##VIDEO ID:OfO4dCZQsz8## e e e what are you owning up delegate assembly Julie's assigned me things to talk about [Music] we got start this special meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is is called to order at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday December 17th 2024 in room 137 of the Edison building the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota Nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples present at this meeting are school board members superintendent Kent pel a non-voting ex officio member and assistant school board clerk Miss Lori Sam Miss Sam would you please call the role here here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all item 2.1 is approval of the agenda or there any changes to the agenda move approval second it has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda all those in favor say I I I any opposed the agenda has been approved the agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at Rochester schools.org assmbly item 3.1 is our Focus topic Our Truth and Taxation public meeting superintendent pel thank you chair Nathan I want to um invite our Director of Finance Andy crockstead to come up as Andy comes up I would uh just like to note that as this board and this community is very well aware Rochester really made a fundamental decision in support of its students and its schools at The Ballot Box in November and uh whereas we previously ranked 15th out of 15 in local support for operating school operations we now rank number 11 out of 15 and just below the average and so that is a bit of broader context for the overview that Andy is going to share as required by statute on our uh taxation uh requirements to educate the young people of Rochester in the year ahead so thank you Andy thank you Dr members of the board thank you again for having me here uh We've we've done this before we obviously reviewed the levy in September we provided a preliminary certification this is now the opportunity for you to provide your vote on the final certification of the levy that will be payable next year to our uh by our taxpayers as Dr pel mentioned this is a required meeting uh and as a requirement there are three uh items that must be part of this meeting obviously the meeting itself there's a timeline that's defined and it has to be after 6 PM which this is there are some items that we are will plan to discuss and then there is the need for or not a need there is the requirement that a public uh hearing or a public comments be taken I should say so let's start off with our financial results from last year uh we reviewed this not too long ago with our auditor if you recall so I'm not going to get into a lot of details but I did put it in the slide because it is a requirement uh no changes obviously ly to this since our audit was complete um and I must mention there are some additional details in the supplemental data that is part of the agenda item as we look to this year uh again these slides are very familiar nothing has changed you'll see I did highlight though that the tax levy this year is estimated to is planned to collect about $ 76.5 million uh that's a you know a 20% um slice of the pie for the district in terms of its overall Revenue so it is an important um it is an important source of revenue for the district that's offset then with 429 million 4295 million of operating expenses both of these slides are across all of our operating funds so that's taking in consideration our uh Debt Service uh general fund uh Community Education SNS Etc construction so uh it's not just general fund it's the district's budget as whole and then this is the breakdown Again by uh fund uh you'll see where our beginning fund balance those are actuals as of the end of fiscal year 2024 which then become the beginning fiscal year 2025 fund balances uh what we expect to uh either generate or uh in this case uh some of the funds will use fund balance which is not unusual by any means especially construction and the $6.7 million that you'll see as a um um expenditures over revenues in the general fund that was part of your original budget approval uh in June uh which is tied to the increased Health Care contribution so that's what that number represents and you'll see that we still maintain a very healthy fund balance across all of our operating funds especially our general fund far exceeding the 8% that is required uh by board policy so there is a very long property tax cycle as you uh know we start this process really kicks off with the ltfm plan that you you uh approved in July that really starts the process for mde to then do the calculations uh going through the certification process ending tonight with the final certification collections next year use of those funds starting in July 1 through the following June 30th and then wrapping up with the final audit so that's about a 28 month uh cycle from the time that we begin to build the levy for a fiscal year until the audit is complete so you can see it's a it's a pretty broad uh or pretty lengthy uh time period and tonight we're going to focus obviously on the CER certification portion the final certification uh the property tax goes to fund three particular uh uh parts of our operation the general fund obviously Community Education fund and The Debt Service fund those are the three funds in which our Levy is deposited the levy as I've mentioned previously is really determined by mde there is input from the board clearly there are some uh board determined uh items in the levy that the board has the authority to approve but the vast majority of them are voter approved including building bonds and now the recently approved operating referendum so uh you can see those are the three different types of referenda that we can um legally uh put before the voters and uh we have obviously uh passed the operating referendum and the building Bond referendum in the past all calculations though again are made by mde and tonight we're just asking for you to approve those calculations who pays obviously uh anyone in in inside the district uh it's spread across the department owners the farmers businesses again this is not new uh information but just wanted to remind everyone that it's uh it's spread across all taxpayers within the community that have uh again own property uh which is uh assessed a value and is then subject to property tax property taxes so what's changed since September uh obviously it's the um the approval of the operating referendum um pretty substantially by over 9,000 votes and so that does add approximately $20 million to the uh Levy going going into uh pay 25 or in our case for use in fiscal 26 that means that our our general fund increases by again about that $20 million from 48 to $68 million that's the levy contribution into our general fund there are no uh significant changes in the community service or The Debt Service uh levies since we met in September those are relatively un actually I think they're exactly unchanged just the only that changed was the addition of the voter approved um Revenue you can see here's a little bit more of a breakdown by general fund by tax type um and so not tax type necess excuse me but by um by property tax levy by the uh in this case the revenue source of how we can use those funds again community service and Debt Service so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on any one of the particular line items I'm certainly happy to ask questions again a lot of detail inside of the board document itself too I do want to take just a couple of minutes because people ask how how how am I impacted how am I impacted so in this particular example let's pretend that two homes uh each are valued at $200,000 in the district has a $500 Levy because those homes are valued exactly the same each one of them shares one half of the total tax um capacity therefore they each pay 50% of the 500 $100 however if one home is uh value is increased greater than another home's value even if both homes uh value increased in a subsequent year you can see that in this particular instance the top um home is is paying 48% of the combined tax total of $435,000 so it's a percentage of the total tax capacity and that's how now you begin to have a A variation across the property values um as as homes some homes are reassessed uh and reappraised rather and the values go up and maybe others uh don't within a particular tax year you'll see that variation and this is an example of how that occurs um we do want to just highlight that uh in in Rochester and we use this number a lot during the referendum a $350,000 house um the pay 25 is $1,00 480 worth of uh tax to the school district now beginning on January 1st how does that break out here are again the various types of um Homestead levies and where that $1,480 goes um and and a about 42% of it you'll see in the voter approved referendum the ref go rest are part of categorical levies voter approved for uh the capital projects meaning the uh referendum for buildings uh and then there's some aboard approved debt related to ltfm primarily and a little bit extra there in operating Capital um Community ad CT ex Etc so that's how one's taxes if you have a $350,000 house would break down many many components into any one particular uh individual's taxes finally I did want to offer some of these resources it came up uh in September specifically having to do with um property tax refund or property tax deferment those were great questions and this is something I plan to add to our presentation moving forward here are some resources uh that our community can uh look into if they have uh concerns with either their property tax value uh whether they can uh whether they are um whether they qualify for a property tax refund there's some deferment options obviously if you're um uh a veteran with disabilities or some other options available to you so uh this is a uh I don't think it's probably everything but it's those that I was able to uh easily find and uh these actually will be links that take you to the appropriate areas for further information finally this is it I just wanted to highlight that this is the last step in terms of certifying the levy for pay 26 uh you will uh if the board so chooses approve the levy uh at the the regular meeting right after this um but before we get into that there would be the need for obviously the public um the public comment and I'm that is it for my presentation I'd be happy to take any questions board members I think we'll save our questions for when we do the action item during the regular meeting thank you thanks item 3.2 is our truth and Taxation public comments annually before adoption of the property tax levy the public must be given a reasonable amount of time time to comment and ask questions related to the proposed property tax levy and budget tonight's public hearing meets that requirement members of the community who have questions or comments on the 2025 property tax levy will be recognized please limit your questions and comments to topics related to the 2025 property tax levy a reminder that policy 207 governs public hearings and only those speakers recognized will be allowed to speak comments by others are out of order individuals who interfere with or interrupt speakers the school board or the proceedings may be directed to leave personal attacks by anyone addressing the school board are unacceptable persistence in such remarks by an individual shall terminate that person's privilege to address the school board our chief of schools is in the audience if you would like to speak this evening please raise your hand and she will give you a number when your number is called please come forward to the tables here at the front of the room BC seated and speak to a microphone state your name your connection to Rochester Public Schools and direct your question or comment to the board you will have three minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed on the front of the board table would anyone like to speak this evening speaker number one if you would come forward to the table um with my back towards people yes please sit at the table and speak into the microphone because you're addressing the board okay sorry guys um my name is shellene Nelson I live right down the street for the last 19 years my dog's gone to the bathroom in your grass many many times so thank you um let's see real housekeeping real quick um I encourage you to get a sign and put it on your front door that says doors 2 and 10 are open because I went to the door pushed the button there's no sign um it's kind of dark out and I I just in the middle of your parking lot right next to your building is a sign that says something like Doors 2 and 10 are open it's just more inviting to people my other thing other housekeeping my last one is um I forgot so that's that anyways I've been a nurse for 26 years I work with violent mentally ill people I'm glad I don't recognize any of you on my case load um I have twins that are 18 and I was blessed that even though I lived down the street for 19 years um my very very disabled child Sebastian had an awful experience when he was three 15 years ago with your preschool special ed teacher um it was awful and I'm so grateful that I got to open and roll them they're seniors this year one can't speak ever unless you know ASL the other one is typical um I'm grateful Byron takes your money that I pay you and brings it to their school for my boys um Sebastian will go to rail next year so his dad and I went and toured it and they seem like lovely people but I'm I'm coming tonight because I'm shocked I don't know if you know this so often the people that make the decisions don't know this that um their gymnasium for four months at friedell building they can't socialize in during lunch which is huge for very disabled people and um also middle school for a LC is there they could use some socialization too you know and then there's no fied for 4 months um I think I know why you know they got dumped on right the friedell kids I bet there's not one student that's on the gymnastics team but they got the gymnastics for 4 months they're not able to use the gym app at all that's not okay is that my time that's your time oh thank you so much thank you speaker number two I enjoyed that speaker you never know where people are going when they come around the mountain and then they suddenly say something that's really true uh kids with disabilities are the the ones who need the most runaround time good gyms and good gymnastics so I'm talking here about the truth and Taxation this is our third and last time as taxpayers property taxpayers in hestad in isd535 to talk about our property tax increases and I spoke at the county with a group of people and we also went to the city with a group of people and here we are at isd535 talking about this um the PowerPoint demonstration I noticed um again just like at the city government when you get a long PowerPoint um are people really listening after a certain point when you're sitting in a government meeting and then there were no questions about it I I'd like to see it so I could go over it I guess it's online somewhere I know you can't respond but I'd like to see it online um to save us all money in the future is really important we can't really tolerate any more tax increases we've had every sort of tax increase in this community that a community can have and uh when you think about how much it is I think a lot of folks have lost track of the percentages it's a percentage here and a percentage there it's 10% here and 10% there in terms of the city property taxes it was what 10.5 the sales taxes went up and were extended 24 years also recently and then we just had the extension of the previous referendum after the voters rejected the previous uh referendum by on the in terms of the vote then it was extended as Allowed by the Minnesota state legislature which was appropriate not arguing with that but I'm just saying sort of enough is enough can we sort of tighten our belts I was glad I mean I wish I could right uh but we could stand with uh Dr pck and his new plan to have an office of accountability or a kind of like a way of getting us to spend within our budget so we don't have budget overflows we saw and remember what um was done by uh you know the guy who ended up in federal prison one of our previous superintendents uh overspent the district and wore everybody down um we need to have better services to I think we're all concerned when the graduation rate goes down amongst the black community 10% Academic Year our test scores are down in all performance areas uh teacher recidivism has been covered in the Rochester Post Bulletin so maybe money isn't the answer here and more money isn't the answer but let's just try to have the public engage more with this office of accountability perhaps that Dr pele's talking about we maybe need a department of government efficiency right here in Rochester thank you very much thank you would anyone else like to provide feedback and one final call would anyone else like to provide feedback hearing none we'll move on to item 3.3 announcement of 2025 2026 Levy certification date and time the property tax levy sorry announcement of 2025 Levy certification date and time the property tax levy for School District property taxes payable in 2025 will be certified by the school board at its regular meeting scheduled on December 17th 2024 immediately following the special session and hearing no other business the special session is adjourned at 6:23 p.m. this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 6 23 p.m. on Tuesday December 17th 2024 in room 137 of the Edison building the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota Nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples present at this meeting are school board members superintendent pel a non- voting ex officio member and assistant Schoolboard clerk Miss Lorie Sam Miss Sam would you please call the role here here here here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all item 2.1 is approval of the agenda before I ask for approval of the agenda I move to amend the agenda to add item 4.1 recognitions do I have a second second second all those in favor of amending the agenda say I I any opposed the agenda has been amended is there a motion to approve the amended agenda so moved second it has been moved and seconded to approve the amended agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed the amended agenda has been approved the agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at Rochester schools.org assmbly item three comments to the board it is important for the school board to hear from our stakeholders regarding issues that impact our student staff families and schools we welcome communication via email phone call at our community Community engagement listening sessions and hear during comments to the board the purpose of comments to the board is to give community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within our Authority the board and superintendent do not respond directly to the speaker's comments during the meeting but may follow up with the speaker if requested and appropriate persons who want to make comments to the board must fill out the online form by 5:00 P pm on the Monday before the school board meeting to sign up for a time slot the form is available on the RPS website and on the assmbly main page a reminder that policy 206 and procedure 206a set the time place and manner procedures and restrictions on comments to the board by participating in the public comment period each speaker agrees to abide by this public comment procedure speakers when your name is called please come to the table if you have written materials to the board please provide them to the assistant school board clerk prior to your remarks and she will distribute them to board members choose a microphone to speak into and be seated please direct your remarks to the school board you will have 3 minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed in front of me please begin your remarks by stating your name Speaker one tonight is Joan bkm e e e e e e it went back to the time not another three minutes we have another speaker we have one more speaker e e e e e e e thank you our next item is 4.1 information and Outreach recognitions superintendent pcal thank you chair Nathan it is uh my privilege tonight to share the release of a new award in Rochester Public Schools as you know when we approved our people strategy uh where we discussed and the people strategy is a uh many Splender multi- tangent uh initiative but part of it is recognizing excellence and contribution and so I am confident that in a relatively short period of time the award that I'm going to share tonight will be up there with the Oscars the emys the Tony the GR the Nobel Prize um I'm excited uh tonight to share that we are launching Right Here For the First Time The RPS goat award as in g a t for greatest of all time now we mean that metaphorically in that there can be many people who will earn this award staff students parents caregivers Community Partners and I want to say that the Majesty of the art that has been created by Justin Ross and Elton Hill's parent using not um uh 24 karat gold or platinum but using a beautiful Rochester Public Schools blue plastic is soon to be before you and I am so excited to announce the two inaugural recipients of the RPS goat award here tonight Dr Jess gar and Miss Lorie Sam my good now this is Dr Garcia's last uh board meeting as a member of the Rochester school board and Miss Sam's going to be continuing with us uh as the assistant school board clerk but is going to be moving to Churchill Elementary is their office manager and we uh wanted to recognize you with something that is a testament to the transformative impact that you have made in this system and in the lives of our students so if I may just briefly uh Dr Garcia um you received the RPS goat award uh first of all for being a courageous thoughtful um and tenacious advocate for all kids but especially our kids coming from historically marginalized backgrounds which you have done as a board member throughout your tenure um you have demonstrated a a deep understanding of the role of board governance in setting the broad Direction but then charging me and the staff not just in the central office in our schools with making it happen and you've been I think uniquely clear about where the board's Direction lies and where management responsibility lies and I think that has happened on many issues but I want to highlight your work on school resource officers we've been a leader in Minnesota we did not end up in some of the places some of other districts did and not of course just with your leadership with other board members but we have I think landed in a very good place but that needs continued vigilance um and you were very clear about the direction both that you ran for the board to pursue and then working with your colleagues but then also really empowering and entrusting me and others to work with uh Rochester Police Department and our community and that's just one um example um you have brought an emphasis on what we might call not surprisingly given your day job the psychology of learning and showing that that students motivation their regulation their sense of belonging powerfully influences their ability to learn math and science and reading um and I must say you have been an advocate uh for the Arts in general and musical theater in particular and so I continue to expect to see you at the musicals and and other things um that were there and of course we also even though she didn't want to be recognized we aren't going to let Lorie Sam uh move on from this role entirely and so I am just going to say that um when I first met Lori uh shortly after I got to Rochester and she was working at Mayo Clinic she really came to be part of an agenda not just a job and that was uh quite extraordinary as she and I were talking about that uh this morning uh really came to be part of investing in a school district which she uh she had served as the co-chair of our American Union parent advisory um committee uh Lor's contributions are actually um very much behind the scenes in many respects and yet those who follow the school board have seen uh a a almost complete transformation in its operations in several years um we have a new board agenda structure that is dramatically clearer for board members staff and the community to follow and understand and Lori has implemented that we have a an annual Board calendar that is the Envy of many other superintendents where we can tell you exactly what issues we will be dealing with 11 months in advance that's uh uh the as we call it the annual Board calendar draft uh which really has been uh Lor's work in creation um board members May don't receive but we've also created a weekly bulletin that consolidates communication from the central office to all of our schools that was entirely uh Lor's doing and I will tell you for School principles it has eliminated 25 different emails coming across in disc and it's made it possible not only to uh support our very busy leaders but also to hold them accountable because they can't say you know I just missed that email so we've said you are accountable um anyone who's been at a board meeting in the last several years knows that we rarely have a glitch in our technology and our processes that's not always been the case and that doesn't happen uh without um effort um in uh the office of the superintendent across the hall and also supporting the school board um there are a few moments like this but people rarely call to say just want you to know you're doing a great job and that's all I want uh and so Lori has been repeatedly on the front uh line more often helping people than taking those but there also are those moments uh whether it was during the incredibly difficult time we had last year when we were announcing the closure of schools um or after somebody has made a bad snow day call and there are certain calls um and also in the Strategic Management of my schedule because certainly for me uh my time is my most precious commodity and so um uh Lori has been uh able to maintain the confidence that the job is required and so we are thrilled Lori that you're staying in Rochester Public Schools and owe you a great debt of uh gratitude and confidence and um when I come out to uh Churchill I will be expecting and hoping to see the RPS goat award somewhere uh in location there so Madam chair that was what I wanted to do I know we have another uh recognition uh for you both that uh our chief of schools Jackie Peterson or or our chair is going to share and um we want to thank you again for everything you've done thank you I'm G deliver this to Lori before I say anything [Music] well I'll kick off some additional words because while this celebration is welld deserved and the recognition it also comes with a twin of of sadness um and I'm I'm not going to say much because I'm going to miss both of these people um a lot um Jess you have been an inspiration as a fellow board member um your energy and your commitment your passion your um your fight um is something I always look to and I will miss seeing you at the end of the table but I know that you will still be here to push us with your passion and your fight and um and your belief in doing what's best for all of our kids so thank you for all that Lori you are um uh without you these meetings don't happen and I appreciate every conversation we have whether it's about school or about um your family or um other things that that you're involved with and again I'm very glad that you're going to be at Churchill and I think you're going to be getting some visits from board members um more more often than not so thank you to both of you round of [Applause] applause here is your your go [Laughter] she all right so our next agenda item is board member committee updates does any board member have updates from their committee since the last meeting or any information to share and I might call on some of you if you don't bring things up so I can be a little last do you want to go first or last whatever oh no you'll be last okay uh director Workman um yes as I promised you several weeks ago um that I would bring you a report from the delegate assembly meeting um there were 122 members who were present um unfortunately towards the end some of them either did not vote or had left early but voting was by voice there were a few that required a hand count um so if the vote majority was 62 or more the minority vote was not taken eight resolutions passed unanimously numbers you don't have to write this down 1256 13 151 17 and 23 however Minnesota resolution number 23 which came to us without msba recog recommendation was submitted by our legislative committee and uh there are similar resolutions in the amsd and Masa legislative platforms 11 resolutions were passed with a handful of Nays but not enough to require a hand count they were numbers 378 9149 20 21 22 24 and 27 so that leaves four that required a hand count resolution four requests funding for all school districts currently on the wait list for qm which is the alternative professional pay system this is something that we do not do here in Rochester F fully funding that brings them $169 per pupil in state aid and the ability to level Levy local taxes in addition to 91 uh dollars per student um people have districts have been on the wait wait list for years and years and years and have not been compensated for their Q comp programs um although msba recommended passage of re resolution number 11 it failed with 43 yes votes in 7 3 no votes this res resolution or urges the legislature to limit the use of Grants as a funding mechanism for Minnesota Public Schools the rationale is that this places a burden on some districts to compete for funding and potentially uh div um can't read um takes away valuable time and resources away from educational activities and student supports so so the author of this resolution asserts that the funding mechanism should prioritize equal distribution of resources to all public schools to ensure success and access for every student to a high quality education regardless of their District's ability to secure additional funding through grants some of the conversation um was around why are rep penalizing schools that do get grants um and asking for the limitation from the legislatur like I said this one failed resolution 26 which came without MSB recommendation Pro of con urges the legislature to revise Minnesota's statute relative to Native American mascots to Grant decision-making Authority about mascots to the nearest tribe of a school district or the tribe with the most children served by the district and provide funding for districts that need to make a mascot change there were a number of people who spoke to the immense cost of this those who have you know high school uniforms and all kinds of logos that would need to be changed this resolution failed with 53 yes votes and 54 no votes so I think this really shows the importance of every single vote um and I wish that people had stayed for this um resolution 28 passed without msba recommendation Pro or con it urges the legislature to resend the K through3 exclusive discipline law and allow for dismissals and suspensions of K3 students the resolution to resend passed with 70 votes no nay vote was taken because 70 surpasses num uh 62 resolution 18 also without msba recommendation failed for lack of aemotion this resolution urges the legisl to fully fund and to bring back the rule of 94 teachers or a new form of 62 years of age with 30 years of service as a retired teacher I can certainly identify with the need for something like this but it is incredibly expensive and uh people felt that it would be um not responsible at this point to put that before the legislature so at the 2025 MSB leadership conference in January the membership will vote on proposed changes to the delegate assembly information is in the msba journal through January 2025 so uh director mclin had contacted Mr Carlson about resolution number 10 Pupil Transportation adjustment and the impact this resolution if enacted into law by the legislature would have on RPS she'll be sharing that now along with more on our resolution number 23 and also resolution 27 which addresses artificial intelligences AI standards passed unan unanimously by the delegate assembly um so thank you director Workman um I think one of the great things about attending the delegate assembly is we meet with people um school district school board members all over the state and learn things that we perhaps had not come to our attention previously but come to our attention there and are things that we can bring back now to RPS one of those I saw this year was this resol resolution 10 which is talking about the sparsity transportation funding their proposal is to increase the state's Transportation sparsity formula from 35% to a minimum of 70% to help RPS offset Transportation costs in our 27.76 square mile district and other inflationary increases in the district's Transportation costs one of the things that was highlighted in the discussion at the delegate assembly is that we are in a group of districts who have fairly large Geographic areas where we need to transport our students uh long distances to get them to schools compared to some of the other districts in the state and in speaking with Mr Carlson um emailing with him it seems that this is something that we could look at to include in our legislative priorities to see if we can encourage the state to make this change particularly when it would it would impact our funding and also help us address those inflationary increases that we're seeing in all of our transportation costs um related to the resolution that our board approved and uh we presented at the delegate assembly this is about the uh data Practices Act and asking the legislature to amend the law so that it authorizes the district to require a person to identify themselves by full legal name and to amend the Minnesota practices data Practices Act to authorize the respon the school district basically to assess and recover actual costs of searching and retrieving government data if the requesting individual abandons or fails to inspect the data once it has been prepared um it was interesting to me at least that the um msba staff did not make a recommendation on this resolution they provided some information for discussion that gave some pros and cons of this resolution um several Schoolboard members from various areas of the State spoke um on behalf of this resolution as did I and I was quite surprised actually that this resolution passed unanimously that the school board members were very much in favor of it and I think that that will hopefully influence um the msba and the other partner organizations um to support this at the legislature as well um I I believe that it has been included in the various organizations that we work with in their um legislative proposals as well so hopefully that will get us some track ction and um get this change made and basically the background of this is that um Dr pcal and Mr Carlson um and Peter Christopherson came to the board with this as something that uh when we were looking at legislative change this was one of the ones that was highlighted as something that could significantly impact our district and other districts and hopefully that will become the case um I also wanted to highlight resolution 27 about artificial intelligence standards the propos propal here is to provide a comprehensive review and redesign of the Minnesota state content standards to include significant one-time funding to support a major revision that accounts for the competencies required to thrive in an AI enhanced society and World um I found this resolution interesting because it wasn't something that I had even contemplated as something that the legislature could use to impact our students but also um I can share this with other board members if you're interested I found this one of the most thoroughly um researched and well-written proposals that was before the delegate assembly it gives so much background and so many reasons to support this initiative but where the summary comes I thought was um helpful I'll just read it from here that the idea behind this proposal is the concept that not preparing students for a world influenced by AI poses significant risks including economic inequality reduced Innovation and a lack of critical thinking skills to ensure that future Generations can navigate and thrive in this rapidly changing landscape it is essential to integrate AI education into curricula equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed and I recall back um to our 2024 msba leadership conference this past January that this was a highlight topic of that conference and it was interesting now to see a resolution come before the msba to um approach our legislature with how to help our students help our districts get our students up to speed on this important issue because it is going to be a big part of their lives and their careers moving forward and we need to prepare our students to do that um so I thought it was a really interesting resolution and I'm interested to follow this through the legislature this year um and so that kind of takes into the legislative committee look for us to um make some proposals to you soon about our 2025 legislative priorities and I think these things will be in the mix of the things we'll talk about great thank you and thank you for the hours that I know it put in for you to prepare for and attend uh the delegate assembly so we appreciate your representation director Marvin [Laughter] Angel uh Mr uh ruffen of cabinet director will ruffen and Sarah Louise uh Henry one of the women uh in his department and I continue to work with our middle school and our high school students who are on student School Board uh this morning our high school students met in this room representatives from all three of our uh General high schools um and they will give you a report of January 7th about what they're doing uh they have an a number of issues that they're focused on uh but for all of them one of the charges is to interact with students from their student bodies and to get the feedback about that issue from those students they are discovering that's not as easy as it sounds and it's it's fascinating working with these high schoolers because they said that they realized that it's much easier to go and talk with with students who you know well and who agree with you than it is to seek out those who may not agree with you or whom you've never met before and they know that they need to um broaden how they get input meanwhile uh Sarah Louise and I are meeting with uh middle school students on a regular basis too and with these kids seventh and eighth graders we're specifically working on leadership skills uh this month the leadership skill is how do we get different perspectives same thing that high school students are doing but with with these students we're focused on understanding that when you get one idea it may not be the only idea and it may not be the right solution to an issue that you're facing so uh we talk about the intelligence that comes with listening to different perspectives with trying to understand different perspectives not necessarily agreeing with them but how much more intelligent we are as a group when we include a diverse group of people who we're working with um and for middle school students especially it sometimes takes patience more than their show immediately but uh we have some wonderful upand cominging leaders in our middle schools already so we enjoy the work and we think it's important for these kids to know that they matter that their voices matter and that we are including them in um decisions that they School Board is making Dr Barlo I just wanted to comment regarding a skip uh visit that was held on December the 5th at Willow middle Willow Creek Middle School um what an enjoyable experience it was to um watch how well uh the school principal and staff how they have experienced a significant turnaround in environment um and I I think also in terms of the educational uh emphasis and priority uh that are in play there one thing that uh stands out in my mind is the uh designation of a particular room called the success room and and that's where students go who may be struggling who um have potential uh yet who may find themselves behind a bit and rather than that being viewed as a stigma or a bane if you will to their success uh they actually are allowed to go into a setting uh that's called success room and they are are given the the support of of Staff uh I I mentioned that in that I Envision the role of um our current direction of rethinking funding and how principles will utilize the allocations they may have and and at Willow uh Mr Fogerty the principal is doing a a great job in utilizing his staff there and would hope that that continues to be the case I again appreciate just seeing the um uh turnaround that that is occurring uh I think sometimes we don't hear about success we hear about struggle and at times uh potential setbacks but but rarely do we hear about and uh uh have opportunity to to celebrate uh the great successes which are occurring in our schools and I wanted to take this time to commend uh the principal and the entirety of the the staff and the students uh certainly parents play an important role uh I appreciate the comment from uh uh one of our uh earlier speakers uh family involvement is important and I see it in full display there and I'm there are other board members present they may have one or two comments that they they'd like to make but thank you for the opportunity Dr mclan I just like to tag on to those comments that I was fortunate enough to be able to attend that as well and I definitely agree with everything that director Barlo said and I would add to that the transformation of that school Community um is just night and day compared to lots of questions we had previously and concerns raised with the board and qu you know comments all the time about concerning Behavior by students at Willow Creek uh night and day different from uh what we have heard to today that I think that I was so impressed by um seeing the community there everyone was so engaged in learning and it was just incredibly exciting to see anybody else on the skip visit I just want to comment um you know our purpose of the board going to do these skip visits monthly is to see how um they are implementing and carrying out their skip plan and and the intentionality um with which they are identifying those students who could benefit from the success lab and then working with the schedule of the day to find the best time of day um for the student to go and work and and what they're working on um not just you know sort of going to a to a room and and working on whatever there's an intentionality of what they're working on and who they're working on and honestly those success lab uh teachers who are um they don't know what subject they're going to have to deal with there was a a math lesson going on in one corner and an English lesson going on in another corner so they really have to be ready to be flexible with the needs of the students um so I'm really glad that we decided to do these skip visits as part of our um board goals and it's it's going to be fun to do another one in future months director Workman I've been to several of these skip meetings and I think one of the things that I'm observing is how each administrative team has tailored their skip to the needs of their students in their building one of the things that really excites me about um our new plan coming up um the balanced budget model um is that school schools will have more flexibility to be able to create uh conditions for success for their students it's not a one-size fits all model so um I'm looking forward to the visits for the remainder of the 2025 school year um I wanted to highlight some events that um I went to last week uh the Chamber of Commerce organized um some meetings called linking leaders in Industry they had done this during the um election season for candidates for office this time they did it for elected officials and we met with representatives from Broadway Plaza Gillette Pepsi companies Rochester Motorcars the Rochester Boys and Girls Club and Gift of Life transplant house to hear um some of their challenges and their members from the city and the county and representative finstad's office was there a lot of the comments that we had or conversations we had was around Workforce um and it was just a really great opportunity to hear directly from the businesses um and really connect to the chamber which has been a you know a good partner to us um in some of our education pieces and of course with the referendum and I'm looking forward to those opportunities being opened again they said they're going to do another series for um other board members who might be interested in attending and then does anybody else want to talk about the pair advisory council [Music] meeting I can do it if you don't want to but go ahead well you do it but the uh parents are important and R important and Chester um once a year they invite community members and and officials and they invite uh people who have been involved parents who have been involved in their programs and I I think it's impossible to get through one of those Gatherings without crying because the stories about how meaningful being accepted and supported by the programs in our Rochester Public School System that work for our littlest kids bigger kids and their parents in a hundred different ways so many options but so many of the parents there spoke about how it changed their lives it saved their lives emotionally at least when they came and they knew they weren't alone and it just it's a it's a real gift to be able to listen to those parents who um who've had that experience and those parents experiences are Testament to our administrators and our staff in our um Early Childhood um area thanks to Amy for her leadership and um invite us all again next year because we all want to come um superintendent I think you have an update yeah I thank you madam chair I don't do these updates very often but I guess I am an ex-official member of the board and this is not an action item I want to give a brief update on the indoor air quality project at Mayo high school as you know you've already approved that uh uh investment in the bones of that uh much beloved building on the long-term facilities maintenance plan but I asked John and our facilities team to take a pause so we could take a look at the costs and the Alternatives as I'm sure you'll recall the initial cost projection came in at 97 million dollar and so as I was out in the community quite a few people said well couldn't you build a new high school for that and so we've taken a rigorous look at that question and the short answer is no I'll tell you what the cost of a new high school would be in a moment but the more immediate news is that I am directing the staff to go forward with the plan that you approved with the reduced costs that they were able to come up with getting the cost uh projected for the project down to $ 88.5 million essentially what we've done is decide to focus on the basics and so some upgrades that would be nice but not essential to things like kitchen finishes and pool filtration classroom entrances uh band and choir room acoustic treatments uh restroom floor repairs Locker replacement pool floor replacement a series of those things we're going to be able to defer because they really are not dependent on the indoor air quality upgrade and there are things that allow us to save about eight and a half million dollars um at that time what we will be going forward with is the critical infrastructure upgrades in the school so electrical Mechanical plumbing upgrading the building automation system which is uh an urgent priority taking care of the two-thirds of the roof that needs to be replaced some kitchen upgrades some small but I think promising upgrades to our Career and Technical education space we'll be upgrading the welding stations that are in the auto shop um making that ADA Compliant uh for students with students and staff with disabilities um some up some accessibility upgrades around the building um really importantly we'll be putting in a distributed antenna system anyone who's ever tried to get a cell phone call in mayo High School uh knows that we have an issue which can be even though we don't take cell phones out during the school day it can be an emergency response Challenge and I have to say I was mentioning Dr Garcia's um attendance and affection at um musicals not limited to Mayo uh but including Mayo we're going to replace the iconic green seats oh no but I had the idea and if Amy mson is out there listening somewhere could we sell the green seats at Mayo High School to raise money for the uh theater programming there because everyone I've met who's either affiliated with mayo or has been to shows there said I'd buy a green seat from uh there you go so um now to the kind of headline there as John and the team uh were costing out the um the full High School cost of putting in a new high school and I want to make sure that I'm using it building new construction requires passing another Levy which I have not recommended and don't plan to recommend um so that would be a major step but when we did the math if we started building a new High School in 2028 which would be a very fast period to get a referendum passed and get the planning done the cost would be 270 mil 280,000 280 44,000 so $270 million if we got it done in 2028 um as board members are aware all costs get inflated but boy do major construction costs get inflated and so if if we started in 2030 which in many ways is a more realistic uh time frame it would be$ 297 m984 th000 so essentially a new high school would cost about two $300 million and so we're going to get this indoor air quality and other critical structural upgrades done for um about 88.5 million you will approve all of those as you always do when the bids come to you um uh in packages as we begin the process but basically I'm grateful to John and the team and our our partners um in the architecture and construction firms that took a pause did a deep dive came back with a very hard-headed review of the project um got the cost down in a way that I think still uh is going to be a really good fit for the folks at Mayo high school and they've had some real anxiety to um know if that project is moving forward or not and so I wanted to share that we will be moving forward with the plan that you've already approved that we just took a pause on to do a bit of homework director Garcia yes hi so I have been trying to write a goodbye speech for weeks now and I think my heart and my brain are just not wanting to accept this reality so I'm just going to try to do some quick goodbyes and I'll interact with all of you hopefully in the new year um first I want to offer towards some of the cabinet so John Amy Jackie and Carl you were part of the cabinet on my day one and so I'm thankful for all of the wisdom and assistance that you offered me over the last four years uh you made me a better board member um and also thank you for answering all of the impossible questions we ask you um every week your rock stars uh toona I'm sorry we didn't get the opportunity to work together for years like I have with some of your colleagues but I wish you all the best and can't wait to see all that you have left to accomplish in the district uh will finding out that you accepted the position you now hold is easily one of my favorite memories of being a board member um I was so excited and proud and I thank you for choosing to be here every day your former students and colleagues are so incredibly proud of you too and the rest of us are never less that impressed with the work that you do and what you've done with your department is such a flex slay King as the kids would say uh to some of my board members I would say Don Karen and Justin we will be for ever bonded by the intense and unprecedented experience of campaigning in 2020 um I was impressed and inspired by each of you and I'm glad that we all ended up holding seats on this board um so that we could support the district and all of the wonderful kids and the staff in it and Karen additionally uh along with Julie thank you for being my legislative committee buddies um every meeting was like a history lesson with Julie because she has so so much knowledge of the district um the amount of knowledge is truly unparalleled and thank you for the times that you've shared that with us uh to Jean and to Kathy um what is there to say to the two most accomplished and hardworking chairs this board has probably ever seen um I have felt so supported and cared for as a board member and as a regular human in the world by both of you and I could never thank you enough and I don't know how I would have gotten it through the last four years without the two of you uh and to my board colleagues as a whole I can honestly say that I like each and every one of you even if you don't vote like I do um I'll be sending you all the Good Vibes in 2025 and Stephanie if you're watching congratulations on your win and take very good care of my chair um Lori I know that you don't like to be recognized but I'm gonna do it anyway you are such a gift to the district and all the communities that you're a part of Creator really broke the mold the day you were made um and I am so honored to know you and while I will not be seeing you next Tuesday I will keep in touch uh to Kent thank you for taking a chance on us in as an interim superintendent and then thank you for accepting a formal offer to be our superintendent it was the right decision and you've done a masterful job at leading this dis District through some incredibly difficult times I have no doubt you'll continue to do good for our district as long as you choose to stay here uh and to the community students families staff you are my reason um and I could not have done this without either any of you either there are not enough words or languages to truly convey the full extent of my gratitude it was such an honor to serve you thank you for everything [Applause] all right no more Mo motions no more motion for the rest of the meeting speaking of the consent agenda items 5.1 through 510 are on our consent agenda this evening would any board member like any item item removed from the consent agenda for separate consideration you like to remove something I'd like to say something about one of them uh is that a loud I think you'd have to remove it for a separate consideration okay let's do that which one is that um number one approval of bids for construction at John Marshall High School okay so with the exception of item number one um is there a motion to approve the consent agenda move approval second has been moved and second to approve the consent agenda all those in favor say I I any oppos the consent agenda has been approved we will now take up item number one director Workman so my comments are all positive in that I really appreciated all of the pictures that accompanied this item it was really um it was really so important for me to be able to see actually the condition of a lot of the foundational walls and other things that John Marsh that need to be fixed I could see that some of them were certainly could be a concern for student safety and everything else and uh I hope that this kind of thing can continue in the future that we can actually see pictures because it would save a lot of writing on people's part because we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words okay hearing no other comments is there a motion to approve item number one so moved second has been moved and seconded to approve approval of bids for construction at John Marshall High School all those in favor say I I any opposed item one has been approved item 6.1 is a monitoring item um it is the superintendent evaluation outcomes component 2023 24 report policy 205 requires that the school board summarize its conclusions of an evaluation of an individual who is subject to its Authority at the next open meeting following a closed session where the evaluation was conducted in a closed session on December 10th 2024 RPS school board members conducted the outcomes component of the annual evaluation of superintendent Kent pel because significantly improving student and school performance is the focus of the 2022 through 2025 RPS strategic plan one year ago superintendent pel proposed and the RPS school board approved four areas of student and school improve Improvement as the basis for his evaluation for the 2023 2024 school year he included a measurable outcome for each area the superintendent noted and the board agreed that including measurable outcomes in a superintendent evaluation is rare in Minnesota and across the country and is not a core component of the framework for evaluation jointly developed by the Minnesota School Board Association and the Minnesota Association of school administrators there was also discussion regarding whether statistically significant increase increases and outcomes could have been expected in one year as researchers researcher Michael Fen has noted Studies have shown that it takes about three years to turn around an elementary school six years for a high school and eight years for a district by turnaround I mean a significant increase in student achievement the superintendent provided his self assessment regarding achievement of these board approved goals number one deeper learning goal 85% of the participants on the the deeper learning team in RPS schools and programs report on a survey that they are confident that they understand the three elements of deeper learning Mastery identity and creativity and are confident they can integrate those three elements into their teaching or other work with students result goal achieved on a psychometrically valid survey of deeper learning 16.1% of team members reported they are somewhat confident and 83.9% Report they are confident or very confident goal two multi-tiered systems of supports increase the percentage of students who meet the criteria for on track in reading on the fast Bridge assessment in grades 2 through five by 3.5 percentage points result goal not achieved results for on track which are defined as scoring in the lowrisk and very lowrisk categories of the fast Bridge a reading screener were for grade two um the sorry the growth measure and follow 23 was 59% and spring of 24 was 62% for an increase of three grade three fall 23 was 65% and spring 24 was 63% for a decrease of two grade four went from 68 to 60% for a decrease of 8 grade five went from 66 to 61 for a decrease of five with a grand total of fall 23 for all grades a decrease of two from 64 to 6 2 the goal was not achieved across the bo broad spectrum of students in grades 2 through 5 although students in second grade May notably more Improvement than third through fifth graders RPS has focused intensive professional development and curricular resources in the early grades as it implements the new science of reading research approach there is reason to believe that as RPS provides all elementary teachers with increased training and as younger students move up through the grades reading skills will improve at all grade levels goal three restorative practice goal decrease the number of level to disciplinary infractions that occur during the 2023 2024 school year by a statistically significant amount over the number that occurred during the 2022 23 school year result goal not achieved 5,120 level two infractions occurred during the 2023 24 school year while 4343 level two infractions occurred during the 2022 2023 school year which is an increase of 17.9% the superintendent suggested that in retrospect he would have recommended a different goal for this area setting the goal of creating safe and inclusive schools by reducing the number of suspensions and demographic disparities among suspensions suspensions would be a better outcome measure of district-wide strategies related to discipline and behavior level two data reflects the valid but very different reasons that indiv idual schools use and Report level two infractions in order to address issues at their sites work on standardizing that process in order to get a more accurate picture continues goal four postsecondary Pathways significantly increase the percentage of RPS students overall and or students in at least two demographic subgroups who graduate in four years in the class of 2024 compared to the class of 2023 results are pending the Minnesota Department of Education has not yet released graduation rates for the class of 2024 and has announced the earliest date it will do so is likely February of 2025 observations and conclusions when Dr pel was excluded from the closed session school board members processed the data provided when evaluating the status of these goals the board agreed that although the superintendent goals were tightly aligned with the Strategic plan district schools prioritized their focus 2023 24 actions on much more site specific needs in their school continuous Improvement plans progress achieved at individual schools or for student groups were in many cases masked by using a districtwide aggregation of outcomes data measures there was unanimous agreement that Dr Kent pel continues to be the leader that RPS needs and supports he is absolutely transparent about goals that have not been achieved and outcomes that have not been met and importantly he is adamant that those goals and outcomes remain critically important it has become increasingly clear that for super for superintendent pel good enough is simply not good enough he has intelligent plans in place many are already being implemented that will significantly improve both school and Student Success real positive changes are happening in Rochester's Public Schools under Dr pel's transformative collaborative leadership the school board fully supports our superintendent and is deeply grateful that he has agreed to accept another three-year contract beginning July 1st 2025 Jean was gonna offer this ready to go all right our next item is 7.1 prep for Action the rethinking funding proposal superintendent P thank you chair Nathan if I can ask ask for that magic clicker um board members there are very few changes in uh this distillation of the balance budget model from the one you've seen most recently we are in the midst of um a significant and final revision of the model but I do want to take time to do my best to give a concise summary of the model and highlight one significant shift that has come out of the feedback that we have received to date so you can see uh on the screens this is on our Schoolboard website um just to recap where we are in the process right now as board members know this originated in our strategic plan and we've been doing analytic work through partnership with our technical assistance provider Afton partners for many months you have seen several versions of this proposal here tonight we are actually just about to embark on analysis of feedback that we're getting from all staff from board members uh and from those National technical assistance providers leading up to January 7th when we're going to be asking asking you to vote on the final version of the model and as we've stressed multiple times that model will not be the end of the story it will influence the parameters that you will set for development of the budget for the 25 26 school year and then we'll spend many months for every school every Department every program working out the details before we bring you a combined budget in June of 2025 to ask you to approve uh the budget for the upcoming school year so that's where we are in the process process as uh feedback has come in about this proposal it has seemed important to go back to the two key insights that really launched the proposal in our strategic plan and director Workman was just highlighting one of them a moment ago um the first being um giving schools the resources that they need to meet the unique meet the unique needs of uh their student populations I really appreciated the comments that board members made about their trip to Willow Creek and as you know it's not just the behavior discipline that has dramatically improved at Willow Creek so has reading and math achievement and so it's it's a case study of how those two things can go together and providing that school with the resources to meet those needs while still guaranteeing a highquality common educational program across the district came out of our strategic planning process and then of course as a number of commenters tonight have stressed from different perspectives we want to be sure that we are using public resources efficiently in putting the district on solid Financial fitting footing for the long term we continue to check each version of this model against the criteria for the new system that we uh you you approved at the outset of this process and when we bring you the final proposal on January 7th we will outline how we think we've met each of those criteria and I think we are on track to varying degrees to do so I wanted to pull this slide out of one of those early presentations that we got from afon partners because unlike several versions of this which have been RPS staff produced this is our national expert distillation of where Rochester sits on the Continuum between schools being completely autonomous and having the flexibility to basically use dollars and Staffing in any way that's legal to being highly centralized where almost all decisions are made uh at the school board or superintendent level you can see from that star there that that's where um The Afton partners team assessed our current budget model and you can see in the orange boxes some of those key attributes of both extremes finally as uh sort of preparation for this uh budget model decision it's important to note that we are also on the cusp of a new school Improvement planning process one that um Builds on the progress we've made in the last several years but that unlike our current model in which schools essentially select District defined initiatives and action steps schools engage in a rigorous needs assessment both of data and of stakeholder feedback including parents and make those decisions in their uh School Improvement plans and the premise of the balanced budget model is to Resource that strategy now here on this slide is the main uh change in the model since you've seen it last it is not a change in the math underlying the model it's not a change in the technical specifications but as we talked about the previous version in which you'll recall there was a uh District required and a central centrally managed category it became clear that in particular at the school level people were tripping up over the distinction between the two and from the perspective of a principal a teacher a counselor there was no distinction all of those positions are allocated centrally to buildings and buildings do not have the flexibility in this proposal to shift them we were separating in the previous version of this model general fund positions from specialed and multilanguage learner and other specialist positions when in reality The Proposal is both would continue to be ated centrally by formula based on the number of students and the demographics that they serve and so in this revised version the first category would be called fixed School Staffing and in that model the finance department would allocate those positions to schools and schools while certainly they Not only would be empowered they'd be expected to um focus the work of those staff on the needs of their students they would not be able to shift those allocations because that's how we have a common core educational program across the system if you skip to the next column though that's where we get into the flexible school funding and that's where we would still allocate those funds according of course to transparent and verifiable formulas but but where there would be greater flexibility for School principles to make decisions with those dollars based upon the school Improvement plans that would be developed uh with a three-year plan updated annually to reflect changes in the data and um uh other conditions we've added that third category specialized programs to fully represent all aspects of the district as you know in our previous discussions we repeatedly had to say well what about Phoenix what about rail what about um leap and so we've tried to account for the vast majority if not all of our major programs that are not directly in traditional K through2 schools those would all be funded uh centrally in that specialized program category and then of course in the central office we really have got um uh administrative and support staff in the uh offices that are listed there on the screen and we've created a link to an or chart that more fully identifies all of the functions that are contained in that central office so the model as it will be proposed in January would now have those four categories fixed School Staffing flexible school funding specialized programs and central office and it's important as always to note that the first three categories are people and uh functions that are all at the school level they're not at the Edison building they're not um centrally located it's important to say before I move on from this slide that while it is very detailed and there's a lot of text on it it is not exhaustive and so there are other positions that were listed in the last version of the model that we shared with you that were even more detailed we will present you in January with an updated highly detailed um listing of the positions and budgets that would be included in the version that you'll see in January this has not changed since you've seen it but it's really important to continue to be sure both that board members are aware of the changes that are included here but also uh some of our stakeholders from various perspectives the flexible funding in the general fund would be one of the primary ways we fund that second category uh in the budget model of flexible school funding there be a a ratio of 130 students per Elementary School 171 at middle and 188 at high school that would determine part of the allocation of those flexible dollars the difference in the uh ratios there that would be utilized is that U funding a secondary educational program is more expensive than an elementary program state of Minnesota recognizes that because they also provide us with more funding for those secondary students than elementary students so you've seen that before that's part of how we would pay for that second flexible category the second category is that compensatory education revenue is another way we were funding that second flexible category those resources are now currently allocated 80% uh to the school sites and the proposal would take that to 100% in order to maximize that uh flexible funding Title One funding uh which now is concentrated in a smaller group of elementary schools and a few secondary schools that are 75% or more free and reduc price lunch rate in their students would expand to include more elementary schools and our middle and high schools the logic there uh being that the same students that we're trying to engage in our current model are with us in uh middle and high school and so now we would have those resources to utilize the shift in our funding for postsecondary enrollment options students ctec and ptech has generated some discussion in the community and so I really want to be very clear what RPS would be moving to in this model is how the system is supposed to run when the state of Minnesota in the 1980s created the post secary enrollment options program it was never intended to pay for high school students taking college classes from a separate pot of money that didn't reduce the money the high schools got to educate those same students it was always intended to divert the dollars from the high school to the postsecondary institution as the way to cover the cost had not had that not happened it's impossible to imagine PSO having spread as widely as it has in Minnesota because you would not have had a sustainable funding stream I think the chair told me she counted it up and we were looking at $6 million in uh RPS funding for PSO in the last three years the last three years so we have for different reasons been holding our high schools harmless contrary to what the state system was designed to do and it's just not a sustainable strategy and so this would would be a measured change where we' take a three-year rolling average of the number of students in each High School who enroll in post-secondary enrollment options or our ctec and ptech programs and diverting some of those High School dollars to cover that cost it is not a cut to the high schools or a break in breach of Faith with what we committed to in the referendum it is Shifting our system to work like it's intended in the state and the only way that it really is financially sustainable to do so I continue to be very confident that many Rochester students will continue to take PSO classes um and that this will be a more reliable way of s uh sustainably funding those classes going forward and then finally our staff development funds would be 30% uh retained largely within the office of academics that Mona Perkins leads to uh fund those uh system level professional development activities and 70% at the building level it it is important to note that as is happening right now in our implementation of the science of reading at the elementary level there may be instances in which we tell schools you must de devote your sight level professional development dollars to this critical priority because for instance it's a state mandate um or we decide it's a central mandate but on the whole professional development funding would be a source of flexibility uh for school level decision making so a few key points as we head into the final weeks admittedly with a break for the holidays of work on this model before we bring it to you um in January first really critical reality under the balanced budget model almost all schools will see increased funding and would be able to maintain current Staffing should they choose to do so so staying in the Staffing structure that exists in our schools would be the uh option for the vast majority of schools if that's the path they think uh is most in keeping with their school Improvement plans it's important though to note that a few schools that are experiencing sign ific enrollment declines and that currently receive that high concentration of Title One funding from the federal government would see uh a modest reduction and we would be working with those schools during the budget process in February March and April to um confirm those reductions and then help them plan for those reductions the enrollment reductions would be happening in our current system even if we changed nothing and so it's important to keep that in mind if we don't shift funding as enrollment shifts we risk becoming one of those School distri districts where you have large numbers of numbers of schools that don't have enough students to generate the revenue to cover the cost of their programming number three high schools as we were just talking about could maintain their current Staffing levels despite that reallocation of funding for PSO and ctec and PTEC because they are all going to see an increase in this uh budget model if you approve it so again high schools could choose to maintain uh their current structure when we look at the uh current model and we'll further refine this for you before January schools would have between 25 to 30 five% of their total funding in that flexible uh funding uh bucket I think it's fair to say that's enough to launch programs to shift supports uh to do Innovative things but it is not so much that we would see schools departing from the core educational program that the board uh would be approving and approves with the course catalog and approves with our um educational strategy uh certainly in our next strategic plan and then really importantly and we will make this explicit to you in the materials for January 7th every commitment in the referendum from uh November of 2024 will be maintained and can be maintained in the balanced budget model I know we had asterisks in a slide last time about the referendum and that was layering complexity upon complexity and so we'll map out separately for you how the referendum is uh Advanced by this model and this is a a feedback form that we sent out to all staff that is uh open and live this week we'll be looking forward to reviewing that information we've said what are your questions what do you see as the strengths what are the weaknesses and are there any suggestions and we'll bring you a summary of that feedback as we did with the administrators in January as well so chair Nathan that is the most recent update on the balanced budget model um and I want to thank as I do every time uh as particular the finance team and the team in our research and Improvement office who've been really Central to making this uh happen board members questions comments Dr Baro uh just uh I think a basic question um earlier there was an our um board packet or District website a listing of positions and um I noticed it's not there now but I did have a question based on that which I believe you'll be able to answer under general fund I noticed that there were six uh teachers on special assignment uh and I saw the associated responsibility I support each of those uh I did have a question I know in the past there have been uh principles on special assignment do we no longer have any okay and then uh I also wondered uh in that uh uh the listing of uh positions were represented as being covered under the general fund so ask carries are there other positions that uh are out there that aren't funded under the general fund if so how many I don't need to know at this moment but I would be curious to know how many there are you um yeah thank you director Barlo we pulled that from the website because today we got feedback that it was confusing people because that list let very stute that you were tracking it the list was from the last version of the model and we've now updated the model but not the list okay so we will bring you the list updated and um yes the primary sources of funding other than the general fund in this model would be the ones I listed on that slide minus achievement and integration from the state that should be there too so it's compensatory Title One achievement and integration are the primary three funding sources that are resourcing this then there's also reimbursement for special education services and those funds which really are retroactive reimbursement of those funding streams but the big three in addition to the general fund our compensatory title and achievement integration and we could definitely bring you in January a distillation of how many positions would be we project funded by those sources in the new model it it's it'll be impo imperfect to project though because for instance the purpose of that flexibility would to give them the option to say you know maybe instead of one I don't just this just hypothetical instead of one teaching position we want to add two education support professional positions and that would be the decision that they'd be making this this spring based on their analysis and their data but we could certainly bring you a projection of what what we think the positions would break down as okay thank you yeah Dr Marvin I think we saw this before um but I'm just wondering before January 7th can we get a review of the makeup of the group at each school who will be making the decisions for that site I mean which staff not names but which positions will be included and then when will each School need to submit their plan for approval this year will certainly Dr Marvin be a transition year and so far as the answer is all of this has to be dramatically front loaded because the federal Title One requirements uh mandate that this whole planning process happen in order for a school to receive title one we now are doing that intensively in a very small number of schools and if this is approved we're going to be doing it in many more of our schools the only way we can make that happen is if the whole system moves earlier and so we would begin our our our school Improvement plans really in a not for this year but a year from now they really need to be done by March um like really done and the budget you're still going to approve the budget in June but we really have got a very clear and they need to be highly developed before March they need so yes we can bring you a timeline because the reason I say of course this year will be a transition year is that we're still in our current system and moving into a new system so this year is not going to be seamless we actually have not yet shown you what I think you're asking for and it's very important that we bring it in j January which is what would the configuration of a school Improvement team be was I imagining that no we haven't we've said to you that that's forthcoming we haven't brought that to you um we've been getting feedback on that we've been having discussions um about it um I think that I am likely to recommend we'll give you a recommendation on that in January I don't plan to include that in the resolution on this budget model but I think it's important contextual information for you to know I think we could um we have we should take more time on something that you would be approving around that school improvement process but we would certainly give you an overview of uh what the current thinking would be along those lines you Dr Cook um uh the the framework um in this in this latest model and kind of separating out the specialized programs makes a lot of sense to me and makes much of this uh clearer than it had been so uh I think this is a really nice um way to conceptualize it I'm wondering about the the mechanism for achieving balancing of the budget in years going forward um and I I've been kind of assuming that these ratios of funding equivalent FTE positions at each of the different levels of the system would be important in that um seeking of a a balanced budget in you know 27 28 or 28 29 do we have a A View From the administration right now on how we think those ratios may change over time or if they will change over time um in the event that there's uh less funds available for these discretionary or flexible purposes than in the next budget year I'm going to I'm going to take a crack that best answer but if if John or Andy you either want to correct me or or jump up I want to invite you uh to do that I think there's two ways that those ratios could change one is if we did not anticipate the um uh ratios we need to achieve both Financial stability on one hand a balanced budget and tenure requirements on the other when we set those ratios we did so to achieve both objectives that we know that using average salary with this ratio of St staing across the district in the macro it comes up to a balanced budget and given that the vast majority of the positions are still allocated like we allocate them now we believe we can meet all tenure requirements for staff that have tenure because of course we have an obligation to have them have a position were that to not prove to be the case for instance if this spring we are doing the detailed work with every site and Department which which we would do that could be one reason we might have to revise those ratios right now and this has been a major focus of afon Partners work with us we think that the ratios are actually an improvement on the ratios that John and the team have been using because we've updated what were historical ratios that they'd been actually using for the staffing project I think John had particularly at the high school level you and middle school so we actually have improved in terms of uh how we're allocating staff more tightly to fit the number of students and the course offerings we have so that's one way that the ratios could sh the other way though is if this board actually and I think as part of a next strategic plan this very much might happen you change that educational program that we're offering but that would be a separate educational discussion about our course offerings about our school structures about our calendars it should the board board approve uh different educational models as part of a next strategic plan we would then need to go in and revise those r ratios to be sure that we actually are resourcing those models um so to give one example were we to choose to have a major investment in more Career and Technical education classes we would need to go in and actually take a look at that resource stream because those teachers are different licensed the facilities needs are significantly different we would have to take a look at that so that's just one possibility that comes up another which I mean certainly uh anyone who's been in uh a high school teacher for the last few decades there's always a question of a block schedule and a different alternative schedule I'm not suggesting that's something I'm recommending that has a different price tag from uh the schedule we're currently using we would need to revise the ratios if we were going to actually have that kind of a shift so I think it's a longwinded way director cook of saying I could see these ratios shifting one if we realize that either the the bottom line of the system required it or tenure obligations required it right now we don't believe that's the case and then down the road not next year that the board was Shifting the course offerings that we have or the core configuration of our school day or school year I think the system though is designed to make make it so we could change those ratios without changing those four buckets like we would still have a finance system we would be changing the ratios not our core funding approach and then we would be having a discussion about getting the ratio right and what autonomy do sites have with that allocation and what don't they but I think what we want to get right I hope this January is the core structure of the system and then we can refine that system over time as you know uh director mclin was mentioning the Advent of artificial intelligence I mean what if we do start having large numbers of kids who are working with an AI tutor under work support from an education support professional as opposed to one teacher 28 kids like that's a very different model and we would suddenly need to have a a discussion again I think we could retain this system and we would be talking about how we how we uh allocate those positions I don't know anything either it's probably not fair for me to uh it's not a study session but I um obviously we're below some areas of my expertise but seem to be okay no that that that was really helpful and make sense so thank you um I wanted to ask a question about the um since since the high school and the PSO has been an issue when I look at the four categories there um is clearly a um f fixed fixed School Staffing for secondary based on the student load limit of 160 students so that will continue to be set based on what at the high school what courses students register for ETC but in the description of PSO it says um three-year historical averages used to determine charges to high school is that a is that changes charges meaning well could be it could actually be either it's it's not a typo it would be what um level of funding is a high school going to be docked based on the fact that the kids weren't there and so it would be a three-year rolling average to say this percent of the general fund dollars that um you might have otherwise received is going to be shifted to cover the cost of PSO but that would come out of the the um fixed School Staffing yeah okay yeah that would not be Flex we would not have schools saying like you can take a pcoo class and you can't for financial reasons we we certainly should be doing that for educational reasons but no that would be we're allocating the FTE to staff in the fixed uh category then if a student this is actually one reason why we have this year really said kids have to register for PSO early in the spring we we're living in a situation where kids were deciding in August I'm going to go take a class and while on one hand we understand kids get new ideas and things the master schedule was built so we've really been saying no you need to register um early even though the College will still allow you to enroll we build the master schedule and when you build that and then you have kids who are not there you know it might be nice for that individual teacher and students in a smaller class but we pay the cost in the big picture so when you calculated the estimate FTE in one of the previous memos did you look at the difference between the number of students who are attending PSO part-time versus full-time Andy's nodding yes okay okay anything else board members we have one more meeting thank you our next uh prep fraction item is 7.2 review of the Schoolboard handbook uh we had an overview of the updates at to the handbook at the December 10th study session and tonight board members you just have any chance to ask any more questions or have any more discussion um on the updates or anything else that maybe you think we missed that you think we need to add before we vote at the January 7th meeting should you have any grammatical or punctuation changes as director Marvin let me know that she has you don't have to raise them tonight but feel free to send them are you saying you don't want to have a discussion about subordinating conjunctions I think that's what I'm hearing I'm gonna make an executive decision and say no I think that's wise decision are you in favor of the Oxford comma yes Oxford comma yes um so anything I'm glad everybody likes the handbook um all right so we'll vote on that in January um item 8.1 is an action item approval of the school district property tax levy payable in 2025 I will read the resolution ask for a motion and second and if received we can have discussion be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 Rochester Minnesota being a school district in Olstead County Minnesota that there be and is hereby proposed a levy upon all tax Able Property in said School District a new calendar year 2024 School tax for fiscal year 2025 in the amount of 98 m893 92 9233 as follows general fund 67 m954 67 m954 21948 Community Services fund 4,463 39560 General debt Serv service fund 26 m47542 725 for a total certified Levy of 98 milon $893,000 is there a motion to approve so moved second it has been moved and seconded any discussion or questions hearing none all those in favor of the resolution say I I I opposed the resolution has been approved our next item 8.2 is another action item the approval of the annual Board calendar draft ABCD for 2025 we did discuss this at the December 10th board meeting and a reminder to the community that even though the board will take action to approve the ABCD tonight it is always a draft and can be changed at any time Schoolboard agenda are no longer in draft format only after the agenda is approved by the board at the beginning of each meeting the resolution is be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 approv the 2025 annual Board calendar draft ABCD move approval second it has been moved and seconded any questions or discussion all those in favor of the resolution say I I opposed the resolution has been approved other business there were no questions submitted by board members uh the current version of the ABCD is already loaded in the uh assembly are there any agenda items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting agenda I'm going to assume not since we just reviewed it for the whole year upcoming board meeting dates January 7th at 5:30 p.m. as a regular meeting January 14th at 5:30 p.m. as a study session January 21st at 5:30 p.m. is a regular meeting we have a special session on field trip fees on February 4th at 5:30 with a regular meeting immediately following and hearing no other businesses meeting is adjourned at 7:57 p.m. should have given this to you to do for last time for