathway is much straighter in the classroom how the teachers the teacher
to the student the pathway for administration in the board is is much curvier there's many more um there's many more Avenues to look at um so I appreciate the clarity the focus
on the four different um um priorities and I'm and I can I feel that I trust the um Team to collaborate with the teachers and and be specific as possible um what else did I write oh that I
really do appreciate the the oversight committee um and you know as we go forward it's it is ultimately up to the the community um we all know that our our finances and our um well our
students first our Our Youth and our finances are two of our greatest um priorities in our lives um and so stewarding those as well um yeah I you know all we can do is give it to
the community to make a decision absolutely and I think you and I at the amsd OR at the or I was at two of them msba sorry um different alphabet group um but we had our back to school kickoffs last week and uh with msba and
Minnesota school boards Association as well as um uh uh the Minnesota Association of school administrators and um and Metro School District as well and a lot of great learning and I will say that this conversation is not unique to
Prior Lake Savage area schools um and director berck you you um I've mentioned this a couple of times when you said this because that became my my battle call personally as your superintendent uh at a work session when you talked
about the the the necessary lobbying around the general funding formula um and that is is that is a an argument that I have taken to this past Summer's um mayor in superintendent meeting convening in July and um afterwards many
came forward and said this actually is something that will likely gain Traction in this next legislative cycle so thank you for saying that and and just recognizing that yes local school districts manage their local budgets but
when we have uh an aging state with dwindling K12 population the funding formula may be Obsolete and it's not a simple task legislatively to say oh just go to your
locals I mean I get it but you know we we have shifted I at that conference at a session we've shifted from operating levies being brought to the community to enhance the base educational experience
not to provide the base educational experience and that's kind of embarrassing as a leading state in education that our funding formula is Antiquated to the point where go ask your voters if that is a priority of
this state then the continued un and underfunded mandating legislatively can't continue so just know that legislatively this this is our Collective time to show up um in the next in the next session um as you know
I sit on the executive board for amsd this is going to be our top legislative agenda item and I've just been asked to sit on the federal advocacy policy to deal with both local and Federal policymaking which we know it starts federally and so there will be some of
us going out to DC to also petition you can't continue to pass it to the state and then because inevitably the state passed it to us and so know that I will be bringing our local voice but also that of many of our colleagues throughout neighboring districts in the
Metro and the state of Minnesota to ensure that we have the conversation that should be had not just keep putting it on the taxpayer um so that's something that um you know I think you know director Vice cholan that I think it resonated from our uh learning
conference last last Monday as well so can I just build on what you just said um because I keep what always goes through my head when when we're talking about this from a local level is when we as
voters are in there voting making our determinations about this Levy the question is who do you want to be who do you want this community to be who do we want to be that's what it means to me and I think it's exactly in the sense of
the state has already mandated who we will be in many respects regarding free lunch right funding for that regarding react okay you know it's it's a good thing the read act I'm just saying the
state has already made those mandates so at a local level we have the choice to empower ourselves locally to make more choices about who we want to be and so when I look at this that's why I will always throw it back to the voter to say
it's all laid out here here here's what happens who do you what do you want to be who do you want this community to be um so I just want to share that building on the conversation of you know the state's already given us a lot of funding they've already G well yeah and
it's very assigned so that's kind of where my head is at with it no it's very astute observation um identifying exactly what the community wants to be or at least half of the equation of it right in terms of the funding and what the promise is but then
there's the other uh the other side so if this is a chemical formula uh you know it has to equal balance the equation has to balance have to balance the equation uh and that's the and if it doesn't happen what things do we need to
cut because that's also going to tell us what community looks like and who are we who are we going to be where do we place those bets and where do we say okay this just can't continue because as you already mentioned uh a lot of our costs
are Personnel so if we decide we need to adjust our programming that means we have to adjust the staff for those programming to be able to recognize the dividends to actually make this possible um I would just like to add that um you know I agree with much of
what was said here tonight and especially with the legislation I had a Community member up to me and ask me you know if this doesn't pass where do we go for funding and you're right it's it's up to the legislature and hopefully that will be the highest level priority and it's you know while we did re recre um
receive additional funding and I will disagree with some of the things that we've talked about here on the table um I agree I I have seen that you know the funding has exceeded inflation when you're looking at the total formula and
so um but our expens es have greatly exceeded inflation as well and so um you know I I still my biggest concern is the timing with this given our Morris letherman survey and the feedback that we received and knowing that this doesn't expire till
2728 is that correct um that I just I like I said I I always support sending it to the voter I just um disagree with the timing on this given the feedback we received for from the Morris letherman survey and then also with going what's
going on in our community with all the with all the inflation and all the the things that our community is being taxed task with so um I just wanted to share that and hopefully if we have another $18 billion surface the the government can pass over a little bit of that money to the school district so we can fully
fund education so thank you um okay with that um I just want to say that um um first of all you know some of the numbers in here for instance uh In the comparison with the other school districts it's important to note
that some of those also have Tech levies and we don't have that either also I believe there's a couple of districts in here that have renewed with an inflationary Factor so they're actually even higher than the graph I know one in particular because I watched the board meeting in May and I think there's
another one that already renewed so it actually makes us look um even less funded um so and I don't have those numbers in front of me but know one of them for sure did um and so they're much higher than what's already in there and they had a tech
levy on in addition to that so that's something just to keep in mind that when we're looking at how much we're investing in student outcomes and we want to compare ourselves to other districts that that's really important um to see that other districts are
investing um but I do agree overall that um our our formulary is written WR kind of like the IRS tax codee it's uh it needs to be revamped but in the meantime we still need to whether the money goes to the state and it comes back to us or whether we invest in ourselves we really
need to do that and one thing that I like about everything that we're doing here with this Levy is everything is to goes directly into improving student outcomes and I think that's the one thing that our community can get around
and I'm hoping that they do nonetheless um the only thing we're really doing here right now is um is determining you know where we're saying we're going to spend this or where the general areas are to show that we're improving student outcomes and to let the community decide
um and I would highly recommend that anybody out there that had questions on this go directly to the district and ask those questions there's a lot of false numbers out there there are a lot of people manipulating the data there's some people that are in favor of taxes
some people that aren't some people that are pro public education some people that aren't and if you're trying to make a decision for yourself then please advocate for yourself and please get the numbers directly from the source um obviously as you can see by the details in our board books and what's available
online that um transparency has really been outstanding in the last couple years um and so please make the decision for yourselves and not based upon uh what you may hear or see uh from a neighbor or a friend and make a decision
from that but the decision is the is the peoples it's not it's not up to the board we're we're deciding in this next section to send it to the people to make a decision uh and that's the most important thing I believe that we can do thank you chair friends that's it and
then um I would just uh the next for you all just to look at the question um uh for the resolution so the examples up here in the board book that hasn't changed from the last from July 8th uh correct this is the
language that was drafted uh by the attorneys correct okay so the next thing on our agenda is to actually uh have a resolution calling for the special election um are we ready for
that okay so I need a motion in a second okay so by Crosby and director olad pardon me okay in unison in unison okay well was a tie um so before we go on are there any questions about the resolution calling for the special election and the language that is was
already presented on July 8th and is being represented today okay then this is a roll call vote um starting with director olad I director Crosby I director bernick I director bullan I director Vasquez I and
director Atkinson n okay and that's I so that passes 61 to send this to the voters Part: 2
and the next thing on the agenda is the uh budget timeline uh and I'm going to hand this over to uh director Frederickson and before we start the discussion I need a motion in a second on this made by director Vasquez in a
second second by director bullan okay so director Frederickson thank you chair fors um directors this is uh a draft version of our 2425 budget planning again for this year we're going to move up the timeline
to get everything approved um in order to be able to hire staff um before other districts um sign contracts with them we have looked at some of the other districts and there are a
tremendous amount of vacant positions out there so we want to make sure that we're um posting positions and signing contracts as soon as possible so again we're moving up the timeline um it this timeline is very similar to this past
year and again there'll be changes that we'll can make as we move along the process um but for now this is the proposed timeline for the planning okay there any please any
questions is that is there potentially a typo in there of January 13th 2024 at the bottom of the first page because I'm assuming that July 8th 2024 that starts at the top oh that should be 2025 okay thank you because I
thought I was reading it backwards for a minute and so thank you I just was and then I just have a question about the um Finance advisory committee meetings I mean some of the feedback I heard from the members who dropped off the committee is that they didn't feel that
there was any they weren't giving allowed to give any real input and I you know to have an impact to advise the board on the finances in our district and I see that the advisory meetings come after the board meetings so just wondering if that's something that you might want to
consider or maybe you've talked about or whatever we actually have a survey that we've sent out to the current members to see what days are best for them rather we'll continue to meet right away in the mornings um part of our challenge is
we don't want to have things going to the finance advisory committee that you as a board aren't aware of so part of that is strategic that we make sure that you're aware of issues that are arising and then we'll have conversations with
the finance committee to make recommendations or to um adjust any kind of either um guidelines or practices or whatever we need to um um but we will certainly have that conversation when we
meet again for the first time this year thank you and I I do serve on that committee and um in my experience uh there's ample opportunity for feedback and also always um more informal feedback as well that director
Frederickson is always willing to um you know use her time I I didn't dise that it was a timing of is of when it was you know done it was more of a timing issue like time of the day I've attended those meetings as well no that it's after the board meeting but I think in terms of
responsibility to the board you know and fiduciary to the board the board's going to see stuff before the finance committee does it makes sense an advisory committee is to advise the board so perhaps they come after a study session and before a board meeting because that's a sequence of how we
typically see things is through a study session then a board session but I I you know I I I'm glad that you're uh filled got the survey and your addressing that so thank you um okay so are there any other questions
on the uh budget schedule it is fairly similar to last year's laid out and I trust that richer Frederickson will lay out the financial advisory team meeting schedule the same way as last year so that there is um a good representation
as well as feedback uh on timing so are we ready for a vote okay all in favor I I I opposed okay that passes 70 the next one
on the agenda is to set the levy meeting date and I believe this is the truth and Taxation that we do every year okay um I will need a motion and a second on this by director bernick second and second by director Velasco pardon Mead
oad oh sorry I'm my voice but not that all right okay so I'm going to hand this over to director Frederickson and um uh to just remind us and discuss what happens during the truth and
Taxation we as you recall are required to approve our uh Levy by December 31st and you are required to have a truth and taxation hearing to um the public before that so just as a matter of timing we
need to have that meeting on December 9th um so that the board can approve that Levy prior to the deadline so we have to submit all of the U work to the um Department of Education we have to get the um proposals to the county to
get on to the property tax proposal so there's a whole sequence of events so um we typically always just do the truth and Taxation hearing that first board meeting in December in order to meet all the other timelines okay any
questions okay all in favor for the truth and Taxation meeting on December 9th I I any opposed that passes 70 okay so on to policy uh we have one policy on
tonight's uh agenda and that is policy 5251 the student use of personal electronic devices this is the final reading of this policy we did discuss it on July 9th uh and I am going to take a motion in a second on this
first by director Vasquez and a second second second by director bernick okay uh and I'm handing this over to uh Dr I'll take this one oh you'll take this one okay thanks um so uh thank you chair
France members of the board um tonight what you see here is um a result in um our conversations with the policy committee which essentially now what you see is the 525 point1 um uh uh aligned to the msba
model policy as well since we initially had some conversation with you all um and we've broadened this out to um electronic devices um we know phones are the the biggest culprit um but it could
be some other um personal electronics and so we just kept it generic so we could have some latitude as technology changes um and um in that uh as you all know the statute now requires that the board um or every District must have a
policy on file and this policy um from msba um directs the superintendent and administration to establish the rules and procedures um so you know based upon different learning environments levels Etc um they'll have that procedural um
aspect um addressed at the school campus level um and and additional um conversations of some of the Minnesota statutes that were cross referenced that we did not have in our initial draft um with you all that's been included as well we had a lot of
conversation at the policy committee um about procedure um and just want to be clear with the board um it was really good context for them um similar to some of the conversation that we had uh several weeks ago um that this
conversation or this policy is one that we uh know from an E8 standpoint is something that we have been working towards I would say namely middle school because there's not a lot of cell phone issues at the elementary level but we um
really took the time to get buyin um at the middle school level uh where we were having some significant challenges and um uh really have strong support uh with the uh staff in that building so some of the changes that we made for this coming
year um procedurally will look very different than what we had last year because of the Su of the success that we had at the Middle School in terms of how we're move how we move forward with that process and built um buyin along the way
both with students families and staff um that's something I know that Dr bik and his team are engaged in at the high school um but changing the practices or I should say emphasizing the practices in the classrooms uh without having um access
to personal electronics but similar to what we did last year at the middle school I know the conversation that they are having are uh in that passing and lunchtime as we develop um the same process that was successful at the middle school that we would replicate at the high school to move towards the
ultimate um goal of where we're um at a holistic away for the day um there's been a lot of conversations that uh be Dr bizik and I have had along with his administration his administrative team
on um the setup for for a successful imp implementation of said policy and so procedurally how they would manage that um in a sea of nearly 3,000 kids and um without having that Grassroots Buy in
that we took at the middle school level something that Dr Edwards and I um were pretty impressed with and sorry I'm just kind of giving you some more context that we had from that committee conversation too um uh at the middle school level uh was around what does
that phase out look like um and we had a core group of teachers who led a lot of this conversation um at the middle school level to go complete away for the day and we went into the convers I'll
speak for myself but I went into the conversation thinking a different plan and left that conversation heavily influenced um by what I was hearing in terms of the of that staff's ability to organize and mobilize uh all of the
research that they their action research that they had engaged with to come forth with strong recommendations of protocols procedures etc for the Middle School level and uh the last meeting that Dr Edwards and I had with the with the leadership team um the teacher
leadership team and administration there um was a survey that was conducted uh for staff to support a complete a for the day and I don't think I've ever in my career seen the
solidarity uh of uh staff um around an issue such as this um and I think there was about 92 93% Buy in in support and I would say the outliers W uh were supportive but they
had questions that needed to be addressed um in terms of what's the practicality what some of the procedural things and that kind of a thing um but very confident in how we're going to be able to move forward but I really trust the process that we engaged in um and
yeah there was some push back and but that's something that everybody knew we were building toward and um and and I'm very confident that's going to be highly successful I'm not a fan of rushing into failure and setting up administrative
teams teacher leadership teams to to doing something that's going to be impossible um on the front side and then we are spending all of our time managing how to perfect something and so through some conversation at the high school
that is something that uh I think uh Dr Edwards and I are both supportive of so that we can work through the high school leadership team very similar to what we did um at the middle school um for that
kind of successful launch um to enact um a holistic approach to um the procedural aspects that Administration will develop around this policy um so I wanted to share all that with you all because I think um we are going to see some
significant changes um in in many of our campuses and working towards a holistic approach um E12 um uh throughout this year um and for sure the um for next year so just
want to share that context of of the policy conversation uh conversation from the policy committee and the expectations um that I have uh with our high school team to engage in the same aspect that we did at the middle school team um for Success long-term success so
with that chair I turn it back to you um okay I'm going to open up to the board to ask questions um admittedly I'm a little confused used um when I opened this to read last
week I'm like whoa this completely changed from the last time we saw it and I knew that the policy committee was meeting and things like this um I admit my first thought was this doesn't go far enough and I understand that the msba
policy we're modeling it after that and this is new um theirs is new as well um so I keep going back and forth on some thing so a point of clarity so you're saying because like the away away for
the day language is completely omitted from this it's in the procedural side um on the procedural side processes based upon how policy is implemented may change based upon what we observe in the schools and versus going back to the
board to change policy to change practice this is why we try to separate policy and procedure and so the first time you all saw that admittedly we had a lot of the procedure language built into the policy and I I think my very first year here we are
working on separating those two on a lot of our policies so um that is a marked visual change that you saw and also we now have the model msba policy um so that was also where we just deferred to
that and then moved a lot of the procedural language out that we had and that's carried over now into um the this will be now the student handbook in in admin language at the building level and I just as a point of clarification
because we did go through this on July 8th yeah they did not have the msba model policy at that time so even though we were looking at one they were reading off of the model policy that didn't get a chance to get in there correct and we continued the conversation as if we were
reading the m MBA policy which is this one so I don't mean to I I just want to clarify that for the mar change that didn't and again we also um well we didn't have that then but we also didn't have a chance to
engage with the policy committee which we knew timing wise we won't be able to do that until um last or two weeks ago or last week so when it comes to procedural because yes I I understand that and I and I think even the msba policy which right we didn't see yet
hardly on July 9th and you know now it's posted and that's even pretty skeletal in terms of basically because it's new I imagine because this is new it's it's up to what your District wants to do kind of is generally speaking what that
policy says so I don't think guidance is necessarily very strong there um but so from a procedural level so for is it by primary and secondary or is it school
elementary and middle school can in high school having consistent practices based upon their level and so Elementary and Middle School will have very similar processes Elementary uh and I'm generalizing here and this is something
that we talked about you know at the policy committee with Katie um uh being there as well that or we know that there's not a huge issue with cell phones or personal technology at the elementary level definitely we had
issues at the middle school level um had a lot of informed uh conversation of practice and procedure from them um on that and then uh Dr bezak and team will be similar to where the middle school
was last year as they work towards the full imp implementation from a procedural standpoint to a line you know as an entire District um there were just a lot of concerns of the magnitude of
administration to be able to effectively um have a procedure in place starting this fall um that they could actively monitor 100% to Fidelity versus
having lots of gaps in in their procedure so that's that was the concern that was expressed so again we heard some of that even last year with the middle schools and we didn't have consistent practice that became a real
point of contention among teachers because they didn't align in their practices and it took them the year to kind of test it and get calibration around that practice and so by Year's End had a very different um experience
with staff and that was also reflected in that whole school staff survey um that I mentioned too so that is a conversation that I've had with Dr bezik and he is also having with his administrative team in terms of what does this look like as we Cascade this
into full implementation from a procedural standpoint um at the high school with immediate changes um to consistently have classroom practices to not allow um personal technology um but
the passing and lunch hour still being a space where we are building the buyin and kind of co-design of the decision of what that plan and procedures will look like similar to what we did at the middle school that's what Dr bz and his
team are strongly Desiring to happen at the high school as well so that they can be successful when in that full implementation of uh of significantly different procedures just a point Dr B I don't know if I left anything out is that
pretty much capture the conversation you've been having it does do you want me to pop sure sure and well Dr B is coming forward I just want to uh emphasize a point at the uh E8 level um because the the issue at the E5 level is
uh personal watches more than it is um cell phones um so this the intention there is that that will get addressed e uh 8 E5 specifically with with regard to that so their procedures in their
handbook will speak to that so we were watching the conversation obviously the middle school was having the conversation we're hearing that this Cade uh pieace was going on um I can you know you've all or number of you had kids at the high
school um obviously we're not perfect we're not different than any other you know I'm not going to hold this up as an Exemplar or any you know loer than any other high school in the state so as we're watching that I'm like okay we've already had teacher and
I haven't had a ground s of teachers I haven't had a built meeting about and cell phones really haven't come up at the high school it hasn't been a priority one issue so we're watching this but we've we have had some teachers start using the the pockets or saying hey away during class time and uh when
uh Dr Thomas said hey this is going on the board's talking about I said well we're already trying to look at starting to restrict them in uh in uh during the classroom time and then uh about a month ago he goes hey the
board took a swing or he just said one of the leanings was that you're going to be the same K as the K8 and I'm like whoa uh you know we haven't had this conversation and I you know we were already looking at beefing up saying hey
let's not have them at all during uh classroom time so i' I'd love for an opportunity to do that and see how that works and monitor and have conversations with staff because we haven't had anything and I I'm sorry I really don't want to be the first high school that I'm aware of in the state of Minnesota that says there's no high school there's
no cell phones at all you know from morning ton I I don't know of any I just saying I U and I I want things to go well I'm a True Believer in kids and adults will follow rules that are reasonable and well
implemented there will be a they don't follow rules that feel like they were just not implemented well or thrust upon them and I that's where I feel like we would be so I'd like the opportunity to gain support and work with my students
because I think I can easily uh sell and get them on board that hey during class time we're not using these things these are away and then we'll see how that works and do we need to go further you know as the year goes on into next year so that's that's what I'd like the opportunity to do yeah Dr Bic as being
on the msba just so you're aware um it's been a topic of conversation for quite some time there there are other high schools so hopefully we're learning from them I I'd love to I'd love to know one in the Metro that is doing this because I haven't heard that and I'm I'm pretty dialed in I've been a high school principal for 25 years uh used to sit on
the high school U you know the the board and uh and all of that so I I'm a little aware as well so I I hear these things I hear that Menan is doing this or other schools are doing this so I pick up and I call those places I say and they're like yeah no you know so we're not that
different than the other schools in the Metro and around the state uh can I ask just one thing before we continue on with the questions because I'm sure there's going to be a lot of questions um and I want the board to remember that policy and procedure are separate we have been moving that direction so we're
not supposed to get into the nitty-gritty weeds within the policies but for the the benefit of all because I did get some questions beforehand from the majority of board members could you just could someone just clarify what the policy
is basically going to be K through 8 and then High School just lay it on the line kind of because we're kind of jumping around quite a bit and I think that'll help so procedures procedures procedures yeah the sorry the procedure that has been decided on just to lay it so
because I'm confused I yeah we're waiting for this meeting if I if I may um the the E through eight um procedures uh that Administration is aligning towards is that we would have a
full away away for the day um so um as you come into the school uh you can be on your personal technology um but once that first Bell of instruction Rings um the technology is put away into your backpack or into
your locker or Etc um some some teachers may have storage bins or whatever so but it's way for the day um and then at the end of the day of that Bell of instruction you go into activities you're calling parents for
pickup Etc that would be permissible the high school um Dr BAC and his team are wanting to um take the approach that we did at the middle school last year where it was completely a way during instructional time of our core class instruction
and that during passing time and at lunch students at the middle school were um able to utilize their cell phone um as they were phasing into a complete away for the day for this year so they took the year to transition to this to have the conversation with their students with their families get the Buy
in and support of the teachers kind of understand how they want to have their rules and regs in procedurals procedures align particularly some of the disciplinary actions first second third offense Etc so that is what um uh Dr bak
and his team are requesting um for the procedural side um of things for for this year to to mirror what we did at the middle school as a successful process to getting the campus there um and that may come for this year it could
be something that for sure will come for next year but that's the conversation he he's requested of me to to consider as we're working through the implementation thank you I I just know that it was we were kind of bouncing around a little bit and I didn't want to usurp the board
questions but at the same time sure I we needed a baseline okay that is the Baseline yeah and I would just say I'm we received um through amsd there was a um a link to the cell phone toolkit which was developed in July of
2024 put out to the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles and it basically I have you seen this document I have yeah I mean no cell phone allowed during the academic day for elementary middle school and high school and so I think well you know
this is being talked about at districts right now and I think that yeah and I would say think the time is now I mean and they're pretty clear in here that I was super impressed with this I would like in that document and I think
we discussed this at that Monday meeting too that was shared at one maybe a session that I was at but the document that director ainson is referring to I would liken or call it the model procedures so msba has the model policy I would say that would be
mesa's or uh MP's model procedures yes but it's k through2 m man they lay out a few scenarios it's very thorough and well done and the communication and template is there it does say outlining a variety of strategies
and options for school districts to to consider as they develop their policies so I agree that it's procedural um and we lean on it in terms of our policy development I think just to kind of say we kind of give a a
guidepost of where I'm at with this is to me what's in that our model policy that's on the table tonight and what administration is bringing forward as what would then happen for this next next year to me that's that's in my view
maybe not everyone's but in my view here the minimum like that's the absolute minimum and while I understand the administrative challenges like and we don't want to rush to failure but we don't want to delay success for our kids and I I understand that we're in August
and I understand that doing something at the high school level is seems like next to Impossible there's Al a piece of me that believes that if you just say this is it Bell to Bell and hey you're a parent you
could tell your kid have to bring their phone to school how well is that working no no I with all due respect I um completely respect that and the feedback from kids who have been
through this transition is it works well if everybody is in the same boat right exactly so and but I I respect and can feel your concern with implementing something
without we haven't had any conversation you're throwing it at us yeah that's how I feel I feel very feel very unsupported by it I I feel blindsided that's how I and I know that um it is very truly what's best for kids
and I think you know that too um you know I think there's a to get to what is best for kid I don't know one size all one size fits all um you know maybe we should have free lunches for kids at K12 then you know we do do things differently K8 and uh different things
at the high school so uh you know I think there's I think success can look different I give us an opportunity but you're not giving us an opportunity to even weigh in and have a say in it that's what frustrates me so I I I don't know where we lost the trust of you but that's what that's how I
feel if we go this around I want to go back to something that director bullan said at our last meeting and how confusing it is to families when you have different policies and procedures at different levels and I think one thing is that we've been preparing our middle school
kids for this and they're ready now as they transition into the high school now we're back to you know different policies and procedures and so I understand the challenge that give them more rights and
responsibilities as they get older as well we do scale up our our opportunities for them to handle situations you're right we have tougher policies and procedures or more more oversight at kindergarten and then a little less at middle school and a little less at high school at least has
been in my experience because we're trying to teach them to be adults yeah and I would also say a parent said to me one said to me in the last month is that at the high school you have the most amount of cell phone use you have the hardest classes and when even though my
student may not be on their cell phone if my student doesn't use their cell phone during class um they're distracted by another student using it in class and so and you also have the biggest largest amount of mental health issues in our high school as well so to me this
becomes even more important at the high school um than it does even in elementary level where you don't have as many cell phones I mean clearly I support what we're doing at elementary level but I would love to see a bell to Bell I mean I just think that that's um
that's where my my mind is at and um um yeah so um first of all with this policy what it really is doing is delegating um the responsibility to administration at the different levels to be able to implement it at those
levels and in a way that they think is going to work best for the culture of the school um I will say that um to be blindsided by this I mean like I I I said at the last meeting I've had experience in in completely public and
private completely self-own free schools through 12th grade and again I will uh reemphasize what director Crosby said is when they're all in it together really maybe the first couple weeks are hard
but after that it becomes more standard because obviously the ones that are using are are uh standing out now there's always exceptions to the rule that do have to be delegated locally uh because the local Administration knows it
best my concern is that in my experience walking through our high school that we've put the burden of that enforcement on individual team teachers in the
classroom and that takes away from their teaching also and having a more consistent right off the bat to say we're not doing that to you your teachers are all going to be in this together too um is what even even if and
again you know your school the best when you're phasing it in I'd like to personally and I'm not a teacher I take that you know I am not a high school teacher but if I was one and if I could potentially even take an iota of what I
think it's like um I wouldn't want that responsibility on me individually either so um and I don't know where you stand on that or what is actually going to happen or what you have discussed I will say it's you know this has been an
ongoing discussion over the years so to I would hope that the ideas that are coming to the table are those that people have already been at least ruminating on uh in preparation for this so um uh Bard I I appreciate the
feedback and this is this is the conversation that we had you know several weeks ago as well and um and and I do know that uh there's been a lot of conversation Middle School you know high schools about implementing this policy
and um and there was concern I know from uh principal kabek initially and I I know went to massp uh Institute this summer and talked with Middle School colleagues and who have lived through that and our understanding of how
beneficial that can be and and and so so there is there is that initial shock I I that that's going to be real um at any of our campuses high school middle school or Elementary um with with the level of dependency that I think
that's developed over the years um with some of our students um in personal technology uh I one of the things that I can empathize with Dr bik and his team is you know and I've been out there many times as you all have and I'm just
picturing the cafeteria at any of our given lunches um and they do a great job of managing you know those those the students and keeping them know on point and of the I don't know 15 staff that
you might have down there I could be uh short on how many but of the many staff that are typically standing on the perimeter walking in you know in or uh in in and out um about seven or eight you okay there's going to be I was being
generous then so but even with 15 I would probably still say this um of the hundreds of students that are in that cafeteria from the learning stairs down to the lines I'm assuming you could assure Dr
Bez someone's not going to adhere to your to your process is that a fair statement to say sure well we lived it before I remember when we had you know we we started off cell phones are first out they were you
know prohibition has a great track record so so and and that's the concern that that I'm trying to make sure that we are able to successfully address and have the buyin of support um at the local at the local level the the staff
level all getting behind this um like we've had and and that's the one element that I can't speak to tonight I don't I can't guarantee that assurance and even with that Assurance is something going to happen at the middle school where a kids's going to not follow the procedures yeah it's going to happen I
get that nothing's going to be up perfect system I'm just wanting to embrace success as much as we possibly can from from the launch or from the decision and
and and not feel like I've just set staff up and that's that's where I'm trying to understand and and work through that very similar to the Middle School conversations that we had with his team with principal kabush X's team
um team was halfway down this way many others were I'm not too sure but until we all aligned I know this fall they're they're I mean Dr Edward just spoke with some of those teacher
leaders uh at their Prior Lake days um ran into a couple of them and they're they're ready to go and excited for it and they understand the process that it took to get there and that was another thing that was reiterated um they app
you know I'll speak for myself I appreciated their process I appreciated hearing directly from our teacher leaders who are the voices of the hundreds of Staff in that building to be able to get behind a decision that you know director Cosby cheero that is all
about success for kids um that was driving it you know and and they pushed me as their superintendent and I heard enough to say yeah okay you you sold me I get it I I know where you're at um that's what I'm looking for with the
high school it is the you know I think director ainson you have a fair point um around classes moving from the Middle School to the high school um but they've not you know there's not a class yet that's experienced a complete away away
for the day this will be the inaugural 8th grade class that will experience it so I don't have to contend with your freshman being used to a very different practice of a complete away for the day they do know the away during instruction
practice so that's aligned um that would be aligned so I don't have that fear but I hear your point consistency and several of you have brought that forward too um and I don't disagree I just want to make sure if
that's the direction that we go that the high school is poised to be as successful as possible knowing there will be breaches and they will find ways to do something that's what young people do give me your orders I'll do whatever you want us to do
but so so you know so that's just the context I wanted to share going back to our original conversation here with the policy and um you know chair I turn it back to you um to see if there's anything further that
you know the board would would like to see um and we would certainly yield to that otherwise what I shared in terms of the process was the plan um so I turn it back to you okay well um first of all I do want to remind that we are separating
policy from procedure even though we are mixing them and I certainly mixed them because we're trying to understand the outcome of this um but I want to know if you are um and I want to emphasize also we have to get something in place before the first of the year which is coming up
um so how does the board feel about voting on this tonight and the policy the way it stands right now um anyone want to give their feedback and then I'll take it to a vote because if we we're
we're going to do something different or if you're okay with this um then I'd suggest we just move forward and I'm not going to speak for anyone individually I'll get some feedback just based on serving on the policy committee um you
know we went through this in depth um and we talked about you know this being you know separating the procedures from the policy so that um the procedures can be um
prescribed by the you know perspective levels um I think when I in in conversations that we've had um I just my thought is is
what best serves the students um and I I'm hearing the concerns that uh you've shared Dr bizik I I appreciate you coming up and talking um and you know giving us your thoughts and your
feelings regarding um this I think that um we have to look at what's best for the students and you you know you shared that that success can come in many different ways I think the will of the board has been that we have a a policy
that's K through 8 H and how that is infiltrated we do want to give the we we do want to give you space to um to have success in implementing it
and I think if I were to have a just a um a thought based on the conversation had here at the table tonight would be um we need to we have to have the buyin
of the whole team um from board down and I understand that your position as leading that school you see a lot of things we don't see you you can foresee
challenges in um having the students um you know sneaking it at lunch or or whatever it may be but I think the thing is is that uh like what director ainson said the the support has to be for for
the teachers and you shared that you weren't feeling supported by this or blindsided and I um although I um I hear that and that I I don't want you to feel that way uh I
think um the support really is is for the teachers and the a policy for them not to have to create their own rules like some teachers in the high school have had their rules from you know for
years and they have no problem with it the students know that's how they the the students know that's how their classroom operates and the students don't Buck at it I think it's really important for your buyin and I think as a board member um I want to say uh
speaking for myself that I appreciate the concerns and also um you know having having I think my place is giving the teachers the support that they need and understanding that there's going to be
Grace I understand that like how do we implement this I think that if we do it as a whole I I think that we will be pleasantly surprised um by the success and also having grace through the process um so I I don't know if that's
what was asked but that's the context that I have to offer are you my question was the policy 5251 we are starting a new school year so we need to get something in place I think the policy is I mean we went through it at policy committee
we I know that it has changed since the last meeting I feel that this policy um is ready to be voted on but I'm just one um and does anybody else want to make a count I would just say I agree with d
director olad I was very confused by this which is why I sent the email to director Herman today as well I feel like the policy as written is actually less like as a parent reading this policy it feels like it has has less restrictions in it than it did before
and perhaps what we need is I'm looking at the MSA msba policy which is really truly just a tiny little bit of language which we incorporated into point a um but they do say that um the procedures will be an addendum to this policy so I
think what that would be helpful from a parent standpoint is that if we could add the procedures as an addendum to this policy because that links back to that student handbook that we just approved and it would give I mean like director ban said I mean the the teachers are the ones who they they
need something to go to um and and something that they they all can follow consistently and as well as the parents so that we can enforce it as well and work in partnership with the school to um um to know that no they should not have their cell phones out during the
day director Edwards I have a question with regards to that if you could address director Atkinson because I assume that the e through 8 the the elementary and the middle school is going to communicate this we have this policy the policy links but there will
be actual more prescriptive communication yes in in the actual policy that's what is uh that at the bottom of the policy where it says violations of the policy and Associated rules and procedures that's what it's referring to and here again um the
elementary and the Middle School are well prepared to clearly articulate this at the outset to their students and families uh to kick off the school year um and have multiple steps in place that
Mr kabush at the middle school level has worked through with his leadership team Communications out um to parents we we actually started that process as you recall back in June with a message that Dr Thomas uh sent out to our families um
so uh we we have been uh communicating that in advance to date and we'll continue to do so and that's what that specific line uh is intended to uh call out there is that Associated rules and procedures will be put in place I think
the difference being if I may attempt to summarize the difference being we haven't yet communicated and we do not yet have plans in place for uh that level of communication and inclusion in the
handbooks except for the during instructional time at the high school level so can I ask why this this the language that's in here was was um scratched out basically or or I don't know what the exact word is but because it says students shall not use any
personal electronic device that in any way disrupts or distracts from the educational environment and that was even taken out of the policy and that was even in our original policy so that's why when I read it I felt like it was less in forcing of a cell phone policy than even our original policy was
and then there's other points you know what I'm saying yeah so Dr Thomas answered that earlier of separating out procedure from policy so this allows more latitude for yeah I'm clear on Administration to be able to uh exercise
latitude into what they specifically need drad can I ask another clarifying question of our speaker yes you may um um Mr bik is the is the frustration because I got to tell you my heart
stopped a little um when you said you didn't feel supported so I want to dig into that so is the frustration that that you're feeling the fact that I mean we have to have this policy legislature legislation
I get the policy I I and I get that there's I'm sorry do you want me to dialogue or do you want me to listen well my my question for you is your point of frustration is I think I think like what you said Dr Edwards
about the level of procedure writing that goes with this policy you don't feel like you'd be ready yet for like the first day of school and is that where you feel like I'm not given time it wasn't even on our radar that it wasn't on our radar to have a ban at the
high school I remember the conversations of the K8 uh I remember middle schools having conversations because teachers came forward I haven't had anybody come forward of our staff at our built meetings we haven't had those conversations that we should be banning cell phones and that or that would even
when the piece went out after the last board me they're like is this going to happen at the they were just like where's this coming from at the high school so I think the frustration is we were looking at okay how could we dial things back in
the classroom and when Dr Thomas mentioned us said okay we were looking at I want to bring to my staff because none we haven't had we haven't had not one conversation about going this route I it just again it was all K8
so I believe that there's a route to get to what we want you you're right if you're asking my personal opinion I don't know that bands are ever good I think having them away during the instructional time is the route to go because we have kids
that come and go I have kids going PSO I have kids driving to mcaps I have all these different factors that will be there so I don't want to chase kids for doing this which is what we did when we first started loosening up the cell phone piece but it got probably into the classroom too much we've also started
moving all of our passes and and IDs are on electronic and using your devices and all that so it's a total switch I'm like going oh God what am I going to do about student IDs what am I going to do about passes we were trying to do you know these things and I honestly I'm a very
well-connected principal in the metro area and across the state none of my colleagues are telling me that they're banning wire to wire phones at the high school I it's just not anywhere in the
realm that I'm in and I was on the massp board I was on the policy Committee in the past and been in all those meetings I track you know I I do get involved in these things so yeah a little surprised and that's what So when you say to me you know I think we need to do this K
that's why okay well you and that's where I feel like wow where did this come out of left field I know how my AP is because we were talking about they're like there's no way they're going to do that c all the way through 12th grade this fall and I'm sitting here going oh my God I'm going to have to tell them tomorrow that we're doing this and we'll
do it I mean we can make anything happen you know our kids are pretty compliant and they do listen to us but I'll lose some respect and support from them uh because I think there's a I think there's a happy medium I you know there there are different levels it isn't all K12 you know like I said I throw that out there
a little bit back in your faces a little bit about the the lunch program and not having free lunches at the high school and things like that we do do things differently K8 and at the high school whether you know anybody asks us or not so I don't feel like I was included in the conversation I haven't had
conversations with my staff so you're talking some of the biggest culture issues so I I can engage in the culture wars at Prior Lake High School I can do it with our kids I can make Prior Lake great again if that's what you guys want you know hey I can do it well we we are
great so I think and I will say at the last meeting it was it was me who said do we want to consider e through 12 because it was a consistency thing that was my thing and then at the same meeting it was brought up well the high
school kids are a lot more mobile like to your point like what you just said you've got them driving different places you've got them going different places and that was something my lived experience I'm not there yet I don't have kids there yet so that's not something I thought of and I'm like good
point so so yeah even in that same meeting my mind shift Swift shifted a little bit because it's just like yeah different ages of kids they're mobile they're driving they're leaving school to go to mcaps they're doing all of these different things so
I got that so it was me it was me that at that said e through 12 for consistency sake now looking at this policy where it's it's a policy procedures are separate
and you can take those procedures or whatever you create at the at the high school you know because to your point it is different when you're talking about a fourth grader with maybe a cell phone versus a
junior so and I get that there's there's differ since so I I appreciate that and I will I will say it was me that was that brought up a consistency issue last time um and I know they're look like they're you don't
look like you're alone on an island so I canou I no we had board on that decis I have to be fair about that can I can I bring this back to the question that I asked please so we've got 5251 that is policy it does delegate
back we do know that it's been worked out a little bit more at e through through 8 if it you know and and granted um what we're hearing is that the high school doesn't have this worked out yet as far as the
nuances um but my question to the board is are we okay with voting on this policy that does delegate that back to the schools to navigate these
procedures um and develop them over time so um because I want to bring this back to exactly what this policy says which is and by the way we do have to have something in place because the school year starting yeah so um and we do have a legislative issue so I keep voting on
the policy as it is I think it was really clear after our July 8th meeting everyone sat here and we really all emphasized our strong desire to at least consider High School look at what that
could be at a minimum I don't want to speak for the rest of you I would love the challenge of like getting some stronger procedures in the classroom to support our teachers and if it takes time at the high school for that to to get tightened up and get the Buy in but
I think consistently I heard everyone saying like what would that look like if we could get it up to 12 to you Dr Thomas we do not direct so yeah so I was if if I may chair um in in
board thank you for your perspectives and feedback and the clarity Dr Bic I appreciate your perspective tonight as well um on behalf of your your team and and sharing some of the conversations that we've been having um and and and and you now can sense the challenge that
we're we're negotiating here um a commitment to do what's right for kids um in a way that's supportive and successful that's the challenge before us and I guess I don't want to keep
spinning and um so my if if I may uh request of of the board um we have the policy that directs uh that directs the superintendent me um to to work with schools to establish procedures and
protocols that's the first that's the that's the vote I guess my ask of the board is to gauge a more formal Mark of your will of what you desire from a procedure standpoint to know where we
are going to go um and and where your desire lies and I guess I'm I I just we have a commitment to doing it and I just need to hear unilaterally this is this is where we're going to support you Michael so that you can support your
staff on the admin side um and if that's your will to have this in the fall I would want to know that if you're saying build towards this so you're affecting the change in the second semester uh because of the balance of the success then we'll build towards that if it's next fall then we'll build
towards that I'm just wanting to gauge and we had the dialogue a couple weeks ago as as several of you mentioned and again there wasn't a formal directive to me to do anything different but I heard it I brought it forward we talked I
brought it saying this is what I heard there was no formal action but this is what I'm hearing and if that's where this board is at we will align to that but I just I mean I think we've heard we have shared our perspectives enough that I just want those two things share if I
if I may request that yes and I'm going to bifurcate that and say first we've got the policy and then we have um Direction on that area to you and I would request a thumbs direction for that would we're voting on a new is that
appropriate I I just want to make can we get through the policy first and then give you the direction and I also want to clarify that if something like the K through 8 is fairly welldeveloped is something that no matter what we give you Direction it's not going to come out
of a half right now so I want to make I want to make sure we're clear on expectations on that um and it's possible that if we we vote on the policy we give you the thumbs up on the other direction to get through this
topic tonight that we do set aside uh potentially something else with direction from the whole board at another session that's fair thank you sure so the first thing I want to do right here is ask about the policy are
we ready to vote on the policy alone okay um so I did I take a motion in a second already not yet okay I need a motion in a second I I already did so okay that's what I thought oh well we've all slept since then
um um okay so all in favor I I I opposed nay okay that passes 61 two okay 52 I apologize for that I didn't hear you so the policy as it stands will will go forward for
5251 as it is in the board packet now let's go on to the second topic uh we do not have this on the agenda so that we're not going to vote on it we're only going to give um verbal Direction and also uh confirmation via thumbs up uh to
Dr Thomas on what we want the next steps to be uh and direct him to then direct his administration so do uh let's lay the question on the table are we um that's a good question it's a very broad question
um is the direction we want to do is give Dr Thomas um the board direction to work with the high school and we're okay with e through 8 or do you want the whole procedure to be consistent so that's two that's one or the other we're
not we're not merging those I think we're all in agreement from this well I don't want to assume for the board but the E8 Moving Forward Bell to Bell procedurally MH thumbs thumbs yes agree thumbs y um
it's the high school and and my ask for that which would maybe not be in alignment with everyone I'm not sure is that we push there to the extent you're comfortable and feel that we can do it with you know do it successfully um maybe it's January maybe
that's a terrible idea you know maybe teachers will be asking for it maybe we work with staff that we push to get there knowing that the Surgeon General has been very loud and clear on this since the spring so it should be of no surprise to anyone that this is a topic
okay I just want to summarize this to make sure we're on the same page and make sure I'm repeating it correctly for the board notes E through 8 the procedure that's been verbally described to us is fine we're leaving that alone we did a thumbs up on that the only thing that we're going to do then is talk about the high school and we're
going to give uh Dr Thomas d uh direction to work with the high school to develop that procedure and and I guess my question to to the board is do you want that to be in effect day one um or is that something that we would have latitude to
work as staff return to work through and develop and secure some Buy in and it's at some point this school year so I guess do you want it day one or not I guess that's the question I would say I I feel strongly it needs to be day one to be consistent and like you you know
we've heard all the the problems whatever again this is no surprise the surprise to me when when I saw it in the Minneapolis principles guidelines that's where I was like wow they're taking a Firm Stance on that so my stance is I'd like to see it done day one B DeBell um
K through 12 but that's I'm one board member so I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't think that we can do that given the state that we're in right now uh and Bell the Bell but I would like to
suggest that we at least um see if a procedure to unilaterally take cell phones out of the classroom unless it's a programming or whatever nuances they need to do um and that would be the first step because I personally would
like to see the burden taken off in the individual teachers at least if we could start anything day one that would be the consistency going down the Enrique we I'm sorry director Velasquez I know I'm I'm a huge fan of
prevention through environmental design and I already know that certain carriers don't have service in the High School uh so that kind of solves a problem all by itself we already heard from Dr BAC that doesn't see that there's a problem for
me if the procedure says there's no procedure I'm fine with that too I'm not could you summarize could you make that a little more succinct for the rest of us sure uh if the procedure is we don't make a change to the high
school I would be fine with that as well so are you directing Dr Thomas to make that decision uh or work with the administration to make that decision or are you saying that's what you want on day one um um if that's the outcome from Dr Thomas
working with the administration I would be comfortable okay so work with the administration on day one okay director olad I'm just going to follow up this way come back to me please okay if that's okay director
Crosby uh I think working with Administration to do to work towards moving towards the K8 I mean I've shared that the K8 strategy is what I would hope for for the high school and what I'd hope what but but again the
policy we're giving Administration the latitude specifically Dr Thomas to work and decide and come back probably come back to the board with what the next steps might look like given by and from Administration I think the buying from teachers is super important and and
staff that that are working the building so I don't want to minimize that I just would like to see us push to get there knowing it's what's right so can I get a little more succinct that no day one you would just you would prefer the other one of giving him the direction yeah I
mean there was a lot of push back in this room tonight with some good examples and that kind of pauses me a bit um and I'll just leave it at that okay yeah I would agree I'm I I don't need to have it day one I think that we I'd like
to see it on the horizon and I want Administration to work with teachers and staff to see that can actually be implemented okay I think for me it would be day one um support for the Belta Bell per class
hour um when listening I mean the student um getting into the building I I've been at the high school many times I have a high schooler like I know they use their phone to check in and check out all that um but I my direction if I
didn't make that clear because I kept talking was Bell to Bell every hour that the that the um that the teachers have the support that we don't have cell phones in the classroom rad are you
ready I don't I don't need procedures day one for the high school so if what I hear is correct then democratically we don't need procedures day one in the classroom because it was a 4 to three and that we are going to direct you to
work with the administration at the high school to develop those procedures well I will um sorry thank thank you chair thank you board directors um this is a really important conversation and I appreciate your
flexibility on the agenda to kind of have this informal um kind of guidance and kind of what's really important um I will plan to bring this conversation back to the board um August 26 as just a status update um per conversations
moving forward from tonight so thank you thank you the 26 is that the next one did I say that right yes okay um let me I'm pretty sure it is yes it is okay uh so we are done with the business portion of
the meeting and we're moving on to um administrative reports so the first is the superintendent report Dr Thomas um just real briefly uh want to thank our community for the engagement on the night to unite um it was a great
opportunity to make some strong connections uh with our community and uh uh there was one community in particular we came across uh uh retired well actually a retired teacher who still Subs uh at our at one of our schools uh
Dr Edwards and I I think might have found a couple of uh mcaps Pathways uh future instructors um as well so you just I just it just speaks volumes that we've got so much skill and support in our community for our students um in our
schools and I just want to say thank you um to the team that went out that night um as well as our community for supporting our schools um and I know we got a few other administrative reports but that's my that's my report okay administrative reports
thank you chair France I will start with the business office um I would just like to um kind of caution the board and members of our community as we move into this whole Levy process the referendum
the budget um as we move forward I would just caution that there's a lot of information being put out on social media and I would just ask you to make sure that you know the source of the information that's out there um and I
can give you an example there is a I've seen a chart that shows um the percent of budget that is spent on Administration and it shows in the chart that it's at 46% the chart actually comes from our
dashboard um it very clearly is a dashboard chart and you have to filter the charts when you pull up the information so if you just pull up the entire fund one general
fund everything in there um it does not reflect 46% being administrative cost it actually shows 22% so the way that we've tried to get to that number that is shown on that chart and the only way we could get to
even close was to filter the um data requested to only include sites and buildings and if you know how the budget Works sites and buildings includes Transportation um Capital Equipment the
long-term facilities maintenance which by nature is going to be District um and not buildings so um I would just caution you when you see charts out there to make sure you know the source of the
data and um what is being filtered when they show that um there's also some information out there about our audit let me just say that our Auditors are still here they will be
here tomorrow they'll be here Wednesday they're still completing our audit there are many things that we haven't done yet um we do year-end audit entries all the time um it's not complete until we get
all of those things done um just today we had a conversation with Hildy who is our Actuarial who worked with us to get the implicit and explicit amounts that we have to book um we are still verifying
some of the um the state um payment state aid payments and the property tax um because as you may or may not know a school district operates on a modified ACR R
basis which means that we recognize Revenue as it's earned whereas the state operates on a cash uh basis which means they recognize Revenue as it's paid out so because you have to align those two
we have to make sure that we have all of our year-end acrs done um so we're still doing a tax receivables and a state AIDS receivable um we are still uh one of the things that in the whole process of doing an it we sit down with the
Auditors there's a very comprehensive um analytical report that we look at that list every budget item and the variances in that budget to actual and we have to sit with the Auditors and explain every variance
that's in there over a certain amount we haven't done that yet um so there's in like I said there's information out on social media about our audit um we have have certainly not hidden anything about our audit it's on the August 26th agenda
um when we have things to share with you we absolutely will share with you um but we are still in the middle of the audit so we're not prepared to present any information to the board or the public about what our audit is actually looking like yet because it's not
done um the last thing that I just want to mention is the biggest percentage of Revenue that we get in this district is from the general education formula allowance and that's set in statute it
tells how much you get per pupil it's the biggest discretionary pot of money that we have everything else that we receive or is categorical or has very um strict strings attached to how we're allowed to spend the dollars so there's
been a lot of again information about um CPI or inflation rates and if you look at the um formula for the past 15 years you'll see and you can look this up on the Department of Education website the
formula allowance has increased about 2% every year with the exception of last year when it went to 4.5% so when we say that the formula is not keeping up with inflation that's what we're talking about the formula allowance has been consistently 2% every
year um in statute so it's not really it's kind of disingenuous to say that our revenues and expenses are not matching inflation because it's not comparing Apples to Apples so I guess my cautionary tale is
any information that's out there we are more than happy to sit down with whoever wants to see the information we're providing it to the board we've committed to being transparent and we will continue to do that um so just be cautious when when you see information
out there and understand the source of the information and how it is being used thank you done okay um director Herman is um unfortunately
lost her voice so I'm going to present her administrative report on her behalf today in response to aort of information from the previous board meeting regarding the number of administrator hires last school year I would like to provide the following update firstly I
want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to review the the reference document it was invaluable in helping us understand the context of the inquiry and allowed us to provide a clearer explanation regarding the statement on administrative hires as mentioned
several times in the board meeting the Crux of the matter lies in differing definitions of administration the document's Creator appears to categorize roles such as ECFE assistant Early Childhood screener cultural Layon
kids co-assistant noon supervisor Deans and other roles under admin however HR mde and other governmental reports do not classify these positions as admin roles additionally positions like speech language pathologist occupational
therapist school counselor and social worker are listed under SS on the report which I assume refers to student support though these roles are actually classified under the teachers contract clarifying the definition of
new FTE is also essential for instance the assistant director of early learning was mentioned as a new FTE in reality this position results from a reduction in administrative FTE by combining the 1.0 Early Learning coordinator and a point8 assistant
director of support services and into a single 1.0 FTE role we also need a shared understanding of the timeline for these changes for example the adjustment related to the assistant director of early learning was not implemented until July 1st
2024 which Falls within the current school year not the previous one according to our HR posting data we added two administrative positions between during the 23 24 school year the reinstatement of the assistant director of human resource ources which was
reviewed and approved by the school board during the 2324 budget discussions with final approval on June 12th 2023 The Early Learning assistant coordinator position funded by fund for Community Ed was
charged this change was part of a comprehensive restructuring based on an external Consultants review which was also reviewed and approved by the school board on March 13 2023 provide a brief overview of over internal control process when hiring
managers submit a request to post a position HR reviews whether the FTE is available due to a resignation retirement leave or reassignment if no FTE is open HR checks for board approval of additional Staffing either through the budget process or additional
Staffing memos HR does not post a vacancy unless the FTE is open in the system or approved by the board when presenting additional FTE requests to the board the rationale and supporting data are mentioned in the memo or discussed during budget
meetings lastly as discussed in previous board meetings our current version of Skyward lacks a position control feature that allows for clean cyclical reports however we are optimistic that the upgraded version of Skyward we plan to implement in October will include
Advanced features that will enable us to generate accurate cyclical reports comparing approved and filled FTE we recognize the value of this information and are committed to exploring the new features to find a solution that meets this desire reporting
capability thank you for your time and is a chair from the ad thank you very much director Frederickson via director Herman and vice versa um so uh on board
reports does anyone have a board report I are are we going to go down we can I don't know how many because we're coming off a summer I just have a I have a little one okay go for it um I Echo the community events have been great
policy committee started up um and I just really appreciate the um the input from the commun the input from the community the collaboration at our policy committee um I'm I always
leave there um so appreciative of of that committee um and then the I mentioned earlier being at the msba conference um the conference was titled governing for improved
success uh and I took pages and pages and pages of notes um it was so good it'll take me a long time to um process it all but one thing that I feel like I just want to share
tonight um is a question that was posed and I'm just going to read straight from my notes um the question was asked of the board members that were in attendance or the leadership that was in attendance are we modeling the behavior
in the in the boardroom that we want that we expect in the classroom when teachers are concentrating um or distracted by The Boardroom their effectiveness decreases and that was um that was I heard that
loud um at the conf I heard that it it stuck with me um and so I'm just going to leave that there I'm just going to leave that as a kind of an open-ended question um for us all to ponder because um I know that I've been pondering that
for myself wanting to make sure that um um I'm behaving in a way that we you know we expect of our students so I I just throw that out there for the rest of us um really appreciate msba for their leadership um for the it was an
incredible conference um so that's my report does anybody else have a word report I just wanted to um invite everybody to the youth arts and craft Market on Wednesday um I'm modeling my prior
purchases today um I love love love that market we have such talented kiddos so it's at um Hidden Oaks from 4 to 6 on Wednesday so thank you very much for that reminder that is a wonderful uh
event um with no other board reports um oh you do okay I do uh so Southwest Metro um our superintendent uh retired at the end of the school year year and we were able to turn around really quickly and we're able to hire a very
talented Dynamic uh new superintendent Dr Jeff Horton who joins us from see what school was that gfw don't ask me what those were but gfw win there we go yeah outstanding administrator with
great credentials great energy um exactly what we're looking for in southest Metro and it he'll be a fantastic partner no Darren kermes will be missed uh but I'm glad that they were able to find someone uh like that so soon so thank you very
much anybody else okay um er we of course we've got the finance committee coming up on August 15th we have an executive committee coming up on August 19th and I believe as we stated earlier the
teaching and learning committee on October 9th um and for future events um again as we stated earlier the last date of file on affidavit for candidacy for the school board is tomorrow August 13th at 5:00 p.m. uh new teacher in service
starts August 19th and goes through the 21st and that will be here at the DSC the back to school event that we've all been passing around our little flyers for is August 22nd will be in the Prior Lake High School parking lot from 4:00 to 7: p.m and it's supposed to be uh
wonderful event and a lot of fun um and um not sure if adults can get in the bouncy house but it would be kind of fun to have that adult session um school board our next Schoolboard study session is August 26th at 6 pm here at the
DSC um the next District building in service staff days will be August 26th to the 29th and uh what we're all waiting for is the start of the 2425 school year grades 6 through 9 start uh September 3rd grades 7 through 12
September 4th and grades K through 5 September 5th and that's all I had for future events um chair France what's the topic of the executive committee meeting on August 19th I'm director
Herman grievance level three for the administrative assistance grievance level three for the administrative assistance thank you all right with no other comments I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn so made in a second okay by director vesz
and director bernick uh and all in favor I opposed okay that passes 70 we are adjourned you don't need a motion in a second