--------- good evening everyone like to call tonight's meeting to order like everyone to rise with me and join us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance 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 again welcome everyone uh all board members are present we will start our evening tonight with uh Laker Pride Dr thomas uh thank you
thank you Chair White board of Directors welcome community and everyone um starting off the night uh we got three things tonight uh we will have a special recognition one of our administrators our uh winter activities which is always one of the highlights um and then also a
recap on our Greece uh trip with our students who performed um overseas so I will start off by sharing that our director of student support services Michelle Chuka has been named for the 2025 uh school year um the Minnesota
Association of Special Education Administrator of the Year award and um she has been recognized by her peers and colleagues all throughout the state i know this is when in one of my previous Fridays fives but I got to tell you um
when we were able to get her from an unnamed district we were very pleased that uh she was joining the PLSAS family and to date um Michelle you have truly um outdone yourself and really opening up pathways and supports and and
opportunities for our kids who need it most and so I just want to say on behalf of all the staff and your colleagues here um congratulations and uh you do us proud but clearly you do the whole state proud as well so if you want to say a few words and I also have a nice certificate and we're going to have the
pose yay um well thank you uh it's I'm deeply honored that um my colleagues recognize me for this but one thing I know to be true I'm getting a lot of credit for a lot of work other people do so my team across the district is amazing working um with students with
disabilities and then the leadership team whether that's at the building level or district district level also really supports our students with disabilities and for that I am forever grateful inclusion has always been the heart of my work and to see that play out in greater ways here in Prior Lake
Savage area schools is just amazing so thanks for the recognition i appreciate it glad to have you congratulations okay we'll do it tomorrow I guess all right so now I'm going to call forward uh Mr jeff Marshall who is our
district athletic director and he will have the honors of introducing um a lot of our students this evening in recognizing their uh phenomenal accomplishments along with a little bit of a presentation as well uh Mr marshall I will leave you with all the
certificates that the students will pick up at the high school thank you sir thank you and I'm just trying to get the slides up do we How do I get the slides up press escape twice
one more time and it's minimized at the bottom they're here perfect all right well good evening Superintendent Dr thomas board chair white and school board directors and other guests it is my honor and
privilege to present to you the 2024 to 25 winter activities and athletics report as well as to recognize and honor those students who have qualified for state or achieve tremendous success in their given activities from this past winter season before we begin bringing students in I wanted to share a few
reminders of our athletics and activities department as you can see on this very first slide we continue to live by our vision of students experiencing an enjoyable environment of a wide array of co-curricular activities that promote pride character
sportsmanship and development of personal and team excellence with over 75% of our student population participating in some sort of co-curricular activity this is a testament to the wide array that we offer and the enjoyable experiences our students are having within these sports
and activities as we switch to our next slide you will see what we use for a definition of success within our programs while it is always our goal to win in our competitions when we reflect back on a season our coaches advisers and students
should be looking at whether or not they created lifelong memories they developed lifelong friendships and they taught or learned lifelong lessons in addition we use the Laker acronym to define our purpose statement within our department starting with developing
moral character skills these are skills that we want our students to learn and display in all aspects of their lives not just within their sports or activities thus love appreciation kindness empathy and respect are all skills that our students and adults should reflect on and display in all
interactions within and outside of their activities the performance character skills of legacy advocacy knowledge enthusiasm and resiliency are skills that we want our students to display specifically within their sport or activity but would also carry over to
other aspects of their lives and we refer to them as skills instead of traits because traits are things that you're born with and we believe that skills are things that can be taught and it is the role of our um our mentors our coaches and our adviserss to work with our student athletes and our student
participants to work on building these skills and teaching them to them this next slide shows the participation numbers from the last two winter seasons so you can see a comparison of where things are at for student involvement a few highlights to point out our girls basketball numbers
increased enough for us to field four levels again this year something we have not been able to do for quite some time our dance numbers continue to increase and we saw the addition of a male dancer to the team this year our wrestling numbers continue to increase and while we had fewer females this year the
female number continues to grow at the middle school and youth levels so we will see that number increase in the future as well and our inter mural basketball numbers continue to be strong with well over 200 students participating in this during the winter months now at this time we will start to
highlight some of our specific activities and sports we're going to start with our activities and our non Minnesota State High School League sports weightlifting the first group we're going to bring in is our olymp our two members of our Olympic weightlifting team and looks like we only had one be
able to make it tonight this is Lillian no Lillian and Anelica Bonitez both qualified and placed at the state championships lillian finished as runner up in her category and Anelica finished as state champion for the third consecutive year this was also Anelica's
fourth year of qualifying for state both athletes have qualified for the national competition in Colorado Springs that'll be taking place in June and the team is coached by Scott Felstead congratulations Congratulations our next group of students that we're going to bring in is our DECA group this
year we had 22 students who qualified for the state championships payton Collie Tanner Long Sanjanna Ra Ravindraath Grayson Peterson Jonathan Sheay Logan Santi who's standing in front of you right now Schllock Jane Vic
Ram Candulla Bladlav Ginsburg Broden Persal Devin Zender Jesse Tupi Ashwin Mandal Benjamin Sandaval Ethan Rinsbach and Sapria Up in addition six students placed at the DECA state championships and have
qualified for the international competition taking place in Orlando later this month that is Maline Ban Maline Banis is Meline here he's not oh okay maline Banis Olivia Zerbil Josh Biscanic Drew Japa Lena Johnson and Grace Cullen the team is coached by both
Brook Whan and Gemma Kilmer and Logan congratulations congrats unfortunately we were not able to have any members of our mock trial team attend tonight uh however the mock trial blue team qualified for the state tournament again this year after advancing through regionals where they finished fourth at the state tournament
team members for this year included Veronica Cruz Bella Ellert Ikram Fida Aiden Green Brena Green Elodie Neimoth Sophia Saputo Finn Schlipchure Evelyn Timberman and Anna Wong and our mock trial is coached by
Tum Takuma Padilla Matt Bear and Fatima Aayor next we have our debate go on up there girls good job mock trial this year was the second yeah congratulations to mock trial they're not here unfortunately but um they did a fantastic job so uh this
was the second year of us being able to field a debate team um we did have two individuals who qualified for the state tournament this year which again um knowing that we only this is only the second year in existence of a debate team to have anybody qualify for state is truly um amazing so and the amazing
thing about both of these girls is they are both ninth graders and so we have Marie Forton and Shria Agarwal and a big thanks to Allison Roberts for continuing to coach the team congratulations ladies we look forward to the next three years congrats congratulations
our one act team this year there you can come on in we're I'm just giving some highlights still our one act advanced to the section final this year where they finished in third place just barely missing making it to state jenny Wit came back out of retirement to direct our competition one act this year and did a fantastic
job um our SSC visual arts exhibition um unfortunately none of them could make it here tonight but we we uh participate in the South Suburban Conference visual arts exhibition and at that exhibition Tomas Valde Valdivia won an award of achievement michelle Burlesen won an
award of excellence and Danny Nong won an award of merit uh special thanks goes out to Christy Malongren uh one of our art teachers at the high school who coordinates and organizes the entire event so congrats to our uh visual arts participants as well standing in front of you right now
is delegate Abigail Hy who participates in Model United Nations also as one of our adviserss Aaron Zimmerb sarah Summers is our other adviser uh delegate Abby won the best position paper this year for the Security Council which is a huge honor to be able to earn that that
title as part of the Security Council for the Model United Nations so congratulations Abby and both debate and model United Nations are programs that we run through the school but are technically studentled groups we have to have people who step up to advise them but those who do step up to advise them are unpaid
people who just uh do it out of the goodness of their heart to be able to continue to run these programs so a big thank you to Aaron and Zimmer for doing that as well aaron and Sarah congrats next up we have our first tech challenge also known as FTC i think quite often we
hear a lot about robotics which is the F FRC the FTC is also um similar to to the robotics program but their competitions are actually run a little bit differently than F FRC so the first tech challenge this year the team started their incredible journey on home turf
they competed in the Minnesota FTC Prior Lake qualifier that's held on Sunday November 24th last year if you've never attended that event I would highly encourage you to come out and see the high school that is completely transformed into this amazing robotics
event that happens out there because it really is miraculous to see the work that they put in to use all of the gyms the commons the entire building it's really really a neat event they competed relentlessly and finished qualification rounds at eighth place they were actually picked by the third alliance
and because they were picked by an alliance that was higher than them they ended up finishing fourth in the playoffs they then competed in the Burnsville State qualifier that was held on Saturday January 11th they ended the qualification matches in 10th place however they were picked at that point
by Alliance One to join in and work with them and they won their way through the playoffs and eventually won the tournament this then qualified them to the FTC Minnesota State Championships that were held on February 15th they went seven and one in qualifications and end up ranking second at that point and
they would go on within their alliance to become the second alliance captain and make it to the finals of their division eventually they fell short but certainly taking second place is quite a huge accomplishment they did finish second overall they didn't get an invite to the world championship but they did get an
invite to the FTC premier event where teams that were not able to make it can show off their robot and will be competing at the Michigan Premier Event on June 19th to the 22nd this is an honor that a prior lake team has not had in a long time team number 45509 the
Excalibat included the following team members sam Holm Justin Ortle Ethan Leler Jack Schmidline Harry Jen Philip Komaov and the coaches are Mike Cerillo Andrew Bannis and Martin Davis
congratulations to the FTC team i see Will's in there as a coach as well too congratulations Gentlemen next up we will be bringing in our all state band and orchestra folks these are folks who are who are uh determined to
make the all state honors for both band and orchestra we have Maline Duke for their obo playing samantha Chai playing the clarinet anna Wang playing the clarinet any Okansky playing the clarinet kale Solomon playing the French horn peter
Maize playing the trumpet henry Walls playing the tuba jack Nichollet on percussion harry Jiang on percussion in addition to those students earning all state we also have um an additional list of students who are our two 2024 to
25 Minnesota Band Directors Association state 9th through 10th honor band members which is all state for 9th and 10th graders this included Harriet Presley on the flute Austin Klehorn on the bassoon Audrey Ferraru on clarinet Jackson Vigilleti on trumpet Griffin
Bemer on trombone Alexander St helair on tuba and Andrew Coleman on percussion and we had one student who made the 2024 to 25 Minnesota Band Directors Association state 9 through10 jazz honor band and that was Austin
Klehorn on the baritone sachs playing a different instrument than he played for um the honor band where he played the bassoon so our directors are Keith Kulmoose and Justin ShraMM congratulations to all of you on earning all state congrats
and I know that you'll be hearing in a little bit um some stories and information about the Greece trip uh many of those students who are up here on the Greece trip i had the uh I guess I can say privilege and honor i'm not sure if that's those are the right terms to use when describing chaping a trip to
Greece with 150 high schoolers but um it was quite the experience we brought them all back so um you bring them all back that means that it was a a successful trip so and again I know Keith will be coming up and sharing a little bit about that in a little bit coming in now are a number of our choir students these are
our all state choir students for 2425 uh the 2526 results have not been posted yet we had nine students earn all state this year for choir sarah Langage Amy Weaver Ree Olsen Connor McCrae Jonah
Baker Leo Choy Mason Bass Zack Glum and Rowan Wilson and our directors for the choir are both Randy Erson and Rob Han couple really uh interesting facts and statistics about All State Choir typically the maximum number of singers
allowed to earn All State from any school is six this past year Prior Lake High School was the exception to that rule we had nine no other high school in the state got as many as Prior Lake High School and nor has it ever happened before our six teners and bases were the
ones who first filled in the slots they filled in the allowed six slots for Prior Lake High School mmea the the governing body had not even begun to seat the Sopranos and Altos so they when they went to seat the sopranos and altos they found that all three of the prior
lake high school uh students were in the top five for their respective parts and two of the three were actually in the top three in the state so that when MMEA realized this they were willing to withhold ex they were unwilling to withhold acceptance from such strong candidates they knew that these
candidates had to be a part of this and so again they bent their rules to allow all nine to be able to do this in the state there are just over 450 schools that have juniors and senior students who are eligible for all state when you
look at the all-state um numbers however 20% approximately 20% every year actually come from the South Suburban Conference which is the conference that we are in so it also shows not only the depth and the strength of Prior Lake High School but also the depth and the
strength of the conference in which we are in especially when only seven out of 10 of those schools within the conference are ones who are actually uh competing for this so congratulations to all of you this truly is an amazing honor congrats congratulations
at this time we are going to switch over now to our Minnesota State High School League sponsored athletic teams from this past winter unfortunately our alpine skiers were not able to make it uh but our alpine skiers repeated as girls conference champions they were the section six champions um meaning that
they qualified for state by winning the section at the state championships they finished in third place overall team members were Annabelle McCann Coven Rice Olivia Reid Emily Reid Ashley Schaefer and Elizabeth McCross McCrosski and they were coached by Dave Everson and Anna Smothers congrats to our girls alpine
ski team in front of you is one of our members of our girls Nordic ski team Brooke Markwart brooke was one of the captains for our Nordic ski team this year the team took second in section one uh by finishing in the top two they qualified for the state championship as a team this was the first time ever in
the history of the school that we've qualified for um the Nordic Ski Championships as a team um which was a huge accomplishment um our the team members who qualified for state were Brooke Markwart Sophia Bile Elelliana Recmeire Sarah Rich Samantha Rich
Caitlyn and Kate House and the team is coached by Paige Larson Jake Styley and Sean Straa congratulations Brooke and congratulations to the Nordic skiers congratulations both of our basketball programs had tremendous seasons this past year our
boys basketball program finished 22-7 overall 13-5 in the South Suburban Conference losing an unbelievably tough section final to Shakipi but worthy of note for both of our basketball teams is we had two individuals who actually surpassed a thousand career points unfortunately neither of them could be
with us tonight but Norbu Jmpa surpassed a thousand career points for the boys team he was coached by Brian Youngworth and on the girls side our team finished 21-6 overall 13-4 in the South Suburban Conference they lost to Minnetonka by one point in the section semi-finals and
just a heartbreaker but Brie Bowman she surpassed a thousand career points um as well which is again a huge accomplishment and she is coached by Maurice Hodes so congrats to both of our thousand point scorers in basketball our boys swimming and diving unfortunately the individuals were not
able to make it tonight most of them are actually in the pool training right now as they get ready for either college or to to participate next year on our high school team but our boys swimming and diving team finished 9 and0 in the conference they finished as conference champs once again they finished third at the state doubleA championships repeating as the 200 medley relay state
champs that was Ethan Kosen Owen Badett Griffin Lining and Braxton Helmers in addition you can see from that list the number of other U placeholders that we had u which really covered almost every event at the state meet the only event that they did not score in was the 100 freestyle otherwise we had people
scoring in every event at the state meet um again finishing third overall for the second straight year uh coaches were Joe Bowlinger Andy Weiss Joe Selchow Julia uh Julia Andorok and Kylie Seban congratulations to the boys swimming and diving
team so you might find something that's kind of unique on these five individuals standing in front of you that's not all their natural hair colors i can tell you that right now these are some of our wrestlers who are up here right now and our wrestling team finished seven-2 this year in the South Suburban
Conference going into the section meet they were seated third second were seated second going into the section meet because they had lost to Apple Valley perennial wrestling superpower in the conference in the section they had lost to them during the season at the section tournament however
they were able to come back and to beat Apple Valley in the section in the section finals to qualify for the team state tournament for the first time since 2015 john's up there saying that was pretty easy it looks like um it was an amazing experience to be able to take the whole team down to the
XL Energy Center and to be able to have them wrestle down there where they finished in sixth place overall um at the state tournament in addition we had four individual state qualifiers this year team members included Rockco Michelisac who also qualified
individually Chase Foster Dai Brown Michael Atkinson Liam Collins who also finished sixth as an individual Jack Gerstead Brody Daly Owen Tronson Wyatt Smith Zack Gabler Brady Gagenheimer John
Graham who also qualified individually Garrett Wood Scott Hendris Charlie Nelson Tommy Wyoff Isaiah Olabody Brock Zern who finished third individually Alex Tmaine and Adam Jerulis our wrestling team is coached by head coach
Joe Block Alex Head John Tolbert Clint Hodgegen Bill Gabler and certainly a slew of other volunteers because you have to have a lot of different wrestling coaches to be able to help out at all the different uh wrestling weights that are out there the other piece I want to point out is that our
head coach Joe Black who I know is here somewhere the state class AAA coach of the year the best coach in the entire state for AAA for this past year congratulations coach congratulations congratulations next we're going to bring in our
cheerleaders and our cheerleaders have made it a habit of of uh being able to be here year in and year out the success of our cheerleading program is absolutely incredible this year they were competing in a different division and when we talk about the cheerleading program and the success
that they have it isn't at a state level it's at a national level every year our cheerleaders qualify for the national championships that take place down in Orlando Florida in in uh early February this
year at the UCA Nationals our varsity team took second place in the nation for the medium varsity game day competition and fifth place in the medium varsity traditional competition again second in the nation and fifth in the nation for
both of theirs on the JV side who also qualifies for nationals every year our JV squad took first place national champs in the small game day division and they took fifth place in the nation in the small traditional division so
again these girls make up some of the best cheerleading and one of the best cheerleading programs in the nation our varsity members include Ava Bildo Azera Olsen Caris Taylor Josie Belin Payton
Johnson Stella Goodman Willow Blatsky Ella Arbach Hattie McGilly Kate Cusera Caitlyn Clout Lindseay Higgins Madison Pickinpack Morgan Nemichek Kylie Gerky
Payton Sukup Reese Guggamos Llaya Kramer and Taylor Caspers and our JV squad includes Brooklyn Clam Cameron Fangle Dari Anise Dilly Esme Brics Evie Fischer
Camry Walters Key Stewart Kira Young Lealia Cron Miller Mava Goodman Molly Zack Piper Brown Quinn Willie Sadie Kronm Miller Sydney Long Tenley Arbach and Tenley Canwell and our coaches for
cheerleading are Mattie Bills Britney Ryan Megan Musil Pam Sonic and Kaylee Brown congratulations to all of you congratulations thank you guys i'm upset you guys didn't do a pyramid or something congrats we can totally
The final team we're going to recognize tonight is our gymnastics team our gymnastics team this year took second at section 2A um just barely missing qualifying for the state tournament as a team all right they did have five individual state qualifiers i believe some of them are Yep here we come
five individual state qualifiers this year that is a school record for the most amount of gymnasts ever sent to state in addition the team broke the school record in terms of the overall team score they scored the highest um score that a team has ever scored from Prior Lake High School and they also
broke the school record as a team on vault beam and floor our state qualifiers were Maline Shapi in floor exercise and vault annie Drain in the all-around the uneven bars the balance beam where she took fifth place the floor exercise and vault claire Drain on
uneven bars avalness on the vault and Brooklyn Thorson on balance beam and fuller exercise annie Dra becomes the second ever medalist at state where she finished in fifth and she became the second most decorated Parlake gymnast of all time with three state appearances
congratulations to the girls and our coaches Patrick Clchner Liv Spitzer Julie Seagull Amanda Macier and Kimberly New congratulations girls congratulations we have two other uh awards that we are going to recognize tonight and these are
awards that are sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League the first is called the Excel Award the Excel Award stands for Excellence in Community Education and Leadership and it's a unique recognition program designed exclusively for Minnesota high school juniors who are active in school
activities are leaders in their schools and who demonstrate a strong commitment to community service this award is sponsored by the league's corporate part corporate partner True Stone Financial Credit Union and this year the two recipients from Prior Lake High School for the Excel Award are Taylor Hendrickson unfortunately Taylor
couldn't be with us tonight and Sid Callum congratulations congratulations congrats congrats and our final award uh the Minnesota State High School League sponsored the AAA award and AAA stands for um athletics arts and academics the
academics arts and athletics award commonly known as aa award honors high school seniors throughout the state who have extremely high GPA and who participate in league sponsored athletic and fine arts activities aaa award recipients are selected through a multi-level process
involving member schools of the league the league's administrative regions and a special committee of educators business leaders and members from the fine arts and athletic communities our male AAA winner this year was Sam Holm um unfortunately Sam was unable to be with us tonight our female AAA winner
this year was Brooke Marquart who's standing in front of you uh Brooke was very unique because we are we're pretty sure pretty pretty sure that Brooke is the first AAA recipient from Prior Lake High School who actually won the next level she was chosen as the region winner as well which then means that she
went on to the state level competition uh where they had a nice lunchon for her during the state basketball tournament and she was actually recognized during halftime of one of the state basketball championship games down at Williams Arena so again a huge honor to win not only the the state or the school level
but also to go on and be able to win the region level for the AAA award so congratulations Brooke in closing I just want to say thank you i want to say thank you to all of you who are sitting here in front i want to say thank you to all of you who are sitting here in the audience whether you're parents grandparents family
members fans uh we get fantastic support in this community for our arts athletics and activities and it is very very exciting to see um without a doubt our teachers and administrators our coaches and our adviserss the district office staff as I mentioned custodial staff at
the schools who help support us um and most importantly the wonderful student participants and spectators that we have as well because they really do make us proud um between the sportsmanship that they display but in addition the sportsmanship and the respect that they
display when they're in the stands is is very top-notch and I'm very proud of our students and our community because of the things that they continue to show so thank you very much i appreciate this opportunity to be able to come out and honor these students okay Chair White I've got uh just one
more um this evening and um you heard earlier that our band went on a um uh trip of a lifetime to showcase their skills and talents across uh the globe
in Greece and uh directors Keith and Justin they are phenomenal um at their craft your ability to connect and support our students you know whether it's locally here Chicago or you like I said in Greece we are really proud of the work that you do and I can't thank
you enough and really proud of our students as well so thank you so much for facilitating this uh great opportunity for our kids to not only perform but also get a nice immersive cultural experience of something that's a little different than Prior Lake and uh uh and probably something that
they'll uh remember forever so with that I'll turn it over to you to showcase a little bit of uh the uh experience for our kids well thank you Dr thomas and members of the board uh for having us for for this invitation to share a little bit they say pictures worth a thousand words so I will try to do it by
pictures mostly um this of course what you see here before you is one of the touring sites that we got to see it's the um the largest and the oldest um theater in the world um in Epidaris in the Masonian uh uh spot and it just seemed like it was a good background to
start our little tour um of course we were a performance tour and so the performance was the big thing of why we even went at all and um while there weren't you know festivals or things we were a part of we created a space to perform in um our tour partners with
Grand Tours um had a number of other bands from the Minnesota area and a lot of these other bands had already been to these towns and these loc so we were kind of the grand finale of a month-long of series of concerts um through through them uh the first performance right away
so we left on a Thursday we got to our hotel in Naflio just two hours yet so so all the flights and then a 2-hour bus ride to Naflio on the first night so we got it all the way there um so Thursday to Friday night Saturday morning we got
got a little fresh air went out to Msia we'll do a little bit of that but that night that Saturday night already our first performance and again Naflio welcomed us um they had a stage set up um for us and had lighting because of course at that time it was about 700 p.m
there a little darker their um daylight savings was that night so we got to experience that but nobody was on any time schedule yet so it was just fine even though it was an hour shorter than the night before but again there you see we are in Naflio in their town square um
the I think the kids were surprised by the audience that was assembled as well and a number of people approached me afterwards saying "Oh my gosh you're a public school like how does this work?" and all these many many many many questions um about how we do this in in both the states and in Minnesota and
specifically to our community as well um and then from there we went up to the north of the Pelpineese back over to the mainland and we performed again in ATA and again this town you can see same time frame it's just a little lighter um but they still had lights up for us um
near the Oracle of Delelfi um and so that's part of why we got to the the locations we did there was stuff to see there as well as a very welcoming community the gentleman there you see welcoming us is the mayor former mayor um and he's an expat from the United States that has embraced this town as
his own and and brings lots of people and and brought great support for our kids while we were there again you can see us on the waterfront some beautiful pictures there uh the kids are facing uh hilltops and where the deli um location of the archaeological dig is is visible
from from where they they stood um and again more more Lakers in in their gear and what I thought was the big performance was back in Athens um we performed in the Metropolitan Cathedral Town Square um and this particular
location um they don't have kings and queens in Greece anymore but when they did this is where they were coronated uh in this this location so very central to the heart of of Greece um and they welcomed us there um our uh performance was so wellreceived that the priest came
out and said "Hey if your kids want to come on in and and and look around we'd love to welcome them in." And so a number of our kids did we had to disassemble things at that point because we had to get ready for our flight already well like I said the performances are what made the the the trip um our kids always play great but
there was a little something extra uh you stand up a little taller when you're playing for people you don't know and and and and just there's a little more pride they they they shouted P R I O R L A K E just a little more precise and and
and just a little deeper than than not that they don't when they're here but but there was just something special about all of that that they represented very well so you know the sightseeing of course they were very um uh able to take in we had wonderful guides that gave us
all the information and all the stories you saw the mian we went to Olympia we got to see as you see here they're going into the stadium and they got to run their 200 meters um and uh and test their their their health um some of them
took longer to recover for the museum but but it was a museum time and we did okay they had olive branches we talked about all those different things um that we were able to see there um that was again just on the first day and the second day in Olympia and then we went up to Delelfi after our second
performance already and this is where the oracle and all that advice giving that was given out by by the people of that time um and again there we have some of our Lakers just taking in all the the many many uh new ideas and thoughts also a theater very prized
thing of that time certainly so every place had to have their their theater if they also had their sports arenas uh think a lesson for us there perhaps um and again just you see the beautiful beautiful sites up in Delelfi we're up in the mountains and and and looking um through the
vastness of all of Greece um and of course the Parthonon and the Acropolis um and so that's where you see Lakers taking that in um unbelievable um and you see when you're in the city itself and then you're looking up oh this is
where all of that was um and you can see how the people of the time would have made this into such a great and wonderful uh place again so much history the kids took it in um it it was just cool enough that we didn't get sweaty when we were walking around there was
one day they were able to get in the water in the beach everybody thought we were crazy this isn't that day but that's okay um but then we also took a little boat cruise of the surrounds and so just um a full day uh we left at 8:00 in the morning we got back to port at 7:00 saw three islands Poros Hydra and
Agina um and very ilic um some of it we went along the mainland coastline some of it was completely um through through water and then just to the island in itself um but you always see just these little dots of of all these places um the hotels were very nice um we had time
and space to be able to have the kids be kids as well um in addition to taking it all in addition to the doing the great things of performing um they were able to um have food have the great great food here you see our last hotel just kind of an idea of what the buffet line looked like you've seen buffets of
course but when when there's real kamal kalamada olives when there's real um feta cheese it and the and the yogurt well you know it's Greece so you get Greek yogurt um we did some dancing we had uh meals offsite as well um and we
had folk dancers that were dancing to the music brought the kids out onto the dance floor it was not hard to get them out on the dance floor uh there you see a gentleman uh in garb and uh shouting of course opa and the kids got very good
at that as well again time to be with friends the kids were very good at finding time uh and using that time to get to know each other better it was always interesting even though these kids are all in band they're in five different bands and to see who they chose to be with that social element
that that developed and for us to see that in in new and different ways was really really exciting uh from a teacher perspective as well and so you know the kids were great um this was a note that was sent along by their free day shopping in the old town in Athens uh
which was uh within a walkable distance from the hotel and we gave them you know groups of four or five and when there weren't well we got told and we were informed and then we found them and then we they had a chap room buddy um but this was brought to us by a uh student
that said "Hey you're part of this group?" Yeah here they stuffed a couple things in there and then said "Take this to your your chaprons." And what was inside was what's called the evil eye and it's essentially a good luck charm warding off the the evil you know glances and stairs not that there were
any of those but it's it's it's if you've been to Athens you would know it and see it very prominently um so it was a good luck gesture given from the people who our kids were buying from and interacting with on the streets so I thought that was a wonderful thing and of course this doesn't happen without
some good supervision and oversight and we had a crack crew of chaperrons that came along with us including Mr marshall and and Mrs fuller from the activities office along with other teachers from the high school who all know kids and and knew that when a kid was dragging a
little bit behind knew to give a little extra attention and hey what's going on and and figure all these things out and yes there were relationships that started there were relationships that ended all of the things that that you expect might happen uh in the course of a tour and we got through it okay but
thank you for all that you do to support kids and our students in in all the things that they do um that's really all I have to share unless there are questions but um please know that we appreciate all that you do in support of all of our kids so thank you so much
oh this is for real okay mr i just want to say as a parent who um had a student on the trip um just how wonderful everything went from um the beginning of the trip a year ago to now um you guys your team did a great job and um I'm so grateful for the
volunteers that really sacrificed their entire spring break to fly multiple flights and um battle jet leg and um really over you know volunteer to be with these kids so they could have this amazing lifetime experience so thank you
that's awesome thank you all right next on the agenda is the superintendence report dr thomas thank you Chair White board of directors um just a couple of things I'll share with you all um I think mid year we discussed
uh a postreerendum survey and just kind of where we're at with um you know what the communities were were thinking and um we talked to Morris Leman who did our pre- survey and uh I I'm very thankful
and appreciative of Peter and the team and he said "Listen I'll I'll save you $30,000 and I'll tell you the two reasons why it didn't pass." And uh given all the other post uh surveys that he's done just given our financial reality he knew that that probably
wouldn't be a good uh uh spend of our resources but he said economic insecurity and property taxes two dominant things as to why a majority of uh levies did not um pass in the metro area he said given um our turnout and
the rate that we did get support he said that was quite surprising because he wouldn't anticipate that given the the situations that many in throughout the country were in to have that high of a support obviously it didn't pass but still one of the things that he just said if you're going to do it do it on your own versus doing it through us
because that's what we're going to tell you and that's what we're finding across the entire metro area um with that said uh Christine and I talked and we are going to be doing a survey um that will uh launch uh tomorrow and run through the 29th of April and this is something
that we'll manage inhouse and obviously we don't have the same capacity as a Morris Leatherman um or the statistical analysis tools but we are going to hear from our community um and we'll be posting this on our website posting it in public spaces our libraries etc so
folks from our community can do this one of the things I will share with the board is that our ability to survey just the random public um obviously is not the same as Morris Leman um if that is something we want to do we did uh
ballpark about $5,400 it would cost us if we wanted to do some type of postcard mailer um to get it printed put the survey on there you know and mail it to everyone so they can do that um so that is something I'll probably talk to some of you offline about um but we'll see
what our feedback and our turnout is on our own internal um but again April 15th to the April 29th um it's open to all of our community members who wish to share their thoughts and experiences and I will say that if you do receive that survey because you're a parent and that's our our uh population that we can
easily access I will just ask our community to openly share that survey as well and help you know word of mouth spread that um and so again it's open to all the results may not provide a complete representation because we're not doing target searches and all that but we're just going to do a general
open call for um feedback and then a summary of that feedback will be collected and we'll be sharing that with the school board and district leadership so that we all can have discussions as to what the future may hold um should that be a conversation that we want to entertain moving forward so stay tuned
for that more to come there um over spring break we began uh the branding um process of our strategic plan um you know I I shared with some of our students and some of our staff namely some of our students we're talking about what is being on brand look like and
many of our students understand various brands that they support whether it's clothing brands music icons etc they understand branding and marketing so that was pretty impressive to have that conversation with our kids but really engaging them because they were part of the strap process as well as part of the
um the uh learner attribute process and understanding that we need to become what we espouse ourselves to be in print and so over spring break we began with our new iterations of district signage um it was my last week's Fridays 5 um if
you notice when you walked in today on the outdoor windows you'll see our big vision placards that are on every main entryway and then there will also be the entire strategic plan i was looking around the room if we had one here they will be coming um that will be in main
adult corridors in all of our schools as well our conference rooms and then we have an array of signs that buildings can purchase that have a lot of our values our priorities as well as our learner attributes and those become onbrand recognition so when you walk
into a Prior Lake Savage area school we own the front marquee from a district standpoint um as well as some key adult spaces within that building where adults would look at our plan and understand kind of the hard work that went into that and then the schools um will have a
combination of some of the things that they've produced as well as some of the signs that we've produced um that are aligning to our new strategic plan so um be looking at those as those are starting to um be put up and you heard me all throughout the strategic planning process that it's not just a shelf
document this is a living breathing document all of our work is being aligned to that and from an administration standpoint this is serving as our northstar and um and this is something that we will continually you know rally our resources around to ensure that we are meeting kind of the
expectations of what we heard from our community throughout that engagement process um of developing that new plan um so again be looking out for that um uh I will just share that I have my annual realtor meeting coming up at the end of April from 10 to 11:00 here at
the DSC it's again a great opportunity for me to learn um kind of what's happening in the market around us namely rooftops that might have babies um it's always a good thing uh Chair White and I um he joined his first quarterly meeting with all of our elected officials our
mayors um uh and uh some of our police chiefs as well uh just was that this week friday yeah last Friday um and uh one of the things that I will share is that there is some new developments coming into our district um it's not going to change drastically overnight
but there are about uh 40 to 50 homes that uh Prior Lake is uh going to be bringing online in that 600 to $700,000 price range and there are conversations about some other um kind of family
slashcommercial land that's been um kind of in and out of discussions for many many years as I understand it i'll just leave that one there um and it sounds like uh there's a great opportunity that there could be you know a significant chunk of land developed for both housing
and commercial um that's right in our um uh uh district proper if you will on the Prior Lake side so a lot of good opportunities and then lastly I will say we got some updates recently too um around uh the gravel pit area by HRE and
that there are uh they are grading the next phases of that Keeland development i believe it's going to remain Keeland and uh as well as a very massive park that will be center to that um community larger than many other Savage parks as well so a lot of exciting opportunity
there so um it's also a way for uh me to bring a lot of conversation to our real estate agents who um have families coming literally from all over the place coming here for the first time out of country out of state and wondering where should they go and where should they
move and we want to make sure that our realtors understand all of what's happening that's great about our district so they can sell our district and and obviously sell houses um as well so it's a it's a real reciprocal relationship that I have so that's coming up and then lastly just give um
our board and our community update just before spring break um I joined a team uh with uh the Minnesota Association of School uh Administrators of about six of us that went out to Washington DC to lobby federally um I have spent many of
days lobbying at the capital here i've never been out to DC to do this work um it really deepened my appreciation for our elected officials not something I could ever do so thank you to all of our Minnesota delegates who are are both locally here as well as serving at the
federal level and bringing our collective voice to that national um platform um we divided and conquered and met with all of our federal delegates um and both Republicans as well as Democrats um and then we also rounded out our experience with the Department
of Education um and it's very different it's it's very uh empty so you can definitely feel um the tenor out in DC right now there's a lot of uh a lot of buzz but not what you typically see in DC it's kind of a sombering buzz so a
lot of change is happening as we all know we can watch any kind of news reel or feeds that we get with our social media um a lot is happening federally and we want to make sure that as those things continue to unfold at least within education um we in Minnesota as
well as you know selfishly speaking us here in Prior Lake bring our voices to the table and I'll just say there are key topics that we brought forward um on that trip and um one of them was our sped our special education cross subsidy
this is something that starts uh woefully uh underfunded from the federal and continues to get underfunded um by the time it reaches districts we've made up a little bit of ground here locally so thank you to all of our folks in the legislature here in Minnesota who are doing a fantastic job getting additional
resources with the federal mandates um but again be great if our federal partners could follow uh that lead and really fully fund things that really matter so that we're not robbing Peter to pay Paul constantly here at the local level spent a lot of time talking about grow your own um no surprise finding um
quality educators whether they're licensed certified folks or non-certified we need folks to come into education and that pipeline is something that is really concerning to many districts across the country and so we brought a lot of uh examples of
abilities to com uh do your own grow your own for example our non-certified programs giving specialized rates with higher ed institutions to get teacher uh their bachelors or get teaching licenses so that we can have a continuous pipeline of high-quality folks coming in
to fill um uh many vacancies um throughout the entire country namely here our our Minnesota delegates so that was a big conversation um we also talked about uh the maintenance of federal title funding and ensuring that the
title funding that has been earmarked um really stays in effect so kind of hold harmless with our title and then lastly maintaining public funds for public schools there's a lot of conversations around um voucher type programs or p privatizations of public schools and so
again our appeal um to our federal de delegates were the fact that we want to make sure that you know with um our public tax dollars that are they are funding our public learning spaces um so that was another conversation point that we brought out so that's an update on on
our uh federal lobbying efforts um and just uh the the last thing I'll share is um I think it must have been around February um every school district received a dear colleague letter from
the Department of Education um making certain demands around DEI initiatives and things of that nature that was kind of following along the line of our current federal administration on a variety of executive orders um that
really kind of um sat kind of in a space you know for us here in Minnesota because in Minnesota we have um uh state human rights laws that actually supersede any executive federal executive orders and so our attorney
general um issued a statement on on this and or not a statement an opinion which effectively becomes the law of the land and so at that point everything was kind of holding as is here in the state of Minnesota and you probably saw the same news reel as I saw lot of challenges
going on in terms of what's happening federally with the states and unfortunately I think we get kind of caught in some of that crossfire um a variety of nonprofits public sector you know institutions etc um but just over spring break we had the second dear
colleague letter that's supposed to clarify the initial dear colleague letter of exactly what we weren't supposed to be doing and I think it caused more confusion than anything else um it didn't really clarify much more um
but I will say that my conversations out in DC with the Department of Education was really kind of pushing for clarity around this and uh you know I gave a clear example of how we uh built uh or remodeled a a new playground for early
childhood um and it be was one of our uh first inclusive playground spaces and you know I you know really pushed and said that clearly falls under the eye of DEI for inclusion so am I going to go to jail you know like help me understand as a superintendent when I hear all this
national rhetoric about you know this acronym what are you really saying what does it really mean and what is the real problem you're trying to solve for and so that that was a respectful push that I offered with you know not much clarity given saying that a letter will be
coming and so we received that letter and um and again I think um a lot of more questions than anything um our commissioner responded on behalf of the state of Minnesota um essentially stating that what's being asked in these
letters to to basically sign a certification um vowing that you're not breaking any federal human rights law around DEI um initiatives um in the state of Minnesota that are receiving federal funding otherwise your federal funding could be at risk of being pulled and you know one
of the statements that our commissioner shared is that and this is true for all states when you receive federal funding you sign a a statement of assurance basically stating we by accepting this we will not break any federal laws we already do that we've been doing that for as long as we've had federal funding
so the again I think the respectful push was what are you really asking us to do if we already doing something you're asking why would we have to do this twice and so there's going to be some back and forth um board and our community around this issue um so we
will continue to abide um by what is right for kids um we are a public educational system that serves all students no matter who they are and how they show up in our classrooms every single day and that's non-negotiable as your superintendent and uh and that's something that I will continue to push
for as we work you know to um doing what's best for our community and ultimately for our students and our families and our staff so um those are my updates on the federal advocacy trip as well as some of the DOE uh chatter that's kind of going back and forth between states and the federal
government right now so I'm I'm sure more will come um so just stay tuned as we learn more i will share more okay and with that Chair I'll turn it to you all right thank you Dr thomas if uh Director Dah would like to make his way to the podium we have a series
of uh approclamations uh before you tonight in your packet the first one is uh National Volunteer Appreciation Week which Prior Lake uh Savage Schools will be recognizing April 21st through the 25th
2025 director D thank you good evening Chair White members of the board and Dr thomas um I don't know if uh are we going to read the proclamation okay um so youth uh we've got a couple different proclamations here that I'll be covering
um the first one is the volunteer uh proclamation first of all thank you for recognizing the amazing volunteers who provide countless hours of their time and energy and resources to support our students and our schools specifically I want to recognize our community
education advisory council which is made up of community members um business owners um partners in our city's parks and recck programs um all of them are volunteers to sit on our council and help support our mission and provide
valuable insight to assist us in our program planning as well as meeting the needs of our community so again thank you for recognizing the many volunteers in our schools and in our community thank you second proclamation is uh the district will be recognizing April 21st
through the 25th as afterchool professionals appreciation week yes again thank you for recognizing all of the afterchool professionals that work uh in our district we have many talented individuals who support our students during their out of school time and experiences to ensure that they have
safe spaces where they can continue their learning um and meeting their friends and just enjoying some time together specifically our Kids Company program truly has some of the most caring creative and committed staff whose top priority is always the safety of the children they serve they're
dedicated to serving the whole child and providing a safe space before and after school that encourages positive growth and development allowing each student to reach their full potential as a learner here in the Prior Lake Savage area schools so thank you again for recognizing all of our afterchool
professionals thank you our next proclamation is that the district will be recognizing April 21st through the 25th as youth appreciation week and again thank you for recognizing the many talented young individuals in our
community who make a difference each and every day i'm going to invite up Dan Steer who's one of our Prior Lake High School Junior Optimus uh adviserss just to share a little bit more about our junior optimist okay thank you uh Mr dah thank you um Dr
thomas Chairman White school board all present um I do advise the Junior Optimist Club um so in that capacity I'm here representing really all the youth in the community whom you are um honoring by that proclamation uh it is
remarkable to me the depth and the commitment that the depth of the commitment that kids in this community have to service uh when I took over as one of the advisers of the Junior Optimist Club some years ago um being of a certain age I was wondering how I
could possibly motivate kids to do service when they were so so much younger even than my own kids and uh honestly I just had to um provide a couple opportunities and get out of the way so since then uh the junior optimist club at the high school has grown to be
the largest in the world um if wow by a significant margin with 250 active members yeah strictly speaking that wasn't part of my script but that does it does it does find its way in um and we do um that does represent 10% of the
enrollment of the high school which I think is truly astonishing so in that respect we are representative even though we're just one club we are representative of of the uh the entire youth community here so I just wanted to introduce a couple of our members these
are not just any members these are our two uh picks for youth appreciation this year in a club of 250 it's difficult to stand above everyone else but these two certainly have this year um in the white we've got Clarissa Harris who is a
sophomore clarissa has done um since the school year began she's averaged one service project every week uh she's currently doing has done the most service hours of anybody in the club which is no small feat and um standing next to her is Kavia Mupiti who is a
senior kavia um along with her colleague Nissa France um runs two mentoring programs that we do in the middle schools so each month she puts on a program she meets with the teachers responsible for um those classes and the
middle school junior optimist club and they put together a um a learning and life skill program where they recruit volunteers to help them and they uh execute those programs so um I don't actually have a way of
wrapping this up so uh anyway thanks you very much for the the proclamation and um and your support uh community ed we appreciate your support because uh youth appreciation is a is an optimist international program but um here in
Prior Lake and Savage it has the benefit of uh support from community ed which really gives it the traction that it needs to become something more than just a bunch of old um optimists um you know talking so thanks
everybody for that support thank you our next proclamation uh is that the district will be recognizing April 21st through 25th as administrative support professionals week director Herman Chair White members of the board thank you
very much for another proclamation we're really heavy on all amazing stuff this this week um and wanted to to give a special shout out to our administrative support staff these dedicated team members really perform essential functions throughout our district to ensure that our schools and programs run
smoothly every day whether it's aligning substitute coverage um to scheduling assessments generating required state and federal reports tracking budgets ordering supplies coordinating logistics for meetings um uh events programs and so so much more their work is foundational to the success of our
district and we appreciate your recognition of their efforts and the vital role that they play in supporting our students staff um families and community members so thank you very much thank you thank you and our final proclamation for the evening is that the district will be recognizing April 28th
through May 2nd as National Principles Association Week director Edwards thank you Chair White members of the board uh great opportunity to recognize the leaders in our system that on a day-to-day basis at each of our sites uh
provide that unwavering commitment to the experience for our students i mean tonight we've celebrated a number of students and the great opportunities that they've had outside of the classroom uh principles are behind that and supporting that uh we obviously know that the success of our students uh
begins with great classroom teachers but great classroom teachers need great principles to lead uh the buildings in order to be successful in the proclamation it states all the various uh responsibilities and I work handinhand with our principles on a daily basis from a 7 a.m text or phone
call to a 9:00 p.m text or phone call uh related to making sure that our schools can function as they need to so that our students can come each and every day to a safe supportive environment where they can uh excel at whatever uh aspect uh
they're focusing on whether it be their academics their co-curriculars or their service to community as we just recognized so our principles do an amazing job of supporting uh our great students thank you thank you thank you all
right next on the agenda is the open forum this is a 15-minute period of time set aside to receive citizen input tonight we have one speaker so we have Michael Gillis would like to step forward chair White board members Dr thomas good evening my name is Michael
Gillis i'm a resident of Prior Lake a voter and taxpayer and a parent of students in Prior Lake Savage Area Schools i see on the agenda on the agenda for tonight's meeting there is a resolution that includes eliminating the position of director of equity and inclusion all members of our community
should be concerned by this now it seems that some people are terrified of words like equity and inclusion whether they've arrived at fear through misinformation willful ignorance or cynical malevolence each person's journey to that place of fear is unique
and their path back to understanding uncertain i hope that such people will come to see these words mean something that we've long held as ideals in this country equality of opportunity and a level playing field equity and inclusion means that something that was practiced in the past whether it was 50 years ago
or last week doesn't pass muster on tradition alone it means we strive for giving each student the best opportunity to have the best educational experience that we can offer equity means making sure that a student who needs special accommodations for a class isn't forced
to miss that opportunity to learn and grow with their peers inclusion means that every student in our district is a Laker and while they might be different in almost every aspect of their background or their learning or their ability they are no more or less a Laker than the next student we are all Lakers
and we are one prior lake your position as board members is not enviable you put in many hours of work for our community and you must withstand criticism for decisions you make and even some that you probably have no part in the elimination of the director of equity
and inclusion one of many eliminations and non-renewals on tonight's agenda was no doubt a difficult decision for you to make we are a district with several hundred students receiving special education services or English language services or sometimes both we're a
district with students coming from homes with different belief systems and traditions different educational backgrounds different home cultures and different languages all that being said we are still all Lakers and we should all still be one Prior Lake eliminating
the position of director of equity and inclusion sends a signal that Prior Lake Savage Area Schools perhaps does not value uniqueness or fairness that students should hope they meet some sort of standardized expectation if they are going to succeed here that signal should be of concern to everyone in the
community i trust that in elim eliminating the position of director of equity and inclusion that the district has a plan in place to ensure that no students school experiences are hindered by their background or their ability i look forward to the district sharing
that plan very soon thank you thank you Part: 2
all right uh next on the agenda is the approval of the agenda i'll entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda so made by Director France second second by Director Bullan all in favor signify by saying I i
opposed that carries 70 next on the agenda is the consent agenda before I ask for a motion is there any board member or member of the audience would like to pull anything on the consent agenda uh Chair Wade I'd like to pull 10 C the
monthly financial report please okay so 10 C we'll move just uh after leaves of absence then on right before resolution can we pull 10 A7 the monthly check detail please did you say A7 10 A7 yes
thank you all right and that will come right after the financial report at the end then if there is nothing else I will uh entertain a motion to approve uh the consent agenda minus uh 10 A7 and 10 C
is there a motion so made by Director Johnson second second by Director France any discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion carries
70 all right we'll move down then and take the monthly financial report is there a motion to accept the month monthly financial report so made by Director Atkinson is there a second second by Director Johnson uh
discussion yeah thank you um I just had a question for um director Frederickson on the February monthly um highlights which is on I believe it's really the second page of the report um regarding our unassign unassigned fund balance um
which is estimated for February at 8.4 million which is 6.86% um 6 8.86% and then per our board policy 701.2 to anything under 8% um um per
policy basically says that as a board um should be we need to be able to review it and address it and I just wanted to understand um more about the fund balance certainly thank you Director Atinson
Chair White members of the board um as I have um said several times in the past at at several different meetings one of the things that we don't really have a lot of control over in the district is our revenue streams coming in uh and
that's no different in this case um if you'll notice on the cash flow report um there is no property tax payment coming into the district in February last month when we discussed the uh financial
statements we had anticipated having about $2.5 million of local property tax come in that did not happen there's two times during the year that the county does not send us u property tax money it's usually when they're collecting the
property taxes uh so in October we typically don't get a payment and then in uh March we typically don't get a payment so we were kind of anticipating a payment in February which we did not get however um we as you know in the
levy process uh we have levied for $20 million that is exactly how much we're going to get by the end of the year in the levy so um as we discussed last month um we were anticipating our uh fund balance in February to be a little
over 9% and if you do the calculation if we had gotten that $2.6 million in property tax payment it would have been 9.1% I believe um because that didn't happen um
the fund balance is sitting at 6.86 however I can say if you look at um the balance sheet which I know we had a uh conversation last month about whether the balance sheet was a valued um report
to look at but if we do look at the balance sheet from the end of January you can see that the unassigned fund balance was $7.6 million um at the end of February in your latest
financial report it's 8.4 so you can see that we have in fact increased the amount of unassigned fund balance that we have um also if you look at the cash flow report um if you look at the cash flow report
from last month we anticipated the expenses in February to be 11.7 million but as we've also said we have taken a lot of steps in trying to find efficiencies and cutting costs whenever we can so if you look at the cash flow
report this month when you have the actuals for February our actual expenses came in at $10.1 million which is $1.5 million less than we thought it was going to be last month so we in fact are uh making strides in finding
efficiencies and cutting cost in the district um so again I um have uh again in the cash flow report if you look at the year-end projected last month in um if you look at the
year-to- date projected we were anticipating the net cash flow for the year end to be a negative 2.4 million if you look at it this month it's actually a negative 1.4 million and as you all remember the board did authorize a
$957,000 use of fund balance so just in one month we've gotten the um year-end projected um fund balance to um improve and we're less than $445,000
um over what we have anticipated in our budget and we still have four more months left so um I would like to just assure the board that we are in fact continuing to look at cost cutting measures and that we will um find
whatever efficiencies we can um and I also just want to add that um one of the things that is challenging is when you don't get revenue in in perfect increments um we get money from the
state at a tenth of a of of what our entitlement is every month for the state aid payments the um property tax comes in when um over the entire year we get federal sources that uh come in after
you spend the money you um apply for the federal revenue then we have other miscellaneous revenue that comes in sporadically but one thing that we are not allowed to do is not pay our bills um and there is a Minnesota statute it is um
471.425 that actually says school districts must pay their bills within 35 days so we can't just because we didn't get property tax revenue tell our vendors we can't pay you this month because we didn't get the revenue um we
still have to pay our bills um we also I can just add that um the way that we kind of pay our bills is we run accounts payable every week on Wednesday and then twice a month we have payroll that comes
through and as soon as you run those um payments then we transfer money from our investment account into our bank account to cover whatever those are and you also in your board packet get the uh investment um statement every month and you can see
we we still are sitting really um really nicely in our in our investment account that we are able to cover all of our payments from accounts payable and payroll every month so um I hope that answers the
question i can elaborate more if need be yeah no I appreciate that i think the confusion was when it was stated um last month where you said by February we would be back to 9% and then when I looked at the report this u month we're at 6.8% so understanding that we didn't
get that um state revenue um payment is um I appreciate you explaining that um now given our revenue is $2 million up to last year where do you think our ending fund balance is going to end just from a just from a projection so that
like as a like as a board like it doesn't matter to me so much um monthtomonth where we're at because I understand that it does eb and flow i think the most important thing for the board to understand and for me to understand is where are we going to be at the end of the year are we going to
be um aligned to our policy so again if you look at the cash flow statement and we're looking at um in fact if we do end up with a negative 1.4 4 million of which keep in mind about a million of that has been
authorized we're going to be sitting um over nine probably closer to 10% of our fund balance but again it's going to depend on some of those year-end um audit adjustments that we don't necessarily know what those are going to
look like until the auditors are coming which by the way the auditors will be here uh the last week in June to do their preliminary audit work and then we have uh the end of July when they'll be here to um complete all of the other work that they have so we're
anticipating we're going to be within our budget um and again we've been able to show just in one month that we've cut the expenses by over a million dollars so we'll continue to do that um again I'm anticipating that we'll be within
our budget and then director Frederickson there was an adjustment though because LA you had forecasted the teacher salaries flat to last year but there was a payback last year so that really are we really cutting a million dollars or was that just a forecast it's actuals now no I understand but you're
talking compared to forecast so I think just being real clear with our community about that is really important well that teacher payment was one time in February and we have actuals now so right so that's where the change was in expenses we don't have any anticipated additional
expenses for the next four months of the year right thank you for clarifying that anyone else any other comments questions no I just want to say thank you Tammy i know a lot of this was discussed last month um and um also with the March
actuals in here for the transactions and the totals from that that was and that that shows um where we are so thank you very much okay there's no more discussion we have a motion and a second on the table uh
all in favor of approving the monthly financial report signify by saying I i opposed that carries 70 and then the uh monthly check detail i'll entertain a motion to approve the monthly check detail
so made by Director Atinson second by Director Mason questions discussion um yeah I just had a follow-up question about um the payments for the mural at Prior Lake High School so I saw there's two separate payments it says first and
second payment what is the are those final or what is the total cost that we're projecting for that and I would like to understand if that's being um offset with fund raise and donations or how much of that is coming out of our
Yeah those are our contributions um through our ANI funding grant um that's um going to be uh our portion of supporting that um community mural project at the the school for our students um and right now we are working
with uh students that are actively doing fundraising as well as our partnership with the uh Prior Lake Rotary who will be also um uh bringing in resources to cover the the difference of the mural as well um Director Oak are we uh was it
the the total price just just around $18,000 is the total price and that was our portion um through our ANI funding that we utilize the rest of it will be fundraised um and supported through community so the portion we're covering the 7,000
they will fund raise for the and other community components as well in kind support with uh organizations is there a reason that we paid for this upfront without fundraising first or is that are some of those funds raised already i'm just curious director Oak do you want to
come forward just questions around fundraising efforts to date if you can speak to any of that so the work is being done through um student council and the student advisory group um and they're going to raise some portions of funds through through the culture fair that they're putting on on
May 10th there they're also um connecting with uh ser different service club rotary is just one of them they are planning to connect with the junior optimist um and other service clubs as well the 7,000 upfront is because the artists have been working with our students already coming in to meet with
them um connecting with their ideas um coaching them on you know the type of visions that they can have there connecting their ideas with um what could be um put onto um the wall as well with matching the colors and all that okay thank you
i also just kind of want to speak to this we've been working on this project for like over a year now it's been like developing we've been thinking about it and um taking the different steps to get here so we we just really wanted to take initiative and get something done before class of 2025 leaves and most of us who
are leading the project and started it um can kind of see it start to actually happen so yeah okay any other questions or comments no I'm just assuming we'll see the donations on the donation register for any of the donations coming when the
additional revenue for the generous donations we'll put those into our gift portion of our board meeting wonderful thank you mhm okay there's no further discussion i We have a motion and a second on the table to approve the monthly check detail all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion
carries 70 moving down to personnel director Herman thank you Chair White members of the board um we have a series of actions um today um the first one starting with the voluntary furlow memos um for any of our bargaining units um that our 12-month
employees to have a one-time option to select for a 3-day voluntary furlow it is 100% voluntary with no obligations um therefore we have not counted this in any of our budget reduction projections to date but once we have those final numbers we will be adding that into our um budget presentations um moving
forward so the four um you see today are in connection with any bargaining unit that has 12-month employees okay and no action is required here as far as I know okay any questions no there's action for there is action we need to vote we need vote sorry I should
have said chair wait that's right uh is there a motion uh to accept the voluntary furls so made by director France second second by director Johnson discussion um yes I have a question um
so given the fact that this is really just the paperwork that says there's an option in order to take a furlow um I think originally this was budgeted $86,000 um in our district um as you're tracking the furlows what's sort of the plan that
will be put in place to come up with the additional money if we don't for budget cuts if we don't hit the $86,000 um Director Atinson the $86,000 was pull pulled out of our recommendations for cuts and assumed in other reductions that we've taken this
would be on top of what we've already proposed so um that was also a number just keep in mind where we were mandatory making those furlows and so if we get 100% we'd be in that ballpark but I anticipate that we're not
going to be at 100% so once we get those numbers that will be information that we'll share with the board and built into our budget reduction cost sheet uh moving forward okay thank you i mean I think I was clear during the budget process that I felt myself that this was sort of a bandage we did this last year
we're doing this again um so um I I don't support the furloss um I think we hire people they're expect to get paid for what they're hired for and um honestly we need people working in our district we have a lot of problems we need to solve so just wanted to add that thank you any other comments questions
hearing none um sorry go ahead logistically how are we voting on this please uh just a standard vote can we do a roll call vote please well well hold on a second there's 12 A B C and D we're only voting on one we'll
go down one at a time here we're just doing A for this one thank you thank you and there's a roll call request that'd be great thank you all right so we have a a motion and a second on the table um Director Olstead I director Johnson I director Atinson
nay director Bullan I director France I and director Mason I and I that motion carries six to one uh letter B the probationary teachers non-renew director chair white members of the board um I'd like to take
an opportunity to provide a little bit more um uh information regarding the non-renewal list um and I know that it it looks quite extensive so I just want to give a a chance to explain a little bit more so each year school districts across the the state of Minnesota face not only difficult challenges with
managing the contract and the probationary statuses by lensure but also budget reductions and performance so by statute any probationary staff member who has yet to receive continuing contracts uh or otherwise known as tenur status um their contracts may be
non-renewed by the board without an individualized action so that's why you see all these on on one mo uh one memo to the board nominees occur for a v a variety of different reasons including lensure constraints um expired long-term substitute contracts performance
concerns um and then any reductions for staffing adjustments due to proposed budget reductions these decisions are never easy um and they reflect a combination of legal requirements strategic workforce planning um and then the ongoing efforts to ensure our students receive instructional instruction from appropriately licensed
um educators so for one example the Minnesota's tiered lensure system has four different tiers um the tier one specifically requires us every year to non-renew an individual that's on a tier one lensure um at that time then we have to post the position for 60 days with
the intent to try to find a fully licensure staff to fill that role the vast majority of the time actually every single time that I'm ever aware of in my career we end up rehiring a tier one teacher because of the unique aspect of that role but it is just a statutory requirement that we have to follow
through Pellsby those are conversations that we have with every single individual that's on this list specifically as to why they're on the list and they also have the right to request the rationale and reasoning in it and in writing afterwards and they are communicated with that process um after the board takes action today so I
just wanted to make sure that the the board and the community and staff are aware that there's multiple reasons why individual can be on a non-renew list um and I happy to answer any other questions for that all right is there a motion to accept the pro probationary
teachers non-renew so made by director Bullan second second by director Mason discussion or questions hearing none all in favor i'm sorry go ahead i just um this is hard every year
um and uh I just want to thank everybody on this list for their service to our district um thank you thank you Director Olstead anything else one of the questions I had um is are the
positions that are listed in here we back in February actually it was in December the board was tasked and approved um making these cuts in our district which was like eight I don't remember the the number of FTE but does this list um represent all the cuts that
um that we made that were made in December or will we see additional like or is this a full list dr atinson um Chair White members of the board um it's a very complex process with the staffing process so everything you see in the board packet today isn't a reflection of
all those reductions whether it's a reduction because it's a non-renewal or um the next difficult memos we'll have to go through with the unrequested leave of absences the differences between those two are the probationary status or the tenure status and depending on what lensure is required for that what
sections we have to reduce based off of student enrollment um the registration um the budget at FTE we have in each area so the non-renewal list is part of that but it's not the whole story either we also have um any retirements or resations that were then not backfilling
um any full year leaves or requests that we have we take all of those pieces of the ins and outs in the staffing process and then at the end of the day then we have to figure out how many probationary staff are we non-renewing and then when we go to the the additional um difficult
conversations is what tenure staff do we have to place on unrequested leave of absence based off of all those different moving pieces so we frequently refer to it um with the administration um and the departments that work very closely on this as a very complex puzzle that we don't always know what the piece p
pieces look like as all these are moving around um but to answer your question it's a part of it and and the whole story is in the board packet tonight so we do not anticipate bringing forward any more non-renewals or um ulas with the certified teaching staff and this is
a product of as we've gone through and we've looked at enrollment and the students have enrolled in their classes this is the exercise that came out of that based on class size is that correct as we've discussed in the past Dr atinson chair white members of the board yes that is accurate so that is part of the piece especially at the secondary
level the elementary level is um and early childhood that's a little bit more either enrollment based or um uh the different um student data there but with the secondary specifically we also have to look at what uh courses they selected
and then what offerings we have along with the class size guidelines that the school board approved thank you chair White if I may just may and just I I also and I wanted to share this before we had the conversations of 12B and C or 12B C and D um to director Olad's point
you know as you all understand our budget uh 80 plus% of our budget goes to people uh the people are our programs and I oftentimes would say during the budget conversations that math doesn't teach itself language arts doesn't teach itself and kids don't feed themselves
like we have phenomenal people doing phenomenal work on behalf of our students every single day and I also um know how challenging these conversations are um it's never fun being in this mode um but we also understand that this is
some of the reality before us right now that we're going to work through um and do everything that we can with the resources that we have to put everything that we can in still in support of our students and so I also want to thank all of our staff um and our administration for working through this very complex
situation of staffing knowing the emotionality behind a lot of these conversations and decisions um I've had to work through it as many sitting here tonight have had to work through it in my career I've been at the other end of this conversation so I understand what this feels like and I understand what
this means and I just want to express my appreciation for our our community and our staff working through this as collaboratively as we can to ensure the best outcomes for our students thank you if there's chair I just want to add one more thing because I don't know that but
I was clear on it um and as as we go through these non-renewals and unrequested leave of absences as things potentially change after this board meeting if we get more resignations more retirements um those those type of openings come these are the first people we go back to um especially the uh the
on requested leave of absences they have contract um rights to their position back and then for the non-renewals we that is our our list that we go back to right away to try to get them back in our district all right thank you if there's no further discussion all in five all in favor
signify by saying I i opposed motion carries 70 next on the agenda is a resolution um proposing placement of unrequested leaves of absence director Herman thank you Chair White members of the
board um this is the the um resolutions that need to be read independently and roll vote on each one starting with the resolution re reducing and discontinuation of programs um and re overall with the 512 communication lit
uh literature teacher the 512 German teacher the 512 French teacher is the first resolution that needs to be read out loud and then a roll call vote okay let me find the place So then I need to take a motion
uh to approve this uh is there a motion on the table so made by director France is there a second second by Director Atinson um be it resolved by the school board of independent district 719 the following
programs and positions or portions thereof will be discontinued uh first the 512 communications literature teacher reduced from 1.0 FTE to.4 FTE uh 512 German teacher reduced from
1.0 FTE to.8 FTE and the 512 French teacher reduced from 0.85 FTE to8 FTE are there any questions or discussion hearing none uh this does require a roll
call vote director Olstead I director Johnson I director Atinson I director Bullan I director France I and Director Mason I and I that motion carries 70
chair White members of the board the second resolution is the resolution proposing placement of unrequested leave specifically for the communication literature teacher um going from the 1.0 to the um placed on a 6 unrequested leave of absence again to clarify for
the board and the community and the staff um these are areas where we had to make reductions that there weren't sub uh probationary staff members available um with those lensures and that's why we have to place them on unrequested leave of absence um for the board and the community to know these individuals remain on the unrequested leave of
absence list for 5 years where we will reach back out to them should opportunity present itself this does require to be read out loud and a roll call vote all right is there a motion to um to accept the the resolution
proposing placement on unrequested leave so by director Johnson second second by director Atinson i'll read the resolution uh be it resolved the school board of independent district 719 as follows it
is proposed that Kelly Diesel a 1.0 zero FTE teacher be placed on 6 FTE unrequested leave of absence without pay or fringe benefits at the end of the 24 202425 school year effective June 5th 2025 said action is taken in accordance
with the 2023 through 25 collective bargaining agreement between the district and the Pri Savage Education Association and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A.40 40 subdivision 10 the grounds for this action are as follows
uh lack of pupils financial limitations and discontinuence of position namely a6 FTE communication/ literature teaching position be it further resolved that a notice of proposed placement on unrequested leave together with a copy
of this resolution be forwarded to Miss Diesel is there any discussion questions hearing none all in favor signify by saying I roll call i'm sorry roll call director uh Olstead I
director Johnson I director Atinson I director Bullan I director France I and director Mason I and I that motion carries 70 chair white members of the board the next resolution proposal placement unrequested leave of absence
is specifically for a German teacher at a 1.0 0 FT being placed on a point 2 um FT on requested leave of absence all right chair will entertain a motion to uh relating to the resolution proposing placement of a German teacher
on unrequested leave of absence made by director Johnson is there a second second by director Bullan be it resolved by the school board of independent district 719 as follows that it is proposed that Mary
Douly a 1.0 FTE teacher be placed on a2 FTE unrequested leave of absence without fringe pay fringe benefits or pay at the end of the 202425 school year effective June 5th 2025
set action is taken in accordance with the 2023 through25 collective bargaining agreement between the district and the Pri Lake Savage Education Association and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A 40 subdivision 10 the grounds for this
action are as follows lack of pupils financial limitations and discontinuence of position namely a.2 FTE German teaching position be it further resolved that a notice of proposed placement on unrequested leave together with a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Miss
Douly any discussion hearing none uh this also requires a roll call director Olstead I director Johnson I director Atkinson I director Bullan i director France I
director Mason I and I that motion carries 70 chair white members of the board the last resolution for proposal of placement on unrequested leave um for the certified staff is the French teacher um specifically a 8ft FTE being placed on a 05 FT unrequested leave of
absence is there a motion uh to the resolution proposing placement of unrequested leave for the French teacher so made by director Atinson second by director Mason be it resolved by the prile or by the school board of independent District
719 as follows that it is proposed that Mary Bonaface a 0.85 FTE teacher be placed on a.5 FTE unrequested leave of absence without pay or fringe benefits at the end of the 2022 25 school year effective June 5th
2025 set action is taken in accordance with the 2023 through25 collective bargaining agreement between the district and the prylike Savage Education Association and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A.40 subdivision 10 the grounds for
this action are as follows a lack of pupils financial limitations and discontinuence of position namely a 05 FTE French teaching position be it further resolved that a notice of proposed placement on unrequested leave
together with a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Miss Bonaface is there any discussion hearing none this also requires a roll call vote director Olstead I director Johnson I director Atinson I
director Bullan hi director France i director Mason i and I that motion carries 70 chair White members of the board we're now um to the next um set of action which is resolution for reduction and
discontinuing of programs and positions specifically the 1.0 assistant principal the 1.0 director of equity and inclusion and the 1.2 2 FT for Laker online program the Laker on online program um reduction has already been accounted for in the non-renewals um uh listed
previously in the board packet um and the corresponding letters for the assistant principal reduction and the director of equity and inclusion reduction are included in the packet this memo also needs to be read out loud with a roll call vote all right the chair will now entertain a motion uh regarding the resolution
reducing and discontinuing uh these programs and positions so made by director Johnson is there a second second by Director Atinson be it resolved by the school board of independent district 719 as
follows that the following programs and positions or portions thereof be discontinued uh assistant principal at 1.0 FTE director of equity and inclusion at 1.0 FTE and the Laker online program at
1.2 FTE any discussion hearing none once again this requires roll call director Olstead I director Johnson I director Atkinson I director Bullan I director France I and
Director Mason I and I that motion carries 70 okay next on the agenda is unfinished business uh the new version of the financial report cash flow report director Frederick Frederickson thank you Chair Wright
members of the board at our last board meeting um I presented uh a requested cash flow detail report along with a summary report um that was requested by the board um it was on two different
pages and there was a request that was made that uh on the detailed report you would like to see the um an actual budget amounts the act the annual budget amount and a previous year-to date to compare to the current
year which all of that information was on the summary report so um the request was to put them all on one page so this is the new report combining those two summary detum page and the detail page are now on one
page so as I understand it that was the request so this is the report that I'm presenting to you tonight i just want to say at the outset I appreciate this this um I think captures for the most part the different uh positions that board members were taking
uh again my overall goal in you know um looking at how this is presented to us is to create less work for the business office and and not more and and I'll continue to check with you to make sure that's the case moving forward because that's that was certainly my intent moving forward but I appreciate
the effort this is this is really good any other comments director Brand um Director Frederickson um will this replace all the other detail reports or will we still have the balance sheet can you just kind of give us a summary of
that yeah it was my understanding from the last board meeting that there was no consensus on what should be added or should be removed so at this time we're just continuing to have all of the reports um we with the caveat that the bank statement may be a month late
because we just aren't going to have time to get everything done that um we previously had been doing so other than um seeing a later bank statement we will do our very best to make sure that all of these reports are included every month
would you do me a favor just qualify that when you said all of these reports i mean we are adding these two additional reports and not taking something away correct um there's one report in here that is obviously manually created and that's
the monthly summary with your handwritten or not hand but typed obviously um you know that is a repeat of a lot of the detail in here i was wondering if the board would be okay with eliminating that one since the
totals are in all of the other reports and again in the interest of trying to reduce the amount of work um and the redundant work that are in these reports any comments question or I mean that I
think we get more than enough especially with this new format so I'm I'd be all in favor of that personally yeah I I'm in sort of part of that as well i think um and and other people can chime in i think the one thing that I would like to see is that when I started on the board
an overview of the finance report was part of a standing agenda item and then somehow it got put into the consent agenda so I think it would be really helpful with this report um to become part of a standing agenda item so that we could get just a brief overview so if
you're not writing it in the the recap um sharing that with the community is going to help share some transparency around our financial situation so having it as a standing agenda item is what I would like to see as it used to be um on the board i don't remember it ever i I
know that it was chair had a um during their study sessions we would have a review and we would get an update on the budget manually but I don't remember any of these not being part of the consent agenda except for when you were doing updates
um it was um just so you know and you can we talked about this i'm actually asking Director Frederick She go ahead yeah i think the uh so when I first got here three years ago there was no financial statement um done at all so when we started doing that um in the
interest of helping the board understand what was all in the report I think we included it in the financial update but then um at the request of the um board at that time said "Yeah we've got it now we don't need you to
um discuss it every month it's in the consent agenda and if there's questions I'll bring it up which is why it got moved to the consent agenda yeah i I personally don't see why it needs to be a standalone as long as you know there's you can question anything on the consent agenda at any time i think that would be
an appropriate way to move forward there's no reason to in my opinion make it standalone that's just me as long as we still have the opportunity to question um anything on the consent agenda um I think that should suffice my specific question was the monthly highlights um because it is redundant it
is a manual report um I would be okay with that not being continued um the other detailed reports slice and dice the numbers 10 ways to Sunday um and uh whereas um there there's always some
confusion with with people who don't usually read a balance sheet or something like that still it's represented in so many different ways that um I feel that it's it's even without the monthly highlights it's still overkill and I'm and I'm I would be okay with that i don't know how the
rest of everyone feels um Chair France are you referring to our community being confused about who doesn't read about Bo could you clarify who you're referring to being confused i just want to be you know be respectful up here so when you say things like that are you referring to it
being confusing to our to our community obviously not everybody is has a financial mind and when you break the numbers down in different ways I'm sorry if you took that personal that's No no I'm asking who you're referring to so are you referring to our community i'm just trying to get clarification of how
we report the numbers because we not only report to the board who has a pretty good understanding of the numbers and we look at it before we get the you know we get these numbers um a week prior so we have time to digest it so I'm really trying to understand are you
referring to when the community sees these as far as being confusing um I mean one thing we did talk about is we did talk about having that monthly report become a quarterly report that's something that we talked about at the board table here as well so that's something that So is that propose is
that a uh a direction the board would be interested in going to make it quarterly instead of monthly that would I mean kind of meet halfway as far as reducing the workload a little bit and still giving us a a regular update that um you know some board members may may be in
favor of Director Mason yeah no I was going to say I support pulling that monthly highlights if it's manual and it takes a lot of effort absolutely that's great um I I would say though I I appreciate I think every month that I've been on the board so far we've pulled the financial report out of the consent agenda with questions so I actually
think the context helps for our community doesn't mean you have to put it in writing but I do think it's helpful to just you know highlight and explain a few things so um I would be for that too as long as it's not more effort for you to just kind of verbally talk through it anybody have a problem with going to quarterly on that
okay any other questions regarding the uh this particular document here okay thank you Director Freder moving on to new business uh the American Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee written statement
um chair for point of order we we have the finance advisory committee membership update did I miss that 14a yes sorry Sam almost there uh I have the printed copy that it's not on so uh the I will take it off to Dr thomas's
computer here we do have the uh the updated finance committee roster um and then so if yeah Director Premington you want to just update the board on the the proposed new members sure thanks Chair White members of the
board um we had um obviously new um committee members um from the board representing on our finance advisory committee so Director Atkinson and Director Mason are our two representatives um starting in January
and there was a request that um because some of our finance advisory committees all of our committee members um don't necessarily show up every meeting so there was a request from the board that we open up for uh new members
so we did that we got six applications um Director Atinson Director Mason both reviewed those and identified four that we would invite to join our committee they're on this sheet we will send them an invitation to the next meeting which
is April 29th action requested on on this or are we just gonna No nope okay all right thank you Director Frederickson now we'll move on to the AP APAC written statement director Oak
good evening Superintendent uh Dr thomas uh Chair White members of the board um every year um our APAC our American Indian parent advisory committee hold a vote for concurrence or non-concurrence uh this year the vote was held on February 25th uh the vote was
non-concurrent so therefore a letter of non-concurrence uh needs to be shared and presented to the board um it was scheduled to be presented on March 10th however the letter wasn't ready at that time so we are presenting tonight after the letter is presented we will have as the board will have 60 days to um do a
reply to the letter concurrence so at this time I would um like to invite our Apac chair Sierra and u members of the Apac committee up as well all right thank you i'm extremely nervous this is my second time speaking in front of
people so um jaba hello my friends and relatives my name is Xiaawini it means southern woman in my Oj in my Ojiu language my English name is Sierra Mallister i am Bearclan my family and I are from White Earth
Indian Reservation i live in Prior Lake i am the current chairwoman of Prior Lake American Indian Advisory Committee also known as Apac or PAC for short i've lived in Prior Lake for 28 years i went to Five Hawks Elementary Hidden Oaks Middle School and was the first 9th
grade class in Prior Lake High School i volunteer my time at Five Hawks in the classrooms in field trips from time to time and when needed i'm an assistant coach of my girls travel basketball teams for the last 5 years i've also
coached the in-house in in-house volleyball teams for the last three years i don't mean to make this speech about race or anything like that but I'm here to tell you a little bit about who I am and my journey at the Prior Lake Savage Schools and the change that is coming i think it ties into building
together as a community living in Prior Lake or living and going into a pred predominantly white district wasn't wasn't a struggle for me as a child in elementary school back then young children didn't see the difference in skin color hair color or eye color they
just see friends to play with i was the only mixed native black and white girl out here at the time as I got older throughout middle school and high school more students of different nationalities joined that's when I realized that I was
different the comments about my hair skin color and where I lived before turned me into an outsider friends I once once I friends I once had judged me based on my the color of my skin and turned away i had a son at a
young age and I wanted different from him i have two additional daughters now and teach them all to speak up from for themselves and others i'd teach them the importance of coming together as a family and a community i always lose my place cuz I
when I look up I look back down i dove in and I'm teaching them everything I know about my Native American culture as they grow i joined Apac meetings out here in hopes that to give my kids a sense of belonging because back then when I was their age I didn't have other
students who looked like me i witnessed the many different Native coordinators come and go with little help from our district very little education in our community about native injustices and other than what's read in our textbooks now I'd like to dive into the Apex
letter of non-concurrence i will not be read reading it word for word because the district already has the letter in full detail um just touching on some key topics here tonight uh dear board members and Dr thomas the um American Indian Parent
Advisory Committee Apac or PAC um for the Prior Lake School District cast a vote of non-concurrence in the district with the district's Indian education program plan for the 2024 2025
school year to attest to our belief in the school board and district are not in compliance with the Minnesota Minnesota law and are not meeting the obligations of the Native American students in the district we submit this letter which requires that the reasons for
non-concurrence and recommendations shall be submitted with resolution of non-concurrence the pact first wishes to acknowledge that this year has included some positive events these these include the hiring of the
liaison to assist the work of Freddy Delejon the district's American Indian student support coordinator and serving our students hiring tutors for middle school students sustaining regalia and making regalia making and drum and dance
sessions during the school year in the evenings working with and being supported by Sam Oak a presentation by Mr deleó to teachers during the inservice training event that occurred on Martin
Luther King Jr day in February the student group at the high school the Native American Student Coalition which was founded in 2022 continues to be active and plan important events um that celebrate their identity and
enable them to share their culture with their peers enriching the experience of all students and staff who engage with them these events include the bit the bridge bridgewalk community cultural fair and for the first time to our rec
recollection at the prior lake American Prior Lake High School uh a student organized POW was held at the Prior Lake High School last month unfortunately the pack's concerns requests and recommendations remain much of the same
that has been repeated ex repeatedly expressed in the year the letters of non-concurrence issues over the last several years since at least 2022 the pack has issued specific requests to
where to which there has been either no response or inadequate response such unanswered requests are as follows there will be an administrator appointed to work with it and address
issues and request and requests raised over in oh my stumbling over my words uh raised in the 2020 letter it is not particularly particularly productive for the process
in which the pack and the district engage in limited to single to a single annual letter and single response the pack desires some dialogue and action as we partner with the district to address
the needs of our students in our Indian education program native students well-being and graduation res rates improve when they are exposed to cultural languages $11,000 of our funds
were used to pay with the district's ran for the district ran native language class if the district is supplementing the class the district should be paying for it and not supplanting it into our funds we are seeking some clarity on
expenditures made from this year's bud budget and I therefore request a copy of the accounting for Indian education program for the last year as soon as possible the the issue of how funding is being
spent is an ongoing issue for each new APAC committee sorry beeping there is little to no input from the AP pack taken into consideration when decisions are being made on how um
on how funds are spent previous committees have requested budget updates and detailed expenditures expenditure reports to which we have either been told we are not entitled to the information or that we have to pay for it upon paying for it
we have been given redacted expenditure reports it is the Apex committee request that we be freely provided with the budget update and expenditure tracking each of our APAC meetings going
forward as we identify the specific concerns that led to the vote of non-concurrent this year will we will embed our recommendations in the paragraphs included specific reasons to the statements that the district
provided in its response to our letters in the 2022 2023 and the 2023 2024 school years areas of concerns for the educational success of Native American students in this district includes the
following the achievement gap the packet asserts the achieve a achievement gap between native students and the majority of the students in the stric district is an important measure of whether the district is meeting its statutory obligations to our students we do not
see data or information that shows this gap is narrowing we therefore recommend the district to the district to develop a strategic plan that outlines what steps the district is taking to address the uh to address and reduce the
achievement gap curricular curriculum development the district has responded to this by not fulfilling plans set forth in the response letter dated July 8th 2024 where it's where they stated
"We hope to work closely with the APAC and increase representation in our district committee as our teaching and learning advisory committee and our educational equity and excellence advisory committee having the a having APAC representation on these committees will
help parents of native students learn about the systems and activities we have put into place address various needs across the district including reducing achievement gaps cultural rep representation economic disparities and
other challenge challenges facing our students district advisory committee each student board each student board must establish an advisory committee to ensure active community
participation in all phases in planning and improving the instruction and curriculum curriculum affecting state and district academic standards consistent to uh subdivision two
bullying and harassment students continue to experience unacceptable instances of racism bullying and harassment tied to the identity of native as native individuals while we understand that there has been a topic
of one of our schools one of this year's schools caring and committed conversations we recommend expanding a proactive discussion about respecting peers to a broader student population we are aware that
the We are aware that there may be opportunity for the district to engage in consultation to receive guidance on improving academic outcomes for native students through the Every Student Succeeds Act also known as ESSA
the pack recommends that the district determines how to engage in the ESSA consultation to facilitate achieving our shared goals we must emphasize the district we must emphasize that the
district has obligations pursu pursuant to state law as well as access to resources available through the Minnesota Department of Education that we are more committed to ever than committed to ever to support to
supporting our students it is also crucial that the district understands that the obligations to native students derive from the sovereign existence of our of our tribal nation and thus
Native Native American students are the district group based on political classific classification and not a racial classification such as uh must not be swept under swept into
the anti-dei policy framework and this is my first time coming to a meeting like this so I didn't know that I should have um came to the 15minute no you're fine sneakage so I'm just
going to continue to go cuz I worked hard on this so I also want to speak on the elimination of the director director of equity inclusion position letting Sam Oak go from the position will be going in the wrong direction here at PLSAS
here was the he was the only one getting to know our program parents students and willing to help us along with Dr thomas Sam's position as director of equity and inclusion has has help has is helping
and has done and he has done amazing things in our community already um diversity equity and inclusion is not about gender ethnicity sexual orientation background disability culture age or mental health it's about
all of us diversity ignites uh diversity ignites creativity problem solving and innovation equity is fairness and inclusion of all students inclusion promotes belonging purpose and well-being it is the vision of a better
world for all of our children the PLSAS commitment to equity and inclusion on the Prior League board website states it the best i was going to state five of them but to cut things short I think we know where we're going with that community is about coming together and
celebrating our differences regarding size age color of our skin or where we came from we need to go beyond paper words on a paper beginning a Oh jeez
we need to go beyond words on a paper beyond a speech at the beginning of a presentation or event and take action it is important to keep Sam Oak in the directory director of equity and inclusion position to help us continue
to to encourage cultural understanding and break break down the communication barriers we look forward to working with the district in collaboration in a collaborative manner to improve and and support the health and well-being and academic success of native students here
at PLSAS in hopes of coming together in unity as one thank you for giving me the this opportunity here today mitch thank you thank you okay moving on to the next item on the agenda is policy and we have a
is there allowed any discussion you may have a if you have a question or comment i I just I the 60 days um response so what are the next steps can should we be talking about that or director Oak
so I I sorry I'll you want to or you want me to speak first well no go ahead okay the board has already taken one step in what we've said and that was the elimination of the position that Samo currently has so as we've stated that is
a step backwards in the progress that has been made over many years and partnership that the APAC is trying to build um and uh Chairman White you said were there questions or reasons for the elimination of the position was it purely No I was
asking the board if they had I got a question from the board and I was wondering if there was I forgot to ask for comments or questions regarding what we just heard and that was my my bad so that's so so director Olsa to answer your question um when we receive this letter um we sit down as an
administrative team we'll begin tomorrow morning as a senior leadership team to reflect on the conversation that we heard this evening um several of us have key aspects and connections to some of the concerns that were expressed either tonight or even dating back to 2020
which is something I'm curious to understand i I appreciate you including the anecdotes um I wasn't around then but I understand the connection point that you're making back um there so that we don't repeat that history so thank you for that um and as I shared earlier
our commitment is to ensure that within the 60-day time frame that we develop a response um to the concerns that were laid out that in partnership with Apac would be able to um inform how we would be moving forward beginning next year so
as we move forward to to uh have stronger concurrence with with APAC so that's the process that we go through each year you know when we hear um the concerns um director is there anything else you want to add i think just along that process uh there is then we'll be
meeting with uh groups of you at a time to go over uh the statements as well to um to get the final statement down and then after that um before the 60 days then we'll present it again at the board meeting um in terms of the response there and then that will be delivered to
to APAC and then based upon what we develop with those responses that would also be something that I and others would be sitting down with Apac then next year to identify what does the plan of success look like moving forward um to ensure
that we can meet concurrence or at least begin to address some of the concerns expressed tonight and or some of the ones that are historical as well um I have director I have a question yeah so I've been on the board two years we've been non-concurrent both years the
theme a lot of the same things we continue to repeat ourselves and I know one of the things that we talked about last year was having representation on the teaching and learning committee um do you have any feedback on like did you guys participate in that was Freddy De Leon participated in that as
it was spoken to in the statement here and okay so earlier in the meeting yeah and and he's wonderful he's actually my student is in his Dakota language class and that's been just that's like an incredible class and he does such a great job so um um the other question I have is there's surrounding districts
and it was um me and the other chairs we like took turns rotating but like this next year we just wanted to incorporate more parents the APAC parents versus not just the the board members yeah and I there there's a really great group of
parents um on the teaching and learning committee and that's the whole point of the committee is to have a representation of parents and community members on that committee giving diverse view points on how it impacts our total um community um the other thing is we have surrounding districts that are
concurrent and so is there anything that other districts are doing that that we can do better i mean I know you spelled some things out in your letter but I I mean obviously it's disappointing it's disappointing and have you met with the other boards to ask them what they are doing to get concurrence no I mean I think that's something that we need to
explore work that I would suggest that we would suggest that you do mhm yep will we go into one of them anyone else comments questions because the letters um I've been part of the authoring of them and uh all these families have that
it's been pretty clear and laid out very simply that do these things comply with the Minnesota state law the treaties of the state of Minnesota and then our vote will be concurrent but specifically if you want to see the number it is an achievement gap where you look at
academic achievement of native students and that is equal on par to all other students in Prior Lake then I personally will vote yes and until then I will vote no as a parent of native students in this district
okay thank you anyone else i just have a quick comment i want to thank you Sierra for sharing your story i know it's one familiar to myself and a lot of my peers and it is still happening so a lot of the things like you talk about here um they are still happening and like we can
see that like I know that and we all see that as students and the work that you Mr oak have done um and your department have done for this district is like undeniably life-changing like I can I can say that because it's changed my life so thank you changed my daughter's
life yeah same here thank you anyone else okay thank you appreciate it all right moving on to policy we have uh 10 policies 801 03 04 05 06 07 09 10 and
policies 902 and 903 for a second and final reading um I will take a motion to accept all of them as one motion so made by Director Johnson is there a second second by
Director Atinson discussion um I would like to pull 903 out of that sorry I should have asked that first my bad and I'll ask for an amendment to that motion um separate with 903 is there a
motion to amend so made by Director Atinson second second by Director Johnson any discussion okay hearing that um all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion carries
70 so then we will go back to the original motion to approve the the first nine then on the list um is there any discussion regarding those nine on the nine i I'm sorry the first the first nine I pulled we pulled 903 with the amendment right the Do you want to
discuss 903 now then or I'm going to we're going to we'll we'll take we'll approve the first nine on the list and then we'll we'll discuss 903 separately okay so there's a motion and a second on the table to approve 8010 803 804 805
806 807 809 810 and 902 all in favor signify by saying I i opposed that carries 70 all right policy 903 uh I don't entertain a motion to approve policy 903
so made by director Atinson second second by director Johnson uh discussion um yes the first question that I have is on the first of all I want to thank um
the chair for um pulling the piece about the communication out of the board policies because it didn't belong there um of the 200s anyways uh but the revision of the appropriate communication um was there any
discussion of bringing that through legal at all um this doesn't seem enforcable on the appropriate communication piece of policy 903 chair sorry um Director France um Chair White members of the board um we did not
discuss bringing this this forward um when we discussed um uh Vice Chair Bullan Director Johnson and myself we were looking at the language um trying to find ways to to make it clear what the appropriate communication um was in alignment to and the conversation that
we had um fell back to like talking with the signs of what we what we are looking for with positive um behavior intervention strategies um so we aligned it with the district strategic plan around like respectful unity safe learning environments um from my
perspective of the language um I I do not feel like we need to seek legal counsel i would say that this we would implement this policy the same that we currently are if somebody is acting disrespectfully um if they're creating unsafe learning environment we would act in the same way that we have always um including the consequences for the
behavior including like ending the the conversation um recording the incident all those same aspects so as uh Vice Chair Bullan Director Johnson and I talked about it we were trying to align it with something as um Dr thomas said that the str plan is our northstar um
really bringing it back to that to have what we expect and what our core beliefs are and then we will I I don't see us implementing anything differently than we have with this policy moving forward um and I think that we even without as we talked about the last boarding even if we did not have this policy I think
we would still be well within our legal grounds to terminate a conversation document that conversation call um police if somebody was acting um egregiously we would still have all those rights this just helps add that layer that I'll ask Dr edwards to speak to from the principal's perspective for
staff and and principles and building administration to really lean on um to really have it spelled out for everyone involved on what happens if you're not acting in um um in alignment with our core beliefs in the strategic plan
yes and I would say that the uh listed uh courses of action uh should there be uh occurrences that are in conflict with our strategic plan and our uh values and beliefs um I think that this gives a
adequate uh range of action steps to take um and gives us something to point to as to why okay so strategic plan aspirational visionary non-specific
um policy much more discreet specific something we can actually work off of they sit subordinate or below the aspirational statements um I've never been part of an organization that didn't
spell this out um and um to say things like you know the shouting and yelling using obscene language using insulting or demeaning language and then going through physical threatening you name it as examples of inappropriate behavior to take that out and say "Okay we're going
to recursively go from a policy level up to a strategic plan is not necessarily enforcable." Um and if we're going to do that here our entire 500 series for students discusses
appropriate behavior also an appropriate dress so would we take that and tell our students we're going to get rid of all the detail here of examples of that and just say please behave according to a strategic plan which is
non-specific fairly nebulous and again aspirational north star that does not spell any of this out I 30 some plus years in corporate nonprofit and other educational institutions have never seen it
recursive or or basically circuitous back up to you know a mission and vision statement to an organization um there you usually
provide some sort of examples of what would be appropriate communication in here that's my concern and if there isn't appropriate communication and you're doing one thing for the adults and another thing from the students that could potentially be an
issue too um Director France I do recall we had a lot of conversation around this policy um at our last board meeting and um one of the things that I recall is the difference between student speech and
adult speech and there's different um laws that actually protect student speech versus teacher speech in our district versus adult speech um I also recall a conversation against um about being this communicating a
positive message versus being appropriate versus inappropriate and we talk about appropriate communication then we talk about all inappropriate communication um so I I I'm fine with the way this um with the way that you guys put this together um I think I
think it's I think it's fine i mean we all are aware of what our strategic plan is and um as long as you know like I said I'm I'm fine with the way this is written so well I remember the conversation and um correct me if I'm wrong uh Director Herman that there was
some confusion about the definition of shouting and yelling and who considered something as obscene versus so instead of being defining that or using industry standard language which this is we went even more
nebulous which makes no sense and student didn't really come into play here since the scope had nothing to do with students um so I'm a little confused and I know that if I was sitting on a corporate
board bringing this back up to even higher level of non-defin would usually be a red flag um legally even though you can say we've always done it this way all that when
the policy becomes this broad it also becomes harder to enforce and the original purpose of having that pulled out in one of its own um um policies although I didn't agree it belonged because it's not a board policy it's a
it's a district policy um is that you know it's it's protecting our staff as well as uh parents and parents that come around so you want to have some sort of definition of what is appropriate behavior and
communication so that's why I'm concerned and why I would not I in my in my professional opinion I would not assume that this would be enforcable particularly with the consequences um so I am concerned i I
understand there's a way we've already done it and and and it's assumed and all that but given the communication of having the tenants what I thought was fairly common sense the board seemed to be confused about the definition of it so why would
we take it up to a higher level more broad definition um Chair France I think if I go back and I remember the conversation I think there was the concern is who determines what's appropriate or inappropriate when where somebody may think one thing is
appropriate somebody else might think something is inappropriate and that's where that first amendment right gets really tricky and so I think in this example that keeping it more general actually will protect us to be honest with you from a first for first
amendment from a first amendment stance so I understand why it's written the way it's said and that's why I said I I do appreciate the way it's written so and I believe that the way it's written allows people to actually perform these things which are clearly inappropriate and then
say there's no policy on it that's what I'm worried about and I would just be blunt because we've had this happen and it's very important that we do keep more prescriptive examples of this for adult behavior and I'm asking Director Herman
um about the the thing that you really believe that this would be legal that we could still use this even though we're taking it out of the policy and still have it be enforcable that's what I'm concerned about director France members of the board as I stated previously I I feel that we would still implement the
policy the same that we always had if someone was shouting yelling um using file language we would implement the same exact policy i don't see that changing um but again that's my understanding and and my partnership with two of the board members to draft this language um based off of the
board's conversation so I just would redirect your your direct or your question sorry to the rest of the board members because from my stance that's that's how I would view the language and implement it and support the administrators on implementing it but I also understand that there's the will of the board and I'm happy to support that
director Bullion you had something um yeah I would just say that um you know as Director Herman and uh Director Johnson and myself collaborated this is what we came up with i understand um having
uh there is in other policies we have examples of of things that we're talking about so I do understand uh the point being made by director France um and I think I'm I'm just asking Chair White
would it be something that we um the the examples given so we we rewrote the um the the paragraph as shown in red um would it be helpful if
we just went through and got will of the board um board director by board director on whether to keep the examples in or remove them i also understand that um
uh what inappropriate is is subjective um but we do have in other policies where we do give examples um and the goal of policy is to support the staff
um support the it's to support and we want to make sure that we are offering the most support um so uh I think we could talk about the pros and cons i think if I'm just asking if we should
just get will of the board to to leave the examples or to have them removed we did I think the the reworking of the um the language above it i think I think we could just get will of the board yeah because from from
where I sit I I I hear you Mary i I I I honestly do um but the sentence below everything that says the building administrator will be authorized to interpret would would would carry no matter what we have here it seems to me and if if if
administration um and the the members of the um policy committee are comfortable with this I I would tend to be as well but I'll put it like this is uh anyone uncomfortable with not having uh these
examples listed in the policy cuz it really comes down to that it seems like everything else is is um been agreed upon so um is there any disagreement with with pulling everything that's been redlined uh one through five and then one through five
again or one through four anybody can go i'm okay with it it references also the Minnesota statute which defines the disorderly conduct so I feel like that from a legal standpoint is probably well I just from the number of years that I've been on the board we've had
parents send in some interesting emails uh to teachers we've um I personally have witnessed some of this behavior and I'd like to be able to not have any gray zone in it um in order to support our
staff um as well as parents uh we've had issues where parents have also um been in the same area on school property uh and visitors uh to our school district and so
um um while I do appreciate the fact that the administrator who this gets brought up to would have the discerning uh capabilities to to take action um not having these examples of the
behavior in here I think does leave a gray area that makes it a little um uncomfortable for me to say the least especially given what you know we've we've experienced here over the years or I know I've experienced
here over the years or been witnessed to personally I haven't been but I've been witnessed to it okay thank you Chair France members of the board um uh again to reiterate I think unfortunately as much as we try to be clear with policy they whether we had examples or not it
wouldn't be an all-inclusive list the examples also could be um you know somebody brought up at the last board meeting what does yelling and shouting mean to one person might be different to the other person it might not be um I think in these situations we have a very very low risk because any of these behaviors aren't impeding on their first
amend amendment rights and from a legal standpoint we're really just ending a meeting we're documenting it if we are calling um enforcement law enforcement to come help they are the ones that take over that they take on that liability this just helps provide that extra
coverage for individuals um especially at the school level to point back to um policy that appropriate communication is expected and inappropriate communication will not be um accepted and I think from there we would we would navigate all of
those um quote unquote gray areas as you said and again regardless if we have examples or not i feel like that will become an issue because people will argue the examples or argue that something that we deemed inappropriate is not listed as a specific example um so those are kind of the conversations
that when Vice Chair Bullan and Director Johnson and I were looking at the language we couldn't come up with an all-inclusive list we couldn't define everything to the point that everyone would completely agree with it so instead we specifically talked about was appropriate and then we talked about that inappropriate will not be accepted
and again if it gets to the point where we're calling and it becomes a legal issue that would not be us determining that that would be law enforcement determining that and um to Director Mason's point in alignment with the statute that's listed there so again I I don't have concerns with the ability for
us to um continue to utilizing this this policy to Vice Chair Bullan's um point to support our staff administration um and students to ensure that we do not have um people in our schools whether they're visitors parents community members um that are acting
inappropriately okay I have just one more question because this is another concern sorry don't mean to I hate to say beat a dead horse because I like horses so um you know um the there there are no all-inclusive
lists and that's usually brought out in the majority of policies most of the other school districts do have a policy with examples in it it's not meant to be all-inclusive it's you can't do that in anything that we do um but one of the
reasons why you don't simply rely on a statutory reference is because when you're communicating these policies to the public you're not expecting them to understand uh all the time or be able to go out and read you know a statute and
understand all the intricacies of the statute as well as the court interpretations of that statute as it's challenged um so that's why there also are examples in here so that you have a baseline of of of
uh you know a baseline from which to start off on um and with that I understand it's the will of the board but um I simply have never been in a workplace a nonprofit or any of the other educational boards that I do sit
on that didn't have these examples in there and there's a reason why so there is less gray area even if they can't be all-incclusive all right thank you um I'm fine with leaving it personally so I don't know if
we wanted to keep having or you had a comment though Director Johnson before we move on one just one thing um and we really wanted to to emphasize the strategic plan here um it's getting put into all the schools uh so hopefully right if
there are any visitors to the building the students as it gets implemented even more throughout the year all of these things get lessened right and it's taught throughout the community it's going to be more prevalent throughout the community and
then the issues that you that you're raising I understand I I get it I appreciate that you're raising them um but the words that we have on the strategic plan were done by the community and that's that was I think
our thought process on there is that we had a very large group a very robust group of individuals who came from the community that put it in there and that was our thinking i think we spent probably an hour and 15 minutes and 55
of those minutes were spent on this alone and um that's it so I'm I'm happy with the way it is okay not to cut off discussion but are you two i'm assuming you're good with it i'm I'm fine with the way it's written thank you Amy i'm fine yeah and Director Olstead um I I
appreciate the work put into this and never an easy job um I just um the the sentence about the communication that must align with the core beliefs in the district strategic plan i just don't see that as realistic um I don't think a
mom dad grandma grandpa neighbor emailing a teacher or calling a teacher is going you know before I do this I'm going to go online and look at the strategic plan that is not a disar strategic plan at all um I just I don't I don't look at that part of the
sentence as being realistic okay appreciate it dr rollstead um members of the board um respectfully I I also would like to say I don't think that they look at our policy either um it's really when after they send something like that then we
are able to point to policy to let them know that this is an unacceptable behavior that we will not be tolerating um and then have those conversations to set those expectations of what is appropriate conversation or appropriate communications in those situations so um
I completely agree it's unfortunate that not everybody has all of our policies and strategic plan memorized um but it's also not an expect expectation I think is realistic and I and I completely agree with you on that it's it's our ability to point to something to have those those um lines drawn in the sand
and also to help uh communicate proactively and reactive um when these situations occur just one more comment to piggyback on that um when we when we were discussing and and we we chose to put in the the
district strategic plan into the policy that was also an understanding that the the strategic plan usually has a fiveyear shelf life um that it's something that will transcend you know this specific um strategic plan so
um I I do I agree with you as well um Director Olstead and I do think that you know uh when I think about from what our our strategic plan was it was very wordy and it was very large to what it is now
and the efforts that the district is is bringing forth to um have it be a living breathing document that it's not just doesn't just sit on the shelf but it actually goes into the classrooms which will help it spread out into the community
um you know it's not it's not something that we can just flip a light switch it it doesn't happen as fast as maybe the creation of the strategic plan was but it is through all of our efforts together that um we all start um
treating each other in the manner in which our core beliefs stayed on the strategic plan and and hopefully that ripple effect continues to grow so when that light are we going to be consistent and take the policies in the student handbook out since this only has
to do with adults um for the most part are we then going to tell students they're not going to give examples and we're going to have them abide by the strategic plan i if I could just interject I would suggest we discuss that at the time we review those
policies because I don't know how we could answer that or director and I I hear I get what you were doing that's fine and Dr fans members of the board um I I don't know exactly what policies you're referring to but a great deal of those policies are statutoily driven um
and so there there may or may not be flexibility with those policies all right i get the impression if my particle math is correct that we are uh the will of the board is to leave that language out so if there's no further discussion we have a motion and a second on the table to
approve policy 9003 as presented all in favor signify by saying I I opposed nay nay motion carries 52 thank you for the discussion appreciate it moving down to the second set of
policies uh the 200s starting with 2011 uh 201.1 202.1 208 10 11 13 and 14 um is there any one of those that any member of the board would like to pull out to discuss
separately otherwise we can approve them as one um I still have an issue at 2011 um it's got conflicting language in there or both governing and management and we took our specific statement out to say
that the board delegates um so that was that one the rest of it um seemed pretty good i think that um I was okay with the majority of the other ones except for the fact I don't really remember
discussing um all of them that are on here it was a long night um I didn't I did I kind of thought we kind of ended a little bit earlier um um but um other than that I had no other
issues other than that one okay well then we will pull 2011 off and I will enter so actually 2011.1 the schoolboard vacancies um you want to provide some clarification on that Director Johnson because it's actually not even it's not in what we have and I think there's some
intent with the It's not in here 2011.1 isn't okay so we'll we'll eliminate that one as well but I think we discussed a procedure on that so you guys removing it right as a policy and making it and bringing it Yeah to I think another meeting to talk about the procedure so
okay then I will um entertain a motion to approve policy 202 202.1 208 10 11 13 and 14 all in favor signify by saying I i opposed that carries 70
and then policy 201 uh I will entertain a motion to approve policy 201 so by director Johnson second by director Atinson discussion um the primary concern was that in the
language um we have um both man again it was some of the default language um that a lot of school boards have completely taken out now because it was in my terms last time kind of word salad uh but there was a specific statement in the
original one that basically said that uh the school board uh delegates to the superintendent the day-to-day administration um so without that and I know we had significant discussion on that
um and uh that had to do with the powers and duties where it kind of cons it kind of mixes up overseas administrative function and then and then the next one C shall superintendent manage the um the
schools of the school district um and that is usually you know when the MSBA put this together and as I stated it hadn't been changed in decades the only thing they really updated was was
the numbers on the statutes um it was meant to cover really small districts that did day-to-day management and then uh school boards that were governing boards like we usually are um so I don't
know if there's a reason we shouldn't put that in there because we can't if we're going to be a management board then we're going to go into everything you can't pick and choose based upon the topic right um but we're going to be a governing board you only do it by
exception when something rises to the level of the board and by not putting it in there um or using the general language that we see in school districts that we like to quote quite a bit from um it can get a little
confusing um so Chair France we I remember we had a robot robust conversation about this and the will of the board coming out of that meeting was to and I think director Olstead recommended this to add um B which is highlighted in green the
powers and duties the school board oversees administrative function adopts and revises policy and is the final for appealing administrative decisions um was what the change that was recommended coming out of that meeting so I think it's it's not really fair to um go back
and how do you say like rehash something that we spent probably 45 minutes on talking about um and then the other thing is is that the sentence that you are specifically referring to that was
in our policy is not in MSBA policy and it's also not in other board's policies so it's delegating that authority when we as a board our authority is written in statute which is what aligns with this policy so um I personally like the way this is
written because it's exactly aligns to the law and if we don't want to follow Minnesota state law for what our authority is um then we can go back and put that sentence in that I am I am not supportive of that because we as a board
have we have responsibilities as a board which are aligned to Minnesota state statute and so I don't think we need to spend 45 minutes rehashing this when we have already did that and this policy represents the changes that came out of that meeting that night so first of all um the the
discussion I didn't believe was really finalized and yes I do appreciate letter B um but it was director Olstead that also brought up last time that we totally missed out on that and as I pointed out this in initial statement or
template from the MSBA hadn't been updated uh totally in almost two decades uh that I could find um and other um districts don't have this one at all as
was also pointed out they basically say um that it's going to follow statute and all of the interpretations of you know the court interpretations of that statute but because Minnesota has independent school districts
um we kind of determine how we govern ourselves and that is also in statute um so the original language says we delegate and in that same meeting we had questions of whether boards should
independently approve each and every facility use going down into the management level and um that also did not um succeed with the will of the board so I question again when you have B and C under powers and
duties and we don't say we delegate the functions until it comes uh until it rises to the board or appealing administrative decisions and the next one says we superintendent manage the schools that's actually a contradiction
in statement that's my that's my question we either do one or the other um I would choose governing given the size of our district um we didn't always do that here i was wonder so that's Yeah I appreciate you know the points and that's I think
the to me maybe the sticky word here is superintend we also don't manage the schools of the school district we we we leave that to Dr thomas and his team through through the administration in each school so um I guess would would would striking
superintendent manage the schools of and just replace it with govern be a more accurate reflection of what we actually do well I I want to pull up the statute because this is very specific to the statute and I understand chair France you served on a board that
was more about delegating authority right and this is a different board right and there's a reason why boards um are are in the situation that they are nowadays because they've delegated a lot of authority away that is not necessarily to be delegated away so if
we can pull I don't want to speak for other boards um what's that i don't want to speak for other boards no I don't I don't want to speak for other boards but I also want to reiterate that there's a lot of boards that have this policy in the state of Minnesota exactly as it's written because it follows the law and that's the thing that's really important
is that we need to follow the law and so I want to just pull up if we look under 123B.02 one second i'll get I I think we need to pull up Minnesota State Statute 123B.02 and read what it says because that is what our authority is and I
don't think anybody's questioning ultimately our authority but there is words mean things and we do not superintend the district i I have to agree with with director friends uh on that point and we don't manage the schools in in the way that everybody
thinks of that on on a day-to-day basis and um I want the policy to reflect what we actually do and still be within the I think that's still within the spirit of the statute that you're referring to because ultimately
if if this if the district is being managed poorly we have the authority to make a change where is necessary and so that's how I'm wondering I think if is it these words that are that are confusing the issue when they really
don't need to director Johnson so subdivision one board authority the board must have the general charge of the business of the district the school houses and of the intents of the schools thereof the board's authority to govern
manage and control the district to carry out its duties and responsibilities and to conduct the business of the district includes implied powers in addition to any specific powers granted by the legislature and and and I when I when I hear you
hear that I I I hear um our managing the district is delegating day-to-day operations to the people that are you know appropriately um um skilled in those areas and so like I said I don't think I don't think that
that scratching the superintendent manage the schools of um takes away from the spirit of the law we we we do govern the district yes we we manage it but but I think there's some confusion what manage actually means and I I don't I want it
to reflect again what we actually do we govern the district yes we manage it through our the our single employee and then by extension the rest of the employees right because because we aren't there's not enough of us to manage the district in a way that I think is confusing right we have one
employee the superintendent and we direct him and we have them just like we do on an organizational meeting when we delegate uh the roles uh to individuals to you know do what they need to do in order to manage the district um so when
so to me words matter and um we I would agree with with uh Chair White that if we change C to be govern uh that would uh eliminate the contradiction director Bullan I'm just you know looking at statute here uh what Director Johnson
read was subdivision one um and if you look at letter D in so right now we're discussing changing wording and in letter C letter D it says the school board shall have the general charge that is that is words
straight out of the first sentence correct um of the statute uh MSBA policy has uh split that um subdivision one um and I do agree that we are a governing
bar body that is what the um general statement of our policy and a the school board is the governing body of the school district i do agree that this language does um conflict a little bit
um and so I think that uh um we do not operate as an adi as a managing board and so we have to come up with what the language should be and
personally I'm not I wouldn't be threatened by scratching what I suggested and put govern in i I I fully understand our authority to me this doesn't take anything away i think it just makes it pretty clear to the public how we're going to operate we We
certainly have the ultimate authority on every subject that comes before us chair does that does that change then okay i I agree with you i think scratching that and putting govern in there I don't I don't see that as any kind of a threat
in D where it says the school board shall have the general charge of the business of the school district that too could be muddied into um managing i'm I'm I'm I think the word
general makes that pretty clear that we we are generally in charge of the business of the district again by through the employee and by extension employees that we have I that language doesn't necessarily and that comes directly from the statute is directly
stated I think that's in subdivision one yeah and like I said most many of the school districts I didn't certainly do an empirical study of every single all 38 something or whatever school districts but um we used to have that one statement in
there that said we are in charge but We delegate the day-to-day to the superintendent that we hire um and then we we have the right to supersede that as as required um and again um what
concerns me is that when when you talk to the MSBA they did kind of put a soup in here um so that districts can make their own decisions well then would it be uh could I throw this out here does anybody have any problem
with scratching the word superintends of replacing with the single word govern that's exactly what I was going to recommend um if everybody's comfortable with that that would be a simple Is that a simple change that we can still vote on tonight i think that's good i think that works because govern
the school district to adopt rules so you just need like the word Yeah we might have to add to rules so that's fine okay the semicolon works did the school board shall govern the school district okay that's fine yep I'm fine okay we good yep yes i have one other question on this one too unrelated but I
agree with that um so under section 4 organization and membership point B um sorry under section 4 organization membership uh there was a B that was about the election cycle sorry let me
pull up last meetings i don't recall discussing why we needed to remove that and I'm just curious i'm not sure that I have a strong feeling one way or the other but I think the discussion was that it wasn't part of the legal status of the board and it was just procedure yeah it was more it it was because we
could have changes uh in midyear due to changes in somebody resigns you know that sort of thing also that was that was taken out as well as a student no offense being an exeicio because she didn't legally meet that uh definition
of exeicio yeah no B was just the numbered years on regular election cycles where it stated alternative schedule four members one cycle three members the other so we just decided to remove that because it will be in procedure yep okay
if we're good with that one change um we have a motion and a second on the table if there's no further discussion all in favor signify by saying I i opposed that carries 70 and we will move down to administrative reports are there any
tonight director Herman yes i just wanted to call out two separate things um first of all I wanted to call out um all the district retirements that we have um on the agenda today um we have 10 retirees that represent over 262 years of service with the district um
which is quite outstanding um that's averaging I know I'm not great at math but I used my calculator that's averaging over 26 years of service per retiree so I just wanted to to give that a quick call out that's absolutely outstanding um all the years of service and dedication that they've served to
our district in many different roles throughout and then the second thing I wanted to say because I I failed to say it at the beginning um is just a gratitude for all of our staff um one thing that I've heard loud and clear from staff and administration as we were making those very hard conversations
with individuals to let them know that their um positions were impacted next year it was such a sense of um camaraderie with staff and really being there to support each other and um help lift each other up and they all came back with the utmost professionalism to be there for their their students um
after receiving some really difficult news so I just wanted to express my sincere gratitude for all of our staff and all of our different employee groups that have been significantly impacted this year um and I just I I felt you could feel it coming through all the stories that they're sharing just how
amazing they were to support each other through all that so I just wanted to thank you to all of our administration and staff for being there for each other thank you Director Herman appreciate that if there's no others we will move down to uh board reports anybody have anything they want to share student
council of course yeah I just want to wish all juniors good luck tomorrow on the ACT um that's no easy task and then also good luck to spring sports which are starting up we're going to have a great season um one event that I want to
highlight is the National Honor Society 5K this year we do it annually and this year we're um doing it to honor Adeline Shepard a young girl who passed away last year due to childhood leukemia and Addie was the pitcher for the Prior Lake Tenu softball team and her natural
curiosity and leadership was admired by all and she never failed to leave a positive mark on everyone around her for this event we're collaborating with PLAWY and donating proceeds to families of children battling leukemia directly helping those affected by the disease and hoping to make their tiring days just a little bit easier so we're
working with Add's family to try to get as much community participation as possible and we'd love for all of you to join us on that day we'll also have like a food truck and a raffle so if you don't want to necessarily run in it you can come and donate and hang out um I'd also like to shout out tomorrow senior class committee is going to have a
fundraiser um at Adal Vice all day 7 to 2 and we're just raising funds for like prom senior banquet events like that so um come pop out and buy something if you're available yeah it's a good excuse um in regards to student council we have presidential
elections coming up this Thursday which is really exciting so by then we'll have a new student representative for the board and we also have executive board elections the following Monday so next Monday um so yeah we'll get to see new leadership coming up and then right now
we're just continuing to plan for our spring events you know paint wars pickle ball tournament surf and turf um but one new event that I'd like to highlight is wellness week which would be the week of May 19th um May is mental health awareness month and student council is partnering with our serenity society at
the school in order to week um hold a week full of full events with the goal of educating our student body about the importance of mental health so we're planning on bringing in like therapy dogs um doing morning yoga highlighting different mental health tips on social medias and just stuff like that um speaking with student councils like
around our area they do a lot of them do these wellness weeks or like mental health weeks um and a lot of our kids this year are really enthusiastic about it so we decided to get that going and we hope to get a lot of support from like local businesses get lots of donations for giveaways and stuff so yeah that's all I have thank you thank
you any other ongoing board reports director Olstead uh yes um we are on the Southwest Metro board um still in the throws of strategic planning um we have a the monthly meeting tomorrow uh Director Mason is sitting in for me
thank you very much again for doing that as I have a conflict um so uh really appreciate that uh more to come on the strategic plan as that gets finalized um the teaching learning uh committee met last week uh kudos to everybody came it was the first day back from spring break
um so uh appreciate it we did a really deep download on professional development around redact which was really powerful a lot of really good information um that we had uh presented there um and uh thank you to everybody
who participated in that because it was really learned so much i mean you know you read a lot no pun intended you read a lot about the readact and you think you know you know your basic stuff and then you learn that information and it's
just like really deep down um what uh these teachers are are learning about in their professional development so I really uh encourage anybody to learn more about that um and then uh at the risk of uh truly not my intent but at the risk of sounding um somewhat
tonedeaf uh I just I wanted to uh extend um my appreciation uh for the first uh pow-wow um a couple weeks ago um my daughter and I attended and it was so meaningful um and very powerful
and I'm I'm just so grateful that uh that happened it was it was very well attended um they had a really good crowd um and learned a lot and it was it was beautiful so I just um I wanted to say that thank you thank you anyone else
director Johnson um I just wanted obviously thanks to all the teachers retiring or you know holy cow I did the math on that too so director Herman you beat me to it um but I wanted to say a special thanks to
um you know our athletics director i've been able to work with him a lot i was able to go to a a PAAA meeting for the first time the other day and just knowing how much those parents know about everything else that he does too
and then he came in here and was able to name every single one of those names of students and do it really well um just small things like that um you just know that he's he's just doing great things um and then a special shout out to I
don't think Sam's here anymore but thanks to everything that I did you know he'll be missed and uh so yeah that's it i appreciate it thank you dr bullion um I attended Oh my thing is I attended the caring and
committed conversations um at the link center last month um it was a bunch of elementary schools um it's the uh third time that I've attended that as a board member and uh this one was really
special i I um was really appreciative of the topic being the strategic plan and listening to all these elementary age students talk about our core beliefs and the pillars of our strategic plan um
you know we sit here in the boardroom and we talk about you know I was part of the strategic plan committee and the desire for it to be a living breathing document only happens when it is um actually talked about and used from um
the boardroom all the way to the classroom and then again having that push out so I was I I I did an RSVP to go it was the last minute that I could go and it was um my favorite one so far so that I attended my first community ed
advisory committee uh director Dah shared earlier how wellattended that advisory committee is um and it it truly is i I have um been on most of the or been to most of the board or committee
meetings and that committee is very uh well attended um and uh the role of community ed in our community is huge when I first came to Prior Lake in 1999
that's how I um submerged myself into this community and uh I just really appreciated um stepping into that to that uh committee um yeah that's it thank you Dr
france um for what hasn't been covered here today is um scale so um in the last couple of months of scale we've had a series we're about ready to go through our last one on believe it or not waste management um and the the topic is
incredibly complicated uh but what it really came down to is we are out of landfill space and have been um and our older landfills uh are not lined and they're sinking uh they are leaking uh a lot of toxins into our water into our
groundwater and so their uh latest update and we still have one that goes into the actual organic our next one is going to be really exciting i believe it goes into organic decomposition processes so that'll be cool but um you know they sent out surveys about
improving organics and regular recycling and how important it is in order to save off uh as much of the uh increased uh property taxes that we will all be going through if they have to find more landfill space and this is going on not just in our county but in the state so
that was pretty interesting and then we had a very exciting uh breakdown of how our property taxes are are are determined and the entire process what goes to where everything like that so everyone did get a property tax uh
update or estimate and then you have so long to um basically contest um your property tax statement um and they went into a lot of detail the presentations are online of where the money goes what
the process is and uh of course aligning uh with the needs of who receives those funds including schools i do want to shout out that um the uh the county is very happy with our school district as
well as other school districts and our recycling uh processes and how many field trips these kids go on uh to go see the various facilities and how organic recycling works both from raw food to paper plastic etc um so that was
uh they had a lot of pictures of all of our students visiting and it was pretty it was pretty fun dr mason anything else from me oh I just have a couple things uh just a reminder as the next series of 200s you know comes forward uh as soon as um Director
Johnson and Bullion uh get their drafts out would be very appreciated to get all comments um back to them ahead of the next study session as you are allowed certainly they're outliers where something comes to you at the end but that's fine but do your best to uh to
get those to them um uh before the um the next study session um I had the rare opportunity to uh attend the last AMSD board meeting dr thomas was also in on that on that video call the news is
terrible um for the most part we may or may not have used more colorful language as we uh discuss what we saw uh but uh stay tuned it's it's it's not looking super positive at in St paul right now and then lastly um uh just FYI moving
forward our study sessions um with that new setup that we have that I think everybody thought was was fine uh we're going to continue to live stream and record um but with a single camera and I believe a picturein picture that'll catch that table for the most part uh
but Liz will not be back there we're going to hit record at the start and and stop at the end and um the only caveat is there's a chance something could go wrong with the live stream so we'll kind of just keep plugging along here and if if it works you know we'll we'll keep doing it that way i'll have um uh I mean
Christie will more than likely put out some kind of a communication to the public to say it might look a little different um we feel like with these mics here the big complaint I've I've heard over the years is we can't hear you during the study sessions that should be alleviated for the most point
but for the most part but with with this not being back there which was part of my goal for reorganizing all of this um there may be a technical issue that just you know this live stream could could go and we'd have to post the recording the next day so take it one meeting at a
time and and and go from there but I I think I think it'll work just fine and and add to that little more casual feel for the meeting that we I think we're looking for so uh future events our next study session is April 28th at 6:00 um if
nothing else to come before the board I will entertain a motion to adjurnn so made by director Bullion second by director France all in favor signify by saying I i opposed that carries 70 and we are journed